It has been FOREVER since I posted last. Like, almost a month. Craziness!
I was just reading, the Bible, and a verse really stuck out to me and I was like "I should write this down in my notebook or something" and then I was like "HEY! I should BLOG it! Because I haven't blogged in forever!"
So I was reading in 1 John 3:11-24 (I'll post it. Don't feel like you have to read it, but if you WANT to, GO for it! :)
11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
The verse that REALLY stuck out to me was verse 18. "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
I just want to live that out today. I want to love with my actions and in truth.
A'ight, so you want to hear how life's been? It's comin'!
Friday, which I didn't really post about, was good. Did school, packed, babysat.
Saturday can be found in full here.
Sunday I got up and went to music practice. Did the usual Sunday-church-gig.
We went to a newer family's house for lunch, which was fun. We had pizza and generally just chilled and talked. It was quite fun!
We came home and I basically dumped my stuff/rearranged my stuff and headed out again for Nazirite DNA, Prayer&Worship hour, and youth group at The620.
After The620, we had a meeting about Easter Sunday (Sunrise service, baby! I'm probably going to shoot myself for agreeing to help with that... it means I have to be up at like, 6:15 on a Sunday morning...) and whatnot and then we cleaned up and Erin and I threatened to drink Brandon's iced tea... b'cuz we're cool like that. (And apparently Brandon can steal a girl's heart by using the word "privy" in conversation! Erin and I had a talk about that Wednesday... 'tis about to be hilarious up in here. (WOW. I'm white.))
Anywhoo.
Came home... Sunday night... finished writing my paper (rough draft) that was due on Monday and headed to bed.
Monday: Got up, went to school, did homework/whatever in study hall, ate delicious Matzo-Lasagna, had classes, came home, babysat, ate dinner, watched Chuck, went to bed.
Tuesday: Got up, discovered that Mom was sick :( I did school, went to Urban Vision (I drove, however Dad was in the car with me.) I taught ballet... and felt very inadequate as a teacher. Lauren took me to my dance classes. Danced for 2 hours. Came home. Got stuff together for Mom for Wednesday. Went to bed.
Wednesday I got up and went to Spanish and then came home with Adam&Sean. Went to the library, but realized half-way there that I didn't have Mom's library card. The lady at the library was slightly... ticked off at me for not having a card. (She had to look at my drivers license to get my last name and I had to confirm Mom's first name, yada yada yada.) I got an application for a library card.
After all that good stuff I came home and ate lunch. Then did some schooool. (Mom didn't teach because Mrs. J told her not to. :) Annnnnd I had bible study. That was goood. Dinner is always fun... I usually sit around Erin, Sam, Sarah, and Sam's family. Here's something y'all need to know: Sam hates the word "moist" and naturally, I work it into conversation as much as possible. Last night at dinner we were talking about words that bother us, and of course, Sam doesn't like "moist." Someone else doesn't like the word "glisten" and so on and so forth. I mentioned, mentioned, that I don't like it when people say "aks" instead of "ask" and so OF COURSE Sam starts "aksing" me a bunch of questions. I told him I was about to AX him. But it's all in good fun. Sort of ;)
Another random Wednesday night thing is that Erin will turn styrofoam cups inside out. She got Sam started on this and he basically turns every cup inside out plus some. Last night we had paper cups. I said something along the lines of "it's a bummer you can't turn your cup inside out" and he was like "challenge accepted." He turned his cup inside out, ripped it. Got a second up, successfully turned it inside out. I told him he should drink something out of it. So he did. I had already gotten up and gone to the room where we have our bible study, so he came and stood right outside the door and just took a drink from his cup. I busted up laughing and his dad, who was sitting next to me, got concerned. It was very funny.
(And it might have been a "you just had to be there" moment... we'll see.)
Bible study itself was really good! I love the people in my group. They're awesome.
After that I came home and watched American Idol and Breaking In and went to bed.
Today I got up, did school, ate lunch, did more school, babysat, ate dinner, went for a walk, showered, and watched American Idol and The Office. The Office was hilarious tonight! Will Ferrel and Steve Carell shouldn't be allowed to be on a show together. It's too funny.
Tomorrow is my birthday. 17. Nothing too exciting happens at 17. I can drive more than one non-family-member in my car? Yay? haha.
I don't have to babysit tomorrow, which was S's birthday present to me! haha (she still paid me. I like her!)
