Oct 16

1 Timothy 5:21-22
21 I solemnly command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone.
22 Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

"Pure chewing satisfaction" "90 and 44/100ths percent pure" "100% pure mountain spring water" "Pure cane sugar" "100% pure Michigan honey" Whether you're talking about chewing gum, soap, sugar, or honey, people value purity. They want pure air, pure water, pure enjoyment, pure excitement! They won't settle for anything less than pure spring water, pure Colombian coffee, pure cotton briefs, pure everything. We're all that way. We love purity. We admire it. We desire it. The word pure means "clean," "spotless," "free from contamination," "unmixed with any foreign substance." To say that water is pure means it has no dirt or chemicals in it. To say that cotton is pure means it has no wool or synthetic materials mixed in. To say that the air is pure means that it's free of pollution. As you can see, purity's a good thing. But purity isn't just good for water or food or fabric. It's good for people, too. You see, it's like this: When God made water, he didn't put detergents and dyes and chemicals and crud in it-he put water in it! That's why 100 percent pure mountain spring water is so good; it's the way God wanted water to look, feel, and taste. Similarly, when he created humans and planted them on this planet, he made it clear to us what our life should contain-not only to please him but to make our life better, too. Living a pure life means keeping out of your life all the things God didn't intend to go in there, like foul language, filthy thoughts, and sinful acts. A pure life is pleasing to God. And, like pure sugar or pure water, it's a lot healthier for you and more impressive to others as well.

REFLECT: Nearly everyone agrees that purity in water or air is a good thing; many of us have trouble admitting that purity in life is even more valuable. What do you find valuable in life? Have you allowed any impurity to enter your life? If not, how have you kept yourself pure?

ACT: See how many products (sugar, bottled water, soap, and so on) you can find in your house that claim to be "pure." You might even want to have a competitive scavenger hunt with a brother, sister, or friend to see who can assemble the most "pure" items.

PRAY: Thank God for being there to help you keep yourself pure. If you've allowed any impurity to enter your life, take a few moments to ask God's forgiveness and seek his cleansing. Reading Psalm 51 might help you put your feelings into words.

I figured it was best to post this on a devo you guys haven't done yet, soooo

I have:
- changed the order of Sunday reflections
- did some tidying of homepage topics (older devos are now in the older devo folder)
- TRIED to change the time to the PROPER time, and not an hour back. (it doesn't seem to be working on my computer yet but we'll see)
- and obviously, changed the layout/theme.

How do you guys like the changes?



- Esther

BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
WOOHOO GO ESTHER! SOME LONG AWAITED CHANGES!
Okay ill disappear now

Before I start....I didn't know we changed the format last night..I feel so excited over dead news...I should be ashamed of myself. T~T

Whoever sent me the text last night, thanks man! Hope you got some sleep too! Sorry, I can't manage my contact numbers all that well.

SOO. I think this was a new perspective on how I viewed our lives as a being. I never thought of myself as a bottle of water, and sins as something like Kool Aid or something. I'll just use that analogy for now. Jesus is like water and sin is like Kool Aid. Jesus is the water that will QUENCH thirst, and sin is the juice that will BRING thirst. We can think of sin as apple juice (makes me so thirsty, that stuff is literally cinnamon). First off, it can get addicting, even if it takes awhile to become a habit. Secondly, if it does become a habit, it's EXCRUCIATINGLY difficult to get out of your system. Lastly, instead of drinking it one time, and quenching your thirst, it somehow induces thirst and make you feel like you need more.

It's only when we're not drinking Apple Juice that we realize it only makes us thirstier.


Jesus is like tasty water. By following his words, it satisfies our innermost feelings. Kinda like that song "Inside Out". Water quenches your thirst, and its healthy for you. The fact that our body is made up of 80% water can refer to almost how much we need Jesus in our lives. The Holy Spirit should be something that's more than 3/4ths of your life and your mind. Otherwise, it's unhealthy and "contaminated" like the chapter refers to.


