Orphans, widows, being unpolluted

~Friday for Friends~

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 (NIV)

Who can you look after today? How can you keep yourself unpolluted? 

Untold

~Monday Movies & Music~

Matthew West has a touching song, "Untold." Here are the lyrics and the website dedicated to the movement. 

  "For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb." Psalm 139:13 (NIV)

How about you? What do you think about the period between conception and birth? Do you think it's life or not? Share in the comments! 

Be merciful

~Friday for Friends~

"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Luke 6:35-36 (NIV)

Who can you love today? To whom can you do good? To whom can you lend? To whom can you be kind and merciful today?

Who we are

~Tuesday Thoughts~

"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—" John 1:12 (NIV)

"he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—" Ephesians 1:5 (NIV)

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." Romans 15:7 (NIV)

We are children of God! 

Lord, please help us accept ourselves and others as You want us to accept them. Remind us that we can be Yours and help us share that message with others. Amen. 

Children & heirs

~Tuesday Thoughts~

"But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[a] Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[b] Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir." Galatians 4:4-7 (NIV)

Just think about. We are God's children and heirs. Isn't that something very, very, very amazing?

The Jesus Storybook Bible written by Sally Lloyd Jones

~Saturday Stories~

The Jesus Storybook Bible is a children’s Bible, but I think we, teens, and adults for that matter can gather a lot from it.

The thing I really like about this Bible is that, as is said on the cover, “every story whispers his name”. From Adam and Eve to the tower of Babel to Jacob’s wife Leah to Naaman’s leprosy the stories always point to the story, the plan that God had from the beginning. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the Old Testament and not see the big picture. But if we look closer every story can “whisper his name”.

For more on Sally Lloyd-Jones visit her website and Facebook page.

How about you? Have you read this Bible? What do you think of it? 

Like a child

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:1-5

Amazing, don't you think?