"One of those days"

Doing the same thing over and over can get tiresome to say the least. Motherhood is no exception. Yesterday, I just needed some time to myself for a bit. I took some time to just pray and read, and find some hope. I am so thankful that the Bible is not just a book! After spending some time soaking my heart and mind in it, it really does transform me. It gives me hope, peace, comfort, strength. I come back feeling refreshed and ready to do another day. Here is what I read, and I hope to encourage you if you are having "one of those days" as well.

...making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established-that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character, and character, hope. NOW HOPE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT, because the love of God has been POURED OUT in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hears knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wow! There was my hope! The following were all from Romans, in chapters 1, 5 and 8.

Then, I went on to do my study. This week is on Worship.

Day 2

Often times, we forget all of our life is to be in worship to God. For this study, you are going to look at Mark 14: 3-9 to develope a deeper understanding of what it means to have a life that worships God 24/7.

The perfume, worth about $9,000 today, represented one of two things in her life: either a dowry for when she got married or the anointing of her body when she died. No doubt this was her most prized possession. By breaking it over Jesus, it meant no hope for marriage or a secure future.

What in your life has to be broken at the feel of Jesus? (Your pride, your ambitions regarding the future, your acceptance, etc.)

There is a similar story in Luke 7: 36-50

How does Jesus respond to the true worshiper? What do you make of the story Jesus tells his host in vs. 40?

*This is painful to hear...

If you will not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. -A.W. Tozer

From the book "Everybody's Normal..." by John Ortberg

People who live deeply in community learn to discern and express the value of other human beings. They are masters of expressing love in word and gesture. They assign high worth, value and importance to others by viewing them as priceless gifts. Every society adopts ways to welcome and host people, to honor and value people whom we treasure, or to ignore and hurt those we choose to demean.

Talking about the story in the Bible of the woman washing Jesus' feet with her tears..

She has been so broken and undone by his sheer goodness that it is as if she has forgotten who she is and where she is, and she unashamedly pours herself out in adoration and gratitude.

This teaching of Jesus stands in striking contrast with thoughts of our day. We think of people having the capacity to love who have mostly gotten life right- healthy people with high self-esteem and low regret factors. Normal people. There is no such thing, dear. Jesus says the great lovers are those who have come face-to-face with their own great brokenness and have been undone by great grace.

"She wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair." She transformed a common courtesy into an expression of the heart. That is why the woman loves so lavishly. The one who is forgiven much loves much. The one who is forgiven little loves little.

Parable of the big debt vs. little debt...

Who is really the big debtor? There is great sin defiling this room. But it is not the sin Simon things. It is the sin of: lips that won't kiss, Knees that won't bend, Eyes that will now weep, Hands that will not serve, Perfume that will never leave the jar. It is the sin of a heart that will not break, a life that will not change, a soul that will not love.

The greatest command is the command to love. The greatest sin is refusal to obey the greatest command.

We complicate our faith and lives in many ways, but at the core, our purpose is simple: We are called to love.

Jesus is genuinely happy to take on our pain to bring us healing. (How wonderful is THAT?!)