Where it Began

There is nothing quite like starting a brand-new journal. The crispness of breaking the spine, a new set of pens gracing the book, and the excitement of the adventures that might be captured in it’s pages. Oh man, pure joy!

You can giggle a bit at my enthusiasm for a couple of blank pages, but the work God has done in my life is best noted when looking back through my journals . 

From the last blog, earlier this month, i began to pose some questions about how God helps us to ruin our plans.

(Before diving in deeper, we just need to clarify that the word ruin doesn’t need to have a negative connotation in this context. From my first night of journaling “Human nature urges us to ‘act wickedly’ and turn our back on our compassionate God. “ Therefore, we need to ruin our sinful plans in order to take part in God’s perfect ones!)

Reading back over my first journal, it simply leaves me in awe how God answered prayers, how He met me at the understanding that i was at, and how He was revealing His miracles to me before i was even seeking them.

My  personal relationship with Christ took a turn whenever i lost a close friend of mine in an accident in high school. It was assumed that she was a Christian, but her actions during her last couple of years on earth didn’t necessarily align with the beliefs she spoke of.

Devastated with the loss of a friend, i committed myself to ensuring that i never loss a friend who didn’t know the truth of the Gospel again. i began to seek the truth in a way that i didn’t know was possible.

Seeking truth started with the people i knew best, my friends. God blessed me in high school to have friends who were  radically living for Him. Going to youth group with them, i started to notice the differences in their lives verses mine. They led me by example as i started the habits of solitary prayer and bible reading time, if i came across something i didn’t understand, i sought out advice. They even influenced me by the music they were listening to and books they read. If there was something they did that i didn’t understand why, i asked questions.

Having been asked, i was hoping to summarize some general thoughts of how i started to seek truth.  i lesus Christ. i love

• Surround yourself with people who know more than you do about the Gospel.
• Spend time with people who care about your growth.
• Find a bible reading plan. Having a scheduled plan keeps you accountable. http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101
• Keep a journal or notebook of thoughts, miracles, verses, or teachings that you want to remember.
• Ask questions. If there isn’t someone you know shoot me an e-mail bethany.bohnenblust@gmail.com or find me on Facebook.

We must take personal responsibility to seek a personal relationship with Jesus. A verse that points out our personal responsibility more than any other….Continue to work out your OWN salvation in fear and trembling. ~Phil 2:12

Whenever we seek God, He will meet us where we are. He promises us this. “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, find. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.” ~Matthew 11:9-10

The biggest challenge most of the time in seeking truth is admitting that we need help. Know that you’re being prayed for.

 Before we can live zealously for Him, we must learn and come to know Him in humility.

 

Transforming Power

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for our sins. It is because He paid the price for our sins that we can be accepted into heaven-even though we’re sinners- to live with our Father, God, in heaven.

The above summarization of the Gospel is all true, and a pretty common synopsis that we hear. It’s the heart of the message of why Christians die as martyrs and why the Bible is the best-selling book of all time.

But there is a HUGE part that we many times miss…

The transforming power that happens in our heart!

Over the last couple of weeks my heart has been overjoyed with the reality of how much my life has changed since i’ve accepted Christ and in the same breath burdened with the reality of how much more i have to grow. Chasing after the cross is this continuum of growth.  As you grow more, you come to know Christ more, then you realize how deafening His holiness is compared to us.

When I first began to actively grow in a personal relationship with Christ verses such as:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. ~Romans 12:2

Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. This world offers only lust for physical pleasure, lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions.  ~1 John 2:15-16

and even verses like:

Lord remind me how brief my time on earth will be, remind me that my days are numbered and that my life is fleeting away. ~Psalm 39:4

seemed nearly impossible for me to live.  All that i had known my entire life was to follow this world. Follow the trends of my friends, what i saw on t.v. and what my parents did. How was it possible for me to be different, if i didn’t even know what different was?

Traveling to state conventions over the last couple of weeks, i’ve had a lot of 1-on-1 time with people (my favorite!) Most people i talk with would consider themselves to be Christians, but here’s how these conversations go….

Me: So you do consider yourself a Christian? akjlkj;lkjklj   What’s that mean to you?

Friend: Well, i believe Jesus died on the cross i love Jesus    for my sins and i’m going to i love Jesus    i lov heaven.

Me: Cool! That’s awesome! Me too! How do you how Jesus is  see this amazing truth playing how Jesus is  out in your own life?

Friend: Um….i try to be a good person and…i he is my love  um…go to church. i’m even a he is my love      part of my youth group.

Problem: Christ didn’t die on the cross for us to simply be good people. He died so that we might become more like Him.

  i must admit that i’ve been in the position of the ‘friend’ before myself. And i’ve had the reality that my belief in Christ didn’t show up in my actions except on Wednesday night youth group and Sunday morning church.

How can God’s transforming power change our own hearts?

Over the next couple of months, i plan to dive into ways that Christ helps us to ruin our own plans (Check out Jeff Johnson’s song “Ruin Me”).  In pondering these questions i pray that God, Himself, will reveal the answers and that He’ll show us how our battle cry for life can be:

If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come!  ~2 Corinthians 5:17