The B-stud

‘Word of God’ is a person

piecesofglitter:

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

http://mikeraburn.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/the-bible-is-not-the-word-of-god-part-1/

this is interesting. 

(via piecesofglitter)

graceinthewilderness:

A Story On God’s Faithfulness

 

 

It’s so easy to get impatient with God. We can start to feel like God is holding out on us or that he doesn’t care about what we feel because we don’t see immediate answers to our prayers and our situations may not go the way we want them to go.

 

Dare I say that God is faithful still?

 

If you need an illustration of Gods faithfulness venture into the Old Testament and read the first chapter of 1 Samuel. It’s about a Barron woman named Hannah who wanted a child.

 

The thing that is interesting to me about this book is that twice is says that God was the one who closed her womb. At first I thought, that’s kind of cruel. This woman did nothing wrong, and God just decides to close her womb so she can not have the children that she wants so much.

 

Her husband even takes a second wife because he wants children, although he still favors his first wife Hanna. This obviously makes Hanna feel like crap.

 

So fast forward… Hanna starts acting crazy. Then she tells God that if He gives her a child she will dedicate the Child to God and raise it as a christen. A priest named Eli ask her if she is drunk. She convinces him she is just upset.

 

Hanna cry’s out to God “Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all alone I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation”

 

And then Eli tells Hanna to go in peace, and Hanna “went her way, and her face was no loner sad.” 

 

I think something pivotal happened there. With her face being no longer sad. Hanna went from being angry and upset over what she couldn’t understand to trusting God to provide for her even when she couldn’t see the big picture. I think that’s what made all the difference in Hannah’s life. So even before she had a child, she was joyful.

 

Fastfoward. In verse 19 Hannah husband “knew” her, then Hanna has a baby named Samuel. She says she named him that because she “Asked him from the Lord.” And Samuel grows up to be pretty important.

 

Even if the situation is completely different from Hannas’s, this is such a powerful story on the faithfulness of the Lord and trusting him when times are hard and we don’t understand the reason for it. Who knows why God closed Hanna’s womb, but in the mist of this situation God moved her heart to a place where she trusted Him because He is God, not because she simply got what she asked for. And, she still got what she asked for: In Gods time, not her time. 

proverbs 31- ignore this post posting for myself

These are just some attributes of the proverbs 31 woman i noticed. I’m not saying you have to be all of these things to be Christan or accepted by christ, but I just wanted to look at her and pick apart her character not just the things she does. Trustworthy. Faithful. Hardworking. Dedicated. Works for others (serving others in her household food). decisive (buys field). Strong. Perceptive. Cares about/helps others in need. Takes care of others (snow verse). Also takes care of herself (bed coverings), sells things? Has dignity. Unafraid of the future, Wise+Kind, not idel (convictions!), blessed, fears the lord.

Part VI—Becoming Human (Our Kingdoms)

thebeeble:

Before going any more into what God’s Kingdom might look like, I think it is important first to decide what our kingdoms look like—and I’m not talking about physical governments and kingdoms (although a lot of times they can be the offspring of our own little kingdoms), but I’m talking about small personal, and community kingdoms that we set up—the ones that we allow to completely rule our way of thinking, and even our way of acting and interacting.

                Something I really want to stress before I go in to it, is that nothing is entirely our fault… I think a lot of factors determine the way we set up our kingdoms—our genetics, our families, our friends, other relationships, our failures, what we’ve been taught to believe, our environments, technology, and even the things we’ve figured out along the way through trial and error.  However we look at it, all kinds of things mold and shape the way we act and interact, and ultimately who we are as people—and this is truly the core of the issue.

                We are products of so much going on around us… That doesn’t mean we’re not accountable—it simply means that I’m not trying to suggest that you’re a mess that needs to be fixed, so much as I’m saying that we all live life wrong, and that sets off a chain reaction of wrongness (which I’m not even sure is a word). In the end, we are almost forced to build certain kingdoms, because of what’s going on around us.

                Think of it this way: if I stop feeding my cat (Jack), he will be hungry. Needless to say, after a while, he might start eating all kinds of things that aren’t good for him. It would be very difficult for me to blame him, if he started trying to eat smaller and weaker animals after a while (frogs, mice, etc.). In self defense, the frogs and mice might start destroying my home, trying to find shelter. I couldn’t blame them, either—they are hiding from the cat.

                I think people are a lot like that—one person treats another person one way, and it triggers a list of events, where people are trying to just survive in a very menacing and ambitious world. The events and problems that mess up our lives become the very essence of our lives. As circumstance begins tearing at the walls of our souls, the rubble of ruin becomes the very brick and mortar we use to build walls around our hearts—and it becomes the ammunition to throw at the walls of the hearts surrounding us.

