I was recently reading an article about how an athiest views Christians. I believe the he offered two types of Christianity: a "spiritual police force" or a "spiritual banana republic." We are either beating others with accusations of their sin or have an "organized hypocrisy." Neither view is very favorable, and as this article would later on point out this atheist missed something about Christianity.

John Newton was a Captain of a slave ship. God worked on Newton's heart and Newton then went on to be one of the greatest hymn writers we know. I recently watched Amazing Grace and in the film Newton's time working in the slave trade weighs heavily upon him. Watching Newton reminded me of Psalm 32.

1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.

2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.

That is the kind of pain from sin that drove Newton to write these words.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

So it's crunch time. This week in school I have two tests and two projects due. This week I caught a bad cold and because I didn't stop I acquired laryngitis. Whenever I get laryngitis I require massive amounts of sleep, so not a whole lot of studying going on. To top it off I can't even talk which makes it hard to communicate. So I have been doing a lot of communicating with God.

It's a good thing that I have been communicating with God because frankly. I'm worried and stressed out. Usually I spaze out on someone at this point, but I've been to sick. I'm worried that I'll that I fail school. I'm worried that I'll disappoint people. That won't be able to live up to expectations. Yet in this I take comfort. In this I find shelter. Here is where I find hope.

Romans 8:35-39

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."^[l] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"The gospel is not a story of what you must do for God. The gospel is a story of what God has already done for you through Christ Jesus. " ~ Pastor David Wayne

Oh, what amazing grace is this that I can give not only my glory to the cross, but also my failure.

I have been struggling with a lot of things in my life lately. Something that someone said to me really made me think, "I am so tired of singing a new song every week."

Psalm 98:1a

1 Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;

Sometimes it is so hard to find a new song, especially when God puts a new trial in my life. I know that others in my life are also going through trials. Both new and old trials and like me they are having a hard time finding a song. So I take comfort in this verse.

Psalm 40:3

3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

God is the one who gives us the songs in our lives. He is the one who enables us to praise Him. "It is not by our works, so that no man can boast."

The Progression of Love
Can I love you
For who you are
Can I share with you
My shame when it is hard
Can I love with you, love with you, give you myself
And still be my self too

I want to love like the Son
Give my all for you
I want to paint the picture of love
Would you please help me too
Cause I don't, I don't love like you

How can you love me
Knowing who you are
How do you see me
When my heart is so hard
You live with me, love with me, gave of yourself for me
You set me free

So I can love like the Son
Give my all for you
I show the colors, the picture of love
Like I was designed too
Cause you love, you love me
You love, you love me
I love you too
Jesus, I love you

Think about our purpose. We were made to worship. We were made to love God. We were made to love others.

Matthew 20:28

28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Father, may I too serve like Your Son. Give me a desire to serve whole heartily. Give me a servants heart. Amen.

Tick, tick, tick
I hear the sound of your watch
Near my ear with your arms round me
It remind me of time

It reminds me of time
Time with you
Without you
Time together
Time if laughter
Time if tears
Time past
Time to come
And the time I have
In this quite moment with you

Dub,dub, dub
I hear the pulse of your heart
Near my ear with your arms wrapped around me
It reminds me of life

It reminds me of life
Life with you
without you
Life together
Life of laughter
Life of tears
Life past
Life to come
And the life I have
In this quiet moment with you

tick, tick, tick
It's the little things that draw the picture of you
Dub, dub, dub
It's the soft quiet sounds that make up the music of you
Hush, hush, hush, My dear
It's the little things that make up my love for you

"You really shouldn't say,"I love you," unless you mean it. But if you mean it you should say it a lot. People forget."

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Kindness- Be kind and what? I have to be nice to these people. But they're so, so, so... human. They sin and do unkind things to me. You're telling me that I have to be nice to them. Come on.

I find that as I grow older and hopefully wiser that kindness is a choice. As I sit there and process what is being done or said to me that I can choose my reaction. I quickly go over in my head what a great reaction would be. This one is usually unkind and without grace or mercy. Then more slowly I go over what would be a nicer reaction. What the kind thing would be. What Jesus might do. I don't always get it right. Sometimes I choose what would be unkind and sometimes what is closer to kind still isn't the right thing. Yet there is always that choice. I hope and pray that God would work in me and that desire to react unkindly would fade. I pray that God would show me how in every situation I can do what His son would have done in my place.

