The Nature of Sin...Let's Make a Deal.

"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today's post is going to be a little interesting. I was inspired to write this from a small bible study group that I attend on Wednesdays. One of the members was talking about the nature of sin and how it relates to "Let's make a deal." I liked it so much that I want to share this concept with all of you :) It's that good :)

Let's Make a deal is a show where the host will ask you questions, and if them right you can win cash or prizes. However, the host will also try to make deals with you for something behind one of the three doors, and sometimes its better, sometimes it's not.

Here is the example he gave. A woman was asked three trivia questions. After guessing them all right she won $4,000. After she jumped for joy, the host asked her, "Let me make a deal with you, you can either keep the $4,000, or you can have what's behind door number 2." The woman decided to risk the money and take door number two. The host opens the door, and there was nothing in it.

THAT IS WHAT SIN IS LIKE. Okay...we can't measure God's grace to $4,000. But it if fullfilling and it makes our lives whole and happy. Sin, is the temptation to walk away from God's grace into temporary happiness that in the end leads you empty inside. Just like door number 2. We get so excited to find out what's behind door number two that when it opens and realize there is nothing in it, we endure pain. That's exactly what we are supposed to feel. Pain is a signal of sin. Being unhappy is a possible sign that you are putting something else other than God in place of your happiness. Let's not invest too much of our time on many "door number twos."

The verses today do a good job at focusing on the destruction that sin can cause on a person. All of these are true. Me specifically, when I sin, the results are usually jealousy, selfish ambition, and division. I also would include enorous amounts of unhappiness and dissatisfaction with my life. That is a story for another time, but I want you all to know. That sin is very real, and it's normal to sin because of the fact that we all live in a fallen world. However, through Knowledge we can recognize some sins before we commit them. However, sometimes door number two looks too good to pass up. Don't pass up God's grace for door number two.


That's all I'm saying,

Much Love

Oddball

There is nothing more Powerful than Confidence and a Smile :D

"Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:31) (ESV)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to touch on Confidence because I feel like it is something that I think many people struggle with in life. I'm sure I covered this topic previously but honestly, repetition doesn't hurt in my opinion. As we get older and mature, there are always new insights on the same topics. We can never stop learning. So what I'm saying is, most likely what I'm going to say in this post will not be the same as any of my previous posts on confidence.

Well, today I want to focus on Confidence to express who we truely are. Just like the verse is saying. We are of high value. If you guys caught my video blog on intimate relationships, you all would know how I feel about people of High value----they are addicting and attractive people to be around.  If God values us so strongly. We should value ourselves with just as much love as God loves us. Yeah, I could go on and talk about how we should exercise, be healthy, read our Bibles, and treat others with respect as a way to show how valuable we really are. However, therre is that glue that sticks all of the those actions in life together...and that my friends, is Confidence.

As Christians, we need to be confident in who we are. It's our job to showcase Christianity in a way that people would look up to and not despise.Let us be the inspirational people in life and not the punch lines in shows like Family Guy and South Park. If you haven't heard of those shows before, don't worry about it. :) It's not the greatest representation of American society. You're okay :).Having confidence makes it easier (not saying easy) to showcase our faith well.

Throughout my spiritual journey, I try my very best to be kind to others and show them how truely valuable they are to me as well as Christ. I have been through depression, and suicidal thoughts a couple years ago, I know what it feels like to think that you have no value in life and no one cares. In all honestly, a LOT of people care. As hard as it is to see sometimes. They really do.

Now, on confidence again. Do NOT be afraid to say "hi" and smile to people. You never know who's life you could be saving with a little gesture like that. You want to know what saved my life. A stranger waved and smiled at me. This man achknowledged my existence and it was enough for me to burst into tears of Joy and hope for a better life.

It's amazing what the power of Confidence and a Smile can do for others.

Do not forget that.

Love you guys,

Oddball

It's good to be Humble, just not Too Humble

 

"He leads the humble in what is right,

and teaches the humble his way."(Psalm 25:9)

 

 

G'day Oddballers,

 

It's a little later in the day considering I had a busy morning and a very long day, but I want to touch on humility because I find this very fitting for me as of right now.

