Christian Cosmo Release!!

The book I've been reading and posting about throughout the last month is finally available for purchase!!! I definitely recommend it to any Christian girl or woman because it is so good and full of so much truth! The book is being sold at a pay-what-you-can basis, so you can purchase it for as low as $5. If you're interested in buying it, you can do so here. Thanks to everyone who stayed tuned for all my Christian Cosmo posts and updates. I truly think it's a worthy project and I'm so glad I got to be a part of the launch team! Since I just finished the whole book the other day, here are some of my favorite quotes from the second half of the book, and my thoughts regarding them. (Interspersed with completely random pictures that I think are pretty).

"Repentance is not merely behavior reform. Neither is it something we do in a one-time salvation decision." 

I was saved when I was 8 years old. Does that mean I stopped sinning at 8 years old? Nope, not at all. I wish that was how things went, but by my human nature (and human nature in general) that's just not realistic. Accepting Christ as my savior didn't mean that I was suddenly this perfect, sinless person, and the really beautiful and hopeful thing is that I didn't have to be. Even now when I struggle with sin, I often fall into this trap where I feel like I have to set rules and boundaries and step-by-step instructions to overcome whatever I'm struggling with. But every time I try to do that, I inevitably fail because I'm trying to run from sin but I'm not adequately running to Christ. Truly I have no power of my own to overcome anything.  

"Some women are told to be pure as a bargaining chip for God's love and salvation. For them, purity is driven by fear of judgment and wrath. This is backwards theology, and it is not the gospel." 

I am lucky enough to have grown up in a church that teaches the Biblical truth, which is that those who have fallen into sin are not hopeless or worthless. There's a particular memory that sticks out in my mind. Over a year ago, two of my very good friends from church went up to the front of the sanctuary and announced that they were going to have a baby. They weren't married yet, and they acknowledged that they knew they had sinned. When they were done talking, everyone in the church got out of their seat, went up to the front and hugged my two friends, loving them, congratulating them on their future child, extending their friendship. There was no judgment. There was no condemnation. There wasn't so much as a whiff of hatred or distaste. Only true, pure love from everyone in my church. I'll never forget that, because I was so touched. Because that's how the kingdom of God is supposed to work.

"Sometimes we accept partial grace. It's easier to accept half-forgiveness: we're okay with a forgiveness 'stamped across the sin', but we can't believe the sin is wiped away. Can our hasty words, rash temper, arrogance, selfishness, and blundered relationships be so forgiven they aren't even there anymore? But if we only believe partial grace, we only receive partial joy."

 Every time someone talks about how God forgives and forgets, I'm like "Yeah yeah yeah that's a great sentiment, but does he ACTUALLY forget? Is that even possible?" I wish I had more faith on this point but I still struggle with it. If I believe God is all powerful, why do I have such a hard time believing He has the power to completely erase my sin from His memory?

"[Marriage] is not designed to solve our spiritual problems." 

Your husband or wife cannot be God for you. They can help you grow, they can walk with you in your faith journey. But they're not meant to fix you, and you're not going to be able to fix them either.

"If the spirit is not influencing your life holistically, you will not have dominion over sin in any area of your life. You can't separate Him out of your entertainment, relationships, words, and actions and expect Him to be powerfully present in your struggle."

I don't like to hear this. I don't like being told that I can't just go on living my life the same lukewarm, subpar way and still call myself a devoted Christian. Because I know I'm not living up to what God is calling me to. We can't just give God part of our lives. That means that a Christian life is not an easy one, not a comfortable one, and not even a particularly safe one. It's like that quote from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe when Lucy is asking Mr. Beaver whether the lion Aslan is safe or not and Mr. Beaver says "Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he's not safe. But he's good." 

"When we refuse to forgive someone God has forgiven, we essentially place our requirement for compensation higher than God's...Withholding forgiveness is a form of pride and divides us from one another."

Yep, I definitely have this problem. In my head I'm often like "If that person is truly a Christian, why are they doing what they're doing??" But the truth of the matter is that if they're a Christian, they've already been forgiven for whatever it is that I find so offensive. And maybe they're still struggling with it, but they're already forgiven for it. So who am I to try and redact the forgiveness they've already been given? 

"Fantasizing is attractive because it takes us away from reality--temporarily. Fantasy is a distraction from real life in every sense. It is a world of imagination, not intentional thinking. Intentional thinking, by contrast, results in intentional living."

I'm a writer, so my head is automatically wired to be in Story Creation Mode like 24/7. This isn't always a good thing because it often means I invent completely unrealistic scenarios between me and cute guys that will never happen. Thinking about stuff that will never happen really adds nothing of benefit to my life. In fact I just get really annoyed with myself. There are so many better things I can be creating with my imagination. 

"Satan uses 'good' things to distract us from what is best." 

#StoryOfMyLife. Examples of good things that distract me from the best thing: movies, books, the internet, getting good grades, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on. All these things that are on earth for our entertainment and use are great, truly! But they're just pale pale comparisons to God. And I forget that almost every day. 

-VaughnDL