Thank you Beth Moore!

  We are doing a Beth Moore study, in our women’s small group at church, titled Here and Now There and Then. Its her series on Revelations. Last nights session hit the nail on the head for me on a few good points.
  Beth was discussing Revelations 2:4, the letter to the church of Ephesus, and first she explained it the way in was written and intended to be read, as a condemnation against the church by Christ, our Lord. V.4 states

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”

Just before this Jesus had said to them,

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.

I know that you cannot stand the wicked men, and that you

have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not,

and have found them false. You have persevered

and have endured hardships for my name,

and have not grown weary.”

  The church of Ephesus has pleased God in many ways. Christ says so much, that he has seen their works, their good deeds, their dedication to keeping the title Apostle honest and pure by not allowing false apostles to have the honor of such a position. They dedicated their time and energy to keeping people honest about who they were. However Christ still has a fault for them to recognize and work out. He charges them with “forgetting your first love.”
  The church was so wrapped up in making sure false apostles did not have ground to hold and to keep that title as pure and honest as it was meant to be that they had forgotten what it is that God wants them to do. God wants us to follow him in everyway. He wants us to listen carefully to his direction and to show others the love he has and continues to show us. Our Lord God wants us to pray, meditate, lift our burdens up to him and let him deal with it. And all to often, just like with the church of Ephesus, we as Christians’ get to wrapped up in policing the faith and church, judging others not knowing what God wants for them and has directed them to do, not lifting those who are going against the word of God up to him and letting Him take care of it. We forget to do just as God has instructed us to do when we first became saved.

Colossians 2:6-7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,

 continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him,

strengthened in the faith as you were taught,

 and overflowing with thankfulness.”

  During the anylization of this particular verse, Beth Moore, makes note of the Greek word aphiemi. This means to send forth, send away, let go from oneself. It is here that, while compared to this particular verse, aphiemi means to be completely negative. It illustrates how the church of Ephesus has let their faith slip away. They have lost focus on what they are suppose to be doing by being to wrapped up in what they are doing.
  I feel this happen to often for my liking. In a recent post I had noted that strange feeling that most of us get. That funk or mood we get into that just leaves us feeling disconnected. This is what it is. Thank you Beth Moore. She explains it perfectly here, through her illustration of the letter to the church comparable to the word aphiemi.

  Although we are doing good, it does not mean we are doing right. We must always give to God our worries, He will take care of us. We must always give thanks and stay rooted in the love of Jesus Christ the way we were when we first believed. And we must never get so focused on one or two things that we are unmoldable and loose sight of where God wants I to be and what He wants us to do.

So what do we do now?
  Beth shows us a little bit more in the meaning and content of, what might just be my favorite new word, aphiemi. She relates it back to its use in the book of Matthew. There the word is used in a positively direction sense. It is used to show how to forgive. To send forth, send away, let go from oneself. And there is the direction on forgiveness. But we must be careful.
  We do not just send it away with no destination. The direction is to send it way to God, to forgive and let it go to God, to send it forth to God, that we may be healed from it. How powerful is that? That we not just forgive and let it go with out a destination, that it may boomer rang back to us. Or that we cast it out with a little string attached so it really is never fully forgiven. But that we give it to God being forever freed from its poison and ability to come smack us right back in the face.
  Without our forgiveness having its final destination be Gods hands it will never be healed. It will be like that never ending nightmare that comes back to haunt us every night until we cant take it anymore.

  So we take that wonderful aphiemi, our disconnection with God, and we use aphiemi, to get right with our Lord. We do this, with that verse from Colossians 2, by getting back to doing what we did when we first believed.
 
  For homework one of the questions had which commendation and warnings Jesus made to the seven churches reflected in us. I would have to say for me the commendation was the one given to the church of Smyrna.

V.9 “I know your afflictions and your poverty-yet you are rich!I am in the mist of so many people who claim to believe in God and to be Christians, but they martyr me for my faith. I seek comfort in v.10

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.

I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you,

and you will suffer persecution fro ten days.

Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you

the crown of life.”

And I look forward to the crown of life my Lord!

  The warning that speaks directly to my heart and hurts me so is the same as the warning given to the church of Ephesus.

V.5 “Remember the height from which you have fallen!
  I have fallen. Many times. And every time it feels like a hundred times more to get back to where I was before just to start growing again. I am willing to do that to be forgiven of my trespasses, so that I will not be forever removed from His grace.
  I have, most recently, been so focused on doing the right thing, on getting my house right with the Lord, some which is out of my control, that I had forgotten to do the right thing.
  God is speaking to me today. He is telling me he sees my good works. He sees my struggles and he sees my desire to please Him. He is also showing me what I need to do to get right with Him so I am not forever lost. I need to wake up, repent and give it to Him. All of it, so that I may be forgiven truly.

Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent,

 I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not,

but are synagogue of Satan.”

