NEW WEBSITE: JOYPEDROW.COM

A NEW BLOG! YAY!

The new blog is up and running! Yippeeeeee!! Make sure to subscribe to the new blog because I will no longer be posting on this one! I’m so excited for you to join me in this new adventure.

一番効率のいい現金化の方法は？即日・決済方法など目的別で徹底解説！

Why I Dislike the Term: “Good” Christian Girl

Hey Friends!

This Wednesday my new blog JOYPEDROW.COM will be officially launching! Since you have been loyal followers, I wanted to let you see the blog before everyone else! Here is a link to one of my newest posts on my new website:

Why I dislike the term “Good” Christian Girls

Make sure you subscribe to the new blog and check social media to find out about the giveaways during launch week! I can’t wait for you to see everything we have been working on!

Love you friends!

xoxo Joy

Exciting News + Every Bitter Thing is Sweet Book Review

Hey Friends!

I wanted to share some behind the scenes news that has been happening!!! Designer Ashlee Proffitt has been building me a new website! The launch will be coming up next week. Your e-mail subscriptions and WordPress subscriptions will not transfer, so make sure you subscribe to my new blog when in launches.

You can also sign up for the monthly newsletter! Sign up here!

I’m so excited for the launch week! There will be giveaways, new posts, and more.

Most importantly, thank you for all of your support. I would not have been able to do this without my loyal readers.

xoxo

Joy

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Now for the book review! I love being able to read books, and share with you all how this book could help your walk with God. I get to do the work for you, and you simply decide if the book fits with your needs.

Every Bitter Thing is Sweet by Sara Hagerty moved me to tears. Sara wrote stories about struggling to know and understand God’s love in a real and vulnerable way. Each page was so beautifully written. As I read her words, I pictured myself there in Sara’s shoes. Her descriptions were perfect.

In this book, we get to go on Sara’s journey to really finding God during the bitter times of her life.

This book is great for anyone who:

Take Off Your Crown – Jesus is King

We like to think that we are in charge of our life. I have a friend that is exploring her faith and she told me, “The biggest thing that is holding me back from making the decision to follow Jesus is that I still want control.” My friend wants to be king over her life. She understands that if she follows Jesus, she has to give up control.

Giving up control scares us, because the uncertainty freaks us out. But when we give up control, we gain freedom.

We want to be king. In our eyes, being king equates to having control of our lives and fulfilling the desires of our hearts. But there can only be one king. You or Jesus.

Taking off your crown and giving it to Jesus is not a one time decision, but a daily decision.

The word “crown” is mentioned 57 times in the  ESV Bible. Here are a few of those verses and the importance of a crown.

• “And he took the crown of their king from his head.” – 2 Samuel 12:30.  David took off the crown and placed it on his head. What does this mean? There can only be one king.
• “The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.” – Ester 2:17. Their can only be one queen.
• “He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.” – Job 19:9. If we don’t remove our crown from our own head, Jesus will.
• “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.” – Isaiah 62:3. When you give Jesus your crown, you become a crown of beauty in his eyes.
• “and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ ” – Matthew 27:29. Jesus wore a crown of thorns. If we continue to make ourselves kings, we are mocking Jesus. Jesus wore the crown of thorns for us. He took on our sins for us. And what do we do? Take the crown off his head and place it on ours.

There can not be 2 kings.
We need to pray for strength to take off our own crowns and give them to Jesus.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” – James 4:10. Humble yourself by taking off your prideful crown, giving it to Jesus, and then you will experience the true prize – being exalted by Jesus the one and only King.

What area of your life is it hardest to take off your crown and give Jesus control?

Bonus: Here are more verses about crowns you can read: Rev 2:10, 3:11, 6:2, 12:1, 14:14. 1 Peter 5:4, Jas 1:12

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Hey friends!

Exciting things have been happening behind the scenes! I will soon be launching my new brand and blog joypedrow.com! Sign up for the monthly newsletter to stay connected! —->>> Sign up today!

xoxo

Joy

8 Symptoms of Habitual Sins

Have you ever felt so controlled by a behavior that you felt enslaved to it? You may be experiencing the results of habitual sins.

Habitual sins are destructive. These are sins that feel addictive, controlling, and always present. Most of the time the sin remains in the dark and consequently the person experiences tremendous shame and guilt. Sometimes the sin even begins to define a person and becomes the main issue in their life.

