Fruit of the Spirit - Love 4

Harvesting Love - That was today's section of Harvesting the Fruit of the Spirit, by Wanda J. Manning.

Today's reading centered around the story from yesterday.  The woman in the story, Kayleen, did not love herself.  Ms. Manning states, "When we lack self-love, we are doomed to fail at finding true intimacy with others because we feel unworthy." (page 43)

I do not believe there is a creature (cast down angel/hellfire and brimstone) that "makes" us do evil.  However, Manning suggests otherwise:

"Ungodly love (lust) is a pacifier from the devil, and we understand his trickery is never for our betterment, only our demise." (page 43)

I do believe that life experiences influence our perception about our self worth.  As stated in an earlier blog, we have core lies that we tell ourselves all the time.  It is these lies that make us believe we are not worthy of love (real love) and thus we convince ourselves to get into hurtful and vulnerable situations.

Ms. Manning also mentioned abortion being a sin as well as premarital sex.  This is not a surprising read, but I am not going to get into a moral discussion regarding fornication and abortion.  I will state that if you are interested in my opinion of abortion, please read a blog I wrote a few months back: Abortion.

Fruit of the Spirit - Love 3

Today I welcomed a different approach to the lesson, in Harvesting the Fruit of the Spirit by author, Wanda J. Manning.

Today was a story, a very personal tale of how one woman found Jesus.  I have always found the statement, "I found Jesus," rather odd - because God has ALWAYS been there.  God is not hiding, and Jesus and HIS love are proof of this.  But that thought aside, I did enjoy the short story of a life that experienced false love.  Through prayer and complete surrender, the heroine found an inner peace and true love: the unrequited love of God.

Maybe the author should have done a book of short stories..?

Fruit of the Spirit - Love 2

MY NEW COMPLAINT!
Okay, readers...the thing is: I do not like the version of the Bible Ms. Manning uses in her book, "Harvesting the Fruit of the Spirit."

I am not a King James Version (or a NKJV) person.  Cannot help it.  However, once you throw a thee, though, and "th" on the end of words you completely lose me.

One statement stuck out for me, and warrants being stated here:

"As Christian, we must often ask ourselves, do we profess our love for Christ by simply saying 'I love Jesus,' or do our Christ-like behaviors echo a symphony of love, a composition guaranteed to touch the heart of Christ?" page 15

NO WHITE SUGAR!

Today begins week 2 on my journey to fitness and health.  I must say that my 8 times around the track (2miles) was a lot easier today than it was last Tuesday.  But my muscles are still like jelly (and I'm sweating).

My trainer, Kara, has me on a nutrition plan based on Jackie Warner's book Eat More, Cheat More, and Lose More. I have not purchased this book yet, but it is on my "to do" list today.

I am hopeful with this new life program, because I lost 6 pounds and I am not craving the things I used to (i.e. sugary foods, bread, etc.). 

I am supposed to eat five meals a day EVERYDAY: breakfast, lunch, and diner, plus a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack.  Kara suggests eating every 3 hours.  I also need to limit my intake of whole grains to no more than twice a day.  Which is so different than my history with Weight Watchers and other programs.  I am not to eat white sugar, flour, nor rice.  And no milk.  However, I do put milk in my protein shakes.

I have also given up alcohol.  I have not had a drink since last Sunday.  Yes, I love my one beverage a day...but I don't even crave it.  Crazy, huh?  Yeah, I know.

The other crazy part is the 3 liters of water I need to consumer every day.  That is 101 fluid ounces.  The first few nights I peed 3 times!  I felt like I was pregnant again.  However, now I am only getting up once a night.

Here is to another week!

Fruit of the Spirit - Love

I had intended on spending time with a new daily devotional.  However, I got stuck on the Day 2 readings about Sowing the Seed in the Love chapter.  I have not finished the section at this point.  However, I plan on revisiting the book tomorrow morning.

