Sorry it took longer than I planned to get the blog up and running .
This post is open for discussion regarding WEEK ONE'S session and homework .
Here's how we are going to keep this organized:
1. If you'd like to post a new comment, click "add comment" or start typing in the box that says, "enter your comment here ."
2. If you'd like to respond to a post someone else started, click "reply" directly under the person's post or under the other replies to that particular post .
Hopefully this will make it easier to find a post or read other responses to a post without having to skim through everything .
Last thing... as I wrote about in the Facebook message, let's all "think" before we post .
*The post for each week will be available Wednesday .
DAY FOUR: REMAINING AND RESISTING
ReplyDeleteThis bible study has been a little rough for me personally to get into and I think a lot of it is because I am nervous about getting closer to the LORD and admitting that I have been running away from him. I feel like I have been disciplined in many aspects of my life these last months but not in my spiritual life. The last year of my life there has been many life changing events. They have caused me to grow, shrink back, and trust the LORD in many different ways.
I have shrunk back away from the LORD at times this year. I feel ashamed and embarrassed and I find it hard to admit that I have fallen short and accept God’s grace. Many of you know of my relationship with my earthly father hasn’t always been the most encouraging and sometimes it’s hard to know that my father in heaven is perfect without default and loves me even when I run away from him in shame. I have embraced this thorn in my life and will bear it but it is constantly a lie that I need to bring before God’s feet. It is a huge trust issue and I think at times that’s why I feel it hard to turn to people because of the lack of trust I have in people that are closest to me in my life. I love them and they challenge me to be a better person but at times it’s just hard to understand
I have grown lots too but in ways that I never have before in my life. I have grown in wisdom and discernment of making life choices and what it looks like to celebrate God in a secular world; where we are called to love God’s people but maybe without saying Christ’s name.
I have learned what it looks like to love God and love the world. I am so broken and most days I just want to give up on God because of my failures and because I constantly feel stuck in the mud with no one to rescue me. I often describe it as being right off shore seeing everyone in the sun laughing and playing with loved ones while I struggle to keep afloat being tossed and turned. Yet no one notices. I am embarrassed to admit that I am drowning or that I am struggling and feel alone in my sea of troubles. Those are the days that “choose joy”. Those words really struck me today when I read them in the bible study. I often do not choose joy. I often may also not want to feel joy. I want my feelings to be validated even though they are not of the LORD.
After going through the study for this day I really wanted to go to the internet is the quest of finding what my name meant. Here is what I found Elizabeth translated in the Greek and Hebrew, it means "God's promise", "oath of God", or "I am God’s daughter". My mother always wanted to be named Elizabeth and this why I simply received my name but it really struck me after looking up what it really meant. It is so interesting that God’s had a plan even when I was in my mother’s womb and while he was forming me. My name means God’s daughter… God’s promise… oath of God. It is so beautiful to think that God’s promise to me was my salvation as his daughter, ALWAYS, never forgotten and never second guessed. How often do I forget that? … um…. all the time.
It is super interesting to think about what your name means to other people? When they think of your name what comes to their mind? What are you known for? I often think that and it really sends me thinking and also makes me check my actions. Do my actions reflect what God’s purpose is for me? Do I keep true and faithful to God’s promises He has for my life?
Of course your name means that! That is really beautiful liz. This makes me want to do a search or quest on my name. All I know is that I am fossilized tree sap and colorful :) Not bad, not bad, but im sure there is some more to learn there.
DeleteFaithful. I am learning about taking care of what I have. Basically I am realizing for me to live a life of integrity I have to be Faithful with little and big things God has given me right now. This brings Him glory and in return He gives me joy! It seems like a plate full. Honest it is quite a blessing. Hard to organize it and consider how to discipline myself so that I can be Faithful.
'One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.' -Luke 16:10
To answer one of your questions, I believe people know me for my gift of art. Or at least people at school know me as an art student. Now I want to use that art in my school work to glorify God. Im am learning what this looks like right now.
