For one of my Bible classes we have to read the book of Proverbs. I thoroughly enjoy reading this book because it is full of wonderful truths. As I was reading through this book I underlined particular verses that I considered things I needed to work on, or they would be some sort of encouragement sometime down the road.
3:31-32-Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways for the LORD detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence.
God doesn't want me to be like a violent person. Someone who is full of anger or violence is not well in God's eyes. If I can live uprightly God will hold me close to Himself and I can rely on Him and KNOW that he will rely on me to get His work done.
3:33b- He blesses the home of the righteous
God is giving blessing to those who want to serve Him and do right. That is something that I am striving for.
3:35-The wise inherit honor, but fools he holds up to shame.
How great is it to ask God for wisdom and inherit the honor that goes with that. I know that I am a fool and right now I use wisdom against me and I know for a fact how much it shames God. I am completely held up to God but in such a bad way. I would rather be put down in a hole, instead of being looked upon by my Holy and Graceful God.
4:11-I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.
Give God the time and He will put you in the right direction. We can't do everything on our own. In fact, without God, we can't do anything!! Only God and the people He chooses will have wisdom.
4:23-Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
That means to guard it in every aspect of your life. From people who are going to hurt you emotionally, even those people whom you are dating. Don't let people pretend to love you, pretend to treat you well. The devil works in people's lives and not everything/everyone we are around is a good influence on our life. Be careful and let God put these people in your lives. Give you whole heart to God and he will protect it for you.
Well this is quite a bit of proverbs to think about for now. So throughout the day or weeks to come I'll add new portions to this!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
My 2 cents...
I am a seeker. By this, I don't mean I'm wondering if there's a god, I know there is. I don't mean I don't believe in Jesus, the bible, or any of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. No, I believe in all those things--what I am seeking is how to apply them. All my life I've been in a Christian home (basically, my parents were saved when I was 4,) raised Christian, taught the bible, all that good stuff. The best part of it is I've even gotten to see it from many different denominations perspective--my parents liked to church hop alot. The thing is, I've seen hypocrisy. More than I've ever wanted to. And I've been a hypocrite too, for most of my life, I've faked Christianity (although I've come to dislike the term now) more to fit in than anything else.
I can recall 3 times of revival in my life-three times when I stopped faking it. Once when I was 13, my fam was going to Grace at the time (the local Anabaptist (think Mennonite but more strict) church.) There was a traveling evangelist from South Africa, Keith Daniels was his name. He came and spoke for an entire week--and he was real. He wasn't faking it. He believed in this God and Jesus stuff for real! And when he told us about it, there were no lies, just truth. I wanted that. I wanted what the bible taught, I wanted to please God, I wanted to be real. So I threw my life to God--I gave up everything sinful I was doing at the time, I spent most of my free time seeking God and his truth, I tried to live like a Christian. But over time, the fire faded, I became jaded by all the hypocrisy around me, I sunk back into my old ways.
When I was 15-16ish, my family went to Living Word, the church that I still kinda consider my home church. It wasn't nearly as flashy or dramatic as my last revival, it was more a over time kinda thing. While some of the doctrine and teaching was a little flaky (in my often wrong opinion,) there were people there who honestly loved Jesus. This is always what makes me the most excited about this Jesus stuff--seeing people who honestly, truly love Jesus and try to live according to what he asked. The best human beings I have ever met have all been Christians--there is a power in what Jesus said, a truth to his words beyond anything that we mortals can come up with. But time, and not being around people who are crazy about Jesus, and just apathy on my part, all these have the sad effect of bringing me down.
Going down is exactly what I did next. I went to a "Christian" high school that only brought me down more (that's for a later post,) my parents jumped between several different churches and I stopped going except when they made me, and I left for college. I had a choice between RIT (the #3 tech school in the nation,) or Eastern (a above average Christian liberal arts school.) I choose Eastern, for many different reasons. My problems with myself didn't help me any--I became a social recluse, with serious self-esteem problems, depression, and just a overall shutting down of myself. I still deal with this, its one of my biggest problems.
But Cassie really came into my life. Though I had liked her virtually all throughout high school, and been friends with her for quite sometime, we became close. We started talking alot. Now, alot of what I thought about the world and how things were was shaped by three things. One, my experiences of the world up to that point. I don't mean the good stuff either, I mean the bad. Two was philosophy, especially Nietzsche. Alot of what he said made sense--the weak existing to justify the strong, no apparent meaning for most of the world, just nihilism in general. Three was Erica Neal, a friend of mine. We had long talks about philosophy and god and the meaning of life, and all sorts of stuff that I absolutely love to talk about. I like playing the Devil's Advocate, taking every side on an argument. I don't do it to win an argument, I do it because I don't even know usually where I stand, and arguing the point that my gut is against helps me to find out what I think the truth or my opinion is on a subject.