                So, ultimately, as we look around the world, we don’t necessarily see the face of evil—we just see the result of one evil, affecting a world of hurt and broken people, who in turn create more evil, and more chaos. The result is very small, isolated kingdoms—daring anyone to breach the walls—forcing its way on the inhabitants… and begging the question:  Who are we, and what have we become?

                And so, what do our kingdoms look like?

                I think the first one is a personal kingdom of pride. St. Augustine argued that the first sin—and really the simplification of all sins is pride. I agree with him on that. When Eve took the fruit, it was because Satan convinced her that she could become like God…and she wanted that. It is pride that cries out to God: “I know better than you. You tell me one way to life—but I want to show you a better way.” This is nothing short of pride—and all sins begin with the assumption that we know what life is—and that we know how to live life—and ultimately (and more saddening) that we don’t need God.

                Our kingdoms of pride come in all shapes and sizes—from the athlete who thinks he is better than everyone, to the scholar that belittles everyone’s opinion that is different than his own, to the child who exclaims that his father is stronger than another kid’s. Pride reaches into the pit of our condition, and reminds us that we have the image of God—but none of His completeness—and the proud exclaim “but I am my own god, and can be as complete as I wish.”  It is the humility of spirit that proclaims, “I am only complete when I am complete in God—because His attributes complete the image of life He created me to bear.”

                Pride deals a lot with our choices—what we believe to be right and wrong. Someone who is proud is someone who will think of himself above the people around him. If there is a dollar available, the proud assumes it is his. If there is a way to the top, the proud believes the top is his—because he is the conqueror. The proud claim the spoils before the battle is ever fought. The proud are giants in their own mind—even if it is a proud religiosity—the one who considers himself more holy.

                A proud kingdom is the one that takes from everyone, out of a sense of entitlement, and is offended whenever they are not accommodated to. The proud king or queen will stop at nothing to have their way, regardless of who they might hurt on the way up. Their dream is to be number one, and the end justifies the means.

                A second kingdom is a kingdom of anguish. This is the kingdom that spawns from the hurt—and can overlap with the kingdom of pride (and often will). Sometimes, the anguish comes from our pride being hurt—when we become disillusioned after discovering that the universe does not, in fact, revolve around us. Other times, it is simply the product of other people, and circumstances tearing away at the spirit of this kingdom’s inhabitant.

                The kingdom of anguish can take on many forms, but it always has the same underlying motive—that life is not right. It can be one of self-perception. This is a powerful form of anguish, where a person feels like they are not valuable—and this is at the very heart of the lie Satan employs against God, because God has said unduly that we are of infinite value to Him—so much so that the cross was not only an option, but a necessity! God’s Kingdom operates with the functional understanding that people are important—and that individuals are valuable.

                Anguish eats away at the core of a broken and hurting person—and can lead to self-imposed exile, acting out, and in many cases can cause them to question life itself. Too often, the adage has been proved that “hurt people hurt people.” Someone who has been dealt a hard blow can choose to shut off from everyone around them—even if that means cruelty to do so. Sometimes, the mindset is “I will not let anyone in, because I’ve learned that the closer someone is to my heart, the easier it is for them to hurt me, and I can’t have any more hurt in my life.” Other times, the mindset can be “I will hurt you before you can hurt me” or even “I have to hurt the people I care most about, to prove that they cannot hurt me.”  These are all, once again, personal walls we build out of the rubble and destruction surrounding us.

                A third and final kingdom I want to discuss is the kingdom of disillusionment, and this one, I feel, can actually be the most dangerous one. This is the kingdom that grows apathetic to life—and feels that there is nothing good, and therefore nothing worthwhile. They become cynical and divisive. Because things did not work out the way they want, they become sure that life never works out well—and they want to be the first ones to let you know.

                This kingdom begins to strip you of love, of creativity, and of dreams. It puts you in a state of numbness—of simply going through life, rather than actually living. It is the essence of a nightmare—because you find yourself sleeping through life—squandering life, and finding out later that you have not lived at all.

                This is just three of the many, many kinds of kingdoms we can build in our own lives. Each of these has many subcategories, and there are many other categories as well. I’m sure that you can find yourself in parts of each of these—and maybe even in other categories. The principle here is that life lived our way is not life—its just a series of walls we build, but in the end, we’re just constructing methods of destruction for ourselves, and for our world.

                Like I wrote earlier, Jesus has a better way. He says, change your mind, because there’s another kind of kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is breaking into the world now!

Christian married sex is still the best

unkaglen:

graceforwildflowers asked: How do you respond to the “you have to try the car before you buy it” rationale when talking about purity, sex and marriage?

Unka Glen answered: I respond by placing my open palm in front of my mouth and making a loud, trumpet-like farting sound.

