Sunflower Faith

My Daily Bible Reading

Today’s Life Journal Reading is from:

Romans 1:28NKJV   

Scripture:

   ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. ¹¹ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. ¹² Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” (Revelation 12:10-12, New King James Version)  

Observation:

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve worked in my Life Journal or posted here. I woke up early this morning (no alarm clock either) and with a long day ahead, open up my bible, pulled up the current Life Reading and as I read though Jeremiah and then Revelations, my first thought was….what could be so relevant about today’s reading to contemplate.  

Drinking my coffee, watching the sun rise up, Revelations 12:10-12, just popped out at me. 
¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. ¹¹ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. ¹² Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” (Revelation 12:10-12, New King James Version) 

  Our Daily Bread shared the following from September 3, 2010′s devotional: 

There’s something very appealing about loopholes, and we look for them wherever there’s a command we don’t want to obey. 

Jesus addressed this problem with religious leaders who thought they had found a loophole in their religious laws (Mark 7:1-13). Instead of honoring their parents with financial or material support, they dedicated all their possessions to God, thereby limiting their use. Although their disobedience was not blatant, Jesus said their behavior was unacceptable. 

Whenever we start looking for loopholes, we stop being obedient. 

Lord, help us to submit to You,
To follow and obey,
Instead of finding loopholes to
Defend our sinful way. —Sper 

As I read this, it reminded me how we sometimes compromise our faith too much and often not with enough discernment or care for the wants and wills of a fickle world and in the process, without knowing…not only look for loopholes to justify being less godly toward other people, but in our own actions and lives. 

I think about people who share observations of people “caught in ungodly acts” when they don’t realize the world is watching and wonder how careful are we really about our own lives or how we interact with others. 

Yesterday, I had a less than pleasant experience with someone whom we were friends with but didn’t hesitate to be critical and hurtful in comments about us choosing to homeschool and what floored me is seconds before they shared how they had to work with with troubled children from troubled homes, whose families didn’t provide them with a safe or healthy environment. They then turn around and ask the “So…why are you really homeschooling” and then followed up with, “How are we not preparing them for the real world?” 

We just found it surprising and flooring that they would even say that as they then espouse how kids need to learn about how to deal with bullying and “be exposed to the real world” while in the same breath talk about how they didn’t want their kids to watch certain shows and movies because the content wasn’t “Christian” and the vulgarity of the language and the violence and it made me bite my tongue from asking them, “So why the double standard for their (and our kids) and even then, advocating putting kids in unsafe, unhealthy environments while all the while talk about working and developing programs to address trouble kids needs and address issues about bullying and self-esteem.

Reading Revelations 12:10-12; It’s not about the world. Just there is no compromise. No” if’s”" and’”s or “but’s”.

I like how a friend shared  about the best way to respond, “,”"Because we prayed about it and find ultimate joy and freedom in being obedient to how God’s led our family. Thanks for asking. So how’s God led your family?” 

 Ultimately, this is beyond about schooling or anything else; As Sunny Shell shares on “About His Business“,:,”The issue shouldn’t be whether one home schools or public schools. B…ut it should be: “Are we all training up our children in the love and admonition of the Lord through our words and daily lives?” “

I would have to add to…are we in love and admonition of our Father in our own words and daily lives as well or as the “Our Daily Bread” article share, looking for loopholes.

As I end this journal entry, this popped up via “Disciple Life” on my facebook,

“”We spend our time dashing from one place to another, pursuing business and pleasure. We assure ourselves that the most important issue in life is making a living. In the midst of all our hustle we try to forget that we are becoming older every day. Only an occasional man or woman has the good sense to perceive that the day of judgment draws nearer and nearer.” – Tozer

Application:

It’s not about the world. It’s not about the world. We are called to not conform to this world though we have to live in it (ref Romans 12:2). That means, one foot trying to please the world and one foot trying to please our Father (Galatians 1:10). There can not be two masters, but only one whom we have to choose.

This is a reminder that if we are looking for loopholes to indulge in the sinfullness of the world while trying to follow our Father, we need to take time to step back, re-evaluate and ask ourselves, how strong or weak our Christian walk is.

We make the decisions that are good for this and this only household; Our first ministry is here at home, through the nuturing and the growth and guidance of our children. That’s my charge and call from our Heavenly Father first and foremost, then my husband, then the world….not the world, our Father, our spouses and then the kids…it’s our Father, our kids, our spouse and then the world.

I can not please men and our Father because then I will find myself slipping and rather than looking and growing upwards, looking sideways and trying to grow sideways as well and we all know how well that doesn’t work.

We are called not to be world-centered or self-centered but rather, we are called to be God-centered. No way around that.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I thank You for You for being a solid rock and foundation and as I seek to humble and commit myself always to You Father, I thank You for the challenges and trials You send my way to humble, to break, to grow and to refine this broken soul. Father, I pray that I look upwards, never sideways and though I hurt, I pray for Your comfort and not the comfort of the world.

In Your Name I pray,

Amen.

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****Purpose of this post****   

Gentle Readers, There are days that I will read a verse or passage and just feel pulled to share here, but there are days when I will read something and just feel, I need to spend the day, in personal contemplation of what is being convey and may just post via Twitter, what passages I have read that day and post nothing on here.   

That is what bible reading is about; It’s not about having to write something down everyday; There maybe days when you are reading say, Numbers and it’s just lineages, but other days, you may find yourself dealing with a “powerhouse verse” of the moment and have to just go “WOW” and seek God in personal time and prayer to understand what He is sharing.   

I will try to post daily, but particularly on weekends, if I’m sick or I’m just completely in awe of what I’m reading or maybe I am trying to understand what I am reading, I may not post here, I may just write in my Life Journal (hardcopy), because I will find myself having to seek His Word and/or the Commentary and just seek in prayer to understand what our Father in Heaven is seeking to reveal.   

Either way.   

Reading His Word, is about getting to know Him better and developing your Christian growth and maturity. Do what is right and good for you.   

If you do use the Life Journal and participate in the daily readings, I would like to hear from you and your perspective on each day’s reading, when I do have a post up, or feel free to comment on a previous “Daily Bible Reading post” or send me a quick email.   

Please feel free to join in the linky that I post below, so others too, who uses the Life Journal/or SOAP method to read the bible can participate.   

Don’t feel obligate to have to blog about each passage to be read, but if anything, feel free to share those passages that have the most impact on you that day.   

There maybe some days that you may read your daily reading and find nothing to jot down in your journal or on your blog and that’s okay, but there maybe other days, that you will find yourself inspire.   

This is about you being encouraged to have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, and spending each day with Him, You and Him.   

It is my prayer and hope that this will be an encouragement to establish a personal daily reading as well.   

To find out more about using the S.O.A.P. method, here’s a link to an ehow article and here’s the link to the Life Journal to find out more what it is, and how you can use it for your own daily bible readings. If you don’t want to order the journal or if it’s not available through your local church, another method is simply, buy a journal or notebook or even blog about your life journal readings.   

Disclaimer: I am not personally affiliated with the church that the link goes to, but merely share it as a resource of what the Life Journal is, how to order it. 

Even though we make excuses for not obeying God, H still calls it disobedience. 

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