83daisychains-blog

[83daisychains-blog]

After an eventful and stressful year, not only for me but also for many of my loved ones, today I've been thinking about peace.

Peace is something we all want but the true meaning of which not many of us are blessed enough to experience.

Isaiah 14:10 was the inspiration for my Bible journaling entry today.

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When life throws you so many curve balls that you reach the end of your tether and demand that the Lord tells you what he wants from you, you suddenly find yourself reading John 15:16 and feeling well and truly chastised!

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My friend gave me a gift today. It was a Nativity scene set in a small box shaped like an oyster shell and it reminded me of the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:45-46) which then got me thinking about things that I consider to be pearls of great price in my life.

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This morning's chapter in 'The Purpose Driven Life' was about Heaven and Hell and in it, Rick Warren says "While life on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two: heaven or hell. Your relationship to God on earth will determine your relationship to him in eternity."

He then goes on to say "There are eternal consequences to everything you do on earth. Every act of our lives strikes some chord that will vibrate in eternity... Only a fool would go through life unprepared for what we all know will eventually happen. You need to think more about eternity, not less."

The obvious Bible passage to illustrate this topic has to be Matthew 25:31-46!

[83daisychains-blog]

Today's chapter in the book I'm reading asks the question "What drives your life?" and goes on to state that most people are driven by guilt, resentment and anger, fear, materialism, or the need for approval.

The author then goes on to say that nothing matters more than knowing God's purpose for your life and nothing can compensate for not knowing it.

George Bernard Shaw wrote "This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

Rick Warren says "You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity."

This led me to look at what the Bible says about what I, as a Catholic Christian, should be doing to prepare for eternity and I arrived at Colossians 3:1-9 "Seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what's on earth... Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry... Now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language... Stop lying to one another..."

After finding the Bible passage, I had in mind "I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me" but I wanted to find other quotes about how to cope with life and that's how I came to do this as my Bible journaling entry for today.

[83daisychains-blog]

In 'The Purpose Driven Life', Rick Warren says "If there was no God, we would all be 'accidents', the result of astronomical random chance in the universe... life would have no purpose or meaning or significance" and he follows this by quoting a beautiful poem by Russell Kelfer (see first photo).

The poem made made me think about how God not only created us but how each one of us is an expression of his love.

John 1:3 states "All things came to be through him and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life..." And Isaiah 64:7 tells us that he is the potter, we are the clay.

And so was born my Bible journaling entry for today.

[83daisychains-blog]

This morning I started reading 'The Purpose Driven Life' by Rick Warren. The theme for day one is 'It all starts with God' and the opening paragraph reads:

"It's not about you... If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose."

This statement prompted me to look for a Bible verse that spoke about my life being in God's hands and my search led me to do this, based on Job 12:10 and Isaiah 49:16.