Hello, readers! We're back and ready to dive into the next book in our series, Leviticus. This article will be a little different than other Books of the Bible articles because Leviticus has rules rather than stories. So instead of breaking down every rule like I would if they were stories, I'm going to be talking about how this book of the Bible affects us. This book of the Bible has caused much controversy among Christians and non-Christians. This book of the Bible is a list of all the rules that the Israelites had to follow in order to stay "clean." They were supposed to stay clean because they were in the presence of God. But many people have seen these rules and thought that if someone were to break them today, they would not make it to heaven because they were "unclean." This perspective has caused great harm to many people. In Leviticus, the punishments for breaking the rules were quite harsh, but that was before Jesus died on the cross for our sins, wiping our slates clean. So many Christians have treated people who have broken these rules in the worst of ways, and these actions have driven so many away from God. What we must remember about Leviticus is that the Israelites weren't saved yet. They were punished for their sins because Jesus had not yet made the ultimate sacrifice. So just because some people today have broken the rules of Leviticus, that doesn't mean that they aren't worthy of God's love and forgiveness. Remember, we are all sinners, but we were all saved when Jesus died on the cross and rose again for us. So for any of us to treat any other sinners as if their sins are unforgivable, but ours are, is hypocritical and wrong. For example, Leviticus says that homosexuality is wrong. Because of this, the LGBTQ+ community has been tortured and killed because people see them as "unclean," when in reality they are no more unclean that anyone else. And because some people choose to hate what they don't understand, so many people in the LGBTQ+ community don't know God, and that hurts God more than any sin. What we must learn from Leviticus is that we are all rule-breakers, but we have all been saved. Believing that Christ died on the cross and rose again to save us from our sins is what gets us to heaven. We want to try our best to live how God wants us to live, but all who love God and believe in the resurrection of Christ have a place in heaven, no matter who they love or what they've done. So we must treat everyone with love because that's what God calls us to do.

Hello everyone! We're so sorry we didn't get an article out to you guys last Sunday, our CEO had surgery earlier that week, and was taking a break. But now we're back to give you a fun little article! We don't want you guys getting bored of us because of how long our Books of the Bible Series articles tend to be, so we're going to be doing some lighter articles here and there throughout the series, enjoy! 10 Fun Facts About Christianity: 1) Christianity is the only religion that believes in the Trinity. 2) Christians were originally called Nazarenes. 3) Joseph, Jesus' father, was a carpenter, meaning that Jesus probably learned the practice as well. 4) Jesus was not white, Jews that lived in his time had olive-brown skin. 5) Christianity is the world's largest religion. 6) Approximately 100 million Bibles are sold every year. 7) About 71% of Americans identify as Christian. 8) More than 70 million Christians have been killed for their faith. 9) Jesus had several half-siblings (Mary and Joseph's biological children) 10) Jesus didn't have a last name, neither did any Palestinians. Cover photo credit: http://anglingcouncilireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/sites/244/2016/04/Fun_Facts_Stamp-01-01-01-720x424.jpg

Welcome to the second article of our Books of the Bible Series! The book of the Bible that we are studying today is Exodus, the second book of Moses. Exodus has many stories, the ones we will be learning about today are: The Israelites Oppressed, The Birth of Moses, Moses and the Burning Bush, Ten Plagues, the first Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments. Let's get into it! The Israelites Oppressed Joseph, his brothers, and all of that generation had died, but the Israelites were still great in numbers, there were so many that the land was filled with them. But a new king, to which Joseph had no connection to, had come to power over Egypt. This new pharaoh believed that the Israelites had become far too numerous. He believed that if the opportunity arose, the Israelites would join Egypt's enemies and fight against them. So he ordered them into slavery against their will and oppressed them with forced labor. However, the more oppressed the Israelites were, the more numerous they became. So the pharaoh decided to take a new approach, he ordered that the Hebrew midwives kill any baby boys that they deliver, but let the girls live. The Hebrew midwives tried to deceive the pharaoh and say that the Hebrew mothers always give birth before they arrive so they couldn't kill the boys, because they knew that God would not approve of what the pharaoh was ordering. When his midwife method didn't work, the pharaoh then ordered to all his people that every Hebrew boy that is born must be thrown into the Nile. The Birth of Moses A Levite woman gave birth to a baby boy, the law said that she must throw him into the Nile, but she wanted to keep him safe, and she did for three months. But when she couldn't hide him any longer, she placed her child in a papyrus basket and placed it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister watched to see what would happen to him. When the pharaoh's daughter came to the Nile to bathe, she saw the baby and took pity on him. The baby's sister came forward and asked if she wanted her to take him to a Hebrew woman so he could be nursed. Pharaoh's daughter said yes, and the baby's sister brought him to their mother. Once the baby was older, the baby's mother brought him back to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses. Moses and the Burning Bush One day, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of Moses' own people. This angered Moses so much that he killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand. But when word of this event got out, Pharaoh went after Moses with the goal of killing him. But before he could succeed, Moses escaped to Midian and settled down there. One day he was tending to his flock, and he came to Herob, the mountain of God. Exodus 3:2 says, "There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up." God told Moses that He had heard the Israelites' prayers, and that He had a plan to bring them out of Egypt, and that plan was for Moses to be the one to do it. The Ten Plagues Moses and his brother, Aaron, went to Pharaoh and told him to let the Israelites be free. Exodus 5:1 says, "Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.''" But the Pharaoh refused, so God cast the ten plagues on the Egyptians. The plagues were: the Nile turning to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, sickness among the livestock, untreatable boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally, the death of the firstborn. This final plague meant that every firstborn son in Egypt would die, no matter their status. The First Passover Passover was the result of the tenth plague on Egypt. God said that the only way to let the angel of death "pass over" you was if you slaughtered a one year-old male sheep or goat that had no defects, and smeared some of its blood on your doorframe. God said that this would let the angel know who followed God and who followed Pharaoh. Exodus‬ ‭12:13‬ says, "The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." Because Pharaoh didn't listen to Moses, his son was killed that night. After Pharaoh's son died, he ordered the Israelites to leave Egypt. ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭12:31-32‬ says, "During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.'" So the Israelites immediately fled from Egypt. The Parting of the Red Sea After the Israelites fled, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army to get the Israelites back. But God wasn't going to let the Israelites go through that again, so he performed a miracle. ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭14:21-22‬ says, "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left." So the Israelites went through the Red Sea, and God let the sea walls fall on the Egyptians who tried to follow them in. The Ten Commandments Now that the Israelites were safe from the Pharaoh, they had to face the long journey through the desert. One of the many events that took place in the desert was the giving of the Ten Commandments. At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. According to Martin Luther's Small Catechism, the Ten Commandments are: 1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 2) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3) Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. 4) Honor thy father and thy mother. 5) Thou shalt not kill. 6) Thou shalt not commit adultery. 7) Thou shalt not steal. 8) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 9) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. 10) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. Significance of the Stories of Exodus These stories all center around how God rescued the Israelites from Egypt. We have to understand that this story is still relevant today. It shows that God hasn't forgotten about us, He sees our pain and He's going to get us out of it, even if it means plaguing an entire country, because that's how much he cares for us. This doesn't mean he's going to sick a bunch of frogs on anyone that's mean to you, but it does mean that you can always rely on Him, He will help you get through.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first article of our new Books of the Bible Series! This series is all about unpacking each book of the Bible, understanding its significance, what it means for us, and more! The Bible can sometimes be very cryptic, so over the next 66 weeks, we are going to share our perspective about what these books of the Bible have to say. This series is going to be quite a long journey, but we're up for the challenge and we encourage you to come along with us! The first book of the Bible is, as many of you know, Genesis. Genesis covers a lot of ground, from the creation of the universe to the death of Joseph, there's a lot to unpack, so let's get into it. We will be discussing the main stories of Genesis in sections, because a large variety of storylines are told during this book of the Bible. The Beginning As many of you know, the Bible's first line is, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." It goes on to talk about how God lit up the world and added oceans, sky, land, nature, animals, and humans over the course of seven days (which in reality was not just seven days). In the beginning, everything was perfect, but soon sin made its first appearance. Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel's Stories Adam and Eve were the first humans; they were made in God's image and lived in the Garden of Eden. They were naked, but felt no shame because they were ignorant and had no knowledge of shame or evil. God gave them everything; they could have anything they wanted from the garden, all except the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But the serpent deceived Eve, telling her that eating from the tree would give her all of God's wisdom. So she ate and gave some of the fruit to Adam, and he ate it as well. Once they ate from the tree, their eyes were opened, and they were no longer unaware of shame and evil. Because they were no longer ignorant, they realized they were naked and hid from God. When God asked where they were, Adam replied that they were naked, so they hid. God asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" Adam blamed Eve, and Eve explained what the serpent had done. God cursed the serpent and banished Adam and Eve from the garden, saying that they could no longer enjoy the luxuries He had provided. God was not going to spoil them anymore; they had to work to survive. Eve became pregnant and gave birth to Cain, and later Abel. Abel kept the flocks, and Cain worked the soil. When the brothers were sacrificing to God, Cain brought fruit from the soil and Abel brought fat portions of some of the firstborn of his flock. God appreciated Abel's sacrifice more than Cain's which made Cain very angry. So he brought Abel out to the field and killed him, which made God furious. God cursed Cain so that he would no longer be able to yield crops, and marked him so that no one would kill him, this way Cain would have to deal with the curse and not escape his punishment through death. Later, Eve gave birth to another son, Seth, who would be their fresh start. Noah's Ark and the Flood Seth was the father of Enosh, who was the father of Kenan, who was the father of Mahalalel, who was the father of Jared, who was the father of Enoch, who was the father of Methuselah, who was the father of Lamech, who was the father of Noah. Genesis 7:9 describes Noah as "a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." While Noah may have been a righteous man, God saw that the rest of the world was filled with evil so he decided to flood the earth and wipe out all civilization, except for one male and one female from each animal species, along with Noah and his family. So God instructed Noah to build on ark for the animals, himself, and his family so they could survive the flood. Noah did all that God commanded and when the flood came, they survived. And Noah's sons and their wives gave birth to children to repopulate civilization. Abraham and Issac's Story God blessed Abraham and his wife Sarah with a child in their very old age. It was a miracle! Abraham and Sarah named their son Issac, and they loved him very much because they thought they could never have a child. Because Abraham loved his son so much, He decided to test his faith to make sure God was still his first priority. So God instructed that Abraham sacrifice Issac, and as much as it pained Abraham, he prepared the altar to sacrifice his son. But before Abraham could go through with it, an angel of the Lord stopped him. ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭22:11-12‬ ‭says, "But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.'" Because Abraham was faithful to God, He blessed him and his descendants. Joseph's Story Joseph was one of twelve brothers, but his father loved him most because he had been born to him in his old age. Because Joseph was his father's favorite, his father gave Joseph an ornate robe. When the other brothers saw that Joseph was their father's favorite, they became extremely jealous and treated him terribly. His brothers saw him as arrogant and spoiled so they plotted to kill him, but eventually they decided to sell him as a slave. He was taken to Egypt where he was the the lowest of the low, but eventually he worked his way up to become the Pharaoh's vizier, making him the second most powerful man in Egypt. Then when the famine came, people from all over were coming to Egypt to buy bread. In the second year of the famine, Joseph's brothers, the ones who almost killed and then sold him, came before the Pharaoh to ask for bread. But when they did, they did not even recognize the vizier as their brother. When Joseph revealed himself, his brothers were terrified, but Joseph forgave them for the crimes they had committed against them. Significance of the Stories of Genesis These stories are all very different from each other, but they all teach us a lesson. Adam and Eve's story teach us that God is always acting in our best interest and listening to Him will always be the right decision. Cain and Abel's story teaches us that jealousy will lead us to do evil things. Noah's story teaches us that God will protect those who are faithful to Him, and He will save us from evil. Abraham and Issac's story teaches us that God has to be our first priority, and we will be rewarded if we do so. Lastly, Joseph's story teaches us that God has a plan for us, and while it may seem like we've hit rock bottom, he will take care of us and lift us out of that situation. >< We hope that you enjoyed our summary of the main stories in the book of Genesis, and that you learned something today. This article is just the beginning of our Books of the Bible Series journey, and we hope you will come along with us for the rest of the ride.

