The Journey Continues

As Christians, we are on a journey.  The Lord takes us through valleys and over mountains to strengthen us, to challenge us, to encourage us, and to grow us.  Being a Christian isn't about "saying a prayer", and then life goes on as normal.  Its about intense joys, sorrowful hurts, questioning, praying, pondering, reading, listening, exploring, studying, laughing, mourning, coming out of the world & learning to be more like Jesus.  God doesn't give us everything we need for our walk the moment we surrender our lives to the Lord ~ but he does lead, guide, and direct our paths through life.

I am thrilled to be on this journey with my best friend & husband.  I am also thrilled the Lord is leading us down the same paths at pretty much the same time.  There have been some detours in the last 7 years that one or the other of us has been down alone, but those are few and far between.

Sometimes the lights on the path are so glaringly obvious, that we wonder why we didn't "see" this before.  And honestly, there are paths we are going down right now that are quite unusual to the world in general, our friends, and our family.  All I can say to that is....we don't make any decisions without first praying, seeking guidance, extensive reading, and many family meetings.

Right now, we are both thinking about "religious cults".  The best description I can come up with right now it ~ those religions, practices, prayers, ceremonies that don't line up with what the Bible clearly says. I put clearly in italics, because there are many faiths that say you need the Gospel &.  The & is the confusing part.  The scriptures are clear in what is needed to follow Jesus and how to live  a faith-filled Christian life.   You don't need a bunch of extras ~ the extras are always man inspired, man created, and man mandated ~ not from God.

So on this journey, I asked Greg to find us some good books explaining cults.  But then I changed that request....I want to know the Bible so clearly & vividly that when something occurs, I can "compare" it to what I am seeing/hearing.  Know truth, so you can recognize un-truth.  He found us a couple of books that are downloaded onto our Kindles now (which makes them extremely portable!).  They are "Know your Bible ~ all 66 books explained" a brief outline of each book of the Bible, "Always Ready" by Robert Booth ~ directions for defending the truth...not being neutral, the Bible is clear, there are rights/wrongs, no gray areas, "Everloving Truth" by Voddie Bauchum ~ just finished this book and its excellent, and "How to study the Bible".

Where is this journey taking us?  Right now, I don't know.  I do know that its steering us away from unhealthy, unGodly, unBiblical places we could venture into.  God is  showing us where we need to invest our time, our money, our ministry, our Missions time, etc.  He is also showing us who we need to be with, who to avoid, who to listen too, etc.  We do know that the Lords journey is a straight & narrow path and not a wide "all roads lead to heaven" path.

Its a confusing journey sometimes.  But its a blessing to be on this journey with Greg, Amy & Will.

Matthew 8:7-8
7 Ask and it will be give to you: seek and you will find: knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knows the door will be opened. Repeated in Luke 11: 9-10

Matthew 11: 28-30
28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gently and humble in heart, and you will fine rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

John 14:6 
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Romans 1:16
16 I 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.


Romans 3:22-26
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference.  23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance he had left the sins committed before hand unpunished - 26 He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.