 

I was always the A student in high school. I was book savy and didn't have to put a lot of effort in to excel in high school. I come to college and with good study habits I have no problem with the work at all, however, it doesn't necessarily mean that I am good at everything. I know my faults. I know what I"m not good at. I know what I am good at. I honestly don't like talking about my grades or my achievements because there are so many. I don't like showing off everything I've done in my life because the list would be too long. I really just want to forget about it all and just focus on improving myself as a woman of God and the way I treat people.

 

It's honestly hard for me to accept comments like "You are going so far in life." "You are so smart." and other comments. I appreciate it and I honestly do believe it, it's just hard for me to deal with the pressure of being placed in a tier that I don't think I deserve.

 

That's what I want to talk about today, Humility is great when it comes to humbliing yourself around others whom you dissagree with and  a whole lot of other things, but I also think that being too humble can really harm the potential in people.

 

The verse I chose today does a really great job at showing humilty in a way that is balanced well. Learning to me humble before God and using that as a platform for humbling yourself in other situations. However, it's important to realize that we need to learn to not be overly humble and learn to accept and appreciate the compliments we recieve in life. I know it's difficult and a lot of the times it isn't easy for me to do at all. I'm harder on myself than many people think. I'm sure in some way you can relate to these kinds of feelings.

 

It's a normal thing to feel, and nomatter what happens the rest of our day. Let us soak in this verse and learn how to balance humility in our lives.

 

Much Love

 

Oddball

Encourage Each Other Everyday

"Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." (Psalm 55:22)
 

Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to briefly touch on encouraging others through tough times. Recently I know many people who are struggling in some area of their life. It's not an easy thing to tackle an obstacle alone. So encouragement is so important to them right now. That is why I wanted to touch on it.

Nomatter how simple or how elaborate the problem is, I find it important to tackle each problem equally. It's like sin. No one is more of a sinner than anyone else because, well, we all sin. It's like putting a lable on how happy you are. Or who is prettier. It's all perception, not definition. So don't throw someone's problem under the rug if they come to you about it. I'm so guilty of this sometimes. I push someone's problem aside because I think that it isn't as important as someone's else's problem. That is just sad and dissapointing in my opinion, and we should STOP IT!

Just like the verse is saying, we should cast our burdens onto the Lord, but we also should be encouraging others to do the right thing when they are sturggling with something as well. There is nothing more powerful to me than someone who can stand by you through those tough hurdles in life. Not only does it make you a good friend, it represents Christianity in a positive light. Which should be all of our goals in life. Let us be the light in the darkness. Be the lightbulb that never burns out, the flame that never dies. We have to be encouraging others to stay strong and that they can get through it.

Suicide rates are increasing more and more each year. Don't you think some encouragement and brotherly love could potentially lower that statistic?? I think so. The more we tackle now, the less we have to tackle later. Let us be strong in our faith :) Encourage the people around you. Regardless of their circumstances.

Much Love and God Bless,

Oddball 

Pure in Heart. The Goal we should all be striving to Reach

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today is the last day of my first week of the new semester. Things are going quite swell, and I hope that it is the same for most of you. Even if you aren't in school. I hope your days have been less stressful this week. Today, I want to talk about pure hearts, because I believe it is the secret to my happiness and the reason why I can't stop smiling all the time.

Correction. There are a couple reasons why I smile all the time:

1. The Holy Spirit Dwells within me.
2. I find it pointless to let the small stuff affect the way I present myself to others.
3. I strive for a pure heart.

We aren't going to talk about the first two today, but we are going to talk about this idea of a pure heart and why it is so important.In my opinion, having intentions in your daily life that match up with ideas from the Bible is what I call a pure heart. Having the right thing in your mind and body, and doing whatever it takes is the foundation of good Christianity representation. Pure hearts is an awesome way to start if you are new to your Christ journey and don't know where to begin. It's a basic but extremely difficult idea.

