~Finale pt.1

Every day there’s news about casualties in Iraq or Afghanistan or in the middle east. This is been going on, as far as I am personally aware of, since September 11^th 2001 when every day after that was announcements of new bodies being found. Of course throughout the times since 9/11 we have heard some positive reports, but the “bad” seemed to always out rank the good. Things have rapidly begun to shift focus since the preparations for the upcoming presidential elections. Now, the candidates’ faiths have been the only focus. This isn’t the first time a politician’s faith has been looked at, but “the people” seem to be more concerned about the faiths of these presidential hopefuls, rather than their political stance on specific issues. 

The rise of anger and intolerance in Greece, Libya, Israel, Egypt and others have been moving and spreading rapidly in the past few weeks.~~Watch Israel~~ The end times are very near. 

Even though we are not get anxious or scared, it is admittedly hard not to get a little anxious about how dark the world is getting at such a rapid pace and to be reminded of it every time we turn on the television , pull up the news on our smart phones or listening to the radio. We have to remember that we are not to be scared, make sure we have forgiven everyone and asked for forgiveness and repent for sins. It’s now more than ever more important to get into a bible believing/living church and stay connected to the things and people of God.

You never know when someone in the congregation might bring a word of knowledge forth or a prophetic word for the church or even just for you. You have to be there yourself in order to get that information. No man knows when the Son of God will come back, not even the Son himself, which makes it pertinent to be prepared and get in line.  

I can honestly say that I am glad that the Lord didn’t reveal at date and time when Christ is to comeback because I believe there would be less lifelong Christians in the world or even those who have recently become born again Christians. If we knew the time, I guarantee most of us,if not all, would be living like the rest of the worldly people today because we would know when to “convert” ourselves and ask forgiveness and repent just before His coming, meanwhile His will wouldn’t have been done through us as the body of Christ.

~Sexual Purity pt.3

Start a dialogue with one another.

Like Pastor Drew had said in bible study this week, there needs to be communication between the younger and older generations. More so, older women should be sharing relationship and sexual experiences, within reason, without vulgarity, with their daughters. The conversation is needed because every woman’s sexual experiences are different yet as females, we all have been tempted and felt the same emotions at one point or another.

Experiences such as rape, being pressured in to having sex earlier than they wanted, being tricked in to doing sexual acts, lured by strange men into dangerous situations and locations, waiting to have sex after marriage, and so on need to be shared! 

Unfortunately, many women from the older generation have been generally raised to keep certain “information” secret in order to “protect” the family name or to “protect” the children. In all actuality it just harms the person who has to keep those secrets and others who can learn from those experiences. I can personally relate to the secret keeping issue in my family, involving the elders in my family. There is an issue with the elders in my family who like to keep everything hush hush, such as women’s ages, weight, height, affairs, and certain medical issues-illnesses and so on. Thus, resulting in many of my family members living with crippling medical issues, cantankerous personalities, and deep depression.  

I am thankful that my mom broke that bondage off of herself. At one point she decided that she wouldn’t hold back anything that she feels needs to be shared. When I think about it, there aren’t any secrets that she withholds from me, from the good to the bad. I feel that because of that, I haven’t felt the need to “explore” or “experiment” with anything because she has already been there and dealt with others who have.

~Sexual Purity pt.2

So,now it's the next day after our bible study session on sexual purity.

It is interesting how we,in general, approach anything to do with sexuality with caution or apprehension.This study was probably the "easiest" for me,thus far because I have no "experiences" to contribute to the general discussion.

Pastor Drew mentioned how the older generation needs to share their experiences, both negative and positive, with the younger generation.I had to mention that in order for this dialogue to happen there first needs to be mutual respect for eachother-between the younger generation and the older.The reason why their needs to be respect is because to often all we here from our parents and grandparents are about how "fast" the girls and guys are "these days" and how promiscuous we are and how ignorant we all are about life.On the flip side,because our parents (guardians) or grandparents tell us those things we automatically get defensive-saying "well,just because you came from the stone age doesn't mean we are naive or ignorant about life!". 

Until the older generation understands that today's society isn't the exactly the same as the society three decades ago and my generation needs to understand that not all of our parents and grandparent's experiences and expectations are archaic and actually are beneficial to dealing with life in today's society.

~Sexual Purity pt.1

I have a lot on my mind ever since working on my workbook for tomorrow's bible study session.

This lesson is on "Sexual Purity". While working on it it started to bring up sound bites in my head of when ever I heard "sexual freedom","Be free as woman with your sexuality" and "the naked body is so beautiful and should be admired...". I have heard those sayings so much that it felt like an echo in my head most of my young adult life.Unfortunately,these sayings aren't as innocent as they seem to be, we have been so preoccupied with not wanting to be ashamed of ourselves that we decided to embrace those things that we know are going to far or pushing the limits of what's right.