Stale Air : Stale Faith

  Recently I went from working full-time to prn at the nursing home.  With the school year approaching I needed to be home to get our young one on and off the bus.  Since the school year started I have spent several days at the school; helping the teacher and Title I teachers.  I never noticed before, while I was working full time, but a few days ago, when I got home, I noticed that the air in the house felt stale.

  My boyfriend and I got home from a practice for our child and when we walked into the house I noticed it again.  I said,"I'm going to open the windows.  Can you leave the door open."
  He asked,"Why?"
  I replied,"Because the air is stale."
  He asked,"What?"
  I said,"The air is stale.  Can't you smell it?  Its stale, as in not fresh.  Or stagnate.  So I want the windows open to circulate the air and get some fresh air in here."  He just shook his head at me but we had the windows open and fresh air circulating through out the house.

  While opening the windows to get the air flowing, it made me think of my faith.  So many times I have noticed that I get a little less excited during a service or a daily reading.  I have noticed that my daily readings turn into every other day, or weekly and sometimes I can not remember when I read last.  It made me think about the times that it felt as if my faith had gone stagnant.
  I believe that many of us experience the feeling of something being off.  Some people refer to it as being in a funk, or a mood.  And it was not until recently that it all made sense as to what that feeling really is.  Its the lack of energy, or movement, of excitement.  Its faith gone stale.

  So how do we deal with stagnant or stale faith?  What do we do to fix it, to get it flowing again?  To get pumped up and excited to open our bible?  Better yet, how do we go about making sure we do not let our faith go stale again?

  Like many people I set out to make sure I read my bible and go to church.  I try to be a good christian and do the right thing.  What happens, more often than I care, is my focus gets weak.  We must remain focused.  But not on our daily rituals or what we 'have' to do to be good Christians.  However we have to say focused on God.  What he is telling us and showing us everyday.
  I have noticed that when my faith gets stale it has more to do with what other people are inserting into my faith, or rather, what I am allowing them to.  When God calls me to do things my first tough, for some reason I do not know, is to share what God wants me to do.  And that is where it begins.  The Advice.
  Advice and direction are very important when walking the christian walk, however, we must remember to always follow God.  We are to do as He wants us to do.  No matter how honest the advice, or how generous and protective a fellow Christan is trying to be in helping to guide you on your walk, you must always remember what God wants and do it.

  You see, God wants us to do what he tells us, but if we are always taking the advice of others, over what he is telling us to do, than we really are depending on people, rather than God, who we are actively seeking out to guide us.  As people we can not see what we do not understand.  And what God wants us to do we can not understand until we get to the other end.  Even though it makes sense to us as people, we tend to forget to look at it from a spiritual view.  And our advice goes out as human advice not spiritually building advice.  Most of the time we can not tell the difference between the two.
  Another thing to remember is that, as the one receiving the advice, to make sure, no matter ho logical the advice is, we remember what God wants us to do.  If God wants to go on a mission, but your fellow Christians feel your are to young a christian and now is not the best time to do it, mole it over with God.  After all He will not guide you some where that he will not get you through, no matter how new a christian you are.

  ~1Chronicles 10:14~He did not seek guidance from the Lord.  Therefore the Lord put him to death an turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.

  ~Isaiah 58:11~And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy our desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a water garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

  ~John 16:13~When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare you the things that are to come.


  My Heavenly Father, It is my prayer that as we walk this new life, being dead to our fleshly lives, that we remain focused on you, that we heed the advice of our brothers and sisters in Christ only if it lines up with where You are guiding us to be.  Please reach deep down in all of us and guide us in such a way that there is no denying it from any on looker, that each person whom comes into our lives knows that You are guiding us and we are folowing You.
                                   In Your Sons precious name I pray.
                                                                     Amen

Sin and Faith; In a World of Faithless Sin

  My name is Alexis Rathbone.  I am a 28  year old unwed mother.  And YES I believe in God!  My life plan was to be a good christian who waited until marriage to start my family.  However, that did not go according to plan.  Hence the title of my blog, Living in Sin : Building My Faith.
  As I sit in my living room typing this blog I remember all the things I wanted to say for my first post.  But some how its not quite coming out the way I think I thought it would.  I look around my everyday life and can not imagine how the world has become the way it is.  It truly does amaze and disturb me.
  I was in Ulta last week and at the register I noticed the advertisement for a mascara.  I was none to impressed.  The advertisement was a quite busty woman, with a Jessica Rabbit figure and clothing option, looking at you with this, 'You know you want me look'.  Most of the ad was her breast cleavage.  I'm not all to sure what the point in that was.  For crying out loud it's a mascara, not a Victoria's Secret ad.  I'm sorry but I'm surely not buying a mascara because it is sold with a bearly clothed, all you see is boobs, seductress for the ad.
  Recently I was in Walgreen's and was looking at nail polish.  There was a section with a great price and wonderful colors.  I was excited that I would be able to get a few different colors for the price of one at it's regular sale price.  I was just about to pick my last color when I noticed the brand name, 'Sinful...'.  I was taken aback by the idea that sin is used in the name of a nail polish.  Talk about your blatant subliminal messaging.
  Honestly I never thought I would consider the name of a product before buying it or the ad for that matter.  I mean everyone knows that sex sells in this day and age, and as such society is flooded with the constant pictorials. I believe that at some point I must have become immune to the constant barrade of unnecessary use of half naked women and  men to advertise things like body wash and now mascara.

