NIPTO, Day 221

Hey alllll.

Today was... good. Busy.
Got up. Did school. Went to the high school to sign up for the PSAT. Came home. Did more school. Ate lunch and watched Fireproof. Did school. Babysat for Nate. Talked to Hannah on the phone. Went on a walk. Talked to Kayt for a while. I love her. And now I'm watching 27 Dresses with my mom and dad. :)

I love this movie. New York movies are the best! :) And Kathrine Hiegel (or however you spell her last name) is awesome. As is James Marsden. :)

So I finished Acts yesterday. It took me a long time. And now I'm starting one of my personal favorite Old Testament books.
Joshua.
We talked about Joshua a lot at LT. And I'm looking forward to revisiting this book. So here goes...

Joshua 1:1-18
¹ After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: ²"Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.


Okay. A little background: Joshua was Moses' assistant. Moses dies and God hands things over to Joshua. Now that Moses is dead, God tells Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan River into the land that he promised them. Them being the Israelites. And God promises some amazing things: "I will give you every place where yous et your foot, as I promised Moses." Emphasis by me. Obviously. But that's a promise that God made twice. Not necessary, but he did it. He made sure that Joshua had the same knowledge of his promise that Moses had. 




⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.


God then tells Joshua where they're going to live. No one, no one, will be able to stand up against them. 
And God gives Joshua another promise: "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you." God promised to always be with Joshua. Here's something: Moses was so close to God that his face would glow for days at a time after being in the presence of God. No joke. This happened. It was a huge promise.
God makes that promise to us today too. He's always with us. He'll never leave us no matter what happens. Your friends ditch you? God's still there. You feel all alone in the world? God's still there. He will never leave you. And that's a promise that I cling to daily. 




 ⁶ "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

This has to be the best four verses ever! Be strong. Be courageous. Be those things because you are a leader. Be these things. Be careful to obey the laws that Moses gave you. You will be successful if you stay within these laws. 
Don't let these laws ever leave you. Meditate on them always. Day and night. Do this so that you will be careful to do everything written in it. How often are we careless with our thoughts, our words, our actions? If we meditated on the word of God day and night, do you think we would be more careful with them? 
When you follow God's word you will be prosperous. Successful. Those are words that appeal to our generation. Being successful is something that I strive to be. Do I strive to be the right kind of successful? Probably not. 
Then God says "Have I not commanded you?" It's a command to be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. The LORD, Yahweh, Jehova Jirah (the God who provides), will be with you wherever you go. Anywhere. 
Amazing. 


 ¹⁰ So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ¹¹ "Go through the camp and tell the people, 'Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.' "
A'ight. So Joshua gets the officers aka people who are in charge together and tells them to get everyone read to go. He tells them that they're going to cross teh Jordan in three days. 
I could be wrong, but from what I remember, I think that the Jordan River would've been at flood level (or above) at the time that they were to cross. Aka it wasn't possible to cross it by boat. Not that they had boats. I don't know, though.


 ¹² But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, ¹³ "Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: 'The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.' ¹⁴ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers ¹⁵ until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise."
To two and a half of the twelve tribes, Joshua said that they would cross ahead of everyone else. Their women, children, and livestock could stay, but they were going ahead to fight the battles that awaited them. And until the Lord "[gave] them rest" they wouldn't be completely settled in the land. Once all of this was said and done, they could go back to their land that was promised to them.


 ¹⁶ Then they answered Joshua, "Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. ¹⁸ Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!"
They told Joshua that they were with him 100%
They obeyed Moses and they were going to obey Joshua. They were his buds. "May the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words... will be put to death." Strong words there. They were committed to helping Joshua. Some good guys. They had a good mindset: "only be strong and courageous!" Don't be anything less. God will give you the strength and the courage that you need.


It's funny. I feel like this blog isn't for me. It's for other people. Kind of like how exciting things don't happen to me. They happen to other people.
But so many times, I'll type words that I know come from God. Because I realize that, woah!, I needed that. It's like slapping myself in the face sometimes! It's wonderful though. I love that God can speak to me through... me. Ha. Lame sounding, but still awesome. Because it's God.

And now, slightly randomly, I'm going to give a little plug. It's for LIVE620. CLICK THAT LINK. And if not that one, then this one. (They're the same thing. Just visit the site!)
LIVE620 is Encounter62's new name. There's some awesome stuff on that website. Stuff by my best friend and my sister and... me. :) (Shameless self promotion. Horrible, I know.)
I'll post links whenever new stuff goes up. Which is pretty much every day. So just check it out! "like" it on Facebook. Follow on Twitter (@LIVE620).
Click on over. There's a ton of great stuff. And it's awesome. And now I'm done.

