Overwhelmed by the Bible?

Do you ever feel like the Bible is this insurmountable obstacle full of things you think you should know, and want to learn... but there is just TOO much! It is a THICK book with THIN pages! How are we supposed to read that?

Try just starting small.

Think of it like a library

and less like a book.

You don't start reading the library from one end to the other,

you pick out one book you want to read, then when you are done, you get another.

Not such a mountain then.

And if you are feeling REALLY overwhelmed by the size of the Bible.

Read Malachi.

He doesn't talk much.

Wives submit.

EPHESIANS 5:22

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands

EPHESIANS 5: 25

Husbands, love your wives

Boy, I used to HATE those scriptures. WHAT? I'M supposed to SUBMIT? What does THAT mean? Are I not good enough, am I the second class citizen? I will BURN my bra! Women's rights!

THEN....

I thought about it.

THEN...

I realized that I wanted my Husband to love me.

I wanted him to hug me and kiss me and hold me.

and HE wanted to feel like he was WORTHY of being my husband and the father to our child. That him going out and working, providing and helping us, was enough to make HIM feel happy with himself.

I could help him with that.

If I thanked him for going to work each day and let him know that I appreciated all the hard work he was doing for me, for our family, then HE was happy.

If HE told ME that he thought I was beautiful, that he was grateful for all that I did at home for him so that he could come home and rest, than I was happy.

I WAS submitting to him. I was letting him provide so that he could feel fulfilled.

He in turn was letting me know that he loved me and appreciated me.

We were both feeling loved and appreciated, but in different (albeit subtle) ways.

It's like that book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"

Men and women think differently.

We act differently.

And sometimes we need different things to make us feel complete.

That doesn't make one right, or wrong.

It just means that there is a difference.

Women was made from man's rib,

Not from his head to top him,

Nor from his feet to be trampled by him,

But from his rib,

Under his arm to be held by him,

Close to his heart to be loved by him.

I always LOVED that quote and can never remember who said it.

EPHESIANS 5:22

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

There is a difference in our needs.

Cherish that difference.

The horrible, no-good, very bad day.

I am a sinner. I am sometimes unrepentant. Sometimes I don't even think I need to repent of all the sins I do in a day.

I yelled at my daughter today.

I was very VERY angry with my husband and we fought.

I was very lazy today and didn't do the cleaning or make the phone calls I needed to make.

I was very depressed and upset with myself today. I felt fat, stupid, unproductive, angry, lazy, tired, ugly and like my life was a mess.

Do you have those days?

Isn't it easier to be angry?

Isn't it easier to think others think the same of us, and that's ok, because it's true.

Now, try telling yourself, when you are in that horrible, no-good, very bad day moment, that God loves you.

Kind of sticks in your throat huh?

Definitely sounds fake coming out of my mouth.

I have the signs up on the wall.

The pictures of Jesus' smiling face.

My Bible by my bed where I read it. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night and sometimes in the middle of the day when I throw a tantrum and go to my room to cool off.

But all of these things feel very fake when I am mad or depressed.

They feel like they are someone else's property.

The pictures and sayings are up on my wall so that when people come to visit it looks like I am a happy, well adjusted, religious women with a happy, well adjusted, Christ-like home.

But it's all just a show right?

Remind yourself.

God loves you.

God LOVES you.

GOD loves you.

God loves YOU.

GOD loves YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Is that weird? Is that hard?

Than keep saying it until you feel like you can believe it.

It doesn't mean we suddenly are better people. It doesn't mean our depressed or bad feelings go away. But doesn't it make it a little easier to WANT to be happy if someone else loves you too?

I know that I rely too much on my husband to see my own worth.

Does he love me today? Then I am worth being loved!

Is my daughter hugging me? Than I must be good enough to hug!

Why is it harder to use God as our measuring stick?

Because He's not physically here?

THAT is why we need a personal relationship with God.

Find Him in your life. Make Him a real part of your life and you may yet be able to measure your worth through His eyes.

Did I make you think it was easy?

It's not.

I can't do it.

But I know I should. (sometimes) Sometimes I forget.

Can you remind me?

I will try and remind you.

I think that is why we need church in our lives.

So that we can not only remind others that God loves them. They are worth loving. But also so others can remind US!

God loves you.

Lonely when I'm not alone.

These days I feel bombarded by my old life. It seems such a sunny, happy remembrance, something I am missing out on. Somewhere I should be. Yet I can't go back. I can't say why I left, and I don't know why I can't go back. Is it solely pride? My family? Or am I really and truly searching for the truth.

I don't think people believe my passion for Christ.

I don't know if I believe I have that passion.

