All right, I could not find a decent free e-card to send to Linden for her birthday, so I searched YouTube far and wide for some funny happy birthday videos. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINDY LOU!
Who doesn’t love farting cartoons?
Or farting co-workers?
I personally love the weird, orange, singing aliens…
And who can have a birthday without any love from John, Paul, George, and Ringo?
Notes from our time with Chris & Jeri
Matt. 4.2: Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He went into the desert to be tempted, so he fasted and then Satan came to tempt him. Perhaps Jesus fasted to be more vulnerable to temptation? Or maybe he fasted from food and people to feed the Spirit–to be strengthened by prayer before his tempation. His temptation makes him more credible to us. If he had not been tempted. He would not be able to relate to us. If he couldn’t related to us, what would make him appealing to us?
Ex. 34.28: Moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights when he went on the mountain to receive the 10 commandments. Fasting makes you sensitive to yourself; it brings to light the weakness of your flesh, but it also makes you sensitive to God speaking and working in you. Had Moses not fasted he may not have been able to hear God’s Word to him.
From the Bible dictionary: Fasting can be done as a sign of distress, grief, or repentance; the law only required one day of fasting–the day of atonement. Just going without food and water will not automatically gain the desired results of a fast.
How does Spirit-led living connect to fasting? The idea of feeding the Spirit and starving the flesh is appropriate in regards to fasting. Fasting is not just a time to starve the flesh, for fasting is also a time to feed the spirit. The idea of fasting is to remove something you need (nourishment, sleep, companionship) or something you love or find pleasure in (television, chocolate, video games) for personal time with God. We can fast from our needs to show God that our relationship with him is more important than our physical, human needs.
Why should we fast:
How should we fast:
I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around these verses, not because they’re necessarily hard, but because (I think) I’ve heard and read them so many times.
Okay, let’s look at verse 8: “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor fulfills the law.”
Let’s put this in context: Paul, in the preceding paragraph, wrote of doing good to remain under the governing authorities. If we stay away from evil, the governing bodies have no reason to avenge us, so how do this? By loving our neighbors (ah, yes, the Golden Rule rises again).
“Love therefore is a fulfillment of the law.” When we love, we don’t do evil and love wins! Right on.
These verses are pretty straightforward. We should obey the governing authorities because God has put these authorities in place over us. When we oppose authority, we oppose and sin against God. If we do good, we have no reason to fear authority. If we do evil, those authorities are in place to avenge us.
Peter wrote about honoring the king who had scattered the Christians throughout the Mediterranean (1 Pet. 2.17). Because of our spiritual freedom, we are not to be rebellious toward the government. We should be law-abiding citizens, so we can claim the protection of the government if charges come against us. In Timothy 2.1-2, Paul charges us to pray for our “kings.” We don’t have to agree with them politically, but we are to pray for them. (See also Titus 3.1)
Primary question: How is the faith God provides to every believer different from the spiritual gift of faith?
Faith: A belief in or confident attitude toward God, involving a commitment to his will for one’s life. Mere intellectual agreement is not merit for salvation (James 2.19–the demons believe in God). Genuine saving faith is a personal attachment to Christ: commitment to him and reliance on him.
1 Tim. 1.12: Because we know who we’ve put our faith in, we are able to remain faithful and obedient.
Eph. 2.8-9: We are saved by faith, not by works.
Gal. 2:16: We are not justified through the law but through faith in Christ.
Jude 3: We should fight for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Pistis (Greek: faith)
Rom. 12.3-8 talks more about “the proportion of faith.” Do we all get different amounts according to our spiritual gifts? Do those of us with the spiritual gift of faith just get a higher dosage? It seems that there should be a difference in these faiths. Maybe it’s just easier for us to know where God wants us and to hear his leading and to act on his leading.
How much are spiritual gifts aligned with someone’s personality? Do those with faith have an easier time discerning what is trustworthy and what isn’t? Do they have an easier time trusting people? Are they more cynical? Does having faith just make placing faith in God easier? What is the role of this gift within the church? What does it look like?
My pastor’s thoughts on spiritual gifts from Sunday:
Spiritual gift inventories can be dangerous because they can prevent us from meeting the needs in the church that fall outside of our gifts. They prevent us from stepping outside of our comfort zones. Spiritual gifts are not to esteem ourselves, but we often use them to do so. Instead, we are to use them to esteem God. Spiritual gifts can change as we grow spiritually.
Ideally, we need counsel from other godly people to help see our spiritual gifts. No matter what, we must offer ourselves to God and trust him with our lives, our gifts, and our talents.
“For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself that he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (NAS).
Other versions and translations provided some insight for me, but a lot of my answers came from my pastor’s message this Sunday. First, here are my thoughts:
What is the “measure of faith” that God gives to us? Do we each get an equal amount? What about people who have the gift of faith? Are we only allotted a certain amount for our lifetime? How does one measure the amount of faith one has? Apparently, we are to measure our self-worth according to how much faith we have.