:)

NIPTO, Day 217

Woah. I smell like shaving cream. Which isn't all that bad of a smell. :)

Today: I got up, drove to church (with Dad, of course), had Sunday School, church, hung out for a while, drove home, ate lunch, read a book, went on a walk, went to the Eaton's to give them some food, then went to Giant Eagle to get a newspaper and shaving cream!

Then came home and read some more, got ready to go, then went to the 620 kickoff. it was... insane. I'll try to post about it tomorrow, but computers are currently limited. I'll leave you with a picture...

Jason (Kay't s bf), Kaytee, Me..   BTDubs, my hair is awesomesauce! haha

Acts 27:13-26
¹³When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. ¹⁴Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the "northeaster," swept down from the island.

So they thought "hey, this is good! wind!" so they set sail and were sailing along Crete. But then there was this hurricane force wind, a "northeaster" if you will, that came down from the island. Uhohh...


¹⁵The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. ¹⁶As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. ¹⁷When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.

This is crazy. Can you imagine being in a house in conditions like this, let alone a SHIP?!? It's insane. They just kind of gave in and let the wind carry them...


¹⁸We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. ¹⁹On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

It was all just wind wind wind. They started to throw cargo overboard. And then they threw the ship's tackle overboard. And the storm went on for days and days. And they pretty much gave up any hope that they would be rescued. 




 ²¹After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: "Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. ²²But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. ²³Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me ²⁴and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' ²⁵So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. ²⁶Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island."


Paul  told them all off for not listening to him. But since they didn't listen to them, he encouraged them to keep up their courage. He said that "not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed." Not super comforting, knowing that your ship is going down, but at least no one was going to die. 
But keep the courage up and put your faith in God. But still, we have to run aground on some island around here. Heh. not really looking forward to that part...


But that's tomorrow.
"Because right now we are eating dinner and watching TV."
hah. I love my sisters. Just in case you were wondering. There is currently a thread on my profile that is aaalllllllllllll Matilda quotes. It's fantastic! =D

And now I'm going to go to sleep. Or get these contacts out of my eye. That miraculously stayed in... even while wiping shaving cream out of them! But more on that tomorrow... Probably.
G'night blog-o-sphere

NIPTO, Day 203

OH my goodness. Today has been crazy. And I feel grody right now. I'll get to that in a second though.

Today... I got up and we went to church. I was in the nursery with Mom for the first service. We had Toby and Isabella for most of the time and Christopher at the end for a bit.
Church was interesting today. He talked about David, Abigail, and Nabal. It was kind of about how to respond to a power struggle. How David&Nabal both didn't respond well, but Abigail did. It was interesting. You can find it (probably) at the church website. August 29th, 2010.

We stayed after church because people were going out into the neighborhood to meet people and see if there were any needs that the church could meet.
Then they came back and we ate lunch and then I drove to a friends house to pick up some piano books that she had had for a long time and then I drove home! It was kind of crazy, but I'm alive. And my parents are alive too!

Then I came home and got a few things together for school... and read for a long time.
Mom and I went to Wal-Mart to get a few things that she needed for classes (Whaaaaaat?) tomorrow... so we got that and came home... I think I read some more and then went to Encounter where we cleaned out the youth room. Kind of. More like, empty the entire contents of both closets into the room and sort through/throw out stuff. We had 2 big bags of trash and it's still not done. The entire middle of the room was FULL of... STUFF. It was crazy. But we got most of it cleaned out! 6-8:30ish. It was a lot of cleaning. And we ate pizza too. Yum.

So now I'm home. And I'm tired. And I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I have to get up and go to SCHOOL tomorrow! It's ridiculous.

So now I do NIPTO... so I can go get ready for bed. Ahhhh...

Acts 20:1-12
¹When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said good-by and set out for Macedonia.


So there was this riot in... wherever they were. Ephesus, I think. When all that ended, Paul called the disciples to him and encouraged them and they said "bye byeee" and headed out to Macedonia.




²He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, ³where he stayed three months. Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.⁴He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.⁵These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. ⁶But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.


He kept traveling and talking to people and continued to encourage them. He eventually got to Greece where he stayed for a while. And right when he was about to leave, he found out about a plot against him, so he went back through Macedonia. Six men went ahead of him and waited for him (and Luke, apparently) at Troas. They sailed to Philippi first and then went to Troas for a week.

 ⁷On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. ⁸There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.


On... Sunday? Monday? a bunch of people got together to... bake bread. Or eat. Or something. Paul spoke and he was supposed to leave the next day so he just kept right on talking. (It reminds me of Tom Short. The guy will talk for as long as you let him. It's great! most of the time.) There were a lot of lamps where they were meeting? Oooooookay.




