Nothing in this world compares to You

Tonight it's my turn to speak at our bible study. Rachel and I alternate every other week. I'm going to talk about James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Also I'll read other scriptures in James.

There are two things that are happening to many Christians in the US that I find to be very sad.

Either they are jumping aboard the "God only wants you to be rich, rich, rich so give us all your money so that you will get money back!!" bandwagon of ridiculousness, which makes me want to puke.... or they are living so compromised that their actions say anything other than that they are Christians. It's so refreshing when you know people who just really love God and want to please him, and are not into weird stuff and are not ashamed to live like they really want to please God. I don't care how this sounds, but I am so tired of seeing some people that I've known for years, who say they haven't changed. But they have. They used to think cursing was bad, now they do it. They used to think drinking wasn't a good idea, now they drink a lot. Yet they haven't changed? Yeah right. But if anyone implies that they shouldn't do those things, you are called "judgmental". So many people think they don't have to grow in God anymore. They think they have arrived and to me that is dangerous, especially when their behaviors are so extremely secular.

When we think we don't have any more changing to do, it should be a sign of how much changing we really need. I want God to continue to change me daily into what He wants me to be, not what I want to be. It's not easy, because we envision a life for ourselves that may not align with God's vision for us, and we fight Him on it. It's a learning process to trust God. I hope I learn it more and don't doubt so much.

The scripture from James above says to me, that pure religion is about looking after those who need help, but also it's about keeping oneself from being polluted by the world's mentality. This includes lust, greed, the desire for power, self gain, bad language, just anything really that is contrary to God's way.

It's not just about works, which is reminded to us over and over in the new testament, but it's also about keeping yourself accountable to God for how you live your life and behave under the name of "Christian". Anyway that's my rant for now! :) I won't be so rant-y tonight at church though. I think about these kind of things a lot but don't always feel like writing about it.


Here's a quiz I took for fun:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The West
Boston
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes