#and how strong does it get when he eats literal bible pages | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thetruthseekerway · 5 years

Text

From Atheism to Islam: The Light of Al-Fatihah

New Post has been published on http://www.truth-seeker.info/guided-atheists/from-atheism-to-islam-the-light-of-al-fatihah/

From Atheism to Islam: The Light of Al-Fatihah

By Truth Seeker Staff

I went into Taoism, Buddhism, and Judaism. I searched everything I thought, everything.

I was asked about why I converted and I’m sure that a lot of my old high school pals who have searched me and found me on Facebook were like “What?” because this Hijab that you see now is not definitely what they saw back then.

And it is not just the covering. It’s all, that I have faith because I was a very outspoken atheist back in the day (I’m so old now, I can’t believe how old I’m getting!).

So I guess how did I come to this?

Let’s see it would be in high school, and I had my boyfriend at the time who was really great for me, wasn’t he?!

Anyways, it wasn’t the best relationship. He was kind of a dungy! But it is what it is. Anyways, then I got pregnant and dropped out. And I gave my baby up for adoption and blamed God for how horrible my life was. So I turned my back on Him, and what can you say?

So then I healed a little bit I guess in myself and I started searching.

Searching for the Truth

I was raised as a Lutheran. I was baptized as a Lutheran. I remember watching Laura and Grint Welder at the little house and I was excited because they went to church and I wanted to go to church and I asked my Mum why we don’t go to church and she said – I’m sorry mum!- “Because we are Lutherans, we only go to the church for weddings and funerals”

I know that that’s a lie! But I believed her and looking back at it now, that is really kind of funny. But anyway that’s what we went to church for: weddings and funerals, and that was it.

So I found a Lutheran church and I went to it and it was OK and got the bible and read into it and I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel what I saw these people around me feeling and so I looked elsewhere. I went into all the ‘isms’.

I went into Taoism, Buddhism, and Judaism. I searched everything I thought, everything. I searched all kinds of faiths and all religions of the world that I could find and nothing hit home for me. And so I gave up and I was like OK that’s it, if these things aren’t right and I can’t find anything that’s right then that’s it. There’s nothing for me, there is no God.

So I went back to that sort of Atheism, but still searching. I guess that is not really atheist if you are searching for God, but whatever.

Then one day I was working with a born-again Christian girl, and this is nothing against born-again Christians but she was one of those born-again Christians that was like ‘woho, off-world cookie!’- and she was talking about it. And I was very good at doing “Aha, Aha, Aha!” when people are talking to me because I really half the time don’t care.

Anyways, she was talking to me and then she said “When I make love to my husband, I’m making love to Jesus Christ!” And I was like “What?!!” I’ll let you digest that for a little bit because it took me a moment.

And I was like “You are off your rocker! You got to be kidding me! How psycho are you. You are nuts” and I went to say that because I somehow formulated in my mind probably back when I was 10 or 11 years old that I could not believe that Jesus was the son of God.

I just thought “He is God. Why does He need a son? He is God. Is He going to die that He needs a son? And Jesus walking around on earth and eating and pooping?! That’s very ungodly to me.”

So formerly I had this kind of basis in my mind I guess to begin with and so I had said that to her. And she didn’t like that and we kind of had a spat, nothing violent, but just verbal clashes back and forth with my somewhat atheist views against her very strong born-again Christian views.

Muslim Boss

And then along came my boss who happened to be Muslim. He set me aside and said “You have some interesting ideas. I’m going to bring you some literature.” So the next day he came back, I don’t know if he went to the mosque or whatever, and he brought some pamphlets about Islam and I gobbled them up, I could not read them fast enough.

And then he brought me back a Quran and I read it. I didn’t read the whole Quran! I read the very first chapter. It’s called the Opening Surat Al-Fatihah, which is very similar to some of the things I guess in Christianity, but when you are faced with the truth it’s absolutely undeniable and that was undeniable to me. I knew it.

It’s literally six or seven verses, doesn’t even take up a quarter of a page, but I knew that I had found the religion that I have been searching for.

And then I was scared because even back then, almost 13 years ago, Islam was pretty much synonymous with terrorism. And I thought how can I know that this is the right faith for me when you are hearing about suicide bombers and hijackers and all these things?

But the more I studied and the more I read into it, and I certainly didn’t just take the information from my boss, I have a brain. I used my brain and I studied. The truth is the truth, no matter how many ways you try and turn it and spin it and wrap it, it’s what it is. And I knew that that’s what I needed to do… and I became a Muslim… and then I married my boss!

That’s my story so I hope you all found it interesting, or it answered some questions…

————-

Taken with slight editorial modifications from www.onislam.net.

#Allah #Atheism #atheist #Faith #Featured #From Atheism to Islam: The Light of Al-Fatihah #God #Islam #monotheism #quran #Religion #sister Heather

1 note · View note

bairdbc · 4 years

Photo

Struggle

I am in a battle.

When I was in high school, I read a lot of historical novels that dealt with the Civil War. I have no idea why I was fascinated by that era or why I found that content engaging. Yet, I read and allowed myself to picture the smoke covered hills of Gettysburg and smell the stench of death wafting from the tired paperback. I heard the agonized cries of anguish, dying soldiers cut through the darkness as I turned each page. The reality of war is unconscionable and paralyzes me to think that men looked at death's face and continued to fight. It astounds me.