⁹Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. ¹⁰Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!" ¹¹Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. ¹²The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.


DUDE. This is a crazy story. So this guy is sitting in the window and falls asleep while Paul's talking. It's late.... He was probably really tired. Or at least I'll say he was. (I wrote "we'll say" at first and I'm like, 'Who's we?? Me&the mouse in my pocket?" haha)
So the guy [Eutychus] falls asleep and falls out of the window. Onto the ground. From three stories up. Uhmmmmmm wow. He died. A fall like that would kill a person.
Thankfully, Paul was there and brought him back to life. Because Paul's cool like that. Then they went upstairs and ate together and talked until the sun came up. For realz. Then he left to keep traveling. 
The people who had been there took the guy home and were "greatly comforted." I'm guessing because he was still alive. Just a... wild... crazy guess!




Okay. I've probably posted this video before, but it's one of my favorite songs. It's fantastic! I love it. So listen to it!



And now I'm going to go to bed. *yawn* My arms hurt from shaking out this huge theater-grade curtain. It was heavy. And definitely a "real" arm work out. :)


Schooool starts tomorrow! I have to figure out what I'm wearing! Crazy stuff. School. Psh.


A'ight. Tchuss! ("bye" in German! I've picked that and Hey-o up from Katie. I hope she sees this. (She better now that she's at school. And might not be coming home next weekend. Dummy. (Have I been hanging around Brandon a lot? Yes.))) <-- Hah. Triple. I'm sweet like that.


G'night now! For real.

NIPTO, Day 175

4-ish
It's hot out today.

I feel very lazy today.

Here's what I've done today (so far):
Got up. Got ready for church. DROVE to church with Dad. (More on that in a bit.) Went to the 1st service. Helped Mom set up for Rosie's bridal shower. Sat around for a while. Ate lunch. Watched Rosie open presents. Ate cake. (It was delicious! And very cute. If I get up between now and when I publish this post, you might actually get a picture of the cake. But that is yet to be determined.)
Came home... got stuff out of the car... went to the neighbor's garage sale. Now this. I feel like taking a nap... I'm just so tired...


9ish
Okay, so I did lay down for a little bit. Then I decided to take a shower. Then it was time for Encounter.
It was a good time. We chilled and ate and LAUGHED. It feels so good to laugh. Alexa cracks me up the most probably. She's just so stinkin' funny! I should just video tape her for a while. She's bound to say something funny. She's especially funny when she tells stories. Because she doesn't tell boring stories. So that's good.

We went inside and watched a video. It was... almost difficult to hear. It was kind of like "Who do you say Jesus is?" It makes you think. Who do I think Jesus is?
This was also included in the video. Joe Gibbs was(is?) the coach of the Washington Redskins. It was interesting to hear what he said. It's worth the 3(?) minutes to watch it.



OKAY! Driving today. I drove on the expressway for a longggg time. (All of like, 15 minutes)
It was good, although I feel like I needed to have my seat up a little further because my muscles in my right leg hurt when I got out of the car. And I felt like Shawn Spencer. Dad was Henry (his dad). He kept asking me what cars were around me and stuff. I told him. Then he asked me one time how many hats had passed us. "I have NO clue."
It was good. I know I'll make that trip about 50 million times in my life, so I should get used to it now. :)

Annnd now I have to figure out what I'm reading for NIPTO this week.


10:30ish
Acts 11:1-18
¹The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him ³and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."


Literally, my first response to this was "oh my goshhhh. really? That's la-may"
People were criticizing him for going into the houses of the uncircumcised people. That's just ri-di-cu-lous (Pronounced like the disarming charm in Harry Potter. :D )
But yes. This is pretty ridiculous, although it was pretty scandalous. 


 ⁴Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: ⁵"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. ⁶I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. ⁷Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'
 ⁸"I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'
 ⁹"The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' ¹⁰This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

So he starts explaining. That he was in Joppa, praying, when he had a vision, and that God told him to go kill&eat what was "unclean." Then God told him to not call anything that he made unclean. (Aka uncircumcised people? Yeah.)


 ¹¹"Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. ¹²The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. ¹³He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.'

So then these guys from Caesarea show up at the house he was staying at and the HS (Holy Spirit, not High School) told him to go with the men. The men gave him a message from Cornelius, that he had had a vision that told him to send for Peter in Joppa. The angel told him that Peter would bring a message that would save his entire household. 
We all have that same message. We can save households! 


 ¹⁵"As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.¹⁶Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' ¹⁷So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"
 ¹⁸When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.

