A Faith Restored, A Life Defined
To write this paper I had to face issues that as a person I have been putting off for over ten years. For as long as I can remember I have believed in what I can only describe as God. I was raised in a Christian home and sought after God with a very open heart. I made my relationship with God my reason to get up every morning. As I got older, I started seeing things differently. I noticed that people I looked up to and saw as mentors were using the Bible and what I was taught was God 's word to condemn. I started researching the Bible on my own and found instances where the God I loved had reacted in ways that a human might, with jealousy, vengeance, and wrath. It was something I could not understand.
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My mentor proceeded to remind me that God so loved the world that He gave His only son to us, knowing what would happen, to save the world. She then sent me to read Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." At the time I thought I understood this, but not until now that I am a mother can I more fully comprehend it. As a child, we rely on our parents for guidance and protection. We trust them to know better than we do. Sometimes as parents we will allow our child to fall, or even fail so that they will discover how to get back up. We know it will cause pain, but we also know that is a lesson that needs to be learned.
Everything Happens For A Reason.
Almost three years ago, I had my first miscarriage. I was roughly nine weeks pregnant, and the experience was devastating. The darkness and depression that I have struggled with my whole life were rearing its way towards me again. My fiancé and I decided to try again, and we got pregnant just a few months later. Knowing I have had complicated pregnancies in the past we were extremely careful, but unfortunately about nine weeks into that pregnancy I once again miscarried. I remember crying on the bathroom floor feeling at my lowest point and praying. Something inside me, my spirit, believed that despite this tragedy I was still growing as a person. Maybe one day I would
Faith in Christ has given me a unique life filled with optimism and purpose. From a young age, I have been raised in a home where I was taught about the love of Christ. Not only at home did I learn about Christ, but at school and at church. Thus, my life has been filled with experiences that have amplified my faith. For example, when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I found that my relationship with Christ grew. Through all of the difficult circumstances that I have faced, faith in Christ has given me the encouragement that I need to persevere through any situation. Additionally, faith has influenced my decision making, which is why I strive to make all my decisions and live my life according to faith-based principles. This means
Pulling up at the hospital; I had no idea what I was about to endure for the first time. I walked to the end of the hall to see someone that meant so much to me laying there lifeless. I stood at the foot of his hospital bed; for a moment it seemed as if time had frozen. I was there with one other person when two nurses walked in to tell me “we see no signs of improvement, we are going to pull the plug”. I stood there and watched my best friend breath his last breath. When they allowed me to go back into the room, I immediately checked to see if he was still breathing. I walked to his side, rested my hand on his cold shoulder and prayed to God that this wasn’t real. Later flowers were piled up in the worst way and no one knew what to say or if they should speak at all. This amazing person was buried and I blamed God for the loss of his life and the physical pain that flooded my body. I couldn’t accept what had happened and told myself that it wasn’t real. I was so angry at God for making me go through this that I had lost all faith in him. My relationship with God was so amazing before I experienced this that I couldn’t understand why he would want this for me. I continued to question everything that I had ever known that I didn’t know what to believe in
God can be a very controversial subject depending on who you are talking to in this day and time; some people believe, some believe in other Gods and then there are other groups who do not believe in anything beyond this life. God has always had to deal with those who do not believe. God has been persecuted since the beginning of time and has proven over and over that is very much who he says he is. This paper will give you a better understanding of who God is, how humanity is affected by their beliefs, who Jesus is and how he is the way to the heavenly father and creator as well as how restoration will impact our lives as well as the beliefs I hold in God and how everything he created relies on the next in some way to survive.
This is a spiritual infancy and is centered around self (Dyslin, 2008). It is here that often recovery becomes the idol in the individual’s life and once again they attempt to take their will back. Although an individual’s Higher Power in their personal spirituality may not be the Christian God, it still follows the commandant of placing no other Gods first. For the recovering individual this means to consistently on a daily basis hand their will and life over to the God of their
This was not my first pregnancy , but it would prove to test my faith like it has never been tested before. I spent many nights in that old recliner pounding at my thoughts. Maybe, If had done something that GOD was angry at me for, or maybe he turned his back on me. I try to live my life right that was pleasing to GOD. I prayed daily. I walked by faith and not by sight. I gave my last to help a fellow man. I prayed for my family more than I prayed for myself. So when, the doctor told me 5 months ago that my twins had Spina Bifida I didn’t understand. Not one but both girls had Spina Bifida. Spina Bifida is a birth defect where there is incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord. I even blame myself because as an License Practical Nurse for 11 years I was aware that Spina bifida was linked to an folic acid deficit. My doctor quickly reassured me that this was not the case. All my lab work was okay. My faith taught me that GOD don’t make
As I read Fundamentals: Enduring Convictions of the Restoration, through the lens of this assignment, I gained new insight and a different appreciation for his visionary calling to provide a theological perspective that aligns us with a larger Christian understanding.
