Mark 7 June 14th

asd

hey guys!
so my fashion class ISU is so far a big failure....
and i start my 5 day in class accounting examish thing tomorrow.. AWESOMEEE right ? hahaha im scared :S
but im so glad summers that much closer~

6Jesus replied:
You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said,
"All of you praise me
with your words, but you never really think about me.
I thought that this verse was SOOOOOO important!
It talks about your TRUE heart when you worship.
We can cry in prayer, fall down to our knees, sing to the top of our lungs all we want...
but unless our heart is in the same place... its nothing but simply showing off.
God doesnt want a show, he wants your true and humble worship.
He wants you to think of HIM when you are praising him.
Its hard sometimes, we all get distracted from time to time and we all experience our fair share of spiritual slumps, however, when its your time with God, when its just you and Him, make sure you're giving him your all.. put all of those things distracting you aside..God will help you take care of that later, but remember that authentic worship is key. Its quality not quantity of worship

Today's been a loooong day. There isn't a second of the day when I'm not thinking about exams. Ughh.
Anyway, here's my devo!

8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.

You can't pick and choose what you want to believe and do what you want.
If you say you're Christian, you have to act like one.
You can't choose to love your neighbors and disrespect your parents.
If you want to call yourself Christian, you have to be able to make a goal to follow all of God's laws.

15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.

I'm guessing this is saying something along the lines of, you can hear and see everything bad in the world but if you don't follow into it or start doing those things, you're still pure. You're still good in God's eyes (even though we're always good in God's eyes).
He doesn't punish you for the things you surround yourself with, but rather, what you do about it.

goodnight.

6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.

Hey guys, I'm really tired so I shall get straight to it.
So after reading this verse I thought sometimes it may be hard to mean the things we say to God when we're feeling spiritually down but I just wanted to point out that we should be careful. When we praise God with our mouths but not with our hearts, it's actually considered an insult to God. In doing so, we'd be telling God lies if we sang praises that we didn't mean and God definitely does not deserve fake worship, he deserves authentic worship from our hearts. There are obviously times when we can feel burned but I pray that even then, we'll be able to get right back and worship God to the fullest.

Yeah that's what I got..
I've noticed that devos have been lacking A LOT lately in our team...
Pick up your game guys.

Returned from a gig around 30 minutes ago.

I did read a little bit of it ; will repost during today.

gat ma theory math chem and physics exams left! then im freeeeee!!!!!!
anywho!
15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”
this verse stuck out to me because its basically saying how we shouldnt just appear clean on the outside and eat with clean hands, but be pure from the inside out, from your heart! that we should genuinely do things in the honour of God, and not for show. if it is for show, no one is benefited. you arent being true to yourself, others and God, because God knows everything about you and what you are feeling and thinking! this relates back to moses' sermon, in the end truth will prevail. in a situation like this, truth does prevail. if you feel as though you are doing things for God out of just actions, and not meaning it from your heart, and you tell the truth to people, then your friedns will try to help you and pray for you, God will reach out to you, and you are being true to yourself.
yeah thats pretty much what i got for today!
night guys

And I thought that I was going to get this done in the morning; turns out I'm doing it now.
I apologize guys, but definitely to God - should've made more time before or after the gig... and now here are my thoughts.

One thing that I'd like to notice is the behavior of the Israelites - in this case, the people of Decapolis. When Jesus came to these people, the people wanted to see change and miracles take place, right when he was there. When we're at a retreat, it almost seems that God works so powerfully within at least one person. You know, just reflecting from the last retreat, I admit it felt dry, but I do recalling someone (I don't really need to reveal WHO) telling me that he DID feel God's presence. And that's always a great thing to hear. But then the challenge comes when Jesus ordered the Decapolians (in this case, to speak to no one about this), where none followed the command.

It almost made me see that while we do want to see Jesus' presence throughout our lives appearing as miracles, I find it far more important to see what God really wants us to see in the big picture - a thing that we often take for granted and might not take advantage of, as well as to SERVE than to be served...

I also found Verse 15 interesting - 'Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.' Rather, I'm reflecting on it right now. The explanation behind this isn't so bad - especially when scripture says that evil thoughts and all these other sinful things come out of OUR HEARTS! I guess it's also making me think of the fact that for every opportunity for good, there is always for evil, isn't there?