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Friday, April 22, 2011

I'm Not Very Religious

   "I'm not very religious..." I told someone today.
   They asked if I was heading to Church (it being about 2:45pm...) I chuckled at this and asked why they thought that. They said something about it being Good Friday and me being religious.
   I had to tell them... I'm not very religious.
   I went on to say that I would like to be more religious, sometimes, but I'm not.
   Don't get me wrong- this is not an anti-organized religion statement cause I love me my Jesus lovin groupies (and I believe we are called to gather together in fellowship, edifying and learning) I looove community. Faith community, oh yes please!

   ...but I'm not religious. I admire ritual, dedication and tradition. I appreciate SO MUCH the history behind (most) of it. I respect the dedication that one has to their religious practice (regardless of their religion). 

Can we just get one thing clear- I have a deep, passionate, ever-growing relationship with my Lord and Savior. This is the day that many Believers honor Him, with their prayer, fasting, fellowshiping, reading the Word and church-going. I love that so many people are affected by the remembrance of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross. 
Thank you. 
Thank you for the Cross.
Tonight, I wanted to be religious.
   I told my husband this as we drove to our celebratory (more on this next week) dinner and passed a church. 
   7pm I was there. Being religious. I wasn't sure what that meant. I mean I go to a Southern Baptist Church y'all! (and was raised in a Presbyterian one) 
   There was lots of sitting and standing and candle lighting and candle extinguishing and hymnal book page flipping and me singing waaay off key and people bowing before and after scripture reading and me awkwardly reading the call and response too fast or too slow. 
   Like I said, I'm not very religious. And I just happened to go to attend a very traditional church this evening. 
   I was a bit distracted by myself (and the millions of questions I had like why 7 candles? Why bowing? What is a Christ candle? What is that man called- Priest, Father, Bishop, Reverend, Pastor... Sir? What does this mean and what does that mean? What time is it? Wow I'm glad I don't know the people in front of me because I sound like a teenage boy singing!) You get the picture... I felt tired afterwards. I felt like I was trying to keep up the whole time. Everyone knew what they were doing, except for me. I looked like a random person who had never been to church before and not a fellow sinner saved by Grace. 
   Phew. I am tired. 
   I do love ritual and respect it immensely. 
Is okay if you call yourself religious and I tell you that it just isn't how I relate to God? Will you still consider me your sister in Christ?

   I savored my bedtime Bible reading with my husband last night as he read to me The Last Supper out of Luke 22. 
   I am blessed to have a Pastor who led us in reading Luke 23 this past Sunday. 
   I look forward to spending time with Jesus each morning, reading His word, praying and journaling about His blessings. I love leaning on Him throughout my day and finding ways to Glorify Him. 

I am so glad that He sees my heart and that I seek after His. 
I'm not very religious.
But boy do I love Jesus.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Come, reflect with me

These following words were taken from the great Charles H. Spurgeon's book MORNING BY MORNING.
This portion was from my reading on April 11th. Never before have I been so gut-wrenched by words that I read. Please look past the old English writing and find the value of the cross and how deep Jesus loves you.
https://www.student.gsu.edu/~rhallman1/cross.jpg
"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." 
Psalm 22:14

    Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its sockets had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated  all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness. He become nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, "There remained no strength in for me, for my vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:" how much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when he saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in His own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord endured  would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to ou rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword, He drained the cup and tasted every drop. 
"O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true 
To Thee of all kings only due)
O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for Thee,
Who in all grief preventest me!"
   As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour's throne, let us remember well the way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all His griefs and woes His body come forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall His mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

What have I been doing?

Launching the website for my new at-home business...
This has been a hard working week, stretching me in ways that I didn't initially anticipate when I decided to do this in January.
My biggest stress- WEB SITE! And making it pretty, functional and purposeful. My friend Abby S. taught we how to do this-

Time well spent. Brain well stretchted.
Over 500 hits in the first 24 hours of it being launched!
So that is why I have been absent.

And another exciting reason- March 28th marks the day that my husband was born 25 years ago, we were married 2 years ago and our precious one was born 1 year ago. No. I'm not kidding. It is something we like to call a double-birthversary. It is a blessing.

I have oodles of amazing pictures from my sweet husband/daughter's birthday last week. They are currently stuck on my friends camera. This 'ole Mac didn't want to just upload my pictures, but ALL 4,000 on the 8G memory card. Ummm. No. So give me another few days to get that done.

What will I be doing on this lovely sunny Sunday? 
Church in the AM.
Dating my husband in the afternoon.
My in-laws requested that we go out so that they could spend time with Abigail. (Did I mention this was a long, hard-working week?!) To joyfully honor their request, we are eagerly going out for the afternoon to just "chill." I'm pretty excited to spend the day having some alone time with my best friend!