First of all, Ms. Manning (the author of Harvesting the Fruit of the Spirit) starts the section off with a beautiful illustration of Love:

"Love is the greatest emotion known to man; it rules the world.  Love is the essence of God's Spirit, for He encompasses love." page 7

She follows that up with another lovely statement:

"Love is an action; therefore, it is always busy expressing itself." page 8

But then, on page 10, Ms. Manning brings up a movie I believe was highly overrated and borderline snuff film.

Ms. Manning states, "Jesus knew the torture depicted in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ would only be a shadow of the actual torment and humiliation that would be thrust upon him."

As a lover of language, the author's editor should have reread the above sentence.  What the sentence says is that Jesus knew of Gibson's movie and the torture scenes would be only a shadow.  Place a comma between "torture" and "depicted" and another one between "Christ" and "would" and I think Ms. Manning would have achieved what she truly meant.  Regardless, bringing up this gory movie was really a road block for me.

I understand that many of the Christian community encouraged their flocks to see (literally flock) the movie.  Not long ago I decided to watch the movie myself.  I was curious what was so moving in the motion picture that wasn't described in the Bible itself.  The movie was well acted, the costuming was lovely, and the scenery was very authentic looking.  However, the gratuitous blood, depicted in a few scenes, warranted me to push the fast forward button on the remote more than once.

The point that really disturbed me was that the author had to use The Passion to connect her readers to Jesus's horrid torture and death.  Is it necessary to bring up a movie that was obviously cinematic in nature (i.e. squirting blood from a wound after days hanging on the cross with no food or water).  But squirt Jesus did...all over on lookers.

Okay, I am done with my issue of the book.  The section ended with a word that I never knew the exact meaning before: agape.  So I looked it up.  Agape is a Greek word that has been translated to mean God's love in the Christian faith.  I love thinking of God's love on a different level than humans.  His unconditional love is something we should strive to achieve, but could never measure. 

So onto the next part of Sowing the Seed.  Hopefully I can complete the entire section tomorrow and leave the other 3 parts for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Hopefully nothing as frustrating as The Passion will come up again.

Fruit of the Spirit - Day 1

I have started a new daily devotional!

Today I began a new journey: learning the fruits of the spirit using a lovely book from Wanda J. Manning.

The nine fruits of the spirit are: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance.  Each day I will be reading a portion of the above book and let you know how the text and scripture move me.

Each "fruit" is sectioned (tee hee) into four parts: Sowing the Seed, Watering the Seed, Cultivating the Seed and Harvesting the Fruit.

If you want to join...you can get the book from Barnes and Nobel as well as Amazon.

cha cha cha CHANGES!

Today I have begun a new journey.  One that I have tried before and failed miserably.  What is that you might wonder?  Well, reader, I have hired a personal trainer.

I have been very depressed and stressed lately.  My body, my hair...everything.  So last Wednesday I hired a sitter and got a make-over.  My hair (cut and colored), a manicure and a pedicure were all on the schedule.  While I was at Salon E getting these awesome services, I learned about Elements of Exercise.  EOE takes up most of the building and the back area is the salon and spa.  Cool, right?!  One location to make you feel beautiful: inside and out.

So on Friday, after doing a bit of soul searching, I called and set up a meeting with a Personal Trainer.  On Saturday morning (10am) I met with Kara.  She really made me feel comfortable and she wasn't sticky skinny.  She was fit and healthy looking.

This morning, at 7am, I was at Elements of Exercise getting my first session of personal training.  Boy, it was quite a workout.  However, I also got nutrition information and tips on how I won't be on a diet.  I need a full body flush out: chemicals gone, unhealthy food gone, and positive and healthful food put in.  But more than anything I am just in need of a head to toe make-over.

What really did it for me was when I looked in the wall of mirrors at my body.  Who was that fat girl standing next to Kara?  Was that me?  It was a sobering moment, and one I will NEVER EVER forget.

So here is the first of many blogs to come regarding the journey to overall fitness.  Wish me luck!