We went to a camp that my friend was doing. She did it as a child and wanted to do it for her kids so she put it together this summer. We had tons of fun, I like that Kaylee gets to learn about the Bible and get together with friends and so forth.

I’m not sure whether the church that my friend goes to is a bit more conservative than Discovery church or what, but I’m not used to it for sure. They are obviously of the belief that kids can make the decision about whether to be saved. I know there are denominations that believe children need to make this decision sooner rather than later and other parts that believe that until a child can understand the difference between right and wrong that they can’t make the decision to be saved.

I am of the belief that until a child understands right and wrong, they can’t make the decision. I believe this because I see the decision to become a follower of Christ as a decision to also recognize that you are a sinner and repent from those sins and so forth. This is not something I believe a 4 year old can even understand. They don’t understand the concept of repenting at all. I mean my 4 year old hardly understands that taking a toy from a friend hurts them. You can explain it and they have some empathy and understanding but it’s still very limited because the 4 year old is thinking in mainly terms of how does something benefit her, not on how it harms or benefits others.

Kaylee luckily didn’t take them up on their offer cause it would have been a bit embarrassing to stop her. Maybe it’s because I know full well that at this moment she doesn’t fully understand Jesus or why He’s important. She’s learning about Him and is new to the concept of God. She doesn’t at this moment make the distinction that God is real (and I know not everyone who reads this believes this but we do). Right now she puts Jesus up there with Disney princesses. She can’t see Him so she assumes He’s pretend, like Disney princesses. So she obviously can’t give her life over to Jesus when she doesn’t technically believe in Him. I’m hoping that with going to church and so forth she’ll come to believe He is real.

Of course I wouldn’t necessarily have to stop her but I’m not sure I’d be okay with just letting it go. Kaylee enjoyed the time though and had fun so that’s what is important. It got me thinking that it would be nice to have some sort of Vacation Bible School at Discovery. I mean I know why they probably haven’t done one, but I think it would be popular.

On a side note they were raising money for a mission trip and asked the kids to bring in money for them. Kaylee, in true form of total honesty, said, “We don’t have any money!”

Yes Kaylee we don’t have any money to give. We do have change around and I’m gathering change for Sarah’s House which provides help and care to homeless pregnant women. It’s something Discovery is promoting and I liked the cause so I want to help out. I’m all for mission trips and all but I find helping homeless pregnant women a bit more along something I’d want to help with.

Those were my thoughts today.

Pastor Todd did say something that was interesting. Basically he said it’s important to determine whether what you do in life is faithfulness or foolishness.

I tend to think that a lot of times this is hard to determine because we as humans like to be in control and we’ll look at a situation, pray about it, and maybe or maybe not listen to the answer. And sometimes we’ll decide to do something that does benefit us, doesn’t look like it will be the wrong track and come to find out later that it was totally not what God wanted.

I would imagine that it may be easier to make this determination if you do what was explained in the last sermon (who knew they could tie in to each other?). Love the Lord with all your heart. By doing this you’ll find the ability to determine faithfulness vs. foolishness easier to determine.

Romans 7: 14-25

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.22 I love God’s law with all my heart.23 But there is another powers within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Today’s sermon was based on the above verses. The question Pastor Rick asked us was something to the effect of, is obeying the Lord and His commandments your greatest burden or greatest joy? That goes with the above, basically stating that for a lot of us, even Paul, it was perhaps his greatest burden because of his sinful nature. That he wanted to do good but couldn’t because of his human nature. But that because of the Lord he is able to have joy. To me the verse expresses that he struggles just like anyone else with sin, but with the help of Jesus he’s “set free”.

This plays into last weeks, and perhaps this whole book of Romans is about this in general. But basically it states that we all are sinners and through Jesus we find life and perhaps the ability to not sin as much. I think God understands out sinful nature, it is after all how He created us, and He’s given us an opportunity to be less sinful. I don’t believe we can ever fully be without sin though. Only one person was ever without sin, and that was Jesus.

In particular I like verse 23 because it really puts into perspective my belief that our sinful nature is the result of us and our thinking and that outside influences (such as the Devil and Satan) do not exist in the manner they are used by many religious people. Verse 23 says that there are other powers WITHIN us that wage war with our want to do good that we often give into and allow ourselves to instead do bad.

The way to do more good than bad (because we will always do bad but the goal is to do more good) is to love Jesus with all your heart. As Pastor Rick put it, love the Lord as you love your children. You’ll do anything and everything, no matter how hard it is for you, to make them happy, because making them happy gives you great joy. So you have to love the Lord in that manner as well and you’ll have great joy in obeying the Lord’s laws.

