New Believer's Bible

Awhile ago, I was searching online for more information about the Bible to try and understand what I was reading as I was so new to the faith. I came across this online church called LifeChurch.tv. Although I was not a huge fan of the sermons I watched form there, they did have a free What's Next kit for those new to the faith. I went ahead and ordered it to maybe get a better understanding of everything since it was all new.
Anyways, I received it in the mail a few days ago and the book that came with it is called How to Find God, A new Believers Bible. Its a study bible that lays all the foundation at the beginning of the book. It has everything from who God is, who Jesus is, what the trinity is, whats Heaven, whats Hell, whats angels, whats demons.. etc. I am really enjoying it and is helping me understand hard questions I had such as if Jesus was God in the flesh, then why did he pray on the cross to God..if he was God... did he know he was God or did he just have the Holy spirit? Well, I am still at the beginning of the book and learning more each sentence I read.

I wanted to share this free book to those that are also new believers and reading through the Bible for the first time. It can get confusing and I am so thankful for this Book. I believe God knew I was having a hard time with understanding the Bible and gave me this book.

Get a copy for yourself for free here.

Traditional gender roles

 Whenever I was given the option to do a reading plan in regard to the scriptures, I always shied away from it because I wanted to read the Bible cover to cover. Well that has changed with this wonderful app I wanted to share with you. The name of it (Holy Bible) pretty much covers what its all about but it has this cool feature of reading plans. They have devotionals, topics, etc. Steve and I started a 5 day Love and Marriage reading plan to learn more about what Jesus wants from us and our roles in the marriage.
Every morning we sit, eat, read the provided scriptures, talk about it, and then pray. Its a wonderful way to start the day. Its been only two days and it really seems like we have gotten closer since starting it. We are going to make devotionals a morning routine now. We want to make Jesus apart of our every day life in everything we do more then we already do now and having a daily devotional is a great start. I take my role as a biblical women very seriously and I just love studying His word.
I believe and know to be true that if you are going to follow Jesus Christ, you have actual live it and make him the center of everything you do. You can't cherry pick what to believe in the Bible and decide to ignore certain teachings.

Jesus is Lord! "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" --Mat 6:33

Since I have started this wonderful journey with our Heavenly Father, our lives have become less complicated. I really do believe that life without Christ is really hard and I know from experience. I have not always been faithful in striving to be a women of God on a daily basis. I grew up in the Mormon church and strayed as I became a reckless teenager. I am so glad to have Him back in my life as the center of my everything. 
Although, just if your curious, I have not returned to the Mormon church. My husband and I actually did explore Mormonism as well as polygamy. We wanted to learn why today's society is against polygamy when its so common in the Bible. I watched many documentary on Mormonism and learned the only reason why the LDS church banned it is because they wanted to be right with the law which was against it but Mormons themselves say that the Church had a revelation that the need to practice polygamy was no longer required on this Earth to get to the highest heaven. So now there is the LDS and FLDS (fundamental LDS).
The Lord did not have us continue in exploring that path and now are more interesting in the Baptist church for teachings.

 In the last two readings of our devotionals I have learned so much. The topic of gender roles, and the roles God gave men and women in marriage, came up when we read these scriptures:

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body" --Ephesians 5:22-23

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.--1 Corinthians 11:3

In today's society, the term submission does not sit well with people. I love this video I found on Time Warp Wife best in attempt show that submission is not what society thinks it means. There is no domination and I, as a wife, do have a voice. Its about love and knowing he has your best interest at heart. Darlene Schacht (the women in this video) is also an author of the book The Good Wife's Guide: embracing your role as a help meet. I am just dying to get my paws on this book. There are so many good books on the kindle app written by women that have my same values that are more experienced and I wish I could read them all.

I have always believed in traditional gender roles. My dream was [and is] to stay home and raise children, please my husband with a clean home and nutritious meal on the table waiting for him at night. My love for animals did have me pursue a career in that for awhile when I went to college to become a Vet Tech but in the end, I am not working outside the home and enjoying being a Homemaker. The Lord put me right back where I need to be.

I can't speak for my husband but we have talked and this is what he feels is right in his heart as well; me staying home and hopefully one day being a stay at home Mommy but that will be on God's timing.  I dream of my day being filled with homeschooling, cleaning, cooking wholesome meals, Bible study.. ahh, I look forward to the day I enter Motherhood. 
We have read the scriptures together surrounding a women's role and we do believe and trust that this is what the Lord wants from me. We do believe that Man is above the wife and although I do have a say in matters, he does hold authority and has the final say in it. 

We thank God for Jesus because without him, we wouldn't have the Bible to guide us in life. It has the answers people seek all the way down to how the Lord in Heaven wants us to dress. Its amazing. Each time I read the Bible, I learn something new and I change a little bit more. Jesus is changing my life and outlook on it and its just amazing! I dress more modestly [Timothy 2:9], be kind to everyone I meet [Ephesians 4:32], and work to be the best wife I can be to my wonderful hardworking husband [Proverbs 31].

God has a plan for all of us and the more I let him in to my heart and follow his word, the more fulfilled my life gets! I believe that my role God has given me is being Steve's helpmeet (yes, helpmeet). I have been called to stay home and lead a biblical homemaking life. Its so much more then making sure the house is cleaned and the laundry is done. It is important to God, Steve and I and it hurts when you are considered a second class citizen by your peers because I am not climbing the corporate latter. And just to think it wasn't so long ago that all women stayed home before the Equal Rights Amendment was approved.


