Bough

You Were Bought With a Price {1 Corinthians 6}

10:00 AM

Today's Passage: 1 Corinthians 6

 Are you a rebel by nature? At times perhaps? After all, it's your life and you're going to live it to the best of your ability. 
Do you grumble and complain when things don't go your way? 

 Or, are you just the opposite? You think so little of yourself you don't feel you're worth anything at all. How can anyone like you, let alone love you? You're grateful for just the scrapes of attention someone would show you.

 Paul was writing to the rebels in this chapter, but his message is really for all of us:

I love how this message comes just as we're preparing to celebrate all God has done for us! 
Notice:

 "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
 Paul is specifically addressing the sin of sexual immorality, and we all know that it is SIN, and it's probably just as prevalent today as it was then. It's dangerous and wrong, but there's a deeper message Paul is conveying here. 

You are precious to God! 
Whenever we purchase something of great value, we take extremely good care of it. Whether it’s an expensive piece of jewelry, a new house, or car. I'm sure we all can remember when we finally bought something that we had to make a huge sacrifice for in order to obtain it, which is why we take such great care of it. Right?

 The price we were bought with is found in 1 Peter 1:18–19: “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (NLT).

 Therefore, when Paul says, “You were bought with a price,” he means each of us were purchased and paid for with the precious, sinless, blood of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Himself, told us that He came to give His life as a ransom for us in Matthew 20:28. 

 Recently I had a chance to leave my home and travel to one of the poorest, filthiest, most dangerous places in this country to walk among and love on some of the world's neediest people. I will never forget that time, and as I walked the streets of this neighborhood; stepping over garbage and filth, seeing all the signs of an unwelcoming neighborhood, I was overcome with the thought of all Jesus left in heaven, and the astronomical price He came to pay for you and me! 

  Paul also tells us that “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” (Ephesians 2:10) And,
You are precious to God! 

AND God created our bodies for a purpose—to bring glory and honor to Him (6:20). This should be the guiding principle for all that we do. 

 We only have this one body with which to serve and honor our Lord and Savior for all He has done for us. How do you plan use it for His glory? 

 Blessings,  

 sue
Our Value is Found in Him Alone

earthly possessions

SoulSearching Sunday~Value

12:00 AM

Sunday, December 2, 2018


Week Forty-eight...

Welcome!  We pray that you have all had a precious time worshipping the Lord this morning!  Below you will find some thought provoking questions that will provide you a starting point to your journal writing to complete this week.  We hope that you will find this time soul satisfying!

Our reading this week was Philippians 3 - 1 Timothy 3...

 1. Think back to the last bag of garbage you sent off to the dump. How does your description compare with the way you look at your earthly possessions and accomplishments? Worship Christ for His supreme worth, and ask Him to help you remember where your value really lies.

 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared to the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my LORD. I have discarded everything else, counting it all garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with Him. (Philippians 3:8)

 2. Finish this statement, “Because God is my friend, I have…” Rejoice in the gift of His friendship today. Spend time with Him. Talk to Him. Share with Him your gratitude for all He has done for you.

 You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now He has brought you back as His friends. (Colossians 1:21-22)

 3. What will it be like to worship Jesus in person? How can you use your worship time as a dress rehearsal for heaven?

 And you will be among those praising Him on that day, for you believed what we testified about Him. (2 Thessalonians 1:10)



Angie Benjamin

Beautiful Covenant: For Jesus' sake {2 Samuel 8:1-10:10:19}

4:13 AM

Good morning sisters!
There are two mayor topics or lessons  I found in these 3 chapters from 2 Samuel:

1.- The Power of a covenant - Called to be a blessing



David desired to bless someone in Saul's family because of the covenant he had made with his friend Jonathan. 

David's covenant relationship with Jonathan included all of Jonathan's children.

I believe that just as David was looking for someone to bless, for Jonathan's sake, God looks for people to bless for Jesus' sake. God is merciful, gracious and kind. He constantly extends His love and mercy toward us, the only thing we need to do is to be willing to accept it.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
 Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning. 
Lamentations 3:22-23

In covenant, we offer God what we have...all of our sins, faults, weaknesses and failures, in exchange He gives us His ability, righteousness and His strength. He takes our poverty and gives us His riches. He takes our diseases and sicknesses and gives us His healing and health. He takes our messed up, failure-filled past and gives us bright and hopeful futures.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6

We don't have to talk God into being good to us. That's who HE IS. He is looking for someone to bless for Jesus' sake.

Today make the decision to receive what you don't deserve,  receive what you have not earned and when you do, you'll start experiencing God's awesome grace, which is freely available to all who receive it!


2.- Dead-Dog image (on low self-esteem)



As David looked for Jonathan's descendants, he discovered his friend's crippled son, Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth, was living in less-than-desirable circumstances.

He was living in a small town called Lo-debar, Lo-debar, means "pasture-less", this could represent a place of poverty...In other word words, lifeless.

I think most of the times, when our self-image is poor, we tend to choose surroundings that fit the way we feel about ourselves. I'm not talking about geographical places necessarily, as many times, we don't really get to choose where to reside.

I'm taking about the way, we present ourselves...the way we dress perhaps? For example, the way some people are filled with low self-esteem that they will not even bother to try to dress or look nice. 

On the other hand, we have the opposite extreme. People who feel so bad about themselves inwardly that they will try to hide by becoming perfectionists outwardly.

Truth is, that the way we feel about ourselves reflects on the outside.

What we need to realize is that God wants to bless us regardless our imperfections. Our worth and value are not in the outward things but knowing in our hearts who we really are in Christ.

Our imperfections cannot and will never stop God from working in our lives. God  does not want us to live in a barren, lifeless place...He has called us to experience His unlimited kindness and love! He delights in being merciful!