katie rose writes

Mark 12:30 "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." I've been wanting to just touch on this verse for a week now. It was read at my home church the night before I came back to MC. And something changed for me about this verse as we read it. 1) YOU. How many times is "you" or "your" mentioned in this verse? A lot. The ball is in our court, as they say, to love God with everything we have. God is not a God who forces us to love Him, He wants us to love Him. "You can make somebody love you/God won't force a heart to move/He so values our affection/the human heart He won't abuse" (from "Love's A Mystery" by Laura Hackett). He so values our affection that He wants us to chose to love Him. 2)LOVE. Why not honor or serve or fear? Why love? Because He first loved us. He made us out of love, He called us v...

So, the last note of Vision [part 1] was that my vision is to glorify God. When one continues to read down past Luke 11, verse 34, to the end of verse 36, it echoes verse 33 by saying, "If then your whole body is full of light, having no dark part, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light." When a lamp gives you light, what is it doing? It is showing you the way. Think of a dark house at night, and all you have is your phone. When you light it, it shows you the way, so that you don't trip over that chair or that shoe. So, my vision is to glorify God. That is my life's aim. One question...Why is it my vision? What took over me? Light, casting out the darkness within me. 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Ephesians 5:8 " Walk as children of light....

"Your eye is the lamp of your body ." Luke 11:34 So, I read this verse from Matthew 6 a few weeks back (see related post here ), but I just took it as face value, that your eye needs to be healthy--seeing clearly. Seeing that this world is dark and needs the light and the Light of the world is in you, etc. But last night as I was reading through Luke 11, this caught my attention. Immediately as I read the word "eye," another word passed through my mind. vision. And it makes sense, right? Your eye provides your vision. Check out this verse in Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." So, the opposite of having no vision and perishing is having vision--and living. So, the questions were posed in my mind: What vision prompts me to live? What is my reason for living? What's my vision? Then comes the 2nd word that caught me..."lamp." What does a lamp do? It reveals, it shines light upon something. So if the eye--the ...

Psalm 45:10-11, The Message "Now listen, daughter, don't miss a word: forget your country, put your home behind you. Be here—the king is wild for you. Since he's your lord, adore him." I love this verse. And it was brought to my mind today after I got my hair cut. I got several inches cut off, and went short. Very short. I love it. It is light and fun and has an easy up-keep, which is very good considering all my 8 o'clock classes this year! But I have begun to understand how it is not my hair, it is not my clothes, it is nothing "worldly" or "earthly" that makes me beautiful. Not that I'm not allowed to wear makeup, get a cute hairstyle, or whatever. But I must never forget where true beauty lies. And this verse really opens up my eyes to that. Listen to the words... "Now listen, o daughter, don't miss a word..." These words are some of the most important words that we as girls will ever hear. We canno...

So, this month, in the L3 journal we've begun going through the book of Luke. This is probably my favorite gospel. And, since I've gone through it before, and grown up with it's familiarity, I've been prayerfully asking God to show me new things each day. And He has. So here's what He's been teaching me. Luke 1:2-4 "...just as those who were from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also...that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught." T his is the dedication of the book of Luke but also the purpose. And that purpose--"that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught"--still stands strong today, as others, including myself, are reading through Luke this month. The reason we read and study the Word is because it is the foundation of our belief system (this book--The Word of God--is full of "teachings" aka doctrin...

So, I am a couple of days behind in posting, especially since now in the L3 we moved on to the gospel of Luke. But this verse struck a very deep chord in me, and I simply have not been able to shake it. It is from Proverbs 30, verses 7-9. Click Here for a web page of a couple of different versions of it. Below is my paraphrase of it. Lord, I'm asking for two things. Grant these requests to me before I die: Give me strength to tell the truth, And keep truthfulness alone in my keeping. Don't make me rich nor make me poor, Give me each day my daily bread, Enough manna to last the day. That I may not be full and lack nothing, And think I got it all on my own, saying, "Who is this God?" Or that I may not be lacking everything, And steal for my own existence, Thereby profaning Your name, the only Name worthy of worship." You see, this struck me because it is a radical and even a dangerous prayer. And it is one I feel God leading me to remember and con...