Last week's article was all about considering the source. Once you've considered the source, you're able to understand where thoughts are coming from, God or Satan, credible or not. Once you're able to recognize this, you can move on to the next step of shutting out Satan, which is filtering out. If you consider the source and see that your thoughts are making you think that God doesn't love you, that you don't deserve God's love, or that God has abandoned you, it's time to filter that out, because that's not coming from Jesus. As we've said before, Satan's worst trick is convincing the world the he doesn't exist, by doing this we think that our self-demeaning thoughts are coming from God. But now that we've learned to consider the source and filter out Satan's false statements, we will become more mature in our faith. God will always protect us, and once we've learned to filter out Satan, we will be able to trust God to protect us. This article wraps up our Shutting Out Satan Series, we really hope you've learned something from this series, it's so important that us as Christians can shut out the lies that Satan feeds us. No matter how strong we are in our faith, we will always have moments where we will doubt God's undying love for us, but there's no need to. God has assured us that He will never leave nor forsake us, no matter what we do. Isaiah 40:31 says, "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

This is a phrase that we often hear throughout our lives. Most of us have been taught to "consider the source" before believing everything we see or hear. But, we never seem to think to consider the source when it comes to our own thoughts, and this can be a major problem. This series is all about shutting out Satan, his goal is to make us believe that God doesn't love us, so that he lead us astray. But if we can learn to filter out what comes from Satan and what comes from God, we will able to see what God really thinks of us and others without Satan clouding our perspective. And that starts with considering the source. When you start having thoughts that make you think that God doesn't love you, or that you don't deserve God's love, or that God has abandoned you, you have to realize that those thoughts could never come from God. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The Bible says over and over again that God is on our side, there's nothing we can do to make him abandon us, and there's no possibility that He could stop loving us, even if we don't love Him. So now that we know that our evil thoughts aren't coming from God, how do we know they're coming from Satan? Satan's one goal is to make you believe that God doesn't want you, so that you'll feel alone, miserable, and lost. Unfortunately, he has succeeded in this mission with many people. It's heartbreaking, but it's true. Think about it, there are self-proclaimed "Christians" who have made it their goal to judge and hurt others. Think about the LGBTQ+ community, many of whom have been banished from the church by people who claim to be Christians. The church should be a place that takes people in and shows them the love of God. But instead of being welcomed with open arms, like Jesus would've done, they have been treated like dirt by those who proclaim that it's God's will, but it is not. This is Satan's work. Satan's worst trick is that he convinced the world that he doesn't exist. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says, "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." So when people are turned away by "Christians," they believe that God has abandoned them, and Satan wins. This is so sad because God loves all people, and He just wants us to know Him. So we hope that if you can take one thing away from this article, it'll be this: God will never make you feel lesser than; He is here to lift you up and protect you. So when you feel like God has turned His back on you or someone else, stop and consider the source.

