And they say we just happened by chance...also, how is it that something built 2,000 years ago took us a hundred years to figure out?
Also, I'm amazed at my recent ability to track my packages on the internet. Right now, my climbing shoes are in Salt Lake City, UT :-)
One more thing...I'm amazed that I haven't posted in almost a month. Silly me. Semester review is coming up soon :-)
While writing my last post, I thought quite a bit about adoption. Thoughts about adoption bring to my mind thoughts about a particular family, who is in the process of adopting. Will you pray for them and their daughter?
What a beautiful example of redemption. I was adopted, you know...God now treats me as his child, rather than his enemy.
Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.This passage has always bothered me. How should I respond to it? Male and female roles in society have changed a lot from what they used to be, and will change again, I'm sure. So my initial response was to shove it under the (often inaccurate) blanket statement that, well, it must have been a cultural thing, and it doesn't apply to me now. But if all scripture is inspired by God and useful for many things, then how did this verse get into the Bible? The implications are a lot more serious than merely a cultural difference. Prayer is not a cultural thing, so how could Peter say that it could be hindered by something cultural?
Vote (noun): The right to indicate a choice in an election.
Note that this definition doesn't say that the vote matters, just that it is indicated.
I cannot, in good conscience, choose McCain as President.
I will not vote for Obama for many, many reasons.
Problem? I think not, because I have more than two choices. Do you know how many people are running for President of the United States? I had to look it up. Six. Even the government's website only had two listed (anyone else find this outrageous and sick?). Did you know a Black woman was running for President? From the look of things, she has some good credentials, too. Just to be fair, there's this guy again and the Libertarian and the man I'm voting for.
If only the media were a bit more liberal in their coverage. Not Liberal, mind you, but liberal. Maybe "balanced" is a better word. Why do we hear so much about Sarah Palin and Barack Obama? Why is the media practically making up stuff to report about the Republican and Democrat nominees when there are four others who don't get coverage? Why aren't other candidates included in the debates?
Because the average voter is content to eat what mainstream media feeds them.
Forget about Left and Right. There's Up, and Down, and Forward, and Backward. Who knew?
"All education is self education." (Louis L'Amour) If people would educate themselves about the candidates they may choose, I'm convinced that the two domineering parties would be overtaken quite easily.
From what I've learned in my Game Theory class, my vote matters very little when it comes to national politics (one reason why I invest more in local politics than national politics). Besides, there's the Electoral College, which isn't even required to vote according to the wishes of the people they represent. However, my vote still matters because it indicates which candidate I choose and which candidates I do not choose. If not choosing McCain means that Obama gets in office, so be it. My conscience is at rest. God is omnipotent, and I pray he gives me the faith to let him control the election's outcome.
I'm debating about getting this shirt for $5. Two negatives: it costs $5 and it's white. But it involves kayaking (woohoo!) and politics.
This article (yes, I know, another link to Boundless) is a perfect example of why the education system in the United States should be demolished. Even as someone who wasn't mass-educated with peers, the system still affects me in negative ways. I hate it.
Which is why I'm voting for Chuck Baldwin as President. The man wants to disband the Department of Education, which is one of the things that Ron Paul wanted to do. By the way, Ron Paul endorsed Chuck Baldwin. While voting for Chuck isn't quite like voting for Ron Paul, I'm more confident in a vote for Chuck than I would be for any other candidate. Chuck's policies resonate with my convictions except in one area. He's said nothing about the environment and the so-called energy crisis, and I care very much about those issues.
Some would say that I'm throwing my vote away on a candidate who will never get into office. I disagree. Vehemently. Voting for one of two majority parties, neither of which I support or agree with, is throwing my vote away. Voting for the candidate who seems most likely to get into office but barely agrees with my views on anything is foolish. I don't want McCain in office! Sure, he's pro-life, but consider that he won't have power to stop abortion! I don't agree with his energy policy or his foreign policy or his VP candidate or the reasons why he chose Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. And yet, I can't vote for Barack Obama. The man has terrible views on foreign policy and would bring this country even closer to a socialist state. I can't vote for that.
I'm sick of this two-party majority.
Daydreaming at Night
Thoughts spinning, I write
Nonsense over again.
Heart thumping, breathing,
Eyes open, staring
I want to fall asleep.
