Christianity Defined?!?!

I am going to start out with what I believe:

The Word of God
I believe that the Bible, comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, and has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. (1 John 17:17; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-21)
I believe the main two versions are in the Spirit of the original text > King James
Version, and New International Version> because I trust in the committee of
scholars that voted and agree on these two main translations as I am not a scholar
(1Timothy 3:1-16; 1 Timothy 5:1-17).
    a>The NIV Bible is translated by a world-class coalition of evangelical biblical
scholars who are all-out committed to the authority of Scripture and to
getting the words right. Learn more about the Committee on Bible
Translation. www.ibs.org
   b> James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.[8] The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were
members of the Church of England. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version
   c> I believe the Holy Spirit will provide the understanding in any version that
will speak to my heart the way God wills it. (John 10:27; Matthew 12:6-8) I
believe the Holy Spirit is still at work speaking God’s Word today in many
ways, and will until the return. (Acts 8:18-19; Romans 3:20; Hebrews 11-the
whole chapter) Abraham, Moses, Issac, Jacob, ect they did not have the Word
of God, but they knew His voice, and by faith they were saved.
The Trinity
I believe that there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons;
that these are equal in every divine perfection, and that they execute distinct but
harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence, and redemption. (Matthew
28:19; John 1:1-4; 1 John 5:7)
God the Father
I believe in God the Father, an infinite personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom,
power and love. I believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men,
that He hears and answers prayer, that He saves from sin and death all who come
to Him through Jesus Christ. (John 3:16-17; John 4:24; John 17:5)
Jesus Christ
I believe in Jesus Christ as God, the only begotten Son of the Father, conceived by
the Holy Spirit. I believe in His virgin birth as a human being, sinless life, miracles
and teachings. I believe in His substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection,
ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal visible
return to earth. (Isaiah 7:14; John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17;
Hebrews 1:2-3; 1 John 1:7)
The Holy Spirit
I believe in the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the
world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify, and
empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every
believer in Christ and that He is abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. (John 16:7-15; Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 John 14:26) a> I believe in praying in the Spirit as Hannah did in the temple, and as the disciples did in the room at Pentecost. (1 Samuel 1:13-17; Acts 2:4-21; 1 Cor 14:1-25)
Regeneration
I believe that all men are sinners by nature and choice. Therefore, they are under judgment. I believe that those who repent of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are transformed by the Holy Spirit. (John 1:12-13; John 3:16-18; Acts 20:21; Titus 3:5)
     a>I don’t believe it is my place to judge or condemn anyone. (Luke 6:27-31; Luke 6:37; Matthew 7:1-6; Titus 1:8-9; 1 Peter 3:8-12; 1 John 2:16 4:11; John 13:34-35; Roman 2:1-16)
The Church 
I believe in the universal church, a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members. I believe in the local church consisting of a company of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, work and fellowship. I believe that God has laid upon the members of the local church the primary task of giving the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. (Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:38-41; Ephesians 2:19-22, 5:25-27)
Christian Conduct
I believe that a Christian should live for the glory of God and well being of his fellowmen; that his conduct should be blameless before the world; that he should be a faithful steward of his possessions; and that he should seek to realize for himself and others the full stature of maturity in Christ. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 2:14-16; Colossians 3:17-23; 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18)
The End Times-another title for this belief is Futurism or that Revelations is a literal translation not symbolism.
I believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom. I believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal joy of the righteous, and the endless suffering of the wicked. (Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:18, 29; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:1-5)

Why am I doing this? It is important to know why I do what I do. It is important for me to be able to explain what I believe, and why to whomever. I believe in the great commission, which is to go out and tell others.

That all being said, I HATE that people die on the sole basis of what they believe. That is the main reason people came from England and other continents to form America to have the freedoms that are not available everywhere. I truly respect All Nations and forms of religion as I believe they are under God and it is your choice not to agree with me. I love that we can not agree! It makes me think!!

I came up with a chart awhile ago:

I fall within the wide arrow section. On the left side is light and the right side is dark.









