MyLeslieNotebook

I've been completely consumed with Smart Love , which I based on Philippians 1:9. Yesterday I went beyond it to understand the Effect of Smart Love , based on Philippians 1:10 . Today I came across a translation of that second verse that I just have to share with you! Here's the NIV: "so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ." But the Amplified Bible, a very insightful translation, helps me understand what the Greek words mean without needing to drag out my 20-pound concordance: "so that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble.]" FLOORED. Did you ...

Smart Love review: We are commanded to love. Not blindly, but with Smart Love.  Smart Love leads us to obey. Jesus' love is smarter than smart. But there's something else.  "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ," (Philippians 1:9-10, NIV, bold words mine). I talked about discerning what was best in my first Smart Love post. But I didn't get into the second effect: "So that you may be pure and blameless." Don't stop reading . Please . [I was  your age not that long ago . I would have rolled my eyes at the word "pure" because I felt like it was all anybody talked about in high school and college church groups. I was tired of hearing about it.] But you know what? High school and college girls in general are pretty terrible about doing it . Living it. Believing wha...

You remember that game, "What's grosser than gross?" Of course you do. It's a rite of passage for elementary school. I had a queasy stomach as a kid and I would make my way as far from the Grosser than Gross game when I heard it start. So I have a more mature, less disgusting version: What's Smarter than Smart? I've been all over what it takes to have Smart Love (and even More Smart Love ) the past few posts. And I thought I was done. Until I came across this verse yesterday: "I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love, and to know the Messiah's love that surpasses knowledge , so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." -Ephesians 3:17-19, HCSB I've had this scripture memorized for YEARS. And it's never hit me like this before.  That Greek word for comprehend is also translated ...

I just didn't get it all in yesterday. Talking about Smart Love  is my passion. My fire. My prayer for you (Philippians 1:9). And when I went to bed last night I just couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about all that I should have said. So, here it goes. It's not very bloggish. Just a bunch of bullet points. Not very catchy. Uncool.  BUT IT IS TRUTH . IT IS LIFE . If I could ask you to remember ONE THING, this would be it. (Well, combined with yesterday's! :)) Another name for Smart Love is WISDOM. Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, which describes what it means to have and not have wisdom. (And he's the PERFECT author for this, for although he asked God for wisdom and got all the wisdom He needed, he chose not to use it often . So he's really an expert on what happens when you're wise and when you're not.) I wish you would read Proverbs 1-4 today; it's the summary of what wisdom is. But here are a few highlights: it avoids sin; it m...

I love y'all. More than you can understand. I love knowing you, talking to you, and watching our relationship grow from Sunday School teacher to mentor to maybe friend.  Some of you love me back :) And it makes me so full. But there's more to love than affection. It's more than feelings or memories or experiences. And our love for one another can't be just plain love. It needs to be more. The greatest command is love: Love the Lord, love others, love yourself (Luke 10:27). It's how others know we are His disciples (John 13:34-35) and it reflects the love that Jesus had for us (1 John 4:19). Love is described deeply in 1 Corinthians 13: it's patient, kind,  honors others, protects, hopes, trusts, and perseveres. It  doesn't envy, keep a record of wrongs, boast and isn't proud or selfish.  You probably know all this about love.  But love is something else that maybe you haven't considered: "And this is my prayer: that your love may a...

Just one more. I promise. I've been so enthralled with Psalm 116 this week. I've written about talking to your soul  and calling on Him  but I have just one more today. Then I'll go somewhere besides Psalm 116. I promise. But don't tune me out yet; this might be the most precious part. Check out this verse: "I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord," (Psalm 116:17). The idea of a 'thank offering' is not new to the Psalms. It's also mentioned in Leviticus, 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Amos. It's just what it sounds like: an offering brought when you're thankful for something. And though I should have known  what was meant in the offering, it didn't hit me until I saw how, in this verse, that the word sacrifice was used with thank offering , meaning  something had to be killed when you gave a thank offering .     The definition of the Hebrew word for sacrifice  is this: to offer a sacrifice; to sl...

I was knee-deep in Psalm 116:7 in my last post . And I'm still finding myself drawn to that beautiful song. It is so rich! So full of imagery! Such a beautiful testimony! [Also, I need to come clean. I referred to the author of Psalm 116 as King David but I hadn't really checked. Biblical experts aren't sure who actually wrote it. I just thought it sounded so much like David that I assumed it was. I'm sorry.] Today I'm drawn to a different phrase in Psalm 116: "Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live," (verse 2). "Then I called on the name of the Lord ; 'O Lord, save me!'" (verse 4). "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord ," (verse 13). "I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord ," (verse 17). In one Psalm, the Psalmist speaks of calling on the Lord four times . In Scripture, any repetition at all should make us...

Do you talk to yourself? Because if you don't, I don't know if we can be friends. :) Seriously, I talk to myself all the time. Not so much when other people are around, even though sometimes I forget and that becomes awkward really fast. Typically when I talk to myself, it's either making a verbal list or trying to remember something I forgot.  But I've been inspired lately to start talking to myself in a new way. I find myself digging through the Psalms frequently (you might want to look here for one way to organize them yourself) and I have noticed that King David, who wrote many of the Psalms, often talks to his soul. In the Hebrew, the word for soul is one of the most amazing you'll ever find. Here's the definition from my concordance: " breath ; by extension, life , life force , soul, an immaterial part of a person, the seat of emotion and desire , a creature or person as a whole : self, body, even corpse ," (bold mine, Zondervan NIV Ex...