Reflection Paper for Theology

Have you ever wondered what type of life you should live as a Christian and what all you should do? Is this the right thing to do? Is this a common question that you ask? Do you have personal experiences that our wonderful Lord has been so wonderful in your life? Sharing them with others is a way that is I believe is one way that you can worship him. And something that I believe that my church as a whole can do better in general I know it’s hard to come out and say because you don’t like finding faults and saying them. But honestly when you come out and say them and tell them and things change for the better especially in your church and you are working for the Lord you can see changes every day.

I think that it does matter how a Christian lives their life. They need to be walking in the eyes and steps of the Lord our God. There are a lot of different views on this today and what the Bible says. For one each and every Christian needs to know and realize that “all have sinned”. Rom 3:23 (Fee and Stuart p. 55) for this you need to know that you do, do things that make you sin. However we as Christians need to become aware of these things and work on them. The Bible tells us “to walk with the spirit” Gal 5:16. In this matter we need to walk with God and his ways. As it is now the 21 century things are somewhat different and take on different meanings to us. As the concept that men should not have long hair as this is not being Christian. The Bible tells us “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears it’s disgracing him” 1 Cor. 11:14. However now days you will go into a church and see that men do not always keep their hair short. Many will argue that Jesus himself had long hair, Why is it a sin and not Christian? Women were known to have their heads covered and to have long hair. In this generation it is not a sin to have short hair or not to worship without your head covered. There are a number of things that we as Christians need to look to the Lord for help and go with his guidance. Some people today “worship “material things. When in all the only thing that we as Christians need to worship is the great “I AM”. We as Christians need to dress appropriately. In this since. How short a woman is’s skirt or shorts? Revealing your body in a way that is nonchirstian like is hurting the Lord in my eyes. What are some of the saying that is on some of your clothing? These should not in anyways be showing satin glory. Body piercing in today’s time is a really touchy subject with some. Our Lord didn’t have any piercings in his body. The only holes he had in his body were when he was placed on the Cross. Why as Christians should we do harm to our body when Jesus made us whole. This also comes to the point of tattoos. You can go to church and see those that have tattoos. And you will have some in your church or other Christians that will say. You are sinning and putting a “bad image” for some Christians. Just as before Jesus made your body perfect for you and who you are. This is why you are who you are. On the subject of entertainment and recreation. There are something’s that you can do that in all Christians eyes are complete sins. For a husband or a wife to go to a “strip bar” that is not honoring your spouse. When you took a vow to your spouse and in front of God you vowed to honor them. This is a way of showing disrespect to them and a disrespect to the opposite sex. Dancing and parting this is something that if done in the right setting and in the right ways is not bad at all. However when you take things to extreme what kind of image are you putting off for yourself. Is this how you want others to see you and what you are. As a Christian you want others to see you as someone who loves the Lord. That is walking in his ways. This dancing and parting is not showing that image. To also go with parting there are those and some churches that say drinking is completely off limits. However when reading the Bible you can see that “wine” was one of the drinks back in biblical times. It is all in how you partake in this. When you are drinking to the extreme then you are doing what is wrong. However as the bible has said “a little wine for the stomachs sake”1 Timothy 5:23. In today’s time there are a number of women that love to preach and tell the testimonies of our Lord. Some see this as a wrong doing of our lord and that only males should be the one teaching his word. This also goes with writing books on the Bible and teaching a class where males are students in a Christian college and/or school. However in 1 Cor 3:16-17 say “argue our responsibilities to our local church, a place where God’s spirit is known to dwell”. In this all of us male and female have responsibilities at our local churches and rather it be teaching a Sunday school class or helping in other ways. Gender should not matter. For many Christians they look at same sex marriage as a sin. God mad man and woman to be united in marriage. If he only wanted males to be with males and females with females he would have only created one of us and not both. With Gods work as a part of our lives we always need to be “forming and reforming” (Fee and Stuart, p 86) in this we as Christians need to grow with the lord. Walk in his ways. Preach of his ways. And live the life that he has intended for us.

Personal testimonies are important when you are sharing the Gospel with other. In Going through the Bible you will read testimonies of all sorts. When you share your personal testimonies with others you are showing Gods work. You are saying that our Lord is wonderful. There are Christians that still have doubts about something and nonchristians that say well that is just a book. But when you bring in your personal testimony of what our God has done for you. It will have those looking in doubt that “wow, look what Jesus can do”, “If he did that for _____ then I wonder what he can do for me”. Being able to show others the good of God is something that is wonderful. And having your personal experiences shows more than you would ever imagine. An example of sharing a personal testimony is one that I love to share especially with those who are in doubt. My daughter at the age of one year old was diagnosed with Category three reflux of the bladder. This is something that was very trying for our family as we lived in Hawaii away from family. (This was do to military orders) She would have extremely high temperatures where we would be at the emergency room with her to get IV’s to get them down. It took the Drs six months to actually figure out what all was going on with her. And we had to have so many testing do on such a lil girl. A year had gone by and she had been on antibiotics for over a year to keep infections out of her bladder and kidneys. We had gone to the Drs and had testing done and still with antibiotics she was still getting very sick. So her Drs decided that surgery was the only way to get her better and to correct the valve in her bladder. At our church, we had a special prayer for her, my husband and all of our family. That God would come in and heal her as we didn’t want to see such a little girl go through so much. Two days later she went in for one final test and to do her workup for surgery. Our dr walked in being very puzzled and confused as a week before with the same test he knew what all was going on and what needed to be done. This time he tells us that the valve in her bladder is working that we don’t need to have surgery. He was sitting there questioning what had happened that things don’t just change overnight. My husband and I both looked at each other and smiled and spoke up. “It is the Lords work”. We told him how we are truly believers in our wonderful God and what all he could do. That just two days before at church we had a special prayer for her. That God would heal her and make her whole again. I looked and said God is amazing, he has done this for our little girl, he can do things for you as well. The dr still walked out of there puzzled and a day later we got a call from him. Saying that he now believed in Christ, and he knows what great he can do. When we share this testimony with others that we prayed and prayed for our little girl and that God healed her. Not medicine, not the Doctors, however it is the work of the Lord. Since my husband and I have shared this since it has happened we know of those who have been in doubt and now fully believe. And we have had those nonchristians look at us and say. “God is truly amazing”. What better work to use then your personal experiences with the lord to preach what he can do for you and others. This really shows what all our God is capable of and knowing he is with us no matter what.

Jesus is our Lord our God. He has stated throughout his time in the Bible that he is the “Great I AM”. Also saying the father is I. This is in turn saying that Jesus is claiming to be God. That he is our wonderful Lord and savior. Many Doubt that Jesus is God. That they are two separate indivuals. However when reading the Bible you will read that Jesus doesn’t come out and say “I am God”. There are other forms of the way he is saying it. He wanted to let the people know who he was and what he was here for. What all he could do.

My church as a whole is wonderful. We are there for each other and try to do things together. We remember to have our quiet time. However there is something’s that we as a whole can do better. We need to reach out more to the community. We need to tell others about our church. And tell them the wonders of God. Granted our church is small and we are a growing church. We meet in a community center. We need to spread the word of God. When we do things together as a church and invite the community to join in and get them involved with us. This way we can work on building up our church and work on spreading the word of God.

All together I think that as Christians we need to spread the word of God. We need to live a Christian life and show others what all that God can do for us. God is truly amazing and can do wonders in our lives and will if we just let him and allow him to do things for us. If we live our Christian lives to the fullest and the best of our abilities then we are doing good. I know it is not always possible and we are not perfect. But always remember that God is there and when you help spread the word of him you can use your personal testimony and it’s easier for others to understand.