This though I don’t think is as easy as one would think. I think because there is no one really telling you that what you are doing is the right thing. I can say I’m obeying the Lord’s laws by my understanding and doing what the Lord wants of me but I very well may not be. Paul states that when he’s doing wrong he’s miserable so I’m guessing that if you aren’t miserable, then you’re doing the right thing?

So that brings me to the application in my own life. Are we doing the wrong things? I constantly ask the Lord to give me guidance in what I’m supposed to be doing and I’ve always assumed that being a great mother to my children is what I’m supposed to be doing, but since at this moment things are miserable, is that not in fact what I’m supposed to be doing? I really do wish things were clearer, you know. That’s the problem with faith in general, nothing is ever really clear, otherwise it wouldn’t be faith, right?

Perhaps I’ve lost my trust in the Lord and that the Lord knows what He is doing? Or maybe I’m just angry. It’s been hard for me these past few years. I love the Lord, that will never change, but my understanding of the Lord and His plans for me has become less. I thought I knew what He wanted, now I’m not so sure. And I’m not sure how I can figure it out because some choices you make, whether right or wrong, don’t allow you to go back and start over.

A friend of mine who attends church there too says she doesn’t believe this is a correct assumption by the person who commented and also gave me the full name of the person who commented (because she obviously didn’t sign the comment with her full name but my friend knew right off the bat who it was which is interesting to say the least).

I had assumed that this person didn’t know much about the internet, especially blogging and Twitter. Boy was I wrong. I finally decided to look her up and well lets say, she isn’t a stranger to Twitter and blogging. She even has her own site, just like mine. But she doesn’t blog about sermons, which she deems inappropriate. So that’s good at least cause the last thing I can stand is someone doing something I’ve been told I can’t do.

Anyhow she’s also an active part of youth group at the church. Once again I’ve had someone who is a member of leadership in a church tell me I can’t do something or that I’m wrong in expressing my beliefs and believing what I do. I had this happen at my old church too, luckily the head pastor at the time wasn’t in agreement with the youth group leadership (this was not Bruce by the way, I think he was Associate Pastor by this time) and corrected the wrong.

I edited my previous post and took out what I wrote about the comment and how it made me feel. Needless to say I wasn’t pleased with what she wrote, nor did I think she had right to tell me what I could and could not blog about.

But after talking to my friend I decided it’s best to not have that up but continue to blog about sermons because I fully believe Pastor Todd is okay with that. And I think he wants us to do that sort of thing because what I’ve taken from previous sermons is that church isn’t a place where you go and nod in agreement all the time. Church is a place to go to critically think and to question what’s been said and to talk out how you’ve processed the message and what you gained from it.

So I will continue to blog about sermons and my beliefs and I’ll have no issue putting in the hashtag for people to see it.

That leads in to today’s post. Yes I went to church today. And look, I’m going to comment once again on what was posted.

We learned of Romans 5 today. It’s basically saying we’re all Sinners but that through Jesus we’ve gained life. The interesting part of the sermon was the Sin and how Jesus dying for us gave us power over our sins. I’ve always thought this way in general. What we do is always a choice we make. There are no outside influences (Satan or the Devil) causing us to do things we shouldn’t. Why? Because we have Jesus on our side. So as the Pastor said, everything has to go through Jesus first. So any temptation or influence (even though I’ve never believed that Satan or the Devil are actual “beings”) has to go through Jesus first and then if we allow it in then we sin.

Now that’s not to say we never sin, of course we do. But Jesus is always on our side and that gives us the power to not sin if we chose not to do so.

So in the end it’s about personal responsibility. We are responsible for our behavior. And that with Jesus we are stronger and can stand up better to those outside influences.

The Verse:

Romans 1:16 (NIV)

¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

He started out with the first part of the verse (cause there are three parts to it). He talked about how he doesn’t remember too many instances of being shamed due to his belief in Jesus and telling of the Gospel. And he says that we should be shamed, because that means we’re spreading the Gospel. I’m not sure I agree with this to much. Perhaps he hasn’t had any bad experiences where people got mad at him or thought he was being disrespectful because well, he hasn’t been? One can spread the Good Word and not offend people or make people mad.

Or is the assumption that spreading the Good Word will make people mad and offended? I tend to think it won’t. I tend to think most people are respectful and polite and as long as you’re not being an ass about things, there is no reason for anyone to get mad at you.