Soooo yeah. Drink Water(Jesus), not Juice(Sin).

i liked the little connection jake did there. yay jake! oh and yeah the devo page is really nice i like it!
anywayyyysss! we dont live a pure life. sinning is like second nature to us, we are constantly doing it whether we know it or not. living a pure life really means taking the harder way out...sort of like the analogy jake made, Jesus is pure water and our sins are like...um...warm milk! (im drinking warm milk at the moment so sorry if the example is bad) pure water cleanses our bodies and warm milk can lead to stuff like going poo, tummy aches, etc. warm milk is more tempting than just water. that is what sinning is sort of like, it seems like it is the easy way out sometimes and it is tempting to not commit a sin. however, water is plain and following God's way is difficult and you will be struggling to keep a clean record but God will be there for you and he will clean you inside and out like water
alrighty thats it for today! good night :DDD

ohmygawsh hello Jennifer!
Also, I like the new forum! Great Job Esther!

I guess it's safe to say, no one is 100% pure. Not even Christians. We've all sinned before and that makes our purity level decrease.
Now that leads to my question. If we are all not 100% pure, then what happens when we ask for forgiveness? Since, God forgives us right after we apologize, does that mean we are fully pure again?
Like everyone has said many times before, focusing on being like Jesus is the only way we'll ever have a pure life.
That's all I really have to say for now!
Good Night

daaah! The forum's website has upgraded! I think it's just awsome! It's all different shades of blue, blue, blue, blue, BLUE!!!

So todays devo.....
Many people live an unclean life, not physically, but spiritually. Society lives in a mixed life of impurity...
As children of God, we should not care what others think what's right and what's wrong. God determines what is sin and what is not. Some things in society are against what God wants and that's what I mean by not following those kind of trends. The children of God are different since we are role models to those who have not yet heard of christ.

Um, I hope that made sense.....explaining all the thoughts in my head are harder to type into words.
~audrey~

ou, nice new theme we have here.

As people, we are all sinners and there is no man on earth who can say that they're 100% pure in that sense. But as Christians, we should always be striving towards that purity that Jesus set the example of. It's not enough to just stop us from getting worse, we need to refine ourselves. We need to take the extra steps necessary so that we can become as pure as possible. You know when you mix a solution with some percent of something, and another solution with some percent of that something, the result is a new solution with a new percentage of that something. If we can make our something purity, and then make the other solution Jesus, we will become more and more pure. The more Jesus we add into our lives, the purer we will become. So keep that in mind throughout your day and always make sure to make Jesus a part of your life.

i dont like how the picture and name are on the right... its different. But i like the new formatting and layout.
anyways

soo what i got from this was that we should follow our selves.
21 I solemnly command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone.
make descisions according to your will and not your friends or others. Dont take sides or show favourtism towards anyone and follow the instructions of Christ.

idk this was all i got
gnite soooomuuuccchhhh HW!

OK I'm glad most of you guys (EXCEPT PATRICK) like it! Winter = blue!
Gah I had to edit this post so I could tell you all how amazing Chapters is.
I went in for my orientation and they gave us cookies (the best ever), some other strange but wonderful candy/chocolate, a talk about the history of Indigo, and we toured the place.
ALSO DISCOUNT CARDS. WOO.
I look forward to telling you all in more depth when I see you.

This simple devos can be so frustrating because the messages are so easy to understand, and there really is no explanation needed,
but even more than that, it's frustrating because the simple things are the ones we have the most trouble with.
We tend to make things much more complicated than it is and even something like "live pure" can be extremely hard to do.
Especially when we're always being tempted to do things that harm us (physically, mentally and spiritually), and harm others.

Honestly, I've always found this to be the one thing I've been fairly decent at doing, regarding living the life of a child of God.
But who knows, university is coming around and things may harder!
PERSEVERE, LITTLE NOOBLETS AND NOT-SO-LITTLE-NOT-SO-NOOBY-LETS, PERSEVERE!

Sorry for the late posts guys.
Been having trouble on my mind.

What separates me most from God, what makes me not pure is my anger, which I do really drastic things in.
I'm not normally an angry guy, but I have not yet learned to fully control it.
Self control is a big issue for me, honestly.
That's when feel so distant from Him.
Its the shame that embarrasses me when I'm always watched by Him.
BUT.

"Nothing can seperate. Even if I run away"
ahaha