Wait? You're a what?

Yes, yes I am a Christian. I have been since I was about five or six. My parents were Christians since they were in their 20's so I grew up in a Christian home. When I was younger I knew about my parents' Christian faith but it wasn't until I was like five or six that I truly understood that I needed to believe it for myself. So one day I asked mom tons of questions about it and she explained it all to me and at that young age I became a Christian. I got baptized a few years after I got saved and today I am just taking life a day at a time trying to be open to the Lord's leading.

That is my (very!) condensed version of my testimony. But I realized that even though I have been saying I have been a Christian since I started this blog a few years ago, I have never actually shown what that means. So if you don't mind, I will do that now (in the form of a letter) :)

Dear Friend,

Last time we talked you asked me about what I believed spiritually. In this letter I want to explain what the foundation of my belief system is: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Firstly, God created you and loves you. Psalm 86:15, “But You, O Lord, are a God merciful…and abounding in steadfast love.” He wants to have a personal relationship with you. However, because everyone sins, we are all separated from God. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin means that we have disobeyed God’s commands and not met God’s perfect standard, which is like people trying to throw a baseball to the moon. No one will ever reach it; we will all “fall short”. Due to this sin we will all die physically and spiritually. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…” That is what we earn from sinning. It’s like working; when you do a job you get paid—that’s what you earn. Because we have sinned, we all earn death, both physically and spiritually. Dying spiritually means that we will be separated from God forever. Therefore we can’t live eternally with a perfect God in Heaven because we are imperfect and are instead doomed to Hell. Because we couldn't get to God (that’s the bad news), God came to us (the good news!). God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die our sin-earned death in our place. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect, sinless life, died on a cross for our sin, and was buried. After three days in the tomb God resurrected Him from the dead and therefore Christ defeated death. Luke 24:6-7, “He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you…‘[Christ] must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Christ died a sacrificial death, which means that Christ died in our place. He took the punishment that we deserved. He didn't stay dead, like I stated before, but God raised Him up from the dead after three days. Because Christ defeated death, He has the power to save us from our eternal punishment. If we understand what Christ did, accept that it is true, and place our trust in Christ alone to save us from our sins we can be saved! Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Let me illustrate this for you. Say you have never seen or used a chair before. You go to another country and they show you this weird chair-thing. They say that if you sit in it, it will hold you up. You UNDERSTAND what the chair does. Now let’s say that you look it over and you’re like, “Yeah, I can see that. I believe that this chair could hold me up.” You have now ACCEPTED that what they say about the chair is true. But have you trusted in it yet? No! Once you fully sit down in the chair so that all your weight is resting on it that is when you have TRUSTED in the chair to hold you up. The same is with Christ. Now, you have to understand that Christ alone can save us from eternal punishment. We can’t earn our way to Heaven by doing good things nor is there any other way other than understanding what Christ did, accepting that, and trusting in Him and what He did on the cross. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are you saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Once we are truly trusting in Christ alone for our salvation, saving us from our sin-earned eternal punishment, is when we have the assurance that we will live with Christ forever in Heaven when we die. 1 John 5:11, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”

            I will explain more in my next letter, but in this one I just wanted to start with the foundation of my belief. If you have any questions don’t be afraid to write back!

            Much love,

                       Sarah

(As a side note: This letter was actually a paper that my roommate, Shelbi, and I wrote for a assignment for one of our Bible classes. I would suggest doing it yourself! Give yourself only two typed pages and try to fit the gospel in those two pages using illustrations, clear thinking, and Biblical references. It makes you think of how to clearly give the Gospel in a limited time frame, which is a good tool to have today. Because everyone is always running around and so busy, we may not have an hour to talk through the Gospel with someone. If God opened the door to talk through the Gospel with someone and you only had ten minutes what would you say? Think about this and what your response would be...and maybe even write something out so you have a resource you could go to. God will open doors for us to share our faith. It is our job to be prepared for them when they come.)

My first few months of college = complete!!!