So. I shall now post this and go to bed. It's been a long recap, so it seems! It's not too bad looking over it again ;)
I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday! (You should really do yourself a favor and go listen to this, this, and this! Amazing cello stuff!)
Haaaaaaaa. April Fools! I'm definitely not deleting my blog. (And if you play White Rabbit, Red Chicken.)
The past couple days have been... boring?
Wednesday I chatted with Katie a bit. It snowed a ton. I drove to and from Bible Study successfully and didn't get into an accident (it wasn't icy... just wet&snowy).
Bible study was really good. We're going through Companions in Christ: The Way of Prayer. This week we looked at Scriptural Prayer. We did Lectio Divina! :) (That brings back fond Sunday School memories from my Freshman(?) year!) We did Lectio Divina during our hour of study and it was fantastic! I think that great things will be happening soon... more on that in another post, hopefully!
After my study I came home and watched American Idol and then went to bed.
Thursday, yesterday, I got up and checked and saw that my SAT scores were ready. *Freak out*
I did okay (and surprisingly scored the highest on math!). I will take it again. I'm going to take the ACT again without writing. (There's your update on my standardized testing!)
D, H&E came over and we babysat them while Jay&Ang took Z to look at pre-schools. He's going into PRESCHOOL? Yeah. Weird.
They were pretty good. D plays well by himself, E is a content, happy baby, and H was pretty upset when J&A left, but D started singing Jesus Loves Me and she quieted right down! So whenever she started crying we would sing to her. Eventually, she fell asleep.
After they left, we ate lunch. I did school. Chatted with Kate for a bit. Had a quiet time. Cleaned my room. Ate dinner. Made brownies (with chocolate chips and walnuts! YUM). Relaxed for a while. Watched American Idol results and Mobbed. Mobbed is a fairly neat show where someone wants to tell someone something, so they get a flash mob together to tell them. On last night's premier episode a guy proposed to his girlfriend, and then they got married. All in the same... hour? Couple of hours? Yeah. Insane. If my boyfriend EVER did that to me I would kill him.
But yes.
I went to bed after that.
Got up this morning. Ate breakfast. Did school. And now it's 1:15 and I haven't eaten lunch yet.
I think that's next on the agenda.
After lunch will be geometry.
Meme might be coming over today through tomorrow! Which would be exciting.
I'm going to THE Civil Wars concert tonight. I am SO excited.
Brandon, the genius that he is, forgot to buy a ticket. And the show is sold out. So, what's going to happen is Brandon is going to buy Dad's ticket from him and he and Erin will be my chaperons for the evening.
Or if there are people selling tickets for exorbitant prices outside of Musica, he might buy one of those and Dad will still go. Either way it will be fun. But more fun if Dad could still go too.
I have a feeling that tomorrow during the Youth Leadership meeting Brandon, Erin, and I will be a leetle beet tired. Just a feeling.
I'll try to take lots of pictures. And I will try to post some of them here if I'm not too exhausted tomorrow!
SO I've been slacking. But now I'll post 2 times in one day.
SINCE the first time I posted today it has snowed an inordinate amount. Like... inches. I believe.
INSANE. It actually snowed that much in about an hour and a half. I just checked weather.com and it says it snowed 1.7 inches. I think it snowed more. But WHAT month is it? Yeah. MARCH.
When I got out of my car at bible study/small group/whatever you want to call it, and Keith threw a snowball at me :( He missed. HA! And then when I left, he threw a snowball at my car. And made it. (A car is much larger target than I am! hah)
Here are a couple of pictures of the crazy snow:
Yeah. Okay. I'm done now.
With this blog AND the snow.
Yuck. When we wake up the snow will be gone and it'll be 60*, right? Right.
Here's a quick review of my week:
Sunday afternoon/evening: Nazarite DNA with BK&Erin. Youth Group with Soul Candy (Andrew C) and the crew. Home. Printed homework. Went to bed.
Monday: School. Classes. Who knows what else. Babysat. Came home. Ate dinner. Worked on SAT stuff with Mom&Dad. Watched Letters to Juliet. Which was a FANTASTIC movie. Katie and Hannah for sure need to see it when they come home. It has NYC and Italy in it. Just the locations make it a "must see" =P And the plot is good. Semi-predictable, but good! Then I went to bed.
