Although today started with the same pounding headache from Mon/Tues returning :(, I started to feel better around noon and spent the remainder of the day up to this point reading Scripture, playing Just Dance 2, playing Skyward Sword, making dessert for tonight, washing-drying-folding several loads of laundry, and changing the bed sheets.
The rest of the evening will be as follows: one hour zumba class, dinner with Sal's parents and brothers, board games, eating the dessert mentioned earlier (haha) and hopefully a good night's sleep.
Tomorrow I plan on waking up early for work, coming home asap after all of my work is done, working out, lunch, hanging out with Sal and possibly Bonch, and making a new recipe for dinner --goulash, nothing too fancy or difficult, but still new!
It's been a good week, even despite the migraines. God won't let anything bring this girl down right now!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Galatians 2-3
A Christian isn’t someone who believes in God and is a good person. How good do you have to be to go to heaven? Who determines the morality and the strength of our actions? Do sins cancel obedience? Do you trust your ability to be good or do you trust what He has done for you in Jesus? We are in a condition of need, but we cannot remedy our condition of need by ourselves. We cannot cleanse ourselves. We cannot fix ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves. The teaching of the Scriptures is not that we should have faith in ourselves and our ability to fix ourselves and to make ourselves pleasing to God. We should trust not in our works but the works of Jesus. We should have faith in Him, and we should not rest and sleep well because of our goodness, but because of His goodness, and not because of the things that we have done, but solely because of the things that He has done. Galatians 2:4 says that, “The righteous live by faith.” To be righteous is to live by faith, not by law, tradition, culture, legalism or any other form of moral movement.
This faith will change our heart and the desire to live a life pleasing to God will flow out of us, through Him. Fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) are gifts from God that are produced in us when we put faith and trust in Jesus! It's nothing we can claim to be good that we have done...these are from Him.
This faith will change our heart and the desire to live a life pleasing to God will flow out of us, through Him. Fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) are gifts from God that are produced in us when we put faith and trust in Jesus! It's nothing we can claim to be good that we have done...these are from Him.
Galatians 3
Karma? Read Galatians 3. Thank GOD karma is not a real thing...we'd all be screwed. It's so hard for us to understand that having a loving faith in Jesus is all we need. Nothing we can do is good enough to reach righteousness with God--Jesus did all of that for us! If we really believe in Him and in that, we love Him, and out of love we desire to be obedient. But even that obedience does not save us. Do not be fooled!
we have the law (the commandments) of course to try and live by, but also to show us that we cannot follow and keep all of them! the only one who did is Jesus, and that shows us even more how much we need Him. We should of course try to live by them because God made them to improve our lives and to love Him, but there's no way we can reach heaven by "being a good person".
"Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"
^^does He do these things because we're great people, or because we have a great God? ....because we have a great God.
"Christ redeemed us" ... !!! :D
we have the law (the commandments) of course to try and live by, but also to show us that we cannot follow and keep all of them! the only one who did is Jesus, and that shows us even more how much we need Him. We should of course try to live by them because God made them to improve our lives and to love Him, but there's no way we can reach heaven by "being a good person".
"Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"
^^does He do these things because we're great people, or because we have a great God? ....because we have a great God.
"Christ redeemed us" ... !!! :D
Friday, February 24, 2012
Lent
For those of you who practice Lent, I just want to encourage you!!!
Lent is not something done in the Bible, rather is a tradition based off of when Jesus fasted for 40 days before he began His ministry.
When we fast from something, or "give it up", it gives us an opportunity to strengthen our relationship with God. We need nothing else in this life other than Jesus...so when we fast, we can use that time we'd normally spend on a specific activity focused on time with God--in prayer or in silence or in His Word. When we feel tempted to do the activity we are fasting from, we call to Jesus to help us from giving in. We cannot do anything on our own strength, rather we borrow from God who graciously gives to us :) The more we focus on Him and understand that, the more empowered we become through Him!
As those who follow lent practice fasting for 40 days, make it about God, not you. Don't use this as some sort of "self-help" season. Rather, use it to spend more time with our King, our Savior, our Father...and maybe at the end of the the 40 days you'll have a renewed focus in the right direction. A better daily practice and habit of spending more time with Him. A clearer mission.