Anyways, the third revival came quietly, slowly. It began while talking with her--she was a bit shaky in her faith, but she still believed in Jesus. She loved him! And all the talking we did--we talked about everything. And I started to believe again--it was another slow, gradual process. I started to actually care about this Jesus stuff again. Sure, I was at a Christian school, but I was hardened, cynical about everything. This is another thing that I still struggle with. But I went to church with her once, and in the service (which wasn't particularly good, and I didn't really like the church either,) I just decided that I really did still believe in this Jesus. Since then, it's been a long road figuring everything out.
This is why I say I'm a seeker. I don't know with many doctrinal issues. I don't know about many different problems I see with Christians today. I don't even know about many of the ways the bible relates to me today. I don't have any of the answers, except for one. Jesus is God's son, and he loves you and me. He loves us so much that he cut himself off from his godhood and became a man, and even died as a man just to save us from the cold unflinching law that condemns us! He is the only way to God, and we need him--or we have no hope. As for the rest? Well, I hope you'll all tag along as I keep searching. Let's go.
I can recall 3 times of revival in my life-three times when I stopped faking it. Once when I was 13, my fam was going to Grace at the time (the local Anabaptist (think Mennonite but more strict) church.) There was a traveling evangelist from South Africa, Keith Daniels was his name. He came and spoke for an entire week--and he was real. He wasn't faking it. He believed in this God and Jesus stuff for real! And when he told us about it, there were no lies, just truth. I wanted that. I wanted what the bible taught, I wanted to please God, I wanted to be real. So I threw my life to God--I gave up everything sinful I was doing at the time, I spent most of my free time seeking God and his truth, I tried to live like a Christian. But over time, the fire faded, I became jaded by all the hypocrisy around me, I sunk back into my old ways.
When I was 15-16ish, my family went to Living Word, the church that I still kinda consider my home church. It wasn't nearly as flashy or dramatic as my last revival, it was more a over time kinda thing. While some of the doctrine and teaching was a little flaky (in my often wrong opinion,) there were people there who honestly loved Jesus. This is always what makes me the most excited about this Jesus stuff--seeing people who honestly, truly love Jesus and try to live according to what he asked. The best human beings I have ever met have all been Christians--there is a power in what Jesus said, a truth to his words beyond anything that we mortals can come up with. But time, and not being around people who are crazy about Jesus, and just apathy on my part, all these have the sad effect of bringing me down.
Going down is exactly what I did next. I went to a "Christian" high school that only brought me down more (that's for a later post,) my parents jumped between several different churches and I stopped going except when they made me, and I left for college. I had a choice between RIT (the #3 tech school in the nation,) or Eastern (a above average Christian liberal arts school.) I choose Eastern, for many different reasons. My problems with myself didn't help me any--I became a social recluse, with serious self-esteem problems, depression, and just a overall shutting down of myself. I still deal with this, its one of my biggest problems.
But Cassie really came into my life. Though I had liked her virtually all throughout high school, and been friends with her for quite sometime, we became close. We started talking alot. Now, alot of what I thought about the world and how things were was shaped by three things. One, my experiences of the world up to that point. I don't mean the good stuff either, I mean the bad. Two was philosophy, especially Nietzsche. Alot of what he said made sense--the weak existing to justify the strong, no apparent meaning for most of the world, just nihilism in general. Three was Erica Neal, a friend of mine. We had long talks about philosophy and god and the meaning of life, and all sorts of stuff that I absolutely love to talk about. I like playing the Devil's Advocate, taking every side on an argument. I don't do it to win an argument, I do it because I don't even know usually where I stand, and arguing the point that my gut is against helps me to find out what I think the truth or my opinion is on a subject.
Anyways, the third revival came quietly, slowly. It began while talking with her--she was a bit shaky in her faith, but she still believed in Jesus. She loved him! And all the talking we did--we talked about everything. And I started to believe again--it was another slow, gradual process. I started to actually care about this Jesus stuff again. Sure, I was at a Christian school, but I was hardened, cynical about everything. This is another thing that I still struggle with. But I went to church with her once, and in the service (which wasn't particularly good, and I didn't really like the church either,) I just decided that I really did still believe in this Jesus. Since then, it's been a long road figuring everything out.
This is why I say I'm a seeker. I don't know with many doctrinal issues. I don't know about many different problems I see with Christians today. I don't even know about many of the ways the bible relates to me today. I don't have any of the answers, except for one. Jesus is God's son, and he loves you and me. He loves us so much that he cut himself off from his godhood and became a man, and even died as a man just to save us from the cold unflinching law that condemns us! He is the only way to God, and we need him--or we have no hope. As for the rest? Well, I hope you'll all tag along as I keep searching. Let's go.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Something to Smile At
"I listened with pride as my daughter caregully enunciated each word of The Lord's Prayer, right up to the end of the prayer when she said, 'Lead us not into temptaion, but deliver us some E-mail. Amen.'"
