Time to talk again

I am back. I don't know how long I am going to keep this up. For those of you who were dying to read my post..here it is..I was at a retreat hosted by my very own St. James Marthoma Church and I just wanted to share how God spoke to me this weekend.  It's really funny how God communicates to you especially in weird ways. I must say He spoke to me all throughout the retreat through the worship, sermons but most of all through paintball. I know you might think paintball??? but that's the truth. So there I was friday night deciding whether I should play this game or not.. considering last year I hid behind a rock the whole entire time afraid to get hurt and when the heat really got to me I just got up and left. I know...I am such a girl..wuss..whatever you might want to call me. Anyhow, as indecisive as I am, I decided Saturday morning to suck it up and play the game. I was alert, focused and, fearless which is sooo not Rubeena for those of you who know me really well. We played three games and our team ofcourse lost all 3 of them. Each team had a bunker and the object of the first game was to get the flag from the other team's bunker and bring it back to ours and once you get marked you are out of the game. For the second and third game we just had to capture flags laying out in the field equidistant from our bunkers. The team that gets the most flag wins and if you get marked only once throughout the game them you can tag yourself back into the game. I know might be thinking, " where is she going with this?"...well be patient.. I like rambling a lot.. In the end of the game, our instructor asked us what we learned and each team said accountability, team work, watch out for satans flaming arrows( the paintball markers) and such and my thoughts didn't differ from any of that... till later that evening I made the connection while I was viewing the slide show presented by our speaker. One of the slides listed all the disciples and how they were stoned, speared to death for the sake of Christ and that's when it all hit me. I related back to paintball, the objective of the game was to get the flag no matter what it takes...for those of you who have played paintball...you know when it hits you it hurts soo bad and it leaves you with bruises. However, none of the pain mattered when our focus was to defeat the other team and get the flag. Jesus' disciples only had one goal in life and that was to present the gospel no matter what it took even if it cost them death. I remember at one point during the 2nd and 3rd game I got so close to getting the flag but both times people from the other team marked me. Since, it was the first time I got marked I tagged myself back into the game.... that reminded me of the verse in Micah 7: 8 "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. "  I  put into perspective how the enemy attacks me at times and gets me down and I how he makes me feel like a failure and makes me want to quit at times.  However, God gives me strength to tag myself back in the game regardless of how badly the enemy has bruised me. Like any other game there are rules and guidelines to follow to play paintball...one of the most crucial things to follow is to keep the masks on during the game cuz if it hits the eye...it's over..you can be blinded for the rest of your life. The protection and safety guidelines reminded me of the whole armor of God that Paul explains in Ephesians 6.10-18. We need to be aware of the devil's schemes like Paul says and put on the armor of God to fight the devil before he brings us down. Finally, the flag symbolized the standard God has for us to reach. Jesus says in Mathew 5:48 " Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." It is so hard to reach God's standards but our objective as a Christian is to aim for perfection even if we don't get there. God honors all of our efforts.Thus, I would like end this by stating that losers could also be winners in the sight of God.

Continuation

Thankyou all for your comments. Even though we are focusing on the old testament women, I am sure men can equally benefit from this study for those who are wondering. Anyways, here is the rest of the study:

Analyzing Sarah and Abraham:

God, knowing their actions still continues to pursue them just like He pursued Adam and Eve after their fall. He goes to greater lengths to prove that He keeps his promises. Reej was saying, if God gave them a child when they were young they would have considered that us being natural and might not have acknowledge God's hand in it. However, He gives them a child when they were old to assure that the progeny is from Him. Thus, the faith of Abraham and Sarah was renewed. It is amazing how God continues to pursue us despite our shortcomings. He is always gracious to us yet we forget to give grace to those who wrong us.

Analyzing Sarah's reaction the stranger's message:

We see that Sarah laughs at the news of giving birth to a son. This reveals that Sarah was not trusting God and so God responds to Abraham saying, " Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Even though it is true that Sarah laughed because she didn't trust God yet there is a possibility that Abraham never communicated  God's promise to Sarah. We don't see anywhere Abraham doing that. Therefore, this might be a completely new idea to her and that could've been one of the reason why she laughed. Regardless, Sarah's response was not acceptable to God. We learn that God takes great offense when we don't trust Him or when we fail to understand what He can do. We all know that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent yet we are just not mindful of that many times. I know that's how I am...I would just worry and get myself depressed till  God comes and knocks some sense into me. Once I was listening to Pastor Tim Delanie( I think that's how his last name is spelled, he is one of my favorite speakers..he was saying that Satan doesn't make us hate God but makes us forget Him...I think that is so true because we know anything is possible with God but many times we forget that God is in control. We forget that God is even involved with our lives.  I think my life would be so much better if I was mindful of who He is or whose I am each and every moment.