This leads me to my research this weekend on Dispensationalism. You can Google it and read it for yourself, but be prepared, there is a lot of reading to do in order to fully understand it. My definition is a little loose: a Theological system to define who is closest to God in different times and era's.

There are different perspectives of  Dispensationalism:
1-Classical
2-Progressive
3-Covenant which encompasses Jewish descendants by flesh vs by spirit.
4-Supersessionism which states the church replaced Israel as defined by the Old Testament.

Some argue that the era of defining Dispensation is what lead to the multitudes of church separations throughout history. However, before the Dispensations was the Fundamentals which separate what Protestants believe verses the Catholic Church. Which is even defined further into the 5 Solae and encompasses Transubstantiation.

Transubstantiation=is the change whereby, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the bread and the wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist become, not merely as by a sign or a figure, but also in actual reality the body and blood of Christ.

In an effort to simplify all that into what I believe leads me to align to the 3 minimalist understanding of dispensation. I would like to pick out parts of the 5 Solae and agree with some of what Roger Williams talks about with the Universal Priesthood. I think that more than any other document or writing the separation between the Protestants and Catholics was Transubstantiation.

I personally love the respect and awe that each and every Catholic Mass presents when bringing a body of believers before Christ. The Saints of Catholicism are the examples of the disciples God was looking to form with the body of believers, as I believe we are all called to Sainthood. What catches me up is the 'Pharisee' attitude that comes with those in the Priesthood and in the governing body. I don't believe I am closer or further away from God because I am not the Pope or a priest or a nun. I believe God looks at all of our hearts and that is it. I am not a better person because I am a Jew or a Gentile or a Nazarene or a Mormon or someone who follows Wicka.

I love the song: We Believe.>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjZ01FcK0yk

At the very simplest form of all the different denominations on the right (refer to picture above) can be summed up or encapsulated to all stand and say:

We believe in God the Father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe.

There is no magic formula for learning Truth. 

1 Corinthians 1:21, 'Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.'

If you do a concordance search there are hundreds of verses on truth. I beg to argue that each man has to search for the truth that speaks the closest to what they know in their hearts. To measure it to what they know of the character of God. To look at it like the picture above in a light bulb. Just as a scientist tries to prove or disprove to formulate the particles that shook in the exact ways to form life. Or to identify dark matter and continue to theorize. We as a human race throughout culture, time, continents, man, or woman, the truth that God exists is real, is present, and is loving, is all the truth I need to continue to search for what I believe. 

I know my perspectives will change, my attitudes will change, the tangents of fundamentals vs dispensations vs Solae vs denominations; my truth emerges as this:

God exists. God is real, is present, and is loving. He sent His only begotten Son that whoever believes will have life. The Holy Spirit came to help guide us to Truth as God in us-our conscience.

What do you believe??

Dealing with ADHD From the helper perspective>>

In the last couple years my husband and daughter were diagnosed with ADHD and have been taking adderall vs ridaline. Both are stimulates to help ADHD people slow down their thoughts.

We didn't jump into medication very easily...if you read my last post about my experience with medication and doctors you understand why that is. Hubby's parents are also Organic Produce Farmers in PA and don't agree with most of what modern medicine has to offer as there is always organic ways to take care of what ails us in most cases according to the way they philosophize. We did try coffee as a stimulate only as well as coffee first. That helps a little, but not as a long lasting affect and not as a way to help facilitate understanding and learning.

As soon as our beautiful daughter started taking the medication, I saw a difference. All of a sudden she was no longer driving me insane every moment. She wasn't twitchy and could actually handle being still for more than 5 min as a time. My daughter could hold a conversation with me and used really words verses grunts and weird form of sign language. The biggest difference was with potty time. She had a really hard time potty training. She did great at night, but the accidents came during the day.Our daughter is filled with so many thoughts she doesn't have room to pay attention to the signs her body was giving her. It didn't really matter how many times we went through the potty process it didn't stick.

This was the same with school. It didn't matter how many hours we spent reading or working on writing or math it wasn't sticking. There just wasn't any room outside of the thoughts she was having. My daughter lived in her own head and in stories that she couldn't tell anyone about or articulate well enough to let anyone into it. She struggles in school and I have done all I can to be on top of what I see she knows and what she doesn't. How she learns is unique and time consuming. It is constant effort on our part as parents. Once we had our son we saw him acting in similar ways, but as a learned behavior. Once he was away from our daughter he was a different person. A few months after our daughter started on medication my hubby was started.

