The ridiculous ramblings sayings that are taken out of context from our Johnny Depp movie marathon! [Tuesday night&Wednesday]. Enjoy! (I'm posting this on facebook too... :)
... short people are awkward and weird.
"I speak broken punnish" is even funnier than "I speak punnish"!
Helicopters are aerodynamically weird. They shouldn't be able to fly.
They have pre-dug holes!
Is this an inter-racial relationship because your socks are colored?
I don't care about anything.
We would have a lot more purple and orange in the world. I'll tell you that!
Jesus is a cop-out for anything. Except squirrels.
You think he's not listening until he is.
I just happened. Oh man.
I'd really rather that Jesus was not your feet.
It's like two people with braces kissing. They figure it out.
I don't like Hollywood. No one gets shot!
It would take off and take your pants with it!
Our dad is an estrogen-hardy man.
The brown one was beautiful. Why does he need a grey one?
It's a Twix commercial!
Her dress is like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!
It's Hannah Yackley!
As if there's a thing as lawful seduction?
Nooo! Why?!?! So she's a witch! (I have this written down, but have NO recollection of what it was about...)
She went off with the government censorship guy!
"I think that's proper for 'dead.'" "Oh! So that means you're available?"
You can run and tell that, homeboy!
Oh my gosh they took the back of the house off!
They were dead the whole time?!
He's snoring. *bursts of giggles*
It's like there's a tiny man being strangled in your freezer.
I'm excited to post this morning. I feel awake. It's going to be another gorgeous day! aaaand it's Thursday. Which means I don't have anything that I don't choose to do! (aka I don't have to get up and leave at a certain time. I can finish all of my schoolwork.)
Today is Day 4 of 100 Days of Holiness for me.
... Hm. I don't think I ever fully explained what 100 Days of Holiness is. So here goes nothin: during 100DOH (abbreviation for now) the participant wears a blue cloth around their wrist or on their clothing or on their ankle (like my sister does...). The blue cloth basically represents Jesus. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew people wore a strip of blue cloth on their clothing to remind them of God's commands. I was curious, so I went on BibleGateway.com and looked up "blue cloth" and didn't find anything, then saw "blue cord" in the suggested searches and clicked on that. It took me to Numbers 15:38-3938 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD.
We are wearing these blue cords to remind us that God is with us. We're trying to treat everyone how Jesus would treat them. No hate, no spite, just love.
We're not doing this for ourselves either. This is to change other people's lives. I'm still trying to find the time to write a post about Sunday night's Encounter62. It was all about the 100 Day Challenge.
You can click on the link that's up there. The devotionals are archived so you can read whatever day you're on. I'm on day 4.
Now. On to Romans 8 (LOVE this portion of Romans 8.... just so you know!)
Romans 8:1-17 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death
No condemnation. BOO YAH! When Jesus died, the law of the Spirit of life set us free from the law of sin and death. Nice parallelism/opposites, Paul. But do you notice how there's still a law? hmm... interesting *strokes imaginary beard*
3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Crazy stuff right here. Ready? (I'm not sure I am, but let's go!) God sent Jesus in the likeness of a sinful man (notice that he wasn't sinful... he was just in the likeness) because the law wasn't able to save us because it was weakened by our sinful nature. So God sent Jesus annd thenn... God made sin officially bad. He condemned it. In man. Sooo that we could become fully righteous when we live according to the Spirit. I think that's what it says.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
It's all about where your mind is set. How you live kind of dictates where your mind is set. It also dictates what goes through your mind. We can have our minds set on what the world wants, or we can have our minds set on what God and the Spirit want. Your choice. (I'd advise that you read a little further before you make that choice ;)
6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
Hm. Not sure which one I want now. (completely sarcastic...) Death...or life and peace? I'm going to pick the "life and peace" option.
