Here's the song "Embracing Accusation" from Shane & Shane's "Pages" album...It seems appropriate for this Easter season...if you haven't heard it, go listen!
Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough
I hear him saying, Acursed are the ones who can´t abide
He's right, hallelujah, he´s right
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray
I cannot gain salvation
Embracing accusation
Could the father of lies be telling the truth of
God to me tonight?
That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine
I hear him saying, Acursed are the ones who can´t abide
The devil´s singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He's forgotten the refrain.
JESUS SAVES!!!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
I've been thinking about Africa a lot lately...in our Perspectives class we saw the Invisible Children video, Marc and I watched the Constant Gardner a few nights ago, and my friend Sarah is leaving for Malawi today...sometimes my heart aches a little bit for Africa. I saw just a small corner, but the girls and the children at Rafiki worked their way so far into my heart. I think about them a lot, especially the girls, wondering what has become of them, especially with all of the chaos of the political unrest. I pray that they know that God loves them, and that He might make their lives a little bit easier if that is His will. The video is a short one that I took while there. Each morning of the medical clinic, the girls from the school would lead a devotion to open the clinic. A pair would do the devotion - one speaking in english, the other translating to kiswahili. The best part of the devotions was the singing...unfortunately this video isn't that great of quality, but the way the singing works is that one girl sings a phrase, then everyone in the audience joins in. So it's all a call-and-repeat type of singing, so everyone can sing whether they know the words or not (except they all do know the words!) and there are motions that everyone does. Joy overflows the singing - and that is incredible to me because the girls and the people who'd come in from Mwiki for the clinic live such hard, hard lives. Complete joy is an incredible thing to behold!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Conjecture vs. Truth
This week at church (http://www.thevillagechurch.net/) my pastor was preaching through the end of Luke 6, and in expounding on the "blind man leading a blind man leads to two blind men in a pit" part (vs 39 and on), he gave some ways to wade through all the conjecture out there in the book world in the search for truth. "Conjecture" being what people think, and "truth" being what God says in the Bible. Matt (Chandler, the pastor) talked about how there is a ton of error in christian literature when it is lined up with biblical truth. In a day when we have a wealth of reading opportunities, both in books and in what is written on the web as articles and blogs, we need to have a way to sniff out the wolves in sheep's clothing. A way to know false teaching that sounds beautiful from what is really true about God and our relationship with him. Here are some suggestions that Matt gave for thoughts during reading:
1) What do they do with the scriptures? Do they treat them as cold and dead (and theologians as evil men in ivory towers touting scriptures not applicable for today's world)? What do they say in regards to the purity of scripture (would they leave some out)?
2) Do they add anything to the cross? ie, to be saved you need the cross AND...
3) What do they believe about the essence of man? Are we good or bad in the deep heart of things?
4) What do they do with Jesus? Is he God in the flesh, the wrath-absorbing Son of God? or a good moral teacher?
To be able to put those questions to good use, we've got to know what the Bible does with them too. So not only should we be learning from authors of other literature, but we should be pupils of the Bible first, studying it to dig out the wealth of truth in which we line up everything else we hear.
1) What do they do with the scriptures? Do they treat them as cold and dead (and theologians as evil men in ivory towers touting scriptures not applicable for today's world)? What do they say in regards to the purity of scripture (would they leave some out)?
2) Do they add anything to the cross? ie, to be saved you need the cross AND...
3) What do they believe about the essence of man? Are we good or bad in the deep heart of things?
4) What do they do with Jesus? Is he God in the flesh, the wrath-absorbing Son of God? or a good moral teacher?
To be able to put those questions to good use, we've got to know what the Bible does with them too. So not only should we be learning from authors of other literature, but we should be pupils of the Bible first, studying it to dig out the wealth of truth in which we line up everything else we hear.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
from Perspectives
A couple quotes that caught me from last week's Perspectives readings...
"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle." Bishop Phillips Brooks
"And yet mere common-sense ought to tell us that He, whose way is perfect, can make no mistakes; that He who has promised to 'perfect that which concerneth' us, and whose minute care counts the very hairs of our heads, and forms for us our circumstances, must know better than we the way to forward our truest interests and to glorify His own Name." Hudson Taylor
"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle." Bishop Phillips Brooks
"And yet mere common-sense ought to tell us that He, whose way is perfect, can make no mistakes; that He who has promised to 'perfect that which concerneth' us, and whose minute care counts the very hairs of our heads, and forms for us our circumstances, must know better than we the way to forward our truest interests and to glorify His own Name." Hudson Taylor
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
yes
"The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." Dorothy Nevill
Sunday, March 02, 2008
tears of laughter
Go to my friend Emily's blog for some funny, funny reading. Check out the post just before the last one. Dog Diary vs. Cat Diary... I laughed aloud! http://www.singlehappens.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 24, 2008
62 degrees and sunny
The other day Marc and I were playing around with the different Wii channels and discovered that it was warmer in Antarctica (5 deg) than Minneapolis (2 deg) according to the weather channel. I've been a little bit whiny lately about the cold and semi-gray skies, wishing for sunshine and warmth, but then I talk to my sister who lives in Minneapolis and realize what a ludicrous complaint I have! All that to say that I have really enjoyed the warmth and sun today. I'll take 62 over the mid-30's any day! And I probably couldn't hack it in a place with "real" winters (like Minneapolis) for more than a vacation. I am a pansy, that's all there is to it.
