Posts Tagged ‘Bible Study’

FREEDOM from Pornography Addiction Through The Holy Spirit

Did you know that JP Ministries offers a free 6 day Bible reading plan on the YouVersion Bible app? (Click here to start the plan.) Attached below is a sneak peak of the plan. Here is Day 2: FREEDOM Through The Holy Spirit.

Without a relationship with Jesus, freedom from addiction is practically impossible. When you become a true follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit takes root inside of you and gives you the power to become who God created you to be and break free from addiction. The Holy Spirit connects us to God in the most intimate and powerful ways possible.

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Sexual Shame Separates Us from Others | The Importance of Biblical Community

Have you wondered when sexual shame first entered the world? In this blog post we will look at the creation story and the fall to see how sexual shame entered this world. Then we will discuss how biblical community is a key factor in finding freedom from sexual shame. I pray that you will feel encouraged and challenged to enter into community and share your story with trusted and safe people.

In the Garden of Eden, God created Adam, and God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18). Then God created Eve. Then, God saw all that he had made, and he said that it was very good (1:31).

Adam and Eve fully knew and loved each other. They walked around naked and felt no shame. They took pleasure in one another. God blessed them and commanded them to be fruitful and increase in number (1:28). God created them to have sex, to enjoy one another’s bodies, to live naked and unashamed.

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Jesus Loves Porn Addicts

Jesus Loves Porn Addicts _ JoyPedrow.com Jesus loves people who watch porn. Jesus even loves porn stars. Yes, Jesus loves both of these groups of people. No matter what, His love for them will never change. Why is this? Because Jesus came to save the broken, the lost, and the hurting.

While on earth, Jesus spent most of His time with lost, broken people. In Matthew 9:12-13, Jesus states, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Spiritually healthy people don’t understand that they are sick, sinful, and in need of a Savior. But the sick, they line up outside of the doctor’s office hoping for something to heal the pain. Do you realize that you are sick and in need of a savior? Maybe you are immune to the hurting in your heart. Maybe you think these feelings are normal. Maybe you actually think you are spiritually healthy. (more…)

FREEDOM From Porn for Women | YouVersion Bible Reading Plan

Freedom from Porn for Women Addicted to pornography? Desiring freedom but feeling alone? Looking for a new devotional? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this new and FREE resource is for you. This inspiring reading plan on Bible.com is for women that struggle with pornography and seek FREEDOM. God has created each of us with a desire for intimacy. We often seek to satisfy those feelings with fantasy and pornography that leave us feeling guilty, empty, worthless, and trapped in a vicious cycle. This cycle of sin robs us of the joy and freedom we were designed to live in. (more…)

How to Live in Freedom & Stand in Christ | Galatians 5:1 Bible Study

Galatians 5 Bible Study In high school I was a religious hypocrite, yet I had no idea how I was damaging the gospel. I grew up going to church, but the gospel I heard was you have to be a good and perfect Christian to get to heaven.

This was an impossible goal to reach. As hard as I tried, I could never be sinless. And so I lived in this cycle of addiction. I lived in bondage. I would try to be perfect, fail and turn back to sin.

The cycle went on and on.

Living in bondage was exhausting.

I was a religious Pharisee. I told people that I was a Christian and that I felt called to be a pastor, my church even let me preach on youth Sundays, yet I didn’t even know God. One day on the way to school, I was walking up from the parking lot with my boyfriend and he looked at me and said, “You’re a bad Christian.”

I had no idea what it meant to be a Christian. My church added to the gospel and because of this, I believed I needed to earn my salvation.

Maybe you, just like me, sometimes still think you have to be a good perfect Christian woman. Maybe you’ve lost sight of God’s grace. These desires actually make us slaves. We become slaves to our sin and lose our freedom. Why is it that we allow ourselves to be burdened again by slavery instead of living in the freedom that Christ has freely given?

You are I are living our lives like the Christians in Galatians.

In Galatians 5:1 Paul says “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (more…)

Christian Dating: When My Body Doesn’t Know I’m a Christian

Doesn’t my body know that I started to follow Jesus my freshman year of college? Yet, why does it constantly not follow Jesus? My mind. My heart. My body. All connected, and yet all do their own thing. Christian dating is hard. Setting physical boundaries is hard. You can only read so many devotionals, Christian blogs and Bible verses on purity before you begin to wonder, what am I doing wrong? Why is none of this controlling my body?