If you would like prayer on what you're fasting from or encouragement to spend more time with God, please do not hesitate to ask. If you have questions about how to go about spending more time with Him or where to start, also message me. We can get into a convo..it's a lot easier than you think! ;)
Lent is not something done in the Bible, rather is a tradition based off of when Jesus fasted for 40 days before he began His ministry.
When we fast from something, or "give it up", it gives us an opportunity to strengthen our relationship with God. We need nothing else in this life other than Jesus...so when we fast, we can use that time we'd normally spend on a specific activity focused on time with God--in prayer or in silence or in His Word. When we feel tempted to do the activity we are fasting from, we call to Jesus to help us from giving in. We cannot do anything on our own strength, rather we borrow from God who graciously gives to us :) The more we focus on Him and understand that, the more empowered we become through Him!
As those who follow lent practice fasting for 40 days, make it about God, not you. Don't use this as some sort of "self-help" season. Rather, use it to spend more time with our King, our Savior, our Father...and maybe at the end of the the 40 days you'll have a renewed focus in the right direction. A better daily practice and habit of spending more time with Him. A clearer mission.
If you would like prayer on what you're fasting from or encouragement to spend more time with God, please do not hesitate to ask. If you have questions about how to go about spending more time with Him or where to start, also message me. We can get into a convo..it's a lot easier than you think! ;)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
music
It's really awesome that we have a smart player that can use the internet to connect various accounts to our TV/speakers--such as Pandora. It's so nice to lounge on a Sunday and just have the radio playing throughout the apartment over our nice tv speakers :)
recommended sunday music: the civil wars radio from pandora. I haven't come across a song that I don't like.
recommended sunday music: the civil wars radio from pandora. I haven't come across a song that I don't like.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
poor guys
Man, girls can be strange, haha.
I was just sitting in the cafeteria, waiting for my computer to start up, when I overheard a girl talking to some guy. The guy did not get a word in for 5 minutes and she just stood there talking about her freckles...how they fluctuate, when she notices when they show up and disappear, how she gets more in the summer, etc. Really? Really?? It's just pretty funny to me. Guys have to put up with some WEIRD stuff.
I was just sitting in the cafeteria, waiting for my computer to start up, when I overheard a girl talking to some guy. The guy did not get a word in for 5 minutes and she just stood there talking about her freckles...how they fluctuate, when she notices when they show up and disappear, how she gets more in the summer, etc. Really? Really?? It's just pretty funny to me. Guys have to put up with some WEIRD stuff.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
random thoughts
-Zumba is awesome.
-Ricky Martin and Dane Cook look a lot alike.
-Naya Rivera is so pretty, it's kind of ridiculous.
-I will be participating in a murder-mystery dinner this weekend...cool!
-Headaches stink.
-I like when people are straight-forward, and not beating around the bush.
-Aubrie Bacon is such a sweet baby...it makes me excited for my future babies--Lord willing (although in no rush lol).
-God is really speaking to me, and I'm trying to listen. It's cool, because I'm seeing prayers and questions answered all the time. The answers are better than I could conjure up--you know it's God.
-My ear has been aching for like 18 hours. Boo-boo?
-Ricky Martin and Dane Cook look a lot alike.
-Naya Rivera is so pretty, it's kind of ridiculous.
-I will be participating in a murder-mystery dinner this weekend...cool!
-Headaches stink.
-I like when people are straight-forward, and not beating around the bush.
-Aubrie Bacon is such a sweet baby...it makes me excited for my future babies--Lord willing (although in no rush lol).
-God is really speaking to me, and I'm trying to listen. It's cool, because I'm seeing prayers and questions answered all the time. The answers are better than I could conjure up--you know it's God.
-My ear has been aching for like 18 hours. Boo-boo?
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
humility: straight from the Researcher's lab
It's crazy how God finds a way to sneak humility into our lives...sometimes it can even be funny (when it's not slapping you in the face, deservedly heh). I get great joy when I realize what He's doing. My Father is a clever guy, is He not? :D haha :) The moment when you realize what the Holy Spirit just did, you can't help but let a smirk sneak across your face.
