Legalism

1. Strict adherence, or the principle of strict adherence, to law or prescription, esp. to the letter rather than the spirit.
2.
Theology.
a. the doctrine that salvation is gained through good works.
b. the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws.

Romans 6

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Matthew 23

24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Romans 2:11-13

11For God does not show favoritism.
12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.


Right now my thoughts, like this entry, are random and not put together as well as I would like. I would have liked to have them all put together before I started writing but I have a feeling they will only come together as I start to write.
I have been thinking about the word "legalistic" because a lot of people who went to a church that I did and went through a break-up of that church as I did like to describe the church that way. They will admit that they were legalistic but I think they blame it on the church. I also think that many of them have tried to put themselves so far from that label that everything they do is "justified by grace" now.
Sight has been lost of the fact that although we are not under the Old Testament law where we are required to sacrifice animals or law where men are required to cut their beards just so we are under law that God never abolished when he saved us by sacrificing his son.
We are under that law because that law was given to show that we are sinners. We do not need to follow the law to go to heaven because then we would follow it by letter only. We follow it to please God but only because we know it pleases him and he has our best in mind. We will not lose our salvation because we gained it by faith and by grace, but grace and faith do not abolish the law. It is still there and if it is there to show us our sin it must be something that is written in our hearts when we are saved and something that we should follow.
I write this because I see so many situations that are justified now because we feel that God does not want us to be miserable. Murder, stealing, adultery, lying. They are justified so easily but we cringe to call them by their name because we know they are wrong. They become unrecognizable to us because we have told ourselves that is not what they are. This situation is different.

http://www.pluggedinonline.com/discernment/a0001825.cfm

Journaling

I was reading a blog of a friend of mine and she was talking about how she has not been blogging so consistenly as she used to. How she used to journal consistently even if it was just to say what she did that day. Her words sounded like ones that have come out of my mouth or been written by my hand on paper. She even mentioned going back and reading her earlier journals which I have done lately. Wow.
Anyway, it made me think that this blog could just be a record of what I did today. Maybe I will make a timeline.

5:26- turned off the alarm. (I don't know why- I like to pick odd times to get up- that is, not an increment of five.)
5:34- got up
5:35-stared at my clothes
5:37-picked out "dressy" jeans, pink top, with lacy white top underneath, and white ballet shoes.
5:38- put them on
5:41-got my lunch together, brushed my hair, etc.
5:46- kissed my husband
5:48- grabbed my jacket and headed to work
5:48-6:48- listened to Oldies on my radio on the way to work
6:48-7:00- slept in my car in the parking lot
7:00- opened up office
7:00-3:00 Answered phones, made Chris laugh, made Darrell laugh, addressed Christmas cards to customers, updated contact information of customers, ate lunch in Lisa's office with Lisa and Kim, argued with Kim and Lisa about whether Arby's ever had Barbeque sandwiches or not (while I ate my Cinnamon Spice Oatmeal with Walnuts and Raisins), quoted an auto, sent quotes, and said "Bye Lisa, bye Kim."
3:00-3:45 drove toward home
3:45-4:20 grocery shopped and bought Spinach, Dannon Blueberry Yogurt (no artificial anything), REAL butter, Grapenuts Cereal (name brand for hubby, off brand for me), onion, carrots, garlic, zuchinni...you get the idea (healthy stuff)
4:20-4:30- drove home, put up groceries
4:30-4:50- talked to hubby about important stuff and his rough day
4:50-5:20- made Cheddar bay Biscuits for the feast tonight
5:30-6:45- hung out with the RVICS who come to camp to work as missionaries there for a month. The RVICS are a group of retired couples who do about month long projects for different christian organizations. They are at camp helping to paint cabins and finish the Dining Hall. We ate Shrimp, biscuits, salad, strawberries, and coleslaw (I didn't eat Coleslaw-yuck!)
6:45- left for some thing we felt we needed to do for camp
7:00-8:00- did the thing
8:15-8:30- practiced Swing dancing because we want to do a routine for a talent show at Family Camp.
8:30-9:00 -put photos in photo album because I am trying to organize them all.
9:00-9:30 -tried to outbid somebody on Ebay for a present for Bobby. I was the highest bidder but didn't meet the reserve price.
9:30-present- checked myspace, checked facebook, checked blog and began writing.

GOODNIGHT!

Versemaker

I am going to explain this poem. It is a favorite exercise of mine to get the writing juice shaken and flowing. You take about fifteen words or so and use as many as you can or want and create a poem. I generally love what comes out. Just because it is so different than starting from scratch and you often write something you never would have imagine. Here goes:


You are the trustee of my reality
And the vinegar on my jujube
Melting my sweetness into
A stagnant pool.

