Redeemed.

Warning: Long, rambling post to follow. Read if you have the time:)

So my last post offended enough people I guess. Just teasing. It really was meant to be humorous, not at all serious. I have been meaning to post a little bit about the Bible Study I am attending but I wanted a picture with it...but haven't found one yet. But I thought this would redeem what I was saying in the previous post. When I spoke of Baptists in the previous post I was being terribly stereotypical and over the top. In fact those Baptists that I was teasing about in high school ended up being some of my closest friends and only a few really still think I need to "get saved". I love some Baptists and in fact almost all my closest friends consider themselves that as well as half of my family(oh yeah, and my husband, eek)! Not my mother, God forbid, that place Micah discussed would have to freeze over for that to happen. HA. AND those people I discussed in high school were simply "predestined" to minister to me. Anyways, I digress. I am doing a Precept Bible Study on Genesis. It has been hard, challenging, frustrating, enlightening, inspiring and awesome all rolled into one. I have missed a good bit dealing with children for some reason or another but what I have gotten to be apart of through study or teaching I have so enjoyed. We have three weeks left and I continue to be excited to go and learn. Mainly to know more about God, but secondarily to get to study under an amazing teacher and thirdly(is that a word?) to hang out with some pretty cool women (a dear friend and I committed together, making it harder to copout which is always good accountability in a tough study, I recommend it). Most call our teacher by her first name but I simply can not...to me she is always Ms. Juli. She was my neighbor growing up and has a son the same age as me. So it isn't just a great study, I am also learning so much from someone pretty special. What is funny about this is that growing up some of the things she required of her boys, or didn't let her boys do that we could do made her very strange to me. I am sure there were times when I even made fun of her boys for said things. But as I grew older I learned that these were the very convictions that I would then impose or instill in my children. I have since apologized for the making fun:) But it is also neat to study under someone who I have watched all my life who I am sure has made mistakes, but I have seen a constant theme in her life, and that is Jesus. There is no question when she says something I am listening, I mean I listen to any teacher, but because I know of Ms. Juli's life it makes what she says all the more validated. It is definitely something I want to learn how to live out loud more and seeing how Ms. Juli studies the scriptures in this class has given me light into how she has gotten to who she is...it wasn't all those days at church, or the Bible studies she had at her house, or where she sent her kids to school, the trips to DQ for memorizing our Bible verses, or the happy Birthday Jesus party, or any of the other outward signs I saw. (Although, those were all good things) it was what she was doing that I didn't see that has really made such a difference in her life and enabled her to make the decisions, choices and set the example that she is setting. (both now and then) Humbling, challenging and convicting for me to be in a class under Ms. Juli. Now don't go thinking I've forgotten what the class is about, I know it isn't Ms. Juli we are studying; it is our amazing God in Genesis:) And let me tell you, I never realized how important that book is to what we believe. What we believe about Creation and those first seven days impacts everything we believe about God and Jesus. I wouldn't have said that before studying it so hard core, but it is the truth. The most exciting thing we have learned so far is discussing whether Creation happened in six 24 hour days...I believe it did. I think I am starting some more controversy:) I have always believed it did, but never did I have the knowledge to back this belief up. Wow, God is so much bigger to me now that I have read scripture and have knowledge to back up my belief. We have been looking at Genesis for a long time, but last week Ms. Juli brought in the example of the first miracle Jesus did and juxtaposed it next to the Creation story. Go read it. Now compare it, I am stealing all this from Ms. Juli, but the first miracle is when Jesus turned the water into wine. The servant took it to the head waiter. When the headwaiter drank it he immediately knew/thought/assumed it was aged wine. Hmmm....but it wasn't. Jesus just made it. In the same way God made Creation in six days. Some say it looks a whole lot older (ie. aged), but it isn't. God created it. In the timeframe mentioned in Scripture. And if He did it some of the other ways scientists suggest He isn't quite the God we claim He is...or at least that is the way I see it. There is waaay too much of this study to compile a single post or even several posts. But I wanted to share a glimpse so there it is...take it for what it's worth.

P.S. I'll let you guess what denomination Ms. Juli is...hee hee.

Last Disclaimer: By the looks of my posts it looks like I care way too much about denomination or about what people think. Maybe moreso of the latter. I do not take as much stock in denomination as it sounds and I try not to worry about what others think, while also trying to be who Jesus wants me to be. The end.