He mentioned that he believes that in the near future there will be a time where we as Christians will be persecuted and shamed constantly. I don’t know about this either to be honest. He said that we aren’t out there enough, that Christianity has declined almost (at least that’s how I took it) and frankly that’s not what I see at all. Unless he’s not talking about those that pervert the religion to further their hate and bigotry? Maybe he sees people claiming to be Christian but aren’t in fact Christian?

I can say that there has been a backlash against Christianity but frankly I think some of it’s deserved. As Pastor Todd put it, Christianity is one of the few religions where all are welcome and all can find salvation and it’s pretty easy to get that salvation (through Christ). But there are those, who are very vocal, who have turned Christianity into a religion that doesn’t welcome all, especially those they deem sinners. But in the end, since we’re all sinners, and have been forgiven by the Lord’s ultimate sacrifice of dying for our sins, it doesn’t matter that certain sins are done. As long as you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior you’re in, plain and simple. I know we’re supposed to live as Jesus would have of course, you know spreading the Word through our lives, but that’s isn’t a requirement to getting to Heaven. It’s just an aspect of what we’re to do as Christians. Not a requirement for salvation.

I have no problem telling people that I’m Christian and that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I do though believe that it’s inappropriate to “force” someone to listen to my belief system. I mean it’s one thing to say I believe Jesus died for my sins and thus gave me ever lasting life, and a whole other thing to sit down and give a religious history lesson to someone. But like Pastor Todd said, it’s not about the presentation because in the end it’s not what we present it’s God’s job to bring someone to Him. We’re only the catalyst.

Another thing I was thinking about today during worship was one of the verses to the songs was something like “Our God is the greatest. Our God is above all.” Or something like that. This has always been something I’ve wondered about because there are verses in the Bible that refer to the Lord being the highest god and so forth. So I often wonder if there are multiple gods. Meaning lets say like the Hindus there are multiple lesser gods and our Lord is the supreme God of them all?  And that although these other lessor gods do exist the only way to get to Heaven is through the Lord, not through one of those lessor gods. I wonder who these lessor gods are? Are they fallen angles? Some may say they are products of the devil but since I don’t believe in the devil as a physical being I don’t think they’re products of the devil at all.

Those are some of the thoughts I was having while in church today. I don’t know if any of it made sense really. I may be way off, it’s just me trying to grasp the concept. I may just have too much faith in people that we don’t have to offend or hurt people when we spread the Good Word. So that may be what the big difference was, that Pastor Todd believes that it will offend. I guess I don’t understand why it would offend. If someone came up to me and said they were this and that and wanted to speak to me about it, and asked nicely about it I’d politely turn them down and let them know why. There wouldn’t be a reason to get offended or angry unless that person didn’t respect my wishes to not hear about it or went on some sort of tirade about how my religion is wrong and I’m going to “hell”.

*For those who misread the title (not sure how you could but whatever) I was posting this so that it could be read by those who attend church, which is why DCSIMI was included in the title.

I’ve always believed that Prayer was more of you talking with God. Sure you can ask for things, but I too am of the belief that God already has much of life laid out for you, and your prayers are only “answered” when you’re following the path He’s laid for you. For instance people say that God hasn’t answered their prayers, we could say that God hasn’t answered my prayers about Kaylee no longer being sick. But He technically has answered own prayers, sadly it’s not how we want it, right? But who are we to think we know better than God? If He says that Kaylee has to continue to have this condition, then He knows what He’s doing and we should trust that.

Now I think God totally understands why we struggle with that in general. Why do some people get the cure and so forth, while other’s don’t? Who knows. Maybe our children are the ones that bring the cure? Maybe that’s why they have to stay with it.

So in the end I guess what we need to do is try our best to not be angry and feel sorry for ourselves and our children and be thankful for what we do have. It’s hard sometimes because obviously I believe it would be easier if Kaylee wasn’t sick but who knows, maybe that’s not the case, maybe life would be harder if she was healthy?

On a side note this was brought up because Christian Scientists believe that prayer heals. I believe God heals and does it whether we pray or not and I don’t for the life of me believe Christian Scientists experience more miracles than others. What bothers me about CS is that they believe that God bestows this gift on their denomination because of how they practice and frankly I don’t see God as that selective. Actually that sort of thinking to me goes completely against what I see as God’s love. I just don’t think of Him treating one set special over the others who believe in Him. Hell I think God loves everyone so much, and equally, that he bestows His gifts on even people who refused to believe in Him.

Anyhow that’s my religious message of the day. I don’t typically go all religious because frankly religion typically is something that I like to keep to myself.

And to the Catholic Church in DC, try keeping Jesus’ message a bit better. Their actions are far from showing God’s love to people.