Blog moving

After much deliberation and a few headaches I have decided to move my blog to Wordpress.  I have heard that it is more functional and allows lots of flexibility.  I am still fine tuning the Wordpress layout, but I believe I am about done.  For those that follow by email please visit the new blog and subscribe if you would like to continue to receive updates.  For those of you that are following through the follower app that Blogger offers, that isn't an option on Wordpress, but you can subscribe through email or a reader.  I will be very appreciative of those who continue to follow me.  :)

You can find the New Blog here...had to choose a different design...I hope you like it.
http://thepuresacrifice.wordpress.com/

The Truth about being a Christian

I have seen some common misconceptions lately about being a Christian.  Some people seem to have the idea that all you do is say a prayer, confess your sins, and life then becomes grand.  I want to correct that impression.

Being a Christian is great...but it doesn't make life perfect.  I'm fairly sure that everyone knows to be saved you must first believe in God, then you must confess your sins.  That part is common knowledge.  But it's the part after that, the part I feel most people don't understand.

Once you have given your heart to God, things don't exactly get easier...in fact, things get harder.  Because once you give your heart to God, most people come under spiritual attack.  Satan tries to stop you from giving up your sinful ways, in fact you may be tempted to think that you were never saved at all.  That is what he wants you to think.

But once you face the storm and keep doing what you know is right, follow God, read the Bible, find a church, give up your sinful habits....your life begins to change, slowly, one baby step at a time.  While that change isn't always easy...it is always worth it.

I have faced so many changes in my life, since I got serious about giving my heart to the Lord.  I started reading and listening to the Word...at first it was the only change.  But then slowly God begin working on my heart, and I began to see changes in my tastes.  My secular music, which I was crazy about before, and had a huge collection...it had to go.  Replaced with Contemporary Christian music.  My books which I have always loved, and read pretty much anything I wanted....slowly I became more selective.  Over time the horror, was given away, the romance switched to Inspirational Romance, and anything overly questionable was gone.

Then more changes and more over time...until my life has changed.  I guess my main point is that I don't want others believing that becoming a Christian is so easy that life gets fantastic immediately afterward.  It doesn't go so easy...but it is more than worth the struggle.  I want people to know that it is a walk, and that it is doable.  I hate that people think it is easy, and then when they run into trouble they give up on the faith, because no one told them about the challenges.

The more we are challenged the more our faith grows and the closer we learn to lean on God.

Scripture Journal

Back in October when I was browsing Pinterest, I kept coming across a few pins I had pinned for a scripture journal.  So I started researching it, and I found that most people doing it were Mormons, and they had some really great ideas, just not all relevant to what I was looking for.  So I started googling some other similar topics and found a couple of pages that I took questions from to create my own scripture journal.  Originally I just thought it was a neat idea.

Then I found that I really did get a lot more from the scripture when I was doing this.  I was amazed.  But then it got repetitive because I was doing the same scriptures I was doing in the SOAP study, so I stopped doing it.  But I decided that I really did want to get deeper into studying the Bible this year, so I decided to do it again.

Now my scripture journal is not fancy, and since I am not a person who likes to draw (not my strong point) mine consists of mostly words...but for those artsy types, you can illustrate or draw diagrams.  I basically just got a loose leaf notebook and some dividers.

My sections I use are

• Scripture Journal
• Bible Studies
• Topical Studies
• SOAP

But the only main ones needed for this are the actual scripture journal entries and the Topical studies.  The others I just included in my binder for convenience.

Then on my page I date it, then

• Passage (Whatever I am reading)
• What was this passage about?
• What words stuck out?
• Questions?  (Any questions you have or any thoughts come to mind)
• Scripture References (for deeper study)
• Significant Principles
• Personal Revelations (Lessons I learned)
• Personal Action (What is God calling me to do as a result of my revelations)
• Daily Testimony
• Notes

For me this has helped me to get into the Word and really understand what it is saying.  

But let me stress the importance in this....YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FILL OUT EVERYTHING, EVERYDAY!!!!

Some days I don't have questions or action items...but each day I fill out what I can.  But each thing I get deeper in, helps me absorb more of the Word and its real meaning.