Ashes are my Beauty

1 Thessalonians 3:12
And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you

Genesis 2:25 – 3:5
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt NO SHAME.

Nakedness before the fall was beautiful and free. The way each of my 3 children as toddlers reveled in being naked. In fact one of my 3 kids went through a stage where every time she walked into the house for a year she would with strip her clothing off completely or waddle around in her diaper. Curls bouncing down her back she would squeal with delight completely free, not a care in the world, and in her element, as if she had always meant to be naked, no shame of knowing what those around her knew. She was free, until she became aware that nakedness was not socially accepted(until we moved to Germany, but that’s a story for another time). We were made to be naked. Naked. Naked in the physical, mental, and spiritual sense. Free from all shame. I heard a sermon by Christine Caine on shame last night at an Outcry event. She preached on Genesis 2 and 3, specifically Genesis 2:25:

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Before the fall they felt no shame. She said do you hear me to the audience: “before the fall we did not experience shame.” I sat up with my three kids, and tears flowed down my face. The enemy knows we were not meant to feel shame, and so he attacks us where he knows he will induce shame, because we, human beings, are not made to handle shame. In the garden of Eden we experienced no shame, and the crafty serpent first attacked us with shame, and he continues to attack with shame till this day. Today a different generation, different tactics, and the same enemy. He wants you to fall, and the same questions he asked Eve in THE FALL in Genesis 3:1-5 he wants to fool you with:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? ” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Christine’s’ words ring in my ears from last night. Questions that are as old as time that every human being who ever was, is, and is yet to be born will struggle with the same questions that Eve faced in the garden that day. All these questions are that shame based that we hear from the enemy:

Did God really say…

to which we must be armed with his word to know what he really did say. What is Gods Truth on the lie the enemy is trying to get us to fall for?…In this case truth was this Genesis 2:17:

“but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Eve knew the truth…and the accuser Of brethren still tricked her. He twisted the truth, he LIED, AND SHE BELIEVED THE LIE. If we do not know Truth, His Word, we don’t know how to fight the enemy. The enemy always undermines Gods authority. He tricked Eve, then Adam, the same way he has tricked all of humanity, including you and I, over and over. The enemy continues to bombard us with same tactics as he started out with in the garden. Questions and whispers that always undermine Gods perfect plan and are contrary to his word. Most always and as I have often seen he tiptoes onto the scene f my life seen with some truth and appears as light not as darkness. Scripture says even Satan knows God’s word James 2:19:

You believe that there is one God, Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.

If I don’t know the answer I must go to his word, to see if it aligns with his character and word. I admit, that in the culture we live in sometimes it’s tough to sift through what is contrary to Gods’ word, because everything is acceptable. We are bombarded constantly in this “look at me generation” by people in this generation, images on the web, and media constantly causing our inner self to question our identity as a child of God.

A voice NOT from the Holy Spirit that echos louder and louder saying did God really say?

Christine’s sermon echoed through the quiet stadium full of people, you could hear nothing except my kids whispering😂She quoted verse 4 saying:

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

And the same question echoes in our hearts and minds today, if I do this certainly I will not die…

Did God really say your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?
Did he really say sex is between a man and wife?
I am tired of my spouse, divorce is fine, I need something new…
Love is what feel the best for me.
You can alter the truth a lie won’t hurt you, it will help you…
There are not consequences for my sin, heck the pope said there is no hell…
The poor can help themselves I have worked hard for what I have.
Money does bring happiness.
I don’t need to spend time in Gods word, I can just get it through church (I myself was victim of this for years).

We start to question if Gods’ truth is best, and instead of seeking truth, we question because the enemy throws us a cookie, like he did with Eve. The enemy says in an almost in a voice that sound like a father, “You know what’s best, God doesn’t know best, you do, “Your eyes will be open.”He is not protecting you, he is holding you back, he does not know what’s best for you, YOU DO…”

