Spiritual Growth

Today I've decided to write about my faith. I'm a Christian. I attend church pretty regularly @ the Vineyard in Greenwood. I've been going since 2000 thanks to my amazing friend Nikki who invited me one weekend. I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart and I was baptized on February 20, 2005. I have gone through periods, as I believe many Christians do, where I'm faithfully praying everyday, attending bible studies, reading daily devotonals & scripture. And then there are times I drift away from all of that. It seems as though when things are going good in my life, I am further from God, but when things aren't going well, I turn to God instantly praying for guidance. Really I need to be praying everyday! I need to be reading my bible everyday! I need to be thanking God for all the many blessings I have whether things are good or bad, knowing that God has put me in whatever situation I'm in at that time for a reason and it's all part of His plan.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

The last couple of weeks, my friend Jackie has been going through some pretty dramatic and amazing "events" in her life. Talking to her pretty much daily, hearing the things she and her family are going through and experiencing, has triggered a hunger inside of me to go deeper into my relationship with Christ! To start I'm going to read my bible... I mean really read my bible from beginning to end and really study and understand God's word. I'm starting this weekend and Jackie is going to do it with me and we're both really excited. We've also asked our bff Nikki to start a bible study for the three of us. Nikki is who Jackie and I consider the "spiritual leader" of our little group :) Anyway, I started googling schedules on how to read the bible in a year and I came across biblestudytools.com. They have Reading Plans that can track your progress as you go along. You simply register on the site, select your plan, your start date, and preferred Bible translation and then start reading. You can even read the bible on the website in the translation you selected and you can bookmark certain pages, highlight scripture, and even add notes. I chose the one year plan in chronological order, reading the NIV translation. I'm starting tomorrow and even though it's the one year plan, my GOAL is to finish before the end of the year.

I've also decided to attend the Great Banquet this year at Southport Presbyterian Church. The Great Banquet is a weekend (72 hours) designed to strengthen and renew your faith. My sister Lorrie attended last year (or the year before) and said it was an amazing experience and has "insisted" that I attend! Her husband also attended that same year and also raved about how wonderful it was (the men go on a separate weekend than the women). Lorrie said there's nothing else like it. She couldn't tell me much about what goes on, so that you can experiecne everything for yourself. Really anyone who has attended a Great Banquet shouldn't give you details. All I know is that the windows and clocks are all covered, you can't bring cell phones, watches, ipods, etc. It's just 72 hours of time with God and I'm really looking forward to it!