{"id":2451,"date":"2012-03-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test4.honeycombdesignstudio.com\/?p=2451"},"modified":"2017-07-12T11:33:55","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T15:33:55","slug":"power-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/power-of-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s Bible study post – an entry from my personal journal – is the one journal entry that, as I was writing it, I thought to myself, “I’m not sharing this one on my blog. It’s too personal.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Well, here is it.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/div>\n

photo credit jolene on flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Scripture:<\/strong> “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5<\/em><\/p>\n

Observation:<\/strong> That sounds like a pretty accurate description of today’s culture.<\/p>\n

Application:<\/strong> I see myself in so much of that description. I am definitely a lover of self (self-centered). I can be a lover of money (or, at least, of the stuff<\/em> money can buy), boastful, abusive (well, grumpy and sarcastic, anyway), and unforgiving.<\/p>\n

(Ouch. See why I wasn’t going to post this one?)<\/p>\n

The worst thing I see in myself on that list, however, is “having a form of godliness, but denying its power.”<\/strong> Ouch, again. I believe in Christ. I call myself a Christian. I go to church, read my Bible, try to live a godly lifestyle, pray, blog about my faith, and try to raise my children as Christians.<\/p>\n

But, do I know<\/em> Christ?<\/p>\n

I’m not sure I even know what an intimate relationship with Christ looks like. I know that seeking His will or calling on His power is often an afterthought with me. I so very often make my own decisions and do my own thing only to wonder later if that was His will.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to have a form of godliness while denying the full power of God. I want to experience the full power of Christ in me.<\/p>\n

Prayer:<\/strong> Lord God, I don’t want to go through the motions of being a Christian. I want to know<\/em> you. I want to know and experience the fullness of the power of Christ in me. I want to serve You.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to sit on the sidelines and be a spectator. I want to experience the power of Your Holy Spirit living in me and changing me, making me more like you. I want to be the hands of feet of Jesus with the Holy Spirit guiding my steps and my actions. I want to truly experience You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.<\/p>\n

How’s that for painfully honest? Be gentle. What has Christ been showing you lately?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s Bible study post – an entry from my personal journal – is the one journal entry that, as I was writing it, I thought to myself, “I’m not sharing this one on my blog. It’s too personal.” Well, here is it. photo credit jolene on flickr Scripture: “But mark this: There will be terrible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":25,"label":"Bible Study"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kris Bales","author_link":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/author\/kris_wuhsmom\/"},"comment_info":11,"category_info":[{"term_id":25,"name":"Bible Study","slug":"bible-study","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":25,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":25,"category_count":25,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Bible Study","category_nicename":"bible-study","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}