Acceptance and Faith

Suilaid!

So I've recently gotten into a few discussions concerning several different theological points. I hold a few...unpopular views, mostly revolving around the "sin nature" (which I believe we don't have), etc. (Of course, I also hold unpopular political views, but that's an entirely different subject.)

Inevitably, every discussion concerning these points comes down to this line, quoted in various different ways by nearly every person- "Well, there are just some things we have to accept on faith because we can't understand them, so we just shouldn't worry about them."

...........

o.0

So...um...I guess since I can't understand God, I should just not think about it, right?

Whatever logic that is.

I think God intended for us to exercise and brains and try to understand things. Why else did He give us the Bible? So we could just blindly stumble through life, trying not to think about things?

Maybe it's just me. I am of such a temperament that I want to try to understand stuff. Including the Bible. That doesn't make me less of a Christian, or less faithful. I exercise my faith by trying to understand. Without faith, I couldn't make sense of half of what I read in the Bible.

There are many things God tells us in the Bible. For instance, He tells us about salvation. Salvation is beyond man's superficial comprehension. Yet men have, for centuries, turned their minds to the questions of sin, salvation, and sanctification. Why? Because they wanted to truly understand. Yes, salvation still in a way transcends our efforts to understand. But does the fact that some of it we do not yet understand mean we should stop trying? That we should simply stop in our tracks, go no further, and simply accept "by faith" whatever we are spoon-fed from the pulpit?

You never see that in the Bible. I don't think Paul stopped thinking about things because he didn't understand them. No. He kept on trucking, and he was one of the greatest Christians ever. All throughout history, man's understanding of the Bible has increased because there were a few who didn't stop at accepted doctrine and teachings, and instead plowed ahead and actually thought about things, letting it all soak into their minds and trying to make some sort of sense of the puzzle pieces they had been given.

Neither do I see in the Bible the commandment to merely sit back, doze off, and let everything difficult to understand float around in the ether somewhere. I do see commandments to meditate and a commandment to study, commandments to think, and commandments to read. God does tell us to accept certain things on faith- but always in the context of salvation, etc. Never in the context of learning more about Him, the Word, and the world around us.

Just because there are some things that are beyond our mortal comprehension (or supposedly beyond that comprehension) doesn't mean we should stop thinking about those things. Only through applying our minds and meditating and studying those things can we truly grow and get to know God.

Namárië and 爱於耶穌
~Liberty
(Also posted on Teenage Musings)

Yearning for God

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

"My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

"My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

"When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance."

Psalm 42:1-5

waterfall pic from here
~Liberty

God Stands Forever...

Made by Maddie

I just read THIS POST on one of my very good friend's blogs.

It seemed very relevant to today and life in general so I thought that I would share.

Enjoy!

爱和祝福，- Love and Blessings,

What is faith?

1 Timothy 4:12

"Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

What is faith? Since the name of this blog is 'faith around the world,' I thought it might be good if I did a study on it. Below, I've listed several verses that talk about faith.

Matthew 9:22
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

John 20:29
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Acts 15:9
And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Romans 3:25
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Romans 4:9
Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

Romans 5:1-2
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 4:2
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

2 Corinthians 1:24
Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

2 Corinthians 5:7
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Faith is mentioned many times in the Bible. In all instances, faith is conveyed as something important, something that is needed for all believers. In Matthew 9:22, a woman was healed simply because she had faith that it would happen.

Acts 15:9, Romans 3:25, Romans 4:9 and Romans 5:1-2 all talk of faith being counted as righteousness, faith justifying us, or our hearts being purified by faith- talking of salvation. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says that faith is required to hold a position in the church. And the last two verses (The ones we will principally be dealing with) show that faith is all we have, truly.

Faith is variously defined as "complete confidence in a person or plan," "loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person," and "religion: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny."

Faith in the Bible would be something closer to "A complete, total surrendering of oneself to the reality and power of God."

But how does faith apply to a young woman who has already trusted in God? Does faith have a practical application after salvation? Yes, it does, and this application is contained in the last two verses.

"By faith you stand..." 'Standing' in the Bible is commonly defined as standing on the Word, on principles, on morals, or on God's grace. Without faith in God, we can't do any of those things properly- and without it, we definitely can't stand on God's grace.

Ephesians 3:17-19 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

From this verse, I gather that without love, or charity, we cannot have faith- and love is, of course, given by the correct spirit and- you guessed it- faith! We have three interdependent attributes that are given to God's people- and only his people.

((This post is taken originally from my personal blog. All links go to there, and this post is part of a series, so to get some background on this post, you can go there. ;) ))

~Liberty

The Christian Girl's Guide to being your best!

My older sister Marissa (also an author of this blog) Has this book called "The christian girl's guide to being your best!" I haven't actually read it all but I thought I'd stat sharing some of it with you:

What is being your best?

Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Story:

Jenna sat beside her parents in the high school gymnasium watching her brother Luke play in the basketball finals. It was a close game with lots of action, but Jenna's mind wasn't on the game itself. She was watching the cheerleaders; especially a girl named Lisa.

Lisa occasionally baby-sat for Jenna when Jenna's parents were going to be out too late for her to be alone. Jenna  looked forward to those nights because Lisa was a lot of fun to be with and she always had lots of ideas for things to do when they were together. Jenna thought Lisa was the prettiest of all the cheerleaders. Plus Lisa was always on the honor roll and she sang solos at their church. Best of all, Lisa was now dating Luke, so Jenna got to see her more often. That night, Jenna was looking forward to going out for pizza with her family and Lisa after the game.

In the last quarter, Luke scored six points and his team took the lead. When the final buzzer went off, Luke's team had won 88-84! Jenna cheered with everyone else, then she went to the car to wait for the others.

As Lisa approached the car, Jenna said, "I hope I an just like you when I get to high school!"

"Why?" Lisa asked as she tossed her pom-poms into the car trunk.

"Because you're pretty, smart, talented and the best cheerleader," Jenna answered.

Lisa laughed. "Thanks for saying that but I really just try to do the best I can with what I have."

"What do you mean? Jenna asked.

"Well, if you do the best you can with what you have for God and for others and for yourself," Lisa answered, "you'll be successful no matter what you do. That's a lesson my grandmother taught me. I've never forgotten it."

"But what if I do my best, and it just isn't good enough?" Jenna asked. " that wouldn't make me vary successful."

"But it would make you successful in God's eyes," Lisa said, climbing into the backseat. "He doesn't judge you by your looks or talents or by how smart you are. He knows what your best is and that's all he wants form you."

Lisa scooted to the middle of the seat as Luke and Jenna got in the other side. "My favorite bible verse is Proverbs 3:5-6," Lisa continued. "It says to trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't depend on your own understanding and remember the Lord in everything you do. Then he will give you success."

"I like that," Jenna said. "Maybe I should memorize the verses so I'll remember them when I'm not feeling good about myself."

"I'll help you with that later," said Lisa as Jenna's dad swung the car into their favorite pizza place. " But right now I want to 'be my best' at devouring a few slices of pizza!"

What is Success?

Lisa gave Jenna a good definition of what success is: doing the best you can with what you have for God, Others and yourself. To be successful in God's eyes, you don't have to be beautiful, have a lot of money or possessions, be a genius or even be popular. And you don't have to be and adult to be successful. You can be a success for God right now, whatever age you are.

Live Quiz!:

Take this quiz to see if you're on your way to success. Keep track of the answer that fits you best (and be honest), then score yourself at the end.

1. Your teacher announces and upcoming science fair. You are required to make a project and submit it. Science isn't you favorite subject, but you know you have to do the project so you:

a. Mumble and complain until your dad does it for you.

b. Decide that as long as you have to do it you might as well find a project you like and give it your best.

c. Just do it and get it over with.

2. Just as you sit down to watch your favorite TV show your mom asked you to peel some carrots to help with dinner. you:

a. Turn off the television, go peel the carrots and then ask if there is anything else you can d o to help.

b. Peel the carrots as fast as you cans so you don't miss muck of your program.

c. yell, "It's not fair. I never get to watch TV."

3. After you rake your own lawn, your mom asks you to rake your elderly neighbor's lawn. you are tired of raking. you:

a. Rake enough to make it look like you raked.

b. cheerfully rake up all the leaves.

c. moan and groan until your mom does it herself.

4. your mom asks you to clean your room. You see that some of your clothes are thrown over a chair, old test papers are scattered under your desk and you left some books from a research paper piled on the floor. You:

a. Put each item neatly where it goes.

b. Push everything under the bed so your room looks neat enough to please your mom.

c. Push everything into the closet because nothing more will fit under your bed!

5. Your teacher says that your class is going to have a talent show. Other classes will be invited to attend. he says everyone must be involved. you:

a. Decide to memorize the shorted poem you can find and recite it.

b. Plan to be sick that day.

c. Decide to use your writing talent to write something that would be both funny and informative.

Score your self and see how you did!

1: 

a: 0 points

b: 3 points

c: 1 point

2: 

a. 3 points

b. 1 point

c: 0 points

3: 

a: 1 point

b: 3 points

c: 0 points

4: 

a: 3 points

b: 0 points

c: 0 points

5:

a: 1 point

b: 0 points

c: 3 points

On this Quiz I got an 8, What did you get (Please comment your score!).

How did you do?

how did you do? If you scored 10 or above, good for you! If you want to be a Christian girl at her best, you will use your talents, work hard even when you don't feel like it and always give 100%.

My thoughts:

I guess I need to work on Being my best in everything I only got an 8... I think reading this for the 2nd time  has really let it sink in. I'll be using this as a go through my 3 weeks of camp. (Please comment your thoughts, along with your score.)

I hope this had encouraged you to BE YOUR BEST!