Analyzing all
Anything at all
My brain won't stop thinking.
Metallic tasting
I search for something
That makes my brain shut off.
No rest for the weary.
Today I was able to help around my church's office for a bit while Mom got ready to leave. As I was scribbling an address on a package, the assistant pastor walked up and sighed.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"Nahh...I'm just tired."
"Oh. How many hours of sleep did YOU get last night?"
"Well, um...probably more than you did!"
I don't know if I got more or less sleep than he did, but that post on tithing took quite a bit of time out of last night. So when I got home from the office I slept for 6 hours, and here I am...awake still! 5 AM! Yay!
Remember how I watched a lot of action flicks this Summer during late nights? Now that school has started, I'm memorizing vocab lists :-) And occasionally researching theological topics.
The two responses I've had to my last post indicate that I need to clarify my position on tithing. Thank you to those who responded! You challenged me to evaluate tithing from a strictly biblical perspective.
As a child, I learned about giving. My parents often gave me quarters to put in the offering box. (Why? I'm not sure.) The children's ministry in my church once did a skit about tithing. One of my teachers dressed up as a Hebrew woman, put some oranges in a basket, prayed that God would use them for his glory, and left them on a shelf. This left a big impact on me, because it was the first time I associated tithing with glorifying God. I remember distinctly getting $2 from somewhere (probably a gift-I was about 4) and deciding I would give it to God. So I dressed up as a Hebrew girl, put my $2 in a basket, prayed that God would use it for his glory, and left it on my dresser for weeks. I expected them to disappear. Nothing happened. I put them in the offering box at church, figuring it was more convenient for God to use them there. God still hasn't taken my tithes directly from me.
I couldn't think of any verses relating to tithing off the top of my head. That was embarrassing. The closest thing I could remember was the spiritual gift of giving (which I've prayed to receive). So I searched in my concordance for "tithe." There were 35 verses containing the word.
Tithing is first mentioned when Moses talked to God on Mt. Sinai. People were supposed to give gifts to God, and quite a few gifts are mentioned. The only quantitative value mentioned, however, is a tenth of seeds, fruit, and animals. All these gifts (not just the tithe) were given to the Levites, because they served in the Temple. The Levites were supposed to tithe on the tithes they collected. However, tithes also went to travelers, orphans, and widows.
Then there's the "Robbing God" passage, which seems to be a popular source of ideas on tithing.
Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.This makes sense from personal experience and other testimonies. My parents have gone through periods of tithing and not tithing, and God was faithful to provide in either situation. But, according to my father, my family was blessed to not just "get by" but give sacrificially when tithing. However, I don't think God will only bless those who tithe. That's ridiculous; it ignores the grace that God continually pours on us, whether we acknowledge him or not. But it is a wonderful opportunity for God to prove his faithfulness and use us as tools for his will. Don't you want to be part of God's plan? I do! I think tithing can be one way that we participate in God's will.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!"But I would argue that, if you find tithing to be a burden, your wallet is not at fault. Your heart is. I do not know anyone who is destitute. I've never met anyone who is destitute, even the panhandlers that line the streets of my city. This is fodder for another blog post, but none of them have ever taken my offer of a free lunch after I refuse to give them money. I am not destitute, despite being what most classify as a "poor college student." I don't know any poor college students. If you're in college, which is an incredible privilege, you are not poor. Granted, you probably have a huge financial responsibility, but the fact that you were able to take on that responsibility indicates some amount of resources. If God has indicated that, by going to college, you are giving sacrificially, great! He hasn't given me that desire, but I'm not going to rule it out as a possibility for others.
And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”Financial assets are not the only thing that God commands us to give. He commands us to give him everything. What's the difference between tithing and sacrificial giving? To tithe means to give 10% of one's income, but does sacrificial giving encompass that? Cain and Abel offered the fruits of their labor to God, which I'm sure was not easy to do, considering their working and living conditions.
Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? [...] For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. [...] For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.So, then, I think we're called to a standard above and beyond a simple tithe in the same way that Jesus went above and beyond the standards of Levitical priesthood. Ever heard The Sheep And The Goats by Keith Green? It references the Final Judgment in Matthew 25. That kind of giving is far beyond tithing, and is motivated by love, not duty.