Tuesday: Got up. Did school. Went to Urban Vision (History, Gym, Dinner, Reading, Homework). Taught ballet. Went to dance. Danced for a longgg time. Came home. Chillaxed a bit. Went to sleep.
Wednesday: Got up. Got ready. Went to school. Spanish class was good. Sat in study hall and did school stuff. Ate lunch. Did school in Mom's class. Packed up. Dropped a movie off at the library and picked up a book. Went to the bank and did all my banking. Went to the grocery store and whatnot. Came home. Relaxed and caught up on blogs. Went to Target with Dad to get a refrigerator thermometer because our fridge is not working right. NOOOOO. Third... time's... the charm? Or three strikes and you're out?
Yeah. Bummer.
Thenn I came home and did some dishes. Read Little Women a little bit. I LOVE that book. It's so awesome.
At 6 I had bible study. Which was fun :) I love my group. They're so sweet. Dinner was delish too. We had meatloaf and mashed potatoes with corn. SO good.
Came home at 7:30 (instead of 8) because today is Ash Wednesday and they had a service. I didn't stay because I was tired and wanted to come home.
So I came home and put my PJs on and read more of Little Women and watched American Idol while reading during the commercials. Then we had pudding (because of the fridge not working... gotta use that milk!) which was delish. I drank a whole lot more milk along with it because it's SO SWEET.
And now I'm watching the end of American Idol and blogging!
It's been a good half a week.
Hope yours has been going well too. Maybe I'll post something other than what I've been up to. Any ideas?
On Friday night, Kayla-la and I went to The620's Pre-pirate-navi-party. We made our flag, crest, and chant and whatnot. It was super fun :) I like those people. And it was fun to introduce Kayla to those people! And she goes to school with one of the girls, which was kinda fun :) So we did all that and then we watched Starwars Episode 4: A New Hope.
When it was all over, we stayed for... an hour? after it was over and watched YouTube videos.
Do yourself a favor, and go listen to some Boyce Avenue. This video is a good one to start off. I would also recommend "Yellow." AMAZING stuff. Sam OH knows where all the good music's at! :)
We took Kaylala home and then I went to bed.
Got up Saturday morning and took a practice SAT... and did a whole lot worse than the one I took last week.
But I'm blaming it on the fact that I didn't get enough sleep. Or w/e.
Then the Karen girls came over. And we ate lunch and whatnot. They played spoons and a couple of them worked on homework with Mom.
We had cake to celebrate BeBin's birthday :) She's turning 11 on Tuesday. Craziness.
Then Dad and I took them to their respective homes and came home, and half an hour later Mom&Dad's small group came over! The kids (and I) ate dinner and headed down to the basement so the adults could eat and have their biblestudy. We watched Cinderella and the beginning of Mary Poppins.
They were good. It all worked out.
Then I went to bed. Because it was all of 9 o'clock. And I had to take a shower and whatnot.
Got up this morning and went to music practice, practiced, did the first service, went to sunday school, which was awesome btdubs, then finished the first service, went back to sunday school. And then the second service. T'was super good. You should go watch the video. That probably isn't up yet.
But yes.
Then we dropped a meal off at someone's house. And then came home.
I ate lunch and re-converted a couple videos for Brandon.
And now I'm blogging. And will leave in a few minutes for Nazarite DNA and half of the prayer&worship time and then IMPACT.
So. This has been my weekend.
I hope you enjoyed it :)
Hey my homies.
I've been slacking on my blogging. Buuuut... I've been busy?
Sure.
From when I last blogged...
Saturday: Got up and took a practice SAT. Did decently. I think it'll be good. It's in 10 days... so a little less than 2 weeks. Crazy.
The Karen girls came over annnd we ate lunch and built snowmen/went sledding. After that we came inside and watched the end of Mr. Magoo-Ehler&Hser Ler Moo were watching it- and then made collages from old LUCKY magazines! :)
We took all the girls home and then Mom, Dad, and I went to church for a "beat the winter blahs" party. There weren't a whole lot of people there, but it was fun nonetheless!
Came home. Went to bed.
Sunday: Got up, got ready for church and went to church. Sunday school was good! We talked about lies that we believe about ourselves. Good stuff!
Church was good. Pastor Mike, Alan, and Annette talked about their trip to Honduras. And I really want to go. Like. REALLY. It would be SO good for my Spanish... and of course I would LOVE to help out with the kiddos. The pictures of them are ADORABLE. (You can look at the pictures here)
Good stories. You can watch the video of them talking about Honduras here!
