Bible Reading May 28th Galatians Ch. 4

Ok, I admit that I need to get better at reading everyday. It is so weird that when I have the most time (the weekends) I don't read, but somehow I can find time to fit it in before school on the weekdays. Why is that? Anyway, I am back and today I read from Galatians chapter 4.

In Paul's 4th chapter of wisdom to the Galatians he draws comparisons of our slavery to the "old law" when Christ brought us our new rule book when he came and died for us. He talks mainly about how our persecution and reliance on "comfortable" ways is like Abraham's two sons. It explains this well in verses 4:23-25,
"The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where the people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mt. Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother."

It is interesting to think about at this time, but you have to remember what was happening at that time. Christianity was a relatively new idea then and was still being attacked constantly by the people of the Jewish faith because they didn't sanction it at all. So what Paul is trying to do here is a big deal. He is telling the people, "Look, Jesus brought us a new law to follow. People aren't going to necessarily going to love you for following his example and the new law he set out for us." It seems like a struggle reserved just for the people of that time, but think about today. How often do we consciously think about the choices we make and ask ourselves if we are following the new path Christ set out for us?

Paul goes on to sum up this topic in verses 30 and 31 saying, "But what do scriptures say about that? 'Get rid of the salve and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the the free woman's son.' So dear brothers and sisters, we are not the children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman." So, remember, no one goes to Heaven except through him, better hurry up and go through that door and make sure you hold it open for someone else as they try to get through as well!

The truth about food

Bible Reading May 23rd Galatians Ch. 2-3

Today's reading again comes from Paul's letter to the people of Galatia. He continues to preach on the importance of decision making but this section focuses mainly on whether or not to follow the Jewish law. Paul argues that the original law given to Moses by God was to, "show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised (Jesus). " (Ch 3:19). He also goes on to talk about the law being a guardian for us until we could be made right with God through faith instead of solely obedience to the laws. 

This is interesting to me because I still see the 10 commandments as pretty important for keeping order not just in the Christian world, but the entire world. I think you can argue that the commandments laid out by God to Moses are pretty universal truths held by just about everyone on the planet. Of course there are always those who chose to do their own mischief, but the majority of people would agree that murder is a bad thing and that you should enjoy what you have instead of lusting after what somebody else has.

I don't think Paul is telling us to not obey the laws at all by any means, I think he is just reaffirming the fact that faith in and love for Jesus Christ is the most important thing that any Christian can hope to have. He did say that no one will get to heaven except through him, and I for one am going to believe him on that.

Bible Reading May 22nd Galatians Ch. 1

Today's read came from Paul's letter to the people of Galatia. I love reading Paul's letters because he has such a great perspective on what it takes to follow Jesus. He states in verses 1:22-24, "And still the Christians in the churches in Judea didn't know me personally. All they knew was that people were saying 'The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!' And they praised God because of me." I think we see examples of this all over the news and in our own lives everyday. Who would you rather give you advice on a topic, someone who has lived and grown through an experience, or someone who has read a book or seen a movie about it?? We constantly look for an "authority" on the subject we are questioning or struggling with. 

The other verse from this chapter that caught my attention greatly was 1:10 when Paul is talking about the decisions he has made, and will ultimately continue to make, when he says, "Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." It is amazing to me how often I and people I see go out of our way to please people or even encourage behavior we know is not pleasing to God. I always find myself running things through a filter in my brain trying to equate behaviors to see if one is as bad as the other when I should be comparing it to whether or not it is pleasing to God. I am not saying I am perfect by any means, trust me, I'm not. But, I think the more we start to look at our decisions with the scope of what God thinks of what we are doing, we are making great strides. Like they always say, "The first step to solving a problem, is admitting that you have one". I think we could ALL admit that we have a problem when it comes to what we call acceptable in our society. 

My goal for this upcoming week is to more strictly monitor my actions and make sure that God is always at the center of what I am doing so that I may draw closer to him through it.

