~~~MaRtIn LuThEr~~~

Martin Luther was a Christian theologian and Augustinian monk who's teaching and criticism of the Roman Catholic Church inspired the Protestant Reformation. He was born in November of 1483 in Germany. Luther didn't plan to become a monk. He was actually enrolled in law school until in 1505 during a thunderstorm a lightning bolt struck the ground near him and he cried out "Help St. Anne! I'll become a monk!" Although he regretted making the bargain, he followed through and dropped out of law school and joined a monastery. Luther struggled to find peace with God. He devoted himself to fasts, long hours in prayer, pilgrimages, and constant confession. The more he tried to do for God, the more he seemed to become aware of his sinfulness. Luther's superior, Johann von Staupitz, sent him off to pursue an academic career. Luther was ordained to priesthood in 1507 and began teaching theology at the University of Wittenburg in 1508. The preparation for his sermons and lectures caused Luther to study the scriptures and teachings of the early church in depth. Luther came to the conclusion that salvation is a gift of God's grace received by trusting in His promise to forgive our sins through Christ's death on the cross. This conclusion convinced him that the Church had lost site of several central truths. He believed that the selling of indulgences (prayers that people bought in order to save their soul or the soul of a relative from purgatory) was a scam. In response to the indulgence preachers he nailed his famous 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg and before long Luther's 95 Theses had been copied and published all throughout Europe. Luther's new Protestant views were condemned heresy by Pope Leo X and on 17 April 1521 Luther was asked if he was going to renounce the claims he made in his writings. After being asked if he would renounce, Luther asked if he could have time to think about his answer. Luther was granted one day and after consulting with friends and praying about it he stood before the assembly and said, "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." On May 25, the emperor declared Luther an outlaw. Luther's friend, Prince Frederick the Wise, ordered him to be kidnapped on his way home from the trial before anyone else could get to him and took him to the castle of Wartburg. While he was there he began to translate the Bible from Greek to the language commonly spoken by the German people. The Luther German New Testament was first published in 1522 followed by the Old Testament in 1534. Luther died in 1546. (http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/martin-luther.html)

Don't waste you life - Chapter 8

So this chapter is about making much of Christ in you job. It talks about how you don't have to have a "church vocation" to be able to glorify Christ through your work. I'm glad we read this chapter because I have actually thought about this before, because I've never really seen myself as being a full time missionary or some type of church leader. That's just never been the direction I wanted to go with my life and sometimes I've thought to myself Is it a bad thing to not want to have a "churchy" job? Obviously the answer is no, it's fine. You just have to make sure you honor God in you workplace and just because your job doesn't revolve around God doesn't mean you can't make him present through your attitude or actions. God tells us to be "in the world" but not "of the world." (John 17:15-16) So that right there is a free invitation to have a "secular job" just make sure we don't start to get pulled away or drug down spiritually by the job. Also the bible says "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Collosians 3:17) Although your job isn't directly connected to God you should work as though God is your boss and you want to honor him through obedience of your worldy boss.

Undercover Millionaire!

So, I had seen this show advertised and I thought it looked pretty cool so i'm glad we watched it in class. It is interesting to think about how someone who may not be a christian would feel the need to give so much money just out of the goodness of their heart. Usually, christian or not, people are pretty selfish. Even though the guy had soooo much money he still gave alot! I think this show could show people the needs of some that need to be met and could also motivate us to do better. I really liked watching this :)

Don't Waste Your Life.

In chapters 6 and 7 it talks about worldly possessions and how we as Christians should treat them. I think it is a challenging thing for me personally to be able to give and give and give. It's one of those things I need to work on and get better at. It's hard to give people things sometimes. When i'm in church and it's offering time sometimes i'm happy to give and sometimes I have to check myself because i'm sitting there thinking I only have like 5 dollars with me and what if I need it later... but I know i'm really not going to need it. So I just always have to remind myself that God gave me the money in the first place I shouldn't be so selfish with it. It's sometimes hard to give people time too. You can be too busy or too tired or something. Sometimes it's hard to really focus and talk to someone when i'm really tired and when i'm tired I get annoyed really easily which is so bad and I always feel bad when I look back and think about how disrespectful I was to them. Sometimes it's hard to give advice because sometimes you just don't know what to say or think the person doesn't even care what you have to say.

Now i'm supposed to talk about TV and internet. I think a major problem with TV is that people know that almost everyone watches it so they use it to manipulate people into thinking things that aren't true. Things like if you buy this car it'll make you so much cooler or if only you could look like this person then you would be so much better. Which is totally a lie and it's sort of disgusting when you really think about it but that's just how the world is and we've all become sort of numb to stuff like that just taking it as it is. Also I think that everything you see on TV has to be sexual.. like really? Even Disney Channel pushes the limit sometimes which is crazy that's like a kid station! Sexual content is everywhere and it just influences our minds to think that its okay. It's not though. I think the internet can be used in a bad way because we can get information so quickly and people can use the internet to ruin someones life. I mean if you look on your Facebook homepage some of the stuff you see on there is just so terrible and personal it's kind of weird to think that people would actually post things like that.

