Good morning, Sweet Sisters!
Here is this week's reading plan: Matthew, chapters 10-14 I'm just making this post short and sweet, so I can get the reading plan out to you. I am loving and learning so much from Matthew, my prayer is that God is speaking to you each day through His Word as well. Keep reading, Joyfully His, Andrea
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Good morning, Ladies,
I'm sorry I am getting our reading plan up late this week. Being a wife and mama kept me extra busy this past week! I am so enjoying the book of Matthew. I hope you are too. Here is this week's reading plan! Matthew, chapters 5-9 Because of my busyness, I was unable to get study notes up last week. I want to take a moment to discus a chapter from last week's reading. Matthew, chapter 4 shares an experience that I think we should look at very closely. Jesus' time on this earth, gives us in depth examples of how we should live, love and handle life situations. Here in chapter 4 we are shown just how to respond to temptation. First of all, allow me take just a moment and be real here. This is just my humanly comment, but...... Can you believe the audacity of the devil to temp Jesus?! Tempt Jesus! I mean, if the guy is going to tempt the Savior, God's holy Son, don't think for a second that he will think twice before bombarding us, mere humans, with hordes of temptations. Now that I've shared my thoughts, let's dig into Scripture! "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry." ~ Matthew 4:1-2 Please note that God allowed this testing. He was "led by the Spirit." And secondly look at his physical strength. Jesus was weak, he was hungry. When we are weak, Sweet sisters, whether physically, emotionally, mentally and especially spiritually, the devil will pounce on us. He knows us well enough to know that when we are at our weakest, we are the most vulnerable. We must keep up our strength. We must take care of our bodies and our minds. But most importantly we must strengthen our hearts and souls with a close intimate relationship with Jesus. We have to know Him. Talk to Him in prayer. Listen to Him through His Word and know Scripture by heart. Here is why. Jesus was tempted three times in three different directions. He was first tempted with the lust of flesh (verse 3). Secondly, He was tempted with the lust of pride (verse 6). And lastly He was tempted with the lust of the eyes (verses 8 and 9). In all three instances, Jesus responded with Scripture. Wow! How powerful! When temptation comes our way, our best weapon is Scripture. But here is the key to that: we have to know God's Word. We can't know it if we don't read it, study it, memorize it and apply to our everyday life. God gives us the very tool we need to overcome our temptations, Sisters, let's use it. I encourage you to memorize Scripture on a regular basis. As you read and study God's Word, when a verse stands out to you, write it down and carry it with you. Study it until you know it by heart. The more you know, the stronger your armor will be. "Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus." ~ Matthew 4:11 The last thing I want to look at is what happened to Jesus after the temptation. Many translations use the word ministered referring to how the angels cared for Jesus. I don't know about you, but this gives me great comfort. As long as we are on this side of heaven, we will be tempted. We will have our own struggles and strongholds. We will have our trials and sorrows. it won't stop till we reach Heaven's gates. But, when we come through. When we pass each test and trial, God will be right with us. He gives His angels to us to minister and care for us. Our strength will be restored and He will not forsake us. He loves us. We are His and He will not leave us out to dry, He will sustain us and will make sure we are covered and cared for by His angels, His people. Sisters, as we start this new week, let me challenge us to memorize God's word. Let's hold it close and know it. May God's Word always be at the tip of our tongues. If you are up to the challenge, leave a comment sharing what verse you are working on. Let's fill our hearts and minds with God's Word and His promises. They will keep us safe and steer us from temptation. "Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." ~ Psalm 119:11 My Sweet Lord, thank you for loving me so much. For caring about me always and for always giving me a way out of temptation. Lord, help us to be women with a purpose for Your Kingdom. Help us to learn your Word and to hide it in our hearts at all times, and guide us to use it correctly. Draw us closer and closer to You, Lord. We love you, too. In Jesus' sweet name I pray, amen. Keep reading! Joyfully His, Andrea Hello Sweet Sisters,
I hope you each had a wonderful Valentine's weekend spending time with the ones you adore! We had a simple weekend but had so much fun! I am enjoying a beautiful winter wonderland here, as I am gazing out the window at another round of snow. I am so excited about this week as we begin studying the book of Matthew! I have been looking forward to it! Here is this week's reading plan: Monday - Proverbs 31 Tuesday - Matthew 1 Wednesday - Matthew 2 Thursday - Matthew 3 Friday - Matthew 4 It just so happens, that we will be finishing up the first Gospel of the New Testament right before Easter! Isn't that perfect timing! Check back here at the end of each week for study notes or subscribe to the RSS feed on the side to be notified when new posts have been published. And as always, please feel welcome to comment on any post as well as share your prayer requests. We would love to pray for you! Soak up this daily time with the Lord. Ask Him to lead you, guide and you and speak to you through these Scriptures. Keep reading! Joyfully His, Andrea Friends are such an important part of our lives, aren't they? It is wonderful to be able to share our lives with others. To be able to depend on someone, share with someone and just have fun with someone. Friendships are important and its even more important to nurture our true friendships. In fact, the Bible speaks very highly about the role of friendship in our lives.
