Light and Darkness

What do you think when you hear the words light and darkness. Do you think of morning and night? The Sun and the Moon? A garden vs. a dark cave? Happiness and despair? Good and evil?
This past week, I have been thinking how we all have some sort of darkness in our life, whether it be in a dark room or being ignored, hated, depressed, etc. It is quite sad once you think about it. But have you ever recalled in those dark times that you were not alone? Ever? The more you think about it, the more you realize that you always forgot that God never leaves anyone alone. You forgot that you were always loved in your times of depression and loneliness.
“It is hard to remember in times like those,” you might say. Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Maybe it depends on your relationship with God. Whether you take the time to talk to him, and tell him your hopes and dreams, and tell him your troubles, or whether you just go to church every Sunday because you feel your obligated to. There is a difference. If you take the time to talk to him, overtime you will have this inner peace and it feels beautiful and you will feel whole. I encourage you to try talking to him. Keep a prayer journal where you have a journal with thoughts directed to him or pray to him with it.
May the Lord bless you and keep you all.

Good Grief

Amazing. Truly amazing.

A Girl Like Me

When I was a kid, I remember one night when our dog ran away. His name was “Rocky”…a german shepherd mix of some sort. I wasn’t super crazy about playing with this dog because I was scared to death of dogs! Rocky and I had a special connection though. Every time I walked out the backdoor, he would run to a certain spot in his pen and lean as hard as he could up against the wire fence, just so I could pet him. He would practically freeze in that spot and I would sit there for like 30 minutes and talk to him (yes, I was that child who talked to my dog like he was my friend!). This was our “thing”…our routine. Then one day, my siblings and I came home from school and he was gone. He had gotten out of the yard somehow and was missing…

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Dreams or Choices?

I think that this has great thought and consideration behind it. I would recommend reading this post.

What the Bible Says

Read: Philippians 1:1-11

“Approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense.”~ Philippians 1:10

I’ve received a lot of good advice in my life. Near the top of the list is this wise observation from a friend: “Life is not made by the dreams that you dream but by the choices that you make.”

He’s right, your life today is the sum total of all the choices you’ve made up to this point. The Apostle Paul gave similar advice in Philippians 1:10, when he said to “approve the things that are excellent”. In any given situation, we have a whole continuum of choices, ranging from really rotten choices, to the mediocrity of average choices, to choices that are good, and then to those that are excellent. God wants to move us across the continuum, past our natural impulses, all the way to excellent choices.

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How often do you pray?

How often do you pray? Is it once a day? Once a month? Once a year? Let me tell you this. Prayer is a conversation. You have conversations everyday, right? So why should this one be any different? God knows all about you. I know that it might sound a little creepy at first, but eventually you might get the reason that it is not. When you feel you have no one to talk to, you actually do. It is only your feelings that overpower you to where you think that no one is there. I also think that you also want to be alone during some of those times so you just force yourself to forget. But to the point, God is basically your BFF who is with 24/7 and has never left your side. It doesn’t have to be awkward unless you make it that way. If you are having trouble finding what to say, just tell him about your day and what your feelings are about the things that happened. He will listen, just like he always has. Prayer does not have to be quiet and yoga like, it can come from a restless heart. I hope this clears things up a bit. If you have any questions, thoughts, or comments please comment down below.

Too many things, too little time

Christmas is coming! Oh my goodness, I probably should not have said that, for there come even more stress, which is piled on top of cooking, homework, work, and so much more. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh! So much work to do with very little time. My, my, my, what to do? This happens to a lot of people. Take a deep breath. Then after that, take another one. Everyone on this earth goes through the same thing. You might look at a random stranger in the mall thinking, “Wow, look at this person walking in the mall. They must have an easier life than I. I wish I was them.” NO!!! They don’t have an easier life than yours. All you are doing is digging a hole for yourself that ends who knows where. It would be much easier if you thought that you could finish this Christmas task (lets be honest, you can do it because you have done it before and…..lived!) and moved on with life and had fun while your at it. So next time you freak out, just breathe, pray, and think positively.

The priest who died

This Sunday I was listening to the sermon, as I always do and it really made me think. This man in front of me was talking about one of his friends who was a priest and was saying that this friend of his had died a while back. This friend was never afraid to speak his mind and let you know how he felt. In the sermon, he said that he went to the funeral and picked up the card about him and read it to see if it fully captured him and it did. On the back it said, “Christ died for you so that you may live eternally with him. If you find a better deal, take it.” What this was saying, was that you get to live forever in this happy life. How wonderful would that be? You can’t really find a better deal than living forever in eternal happiness. I am pretty sure nothing better exists, so take up that deal and hold fast to it. Be excited that you get that deal and tell it to others. I am sure that everyone will want it too.

Self-dependent, or Not

We always think that we can do everything ourselves. But the question is…is it really true? I was thinking about this recently and remembered that the Bible does say to rely on the Lord. Yes we have free will and can choose the paths we go down. The interesting thing is that we could not really have life without God breathing life into us. We definitely would not be able to even get to heaven without God sending his Son to die for us. So, I do not think that we are self-dependent. In fact, we rely on the Lord or we should rely on the Lord more often than we think. We rely on Him to provide for us, whether it is for our daily meals to even just a good day at work and so much more. Never be afraid to pray to God for he loves you dearly and absolutely loves to hear your voice. You must trust in the Lord to get through life. Even if you just tell him about your day, that is ok. Just talk to him and he always listens. Remember that he is your closest friend for life. He knows you even better than yourself so he will understand.

