On Lack of Passion in Worship

 

I love Dr. Charles Stanleys' preaching, but man the worship in his church is so stagnant! It's so sad I think. You look at the choir and the congregation and the fire just seems to be out with everyone. Today they were singing "In Christ Alone" and I'm like "raise your hands people!" Lol That song has some amazing lyrics but they were singing it just like they would any secular song. The words didn't seem to mean anything at all to them! It broke my heart. lol :( I guess when it comes to worship I am much more on the Pentecostal side, cause I'm all for hand raising in worship. I'm all for pouring your heart out in worship and really connecting with God and falling in love with Him all over again. I think worship is supposed to be passionate! I do think you are supposed to FEEL something in worship. You won't every time, but if you never do, I would say question how much you really love God. I have heard before, that we are with God like we are with people. So if we lack any passion in our human relationships, we will also lack any passion in our relationship with God. So sad. :( May the people of America and the world have a fire lit under them and may they fall passionately in love with God again! I heard in a sermon once that the same way we feel about someone we love, thinking about them all the time, that's how we should be with God. We ARE the bride of Christ. We should love God more than we love any being alive. Amen. God bless!

My Convictions for Life

Convictions

I was watching Dr. Charles Stanley this morning and he encouraged us to write our convictions down. He said what convictions do you have that you will absolutely not compromise on? So here are mine. I was able to think of a lot. :)

My Firm Convictions for My Life:

I won't drink alcohol to the point of getting drunk ever again. (I have in the past and always regretted it, due to my health.)

I will not listen to any music with any cussing or any vulgar lyrics etc. (My mom trained me in this conviction very well while growing up. :)

I will not get caught up in any kind of extra marital affair, or even have any close guy friends, because that is what leads to affairs. (I have learned this from hearing stories from others.)

I will not watch certain scenes in movies that are sexual in any way. I will always fast forward such scenes or change the channel.

I will never overeat, or ever eat past the point of being full. (I don't have a conviction about junk food. I think ice cream, cookies and chips are fine when eaten in moderation.)  :)

I will not listen to what I call "angry" music because I think it greatly affects my mood, as in screamo music when someone is yelling or screaming.

I will not get more than one credit card and I will try to be a good steward of money in general.

I will try to pay all bills on time.

I will treat all people of all races with respect, and will always try to treat them as I would want to be treated.

When trying to do any task, I will work as hard as I can on it and finish it.

I will not slack off on house cleaning and stay caught up on dishes, cleaning floors, and laundry etc.

I will have good personal hygiene and take good care of myself, mind, body and soul, in every way I can.

I will never hit my kid(s). (I still am not sure about spanking yet and if I will or won't do that.)

I will have grace with myself and not be too hard on myself or expect more of myself than I am capable of. I will speak positively of myself to myself and others. I will never insult myself or put myself down in any way, because God cares about how I talk about myself.

I will have grace with others and not have unrealistic expectations of them.

I will expect God to meet all my needs and not other people.

I will keep close friends to a minimum so as to mainly be influened by God and not the world.

(One conviction I used to have- I will not watch TV. But I have loosened up on that conviction a lot lately, being pregnant.)   :)

I will go to stores the least I have to so as to not overspend on money.

I will make sure my child and husband are never hungry if I can do something about it.

I will respect my mom and never say a cuss word to her no matter how angry I am and try to treat her with honor.

I will try to always respond to texts and e-mails soon and not ignore people.

I will seek to honor God in every single thing I do and be a good steward of my time here on earth.

Feel free to write your own list and use any of the things I wrote. It's good to know what our convictions are because they dictate every action in our lives. God bless!

On Being Smart with Money

I love, LOVE a good book I just got from Amazon.  It's called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad, what the rich teach their kids about money."  The guy recently wrote a book with Donald Trump even called "Why A Students Work for C Students."  lol what a brilliant title!  Here is the best quote ever from this book. :)

"An important distinction is that rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class tend to buy luxuries first. The poor and the middle class often buy luxury items like big houses, diamonds, furs, jewelry, or boats because they want to look rich.  They look rich, but in reality, they just get deeper in debt on credit.  The old money people, the long term rich, build their asset column first.  Then the income generated from their asset column (or investments and savings) buys their luxuries."

This guy is totally a genius.  Delayed gratification.  That is always the trick to success.  The poor and middle class buy so much that they don't need because they are suckered into scams of buy now and no payments for a year etc.  Also they care too much what people think of them and so spend all their money to impress others.  So silly.  A great paraphrase that I just thought of for that would be, "Act like you're poor to become rich.  Act like you're rich to become poor."  haha :)

He talks a lot about investing in real estate, buying houses.  A slogan of his is "savers are losers."  Why?  Because what is the point of saving if you don't invest in anything?  The number one investment that Americans recognize is real estate, houses.  That is the main thing that will earn anyone a profit.  Savings accounts don't build equity and value; they stay the same.  Stocks you might buy go up or down, and they can go way down and you loose a lot.  Gold could be good but practically who will you get to buy your gold or silver someday?  It's all about buying houses.  I love his main slogan, "The rich don't work for money; they make their money work for them."  Love it!