  So what is Sin?  Webster defines sin as 1) an offense esp. against God. 2) FAULT 3) a weakened state of estranged from God. 4) an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible.  While these definitions are true, sin is any thought or action that goes against the Word of God.

Time for confession. I am living in sin.  I have been with the same man for 12 years.  We live together and have a child together, yet we are not married.  I know right.  How does a person who is living in sin have the right to publish a blog telling other people what sin is?  I'm glad you asked.
  You see, this blog is not just about living in sin and building my faith.  It's about sharing my journey with others.  There is more than just one person, who believes in God, believes in the Word and yet has been unable to let go of the habitual sin, which creates a divide between us and God.  This sin may be the same scenario as mine, or it may be; drinking excessively, abusing others, lying, cheating, stealing, or any othe action which goes agianst the Word of God.  The fact of the matter is we all sin.
  So for those of us out there who are not quiet sure on how to build our faith in our sinful world, what better way than to do it together.

  I titled this post, Sin and Faith; In a World of Faithless Sin, for a reason.  You see, in the beginning, my life plan was that I would wait until marriage.  Now I must admit it really wasn't hard for me to get through adolescence and not sucumb to the pressures of having sex.  I felt no need to even have a real boyfriend until the seventh grade.  Looking back it really was an infatuation and not the need to have a real boyfriend.  However, I wasn't even worried about boys.  Sure I had boyfriends in school, but sex really was the last thing on my mind, even in high school.  I had made my mind up on the matter and that was that.  So what happened you ask?
  I had meet a nice guy who I fell in love with.  I had experienced a few special loves before him, but there was something different about this one.  For beginners, when I meet him I had sworn off dating.  I was ready to just have some me time and not worry about the boys and drama that came with it.

  Are you seeing the same pattern as I am?  My life plan seems to always lead to a big deviation that takes me in the complete opposite direction of the plan.

  As I was saying the plan was no boys!  And that failed miserably.  Now I'm glad it did.  I just wish sometimes it would have unraveled a little differently.  The thing is that I was faithless.  I had lacked faith in our relationship and in Gods plan, that we would survive the mess that I had made.  So what do I do?  Make a bigger one of course.
  He was away at school and I was finishing my senior year of high school.   While he was away I was in a state of naive vulnerability.  Let me tell you it is no place for a young lady to be.  I made mistakes that hurt our relationship, however in my defence those mistakes did not include changing my mind about waiting.  Until the night that changed my life, my heart and my spirit.
  I will spare the details but lets just say I was none to pleased with the situations I unwittingly placed myself in.  It truly is amazing I even have a trusting bone in my body after that night.  I do thank God that it did not go as far as it could have gone.  I did tell my boyfriend about what had happened and it really did some damage. 
  You see he had warned me and I just didn't see what he saw.  I just thought he was the jelous boyfriend, partly because he is the only one who thought to warn me.  It was then that I thought we were over.  I was sure he was going to leave me for good.  So I made a choice to give the only thing I had left to give.  And no it was not because I wanted to trap him or keep him or anything sinister as that.  It was mearly because he is who I wanted to share that part of me with.

  So what is Faith?


  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
I had lost my faith and began living a life of faithless sin.  Not because I didn't want to be a good christian, but because I didn't understand enough to believe or believe enough to understand.  To be honest I still have a long way to go, even 10 years later.

  In my most recent past I have experienced a stronger connection to God and what he has in store for me and my family.  I have been filled with a portion of the blessings that he has to offer and the desire to change.  I feel a sense of urgency to grow into a child of God.  To live my life in such a way that his love radiates through me and no one would be able to deny that God is in me.

  Isaiah 53:10  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great,
                        And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
                        Because He poured out His soul unto death,
                       And He was numbered with the transgressors,
                       And He bore the sin of many,
                       And made intercession for the transgressors.

 A loving, caring, most generous man, carried a cross while being beaten and spat on, paraded up Calvary's Hill  to be persecuted in front of everyone.  Why?  For you and for me.  To cleanse us of our sins.  He took each lashing for each of my sins, so that I may go be with Him at the end of my days.  And He did the same for you.  So I ask, how can we walk sinfully through this world knowing that, if we do, His passion will be in vain?

  Ephesians 2:8  For by grace you have been saved, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.


  So I invite you to follow me as I continue my journey to Building My Faith and moving away from Living In Sin.  Together we can minister to each other by sharring our testamonies and we will walk this journey together.