Journal of Faith: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Philippians 2:12

     One of my favorite things to do is converse with people about how their faith informs their perspective on life.  My perspective is informed by my growing relationship with Jesus Christ as well as my growing understanding of what it means to be a mother, a woman, a daughter, a sister, a business partner (I'll tell you about that a little later), a single, a minister, a minority, a student, an American, a somewhat young person, a servant, and a friend.   Along with each of these categories, my experiences within each of these areas colors my perspective too.  There are certain emotions that can be triggered with every encounter and those also inform my perspective as well. All of these things help or hinder me in interpreting life.  Do they all influence me at once, I think yes but not all equally.   If I am riding a bike, I make adjustments to maintain my balance, but every adjustment requires that I move away from one area to move towar...

It is a common thing to hear people say, "no one is perfect" or "perfection is not possible."  I respectfully disagree according to the word of God AKA The Holy Bible.  I am, however, sympathetic to what these people are saying because of the false representation of perfection that has been presented around the world.  I call it plastic living and it represents everything generic.   Let's talk about plastic living.  Barbie Dolls are great example of plastic living.  These long haired, long legged,  perky everything, razor thin, painted faced, long lashed, icons are marketed to girls around the world as a marker of feminine perfection.  In reality these proportions would be medical disasters that would result in women with back conditions as well as other medical issues.  In other words, Barbie's body is what a woman with medical issues would look like.  Woman have gotten plastic surgery  In recent years women world wide are...

I am sure that everyone can think of at least one time when someone tried to stop you in your tracks.  If you don't have an acceptable answer to their questions things can get pretty uncomfortable.  I have been the girl that had the answers as well as the girl who didn't.  So what do you do when God told you to do something, and no one else heard it?  What do you do when God says "go" and everyone else says "no"?  This is the moment when you have to know your Bible.  I believe that if someone is doing something that is in tuned with the Word of God, than they need to be left to their devices.  I am reminded of a story in the Bible where Jesus' disciples were being critical of men that were rebuking demons and healing people in the name of Jesus. Scripture puts it like this: Mark 9:38-39 King James Version (KJV) 38  And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, be...

       I used to ask my students this question when they started to act carelessly, "what if everything that you said, did, and thought were on display for everyone to see, and you had to make an account for every one of those things?"  It is disheartening when I realize that I've just failed a life test, but to me, the only thing worse than failing is failing in front of someone else, and seeing the confusion on their face.  I don't know if you have ever had this happen to you, but I remember the sting that I felt when someone at my elementary school looked at me after I had done something that I knew was wrong and said, "I thought you said you were a Christian."  Even at a tender age I knew that I had just lost my witness.  I felt so ashamed and regretful.   It was one thing for me to gain a bad reputation because of a choice I had made, but the idea that I was marring someone else's view of God was almost too much to bear...

It is my daily struggle to believe the most basic of all Christian principles; it is hard to believe that God loves me.  Some days are better than others, but every day is a struggle.  It is easy to deductively analyze my life and say, "Yeah, it doesn't add up.  It can't possibly be right."  It may be easy for other people to look at me and say, "you're a wonderful woman of God. He's proud of you."  They don't see everything.  They don't know what God and I know about me.  They don't know every time I thought something mean or hateful.  They don't know every deceptive things I've done.  They don't know every time I didn't speak up for what was right for my own personal gain.  They don't know my tendencies or my secret sins.  When I look at the pile up from the past twenty something years, it is devastating to me.  It's easy to chalk it all up and conclude that I am unlovable.  I am guessing that I am not the only...

I've written before about my instinctive desire to try to figure out want God wants from my life and do it myself, but something hit me as I was asking God what he had in mind today.  He said my will.  Here is where perspective really matters because I got the feeling that this "will" was not referring to his desires type of "will" but to his declarations of what he "will do".  In case you are unsure of what God is willing to do for those of us who have been adopted into his family as his children through Jesus Christ, I have done a quick research on some of the major "I Will's" of God. Thank God for his "Will." Genesis 26:3 Sojourn in this land, and  I   will  be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed,  I   will  give all these countries, and  I   will  perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;   Romans 9: 15   For he saith to Moses,  I   will  have mercy on ...

I am no different than everyone else in this world in that I want to be loved.  I want to be on someone's mind all the time.  I want to matter to someone's heart in such a way that they will want to spend the rest of their life with me, flaws and all.  I was reflecting this week and God revealed to me that he declared to all the world his love for me when Jesus died on the cross, and when I accepted his sacrifice I accepted his proposal.  The Lord himself has declared his intention to make me his bride, and he has sealed his intent with a holy ring that is his holy spirit.  He has given me his ring and gone to prepare a place for me.  Any person who has accepted Jesus Christ as the son of God and the Holy sacrifice for our sins on the cross who rose from the dead after paying for our souls' salvation with his life has been sealed as the bride of Christ with his Holy Spirit. Jesus didn't get on one knee, but instead he stretched out his palms on a cross an...