Yet, we are all fighting a battle right now. A battle that leaves us wounded and alone. We sometimes have blind courage while other days we lack the ability to get out of bed for fear of the unknown. I have fought many battles and won but this fight seems different. It feels like the stakes are higher. It feels that this is the battle that will claim victory over the war.

I have always believed that to change you must change the way you think.

I am vigorously attacking the word of God, trying to make sense of my situation and make a way of escape. I feel I must do something to overcome my situation. Force myself into a new way of thinking. What do I need to "do" differently? What do I need to change about myself?

I need to know now and I need to know quick. I am in the midst of battle and I can't find my weapon to attack the oncoming enemy.

God is calling me into a new way of thinking about him. A new place of trust. He is asking me to live by faith. I don't think I have ever known what that means nor (honestly) ever wanted to. Why can't I live to make more money? I know the formula. I work harder and I get paid more. What about living for my spouse? What if I live for others? That seems pretty selfless. Honestly, I have been trying to put a plan together for my life and it is coming down to one fact. Live by faith and lose your life.

Do I need to quit my job? Do I need to have no need for income and trust that my bills are paid by God and not my boss? What do I need to "do" to live by faith?

Every time God propels me into a new understanding, I ask what I need to "do" to get there. Any time a bad situation arises and I am seriously in trouble with someone, work or financially, I ask what I need to "do" to fix it. I am literally realizing this as I am typing.

But, I hear my spirit becoming excited. I hear God in me saying, "Now, we are getting somewhere. Now, I am going to get a chance to really show you who I am."

My spirit knows that the battle is won and my fight is over. My flesh thinks I need to "do" more to get there. The flesh invites me into a need to please and forfeits the grace that is found only in Christ. I remove Christ when I say I can "do" to get there.

I have no control. No control over the outcome of my life. I can take back my life but why did I invite Him in when I was a little girl just to say I am boss. Thanks for saving me from hell but I got this. I can be spiritual, holy, prosperous and successful without you.

I am in real trouble. All I want to do is strategize an escape route and God has me doing the opposite. I have been painting pumpkins, listening to preaching podcasts and taking a full lunch break. I am not figuring a way of escape right now. Right now, my feet are propped on the coffee table and I am writing a blog. How stupid. I am really in trouble and I am not doing anything to fix it. All I am hearing God say to "do" is rest. How can I rest? I can't pay my bills. Here is the worst thought I am having, "I should be further along than this". That is a like a shot to the heart. That one is keeping me tightly bound in feelings of failure and loss.

Why is living in Father so different from the world?

I cried out to God today as I was eating my frozen yogurt (which I am not supposed to eat on my diet) and said to God with tears of frustration streaming down my face, "All I want to do is live in you. That is all I want." The world pressures you into conformity. It pressures you into ideals. I think I need to be the following:

Thinner

Richer

Better person morally

I will be happier when I am thinner, richer, and do the right thing. I need my events in my life to be more fulfilling and I need more accolades to be successful. I need to do more to get more so this void will leave.

I get people. I get why they just stop trying to lose weight or stay in a job they hate. I get why they just say "screw it." The main thing I see in people is that they just focus on one or two things and give up on the rest. It's exhausting. Think about it. In one day, you are supposed to eat healthy, exercise, work an 8-10 hour day, spend time with friends and family, spend an hour on yourself, and include God in all you do. That has to happen in the 14-16 hours we are awake. We feel a strong unction to do this regimen of perfection every day for the rest of our lives. That is impossible. How can we juggle all these important tasks and maintain healthy, moral choices in our own ability?

We all think we must do these things and not fail. That lasts about 3 days and then we get tired of trying. We quit and hate ourselves for failing. We chase our tails trying to measure up to ideals. I asked myself if I really wanted to be thinner and richer. I asked myself what I really wanted out of life. It was a hard question to answer. I still haven't answered it. In all honesty, I would like to lose a few pounds but I actually like my weight right now. I could be a lot thinner but I am kind of content. OMG! Does that make me lazy?

I would love to be richer but is that really what I want right now. If I got it would I be fulfilled. Ever long for something unattainable, a few months or years pass and you receive the unattainable. There you are with everything you wanted and there is something else you want.

I watched that Katy Perry movie. I know. Don't say anything. It was free and I was bored at 11:00 on a friday night. It chronicles her year of utter explosion as a pop star and yet she fights through intense sadness as she loses Russell Brand. It was startling to me that she could not perform to 10's of thousands screaming her name because of the hurt inside her heart. She had it all and yet her commitment to love until "death do you part" was crumbling. She had it all. How could she be depressed? I can't imagine that type of success. She was experiencing what only 1% of humanity get to experience and she still had daily hurts and anxieties that needed ministry.

No matter where we are circumstantially, we need the spirit of God to minister to us. Whether we are rich, poor, fat, thin, successful or unemployed, we need Jesus to minister to our hurts, fears and loneliness. It's the emotions that are stirred from the events that require His love and constant ministry.

