Emily Blogs The Bible

The concept of freedom in the Bible seems very counterintuitive - or at least counter to what our culture says freedom is. The Bible's often thought of as a bunch of rules you need to follow to make life less fun, but what I've experienced is that by following its guidance for life, it actually is much more freeing. I think that's why, when I saw the following shirt in Disneyland last week, it really struck a chord in me. It implies doing what's right is boring, and to have fun you need to break the rules. When I initially saw a guy wearing it in California Adventure, I couldn't quite put my finger on why it bothered me so much, but today when I opened up Galatians, I immediately thought of the shirt again, finally realizing why it rubbed me the wrong way. As Galatians 5:16-26 says: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are agai

We've been reading through Proverbs with our life group and are working on memorizing a verse of our choosing from the book. I'm not very good at memorization, but I agree it's good to do! I've chosen Proverbs 4:13. There are a few reasons I picked this one. It provides a clear action. It conveys the importance of instruction (or wisdom). It has a concise, simple point. Context of Proverbs 4 Of course, a big benefit of memorizing a verse is internalizing it; understanding it in the context of the passage is important. My husband recently preached a sermon on Proverbs 1-9 that gives a nice overview; he begins discussing chapter 4 about 18 minutes in and focuses on verses 5-9 : Get wisdom; get insight;     do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;     love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,     and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her h

I was inspired to start this blog while in California visiting my parents for Christmas. Their pastor asked , "Do you know where you're going, and do you know if you're headed in the right direction?" Recently I've been too stagnant in my spiritual growth, making excuses like, "I have 3 kids and work full time. When can I possibly fit it in?" My time is certainly limited, but you prioritize what's important to you. I've known for a while I needed to put a renewed focus on the Bible, but I wasn't sure how. But Pastor Ben said exactly what I needed to hear. Start thinking about, what is a plan so that you can get to your destination of a deeper intimacy with God? What are the things that you want to do to help aid in that? It's hard to get somewhere by accident. You tend to get lost, so it's smart to have a plan. It's smart to have a spiritual itinerary so you don't get distracted. Immediately, my mind jumped to s