Friday, February 9, 2007
Shawn's Testimony
My name is Shawn , and I was born out of wedlock in the small city town in New York. I’m 21 years old, and got saved late in my 19th year. But what on before that and what led up to that day is a tale to be told. My mom and dad raised me and my brother (who was born almost 2 years to the day after me) together for about 5 years. Then after never getting married, they decided that it would never happen so they split up. My brother and I both lived with my mom at the time. Now a thing you need to understand about my life as I tell this story is that my family is almost entirely unsaved and un-religious all together. I never went to church, never picked up a bible. My mom and my dad almost immediately started seeing other people, but my mom decided that she should get married. So one night before ever discussing anything with either my brother or me, her and her boyfriend got married. He was a good man that we all liked right up until the days following the wedding. Things went down hill from there; he turned into a controlling, cruel, verbally and physically abusive person. So I, out of fear for my mom, stayed with her, and my brother moved in with my dad. Now without getting into to much detail about my life, things became, for of a lack of better words, a living hell for our family. Torn from all sides, things continued to get worse. So when I graduated high school, after touring the upstate NY school system ( 6 schools) I moved out as far from my family as I could. But my grandpa was sick, bed ridden and paralyzed. So I came home and lived with him and my granny. I helped them out for about a year, then packed up and left for Cincinnati Ohio, with a family I was friends with. This was the first time I ever had and real religious love shown to me, explained and taught to me. They were a great influence, and a big help to cope with the things to come. A few weeks before thanksgiving, I get a phone call saying that my grandpas taking a turn for the worse, and on top of that I was feeling very home sick. So I jumped on the first bus home, after praying long with the family I was staying with. After arriving I was able to spent thanksgiving with my family, and my grandfather, and remained there to help them out. I continued to live there through the rest of the year, seeing the rise and fall of my grandfather. But the week of Christmas seemed great, his health was up, and all seemed well. So me and my brother went to my dads the night before Christmas, and got up for the holidays only to get a call say that our grandfather passed away before 8 am that morning. I was in disbelief and could hold my self together. Following these events, I was torn so much about God and religion, but some how some way he heard what my heart was screaming, and not what my head was saying. He brought the most wonderful girl in my life, currently my fiancé, Alydia Wilbur shared with me so much more than just her love. She showed me the love of God, and told me of his plan. She bought me my first bible, directed me to passages to read, to lead me to my salvation. But I still wasn’t sure; it was all so new to me. Then one night well she was here at BBC, I decided to go out with friends. And while with them I started to drink, and drank way too much. I got so sick the following morning that I had to tell her I couldn’t come see her because I drank. She decided that I was pulling her down spiritually, and I needed to be a leader, and help her grow spiritually. So after loosing the only feeling of love I had in my life, I got down on my knees many times to pray for forgiveness, both to her and to God. But it seemed neither were listening, until finally God brought her love back to me, and along with it, with more force and power than ever before, His love as well. I read more into the word he had sent me, and prayed once more for forgiveness, and gave my confession to Christ, accepting him as my lord and savior. And after many long hard trials, I finally had meaning and fullness to my life, which was being guided by a love that spanned both the heavens and the earth. Through this love in my life I was guided to BBC where I continue to grow more in Christ, and help others around me grow as well. Now in less than 200 days I will be getting married to this wonderful girl who led me to the lord, and continues to impact my life with such passion. I hope to continue to grow till the day I die no matter what walls I’m forced to climb.
