The current struggle in my life.

I want to let you all know first that this is a very honest confession, one that is hard to put out there but by doing so I think it will help me thing through everything. I like "seeing things in print" and I value your opinions.

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Church....I love my Church I love what it represents that it is reaching out to others and inviting them in. I love the people in it, they are my local family. But because of the outreach mission of my Church 70% of the time the sermons are very well... basic. Again there is nothing wrong with this but I'm finally in a place where I want to learn, I want to know the history and the background not just the stories. I've got the basics down. Don't get me wrong I have no plans to leave my Church that would honestly hurt to much. These people were with me during the hardest parts of my life and are now celebrating the good times with me. I have no desire to leave I just have a desire to learn. We do have small groups and the point of those are to feed the 'non-beginners' so to speak. However the series we are doing isn't what I thought it would be. It is more a discussion about common "rules" of Christianity and challenging their merit. There isn't a lot of study to it like I thought there would be. I've been doing some studying on my own and Ry and I are going to start soon (he has a much more in depth background than I do.) so that is exciting to me.

I wish there could be a happy medium. but those Churches just don't make it in this world. You have to the either or.

So here is the contemplative part. The question I guess. My Church does a good job of clearly stating that Church is for the seekers and Bible study is where we get the meat. Why don't other seeker Churches do this??? Have we become so complacent that these basic sermons are enough? Do we just go to Church because we are supposed to and really aren't paying attention? I'm glad that there are Churches out there for the new Christians but if we the 'long time' Christians are going to them without any other supplement (devotions, Bible study, etc.) how are we learning anything?

Lots to say....

...but will I remember it all probably not. I wanted to type this up yesterday it was wordless Wednesday so what is a girl to do?


Ok Swine Flu, really?!?! The 'normal' flu takes around 3,000 lives a year and everyone gets it at some point. So why are we so worked up about this one that so far has only one death? I mean that is nothing to take lightly but...I guess my real problem isn't with the flu. (although I do keep trying to add an e at the end of the word) its with the "the world is coming to an end, lets only report things with a negative spin" attitude I don't like. I stopped watching the news a long time ago because I couldn't/didn't want to deal with that much doom and gloom. Sure I'm not as informed about what is going on but I find I'm a generally happier person than most and I think that may have something to do with it.

Ok next subject. I've been failing miserably with my 'no sugar' thing. But I started again yesterday and success! I did have one chocolate (but it was the last one in my house.) However the bigger deal is I didn't have any at work (and there is plenty of temptation) I'm going to be flexible with myself this weekend with 2 birthdays and a wedding shower but besides those I think I'm going to be ok. I think my body was going through withdrawals yesterday I ended up with a migraine...who knows what from but I'm blaming lack of sugar.

I'm still hung up on this whole Miss. America thing. I guess I don't see the problem, with her answer (except the grammar.) In my opinion it was a trick question, either your for or your against and if your against then your set up for failure. I think she did a good job of stating that it was her personal belief with out being disrespectful. I don't believe it is my moral obligation to treat everyone "fairly" I think it would be nice but its not a MORAL obligation. It is my Moral obligation to stand up for my beliefs while being respectful of other people. Its the whole "love the sinner hate the sin" thing in practice. I know people who are gay, and they know I don't agree with their life style. However I can honestly say these two people are some of the nicest, hard working people I've every met. I still don't understand how people are so crazy about freedom of speech until it disagrees with their point of view. Don't slam us and we shouldn't go around slamming you. Promote your cause peacefully not with disrespect and the same is true in reverse. We need to support our cause with respect not craziness.


Humm thats all I can remember for now, and I think that is plenty.

In HIS Grip,
Amber

Easter Challange

I had something very exciting happen this weekend. I was challenged, and not just by anybody but by my future husband. I've been praying for a man that would challenge and help cultivate my faith, and boy do I have one!





I called Ryan Easter morning (he had to work early) and not too far into the conversation he asked me why today was any different than any other day as a Christian. This perplexed me at first, what could he mean by that it was EASTER after all "He is Risen!" I stumbled over my answer in till I understood his meaning. Later after I had time to wake up and process what he was asking me I e-mailed back a response here it is:





"Your right today in the big picture of life isn't any different than yesterday. However even I a "good Christian" (in saying that statement I have judged people as worse than I and put myself up on a pedestal.) Don't remember His death and resurrection the way I should. I go through most days without praying, without being in his word, without acknowledging him at all.... When people ask me to defend my faith I often can't give them a Biblical reference for what I believe I just know "its in there somewhere." (huh, maybe not such a 'good Christian' after all.) These are things I'm working on, and have been for a while (I'm honestly hoping that you will help with this.) So isn't it a good idea to take one day aside every year to remember the basis of our faith? To hopefully spur us on to remember this day continually so that it isn't a big deal next time? Heck isn't that the point of communion that we have lost when it becomes a ritual? So many parts of our faith have become a ritual we have lost the meaning behind it all. "





This just breaks my heart. I'm never going to stop celebrating Easter, that was not the point of the question. The point is that why MUST we have a big celebration to remember this? This is the foundation of our faith, Christ dying for our sins. How could we ever forget that??? But we do, often, I know I do.





