Encourage. Uplift. Inspire.
Written By: Kerrington Sweeney
Hello Ladies:
Get those Bibles out!! We are excited to have another reading requirement assignment for this week. This weeks assignment:
Ephesians 2
Join Us on Facebook at our UYM Bible Study Group
Or by Email: uniquelyyoursblog@gmail.com
Until Next Time,
~Kerrington
Written By: Crystal Cyr
-What verse spoke to you the most and why?
-How were you challenged by the scripture and/or the blog post?
-According to Ephesians 1, God chose us to be holy and without fault in His eyes. How does this change the way you see yourself, or does it?
-When your behavior doesn’t line up with how God sees you how do you deal with it?
-How have you seen God’s Spirit work in you to transform you?
-What lies about your identity do you need to begin to defeat with the truth of God’s word?
Join Us on Facebook at our UYM Bible Study Group
Or by Email: uniquelyyoursblog@gmail.com
Bless you, UYM Bible Study Group!
Until Next Time,
~Crystal
Written By: Kerrington Sweeney
Hello Ladies:
Welcome to Fun Fact Fridays…Today’s challenge, is to get to know each other a little bit better, opening ourselves up and being vulnerable with each other about those God-given quirks…
Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Bible Study Coordinator at UYM, Crystal Cyr!!
-Where did you become a Christian?
At church, when I was 6 years old.
-Favorite Scripture?
Romans 8:38-39 & Psalm 42:7
-Sweet or Sour?
Sweet
-Favorite Season?
Autumn
-Starbucks or Tim Hortons?
Starbucks
-Coke or Pepsi?
Coke
-Read or Run?
Read
-Dream Vacation?
Ha, anywhere warm, historic and beautiful with my husband right now!
Let’s say somewhere on the Mediterranean… Maybe Greece.
-Favorite Color?
Mint/Turquoise & olive green
-Favorite Childhood Memory?
Summer holidays with my family at a cottage resort. Fishing every morning and night, swimming all day, and all the candy, arcade games and gimp bracelet making.
Okay Ladies! Its your turn…The Questions will be on Facebook! Join us there for a Fun-Fact filled Friday!!
Join Us on Facebook at our UYM Bible Study Group
Or by Email: uniquelyyoursblog@gmail.com
Bless you, UYM Bible Study Group!
~Kerrington Sweeney
Written By: Crystal Cyr
Based on: Ephesians 1
As we begin this walk through the book of Ephesians let me begin by saying that I am not a scholar on the bible, nor do I pretend to be; in fact, if anything I feel completely under qualified, which as far as history has indicated for me thus far on my journey, is a good thing because it means that Christ can be strong in my weakness. 🙂 What I will offer though is personal revelation of what the Lord has shown me in His Word and how it has applied to me and can apply to you today!
Recently I’ve been in a season of the Lord revealing to me lies that I had been believing from unhealed circumstances in my past; those lies had formed foundations for patterns of behavior that were keeping me from moving forward. Many of those lies had to do with my worth and value. As we take a look at Ephesians 1 today, my prayer is that the Word of God will be a double sided sword that will cut through every lie you are believing about your worth and value, and that as His sword separates those lies from your identity, His truth will bring healing into every area where the lie has caused brokenness.
Ephesians 1:4 says that “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” This comes as an incredible encouragement to me because it tells me that we weren’t a mistake and that He is not looking at us with eyes of judgment. So many times we think that God is up there ticking off all of our faults and judging us according to them as unfit or unworthy of His call. This couldn’t be farther from the truth; in fact, He is cheering us on and sticking with His original plan for us to be holy and without fault; we may not be manifesting that truth today, but when we set our eyes on that truth that is what we will believe and live up to.
The next verse goes on to say that “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Whoa, did you just hear that?! Not only did God choose us before the creation of the world to be holy and without fault, but He also chose long ago to adopt us into His family. He didn’t “have” to do it, and it wasn’t because it was the “right thing to do”; He chose us because He wanted to, and not only that, but it gave Him great pleasure. I don’t know about you, but that makes my heart leap. Every lie that screams, “God doesn’t have a big plan for you”, “God doesn’t think you’re worth the fight”, “You don’t belong”, “God’s disappointed in/sick of/mad at you” is silenced with those few words, “He Chose”, and it “Gave him great pleasure”.
