Oct 19

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.
4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—
5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.
6 Never harm or cheat a Christian brother in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before.
7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.
8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Bailey is a thirteen-year-old girl who has had diabetes for two years. Diabetes occurs when something called an endocrine gland quits making insulin, which the body uses to break down food. While in most ways you would never know she has diabetes, Bailey has to watch closely what she eats (and how much). Like most kids, she loves sweets, but she can't eat as much sugar as her friends. But sometimes she forgets. Other times she just can't resist, and she eats a few more cookies than she should (like half a bag!), followed by milk and maybe a bowl of ice cream. That doesn't hurt too much-she just gets "high blood sugar" and sometimes begins to act a little strange. (Her friends might say it's not always easy to tell when she's acting strange because she acts strange normally.) Unfortunately, if Bailey has blood sugars that are too high for too many days, her body can't clean the blood of all the sugar she's dumped into her system. As a result, it gets kind of like the stuff that clogs up sinks-real gucky (that's not the medical term). Eventually, she will develop a condition called ketoacidosis, when there are so many ketones in her blood that she wants to throw up but can't. It zaps her energy and makes her stomach hurt. All she's allowed to have is water and lots of it. Once the water "flushes" out the ketones, she begins to feel better. It's possible, though, that after ten or twenty years of having ketoacidosis, Bailey will start to suffer real drastic problems, like losing toes or not being able to feel anything in her fingers. Come to think of it, all of us are a little like Bailey. We don't all have diabetes, of course, but we all struggle with impurities that enter our life. And if we don't keep the impurities out of our life (like "dirty" thoughts and bad language, for example), we'll suffer both short-term and long-term consequences. That's one reason why God commands us to be pure. He doesn't want us to suffer the consequences of impurity in our spirits, just as he doesn't want Bailey to lose her toes because of her physical condition.

REFLECT: The consequences of impurity are sometimes immediate, sometimes long-term, but both kinds of consequences are worth avoiding. When any kind of impurity enters our spiritual lives, what short- and long-term consequences can it have? Have any of these happened to you? What steps can you take to make sure they don't happen again?

PRAY: "God, search me and see if there is anything in me that is impure. Remove it, and guide me so that it will not get back into my life."

The last verse kind of strikes you real hard if you think back on all the sins you committed. If you see yourself as Simon Peter with the same situation, that's really how many times that we rejected God's words, and went for our own selfish desires.

Following God's rules build up in a way to build our desires as a group. The rules that God provides is used for us to find companionship and philo-love between each other, so that we can help each other out and build ourselves as a community. Something that can be very crucial in our walk as a Christian is knowing why we are doing this. Or doing anything to do with God. We kind of forget that the guidelines aren't really rules, but tips passed down from ages and ages worth of wisdom, so that we live a fulfilling Christian life.

Hii~!
Ok so umm I couldn't really think of anything but I did kind of get something from the story.
So when Bailey consumes to much sugar she has to drink lots and lots of water. I think that's an illustration of us and when we commit sins.
When we commit a sin, it's like we ate to much sugar and now we feel absolutely sick. Forgiveness is like water that we drink in order for that sin (sugar) to get out of our system.
I think...that is all!
See you tomorrow!

If you make slight changes to his rules, you are pretty much disobeying him.
What I mean by this is that people can make little changes decieving themselves and trying to convince that it's okay.
Have at least one of these thoughts come to your mind when you did something wrong.? :
"just once, tomorrow will be different."
"I'll make up for it later."
"everyonelse thinks its okay..."

We can make excuses and think it alright or it can be fixed later. Well, talk is kinda cheep....instead of think of what you want, think about what is right to god's eyes

okay this message sort of reminded me of a discussion we keep having in health class which is drugs. drugs is a definite no in God's eyes. there are lots of consequences and you will be dirty as opposed to pure. like Bailey, she has diabetes but she still has a sweet tooth and craves sweet things. in the case of drugs, people lure you into it and go all over you saying that "its okay" "everyone does it" "you wont get addicted" etc.
live a pure life. dont sin. God knows how many people regret stupid mistakes they have done in the past, so trying to live life to the purest degree can really make you feel better about yourself too!

7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.

This verse stood outto me. It is pretty obvious that God wants us to live holy and righteous lives. But the thing is, we dont, we always have thoughts inside our heads that we shoudnt have.
I like the example that the short story provides. Becuase right now we are only looking at the thing that is given right in front of us and not looking at the bigger picture. We can do impure things and yolo it out but in the end, after you have died than what? you alreayd lived once and now you are moving onto heaven or hell. So what we should do is live on earth as pure as we can so that we are able to obey God's wishes.

7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.

This verse stuck out the most to me. Because we are sinful people, it is easy to make sin a habitual thing, but doing so makes our lives impure. We need to break each and every bad habit we can to become as holy as we can as we are called to do. I think one of the most important parts of this process is asking for forgiveness from God when we do goof up. Like dusting a desk is simple if we do it regularly, but when we leave it too long, the next time we clean it, we have to work that much harder. Likewise, asking for forgiveness is so much easier when we do it regularly rather than building it up and getting rid of it all at once. So work to be holy and seek forgiveness often.

Alright, the last two devos have been pretty self explanatory.

Don't fall into the hands of sexual sin.
I don't know about you guys, but that's definitely one of the easier ones to follow for me.
The thought of having all that guilt would be enough to stop me.
So, I guess, all I can say is, live a pure life, as we've learned this whole entire week.

This devotion falls under the category of purity and impurity again.
Being impure can lead to short or long term consequences... but are those conseuences really worth it? When you could avoid it with a simple action...
I think hen acts of impurity enters our lives, the bond between us and God become weaker and weaker.
YOu feel like God isnt there in your life guiding you and supporting you... but he really is. Acts of impurity are what create the barrier with us and God.
I personally havent eperienced and grave acts of impurity to danger my relationship with God... but im sure i will soon and the outcomes of it will not be friendly.
Some steps we can take are to talk to God... ask him to guide you and lead you.
Also read the bible... has many answers to many questions..
or even just talk to someone of great faith.
stay pure and if you fall into impurity... ASK FOR FORGIVENESS and always come back to GOD,

8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

LIKE Jake, this was the thing that stuck out greatly to me
When we reflect our lives at the end of the day, we should reflect, have we pleased God?
Have we done things that please the individual? Or have we done things that please society? These things don't matter.
As dry as that sounds, everything we do is ONLY ever about God.
God gives this spirit to us...he gives us that responsibility.
Which gives uis EVEN mopre of a reason to live purely.