Sunday Scripture

October 26th, 2008 at 7:51 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Boy, I haven’t done one of these in awhile. As you may (or may not) recall I’m going through Beth Moore’s Fruit of the Spirit Bible study with my small group on Saturday morning’s. I’ve been through that before and actually blogged about a few topics. I don’t like to rehash lessons from others’ too much but there is a verse that has stayed with me for two weeks now and I feel like I must share.

In Acts we read of Stephen, a Christ follower who had false accusations thrown at him and who was eventually stoned to death. The actual stoning is covered at the end of Acts 7

54When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

In her study Beth points out that Christ stood up for this occassion. It was worthy of his effort, time, attention, care and concern. The questions I can not get out of my head…What caused Christ to stand? Was it out of respect? Worry? Praise? How often has Christ stood instead of sat at the right hand of God and most importantly…Have I ever done anything worthy of Christ standing to His feet? My immediate and unwavering answer is a resounding no. But I want that. We all look for God to say well done, my good and faithful child one day. Call me selfish but I want that now. I want to do something for the cause of Christ that makes Him get on His feet. And the cause of His standing? I hope it’s a standing ovation.

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Sunday Scripture

March 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

I’ve always loved this verse, but while reading through the entire chapter and now understanding the history of the Jews, it really brought on a whole new meaning. This is at a time when they probably didn’t think God cared about them and God was just saying, I know what I’m doing and I love you!

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Sunday Scripture – Psalm 121

February 24th, 2008 at 8:55 am / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.
8 The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.

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Sunday Scripture

February 16th, 2008 at 10:40 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Matthew 5:41-42

If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

The Scripture from my Sunday School lesson couldn’t be more appropriate for this week. I really hope you are reading the posts from the people (Sophie, Heather, Anne, Chris and Keely) in Uganda with Compassion and have been touched like I have. I’m so proud to be a sponsor with Compassion and I hope that you can go the extra mile and give $32 a month to sponsor a child in need.

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Sunday Scripture

January 26th, 2008 at 10:53 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Matthew 4:4

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”.

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Sunday Scripture

January 20th, 2008 at 12:22 am / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

Proverbs 31:30

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

I believe I may have used this Scripture on a past Sunday Scripture and since I haven’t been doing this for very long, it’s probably too soon to post on it again but this particular verse convicts me every time. This week it came up in our new youth pastor’s sermon Wednesday night. He was talking on the subject of how we look and wrong motivations for wanting to look good.

The first wrong motivation is so that someone else notices you. Fine, I’ve heard that before. Recently, in fact. Every time you invite someone to look at you, you are asking someone to make an idol out of you, worship you instead of pointing your life to Christ. Sounds a bit extreme, but I get that. Look at our fascination with people in Hollywood. We latch onto those people and in particular their looks in a heartbeat. It’s not an odd concept. And if we’re dressing and fixing ourselves up just for someone else to look at us, then we’re asking people to worship us. Well, ouch, that hurts.

But his second point hurt even worse. The second wrong motivation is so that WE notice ourselves. We become our own idol. Everyone likes to look good and when we do, it’s so easy to think highly of ourselves. Pictures, glances in the mirror, time spent dieting, exercising, shopping, primping, planning…so much time on our own looks just so we can enjoy looking at ourselves. Ouch, that really hurts.

It’s ok to want to be healthy and look good but when we are doing it for the wrong reasons…for attention from anyone including ourselves, it’s just not right. Pride comes before the fall and oh how we can fall when our pride is in our looks. Maybe it’s just me, but this verse hits home every time and I just have to remember being charming, it’s only deceptive. Beauty…it’s gone in a moment. But if we pour our lives and purpose into Christ, it is eternal.

So how about you? To participate, simply post a verse, a set of verses or even just a reference to a verse that means something to you now or maybe even in the past. Explain why it’s important or don’t. It’s up to you. Go now and post and then come back. Post your name and then a direct link to you blog entry. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave yours in the comments. Here is the code for the graphic above.

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Sunday Scripture

January 13th, 2008 at 3:01 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

Numbers 6:24-26

24 ” ‘ “The LORD bless you
and keep you;

25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;

26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” ‘

That’s my prayer for you today.

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Sunday Scripture

January 7th, 2008 at 1:35 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Wow, I missed a week and now I’m late. Not great stats lately. My Scripture for this week is Psalm 51:12-13

Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

Yesterday at church the pastor asked if we could dream big and do anything we wanted for God, what would we do? No one answered out loud and when I thought of mine, for some reason I was embarrassed and thought number one, surely *I* couldn’t do that and number two, how silly and unimportant that would be?

Wanna know what I thought of? I would love to be a writer of some sort and a speaker. Which is sort of weird because if you know me, I get embarrassed in crowds easily so it seems what I really wouldn’t want to do. I’ve often said I’d like to like Beth Moore and while I don’t want to be her or take her spot in her ministry, I would love to do something like that.

