Bible Study

Hey precious people, you've reached the Bible Study page which I hope will be God-given inspiration straight from the His heart to mine, through the screen and into yours! 

Be sure to check out my other blog called Clothed in Strength and Honour

Hey loves, 

A few hours ago I got in from meeting with my Church's small group, our homework for this evening was to read Philippians and after going through just the first chapter I felt so encouraged and inspired and I really wanted to share a bit of why I felt this way.

Read: Philippians 1

Paul's intense encouragement resonates throughout the whole of this chapter, his selflessness and relentless love for his situation, his location, his church, those around him and most importantly for Jesus encourages and motivates the people around him and those that knew him all from prison. From his chains he was able to defend and proclaim the gospel. This selflessness reveals a strong sense of humility within Paul and reveals a strength that could only come from Jesus Christ. At no point in this chapter does he search for sympathy or attention, instead he praises the fact that his time in prison is turning out "for the furtherance of the gospel" so much so that he even impacted the "palace guard". How wonderful a thought to think that we could make the exact same impact and imprint of Jesus in the lives of every single person around us. This selfless life that he is living is always, constantly thanking God and referring back to God, even his "chains are in Christ".

 I really admire his selflessness and humility as it causes me to think of my own life and convicts me into having the same attitude that he did towards life. For me, I haven't ever been in a position like Pauls, I've never been in prison and you can imagine back in Pauls day that the prison conditions probably were as far from prisons that we see nowadays so you can imagine rough living where your faith would be challenged the most. I admire that despite everything that he is going through he chooses Jesus everytime and I love how at peace he appears to be with it all, he has no fear of his outcome, he says that he would like to go and be with Jesus but he feels as if his encouragement would benefit others. Others. We are called to love God and to love one another. We are also called to serve and to help encourage, motivate and pray for one another so that in the trials and tribulations we can get through it by God's strength and God's strength in our friends. 

Paul gives us practical tips to live out our lives as Christians. We are meeting with people everyday, souls, lost souls are in desperate need for something to fill that void in their hearts and all they need is Jesus. Fear holds us back from a lot of things, one in particular is something that I struggle with and that is sharing the Gospel, physically speaking to people about Jesus and starting off a deep, theological debate and turning them off God completely has to be one of my worst nightmares. In all honesty, what have we got to lose? Christians are being martyred for their faith everyday, I don't live in nearly as much conflict as they are, if anything my life is comfort in comparisin and yet I can't even share the gospel without thinking "oh, they won't like me anymore" or "oh, they'll make fun of me" the fear of man has stopped me dead in my tracks one too many times. I believe that as Christians with an Eternal God, an Uncreated Creator, ruler of the heavens and all of the galaxies on our side, we can never truly lose. 

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain". - Philippians 1:21

Here are a couple of verses that I highlighted in my Bible maybe you coud meditate on them and pray to the Lord to open up your Spiritual eyes and ask Him for wisdom, knowledge and understanding of His word:

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." - Philippians 1:9-11

"the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident...my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear". - Philippians 1:12-14

"that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death". - Philippians 1:20

"Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me". Philippians - 1:27-30

Day 1: 

           God is my first love. What do you girls reckon your first love was? A boyfriend that didn't know how to treat you right but he was the first one you kissed so it doesn't matter? An amazing shopping trip that you took on your 16th birthday that you spent so much money, got so many things and came back brimming with excitement? Or that time your parents came home with a puppy that was so amazingly squidgy? It's normally the first but if you haven't experienced a relationship before then you might be able to relate to the other two.

Of course theoretically speaking God wouldn't be my first love had I not chosen to make Him my first love after thinking and putting other things in front of Him and calling them my first love before. 

Notice how those three fake first loves were all to do with action? Love is more than a feeling. Love is an action. Love is doing. Love is relentless in pursuing you. God is love. The love we label over "family", "boyfriend", "pet cat" and "job" is important of course but these things can fade away whereas God, Him and His love.. is eternal. This is a hard concept for me to grasp because some of those things I would find hard letting go. But He tells us to invest time in Him, build a relationship with Him and through Him you can radiate this love that will bless each and everything mentioned there. 

There is no other way out of this world in peacefulness and serenity than through Him. The thing I love about God is how He is black and white, you're either for Him or against Him. Living for yourself, our fleshly and carnally minded selves will lead to sin and "the wages of sin is death". God saw this and He wanted to save us, this was His plan all along. That cross is where He died to be the exchange, a beautiful exchange an action of exchange His relentless pursuit of our lives, his eternal love for us, US, our sinful ways, our ignorance, our corrupted minds, our horrible disgusting selfish ways that we chose to live our lives. He died for that. What kind of incredible love looks past all of that and choses to love you anyway, despite that, despite those countless imperfection, what kind of love looks past it?

God's love does and I'm here to tell you that living for God I have never been freer than now, today, of course I am not perfect but I serve a God who is. A God who directs my path and enables me to walk in the light. For me, it's a process and nothing is perfect but I know that one day in heaven it will be. It will be so beautiful, everything will be so perfect, all the pain, the torture, the unknown every bad thing will be gone and we will live out everything in God's presence, eternally and to me, that sounds like a wonderful wonderful wonderful place to be.

Read these verses on God's love: 

John 3:16 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

1 John 4:9-12 

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

God bless,

Rozzie

xoxo


Day 2:

Hello loves,

Recently in my personal Bible Study sessions the Lord has been teaching me about the righteousness of faith and the dangers of falling into the law. In Romans 4:15 the bible says "the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law there is no transgression". The Lord has reminded me of faith and its importance. Faith is what we need to be able to inherit His promises and there is no other way. Through faith Abraham was able to be strong in it, strong in the faith that God would provide a son for him even in his physical weakness. Abraham did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but instead was "strengthened in faith...giving glory to God...being fully convinced that what He had promised he was able to perform...therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness". Abraham's journey started with faith. Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. If anyone reading this today has a mountain of problems, family problems, job problems, relationship problems - have faith in God and all that He has promised for you, which are all for your good and all according to His will. We, as Abrahams descendants can also experience breakthrough just like he and many others did. Breakthrough is always around the corner .

So guys, those who are running a little low on faith and trust in God, talk to Him about it, He's always waiting for you to sit down with Him and talk about every single problem you have "he is a rewarders of them that diligently seek Him" - there fore there is nothing he hasn't heard of so there is no reason to be ashamed because in His eyes He loves you just the same as He did yesterday, today and forever. Which is.. a LOT of lovin'!

If you guys have any questions for me leave a comment below, I'd love to have a chat with you and any of ma Sisters in Christs out there would love talk with you also!

God bless 

xoxo