Kindness

     Ephesians 4:32; Be kind and tender to one another. Forgive each other, just as God forgave you because of what Christ has done.   It is now time to practice kindness. I have been thinking about this recently, probably because I was eager to get done with patience. I don't know about you, but it really seemed like God was telling me to slow down this last week. My guitar teacher was telling me to slow down and practice as slowly as possible with the metronome. Anyway, I have already tried to work at kindness. I have let others take the seat that I wanted and could have had. I have not made anyone feel guilty because they are eating sugar in front of me when I cannot have it. (because I'm on the Daniel Fast) I think kindness, when I think about it, is not really hard. My best friend just got her wisdom teeth pulled out yesterday, so I went and bought her ice cream, wrote her a nice card, and dropped it off at her house. Boy was she surprised!

     Kindness is such a great thing because you feel the benefits yourself. When I saw my friend smile, it made my day. Things like having peace and showing patience, you do not always see the benefits, but the truth it, you could have gotten into a really big fight that hurt a relationship if you had not been patient. I don't know. Kindness is so beautiful, and you don't have to do anything big, but just a little something to make someone feel special. Something I am working on that I know is going to take me all week, I am writing an adjective for each letter of all my friends names that are on Facebook. That includes people who never get on Facebook, people I hardly know, and my best friends. That is a lot of people! But I know that it will make them happy when they look at their Facebook page a see a bunch of encouraging, positive things that I see in them.

     Try and do something kind this week, something you know will touch someone's heart. It could be making a meal for a sick friend, writing a letter, spending more time with a sibling... the choices are endless. We just have to be bold and step out an make those things happen.

~Daughter of the Light

Are You Ready to Die?

     Acts 21:10-14; After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles."

     12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

     The Lord sent Agabus to Paul to test him. He was testing whether Paul would trust God to handle everything or run away to safety. Paul chose to trust God because he was not in love with life. He did not complain about living, but he also was perfectly fine with death. He would do anything God asked of because he loved God so much. He knew that when he died, he would go to heaven.

    I was talking to a friend of mine recently about the topic of death. I was expressing to her that I would never want someone to like jump in front of a car or anything to save my life because I really don't mind if I die. I told her that if someone walked in this room right now and shot me, I would be perfectly okay with that. Then I explained myself. I see life like this: God made everyone for a purpose. If my purpose has not been completed, then he won't let me die. God will protect me. If my purpose is finished, I don't want to be on this earth any longer than I have to. I'd be eager to die because I would be free of this corrupt world and in heaven. Nevertheless, I do believe that committing suicide is wrong, and you will not go to heaven if you kill yourself. Think about it. Satan wants to destroy as many people as possible. He tries to make us stumble. If he is encouraging us to kill ourselves, that means he wants us to die because he knows then he will have us. He would not want us to die if we were going to go to heaven.

     My friend did not really agree with my look on life, and that is okay with me. Personally, I don't really understand why anyone would want to cling onto life here when they can be saved and go to heaven. It is totally fine with me that she disagrees. I still love her just as much if not more. It would be hard for me to have a friend that always agreed with me.

    What is your look on life? If God asked you to go somewhere you would be chained and beat, would you trust him to take care of you?

~Daughter of the Light

Favortism and Tattoos

     Leviticus 19:15; Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. I struggle with this. When I teach a children's class at my church I always pick favorites. I try not to treat them differently because I really do love them all, but sometimes I let the ones that I extra like get away with a little more than they should or I choose them to do special things. I justify myself by saying something like, 'Well they have proven themselves worthy, so I can put my trust in them.' That is really not fair though. If the other kids only can come to church 2 a month, they don't have a chance quite as often to prove themselves. This is obviously something I need to work on.
     Leviticus 19:28; Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I have no problems with cutting my body for the dead. Just reading that kinda creeps me out, but I actually have some friends that did cut themselves -not for the dead- but because it took their minds off of the pain in their life. Feeling a different kind of pain was nice for them, but now talking to those friends, all of them say that they regret it.
     Tattoos on the other hand... When I was younger, I knew tattoos were wrong and I would always say something like: 'I just don't understand why someone would pay to have himself permanently scared.' And... well... I don't really see it like that. I sort-of want a tattoo, but it says in the Bible not to. I read this scripture and wonder to myself, 'Perhaps he meant don't tattoo yourself for the dead. That wouldn't be a problem for me. I would be tattooing myself for myself because I think it looks cool. Now that I say that I realize how selfish I sound. Hmm, maybe another reason I want a tattoo is so I can show it to my friends and prove that I'm not a little perfect angel, I do cool things too. What's up with that? Seriously, that is me being drawn into the crowd and doing what the world says I should. I need to work on doing what God wants me to and not my own desires.
     I told you earlier about how I want to stop abortion. Well, I'm doing the Daniel Fast so that I can draw closer to God and know really how it is that he wants me to do this. I invite you to join me in fasting. I am only eating the list of foods they tell me to in the book -but I did add protein shakes and chicken and beef broth like my naturopathic doctor told me to. As a teenager I still need to have protien so I can think clearly and get me homework done.
     May God bless you in everything you do.

