NIPTO, Day 100

Morning: I feel like today should be  a really special day. It isn't. It's just a regular Tuesday. I mean, sure I have a lot less school to do, and it is the last day of Urban Vision for us... but we're still doing the "normal" things. It's not quite summer. Just still school.

Evening: 
BOO YAH for a dream-sequence dance for Artie! Yeah, I watch Glee. Don't hate me... &Awesome-sauce for the phrase "punch your face" in anything. Glee had one tonight. It was awesome. Haha

Today was a normal day. School. Urban Vision. Bible Study with the teens at Urban Vision. Came home... Watched American Idol. Watching Glee right now. I did my nails during AI. They're pretty sweet. If I do say so myself. Black with silver bursts on them. I'll probably take pictures at some point. I tend to do that... take pictures. hah. Now I'm blogging... and voting for Lee Dewyze at the same time. He better not go home after singing Hallelujah... that was amazing.

Books. You like books, right? Yeah. I thought so. Here are a couple good ones that I've read/am reading at the moment:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. It is fantabulous. I'm about 1/5th of the way through it. But I love it and can't wait to keep reading it. I somehow feel like I'll have a tad bit more time in the coming weeks... huh. I wonder why that is...
Donald Miller is an awesome author! He wrote Blue Like Jazz. If you haven't read that one, GO READ IT. It's funny and insightful and very interesting. I started re-reading that a while ago... haven't gotten back to it... my sister hijacked it, so I'll just have to wait a little longer to finish that one. I read it while I was in Colorado... (I should do a post dedicated to my love for Colorado. Look for that one coming soon! haha)

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn was, last summer, one of the best books I'd read in a long time. I also read this one in CO... more specifically on the way home from CO. But anyways. It was good. It was a good book to take my mind off of the 25 hour drive... haha. It's a fantastic book. It's about the persecution of the Chinese churches. It's a fantabulous insight into that! Go check it out. It's worth whatever money it is to buy it. Or you can borrow it... after I've re-read it! haha



Today is Day 16 of 100 Days of Holiness. Day 100 of NIPTO. Crazy.
Let me tell you this: It's hard to focus on serious stuff after thinking about Colorado... and while voting. Hah. oops. My own fault there for the second one...

Romans 11:11-24
 ¹¹Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

We can't stumble as to fall beyond the point of recovery. We are accepted by God as we are. But the Gentiles were made free and that made the Israelites, who had worked so hard for salvation, mad. Just plain mad. 

¹²But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

But hey! If the Israelites suffering and sinning means the world gains, the world's gonna gain a whole lot. But the Gentiles are going to gain more from their fullness? Either that or the riches that the Israelites are bringing to us are a lot different than we think.



 ¹³I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.

Paul's like "Yeah, I'm talking to you guys. You're where my ministry is focused. But I kinda wish that my own people would wake up and realize what they're missing... realize what they're missing so much to the point that they're envious.
I think that a lot of times our "ministry" is focused so much on the "nonbelievers" that we forget that there are people in the church who aren't getting it.


¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

So if they reject the church, but the result is saving a bunch of people (which kind of makes no sense), aren't they kind of exchanging life for death with people who are exchanging death for life? They're reversing roles... 
I could be completely off on this. I have no idea. It's just what I'm getting. 


¹⁶If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Basically when they harvested food of any kind really they would offer the first batch to God. Because that made him happy. It's what he asked them to do. And when they did that, they made their whole harvest holy. 
If the root of something is holy, the rest of it is going to be holy too. 
It's a kind of cool, simple, probably under-appreciated concept.  



 ¹⁷If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Sometimes bad branches are broken/cut off so new, healthy branches can be grafted in. We're grafted into God's family. It kind of goes with the adoption thing. We're chosen to be integrated into this tree of life. We all get the same kind of nourishment. But sometimes we like to think we're better than the other "branches." We're not. We don't support God. He supports us. 


¹⁹You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." ²⁰Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.

Don't boast about being grafted in. You should be afraid. Because:


²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

erm... EEK? Thankfully God is merciful. Most of the time. ;)


 ²²Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

God is kind. God is also stern. He doesn't mess around. He's stern to those who are cut off. He's kind to those grafted in. As long as you "stay grafted in." If you don't, you'll be cut off. No one wants to be cut off. 


²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

If someone who has been cut off returns, they will be gladly grafted back in because God is kind. Remember? :)


²⁴After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

We're cut out of this wild, untamed tree. God's tree is carefully cultivated&trimmed. But he chooses to make us wild "branches" part of his tree. It's contrary to nature for us to be grafted in. But God controls that, so, it's not really contrary to nature =P
Natural branches graft back much more easily than wild ones that have been grafted then cut off then grafted again. Just a guess from this verse.


Today/tomorrow is a "Blog, sleep, blog" day. An evening/morning where I blog, go straight to bed, get up and blog right away. *sigh* oh my. (starry eyed surprise) To quote my sister's blog today. :)
Goodnight beautiful world!