Today's article is going to be a little bit different. My name, as some of you may know, is Sydney, and I'm the creator of Faith For Girls By Girls as well as the writer of all of our blog posts. I use pronouns such as "we" and "us" when referring to FFGBG because I believe that I'm just spreading what God has already said, so I don't refer to my organization using "me" or "I" because I believe that nothing I say is really my own. God is within me and I am a disciple of Him, and that's how I know what to say in my posts. But today I'm telling a personal story of what happened to me and only me, so I will be using "me" and "I" pronouns. I hope that makes sense. ♡ Today I sat down to start writing a blog post, and I thought that I should start a series that has something to do with women because I originally started this organization to empower women through Christ. I began researching verses about women and I kept coming across bible verses saying truly awful things about women, and this upset me deeply. My understanding has always been that Jesus loves everyone, including women. I already knew there were verses about women being silent in the church etc, but I always thought that those rules were man-made and didn't come directly from God, so there was nothing more to it than outdated rules that were no longer relevant. However, I continued to research these verses and I became deeply upset. I found so many verses saying awful things, so many thoughts were racing through my head. Am I useless without a man? Why can't I have authority over a man? Am I only here to be a man's sidekick? Does God only value me because I may bear a child someday? Does God really love me if His prophets say these things about my gender? All of these thoughts really hurt me, but I got some perspective and started to read around those verses to get some context. I realized that those rules were not God's rules, rather they were rules created by humans. I then read what biblical scholars have said about these verses, and they all came to the conclusion that those rules either came from the culture at the time or they were created so no trouble was caused. You may be thinking, what does this have to do with Satan? I realized that when I was having a mental breakdown over these out of context verses, thinking it was God's word, I was questioning whether God loved me. This is the work of Satan. Satan wants you to feel like God doesn't love you, and that's how he was trying to make me feel. Thankfully, I have a strong Christian community around me who were able to reassure me of the truth, but some people don't have that community to remind them of their value. There are people who will go their whole lives thinking that God doesn't love them because of who they are or something they did, but that's not God that's telling them that, it's Satan. Today I realized the importance of shutting out Satan, because there is no truth to any of the lies he feeds us. So this series will be my way of trying to help others recognize what thoughts are coming from God and what thoughts are coming from Satan. Because it's important that we listen to what Jesus said when He was on earth, that is the whole truth. But when we start to let those thoughts creep in, the ones that tell us God has abandoned us, we have to recognize that that could never come from God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 says, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

As many of you know the CEO of Faith For Girls By Girls, Sydney, started this organization at the age of 13 and is still continuing to pursue her passion for spreading the word of Jesus today. Sydney was reached out to by the host of the One to One podcast, where Jonathan Kopecky talks with teens about their life, faith, and that one question. In this episode of One to One, you'll get to listen to Sydney come on the air with Jonathan and ask each other some questions. Give it a listen!

Happy Easter! He is risen! Today we will be talking about what happened on the first ever Easter. As many of you already know, Easter marks the day that Jesus defeated death and atoned for our sins. He didn't deserve the pain He had to endure on Good Friday, but He did it so that we could be saved. If you've been a Christian for a while, you've probably heard this message over and over, it may have become redundant, so let's put this into perspective. When Jesus was arrested and brought before Pontius Pilate, Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but he knew that if he didn't please the civilians of Jerusalem, they might overthrow him. So Pilate gave the gathered crowd a choice, he could release Jesus or Barabbas. Barabbas was in prison for an insurrection in the city and murder, this man deserved to be punished. But Pilate gave the crowd a choice of who to release, he was confident that they would choose to release Jesus, but they didn't. Barabbas, a killer and anarchist, was set free in the place of a sinless man. You may think, that's not fair! It should've been Barabbas! News flash... we are Barabbas. Jesus died in our place, of course most of us aren't rioting murderers, but we still don't deserve what Jesus did for us. He healed our broken relationship with God by dying on the cross, and on the third day He rose again, conquering death. Luke 24:1-12 says, "On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened." Do you know what this means? First, Jesus sacrifices Himself in the our place when He didn't deserve it, and then when He overcame death, He entrusted women to spread the word. This may not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does show that Jesus died, rose again, and saved ALL of us. Not just men, not just women, not just this group or that group, ALL of us. And because of that, ALL of us have the chance to be forgiven and have eternal rest. Once again, Happy Easter! Take a moment to thank Jesus today. ♡ Cover photo credit: https://faithandblessingsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Shutterstock-Jesus-tomb-with-shroud-and-rock-at-doorway.jpg