scripture on saturday - actions.

Matthew 7:17-18
"...so, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the deceased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a deceased tree bear good fruit."

Healthy tree? Deceased tree? Bad and good fruit? WHA?!

A healthy tree is a Christian. A person who has been born-again. A deceased [dead] tree is a person who has not turned to Christ.

While not judging others (you can read about that here), we can look at a persons actions to see if they are Christians. If you see a person keep repeating a sin, you can talk to them about it. But, don't be all like, "You are such a horrible person. Here, let me tell you why."

Yeah, NO.

But if that person doesn't seem to think that he/she is sinning, or his/her words are not lined up with the Bible, you can guess that that person has not been born again. Then...

You can help them come to Christ.

scripture on saturday - the narrow gate.

Matthew 7:13-14 [Jesus is talking]

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate that is wide and is easy leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Entering through the narrow gate?! The wide gate leads to destruction? What the does that mean? What was Jesus talking about?

The gate (narrow or wide) represents your life, the path that you are taking, the way that you are going. The wide gate is the easy way, while the narrow gate is the harder way. If you go through the narrow gate, you will experience hardship. People won't like you.

You know why?

Because if you choose to go through the narrow gate, that means you are choosing Christ.

_______________________________________________________________________

The wide gate is usually pretty simple and fun, but Jesus says it leads to destruction.

So, why go through the narrow gate? Why go through hard things? (First of all, Jesus says the wide gate leads to destruction)

Let's look at the benefits of narrow gates, shall we?

Christians (people who go through the narrow gate) will get to spend FOREVER with Jesus after their death. They are sinful, they are not perfect, but they have trusted their lives with Jesus, and they get to spend forever with Him.

The wide gate? Their fate is not as pleasant. They will go to hell for forever.

But all the narrow-gaters can help the wide-gaters by showing them the narrow gate, and helping them walk to it. Help them trust their lives with Jesus.

That's what you can do.

scrpiture on saturday - the power of Jesus: calming a storm.

Jesus was (and still is) very powerful. To show/tell us this, He put a story about His power in the Bible. This story is in Matthew 8:22-26, and is about Jesus calming a storm.


Matthew 8:22-25
And when He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He [Jesus] was asleep. And they [the disciples] went and awoke Him, saying "Save us, Lord. We are perishing."

We can see that Jesus and His followers have gotten into a boat, and while they were sailing, a HUGE storm came upon them. Everyone on board is terrified, thinking that they will die! Then we see that Jesus has been asleep, and the disciples went to wake Him up, 'cause they were scared.

Matthew 8:26
And He said to them, "Why are you afraid, O of little faith?" Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Jesus is telling His disciples that they should not be scared, for He was with them. He would protect them. Sometimes we need to be reminded that Jesus has control over everything, and that He will bring us out of any storm that life brings us, as long as we have faith in Him. He is so powerful that He can get us through anything. The disciples should have never doubted the power of Jesus Christ.

scripture saturday - honor.

Welcome to {growing up grace}'s FIRST EVER Scripture on Saturday!

Today I'm going to be talking about honor.

Honor. It seems everyone wants part of it. If Mom comes in and says, “The living room looks so clean!”, you are bound to hear a “I cleaned it!” from somebody, and then you see them standing there, waiting for praise, and then mom looking at the bookshelves, they are dusted! The toys that were there earlier are now gone! The child smiles, thinking, I totally deserve this praise and honor.

After an athlete has finished a race, and everyone is cheering. He looks around for familiar faces that must be smiling, for they are lucky that they became friends before he found his athletic abilities, otherwise he would have never bothered to even talk to them. He looks at the crowd, I am worthy of this honor.

Proverbs 15:33 says, “...humility comes before honor.” One must come to know the LORD, and pray that He would make them humble, before even considering hearing the slightest bit of honor, maybe a “Great job!” from a friend, or even a smile from a parent. However, you cannot show off all the work that you have done, that is not humble at all. Think about it; if you get into a very clean car, and you are admiring it’s “freshness”, would you want to listen to the driver brag about how much time he put into it? Would you want to hear about everything he did for the car?

Romans 13:7 says “...honor to whom honor is due.” Like I pointed out above, you will only get honor after working hard. Also, honor other people if you have seen them doing something honorable. 1st Peter 2:17 says “Honor everyone...” That must mean honor everyone (I read between the lines).

Don’t expect honor, do all work that you can, and honor people when you see that you can.

Want to guest post about something biblical for Scripture on Saturday? Have an idea for a topic? Email me at gracygirlblog@gmail.com!