Spring is Almost Here!

I can just feel it, spring is right around the corner! The Robins are back, some flowers are starting to come up, green yet, but they will soon be very pretty with our Lord's wonderful colors! The temperatures are getting warmer during the day, yet still cool at night, but I no longer need 3 jackets when I go outside! Lol, I am a cold-blooded woman by nature! I have some tomato plants started, about 22 have sprouted, and I just planted some green peppers today so we shall see how they do! Now where will I put all these tomato plants in an apartment?! That is going to be the real question!! I will probably give a few away, but most of the people I know here have rather large gardens as it is already.

We had our first thunderstorm this past Sunday which with the 3" of rain per hour we got and the 8" of snow or so that melted, caused a bit of damage to some places. One being a huge retail store not too far from me, they had 18" of water inside!! Can you imagine going to work or your basement and seeing that much water with things floating in it? Well the clean-up is coming along, but it will be a while before the whole store is open, I am surprised that they have almost half the store open right now anyway, but with as much help as they have been receiving from the community I would guess it shouldn't be too much longer before it is fully opened. I am planning on going tomorrow to help with the clean-up, that is Lord willing. I know God has a reason for EVERYTHING, but sometimes don't you wonder why He has something happen the way He does? I know I do...

Blessings in Christ,

The Working Woman...

I have been trying to think of some more topics to write about, but thus far I have not been too successful. One thing that has come to mind is should women refrain from working outside the house and if not then are there limitations that should be put on what type of work they do? I personally do not think they should be mandated to not work outside the home. I understand the woman's primary job is to be a keeper at home, but if the woman is un-married and has no children she must somehow make a living to provide for herself. I do not think that she should be required to stay at home either if all her children are grown and out on their own or if she has no children and her husband is okay with her working part-time. I also do not think we should say there are only certain jobs that a woman can work in, such as nursing, teaching, or working at a restaurant (I use these because they are typically the professions that we associate most with women).

I believe these are typical professions/jobs for a woman because they follow along with our tendancy to nurture and care for othes...qualities that I believe God designed for a woman to have. But does that mean that if a woman feels called to a different area of work she should not be allowed to? Of course it will depend on her husband if she is married and whether he feels comfortable with his wife working outside the home. But if she is not married are there certain professions a woman should not go into? Of course...just like there are certain professions that a man should not go into, but I am thinking more along the lines of typical professions and corporate professions. I do not think that she should be limited to typical "woman jobs". If she were to feel a calling to be an auto mechanic even though that is something a woman does not typically do I say all the more power to her.

I know this is a topic that not everyone will agree on, but it is one that I feel strongly about being a single woman needing to support herself.

Blessings in Christ,

Snow day -- or not :)

Well the schools around here all had a snow day, yes that is what 5" of snow will do :), but I did not. Even still, I had some fun in the snow after work with my roommate...never too old to go play in the snow!



Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Blessings in Christ,

Christians and the Law

Something I have been thinking about lately is how much we as Christians are to keep separated from the Law. I understand Romans 12 in saying that we are to respect the government and obey the laws put in place, but do we keep them at an arms distance? My tendancy is to think the political government yes. From how I understand it, most conservative groups of Christianity do not participate in elections unless they deem a particular issue to affect their ability to practice their religion as they deem necessary.

Now, switching to the "law" or police. Do we involve them in such as reporting a crime? I understand not suing another person as the Bible specifically talks about not suing others in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 as we are to forgive one another and reconcile the issue by ourselves. Some will say in 1 Corinthians 6 Paul is simply referring to issues within the Church but others will say it spreads to all issues within a Christian's life. I think to determine that, we need to pray about it and follow us where God is leading us on that.

So back to my question which I am doing a good job at going away from tonight :) Should we report crimes to the police? In some cases I do believe it would be right to report the crime. Reporting is different than pressing charges. But reporting a crime could help protect other people from the same thing. It could also protect us from fraudulent charges if our identity was stolen. I have some Conservative Mennonite friends who do not normally go to the police and they would not sue anyone no matter the circumstance, that being said, there was an occurance earlier this year where they did suggest that something be reported to the police and let the police do with the information as they please in order to protect other potential victims from the same person. Now I understand that most likely we will not all agree on this. I did a bit of researching before posting on this topic and could not find any situations in the Bible that I could connect to reporting a crime. I welcome any scripture that others may have that would either support or go against reporting a crime as I am not that confident with knowing and understanding the Bible.

Blessings in Christ,

The Extent of Non-Resistance

The topic of non-resistance is something that I struggle to grasp. I do not feel that we as Christians should just stand by and allow others to do harm to us. I understand what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, but I cannot imagine simply allowing a person to do whatever they wish to me.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:38-42 (KJV):
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Okay, so I am not to resist evil then and if someone wants to do evil to me, I should allow it twice? I simply cannot grasp that concept. I know most of it has to do with how I was brought up, but part of it is my perception that Jesus would not want us to be victims, I believe this passage to trend toward not causing another human being physical harm. What would I do if I were in a situation? I would definitely try to run away, which I believe would be ok, even though that is "resisting" in a way, it is not causing evil or harm to another person. Is that a sin? To not want to be a victim...? I am tending towards it not being a sin.

To what extent are we supposed to take non-resistance? Is it not bearing arms for our country in one way or another? Is it not physically harming another person? Is it to the point of allowing anyone do anything to us? What do you think? I think it is to the extent of not intentionally causing harm to another person.

Blessings in Christ,

The End Times -- is it for us to know when?

An interesting point was brought up in Sunday School today, if we knew exactly when Jesus was coming back, what would we do? Would we take that as permission to act however we wanted until 5 minutes before and then repent our ways and suddenly become Christian? Or would we act Christian-like from now until the very end? I would hope that I would act Christian-like until the end, but there's no way for me to say exactly what would happen.

The thought that we will never know exactly when Jesus is coming scares me, but I think that God lets it be that way so that we cannot act however we want up until 5 minutes before Jesus comes again. I think we can recognize some of the things that are happening in the world today and try to correlate them to happenings in Revelation, but it does not necessarily mean that is what God intended when he allowed such events to happen. I don't think anyone actually knows when Jesus will return, that is for God to decide and to keep silent from us here on Earth. The people who claim to know exactly when, I don't give them much attention because if they really did know, I would not have been born and we would not be in the year 2011 right now.

Blessings in Christ,

Joyful Giving

I am sure most of us have heard the parable about the woman who gave all she had to the Lord and how He said she gave more than all the others (Mark 12:41-44). I think most of us know that we are supposed to tithe to the Lord 10% of our wages. I have heard some get technical about 10% of what? Wages pre-taxes or wages that you take home? My opinion would be pre-taxes because the Lord wants the first 10% of your wages -- I would imagine this to mean even before the govenrment gets their share...

2 Corinthians 9:6-8 states that God loves a cheerful giver... okay, I have to admit, I am not one to be happy about "giving" my money away, so how do we go about being cheerful in our giving? I think the most important step is to pray for God to work in your heart so that you can be cheerful in your giving to Him. Then of course we have to allow Him to work in us. Simply praying will not do anything if we do not allow Him to mold us into what He wants us to be.

Does giving to Him mean just at church? I don't think so. I probably haven't given to a church in almost a year because I have been looking for a "home" church. I have given to some local Christian charities as well as saving up some of my tithe to give to a church when I do find one to attend.

I have heard a tithe be called an offering quite a bit and an interesting point was brought up in church last evening. The tithe is the 10% of our wages that most of us give, an offering is anything over that 10% that we give. Are we really making an offering then or are we simply tithing?

Blessings in Christ,