Where am I on sunday? Should I be trying harder? Should I be praying more?

My life is SO not where I expected it to be 10 years ago. Or even 5 years ago.

I feel left out. Abandoned. Lonely.

Is the only place that you find real friends at church?

Or is it just me. Am I the one that makes my life hard.

The times that I try to be involved I feel happier for awhile, but I still feel left out.

The times I stay home and do nothing I feel inconsolable.

Where is the justice?

Why did God make me this way?

This sad shell of a person. Unable to stand up for herself. To be liked. To like herself.

Where do I find faith in a God that says so many different things to people? All religions change. All religions grow with the times. No religion is the same as it was when it started. They all have excuses. "People were not ready for it" "The world was not ready for it" "The church was not ready for it" "The doctrine had not yet been revealed"

But it all amounts to the same thing.

How can God be unchanging... If he is constantly changing?

"It is not God, but man, who keeps changing"

Shouldn't there be some blatant sign that THIS is God?

Faith is foolish. How can it be faith in one God, when all faiths vary so vastly?

Such horrible things are done in the name of faith. Such horrible acts of eliteness, snobbery, pride, belittling, putting others down. All done in the name of faith.

I don't feel loved.

I just feel lonely.

How can you be lonely when you know you're not alone?

Reflections

I love this song. I have always felt music can touch people where words get lost. I am so very grateful for all the talented people out there who share their gift and their love of God.

The pictures in this are so moving and uplifting, I am so glad that someone brought such joy to their reflections!

When to share?

I went to a Christian clinic today, but before they asked me any questions about what I needed, I got a lecture on letting Jesus into my life and had to read 6 different scriptures and then tell them what my interpretation was of each of them. 

I admit, normally I am very much into sharing my beliefs and have a good religious discussion, but this lady treated me like I had no idea what I believed in, and had no goal in life. She told me I HAD to accept Jesus into my life, that I was a sinner...etc etc...

I tried to be patient with her, I realize that to most people Christ is a very passionate subject, but I was so upset by the condescending way she spoke to me, and the superior attitude about Christ, and her lecture tone that I finally stopped her and told her I was not there for saving, I went to church, I read the Bible to my daughter, I even wrote in my journal about God and prayed everyday, but I was there to find a doctor, not a priest. 

She invited me to her Church, explaining that I would love it because the played contemperary music and they were loud and I could put my daughter in their nursery so I could enjoy the services without worrying about her.

I politely explained to her that I enjoyed services WITH my daughter. I didn't believe in getting rid of children for the sermons because I think they should be involved, and Church should be a family affair, not free daycare. Jesus wanted the little children with him, not shoved to the back. How can we teach our children if they are not hearing the same things we are? On the drive home from church my husband and I always discuss the sermon we just heard and share out points of view. I am so excited for my children to begin to participate in those conversations. 

I am a firm believer in sharing your testimony and forcing others to confront their own beliefs, but that doesn't mean being condescending, or even that I have to hear what those beliefs ARE! That is a personal matter to some, and others sometimes cannot or will not put it into words. That is their prerogative. A discussion on Christ should not be a lecture/questioning study over scriptures but a free flowing idea and friendly talk about sharing beliefs.

In the end she thanked me for my input, I don't know if I offended her or not, but if my saying something has helped her to be a little less 'in your face' about Jesus, than maybe I have done a good thing. 

I'm not sure if there is ever NOT a good time to share your beliefs, but there is definitely a way that is not good. Especially if you are not listening to the other persons answers and are so caught up in what YOU want to tell them and not what you should both be feeling. 

The trouble with truth,

Is it true that there is only one truth in the world? The Jews think they have got it right, and the rest of us will learn in time. On the other hand, if the Buddhist have anything to say in it, we won't really remember because we'll just be born again as someone else. However if Catholicism is the really truth, maybe we will all end up just burning in hell. Perhaps the Protestants should be right, after all they say as long as you love Jesus, you can't be bad at all. 

But if that were the real truth, then how do they explain the horrible things done in the name of God and Jesus? Or how can any religious faction justify any heinous action in the name of God. They all profess that God is about love...Love of ALL, not just one. The ten commandments all seem to stem from that love, and yet Moses also has to "talk God down" from just destroying all the Israelites as they worship the golden calf.

So what is true? Is God love? If that's true than I have to ask, "where is the love?"

