Next Update on Wednesday

Forgive me for not being able to tell you until now. I will not be posting the next devotional until Wednesday.

Read through Hosea and also read a Psalm a day.

Fruit: Joy

Galatians 5:22, Psalm 19:8, and Luke 10:20b-21

Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,..
Psalm 19:7-8(NIV)
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
Luke 10:20-21(NIV)
“…but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

Suggested Reading:
05/21
Nehemiah 8:9-13
John 15:10-12

05/22
Psalm 19:7-9
John 16:23-25


When I first thought about finding passages having to do with God being joyful nothing came to my mind immediately. Thankfully my brain finally kicked in and using my wonderful Bible verse search engine on Biblegateway I soon had nine pages of filled with verses having to do with joy. After perusing the nine pages I was able to find specific passages to use for the devotional today.
As I also considered joy, the exact meaning of it to be precise, I decided to look up definitions to see exactly what it means. The most common definition in all of the dictionaries I looked through was
“To take great pleasure in.”
What immediately came to my mind as I mulled over these definitions is that we are God's workmanship, God created us and even though we continually reject Him He still takes great joy in us.
But what else gives God joy? Do we even know what could give an omnipotent Creator and righteous Judge pleasure? How could we know? Drum roll please..... (I'm sure some of you have already figured it out)... the Bible! God has given us a wonderful resource so that we can continually discover and be reminded of Him and His holiness. God mentioned what gives Him joy not only in the New Testament but also in the Old Testament so that, ladies, is where we will begin.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.

This voice doesn't seem to fit in to God's joy but lets think about it. What could give God more joy than us following His precepts, precepts in this case I believe means 'law' or 'rules'. When we are obedient to God not only will He be given “great pleasure” but when we obey God our own house our hearts are also filled with joy. The Psalm even goes on to say that God's commands are so radiant meaning 'holy' that when we take the time to honor and obey God's perfect law that
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

It will give our eyes a light. To be honest I think the light is visible in our lives. The light is the happiness that we get from obeying God and being in His blessing. When a person is clearly going after God and seeking God's wisdom in their life you can tell the difference not only in their life but in their attitude. The light is your attitude and your actions and if you are truly a set-apart girl living your life for God people will be able to tell by those things. That is what will give God joy. But that is not all.

In the New Testament Jesus says

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them He is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father and I to will love him and show my self to him.” John 14:21

So not only does it give God joy when we love Him and keep His commandments it also shows God that we love Him. How sweet is that!? Jesus goes on to say to His disciples in Luke 10

“…but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure”

This stuff wasn't just meant for your parents and your churches pastors, elders, and deacons. These concepts in the Bible about God and everything else the Bible talks about were meant for you to understand. In the passage above it says Jesus was filled with joy not because His disciples did something really amazing, Jesus was filled with joy because the disciples simply understood a concept about Him.

What three things can we take away from the passages I talked about today. God takes joy when we obey His commandments. The Bible says whoever loves God obeys His commandments and when you obey God's commandments God will reveal Himself to you. And lastly, Jesus rejoices, or is filled with joy, when we understand things about Him, God, and the Bible.

Some things I want to leave you with to consider and to answer in your heart and if you have a spiritual journal these would be good questions to answer in there. If you don't have a journal I would definitely encourage you to get one and write down and answer these questions.

Do you really love God?
What have you done recently to bring joy to God?
One of the biggest things that we looked at today that to bring joy to God, God says to obey Him. Have you been obeying God?
One of the biggest things you can do to honor God and obey God is to honor and obey your parents. How are you doing on that?

Challenge: These next few days bring God joy by obeying your parents. Instead of arguing and sulking when they ask you to do something just do it. Also, do one chore in your house that you don't normally without being asked. See what happens.

Fruit: Love

Monday 05/18- Wednesday 05/20

Galatians 5:22, Romans 5:8, Hosea 2:23, and Hosea 14:4:

Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,..
Romans 5:8 (NIV)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Hosea 2:23 (NIV)
I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. '
I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my people';
and they will say, 'You are my God.' "

Hosea 14:4 (NIV)
"I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.”

Corresponding Devotionals:
05/18
John 3:16
Hosea 1:2-3a
Hosea 2: 14-23

05/19
John 15:13
Hosea 3:1-4

05/20
Ephesians 4:17-18
Hosea 14:1-9

Ladies, as I began writing this for you I decided I would pretend we were in a girls Bible study together at Starbucks. This would be a time for us to fellowship with one another, enjoy wonderful drinks and treats, and dig deeper in to the wonderful Word of God to help us better understand our loving Creator. As I talked to many of you on Friday about who had read the first post of the blog and what they had though about it the comment that struck me the most and the one that I heard most often is that you enjoyed the post and you felt as if I were sitting down talking with you. That is exactly the feeling that I wanted you to have as you read this blog. Now, sit down, grab your favorite drink and a snack that you love because thats exactly what we're going to be talking about today. No, Ashley, not snacks and drink but love. God's love.