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Patience- It's a virtue. Not a virtue that I have in great abundance. Society does not value patience. We want to get what we want five minutes ago. In our fast society we can't wait for good things to come to us; we must ,therefore, go out to find them.

We rush into relationships, yet we are told that "love is patient."

We don't want to deal with the trials that God puts us through, but the bible reads that "we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope..."

We get tired of always doing the same good christian things; however, Paul tells the Galations ,"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

The dictionary defines it as quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; or diligence.

When you show perseverance in a job it shows strength character. The strength of Christ is reflected in your quite waters.

Funny story. I was trying to post on peace yesterday and I just could not get it done. I kept getting interrupted and people needed help. My cousin had to go to the doctor because she thought that she had broken her arm. It was not a peaceful day; however, that just made me think about God's grace is the only thing that can give me peace. So it was a good thing, just not very peaceful. ;-)

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Peace- What is peace? The whole world seeks peace in so many different ways. People try and find spiritual peace through meditation and doing good deeds. People seek peace on a national level by trying to fight for peace for others and by trying to stay out of war. We seek peace among friends and family relations. We seek peace and quite from the world. Yet we can't find it.

Christ gives us Spiritual peace. He has done that with his blood on the cross.

Colossians 1:20

20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

God offers us mental peace and peace within our hearts.

Philippians 4:7

7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It is nothing that we do. It is all the grace of God which gives us peace. This does not mean we shouldn't try and have peace in our lives.

Psalm 34:14

14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

Hebrews 12:14

14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

If I try and pursue peace apart from God, I will fail. Only God can piece together our lives so that they are complete. God is the only one who can fill our hearts with peace.

Romans 15:13

13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Forgotten Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Joy- What is joy? It's so close to so many things, but they just seem to miss the mark. Joy is not happiness. Happiness is sadly temporary and joy last longer than that. Joy is not merely contentment, it is more powerful than that. It is not exuberance or delight. Joy is all of these things. Joy is none of these things. What is joy? We are told to count it joy when we go through hard times and trials. Like love joy is often confused as an emotion, but it is not. Joy is a way of life that God calls us to be as Christians. If we were always happy, how superficial and fake would that be? Joy like love is an action, a verb. Something that must be lived out rather than felt for a time before it passes away.

How can you live out joy? Why must you live out joy? Live joyfully by spreading the gospel. It should be something that attracts the attention of both the none believer and the believer. It should draw them in and closer to Christ.

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When I say the forgotten fruits of the Spirit I don't mean that we have forgotten them entirely. We can still recite them like any good Sunday School child, but we have forgotten the meaning and power behind these fruits. We have forgotten how to live them.

Love- In our culture love can get you hurt. It is much better to just seek after the physical side of love or a superficial friendship and then you won't get as hurt. To have a Christ like love to open up yourself a world of hurt, yet that kind of love is more powerful than than anything on earth. This is the kind of love that will change the world if we only have the courage to display it. I have heard it said that love is not an emotion, it is an action. As a Christian it is a picture of the sacrificial love Christ has for us and the service Christians have.

Currently Reading
When Life and Beliefs Collide
By Carolyn Custis James
see related
Dear Rebecca,

I loved getting your questions. I read in the book
that Jeff Price mentioned, When Life and Beliefs
Collide, that there is this word that means strong
helper. It is used to describe Eve, but it is also
used to describe God. The Psalmist use it when they
call God their help when they are in need. The book
can put it better than I can and I would encourage you
to read it. I am no Greek scholar, but Carolyn Curtis
James is and she does a beautiful job bring it down to a
level that I can understand with out losing any of the
significance or power of the words.

Adam and Eve didn't so much have to fight for any
things as God had given them a mission to carry out.
The mission was first given to Adam, but Eve added her
strength to his to help effectively carry out the
mission that God entrusted to them both.

I would encourage you to read it for yourself. There are
so many concepts that really spoke to my heart as a
woman and as a Christian.