In verses 7 – 9 Paul explains how God adopted us by purchasing our freedom with the blood of His Son Jesus, and forgave our sins with His kindness and grace. Just as He chose us in advance to be holy and without fault, and to adopt us into His family He also chose to pay the price for our sins before we even committed them; before we could earn or deserve it, meaning that our salvation had nothing to do with how good we were or how good we weren’t – it was a free gift. This is so amazing because if we couldn’t do enough good deeds to receive it, we also can’t do enough bad deeds to lose it. He trusts us and loves us enough to give it freely, which is why Paul’s response was to praise God for this grace in verse 6. When we truly understand this grace it should cause us to want to move closer to God.
Next Paul goes on to explain God’s purpose in all of this, which was to bring His family together in unity as one family with Christ as the head, both the Jews who were the first to hear and trust in Christ, and then the Gentiles (the rest of us) who were adopted in.
In verses 11, 13, and 14 we also see that as adopted-in family we were also given an inheritance and the Holy Spirit is Christ’s guarantee that we will receive this inheritance. If you think of it in terms of a contract, the Holy Spirit would be like the down payment or validating signature that guarantees our inheritance. What that means is that we can know that we belong to Him now as we allow His Spirit in us to transform our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions. This transforming power of the Holy Spirit is the down payment, giving us just a taste of what we will experience in eternity in complete fullness, when we are not at war with our sinful flesh. What an incredible inheritance, and what an amazing thought – that because we now belong to Christ and have His Spirit in us we don’t have to wait for eternity to begin to experience His likeness or to receive our inheritance.
The end of this chapter from verses 15 – 23 is a prayer that our “hearts would be flooded with light so that we can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called” (v 18), and in verse 19, that we would understand the “greatness of God’s power for us who believe him” (v 19). What this tells me is that we must mix with our knowledge with both faith and an experiential relationship with Christ in order for it to have any affect on our lives at all. We can know all of this as fact, but if we don’t chose to believe it, to really embrace it with every faculty of our being, than these promises will remain on the pages of our bibles rather than lived out and engrained on our hearts and lives.
My prayer for you is the same as that of Paul; that today you would reach out and grasp these promises with every fiber of your being. These verses are life and truth, and today you may be feeling like these words couldn’t be further from what you’ve experienced thus far or are experiencing now in your life, your thoughts, your emotions. In fact, chances are, everything within you is screaming, “yes, BUT…”, just as it was for me as I was fighting those lies about my worth. However, I challenge you today to step out, to grab onto these truths, to CHOSE to believe them today, just as Christ deliberately chose you. That is what faith is; choosing to believe when everything in your life looks opposite to what God says. Think of the power in choice; Christ chose you, He chose to adopted you, He chose to give you His Spirit as an inheritance; now the ball is in your court, will you chose to believe Him, because if you do, it will transform your life.
Join Us on Facebook at our UYM Bible Study Group
Or by Email: uniquelyyoursblog@gmail.com
Until Next Time,
~Crystal
Written By: Kerrington Sweeney
Hello Ladies:
Todays Challenge, Is to be bold and ask for prayer! While I was preparing and researching about prayer for today, this incredible quote came up in my search and I had to share…it says:
“Fight all your battles on your knees and you will win every time.”
When I read that, God really tugged on my heart. Whatever trials or tough situations you are facing today. Give it to God, allow Him to work in your life, like never before. Our Prayer team here at UYM, would absolutely LOVE to pray with you and for you…Comment your Prayer requests below or send us an email. We look forward to having this opportunity as an online community, to pray with you and to support you in your life journey.
Join Us on Facebook at our UYM Bible Study Group
Or by Email: uniquelyyoursblog@gmail.com
Bless you, UYM Bible Study Group!