So many times we think negative things but don't exactly say them out loud to those people. Truth is, that is not showing a pure heart that way. NOT having the negative thoughts in the first place is pure in my opinion. Yes, I do realize that because we are in a fallen world, there is no way we can reach absolute purity in our lives. That  is just a given, but we can get close. Noticing those thoughts, erasing them, and moving on is  a step in the right direction. That to me, is exactly what imperfect people should do in our world. Think more positively about yourself. Think more positively about life. Think more positively about Christianity. A Great way for people like you and me to work at making our hearts as pure as they can be so as we stand before God, we have a good representation of who we are. Raw and exposed to all truth.


That's all I really want to say today. I could ramble on and on but I think that being concise is more effective in this case.

Also I would like to add that I appreciate all of your comments and emails challenging my ideas as well. I love to hear different opinions on topics. I know I'm not perfect, and I konw that I'm not a guy and cannot speak for them. So thank you for your insight. It is extremely helpful and I like hearing from you.

Thank you for all you guys do to make my Christ journey and yours better for everyone.

God Bless,

Oddball

Respect is mutual...and yes, I'm talking to You Ladies

"Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to brush on a topic that has been bothering me for a little while. Earlier I was talking about in one of my video blogs on acknowledgement and  how women should notice the little things more that a guy does for them instead of worrying about the major things that they don't do. Going off of that, there has been a few things that I have observed in the past few months that I want to touch on. Guys, you honestly have nothing major to worry about today. You're off the hook. It's the ladies I want to talk to today. I want to talk about women respecting the guys.

YES. respect is mutual. I know LOL. It's a hard one to understand. The women reading this are probably thinking, "Well, I do respect the guys in my life." I'm sure you do to some degree, but there are a few technical things that I don't necessarily like that many women do.

What women should realize is that part of respecting guys is the way we dress, the way we talk, and how we present ourselves. Ladies, I'm not saying all \ladies, but if you decide to walk around town showing a lot of skin, guys are going to look at you. It's natural, I'm sure they can't necessarily help themselves. But honestly, the kind of attention you are getting isn't the best kind of attention. Respect the guys and  cover up a little bit. Not only is that modest, it makes it easier on the guys. I'm sure. I'm not a guy so I wouldn't know persay if that  helps or not. But logically, it makes perfect sense to me.

This verse I chose today really touches on the Golden Rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated. So what I'm saying is.

LADIES: IF YOU WANT GUYS TO RESPECT YOU. RESPECT THEM AND RESPECT YOURSELF.

Be nice. Be polite. Don't try to act like a guy because you aren't. LOL I  notice sometimes that girls will swear and talk like guys just to sound a bit cooler around the guys you like or are interested in. To me, it's important to not lose yourself while pursuing a guy. That's another talk for another time. For now, I feel that guys would respect you more if you give them respect by the way you talk and act around them. Don't swear all the time, be gentle, do nice things, communicate. Give them the respect they deserve, and I'm sure you will get awesome respect from them in return.

It's a give and take relationship..

I"m done ranting for today. But I encourage you to read the verse and really soak it in.

Much love everyone


Oddball

Don't Take the Easy Route in Life

"As a door swings back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in bed." (Proverbs 26:14) (NLT)
 

Morning Oddballers,

I think all of us are guilty of hitting the snooze button on all of our alarm clocks at some point. We just don't want to get up because it's the easier thing to do. This verse really touches on taking the easy way out of things, and that's what I want to briefly touch on this morning for everyone.

Laziness in my opinion isn't an easy thing to fix because everyone is fascinated with making their lives easier in any way possible. Why do you think that products like the Shake Weight got so much money in the first place?? Or what about diet pills?? Take a pill every morning instead of hitting the gym. Use a microwave instead of the oven. Go to a fast food restaurant instead of cooking your own food at home. The examples are endless. Americans especially, feed off of the idea of "Let's make your life easier." or "If it does the work for you, it's awesome." Why is the epidemic of Laziness catching on so fast?? WEll, because there are so many excuses we can have to be lazy.

"I don't want to go running because my stomach hurts and I just want to relax."
"I don't want to cook dinner because I had a long day at work."

etc. etc.