Genesis 3:5-6
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Hook, line, and sink her. I think to myself her thought life must have gone something like this: Wow I see that beautiful fruit, it doesn’t look so bad… it is luscious and looks good to eat, desire wells up within and she finds herself wanting more than she has… I think I know what she thought, because I have been her many times…And yes indeed, Eves eyes were opened to a life of sin, sadness, illness, death, pain, strife, and so much more…Now they had to walk away from perfect life that had no SHAME. They now had no choice but to experience all the evil of the enemy, and life would never be the same for humanity.
The devils tactics are usually desirable, the problem is after you make the decision to move towards your own flesh desires, the consequences leave you with no choice, just consequences and the result often is Shame of some kind… James 1:14-15 describes desire from the enemy as this:

but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

The more inundated with the world we become, I become, and the more I question what truth is, the more likely our choice will result in sin. We are dragged down by our own choices, we fall. I have tasted that cookie so many times, and at the first bite it is sweet, crunchy, and satisfying. Sometimes consequences are immediate, and sometimes they take years to surface, but the result the same, we choose lie over truth, and there is always a consequence. When we fall into enemy territory, because we all fall and know sin, we often believe the lies that come with shame, and sin and shames grows into a beast of its own. We start believing ringing words like: “everyone will despise you if you tell the truth” that echo through our mind over and over…Lamentations describes shame and nakedness using some of these words: groan, filthiness, and no future. Shame in my own words; I groan and turn away, I feel filthiness cling to me, I find myself thinking I have no future…we fall, the enemy triumphs(based onLamentations 1:7-9).

Lamentations 1:7-9
In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction. Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away. Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her. “Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.”

Adam and Eve fell away from God, I fall away from God. Opening our eyes to sin choices is often painful as we see the ripple effect sin has on the others around us…Their eyes were opened indeed in Genesis 3:7-9:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

There eyes were opened to everything.
Everything was not the life they were created for walking with God in the garden.
They became aware of everything God had created for us not to bear, and when they chose sin they chose to leave Gods design for humans. The truth they uncovered after eating the fruit: Sin=Death. They gave way to their own desire, lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—that came not from their Good Father, but the enemy’(1 John 2:16-17).

Then they were aware and heard the Lord walking in the garden.
The Lord was WALKING WITH THEM in the garden He created for them.
If God is who he says he is, if you study his character, I believe that all we needed, and all Adam and Eve needed for the rest of eternity was there in that garden…in the same way I believe there’s a place called heaven where the redemption of all things will occur when I meet my Savior. In Leviticus it says He walks among us and will be our God and we are his people. In Deuteronomy it says God moves about in our camp to protect us and to deliver our enemies to us. When the text mentions walking among them, it refers what I mentioned above, yet knowing all this, just as Adam and Eve, who physically walked with God in the garden HID.
THEY HID FROM GOD.
Just as we/I also HIDE…
And just as he called to them, he calls out to us the same as he did that day.
Our precious Father calls out “Where are You?”
He does not call out “you sinners, how could you do this to me! Or “I loved you…how dare you,” instead like the loving God He is he calls out what he already knows “Where are you?”
He knew they were hiding, and he certainly knows when we hide. His word says we can not hide from God. He created time and he created us. In Jeremiah 16:17 his word states His eyes are on all our ways:

My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.

Isaiah 29 talks about those who go to great depths to hide their plans from God, and responds with this “Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

Today I say to the Potter You know everything, I am sorry for hiding, I do not want to live in shame, I know I am created for more. I remind myself of truth, which is in his word. I walk in the truth through obedience. When I hear that sneaky old snake start to tell me I am unwanted, unloved, and anything but God’s daughter I respond like Christine’s daughter: I am wanted, I am loved, because my daddy says so…

Here are a list of lies from the enemy, and scripture to renew your mind with. Keep them on a card, shout them out loud, do what you have to do and take back the ground the enemy has taken. Because my daddy says He has no greater joy than to HEAR my children walking in the truth. Let him “hear you” and repeat his love letter out loud and defeat that enemy. You are loved.

