Felt board Jesus ruined my faith

For those of you who grew up attending church I am sure you can all remember the felt boards teachers used in Sunday School back in the day. I have been thinking about what all I was taught growing up in Sunday School via this felt board and I have come to the conclusion that it probably did more damage to my faith and that it helped. I grew up thinking that because of the felt board stories I was taught that I knew all I needed to know Jesus and the Bible….WRONG! I was having lunch with my good friend, Marissa Poulson, and she I and I were discussing this topic and decided that because of our Sunday School experiences we had a warped sense of who Jesus was. We learned that Jesus loves so very much (insert sticker with the heart that says Jesus Loves You here) and yes that is true but we did not learn the power and majesty of our God or that his death on the cross was the most excruciating death one could encounter. We did not learn that his grace for us is why we have eternal life and that we are NOT worthy of the life we have been given. Jesus did not have to die in order to save our selfish lives. We are to rejoice in our sufferings. We will strive to do good but end up doing evil anyway. God’s heart is for the poor and unsaved. One day God will destroy the earth and then will create and new earth and a new heaven. We think that the only time Jesus got mad was when he overturned the tables in the temple. For some reason we figured that because we could sing Father Abraham, Jesus Loves Me, and the song about Zaccheus, and knew the story of Moses and Noah we were set when it comes to Bible knowledge. Thankfully most churches have retired the felt boards and moved on are beginning to really engage in our youth which is a desperate need. After all if kids spend 40 hours a week in school and 1-2 hours a week in church, can we waist time putting the little felt people up on the board and spend the whole lesson trying to get them to stay up? Kids are now learning things in kindergarten that were being taught in 2nd grade 10 years ago, so if education has stepped up its game and expected more from the youth then why can’t the church do the same. Or maybe I am wrong, you tell me….

“TomJoy”

Brit, Brie, Shelby and I went to the Toms Shoes Sample Sale in Santa Monica the other weekend and as we left with our new purchases we decided that there should be a word that describes the joy one receives when they buy their Toms and know that at the same time you get an awesome new pair of shoes you are also sending a pair to a kid in another country who has never had a pair of shoes. So we came up with Tomjoy and submitted the word and definition to urbandictionary.com which they accepted so we told Toms about it and they put it up on their blog along with a picture of us! Check out urban dictionary and the Toms blog!

www.urbandictionary.com
www.tomsshoesblog.com

Title Explanation

“The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.”

This was said by one of my teachers the other day during my class. It is a pretty simple statement with extremely powerful words. Growing up I always had a fear of God. Yes, I knew he loved me and protected me but at the same I time I would think to myself that if I ever came face to face with him I would probably pee in my pants, that’s elementary school age theology for you. However, as I have grown up and studied the Bible a little more I now know that all I long I was not being ridiculous or juvenile in my thinking. Recently during a chapel the speaker was talking about the things God saves us from like death, hell, and satan but he also said that most importantly God saves us from himself. We often forget that our God is powerful, an intense God who is not afraid of wrath. I for one would never ever want to encounter the wrath of God. This is something I am truly thankful for because I feel like it helps me to not but God in a box and pretend he is just my bff who is always there for me when things go wrong, but he is an almighty God is above all things and at any moment could easily strike me down. He is more powerful, glorious, and holy than I can ever imagine. I do not consider myself to be full of wisdom but knowing that by fearing the Lord I am on the right track makes me pretty happy. But, at the same time I probably would still pee in my pants if I came face to face with God.

Here we go....

I have taken a vacation (unplanned) from blogging and the ideas have been building up inside me so I hope this will be the start of many blogs to come. The following are my new blog resolutions:
-blog makeover
-more frequent blogging
-more commenting on other blogs(i still read everyone elses even though i have been neglecting mine)
-update my blogroll (welcome to the blog world kinsley!)
-new blog name (i think i have one and there will be a blog explaining it)