Bible 365: Week 51

One week and a day left and my Bible 365 Challenge will be officially over! I will have read the Good Book in its entirety straight through. Anyways, I hope that everyone had a blessed weekend. I did. I celebrated my birthday on Friday and we finally got car. I was kind of sad to see our lovely BMW rental go. That thing was sweet!

Saturday, the Mr braved the craziness at the stores to go hunt down a gluten free turkey and finish his Christmas shopping. He said it was almost like the grocery store scene from Christmas With The Kranks at Walmart. He had to race this lady to get the last gluten free turkey. She even offered to pay a little extra for it, but he turned it down. Thank goodness because y’all know my babies on a gluten free diet thanks to allergies. Next year, I think we’ll try prime rib or something because I’m anxious to start switching up our holiday menus.

Anyways, the scripture readings from Week 51 talked a lot about how we should live right and follow God’s commands to show and prove our love and devotion to Him. And I couldn’t agree more. He knows that we will stumble, but there are some out there who are just sinning to max and not even trying to get it right. Yet, we see them talking about how they love the Lord.

Newsflash, 1 John 1:6 says, “If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” Being a Christian or loving truly loving God isn’t about lip service. I’ve said this a million times on this blog I’m sure, but love is an action. You show someone that they are loved by what you do for and with them. “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18) The same applies to God.

He wants to see us putting in the work to attempt to live as Jesus did. And I understand better than anyone that this can be a hard task to live up to, but “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). He didn’t send us unprepared to live a righteous life. The Bible is our guidebook, Jesus is our guide and the tools to experience this journey are within us. It’s just up to us whether we use them or not.

And if you do find yourself having one of those days where you have been less than perfect in your walk with Christ, just remember “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just as will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We serve a forgiving God. An understanding God.

We serve a God whose love is unconditional. How do I know? “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). God had one biological child in this world and He graciously and selflessly sacrificed him for us because we couldn’t get our bad habits under control. We couldn’t stay faithful to Him despite the fact that He has stayed faithful to us!

With the New Year coming up, I think the one resolution that we all need to take up is to do away with fear. For the simple reason that “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). How many of us are walking around with fear in our marriages, in our roles as parents, at our jobs or just walking out of our front doors?

I want to be fearless in 2014, in every aspect of my life. I want to know the joy of experiencing perfect love. A love so unconditional and pure. Oh the bliss that will come from that.

Week 52 Readings

12/23: Jude 1

12/24: Revelation 1-3

12/25: Revelation 4-5

12/26: Revelation 6-8

12/27: Revelation 9-11

12/28: Revelation 12-14

12/29: Revelation 15-16

12/30: Revelation 17-19

12/31: Revelation 20-22

What fears are going to give up in 2014?