I am a social person by nature. I love people and I love to get to know new people. My prayer is that I am always friendly and kind to every one but true friendship goes beyond that. We may have many friends and I pray that we all do, but generally, there are only a select few close friends we truly trust with every aspect of our lives. It is these close friendships that we must nurture. If we want to have a friend on whom we can depend then we have to be that friend. If we need a friend to just listen to us, we need to be a listener as well. If we need a friend to support and strengthen us through prayer and support, we better be willing to do the same. And when you need a friend to be honest, even if it hurts, you need to be brave enough to be that honest friend, too. Do you have friends like this? Are you a friend like this? Proverbs 27 speaks many verses on the topic of friendship. Each verse spoke volumes to me this week and they have made me thankful for the many friendships that God has given me throughout my life. Let's look at these verses together. Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. ~Proverbs 27:5-6 KJV We are a fallen people living in a fallen world. Sin and temptation abounds around us. As Christians, we must be vigilant and not get caught up in the ways of the world, but we are not perfect and at times we will fall. It is at those times when the accountability of a true godly friend are most important. A friend who loves us so much, that they can't sit back and watch us fall into sin, but instead, will lovingly call us out on what we are doing so that we can make the choice to do the right thing. This kind of friend cares so much for us that they would rather lose our friendship than to see us hurt ourselves and those who love us. True friendships can be strengthened and rebuilt after hurts and wounds. The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. ~ Proverbs 27:9 NLT I have recently sought counsel with a few of my closest friends on a situation in my family. I know that these friends love the Lord and truly strive to serve Him with their lives. I knew that I could share with them my heart and how I feel hurt with this circumstance. These ladies have listened to me, prayed with me and encouraged me with God's word and their kindness. Their heartfelt counsel has been sweeter to me and soothed my heart more than I could have hoped. I hope that in times where they need me, I can do the same for them . Never abandon a friend- either yours or your father's. When disaster strikes, you won't have to ask your brother for assistance. It's better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away. ~ Proverbs 27:10 NLT I have personally seen this verse lived out, both in my family and my husband's. When I was a little girl, my Daddy's best friend was always around. Literally, he was at our house for dinner almost every night. He was a great friend to my parents and although he was physically disabled he would break his back to do anything to help my family if we needed it. He had grown children of his own, but they weren't close to him. I was 17 when he passed away and that's when I realized how true this verse was for both him and our family. My Daddy was the one called when he passed and it was up to our family to make arrangements for his funeral. We did not forsake this friend. My family planned and attended that funeral because we loved him. Many of his own family did not come and those who did, wanted to know what kind of belongings he had left behind the moment the service was over. My father-in-law's best friend was a part of my husband's family for many years. When I first met the family I met this friend as well, because he was just a part of the group. My husband asked this friend (who is old enough to be his father) to be a groomsmen in our wedding. My children have always known him as a part of the family, like another uncle. He was always apart of our family holidays and sometimes even family vacations. My husband's Dad was tragically killed in a car accident almost 10 years ago, this close family friend was with him. My father-in-law's death has been one of the hardest things our family has gone through. Grief can do crazy things to people, and unfortunately it took its toll on my husband's family. It's been almost 10 years now and even though healing has begun, there is still much hurt, bitterness and division within this family. However, my sweet husband has always thought it was important to keep up with his dad's friend and be there if he ever needs us. They aren't as close as they once were, but they do try to keep in touch and they both know that they are just a phone call away if needed. In fact, up until we moved out of state last year, this friend joined us for Thanksgiving dinner at our table every year. God puts people in our paths for a reason, don't forsake them. I want to leave you with one last verse on friendship. I pray that this verse will speak volumes to you as you consider those friends God has gifted to you. It's a short verse but yet so powerful. As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. ~ Proverbs 27:17 Our friendships should only make us better people. Be that kind of friend. Encourage your friends. Pray with them, pray for them. Share God's Word and His goodness with them. Laugh with them. Cry with them. Listen to them and truly hear them. Share your heart with them. Care for them when they are in need and love them deeply. And if you are blessed enough to have friends that do all these things for you..... thank them for their friendship and thank God that He placed each of them in your life. My Heavenly Father, thank you for these friends that you have given me. All my life, you have known just the right people to bring alongside me on this journey and I'm so grateful for each of them. Thank you for the friends you have given to my husband, my children, my parents and to our family as a whole. We are blessed because of them. Lord, help me to be the kind of friend that you have described for us in Your Word. May I be a friend who sharpens another, who gives heartfelt counsel, who gives gentle and loving rebuke and who does not forsake those you have placed in my life. Thank you Lord, for the gift of friendship. I love you, too, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Keep reading, Sweet Sisters! Joyfully His, Andrea Good morning, Sweet Sisters,
This is our last full week in the book of Proverbs. I pray you have been blessed by God's Word and that He is growing your strength and wisdom. Our reading plan for this week is as follows: Proverbs, chapters 26-30 Next week we will finish up with Proverbs 31 on Monday and we will begin our exciting study in Matthew on Tuesday, February 16th. Now is a wonderful time to share the new study with your contact list, facebook friends etc. We will start Matthew next Tuesday and will finish on March 25th, right before Easter. But until then, let's finish strong in Proverbs. I'm praying for you this week! Joyfully His, Andrea Nine years ago, we began planning to build a home. As we made our plans, many decisions were made: what type of home to build, what type of foundation, one story or two, would we have a garage and the biggest decision of all.... what our budget would be. We are frugal people by nature, so we did a lot of research, negotiations and chose to do much of the work ourselves in order to save money and stick to our budget. Although building a house can be stressful, it was actually a lot of fun for us too. We enjoyed the process and even plan to do it again someday!