So then Peter started to talk annnnnd the HS came down an all of them. And Peter remembered what Jesus had said "John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So God gave them the same gift of the Holy Spirit that he had given the Jews. The same gift for both the Jews and the Gentiles. Once they heard that story, they had no further objections. 



Good story :)
Now for a VEGGIE TALES music video for you, and sleep for me. Deal? Deal.



Driving School: Day 4 begins tomorrow at EIGHT am. Toooo early. Actually, not too early. But still, early.

Good night, dear readers. (I feel like my mother. OH well! hah)

NIPTO, Day 161

Hai.
Estoy cansada. aka: I'm tired.
And it's way late... again. I think I'm going to have to go to bed at like, 8 o'clock tomorrow night! haha.

Today was good. We had church. Paige came with us and that was awesome. It seemed like she liked it. Annnnd we got Donotos for lunch thanks to Pastor Mike! (The 'rents talked about LT with M&M&Mrs.M while Hannah and I talked about LT separately)
Then we came home... and I don't remember what I did... =P
I drove to the Kline's house for Encounter tonight. And I got to see a bunch of people and it was fun. We watched a Rob Bell Nooma video and talked and ate and prayed and played Apples to Apples and Ninja together. Then we prayed some more for specific things. And then we went downstairs to the basement and played arcade games (pinball and arcade-style pacman!). And Erin&Mr. Kline&BK played bumper-pool. And I stood back and laughed at their competitiveness.

It was a good time. Erin dropped me off at home. I talked to Anna-Jam about LT some... we're planning an extensive Skype evening in the near future :)

Now it's time for NIPTOooo
Acts 7:1-10
 ¹Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"
 ²To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ³'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'

I'm pretty sure he's setting them up at this point... =P
The guy in charge asked him if the people who gave the false witnesses were telling the truth. Stephen doesn't spit out a straight answer. He gives them a story. A story about Abraham. And how God called him out of Mesopotamia.


 ⁴"So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. ⁵He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. ⁶God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.⁷But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.' ⁸Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

I know, I know. Big chunk, Abby. You're being lazy. ;)
Alrighty. Sooooo... Abraham leaves Mesopotamia. And he goes to Haran. And then his dad dies. And God sent him to... the Israel area? Wherever they were. Here's the thing: Even though God called them to go there and they obeyed (for the most part) God didn't give them a foot of the land as an inheritance. But God promised Abraham that his descendants would occupy the land. Another kicker: Abraham didn't have any kids. 
But God told him anyways. He told them that his kids would be strangers in a strange country. That they would be mistreated as slaves and servants. But after they get through that, they're going to come through that and come out of that country and they are going to worship God. 
Then God gave some rules&Stuff to Abraham and Abraham and Sarah had Isaac. Crazy. These people were old. But they still had a kid! And he was Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, Jacob was father of the "twelve patriarchs"... whatever that means.




 ⁹"Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
Oh the 12 patriarchs were his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God went with him into Egypt and Joseph had no problems getting through things. God gave Joseph wisdom (is this where wisdom teeth come from?! =P)
Even what the 12 brothers intended for evil, God worked out for good. And that's an encouraging note to end on... 


seeing as I'm laying in my bed with my eyes half closed, typing away =P
But seriously.
Goodnight!

 

NIPTO, Day 143

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” Martin Luther

This is a great quote. :) And I thought I would share it with you.

I just got done skyping with Anna. It was fantastic. She's funny. I like her.

Hannah was just talking to me... and I just heard "a hobo pig that turns into a man! Nightmares for yoou!!" ... uhm... wow.

Lets see. Today I made ice-cream pie. (And ate it later, it was good) Annnnd while I was making ice cream pie, I discovered that the plastic that was the cover on one of my pie crusts was cracked. So we took it back to Tarje and got a new one. The girl who did the exchanges was nice and was like, "Oh. Yeah. That's not good. Do you want to return it or exchange it?" So that was good.

So I made 2 ice cream pies. They were described in yesterday's post. Erm.... then I practiced piano a bit? I don't really remember what I did in the afternoon. OH! I finished my book that I was reading. And then I cleaned my room up a little bit. My beds are being bunked this weekend! I'm so excited to have a little bit of extra space in my room :)

Then I had my piano lesson. I got some good advice. Then I rushed home and grabbed the pies and a sandwich and then went to the Encounter62 game night. It was fun! They were playing "the lying game" when I got there. (BS... aka Bologna Sandwich) Guess who won? Our fearless youth leader, Brandon. Dur. =P Then we played Spoons. Annnd I got like, 3 in a row. And then I got out =P

Then we played POKER. (Don't you love the games we play at youth group game night?) I ended up winning poker too. We decided that the round we were playing next was going to be our last round. And so all of us went all in. And I just happened to have a pair of queens. And that won it. And I got everything. See?

