DO I TRUST GOD ?

I've been asking myself this question a lot lately. I have come to the conclusion that I don't. I'm at a point in this journey where it's easy to talk the talk. But it's another to walk the walk. I still do things I shouldn't and don't do things I should. And it's all because I don't trust God. I'm not throwing in the towel. I guess it will take more praying and learning. And I pray one day I can totally trust God.

GOD BLESS

REALLY ?

Last weak at church we were talking about sin and confessing our sins. Actually we were listening to a pastor talk about it. He talked about how we kind of throw all our sins together and ask them all to be forgiven. He talked about how we should be more specific when we confess and ask for forgivness. It all sounded like good advice and helped me get on a path when I ask to be forgiven. And I ask a lot.

Then he said something that struck me as odd. He said if you have an addiction to something, which I do, the reason you can't break the addiction is because you don't believe God is enough for you. Your addiction is taking the place of God. Really? I never thought, before putting a dip in my mouth, hey maybe if I read the Bible I wouldn't need this. I chew because I like to chew. The addiction came after. I don't think it has anything to do with God. That being said I do believe I will need Gods help to break this addiction.

Here is my reasoning for questioning this. Couldn't this be applied to everything I do? Is my going fishing taking the place of God? I fish for many of the same reasons I chew. Mainly they both relax me. Does it mean I can't find relaxation thru God? No. I fish because I like to fish. I'm sure the word addiction has a lot to do with what the pastor said. I'm just having a hard time figuring it out.

GOD BLESS

UNDERSTATEMENT

When I started this journey a pastor said "It's not going to be easy!". That was the understatement of the year. I knew it would be hard just didn't realize how hard. Every day, many times a day, choices have to be made. And it's a choice only I can make. I'm usually pretty sure what the right choice is, It's the actually doing it thats usually hard.

Back when the WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? wrist bands were popular, I remember thinking how hoky they seemed. Now I know why you don't see them around. People knew what He would do but it's the actual doing it thats a problem. I think mine would say I KNOW WHAT JESUS WOULD DO--LORD GIVE ME THE STRENGTH TO DO THE SAME--AND IF I DON'T, PLEASE FORGIVE ME. Ok, that's not gonna fit on anyones wrist.

I heard a quote the other day. I don't remember who said it. And i'm not sure if this is actually the way it was said. But it went something like, It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that I have a problem with, It's the parts I do. But I do take comfort in the fact that God loves me just the way I am. He knows who I was, who I am, and who I'm gonna be. He also knows what I did, what I'm doing, and what I'm gonna do. And still He loves me. Is He awesome or what? God Bless!

OOOPS !!

I seem to learn something new about this stuff every day. Although I think I'm right about the "brownie points" in my last post, I now believe they are not for us to use in heaven. They are our gifts to God. That would be why some are burned up. Only the ones He approves of will be accepted. Good enough reason for me not to just skate thru and make it to heaven. Nothing worse than showing up for a party empty handed!

In other news, I tried to stop chewing yesterday. Total fail. That nicotine is powerful stuff. If you never had to stop you really can't appreciate how hard it is. I've heard them all from non users. "just stop!" "how hard can it be?" "you must not really want to". I'm thinking I may have to go with the nicotine patch. And pray more for the strength to stop.
God Bless!

FIRST SUMMARY

These are my first thoughts on what I think the Bible is telling me. I have only read the New Testament. And I'm pretty sure I'm not getting all of the message. First off I think that once you know you are a sinner, believe Jesus died on the cross to forgive your sins, accept God as your Lord and Savior, you are saved. There is nothing you can do, good or bad, after, that will change that. So I was way off when I used to think that you had to be more "Christian like" to go to Heaven. You can be a total ass bag and still go to heaven.

That being said, I think that if you're only goal is to get to Heaven then you can go ahead and live how you want. But by following God's Word you can live a better life while on earth. Also I think if you follow you are building up what I call, brownie points. There are places in the Bible, and of coarse I didn't look them up, where when getting to Heaven you treasures, prizes are burned up. And only some make it thru the fire. I compare it to high school. Ya you can skate thru and pass, but the people who work at it will get the better prize. Better grades, scholarships, jobs. What I havn't figured out is how these brownie points play out in heaven.

That's my take on it. I don't think I'm too far off, but let me know if I am. God bless. I'm gonna go study!

WHAT ??????

I've been reading The New Testament part of the Bible. Making good progress. But I can see that this isn't a read it one time kind of a book. I have to admit I don't understand a lot of it. But I am giving it my best shot. I now know why there are Bible study groups. I will probably look into that some time. But I feel like I need to know a little more before getting into that.

As I've been getting closer to the end I have been having a feeling like I should skip forward to Revelation. I don't know why. I had no idea what it was about really. But I finally did. I was having trouble understanding before but this was something else. I mean you have seven headed horses, fire shooting out of everywhere, plagues, locust with scorpian stings, earthquakes.

I guess I thought Revelation was about Heaven. And I think it is. Only it's not the Heaven I had pictured. You know, the angels, and fluffy clouds thing. There is gonna be some nasty stuff going on when the time comes. Ya when you make it to the end it will be nice. But before you get there, theres going to be quite a show going on.

At least that's my first take of it. This is definately a re-read..God Bless!

NEW YEAR

I stopped making resolutions years ago. They never seemed to last very long. It's funny that the last one I made is the only one I've ever been able to keep. It was to stop making new years resolutions. This year I'm going to call it, something to do every day of this year.

This year I'm going to talk to God every day. It kind of freaks me out to know that He already knows if I will actually do it or not. This is something a lot of people probably already do. But I don't. Well unless you count praying before going to bed. Or praying when I get up. That's not what I mean by talking to God. I mean stopping and thanking Him. Or looking at something He created and thanking Him.

Ok this seems to have gone from talking to God, to thanking Him. But He already knew that. Here goes 365 reasons to thank God. And no I won't list them. Even you had to know that.

Have a blessed new year!