Although today started with the same pounding headache from Mon/Tues returning :(, I started to feel better around noon and spent the remainder of the day up to this point reading Scripture, playing Just Dance 2, playing Skyward Sword, making dessert for tonight, washing-drying-folding several loads of laundry, and changing the bed sheets.
The rest of the evening will be as follows: one hour zumba class, dinner with Sal's parents and brothers, board games, eating the dessert mentioned earlier (haha) and hopefully a good night's sleep.
Tomorrow I plan on waking up early for work, coming home asap after all of my work is done, working out, lunch, hanging out with Sal and possibly Bonch, and making a new recipe for dinner --goulash, nothing too fancy or difficult, but still new!
It's been a good week, even despite the migraines. God won't let anything bring this girl down right now!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Galatians 2-3
A Christian isn’t someone who believes in God and is a good person. How good do you have to be to go to heaven? Who determines the morality and the strength of our actions? Do sins cancel obedience? Do you trust your ability to be good or do you trust what He has done for you in Jesus? We are in a condition of need, but we cannot remedy our condition of need by ourselves. We cannot cleanse ourselves. We cannot fix ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves. The teaching of the Scriptures is not that we should have faith in ourselves and our ability to fix ourselves and to make ourselves pleasing to God. We should trust not in our works but the works of Jesus. We should have faith in Him, and we should not rest and sleep well because of our goodness, but because of His goodness, and not because of the things that we have done, but solely because of the things that He has done. Galatians 2:4 says that, “The righteous live by faith.” To be righteous is to live by faith, not by law, tradition, culture, legalism or any other form of moral movement.
This faith will change our heart and the desire to live a life pleasing to God will flow out of us, through Him. Fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) are gifts from God that are produced in us when we put faith and trust in Jesus! It's nothing we can claim to be good that we have done...these are from Him.
This faith will change our heart and the desire to live a life pleasing to God will flow out of us, through Him. Fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) are gifts from God that are produced in us when we put faith and trust in Jesus! It's nothing we can claim to be good that we have done...these are from Him.
Galatians 3
Karma? Read Galatians 3. Thank GOD karma is not a real thing...we'd all be screwed. It's so hard for us to understand that having a loving faith in Jesus is all we need. Nothing we can do is good enough to reach righteousness with God--Jesus did all of that for us! If we really believe in Him and in that, we love Him, and out of love we desire to be obedient. But even that obedience does not save us. Do not be fooled!
we have the law (the commandments) of course to try and live by, but also to show us that we cannot follow and keep all of them! the only one who did is Jesus, and that shows us even more how much we need Him. We should of course try to live by them because God made them to improve our lives and to love Him, but there's no way we can reach heaven by "being a good person".
"Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"
^^does He do these things because we're great people, or because we have a great God? ....because we have a great God.
"Christ redeemed us" ... !!! :D
we have the law (the commandments) of course to try and live by, but also to show us that we cannot follow and keep all of them! the only one who did is Jesus, and that shows us even more how much we need Him. We should of course try to live by them because God made them to improve our lives and to love Him, but there's no way we can reach heaven by "being a good person".
"Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"
^^does He do these things because we're great people, or because we have a great God? ....because we have a great God.
"Christ redeemed us" ... !!! :D
Friday, February 24, 2012
Lent
For those of you who practice Lent, I just want to encourage you!!!
Lent is not something done in the Bible, rather is a tradition based off of when Jesus fasted for 40 days before he began His ministry.
When we fast from something, or "give it up", it gives us an opportunity to strengthen our relationship with God. We need nothing else in this life other than Jesus...so when we fast, we can use that time we'd normally spend on a specific activity focused on time with God--in prayer or in silence or in His Word. When we feel tempted to do the activity we are fasting from, we call to Jesus to help us from giving in. We cannot do anything on our own strength, rather we borrow from God who graciously gives to us :) The more we focus on Him and understand that, the more empowered we become through Him!
As those who follow lent practice fasting for 40 days, make it about God, not you. Don't use this as some sort of "self-help" season. Rather, use it to spend more time with our King, our Savior, our Father...and maybe at the end of the the 40 days you'll have a renewed focus in the right direction. A better daily practice and habit of spending more time with Him. A clearer mission.
If you would like prayer on what you're fasting from or encouragement to spend more time with God, please do not hesitate to ask. If you have questions about how to go about spending more time with Him or where to start, also message me. We can get into a convo..it's a lot easier than you think! ;)
Lent is not something done in the Bible, rather is a tradition based off of when Jesus fasted for 40 days before he began His ministry.
When we fast from something, or "give it up", it gives us an opportunity to strengthen our relationship with God. We need nothing else in this life other than Jesus...so when we fast, we can use that time we'd normally spend on a specific activity focused on time with God--in prayer or in silence or in His Word. When we feel tempted to do the activity we are fasting from, we call to Jesus to help us from giving in. We cannot do anything on our own strength, rather we borrow from God who graciously gives to us :) The more we focus on Him and understand that, the more empowered we become through Him!
As those who follow lent practice fasting for 40 days, make it about God, not you. Don't use this as some sort of "self-help" season. Rather, use it to spend more time with our King, our Savior, our Father...and maybe at the end of the the 40 days you'll have a renewed focus in the right direction. A better daily practice and habit of spending more time with Him. A clearer mission.
If you would like prayer on what you're fasting from or encouragement to spend more time with God, please do not hesitate to ask. If you have questions about how to go about spending more time with Him or where to start, also message me. We can get into a convo..it's a lot easier than you think! ;)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
music
It's really awesome that we have a smart player that can use the internet to connect various accounts to our TV/speakers--such as Pandora. It's so nice to lounge on a Sunday and just have the radio playing throughout the apartment over our nice tv speakers :)
recommended sunday music: the civil wars radio from pandora. I haven't come across a song that I don't like.
recommended sunday music: the civil wars radio from pandora. I haven't come across a song that I don't like.
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