What if we could live in a place where circumstances fail to vary our faith and we are comfortable in the uncertainty of living? We are comfortable with our financial status and see God move miraculously on our behalf. I can't change people and I can't change my circumstance. However, I can know God on such an intimate level that He becomes my faith, my certainty that all my needs are met. God is bringing me to a reality that basks continually in the knowing that I am beautiful and wealthy. God is my source of self-esteem and provision. As certain as the sun rises, he performs on my behalf and gives me profound blessing.

I was walking on the beach earlier and God said very clearly, "I do. I do it all."

Ever since I had been awakened by God's love, I have gone through an evolution of refusing to do more to fix my life. God took the "do" out of our relationship. I know I don't have to pray, read his Bible or tithe more to get God to love me. He took the "do" out of going to church. He took the "do" out of believing God for victory in relationships and removed the need to fix people. Now, he is taking the "do" out of needing to fix my financial circumstances.

I am realizing that the struggle I am in is not the circumstance but the unwillingness to allow God to will and do of His good pleasure in me. I feel it irresponsible to spend time with people, craft or get on Facebook when I am in the financial trouble I am in.

I feel the spirit of God saying to me: You thought you knew how much I loved you. Now, see how lavish and reckless my love is for you!

That is all I know and that is all I need to know. I know in Him, the struggle is over. All I can do is surrender and watch him do in me a new work. He gives me the ability to trust him. I don't have to make a decision or do something drastic to prove my trust. I just surrender and tell God my struggle. He tells me "it is finished" and I get to play while daddy fixes it.

Irresponsible? No, just a child who loves her daddy and believes He loves me enough to fix it.

#miraclesawait

0 notes

readingraebow · 5 years

Photo

It Section Six

Derry: The Third Interlude - Chapter 15

1. What happened when the Bradley gang came to Derry? What did this have to do with Pennywise? They were hiding out but they started to get restless so they went into town to buy a bunch of ammunition. But the guy they were buying it from didn't have everything they wanted in stock so he said he could sell them half that day and they could come back in two days for the rest. So then during those two days, he started telling a bunch of townspeople that they were coming. So all of the townspeople he told came and hid around the street in view of the store and when the Bradley gang showed up, there was a shootout and the townspeople of Derry killed the Bradley gang. But the whole thing was covered up??? Or not really covered up but the people never talked about it. And Pennywise was there. He wasn't dressed as a clown, he was dressed as a farmer. But his face was still painted and he had clown hair. And several people saw him but they all saw him shooting and he had the kind of gun the person seeing him had. And he was basically everywhere because everyone saw him somewhere different...

2. Who is the number one person Henry Bowers hates and why? Who else thinks they're number one? The number one person Henry hates is Mike, even though he rarely sees Mike. But Henry hates Mike because his father hates Mike's whole family. Everything that has ever gone wrong for the Bowers family, Henry's dad has blamed on Mike's family. Because they're black. So Henry grew up with that mentality and every time he has the opportunity, he attacks Mike. Except he doesn't have the opportunity very often because Mike goes to a different school and Mike is waaaaay faster than Henry. But Henry killed Mike's dog and when he told his father, his father was ecstatic. So Henry thinks that by hurting Mike, he will win his crazy father's affection. And the others who think they're Henry's number one hated are Ben, Richie, Stan and Bill. The first two because they managed to get away when Henry was trying to beat them and the latter two because of Henry's stupid prejudices; Stan is a Jew and Bill has a stutter.

3. According to Bill's research, how can you beat a glamour? It's, uh, not pleasant and also insane?? So it's a Himalayan ritual. If you're a Himalayan holy-man, you track the creature and get it to stick its tongue out. Then you stick your tongue out and you both overlap tongues and then bite in all the way so you're sort of stapled together, eye to eye. And then you start telling jokes and riddles. First the creature tells one, then you tell one and you go on like that. If the human laughed first, the creature got to kill him and eat him but if the human could get the creature to laugh first, the creature had to go go away for a hundred years.

4. How does Mike come to join the Losers Club? So he's heading to the library at the exact same time that Henry, Belch, Victor, Peter and Moose are leaving Henry's house to go light fireworks. Mike doesn't see them but they all see Mike. So they start following him and when Mike does, eventually, notice them, then they start chasing him. So they run through the train yard and Mike eventually gathers some coal and ends up throwing it at Henry. This gives him enough time to get away but Henry starts pelting lit fireworks at Mike. Well, the rest of the Losers Club were trying to find a place to set off their own fireworks and they hear Henry throwing his at Mike. So they start gathering rocks. When Mike eventually stumbles into view, followed by the bigger boys, they are ready. So the Losers Club ends up taking on all of Henry and company and defeating them. The five older boys are in pretty bad shape when they finally do leave. And when the Losers Club is left alone, they feel like Mike is the last piece they were missing and ask if he wants to set off fireworks with them.

5. What does Mike see when he goes to get his six pack out of the fridge? He sees Stan Uris's severed head. But it isn't adult Stan's head. It's 1958 Stan's head. And he's covered in the feathers from Mike's bird. And when Stan opens his eyes, they're Pennywise's eyes. He starts saying that they won't win without Stan and now that he's gone, they're not strong enough. And there are balloons that appear as well. And blood. Lots of blood.