Cassie's Testimoney
Let's see... how do I begin? Well... I grew up in a "christian" family. That is to say that both of my parents were saved and we went to church. Umm... I don't remember much other than my sister and I were dropped off for sunday school and mom and dad would join us for church. So sometime around the age of 5 I "got saved", or "said the prayer" I really don't remember... but that is what I have been told. So yea... I just kinda went through my life... elementary and on to highschool where I seriously doubted my salvation. For years I have lived with the fear of "what if I didn't really mean it", because seriously - how much can you possible understand and promise as a 5 year old? I can't remember how many times I laid in my bed at night crying out to God to save me, night after night. Every time I was afraid that I wasn't "sincer" enough and that my words were just being received as ... words. I'm not quite sure when all that happened, high school is mostly a blur... I remember "rebelling" in 9th grade. As much as someone in my situation and of my personality could... :) In 10th grade I started getting my life back on track. I had a good youth pastor who cared enough to drag me into every youth group activity willing, or not. I stated doing devos and praying more. I had my ups and downs, but my walk was getting stronger. Then 12th grade rolled around and my world was thrown in a blender... most of it was my fault, but I lost my trust in God. I came to the conclusion that God was punishing me for past mistakes. I made a few more bad decisions and handled some situations badly. College was staring me in the face and I fought my parents the entire way there. My church split right before I left for college and I lost a lot of good friends. Umm... first semester was really hard, over Christmas I started getting involved with Ben. He had helped me a lot towards the end of my first semester and our friendship grew... He fell in love and then I did... my faith was really strong before we started dating. I abandoned it because I was afraid that if I was close to God he would just punish me again and take away the person who meant the most to me. So... it hasn't been until recently that I have decided to try and trust God and get right with him again, with my boyfriends persuading and encouragement. I shared my idea of staring a core group - the idea exploded and yea... that's what this is and this is where I was and where I am...
Alydia's Testimony
Hello, my name Alydia and this is my salvation story.
I was born in a home where my parents struggled incredibly with their relationships with each other and with us their children.
By the age of 2 my two brothers and I were removed from my father's care because of an incident based on a lie. My brother Jeremiah hit his head on a coffee table and needed to get stitches. The story was that my dad kept pushing him back on the couch so he would lay down and take a nap. Jeremiah fell and hit his head, then ran to my mom with blood spilling down his face, just above his eye.
We were taking into protective custody and lived in a group home for quite some time. Thankfully I do not remember this part of the ordeal, but I wish I knew the truth of it to this day.
God protected me from so much fighting and arguing. I went to church on Sunday every Sunday, 3 times throughout the day and again on Wednesday nights. By the age of 8 I knew that Jesus wanted me to be part of His family. I was so burdened in my heart that I could only see my father 2 weekends out of a month. I knew that I could have a Heavenly Father at my side all of the time. He loved me so much, that he allowed men, sinful men to sacrifice his ONLY Son so I could be his daughter and part of the Bride(church) of Christ.
I switched schools, churches several times through my Junior High and Senior High years. I became very tired of it so I decided to see if I could move in my Father. I left my mother's protection for many reasons that I don't want to discuss. I hated my mother for a couple of years before I even wanted to talk to her. She wasn't truly saved when my younger brother and I had left her care, but through that experience she truly found God and is now living for him whole heartedly...
I rededicated my life to the Lord when I met my unsaved fiance almost 2 years ago. While living with my dad I hated going to church. I continued going to a Christian school, because I knew people there already and I felt safe there. I went back to church, then off to Bible College where I am finishing my Degree in Early Childhood.
I don't know what the future holds..but I know that God truly loves me and that I was a sinner and still am one, but God doesn't see me that way. He sees me as his daughter and his Son's blood has washed my soul clean. I am looking forward to the day that I can be with him in Eternity.
I was born in a home where my parents struggled incredibly with their relationships with each other and with us their children.
By the age of 2 my two brothers and I were removed from my father's care because of an incident based on a lie. My brother Jeremiah hit his head on a coffee table and needed to get stitches. The story was that my dad kept pushing him back on the couch so he would lay down and take a nap. Jeremiah fell and hit his head, then ran to my mom with blood spilling down his face, just above his eye.
We were taking into protective custody and lived in a group home for quite some time. Thankfully I do not remember this part of the ordeal, but I wish I knew the truth of it to this day.
God protected me from so much fighting and arguing. I went to church on Sunday every Sunday, 3 times throughout the day and again on Wednesday nights. By the age of 8 I knew that Jesus wanted me to be part of His family. I was so burdened in my heart that I could only see my father 2 weekends out of a month. I knew that I could have a Heavenly Father at my side all of the time. He loved me so much, that he allowed men, sinful men to sacrifice his ONLY Son so I could be his daughter and part of the Bride(church) of Christ.
I switched schools, churches several times through my Junior High and Senior High years. I became very tired of it so I decided to see if I could move in my Father. I left my mother's protection for many reasons that I don't want to discuss. I hated my mother for a couple of years before I even wanted to talk to her. She wasn't truly saved when my younger brother and I had left her care, but through that experience she truly found God and is now living for him whole heartedly...
I rededicated my life to the Lord when I met my unsaved fiance almost 2 years ago. While living with my dad I hated going to church. I continued going to a Christian school, because I knew people there already and I felt safe there. I went back to church, then off to Bible College where I am finishing my Degree in Early Childhood.
I don't know what the future holds..but I know that God truly loves me and that I was a sinner and still am one, but God doesn't see me that way. He sees me as his daughter and his Son's blood has washed my soul clean. I am looking forward to the day that I can be with him in Eternity.
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