Homework can kill you
Praise God I made it didn’t kill me yet but tonight was a close call. I made it through the first chapter of Systematic Theology! The joys of learning about the Cosmological, Teleological and Ontological Arguments for God’s existence. Interesting…NOT! It is but not after working all day, I thought my brain was going to explode. Why, I ask once again, do I need to know this??? I am so looking forward to chapter 2 which covers the supernatural preconditions of miracles. I did learn a few cool things about the universe that can only be explained by God, Creator of EVERYTHING! Unfortunately, the flash drive to my brain is not computing any more data and the memory is full. The only way I know to recharge it is to put my PJs on and go to bed.
It’s All in the Attitude
I am playing catch up on my homework since I was unable to do any last week. I am taking a leadership course and one of the books we are reading is John Maxwell’s book, The Winning Attitude. I have learned so much and this is an area I have really been trying to work through. He says, “the attitude is an inward feeling expressed by behavior.”
Here are a couple of snippets that I wrote out on an index card and taped to my computer screen at work:
Our attitude:
- Determines our approach to life
- Dictates my performance
- Determines our relationship with people
- Is the only difference between success and failure
- At the beginning of a task will affect its outcome more than anything else
- Can turn our problems into blessings
- Can give us an uncommonly positive perspective
- Is not automatically good because we are Christians
How’s your attitude today?
Women of Islam
I am taking a course in school entitled Christianity and the Islamic Faith and I am absolutely blown away at what I have been learning. I guess I have been naive about what is going on in other parts of the world and in other religions, even though I have been overseas several times.
I read a lot of books about martyrs and Christianity but I have been challenged to start reading books about other religions. How can I possibly be an effective witness for Christ and share His love with people I know nothing about!
I just finished reading a chapter on the women of Islam. They have absolutely no rights at all and they have to submit to men. They are not even allowed to look at them. Here are some of things they have to put up with.
They can’t wear nail polish or their fingers will be cut off. They are not allowed to wear makeup, pluck their eyebrows or cut their hair and they have to wear burqas, which is a garment that covers them from head to toe. If your arm accidentally gets uncovered, you can be killed! They are not allowed to visit male doctors, which causes many of them to simply die! They are not allowed in public unless it is Islam sanctioned and many of their homes have the windows painted black so no one can see them.
Islamic men think of women as so sub-human that even the Qur’an has no mention of where they go when they die. In Islamic heaven, men get to be eternally pleasured by women called houris, who are beautiful young women with transparent bodies. Every man who enters Jannah (paradise) is given 72 of these houris. Is it a wonder why these men want to be suicide bombers? It is the highest honor!
Oh I pray that God would intervene and that we as Christians would love these people into the truth and the Kingdom of God. I am so grateful that the Lord left us His word and that He is a God of love and compassion. I pray that my eyes will remain open and that I realize that the world is perishing. God give me the boldness and the courage to share your truth with everyone I meet!
Kingdom of the Cults Continued…
I am finishing up my last course so I can graduate from Bible college, woohoo! The course is based on Walter Martin’s book entitled Kingdom of the Cults. If you are reading this and you are a believer in Christ, you should really read this book. I am utterly amazed and almost speechless by the cults that are there and it saddens me so much to see so many people led astray by these horrific cults.
I was reading the chapter on the Church of Scientology and I can’t believe what I read. I am not going to rant on this blog about it so you need to go buy the book. We, as Christians and preachers of the Word, need to be equipped with the knowledge of these cults so we can help lead people into truth. One of the most common denominators is the way these cults abuse the Bible and take the Scriptures out of context. I feel that much more compelled to read and study and pray for God’s wisdom and Spirit to help my memorize and understand the Word.
It should not surprise us that Satan and all his demons would try to tempt us and twist our thinking but we have the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, did He not quote the Scriptures 3 times, refuting Satan? Yes, He did. If Jesus, Savior of the world, Messiah, King of Kings, etc, etc, uses Scripture, than how much more do we need to use it! We can’t use what we do not know.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
To send or not to send…
I am taking a missions class in school and this week’s homework is a forum. It’s a discussion based on the paragraph below. I wanted to get feedback from people about what they thought about the subject. Don’t worry, I am not trying to get you to do my homework, I already turned mine in. 
Our country is in dismay spiritually. Every time you watch the news or read the news paper, another school shooting has occurred, another city has developed a larger population of homosexuality, or another symbol of Christ has been removed from the publics view because it may offend someone. The television shows and music in our society are driven by placing sexual themes in them to lure people to watch or listen. Why should we as a “Christian Nation” send missionaries to other countries when we choose to not be missionaries in our own country? Should we be more focused on being missionaries in the United States, or abroad? Discuss your standpoint on this topic and support your views with scripture references.
