10 Verses You Will Never Find Cross-Stitched in Your Grandma's Living Room

With the Lord's prayer, we touched a little bit on passages of Scripture that most people have heard. You can find Scripture anywhere - and most of the time, people don't even know where it comes from! For example, you remember being taught "the golden rule" of treating others the way you wish to be treated? Check out Matthew 7:12 - "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Or have you ever seen a lovely rock displayed in a home's flowerbed inscribed with the last part of Joshua 24:15? "But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” But I think my personal favorite are the cross-stitchings of verses that grandmothers love to have displayed around the house, similar to the one in the right-hand corner. (FYI - I'm not slamming on your granny...just stating a fact!) These are usually verses that are pretty, frequently about love. You know, verses like I Corinthians 13:13 "But now, faith, hope, love abide these three; but the greatest of these is love," and Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Now, there's certainly nothing wrongwith these verses. But why do we put them on display? They're comforting. They're encouraging. But what about the passages in Scripture that are less talked about because maybe they're a little harder to handle or a little more difficult to understand? Does that make them any less true? Of course not. Over the next few posts, we're going to examine several verses that I'm going to bet you never find cross-stitched in your grandma's living room...or anyone else's for that matter!

1) Luke 14:26 - "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple."

2) Judges 2:10 - "All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. "

3) Romans 6:16-18 - "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

4) Job 2:2 - "The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it."

5) I Corinthians 15:33 - "Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."

6) Jude 1:5 - "But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe."

7) II Corinthians 11:13-15 - "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."

8) Isaiah 47:10 - "For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘ I am, and there is no one else besides me.’"

9) Matthew 10:33-34, "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword."

10) I Timothy 2:11-12 - "Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence."

Can you believe those things are in the Bible? I mean, according to this, I'm supposed to hate my parents while dodging Satan who is apparently hanging out on Earth? Hopefully, he'll run into Jesus' sword. But you just make sure that you sit there and be quiet about it. I mean, HELLO! These verses are NOT cool. But they're true. Buckle your seatbelt, sisters. It's going to be a bumpy ride.