6. What does the Losers Club see in Mike's dad's album?They see pretty much the same thing Bill and Richie saw in Georgie's album. But the difference is, this time they all see it. So Mike shows them photo after photo containing Pennywise and some of them are hundreds of years apart. But Pennywise is in all of them. And then the last photo is similar to the one Bill and Richie saw. It's of a parade in the middle of Derry and it starts moving. The bands start playing and the parade starts marching and Pennywise starts moving toward them. But Ben says the difference is that Mike's dad has these plastic covers over the pictures so Pennywise can't get out. But Pennywise does climb on a lamppost and start yelling at all of them, saying he's going to kill them all. Then he starts morphing into the different creatures they've seen: the werewolf, the leper, the dead kids. And that's when Stan grabs the album and slams it closed.

7. In the flash forward, when the Losers Club meets up at the library, each of them brings their favorite alcoholic beverage. What would you bring/what is your drink of choice? Hmmm. I typically prefer vodka. I really like vodka cranberries and I loooove making Sex on the Beach. But I also really love mimosas. So if I were meeting with the Losers Club, I would probably bring vodka and cranberry juice. But if I'm out or making something for myself, probably mimosas. Literally my favorite brunch special of all time is any place that has bottomless mimosas, haha.

8. What happens on July 17th? Ben read in a book that Native Americans would have a smoke hole and it would give them visions. So they decide to try this. They gather a bunch of green wood, make a hole in the ground over their underground clubhouse and then light the wood and wait. Well, all of them but Mike and Richie end up flying out of the clubhouse, in the middle of a couching fit. Mike and Richie, however, stay and have a vision of It's arrival. They are still in the same place but millions of years ago and they see a ship arrive. They say it is like a spaceship, but it isn't? Richie says it's more like the Ark of the Covenant in the Bible. And the arrival of this vessel starts a forest fire and also creates a giant crater where it landed. They say it came so long ago that it was before people were even there. So it arrived and then it waited for the people to come so it could start feasting on them.

Section Six Reading Journal

So I tried to read this section a couple weeks ago but I have honestly been getting so disenchanted with this book. Because it just feels so unnecessarily long and repetitive. And honestly I think this the adults section that I wasn’t really liking. So I stopped and reread some books I love and then came back to this one.

And honestly I liked it better after taking a little break. Though I think I like it better because now it feels like it’s actually getting to the story? And having the full Losers Club is what I’ve been waiting for since the beginning. Because that’s when it feels like the story is truly starting and we’re actually getting to ~the point.

So, honestly, to me it feels like very little of the last six hundred pages was actually necessary. We didn’t need the in depth meeting with every single member of the Losers Club-- twice! As both kids and adults! That all just felt repetitive and unnecessary. What you do need is how they meet, become friends and band together to defeat It.

I am liking this book better but mostly because it feels like it’s actually going somewhere now. And I like that a lot. So I’m honestly excited to keep reading this book and I haven’t been for a while. But now we’ve finally reached the story that I signed up for and I’m so excited about that!

#trcbooks #choice: it #reader's choice reading list

0 notes

adaveijola · 5 years

Text

the human memory: fact or fiction? 2.0

William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow is a great book, almost as close to perfection as literature can get, that captures the frailty of the human mind, which is ironic, because it must take quite a strong mind to write a book such as this one. I could probably dedicate this entire blog to this book and still never run out of things to talk about. It is quite an intimidating piece of writing to comment on, but it has made my brain stir too much for me to simply ignore it. I want to talk about the explicit comments Maxwell makes in the third chapter of the book about the fickle nature of human memory. He writes, “What we, or at any rate what I, refer to confidently as memory – meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion – is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling…In talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw.” Maxwell is not wrong. In fact, many studies have gone to prove exactly what he claims here. I hate to get all scientific on you but if you know me, you know I not-so-secretly love space and quantum physics and, most of all, the human brain, so that is what we are going to talk about.

Perhaps the most prominent psychologist who has studied memory is Elizabeth Loftus. Her goal throughout her career has been to prove that human memory is so unreliable that it can be altered, both intentionally and unintentionally. Her most famous study involves participants watching a video of a car crash and then being asked how fast they thought the cars were going when they collided. But what the subjects did not know was that each group had the question worded in a different way. For example, one group was asked the question “How fast do you think the cars were going when they bumped into each other?” while another group heard “How fast do you think the cars were going when they crashed into each other?” The group that heard the question with the word “bumped” had significantly lower guesses as to the speed of the cars when compared to the group that heard “crashed.” So, their memory was altered with a simple change of wording.

Loftus, however, is not the only one who has been interested in memory. In fact, another psychologist by the name of James Coan studied how memories can not only be altered but implanted into the human mind. He conducted a study in which he gave members of a family booklets that contained recollections of their childhood memories. But one of the family members received a false story of him being lost in a shopping mall as a child until he was found by an older man who brought him back to his family. When asked about the memory, the participant retold the story as if he really remembered it, even including additional details that were not included in the booklet, so Coan successfully implanted a memory in the participant’s mind that was not previously there.

All of this seems fairly abstract, so let me give you one more example from my own life. My entire life I have hated the flavor of green grapes and only eaten red ones. Or so I thought, until my boyfriend began to insist that when we first started dating, I used to like green grapes and would refuse to eat red ones. The story has gotten so jumbled in my head the only piece of information I am left with that I am absolutely positive about is that, at the moment, I only like red grapes. My mind seems unable to piece the puzzle back together as to whether I switched from liking green grapes to liking red grapes or if my boyfriend is just very inattentive and has the details backwards.

