Motivation to Read the Bible

Many Christians want to read the whole Bible sometime during their life, but many don’t get the chance to because they don’t always have enough motivation or time. If you are one of these people then you need to figure out what motivates you and how to find time.

Motivation: If you want to read the Bible then that is a start. If you don’t want to read the Bible you should reconsider because it is part of the Christian religion and also a good book to read. One way to motivate yourself to read is to have a prize or treat yourself to something special at the end of each book in the Bible. One idea is to indulge yourself in something that you shouldn’t have everyday like ice cream because that is something that could be a treat for some people. Another idea is you could put money at the end of each book of the Bible and put it in a jar when you finish the book in the Bible and at the end of the Bible you can treat yourself to a trip or other fun activity. The Bible isn’t the easiest or the shortest read in the world but if you have the right motivation it can go fast and you can have fun with it. You know you don’t always have to read it from front to back; you can jump around to different chapters in the Bible.

Time commitment: The Bible takes time to read so you have to make time for you to read out of your schedule. Many book stores or Christian stores will have Bibles that are set up in a way that helps you read every day in order to finish it in a year. Also many apps are available which have this feature. This program can help if you have time everyday to read and you have the ability to keep up with it and not get far behind. Another way to make time is to find a few days in the week that you can read an hour or two and keep that up. This way it doesn’t have to be everyday occurrence, sense lives are busy it would be easier just to read a few times a week but for longer lengths. Find those little times in the day to read the Bible. Even if you read a few chapters at a time, it’s still working toward the final goal of finishing the Bible.

Hope you find a good motivational tactic and time in you life to read the Bible.

Pumpkins

“Being Christian is like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes off all the dirt. Then He cuts the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Last, He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see!” – Megan Gosnell Godbee

‘Tis the season to start to carve pumpkins and set up all those Halloween decorations. Today is almost the time of year for the tradition of carving pumpkins and setting them outside for Halloween. Many pumpkins turn out to just be smiley faces but there are many that are more elaborate then just a face. Pumpkin carving is not an easy process to go through to get a great result. This analogy between pumpkins and Christians is spot on.

God chooses us to be Christians and to be with Him in life, just like picking a pumpkin from a patch. It is hard work. None are perfect even if you look hard and long. Sometimes you need help to find the right pumpkin but once you find one it is the best one because it is yours. This is the same with God choosing us; he takes a long time and with the help of people like our parents and pastors. We are than picked to become a child of God and become special because God picked us no matter what our flaws are.

While we wash off the pumpkins dirt, God washes us. I view this as us being baptized. Once we are picked we get baptized in water and word.

We have to remove all the yucky stuff from the pumpkin after we cut the top off. This is always the messiest part because it gets everywhere on your arms and on the table and sometimes ends on the floor. This is when God removes all the bad in us. Our sins are removed, forgiven, revealing the parts that are needed for the end results. God will take out all the doubt we have about anything and ourselves, hate we have for others, and greed we have toward stuff we want rather then need.

At the end after all the dirty work is done we get to carve a beautiful face in the pumpkin and let it shine for others to see. God puts the final touches on us and helps us have a positive attitude and encourages us to put on a smiling face. Then God shows us off to the world. He allows us to put ourselves out there and share our talents with others that are around us.

We are like pumpkins. We are the pumpkins and the carver is God. He carves our lives and makes us new. He is amazing.

Aliens

“He has made everything beautiful in it’s time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

“If there is intelligent life on other planets, does God care about those creatures as much as He does us?”

I was looking on the Internet for different questions about religion when I came upon this one. It made me think about if there really was life outside of Earth and how we would view aliens through the eyes of Christianity. This question could someday become reality if we were to ever find beings outside of Earth or if they find us.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God created the heaven and Earth on the first day, the sky the second day, the land and vegetation the third day, the stars and the heavenly bodies the fourth day, aquatic life the fifth day, and land life the sixth day. There is no mention of any other places or beings outside of the Earth. It said nothing about planets or aliens. But what science has proven is that there are planets and other objects out there, so why can’t aliens be out there too. There is no mention of these newer discoveries in the Bible because they were not observed and noted before the Bible was recorded.

At this time aliens are just a hypothetical figure that humans use more for entertainment (e.g. movies and books) then actually believing that they prevail in the universe. If they were to exist though we would have to think about how we would view them. Most people would think aliens are something bad and should be destroyed. My opinion is that we should look through the eyes of God and see them as just another one of God’s creations. God would have created them so we shouldn’t try and destroy them.

Since they are God’s creations I feel like God would care for them just as much as he would care for you and me. They are part of His creation and part of Him.

Church Generations

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but building the new.”  -Socrates

The style of church service changes with every generation. Newer and greater ideas come about to improve or modify the way the community of the church worships.

You can tell from the different ways generations act or dress in church that they have different ideas of how church services should be structured. In my family there are the three layers of generations, my parents, my grandparents, and I. Whenever we go to church with my grandparents, I always “have” to wear either a dress or nice pants and a nice shirt. I almost never would wear something like jeans. With my parents, it’s a little more laid back. The big rule we have is that you can’t wear words on the shirt and have to look decent. If I were to go to church on my own I would probably follow those rules but there are times that I will wear words to church though they are church related shirts. The idea of having different dress codes is weird in the fact that over time these generations were taught different dress etiquette and the formality of clothing in the church has changed a great deal.

Today many churches have service on Saturday along with Sunday. In recent years the number of churches having Saturday service has grown immensely. Saturday service came about because not everyone could make church Sunday morning. People’s lives were getting really busy so they had to add additional times to have church service.

Also churches are starting to have more contemporary services. These contemporary services are a lot more to the point and usually have more fun upbeat music that is sung. The music includes more instruments then just an organ. In today’s world people don’t want a long explanation, they just want fast.  In these more contemporary services the sermons are usually shorter and more to the point. They have topics that correlate more to today’s world and everyday life. Many churches will have multiple services; some being contemporary and other services being more traditional. This accommodates the needs of more generations within the congregation.

I believe these changes and other changes over time aren’t a big deal and are fine for the church. Contemporizing happens everywhere in the world. The church is a place to praise God and to learn more about Him. As long as I get to do those two things I feel that any church service, either contemporary or traditional is acceptable.

Panic

“Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I, your God have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.” Isaiah 41:10,13

Panic! Everyone does it, but why does it have to be part of our lives? Can’t we just get rid of it? Shouldn’t panic come and go just as easily? My take on panic is that one shouldn’t have it a lot but it is an instinct that one has to have to live. Panic can help us be aware that something isn’t right and that maybe something is wrong and needs to be changed. If you have too much panic then it might be overtaking your life and you should just calm down and relax. Sometimes it’s easier said then done. The best way to stop panic is to find the one thing that makes you calm and makes you think of nothing else in the world. For some people that is a friend or family for others is something more independent. If you can find that one thing that is great, take time out of your day or week to do something that calms you. This can make a big difference in the way you view the world and view situations that could cause you to panic.