Habitual sins destroy you emotionally and spiritually. Here are a few examples: over eating, lust, alcohol and drug abuse, fits of rage, dependency on a person, constant gossiping, pre-marital sex, watching porn, and masturbation. Regardless of the form of sin, there are many common characteristics one experiences when struggling with it.

Even Jesus Spent Time with God + Book Review

 

Spending time with God is the answer to most of our problems, especially our trust issues. I realized, that the days I struggle trusting God most are the days I don’t spend time with him. Do you trust in God’s plan for your life? Do you spend time with God on a regular basis through reading the Bible or praying?

You will begin to trust God more and know God more, the more you spend time with him.

Often, we wonder why our plans for our lives are different from God’s plans for our lives. We question, “Why hasn’t God given me ___?” Then, we begin to think that God doesn’t love us because he has not given us what we want. This happens because we think our values are the same as God’s values. We think we share the same channel of thoughts as God. But If we don’t spend time with God, we don’t know his channel. This lack of time together creates miscommunication between God and us. And a lack of trust.

To know God and understand why he does things, we have to spend time with him. Even Jesus had to spend time with God, and he is God! It is that much more important that we spend time with God!

Prayer of Forgiveness

My roommate caught me red handed. I had lied to her face, and now I was plagued by guilt. I apologized and she forgave me, but I still felt blah. I needed to ask God for his forgiveness, but I didn’t know what to say to him. I turned to the Bible and found this passage in psalms. David wrote this right after Nathan confronted him about his affair with Bathsheba. Imagine how David felt in this moment. Probably way worse than I felt. I bet he felt guilty, shameful, sad, angry, frustrated, and many other emotions. Have you experienced these emotions after getting caught in a sin?

In this psalm, David pours his heart out. It is beautifully written and a perfect prayer of forgiveness. When we sin, we turn away from God. We need to ask God for forgiveness. Thank goodness we worship a God who does forgive. Once we make the decision to give God our life, God looks at us and sees Jesus. Our sins have been wiped clean, and we become white as snow.

I want you to experience this freedom. I want you to be free of guilt and shame and experience God’s forgiveness.

Pray through this passage and ask God to forgive you. Confessing sin and asking for forgiveness is not a one time action, but a daily re-occurrence. That is something I have to continually remind myself. You can use this passage as a guide.

Psalm 51:1-12

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

5 Ways to Make Jesus the Center of Your Story – Engage24

On day. One mission. To tell others about Jesus. I am engaging on 10.14.14, will you? `

The Bible tells us that God wants us to engage with Him and then to engage the world with the gospel of Jesus. There is a movement happening across the world, and I am so excited to be a part of it! Engage24 is a specific time set apart for engaging the world with the good news of Christ.  While Engage24 is intensely focused on a single day of evangelism (10.14.14), the mission is to promote a 24/7 lifestyle of evangelism and engagement with the gospel.

Engage24 is a 24 hour period when college students purposefully engage their campuses with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The goal is to see every believing college student share the Gospel with at least one person that day.

On my campus, the University of South Florida, my campus ministry Cru is taking part in Engage24. We are wearing shirts that say ‘Tell Me Your Story”. The girls below are some of the girls in our ministry who rocked the shirts!

Our hope is that students at USF will see hundreds of students wearing the shirt and then will ask one of us what it is about. Here is our reply, “Today is Engage24, and we want to engage with the students by listening to their story. We would love to listen to your story and hear if God plays any part in it.”

18 Halloween Costumes + Ideas: Homemade, Cute, and Appropriate

During the Halloween season, it can be hard to come up with Halloween costume ideas that are easy and cheap to make, cute, and appropriate. Here is a list of 18 ideas! Yes, myself or my friends did wear all of the costumes below! =]

Only Jesus can heal your heart.

Jesus came to heal the sick and the broken. He came to save the sinner. In one of my classes, this thought came to mind as I heard sad story after sad story from my classmates. (Jesus, will my classmates ever know you?) This does not mean that he supports their actions, but his love for them will never change. Why is this? Because Jesus came to save the broken.

Jesus came to save my classmates, but they lack the realization that they need him. Maybe they think their lives are fine with out him. Maybe they think they’re spiritually healthy.

While on earth, Jesus spent most of his time with the lost and broken. In Matthew 9:12-13 (NIV) 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.”

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 like my classmates, you think these feelings are a normal part of life. Or maybe you actually think you are healthy.