Now, you may be asking: what does this mean for literature? Can I not trust anything I read? And if the author is intentionally writing a fictional story, does it even matter if the autobiographical details they include are accurate or not? The answer to all of the questions above is yes and no. Let me elaborate.

First, whether you can trust what you read really depends on what it is that you are reading. When you are reading Harry Potter, you most likely don’t care if J. K. Rowling’s depiction of the early 2000s England is accurate or not because it is completely overshadowed by the magical landscape of the wizarding world. But when you are reading a biography of someone you admire, you might care a little bit more about the realities behind what is written on the page. A couple of years ago, I read the biography of none other than pop queen Madonna. In order for you to understand why she is so important to me, you need to know that I was raised on her music. When I was about seven years old, I watched the Confessions Tour DVD with my aunt and as part of the show, Madonna appears on a crucifix while the death toll of African AIDS victims counts down on the screen behind her – not something every seven-year-old gets to experience. I grew up singing Like a Virgin into a fake children’s microphone and dancing to around my bedroom to Hung Up. So, not the traditional Christian upbringing you might expect. So, when I received Madonna’s biography, Life with My Sister Madonna, as a goodbye present before I left for America almost four years ago, I was ecstatic. I really enjoyed reading the story of the woman I had grown up idolizing. But upon later research, I discovered that Madonna’s brother, who had written the biography, had gotten a lot of the details wrong. In fact, after the release of the biography, Madonna had refused to speak to her brother for a long time. Did he lie or did he simply remember some details wrong? Perhaps a little bit of both. But when we are deciding how trustworthy a reading is, genre counts more than anything.

Second, whether the story is fictional or not, it is not necessarily the accuracy of the story that matters but the story itself. As humans, we are natural storytellers. It is how our brain organizes information, it is an essential part of our survival and it is a way for us to make sense of the chaos that is the world. In yet another psychological study, Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel showed college students a short film in which geometrical shapes, such as a triangle, a circle and a rectangle, were moving across a screen in seemingly random patterns. When asked what they saw, all but one of the students made up a narrative for the shapes, describing the circle as “worried” and the triangle as an “innocent young thing.” These people were able to find a story in what was essentially an old Windows screen saver. Stories help us give meaning to things that don’t otherwise seem to make sense. Ever read the Bible? God literally gave us his word through stories. How else would we be able to even remotely make sense of him and who he is to us? And in addition to being a good story, that one is also accurate.

But, as I have mentioned earlier, accuracy is not always what counts. In fact, there are times when authors choose to be inaccurate on purpose. Take Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Storyteller (what a fitting title for this blog post!). The entire book follows the journey of a man as he writes the book. About one third through the story, he makes a comment very similar to Maxwell’s statement which we discussed earlier: “Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.” That is what Vargas Llosa is trying to do. But there are also parts where he makes up details on purpose for different reasons. For example, when he talks about the Institute of Linguistics, he claims that the name of its founder is Dr. Peter Townsend. Spoiler: it is not. The founder was Dr. Cameron Townsend. Peter Townsend is the guitarist in the rock band The Who. One can only assume this is some kind of inside joke for Vargas Llosa’s colleagues who also worked with the Institute. My point is that authors can and should make these choices. We should not attempt to tell true stories (unless it would be unethical not to) but good stories – stories that capture the meaning of being human. And sometimes a little lie is required to get the message across.

So, what does this mean for the reader? Don’t worry, I’m not just writing this so I could geek out about psychology, although that is definitely one reason why I am sitting here typing this, but I do actually have a point to make. Literature deals more intimately with memories than perhaps anything else. While Maxwell’s and Vargas Llosa’s stories are fictional, there are autobiographical elements in them. But I think what they concludes and what we all conclude when reading is that sometimes it doesn’t matter whether a memory is accurate or not. What matters is the feeling it brings us, the things it can teach us, the places it can take us back to. What matters is the overall story that memory is a part of, the story of our lives. So, our whole lives may be a lie, at least if these studies are anything to go by, but accurate or not, memories are not supposed to be perfect snapshots of our lives, but they are supposed to tell stories. And just like all stories, memories, too, are sprinkled with both fiction and reality.