~Kerrington Sweeney
Written By: Kerrington Sweeney
Welcome to the UYM Bible Study,
Today we encourage you to read Ephesians 1. Brought to you by: Bible Gateway
New International Version (NIV)
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus,[a] the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen,[e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Join Us on Facebook at our UYM Bible Study Group
Or by Email: uniquelyyoursblog@gmail.com
Until Next Time,
~Kerrington
Written By: Kerrington Sweeney
I sat quietly with The Lord one Monday morning. That particular morning I was praying deeply about my future. I began thinking about all the things I would one day like to accomplish. The more I continued thinking, the more my “If Onlys” began to come out of my mouth.
If only… I had a job.
If only… I had more money.
If only… I was older.
If only… I had a boyfriend.
If only… I was more equipped.
If only… I were more compassionate.
If only… I were more successful.
If only… I was truly cut out for ministry.
If only… I had more wisdom and discernment.
IF ONLY…
I couldn’t stop myself. I just kept coming up with all these different “If Onlys.” More and more kept popping up. The Lord stopped me in my tracks. I could feel Him telling me that if I was to give my “If Onlys” to Him, He would begin to fill those so-called “voids” I was recognizing in my life.
As soon as I took a step back and gave God complete control of these areas if my life, I began seeing God fulfill each one of those “voids.” I am still waiting for some of them to filled, and in Gods perfect timing I feel that one day they will be, but the incredibly amazing thing is… I have learned that I don’t need these things to be filled for me to live a fulfilled life. I don’t need a car to start living. I don’t need a boyfriend to start living. I don’t need that job to start living. I don’t need all of those “If Onlys” to be filled to start living.
I am in a blessed season of living life to the very fullest. With God as my helper and guide. So ladies, in closing today, I challenge you to spend some time with The Lord. Identify the “If Onlys” in your life and hand them directly over to God. You’re NOT alone. God is always in control and always will be.
Don’t be stuck living life like I once was with all those “If Onlys” crowding the way to fulfilling your future destiny. Give them to God and live in absolute freedom.
Until Next Time,
~Kerrington
We are so thrilled to share this sweet video put together by a precious friend, Lauren Rivest for our ministry. Thank you Lauren, for assisting us in the creation of this beautiful master piece.
Another HUGE Thank you, to the hundreds of readers in whom were also so highly involved in the creation of this video. UYM wouldn’t be where it is today without you all!
Written by: Kerrington Sweeney
Someday Soon. By: Francesca Battestelli
“I wanna be the one who knows everything about you I wanna be the one who’s always on your mind I wanna be the one to get all of your affection and attention You’re the one that I’ve been waiting for, for all this time and I can’t imagine anything, anything better than Someday falling in love with you Holding your hand, making our plans all come true Someday under a sky so blue, I’ll give you my heart Our story will start someday soon. I wanna be the one who does everything with you. Watching stars, washing cars, taking walks, going to the store. I wanna be the one who gets to change her last name someday. To something that sounds something more like yours And I can’t imagine anything, anything better than. Someday falling in love with you Holding your hand, making our plans all come true Someday under a sky so blue, I’ll give you my heart Our story will start someday soon Yeah, I’ll be telling you I love you On a picture perfect day And those words inside my head They sound like angels singing praise It’s what I was made to say, oh Someday falling in love with you Holding your hand, making our plans Someday falling in love with you Holding your hand, making our plans all come true Someday under a sky so blue, I’ll give you my heart Our story will start someday soon.”
I had never heard this song until one Sunday evening while driving home with my wonderful friend and mentor, Mandy! …This song, truly makes my heart simply smile. With me being in my own season of waiting for my Prince Charming, it sometimes is a tough struggle to know that there is that “special someone” out there waiting for me.
This past valentines day I took a step further into my “season of waiting.” I wrote a love letter to my future husband. As I sat passionately writing, thinking towards the lovely future I will have with this young man someday, I couldn’t help, but smile from ear to ear.
Although, I may not know him…I already love him with all that is within my heart. With a Season of Waiting, patience is the true key to success. Patience, for God’s absolute perfect timing.