~Daughter of the Light

Sodomy

     Leviticus 18:22-28; “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

23 “Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

24 “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

     In the Old Testament, homosexuality was called sodomy. It was when a man slept with a man or a woman slept with a woman. It was wrong then and is wrong now. It states pretty clearly that that is not okay, but people nowadays tend to think that it is okay. Let me tell you. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What he said was wrong and detestable in his sight before will always be that.

     Now, I have some friends who are homosexuals, or sodomites, and it is hard to know how to act around them sometimes. It also says in the Bible that, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  Matthew 9:12. It would not seem right to shun someone just because he sins differently that you. I am friends with those kind of people because they are people just like you and me and I hope to be an example of Christ in their lives. That doesn't mean you should agree with their choices. You should not. That is what Phil Robertson has been talking about.  Don't compromise your rights. James 4:17; So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. You also should not make them your best friends because then they are more likely to influence you more than you influence them. Jesus did not make tax-collectors and murderers his best friends, but he still loved and cared for them. Be wise in all you do.

~Daughter of the Light

Don't Stay Silent

     Leviticus 5:1; If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible. Wow. So it is not safe to just say nothing. Standing up for yourself and one another are important things to do. Every little bit of evidence needs to be spoken, because otherwise, it would be possible one is condemning an innocent man. This verse puts me into perspective  a little bit. It blankly states what is black and what is white. It just stood out to me as I read my devotions and I thought I would share it with you.

~Daughter of the Light

Leviticus

     Leviticus... oh Leviticus. In my daily reading I am reading in Leviticus. It is hard to care about what you are reading when you are reading about thirty different ways to make a sacrifice or burnt offering. To keep myself from skipping a month's worth of reading, I have decided that every three years I will read Leviticus thoroughly and the other two I will skim it but read another Bible focused book. Presently, I'm reading Hinds' Feet on High Places. I am enjoying it. For me, this is really hard because I do not like reading, but I think this is really good for me.
     Have any of you readers ever done the 30 day challenge to listen to only Christian music? I have heard about people doing that, so I'm trying to do that. It is interesting though when you have siblings that listen to non-Christian music.
    This New Year is an interesting one. Yesterday was crazy. I pray that you are all drawing closer to God. When hard things happen to me I always draw closer to God.

~Daughter of the Light

Challenge Yourself

Psalm 15:2-5;

2 The one whose walk is blameless,

who does what is righteous,

who speaks the truth from their heart;

3 whose tongue utters no slander,

who does no wrong to a neighbor,

and casts no slur on others;

4 who despises a vile person

but honors those who fear the Lord;

who keeps an oath even when it hurts,

and does not change their mind;

5 who lends money to the poor without interest;

who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things

will never be shaken.

     When I was younger I read this and thought of it this way: 

"If you are perfect, you will never be defeated."

     I was reading this today and I saw it as a challenge. The new yea has started. Make an effort to be more blameless, more truthful, less prideful, more encouraging, and more innocent. 

    Also, being a peace maker. That is the fruit of the spirit I am on. It is not working out so well, but I shall still Do Hard Things and try more and more to be a peace maker.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR! Challenge yourself to do something hard this year too. Don't give up just because we all mess up. Do Hard Things.

   I was talking with my mom the other day about being on fire for Christ. I asked her what she thought the next generation of Christians were going to be like. She said that they would be stronger than the last because they would have to be. To survive in a world that is decaying and becoming more and more corrupt, we have to stand up and make a difference. We cannot just wait for the next person to do it. We need to stand up. We need to speak up. This is not just something one person does. We need to work together as a team.

   I have been talking with some friends and organizations about helping stop abortions and sexually exploited girls, but it is hard. I have talked with a couple people and researched for hours. The results have not exactly been positive, but don't worry, I'm not giving up. I'm doing something hard and I am not just going to give up once it gets harder.

~Daughter of the Light