Sorry for the quietness. All is well out here in Cali! I like to try and give this blog 100%, so when I'm tired or whatever, I don't necessarily feel like opening up my notes from church and sitting down to write a blog. So, that means I've neglected it!
I'll be honest ... I feel myself being a little bit self-sabatoging when it comes to eating. I'm getting back into that mode of "I'll eat a freaking quarter pounder and fries if I want to. SCREW IT". Why do people do that? Why would I sabatoge what I worked so hard for? 9 months of craziness in order to lose 45 lbs ... I've put 25 of it back on. WHY? How is it I can go 9 months with no dessert/sweet drinks/etc, and all of a sudden I'm back to screw it mode? I don't know, I need a shrink I guess.
Work is going well, church is great, we're caught up on all our bills, David has a job interview for a 2nd job AND it looks like maybe his hours will be picking up so things are going well right now. Who knows? I just need to kick my own butt again and CARE. Ugh.
Anyway, Pastor has been getting through to me in church, and I'm planning to go 'soul winning' this Saturday. What is soul winning? I'd never heard of it either! It means to go door to door and preach the gospel. If you actually know me in real life, you'll know I'm passionate about horses and can blab on all day long about horse theory, etc. You also know I'm completely non-confrontational, and I don't pretty much ever TALK about God in real life. Here on my blog, sure. But face to face? No. Why? Because up until recently, I have not felt educated enough to talk about God at all, to anyone. I haven't even been able to define my beliefs until recently, and I finally feel like I sort of KNOW what I need to do in order live my life like God wants me to. So, going soul winning is very scary for me, and completely out of my comfort zone, but it is MY job as a christian to DO THIS. Rev 20:10, John 3:36. and Jude 1:22 all discuss the importance of winning souls to Christ. These passages impress upon the importance of using this ONE chance here on Earth to go out and reach people and tell them about God. Luke 15:7 says Heaven rejoices when we preach the gospel.
Many churches rejoice in their NUMBERS each Sunday. "Hey! Yay! We got this new building and 25 more people walked in the door this week than last week! We're doing so great, God is truly blessing us!". Um, this is flawed rejoicing. Numbers are great ... but if those numbers are lazy and apathetic and come through the door in order to "show face", what good are they doing? The true measure of a church's success is how well it trains the congregation to go out and MAKE a difference in the community by teaching doctrine, NOT by handing out food or blankets to the homeless, or even worse, doing nothing but showing up.
It's hard facts. Pastor is not all love and light, "Name it and Claim it", etc. He's a realist, a true "Bible Thumping" preacher. He's not about "fire and brimstone", either. He's about making you THINK. He's about FORCING you to either quit going to church because you're tired of being told what you should be doing, OR to change your life and get right with God. Getting right with God is HARD, just like losing weight and KEEPING IT OFF, just like getting fit and STAYING that way. You have to work at it, even when you don't feel like it. The message from this past Sunday is to remember that even though we are IN this world, we are not to be OF this world, we are to separate ourselves from what the world says is important. I have been reading my Bible every single day since January. I've probably only gone ... maybe 5 days total so far where I didn't crack it open, which is AMAZING for me. I've never read the Bible cover to cover; it's hard, but I'm doing it.
Anyway. That's all I have to say today :) I'm working hard to better my spiritual self, now I need to make sure I'm not neglecting my physical self in the process. I have to remember that every single day, TODAY is the first day of the rest of my life, and I have the opportunity to be an amazing person. So do you. Go be amazing! Love y'all :)
