4th July FOCUS: One Word - MOVEMENT

For the month of July, these will be the 4 One Words for us to "Focus" on:

RELEASE

July 7

PRAYER

July 14

JOY

July 21

MOVEMENT

July 28

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This week's

 FOCUS isMOVEMENT
in our opening of the devotional
with this Scripture verse

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1 NASB

I'm almost ready to break my general format here & read the devotional before I share this blog post, as I look at all the words for this month, searching for some thread, or correlation or any clue at all as to what or how MOVEMENT fits (and the Topical definition didn't help) nor does Romans 12:1 scripture verse so I decided to read a bit further in Romans 12, before I break my own rule & read CCR's devotional. And then I find the One Word FOCUS in verse 9.
Reading in The Passion Translation (TPT): 

Let the inner MOVEMENT of your heart always be to love one another, and never play the role of an actor wearing a mask. Despise evil and embrace everything that is good and virtuous. Romans 12:9

In my search for the One Word: MOVEMENT in God's Word;I encountered another verse not too far from the above verses, just a few chapters back, but this time in The Voice:

Now we are able to live up to the justice demanded by the law. But that ability has not come from living by our fallen human nature; it has come because we walk according to the MOVEMENT of the Spirit in our lives. Romans 8:4 VOICE

In all honesty, this is more what comes to mind to me, when I hear the word
MOVEMENT
(except for MOVEMENT as regards social movements: organized efforts by a large number of people to bring about change)
Usually a social movement is to "bring about or impedesocial, political, economic, or cultural change" but might I also include spiritual, such as a PRAYER MOVEMENT oras the last verse indicates a MOVEMENT of the Spirit(hopefully all prayer movements are)Often a Spiritual Movement is one for REVIVAL!
{don't get me started on how much this nation and our world needs this one}
Yet each week in July as we approached this last One Word, especially back at PRAYER, my thoughts were headed in this direction and most certainly when Paul is URGING us ... we need to listen and act
I just happened to look up steps to build a MOVEMENT and I found that choosing your cause, reading up on your cause, spreading the word and being creativeare just the initial ones suggested; yet it seems like the book of ACTS attempted this but
"... the MOVEMENT fell apart" (VOICE, Acts 5:37)
Other verses in ACTS with our One Word: MOVEMENTActs 5:36(NLT); 5:37 (VOICE); 5:38 (AMPC); 5:39 (TPT)
Acts 9:24 (TPT); 15:7 (Voice); 17:5 (Voice); 22:4 (Voice); 28:22 (NLT)
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Once again, I'm very tempted to read the devotional first by Cleere Cherry Reaves before I write (I'm sure that you wish I just would do that every time) but sometimes or many times, I do these, hoping for a MOVE of the Spiritas to what He might want me to share as His vessel with the One Word prompt.
Some times, God's Spirit is just waiting to lead, guide; or for me, just burst forth {although at times it may look as if I'm headed down a rabbit hole, or rambling on with no real message or point, but when ... (or until)I look back or read it over, I can tell it wasn't me writing any longeror what I thought that I was suppose, or intended to write;because before I sit down to begin typing, I pray.
Now it may not look like it to you,but ya' gotta trust me,I go with the flow.(lol)
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Back to the definition of
MOVEMENT
{which I tend to really dislike when they do this in any definition}
"the act of moving"
however, I'm thinking this is more powerful than it appears - followed by
"... change of place or posture..."
the rest of the definition - this first one, then 5 more may make a difference asyou read the devotional, and/ or search for scriptures that have the One Word: MOVEMENT
because we all have different perspectives about MOVING or MOVEMENT
{yep, that was a 'rabbit hole' but for some reason, I think it's key for our frame of mind}
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When I looked at the search that I usually do for the One Word in our devotional book (or even in the various translations) for MOVEMENT in God's Word,
the sentences in the devotional seem to indicate that I'm not even close to how CCR is using MOVEMENT
since we're on separate pages of thought,  I'll skip sharing any quotes for now
because the FOCUS TIP alone lets me know, I'm pretty far off base.
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Here are the other scriptures for this week:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV1 Thessalonians 5:23 NASBRomans 8:10-11 NASB1 Corinthians 10:31
and as often is the case the concluding statement is my favorite quote (so I'll share that){I saw it when I read the FOCUS tip that had MOVEMENT}

"Move. Get outside of yourself and do diligence to the gift of life you've been given. Moving your feet helps you put everything else at His feet." CCR

I paused after I read "get outside" and was going to comment that this is exactly my plan for this beautiful day - to get outside. But she went on to write something even more important.
"Get outside of yourself" which goes perfectly (of course) with the verses and the 1st definition of "change of place or posture" and definitely with the quote. We (the world, our society) would benefit a great deal to "get outside of ourselves" - to think of others before our own selfish needs and as CCR further recommends to "do diligence ..." 
{I'm skipping the rest of that part about our precious gift of life given to each one of us and should be valued much more than "WE" as a whole seem to be failing at doing miserably}. 
I took the time to look up what these mean:

"to get outside of ourselves" [one source] "It means you let go of what you want, what you think you need or should have (beyond the bare necessities obviously) what you think other people should give you, what you think you are entitled to, of your beliefs about what you think the world should be, how your family should be, etc...." - stepping out and watching your own interactions and see yourself - what you do and how you act {ouch, a real self evaluation] "Take a step back, take a step out, remove yourself from the circumstances, the situation, the stress, the thoughts, the pressures" {this is the best one for me!}

"do diligence" (or possibly due diligence) [source] dictionary of "diligence": steady, earnest and energetic effort: devoted and painstaking work and application to accomplish an undertaking; so DO this by doing what follows in CCR's quote "moving your feet"

showing our gratitude to God
"Jesus, when I move, I feel You work"
after all
"In Him, we live, and MOVE and have our being"Acts 17:28
A song, a verse, and my belief; and now back to another point that I was making on
MOVEMENT
"... But if this MOVEMENT is of God, you won’t be able to stop it. And you might discover that you were fighting God all along!”[Gamaliel’s words convinced the council].

Acts 5:39 TPT

Isn't it time for a some 
MOVEMENT?

"outside of ourselves" and with "due diligence"
or simply walk away - take a walk outside
both are good advice😉

Next Week:
We MOVE right into AUGUST
One Words
so you'll have to squeeze the
TAKING INVENTORY
in, 
if you haven't already done them
Or else, wait to do July & August together the first weekend of Septemberbecause there will be NO post on September 1st.
😉💙😉


[this was written on the day of the Celebration of Life of Tim Anderson (former student's) being held today at an Athletic Field facility. I will go (masked) & be there for the family🙏]