Yes.
Then we came home and ate lunch... I finished some homework. And then I went to Nazarite DNA (a bible study type thing), ate some chili, went back downstairs for youth group!
After youth group Brandon, Erin, and I went to Hartville Mennonite Church for their church service. It was pretty awesome. I don't even know how to describe it.
I got home around 10? 10:30?
Got ready for bed. Slept kind of badly becaaaaause:
I got up. Checked the ACT website and saw that my scores were in. And I did well! (I got my essay score today... not as good as I was hoping, but still really good!)
Went to school... came home... babysat... ate dinner... watched Chuck... went to bed.
Tuesday: Got up, got ready for the day, did school, cut God of This City for my ballet class and burned it to a CD, went to Urban Vision, was in the gym, ate dinner, was in the gym some more, helped Christopher and TiTi Dah with their respective homeworks and then went and got ready for ballet and stretched a bit before everyone got up there...
Class went well. They started (just a leetle beet) their dance. This should be interesting.
Then I went to MY dance classes (after stopping at Micky D's for some chicken nuggets), and danced for what seemed like forever. Then came home and caught up on blogs. And then went to bed.
Got up this morning (kinda blue. Tryin' to answer that age old question: how to exit a whale's digestion) annnd got ready for school. Was really tired because I went to bed really late last night.
Went to school. Spanish class was good. Funny, as always. Mrs. Jones asked Adam if he had "papel" and he held up his "lapiz" and was like "Si, si" and she kept asking him and he kept saying that he had "papel" when, en realidad, he had a pencil, not paper. haha
Then I got a whole bunch of work done? Annd ate lunch. Sat in on Mom's class and did a whole bunch more work. Packed up, went to the library, went to the grocery store. Came home. Put some stuff away. Read blogs. Listened to Dave Ramsey. Talked to Katie and Hannah (separately) on Skype. Then it was time to go to bible study! I ate dinner with Sarah, Keith, and Jen. Fun people.
Our actual study (Companions in Christ: The Way of Prayer) was interesting... People interpret things very differently... and it's been interesting to see how they interpret things. And one person talks too much. Not sure how I feel about that. I think 2 people didn't say a single word during our entire group. Crazy. But yeah. It's interesting.
Now I'm watching American Idol. The top 12 girls are performing tonight. So far my favorites are a 15 year old and a 16 year old. CRAZY good talent!
Tomorrow's just school and babysitting. Nothing too eventful!
Lesse. Where was I last time I blogged... Tuesday.
Okay. Tuesday. I did school and whatnot. Did a little bit of choreography for my ballet class. Went to Urban Vision. Figured out more choreography while I was in the gym. Got a call saying that I had to be at the basketball game (to dance at the half time show) at 6:30, not 7:15. So I ran around a little bit figuring out whether I could make it. But we got it figured out. I helped Ehne Thau with her homework and then got ready for ballet. I got them warmed up a little and then I had to leave. Mom and I headed to Woodridge High School. She dropped me off and I headed towards all the girls in the purple shirts. Got my shoes and stuff on and took all my jewelry whatnot off. We did the dance sans music once and then we all stretched out some. Then I ran and found Mom and gave her my camera so she could record it. I should put that on YouTube. I'll do that right now. Maybe it'll be done by the time I'm done writing.
We danced. It went well. A lot of people are negative nancys. Which is annoying. But it's all okay. I let it roll off. (Here it is! Sorry that the quality is bad! It'll be better for the next one. I'm in the front row on the far right. :)
We came home and watched Chuck. And ate popcorn. And then took a shower and went to bed.
Today was Spanish class. School work. Lunch. Mom's class. (During which I read Little Women. I love that book!)
After that Mom and I ran errands. Library to drop off and pick up books, bank to get money and deposit money, grocery store to get food, then home.
I relaxed a little bit. Went on a walk and took some pictures. Intended to read Little Women. Didn't. I listened to musica and took pictures.
Then I came home and cleaned up a bit and then went to my bible study!
