Freedom in Christ [from Galatians]

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the a yoke of slavery." ~Galatians 5:1

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law in fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, emnity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkeness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peach, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." ~Galatians 5:13-24 [emphasis added]

I was going to add my 2 cents on legalism in the church and our freedom in Christ, but for now I'll let the Word stand for itself.

~eek, sorry about the colors, I'm going to leave them though as I have colored them on purpose~

They will know we are Christians by our love

I wrote a note on facebook this morning. I will repeat it here:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." ~John 13:34-35

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." ~Galatians 6:9-10

I came across a website that shows, in a collection of articles and opinions, the journey of a Christian from faith to skepticism to rejection of Christianity. I will not post the site as I do not think his message is one to share. But he does make an excellent point. He cannot accept Christianity because Christians, who are supposed representatives of Christ, do not love. And if true disciples are known by their love, there must not be any.
This breaks my heart.
And so I will now apology to many of you, mainly those that I know from high school, that I have not shown love to you. I like to argue and I like to be right and so I apology for hateful things that I have said and misrepresenting my Christ.
I cannot apologize for other "Christians," sometimes I wish the wackos would all be quiet. What I can say is that I hope and pray for a change. Starting with me. That we, my fellow followers of Christ, will show our love. That being a Christian will mean we are different. That we will start living that we are not of this world and that people would know it. That they will KNOW we are Christians by our LOVE. That they will know CHRIST by our LOVE.

I still do not agree with social justice [ie by the government and not individually and within the church] and politically I remain conservative. I cannot guarantee that I will not comment on your posts with reasons why I disagree. But I hope to do so in a spirit of love not of a sense to be right.

wordpress?

Playing around with switching to a blog on wordpress. I think I will be able to format my blog a little more professionally with different features that I am not able to figure out on here! I'll let you know if I decide to go with it.

Jump!

Trying to jump back into the Etsy scene after a long hiatus after the birth of my sweet "baby Hay" (as his little friends call him).

I went ahead and listed some of my Christmas themed items. Sorry that is is not even October yet, but the response has been good, so apparently people are looking already!

I was featured in another treasury, my 2nd ever, which you can find here.

Working on creating more dishcloth sets. I love cotton and dishcloths workup relatively quickly and so they satisfy my project ADD.

I'm looking into having a giveaway or contest in the near future. So check back for that!

Hello

Why hello! I've missed you.
Let's just jump in like I have been posting for the last 7 months!

My church that my family has attended for the last nearly 5 years is no more. A lot of misdirection, hurt, deception, love, growth, community I will gloss over and say that we are in the process of looking for a new church home.

Looking for a new church is hard. Meeting new people is hard. New people don't know your history and where you are coming from.

But it can also be exciting. New people don't know your history! :)

We trust that God will find the right place for us. In the meantime, we are visiting some area churches. We have visited the same church the last two weeks and are enjoying the atmosphere. I have confidence that God will direct us to where to go and I pray for His guidance for my old church friends in finding new homes.