If someone was to look at my life and and compare tv/internet to worshipping God... This is a tough one. And it's kind of hard to answer because of course I want to say oh yeah worshipping God is way more prevelant in my life, but is that really true... I do spend time with God everyday but I also spend time on the TV and the computer and I probably spend more time on the tv. So, once again Don't Waste Your Life has convicted me.

Lord Save Us From Your Followers

I enjoyed watching this video in class. I personally think it is pretty good. I pretty much agree with Dan Merchant. He spent so much time walking across America just trying to find out how Christians are doing. It really hurts to be told how easy it is to judge people in your mind right when you see them because it's true that everyone does it and it's wrong. It's sad because you don't even know the person or their story. Like that one guy Sister Mary something, at first glance your like oh wow.. what a wierdo but then whenever the guy says that his mom died and he was abused and he has HIV you feel really really bad and try to be nice to him. But shouldn't we always just be nice and love people? Not because where they come from but just because God loves them.
One part of the movie that I really liked was the confession booth. I thought it was interesting how some of the people he talked to grew up with a Christian background. So obviously they know scripture, one girl even says she has alot of it memorized. Those people really do believe that God made them how they are and saying that that's dumb and yelling scripture at them really isn't gonna get you anywhere. That's why I like the confession booth. It's something that would get your attention and once you get in there it would be a really cool experience. Although some people still didn't really buy it, alot of the people were very thankful that someone would be loving enough to apologize to them and really listen and care about them. Just think of the kind of crap they get. Especially some who grew up in the church. They kept saying how this was so different from all the other Christians who are always rude and mean. I don't like being a part of that, like just because i'm a Christian i'm mean and judging because that is the total opposite of who Jesus Christ was when he came to die for us. So I have to start making the changes in my life which will be hard.
I think it was cool how the Enid how a version of Bridgetown Ministries! Going out to the park with the forgotten church is really alot of fun. At first your a little nervous but then after a couple weeks you make friends and it's really cool.

Jesus Camp

Okay, so I think it's interesting that this lady likes to work with young kids because she says that whatever you teach a kid or whatever they learn before they are 7-9 years old they will have with them for the rest of their lives. I think it's great, young kids are always willing to learn and love to learn new things. That's where the other side comes in. You have to be sooooo careful when you teach kids stuff because they are so willing to believe what you tell them and if you teach them something that isn't true then all you're doing is hurting them. I think the little boy and girl that they show alot in the video are awesome. It's pretty obvious that they love God alot. That little boy stood up and preached infront of all the kids at that camp and it sounded like what he was saying was pretty good. And that little girl straight up walked over to someone and gave them a gospel track and said that God loves them. I think that's really hard to do that.

On a different note... What kid needs to know about abortion? Or about all the horrors of the government? They are kids, innocent kids. You can help kids get on fire for God without driving them to tears about their own sins or about the problems with our government. We shouldn't rebel against the government in such crazy, radical ways. God's got it. He knows what He's doing. Romans 13:1 says, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Clearly God is all over the government. I like how really all she wants to do is to bring the kids into a fighting passion for God, but do they really understand what they are praying about? I think some of them do, I don't underestimate them but some of those kids looked so young. From such a young age they are being hit with "The government is bad" but really it's not. God controls our government.

In the end, I don't really know what to make of Becky Fischer. I love how she just wants to bring lots of people to Christ and to have people willing to fight for God. I just don't know if she understands or realizes what she may being doing to a good part of our future generations. I just hope that some of those kids will take the time to think about what's being told to them and not just pack it in their brains as true. 

Don't waste your life.

1. Boasting in the cross happens when you rejoice in something good that you know was bought for you on the cross. I need to always be reminding myself that everything good comes from God and was bought on the cross, i'll probably forget sometimes but in everything I need to praise God for what it really is.

2. The "I" who died is that one that was still stuck on the world. The "I" that takes everything for granted as their right but the "I" who lives is the one that has God in their heart and who realizes that God is the center of everything and without him you are dead. Key words would be the parts where it says I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live except he lives in me. Also, where it says the life I now live in the flesh I live by FAITH in the Son of God.

3. Right now, I live by faith in that I trust God will always be there for me and take care of me. I don't doubt that. But sometimes I just wonder why he does what he does, sort of like why do bad things happen to good people.