As for the other half of it...It's not just that I haven't managed to collect my thoughts and write them down; it's also because for the last week I've been feeling kind of lost. I don't live in my own home with my family so I find the things I know I should and want to be doing for my family become a little more complicated and stress levels are extremely high living with so many different types of people. I have a hard time living up to expectations that have been set out for me and continue to fail (not on the part of my husband or children) I have been trying to rip this sin of being angry and frustrated out of my life and it's working. Dan looked at me the other day and said "Get this out of you...it's not who you are so stop it". So I did :) Things have been better and I look forward to the day we have our own place. There have also been a lot of challenging discussions over the last week that Dan has helped me work through. Ideas of the Gospel needing to be spread in a very low key level and not actually sharing the gospel and instead "showing" the gospel. I don't agree with this. I believe Jesus was never subtle in his teachings and when something went wrong, he told them about it. I wouldn't rebuke anyone (maybe my kids) but as for teaching, I know I'm not supposed to beat around the bush which is what many people like to do...it's safe. Christianity isn't safe. It's supposed to be hard. We're supposed to be persecuted. I know that people wont listen to good things sometimes but that shouldn't stop us from sharing. There isn't a time in Jesus' ministry where he kept quite about his Father when speaking to people. He was always talking about it. Why are we so scared to do that today? Why is it good enough that we ONLY show people Christ through our actions? No! Paul said "by faith alone" James says "Faith with out works is dead" so it's not one or the other. You can't just choose the nice sounding one because it makes void the second. and vice verse. You can't just do good things and not truly believe. Scripture never contradicts itself. So how do those go together? When you truly believe, there is something that happens inside of you...YOU DIE!
Romans 6:1 says "Shall we continue to sin so that Grace may abound? BY NO MEANS!!!! How can we who have died to the flesh continue living in it? don't you know that we who have been baptized have been baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him and Just as Christ was risen from the dead by the Glory of the Father, we too shall walk in a newness of life."
It's fairly clear what Paul says. He says, we have no means to sin. When we sin as Christians, it is a falter of our flesh but WE have no means to sin. It's dead. So there is a conversion of heart. When you are baptized into Christ, you know something new (if you truly believe) and your action will just show it. Automatically...if you are constantly reading and learning. It's not good enough to say "I'm a Christian" and do what "feels" like a good Christian would act like. You need to KNOW how a Christian should act and the only way to do that is to get into the word. Jesus IS the word. So why wouldn't we want to spend all our time in it. If he's the person we are trying to become like, then we should be saturating ourselves in him always. Memorizing scripture, reading the bible at any free moment, challenging your own life and making sure you're doing the things you are being asked to do. That all Christians are asked to do. It's such a revelation when you fall in love with the word. No wonder...it's falling in love with Christ.
Anyway, I'm sure I said some things that people won't agree with or perhaps I worded wrong and maybe that's why certain people have labeled me a certain way but I'm speaking from my heart. The things that I am passionate about, I will write here. And this is definitely the biggest one.
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