I am orange
I am a cloudburst
I am the queen of my realm

But you are like a hyphen
Dividing me while connected
A shoehorn squeezing a large foot
Into a small boot.

I am the foot
I am the word
And the jujube.

This is reality.

Roots

This weekend I went to Lafayette, Louisiana. We had a get together at my Uncle David's house and his place was filled with happy chatting, laughter, and gumbo. Mixed together it was an absolutely wonderful weekend. The party consisted of all of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side of the family and most of my cousins. My mom has two sisters and three brothers. One of those sisters passed away about ten years ago. I have eight cousins on my mom's side. Five of them were there. I don't remember everything we talked about. We watched football. Sentences ended with "Shah" a lot. Talk of music ran through our conversation and floated in the air. I left remembering that I have some interesting, intelligent, creative blood running through my veins. It made me happy. My roots soaked up refreshing water and my limbs feel like they are budding new flowers.

Disguise

The day before Halloween I am pondering Halloween. More accurately I am thinking about costumes. My family did not celebrate Halloween and our church had no alternative to Halloween. I am not sure why. But I miss that I missed out on the chance to plan out a costume every year and show my creation off to a bunch of people. It sounds fun. I am still uncomfortable with celebrating Halloween, but I would love to go a costume party. I think you are never too grown up for one.
Costumes and grown-ups are funny. When we are children we are so blunt and confident and love dressing in costumes for parties, Halloween, playtime...bedtime. The older we get the more we walk on eggshells and the less confident we become. We think dressing in costumes is for children and silly. But grown-ups change disguises many times every day. It is not just different responsibilities we take on, it is a whole new persona we have created for that "role." We are "Mom," "Socialite," "Wife," "Boss," and "Good Friend." It is tiring.
Another disguise applicable to women only is a disguise called "makeup." They like to wear this disguise everyday and not leave the house without it. I do not mind this disguise if it is because it is a fun disguise, but when it is worn every day it is like the child who never wants to take his Superman PJ's off. Better it is like a pacifier that a child sucks. It is security because the woman believes that there is something in her face that she has to "make up" for. When men wear it every day because they feel they have to I may consider it.

Thoughts

I have been reading a book that I borrowed from a friend. She enjoyed the book immensely. Right now all I can say is that the author has a writing style I like. I also enjoy the frankness she displays but I was disturbed reading one chapter in the book on the author’s beliefs about abortion.
She is a Christian and her book is her own thoughts on faith. What startled me was not that she had questions about the morality of abortion but that there was no question at all and she was emphatic about that fact. What was most disturbing was that when stating her argument she said that we should not bring into the world children who aren’t wanted. It seems to take away responsibility from a woman. I am a feminist myself but I my beliefs on abortion don’t coincide with many feminist out there. I believe in responsibility. Because a man is allowed to act like a fool a woman should be allowed to act like a fool as well and not be ridiculed. But should the woman act foolishly because she can? Not all cases are foolishness, that is bothersome to me when people tag rape as a woman's fault, but aren't we still taking away responsibility to care for another?
I was not as shocked reading the book as I would have been simply because I have heard this once before. In a creative writing class I took there was a woman in my class that I became close to. We would talk after class, share our ideas. This was because we had the immediate knowledge when we met that the other was a Christian. As we talked and the class progressed I found out that she was not anti-abortion. That was shocking enough. I had met some who were anti-abortion except in the case of rape or believed if a woman is going to die because of the pregnancy she should abort. I had never met one who was a strong Christian and yet believed that abortion merely if it was your decision was okay. Needless to say, I didn't agree. However, it presented me with a lot of cud to chew.
This morning I decided to peruse the internet by typing in Christian Pro-Choice. I did so and there are plenty of websites presenting this case.
What is infiltrating our church? American Christians lack distinguishment from other Americans. We are part of this world and should not distance ourselves from people in it-yet this world is not our home. We cannot bend our philosophy to fit a world that does not love God. I have decided to research Christian Pro-Choice and see what they have to say and I hope to write about it soon.

Quote

"It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice." - Thomas Jefferson

Weather

I have sat down. The beginning of my first blog has begun. Words are in my head and are waiting not so patiently to be transferred through my fingers to this page. What do I say?
At this moment everything seems beautiful and saying what I wish to say eloquently seems possible. I suspect it is the weather today. The weather, however, can fool you I suppose. It has been so long since I have written. That phrase is too often uttered in my own voice. I took a creative writing class about a year ago because I had not written in so long. I vowed it would never happen again and then I took an intense science class and here I am again. But I love words and phrases to leave them for too long and they always forgive me after a little prodding. They know I will find my place again and be lost in their beauty and truth and comfort. And the weather is so beautiful I can't help myself. So beautiful.