Fall is in the Air

9/15/11

I apologize to my followers for having not posted in a couple of days. Through the encouragement of my local knitting group, I have found a crochet pattern for socks! I have only been crocheting a year this month, and I am always learning new techniques and patterns. I have been spending several hours on that project. But fear not, I continue to watch Joyce Meyer's broadcasts in the morning.

I would like to thank the two bloggers who responded to my previous blog. Your thoughts were very insightful and reassuring. Despite having spent my final three years at an extremely religious private high school, I totally forgot about context! Things in life, not just the Bible, make more sense in context. I am not very knowledgeable of secular and Biblical history, so understanding the context is a bit more challenging for me. I will have to check out the suggested resources.

At this point, I would like to post my thoughts for the Bible study I had on 9/12/11. Once I pick up my crochet projects, I am amazed at the amount of time that can elapse.

9/12/11

Today I decided to take my Bible study outside. Sitting here on the front porch in the shade, the breeze is cool enough to merit a sweater! I love Fall, and this new sweater is awesome! It is navy blue, cable knit, full zip, with two front pockets and a hood! I love sweaters and I am a sucker for full zip hoodies, this is the best of both worlds! And it turned out to be on sale, and my Mom was feeling generous and bought it for me! Score! .....did I mention it is so comfy?

First passage of interest came from searching Attitude. Specifically, Attitude, Of Christians towards the world; not to: conform to:

"Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will." -Romans 12:2

How does you renew their mind? Because I am certain I could greatly benefit from doing so!

Just like researching 'prayer,' and the best way to go to God in prayer, my research of 'confidence' did not yield any passages that spoke to me or seemed to contain a specific answer.

Perhaps it would be better if I found Bible lessons and on topics that I am interested in learning more about. I think that would be far more structured and fruitful than looking up words in Strong's.

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." -Matthew 26:41

I feel like temptation here can refer to a plethora of things. Right now it spoke to me in regards to my constant worrying, my generally pessimistic thoughts and outlook on life, my jealousy of others, and my compassion of myself to others.

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Now I think I go look into to those suggested resources. Until next time, Take Care!

-Loren

Image credit from Google search: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-FnXY4TEKEWDtJgz_MAsDW58lUp6cSfmkmF3FRsVHd7HGi6UJrS-ADJd23NiK3Xxlgj_sBWbl1-kASNxapZjJcUU_Q6Be17rPyeN7n68MSNxTUtrjGsfm6a7v44KbU3cdZ8KUNWWU3Zk/s320/Fall+Beauty.jpg

How Should Individuals Read Scripture???

9/8/11

Later in the evening after the last blog. I began searching "prayer" in Strong's. While looking up those passages I came upon Matthew's version of "Do Not Worry." The passage was Ch. 6:23-34. The final verse struck me as profound.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Back to searching for prayer. The first look up took me to Matthew 6:5-15.

"This, then, is how you should pray:".... vs. 9

And the passage proceeds with The Lord's Prayer. How obvious, yet completely over-looked?!

Being lead to 1 Timothy 2, I found a section entitled: Instructions for Worship. I read the whole passage verses 5-15, but it is verses 11-15 which bother me. Why can't women teach?! That is how I was lead to do this Bible study, by Joyce Meyer, a female tv evangelist! Then it goes on to say that women can only be saved through childbearing!!! What happens if she is barren?! This is the New Testament, what happened to being saved by personally accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your Savior and Lord???!!!! Can anyone shed some more light on the meaning of this passage?

I don't believe these things but I just read it in the Bible. Which brings me to these next questions. Is the Bible supposed to be read 100% literally, 100% figuratively, or some combination there of? But if a combination, which parts are to be read which way? And if combination, do the correct combinations differ from Christian to Christian. Seems like it could be the case, seeing as we are all unique individuals, with our unique relationships with God, it stands to reason we would read the Scripture differently. However I see that is likely where extreme interpretations come from, but what is too extreme? So many questions, it makes my head hurt. But I want to keep reading the Bible, I feel like I am missing something in my life and I keep having Faith and God laid upon my heart.

A New TV!

My wonderful husband surprised me the other day with a brand new TV! It's fantastic, a sparkly 37" flat screen. He had been watching the sales for weeks and got it for a steal! So now we are able to watch more channels- the HD ones. We have found ourselves doing a lot of channel surfing lately. In the mornings, after breakfast and after sending the husband off to work with a kiss, I sit down to surf. One morning I stumbled across one of those random "Godly" channels. (You know like TBN or CBN - it was neither because Heaven knows I canNOT stand Pat and Regent and the rest of the BS they stand for....but I digress). It was a broadcast of the Joyce Meyer Ministries (which may be no better than Pat and his gang, but nevertheless I am drawn to it for some reason).

I used to watch Joyce all the time as a teen - I mean we only got 5 channels with the antenna at my parent's house and TBN was one of them. But it was weird, any time I happened across her show, something always spoke to me and related to a current situation. It did not matter if it was 3 o'clock in the morning and I was sick as a dog, I could turn on the TV and there she would be! And now, years later it has happened again. I find myself watching the clock waiting for her show. (I would watch online, but I refuse to download iTunes, they are too big brother for me). After a particularly moving message today, I sat down with my Bible and Strong's Concordance and read up on the passages about my biggest issue: Worry/Anxiety. I even felt compelled to write some passages down in a note book, and then I felt I should share them with others.

"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap." Luke 21:34

Headed God's Promises

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7

I am using The Learning Bible : NIV . I have always preferred NIV, I find it easier to understand unlike all the "Thee"s and "Thou"s of the KJV. But I did find it odd that the "he" and "him"s when clearly talking about God were not capitalized. That is how I wrote it down but decided to "fix" it while typing.

Finally, I would like to share the verse I found most powerful. It comes from a section of Luke 12 verses 22-34 headed:

Do Not Worry

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour of life?" v.25

Then I decided I should think about what I had read and pray about it. But I got to thinking, perhaps I might pray "wrong." Not that I believe there is a right way and a wrong way to pray, for we are all individuals who each have our own unique relationship with God. Also, I tend to suffer from the current mentality of instant gratification and self-centeredness, and I do not want my prayer requests being unduly selfish. I seem to remember the Bible has some guidelines of how to present prayers, concerns, requests to God based on various occasions and topics. So next I shall turn to Strong's and see what I can find on guideline for prayer.

Thanks for reading! I welcome your thought and comments.

Take care,

Loren

image via Google image search found on http://randomthoughtsonlifeblog.com/2011/07/20/worry-is-a-time-buster/