I want yesterday to be a new start for me. From now on I don't want to go through one single day without acknowledging God and what he has done for me. This could be prayer, worship, study, or remembrance. I not only want others to see a difference in me I want to see a difference.





So please check in on me, ask me how I'm doing and if you want let me know and I will do the same for you. Also notice on the side I've added a prayer request list, please if you feel lead pray for those Items and feel free to comment to this post with prayer requests of your own.

Romans 9

So I read through Romans chapter 9 and to be honest at first I was a little disappointed with how little I got out of it...at first.

The main point of this chapter is pretty obvious as you are reading it:
Sometimes we just need to accept God for who He is. He is God and who are we to disagree with Him? Who are we to question?

Pretty straight forward right? However how many of us actually go trough life with this perspective? How much of our stress and our worry would melt away if we could truly accept that God is in control and we just need to listen and follow?

Romans 7

A lot of the girls were confused about various parts of this chapter but when you got us all together we figured it out (at least from our perspective.) But then again I guess that is the point of a Bible Study.

So here we go. So right of the bat there is controversy vs 1-3 talk about marriage and some of the old laws related to that. However if you continue reading you will see that those verses are being used as an analogy about getting out death to sin and life with Christ. I personally find that this is a set of verses that are too often taken out of context to further someones agenda. There are verses in the Bible that speak to marriage and divorce and the rules for them, however this is not one of those places, here it is simply being use as an analogy. When you read vs 4-6 you can see the purpose of the marriage analogy. We have died to the law so that we can be belong to him and the "spirit of the law" not the written code.

Vs 7-12 again says how sinful we are and how much we need God. This is a reoccurring theme in this chapter and well worth it since as I've said before it is the basis of my faith. I am a sinner and because of that I need Jesus to save me. Vs. 9 is interesting to me because it is basically a summery of chapter 5. and Vs.11 reminds us that it is an everyday battle against sin.

Vs. 13-25 can be confusing but I think Nikki said it best "we need to defy Satan every day."

Humm so there you go!

Romans 7 Postponed

The homework from our Bible study leader was to write down out questions about the chapter and bring them in. She thought it was a pretty confusing chapter and wanted us all to help each other so...I will post tomorrow with my questions answers and revelations.

Romans 6

Humm this could be hard to explain because in my notes I have arrows drawn everywhere, but we will see.

The first part of the chapter talks mostly about the meaning of baptism.

Vs. 3-4 we were baptized into the same death as Jesus and then like him were raised from the dead by Gods glory, so we could walk in a new way.

Vs. 1 should we continue in sin because of grace?

No! Why? Because of what verse 4 says we need to "walk in a new way" we can't continue with our old ways if we have been raised from the dead (meaning the death that we deserve but have been spared from by Gods grace.) If God has saved us from this death they why do we continue to live as if we are going to die? Sin no longer has control over us (vs. 6-7) This is repeated over and over in this chapter. So not only do we see the meaning of baptism but also the application of it to our lives today.

What sin controls me that I'm not able to give up on my own?

God help me to see the areas in my life where sin controls me and help me to stop.

Vs. 15-18 tells us that we cannot be slaves to both sin and God we must choose. Obedience of Gods word brings us to righteousness.

Vs. 19-22 by your fruit you will know your master

This one is interesting to me we have all heard it a thousand times, they will know we are Christians by our love. By their fruit you will know them, and so on. But have you really taken time to think about this? What do people see when they look at you? Do they know you are different, do they know why?

Vs. 23 we deserve death but God saved us.

Romans is a very repetitive book, but that is because it is filled the foundations of our faith. If we don't understand these basics then we can't understand anything else. It may be repeated many times in different ways but it all comes down to the same thing, we are sinners saved by grace, amazing!

All of the verses are my own paraphrases from the CSB

Accountability

So I joined a Bible Study while I'm down in Iowa and I'm really excited about it. The topic is Romans which is great, and the girls are nice too. I thought since it was on a Thursday night it would bring some consistency to my spiritual life (since I bounce between Iowa and Minn on Sundays) and I was just excited to go through Romans!

So here is where I need some help, I'm not always the best at preparing for Bible study. I'm better than I used to be but still not great. So from now on I'm going to post my revelations and summery of the chapter (or verse section) we are going through that week. So that means this Wednesday, Nov 19th, I will be reporting on Romans chapter 6.