Trust

I trust God, I really do, in my heart I believe that He will do His work and I'll be blessed just knowing that I'm following His will. I wish I could say that , I wish in every aspect of my life I could say I trust God completely, I'm sure I would have way more peace and I would be blessed always knowing that I'm following God. But I don't and in truth I think there are very few of us that do. See I don't see trusting God in all things as proof of salvation or even a Christ centered life. Now first lets look at those that literally followed Jesus and in many ways had to trust Him with Their lives. There are several instances in the New Testament that they well didn't trust Him, for example at the feeding of the 5000 they were ready to send the people away, because they didn't trust the Lord to take care of them. And even though they were told for 3 years that Jesus would die and rise again the 3rd day, they were in shock at the Lords betrayal , arrest and subsequent crucifixion and the only ones that seemed to believe that there could be a resurrection or at least the appearance of it were the pharisees, the disciples again didn't trust. Trusting God at least the trusting I'm speaking of is more than just mentally saying "OK I trust God" I believe its something deeper it comes from the heart, not the brain, and that is where my trust block lies. I also believe that a lack of trusting God is more common than we would like to admit in the church of Jesus Christ. I am not advocating people not trust God(of course if you truly trust Him my little blog will do nothing to change that trust ) what I am saying is that its merely human to not trust God everywhere. However, this does not mean that we shouldn't seek to trust God in all things through prayer how we live our lives. Trust isn't trust unless its been tested the same as faith if it is not lived out in the real world. I guess what I'm saying is that we need not to destroy or beat up ourselves over our lack of trust in certain areas. We should see these as areas that God can grow us into and work in, we can't be the perfect christian, at least not this side of eternity

1/4 way to the goal

Its been 4 weeks since I started my diet and amazingly I'm a quarter of the way to my goal of 80 lbs., it really still amazes me how eating fruits and veggies instead of a burger and fries can change your body. I am starting to think that perhaps incorporating a larger, much larger portion of fruits and veggies into my daily intake is changing my metabolism. I have been blown away its becoming more of a lifestyle for me everyday and remains easy when I take one day of the week that I can enjoy the Burger and fries. Its great to be losing and actually going down on the scale. I've said it before but this is still just the beginning. I want to commit myself to this for the rest of my life and look forward to a healthier life also. I know that eventually my weight loss will slow down or stop all together but I don't care I feel great and thank Jesus for it. So here are the stats

Sunday March 12, 2006

329 , -5lbs. (-21 lbs. overall)

MCI

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

"“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."
Luke 16:18

I want to believe Jesus, I want to take seriously everything that He said in the Gospels, I want to love my neighbor and my enemy, and deny myself and take up my cross. I'm sure that if I polled my Christian friends they would agree, after all isn't why I'm a christian , because I follow Jesus. Yet today in America, the church that we call the Bride and Body of Christ is ignoring the words of the one we call Lord, now I'm not just talking about the typical thing I rant about , the old Evangelical church and its lack of love for our neighbor or our enemy. No I'm ranting about something else, divorce in the body of Christ, stats show that more christian marriages end in divorce than non christian, taking into account what Jesus said in Luke 16 that's an awful lot of adulterers in the body of Christ. It's a scary thing to think that divorce has become common place in your typical evangelical church. Yet the church in general glosses over this like its OK, but yet if a homosexual comes in and is unwilling to conform they are promptly shown the door, same as the unmarried couple living in sin or the girl that ends up pregnant. Now of course I'm not advocating giving the boot to newly divorced, but I'm saying that , what Jesus took seriously we also should take seriously. Divorce is by no means the unpardonable sin, but neither is fornication or homosexuality. Divorce hurts and scars everyone involved, a christian should do everything in their power to prevent divorce, theirs or others. we need to have grace in our marriages, we can't be like the world and call ourselves called out of that same world. The church needs to change, not to suit the world around us, but to be people that takes seriously what Jesus said and not just in loving our neighbors and enemies, but in our marriages and families also.

16 and counting

I have to say that the last 3 weeks have been awesome, it's been great to eat healthy and almost eating purely vegetarian , I've learned a lot about my own little attitudes about food. I want nothing more than to keep down this path of discipline and growth (or shrinkage) to the weight that I need to be at. I have been changed in attitude I just want to continue. I have to say that I don't have a lot of words this week because I'm in shock at how quickly I'm losing my weight, I know it won't last the whole time but I still will be excited even when its 1 or 2 pounds as long as it goes down. Here are my stats , taking into account that I didn't have a weigh in last week this is what things are looking like on the weight loss front

March 5, 2006

334(-10 lbs.) -16lbs. overall

MCI

The Challenge and the change

I have been discovering as I have been dieting that there is a sense of discipline that is developing in me. Now, this discipline doesn't just pertain to my eating habits and exercise, but is extending to my spiritual life also. I'm noticing that I find it easier to discipline my prayer life and even what I watch or just plain wasting my time. I'm seeing that my weight loss and whole life discipleship are related. It's funny how we as Americans have this disconnect of our bodies and our spirits, the evangelical church has taught us that the flesh is evil and unimportant in spiritual formation. However, I believe that our bodies are created by God , in His image and is precious in the sight of God,thus if God created our bodies and they are good in His sight then it only makes sense that they should have a part in our spiritual growth. We can't be fat and talk of spiritual discipline, our bodies souls and spirits are all tied together and thus are are all involved in our spiritual formation. I desire change , not only physically but spiritually I am hoping for that change as I journey down the road to better care of this body and as I discipline and submit my body to the work of God in my life I believe I will get a better understanding of what it truly means to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ.