So you've been there before. Thanksgiving Dinner--- The turkey and dressing, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, okra, tomatoes, potato salad, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, green beans, rolls, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, cooked cabbage, green salad, smoked ham, jello salad, squash casserole, fried chicken all the way down to the pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate cake, red-velvet cake, peanut brittle, ice-cream, peach/apple/blueberry/blackberry cobbler, candybars, hearshy-almond chocolate pie, peanut-butter pie, rocky-road mudslide dump cake, punch dump cake, chocolate coated pretzels and peanuts...and the list goes on.
So you are in the next room watching the Thanksgiving parade (in between flipping back and forth with football and fighting over the remote) when grandma is cooking up a storm. The smell is bliss. You are tired of the fighting and the boredom of the murmers of your extended relatives, so you follow your nose to the kitchen. You innocently stand beside the food bar as you look to your left, look to your right and take a quick glance behind and in front of you to make sure no-one is looking...and then...you sneak just a little taste of your favorite something. Thanksgiving Dinner has begun. Sure, you haven't had the prayer and no one except grandma is in the kitchen. But you look to your left, look to your right and take a quick glance behind and in front of you to make sure no-one is looking...and then...you sneak another taste of Thanksgiving Dinner. And you don't stop until you fall asleep.
God is Thanksgiving Dinner--- The love, the joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, passion, mercy, grace, salvation, purity, holiness, praise, contentment, perserverance, godliness, readiness, faith, knowledge, Truth, prayers...just to name a few.
So you are in the world watching and partaking of the sinful nature. Fighting with your enemies...AND your friends, flipping between what to do Friday night and Saturday night. But Daddy is cooking up a storm. The smell is bliss. You are tired of the fighting and the boredom of the murmers of the world, so you follow your nose to Christianity. And when your friends are too busy to notice-you look to your left, look to your right and take a quick glance behind and in front of you...and there Christianity is. There stands God. You take a bite, and sneak another taste of Him. And you don't stop until you fall asleep.
THANKS be to God for his feast He sets before us. Now let us GIVE the feast to the world that surrounds us, because the sad thing is...some fall asleep too early.
"O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you." Psalm 63:1-5
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
To Do
So let me be straight up honest. I have had a lot to do. I made a "To Do" list yesterday and it consisted of 17 things:
1. Daily Bible reading
2. Email
3. Read When Is a Bible Example Binding
4. Return Poppa K's cooler
5. Car Decals
6. Youth Ministry class
7. Eat supper
8. Attend Preacher's Club/Missions Club meeting
9. Read How to Read the Bible For All It's Worth
10. Write Mrs. Gipson, Jessie, and Zach
11. Review lecture notes
12. Read Marriages and Families
13. Attend dorm devo
14. Write this note
15. Read Wild at Heart
16. Update F3 Group
17. Do Youth Ministry packet
Hold on. Wait a minute. Did you catch that?
#1-Read my Bible, #8-Attend Preacher's Club/Missions Club meeting, #13-Attend dorm devo...etc.
Did I just say I was SCHEDULING in God? Whoa! What has gotten into me lately?
"Yet this is the frustration of so many! They are so defeated trying to 'live the Christian life' that Christianity becomes an 'impossible burden' rather than an exciting joy!...One of my favorite statements is, 'Do not live the Christian life; live life as a Christian.'" (Thank you, Charles Hodge and Nathan McVeigh.)
Procrastination usually is not one of my problems. But sitting down to write this note was tough. Not because I didn't have time (#14, it is "planned" writing into my schedule). It was, and is, tough because sometimes---I fear feeling. It has been my struggle ever since I was born. You see, it is just so easy to wake up, go eat breakfast, go to class, go to chapel, go to my room, go to lunch, go to class, go nap, go to supper, go to an activity, go to bed, and wake up the next day just to go all over again. It is so easy to be, to feel...NUMB.
But to write-for me-is to feel. To write out my emotions, my passions, my LOVE, my LIFE---forces me to feel. It forces me to digest all the emotions throughout the day. It forces me to constantly be looking at life through "Jesus glasses" (Thanks, Nicole). It forces me to stop pretending to live the Christian life...
It forces me to LIVE as a Christian.
It forces me to be...HUMAN.
We need to love..."There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear," 1 John 4:18. "To step out of your comfort zone it means you are not afraid of rejection...Don't be afraid to have your heart broken," Sammi Jones.
We need to live in the Lord..."For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord," Romans 14:7-8.
