I'm pretty good. :)
I babysat for Zakk&Derek today. Their less-than-one-week-old twin sisters had a doctors appointment today, so I went over and watched Z&D while the parents took them to the Dr's :) Hailey&Emily (or Peanut-butter&Jelly according to Z) are both doing really well! They were both 5 lbs 6 oz today. SO TINY. So cute! If you're friends with my dad on facebook, he put some pictures up from when they visited them yesterday :)
I read Fox in Socks twice... and it's a fantastic Dr. Seuss book. It's a tongue twister... and it's amazing. You should get it at the library if you want the pictures. If you just want to read the awesome tongue twisters, you can go here. :)
My sister has a new blog post up. It's funny. Probably unintentionally. But it's great. Grocery shopping in Dresden, Germany anyone? Sounds like a good time to me! :)
You can go read her blog here. It sounds like she's doing well. It's weird that she could be going to bed soon. It's only 3 pm here. +6 hours does a lot. I mean, it's 9 pm there. So weird! It's also weird to get up for the day and have her day be halfway done. Or to go to bed an think that she'll be getting up in a few hours. Crazy :)
100 Days of Holiness-Day 15. This was something that I needed today. I think about myself waay too much. I need to be more JOY focused: Jesus, Others, Self. Jesus first, others seconds, myself last. Yup.
NIPTO time! It's kind of weird doing NIPTO in the middle of the day. I'm usually an extreme end of the day person-early morning or late at night. Almost never in the middle of the day. Maybe on a Saturday, but that's rare. =P
Romans 11:1-10
1I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel:
I hate cutting off a verse that's going into another verse, but I had to. The people were wondering if God had rejected his people. Uhm. No. He didn't. He knew who these people were going to be before he created them. He didn't abandon them. Elijah appealed to God against Israel. Let's see what he had to say against them.
3"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? 4And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
These people, God's people, were killing the prophets and tearing down the alters to God. Elijah was doubtful that there was anyone besides himself that was still faithful to God. God told him that he had 7,000 people reserved. That's kind of a lot of people, but kind of not. But it was still enough to be reassuring.
5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace
So there are people now who are adamantly against God. But there is that remnant that God has set aside for himself that is chosen by grace. Wait. That's all of us. None of us deserve to be saved. We've all sinned which makes us unworthy to be in God's presence, but he has chosen us by grace to be his. And if we were able to receive grace by works, it wouldn't really be grace anymore, would it? Because we could all get it by doing a couple things. You only have to do a couple things now to receive God's grace. But faith is required. And I think that makes a difference.
7What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, 8as it is written:
"God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes so that they could not see
and ears so that they could not hear,
to this very day."
He's bringing out the OT ammo again! Israel was looking so hard for grace that they were hardened in their search. God didn't allow them to receive grace because they were almost looking too hard. They were looking to other things to give them grace, rather than simply looking to God and humbly accepting what he would've gladly given them.
9And David says:
"May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever."
That's harsh, David! But it was what was happening at the time. The Israelites were rich. They didn't "need" God. They always needed God, but the would forget that they needed him when they were in material wealth. Some of them got nothing because they were hardened and didn't realize how much they actually needed God to control their lives.
More on that tomorrow. But first Bill... will you take me to the ball?
That's right. Barbara Manatee is headed your way! My sister is playing it right now and I felt that it was appropriate to have one of my favorite Veggie Tales videos on here :) Enjoy the Veggieness!
Hannah and I have dance tonight. Our recital is in a few weeks. Exciting!
Well. I gotta go. I have a little school left to do... YAY =P
Hope you're having a good Monday! (As good as a Monday can be! haha)
No comments:
Post a Comment