Following are couple of questions from our book and our response to it. I thought these were really good questions to think about.

Is God's knowledge of your private thought and fears a comfort or a distress to you? Explain.

We thought that it could be a comfort at times because He knows, sees, and understands our situation. However, it could also be a distress to know that God sees everything when we want to sin.

What choices and possible outcomes face you in terms of waiting for God to act on your behalf? 

One of the example that we came up with was taking a job that would compromise our beliefs instead of waiting for God to give us the job that He intended for us. I am sure you can think of more examples that would apply to your life.

Here are some verses that emphasizes that nothing is impossible with God:

I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jer. 32:27

 For nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1:37

 Jesus replied, What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:27

Hope that was helpful

Here are my offspring (God's promise to me)

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Yeah right....I only wish they were my kids but believe it or not those munchkins are my first cousins ..Aren't they the cutest things you have ever seen in your life?

Currently Reading The Da Vinci Code: Special Illustrated Edition : A Novel By Dan Brown see related

Sarah and Hagar

First of all I just want to thank Reejis for creating the xanga site for me. Secondly, Lis this post is all for you, my love. The reason I have xanga is to post our bible study for you. Reej and I miss you soo much and we wish you could be here with us. Here it is...

Yesterday our study was focused towards the lives of Sarah and Hagar. Genesis:16;18:1-15.

So here we have a story of Sarai (wife of Abram later known by God as Abraham) who will later be named as Sarah by God. Earlier in the book of Genesis we see God making a promise to Abraham about giving them an offspring. Yet, years later Abram and Sarai find themselves with no child. In that society, being infertile or being barren was probably looked down upon. Sarai was probably ridiculed and frowned upon by her friends, relatives, and neighbors. It could certainly be due to this reason that Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands and asked Abram to fornicate with their maid servant Hagar.  Once she learns that Hagar is pregnant and despises her she turns around and blames Abram for sleeping with Hagar when it was all her brilliant idea in the first place. Thus, she starts to mistreat Hagar and as a result Hagar flees from there. Later, we see Hagar being confronted by the angel of the Lord in the desert and is commanded to turn back to her mistress. Hagar obeys and the command. Then we jump into chapter 18 where we see 3 strangers visit now known as Abraham to deliver the good news about their promised child. The study ends with Sarah laughing at the idea of having a child at an old age.

Breaking it all down:

Reej and I certainly identified with Sarah in terms of her being impatient and taking matters into her own hands. We were both saying that, we live in a fast paced world, so much so that the terms "patience" and "wait" not only has become unfamiliar but also irksome. I know from working at the pharmacy, my customers get so irritated waiting to get their prescriptions filled. We also discussed our reactions to unaswered prayers. Many times when we don't get the answers we want we would just stop praying in disobedience to Paul's command in 1Thess. 5:17 which says, " pray without ceasing".  However, when we do pray, we pray hoping that God would work like a genie and say YES to whatever we ask for.  We think that if God doesn't say yes to us our prayers then our prayers are being unanswered not realizing that God's answer could also be NO or better yet WAIT. It is certain that Sarah didn't want to wait and Abram without any hesitation went along with her idea (Ofcourse, why would Abram pass up his opportunity to sleep with someone else haha). Another interesting point Reej delineated was how Sarai was emulating Eve when she blamed Abram for carrying out her thought out plan. Many times we avoid taking ownership to our actions to avoid the consequences that would result from it. 

Now, the side of Hagar... She is truly a woman of God. Her obedience to God and her response to the angel is truly humbling. She was used by both Abraham and Sarah and mistreated by Sarah. Sarah wasn't going to treat her any nicely if Hagar went back to her after her initial attempt to escape. However, she still obeys God and her response, "You are the God who sees me" (Reej loves that response cuz she kept saying it) truly reveals her faith in God. I do not know what I would've done if I was in Hagar's shoes. I don't think I would go to back to the very person that I want to run from. I know in my life, God always seems to take me back to the same place where I have been hurt. It's just soo hard for me to accept that at times and say together with Hagar, " You are the God who sees me".

Anyways, I think I am gonna stop here for today and continue the rest tomorrow....Yes, there is more... it was a long and interesting study. Hope you got enough to ponder for tonight. 

Figuring things out

Haha...now I am kind of getting a hang of this thing ....this is kind of time consuming and addicting. I don't even know if my background looks ridiculous but at this point I simply don't care. Anyways, I am planning on posting my first entry tomorrow..So stay tuned!!!!!