3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

TRUTH: Romans 3:25-26
God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

Lie: The Bible is an ancient text. It is not Gods word.
Truth: Isaiah 55:8-11
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Truth 2: John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Truth 3: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Truth 4: Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Truth 5: Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Lie: Once I’ve accepted Jesus it doesn’t matter how I live….
Truth: Romans 3:31
Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Truth 2: 1 John 3:6
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Truth 3: 1 John 3:9-10
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Truth 4: 1 John 3:18-19
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:

Lie: Did God really say your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?
Truth: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Truth 2: 1 John 4:2-3
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Lie: I am tired of my spouse, divorce is fine, I need something new…
Truth: Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Truth 2: 1 Corinthians 7:2
But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.
Truth 3: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;

Lie: Love is what feel the best for me, it is my truth, my choice, my life
Truth: Romans 1:25-32
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
⭐️When I live in the world, and don’t inundate my mind with his word, but what the world tells me. I make wrong choices and the consequence is that God gives that part of my mind over my lusts and my choice leads to a depraved. God sets up boundaries to protect us.

Lie: You can alter the truth a lie won’t hurt you, it will help you…
Truth: 3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Truth 2: Proverbs 19:5
A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will not go free.
Truth 3: Romans 1:18-25
God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Lie: I can choose whatever God I want, we all go to the same place.
Truth:
Truth 2: John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Lie: Sin is irrelevant and there are not consequences for my sin, there is no judgement for the way I live.
Truth: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Truth 2: Romans 8:6
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
Truth 3: Romans 7:19-25
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Truth 4: Romans 8:1-4
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Truth 5: Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Lie: There are many gods, and many roads that lead to eternity.
Romans 3:25-26
God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.
Truth 2: 2 John 1:7-9
I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
Truth 3: 1 John 5:19-21
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Truth 4: 1 John 5:12
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Lie: When I die there is nothing, so I can live how I want…
Truth: Romans 2:1-6
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
Truth 2: Psalms 62:12
and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”; and, “You reward everyone according to what they have done.”
Truth 3: Matthew 16:27
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

Lie: I am good enough to get to heaven, and the more good works I do, the more likely I will go to heaven.
Truth: Romans 3:10-12
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Lie: Those who accept Jesus will have the same fate as everyone else…
Truth: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Truth 2: Romans 8:10-14
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
Truth 3: John 14:2-4
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Lie: You are not God’s child and you must be a slave in fear of the coming judgement.
Truth: Romans 8:14-17
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Truth 2: Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Truth 3: Hebrews 5:2
He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.

Lie: I fear the enemy.
Truth: 1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Truth 2: 1 John 4:16-18
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in LOVE. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Truth 3: 1 John 5:4-5
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Lie: Christians should not suffer, what about freedom, goodness, happiness…How can a good God cause all this suffering, sorrow, and chaos?
Truth: Romans 8:17-30
Now if we are children, then we are heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Lie: The poor/needy can help themselves I have worked hard for what I have, I don’t need to give others I don’t know and I certainly don’t need to love them.
Truth: James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Hebrews 13:12-16
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Truth 2: John 15:12-14
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
Truth 3: 2 John 1:6
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Lie: You will not be Judged by what you say and do.
Truth: James 2:12-13 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Lie: Money does bring happiness.
Truth: Hebrews 13:5-6
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
Truth 2: 1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Lie: I don’t have to live differently than others in the world, I am already saved by grace. I can be proud of my own accomplishments and take credit for myself.
Truth: James 4:4-10
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Lie: Wisdom is in my own ambition and how much people recognize my wisdom. Wisdom is produced by self, it does not come from God.
Truth: James 3:16-17
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Truth 2: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future —all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

Lie: What I say out loud doesn’t matter
Truth: Proverbs 15:4
The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
Truth 2: James 1:26
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
Truth 3: James 3:6
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
Truth 4: Proverbs 18:21
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Lie: God didn’t choose you, you are what you make of yourself.
Truth: John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

Lie: You have done too many bad things to ever find the the love of God.
Truth: Romans 8:1-4
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Truth 2: Romans 8:31-32
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Truth 3: Romans 8:39
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Truth 4: Romans 3:3-7
What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
The Message Version – Romans 3:3-4
So, what if, in the course of doing that, some of those Jews abandoned their post? God didn’t abandon them. Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same: Your words stand fast and true; Rejection doesn’t faze you.

Lie: God will leave you and abandon you because of what you have done.
Truth: Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Lie: I want to be loved and accepted by the world, that is what I want.
Truth: John 15:18-19
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Truth 2: Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

Blessing based off of Hebrews 13:20-22
May God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole,
Put me together and make me whole
Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead,
Now put me together, provide me with everything I need to please him, Make me into what gives you the most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always!