And then I read these Scriptures and realize, you know, some people’s great dream may be to win people for Christ cities and countries at a time but if I were to write a devotional or bible study type book and affected even one person. If it brought someone in sin back to His ways, it would worth it.

I’ve screwed up enough in ways I don’t even want to admit. But so has everyone. And God has restored me each and every time and His salvation is my joy. And if I can use my life to affect any number of people even if it’s just through posts on a personal blog–if that’s the only writing I’ll ever do, I’m good with that.

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Sunday Scripture

December 29th, 2007 at 9:55 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

I’m very sorry I missed last Sunday. We were out of town the whole weekend and then traveling on Sunday so I guess it just slipped by. My Scripture for this week is Micah 6:8

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

When asked what a good Christian looks like, it’s usually answered with things like someone who goes to church, reads their Bible and prays. But that is not at all what God says makes a good Christian. He says you act justly, love mercy and walk humbly. That means do what is right and fair but don’t be such a stickler that you forget to throw in mercy when it is due to someone and to always put others and God before yourself. Always putting others first alone would take lifetimes to master for me but if someone ever calls me a Christian, I hope it’s because I act justly, love mercy and walk humbly not where I spend an hour or two of my time on Sunday mornings.

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Sunday Scripture

December 16th, 2007 at 9:06 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

Sorry this is a bit late. Busy weekend! My scripture this week is actually some lyrics to the chorus of a song. We had our choir cantata today and there was on old song sung that I still love the words to.

HE KNEW ME, YET HE LOVED ME
HE WHOSE GLORY MAKES THE HEAVENS SHINE
SO UNWORTHY OF SUCH MERCY
YET WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS
I WAS ON HIS MIND.

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Sunday Scripture

December 9th, 2007 at 1:17 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

My scripture this week is Proverbs 31:30

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman the fears the Lord is to be praised.

I have to be honest with this post. There was a girl tonight at the Christmas party that was quite charming and beautiful. She’s a pretty woman with just the right clothes, nice body, make up and hair. She’s quite outgoing and held the attention of the room during the exchange. I have to admit to being a tad jealous of her. Yeah, I have some style and I’m not ugly but she’s got the outgoing personality that I don’t have. I sat and smiled during the night, being entertained by everyone else. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with what she was doing either. But *I* have to be careful what I get jealous of in other people. Yes, at times I meet a very godly woman and wife and want to be like her. And that’s good. That’s like looking at the Proverbs 31 woman and aspiring to be that wise woman. But tonight I found myself longing after charm and beauty and as Proverbs 31 says…that’s only deceptive and temporary. This verse happens to be one I’m studying for as part of Sunday School for tomorrow. It’s been a favorite of mine for quite some time and it was a good reminder for me tonight to keep my priorities straight and remember the kind of woman and wife I want to be.

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Sunday Scripture

December 2nd, 2007 at 12:22 am / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

My scripture this week is Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.

Oh how many times I need to remind myself to guard my heart!

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Sunday Scripture

November 18th, 2007 at 9:08 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

I feel like I could write on so many verses this week! I hope you are opening your Bible each week and letting God speak to you through His word. I know it is such a struggle for me!

My scripture this week is Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Sunday School lesson I’m teaching this morning is on wisdom. Specifically from the time in Solomon’s life when God told him he could have anything he wanted and Solomon asked for wisdom. God gave him that and all the wealth and riches he could give him just because he had chosen so well. I think it’s quite ironic Solomon was wise in asking for wisdom. Seems like he was already a little bit wise.

Anyway, for a few years now, the concept of wisdom has captured my attention. I have prayed that He gives it to me as I believe the only way to carry out what God has for me is to be wise in my decision at all times. How important that is for the 15, 16 and 17 year olds I’ll be teaching this morning as they are just making so many important decisions. And yet, I’m 15 years their senior and it’s still so important I have God’s wisdom so I’m carrying out what God has planned for me.

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Sunday Scripture

November 10th, 2007 at 11:13 pm / Amy Bennett / 6 Comments »

I’m so happy we had several participants last week. Unfortunately I just wrote over last week’s post with this one and now it’s lost forever . But hopefully this week will be great anyway. It was awesome last week to see a theme through people’s verses and even through their pastor’s sermons that day.

To participate, simply post a verse, a set of verses or even just a reference to a verse that means something to you now or maybe even in the past. Explain why it’s important or don’t. It’s up to you.

My scripture this week is Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I know this is a sort of mantra for several Christians. It is on my list of favorite verses on my about page because it explains my beliefs, or rather my life, pretty succinctly.

So how about you? Go now and post and then come back. Post your name and then a direct link to you blog entry. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave yours in the comments.

Here is the code for the graphic above.

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