I ate with Dave, Laurie, Erin, Adrian, and Brett. It was a good time. :)
After dinner (potato soup, sandwiches, salad, cookies), we headed into the parlor for some worship. And thenn we split into our Alpha and Prayer groups. So yeah. We did some introductions and looked through the first chapter of our books some. And yeah. It was good. I really like it! I'm looking forward to going back next week. (And by the time the study is over, I'LL HAVE MY DRIVERS LICENSE! I'll be getting that fairly soon! :D)
And now I'm watching American Idol. It's Hollywood Week and GROUP ROUND night. So it's kinda crazy. But it's good!
I think I'm going to head to bed soon. I have a little bit of reading to do for my various studies I'm involved in ;)
I've actually been writing. Like, with paper. And a pen. Maybe because I haven't been writing here a whole lot? Yeah. Probably. :)
Soooooo yeah. That's about it. Any questions? Anything more you want to hear about? Let me know!
Hey Jude/Don't make it bad/Sing a sad song/And make it better... OH wait. Wrong Jude. =P
Before I get started on that, I forgot to put the 100 Days of Holiness link up for Day 13, so there it is :)
Here's today's link, Day 14, for 100 Days of Holiness!
Annnd just because it's an awesome song that we learned tonight @ youth group, here's a video of Paul Baloche's Hosanna It's amazing. I love the line that goes "Cause when we see you, we find strength to face the day" because it's amazing and oh so very true. Enjoy!
Alrighty. Today is really a reflection of yesterday's post. It's basically developing statements about what each paragraph in Jude is about. And then creating a statement about what the whole book is about. I'm just going to put all of Jude up here. (Don't worry. It's only 25 verses. You will not die because you're reading this.)
I'll just post everything, break it into its proper chunks, then put my statement in boldat the bottom. Like I usually do. :)
Jude
1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: 2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
This is Jude's basic greeting. He's stating who he is and who he's writing to. He adds a blessing type thing, but he doesn't mess around. He's not one for lengthy greetings.
The sin and doom of Godless men
3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
(I'm realizing as I'm thinking about this, this is really what I normally do. But I'm kind of taking bigger chunks and I'm going to try to make my statements more generalized)
Jude wanted to write about one thing, but was lead by the spirit to write another because of people who had "sipped in[to]" the church. So that's his reason for even writing this book. It's to address the issue of the people who are in the church for a free pass to sin.
5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lorddelivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
This paragraph is basically a reminder. They knew what had happened, they just forgot. So Jude took the liberty of reminding them. (Would you say that's a fair assumption?)
8In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
This kinda tells what not to do... and what to do at the same time. Don't do the things that the "dreamers" do. Be like Michael the archangel. He's cool. Don't be like these people who are like animals. They just go with their instincts. They don't think first. Please think before you do things. It's a good habit to have!
11Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.
I used an online commentary for some help on this one because I honestly had no idea what was going on =P Apparently, what Jude is doing is identifying the sins of the people of the present day with the sins of the people in the Old Testament. Major people in the Old Testament. This is the commentary I'm using (kind of) to help me. (I own none of this... just using it for my own learning purposes :)
12These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
oooh. Traits. This paragraph tells us what these people were like. Good analogies. Much better than I could ever come up with =P
14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16
This one is about how they kinda knew that the "bad people" were coming. There are some more traits in this paragraph too.
A call to persevere
17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. 20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
This is a call to be true to God. There are people that will try to tear us away from God. But we need to build each other up and to rest in God's love and to wait on his mercy. Sound good? Yeah. It does.
22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Follow Matthew 28:18-20: the great commission. Make disciples, teach them, baptize them, teach them to obey all my commandments.
Doxology
24To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
This is just simple praise to God. That's what I think. What do you think?
I think that my general statement for Jude would be that we need to be aware of those around us and what they are doing and saying. We need to be aware of how those people affect us. There will be people who will try to tear us away from God but we need to resist them.
That would be my take on Jude.
Sorry if there are typos. Or if my quality of writing is really poor. It's late and I am exhausted. I needed to get this done though. Sleep, here I come.
Hope you all had a fantastic Sunday!
Today I'm not really doing NIPTO. It's not related to the NIPTO program. It's actually what we're doing for bible study this week.
We're doing a Book Study on Jude.
In a Book Study, you basically read the book through once to get the scope of the book (maybe you'll read it 2 or 3 times)... This shouldn't be hard since Jude is a total of 1 chapter or 25 verses.
Oh! And when you read it, you have to put it into its historical setting too.