How does thinking of myself soberly have anything to do with the amount of faith I have (that God’s given me)? Perhaps the more faith I have, the more I see myself in light of the Father: an unworthy child of God. What else does God say about self-esteem and self-worth? As his follower, washed in Christ’s blood, who am I in his eyes?
My pastor spent some time preaching from Romans 12 on Sunday, and here are his thoughts on this verse: We need to have a sober view of self. We should think of ourselves with “God-esteem” rather than self-esteem. We need to set ourselves on God, not on self. We cannot covet the spiritual life God has given to others.
A measure of faith: Faith leads us to trust God in the measure of faith he’s given; it’s not our deciding what to do for God–it’s God deciding what we should do for him.
“Present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God.”
What is an acceptable sacrifice?
Living: If a sacrifice is dead, if it means nothing to the one who is presenting it, what value will it have for God? In the OT, people brought their best cattle, their best sheep, their best crops to the temple for sacrificing. They gave God their best. What is the best–the most important–thing in my life that I can sacrifice to God?
Holy: If something is holy, it is set apart from the other things like it. It’s not just a plate; it’s a holy plate–set apart from the others. To present myself as a holy sacrifice, I must be set apart from the world, “be set apart as the Lord is set apart.” God is set apart from other gods, and we should be set apart from other people. We should be set apart from others in our actions, in our life patterns, in our thoughts, in our beliefs. Beyond simply being set apart, there must be a difference between me and an unbeliever.
I went for a jog tonight. I really went for no purpose in mind other than to stay awake a few more hours. So I’m running, and I come to the four-way stop just outside my sub-division. I get there first (and don’t forget, pedestrians always have the right of way), but a half-second later a diesel-engined pick-up truck pulls up to cross against me. Well, he has to wait another half-second for me to finish crossing the street, so he proceeds to start into the intersection and rev his diesel engine at me.
Now mind you, I used to drive a diesel. I’ve grown up around diesels. I’m not intimidated by anyone’s stupid diesel engine in my face (no, that is not euphemism). As I’m running, I give him a slight glare, fight the urge to flip him off, and mutter a****** under my breath.
I’m not sure what it is when I’m running that makes me slightly mean. Maybe it’s because I feel so good about myself that I know I don’t have to take any trash anyone throws my way. Maybe I’m jaded by all the stupid drivers who don’t yield to runners. Maybe I feel empowered by the honking cars that pass me (there’s an excellent article in Women’s Health about all that). Regardless, I’m not going to stop running because I don’t have to and no stupid diesel-engined men are going to get in my way.
I saw on my local news last night that the Elks Lodge building in my home town (Clinton, MO) had collapsed. I proceeded to call my mother (who was downtown watching all the emergency crews) and my best friend (who was in Fayetteville with no idea what was going on) but forgot to call my father-in-law who has connections to Clinton.
Well, the story was all over national news today, and their stories made me sad. Clinton seems like such a lame town when they write about it, but they haven’t spent days and weeks and years of their lives cruising and shopping and working on the Square. The Square is the heart and soul of Clinton: it’s been around longer than my grandparents have been.
The truth is, the Clinton Square will never be the same, and that makes me sad. Yes, I probably never live their again, but it’s still home, and I feel like a little bit of me has died with Clinton tonight.
Last week, Chris and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary (woot!), and because of all the (ahem) sex, my hips have widened just a little bit. On the other hand, I really haven’t gained that much weight; every time I visit the doctor, I still measure in around 138. And if I wanted to shed, say, ten of those pounds, I’m not sure where it would come off because my thighs are pretty muscular right now from the running. Now some might come off around my middle, and I’m okay with that.
All this to say because I went to my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration yesterday, and the first thing out of my other grandmother’s mouth was, “Well, you and Chris must be eating well. You’ve gained a little weight. You look good.” Of course, I didn’t hear the “you look good” part, but I chose to hear the “you’ve gained weight” part, which is verbatim from the last time I saw her.
So yes, I have gained weight–5 whopping pounds over the last year, and I think that’s pretty good considering that we do most of our cooking at home, and considering that I was weight-lifting a lot this spring, and considering that I’m still running 3-4 times a week this summer, and considering I’m addicted to Cold Stone Creamery’s sorbet. My thighs are a little bit bigger, but I don’t feel self-conscious wearing shorts anymore because they’re lean (save some wiggles around the inner area) and muscular. Cellulite is slowly dissipating and stretch marks don’t look as awful as they usually do (though I agree that a tan would help). Some of my junior-sized pants don’t fit quite right anymore, but at least I still wear the same size I did before I got married. I’m a little bit hippier, but my stomach is still relatively flat (save ‘the pooch’), and my arms are muscular and tan.
Who cares what Grandma thinks? I’m quite happy with me.
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