I look super tan in this picture. I'm not that tan. But yes. I'm collecting my "pot" here :)

So that was fun. Then I came home and watched So You Think You Can Dance for about an hour. Then I skyped with Anna for over an hour. It was a good time.

Now it's time to do NIPTO and get ready for bed and then SLEEP. So. NIPTO TIME!

Acts 2:1-13

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Basically: PARTAY! Or something like that ;)


2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

oooooo. Mysterious.



3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Uhm... SCARY.


4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

SWEET. Yet kinda strange. But they were all filled with the Holy Spirit... and that was something that was new at the time. And they all started speaking in different languages... as the Spirit enabled them. So it was all up to God and the Holy Spirit. Interesting.

5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

Soooo there were a bunch of Jewish people staying in Jerusalem. From every nation under heaven. That's a lot. It was a long time ago when things were more "localized," but still... that's a lot of people!
All of these people (who loved God and feared him) heard what was going on and a bunch of people formed a crowd because they were so confused. Everyone heard everyone else speaking in their language. The person listening could understand everyone. Crazy.


7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

They should be "utterly amazed"! A bunch of people were speaking a ton of different languages! The cool thing is that they weren't just talking. They were declaring the wonders of God in each person's native language. How cool is that?! But they were confused. And they asked questions...


13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

But some people just made fun of them and thought that they were drunk. NICE. Declaring the wonders of God while drunk? It's possible that they were drunk... on the Holy Spirit! =P


Okay. I'm going to go get ready for bed and then sleep. Although I do have some exciting news! For NIPTO we're starting to read Walking With God by John Eldredge. He's the Wild at Heart guy.
It should be fantastic! I might actually blog about this book ;) We'll see.
Alrighty. G'night blog reading people! You're awesome for putting up with me!
Much love,

NIPTO, Day 112

Good Evening. Morning. Afternoon. ya know.
I'm sitting in the living room with my family&the Karen girls. We're watching The Spy Next Door. There were 2 Yackley lines in a row. Where did they get these lines?!

I thought it would be a good time to blog since everyone is occupied :)

I've been a little bit sick over the past couple days... just swollen tonsils/lymph nodes/sore throat. I guess I need to sleep. But I like staying up late... *sigh* bummah. Sleep. Water. Lots of water. Maybe some tea. You get the idea :)

Today is Day 29 of 100 Days of Holiness.

NIPTO was good. Encounter was good. We talked about Revelation 3:1-6. It was fun? Goofy. I think we were all tired and a little out of it... I guess I'm speaking for Brandon, Hannah, and myself. I don't know about Erin :)
Encounter was good too. We talked about intimacy and what it really is. We also talked about the mistakes that girls make when dating... the guys get their turn on Wednesday =P It was interesting to see what other people thought about intimacy and how people's opinions differed. Very interesting... :)

Okay. Everyone is in their place. 

Sooooo... I guess it's NIPTO time.

Revelation 3:1-6
¹"To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
      These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

This verse is CRAZY. So you've got this picture of Jesus goin' on. Ya know. The one who holds the 7 spirits&the 7 stars. Then: I know what you're doing. (I might seem like a creeper, but I'm not. I'm Jesus.) People think you're alive. Heck. You might even think that you're alive. But you are dead. 
The people in this church were like "Yeah! We're alive! Other people think we're alive! We must be doing pretty well." Then Jesus gives them this letter "You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." That's pretty intense. 
When we were talking tonight as a group, we were talking about how much we base our perceptions of ourselves off of what other people say&think. We think that our business is our business. NOYB. But God's up in everyone's business. No getting away from that!
But as a church, how do you know if you're alive? How do you know if you're dead? 
Thoughts, anyone?

²Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

God is telling them to WAKE UP. Get what you have goin' cuz it's about to die. Why? Because what you do isn't complete and fulfilling to God. He knows they're alive. They do stuff. But they're on the verge of death. Crazy!


³Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

These people had what they needed to be revitalized. They had the prescription for the illness. They just weren't using it. If they didn't start using it, Jesus was (is?) going to come like a thief in the night. They (we?) won't know what time he'll (he's) come (coming). 
We talked a little bit about how both Jesus and Satan are referred to as thieves. There was something else that they were both compared to, but I'm blanking out right now.  

