Galatians 1:6-12
I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.

Let God's curse fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other message than the one we told you about. Even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches anyother message, let him be forever cursed. I will say it again: If anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God's curse fall upon that person.

Obviously, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ's servant.

Dear brothers, I solemnly assure you that the Good News of salvation which I preach is not based on mere human reasoning or logic. For my message came by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ himself. No one else taught me.

It is clear to me that there are many different gospels being preached in our churches today. We have the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. We have the legalistic gospel. We have the unverisalist gospel. We have the, you are loved the way you are, gospel. To be sure, the is a different gospel for each and every itching ear there is. There are many different gods that have been created in our image and many different ideas concerning Christ. The one thing in common with these is that they are trying to please men. They most definitely are not trying to please God and in most cases they face little or no opposition from the secular world. True Christianity though is another story. The true Gospel is being attacked constantly, the followers of this Gospel are being persecuted and are promised persecution. It is not something that was thought of from the mind of man, which explains why there are so many mysteries in the Bible that we could never come close to fully comprehending. There is however sufficient and plentiful amounts of evidence to support the Bible and its teachings, though those of the world will always think of it as foolishness.

We, as many of you probably do, are often on the receiving end of "Christian" forwards. These almost never preach the true gospel along with repentance and faith but rather have some picture with a faded out image of Christ or have a short story that is supposed to convey some Christian sentiment. At the end of many of these is the saying "If you are ashamed of me I will be ashamed of you before my Father" However this is not the true verse.
Mark 8:38
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

However, the second part "and my words" gets cut off and the reason for this is surely that the words of Jesus are very often left out of such e-mails. This could be a feel good message for people of many faiths because there are many faiths that believe in Jesus or believe in some of the moral things that Christians do, however the Gospel is cut off and therefore sending such forwards is in fact not something to be proud of but rather something we should ask ourselves if we should be sending, especially to non-Christians.

What a little blessing!

And in a big way! Yesterday we were taking a family walk with our three year old riding his tricycle along with us when we ran into a couple that my husband knows from work. It was such a blessing for us to see our three year old start talking to them by first speaking of the hill he had just rode down and then immediately going into "God loves us" and "God made everything" and that He loves everyone as well as "my great grandma is in Heaven and my other papa is in heaven too" and to follow it up with "When God takes us to Heaven then we'll be able to see Him!". To listen to the joy and wonder in his voice as he spoke of these things (with absolutely no prompting by the way) was such a blessing. It was a great encouragement as well. At times I feel I am talking over him because I refuse to talk down to him when he asks me questions about God and Jesus and the Bible. I do not want to make something up that I think he'll be able to understand and figure I can fix it later because when the time comes to fix it I would then have to explain why I didn't tell him the whole truth to begin with so I am determined to tell him the whole truth, and it seems he is grasping more than I was aware. Oh what a blessing it was to see him talk like that and so freely! I just had to share.

Finding Time

In the day to day business of raising two children and keeping a home, I have found it is not easy to keep a quiet time or to devote all of yourself to reading and studying the Word as I would like to do. In seeking to find time God is showing me that I need to change the way in which I learn and instead of sitting for hours with concordance and notepad and taking notes and going through the Scriptures (which I have no time for anymore and when I do I am constantly interrupted) I must learn to find time to put His word into my heart every day. By understanding this I am just starting a new method of writing down passages on notecards and whenever I have a few moments to spare to meditate on those verses.
Here are today's:
Romans 8:15-22
So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family - calling him "Abba, Father." For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we will share his treasures - for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory we must also share his suffering.
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

There is definitely enough in those verses to keep me filled with gratitude, reflection, understanding, and prayer. Oh how thankful I am that when I cry out to Him, He hears me! Oh how thankful I am for the encouragement He gives! There is no excuse not to be in His word, there is always a way - and if we seek Him His will shall be made known to us.

I'm Back...

Sort of. I would like to say that this time I am going to keep up with this, and although I intend to make more of an effort to post more often I am sure that life is going to do a pretty good job at preventing me from doing so (which is not a bad thing). God is doing great things, as always, and I am excited and passionate about the things He has put before me in which I have the opportunity to glorify Him and bring praise unto Him. Of course, this is the absolute priority in my life, to be a living sacrifice for the one who Created me and also gave Himself up for me. I have accepted a leadership position in our MOPS at church which I seek out your prayers that none of me and all of God is seen in this. I also have the opportunity to witness to someone who is quite "lukewarm" in their faith and I am a bit nervous in this but I know God can even use the stumbling words of someone like me to reach a receptive heart that is ready for true conversion so I know as long as I submit to the Holy Spirit His will shall be done.