"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins," James 4:14-17.
So here is my "To Do" list, if God wills:
1. Live
2. Love
3. Die
1. Daily Bible reading
2. Email
3. Read When Is a Bible Example Binding
4. Return Poppa K's cooler
5. Car Decals
6. Youth Ministry class
7. Eat supper
8. Attend Preacher's Club/Missions Club meeting
9. Read How to Read the Bible For All It's Worth
10. Write Mrs. Gipson, Jessie, and Zach
11. Review lecture notes
12. Read Marriages and Families
13. Attend dorm devo
14. Write this note
15. Read Wild at Heart
16. Update F3 Group
17. Do Youth Ministry packet
Hold on. Wait a minute. Did you catch that?
#1-Read my Bible, #8-Attend Preacher's Club/Missions Club meeting, #13-Attend dorm devo...etc.
Did I just say I was SCHEDULING in God? Whoa! What has gotten into me lately?
"Yet this is the frustration of so many! They are so defeated trying to 'live the Christian life' that Christianity becomes an 'impossible burden' rather than an exciting joy!...One of my favorite statements is, 'Do not live the Christian life; live life as a Christian.'" (Thank you, Charles Hodge and Nathan McVeigh.)
Procrastination usually is not one of my problems. But sitting down to write this note was tough. Not because I didn't have time (#14, it is "planned" writing into my schedule). It was, and is, tough because sometimes---I fear feeling. It has been my struggle ever since I was born. You see, it is just so easy to wake up, go eat breakfast, go to class, go to chapel, go to my room, go to lunch, go to class, go nap, go to supper, go to an activity, go to bed, and wake up the next day just to go all over again. It is so easy to be, to feel...NUMB.
But to write-for me-is to feel. To write out my emotions, my passions, my LOVE, my LIFE---forces me to feel. It forces me to digest all the emotions throughout the day. It forces me to constantly be looking at life through "Jesus glasses" (Thanks, Nicole). It forces me to stop pretending to live the Christian life...
It forces me to LIVE as a Christian.
It forces me to be...HUMAN.
We need to love..."There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear," 1 John 4:18. "To step out of your comfort zone it means you are not afraid of rejection...Don't be afraid to have your heart broken," Sammi Jones.
We need to live in the Lord..."For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord," Romans 14:7-8.
"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins," James 4:14-17.
So here is my "To Do" list, if God wills:
1. Live
2. Love
3. Die
Monday, August 25, 2008
Man's Best Friend
"Jamie: You know what I figured out today?
Landon: What?
Jamie: Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself. Like this journey never ends. Like you were sent to me because I'm sick. To help me through all this. You're my angel. "
-A Walk to Remember
Yesterday I was walking through the neighborhoods of Henderson, Tennessee- Quite and quaint they are with houses from the 1950's, broken sidewalks, and neighbors sitting on the front porch drinking down their southern sweet tea. I have walked those streets numerous of times over the past years with smiles from the passersby and even an occassional "how do you do." But yesterday was different. Something just wasn't quite right.
I felt like I was being stalked...you know, when you can feel eyes staring straight through your cold blood. He creeped up on me when I least expected. With a playful wag of his tail, "man's best friend" was at my side ready to play. He was an eerie yet comforting sort of companion. Coming from nowhere so it seemed. We walked together for sometime down the long lonesome road until we ran into his enemies.
With ferocious barks, probably better than their bites, the mob of carnivores prowled upon my companion, my friend. With threats of flesh and death, it seemed it could not get any worse until "dog's best friend" came to greet us as well. Talk about a bark that could kill; I had never behold such a site. Escaping as quickly as we could with my companero defending my every move, we walked into a trap that could no other than be set by the devil himself.
"You sure are a pretty little girl," harrassed the beasts next door neighbor, if you can call him such. Eh...talk about a sticky situation.
I escaped the trap of death that was breathing scoldings down my back just in the nick of time... The next thing I knew I was walking alone again down the broken sidewalk that beholds many of tales. My friend had vanished.
I don't know where he went, but I sure know where he came from. There is no doubt about it.
How many times does the Lord intervene with our lives?
What if you weren't running late on the way to work that one day?---would you have been in that car crash?
What if your parents never met?---would you be reading this today?
What if my friend was not there to guard me?---would you even have something to read?
God's plan for us is truely a wonder to behold.
Landon: What?
Jamie: Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself. Like this journey never ends. Like you were sent to me because I'm sick. To help me through all this. You're my angel. "
-A Walk to Remember
Yesterday I was walking through the neighborhoods of Henderson, Tennessee- Quite and quaint they are with houses from the 1950's, broken sidewalks, and neighbors sitting on the front porch drinking down their southern sweet tea. I have walked those streets numerous of times over the past years with smiles from the passersby and even an occassional "how do you do." But yesterday was different. Something just wasn't quite right.
I felt like I was being stalked...you know, when you can feel eyes staring straight through your cold blood. He creeped up on me when I least expected. With a playful wag of his tail, "man's best friend" was at my side ready to play. He was an eerie yet comforting sort of companion. Coming from nowhere so it seemed. We walked together for sometime down the long lonesome road until we ran into his enemies.
With ferocious barks, probably better than their bites, the mob of carnivores prowled upon my companion, my friend. With threats of flesh and death, it seemed it could not get any worse until "dog's best friend" came to greet us as well. Talk about a bark that could kill; I had never behold such a site. Escaping as quickly as we could with my companero defending my every move, we walked into a trap that could no other than be set by the devil himself.
"You sure are a pretty little girl," harrassed the beasts next door neighbor, if you can call him such. Eh...talk about a sticky situation.
I escaped the trap of death that was breathing scoldings down my back just in the nick of time... The next thing I knew I was walking alone again down the broken sidewalk that beholds many of tales. My friend had vanished.
I don't know where he went, but I sure know where he came from. There is no doubt about it.
How many times does the Lord intervene with our lives?
What if you weren't running late on the way to work that one day?---would you have been in that car crash?
What if your parents never met?---would you be reading this today?
What if my friend was not there to guard me?---would you even have something to read?
God's plan for us is truely a wonder to behold.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Hitchhike to Heaven
I woke up this morning missing my friends--- craving them, needing to see their precious faces and hold them in my arms. This tends to happen when the world is QUIET, when there are no DISTRACTIONS. The TV is off. The computer is shut down. The books are closed. All is SILENT. When I am ALONE... The faces of my friends just creep into my head when I least want them to. Not because I don't love them-but because I love them so much. I would give and do anything to see them just one more time...and it hurts thinking about it. I'm not talking about the friends here at Freed that I love so dearly, nor the friends in my hometown that are only two-and-a-half hours away...but I'm talking about my friends that live 721, 1826, and 4656 miles away. These friends, my companions, that distance keeps us apart.
So I started thinking-how can I see them? How can I arrive at this destination where I know their presence will remain? Gas is too expensive these days to drive or take a plane...for the shortest distance round trip, if I get 20mpg at $3.50/gallon, it would cost over $250...and let's just forget about plane tickets. Now that may not seem like a lot of money to you, but for a poor college student who needs to save up for the rest of her life, that's a different story.
But there is another option:
I'll hitchhike.
I'll start here at Freed walking to Jackson and head torwards Memphis. I'll walk through the drive-thru's and look on the ground for the spare change (thanks, dad) just so I can eat a meal. I'll walk along the freeway holding out my hitchhiker thumb (thanks, God) pointing it straight up while it bends to the left. I'll ride with the dirtiest of the dirty. The meanest of the mean. I'll risk my life and my family's worries. I may be threatened. I may be robbed. I may starve. I may be abused. I may be kidnapped. I may be sexually assulted--- I may die. But...I may get to see my friends.
And then there is God.
I woke up this morning missing my Friend--- craving Him, needing to see His precious face and hold Him in my arms. This tends to happen when the world is QUIET, when there are no DISTRACTIONS. The TV is off. The computer is shut down. The books are closed. All is SILENT. When I am ALONE...He is there. He is just a call away. A hitchhiker's thumb to Heaven.
So I started thinking-how can I see them? How can I arrive at this destination where I know their presence will remain? Gas is too expensive these days to drive or take a plane...for the shortest distance round trip, if I get 20mpg at $3.50/gallon, it would cost over $250...and let's just forget about plane tickets. Now that may not seem like a lot of money to you, but for a poor college student who needs to save up for the rest of her life, that's a different story.
But there is another option:
I'll hitchhike.
I'll start here at Freed walking to Jackson and head torwards Memphis. I'll walk through the drive-thru's and look on the ground for the spare change (thanks, dad) just so I can eat a meal. I'll walk along the freeway holding out my hitchhiker thumb (thanks, God) pointing it straight up while it bends to the left. I'll ride with the dirtiest of the dirty. The meanest of the mean. I'll risk my life and my family's worries. I may be threatened. I may be robbed. I may starve. I may be abused. I may be kidnapped. I may be sexually assulted--- I may die. But...I may get to see my friends.