Workout Today

Here is the workout I did this morning:

14 miles on the bike (50 min)
20 min of Ab work
2 miles on the treadmill (20 min)

1st Triathlon

Ok, so I took the plunge and signed up for my first triathlon! It is a sprint Triathlon in Medical Lake on June 21st. This means it is a 400yd swim, 12 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. I have been training pretty hard to get into Triathlons so we'll see how I like it I guess. Would love for you to come out and support me in my new adventure. Also, for support for Whit as well as she doesn't understand this new obsession. (Click on picture above to check out the website for more info)

Prince Caspian Review

So last night a group of us went to see Prince Caspian down at the Valley Regal Cinemas. In anticipation the opening of the movie, I read the original C.S. Lewis masterpiece to my 6th graders at Shiloh. I love reading C.S. Lewis' books and have enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia series a lot. I love to read the book before seeing the movie because then I feel like I am glued more to what's going on because the nature of my personality forces me to compare the two while watching the silver screen.

Negatives:

So as the movie begins and the boys are fighting classmates in the subway station, I immediately find myself thinking, "Wait, this wasn't in the book!!" We were only 5 minutes into the book and already the story line was different.

The other thing I was disappointed with was the lack of time in the movie given to the relationship built between the professor and Caspian. This important part of the book is where Caspian, and the rest of us, learn what happened to the "Old Narnians" when the Telemarines came into Narnia. And the fact as well that they summed up the first 100 pages or so in the first 20 minutes of the movie and spent the last 2 hours on the battle scenes.

The last thing I didn't like was the lack of attention paid to the interaction between Lucy and Aslan when the kids are on their way to meet Caspian. Aslan guides the kids to where they need to get to. Also, as they start to believe more and more in the fact that he will help them eventually, they start to see him. It is also interesting from the book that the kids start to see Aslan in reverse chronological order. So Lucy sees him and "knows" him first and Peter is the last.

Positive:

The best thing, and sometimes the worst I guess too, about seeing the movie representation of a book already read, is that you get to put a face to the characters. I think one of the best things that Walden Media did was their casting. They did a great job of making all of the Telemarines of Spanish decent to keep consistency with the fact that they were all from a group of pirates that were marooned on an island and walked through the magic cave and into Narnia.

It is always heart warming to read the Christian under tones within the story, but for some reason when you see it acted out on the screen it tends to drive it home a little more. The best example of this from the movie that I saw was when Lucy and Aslan were interacting in the field. Lucy asked Aslan a question like, "Aslan, how many Narnians would have died if I would have come to you sooner?" Aslan replied, "We can never know now, but what we can change is how many we can save now." It just makes me think of how we constantly run away from God and don't seek out his guidance. How many people could I have "saved" if I came to God sooner in life? How many people do I turn away still because I still refuse to give my life "completely" to God.

Last Word:

I believe that the release of this movie will inspire young kids to imagine a savior to come save the day when they are in need. We don't have a magical horn, but we do have a direct line to our savior through the word of prayer. Although I am usually opposed to spending money on going to the movies because it just ends up supporting people that don't hold the same values I do. But, in this case, I think that it was money well spent. Thank you to the Cones for taking Whit and I, we really enjoyed the trip back to Narnia, even if we didn't go back the same way twice.

Bible Reading May 14th 1 Thessalonians Ch. 1

Today's reading comes from 1st Thessalonians Ch 1. This letter from Paul, Silas, Timothy reminds me of the ultimate encouragement card to give someone. In this opening to the book, the autors give praise to the people for what they have done, but also giving glory to God for allowing it to happen. In one of the verses it makes me jealous of the abundance of love the people of Thessalonica have for God. 

Verses 1:8-10 say it amazingly, "And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don't need to tell them about it, for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away form idols to serve the living and true God. And they speak of ow you are looking forward to the coming of God's Son from Heaven-Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgement" (NLT).

It makes me think of how little I thank other people for being a beacon of God's light instead of "hiding it under their bed". I feel like we need to let people know more often about the amazing things they do for us everyday and never get recognized for it. Now, I know a lot of people tat do things solely out of the kindness of their heart, but sometimes it is nice to hear a word of encouragement every once in a while for doing a good job on something. Besides, we are all in this together, aren't we??