The Burden of the Lord

Knowing God can be a heavy burden some are unprepared to take up.
"What?! How dare you say God is a burden! God lifts burdens!"
Yes, that is true, but it is also true that truth can be a great burden, and God is the ultimate truth. In Romans chapter 1, Paul writes a long list of things that are wrong in the Lord's eye. A group of people who knew God and turned away. "Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God...professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And changed the uncorruptible God into an image like to curruptible man...wherefore God gave them lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served creature more than the creator...God gave them up unto vile affections:for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men...they did not like to retain God in their knowledge...being filled with all unrightousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers. Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Without understanding, covenant breakers without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful;
Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them" ~Romans 1:21-32
Many people get out of that a long list of sins. It is one of the most quoted scriptures when people are defending their stance against homosexuality. But they are missing the most important line of the entire chapter! The last verse.
"Who knowing the judgements of God" That means they knew about God and his laws. "not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them"
They knew what they were doing went against God's laws, and they not only did them, but they surrounded themselves with people who did them and took pleasure in doing that! That is a worse sin than any of the sins that Paul lists. That is the sin that Paul says is more unforgivable. Others were doing the same thing they were, but because they had no knowledge, the people that did know were the ones who made the greater sin. All were sins "worthy of death" ~Romans 1:32 But it was far worse for those who knew they were wrong.
That is the burden of the Lord. To know the truth, and figure out for yourselves what you do with that truth. That is why Isaiah and Malachi call it "The burden of the word of the Lord" ~Malachi 1:1

A Window to His Love

The "chosen" people are named such not because God chose them, but because they chose God. The only advantage the Jews had was their commitment to God, anyone who makes the same commitment can gain the same advantage. Nor did their commitment mean that all Jews were saved, they still had to personally make that commitment to God. (Romans 3:1-4)
Romans chapter 4 talks about how those who use circumcision as a sign of their eliteness (Jews being God's chosen) should not do so because Abraham was chosen and walked in Faith with God before he was circumcised. In this chapter you can also substiture the word circumcision for the name of any religon and you can understand the concept a little better. Circumcision was a sign to set them apart, not the sign to set them up.
"for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through law, but through the righteousness of his faith" *romans 4:13
Abraham is our father because of his example of Faith.
"[Abraham] who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations...and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb; he staggered not at the promise of God thorugh unbelief but was strong in faith, growing glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone...but for us also...if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the Dead" *Romans 4:18-24
Abraham is our Father in the same way Mary is our Mother. When the angel came to her and gave her 'impossible' news, she said "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to Thy word" *Luke 1:38
Abraham and Mary were not great so God chose them, nor were they chosen to become great. They had already chosen God, and He knew when he called them, what their answer would be. They were not chosen for who they were or because of their faith, they had already made the choice. God knew that generations would look back at Abraham and say "Look how he answered the Lord!" and they would look back at Mary and say "Look how she let the Lord work through her!"
They are not great. God is great, and God shone through them so they appeared great.
This does not diminish what they did or who they were. They are two amazing examples of faith and works and answering God's call. They are so amazing in fact that the World's 2 biggest religons are based upon their decisions to answer God. By letting God steer their lives, they have led countless others to God. Abraham led Israel(Jews) and Mary led Catholics, both are revered in those religons. They are amazing leaders. There is a reason Abraham is the "Father of Nations" (Genesis 17:2-4) and Mary the "Mother" (John 19:26-27) They should be examples of God though, not Icons of a church. "Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him" *Romans 4:23-24
God's intention in using them was that we learn of God and draw closer to God through them. Jesus was a perfect example of letting God's light shine through him, Abraham and Mary are our human examples.
My prayer is that we may all find the strength to be like Abraham and Mary, when God asks for the impossible, may we realize that nothing through God is impossible. May we be able to answer God's call to us with "be it unto me according to Thy word" *Luke 1:38

Not a Christian?

