Dream Anything

Who said that we were ever suppose to stop dreaming? 

When I was in kindergarten, our elementary counselor came to our class and had us draw pictures of what we wanted to be when we grew up. She dumped crayons on our desks and gave us all a white sheet of paper. No one seemed to hesitate and began scribbling and coloring the stories of who they dreamed to be. I wanted to draw myself with a microphone in my hand, singing songs on a stage. Did I do that? Nope. I looked around and saw the other drawings that every other girl made. Princess. Doctor. Vet. Princess. Princess. Doctor. I wanted to be a singer. Instead, I drew a princess.

After we were finished with our drawings, the counselor gathered them all up in a pile. A week later, on our way to lunch, we all saw our pictures taped to the wall in the hallway. I loved seeing them, but was so sad that I didn't draw myself as the singer I hoped to be. 

This memory is seriously stuck in my memory. I have looked back on this memory a lot. Because of this simple experience as a little girl, I have promised myself to accomplish my dreams no matter what everyone else is doing. We aren't required to do any certain thing. 

It seems to me like the more I look around, the more I see people doing things with their lives because it's the most acceptable thing to do. Some of you are going to school for something that you have absolutely no desire to do (if you're being completely honest with yourself). You're not passionate about what you're doing and you feel completely unhappy. Or maybe you're happy, you just wish you would have done things differently. Well, good news. You're not done yet. Go do what you love. Go do it before it's too late, because NOTHING is impossible. People don't just accomplish their dreams from luck. They work hard and they have a vision. 

You have the ability to do anything you can dream of. 

Dream wisely. Dream anything.

Don't worry about how. Just do it. Take it one step at a time and do not give up.

I hope I have inspired someone out there. Do whatever it takes to accomplish your wildest dreams.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law is happy." Proverbs 29:18

The Truth About the Truth

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has marveled at the fact that there are so many different denominations in Christianity. Like, for a people who preach that we should be unified... we seem pretty divided to me. This is an issue, honestly, but then again we can't expect everyone to agree with everything we believe.
One of the biggest things that has divided Christians to create their own denominations is the difference in belief about the deity of God and how to be saved. For some of you, this is news.. but take a closer look at what I'm saying when you read the essay I wrote while I was in ministry school.
All of the students were given a different topic to discuss in an essay. My topic was "Understanding Salvation - Through the Teachings of Jesus and Paul"
I gathered all of my information through personal revelation through Jesus Christ and His word.
All that I said is just so important to me that I couldn't help but share it with you.

Here it is.

Kristin West

Pastor Monica Pankratz

Life and Writings of Paul

13 April 2016

Understanding Salvation Through the Teachings of Jesus and Paul

Humanity forces us to realize something: we all need a savior. From the beginning, God laid out a plan to show humanity His name and His face. We were once a people who didn’t know their own God. But God, all powerful and seeking intimacy with His creation, proclaimed that He would come to us and write His law on our hearts. We would then be His people and He would be our God. (Jeremiah 31:33) When we realize that Jesus is the all-powerful God in the flesh, we must then see how He wants to know us deeper. Salvation according to the words of Jesus Himself is a lot different than what we expected: we cannot earn it. Apostle Paul is a direct example of the poured out love for a struggling people by a God who laid it all down to save us.

Through the teachings of Paul, we must look back to when he was first converted. Paul’s first name being Saul, made it his mission to kill those called Christians: ones who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. God had declared that He would bring Himself down to earth in the form of a servant, that being Jesus. Saul was on his way to kill more Christians when a bright light and a strong, gentle voice came out of nowhere. Saul realized, then, that Jesus truly is God. This began the mark of history. Paul became a pillar in the church showing others his revelation. (Acts 9)

The foundation of the truth of salvation according to Jesus and Paul is that Jesus is God. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him(Jesus) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Paul wrote this to the Colossians, sharing the revelation that Jesus is God. Many people understand that Jesus is God but still refer to God as three separate personalities or beings. Paul knew this false doctrine would happen and warned people several times. (1 Timothy 6:20-21, Ephesians 4:11-16, Romans 16:17-20, Acts 20:28-30) Paul also said that those that are deceived would also be deceived themselves. (2 Timothy 3:13) All this being said, the teachings of Paul show us that we must be careful not to believe just anyone, but we must first look to the Word of God and His Spirit for the truth. For Jesus said that He is the Only Way, and The Way, Truth, and Life. (John 14:6)

In Acts 19:1-8, Paul was journeying and bumped into some Christians. He was very excited to see people that understood that Jesus is God. The first thing Paul asked them was if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed. They scratched their heads and said, “We didn’t even know there was a Holy Spirit.” Paul turned his head a bit and asked them, “Well, by what name were you baptized?” Then the believers told him that they were baptized in John’s baptism. We see then, that Paul knew they didn’t have the full truth. They had taken the first steps of salvation as believers. Then we see that Paul explained to them that John’s baptism was the baptism of repentance before Jesus came, and they needed to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. They soaked up what Paul said and he baptized them in the name of Jesus and prayed for them with the laying on of hands. They were then filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and prophesying.

This shows that Paul was genuinely concerned that they didn’t know the truth and the importance of being filled with the water and the Spirit. He told them everything and acted upon it. If it wasn’t important to be baptized in the name of Jesus and be filled with His Spirit, Paul wouldn’t have made it of such importance. This shows that baptism of both water and Spirit is salvational. Jesus Christ, Himself, said “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” and “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3-5)

Jesus said that the greatest act of love is when a man lays down his life for a friend. (John 15:13) Later on, the disciples marveled at this and saw the foreshadow of His death for them. Everything came together after Jesus resurrected up to Heaven. This began the revelation of grace; undeserved and unearned. Paul, a man who called himself the chief of all sinners had a constant revelation that none of us deserve the love and salvation of Jesus. We are flawed and made from dust, but He still breathes life into us. (Psalm 103:14, John 20:22) No human is good, no, not one. (Ecc. 7:20, Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3, Romans 3:10) Jesus looked at us with loving eyes and decided to come down to a people undeserving to give us freedom. This seems to have been the greatest message Paul preached: grace. He made it very clear that there is nothing we can do to earn Jesus’ love, that all we have to do is believe in Him and call out to Him, and He will save us. Jesus looks at our hearts and sees us differently than we see ourselves. As humans, we tend to gravitate towards what we deserve and don’t deserve. With grace, there aren’t any amount of rules or regulations we have to follow in order to be saved. All we must do is believe and confess, and we have the promise of His Spirit and salvation. (Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13, Acts 2:21, 1 Cor. 1:2)

Looking at the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Earth and people were filled. Many different people of different backgrounds came together for a feast, and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4) People were stumbling and laughing, as others walked in calling them drunkards. But Peter told them that they weren’t drunk as they suppose. (Acts 2:15) The men were pricked in their hearts and didn’t know what to do, for this had never happened before. Peter rose up and told them what they must do to be saved. Repent, be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:37-39) He then told them that this promise of the Holy Spirit infilling was for everyone.

We see through the writings of Jesus and Paul that salvation is completely undeserved. There is nothing

we can do to earn His great love. If we believe, we have salvation, and this is just the beginning. We all have

the promise of being born again.

Here is a great video explaining the Oneness of God very simply.