What do you do if you’ve set physical boundaries and you’re pursuing purity in dating, yet your body is doing its own thing?

Allow me to share my story, one of the many stories where my body acts differently from my heart and mind. Through my story and through Scripture, let’s learn together what to do when our bodies don’t know we are Christians. (more…)

Easy Way to Memorize Scripture

How to memorize Scripture WHY MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE?

You’ve probably been told to memorize scripture, but have you thought about why? Memorizing scripture is possible and can change your walk with God.

To find out why, let’s look to Jesus. Jesus is fully God and fully human, and yet he quoted scripture to attack temptation. How much more do we, who are fully human, need to memorize scripture?

Read this account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and notice his weapon of choice:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:1-4).

Jesus was the most powerful human to ever walk this planet, and what did he use to fight against Satan? God’s word. This shows us the power of scripture. It’s safe to assume that Jesus knew the content and significance of scripture. Yet he quoted God’s Word to fight against Satan and temptation.

This shows us two things: the power of God’s word to remove Satan and temptations and that to use this power we need to first memorize scripture. If we don’t have key verses tucked away in our brains, we lack the weapon when we are in battle.

Most of us know that scripture is powerful, but we fail to take the time to memorize it. I know I used to rarely spend time each week memorizing scripture. I believed a lie that the task was too hard.

When the thought of memorizing scripture first entered my mind, these are the words that followed: impossible, unattainable, hopeless, and impractical. Then one day a friend showed me this method of memorizing and my way of thinking about memorizing scripture changed. I want to show you this method so that you will have the power of scripture to use in any battle.

HOW TO MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE?

There are a lot of memory systems out there and I’m sure there is merit in all of them, but this is the one that I’ve found works best for me. Follow the steps below for each verse you want to memorize.

  1. Find a verse that has power over your weaknesses. For example, if you are struggling with purity, search your Bible or the internet for verses about purity, freedom, or the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit. (Openbible.info is a great resource for finding verses for every topic.)
  2. Read the verse through several times out loud. You can even record yourself reading the verse on your phone. This way you can listen to the verse as your driving or working out.
  3. *KEY STEP* Write the first letter of each word of the verse out on an index card. This step is what makes this way of memorizing different that others. This tip helps with long term memorization. If that does’t make sense to you, I’ve attached a photo of the verse I’m currently trying to memorize Pslam 18: 2 (NIV), “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (INSERT PHOTO)
  4. Look at the first letters and practice saying the verse. If you need help, turn back to the full verse. Then continue practicing with just the first letters.
  5. When you think you’ve mastered the verse, try writing it down without looking at your card or Bible.
  6. Feel free to create multiple verse cards with just the letters. You can hole punch each card and tie them together with string or a circle clip. This keeps them together and allows for easy flipping from verse to verse. Now you can master a verse, move on to a new verse, and then go back to the old a few days later.

Friends, this way of memorizing scripture has drastically changed my walk with God. I am now learning how to use the power of God’s word in day to day life and fight off Satan and temptation. I pray and hope that this method will help you as well.

5 Ways to Come Near to God

Come Near to God Do you want to be closer to God? Do you want to experience the glory of his goodness and presence? It is possible to be close to God on an intimate and personal level. God created us so we can be in a relationship with him.

To discover how to come near to God, we will look at a passage from James and then break apart the passage into 5 key parts. (more…)

Nervous about leading a Bible study?

Nervous about leading a Bible study?

With the start of a new school year comes the start of new small groups/Bible studies! Small groups are the heart of every college ministry. Maybe it is your first time leading and you’re feeling a little nervous? I completely understand. I’ve been there!

The second semester of my freshman year I co-led a Bible study with 3 other leaders. I was the youngest leader and had never led a study before. Right before our first study, I sat with one of the other leaders outside the dorm where our study would meet. I said to her, “I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it.” Fear crippled my mind and almost stopped me from even walking into that building. My biggest fear was what people would think of me.

What if I messed up? What if they couldn’t relate with my story? What if I didn’t know an answer to their questions? (more…)