re: Bible Accountability

Quoting The Blissful Six:" I saw that post of FB. Thanks for the encouragement. I actually went and read right after I saw that. ... [snip!] ... DD2 for their physicals..but I need to make time later. And I'm going to check out that song, I don't think I've heard it yet."

I just recently discovered the song, and it has been on repeat in our house, lol.

I've realized that I'm terrible now, with two little ones, at waking up to read my Bible first thing. I've literally fallen asleep before while trying   However, I leave it open on the kitchen table and steal away little minutes from it anytime I can. It's been wonderful. I feel like I seek Him more often, ya know? And then with dh's schedule, he comes home 1 hour after the kids go to bed, so I do my precept study then.

I have a prayer request, if you guys don't mind. I feel like I may be called to give up a certain area of enjoyment within my life, and the thing is...I don't want to. I know that God blesses obedience, and whatever he wants to fill that part of my life with is BETTER than what I'm doing now...but still. I'm fighting against it. So, any prayer is welcome on that.


And so, here's a verse that totally blew my mind! Love this!
"He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son He Loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him." Colossians 1:13-14
To think of myself as rescued, and transferred. Blows my mind.

This is great! I'm really struggling and I think accountability and support is great.

Quoting Serena van der Woodsen:" This is great! I'm really struggling and I think accountability and support is great."

Glad you're here! My old Pastor, before we moved, always said that we were never intended to be "lone Christians". Fellowship, and accountability with each other is just so important. Happy to see you here!

I will be praying that god will lift you up and lay upon your heart what needs to be done. Conviction can be an amazing, but difficult thing sometimes. I know you will do what is "right" for you.

I don't know about some of you ladies, but my nightly prayer time has gotten more difficult lately. I feel bad cause by the end of the day I am either A) too tired and find myself drifting off to sleep or B) find my mind wandering about. I had talked to a mom of one of my sunday school kids and she sent me this. I loved it and found it very uplifting...I hope you enjoy it too.

TOO TIRED TO PRAY...

She thought, when night had finally ended day, "Dear Lord, tonight I am too tired to pray." And wearily she closed her eyes in sleep. Slipping far into the shadowed deep.

Up in Heaven the dear Lord heard and smiled, "Today she soothed a little, crying child. She stopped her work to take old Ella Kloop a fragrant, warming bowl of her good soup. Her house was orderly, her garden tended. Her children fed, their clothes all clean and mended. Her husband, home from work, found happiness and quiet peace in her deep gentleness."

The dear Lord smiled again, "Too tired to pray?"
"Her hands have offered prayers of love all day!"

Quoting friendlygirl626:" I will be praying that god will lift you up and lay upon your heart what needs to be done. Conviction ... [snip!] ... in her deep gentleness." The dear Lord smiled again, "Too tired to pray?" "Her hands have offered prayers of love all day!""

I needed that. I am always reminding myself, that God knows what season of life I'm in, and He knows exactly what my physical body is capable of doing/etc. I'm going to share this on my facebook, this brought a tear to my eye.

And thank you for the prayer.

<blockquote><b>Quoting friendlygirl626:</b>" I will be praying that god will lift you up and lay upon your heart what needs to be done. Conviction ... [snip!] ... in her deep gentleness." The dear Lord smiled again, "Too tired to pray?" "Her hands have offered prayers of love all day!""</blockquote>

Thank you, that's amazing and just what I needed to hear this morning  

<blockquote><b>Quoting Momma Snell:</b>" I have a prayer request, if you guys don't mind. I feel like I may be called to give up a certain area ... [snip!] ... the forgiveness of sins, in Him." Colossians 1:13-14 To think of myself as rescued, and transferred. Blows my mind. "</blockquote>

Sending prayers your way!

"Dying to self" is not easy. At all. This is hard.  

Quoting Momma Snell:" I have a prayer request, if you guys don't mind. I feel like I may be called to give up a certain area ... [snip!] ... the forgiveness of sins, in Him." Colossians 1:13-14 To think of myself as rescued, and transferred. Blows my mind. "

Awesome. I need to try the open bible concept as well. Fist I've gotta find my bible. I read mostly online at bible.com.