It’s more effective in person, but you get my drift. This “try it before you buy it” business is based on the idea of “sexual compatibility”. The notion here, is you could end up with someone who doesn’t please you because you aren’t “compatible”. So let’s unpack this a bit shall we?

Your body has nerve endings that sense pleasure, and as you might guess they’re concentrated mostly in the “underwear areas”, and for males these pleasure sensors are really concentrated in the exact area you’d guess (below the belly button, above the thighs, between the hips…you get the idea). But if you were to see a “map” of those nerves, it would look different, sometimes quite different from person to person.

That is to say, what is really pleasurable for one person, can be painfully too sensitive for another. The idea behind sexual compatibility is that people who don’t know each other don’t really have much of a chance to figure out how to please one another, and so they guess, and fumble around, and if they accidentally guess correct , TA DAA, you’re “compatible”. How sad.

But now let me tell you about healthy Christian marriage. Your first order of business is to learn that flippin’ map. And you’re giving constant feed back to each other. A little to the left, no my left, over, down, AAAAHHH. And then you make a mental note: that’s the express train to downtown. 

Then you keep exploring things, some will work, some won’t. Different furniture, different rooms, while wearing boots (I’m from Texas, don’t judge me), you name it. You have a lifetime to discover exactly how to please one another, knowing that God has ordained this to be pleasurable in a way that nothing before ever could be, and knowing that this is His plan for us to share love and affection.

But what if you like some things, and your partner likes other things? You take turns, and you keep trying new stuff, as 1 Corinthians 7:3-4 says “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. (that’s the Bible, y’all)

If that means that you have to spend hour after hour exploring each other, well, that’s just what you’ll have to do, huh?

The Subject of Salvation

youmadethemoonandthestars:

Islam: The Muslims believe that you can earn your salvation and pay for your own sins through human works. If your good deeds out do your bad deeds you will eventually get to heaven after spending sometime in hell.

Hinduism: The Hindus believe that salvation can be achieved by one self, by devotion, works and self control. Salvation in Hinduism is called Moksha, this is the release from the cycle of rebirth and is impelled by the law of karma.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that you must be baptised as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They must earn everlasting life on earth by human works like “door-to-door work.” Salvation in heaven is limited to 144,000 “anointed ones.” This number is already reached.

Buddhism: The Buddhists believe that they can earn their salvation. In Buddhism salvation is by self effort only.

Christianity: As Christians we believe that salvation is a free gift from God and we cannot earn it because it’s a gift. Salvation is by God’s grace and not good deeds. Salvation must be received by faith. People must believe in their hearts that Jesus died for their sins and physically rose again.Of people turn from their sins and follow Jesus, they can be forgiven and have the hope of being with Jesus in heaven.

Looking at Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Jehovah’s Witnesses you do not find God personally suffering with the people. You can be born Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and a Hindu, but not possible to be born a Christian. Being born into a Christian family does not make you a Christian. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

There isn’t giant scoreboard that keeps a record of the score in your life, we’re not in a stadium. You have no way of knowing what the score is, and whether you are going to heaven or hell. Being saved through human works, like good works means we need to know what is a good deed and what is a bad deed. It is like standing before God and saying to Him “I helped an elderly woman carry her shopping home that one night remember? Oh and I went church every Sunday! You should let me into heaven.” The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-10 “God saved you by his grace when you believed.” And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Salvation is God’s work.

why i believe in Christianity 

(via youmadethemoonandthestars-deact)

freedom

so-journ:

In all this questioning my religion I’ve found that there is two types of freedom to be yourself and freedom from yourself. If that’s not freedom I don’t know what is.

what I mean by that is that when you aren’t religious you don’t have any type of book or guidelines to go by. you get to choose your own path and it doesn’t have to be the narrow path, it can be the wide path, or a path you make all by yourself. 

when you choose Jesus you are giving up yourself. you “die daily” to yourself. Even jesus himself says you have to lose your life to follow him. I would become “Tanzi in Christ” again. instead of just Tanzi. But i would be free from myself, I would have a million versus that told me about my new identify.

which freedom do I want.

(900 people are going to disagree with me, I wont care. )

Why do you think people will disagree with you? That is exactly it. In fact, I coulden’t have said it better myself.  Its “freedom to be yourself” vrs. “freedom from yourself”

Another thing, however, is that I don’t think one person on the face of the earth is 100% free from everything. Even when people have ‘freedom to be youself’ by not following a religion, people still make “Gods.” Its all over history. Even the Pagans made stone statues to worship. Its like humans have a need to follow something, because they are trying to seek fulfillment. Other people’s approval can become their God, money can become their God, Confront, or fear, or status, or a relationship, or a million other things I cant even think of right now. It talks about this in Romans, I think.

Another thought is that America is such an individualistic society, i wonder how other places around the world view the concept of “freedom from yourself.”  I think some americans might find that offensive, but people from other cultures might not… its interesting.