Teaching series

My friend, Shannon and I are attending a four week teaching series at Bridgeway church on church history and end times.  By the way, pastor Sam Storms is amazing!
Last night's teaching included church discipline. This is the first in depth teaching I have heard on this subject. It was so thought provoking!

Sam gave several points on why church discipline is necessary:
1. To maintain, as far as possible, the purity of the church.
2. Because Scripture requires it.
3. In order to maintain a proper witness to the world.
4. To expose unbelievers.
5. To facilitate growth and to preserve unity in the body.
6. To restore the erring brother/sister  to obedience and fellowship.
7. To deter others.
8. To avert corporate discipline.
9. Because sin is rarely if ever an individual issue: it almost always has corporate ramifications.
10. Evidently Paul believed that the willingness to embrace the task of discipline was a mark of maturity in a church's corporate life ( 2 Cor. 2:9).

Excerpt from Chapter 2

Here is an excerpt from chapter 2 of my book:

Life in my house and with my family was so volatile and unkind, I had to discover methods to comfort and numb myself. Around the age of eight, I started employing food to alleviate my ever present feelings of shame and guilt.
My mother had, what I like to refer to as a "Hostess drawer." In that drawer there was almost every hostess product on the market; Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Snow Balls, along with a variety of other snack goodies such as double stuff Oreos.
On top of that, being Lebanese, we had access to exorbitant amounts of food. We had three full size refrigerators and three upright freezers, that were packed full with food. So it seems logical that my first vice would be food..
When nobody was around, I would sneak into the kitchen and open the "Hostess drawer," and select several items. I would either scurry to my bedroom or I would lock myself in the bathroom, and plop down on the toilet lid and and quickly shove all the food in my mouth.I would barley have the first item unwrapped, before I started obsessing about what I was going to eat next. I barely even chewed the food. I just swallowed.
I was unaware, at the time, that along with the food, I was also desperately attempting to stuff my guilt and shame, which were both escalating at a rapid pace.

Chapter 2 and apologetics group

I started on the second chapter of my book on Monday.
Here is a small excerpt:

"I knew from around the time I was seven years old that I was not planned. After my parents had Allison, (their second child) they did not want more children, but my mother forgot to take her birth control pills twice and "oops" she got pregnant with me.
It wasn't so much that I knew I wasn't planned, that affected me, it was more what I was told. I wasn't called a surprise or am accident. I was called mistake.
I surprise is something that's not planned, but if you had the chance you would do it all over again. A mistake is something not planned and if you had the chance you would not repeat it. A mistake is something that you regret and consequently makes your life more difficult. That is the message that got repeated to me over and over, and needless to say, I began to internalize it."

On a different note, we are having our second apologetics group tomorrow. I am so excited watching God bring this to fruition!

Beyond Opinion

This is a book by Ravi Zacharias. It is a great read for anybody who is interested in apologetics.

Chapter 1

I finished writing chapter 1 of my book called "Not Mine Alone." It is about the birth and adoption of my twins.

I became a Christian in March of 1996 but continued to live a sinful life. I continued to do drugs and got involved in a very sick relationship.

In September 1997, I found out I was pregnant and what's more, pregnant with twins!

The book chronicles my life through childhood to as an adult making the most difficult decision of my life; giving up my twins for adoption.

Sermon

I heard a great sermon today entitled, "Through the Eyes of a Lion."

The pastor gave four ways to get through your "Saturdays" ( a reference to the day between Friday, when Christ was crucified and Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead). He used the word "Saturday" as a metaphor for a potential dark time in ones life.

The four points he made:

1. Remember that heaven is nearer than it seems and we are connected to it.

2. Stick together- Lions always travel in a pride, as a means of strength and protection.

3. Run toward the roar (things that scare you). Run towards what you are inclined to run away from.

4. Cue the eagle. Call on the name of Jesus and he will give you strength. "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

Quote from C.S Lewis

Ravi Zacharias quotes C.S Lewis in his book: "Who Made God? And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith" ( A very simple, yet thorough book on Christian apologetics).

C.S Lewis addresses the topic of :"How can a good God send people to hell?" And asserts, "There are only two kinds of people in the end:Those who say to God,'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"

 A very sobering thought!

Apologetics Group

We are having our first apologetics group tomorrow at 6 at the Johnnie's in Edmond on 33rd. If anybody is interested, please join us.

It should be a lot of fun!