And then there is God.
I woke up this morning missing my Friend--- craving Him, needing to see His precious face and hold Him in my arms. This tends to happen when the world is QUIET, when there are no DISTRACTIONS. The TV is off. The computer is shut down. The books are closed. All is SILENT. When I am ALONE...He is there. He is just a call away. A hitchhiker's thumb to Heaven.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
When The Body Bleeds
I cut myself while shaving the other night. Have you ever cut yourself?
At first it goes unnoticed. And then you see the red. The color starts to trickle slowly down the fresh and clean skin; the members of the body who were once peachy keen now stain red. And you are shocked. What do you do while you bleed and pain in agony? All and every body part grieves for the loss of blood and member that is cut away from the whole. Your head starts throbbing as the liquid and much needed fluid seeps out and escapes. Nothing else matters but to stop the bleeding and pain; to recover the loss; to make the body whole. All else is forgotten.
And then I wonder, do WE act like a body?
When a member starts to slip away and is cut deep, DO WE NOTICE? Do we get STAINED? Are we SHOCKED? Do we rush into action to HEAL, to SAVE, to STOP this bleeding before all else is lost? The head does His part. He THROBS, He HURTS. He LOSES and has LOST. He BLEEDS and has BLED. He is in ANGUISH. But do WE save? Or do we let the member bleed?
"My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from DEATH and cover over a multitude of sins."
James 5:19-20
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
At first it goes unnoticed. And then you see the red. The color starts to trickle slowly down the fresh and clean skin; the members of the body who were once peachy keen now stain red. And you are shocked. What do you do while you bleed and pain in agony? All and every body part grieves for the loss of blood and member that is cut away from the whole. Your head starts throbbing as the liquid and much needed fluid seeps out and escapes. Nothing else matters but to stop the bleeding and pain; to recover the loss; to make the body whole. All else is forgotten.
And then I wonder, do WE act like a body?
When a member starts to slip away and is cut deep, DO WE NOTICE? Do we get STAINED? Are we SHOCKED? Do we rush into action to HEAL, to SAVE, to STOP this bleeding before all else is lost? The head does His part. He THROBS, He HURTS. He LOSES and has LOST. He BLEEDS and has BLED. He is in ANGUISH. But do WE save? Or do we let the member bleed?
"My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from DEATH and cover over a multitude of sins."
James 5:19-20
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Umbrella Promise
"Maybe we just need to figure out why [we are here]---where does God need us to serve?
Maybe like today:
It rained...and poured. It was like taking a shower outdoors. But it was glorious! It reminded me of when God sent rain for the first time on the earth. He opened up the floodgates of Heaven and let the skies fall down. And then the Sun came out, and together-with their power and strength---the Rain and the Sun glistened together to make a promise. A Rainbow. So it didn't rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and it didn't flood the earth, and I didn't even see a rainbow...but today the rain did remind me of why we are here: God. God's promise.
And during that storm today I was walking with my umbrella and my rainboots merrily striding along as dry as a sitting duck. Then there was one of my friends-soaked. He had just gotten a shower as well, so it seemed. He was headed the other direction, but with a helping hand and an umbrella over our heads, we walked to his classroom together with the umbrella over our heads.
In the same way there will be storms---spiritually. And though we may be walking dry under our umbrella, not everyone has one. So God gave us a promise, and we need to share this hope with others."
Maybe like today:
It rained...and poured. It was like taking a shower outdoors. But it was glorious! It reminded me of when God sent rain for the first time on the earth. He opened up the floodgates of Heaven and let the skies fall down. And then the Sun came out, and together-with their power and strength---the Rain and the Sun glistened together to make a promise. A Rainbow. So it didn't rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and it didn't flood the earth, and I didn't even see a rainbow...but today the rain did remind me of why we are here: God. God's promise.
And during that storm today I was walking with my umbrella and my rainboots merrily striding along as dry as a sitting duck. Then there was one of my friends-soaked. He had just gotten a shower as well, so it seemed. He was headed the other direction, but with a helping hand and an umbrella over our heads, we walked to his classroom together with the umbrella over our heads.
In the same way there will be storms---spiritually. And though we may be walking dry under our umbrella, not everyone has one. So God gave us a promise, and we need to share this hope with others."
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