Allow me to explain what happened, which involves a little background (it'll probably turn into A LOT of background). I've never been very good at articulating myself--in speaking or in writing. But I'll give this a shot. It's a blog, so I can always proofread and delete, haha. I over-detail most things. I anticipate that happening here. Before I get further into this, please understand that in NO way am I considering myself to be near God or God-like in ANY way. The purpose of this is to display my understanding and comprehension of (to a certain extent), and sympathy toward the frustration we must be leaving God with, ultimately leading to His great loving grace.
So...I work in a lab, right? I've been here for 3+ years, and over time there are a lot of volunteers who find their way into these halls and into my office (regrettably :-P, jk). When I first started, there were two young women who were working here. They were both pursing bachelor's degrees and applying to medical schools. They were both very diligent workers...coming in early, getting work done, being very independent, and probably most important of all--they were teachable.
Fast forward to the past 10 months where we have this new volunteer. Let's call him "John" (this is not his real name for respect/privacy purposes). Anyway, John has been coming into the lab since last April or so. He has a bachelor of science degree, took some time off after undergrad to pursue various interests, and is now back taking a few classes and volunteering in the lab, in hopes of getting accepted to grad school so he may become a PhD and run his own lab some day.
Months go by. I can understand a student's difficulty getting acclimated to a new job/lab and having to learn new skills (and hopefully perform them well) since I've been there myself, so I feel like I am a patient person with John in all the things he does and messes up. Which is a lot. I will give you one specific example that happened 2 days ago, and how the Holy Spirit threw conviction into my mind so quickly.
On Monday, I had an experiment planned. I felt bad that I've made him just stand and watch so many experiments without being able to help. But as any graduate student scientist will tell you, NEVER hand over ANY of your work unless you can trust the person won't screw it up. Needless to say, I can count the amount of people I can trust with my work on one finger so that wasn't happening. Anyway, I finally developed a "practice" experiment John could do that would show he was capable of accurately completing his task with an experiment that has a known and expected outcome. That way we could gauge if he did it correctly. For the sake of those who are not scientists, I will give an example of the experiment using every-day things instead of the scientific lingo.
Let's say John's experiment was to make ice cubes in a tray, and they all had to be a specific size and weight. Well, since a tray doesn't have measurements on it, he'd have to measure the water in a measuring cup before placing it in the tray to know it's the correct amount. Say John was new to the ice-world...so I typed up a protocol. It went above and beyond normal description--it gave all the steps, in detail, to perform the experiment correctly. I handed this paperwork to him. Then I even stood right next to him and walked him step-by-step through the protocol. I showed him how to get the water, how to pour the water into the measuring cup, how to pour the measured water into the tray, how to set the tray in the freezer and finally how to weigh the cubes. (I know this is a silly example, but it fits the bill, just trust me.) I even told him I'd be right next to him working on some things (the real project) and if he had any problems or questions, that he could ask me for help and guidance.
(Are you catching on yet?)
A few minutes later, I look over at John and he's adding the water directly to the trays. No measuring cups. When I showed him how to put the trays in the freezer, he just skipped that step and tried to measure the weight of the liquid (and it all just poured away off of the scale since it wasn't in the correct, solid form). Then when I asked John if he read the protocol, he said no. When I asked him why he didn't ask me for help, he just said, "oh, I don't know".
And let me just stop the story here, because now is where I get to the forehead-slapping part (on my behalf).
As I was driving in to work today, somewhat dreading having to work with John again (he comes in twice a week...and if you really want to learn how to do anything properly you need to come in 4-5 days a week), I spent a good 5 minutes complaining to Sal about the story I just told you. Then, as it usually happens, I just got this sudden thought in my head--a burst of humility thrown at me from the Holy Spirit. I was caught off guard, and felt foolish for what I was saying. I immediately turned to Sal and started sharing with him how silly I am and how great God is.
---
Many of you (as if "many" people read this) may have already seen the humor in this...the allusions. But I will post it below to be entirely clear.
Let's replace the roles in the story...
-Isn't it reasonable/understandable to see why the researcher didn't give John the real project to do?