I realize that the bible is confusing, and because of that is subject to many interpretations. For those of you who think a religon just needs to "read the bible" and all the answers are there have obviously not read the bible. I am working my way through it again, and believe me every time I read it I learn something new, so if you magnify that by millions upon millions who have read the bible and gain their own understanding and pass their own judgements on what is said....well lets just say there are a lot of interpretations out there. Add in the fact that so many feel so pationate about their beliefs, well you can see why so many wars are fought in the Almighty's name.
That being said, at what point do you know which interpretation is correct?
I was raised learning about God through an LDS perspective (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and since then have attended many different churches. My husband was raised Episcopal, we were married in a Lutheran Church and now we are currently taking inquiry classes at the Catholic church.
The truth is, through all of this I have prayed and read the Bible. I have kept a strong testimony of God, whether or not I always agree with him is another matter, I know he exists and I know Jesus died for our sins and that only through him can we be reunited with our Father in Heaven.
That being said my baptism has recently been called into question by the Catholic Church. I am trying not to be offended by this, but it is increasingly becoming hard. Perhaps I should just be thankful and say I get to start again...again. But I just keep feeling that my faith in Christ is being called into question. I am frusterated. I feel that I have already been accepted into God's kingdom, that was never my problem. My problem is that Churches are using too much "interpretation" when it comes to scriptures and relying too much on what been said by leaders in their church.
Men are not infalible. God is. So how can I in good conscience follow man's words? Is it more important to follow God in your own heart than in church?
I believe church is important. I think surrounding yourself with those that are like minded and have the same basic beliefs as you is good because it helps you learn and grow and know that you are surrounded by people on the same path as you. (It also should be noted that you should expand your horizons also and realize you can learn something from everybody) But is your own heart more important than what church you go to? I was raised thinking that other churches believed this, or that and now am learning that a lot of that is wrong, as well as what a lot of people believe about the church I was raised in.
Most of my trouble with religon has more to do with what the pastors, popes, bishops and elders say is Church doctrine. Most of it seems to be interpretation more than anything else....but what if I'm wrong? What if their interpretation is right and I'm the one who needs to fix my issues?
How am I supposed to know who is right and who is wrong? Or all they all both?
You should not choose a church based on "shopping" and finding the one that fits your lifestyle, but how offended can you be before it is the devil stopping you?
I find the more religous I am, the more superstitous I become.
So where do I go now?

My new theory

God did not give us rules, he gave us love and salvation. And if we believe, we will live right because we have that love in us. Our knowledge makes secure our love and desire for "living right" if we believe, we will not be following rules, we will be living out of love and living with God. We shouldn't look for rules and principles, just a relationship with God. Rules and standards mean consequences and punishment if they are not obeyed. How is that a loving Father? "Do this or else" perhaps he wants us to live with his guiding light inside of us, the way Jesus, the Father and the Spirit are one, and in doing that we are already living the way we should, without rules, but with the true unadulterated love of God.
There is no mercy or grace in rules, not even for one mistake. That is why we are so blessed to have Jesus. He fulfilled all of that for us so that rules no longer have jurisdiction over us. And the laws that once demanded the impossible "thou shalt not" actually became a promise God fulfills in us.
If we live our life alone and independently the promise is empty. Jesus laid the demand of the law to rest. It no longer has the power to accuse or command. Jesus is the promise and the fulfillment. And he is our freedom, because of him, there is no law. Only God's love for us made plain. Then we live in his law and with his law. Once his love is written on our hearts the rules no longer apply.
How do we find this love? How do we know we are there? We probably won't be, scratch that we definitely won't make it there in this life. Jesus was the only one who lived with God always on this earth. (how the trinity is one God) Yet we can aspire to that. And pray for that in our lives.
The words may not click now, you may agree, but not be able to impliment a change. If you keep searching and trying though, someday you will be able to fully comprehend, and then, only then, can you really begin to change your life. That is the beginning.

Living a religon

The truth of the matter is, if you haven't found a religon that challenges you, forces you to make changes or makes you think twice before you make a decision, maybe you actually haven't found the right religon?
We are, none of us, perfect. Our goal in this life should be to strive toward that. We may never reach that, will never reach that, but it is our duty to work toward perfection.
Jesus said "Do as I do" and so we must.
For those who say "nature is my religon" I agree, it should be, but that should not be the end of your studies. Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness. He cleansed his life, opened himself to the beauty God created and communed with him on the most basic and real level. Yet he also taught others. He led sermons and instructed his desciples to do the same.
Teach and bring others to me. He taught in synagogs, on hillsides, in homes and most importantly by example. How can we as christians live and say we are followers of Christ, if no one can see that in our lives?
Is it hard? Yes. Should it be? Probably. Some say the right path is never easy, but always worth it.
I will keep searching for a religon that not only challenges me, but brings out the light of Christ in all I do.

I guess my only question is now, how?

Jesus was Jesus....

I saw a sign that beat out every other argument I have ever heard before about abortion. Ofcourse this really only works if you are religous.

"Jesus was Jesus at conception"

Wow.
The very truth, the very heart of the matter is not that you are stopping a beating heart, that you are ending a life, all of those arguments are made, and unless you are there in that place they all have a different meaning. But to actually put a name to that face... you are not just ending a life, you are ending Anne's life, or Jacob's life. There is a soul that has chosen you and you are rejecting it.
God knows each and every soul, including the one's who have yet to be born, he has named them, and loved them and sheltered them. Are we ready to do the same?
It also put much more heart into miscarriages. I guess I always grew up thinking that a miscarriage wasn't ready, but would try again. If Jesus was Jesus at conception, who have we lost along the way?