Aisha Akilo

Renew Your Life

Romans 12:1-21 (MSG)
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Real 2!

Romans 15:1-33 (MSG)
Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?"

Romans 14:2-4, Romans 14:6-23

Romans 14:2-4 (MSG)
For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Romans 14:6-23 (MSG)
What's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

Real!

Romans 13:1-14 (MSG)
Be a good citizen. All governments are under God. Insofar as there is peace and order, it's God's order. So live responsibly as a citizen. If you're irresponsible to the state, then you're irresponsible with God, and God will hold you responsible. Duly constituted authorities are only a threat if you're trying to get by with something. Decent citizens should have nothing to fear.

James 4:7-10

James 4:7-10 (MSG)
So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.

Possibility = God

Mark 10:27 (MSG)
Jesus was blunt: "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it."

John 15:5-8

John 15:5-8 (MSG)
"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

2 Chronicles 7:14

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

John 10:6-18

John 10:6-18 (MSG)
Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. "I'll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn't listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

Luke 12:4-5

Luke 12:4-5 (MSG)
"I'm speaking to you as dear friends. Don't be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Luke 12:6-7

Luke 12:6-7 (MSG)
"What's the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.

Psalm 34:1-5

Psalm 34:1-5 (NIV)
I will extol the lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

Honor Your mother

Proverbs 20:20 (NIV)
If someone curses their father or mother, their lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.

Honor your Parents

Proverbs 19:26 (MSG)
Kids who lash out against their parents are an embarrassment and disgrace.

Proverbs 23:22

Proverbs 23:22 (NIV)
Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Ephesians 6:2

Ephesians 6:2 (NIV)
"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise—

Exodus 20:12

Exodus 20:12 (MSG)
Honor your father and mother so that you'll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

Luke 15:11-21

Luke 15:11-21 (MSG)
Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.'

Psalm 112:3

Psalm 112:3 (NIV)
Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.

Mark 11:23-25

Mark 11:23-25 (AMP)
Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.

Romans 8:37

Romans 8:37 (NIV)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Philippians 4:6-9

Philippians 4:6-9 (MSG)
Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 (AMP)
We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

Ecclesiastes 10:2

Ecclesiastes 10:2 (MSG)
Wise thinking leads to right living; Stupid thinking leads to wrong living.

Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 (AMP)
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].