On another note (almost as random, but not quite), I've been thinking about fear a lot lately. I've fought fear all of my life...as one who is prone to timidity, there have been times in my life where I've been nearly ruled by fear. Afraid of the dark, afraid of the shadows, afraid of the bad guys. Sometimes though, it seems like there is a little bit of an abatement in Fear. I'm not sure what happens to cause that, but it's like I can relax for some months, not thinking about what I'm afraid of. For the last several months, I've been in that relaxed state. Probably a lot of it has to do with being married because I feel like I have a protector now. The few nights that Marc has had to work all night, I've been a little freaked out, but still not nearly as bad as it has occasionally been in the past. Well, we watched the movie "The Brave One" last weekend and it has made me think about fear again. In the movie Jodie Foster and her fiance are mugged and her fiance is beaten to death. She responds by becoming a vigilante of sorts. It was a pretty good movie, brutal and terribly sad, but I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a flick like that. But it's made me think about how I would respond if Marc died unexpectedly. I have no idea. It's also made me think about the fact that there are bad guys out there, and they couldn't care less whether you're a good guy, or you're really happy, or you were just minding your own business. The incredible thing is that God has blessed me with a relationship in which I can relax in. I tend to stay away from scary movies because I just replay and replay and replay in my head. So the other night I was laying in bed awake, replaying horrible scenes from the movie. I think I must have been tossing and turning, praying that God would help me quiet my mind enough to go back to sleep, and Marc stirred. All he did was roll over and put his arm around me, and it was instant warmth, comfort, protection. I think I fell asleep pretty immediately. How incredible it is that here I've been struggling my whole life to beat back fear, praying a lot about it, trying to be smart in scary situations, but still trying to take the responsibility for beating it on my own shoulders, and God has let me struggle, but now he's given me an antidote. Over the last 6 months it continually occurs to me that God let me struggle for awhile, but now he's said "Rest. It's ok, I've got it." And because of the struggle, and the infinitely closer relationship with my God that resulted, this rest is incredible. INCREDIBLE!
On another note (almost as random, but not quite), I've been thinking about fear a lot lately. I've fought fear all of my life...as one who is prone to timidity, there have been times in my life where I've been nearly ruled by fear. Afraid of the dark, afraid of the shadows, afraid of the bad guys. Sometimes though, it seems like there is a little bit of an abatement in Fear. I'm not sure what happens to cause that, but it's like I can relax for some months, not thinking about what I'm afraid of. For the last several months, I've been in that relaxed state. Probably a lot of it has to do with being married because I feel like I have a protector now. The few nights that Marc has had to work all night, I've been a little freaked out, but still not nearly as bad as it has occasionally been in the past. Well, we watched the movie "The Brave One" last weekend and it has made me think about fear again. In the movie Jodie Foster and her fiance are mugged and her fiance is beaten to death. She responds by becoming a vigilante of sorts. It was a pretty good movie, brutal and terribly sad, but I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a flick like that. But it's made me think about how I would respond if Marc died unexpectedly. I have no idea. It's also made me think about the fact that there are bad guys out there, and they couldn't care less whether you're a good guy, or you're really happy, or you were just minding your own business. The incredible thing is that God has blessed me with a relationship in which I can relax in. I tend to stay away from scary movies because I just replay and replay and replay in my head. So the other night I was laying in bed awake, replaying horrible scenes from the movie. I think I must have been tossing and turning, praying that God would help me quiet my mind enough to go back to sleep, and Marc stirred. All he did was roll over and put his arm around me, and it was instant warmth, comfort, protection. I think I fell asleep pretty immediately. How incredible it is that here I've been struggling my whole life to beat back fear, praying a lot about it, trying to be smart in scary situations, but still trying to take the responsibility for beating it on my own shoulders, and God has let me struggle, but now he's given me an antidote. Over the last 6 months it continually occurs to me that God let me struggle for awhile, but now he's said "Rest. It's ok, I've got it." And because of the struggle, and the infinitely closer relationship with my God that resulted, this rest is incredible. INCREDIBLE!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
lurve
Hello friends, Happy Valentine's Day!
My dad put this quote in a card he wrote us that was in our fun Valentine's Day package - o - love: "Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." Dr. Karl Menninger.
This year I am giving only a short version of my go-love-somebody V-day soapbox: If you're feeling in the midst of grrr-valentine's-day-is-only-a-made-up-holiday-by-hallmark-and-hershey's-and-i-refuse-to-celebrate-grrr funk, try loving somebody. Doesn't have to be romantic love, just love somebody more obviously than usual. It'll feel good, I promise : ). (see above quote)
My dad put this quote in a card he wrote us that was in our fun Valentine's Day package - o - love: "Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." Dr. Karl Menninger.
This year I am giving only a short version of my go-love-somebody V-day soapbox: If you're feeling in the midst of grrr-valentine's-day-is-only-a-made-up-holiday-by-hallmark-and-hershey's-and-i-refuse-to-celebrate-grrr funk, try loving somebody. Doesn't have to be romantic love, just love somebody more obviously than usual. It'll feel good, I promise : ). (see above quote)
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