As In a Mirror

Hey, y’all, I don’t know if this little corner of cyberspace has been forgotten or not, but here I am anyway. Hi!
Yikes, I know I’ve been away for several weeks; this section of the school year finds me pretty busy, so between studying, a lot of writing, and chores, I’ve kinda been losing my creativity for now A couple times I thought to myself, “Oh, I could post this or that,” but never got around to it, bummer. Several times I would read through my own past posts (what I write is basically me speaking to myself) and be stirred again and think, “Oh I should post that little snippet, just to share it again,” but again never got around to it. The Gospel in the Gospels series is really neat for me, helping me to cross-reference and get the bigger picture through the whole Bible. I love reading the Bible and seeing not just lifestyle instruction or topical discourses or isolated stories, but a Story as a whole. What is that Story? The Glory of God. All things of Him, through Him, for Him, for His glory. But alas, I just haven’t had the creativity to put anything together. A lot of my oomph has sunk into a deep hibernation, unwilling to be awakened.

But anyway, I didn’t return to merely share my bloggy woes; I have good news, the first of which is that it is not freezing cold even though it’s almost the end of November! Woohoo! I’m sure thankful for that. Maybe it is the slow advent of cold, though, that’s giving me a serious cooking/baking bug. Whenever I can find the time and energy, I’m making something. I made my first scones just a few days ago–yummy! Totally homemade! I got the recipe online and took pictures of the process, but again never got to editing them or writing the article. Yesterday we had a great Thanksgiving dinner, although a lot of it was out of cans and bags. It was delicious, but I did miss the charm and quality of homemade. We had plenty of leftovers, though, so no cooking today!

Well I was given a pair of Maxell Wooden Ear Buds (yah, I had no idea there was such a thing either!) and they are very nice! The cable is braided nylon, another awesome feature. Also received a treasure indeed: my very own copy of The Shadow of the Almighty: the Life and Testament of Jim Elliot, 2008 edition. It’s something I’ve wanted for some time. I borrowed the original publication from the library a few times and to say it had a profound impact on my life would be an understatement. Re-reading it now is beautifully nostalgic– the sweetest nostalgia I can ever remember having. What else can I say? Now it’s my own! Thanks to my Mom and Dad. Food passeth away, but treasures from learning from a fellow mortal whose heart was bonded to Christ don’t. Maybe you get an idea just how dull I am right now because I’m not even crying! (Quick! There’s something wrong with Alice!) “One generation shall praise Your works to another.” That’s what I feel like when I read books like this.

Well, Thanksgiving Day was good and quiet for us. Psalm 145 and Romans 3 were two good chapters to read that day. I hope y’all had a wonderful time of food, fellowship, and continue to this week. Remember to take life in stride, as sometimes we Yankees forget the value in that. Value little things, and thank God for it all. “Don’t worry ’bout nothing; pray about everything.” And tell somebody else about God’s goodness, eh?

Well, I stayed up past my bedtime to write this, so “Night All!”

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You’ll want to check this out; it’s the testimony of David Wheaton, a Christian author/speaker/radio host, but also a famous professional tennis player. It is very concise and very relevant to young people but perhaps especially to young men; you will want to take a moment to read it and ponder it.

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I read this today from Oswald Chambers’ ‘My Utmost for His Highest’ at Travel the Road’s blog. It is certainly worth a repost.

So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. (John 11:6)

Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).

A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.

The other day there was another reeeally good one on Romans 6:13, you will want to take two minutes to read it!

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There are things we don’t understand as of now, but we know Him who knows all things, and we cling to what He has revealed to us. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29

Psalm 119: In the midst of David’s suffering, he exclaims how he loves the Law of the Lord.

Is it a “purpose-driven life?” is it our purpose we are trying to find? Romans 6:10 says that we died with Christ, and He died to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!

Matthew 7:17-20 Notice that the trees do not control which fruit they bear; depending on what kind of tree it is inherently, that is the kind of fruit it inevitably bears. Different kinds of trees also produce different fruits at different times.

Matthew 3:9: Now we read something like this, and say, “Okay, so just because you’re Jewish doesn’t mean that you will go to heaven.” But we need to take the word of God and apply it to ourselves on every level. In places like this, where it is appropriate hermeneutically, we need to fill in “Abraham” with our personal context. Do we think that just because we go to a certain church we’re saved? Because we grew up in a Christian home? Because we believe the right stuff and are not ‘one of them’?” We see that John’s point was that the people he was speaking to leaned back on their ancestry or their position to make them feel safe. Do we do the same in something? These things are written for us to learn from.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:32-33) Men do not work signs and wonders; God does.

When I die, and I stand before the judgment seat of God, I am not going to say: “Lord, I was faithful” or “Lord, I did my best.” My defense alone is, “Lord, Your grace was enough. Your Son’s sacrifice was enough.” He became my sin (though He did no sin) so I became His righteousness (though I did no righteousness)

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Teenagers, college students, check this out. Remember Adolf Hitler? The Holocaust? The host of this movie presents an intense scenario to several people; he asks what they would do if they were in a certain situation in World War 2. It really got me thinking. He moves on to ask them their views on abortion, and– wow, I’ve never seen anything like this before. This is the 180 movie. I seriously can’t do a justice to describe what happens; watch this movie and think about what you would do.

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