⁴Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

Verse 4 is basically a "pre-overcomer" statement. But before I get to that, we were talking (or Brandon was talking) about how fantabulous our lives could be if we followed everything that God ever told us. Even a fraction of what God told us. It would be incredible to see how different my life would be. Your life would be. Our lives would be. I wrote down the following: "What could I become if I invest the amount of time and energy that I should?" 
Okay. On to "pre-overcomer" awesomeness:
There were a select few people who hadn't fallen into the trap of "we're alive!" These people didn't have on the slightly worn, slightly stained white t-shirt.  In heaven, they're going to walk with Jesus. Dressed in white because they are worthy. I am so unworthy it isn't even remotely funny. But we're made worthy. Because Jesus was worthy of heaven, and because he died for us, we are worthy to be with him in heaven. We're even going to be dressed the same as him! Crazy. More in the next verse:


⁵He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

He who overcomes... will be dressed in white. Like those other people. He who overcomes will have his name in the book of forever. Not only is it not going to be blotted out, it's going to be announced by Jesus to God and his angels. Woaaaaaaaaah.
I feel like things are going to go down something like this: Jesus-This is ___. They're awesome, aren't they? Oh yeah. And we're also twins! We're wearing the same clothes! What?
And then there might be a booyah or a boomshakalaka from the crowd. 

HAHA that's ridiculous. It's late. I sounded like a smoker just now when I laughed. Ohhhhh the joys of having a scratchy throat =P  

There's also major debate in the church about this verse about whether your name can be blotted out of the book of life. I'm not going there because it's late. And I'm not completely sure what I think about it. HUH. 

⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.


Now Jesus is basically saying "don't be a dummy. You have ears. Use them."



Hah. Sorry it got a little crazy near the end! I'm a little tired.
Tomorrow morning we're going to take the Karen girls with us to the parade! And then we're going to go home and chill. It should be a fun day! I'll try to post pictures from the parade! Especially if there are cute ones. Or really fun ones! Kay?

Hope you have a fantastic Memorial Day!

NIPTO, Day 105

WARNING: Loooong post. Just so ya know :)

NIPTO and Encounter were very interesting tonight.
I'm sitting in Panera right now. They're closed. They're having a staff meeting. I'm listening, b'cause I'm really cool like that. Either that, or my sister didn't have time to drive me home before it started. :P
You decide what happened.
(I feel like I can't look at them! Because I feel like it would be creeeepy. But it wouldn't be. But I don't want to attract attention. EEK! haha... I am hoping to get hired here... hm...) It's really interesting to listen to what's goin' on.
They're done. Kinda. I looked over. I don't feel creepy. But I do feel like I attracted a little bit of attention. Wow. I'm over analyzing this. A lot. I don't think it really matters.

So I took electronic notes tonight (aka I brought my laptop and typed. WOOHOO) so it should be slightly easier to work on this tonight. Not as much actual remembering as referencing. (Someone *cough*Brandon*cough* was impressed that I could look elsewhere when I type. I stated the fact that I type a lot. And he pointed out that I blog every single day. Massive amounts. "One post is about how much I blog in an entire YEAR!" Yup.)

Okay. I'm home now. The day's stories have been mostly told. I'm sure they will be told over and over again. I love youth group stories. And I'll tell you one right now.
Tonight, for our game, we had a Karaoke-off. Team 1 (Hannah, Katie, and Jessica) sang "In The Jungle", Team 2 (Sam, Matt, and Ashley) sang Leave (Get out) by Jojo... no one knew it well besides Brandon, and Team 3 (Me, Meg, and Connie) sang "A Whole New World."

Team 1 won, probably because of Hannah's harmonizing. But I think I had the most fun singing "A Whole New World" because it has to be one of my favorite Disney songs. In fact, because I love it so much, it's going to be a YouTube video today! BOOYAHHHHH. You might have to turn it up a little bit. But that's okay. It's sooooo worth it!

Did you watch it? If you didn't. CLICK ON PLAY! haha.

Today is Day 21 (beginning of week 3!) of 100 Days of Holiness! Woot! This was a good devotional.Go read it. It's good. (I'm going to demand that you do a lot of reading tonight. It's a long'un. So be prepared)

Okay. So for NIPTO tonight, we read through
Revelation 2:18-29
 ¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
      These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. ²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵Only hold on to what you have until I come. ²⁶To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
 ²⁷'He will rule them with an iron scepter;
      he will dash them to pieces like pottery'— just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Okay. So I didn't write anything. You should've just read that through straight. Okay?
Now, I'm going to go back through it and interject Brandon's, Erin's, Hannah's, and my thoughts into this. (It is taking me forever to write this! I feel like I'm having an intense bout of ADD... not to mention that it feels like it's about 50 bazillion degrees in here b/c I'm sitting on my bed (warm) with my laptop (REALLY HOT) on my lap. I'm going to go get a fan. Maybe it'll help.(elapse about 2 minutes) Oh my goodness. It got cooler&cooler with every step going down... and hotter and hotter with every step coming up. But now I have a nice breeze from the fan blowing on me. And I don't have my laptop on my lap any more. But my eyeballs feel like they're about to fall out after having contacts in all day... and wearing mascara. And now there's dry air blowing on my face. I'll survive I guess. =P OKAY. Done rambling!)

