Message in The Message

This past weekend at church, our pastor encouraged us to dive into the Word of God on a daily basis and asked us to challenge ourselves to be dedicated to pursuing the great messages God has for us in there. Our pastor also shared a few quotes about the Bible from some pretty important people... take a guess at who said these things:

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

"Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there contained! Every member would be obliged in conscience to temperance, frugality and industry: to justice, kindness and charity towards his fellow men: and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God....What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

"The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart."

George Washington

John Quincy Adams

Thomas Jefferson

Our founding fathers KNEW that God's Word changes the hearts of men and that it carried a GREAT message.

This week and last week, during my 5AM workouts at the gym, I've been taking my Kindle along and diving into my Bible. I love reading different versions of scriptures, so on my Kindle I have downloaded The Messages Bible. It's easy to read and some of the wording just resinates more with me. I've read through all of Ephesians and below are some of my favorite verses.

 "It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first head of Christ and got out hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living - part of the overall purpose he is working out in everyTHING and everyONE."

"God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine, or guess, or request in your wildest dreams! He does it, not by pushing us around, but by working within us, his spirit deeply and gently within us."

"And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd..... But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you."

"Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift."