Stir it up!

Hello!

Recently I attended a camp for young adults called stir. Stir is a 3 day camp that has a mission to help people who go, grow in The Lord so much that they actually make a difference to other peoples lives.

It was a massive conference of CHristian young women and men (great place to hook up) where everyone was united in one thing and that is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You are probably wanting me to get to the point at the moment so I will. I wrote the earlier part of this so that you know that what I am about to write is not from myself but from someone with extensive biblical knowledge.

2 Peter 1:5-11 says:
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.


I dont know about you but i find this pretty clear, maybe its because I was taught at Stir or maybe because it is elementary... you decide. I highlighted (figuratively) this in my bible and wrote that this is what is meant to happen in your Christian walk. If it doesnt you are an ineffective and unproductive person to the kingdom of heaven.

I always thought alot about my Christian walk and what happens after the initial stages of belief. I believe it is a good question to ask. If you are a Christian already and have been for a while, this is what I beleive your life is meant to reflect: someone who grows the values above in increasing measure so they are productive and effective as Christians. If you have just become a Christian and you wonder about these things yourself, at least you can see here that this is meant to happen in your life... of course to learn this you cannot just look at the verses I have here, you actually need to read the Bible to gain the Knowledge it talks about here...

I have never been taught how to read a Bible, infact up until just recently I put it off. I would prefer to read some non-fiction books that tell me all I need to know in them. I beleive that this is ok.. but not to sustain your whole walk with God. When you read a book that has an opinion on some things, you need to get out the Bible and read the verses around it for yourself or else you could fall into the trap of being a follower of a man that really has no clue what he is talking about and believing what he says and have him take you into a cult or something similar.

So I will tell you how I do it, I get out my Bibles a King James version with all the thees and thys and all that because it is the closest Bible to the original writings, and also a NIV or you might have the new king james or the message, whatever it doesnt really matter.... then I read a chapter of a book, like I started with phillipians (the book of joy) read a chapter and wrote down 2 verses that stuck out to me. Then I wrote what I believe it meant and compared the two versions. The next time I got out the Bible to study I read the same chapter and usually there were other verses that stuck out to me.

Unfortunately there is not cheat sheet in how to read the Bible, and at times I just plainly dont feel like reading the Bible. But when I do, I find my behaviour is better in everyday life, I feel happier. And in general everything just seems to go soooooo much better.

I hope this helps those who needed an idea about these things, I know it was a bit bitsa but hopefully I am praying it helps.

As Paul says in the beginning of most of his letters: "Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father."

Love your sister in Christ