Lately I've been feeling distant from God. I "feel" him when I pray and worship, but there's a constant nearness of God that I've been missing for the past few days. Tonight I reluctantly opened my Bible to Jeremiah 16, wondering if I should be reading something more emotional to get that "nearness" feeling back. But this chapter was next on my list, so I read it.
Then I ran into verses 10-12.
“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.God pushed a button.
I came away from this movie with two dominant thoughts: I would never be able to love anyone unconditionally on my own, and I am so glad that someone loves me unconditionally. This movie was superb in almost all aspects. The content sets it apart from most films in that it shows Love, not fluffy romance.
Technically, this movie is much better than the average low-budget religious film. The Kendrick brothers (a director/producer duo) seem to have learned a lot from Facing the Giants, and put that experience and knowledge to work even harder on Fireproof. The actors did a tough job very well, especially for inexperienced volunteers. There were moments where I wished certain actors would diversify their facial expressions and poses, but the acting rarely felt forced and flowed smoothly. The soundtrack did exactly what it was supposed to do: Support the actors' emotions and occasionally become part of the story. The song "While I'm Waiting" became part of the story, and I loved it.
Most religous films get uncomfortably preachy. Some deal with this up front (like VeggieTales). Some try to hide it, and generally fail miserably. Fireproof was not preachy; it was a story. Everything that happened was for the sake of character development or the plot. At no point did I ever feel like someone broke the 4th wall (which is when movies start to get preachy) and gave me info that could possibly help me, but had little to do with the story. However, as I thought about the movie, I was reminded of Bible verses and sermons that expounded upon topics that were integral to the film and applicable to my life. It was PERFECT!
You've probably heard me rant before about the Disney Princess Franchise. I have come to hate Disney Princess movies and other such romantic trash. There is little redeeming value in those stories, and they've brainwashed my generation of women to expect perfection from obviously flawed men. What's more romantic than a man devoted to a wife who will not love him? I work in a household where the husband shoulders a staggeringly large burden in order to care for his wife, and in two years I've never heard him complain about it. That's romantic. "Making out" under the Eiffel Tower is not romantic. Romance is when a wife lays down her agenda and desires to follow her husband to the ends of the earth, not waking up when the "right" man (i.e. whoever happens to find her first) kisses her.
So this movie was like water to my romantically parched soul. At the same time it gave me hope and despair. Despair that I will ever be able to love the way God does, and hope that God can change the hearts of sinful, dirty humans like me. My ideals of Love were challenged. I realized that a marriage can reflect the Love that Christ has for the Church, and I also realized that I know much less about Love than I thought I did. My first thought when the end credits rolled was, "man, I am never going to be able to get married." And then, "but honestly, would I want marriage if it meant anything less than what I just saw?" The answer was, of course, no. So now, instead of looking for a husband, I am looking for Christ in a man. And training myself to Love unconditionally. I think the latter will be the hardest.
Ack! I'd love to talk about details, but the movie is SO GOOD if you don't know the story. So go watch it. Then talk to me about details. Go watch it multiple times, in fact. The first time I saw it was the best, but the second time was more meaningful, if that makes any sense whatsoever. I'd like to go watch it a third time...my brain still hasn't processed everything that happened, and the story is SO GOOD!
Dear Kendrick Brothers, please make a sequel to Fireproof! Caleb and Katherine could have children, and you could call it Childproof! :-P
The title of this post makes no grammatical sense. But we all know that Boundless is a noun and an adjective, right? :-P
This post was particularly good, and appropriate for the season. I suggest you read it, and keep your eyes peeled.
I learned about Fireproof via Josh Harris' blog. It's being made by the same church who did Facing the Giants (which I still have not seen). Anyone want to go? It's at a theater very close to my house and I'll be going on Friday...and hopefully on Sunday, if it warrants a second viewing.
I found this graphic via EcoGeek. Please allow me to state that I have no opinion on offshore drilling...most reports I've seen of that situation are extremist and emotional, and I don't want to form an extremist, emotional opinion. If any of you happen to have some balanced proof as to why offshore drilling should or should not happen, please share! I'm sick of listening to people who either have no regard for Creation or who think that preservation of Nature is more important than preservation of Mankind.
Anyway. This graphic uses stats taken from the US government (which isn't a reliable source, but that's another topic). It's the first attempt at an objective evaluation of offshore drilling that I've seen. And I find it amusing.