7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God
These are some strong statements. The sinful mind is hostile. It does not want to submit to God's law nor can it do so. It's not possible. Crazy. When you're controlled by your sinful nature, it's impossible to please God. Why? Because God is perfect but can't tolerate sin.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ
Have you ever heard someone say "We're all children of God"? Yeah. This is where that is revealed as a lie. But first: We aren't controlled by sin. We're controlled by the Spirit of God... if he lives inside you. Here's the kicker: If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Anyone who doesn't have the Spirit in them cannot be called a child of God. It's a little mind blowing...
10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
This is kind of confusing to me. I don't really get the "your body is dead because of sin" part. I get the "your spirit is alive because of righteousness" but I don't get the "dead because of sin" part. Anyone care to take a gander at explaining to me? (Wait... I might get it... keep reading.)
11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Okay. I think I get this. Please correct me if you think I'm wrong. Or know I'm wrong. Here I go: So if the spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, is living in you, then you won't be dead anymore either... You'll receive life through the Spirit... who lives in you. (Abby's Loosely Translated Version (ALTV? haha)) .Begin mini tangent. There is a fantastic song by Everyone's A Poet that is based on this verse. There is also a video of some of the guys in the youth group (at the time) rocking out to the "original" version of the song in a condo in Myrtle Beach while we were at a conference (High School Leadership Training HSLT. We're doing HSLT this summer too, but LT stands for Life Training). (If you go to youtube and search "oversome HSLT" you should find it. Yes. Oversome is right.) The song was written at the same conference the year before on like... Wednesday night? I think we sang it for the first time on Thursday night and my dad went up to Kimball (the worship leader) and asked him why we hadn't sung that song sooner, and Kimball told my dad that the song had been written the night before. My dad had happened to share Romans 8:11 with us the night before during our "Tie down" (discussion time). And that's the verse that the song is based on. So our youth group has a kind of special tie to it. They revamped it and recorded it and it's on their self titled CD. You can listen to the song at http://www.myspace.com/everyonesapoet There are a couple of their other songs on there too. It's a sweet band. Buy their CD. I'm pretty sure there's information on the page. .End tangent.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it
We have an obligation. Powerful word. It's not to our sinful nature though... hm... I wonder what it could be an obligation to...
13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
There's that death and dying thing again. But if by the Spirit you put to death the wrong things that you do you'll live. Because when we're led by the Spirit, we are sons (or daughters) of God.
15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
This is probably one of my favorite verses. We aren't slaves of fear. We were slaves of fear, but not any more. We have received the spirit of "sonship" or adoption. Adoption. God chose to bring us into his family. How amazing is that?!?! And by him (I like to think "to him") we cry DADDY. He's giving us permission to use this name. We have the ability to approach GOD with arms open wide and say "Daddy" and he'll pick you up. I'm looking at notes that I took during an Encounter from last month about this passage and going back to about verse 12 (I have 8:12-17 written down) I have this written: If you put something to death, it doesn't have the option of living itself out in your life. SWEET.
16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
More of my notes from these two verses: God agrees that we are children of God. Not only that, but we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. I'm a daddy's girl through and through. :D Since we are heirs, we inherit God's kingdom. God's kingdom is bigger than any kind of earthly inheritance we can hope for! The last part of verse 17 is kind of interesting: if indeed we share in his suffering in order that we may share in his glory. This is one of those times where God warns you that it isn't going to be easy. You're going to have to share in some of Jesus' suffering a little bit if you're going to be a co-heir. Interesting. Yet again.
That was a lot. If you seriously got this far, congratulations. I guess I should get off to do school... I'll leave you with a video that they showed at LT one year. It's another video about evangelism. It's kind of long, but definitely worth watching! (Kimball in the video is Kimball who wrote Overcome ^ up there)
Well. I'm going to do school. (And technically I can get on facebook again today! (If I want) But i'm not going to. Because I need to start school.)
Have a good day!
Gooood morning! It's bright and early here. I'm tired. But I went to bed before 11 last night! So that's good.
I can't think of anything else to put here. I'm tired. Like I said two lines up. It's still before 7 am... I'm tired. So I guess I'll just do ze NIPTO stuff now... My apologies if this is unintelligible.