I bet that there was a large amount of eye rolling when you read the first verse from Galatians about the “Fruit of the Spirit”. However you're going to have to get used to it because for these next few weeks we're going to study God using the Fruit of the Spirit. The first fruit as I'm sure you know is.... love!

So, what is God's love. In the New Testament we can go in to Jesus's crucifixion. Honestly, how much more evidence of love do you really need after that? God loved you SO MUCH that even after you screwed everything up in the garden He still sent His only son. His son who is a part of Himself, to die a horribly, painful, and gruesome death so that YOU could live for eternity if YOU choose to follow God.

Isn't that crazy? How many of us would knowingly, because Jesus is God and God knows every possible outcome in of everything, go and die the way Jesus did? I'm going to guess not many of you, actually not any of you at all ever would want to put yourself through what Jesus did for you. Lets really think about how much love Jesus had for us to do that. I mean, I love you all but I don't plan on being beaten with a whip that is meant to take the flesh off of my back, then carry a cross on my back after having the flesh stripped off of it, and then voluntarily being nailed to the very cross that I just carried for goodness knows how long. That does not sound at all fun nor does it sound like something I want to do with my Friday nights! Even for someone I love dearly, that still doesn't make it sound anymore attractive to me. But thats what Jesus did for you! And thats only the New Testaments example, we haven't even looked at what He did for you in the Old Testament.

All right, lets jump all the way back to Hosea. Remember him? I didn't think so.. It's all good, all right, to give you a little background, Hosea is a prophet from the Old Testament and God tells him to marry a women who is a whore. Now you all must be thinking “Rose is being more crazy than usual. How does this at all relate to God's amazing love.” Well it does and I'm getting to that. Hosea marrying the harlot, Gomer, is actually God's symbolism for Himself and Israel. I know you're still thinking “Rose is crazy...” but stay with me. Israel is so sinfully, lost that God views Israel, His beloved people, as an adulterous women. If you can imagine being God, imagine not being happy at all. In fact imagine being angry, righteously angry. C'mon would you be happy if you created the all of human kind and set-apart a specific group of people to be especially blessed. People that you've forgiven over and over again even though the abandon you over and over again and are continually sinning against you and forgetting you exist. You wouldn't be at all. And God isn't and He even gets so frustrated with Israel that He says to them

“You are no longer my loved one!”

However, God also finishes by saying

“I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. '
I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my people';
and they will say, 'You are my God.' " (Hosea 2:23)
Even though Israel keeps on sinning God over and over again in Hosea, even though He is angry with the Israelites offers them forgiveness, compassion, and love. At the end of Hosea God tells us what He will do to the Israelites, and what He does for you all the time.
"I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.”
Even though God is angry you have sinned against Him, He will forget His anger against you, heal you, and love you freely. And just like God did for the Israelites, He will do it over and over and over again. No matter what you do, what you have done, and what you will do, God will never stop loving you.

Even now some of you think that you've done some pretty horrible stuff that God can never forgive you for and will always punish you for. But if constant forgiveness and unconditional acceptance isn't what true love actually is than we're all doomed. However, I want to tell you something. God is bigger than that. He will forgive you if you seek Him and ask Him for mercy with a softened heart. Even before you were born God sent His only and perfect son to die for your sins so you wouldn't have to, God wants you to be in eternity with Him in heaven.

Girls, you know I love each and every one of you but I'm going to tell you the truth. My love is worthless compared to God's love. Your boyfriend's love will be a pale comparison compared to God's unconditional love and acceptance. Even your parent's love will not sustain you. Every other love will fail you at some point in your life but God's love is infinite and amazing and will never ever let you down.
I leave you with one last verse from Romans that sums up my thoughts for you.
Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I'm convinced, are you?

Remember God? Go after Him!

Friday through Sunday 05/15-05/17

Jude 17-21 and Ecclessiastes 12:1

Jude 1:17-21(New International Version)
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Ecclesiastes 12:1and 8 (New International Version)
1 Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them"-
8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.
"Everything is meaningless!"

There are going to be people in your life that mock you for your beliefs in God. Chances are you have already thought of who those people are in your life and if I asked you to name one you'd look at me and say “Only one?!” The Bible says that the goal of these people is to divide you. Isn't that an interesting statement, divide you from what? Any guesses? My thought is that whether on purpose or not these people are trying to take us away from or separate us from God. They are doing this by taking us away from Christian fellowship, keeping us from reading our Bibles, and discouraging and bad-mouthing us when we do anything having to do with Jesus. These people say they want what is best for you, they want you do to “what feels good”, so “just do it!”, doing it once can't hurt you, nothing matters anyway so just have fun. These people live their lives by following their 'animal' or 'natural instincts' and no matter what they do in their lives they are never satisfied by it because they do not have God living in them.