What grace God must have to hand us over His work/opportunities on earth, even though we screw up all the time. That being said, though, it seems as though the people in the Bible that God entrusted to carry out His plan were those who were humble and obedient. That doesn't mean someone has to be perfect or righteous or holy--that is entirely IMPOSSIBLE for us to be, rather we can love Jesus fully and wholly, and our obedience will reflect in that love. We need to be teachable, unlike John in my situation. I am often unreliable, proud, and ignore the Spirit. I am "John" to God...
-John had a complete protocol on how to do the experiment correctly, yet he did practically everything wrong. Has God not given me/us the provision for living life--in His Word, the Bible? Instead, I often just do things my own way, as if I already know what's best for me even though the best way to do it is already laid out for me to follow and understand. I fail, and I can only imagine how frustrating this is to Jesus. I was baffled when John said he didn't read the protocol--it's the most informative and logical thing to do when he was uncertain. I have no right to lose patience with him, though, because I betray God like this quite often.
-John only comes in a few hours, 2 days per week to learn. That lack of time reflects in a complete lack of understanding. We all know if you want to learn something, you have to be dedicated. If I only spent a small fraction of my time with God, compartmentalizing Him, then there is no doubt it's not a real relationship...and it's clearly not a loving one. Think of the people you love the very most. You want to spend time with them and see them every day because you care and are passionate about them. Jesus can't just be a "part" of our lives, He must be our every-day, every-thing. I fail at always prioritizing Him. If I can't prioritize Him, then where is my love? What idols are stealing my time? I get annoyed with John when he doesn't put much time or effort in. I'm sure God gets annoyed with me, too. But He still calls me His daughter and loves me, and I pray He convicts my heart to desire Him more.
-The researcher made the experiment and knows how to carry it out the way it was intended to be done. Is this not reflective of Jesus, who knows how to get through life sinless and perfectly? Who are we to question the creator...the one who knows best.
-I(we) am John, who thinks he's 'doing the right thing', but in actually just royally butchering it all. Even when I screw up, God has patience to keep working with me to and through me to make me better.
-How is John supposed to strive to be like the researcher when he can't even ask for help? Can we truly stand before God if we can't humble ourselves before Him and ask Him to be the Way? Isn't God always there for me and GLAD to listen and to help through my thoughts and prayers when I ask, just like the researcher was there for the student to help out? This being said...
-The researcher understood the struggles of being thrown into the experiment because she had been there, too. Jesus was born as a human (100% human, 100% divine) into this world to experience the temptations, feel our pains, endure our struggles. God sympathizes with us and gave up His son for us.
-The researcher also correctly walked through the protocol with John and got the right results. Jesus showed us how to live life sinless and perfect. By him, we have THEE example to live by. Maybe I should pay better attention...
-Every day John comes in, he tends to screw up the experiment (not an exaggeration, lol!). God must be SO frustrated and sad, we keep turning this life into something it was never intended to be. We keep screwing it up and bogging it down with heaps of sin...yet God doesn't fire us or tell us never to return. He extends His hand to help us out of the pit we've dug ourselves into!
I'm sure if you re-read the events of my Monday, keeping God and us in mind, you can see all of these connections and more!
Oh my gosh, how wonderful God is! Seriously! It amazes me how His story is important and intertwined in EVERY area of our lives, that God could use such a mundane part of my day to teach me such huge lessons on patience, love, kindness, gentleness, GRACE. How HUMBLING. It made me want to shut up and pray for more of Christ's character to reside in me. That I don't want to come home and complain about other people every day; rather, be so thankful and awestruck with how I am bombarded and covered with grace, forgiveness, and understanding. How the heck does God handle all of our blatant stupidity? I am so unworthy, yet He just smiles at me, loves me, does clever little things through the Spirit to reach me (like this) and brings be down a notch (in a good way). I don't even feel ashamed in this situation because I know my frustrations are unjust and I want to repent of them. God forgives my lack of obedience and patience. Jesus died to cover my sin--and YOUR sin!--and welcomes us when we choose to turn from our sin, follow Him, and love Him. I LOVED having Christ's character revealed to me in such an every-day situation I face constantly. God is just SO good and incredible. Praise Him and all of His glory and teachings...the joy that arises from His sanctification is practically insurmountable.