Any thoughts? Insights? Speculations? Post your comments…
Homework, homework, homework
I have been doing homework for the last 8 hours and my brain has turned to mush! Although being in Bible college has been one of the best experiences of my life, I am glad that I am in my last semester, woohoo! I am taking 3 classes, Kingdom of the Cults, Church History and a Masters level advanced missions course. What was I thinking taking 12 credits? Haha.
It is cool to be able to learn about the Lord and Christianity and I realized that since attending college, I have a real thirst to know stuff. I want to know everything! It amazes me that with my past addictions, God has graciously saved not only me but my brain cells too. It’s so cool to know that He has a plan for my life and He doesn’t waste any part of it, no matter how bad it is. Everything has been redeemed! I am living proof. Hallelujah!
If my High School teachers could see me now, they would probably fall out in disbelief. I never actually won the award for least likely to succeed but I was a close runner up. I hated school, I only went to hang out with friends and socialize. Who would have thought I would be able to maintain a 4.0 in Bible college? My Abba Daddy thought so, that’s who! He saw my body being formed and knew that He had a plan and purpose for my life even though I didn’t figure it out until 5 years ago when I accepted Jesus as the Lord of my life.
Whew, I love talking about Jesus! I get so fired up. Back to the school stuff…
I am actually praying about taking more courses but not in Bible college but taking medical courses to become a certified medical assistant. I know…more school… I am not really concerned about getting the certification though because I am pretty sure that overseas (where I want to go) certification doesn’t matter. They have so many needs that they would take anyone willing to help in the hospitals and clinics. I want to go to Africa, big surprise as my blog is full of Africa, and help in whatever way I can so I think it would be beneficial to have some medical skills. The HIV/AIDS situation has devasted the country and I am tired of complaining about the situation. I am going to do something about it. With God’s help, I will go there and share the love and hope of Jesus with them and try my best to minister to the 42% of the people dying right now.
Last night after church, some of my friends were hanging out at our coffee house which serves Starbucks, man is God good or what? One of the guys there heard me talking about missions, becuase I am always talking about missions, and he informed me that he would never support a person going on a mission trip because it would be nothing more than a paid vacation. I praise God that I am a new creation in Christ cause I was ready to jump out of my seat and….. I couldn’t even say anything because I knew I would say nothing that would honor God at that moment. I used to be one of those people who thought the same thing. Why go overseas when there are starving children here and yada yada yada. I tell you why. I heard a great line from a missionary to India that about sums it up with me, “Why should someone hear the Gospel twice when there are people who haven’t heard it once?” Amen and Amen. I have nothing against evangelizing the US but I wholeheartedly agree with the statement. Especially in light of AIDS, poverty, war and famine that is killing people at an alarming rate.
Hmmm, I started off talking about homework and ending up here again. Imagine that!
Kingdom of the Cults
I started taking a course on the cults and I am utterly flabbergasted at what I have been reading. If you have not read Walter Martin’s Kingdom of the Cults, I strongly urge you to go get it and read it. In the beginning of the book is a quote that we, as Christians, should take to heart. It states, “A man who will not stand for something is quite likely to fall for almost anything.”
What a true statement! The first chapter begins with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and I was appalled by the things that I read that I clearly did not know they believed.
Today, I read the chapter on Christian Science. If I thought the beliefs of the JW’s were bad, they paled in comparison with those of the Christian Scientists. They don’t believe in evil or hell or that we need salvation because everyone is already saved! What Bible are they reading? I am sitting here gritting my teeth even as I write this because countless people will fall for the many cults that are so called Christian. The only reason I feel compelled to write about this is because it should challenge us to get out there and preach the Gospel!
One of the hardest things I had to read in this book came from a JW. He said it was easy to go door knocking and share his faith and that he loved to challenge Christians because Christians don’t know what they are talking about! He actually said that! He said that so many people claim to be Christians but when he would explain the doctrine of the JW’s, the Christians had no way to refute it. They did not know the Scriptures enough to be able to have a two sided conversation.
I am not telling Christians to go head to head with these ‘door knockers’ and get into heated theological debates. What I am challenging is the need for us to be equipped and to know and be able to represent the God we love and serve. How can we tell people about Him if we don’t even know what we believe?
Everyone is born with an innate desire to want to believe in something. God has made each of us with a hole inside of us that only He can fill. I pray that we will open up our eyes and realize that we are in very perilous times and that we would diligently search the Scriptures daily for truth.
I don’t think I can state it any clearer than Paul did in his letter to Timothy.
2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