The Giving Tree

Has anyone ever heard of Dr. Seuss’ story called The Giving Tree? Remember how the tree just wanted to make the little boy happy? The tree just kept giving and giving and giving, but the boy kept asking for more. It is similar to our relationship with God. What we need to remember is to thank God for giving us life and the wonderful people around us. Just say a quick prayer to him and thank him for all the good he has done for you. It does not mean that you can not ask him for something, but that you should just thank him for the goodness in the world.

Why can we trust the Bible?

Have you ever been asked, “Why do you trust the Bible?” Here is a situation for you. Say you walk out of church and are walking to your car. Then a man suddenly walks up to you and asks you a question. The man asks, “Why can you trust the Bible?” You do not exactly know the reason why, but you come up with one saying, “Jesus referenced from it hence we can trust it.” Sure that might work for you, but the man questions further saying, “That is not a good reason. Are there any more reasons?” With your answer having been dismissed and asked to come up with another answer, you then think even harder about different reasons why you can trust the Bible, but the man continually refutes or dismisses them. Eventually, you might come to the conclusion that the Bible is not trustworthy. To prevent this from happening, I will tell you some reasons why you should trust the Bible. You can trust the bible archaeologically, through the manuscripts, and through the authority of the Bible.
One of the reasons you can trust the Bible is through archaeology. Archaeology is the study of the remains of human behavior in the past. The aim of archaeology is to discover, record, observe, and preserve the remnants of antiquity and to use them to help reconstruct ancient life. Archaeology can confirm what the Bible says historically. The Bible says in 1 Kings 14:25-26, “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against
Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house.” People have discovered that it is true because men have found the Bubastite Portal built by Shishak which states his victories and that was one of them. People studying archaeology have also found that the Bible’s description of the location of Jacob’s Well (John 4:6) is very accurate. People have also found that the Bible’s description of Samaritan worship on Mount Gerizim (John 4:20) is also very accurate. Therefore you can trust the Bible archaeologically. You can also trust the Bible through the manuscripts. The definition of a manuscript is a book, document, or piece of music written by hand rather than typed or printed. Manuscripts were used to help remember the text and to reference the text. If the Bible was memorized, then it could be forgotten overtime, or people could change the meaning because they do not remember it correctly. Manuscripts are used to communicate authority. An authoritative manuscript would be the Ten Commandments which was located in the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:16, 21), and another authoritative manuscript was the Book of the Law (Deuteronomy 31: 24-26). The manuscripts, because hand written, could have errors in it (as in things being misspelled and accidently copied wrong), but when scholars calculated the possible errors, they discovered that if it does have any, then it is actually pretty close to the original form. The Bible is also collection of manuscripts. The clarity of the Bible might also be a problem, but 1 Corinthians says “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” It is saying that the people who have an open mind and are willing to receive the Bible’s teachings will be able to understand it but if they try to resist it them they will not be able to understand the Bible. Therefore, through the manuscripts the Bible is trustworthy.
Last, but not least, the authority of the Scripture is also how we can trust the Bible. The authority of the Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God. In the Old Testament, the scripture says many times “Thus says the Lord”. In fact, the prophets say it a lot because God sent them to deliver messages to the people of the land. An example of this would be in Numbers 22:38 which says, “Balaam said to Balak, ‘Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.’ ” The New Testament also says that it is authoritative. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” In both of these verses the Bible says that the words in the Old Testament come from God himself. Therefore, the Bible is authoritative.
The following reasons are the reasons that one can trust the Bible. You can trust the Bible through archaeology. You can trust the Bible through the manuscripts, and the manuscripts clarity. You can also trust the Bible through the authority behind the Bible. Now, back to the situation mentioned before. If a man comes up to you and asks why you can trust the Bible, you will be able to answer him. One will be sure of what they are saying instead of racking their brains for an answer, one can say through archaeology, through the manuscripts, and through the authority of the Bible.
Sources:
ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994.

Gold

I was listening to a song by Britt Nicole and I was thinking how often people think that they are worthless. It is quite sad to think about it but it is true. People put others down and it really affects us. So if you have not listened to the song called “Gold”, I would recommend to you, your kids, your friends to listen to it. Here are the lyrics:

You were walking on the moon, now you’re feeling low
What they said wasn’t true, you’re beautiful
Sticks and stones break your bones, I know what you’re feeling
Words like those won’t steal your glow, you’re one in a million

This, this is for all the girls, boys all over the world
Whatever you’ve been told, you’re worth more than gold
So hold your head up high, it’s your time to shine
From the inside out it shows, you’re worth more than gold
(Gold gold, you’re gold)
You’re worth more than gold
(Gold gold, you’re gold)

Well everybody keeps score, afraid you’re gonna lose
Just ignore they don’t know the real you
All the rain in the sky can’t put out your fire
Of all the stars out tonight, you shine brighter

This, this is for all the girls, boys all over the world
Whatever you’ve been told, you’re worth more than gold
So hold your head up high, it’s your time to shine
From the inside out it shows, you’re worth more than gold
(Gold gold, you’re gold)
You’re worth more than gold
(Gold gold, you’re gold)

So don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not loved
And don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not enough
Yeah there are days that we all feel like we’re messed up
But the truth is that we’re all diamonds in the rough
So don’t be ashamed to wear your crown
You’re a king you’re a queen inside and out
You glow like the moon, you shine like the stars
This is for you, wherever you are

This, this is for all the girls, boys all over the world
Whatever you’ve been told, you’re worth more than gold
(So hold your head) So hold your head up high,
It’s your time to shine
From the inside out it shows, you’re worth more than gold
(gold gold, you’re gold)
You’re worth more than gold
(gold gold you’re gold)

So don’t be ashamed to wear your crown
You’re a king you’re a queen inside and out