Revelation 2:18-29
 ¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
      These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

I'm coming back to this. Meet me at the bottom after you've finished reading this. (Yes. that was a super-secret-spy-mission like Morgan gets on Chuck! ha! (Lost finale tonight is nothing. Well, maybe it is. I mean, it is the series finale. But there is a 2 hour Chuck finale tomorrow night that I am STOKED for!) Back to your spy mission: read the rest of this, and we'll talk I'll talk I'll type more at the bottom. You read. Get it? [got it] Good! (Court Jester! Good movie! haha) 

¹⁹I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Okay. Just in case you've forgotten how the "Revelation structure/outline" goes, here's a brief rundown: Intro/who Jesus is, where the church currently is, overcomer statement. (That's basically it.) 
This was one of the verses that stuck out to me. God knows what's goin' on. He knows when we're going through tough things and we stay faithful. Which is amazing. He knows when we're trying and when we're not. He knows when we're not being challenged enough, and he'll give us something that might seem like too much. But it never is! Crazy.  


²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

Something that was a pattern in every single letter that Jesus is writing through John was a call to repentance. Repentance was something that we talked about a lot tonight. If the people reading these letters hadn't realized that this was about repentance, they probably would've gotten it then. Because this was crazzzzy. Like. Seriously. Keep reading. It gets crazier.


²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Are you serious, John?!?! Striking children dead?!?! Yes. Striking the children of the one who didn't repent dead. Notice verse 21. That's not in this section. But scroll up. Read it. Go. Now. 
Okay, are you back? yeah. okay. good. It says that he gave her time to repent. But she didn't. 
Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds. UHM. RIDICULOUS! God is crazy ridiculous. He searches hearts and minds. "... and I will repay each of you according to your deeds." That, my dear readers, is called judgment.
Earlier tonight, I wrote this: God is judging by proving that he saw hearts and minds. He wasn't messing around. God doesn't play games. He was serious.
And it's true. It's important to remember that one day we will stand accountable for our actions. And if we haven't accepted the fact that Jesus died to save us, we will be punished for our actions. But if we believe that Jesus died for us, he'll step in between and take our punishment. He already took our punishment while he was hanging on the cross. He died so we wouldn't have to. Ridiculous. 


²⁴Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵Only hold on to what you have until I come.

He's basically saying "Keep on keepin' on!" You're doing well so far. Just keep doing what you're doing. Hold on to what you have. Hold on until I come. I'm coming. [As surely as the sun will rise, you'll come for us. Certain as the dawn appears]



²⁶To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
 ²⁷'He will rule them with an iron scepter;
      he will dash them to pieces like pottery'— just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸I will also give him the morning star.

OVERCOMER STATEMENT! These tend to be a favorite point of discussion during NIPTO. This one especially. Brandon had Hannah read it. She read verse 26. And then he made her stop. Authority. Over the NATIONS. Okay. Keep reading: Verse 27. SCEPTER! OH SNAP! We get scepters! I'm sitting here laughing. Because it was funny. I love NIPTO/Encounter/youth group. It's always really encouraging. 
Then there's this mysterious "morning star" thing. Hannah is supposed to be googling/reading up/researching that this week. I'll let you know if she finds anything interesting. As Brandon said "if it's something we're getting, we might want to know what it is!" Amen to that! haha


²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Do you have ears? Yeah. Okay. Then you have no excuse to not hear what the Spirit said to the churches. Because it's there. All you have to do is listen.

Oh, hey! Remember your super-secret-spy-mission? Yeah. I almost forgot about it! OOPS. But I didn't, so I guess that's all that matters =P 
 ¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
      These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Okay. So the picture of Jesus that is presented to this church has eyes like blazing fire. We were talking about how this really kind of corresponds to verse 23. His eyes that are like blazing fire search our hearts and minds. I think it's a crazy kind of picture to imagine. But does that make sense? Would you agree with that?



One of the heavily discussed points tonight was Forgiveness vs. Repentance. 
Is God's forgiveness conditional based on repentance? 
What's your opinion? I have a few answers that I'll probably throw into tomorrow's post, or next week's post. (I think I might start a tag that's something along the lines of NIPTO Sundays or something like that so all of these Revelation posts go together for easy referencing.)