To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.--Titus 2:5

A great website I learned about that I also wanted to share with those who share my views is youngwifesguide.com. I love this site. Its full of tips and topics regarding young wives for gospel centered homemaking. Enjoy :)

sermon.net

 I wanted to share with you a neat app (they also have a website you can listen on) called sermon.net. I learned about it through the First Baptist Church here that is right up the street from us. They, as well of many other churches around the US, are putting their Sunday service recordings on to that app so people can listen to them and learn their teachings from home. I absolutely love it since I have not been able to attend church yet but I pretty much consider First Baptist to be my church. I am planning on attending in person soon but through the app you can listen LIVE on Sundays (or whatever day they have their service). You just look up your church and you can listen to previous sermons and if your on at the right time, you can listen live. The pastor at First baptist is so funny and he helps me understand what I am reading in the Bible so much better. I am really enjoying it and I know a few of you would love to learn about this as well.

One day at school..

  I feel more comfortable talking about Faith and Bible interpretation with others that believe and wont make me feel dumb (even though I don't care what people think, but whats the point in talking with those that don't have an opinion?).. So I went to my Work Based Learning staff member to speak with her about what I have read so far. I know she is very religious and always taking about the Lord so I felt more comfortable going to her. Plus she asked me once what my faith and beliefs were and I just thought she would like to know that I have started reading the Bible for the first time. When I told her, her face just lit up and we talked about it for the next hour. She is super excited and we are both looking forward to talking more as I read more. She was going on and on about all these different fascinating things that happened in the Bible that I have no idea about (yet) and she is looking forward to discussing more, as am I.
  Her and I definitely clicked when we met and she has even said how sad she will be when I graduate because I guess she doesn't find friendship much with students like we did. She always says I am her mini-me.. only white (uhh wow, right?) I feel like we would be friends if we met outside of school as well. Its fun hanging out there for a couple hours of the day.

I also talk with my husband about the Bible  and he asked me "What did you think?" when I finished Genesis. How do I answer that?  If I say "I liked it", then it feels like I am giving a book review like it's a fiction. But I love reading it and its become a way to end my evenings before going to bed.


Anyways, after Work Based I went back to my normal class, I really did not feel like studying even though I only have Excel to complete and then I will be done and graduate.. I still can't find the motivation because it is really difficult. I do not like Excel at all. But since I did not feel like studying, I got out a book that I have been reading called Sister Wives, its from the family of the reality TLC show Sister Wives. Awesome family, I love watching it and the book goes even more in to their lives then the show. It is very interesting.
  When people noticed me reading it, it went from their heated debate of the presidential election to a religious debate. Having debates in there is an everyday thing. I try to block them out and concentrate but that's another reason I cant study well in that class, its so loud and I need to have a very quite place if I am going to get anything done.
  Another obstacle that I am having is everyone always asking for my help. I am constantly helping others when I should be working on my own certification. I need to just start saying "no"!

Hopefully next week is my last week at Job Corps. Crossing my fingers.

Religion

I grew up in a Mormon home.. that is, my Grandparent's Mormon home. My Dad wasn't religious and my Mom wasn't in the picture. But yet I still went to church every Sunday at the LDS (Latter Day Saints) church with Grandma Beverly and Grandpa Dallas. I have very vivid early memories of the piano playing as everyone would shuffle in to the building. I remember always coloring while my grandparents listened to the preacher. I remember eventually being put in Bible study where I leaned a lot of basic things. I also remember when I once asked my Grandma "where is God?" and she replied "He is everywhere" and I took it way too literately. I was afraid to pull down my pants to go to the bathroom because in my mind there was an invisible man in the bathroom with me that I could not see. That is a funny memory.  I don't remember a Sunday when I didn't go to church before I was 9..maybe 10. As I got older, I noticed my Dad did not go to church with us and I sort of followed in his footsteps in no longer attending and spending the day hanging out at home with him instead, although I always knew there is a God and when I pray, I pray to Him.. so I can't say I lost my belief.
   As I got into my teen years, I went maybe 3 or 4 times back to the LDS church with friends for Sunday service and for fun get together like the Halloween party we had. I had a lot of fun there and always felt comfortable around the people. My grandparents gave me the Holy Bible and The Book of Mormon with my name engraved. I was too young to care enough to read them and to this day I have no idea where they are nor know the doctrines of the Mormon church. I wish I had more interest back then.

  I have recently become more curious with my Faith and beliefs. I think I really found God when my Father died and my new husband was just Deployed to Afghanistan, I soon after had to move in to motel and the troubles just kept coming. The Lord helped me so much and brought me a Pen Pal that I really connected with and helped me in finding myself again. I think it was a test as well but one thing is for sure, I am so much stronger.
 I have always had a relationship with the Lord but never put a religion with it because I know that I had not read the doctrines and I wasn't going to fool myself or anyone else. I wanted to start this awesome journey with the Lord the right way. I got my first Bible and it is very precious to me.. now that I am older, I think I can actually appreciate having my own Bible and so that's why I consider it my first Bible. I love my Bible. I am not too far in reading it but it does speak to me and I do find comfort in it. I may also read The Book of Mormon to see what it says and if it speaks to me as well. I feel a sort of nag to follow my Grandparent's Faith but I think its more important that I find what I feel is true to me.

Of course I had to get it in Purple, it's my favorite color.