James 4:1- 4:6

All the passages that I post come from www.biblegateway.com/passage.. I start out by reading my Bible, then when I know what I want to post for the days study, I copy and paste the verses from this site.

 

Submit Yourselves to God

 ¹What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? ²You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. ³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  ⁴You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?^{[a] 6}But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
   "God opposes the proud
      but gives grace to the humble."[b

Praying angels

The bird of peace, the angel of peace. How beautiful.

First I would like to repeat one of the major points of this passage. 

 "God opposes the proud
      but gives grace to the humble."

What a terrific thing to remind yourself of when you feel as though you are working up some aggression.. Those times when you can feel your blood boiling as your mind races to find justification in acting on your impulse. Justification, even though what you are about to do is a clear sign of no self restraint nor a will to be a true Christian and not let hate as well as pride and many other human nature characteristic traits take over, cloud our better judgment. It would be beneficial for all of us if we reminded ourselves that we put our trust in the Lord. 

You see the first picture of the praying angels? Don't you think it would benefit us greatly if we surrender ourselves to prayer in place of anger? What a simple thought.. 


What an idea... It almost makes me laugh to think of how simple some answers are, yet they are over looked.. If we all searched deep in our hearts, we would find that we know a majority of the answers we ask.. Of all the things you ponder in a day, even a week.. Your entire life, how many of those questions do you honestly think you already know the answers to?


Now I am not claiming to be some saint who expresses self restraint 100% of the time. Please do not be misled.. I know that things are easier said than done. I also believe, in my heart, that anything is possible. I believe that each and every one of us has the ability to execute these mannerisms 100% of the time.. It takes practice.. Something I am going to do from here on out.


Each day I will remind myself of what the scripture says. When I wake up, after lunch as well as after bedtime prayer. I can not predict the future but I would not doubt it if this, as well as prayers to the Lord to help me see people the way he does, doesn't make me do things with clearer intentions. Perhaps I will frame this quote and hang it somewhere I know I always look..


The man who gave me the book In the Beginning by Alister E. McGrath ( From a previous post) also told me weeks ago, if not months, that if I prayed to the Lord to help me see people as he(the Lord) sees them, I would do things more intentionally.. It makes sense and not just in the context he put in it for me, in tons of situations.. Every situation anybody encounters. What terrific tools for success the Lord will grant us if we just open our minds as well as our hearts and ask for the right things with the right intentions and give it our wholes hearts effort.. Now that is something worth pausing over to consider the truth in the message, how we can apply it to our daily routine.

Another beautiful praying Angel

More birds/Angels of peace

I pray that you step away from reading this with a new found sense of what to put energy and focus towards.
                                                       
                                                      Stephie


P.S.  By trying, you may fail others. By not, you may fail yourself.
-Unknown

T

These are Images I found.. They all relate to Gutenberg.. All the pictures of Bibles are Gutenberg's Bibles..

Jump back to the first Bibles printed

A very wonderful, respectable man lent me a few books about a year ago. One of those books is In The Beginning  written by Alister E. McGrath 
A majority of this content is quoting this book. 

I haven't read all of it yet, I tend to try to read too many books at once.. 
I wanted to jump back and inform you all of the first Bibles printed.. This book that my friend lent me has this information as well as a lot of other interesting and useful information.

These are all facts from the book.. I am not claiming credit for researching these things, I am simply stating what I am reading.

The man who is responsible for the first printed Bibles is Johannes Gutenberg. 


The Bible consist of sixty-six books. Thirty-nine in the Old Testament. Twenty-seven in the new. 
Imagine back around 1448-ish.. This was a huge task!! 

This book says that the sheer length of the Bible made it a major publishing undertaking and to print it in it's totality represented pressing the technology, then available, to it's uttermost limits. 

How terrific. What a tremendous aspiration.

                                      (TOP) First printing press (BOTTOM) Movable Metal Type


As far as can be established, Gutenberg began cutting the type for this project in 1449-1450. Composition began in 1452 and printing was completed in 1456. 
Each page had two columns of text, consisting of forty-two lines of type.
In the final stages, six compositors were hired on to help.


As few as 185 copies were printed, 40 of which still exist today.

The cost of this would have been considerable. Each printed Bible consisted of 340 folio sheets. As each calf hide yielded two folio sheets, 170 animal hides were required for each of the two volumed Bibles.

The asking price for each Bible was thirty florins, estimated to be three years wages for a learned clerk. 

As always I hope this was of some use for you all. Please take away the knowledge of the text, if nothing else..
                                                          
                                                          Stephie


P.S. Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards.
        -Soren Kierkegaard

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 7:1-16 (New International Version)

1 Corinthians 7

Marriage

 ¹Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.^{[a] 2}But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. ³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. ⁵Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶I say this as a concession, not as a command. ⁷I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.  ⁸Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. ⁹But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
 ¹⁰To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. ¹¹But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
 ¹²To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
 ¹⁵But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. ¹⁶How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?



This is wonderful.. There is such basic knowledge in this passage. I think that people as a whole should go back to the basics. I love how it says that if you can't control yourself, you should get married. As to save yourself from sinning. This is great, it helps us realise that the Lord understands that we are all human and as such we all have weakness in one way or another.  Breaks my heart how many married people still don't control themselves.. I pray that people, as a whole, start to devote themselves more to the Lord than to what they are already trained to devote themselves to. EXAMPLE: Work, Companion ect.... I strongly believe that if you work on your relationship with the Lord, all other relationships will mend naturally. We all must be sure that if we do decide to enter a relationship, we must let the Lord be our guide in our choices as well as our actions.
We will explore what the good book has to say about work but for now we all must be aware, on some level, that the Lord comes before work.. 
I must say that I like how it explains situations of believers married to non believers.. Just another terrific example of God's love and mercy for us all.
I pray that this blog post has some sort of positive effect for you all out there, hope it relates to some struggle and guides you through it.

                              Stephie

P.S.Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.   
-Ronald Reagon

Tomorrow is the first day

Fellow readers/believers,
  Tomorrow is the first day of our Bible Study. Please feel free to leave any and all questions as well as comments. Hope to brighten your day..
                                                                Stephie




 P.S. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness

Hello woman and men of faith!

My name is Stephanie and I have been exploring the Bible and all it's wonders for about 5 years now. I like to pray for wisdom and start flipping pages.. It works well for me..
I intend to make this blog devoted to the Bible as well as daily encouragements.. If you have any requests please leave a comment and I will post your request..
I pray that this blog will help people and bring peace of mind to all who read it.