Sunday Thoughts

I'm going to start making Sunday posts a weekly thing (hopefully as much as possible!)  I enjoy going to church and even if you don't believe there are still morals and lessons to be learned that are good to apply to your life =)  After listening to the sermon here's what I got from it:

* In life all things are transient.  Life has ups and downs.  Just when you think you have everything figured out, it's bound to turn upside down.  (So true...) only things of God are constant and when things get rough we need to lean on Him.

* Often Christians try to live separate lives.  They want to be a Christian and also continue to do things that they know are wrong.  It doesn't work!  You can't be a "cut flower".  A flower that is cut off from it's roots will be beautiful and then eventually die.  Stay true.  Be a flower and keep Jesus and God's Word as the roots.

*Sometimes being a Christian means being a "wimp".  Or what's perceived as a wimp by the rest of the world.  (With the whole 'turn your cheek' thing...)  Other people might ask -- why don't you do something?  Why don't you stand up for yourself?  Worldly weakness is also oftentimes being strong in what you believe.  Jesus turned his cheek to the soldiers and they spit on him and put the crown of thorns on.  He could've said a command and a million angels would've been at his side.  He could've ran away; but, thankfully for us, He didn't.

*Be a light wherever you are.  You don't need to sign up for mission trips (not that they're a bad thing!) or go door to door with Bibles.  Hold the door open for a stranger.  Say a kind word.  We don't even need to leave our town and travel to different countries when there are people right here in the U.S. ... maybe even our families...who don't believe.

* Being a Christian isn't something that comes automatically.  You have to train.  You don't pick up a pair of running shoes and expect to run a 15 mile marathon, do you?  Same principle.  You don't just pick up a Bible and expect that you'll do everything perfectly or that it will mean everything's going to be rainbows and unicorns from there on out.  No way.  But training pays off =)

* Isn't it disturbingly ironic how we have all of this freedom: freedom of speech, worship, to marry whomever we want?  And yet churches in the United States are closing down.  Congregations are losing numbers.  But Africa and China -- where Christians are tortured, oppressed, and killed for their faith -- have the highest conversion rates?  4,000 to 5,000 a day....Wow...