Not only would it take years for such a thing to reach peak production, it would only produce 200,000 barrels/day, which is about 1% of overall predicted production.
I still don't have an opinion on offshore drilling, but I think those who expect it to lower gas prices might want to look for a different solution.
Leo-kitten
Originally uploaded by Norma1.
I WANT ONE!
With shockingly green eyes, and large spots.
I'll probably adopt it, since buying an expensive breed is (in my opinion) ridiculous.
Some day.
Climber
Originally uploaded by Tyromind.
Today, I went top roping for the first time since I knew what I was doing (last time was at Ohiopyle with a dude in our church who took a bunch of us climbing. It took me 3 tries to climb 10 feet.). It was FUN! I tell ya, if everyone could find a means of exercise that made them this excited, there would be a lot less fat people in this world.
Adrenaline rushes are addicting. Dude, I thought jumping off the wall when bouldering (a 12 foot drop) was fun...try belaying off the top of a 30 foot wall! Also, every time I push myself to reach for something that I don't want to risk and/or don't think I can do, and make it, I get euphoric. Handel's Messiah plays in my head. Fun stuff. If only I had more endurance in my upper body!
(If you're wondering how I'm learning to climb, my school has a pretty nice wall that they use to teach classes. Yes, I'm getting college credit to learn how to climb stuff :-D )
People say one should live as if life would end soon. Tonight, as I watched the night sky, I thought of my list of "Things I Want To Do If I Ever Am Diagnosed With Something Terminal." One of those things is going to Alaska and watching the Northern Lights.
"Why don't I just drop everything and go see the Northern Lights now?" I asked myself.
Self replied, "Well, you do have a job to do this weekend, and school on Monday. You can't ignore those responsibilities."
"Yes, but what if I found out that I will probably die in 3 weeks? What then? What if I suddenly die without any warning? Wouldn't my trip to Alaska be justified?"
"Well, yeah," said Self. "Well, no! I mean...if you're going to die soon, you'll be with Jesus soon. So what's the point of seeing the Northern Lights? Sure, I've never experienced them but they are definitely not as amazing as Jesus' face. Why focus on carnal pleasure when you're so close to spiritual wholeness?"
"Then why do so many people focus on fulfilling 'dreams' when they get to the end of life? Hmm...shouldn't life be continually fulfilling a big dream? I.e. purpose? And if God's given me a purpose in this life, then if I were to learn that I'd die before Christmas, I shouldn't want to do anything differently than what God has me doing now."
"Weird. But it makes sense, too. Because how will one glorify God and enjoy him if one were to just satisfy carnal desires for the entirety of one's life? Such a life would be empty."
"..."
"Exactly. I think you need to rewrite your 'Things I Want To Do If I Ever Am Diagnosed With Something Terminal' list."
"In order to live as if I were dying, I'd need to live as if I were fulfilling God's purpose for me, which would be my dream. I, uh...certainly don't think along these lines when I wake up on the average morning."
"Looks like we have an attitude adjustment to make! Hurry, let's sleep so the morning comes sooner!"
[Yes, I know the title of this post is from a country song. For the record, that song is, musically speaking, horrible. But the line was good.]
I recently went to WorshipGod 08, which was the best conference I've been to in years. I hope to blog about that eventually...but, while I was there, they mentioned the Desiring God 08 conference, and I dearly want to go to that! Anyone want to come with me? I'd stay at the Minneapolis International Hostel, which is "for the budget traveler" (read: Cheap).
What a wonderful opportunity this would be for me as a linguist! What a wonderful opportunity for those of you who use language! Anyone else interested in going?
You're looking at the new Associate Head Coach of my fencing club. Scary, ain't it? I tell ya, responsibility can be a great agent for commitment. This next season will be a huge challenge...bring it on! I'm not comfortable in my position yet, but I'm going to take the advice my coach gave me in high school: Make aggressive mistakes! I was driving home from the fencing awards tonight pondering this, and recognizing that my pedestal is now higher...which means a fall would be harder. But the Gospel Song sprang to my lips...Praise God, for from him ALL blessings flow! He has already paid for my mistakes--I need not worry about my future! I am free to do as he wishes (which is the best plan of all), rather than cowering in fear of failure. Who can stand against him? Please pray for my team! They need a saving knowledge of Christ!