That's all for tonight. The talk at Encounter was interesting. We're going through the Summer Lovin' series. It's about sex and relationships and whatnot. Tonight was about homosexuality. There were some interesting points brought up. I'm not going to address anything right now. Because it's late and I want to sleep. But if you're really curious, e-mail me or facebook me, or comment on this and I'll give you a rundown of what went down :)
(Speaking of Summer Lovin', last year we did a "Late Night Encounter" where we watched a movie and discussed the theme of love throughout it. This movie just happened to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Do you know what it is?
The Princess Bride. And I was reminded of it because I have this gorgeous black&white photograph of Westley and Buttercup standing together before Westley leaves to sail the ocean blue. And it's so cute. And it reminds me of love. (Is this a Kissing Book?) And that's all. Well. Not quite. If you've never seen The Princess Bride, GO GET IT. Or ask me to borrow it. We have the VHS and DVD. Soooo you can borrow one or the other :) Okay. Now I'm done with that)

Today, when we drove to church, it was SUPER foggy. Like, when we drove over the bridge in Akron, you couldn't see anything. It was like driving through a white tunnel! It was crazy! I wish I had gotten my camera out to take pictures, but I didn't. Speaking of pictures, I'll try to put the grad party pictures up on facebook tomorrow. I'll link them here. It takes too much time to upload them all on here. But I'll try to write a post about the party. Because it was awesome!



Goodnight lovely blog readers. Let me know if I forgot anything important. I'm tired. It's late. I'm getting kinda bug eyed... HEH. Love you all!

NIPTO, Day 98

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 bold at 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 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.

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!

NIPTO, Day 85

Good morning! It's actually warm out this morning! Hallelujah! (And you know I don't throw those around lightly =P)
I woke up on my own without an alarm this morning and it was glorious! I don't particularly like alarms... Mine is my phone buzzing next to my head... but chances are, if you call me in the middle of the night, I'll answer it... or I'll ignore it because I think it's my alarm! haha

I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight. I sure hope it works. I've been going to bed after 11 for too many nights in a row and it's catching up to me. I don't want to get sick (like H and my dad...) so I've been drinking lots of water and now I'm going to attempt going to bed earlier. And if I go to bed earlier, I'll be able to get up earlier and still get more sleep!

I don't like the first bowl of Raisin Bran... there tends to be a dearth of raisins. (I love the word dearth. It's just fun to say...)


Okay. I'm assuming that this week we're supposed to read Romans 7&8. Just because we read 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 in the weeks leading up to this. So I'm going to take it as a pattern and go with it!



Romans 7:1-6
 ¹Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? ²For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

I imagine two people literally bound together. Like by the wrists. Then I imagine the bond being cut when he dies. It's a vivid picture in my mind. This picture represents us and the law. We are bound to the law while we are alive. But once we die (and not really die (we'll get to that in a second)) we are no longer "bound" to the law. It's kind complicated and I'm not sure that even I get it. But it works for now.


³So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

So it's okay for a woman to get married again after her husband dies. Not okay to get married while he's still alive. But once he dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Interesting.


 ⁴So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

We died to the law when Christ died for us and we believed that Christ died for us. We believe this so that we "might bear fruit to God"/enlarge his kingdom/share our faith with other people. I have something to admit. Sharing my faith with other people scares me. A lot. But it's so important. I'll go into this a little bit more in my next post (which is going to be notes from last night's Encounter62)


⁵For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.

I look at this and go "huh???" because our sinful passions were aroused by the law??? It's so confuzzling. BUT it isn't really that confusing. Thinking about it, if there is no law, there is no sin. But when you put restrictions on something, isn't that the thing you want to do the most?
  
⁶But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

So we've been released from the law. Does that mean we shouldn't obey it at all anymore? Nooo. We should still uphold the law (Romans 3:31- Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold it.) We still uphold the law. But we aren't bound to it anymore. Make sense?


I decided that this post was getting too long to do last night's Encounter62 notes here, but I'm going to post that later today (tonight probably... heh.).
That post might also be published on a website called LiveGrounded.
LiveGrounded is a website to Engage, Equip, Empower, and Encourage teenagers and young adults. A friend in Cleveland started it and asked if anyone would be interested in doing devotionals, and I think that what was said last night at Encounter would be a good Empowerment tool. So you can click over to LiveGrounded and check out the specifics. It's really cool! (If you're interested in doing a devotional (you don't have to do multiples!), let me know and I can connect you with the right person!)

Hope you have a fantastic Monday! (I know I'm looking forward to mine!)