Your weekly dose of scripture and motivation

Going healthy :)

Hello!  I am VERY pleased to report I did not cheat myself out of any exercise time this week and did my Insanity every single day like a good girl :)  Lunch has been an adventure!  Carrots, a "salad" of black beans/chick peas/mini corn/red onion/cucumber/italian dressing, yogurt, Kashi bar, string cheese, and a piece of fruit.  It's lots of "munchy" food and I get my crunch desire satisfied, but by the time dinner comes around I'm ready to eat, so not stuffing myself with too many calories.  I've traded in my wheat containing Cheerios for gluten free Rice Chex, and dinner is just whatever.  I wish I could cut out the wheat 100%, but I had to "go cheap" at the grocery store :(  I spent $75 at Bel Air last week on all my "healthy food" that didn't make a single 'dinner' meal, but did last me for lunch.  Spent $79 today at Winco foods and got 9 nights worth of dinner plus a few lunch items.  Sad, I know.  Also rode 3 times this week, so definitely got in some good moving around!

This morning was one of those days where I wondered where the message was heading.  We always begin service (after singing) with reading a full chapter of the Bible.  Today it was 2Kings Ch 7.  It's a slightly confusing story of men robbing a tent, people locked inside a city being offered a chance to buy flour, and a lord getting trampled at the end.  I thought it was going to be a sermon on the evils of Black Friday, lol!  No seriously, this just goes to show how good and focused Pastor Jimenez is.  He was able to develop the sermon, referring back often the Ch 7, and I got the point of the whole thing.  I think I told y'all that sometimes at the end of a church service, I would leave feeling somewhat confused.  Or even feeling as though I was just too stupid to get the point of the sermon.  So far, I've never felt that way at Verity, I always leave feeling like I learned something.

Basically, 2Kings7 is a story of a starving Israel locked inside the walls of a city.  In Deut28:52-57, God tells the Israelites they will be punished by a famine so severe, they will begin to eat their own children.  In 2Kings, this prophesy comes to pass.  It was because of their sins that they brought upon them this horrible, horrible famine.  In 2Kings6:26, a woman talks of how she actually killed and ate her son!  The people were desperate, and utterly hopeless.

The story relates to our modern life; how many of us have felt like our situation was completely hopeless?  You were totally desperate, unable to see a way out, maybe even contemplating suicide?  2 things to keep in mind; 1.  We don't know HOW God works.  2.  We don't know WHEN God works.  When life seems worthless and hopeless, God is always working on the other side.  He uses people that are in our lives, SINNERS, to help us through.  He uses the ordinary to do the extraordinary.  He brings us through our hard times in unexpected ways, and always in His own time.  We need to walk by FAITH, and NOT by sight.

Back to 2Kings7 ... 4 lepers decided to enter into the city after coming across a camp of Syrian soldiers and pilfering all their food.  The offer to sell flour and meat for a reasonable rate, just as God had said.  He used LEPERS, who were the blight of civilization back in biblical times to bring hope to the people of Israel.  The lepers took a risk, it worked out.  When YOU take a risk, when YOU take the first step, God will meet you there.  If you go to church and enjoy it, good for you.  Your life will not be fully blessed because you lack the faith to take it a step further.  You MUST grow in your journey as a Christian; share the gospel, invite people to church, give offering, tithe, get baptized, THEN you will begin to see your life be truly blessed.  Walk by Faith.

I've always loved "Walk by Faith" by Jeremy Camp.  That song was running through my head as the pastor went through the sermon today.  I'm so thankful that God is allowing me to open up and FINALLY grow in my own journey ... I'm 34 years old, and I rarely have ever openly talked about God, the Bible, or anything related to religion.  While I'm still not ready yet to go door to door and minister that way to people, I do bring it here to the blog.  I do give offering.  In January, we will begin to tithe even though it's going to hurt!  I have invited several co-workers to church even though they haven't come yet. I'm going to be faithful in my giving, faithful in my volunteering, and faithful in my faith and see where I'm at this time next year.  Looking forward to continuing to grow spiritually and always remembering that when things seem unmanageable, God is always working in unseen, unexpected ways.