Daily Bread.

Daughters,

I realize reading the Scripture is a hard habit to get in to. My boyfriend and I have this mutual agreement that almost anything you do right takes a lot of consistency, and it isn't always the easy way. It would be easy to plop open the Bible every day to a new section every day, read something random and call it a day. It would be easy to get an app that gives you feedback on a verse without looking much into it.

These things are wrong, not at all, but not everything is beneficial for you (1 Corinthians 6:12).

The Scripture is hard to understand, let's face it. It was written in a different part of the world two centuries, and then some, ago. It's hard for us to relate simply by reading. It requires seeking out answers to questions and doing a little leg work. Most people hear that and give up, but really, it's not that hard and once you understand how to do it, you will get so much more from it.

So for those of you who just don't know where to begin, there's so much hope!

So I want to explain a few things. Firstly, there's a certain heart behind reading the word that is essential. You need to fall in love with the word.

Lastly I'll give you the layout for how to get started (this one's gonna be good!).

Fall In Love

When you love something it's all you talk about. After the feelings go away though, it's all about the choice to love. Sometimes the Scripture is really easy to read. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to want to open it up. But I don't stop loving my mother because today is hard, I try harder to love her because she's my mother. 

When the feeling fade you must find yourself in prayer. How can God deny a request to love His word, it's what He wants for you and it will be what's best for you. 

Accountability

When I started a membership at the gym, it was really hard for me to go alone. I didn't know how to work the machines well, I didn't have a routine, and I felt really alone. Eventually I stopped going. When my boyfriend and I picked it up together, he showed me how to work other machines, we built a routine and we always went together. Now I can go by myself and I enjoy it.

My point is you're not always supposed to do everything alone, at least not always at first. You won't want to all the time and some people tend to give up when no one pushes them.

A Plan

Don't set your standards too high. I've always thought the Bible is best when its not read at speed. It may take you days to read a chapter, that's okay. Sometimes it's easy to skim and miss important things that take time to mull over. Speed is not the point, it's the heart. But you want a plan, to keep you in check and so you don't read a sentence a day (out of laziness) and call it quits because there's no expectation. 

Okay, I know this blog is long, but here's the good stuff!

There are just a few steps: 

1) Know the context

 a) Who is writing it?

 b) Who's the audience?

 c) What's the subject/culture?

2) Read the text

 ... as if you've never read it before (try to do small sections at a time)

3) Ask questions!

 Everything that comes to mind! Even if you "think" you know the answers 

4) Read the sources and get the answers

 Don't go just anywhere for info. The Esv Bible website and Blue Letter Bible are great tools. These are two good and proven sources. (Remember, not everything on the internet is true!)

             SOURCES: http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm

                                  http://www.esvbible.org

5) Pray, Worship, Live, and Share. 
 The purpose is to grow. You put to practice what you learn and read. It helps to journal, you can see the progress when you do. Still, it's important to pray out of the word, it helps direct this to God and show you how to grow. For instance:

In reading Galatians 5:1 (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.)

You could pray, "Lord, please teach me to live in freedom. Bring to light ways I make myself a slave to my sin. Forgive me for not standing firm in freedom."

You can worship though reading. My pastor play worship music when he reads so that he can sing and rejoice or weep and lament with the lyrics and the words. It helps him worship. 

All of this is just an idea. The great thing about reading is there isn't really a right or wrong technique to building your habit. But most importantly, don't make excuses. This is important. 

Psalm 119:72

The law of your mouth is better to me

than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Chelsy. 

Grace of a Father.

Daughters,

Yesterday, I had a realization that greatly encouraged me, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't share it.

I've realized that we often have a hard time understanding grace. We become easily frustrated with each other and ourselves and very miniscule things cause us to be bitter towards one another and even hate one another. We would assume that things would be the same with God, that His grace would be limited like man's is. Without scripture to tell us otherwise, this is a understandable assumption.
How could God love a murderer after what he's done? How could He love you and I after all we've done? Beyond that, we fail Him day in and day out- we don't keep promises, we forget what we learned yesterday, and we go behind His back consistently. Surely, even if He could still love us, He loves us less now because of what we've done, right?
Even if we proclaim grace with our mouths, we can still believe a very different "truth" underneath, in our hearts where no one can see how wrong we could be. Then, in believing this doctrine of false grace, we find ourselves failing to tell others of His love and it becomes harder and harder to show grace to others.