We wanted to make sure our home was built on a good foundation. We wanted it to be strong and to be able to withstand storms and high winds, not only physically but spiritually as well. When the block was finished for our basement we put Scripture inside the blocks all around the basement, and then as a family, we held hands and prayed that our home would be built on the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ. That it would stand strong through any and all storms that raged amongst us and that through Him we would be safe and kept from harm. We lived in that home for almost 8 years and God answered those prayers. When we moved last summer, I knew that wherever the Lord led us, we would dedicate our home to Him and ask Him, once again to protect us and our home from all storms that may come our way. Although we did not build the home we are in now, we still wanted God to be our foundation. We buried Scriptures around our home and again as a family prayed for God's blessing. "A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables." ~ Proverbs 24: 3-4 The above two verses say it all. They show us exactly what it takes to have a strong, full and blessed home. We can take every physical precaution available to build a strong house. We can use cement blocks, enhance them with rebar and pour them with concrete, but still have a weak house. Our strength comes from wisdom and understanding. Both of which come from the Lord. If you want a strong home, strengthen your relationship with the Lord. Read His Word, talk to Him, praise Him within the walls of your home, speak of Him to your family and all guests that come through your door and live His words out loud in your own actions, attitudes and words. "A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. "~ Proverbs 14: 1 We have the power to build our homes. We can build our homes strong and mighty, or we can tear them down with our own hands, words and actions. Where will our strength come from? How will we choose to build our homes? Will we cover our home and everyone in it with prayer? Will we care for our home and family knowing that both are gifts from God? Will we seek wisdom and fill our homes with love, patience, kindness and understanding? Or will we tear our homes down with pride, anger, judgment and impatience? When we moved last summer, we did not know where we were going, but we knew that we would be downsizing. Cleaning out a two story home with a full basement and a small barn was not an easy task. It also made me realize what accumulates over the years... junk. Oh, don't get me wrong, we have good things too, but most of our belongings were no longer important, usable or needed. We threw away, gave away and only kept what fit in a pod, small storage building and our camper. It was cleansing really. I don't want my home to be filled with junk. Not physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. My tone in our home can and will set the mood for everyone else. Ask me how I know. Because I have tore down my home by my bad attitude. I have crushed spirits with my lack of understanding and I have hurt hearts because I have had no compassion. I refuse to be okay with that. I want to build my home. I want to fill it with wisdom, knowledge and understanding. I want my home to be filled with precious riches, not because I went out and bought the best but because I have Jesus in my home to stay and because I am striving everyday to build my home on His ways and His Word. Our commitment to build our homes can only come from one source, our faith in Jesus. Let's commit to serve the Lord and build our homes on Him. "....But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." ~ Joshua 24:15c Keep building those homes, Sweet Sisters, and let's grow in God's grace and knowledge together! Joyfully His, Andrea Hello Sweet Sisters,
I am sorry that I am just now getting this week's reading plan out to you. This past week has been piled with a lot of "life" and as a result I am behind on many things, this ministry included. My prayer is to be more diligent and structured this week to get things back on schedule. So, here is this week's reading plan: Proverbs, chapters 21-25 We have two weeks left in Proverbs and then we will be starting the book of Matthew on February 16th. I am excited to study the first Gospel of the New Testament and I hope you are too! I'm praying for you this week! Keep reading! Joyfully His, Andrea |
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. " AuthorHi! I'm Andrea, wife to my handsome hubby, homeschooling mama to my 7 amazing blessings, and daughter of the King of kings. I am so glad you have stopped by my little piece of the web. My prayer is that the Lord will use this blog to encourage you in your personal, daily walk with Christ. Archives
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