Growing in the Lord & Walking in the Spirit

If you don't know me there is likely no way that you could no, but when it comes to understanding the Bible, I am not a shy person. You know the thing my pastor said that I did understand or agree with about accountability? Well, I talked to him in person. I had not been able to put all of my thoughts into words, but what I do remember saying was that I knew that Christians would face the Bema Seat and that Romans 6 obviously discourages us to keep on sinning just because God will keep on forgiving. We were not able to finish the conversation then, but he texted me later to give me more information about what he was feeling. Names redacted for privacy, obviously:  Pastor:   My apologies for the hurried nature of our conversation the other day. I would like to address some things we did not have time to cover during that conversation: First, you mentioned the great white throne judgment, and more than one judgment that was to take place. I was confused, because I was unaware of...

This past week my pastor preached on Matthew 12: 22-37. This is a passage that talks about the "unforgivable sin" as well as how we need to watch the words that we say. Oddly enough, I did not have much of a reaction to what he had to say about the unforgivable sin. I know what I believe to be true, and I understand his perspective, even if it is different than my own. However, that was not what stood out the most to me. Instead, it was what he had to say about Christians and their "punishment" for the unclean words they say. This was what my pastor said verbatim:  "Our words and our actions on the judgment day will be rewarded. The good will be rewarded; the bad will be punished. But there is one little caveat to that and it's so beautiful. [Congregation member name], who is sick today, he asked me about it one day. He said "Pastor [name], where is it that the Christians get punished for the bad things that they do?" And I said "The Christia...

I am all about goals. I love looking at how far I have come, as well as planning for how to make myself (and my life) better in the future. I have always fought against calling any of my goals "New Years Resolutions" because I believe that those have been goals that are broken and forgotten about too easily. I also am a teacher, so I get the opportunity to reflect on each school year in the summer and set new goals for the coming school year then. It is a bonus reflection time to help me see if my goals are still on track, and to focus perhaps on a different area in my life than I did when I made my goals at the beginning of the linear year. One thing that I have learned to be VITAL when making & following goals is to be easy on myself. Not in goal setting- I think it is important to reach for the stars when ti comes to making the goals. But it is important to show yourself grace if you are in a season of struggling or if you had a bad day and did not meet yourself where ...