(I'm sorry if I missed spelled any words or for got to add words. I had to type this my self.)

I hope this helped!

~Megan

Prayer requests

Sorry I haven't posted anything yet, but today I'd like to ask you all to pray for my Uncle John.

He found out at the beginning of the year that he has a form of cancer called Lymphoma, after he had a lump removed from his side. He has been doing Chemotherapy for a while now.

He has to do a total of 6 treatments, and they are every 3 weeks.

I'm not really sure how many he has to go..... 2 or 3.......?

But Last time we saw him he was starting to loose his hair.

So just pray for him. That the cancer will be cleared up and he can get stronger.

My Uncle John is just so amazing. He is a stronger christian, and he didn't let this stop him form doing things. He still smiles and talks with you, jokes and laughs. He is amazing! I love talking to him about things. =D I hope that I can be like him someday.

Anyway, thats my prayer request.

Oh!

Also my Grandma is having back pains and she has been to the chiropractor 3 times already, and that's not helping very much. So pray that she will feel better soon.

Thanks.

~Marissa

Camp

About: The camp I go to is called Mid West Bible Camp. It is located at the Lake Darling Youth Center, is Brighton Iowa. I've been going to it for a VARY long time and it is the same camp my Mom went to when she was a kid. It's vary helpful to see so many other kids with so much faith in God. The most touching week is Senior week, our (My family) First time of ever experiencing this week was last year. My older sister Marissa (Also one of the authors of this blog) was a Camper, and my mom was a cook and me, my 2 sisters, and 1 brother. Stayed there at the camp (we always do). It was really cool, so many things took place and it was a wonderful experience for anyone. There was a Pranal (Prayer Journal) that anyone could write in, and our Shelter House was used as a... I'm not exactly sure how to explain it... It was a place where People could go and pray. It was really awesome, and my sister had a great time.  Well, that's all about Senior week, Now I'll tell you about Intermediate week.

This summer (June) will be my First year of Actually being a camper at Intermediate week. Last year we were there because my mom was a teacher, and my Brother was a Camper. It was really fun, and I got to spend time with my friends that are a year older then me. Intermediate week is not as involved and Senior week, but it is still really fun and there are lots of people there that set good examples for us younger kids. Now, I've talked about Senior week and Intermediate week, now it's time for Jr. week.

Jr. week is the week that I've gone too for the past 2 years (I didn't go 1 year because we were moving, but usually you are supposed to go for 3 years), oh ya funny story: Last year I had chicken pox the week before Jr. and thank goodness I was over them by Jr. week!!! Anyway, The guy who Directs Jr. week is an AWESOME director!! He knows alot about Nature and stuff and is GREAT for younger kids (4-6 grades), so far my experience with Jr. week were really good! 

For more information about MWBC (Mid West Bible Camp) you can go to www.midwestbiblecamp.org

thanks,

Megan

Zara

I'm so happy to have my 2 new authors!

Sarah & Hannah!

They and I will be posting more soon.

For now I have a prayer request:

I've recently met and Girl online, Her name is Zara.

This is how we met...

One day I was checking my e-mail, and I had got something for I girl I didn't know, this is what it said:

Dear Megan,

Blessings from Scotland! I am 19 years old I have Special needs and I suffer from a rare syndrome which I'm not very big for my age. I hope you are not offended by me finding your blog I am looking for a Christian penpal to email me,would you like to email me? I go to a Reformed Baptist Church every Sunday and I love Jesus with all my heart.

Let me know

Blessings

Zara Ross

So, I told her that I would be her penpal.

We have been e-mailing back in forth ever since I got that e-mail a few weeks ago.

Shortly after I got her First e-mail I got this one:

Dear Megan,

Blessings to you on this day! I was wondering if you would pray for me as I am going to Hospital tomorrow as I suffer from TMJ(temporomandibular jaw).

Zara

I told her I would DEFIANTLY pray for her.

And the next day we were google chatting:

2:23 PM zaramayross: Hello

me: hi

me: I'm really sorry but I have to get off, maybe we can chat again soon.

2:26 PM zaramayross: Okay just to let you know I was at Hospital

me: oh, did it go okay?

zaramayross: I need a another operation-Bad News

me: Well, I'll keep praying for you!

2:27 PM talk to you later, BYE! <3

zaramayross: Thank you blessings

And I haven't e-mailed Zara in a few day, so I will soon.and I'll be sure to give you all up-dates on Zara.
If you were reading closely to the first e-mail I got for Zara, you would have noticed that she said she Lived in Scotland, now that really is "Faith Around The World"!! And that e-mail is what inspired me to start this blog... It was just an Idea, and it will be good for me and anyone else around me to share their faith!
And now I'm asking for you all to pray for Zara, my dear friend.
Thanks!~Megan

Hello!

Hello! My name is Hannah, I'm a co-writer on this blog. I'm very excited to share my faith and such! You can read some of my regular writings at Aspire.

Blessings,

Hannah