Bad Identity:
ReplyDeleteMany of you knew that I came to Christ my freshman year of college and has significantly shaped me into the woman that you know now. But I certainly was not the same person you see today. I was a wild little spit fire who could show you what was up. A woman with no respect for herself; with insecurities just bleeding from her lips. Her reliance’s on substances and men consumed her. She was lost in a false identity; an identity was given to her to confuse her so she could be lost. No longer an enemy to satan but a warrior for him instead. This false identity kills me and it saddens my heart to see what I was like and the lies that I once believed. I was there and I know that darkness oh too well. But now in my life after accepting Christ the lies are much different. They are the lies of success and fulfillment with a plan. As many people call it “The American Dream.” They are lies of working towards great things not in the name of God but in the name of myself.
You see I used to go to MSU (GO GREEN! Still a proud Spartan at heart), I studied business, climbing the coroporate latter was what I had in store. After a summer working for the LORD at a summer camp I felt called to be different and be a part of the international church serving in Haiti and loving on his broken children there. It rocked my world to say the least. But coming back home I soon realized that all of my friends had this awesome plan to go somewhere with life. Or they had a huge passion and new what they were going. I felt this immense pressure to get a plan too. To start thinking about how I would make money, have a family, pay bills… blah blah blah blah blah.
I am just now realize that the last 6 months of my life have been under my control and I haven’t allowed God to move whatsoever. I have been falling for the lies that my plan will be just like everyone else’s that I can do it without Him and I don’t really need to pray about making choices. To be completely honest my prayer life has never been that great when it comes for me. I can pray for other people like a boss but when it comes to me and my life and my plans, I think that I got it.
I am so afraid of people looking at me and thinking that I am doing nothing with my life. I have decided to go back to school. I am super excited about it but at the same time I think I am doing it because when people ask me what I am doing with my life I want to tell them I have a plan. But a part of me doesn’t want to have a plan, but it’s so hard to let go of sometimes. I like plans they are comforting. But where is the balance between having a plan and being a good steward of God’s blessings and gifts and being lazy or apathetic and calling it “a life that moves when the Spirit says to move?”
I am going to pray about this now. Like actually pray not just lie and say I will… until tomorrow all! <3
I referenced an article in regards to prime time television. I stated that foul language on prime time television doubled or tripled in the past ten years. I was WAY off. I'm not good at citing sources, but I promise I will always correct myself.
ReplyDeleteThis study was actually in regards to full-frontal nudity on prime time television. In the last year (since 2011), full frontal nudity (pixilated/blurred) on prime time television (on networks such as CBS, CW, NBC, ABC, FOX, etc.) has increased by 6300%.
“For years executives at the broadcast networks have been telegraphing their intent to follow in the footsteps of premium cable networks like HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime, and as this data shows, they are doing exactly that,” she told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “They have been aggressively increasing the amount and explicitness of sexual content, nudity, foul language and violence in their primetime offerings, while excusing it by saying that’s what they have to do to ‘stay competitive’ with premium channels that garner only 1/10th the audience, even on their highest-rated programs. Nevertheless, it’s shocking to see a more than 400 percent increase in just two years.”
She stressed that the pixilated or blurred nudity does not give the networks a free pass.
“The impact is virtually the same as actually showing it. Just as ‘bleeping’ an ‘f-word’ or ‘s-word’ is virtually the same as airing the actual word,” Henson continued. “It just calls attention to the thing that has been edited out.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/08/23/new-study-says-full-frontal-nudity-on-prime-time-tv-up-400-over-last-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fentertainment+%28Internal+-+Entertainment+-+Mixed%29#ixzz26DmUz24X
I referenced the prayer at the Democratic National Convention with more accuracy (thank goodness).
Delete"Tonight, Jena will be praying for the country and for those we serve in Africa at
the close of the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte,
NC. This invitation came at the end of last week as the President was looking for a
Christian who was doing good and admirable work in the world, and they thought of
Jena. This is an incredible honor for Jena to be invited to share her voice from this
international platform. Her invitation is an example of the years of impact she has
made in seeking health and healing for those we serve."
Read more: http://www.bloodwatermission.com/blog/2012/09/jena-nardella-invited-to-pray-for-the-nation.php
Watch more: http://jenanardella.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/praying-for-the-nation/
OUR GOD REIGNS!
I decided what I wish my name meant. Inspired by our study... "God's Beloved."
ReplyDelete(David means "beloved," Jedidiah means "beloved of the Lord," and Carabelle means "beloved, God's promise." I'm borrowing the meaning.)