Traithlon Training

Well, I think I am going to go full speed ahead into the Triathlon or as they call it, Multisport arena. I have chosen to trade in throwing around the iron for 6 months for riding my bike, running on the treadmill and swimming at OZ. My goal is to be able to compete in Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons next year and maybe someday... a half-Ironman. Who knows if the last thing will happen or not, but, after I ride home this afternoon, I will have ridden 12 miles, ran 3.5 miles and swam 1/2 a mile today. So I guess the Sprint triathlon could happen sooner than I thought.

New Puppy Soon!!

Our new puppy in 4 weeks and counting. Ali is going to give Chloe a run for her money!!

Bible Reading May 13th (Acts Ch 1)

Today I read the first chapter in the book of Acts. This chapter in Acts talks about the replacement of Judas with Matthias in the group of apostles. The interesting thing about the way they chose who took his place was that they casted lots. Now, I am a whole hearted believer that God will make happen what he would like to have happen, but it seems a little weird to me that they casted lots for such an important decision? To me when the soldiers casted lots for Jesus' clothing after he died it seemed in a gambling sense. But when they cast lots for this position, is it like pulling straws? I would really like to know what the different uses of this term are to help understand this passage better.

Prayer: Today I pray for all of those this past weekend who were caught in one natural disaster or another across the world. I also pray for my family and the youth group kids as we go to super tuesday tonight. Hopefully they will be lead to bring their friends and their friends' ears will be opened to the word of God. Thank you God for every day you give me.

Me and Chloe on the first day we got her chillin' in the backyard

Big Trouble in Little China

Most of you who will read my blog know quite a bit about my family. What has been a recent event in my family's journey is my Dad taking a job in China running a factory that produces the blades that go on the white wind energy windmills you see in the fields sometimes. Anyway, yesterday just north of Chengdu, the provinical capital of the Sichuan region in China, was struck by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake killing nearly 9,000 people as of 1:00 on Monday. Just ask for prayers for all of the people that were involved in this tragedy and having not talked to my Dad since this happened, that he is doing fine as well.

Franklin, out.

A little about me...

Now that you have heard my changed views on blogging, I think it is appropriate to give you some insight into who I am. My full name is Travis Benjamin Franklin, yes I am aware that my middle name is Benjamin and my last name is Franklin. My parents weren't huge American history buffs, I was named after my great-uncle. I was born in the Seattle Area but moved to Spokane when I was 6. I went to Colbert Elementary, Mead Middle, and Mt. Spokane High School. After High school I bounced to a few different school until landing at Whitworth College. I graduated from there with a degree in Elementary Education with a focus in math and reading.


5 months after graduating, I married my high school sweetheart Whitney on October 7th, 2007. We bought a house in the Shadle area and now have an almost one-year old puppy named Chloe who is like having a real kid, full of energy and mischief.

After graduating from Whitworth, I got hired to teach 6th grade at Colbert Elementary, where I went. After spending a year there, I moved over to Shiloh to teach 6th grade again. I love teaching and I truly believe what the Bible has to say about the subject when it says that not all of us should presume to be teacher, because those who teach will be judged more strictly. I thank God everyday for sowing me at such a young age what I should be doing with my life.

Franklin, out.

Here we go...

For so long I heard people saying, "Have you checked out so and so's blog yet?" And I would politely tell them "No", because I thought blogging would be here and gone in no time like Coke 2 and Roger Clemens' popularity. But, here I am, typing away for who knows who, like my life story can be learned from this blog post. But, I do have to admit, after all of my fighting this blog "thing", I am really enjoying it. It is hard to admit you missed the start of something big and then fought it mainly because you wanted to be "the one" who didn't get caught up in the frenzy of "blogging" or buying $150 jeans from A&F that had holes and paint already on them (luckily I didn't board this train) that you could have done to a $15 pair of pants. But at some point, like most or our parents, we yield to the onslaught of new technology and start to participate. So here I am for the first time saying, Franklin out.