Romans 7:14-25 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
We as people aren't spiritual because we sin. The law, however, is spiritual. (And now begins a lot of "do" and "do not do" statements. It gets confusing but bear with me!)
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
I just don't get what I do! Have you ever heard someone say that? yeah. Me neither. For what I want to do (like... exercising?) I do not do. But what I hate (me eating ice cream?) I do. (these are examples. I should exercise more than I do (heh heh...) but I don't hate eating ice cream. I enjoy it very much. Maybe eating ice cream until you feel sick would be better. hah)
16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
If I do what I do not want to do... that is too many do's in the same sentence. That should not be allowed. But it's the Bible, so I guess we can let it go. Serious now: if you do what is wrong, then you agree that the law is good. I'm not sure I quite get that. I think this is what it means: If you do the wrong things, you can see that the law is good. And you want to follow what is good instead of what you don't actually want to do.
17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me
Soooo... he's blaming stuff on sin that lives inside him. Nice, Paul. Very nice. That's all I get out of this. Is that really bad? haha. Nah. That isn't all I get out of that. What I really get out of this is that we have a lot less control over ourselves when we sin. When you live according to God's standards, he makes it easier for us to have self-control. That is one of the fruit of the spirit. (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) I'm noticing that self-control is the last one. Is that because it might be one of the harder ones to achieve? I don't know.
18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Nothing good lives in his sinful nature. That seems kind of obvious, but isn't really. I mean, can anything good come out of sinning? Not in the long run. Lying a little about something might make it better for a while, but in the end, the truth is going to come out and things are going to be worse than if you had told the truth up front. (Just an example :)
19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
He just keeps going on an on. But I guess this is the point he's trying to make: Sometimes, you really don't want to do stuff. But you do it anyways. Sometimes people sin habitually and want to quit, but it's kind of like smoking or drugs or something like that. Yes. I'm comparing sinning to drugs. It's something that can give certain people great pleasure. But once you feel like it's something you don't want to do anymore, it's a prison. Thankfully, Jesus came for us. He died for us so that we can be released from the prison that is sin. We don't have to follow the Law to a T to get to heaven. All we have to do is believe that Jesus came to earth as a man. That he died on the cross. That he was dead for three days and rose again. How crazy is that?!? But he did it for us. He did it for you and he did it for me. If you were the only person on earth who would've sinned, he would have died solely for you. It's crazy, ridiculous, unashamed, unrestrained love. That's what God is. He is love. (That was a little bit of a tangent! But it was a good tangent.)
20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
See? It's all sin's fault. When we get to that point that we don't want to sin, the spirit of sin is the thing that is really holding us back. I hope this isn't super confusing. I feel like it kind of is. But I hope it isn't.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
This is just a general principle. When we're doing good, evil is right beside us waiting to pounce on any kind of weakness that we face. I know at Urban Vision when I'm volunteering, it can sometimes be hard to be patient all the time with the kids. They're tired. They've had a long day at school and now they're going somewhere else to do more school type stuff. I don't blame them for not wanting to do some of the stuff. But when you're the one in charge of the math game or a reading game, you just want them to sit down and listen. And it's hard to be patient. And I see that as a kind of evil. You want to snap at the kids. You don't want to have to be kind all the time. But it's what Jesus would do. And you have to remember that.
22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members
Really, we love God's law. It's like in books about raising kids: They secretly like having boundaries. It makes them feel safe. We have boundaries. It's good stuff. BUT... (there's that awful word...) sin isn't going to stand for us feeling safe. It's trying to keep us prisoner (I used that word earlier. I totally didn't realize that it was used down here. BOO YAH for me. =P). Sin isn't just trying to keep us prisoner of our bodies, sin is trying to keep our minds prisoner. That is a powerful thing. This made me think of one of the Who I Am In Christ statements: I am a believer, and the light of the Gospel shines in my mind (2 Corinthians 4:4) Cool cool!