If God is not gracious there is nothing to proclaim. If He's not the Great Forgiver there is no need to show forgiveness to other.

 But there must be a flaw in this doctrine. Because if God is not fully gracious and completely forgiving there is absolutely no hope. And do you not know that if He is not fully gracious He is a liar? Is He is calling you into love only to hold a grudge? God's love is an absolute. It either is, or it isn't. And for those called by grace, it always is. You cannot break the love that you didn't begin and you can't outdo His grace, there's always more to be found. 

You see, if God's grace was limited to man's goodness, then we would still be under the law, and we are now under a law of grace (Gal 2:21). God's grace is given freely, and never held back. It is new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23) so the things of yesterday are no longer held against us. 

The easiest way for me to understand grace is through a metaphor. God is our Father and we are his children. If you know anything about children, you know they forget discipline easily, they disobey often, and mostly feel no regret for that. But a Father doesn't love His children any less because they are disobedient. He doesn't hate them when they forget to wash their hands before dinner. He doesn't regret having them when they act out or feel ashamed to call them His own when they forget His teachings. He loves them just the same, and He knows they will grow and learn with time. He's patient. 

And He is abounding in mercy, always faithful in grace. 

Chelsy. 

Confidence.

Daughters,

You're body is a temple for the Spirit of the Living God. You are precious and honored in His sight. You were knit in your mother's womb, with intentional care. These aren't opinions, not "feel good" phrases, yet they're so hard to believe until you recognize them as truth.

Confidence effects everything. From your work ethic, to your relationships, to your very faith. If you believe you're worthless you're bound to act it out, it will fill your speech, and it will be the end of your joy.

The world is so good at telling us we're worthless, even unintentionally. We grow up wanting to be princesses, yet the kids on the playground won't stop making fun of our hair, or our name. We begin to believe we're out of the norm and in a very bad way. We hold those little things inside us for a very very long time, until one day we're grown ups with a lot of deep-rooted insecurities.

Those girls you make fun of for being "fake-baked" or super skinny or shopaholics are most likely the worst victims of deep-rooted insecurity.There are those other girls who grow up like goddess' to be worshiped and boys and girls alike will worship the body, and forget the person inside it. Men will goggle and women will even (but she's an idol just the same), but no matter how much they do she can still be the least confident woman in the world.

It's not always looks that we're insecure about. We're not the funniest, or the smartest. We aren't athletic or creative enough. This type of insecurity is sometimes the hardest to fight, because you have to become fake in order to be accepted.

A worldly woman seeks only to be accepted. She prides herself in fashions statements, harsh diets, attention seeking, striving for compliments, but never really feels satisfied. She's still holding on to what they said in pre-school about her hair, or in middle-school about her clothes, or even what her close friends said about being dumb.

So it affects our image of ourselves, or closeness with others (because if they know who we really are, they may not like us), and lastly -and most importantly- our faith. When we believe we're worthless, and there's not convincing us otherwise, scriptures like I mentioned earlier mean nothing, prayer is not longer effective (cause no One can fix this mess), and our relationship is only at a distance. Just like with people, we're afraid of what God might really think of us when He sees all our sin and failure and even insecurity.

Yet, God already knows it! The words He spoke are written before the feelings we feel were ever real, and He still means them. When we bank on our insecurities to tell us the truth, we'll end up in despair and deceit. The only way to be free is to let go of your stubbornness and believe. Only then can Psalm 139:14 mean a thing. Then we transform own minds and bind them to the will of Christ ( Rom 12:2, 1 Peter 1:13).

From now on every time I have a fit about what to wear, condemn myself for saying something stupid, feel self-pity, or hold back my prayers, I must begin to conform my mind to what He says about me. I'm a temple of the very Spirit of the Lord, I am not my own, but bought with a price. Not even my insecurities will change that, but He wants to make me holy as He is holy.

Go in peace 
(Luke 7:50)

Chelsy.