Genesis 2:18-24

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam ^[h] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs ^[i] and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib ^[j] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman, ^[k] '
for she was taken out of man."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

What was Eve doing in the Garden before the fall? Which of the "good housewife" things was she most proficient at? Was it sewing? Um... they didn't wear clothes. She must have been an excellent cook, that's it. Wait... they just had to go to a tree and pick fruit and there was dinner. She must have kept a spotless house...garden...or maybe she didn't have to do much work in that department. What did Eve do before sin came into the picture?

Eve was Adams helper. Oh, great that makes what I'm suppose to do. That lays out what my life should be well...not.

Eve wasn't just a helper, she was a warrior helper. She was suppose to fight along side Adam, not just give him a nice place to come home to. If I ever marry there will be days when I won't want to clean, when I can't cook dinner, and I already can't sew very well. My point is I will fail to be the perfect house wife. I will also fail in a fight, but the Lord has made me, designed me for this so this is what I will be most suited to do. I hope that someday my husband and children will look at me and call me blessed. Not for cooking or cleaning, but for being a strong warrior that has ministered with my husband and family.

There is a wonderful blog called the Rebelution.

I was scanning some of their previous posts and these two just really stood out to me.

The definition of a real man. I think it is important for girls to read this and search the scriptures and find what a real man should be like. The world tries to sell us a what they call a man, but fall sooo short of what God had planned man to be.

The definition of a real woman. I'm a goal oriented person. If you give me a goal I will do better than if you just throw me in a room point and say do. This breaks down some of the ways that scripture says women should act and behave.

What is Beauty?

When I was in middle school I wanted to be beautiful. I wanted others to look at me and think she is fair to look at. Unfortunately I was an awkward, pudgy, five foot six twelve year old. People did look at me, but it wasn't because I was very pretty. I grew out of that though. Others caught up to or passed me in height. I became less awkward and I grew into my shape as a woman. I eventually found I had achieved my goal of being pretty.

I enjoyed it for a while, but then I found that with being pretty come other things than being admired. People can be jealous of you and hate you because they are jealous. The admiration that you do receive can inflate your ego, which can then be popped like an over filled balloon. You can attract people that you like and people that you don't like. There can always be a girl that is prettier that you. Last of all you don't always your beauty.

We as women have a job. We reflect just how beautiful God is. We don't often think of God as being beautiful, but the bible says that God is beautiful.

Psalm 27:4

4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Also God created you. He thinks you are gorgeous. He didn't make a mistake. He started you as a cute crying baby and He is slowly transforming you more and more into His image. And we just learned that God is beautiful.

Psalm 45:11

11 The king is enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.

God is shaping us into He wants us to be. We don't have time to wast spending hours on makeup and millions on a face lift. Our job is to reflect His beauty, not to obsesses over our own. Our beauty will not last as long as our hearts will. God shows the beauty of everything in His time. Can we have the courage and the patience to wait on Him?

Proverbs 31:30

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Last week I went as the woman leader on a trip with some of the middle school girls from my church. I had a blast and the relationships that I formed were amazing. I had fun with the girls, yet I learned more about their personal lives and we all shared some about our personal tragedies. It was amazing just how much pain these girls can be in at such a young age. I thought that I would share some verses that have helped me through my hard times.

Psalm 73
1A psalm of Asaph.
Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong. [a]
5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity [b] ;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance. [c]
11 They say, "How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?"
12 This is what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
14 All day long I have been plagued;
I have been punished every morning.
15 If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have betrayed your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
19 How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
20 As a dream when one awakes,
so when you arise, O Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
21 When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

Psalm 27:1-3
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh, [a]
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

Psalms 32:1-5
1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD "—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
Selah

Habbakak 2:14
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea.

This was the toast I gave at Mr. and Mrs. Garlands wedding.

One of our family's favorite movie is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. At the end the father of the bride gives this speech where he says that the name of the husband comes from the greek word that means apple and the name of the his family comes from the greek word for orange. He says that they are both different, but in the end they are all fruit. Garland means a a wreath and Pruitt means proud. So Eric, take this beautiful flower and wear her proudly.