Once you read through it, you go back and do more of a detailed analysis. Like I do, kind of. So in a Book Study you're going to "develop a statement regarding the meaning of each paragraph as well as a statement for the entire book."
Okay. I'm going to do what I normally do. Then I'm going to do a paragraph by paragraph analysis. 'Kay? 'Kay.
Jude 1-25 1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: 2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Greetings! WOOT! Yeah. Sooo Jude is one of James' brothers... This is a letter to "those who have been called" and "who are loved... and kept" by God&Jesus. "Sending mercy, peace, and love your way peeps!" That's basically what he's saying. ;P (This is going to be an "Abby Paraphrase" Post with the general ideas about Jude at the end. YAY! =P)
The sin and doom of Godless men (This sounds like a lot of fun! ...not.)
3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Okay. So I was gonna write to you about happy thing... like about our salvation! That's cool, right? Yeah. But I didn't. I wrote to you about how you still have to fight for your faith. So there are these people... they were written about a really long time ago. You probably don't remember... which is why I'm telling you this. But they're coming. They're there actually... they're right there with you. They don't love God. They want to deny that Jesus was the Christ. It kinda stinks. Soooo keep on reading. Cuz there's more about these people!
5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Man. Jude may have written a really small book (short letter), but he wasn't joking around. He was all about reminding people what was going on. What happened. What their past was. What the present was. And eventually, what their future would be. I mean, God banished angels. Satan was an angel. Until he decided that it would be a good idea to try to fight God... mmm...that didn't work out too well. Now he's bound with the everlasting chains for judgment.... kinda scary. Oh, remember those people who were destroyed with fire&brimstone? yeah. They kinda did the same thing as the angels... I mean, I guess you could call them an example... not of what you want to be though. Just, ya know, a thought.
8In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
These are some pretty heavy accusations... that were true. I think it's interesting that when Michael was fighting with the devil, he just kind of deferred to God... almost like he was too mature to respond and just was like "I'm going to let God tell you off for this... I don't have the time" I don't think that was really how it went... but Michael did defer to God. And that's what we need to do sometimes. Even though we sometimes defer to God, people still respond automatically. They don't go with the "think before you speak" tactic. They just react how they feel. And that's dangerous....
11Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. 12These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
These people don't exactly have it good. They rushed. They'll be destroyed. Kinda grim, eh? (Yes. I am from Canada. NO! I'm from Guadalajara. NO. I'm from Akron, OH. Which one's true? haha) In a few words: these people (men? Were there women involved too? Or was it just men? Interesting...) took out what they didn't put in and reaped what they didn't sow (Luke 19:21). They didn't produce anything good. They didn't even help. The darkness was reserved for them. Crazy.
14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
Like I said above: these people didn't produce anything good. They grumbled. They found faults. They took advantage of people. But the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones. Crazy man. God's amazing. And he has thousands upon thousands of holy people... I wouldn't want to mess with God!
A call to persevere (Yes! Encouragement!)
17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
The prophets were well aware that there would be people like this. They warned for the future generations to look out for them. Because they would be the ones that divided them. they would divide them because they didn't have the Holy Spirit. They didn't follow God's desires for their lives. They followed their own desires.
20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
But keep close to each other. Build each other up. Pray. Rest in God's love and mercy. Important things. Just now I'm noticing that yesterday, I think... or Thursday, I read 2 blogs about resting. I think I'm a little busy. When someone asks how I am, busy is generally in the reply. I need to remember to take the time to rest in God's love. (Is it bad that I'm penciling this in? haha)
22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Mercy. Salvation. Mercy interlaced with fear. Holy Hate. That's my thoughts on this.
Doxology (an expression of praise to God-dictionary.com)
24To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen
God can keep us from falling. He can. He doesn't always. He will pick us back up when we fall. He presents us with his presence. That's faultless... an extremely joyful. We should offer ourselves to God's glory, power, majesty, and authority. A-men.