I believe that we are to be proud of our bodies because we are made in God's image,yet it doesn't mean that we need to "share" our bodies with everyone around us or with "certain" people just because we feel good about ourselves.

It seems to be that ever since women's liberation it's become a mission for women to dominate any way possible-of course many women say that want their intelligence and experiences as a female to shine through and move them "up" in the world,yet they still spend hours in the mirror,shortening their skirts,wearing high uncomfortable shoes to not only boost their confidence superficially,but really to stand out as "sexy" and "visually appealing"....What happened to the woman who wanted just her intelligence and experience to make way for her?? I use females as an example because I am one ;)

Men are not much different.It takes two people to commit an act.

Women have more "power" than they really know.If they kept their clothes on,not sleep with men who they are not married to and showed that they respect themselves to not try to "lure" men through clothes deemed sexy or doing sexual favors /promises they could rid a larger percent of unwanted pregnancies,premarital sex,STDs and broken hearts.

There is an overwhelming pressure to be "sexy" in order to out "shine" other women and get to "choose" the men they want because their power lies within their sexuality.

On the flip side,just thinking about being overtly sexy in order to get men,power or status,is a sin in and of itself....Yep! we can't catch a break,lol

I never realized just how difficult it is to keep your thoughts pure and even when joking...

To Be Continued..........................

~Good Deeds (not equal to) Entrance Into Heaven~ Pt.1

In this day and age,everyone-even a lot of Christians claim that if you are a good person and are good to others,it doesn't matter if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because you have been doing things and helping others.

It has officially gotten to the point where it sounds funny whenever I hear anyone say that.I have heard and seen countless interviews with celebrities on television about how they went on retreats in Cambodia with Buddhist monks or have gone some where in South America to find peace and a spiritual awakening and then they usually follow up with how they had an awakening and decided to go to India and feed starving children...When all those efforts to help others and be kind to others is good it doesn't mean that their souls have been saved and walking in Jesus footsteps.

I do believe that if you weren't raised in a family from birth that follows a specific belief,usually drift around in and out of various religions or cult teachings.I know I have drifted around,I even wanted to become Muslim just because I liked the burkas,that's how superficial our society is-when we choose our "religion" based on how visually and socially appealing it is................

To Be Continued............

~Faith Wars

If you haven't heard on the news or other random media outlets,a pastor in Texas,Robert Jeffrees had called Mitt Romney's faith in Mormonism a cult and false religion.So now of course,Pastor Robert is receiving ALOT of flack for the comment he had made,yet he hasn't backed down from his comment. It's amazing how "hot" this topic is right now.Although I do not know anything about Pastor Robert other than he his belief that Mormonism is a false religion,I do agree with him.Although Mormons believe in Jesus,they don't have a scriptural foundation to base all their other traditions.

You can't just dismiss the Mormons or Catholics just because they believe in Christ because they aren't following strictly to scripture and what Jesus did and said and walking in their authority through Christ.Instead they both heavily manipulate the word of God and give man credit for things that God has done. 

This isn't a rant on how "evil" Mormons or Catholics are,but it has to be said that those two doctrines are not scriptural and shouldn't be embraced or ignored because they believe in Jesus Christ.A sin is a sin-segregating,worshiping Mary and living by guilt and religious traditions are sins-yet vital parts of either Mormonism or Catholicism.

This whole issue has caused a division amongst bible believing Christians because they either feel it's okay or they feel that it is false teaching.

what do you think...................?

~Forgiveness~

I have always known how hard it is to forgive someone,but I never realized until recently just how detrimental it is to forgive.

In our last bible study session we discussed forgiveness and how important it is to not "hold captive" anyone that we have not forgiven.I had never realized that when we don't forgive someone we hold them captive in a prison and keeps everyone that we haven't forgiven as well as ourselves in a web.

Cancer is the biggest result of unforgiveness that we always talk about when ever we talk about forgiving others in church or in side conversations.It's interesting how unforgiveness can reap havoc on our bodies and lead us to an early grave.I pictured ever one of those instances where we haven't forgiven anyone for something, they appear as red laser targets pointed at different parts of our body like a sniper lining up his target in battle.A person could not have forgiven a parent for abusing them when they were a child-now he or she has a laser target lined up with his or her heart-indicating a harden heart and or a sign of a possible heart condition-heart attack in the future.

It's almost scary how lethal forgiveness can be-makes me want to go back a cross T's and dot my I's just in case I haven't REALLY forgiven someone.One way I learned how to tell if you haven't forgiven someone,based on our bible study lesson material,is if we still bring up the person and what the offense they committed to you or if you only talk about them in a negative way....I can easily say that most of the world is in unforgiveness based on all the gossip and how "popular" it is to have issues with other people.