About two weeks ago I got to go home for fall break (through it wasn't much of a break because I had a huge paper to write...but anyways! :) ). It was so nice to be home and to see my family again. And of course being able to pet my cats and dog :) Fall break really represented the end of my first quad at the University of Northwestern - St. Paul. One fourth of my first year at NW was done. Have I learned anything is the two+ months that I've been here? Of course!! What did I learn? Well, let me tell you :)

The first thing that God taught me is that even though my surroundings change, He never does. When I first came here I was in a whole new area. Not only was I with new people, having new responsibilities, doing new things, and in a whole different world,  but I didn't have my family near by. Sure I could call and FaceTime them, but that isn't the same as talking to them in person. I used to talk to my parents and brother about my whole day. Every detail. So it was weird not being able to do that everyday. Even though I had tons of encouraging people around me, it wasn't the same as having my family there. So what did I do? Well, let me tell you what I didn't do! I didn't turn to the One who is always there. Going to college really opened my eyes that I really did rely on my friends and family a lot more than I thought. Not that that is a bad thing!! Having close relationships with your family and having close friends is not bad, but we need to remember that (as much as we want them too) we won't always have those people around us. So we need to make sure that our relationship with God is strong even when we are with those closest to us. God will always be there. I had to re-learn that, and I had to really believe it, and I had to practice it!

The second thing that I learned was that God gives us loves and interests for a reason. As one of my favorite Pinterest (Yes, I am addicted to Pinterest....*sheepish smile*) pins says: "The things you are passionate about are not random. They are your calling." I always loved to write but I never thought that I would be able to turn that into a career. I am still confused how God is going to use me as a writer. I want to use my writing as a ministry. To write things that cause people to think...and to ultimately draw closer to God because of what they read. But I also need to make a living. How can I do both? Well, let me tell ya!!......I have no idea. Fortunately God does. Yes that is easier said than truly believed... I have no clue what God has in store for me for a career or even for a ministry. All I know is that God called me to NW for a reason and to get my writing degree for a reason. The rest I will just have to let Him handle.

The next thing I learned was that God opens and closes doors for a reason. At the beginning of the semester I had tried out for this touring theatre production. I thought I had a really good chance! My audition went great and I was excited to see what happened! Well...I wasn't as excited when I saw the cast list and I didn't see my name on there...I was not very happy. I tried to look on the bright side of things and see what God had in store instead. And honestly, I'm very happy I didn't get in. Because I didn't get in I got to work in the costume shop (shout out to Carmen!! ;) ) and I got to do run crew/backstage stuff for the production Oliver! If I had gotten in to that touring theatre I wouldn't of been able to do any of that. I have made so many good memories working in the costume shop, helping backstage with Oliver! and meeting all the amazing people that are involved with the theatre department here at NW. God definitely closed that one door for a reason, but just because He knew that He was going to open up a better one for me later.

The last thing (definitely not the last thing I have learned, but the last one I'm going to talk about :) ) that God taught me is about prayer. What would happen if you were talking to a friend and all you did was say stuff like, "I need your help with this paper! I'm freaking out over this interview. I really need you to do this for me. Why didn't you help me with that?..." What would your friend do if you talked to them like this? Slap you? Maybe! lol Seriously though, why do we talk to our friends with respect, tell them about our day (the good and bad), ask for their advice, listen to them, and be honest with them but we don't do that with God? We just ask for things. In one of my books for school, The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg, there is a chapter that talks about prayer. One part that stood out to me says "The goal of prayer is not to get good at praying, as many people think. The goal of prayer is not to try to set new records for how much time we spend praying. The goal of prayer is to live all of my life and speak all of my words in the joyful awareness of the presence of God." God wants to know about our day, He wants us to always be in the mindset of prayer, God wants us to come to Him first, God wants us to listen to Him as well... So through many things God has been teaching me how to pray. And not just pray, but pray openly and honestly with Him.

There are so many other things that I have learned, but if I took the time to write them all you would probably get bored with reading them :) I hope these things encourage you in your walk with God and I hope that you are always open to learning new things, because God always has something new to teach us.