It's weird to realize that I've been alive for 43 years. Whoa. That sounds so old!!! But age is just a number and I've realized that after a while, as you grow more comfortable in your own skin, you can pretty much mingle with any age group and feel like you fit in perfectly... except for the one exception last night...
I've been searching for the perfect boba tea place here (oh how I miss Half and Half, Coral!!!) so thanks to Grace Z (my North Shore "know-it-all-in-a-good-way" source) and Lily M, Jacob and I decided to check out Liquid Fusion after 9pm. Oh. My. Stars. Nothing prepared us for the awkward reception and stares we got from every young adults hanging out there. They stared at us as if we were the parental units they were trying to escape from and it made me feel like we were intruding in their young adult bubble world from Planet Grown-Up or something! We got our order to go and I think I found the perfect milk tea boba drink! Yum! I'm not going to let Liquid Fusion's clientele intimidate me so I. will. be. back. So there! :o)
Okay, in past birthdays since I started blogging late in 2010, I've shared 41 things about myself and 42 things on my "bucket list." So this year, I think I'll share 43 Bible of my favorite Bible verses/passages that have impacted me through the years. Boy, this was SO hard to narrow down that I think I may have to do a Part II in my next birthday blog...!
1. Numbers 6:24-26 (Amplified Bible) "The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually)."
3. 1 Samuel 16:7 (The Message) But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”
4. 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land."
5. Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT) "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."
6. Proverbs 4:23 (Amplified Bible) "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life."
7. Proverbs 12:18 (NLT) "Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing."
8. Isaiah 26:3 (Amplified Bible) "You will guard him and keep him in perfect and
constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is
stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You."
9. Isaiah 41:10 (Amplified Bible) "Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice."
10. Isiah 43:2-3a (Amplified Bible) "When you
pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will
not be burned or scorched, nor will the flame kindle upon you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior..."
11. Isaiah 43:18-19 (Amplified Bible) "Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
12. Isaiah 54:10 (Amplified Bible) " For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you."
14. Jeremiah 29:11-14a (Amplified Bible) "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and
require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me
with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord..."15. Joel 2:12-13 (Amplified Bible) "Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning [until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored].
Rend
your hearts and not your garments and return to the Lord, your God, for
He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
loving-kindness; and He revokes His sentence of evil [when His
conditions are met]."
16. Micah 6:8 (NLT) "No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."
17. Nahum 1:7 (Amplified Bible) "The Lord is good, a Strength and Stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows (recognizes, has knowledge of, and understands) those who take refuge and trust in Him."
18. Matthew 11-28-30 (Amplified Bible) "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.
For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne."
19. Luke 1:37 (NLT) "For nothing is impossible with God."
20. John 3:16 (Amplified Bible) "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique)
Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him
shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal
(everlasting) life. "
21. John 16:33 (The Message) "I’ve told you
all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured,
deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience
difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”
22. Romans 5:3-5 (Amplified Bible) "Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us."
23. Romans 8:1 (NASB) "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
24. Romans 12:1-2 (NLT) "And so, dear brothers and sisters,
I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done
for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find
acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t
copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you
into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to
know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
25. Romans 15:5-6 (ESV) "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
26. Romans 15:13 (Amplified Bible) "May the God of your hope
so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience
of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope."
27. 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 (The Message) "Take a good
look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I
don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many
influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that
God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and
exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow
pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of
you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we
have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh
start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the
saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
28. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 (Amplified Bible) "Therefore
let anyone who thinks he stands [who feels sure that he has a steadfast
mind and is standing firm], take heed lest he fall [into sin]. For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and
laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or
trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted
and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God
is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can
be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently."
29. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV) "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
30. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NLT) "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He
comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When
they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has
given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ."
31. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a (The Message) "In the Messiah,
in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory
parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go,
people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give
off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way
of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to
destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse."
33. 2 Corinthians 4:17 (NLT) " For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!"
34. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
35. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (ESV) "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
36. 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NLT) "Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?"
37. Galatians 6:9 (NLT) "So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up."
38. Ephesians 4:29-32 (Amplified Bible) " Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it. And
do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden
Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured)
for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil
and the consequences of sin). Let all bitterness and indignation and
wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and
quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking,
abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice
(spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). And become useful and helpful and
kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding,
loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in
Christ forgave you."
39. Philippians 1:6 (Amplified Bible) "And I am convinced and
sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will
continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His
return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you."
40. Philippians 2:3-11 (NLT) "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
41. Philippians 4:8 (Amplified Bible) "For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]."
42. Colossians 4:6 (NASB) "Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person."
43. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 (NLT) "We tell you this
directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns
will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For
the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.
First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then,
together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will
be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be
with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words."