Okay. This is going to "marinate" overnight. Because I'm tired. And it's getting late. And I have to get up "early" tomorrow. (I'm actually sleeping in by my normal standards, but today has been a long day... because my sister LEFT US! For Germany. For 2 1/2 months. For school. To get her Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification. It was weird to just leave her at the airport. But she called us to tell us that she made it to Charlotte okay. She called when the people in front of her were boarding the flight to Frankfurt, Germany. She'll get to Frankfurt at about 1 am (about 2 hours left in the flight!) and then she'll fly to Dresden (where she's spending the summer) from there. Crazy. So her plane will land around 3:30 am our time... 9:30 Dresden time. I might not have the times quite right... but it's something crazy like that. I'll keep you updated on what's going on. Hopefully she'll post something on her blog sometime soon after she gets there! I know my dad is getting e-mailed as soon as she's able to get her computer up and running in the airport :) And THAT is why I've had a long day! (not to mention cleaning out the garage. That would probably explain some of the sleepiness too! =P))
On a slightly random note:
Bohemian Rhapsody is an amazing song. Juuust thought you should know that. Oh! Hey! Here. Why don't you listen to it? (Disclaimer: This song may get stuck in your head and you might not be able to get it out for a while. Just saying :D)
So I'm going to go to bed. I'll finish this up in NIPTO, Day 98 tomorrow. That'll have the statements about each paragraph and the book at large. So. Until then!
Good (ish) morning. It's dark and rainy here. Not the most motivating morning. But I'm up... somehow. I might still be half asleep. Not sure.
Last night my sister and I went to a Bible study that Brandon has been doing. It's at the local university... that just happens to be on break between spring&summer classes. So the Student Union was closed. So we sat outside. It was kinda cold by the end, but we survived. It was a really good study. We're actually doing a book study on Jude. I can't say that I've ever seriously read Jude. I've sarcastically read it, but never seriously. So it should be interesting.
Brandon's sister is having surgery today at 11. If you would pray for her and for their family, that would be fantastic!
Ack. I feel so distracted this morning. Time to get to NIPTO I think.
I feel like this is relevant though... since I'm basically analyzing the Bible from my point of view. We were talking about bible-study-methods last night. And at the end we were discussing the question "Can a verse have more than one meaning?" My thought was that, after reading the definition of meaning, no. But people can interpret things differently. There's an overall meaning. But there are also different points of application. And each person has their own opinions of what is being said and what each person gets out of it can be completely different. You do not by any means have to agree with what I'm saying. This is my interpretation of the Bible. You don't have to agree with it. It's just what I'm thinking. :)
Background information about what was talked about yesterday: God has the ultimate decisions to make. We make choices that sometimes determine the outcome. Verse 18 is something to the effect of "God is merciful to those he chooses to be merciful towards, and he hardens those he wants to harden" which nicely sets up the next section, as usually (*cough*always*cough*) happens in the Bible. Romans 9:19-29 19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' " 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
This is interesting. We blame God for blaming us. But we are in no position to talk back to God. It's kind of like talking back to a parent who is serious about the whole "I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it" thing. God made us in his image. Why would we ask him "Why did you make me like this?" Why would we ask our good and perfect creator that? God makes some people just to be normal people. God makes others for "noble purposes." I'm not exactly sure what that's referring to, but yeah.
22What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
What if God's just waiting... waiting to show his power and glory. To us. He wants to show it to us. Those that he called. Those that responded to the call. Isn't that kinda crazy?
25As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," 26and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "
This is oh so very interesting to me. Paul pulls out some Old Testament ammo (from Hosea to be exact). These people would've known their OTs. They probably wouldn't have applied it to themselves though. Which is what I find interesting. They might have applied it to themselves, but generally, when someone in the NT pulls something out of the OT, it's almost like a surprise to the people reading this letter. Hosea is an interesting Old Testament Prophet book. You should read it. I should read it. The end.
27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
"Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved. 28For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality."
There are a lot of people. Unfortunately, not all of them will be saved. Only a remnant. The definition of remnant isn't very hopeful. It's just a little scary.
29It is just as Isaiah said previously:
"Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah."
aka: we would've been like the cities that God destroyed with very little mercy unless we had kids. I'm not sure I get this. Maybe it's related to the remnant thing... Not sure.
Today is Day 9 of 100 Days of Holiness.It's been a good reminder for me. I think that I've been praying a lot more during this. When I see the little blue bracelet, I'm reminded that God is with me. It's awesome. :)
Oh. I'm late. It's 9. EEK. I usually start school at 9. I haven't eaten breakfast yet.
BOOOO for rainy mornings that make you feel unmotivated!
Have a good day!
P.S. The last day of school was good yesterday. I took many pictures and people didn't like me. WOOOOHOOO.
Bye!
