Hello ACFers!
To be honest I totally forgot about this blog. I have been busy with school and my internet at home is currently not available. So, I have not read any of the posts yet. Sorry.
Well, on a lighter note, I have been really just focusing on wanting to change my way of living, my attitude, and the way I perceive things for the glory of Jesus.
(For some reason, when I hear a Christian strayed away or when I see it, I receive strength to live out my life for the way Christians should be living and of course I get worried)--> I 'm not saying that I am the right person to follow or even listen to, but when my life or attitude reflect Christ, that is all I want other people to see.
1 Corinthians 10:24: "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."
MAN, I seriously lack this and I always concentrate on what I want, what I want to accomplish and what is in the world for me? This should not be the center of our hearts but with the God and His will, we are able to live a life for Him because we are His. The dreams and goals that we all have are obtained with Christ and the results are always better than what we can even imagine!
So, to keep this, we should all spend time with the person that made this available to us. Spending time in His word is seriously where our foundation should be. John 1:1-2 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."
So the more you meet with Jesus everyday or second, your life is meaningful and we are full of life. YAY! :)
For example, it is in a way related to the concept of exercising.... or studying, sport, etc.
It takes time for humans to become good at something...so in that time we have to prepare and there is a lot of practice. What about practicing the Bible? With practice everyday, writing notes (on Sunday...I encourage everyone to write notes because we tend to forget..I know I do and later when we are able to reflect and look back at the notes when we need it), journaling......the Bible becomes more and more real to us.
BUT Exercising is very hard to start and to maintain a regular routine for everyday.
BUT once the person crosses over the line, to have a healthy diet, the person is able to enjoy and accomplish this goal. (I talk about exercising because I gained 10+ pounds in my last semester at Oxford College....Great huh?)
Anyways, if you have a stable daily routine to exercise.......to read the Word, then seriously we would all be jumping for joy and gladdness that Jesus is our Savior.
I am really hoping, when any one of us are down or depressed....etc, we would all have a verse in the Bible to say from memory. :D How Wonderful!
God is so wonderful that He gives us MORE than one chance to praise Him and to give our hearts to Him. So, from a Sunday service from the New Orleans trip I went on, the pastor mentioned about the fig tree in Luke 13:1-9 (please read, it's too long for me to write here).
The man with the fig tree did not destroy the tree right away but he gave it time to grow and fertilized it.
"The church is our fertilizer, it gives us nutrients."-pastor
This opens up the idea of having a second chance to do things better.
"We as Christians tend to not believe in second chances."--pastor (forgot his name)
This is SO true, after my "Dark Ages", I realized that I was unable to let go the sins I committed. Man, I shared this with the small group at Oxford. I hadn't thought about it until that second but man, I bursted up in tears. I realized that no matter how many mistakes I made, or will make, God will forgive me and He loves me no less but more and more because HE is wanting to grow me in His name.
So, this comes to repentance. After knowing this, I repented my sins and my heart had changed from then.
And from then on, I have been praying for a passionate heart. If the prayers we pray are for God, He will answer them.
To grow in our walk with God, to have a passionate heart, we all should PRAY, READ the BIBLE, and PRACTICE (meaning apply it to our lives and live it out!)
So in conclusion, we follow the examples of other Christian leaders to help us with our walk with God, and we feed our minds with the kingdom of God. Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."
SO, hang in there, God knows your troubles, disappointments, failures, and everything BUT why is it we only pray when we need something?
We should also pray and praise God when our prayers have been answered and even without a reason, we should all be able to pray to God because HE is worthy and is what we were made to do.
P.S. Would you guys email me your address to dianema@gmail.com, so I can send you guys a copy of "The Present" and "Sharing Christ"?
Thanks.
4 comments:
Hey you guys. Sorry but I was going to burn you guys the cd but its illegal whoops.
So....if you want to hear the cds then maybe during the fall semester?
ahah diane :]
mm, well i'm @ emory semi-often and i know you're here for summer classes so maybe you could lend me a copy of it when we're both here?
thanks for sharing diane. it was encouraging to read your post. i could sense your enthusiasm. one thing i'm trying to work on this summer is what you mentioned about being disciplined in spending time in the word, praying and spending time with God. somehow it's easy for me to think that this is different from other relationships in that i can just talk to God when i need something or if i remember...but i think you really touched on how important it is a much more deliberate active role, as we would in any friendship or relationship. just some thoughts.
sorry, all, i've been mia lately. work has been all consuming: / i meant to respond to the mission statement post (i'm actually still turning it over in my mind), so it may randomly pop in a future comment. just wondering, are vincent and pastor young (still) connected to the blog? haven't heard from them yet, so just wondering.
vincent never replied to the initial invite. i should email him again.
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