Allow me to explain what happened, which involves a little background (it'll probably turn into A LOT of background). I've never been very good at articulating myself--in speaking or in writing. But I'll give this a shot. It's a blog, so I can always proofread and delete, haha. I over-detail most things. I anticipate that happening here. Before I get further into this, please understand that in NO way am I considering myself to be near God or God-like in ANY way. The purpose of this is to display my understanding and comprehension of (to a certain extent), and sympathy toward the frustration we must be leaving God with, ultimately leading to His great loving grace.
So...I work in a lab, right? I've been here for 3+ years, and over time there are a lot of volunteers who find their way into these halls and into my office (regrettably :-P, jk). When I first started, there were two young women who were working here. They were both pursing bachelor's degrees and applying to medical schools. They were both very diligent workers...coming in early, getting work done, being very independent, and probably most important of all--they were teachable.
Fast forward to the past 10 months where we have this new volunteer. Let's call him "John" (this is not his real name for respect/privacy purposes). Anyway, John has been coming into the lab since last April or so. He has a bachelor of science degree, took some time off after undergrad to pursue various interests, and is now back taking a few classes and volunteering in the lab, in hopes of getting accepted to grad school so he may become a PhD and run his own lab some day.
Months go by. I can understand a student's difficulty getting acclimated to a new job/lab and having to learn new skills (and hopefully perform them well) since I've been there myself, so I feel like I am a patient person with John in all the things he does and messes up. Which is a lot. I will give you one specific example that happened 2 days ago, and how the Holy Spirit threw conviction into my mind so quickly.
On Monday, I had an experiment planned. I felt bad that I've made him just stand and watch so many experiments without being able to help. But as any graduate student scientist will tell you, NEVER hand over ANY of your work unless you can trust the person won't screw it up. Needless to say, I can count the amount of people I can trust with my work on one finger so that wasn't happening. Anyway, I finally developed a "practice" experiment John could do that would show he was capable of accurately completing his task with an experiment that has a known and expected outcome. That way we could gauge if he did it correctly. For the sake of those who are not scientists, I will give an example of the experiment using every-day things instead of the scientific lingo.
Let's say John's experiment was to make ice cubes in a tray, and they all had to be a specific size and weight. Well, since a tray doesn't have measurements on it, he'd have to measure the water in a measuring cup before placing it in the tray to know it's the correct amount. Say John was new to the ice-world...so I typed up a protocol. It went above and beyond normal description--it gave all the steps, in detail, to perform the experiment correctly. I handed this paperwork to him. Then I even stood right next to him and walked him step-by-step through the protocol. I showed him how to get the water, how to pour the water into the measuring cup, how to pour the measured water into the tray, how to set the tray in the freezer and finally how to weigh the cubes. (I know this is a silly example, but it fits the bill, just trust me.) I even told him I'd be right next to him working on some things (the real project) and if he had any problems or questions, that he could ask me for help and guidance.
(Are you catching on yet?)
A few minutes later, I look over at John and he's adding the water directly to the trays. No measuring cups. When I showed him how to put the trays in the freezer, he just skipped that step and tried to measure the weight of the liquid (and it all just poured away off of the scale since it wasn't in the correct, solid form). Then when I asked John if he read the protocol, he said no. When I asked him why he didn't ask me for help, he just said, "oh, I don't know".
And let me just stop the story here, because now is where I get to the forehead-slapping part (on my behalf).
As I was driving in to work today, somewhat dreading having to work with John again (he comes in twice a week...and if you really want to learn how to do anything properly you need to come in 4-5 days a week), I spent a good 5 minutes complaining to Sal about the story I just told you. Then, as it usually happens, I just got this sudden thought in my head--a burst of humility thrown at me from the Holy Spirit. I was caught off guard, and felt foolish for what I was saying. I immediately turned to Sal and started sharing with him how silly I am and how great God is.
---
Many of you (as if "many" people read this) may have already seen the humor in this...the allusions. But I will post it below to be entirely clear.
Let's replace the roles in the story...
-Isn't it reasonable/understandable to see why the researcher didn't give John the real project to do?
