Christian Paradigm Shifts

Gina at http://www.keepinitreal-gina.com/2012/03/spring-giveaway.html  is having an awesome giveaway. It is for A Weekend to Remember. Click on the above link to check out the entry requirements. My husband and I have never been to this event. We've wanted to go but finances have been tight to do so. We'd love to win this giveaway.

As a Christian, my life is not stagnant. I am on a journey through this life. A journey that is not always easy or pleasant. I savor the good times so I will have strength in the difficult times. The one thing that is always constant is the companionship on this journey. I have a companion who sticks closer than a brother. He is always with me. He told me that He would never leave me not forsake me. That companion is Jesus. I can say that through the thirty plus years of being a Christian, my life is not the same. I have grown and changed. My faith in Christ and understanding of Him has changed overtime. My understanding of the Bible has change. I no longer fear my curiosities and questions. I welcome them. Here's to the next stages of my paradigm shifts. Time will tell. 

This post is on the importance of women mentoring women. I know in my own life the importance of having others to give encouragement and guidance on my journey through life. I have been mentored by older women in the faith. They were older by either their age or by their length of time in the faith. I have been mentored by those who are similar in age and marital situation. This mentoring has been in person, by other like-minded bloggers, and even ministries such as Beth Moore and Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I have mentored others in their walk with the Lord. I have encouraged and guided others to dig deep into God's Word for themselves. I have given of myself from my own life experiences and my walk with the Lord. I consider this blog part of my mentoring of other women. I want to grow in this area. I still have a lot to learn myself but I want to help others on this journey called life. The qualifications from being mentor or being mentored does not mean perfection. Just the opposi

Ephesians 6:1-9 Read : Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),   “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. Listen:   http://www.biblegateway.com/aud

Do  you ever wonder if what you do makes a difference? As a wife? A mother? A daughter? A sister? A co-worker? Last night we were driving home from church and we were having a time of impatience with one another. We could blame it on being tired or that it was a late night in the middle of the week.  But the thought came to my mind and I said it out loud - does it matter at all what I do? Is it all worth it? Then I heard Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Do Everything" come on my local K-Love radio station. I think God was trying to tell me something. Everything I do (including, my patience or lack thereof) impacts others,  - my husband, my child, my parents, my siblings, friends. Sometimes I impact them in a positive way and at other times it may be in a negative way. It is a choice. I am happy when it is positive. But when it is negative I dwell on it, pack my bags and go on a guilt trip. I realize I need to rely on the Holy Spirit's power to deal with life's si

Scripture: Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.   For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,   that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,   so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.   For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,   because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold

"The Bride of Christ" - William Hallmark, artist      I have been anxious to get to this portion of our study. I have been reading Martin Luther's Concerning Christian Liberty. It is a treatise on the freedom of a christian  - freedom from sin and death, and the opportunity to serve one's neighbor. The following portion hit me like a ton of bricks and brought me new understanding to Ephesians 5 - "The Marriage Chapter". We always hear about a wife submitting to her husband and a husband loving his wife. These are true statements and should be put into practice. These principles and actions are only a reflection of the true marriage between Jesus (the Husband) and the Church (the Bride). Even Paul states, "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:32 Martin Luther gives a great illustration of the great exchange that has been made on our behalf. Read the excerpt below. Soak it in. You a

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Read: Ephesians 5:1-4 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.   But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.   Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Listen: http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Eph.5.1-Eph.5.4 Watch: From the ESV Study Bible notes: Believers are to imitate God’s holiness in all of their conduct. They are to be like him, not as slaves trying to earn a wage but as children —and beloved children at that! Christians must be careful to guard their integrity and public reputation because public sins dishonor God, who has chosen them to be holy.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8 ESV I need the Lord. I seek Him daily. I rely on Him and in Him I put my hope. A blog post at http://www.lifeingraceblog.com/2012/03/grace-upon-gracethe-mystery-of-christ/  reminded me that I am not justified by my performance, by what I do. My justification, being made right in God's sight, is based on Christ and His performance. Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. He kept the entire Law perfectly. He went to the cross as a spotless Lamb. It is His work that is credited to me. There are no works that I can do to make me right in His sight. For that I am truly grateful. I am a sinner in need of a Savior. God met my need in Jesus. The pressure is off. That's so amazing! I remember reading a book by Chuck Swindoll called Grace Awakening. I read it several years ago. It was a radical awakening for me that I am accepted in the Beloved because of JESUS WORK A

While I have been reading and studying Ephesians, I have not posted in a bit on the study. Ephesians 4:17-19 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.   They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Take a listen: http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Eph.4.17-Eph.4.19 Observation: We are not to be like those who do not know God. We are to live our lives in a way that pleases God. God has a standard that we are to live by. Those who do not know God follow their own desires and wants. Application: We are in the Lenten season. A time of reflection of who we are in relation to Christ. The event which puts it all into perspective is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane ri