All of a sudden my marriage wasn't so much work on my part. I could relax the schedule of structure I had created to try and maintain balance. I shop off a weekly menu I create to help us save money and to help provide the structure hubby and daughter desperately needed and still do to this day. Before medication, if I had veered from the menu a bit emotional melt down would soon be followed. As broken as I was I took it as a personal attack every time. I think I have said this before, but I think we yelled at each other in every conversation we had for the first  years we were married as we struggled to figure out how to be One like the bible talks about. Hubby had his idea of how a woman was supposed to be, the roles she was to fulfill, and how she was supposed to talk to her husband. I didn't fit into most of those ideals and was rebellious, and hurting. Today, when we have a difference of opinion we are able to stop, pray, take turns talking, and continue the conversation without raised voices, most of the time. I am able to recognize the difference between an attack on my character and an explanation of feeling...again most of the time. It is still work, but it is about 10 times easier than ever before.

I recently started looking for a book to help me be even more empathetic with my husband's and daughter's conditions and found I Always Want to be Where I am Not  by Dr. Wes Crenshaw. I am so lucky to have found this book. He helped me understand my role with such detail that it left me little doubt as to what he ment. How to work through problems that come up. The story of the teens and early college age kids gave me a hope for my daughters future than I had had before I read the book. We are currently working on getting our daughter an IEP or Individual Education Plan to ensure she doesn't get 'Left Behind' and is able to fill in some of the holes she has in her education from K-3rd grade that she missed because of the lack of medication, but I am more hopeful that she will be a productive thriving member of society, be able to hold a job, and find the love of her life.

This fall, our daughter will be starting Middle School and our son Elementry school. I am anxious, but also excited for all that is to come. I feel like God has prepared me and set me up for successful family adventures that I get to give my kids despite all that I have gone through in my childhood. God has taken my mourning and turned it into gladness, my hurt into lessons, and my joy is being made complete!

The Psychology of it All.

After my sister died, my parents were very involved with Community Chapel and felt that counseling was not needed since we had God to help us through the tragedy.

I think I was about 12 when we started to see a family therapist and marriage counselor. I was very excited at that time to be in 'session' and think through all that I was seeing between my parents and with myself. I learned lots of counseling techniques and at some points would hold 'sessions' between my parents when the worse came to worse. I remember sitting on the couches in the living room with my mom on one side and my dad on the other as I mediated the conversations. This happened more than I can count. My dad had tried to commit suicide twice and been committed both times. Not knowing what Bipolar really was in the early '90's they had originally put my dad on Prozac (an upper). This was very bad. It took a long time to find the right medication to put my dad on through the years, and I think they are still changing it as they know more even today.When my mom separated from my dad the summer of 1993, I was 14. My mom was seeking counselors and worried that I would be scared for life from all my dad put us through. She didn't want to go back to the marriage counselor we had originally started seeing.

 She found one close to our apartment and I started going once a week or month to talk. Once my mom separated from my dad I told my dad I would not see him till he could prove he was medicated and stable. I remember my mom being really scared of my dad. He would follow us in a stalking kind of way. Part of the divorce agreement included a part that he was not allowed to come over or see me with out supervision. There was one time he had come over banging on the door. I was by myself and I had to call the police on him. That was a scary day. Anyway, I digress...the counselor was nice lady, had curly hair, glasses and I was able to easy fool her. I don't remember her name, but she got me to see my dad after two years, and tried to help me quit smoking, which I didn't do till about 2002 ish. Mom and I went to a monthly AA group that had a Teen group so I could have some group therapy too. I got alot of good tools out of AA but as my parents were not alcoholics and I was not going down that path it didn't and doesn't really apply to me. I left and went to college after having established a tentative relationship with my dad to be able to talk on the phone without screaming or falling apart. I was in MT, going to school part time and working three jobs when I decided I was done and wanted to moved to Spokane to try and make it on my own in the world for the first time. My dad helped me move and I started getting settled. A few months later my dad and step mom started telling me they were concerned I was bipolar just like my dad.

I sought out 5 psychologist and got a written letter from each stating that I was not bipolar and that my parents were just crazy. After months of agony, fights, out of desperation for it all to stop and to have a relationship with my dad I moved in with my dad and step-mom. They had me go to 5 more of their choosing, one of which told me that they were not going to stop taking me to see professionals till they got the diagnosis they were looking for and put me on medication so that I could be more controlled by them. Sick huh-yeah, yet I stayed and jumped through the hoops.

One fine spring day they found a counselor with New Life Counseling, which is supposed to be for alcoholics and drug addiction facilities. Well, a counselor diagnosed me with Bipolar, we saw a family therapist and then I was in the system and went to a drug doctor who handed me a script once a month. I knew what to say to manipulate the docs and answer the way they wanted me to. 

I was on Depakote for 2 years-http://www.drugwatch.com/depakote/. We couldn't afford to keep seeing the family therapist, and my dad saw his own drug doctor so it was normal to stop seeing the therapist, or that is how they made it seem at that time. As long as I was medicated things were supposed to go smoothly. However, they were not going smoothly...I was finally able to see a little bit of light after a big family fight over a bag of Fritos. That is a story for another time.

Long story longer, I left and moved in with my friend, now sister-in-law for a couple months till I was able to find a place on my own. After another year I met my now husband who, when I first told him the story in the parking lot of our church, said...'um I don't think you are bipolar, please find a doc to get you off of them.' I did the next week and was weaned off withing a few months. The new drug doc I had found seemed very concerned, I don't know if her face always had a furrow but every time she talked to me the furrow became even more intense, I didn't really care why. Once I was off the meds, she said I didn't need to see anyone anymore. That was right before I got married in 2002.

I struggled with post pardon depression after Rachel, but really did not want to get help for it or talk to anyone about it. It seemed to get a little better after we moved to OR, but looking back I think I got even more depressed as I learned what it was like to married, a mom, and broke. Once we moved back to WA, I was at an all time low. Once I started working things got a little better, and then when we were able to get into an apartment of our own instead of living with my mom's now ex-husband things got alot better with me. We then had Owen and I was on an up swing again. After Owen I was working through my fears of perpetuating my experience with our two kids in the same room, same two bedroom apartment set up. In 2011 I searched out a counselor through work for the first time since I got off the Bipolar meds.  I started Yoga and really focusing on me and my mental health as I wasn't sure the problems I was facing in my marriage were a result of my pain and past or something else.

The lady I was put in touch with was very compassionate, but had me do exercises that confused me and the coaching I received from her tended to cause more strife in my marriage than bringing us together. Hubby and I started talking to our pastor and meeting with him on marriage counseling. and after the counselor fell asleep while I was talking twice I decided she was not a good fit. The marriage counseling was good, but I didn't feel like the answers were there yet. I talked to a few friends and found out about a group called. 'Learn to Let Go and Grow' by Kitty Jones. I completed the full 3 part course and it answered so much for me. I am a better more whole person because of it. I still have all the material and will look at it again in order when I get to the point where I was back in 2011, if that ever happens.

That brings me to ToDay:

Our new church is offering a discipleship class called 'Recovering Redemption'. I purposefully choose not to take this class. Knowing it would probably deal with some of the heart issues of my past that I am tired of looking at. However, I think God knew I needed it cause when we went to our weekly Bible Study, guess what we are going through....Yup, 'Recovery Redemption'. If you are interested check it out on YouTube>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcPXNJT_4Nk<<

Why am I talking about this side my story? Well the first 'Recovery Redemption' course talks about the four pillars that help us cope with the fall of Adam and Eve to sin.

1-Ourselves
2-Others
3-The World
4-Religion

Theses are all things we use as coping mechanisms. All different aspects of how I survived to make it to 36 years old. The 'Others' never worked out the way God intended. It can't. I am ok with that. Praise God that He is my healer, my comforter, my helper, my Abba! If you are searching for help out of your situation emotionally...seek God! Others might help direct you or medicate you, but only God can heal.