Hebrews 3

[Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.

But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamor of his sin may play on him].

For we have become fellows with Christ (the Messiah) and share in all He has for us, if only we hold our first newborn confidence and original assured expectation [in virtue of which we are believers] firm and unshaken to the end.
[[Hebrews 3:12-14, Amplified]]

As verse 14 says, "have become fellows with Christ" (or "partakers" in the NKJ). The underlying meaning is that we become first of all, finished, then found and, lastly, fulfilled. What an amazing concept! We are fully completed in Christ and in Christ alone, needing no man nor thing to do so. Praise God that we need not rely on men or things to redeem and complete us. (Laura gets credit for the Hebrews 3 thing... she's smart like that).

So many of my sisters lately have been hurting and it breaks my heart. I just keep praying because I know God hears me and weighs my petitions according to His will.

Lord, I pray for my sister -
I pray for her heart and her mind.
I pray she would take heed and listen
when You tell her to bind

All the forces of life that deceive her,
the thoughts and the hurts inside.
I pray You would protect and keep her -
I pray You would show her Your life.

Lord, I pray for my sister -
I pray that her eyes might see
just how much she is infinitely worth
to Christ and to a mere mortal like me.

When your parents are gone...

...it's just a little weird. Granted, it's not like I've found strange items hidden around the house or anything.

It's just quiet. And lonely, even with Laura here (especially because she's asleep now). I miss the noise and the bustle that is dorm life in Fort Collins. I miss going to the Rock and church and hanging around when classes aren't in session.

Instead, I watch TV (and not good TV, either). I eat (a lot). I crochet. I cut out squares of fabric for a quilt I'm not yet motivated to make. I put off my homework and put of my homework and put it off...

I'm lazy and I don't like it when things aren't exactly as I want them to be.

But God is here, too. Perhaps He could be even more prevalent to me with the silence that is only broken by the dogs barking and the humidifier humidifying, but that takes me sitting down with Him in mind.

And I haven't yet brought myself to that place. Fatigue and being sick are merely excuses - they don't excuse anything. But I'm going to go try after I make sure the house is locked up and the dogs are set for the night.

Tomorrow? Homework. Tonight? My best attempts at sitting at my Savior's feet and His success in bringing me to Him. Amen.

Mood: Sick and Tired Listening to: Empty house sounds
Reading: Colossians 3; Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity

Living from Home

It's more than strange to be living (mostly) at home for a month. Living alone at home is even more strange.

But it's wonderful for my music because I have access to quiet and to a grand piano at all times.

Oh... and I get to make my own food.

Living at home has its perks, but it's lonely. There's no one here to share my time with or to distract me while I'm trying to do homework. Instead, I figure out just how annoying I am because I distract me while I'm trying to do homework with all sorts of junk that I normally don't have the time to do (being distracted by others does that).

I did manage to procrastinate by baking butterscotch brownies and watching the Food Network, but it's not the same when there's no one else here. Bummer.

I'm going to go and try not to procrastinate any more. I just have too much to do still. I've been reading all weekend, it seems, but there's still a lot to do.

Mood: Bummed Listening to: A quiet house
Reading: Media Ethics

Car rides and the immanence of God

We are made in the image of God and we're stuck with that, so we better get used to the idea that we cannot be satisfied by anything other than by God. Otherwise, we are forever crying: "Ever me wanteth."

Satisfaction is found in God and in God alone. I thank God for A.W. Tozer, who spent his life speaking to people about who God is and what that means for their lives - and who now is sitting in the presence of God, seeing clearly what he saw "through a glass darkly" while he was still here.

Praise God for the men who serve Him.

Mood: Sleepy and missing Fort Collins, but glad to be home
Listening to: A.W. Tozer, "God's Immanence and Immensity"
Reading: Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity

This is my baby brother...

...who needs to cut his hair.

My week is almost over. How exciting!