0 notes

venulifechurch-blog · 6 years

Photo

Created For Community New Life Version Bible Welcome to VenuLife Church! God bless you and thank you for coming to our page, if your ever in our area we invite you to come join us here for our online messages or events that we hold every Saturday evening. I assure you that we will make you feel right at home. This evenings message is a about, Created For Community. But, before we dive into the word of God please, join me by holding up your Bible and repeating after me. This is your word. We are what it says we are. We have what It says we have. We can do what it says we can do. Today we will learn the word of God. We boldly confess that our minds are alert, our hearts are receptive and, we will never be the same, in Jesus name. Amen. Community is something we all want. No matter how you’re wired - introvert, extrovert, socially adept or socially awkward - something in your soul longs for meaningful relationships with other humans. We long to know others and be known by them. We treasure friendships that allow us to truly “be ourselves.” Though some of us have never found this sort of community and though others have been deeply wounded by relationships, all of us still long for deep, authentic, real community. How did we get this way? How did this craving, this longing, get hard-wired into us? The Bible answers that question by explaining that we are created in the image of God. God created us for community. Created for Community One of the oldest and most cherished doctrines of historic Christian theology is the doctrine of the Trinity. The Nicene Creed (c. AD 325) summarizes the Trinity this way: I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.... And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. The Trinity means that God himself is in community. More accurately, God is community: one God, three persons. “Before all worlds”—before any sort of human community existed—there was God, dwelling in perfect, loving harmony in his threefold being. In the biblical account of creation, this Triune God says: Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man like Us and let him be head over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that moves on the ground.” Human beings are made to image God, to reflect his likeness. That’s why our longing for community seems so deep and primal. It’s how we’re made as God’s image bearers. So if deep community is something we all want, if it’s part of being made in God’s image, then what makes it so hard to attain? What keeps us from achieving the type of meaningful human relationships that God wired us for? The Fall: Broken Community If you think for a moment about the nature of your relationships, you’ll quickly identify another tendency that’s present-something darker and more sinister than your God-given desire for community. It’s the tendency to use people to meet your own needs first. It’s not hard to see how often we are self-focused, pursuing our own interests and protecting ourselves from people and relationships that will demand too much of us. For example, think of the times you’ve intentionally avoided someone who bothers you. Or the times you’ve said what people wanted to hear in order to avoid offending them. Or the times you’ve stopped pursuing certain friends because they were no longer useful to you. Or the times you’ve clung to bad or unhealthy relationships just to escape the feeling of being alone. Our inherent selfishness is evidence of what the Bible calls “sin.” When we hear the word sin, we tend to think of bad behavior. But sin is deeper than external actions. The Bible often talks about sin in terms of unbelief. In other words, rather than believing what is true, we believe lies, which obviously leads to bad behavior and negative emotions. Unbelief was at the root of the first sin. Eve believed the Serpent’s lie about God and his intentions toward them: Genesis 3:4-5 Verse 4 The snake said to the woman, “No, you for sure will not die! Verse 5 For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” Unbelief is a failure to see and believe what’s true about God, the world, and ourselves. It’s not taking God at his word, not believing his promises, not trusting in his goodness. And sin’s impact is not just that we don’t believe, it’s that apart from Christ we’re unable to believe. Sin has turned us in on ourselves and warped our relationships with others. We need Someone who can deliver us from our unbelief and selfishness and restore our capacity for true, deep, lasting community. Redeemed for Community This is where the good news of the gospel meets us. The word gospel literally means “good news”—a message, a proclamation, an announcement. One of the paradoxes of this message is that before it can be good news, it must start with bad news: we are sinful, broken people. We are rebels against God. We are mired in lies and self-worship, and we look to things other than God to give us identity and significance. We can’t free ourselves, make God happy with us, or do enough good works to make up for our sins. But God, rich in mercy, sent Jesus to earth as our substitute. Jesus took our place in his life as he obeyed God fully and worshiped him totally, things we failed to do. He substituted himself for us in his death, as he paid the penalty we owed to God for our sin and unbelief. If we humble ourselves, acknowledge our need, and turn to him, God the Holy Spirit will apply Jesus’ substitutionary work to us by faith. The Bible calls this redemption, a word that means “to be delivered, ransomed, or set free.” What does Jesus redeem us from? Sin and all its effects. What does Jesus redeem us for? A life that images God and reflects his goodness to the world. In other words, one of the chief things that Jesus accomplishes when he redeems us is to restore our capacity for community. Not for a community of people who look and act just like us, but a community made up of people from every tribe and tongue and nation on earth. Revelation 7:9 After this I saw many people. No one could tell how many there were. They were from every nation and from every family and from every kind of people and from every language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white clothes and they held branches in their hands. God has created us for community, and Jesus has redeemed us for community. In doing so, he has made us into his very own body that is able to live, love, and make known his “good news” to our friends and neighbors. 1 Corinthians 12:27 You are all a part of the body of Christ. But wait: If Jesus redeems us for community, then why is community still such hard work? Why are relationships still fraught with brokenness, even among Christians? This is the tension we live in. Even though Jesus has delivered us from the penalty and rule of sin, he has not yet eradicated sin from the world. Because of sin’s ongoing presence, we are prone to unbelief. We easily forget the good news of the gospel and fall back into lies and self-worship. That’s why the Bible encourages us not just to receive the gospel, but to “stand” in it. 1 Corinthians 15:1 Christian brothers, I want to tell the Good News to you again. It is the same as I preached to you before. You received it and your faith has been made strong by it. and to “continue” in it Colossians 1:23 This is for you if you keep the faith. You must not change from what you believe now. You must not leave the hope of the Good News you received. The Good News was preached to you and to all the world. And I, Paul, am one of Christ’s missionaries. In other words, building and enjoying healthy community is going to require us to believe the gospel, to believe that what Jesus did for us has power and relevance for the way we relate to God and others. This requires an intentional focus on our part. It means identifying the unbelief in our hearts that hinders our ability to love and serve others and to receive love from them in turn. It means receiving the healing, liberating truths of the gospel in ways that allow them to soak deep into the core of our being. And guess where this work of ongoing transformation takes place? In community. Transformed in Community Did you ever notice how patient you are—as long as no one is getting on your nerves? Or how loving you are—as long as you’re surrounded by people who are easy to love? Or how humble you are—as long as you’re respected and admired by others? Every one of us is a saint in isolation! It’s in community that our real weaknesses, flaws, and sins are exposed. That’s why community is essential—not optional—for transformation. We can’t become the people God wants us to become outside of community. You see, redemption is not the end of the story. God is preparing us for 2 Peter 3:13 We are looking for what God has promised, which are new heavens and a new earth. Only what is right and good will be there. His goal is a renewed creation, where redeemed humans dwell in perfect harmony with each other and with their Creator. God is out to prepare his people for this glorious future by transforming them now, a process the Bible calls sanctification. The agent of sanctification is the Holy Spirit. The tool of sanctification is the truth of the gospel. And the context of sanctification is community. Consider some of the “one another” statements in the Bible: “Love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor.” Romans 12:10 “Love each other as Christian brothers. Show respect for each other. 2 Corinthians 13:11 Last of all, Christian brothers, good-bye. Do that which makes you complete. Be comforted. Work to get along with others. Live in peace. The God of love and peace will be with you. Galatians 5:13 Christian brother, you were chosen to be free. Be careful that you do not please your old selves by sinning because you are free. Live this free life by loving and helping others. Ephesians 4:32 You must be kind to each other. Think of the other person. Forgive other people just as God forgave you because of Christ’s death on the cross. Isn’t it obvious that none of us can do these things perfectly? These commands aren’t given just so that we’ll know what we should do; they’re also given so that we can try, and fail, and grow in our experience of God’s grace. Trying to fulfill these “one another” commands helps to reveal our sin, drives us to Jesus in repentance and faith, and causes us to depend on the Holy Spirit for transformation. Community is the laboratory in which we learn to rely on God’s grace and experience the gospel’s transforming power. Community is also the primary context for mission, our outward focus as believers. God wants to use our communities, messy and broken as they are, to draw others into his story and introduce them to Jesus, the Redeemer! It’s not just about us becoming more like Jesus; it’s about people who don’t know Jesus coming to know him as Savior and Lord. We sometimes treat community like the safety net under a tightrope walker: it’s a good thing to have in case something bad happens. But the Bible talks about community as if it’s the tightrope itself: you can’t move forward without it. We are created for community. We are redeemed for community. And we are transformed in community. Closing prayer: Dear Heavily Father we want to thank you for this time to reflect on your perfect love for us. We are imperfect people living in a chaotic world and we know it. We ask that you protect us, our family, our friends and everyone we come in contact with. We live to fulfill your will for our lives and we give you all our praise and worship. Thank you for giving Jesus your Son as your ultimate sacrifice so we could be a free people. And everyone said, Amen. Thank you for visiting VenuLife Church! We invite you to come visit us. Wherever you are you can join us on Saturday evenings at 7P for Online Messages and church events. God bless you! Senior Lead of VenuLife Church, Leonard Beene "Leo" VenuLifeChurch.org

