Yooooo... I have been missing-in-action for three weeks now, with no explanation on here, instagram, YouTube, or otherwise. Sorry about that! I'm gonna fess up (lol), and let you know why I was MIA, real quick, before we get into this post today. When I took that break back in December, I realized a couple things, that apply to this situation... 1 - That if I'm not inspired, or don't know what to write about, it's okay to not write anything. I would rather give you guys inspired work 9/10 times, than pollute my website with uninspired, obligatory writing. I've learned that I can totally tell when someone's just doing something because they have to, and not because they want to :P And the work that they do when they want to do it, is usually much better quality, and overall just more valuable to the reader. 2 - This kinda goes along with the reason above, but it's still a little different... It's that I have to put my own personal life, and my personal work in quizzing/school as a higher priority than sowing into other people (even though I really enjoy that). And, more than just putting it as a higher priority on a list, I have to make the decision to continually act on that, and be inline with it, in my everyday life. I can't give other people, what I don't have, or what I'm not thriving in right now (as unfortunate for my post consistency as that may be :P). But, honestly, I think I've done pretty well overall with posting consistently for the past almost-year. My first two years of writing this blog, it was like, maybe once-twice a month, so... :P. I love you guys though, and I know that even when I don't post every week, that's not the base of why you guys seem to like this blog, and TBQJ in general. So, to wrap this up, I want to thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart, for your amazing, loving support! SO TODAY, we're going to be doing the sequel-post to the "Highlights of Corinthians #1" post! And as I explained in that post, this series is a little different from the Highlights of Luke (or whatever it was called... LOL) post series that I did last season, because I'm just picking passages/verses from anywhere in the material, and not going through it systematically. But lets go ahead and jump right into it! :P Number One: 1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." This is a pretty well-known, simple, easy verse, right? But if you think about it, it's extremely profound, and informative, about how we do this "life" thing :P. For one, it reminds us of our priorities, and our ultimate motivations for doing the things that we do, while we're here on earth. Just like because the FIRST commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind," the most important thing in our lives is God, and our relationships with Him - because it affects every other relationship, and every other thing you do. So, if we've got things we have to do, that we might not necessarily LOVE, or that doesn't seem directly spiritual, God says to apply those things and include those things, in our walk with God, by doing them for His glory, and serving Him, in whatever it may be. When we do that, we're not doing it for the praise of other people, or to make ourselves look good. Rather, we're inviting God into another area of our lives. And how many of you know, that where God is, and where you're honoring Him, He's gonna be able to bless you OVER-abundantly! Pretty cool, huh? Number Two: 2 Corinthians 3:17 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Again, the seemingly simple and "overused" verses, are usually extremely profound and powerful, if we let the Holy Spirit teach us/show us a few things about them. In this passage, as I'm sure all of you know, because you're freakin' awesome (;P), it's talking about the Old and New Covenants - the Law, and then free and redeemed relationship with God. It says that even after Jesus died and ushered in our perfect standings with God the Father, a lot of people are still living under the condemnation and bondage of the Law, and that Covenant. And this is still, unfortunately, extensively running rampant through the Church today. Even though Christ removes that veil, and gives us a revelation of grace if we turn to Him (verse 14-16), a lot of people still don't understand the huge difference between the two Covenants. When they don't understand this, they are in total bondage, condemnation, and a wrong understanding of their standing with God, and how God feels about them now (because in Christ, they are completely holy, regardless of their performances). BUT, YOU GUYS--- Where the Spirit of the Lord is, where we let Him impart the truth of the Gospel to our hearts, there is total freedom! Freedom to have direct relationship with God, freedom from leaning on our own ability, and our own strength, and freedom to use the power that God's put inside of us through the Holy Spirit. It's crazy how something this foundational, is easily misunderstood by a lot of people. But through the Holy Spirit, and through other people on behalf of the Holy Spirit, I believe that God intends to bring understanding to the entire church. Amen? Number Three: 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" I guess all of the verses I picked are well-known, and popular... Oh well :P. Like I talked about in my Newsletter yesterday (you can catch the next one by joining the E-mail family right here! It's pretty lit ;)), identity and purpose are two of the most "gritty" things we can talk about. It's extremely essential to living to the fullest, like God wants for us; He wants us to live abundantly, and to thrive, in who He's created us to be, and in all of His blessings and promises, and gifts. And this verse beautifully illustrates the inner change that immediately takes place in each of us, the MOMENT that we receive salvation, or "accept Jesus into our hearts", as the Baptists say :P. Therefore, we don't have to expect ourselves to be OUTWARDLY changed, and like Christ, and perfect, the moment we get saved, because the outward change comes gradually. One of the biggest, most important, and life-changing things that I'm learning right now (especially as I'm studying through 1 John and the gospel of John, too - I would really encourage studying those ones!), is that our changing, and transformation, can only come from the inside-out. As we progress in our walks and relationships with God, as we see who He is, and who He's really created us as, we are involuntarily changed to look like and resemble Him (2 Corinthians 3:8 mentions this as well). And I think that this goes along with the previous verse that we were talking about, too. Because in the Old Covenant, people were in bondage to their own (imperfect) performances. Whereas under the New-(literally fantastic, LOL)-Covenant, we are free because of Jesus' perfectly perfect performance. Old Covenant: Doing the right things, in order to have the hope of eventual relationship with God New Covenant: Having a direct, right-now relationship with God, who (through that relationship) changes us from the inside-out, so that we do the right things without even having to try hard This is so cool. I pray that if you haven't gotten a revelation of this good, good news, that God would reveal it to you in a way that brings you SO MUCH freedom in your life, because it is one of the most important things that you could ever understand about our God, this life, the next, and our own identities in Christ Jesus. On that awesome note, guys, I hope that you have a fantastic week, that your quizzing is going (and will continue to go) great, and that you keep quizzing, and living victoriously!
Love you guys, but God loves you so, so, so much more. I'll see you later! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory
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Trending Posts:Author:Mallory is a graduated Teen Bible Quizzer originally from the Southern region, moved to the Northwest, coaching quizzing over the book of Matthew. Check out our
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