Matthew 6 - Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount and discusses giving to the needy, the Lord’s prayer (Model Prayer), fasting, laying up treasure in Heaven, and putting the Kingdom of God first.

Matthew 5 - Jesus goes up on a mountain and begins preaching the “Sermon on the Mount.” He begins with the Beatitudes, discusses salt and light, His relationship to the Law of Moses, anger, lust, divorce, swearing, turning the other cheek, and loving your enemies.

Matthew 4 - Jesus is tempted by the Devil in the wilderness. Afterwards, He moves to Capernaum and begins His ministry. At the Sea of Galilee, Jesus called His first Apostles: Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom and healed many sick people in Galilee.

Matthew 3 Bible Study with Free Notes and Videos - John the Baptist preaches to the people in wilderness of Judea. At the end of the chapter, Jesus visits John at the Jordan river and is baptized by Him. After Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and God’s voice from Heaven confirms Jesus as His Beloved Son.

Matthew 2 - The wise men visit Jesus while Herod tries to kill Him. To escape Herod, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt. They remain in Egypt until Herod’s death, at which point they move back to Nazareth.

The introduction to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew starts his book by listing the genealogy of Jesus and discussing the events surrounding the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem.

This post is for any woman out there struggling to make new friends or overwhelmed with a history of trust issues.

In the past, I had a tendency to have trust issues with female friends. I didn’t mean to. It's just that I have a history of being burned.

We know that women can be mean, competitive, and flat out hurtful. Especially jealous ones.

My husband often fills in as the visiting preacher for many congregations. A common theme I hear over and over is, “We keep losing our young people.” This is often said by a sweet older couple with a concerned look on their faces as they look around at their aging congregations.

I have seen a quote many times in my life in regards to changing certain tragic situations. It reads: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.”

What is your aroma?

Not your physical aroma, although many of you reading this probably smell really good. But your spiritual aroma?

As Christians, we wear the aroma of Christ, and when someone smells it, it sends a message.

What does yours send?

What does yours reveal when you are struggling?

When you are happy?

I used to be a smoker. And I loved it. I developed the habit when I was a waitress, because the only way you got a break, was if you smoked! I decided I wanted a break so I picked up smoking. And eventually, it became a need instead of something I did to take a break from serving.

God doesn't need perfect servants, He just wants willing servants, and Peter was one of those.

So if you feel inadequate or unusable by God because you are not perfect, let Peter, his life, and the way God used him serve as an inspiration to you.

Willingness is God's qualification, not perfection.

In this post, I will be discussing the third lesson I learned from my spiritual heart assessment in Luke 11:37-44. See Lesson One and Two prior to reading :)

The third lesson I think we can learn from these scriptures is that it is important to check our hearts for underlying issues.

This is the second post I will make in a 3 post series. See post one if you have not read it first (Masks of Christianity).

In this post I will be discussing the second lesson I learned from doing a Spiritual Heart Assessment with Scripture.

The Second Lesson is: Heart disease often occurs when something is neglected.

You never really realize how bad of a servant you are, until you are asked to speak at a ladies day about serving.

I read a quote the other day while preparing for my lesson that said, “If I knew how long I had to live, I would spend my last days eating all of my favorite foods and visiting all of my favorite places. Jesus knew his final day, and He washed feet.”

In the book of Jeremiah, there is a story of a king who, upon hearing the Word of the Lord, took his knife, cut out the pages, and threw them in the fire. After reading this story found in Jeremiah 36, I believe we can learn a lot from the response of King Jehoiakim when he hears the word of God.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 says,

“Two are better than One.”

And today, in this post, I want to talk to you about the importance of serving together.

I have come to the conclusion that we are a lot like the Israelites. When things are going good, we have a tendency to rely on ourselves and give ourselves the glory. Often it isn’t until we are in our lowest moments, that we turn to God.

Today, I found myself writing and reflecting on a few lessons I have learned from Gideon. This writing will be based on Judges 6-8.

When I was 12 years old, I was graciously adopted by my mother’s new husband, the man I now call my father. I was given a new last name, but I was struggling internally. I was struggling with my identity. No matter how much love my parents showed me, I still felt unloved. You see, I couldn’t help but wonder why my biological father didn’t want me. Why he made choices that meant he couldn’t be in my life. Why I wasn’t good enough for him to choose me. And so I fought against my new adopted identity.

Something that has been on my heart lately is “surrender.” This hymn has been stuck in my head for the past few days, you know the one:

““All to Jesus I surrender,

All to Him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust Him,

In His presence daily live.…” 💜

As a woman with a restless heart and eager for the next thing, here is what I have been learning:

“Mundane” seems to describe most of our lives...It’s not a bad thing; it’s simply a fact.

If we are not careful, too often we dismiss God’s presence and power in the mundane because we’re looking for significance elsewhere...