Category Archives: best version of me

A Woman Who Fears the Lord- Reflections on Proverbs 31

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”“Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.“.       Proverbs 31:29-30 NIV

A wife of Noble character… Who would not want to be a woman that is distinguished and honored? Today’s chapter speaks of the characteristics of that woman: hard working, generous, strong, etc…. It all culminates with the verses above and the phrase, “a woman who fears the Lord.”

To fear the Lord is to see Him rightly and have a reverential awe of Him. This leads us to love Him. When we see Him as He is: holy- impeccably pure and uncompromisingly righteous, just, true, etc., we understand that He is worthy of our complete obedience, complete submission, and complete dependence. We desire to hate or shun sin that will destroy us. We desire to live after God’s ways. The woman who lives desiring to follow God with all of her heart, soul, and mind is to be praised, or in the Hebrew it says “to shine.” A Godly woman will display His glory and beauty everywhere.

When we, as women, put God first in our lives and live our lives filled with His love. His love will naturally flow out of us onto all those around us. We will live our lives with His characteristics flowing out of us. We will be the women that God created us to be. We will reflect His image to everyone around.

True beauty is not found in all the make up and hair products at Ulta or perfectly toned bodies from a gym. True beauty is found in a woman who fears the Lord and lives only for Him and His glory!

Bible Reading Fun Fact Day 7:

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Reading the Bible Decreases the Likelihood of Believing False Teaching.
“God helps those who help themselves”, “Live your truth”, “Follow your heart”, “Good Karma/ Bad Karma”, “My place of Zen”… Although these phrases may seem to be “spiritual”, they ARE NOT scriptural, or according to the Bible. So they are lies!
In fact these phrases are described in the Bible:

“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭14‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV

Not only are they lies, they are deadly to your spiritual life and relationship with God. You cannot mix God’s truth with the world’s lies.
They are False Teaching! With so many ideologies in the world and so many paths a person chooses from to find peace how does a person discern what is truth? The answer to that question is: “Does it line squarely up with scripture?”
Jesus spoke of there being two different foundations one can build their life upon, rock or sand.
The rock is His Word. Building your life on His Word requires “hearing” His Word- reading, studying, memorizing, talking about, etc. And then practicing- obeying and living your life according to His Word.
The sand is the ways of the world around us. We are surrounded by its influence so we hear it, we read about it, we study it, and we talk about it naturally.
It requires a choice to deliberately STOP building on the sand- believing the lies, and go to the Rock, Jesus- the Truth!
There is no middle ground to build upon. We cannot build on Rock and sand and think our house will stand. If we truly know the Bible, we will not embrace false teaching and be deceived with lives left in ruin!

“”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭24‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Yuck in Your Well : Mark 7:1-23

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What is coming up in your heart’s bucket?

The religious people of Jesus time were upset because His disciples weren’t following their man made religious rules. They had a lot of them: certain ways to wash your hands, certain things to eat, how to give gifts to others and classify their gifts.

Jesus told them:

“Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”” Mark 7:13 NIV

It wasn’t their observance of man made laws that God looked at. God looked at what came forth from their hearts.

I’ve heard it said that our hearts are like a well with a bucket. What is deep down inside of that well is what will come up out of that well and that bucketful of good or of “yuck” will splash all over us and the people we are around.

Here’s how Jesus put it:

“He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”” Mark 7:20-23 NIV

The question is, “What is inside of your well?” Are you full of anger, pride, bitterness, evil thoughts? That is the “yuck”of sin that will come up in your bucket. Make no mistake it will splash on everyone around you.

Or is your well in your heart full of Jesus? His Love, His Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Self-control….? That will come up in your bucket and it will splash on and be the influence of all those around you: your husband, your kids, your friends, your coworkers, your family. It will be refreshing to be near you as you pour out the Good God has put in you!

If it is “yuck” that comes up there is a solution to that, Jesus! Tell Him what is in your heart, ask Him to forgive you and change you. Ask Him to fill you with His good stuff, His love. He is in the business of cleaning out yucky wells, or evil hearts and making them new. That is good news!

Living the Best Life

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Mark 34-37 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
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In my neck of the woods there is an event called Ashes to Beauty Women’s Encounter. It has many powerful moments in a weekend but there is one moment that always leaves an impression in my heart . That moment is when a woman takes a small purple papers she has written on confessing areas of struggle or hurt and walks it to the front of the auditorium where there is room for personal reflection and prayer. There is a large wooden cross with nails right in the center of that area. It is there that she takes that paper and nails it to the cross.

It’s powerful to put to death the areas of our lives that have kept us away from the arms of Jesus. The verses in Mark speak of us not only nailing our hurts, addictions, unforgiveness, etc to the cross. It speaks of us nailing our entire life to the cross. Go all out! 💯. When we “deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus” something powerful happens we lose our lives but gain His. It is only when our self will is lost, crucified, that we become fully alive with Jesus life living in us.
People may say “I want to live my best life” or “ be the best version of me”. That “best life”, “best version of you” is a life that has been nailed in submission to the cross. And now is resurrected with Jesus life flowing through it!
Jesus living in me is the best life!