Now That's Fair!

In my new little church journal, I decided I would keep track of all the books that I read this year. Then, I was just curious to see how many books I had read last year, so I went to my bookshelf and started writing down all the ones I knew I had read. The list came to 21 books!

I just finished Andy Stanley's "Am I Good Enough" and it was another great book. It was short and really great at explaining things. The idea is that alot of people think that Jesus being the only way to Heaven is not fair, but his point was that believing you have to be "a good person" is actually not fair, because who knows what is good enough? Who determines that? What if you are one deed short of being good enough and don't get in? How's that fair? What's fair is that the way to Heaven actually is the exact same for everyone, no matter what you've done, and that is to make Jesus the Lord of your life and repent of your sins. It's clearly stated in the Bible, and a free gift to anyone who accepts it. Now that's fair!

I learned something last night that I did not know before. He said in his book that "when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, his purpose wasn't to show us how we can be perfect and make it into Heaven. God knew we could never live up to it. He did it so that we could see how bad we really can be. I don't know I'm breaking the speed limit until I see the road sign. The law was given to reveal what real sin looked like."

I had never looked at it like that, but it makes perfect sense. By seeing those laws, that we obviously cannot keep in our sinful nature, we become conscious of our sin. We see that we need a savior.

Those are the kind of things that I love learning about in the books I read! My goal this year is to read the Bible all the way through. I'm just starting at Genesis and I'm going to keep reading until I'm done. I am comforted by the fact that I could study the Bible for the rest of my life, and still not run out of things to learn.

This past week, after finding out that Liberty University has a great online degree program, I got it in my head that maybe I should go back to school. It would be so convenient to be able to earn a degree without having to leave the house! And their degrees have no distinction between students who are residents and students who earn them online. I don't know why I need another degree. I guess I just figured if I'm going to do all this studying and reading anyways, I might as well earn something for it. LOL! They offer associates, bachelors, and masters in religion. I can't go for a masters in religion, since my B.S. is not religion related (it's in sociology/psychology). So, I would have to start over and it's not cheap! I could transfer some of my classes probably to save money, but it would still be alot, especially since I have no idea why I even need another degree. I did see that they have a school called the Willmington Bible College, where people like me (who just want to learn everything about the Bible) can earn a Th.G degree, which is basically a biblical studies diploma, and 45 of the 60 hours can be transferred into their B.S. degree program later on. It's definitely something to think about. I know if it's meant to be, God will make a way.

Update: I decided to do some more research for the online degrees, and I found that I can indeed get a master's degree from Liberty University! I think the B.S. in a religion related field is only required to go into their seminary, but I can get an MA in Human Services with a specialization in something like Christian Ministries, Health and Wellness, or Marriage and Families. This is exciting! It would still cost about $12,000, so I'm going to have to pray hard about that and just see where the Lord leads me. =)