Yes! Your story will start someday soon! Just be patient. Blossom where you have been planted sisters. Wait upon The Lord and lift up your future hubby in daily prayer. I know the wait sometimes seems so long…but never forget, it’s worth it in the long run. Some day soon you’ll be living out your dreams 🙂
Until Next Time,
~Kerrington
Written By: Kerrington Sweeney
Today, the Lord has dropped something heavily upon my heart. I felt as if I was commissioned by the Holy Spirit to share this. I will be as real as I possibly can; as much as I know how to. I was sitting in my quiet time with God, and I read a verse in Matthew 25:46. It reads…
“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”
How real and true this is, readers! People every day are running straight towards that eternal punishment. Falling face first into an eternal fiery pit. called Hell. Hell is just as real as Heaven. We don’t often hear about Hell in the church as much as we hear about our happily ever after of eternal Life. But I am here to share with you that it is very real. Hell is a place. A place where many of my friends and even some family members are headed right now.
Wherever you are today, sitting and reading this, you have a particular destination over your life. Whether it be an eternal home of safety or a fiery place you’ve feared all your life.
Not to be morbid, but know that you are one simple breath away from eternity. Where are you headed after that breath? Do you know? As followers of Christ, we need to realize this.
We are ALL born sinners. We are born into this world separated from God. Because our God judges justly, He sees the rich and the poor all on the same level. We are all sinners, whether we have millions of dollars in the bank or whether we are eating at the soup kitchen and living on park benches. Think of it this way: one day, we will all bow down before the same foot of the cross.
Leveled together, as sinners. God sees us, His children. With all the bondages, sins, mistakes, and troubles, He knew for a fact that we wouldn’t be strong enough on our own to pay our own wages. He knew how horrible it would be for you to spend eternity in Hell. He didn’t want that for His children. So He willingly sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ – the Hope of the world.
Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life here on the earth. At age 33, Jesus was taken and held hostage. He was taken on a horrible quest through the night, where He was beaten, bruised, and spit on by the people. He was called all sorts of terrible names, and He did absolutely nothing to stop it. He was willing to endure this.
The next day, Jesus stood before Pilate. Pilate made the harsh decision to hand Him off to the Romans. As if He was a filthy piece of trash. Unwanted. Unworthy. Uncalled for. But yet, Jesus did nothing to stop it. The Romans whipped Him, beat Him, bruised Him. They ripped apart His body but Jesus did nothing to stop it. They destroyed Him to the very core, yet Jesus did nothing to stop it. He was willing.
They walked with Him to His final breath. They made His weak raggedy body carry that heavy wooden cross up the steep slopes of the mountain called Golgotha. Jesus went willingly. He hung on that cross, bloody and destroyed. As He hung there, He did nothing to stop them. Instead He thought of YOU!
He thought that if He didn’t pay this high price, how you would then have to pay it. You would be headed straight into that eternal punishment. You would have to work your own way, to pay the wages of all your sins.
What Jesus did as He willingly hung on that cross was to pray for the people that put Him there. He thought of you. He knew you already, specifically by name. He loved you then and He loves you now. His love has never stopped and it never will stop. His love never fails.
Jesus conquered death, three days after dying as He rose again. He made Heaven an open place for God’s righteous children. The Heavenly gates were opened, for anyone who would call upon the name of the Lord. We will ALL stand before Jesus one day.
It says in Revelation 20:11-21:7
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”
It’s on my heart today to say this – you don’t have to go to Hell just because you are a sinner. You are given the free gift of Heaven, an eternal home of safety. You are the only one who can make this choice for yourself.
With all of this being said, let me ask you this question once more…
“Where are you headed?”
If this post intrigued you, we would love to pray with you and chat with you. Today is a great day to become a part of God’s family. Today is a great day to have YOUR name written in the Book of Life. Today is a day that could change your life. It’s simply your choice.
Contact us here…
Looking forward to hearing from you! Bless you!!
Until Next Time,
~Kerrington
Uniquely Yours Ministries 