#bible #bible study #church #jesus christ #CreatedForCommunity #FollowersOfJesus #VenuLifeChurch #Florida #lakebuenavista #christianity

0 notes

sunflowertr · 7 years

Text

When at a loss for what to do…

1. Do what you know HOW to DO. 2. Remember what you KNOW to be TRUE. 3. Find something NEW for YOU.

I like to explore ALL my options. So much so, that it has become a joke in our family. If you want something researched like a dog with a bone, than I am your go-to-gal for turning what could simply fit onto a 3 x 5 card into a 16-page official document.

Ideas are my hobby. And fleshing out new options is my-kinda-fun.

But unfortunately, all this “what if?” or “maybe this!” ends up being time-consuming. And confusing. And life-sucking.

So after spending months and months and months, exploring (and testing) all possible courses that my career/life could take, I recently came to a few conclusions.

1. Do what you know HOW to do.

Why is it that often the most logical, suitable solution is sitting there right beneath our nose?

The thing I know best HOW to do is capture and spread beauty. This has been my official mission statement since 2001. How did I lose sight of my passion?

I was so busy looking for that new “thing” I was supposed to do, that it drew my away from the real thing I already KNOW how to do.

And for me, that real thing is to shoot not-so-good photos of beauty. NOT for Instagram or Facebook — but rather — with the express purpose of turning that snapshot of time into a painting.

A painting which documents the fact that there is still a lot of good in this world. A painting which can breathe a feeling of hope, peace, and happiness into a room.

Simple for me. Life-giving to my soul. And often a way to inspire others.

YOUR real thing probably won’t be painting. If it were — you probably would not be reading this blog — you probably wouldn’t even be on the internet because you would be blissfully lost in the chaos of your work right now. Not even knowing what day or time it was. Or when you had last eaten.

YOUR real thing… might be embracing the messy season of parenting life. With the express purpose of turning 2, or 3, or 4 (or more!) little pliable souls into first little —and then later — bigger little-people. Real people who grow up to be kind, and compassionate, and capable adults. People who do things that the world needs done. People who reflect all the good things they learned from you while they were growing up.

