Credit to Ellie (let me just take this chance to plug her blog: http://ellieundone.blogspot.com/) for helping me come up with these.
1) don't try to please anyone other than God
2) stop drinking
3) read Bible, pray, develop personal relationship with God
4) don’t go to male friends for help unless absolutely necessary
Now, these aren’t going to be easy. For example, number 2. I went out yesterday, not worried about getting too drunk cuz I only had £4.50 in my purse. Well, my friend Sam’s dad bought me a vodka and coke at The Goose and then Sam and I went to the Manor and she offered to buy me drinks. Did I refuse? No. I mean, who would turn down free drinks, right? But later, feeling like utter crap, I realised I’d probably drunk too much. I’m proud to say I did turn down cigarettes though. I guess I’m just taking this one step at a time.
Number 1 – anyone that knows me will know I try way too hard to please my friends. I like to make everyone happy and generally do what I’m told. When it comes to God, I’m not so great. I go to church every Sunday, I pray occasionally but really, I have a habit of friends over God. I guess it’s cuz I can’t see God. There’s always that ‘what if?’ nagging at the back of my mind, ‘what if God’s not real and I’ve given up everything for no reason?’. My friends, well, I know they’re real. But I’ve come to realise that whatever I do, they’ll never be completely satisfied. So living for God: well, if He’s real, I’ve got a free ticket to a neverending holiday, which is pretty cool tbh! If He’s not (and that is such a tiny ‘if’, because I’ve seen so much that proves He is real), have I really wasted my life by not wrecking my liver? By not sleeping with every guy that comes along? I doubt I’ll ever regret things like that. So maybe now it’s time to give it a go - what have I got to lose?
Number 3 - I so want to do this! I’ve gone back to church, started praying more, but where do I start with reading the Bible? It’s a pretty huge book! If anyone actually has ideas on this, PLEASE comment! As for a relationship with God, I guess by reading the Bible and praying that’ll sort of improve anyway.
Number 4 – I think this will actually be the easiest to stick to. I’ve made so many great girlfriends (and by that I mean, friends who are female!) lately that I don’t need to go to guys. In the past, guys were the only people who would listen to me ramble on about my problems, but not anymore (thanks to all my new friends at KCC for being there).
Now that I’ve posted these for the world to see, I’m going to want to stick to them. Does that mean I’m automatically breaking number 1?
Number 3:
ReplyDeleteI suggest starting with John's Gospel, coz it's generally good to start with the story of Jesus. John is good coz you just get right into the action instead of getting a massive list of Jesus's genealogy, but all the gospels are a good place to start.
Then if you want to know more about how the church first began and what the first disciples did once Jesus had ascended in heaven 'Acts' does that (lots of cool Holy Spirit stuff). 'Romans' is good for christian theology. Then the letters i personally like to read coz they're quite encouraging.
revelation - you can if you want but its a bit random and other books are probably going to be more useful to you :P
Then genesis is a bit more hardcore, but it's probably the most important book in the Old Testament (without it we wouldnt know about the fall and the fact that sin is not part of Gods original plan, and consequently the importance of Jesus' sacrifice)
Exodus similarly is important to read as it has fundamental stuff in it (God saving a nation, the Ten Commandments, and the beginning of a cycle that follows in the rest of the Old Testament)
For now skip leviticus. it gets really tedious. its basically all the civil and legal laws the hebrews had -dont eat pork etc. The 10 commandents are the only ones we have to worry about (as they are the 'moral laws' if you want to research that you can :P)
Then i would suggest looking online for the chronological order of the books of the bible, coz there not in order in the standard bible. but summed up: Isreal is in the promised land, divides into two kingdoms (isreal and judah), they fall and are taken into captivity, they come out of captivity but God is no longer with them in his manifest presence. then 400 years of silence and then Jesus is born.
The old testament is basically israel loves God, israel forgets God and worships other gods, bad things happen, God sends a prophet to remind them to come back to him, sometimes israel listens sometimes israel doesnt, israel is sorry and begs God to come back to them.
Then this happens again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. but each individual story is interesting and worth reading :P
http://carm.org/bible-chronology-old-testament
there you go :) happy reading :P lol x
Whoa! When you said you were writing an essay, I didn’t realise you meant literally! ;) Thank you so much for all that advice! Definitely less vague than ‘read your Bible’ which is something a lot of people say to me. Will start with John, then come back and re-read your comment. <3
ReplyDeleteGlad i could help :) xx
ReplyDeleteWith the bible you can start with the gospels matthew mark luke and John, really focus on one of them, or get one of those bible in a year websites. Hope this helps x
ReplyDeleteI was gonna put something to help with Bible reading but Jess did it amazingly- always feel free to come to me if you need a chat about absolutely anything! The one thing I would say about the bible is exodus is good and useful but there is a lot about measurements of the tabernacle etc. which, for someone just starting out on reading the bible may get a bit dull...but yeh all I can say is what the others already have! Matthew mark luke john acts romans, 1 corinthians, 2 corinthians, genesis...i dont know after that :L xxx
ReplyDeletethanks Sian :) x
ReplyDeletelol thanks Gabby! will definitely keep that in mind, I often need a chat - I'm warning you though, I never shut up! :P xxx