What grace God must have to hand us over His work/opportunities on earth, even though we screw up all the time. That being said, though, it seems as though the people in the Bible that God entrusted to carry out His plan were those who were humble and obedient. That doesn't mean someone has to be perfect or righteous or holy--that is entirely IMPOSSIBLE for us to be, rather we can love Jesus fully and wholly, and our obedience will reflect in that love. We need to be teachable, unlike John in my situation. I am often unreliable, proud, and ignore the Spirit. I am "John" to God...
-John had a complete protocol on how to do the experiment correctly, yet he did practically everything wrong. Has God not given me/us the provision for living life--in His Word, the Bible? Instead, I often just do things my own way, as if I already know what's best for me even though the best way to do it is already laid out for me to follow and understand. I fail, and I can only imagine how frustrating this is to Jesus. I was baffled when John said he didn't read the protocol--it's the most informative and logical thing to do when he was uncertain. I have no right to lose patience with him, though, because I betray God like this quite often.
-John only comes in a few hours, 2 days per week to learn. That lack of time reflects in a complete lack of understanding. We all know if you want to learn something, you have to be dedicated. If I only spent a small fraction of my time with God, compartmentalizing Him, then there is no doubt it's not a real relationship...and it's clearly not a loving one. Think of the people you love the very most. You want to spend time with them and see them every day because you care and are passionate about them. Jesus can't just be a "part" of our lives, He must be our every-day, every-thing. I fail at always prioritizing Him. If I can't prioritize Him, then where is my love? What idols are stealing my time? I get annoyed with John when he doesn't put much time or effort in. I'm sure God gets annoyed with me, too. But He still calls me His daughter and loves me, and I pray He convicts my heart to desire Him more.
-The researcher made the experiment and knows how to carry it out the way it was intended to be done. Is this not reflective of Jesus, who knows how to get through life sinless and perfectly? Who are we to question the creator...the one who knows best.
-I(we) am John, who thinks he's 'doing the right thing', but in actually just royally butchering it all. Even when I screw up, God has patience to keep working with me to and through me to make me better.
-How is John supposed to strive to be like the researcher when he can't even ask for help? Can we truly stand before God if we can't humble ourselves before Him and ask Him to be the Way? Isn't God always there for me and GLAD to listen and to help through my thoughts and prayers when I ask, just like the researcher was there for the student to help out? This being said...
-The researcher understood the struggles of being thrown into the experiment because she had been there, too. Jesus was born as a human (100% human, 100% divine) into this world to experience the temptations, feel our pains, endure our struggles. God sympathizes with us and gave up His son for us.
-The researcher also correctly walked through the protocol with John and got the right results. Jesus showed us how to live life sinless and perfect. By him, we have THEE example to live by. Maybe I should pay better attention...
-Every day John comes in, he tends to screw up the experiment (not an exaggeration, lol!). God must be SO frustrated and sad, we keep turning this life into something it was never intended to be. We keep screwing it up and bogging it down with heaps of sin...yet God doesn't fire us or tell us never to return. He extends His hand to help us out of the pit we've dug ourselves into!
I'm sure if you re-read the events of my Monday, keeping God and us in mind, you can see all of these connections and more!
Oh my gosh, how wonderful God is! Seriously! It amazes me how His story is important and intertwined in EVERY area of our lives, that God could use such a mundane part of my day to teach me such huge lessons on patience, love, kindness, gentleness, GRACE. How HUMBLING. It made me want to shut up and pray for more of Christ's character to reside in me. That I don't want to come home and complain about other people every day; rather, be so thankful and awestruck with how I am bombarded and covered with grace, forgiveness, and understanding. How the heck does God handle all of our blatant stupidity? I am so unworthy, yet He just smiles at me, loves me, does clever little things through the Spirit to reach me (like this) and brings be down a notch (in a good way). I don't even feel ashamed in this situation because I know my frustrations are unjust and I want to repent of them. God forgives my lack of obedience and patience. Jesus died to cover my sin--and YOUR sin!--and welcomes us when we choose to turn from our sin, follow Him, and love Him. I LOVED having Christ's character revealed to me in such an every-day situation I face constantly. God is just SO good and incredible. Praise Him and all of His glory and teachings...the joy that arises from His sanctification is practically insurmountable.
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