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Eek. That seems really sad. Why is Paul so down? Well, I think it's because he's been writing about all this sin stuff. Look at the next verse!
25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Ahhhhh something about GOD and JESUS. Hallelujah. haha. Jesus will rescue you. No matter how dire your circumstances. And that is sweeet. We are slaves to God's law in our minds but our sinful nature is a slave to the law of sin. Conflict. There's always conflict!
Okay. I think that's all for NIPTO today.
I think that today is going to be the hardest day of my facebook fast. Because I can get back on tomorrow. And I got a tiny little taste yesterday because there were two birthdays that I didn't want to miss, so I got on facebook for less than 5 minutes (with supervision from my sister. She will tell you that I was like "oh... look at what so and so just posted! NOT GOOD. haha)
But this has been a good break for me. It's nice to realize that Facebook is not a necessity, although it is nice to know what other people are doing.
Today is Day 3 of 100 Days of Holiness. Thereare mini devotionals that go with every day. I'll link them daily and tell you if anything noteworthy happens! I have dance tonight. Dance is my biggest opportunity. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!
A funny video that deals with a common fear: evangelism.
Well. I think Imma "peace out" and eat breakfast and start school and such. I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday! (And yes, it took me over an hour to write this post. I'm not super productive in the mornings!)
Adios!
Wow. I just realized how much facebook has become a habit. It's my homepage when I open my web browser. I was planning on going straight to blogger so I could get started. When facebook came up, I just started typing in my e-mail and password... then I stopped mid password because I realized that that was not where I wanted to go.
I'm considering doing a week long facebook fast. And twitter. Those are the things that eat up little chunks of time during my day. It's annoying. I think I'm going to start today. After I'm done with this post, I'll put something up letting people I won't be around and that they should e-mail me/comment on my blog if they need to get ahold of me. Because they're eating my life. And it needs to stop.
That just turned from a "I might do this" into a "I'm going to do this" in about 5 minutes. Crazy. Thinking about this a little bit more, this is the thought that comes into my mind: "This is scary." But I'm still going to do it.
BAHAHAHA. I just read the beginning of this paragraph again. "I'm considering... I think I'm going to start today." WOW. Sorry. Just found that funny and thought I'd share it with you... =P
Okay. Onto Romans.
Romans 5:18-21 18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
Adam and Eve ruined it for all of us. But Jesus saved all of us. Balances out quite nicely, don't you think?
19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Adam sinned. He was disobedient. (The word disobedient makes me think of a bad dog. hah) But Jesus was the obedient one. In the garden before he was crucified, he asked God if he could get out of it. God said, "No." So Jesus was obedient and went and was crucified. By his obedience, we are made righteous.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
That's a little ridiculous. I mean, "the law was added so that the trespass (or sin) might increase." HUH? God added the law so we would sin MORE?!?! That's messed up, right? But not really. Because when we sin more, God's goodness is able to shine through even more. I'm not saying you should go out and sin so that God can be seen when you "renounce your ways" but that we should try to live holy lives. Jon Acuff, the author of Stuff Christians Like and the main author of the website by the same name wrote this post yesterday for "Serious Wednesday" I'm just going to link it, but it's really good. One of the "things Christians like" is Fearing we'll out sin grace. So click here if you want to go read that. It's good. I think it is relevant to what I'm saying. (Stuff Christians Like is a hilarious website. If you've been a Christian for a long time, you'll find it funny, and sometimes sadly, true.)
21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So grace is increased so that grace will reign through righteousness. Just like sin reigned in death. Notice the past tense. (LOVE IT!) Grace and righteousness aren't really things we associate with someone who is in power. Unfortunately. But God's the one who's really in control... so these are things we should apply to leaders today. Even if we don't see it immediately.
Hmmm... I'm trying to think of a good YouTube video for y'all today. Got it. I watched this while my sister was home last time. I found it amusing. Be A Man (from Mulan) in German. German is a funny language =P Enjoy!