Five days had passed this time since anyone had heard from my mother. I remember praying to God to protect her from harm and for me to find her. The next day she showed up, but not in the way we had hoped. One morning as I was getting ready for school my sophomore year in high school, my phone rang to the voice of my stepfather. My stepfather had told me he heard a call come over the dispatch scanner at his work and my mother’s name was mentioned. The sheriff had informed my stepfather that my mother had been involved in an accident. My stepfather asked me to go to the emergency room and see what condition my mother was in because he lived a half hour away from the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I found my mother cut out of her clothes, covered in her own urine, massive amounts of blood all over her body, and lying lifeless on life support on the table. At this point, no one knew whether my mother would be okay. My mother had bleeding on the brain as well as a tear in her shoulder, a shattered face, and a chest tube draining fluid from her lung which had collapsed. All I could do was pray! My mother’s life was in God’s hands now. Three days later she woke
One memory that this reading brought up to me was when I was in undergrad and I was raped by someone whom I believed to be my friend. Before this incident happened I wouldn't have called myself very religious, but I trusted God and the word of God. I was very involved with church and attended very regularly. After the incident happened I no longer trusted in God. I knew he was still watching over me, but I felt betrayed and I felt that he wasn't there for me when I needed him the most. With this I struggled for a long time with trying to get over the incident and trying to just get through school. I knew there was help, but I had fallen in such a deep hole there was nothing anyone could do. I found myself not worthy of things, I drank more and more each day, and I just felt like I hit rock bottom. One day my mother thought that I should attend church service on a Sunday so I did. I went to church and talked with church family. I was scared that I was going to be judged over what I had become. It was amazing I had struggled so much that after talking to my church family and allowing God back in I saw that God was the only way. Once I had opened my eyes and heart and let the word of God and God back into my life it was a major turn around for my life.
Over the span of four months, each week I would regularly meet with a former colleague of mine by the name of Terrion Austin. Terrion recently moved from Nebraska to Tennessee, due to his job opening that presented itself that would allow for him to be closer to both him and his wife’s family. Terrion reached out to me over the summer, due to the fact that he was extremely unsure in his faith. He felt that whenever he read the bible he was never felt satisfied once done reading. This frustrated him tremendously. In addition to his frustration, Terrion was often confronted by members from his job that would frequently ask him questions that he did not feel he could answer. Moreover, his inability to answer did not come from a lack of knowing the bible; however, it was quite the opposite. Terrion, like most young Christian, grew up
For Part I of this assignment, you will look up the following passages in the Bible to learn about certain characteristics of God and how they shape the Christian Worldview. This is a brainstorming exercise, in which the listing of ideas is more important than writing. Consider using a bullet list or outline to discuss elements and sub elements.
When I was 11 years old, my father died. Not knowing what to do with that reality and the emotions that came with it, I turned to my mother. My mother has always been my rock, so I was confident that she would put this entire situation into perspective. She explained to me how my dad had been sick for a while, and how god did not want to see him suffer any longer, so he called my father home. When I attended the funeral, it occurred to me that this would be the last time I would see my father. As the time of grieving progressed, I grew unmotivated, uninterested, and depressed. In middle school, I joined an after school program called Teen Hype. Teen Hypes's goal was to empower youth to be their very best self. After joining this program, my
What is faith? Scripture tells us in Hebrews 11:1 that “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV) Faith means trusting that various situations will provide results best suited to help us in some way during our life. I’m sure others may have a different opinion; however, throughout my life, that has been the most accurate description.
The Dynamics of Faith is an in-depth look at what faith is from a theological perspective. Tillich seems to be replying to all of the writers we have read thus far and placing their arguments within the context of faith. Nowhere is this more apparent than on page 24, in his discussion of community. He rightly acknowledges that faith is usually seen in its sociologic setting. He then proceeds to sort out the different claims, saying that
What is faith? Faith is something different to everyone. If you asked a hundred different people, it is possible that you would get many diverse answers. Religious faith and non-religious faith are two very distinct terms. Faith holds an extremely complex meaning when discussing it in the context of religion. Faith is a belief. That holds true to every religious and non-religious person. Every faith involves a decision. It is not about what we claim to believe, but what we actually do believe, that is true faith. Throughout this paper, I am going to discuss Christian faith, how it pertains to daily life and Christianity as a whole. I also intend to delve into George W. Forell's discussion of Christian faith and analyze and
The concepts of religious faith, theology, belief and spirituality are all interconnected and very easy to get mixed up. This is because they all have something to do with the other. Richard P. Mcbrien explains how religious faith, theology, beliefs, and spirituality are all connected. Theology follows faith and belief follows Theology. Faith is our personal knowledge of God through human experiences and our openness to his love. Theology is our understanding of faith as revealed by God and our articulation of it. Beliefs are accepting these theological conclusions as true even without clear and convincing evidence. Spirituality is the practice of these beliefs, letting the spirit guide ones life. Although it’s easy to mix up the meaning of faith and belief or get confused the difference in understanding faith in Theology and being filled by God in your spirituality it’s pretty easy to grasp once you see how each influences the other.