This is what people who do not have God do. So what should you, as a Christians be doing? Jude 20 instructs you to
“...build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”
So the first thing you are to do is to pray however the passage goes on and says that you should also
“Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”
What do you think it means to “Keep yourself in God's love.”? I think it means that we need to go after God with every fiber of our being and to be honest with you the best way to do that is to go back to the basics. What are the basics? You know them, if you grew up in a Christian home they have been hammered into your head since you were old enough to talk. They are: Prayer, Bible Reading, and Spending time in fellowship with other believers talking about what God is doing in your spiritual lives. Some of you are probably a bit disappointed, this is a blog Rose is writing. Its supposed to have new, exciting ideas for me to get on fire for God. These ideas are not new, they may not seem exciting, but I promise you they work and are amazing.

I want you to now think of your best friend. I'm going to bet that part of the reason you're best friends is because you spend time with each other. Whether its on the phone, the computer, or in person you guys stay connected. You take the time out of your busy and complicated lives to make sure you both know what is going on in each others lives etc, right? I have talked with many of you on our Friday nights and you say that you feel disconnected from God, like He isn't there and really you're not even sure He exists let alone believing He cares about you. Most of you know what I'm going to say next but I'm going to say it anyway. If you spend as much time with God as you do with your best friend, getting to know Him, talking to Him, just in general spending time with Him you will have a better more fulfilling spiritual life than I have ever been able to pray for you to have. I put that statement in bold because I wanted to make sure that you didn't miss that.

Girls, I want you to know that I want each and every one of you ladies to spend eternity with Jesus because I can't imagine eternity with out any of you. That's why I'm reminding all of you to do as the passage in Ecclesiastes 12:1 says and remember God! If there is one thing that I regret about being your age it is that I did not realize the awesome, wonderful, perfect love of God and how I could have it if I was just willing to go after it! I'm going to warn you now, being older does not make your relationship with God any easier. Honestly, everything that I'm “supposed” to do and all the responsibilities I have make it much harder for me to build my life around Christ. So what I want you to do is STOP WASTING YOUR HIGHSCHOOL AND JUNIOR HIGH YEARS, did the capitals get your attention, that was the point. Please, stop making excuses for living without God and go after Him! I do not want you to be one of those women who looks back upon her teenage years and can only think of how meaningless her life was. I want you ladies to be better than me. I will tell you something now I wish I had realized years ago, everything in your life will be pointless unless it is done through God. So go after him! I want all of you girls to live set apart lives for God that are filled with meaning and the perfect, forgiving and understanding, love that only comes from Jesus Christ.

I want to challenge you ladies to start viewing God as someone who loves you, cares about you, and wants what is best for you. I want you to go in to His precious word daily and spend time with Him in prayer and fellowship with other believers. I have put suggested devotions for you for this weekend below. Please read them and spend time with God in prayer. Also, for those who want more than just a few verses per day I have included my own devotion plan as well.

Suggested reading:
05/15
Eccl. 12:1-3
Jude 17-19

05/16
Eccl 12:4-5
Jude 20-23

05/17
Eccl 12:6-8
Jude 24-25


What I (Rose) am reading for my personal time:
05/15
Jude-Matt. 1
Isaiah 1-2
Psalm 81

05/16
Matt. 1-2
Isaiah 2-3
Psalm 82

05/17
Matt. 2.3
Isaiah 3-4
Psalm 83

Goal

My goal is to "officially" launch this blog this Friday night at the Junior High youth group and I plan to have the first post go up Thursday evening which will have devotional suggestions for this weekend inside of the posting.

Devotional Dose Explained

This blog was created by me, Rose, for the girls I volunteer with in a Junior High group. These are my views on scripture on issues I have discussed with trusted peers and adults. Right now I feel that God is leading me start this blog for my own spiritual growth and for the girls that I work with I believe that researching and exploring scriptures will help me to better understand my own faith and relationship with God.

I hope to post three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My goal is to use a few verses from the Old and New Testament and write what I feel God has placed on my heart about them. I will also post instructions for a personal devotional time for that day and the next day as well as posting what I am doing in my personal time for those who want to do more than just a few verses a day.

My thoughts on these verses are meant to encourage thought and discovery in the scriptures. They are not meant to replace your own personal time with God, please use them as an asset not as a replacement.

Jeremiah 29:13
"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart." NIV

~Rose Ellen