What I have to say to this is....IT'S TIME TO STOP. LOL

We need to stop cheating ourselves out of God's best for us. Don't take the easy route..If you know what you have to do, and it isn't easy. More than likely it's what you should be doing. So do it.

I realize that it is a lot harder than it sounds. But I think it is something that we can give a really good attempt. Let's try to notice our laziness and just fix it.

I wish you all the best on your Un-laziness Journey. :)) Good luck on your faith walk.

Much Love and God Bless,

Oddball 

Let's face it..I'm a dreamer, and You may be too.

"Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you." (Job 22:21) (NLT)
 

G'Day Oddballers,

I want to touch on  some ideas that I don't think many people cover often, and that is goals and dreams that we all have, and how that connects to our Christian faith. So today, I will attempt to shed some light on what I have found over the years of being a dreamer. First of all, what the heck is a dreamer? To me, it's a person that has a lot of goals and passions in life. They always want to go somewhere, do something, and be somebody. I know that I have so many likes and hobbies that of course I can't do every single thing at once. I just like a lot of things. I am passionate about many things. I have a very long to-do list before I die. It's only natural for me to tackle everything one at a time. If what I'm saying reminds you of yourself. Welcome to my world, and you have come to the right place. hahaha.

This verse does a good job at reflecting hopes and dreams in a great way. If you have them, tell God about it. I don't know how many times we tell all these people what we want to do in life but never bother to tell God all the hopes and dreams we have for our lives. We should be doing that. For sure. I can't stress that enough.

So many people come to God complaining or asking something of God that is troubling them in their lives. Why don't we also add some of our hopes, dreams, and desires. God will listen nomatter what, but I think it's just a more emotionally balanced conversation. After a prayer that has blessings, stresses, and goals, I feel more satisfied with my prayer expirience. If I just focus on one of those areas, I feel like I'm not covering everything I would like to cover if I had a conversation with God.

I mean, What would we say to God if we met him in person?? I sure hope the first thing you say to him isn't "I need your help because my life sucks." I hope it is "God, I can't tell you how passionate I am about Biology."

I know for a fact that God wants to give us the desires of our hearts, but we NEED to turn to him and talk about it. For sure. I encourage you if you haven't already to start having those conversations like that with him. You may be surprised at the results you will get.

Much Love Today Everyone,


Oddball 

Trusting in God Even When it Seems Like He is Not There

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the god whom we serve is able to save us. he will rescue us from your power, Your Majest. But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, You Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up." (NLT) (Daniel 3:17-18)

Morning Oddballers,

Today is a start of a new semester for me. Honestly, it's going to be a little crazy. A lot of stuff has happened during winter break, and this new semester in college could bring anything else my way. So I want to touch on a subject that I think many of us are familiar with by using a piece of one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament. I want to talk about trusting God when it seems like he isn't there.

It sounds a LOT easier than it actually is. How many times have we have been angry over things we can't control? I have far too many times. We are frustrated because God should be blessing us all the time and everything should go smoothly if I'm a good Christian and obey his laws and commands.

Well, it doesn't really work that way.  A lot of times people have this idea of faith backwards. If God does X for me, then I will believe in God. So many people use this as a test for him. First of all, we shouldn't be testing God in this area. EVER. However, too many Christians do it. It's time to stop everyone. LOL
This people that are speaking in the verse were threatened that if they didn''t worship this idol, then they would be thrown into the blazing furnace. These men must of had some seriously powerful faith. They believed that nomatter what happened to them. Like death, or excruciating pain, they believe in God. Eventually, they were thrown into the furnace, and miraculously, nothing happened to them, and God was walking with them in the furnace. They stood their ground even for death. That is some seriously powerful faith.

That  is what we should be doing as Christians. Why should we have conditions met before we do anything for God?? STOP IT. right now. LOL


Have some faith nomatter what. Nomatter what terrible things come our way. Believe their is a God, don't make conditions for him.

I encourage you to challenge your faith this morning. I wish you the best of luck :))

Much Love and God Bless,

Oddball