YOUR real thing… might be driving a truck across town, or across the country. Driving important things, to the places they need to be. On time. And without incident. Because that is what YOU know, and that is how you support your family. And along the way you have time to think and dream and listen. And SEE so many things that nobody else will ever have the chance to even know about.

YOUR real thing… might be hard, and boring, and thankless, but also RIGHT for this season of life.

Aren’t most REAL things basically just that? Full of lots of effort that feels hard, and boring, and thankless. But at the end of the day, isn’t it the REAL thing that we are intentionally doing (and viewing for what it is — the RIGHT thing) the ONE thing that best makes us sleep soundly, with a satisfied heart?

2. Remember what you KNOW to be TRUE.

Why does this sound so easy to do, yet so often the last thing we fall back on?

This year, at the suggestion of a dear friend, I have been writing down a sentence or two every morning. A thought or verse that has caught my heart from the devotional reading that I begin my day with.

WOW.

This one small practice, which only consumes about 10 minutes of my time, has been a game-changer for me the past two months. Who would have thought?!!

Here is what I wrote down last week. On Wednesday. In very messy, almost illegible handwriting…

*Isaiah 38* Hezekiah was going to die. He prayed to God to remember his faithfulness and “WEPT BITTERLY.” God heard him & said “I will add 15 years to your life. As a SIGN — I will turn back THE SHADOWS & make them go back the 10 steps they have already gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” So HE did! God made shadows go backwards! “I have heard your prayers and seen your tears…”

[That was just my unedited paraphrase. For the actual verses, check out Isaiah 38 which talks about how God heard the bitter weeping of a man and then answered his cries.]

I am not sure this story has such a happy ending, but I was reminded of something I already know to be TRUE, but need to be reminded of. Through it ALL, the God who was powerful enough to reverse the shadows, was WITH Hezekiah.

In regards to all the soul-searching and angst that seems to have made up the better part of my adult life — and besides the part about God reversing the literal shadows on the ground— here was my other favorite thought from that chapter.

Isaiah 38:17 “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.

Since I DO believe the Bible to be a true document, with the power to change lives (sorry if that totally weirds you out!) I need to figure out a way to pour more of this TRUTH into my life. Period.

So. To both you AND to me, I say this…

Remember what you KNOW to be true; remember what you know to be good. And STOP listening to the distractions which are so strong and so everywhere that they are almost impossible to block out!

Phillipians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

3. Find something NEW for YOU.

I did something crazy a few months ago. I joined a class in which I am the only white person. And also, the only person below the age of 60 (65+???) I am not sure why I did this, but I felt a voice inside me was saying I should go. And do something different. Because it was an opportunity that so few will ever get the chance to experience.

At first, it was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done. But at the very same time — the most eye-opening, interesting, love-filled place I have been in years.

In my often too-driven mind, “I do not have time…” for a weekly, noon-day class. That being said, this crazy NEW thing has been the oasis for my parched, dry soul.

The class asks nothing of me, other than to show up for an hour. And be loved. I am not even sure why.

Except, I DO know why. In my head, I know there is a LOVE that can transcend race and age and gender. But until I jumped into this crazy new thing, I have never experienced it so deeply before. A love and unity that has no other explanation than this one true thing. We are all part of the same spiritual family.

Only YOU can find your NEW good thing. And if you can’t figure it out yourself, find some idea-factory like myself and ask them for a thought or two. There has got to be at least one something-simple you can squeeze into your week, or month, or year that is a good NEW thing for you.

Maybe a book club?

Taking an online class in something that has always interested you?

Hanging out at the dog park on Sunday afternoons to meet people who you would never otherwise cross paths with?

Walking with a neighbor?

Volunteering?

Making a concerted, documented effort to eat one new kind of food every week?

No matter what it is for YOU, I can attest that this crazy good NEW thing I am in the middle of, has been life-giving to my soul. It has taken me out of my sometimes dreary but still comfortable safety zone and dumped a clean, cold bucket of refreshing perspective into my week.

Bam. Done. There you go. Three easy steps to solving ALL of Life’s problems. In a nutshell. (Ha-ha! If ONLY life were so easy…)

“May we all listen closely for direction — but never let the weight of the wait, become that which we allow to crush us.”

— Ancient Proverb

[ Just kidding. I totally made that quote up! (See… I gotta stick to my Real Thing.) ]

MY “Real Thing” is painting.

Which is what I did last week. And THAT, is when and WHY, the painting at the top of this post was created.

So at least for now, I am getting back to painting in a more focussed way. Taking something seriously that I am ALREADY good at. And even though I have no plan (yuck) for what purpose this continued effort of love may have, I will continue to do what I know how to do. At least until somebody tells me otherwise.

If you would like to have a copy of my painting “True”— to remind you to think about what is TRUE for you — feel free to download my March desktop calendar by clicking on the image above.

Warmly,

Marie Scott Painter of beauty. Even if it is just for me; for now.

www.remembergoodness.com

A new painting for March. And a few ideas on “what to do when you don’t know what to do.” When at a loss for what to do... 1. Do what you know HOW to DO.

#Art #blog #business #Christianity #creativity #design #faith #inspiration #Life #lifestyle #miscellaneous #Personal #pictures #reflections #relationships #religion #thoughts #Women

0 notes