Quoting The Blissful Six:" Awesome. I need to try the open bible concept as well. Fist I've gotta find my bible. I read mostly online at bible.com. "

My bible looks so abused. Seriously. I have questions written down in it, different colored pens underlining/circling things...you name it. I tried to get into reading my Bible on my kindle, and I couldn't do it. That's one thing I need to physical hold, and be able to take notes in. I've considered getting a new one, to have more room to write (like a precept bible) but I like mine too much to change it.

I'm posting a lot, please forgive me. I HAVE to share this story though, it comes from a book called, "Holy Available" by Gary Thomas.

Anyways, this is one of the stories it talks about in the first chapter. It is rather long, so please stick with me. It is so worth the reading..

"Shortly after the young Francis of Assisi embraced a faith that would help color the face of Christianity for centuries to come, he sensed God telling him, Francis, all those things that you have loved in the flesh you must now despise, and from those things that you formerly loathed you will drink great sweetness and immeasurable delight."
If a believer heard such words today, he or she would likely write them down in a journal and then forget them. Or perhaps the new christian might compose a poem or a song, celebrating the sentiment. If the person were an author, he or she might even find a publisher and entomb the lofty notions inside of a book.
But not Francis.
Almost immediately, he applied the divine admonition in a horrifically beautiful way.
As the young christian road his horse out of town, he saw what he once most despised = a leper. It is difficult for most moderns to understand the terror of that once untreatable disease. Leprosy is an insidious malady in which bacteria seek refuge in the nerves and then proceed to destroy them, one by one. Since the bacteria prefer the cooler parts of the body, toes, fingers, eyes, earlobes, and noses comes to your own worse enemy, not realizing the damage you're causing to your own body. You could literally rub your eyes blind.
Eventually, you lose your ability to see, and then you lose your ability to feel, and suddenly, you're living in a senseless world. The only way to know what you're holding is to find any remaining, stubbornly sensitive part of your body, perhaps a quarter inch stretch of your lips or an eighth inch spot on your cheek, and try to guess from the texture and the weight what it is you're carrying.
Even apart from the macabre appearance of a leprosy victim, no one wants to end up alienated from the world, so most people kept an understandably wide berth around lepers. It was one of the most feared diseases of its time. "During my life of sin," Francis wrote, "nothing disgusted me like seeing victims of leprosy."
Exuberant in his new found faith and with joy flooding his soul, and remembering he was now to love and even treasure those things he formerly loathed, Francis chose not to run from the leper as he would have done earlier in his life. Instead, he leaped from his horse, knelt in front of the leper and proceeded to kiss the diseased white hand.
He kissed it.
Francis then further astonished the leper by giving him money. But even that wasn't enough. No, Francis was determined to "drink the great sweetness" from what he formerly loathed, so he jumped back on his horse and rode to a neighboring leper colony. Francis begged their pardon for having so often despised them and, after giving them money, refused to leave until he had kissed each one of them joyfully receiving the touch of their pale, encrusted lips. Only then did Francis jump back on his horse to go on his way.
In that indelible moment, Francis's faith become incarnate. His belief didn't just inspire him, it transformed him.
Francis's initial conversion was invisible, exhibited only in the changed expression on his face. That's as far as many of us ever go - a superficial change of mind in response to a compelling argument for faith. This act was astonishingly explicit, a grotesquely gorgeous parable of a radically changed man. The very instant Francis's lips touched the leper, what could have been merely a religion crumbled under the weight of a new way of life. The horse no longer carried a man, that beast transported a saint, whose example continues to challenge us yet today."


Woah!

<blockquote><b>Quoting Momma Snell:</b>" I'm posting a lot, please forgive me. I HAVE to share this story though, it comes from a book called, ... [snip!] ... The horse no longer carried a man, that beast transported a saint, whose example continues to challenge us yet today." Woah! "</blockquote>




Beautiful. That's the love of Christ right there.

Quoting The Blissful Six:" <blockquote><b>Quoting Momma Snell:</b>" I'm posting a lot, please forgive me. I HAVE ... [snip!] ... continues to challenge us yet today." Woah! "</blockquote> Beautiful. That's the love of Christ right there."

It is!

I've tried to read this book before, but honestly, I wasn't ready for it. It was too much. My faith wasn't mature enough. But man, I've opened it up again, and I'm blown away. I'm so incredibly challenged by it all, too. It's a beautifully written, and wonderful book.

And some morning worship? I think I will!

What's the title of the book?