I just realized that I'm the kind of person who can't work on one thing for too long. I'm trying to write a sonnet for lit class, and I basically wrote 2 lines in class, 8 lines on the way home from dropping Katie off at Kent, 2 lines on the way home from a graduation party, and now I'm trying to write two more. The last two. And I can't think of aannnnnything. So I'm doing this. But I should be doing homework. So I'm going to stop doing this and start doing homework!
I got all of my homework done. And I went to Encounter62. AS;LDKJFASD;LFKJSAD F I love those people so much. It's ridiculous. They've impacted my life in so many ways. I hope I've had a fraction of the impact on them.
They're so encouraging and genuine. It pushes me to be more like that.
Today I started something called the 100 Day Challenge. (you can go to http://www.100daychallenge.com for more info)
It's basically wearing a strip of blue cloth on my wrist for 100 days (It's tied around my wrist right now! 100 days starts now). In Bible times people wore a blue strip of cloth on their clothing to remind them that God was with them. So for the next 100 days I'm going to live like Jesus is next to me. For everything I do. I'm going to try my very best to love everyone I come into contact with. This relates to what we talked about tonight @ Encounter62.Which is going to be in my post tomorrow.
Here's what we talked about during NIPTO:
First we talked about how you can still sin even though you have Christ in you who has no sin in him. (1 John 3:5b) I'm still trying to work this out. I'll let ya know when I have more info about this.
Just a reminder of how the letters in Revelation go:
Jesus reveals who he is
Jesus tells them the good/bad things that are happening in the church
Then there's an overcomer statement.
Then we talked about
Revelation 2:12-17:
12"To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.
Jesus is the guy who has the double edged sword coming out of his mouth. A couple weeks ago we read that Jesus walks among the lampstands. Brandon put it this way: that sounds kind of romantic. A guy with a sword coming out of his mouth, not so much.
So that's the revelation of who Jesus is.
13I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
How depressing would it be to have Jesus tell you that where you live, is where Satan lives. Erm... Crazy. But these people saw Antipas get martyred but they still were faithful to Jesus. Way to go Pergamum!
14Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.
So. The general people in Pergamum (not the church!) worshiped the emperor and Zeus, the most powerful Greek god. Balaam/Balak basically taught that doing whatever the world is doing is fine. Jesus told them that they're wrong. It's not okay to be the same as the world. As Christians we are obligated to be different. (By the way:
15Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Same here. ish. These people were listening to teachings that weren't Jesus'. *insert buzzer noise here* WRONG-O!
16Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
This is a warning basically. You get your act together, or I'm going to speak against you. The world was spoken into existence. When God speaks, stuff happens!
17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.
Overcomer statement! The hidden manna. Brandon has notes in his Bible and this is a summery of what I could catch/write down: The manna is a symbol of the sufficiency that God gives us like the manna was sufficient for the Israelites in the desert.
The white stone... I didn't quite catch all of the information about this. I didn't write anything down. Hopefully I'll be able to get this information from Brandon... I'll post a link to this updated post when I get it! I remember something like this: It could also be a symbol of God's sufficiency for us. It could be a symbol of the amulets that people wore around their necks? Or it could just be a new name between us and God. I don't really remember. I'll let ya know. (I could google this, but it's late... and I need sleep so I don't get sick!)
Hope that was informative and helpful! I really love getting together to just study the Bible on Sunday nights. It's so encouraging. Informative. LOVE. IT. Hope you enjoy what I can give you!
We sang this song at church today and I really love it. I hadn't sung it in a long time, but it's just a really good song! Enjoy!
I have a couple prayer requests. One of my good guy friends is going through a tough time. If you could pray for him that would be fantastic.
Also, my bestest friend just found out about some tough stuff that is going on in her family. If you could pray for peace in their family I know it would be much appreciated. I'll keep you updated as I'm allowed. Thanks for praying with me!
You people are awesome! Hope you had a fantastic day and I hope that this week starts fantastically tomorrow!
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