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charissima
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Name: Ellen
Gender: Female
Interests: Drawing, Walking, Drama, Finishing collage with an 'A' average, Playing cards, Graphic design, Thinking.
Expertise: See above with the omission of grades and thinking.
Occupation: Student
Industry: None at the moment
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
6/2/2005
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| An appropriate alteration to that old phrase "life goes on." For in my experience anyway, life is not content merely to progress. No, life is like a raging rhinoceros, if you do not get out of the way you will be trampled. Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to get away from this rhinoceros. The good news is that he is quite impartial. He steps on everyone equally, so you'll have lots of company when you're squashed
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| One little rebuke captures and rebukes all anxieties and points to the true treasure. Luke 10:41&42 "But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” It seems like such a simple command. Sit at the feet of Christ, fix your eyes upon Him through His Word and do not be anxious. Trust Him. In a choice between the confusions, distresses, and heartaches of trying to manage everything on our own. And entrusting all to Christ, laboring as to Him, and trusting His plan when we do not "complete" the tasks. One would think that we would always take the peaceful road of Trust.
Perhaps this is why Jesus compared us to sheep so often. not mincing matters, Sheep are dumb. They will always find new ways to be dumb while never learning or mending their old ways of being dumb. But one thing is certain, the sheep thinks it knows best. It has only to follow the guidance of the shepherd and it will be safe. But sometimes the sheep does not follow. Sometimes it wanders away into danger. But most often, the sheep follows the flock, not the shepherd.
Are not we like this! Don't we do this all the time! We do the good that we know our Good Shepherd asks, not because HE asks and we love to do as he asks. But because that is what the rest of the flock does and we wish to be acceptable to the flock not the Shepherd.
But even in the flock, a sheep can loose sight of the Shepherd. What Christ asks is that we follow Him, our good shepherd, not out own ways or the flock around us. But rather fix our eyes upon our leader and settle for no less that headlong pursuit of the Shepherd.
Here is where the peace lies, for when are souls are full of the Savior we have no room for the anxieties and worries of this world.
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| Is a wonderful gift from God. But there are times when she can be quite annoying. Usually these times are the time when she has either revealed the heights of my pride or attempted to correct the depths of my ignorance. I had one of the experiences where she efficiently did both at once a day or so ago.
The scene was thus, my brother and I had done a shopping errand for my mother and we were in line behind a very slow group. To burn some time, I picked up a Bible crossword puzzle book. The page I looked at was a puzzle of names. I recognized all the names except Oholiab. My Brother and I spent the rest of the shopping trip discussing who Oholiab might be.
When I got home I looked up Oholiab in the ESV online Bible and discovered that Oholiab was one of the men appointed By God to work on the tabernacle and the Holy articles within the Holy of Holies.
Exodus 38:23 "and with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen." So I was feeling very smug, I'd found out who Oholiab was with only two minutes of searching. Later in the day I spoke with my Mother about this crossword puzzle. But I didn't get any farther than presenting my initial ignorance of Oholiab's part in the Bible. My mother heard the name and at once corrected my pronunciation, informed me that Oholiab was an artisan from the tribe of Dan who'd worked on the tabernacle. I was working very hard not to show my awe of her memory or my irritation at having my cleverness thus shown up. I was also trying not to giggle as the memory of why I hated playing Bible Trivia with my mother was brought forcibly back to my mind. Moral of this tale, keep your pride in check. No matter how far you think you've come there is always farther to go. Or to quote Proverbs 16:18 " Pride goes before destruction, and a h aughty spirit before a f all." So, Thanks Mom for bringing destruction to that small display of pride and haurter. I guess I don't know my Bible as well as I could....yet | | |
| The hardest desires to battle are the desires for good things that have too much weight in our hearts. One common one for young women is the desire for marriage. This is an excellent desire, for the woman is desiring the work for which she was created, see Adam and Eve. But even a good desire can become sinful. The way this normally happen is for the Christian to desire the good gift more than they desire the Giver of all good. Desiring the Created more than the Creator. Valuing the things that point to God more than God Himself.
I've recently been made aware that this is what I'd done, with this most common of desires for young women. My desire had led me to believe, in a part of my heart, that God was not good for He was withholding this good thing from me. This is how slippery sin is. We desire a good thing, God who sees what is best says no or not yet, we conclude that God either does not know what He is doing (not good wisdom) or does not want the best for me (not good in heart).
The truth is that God is perfect in Wisdom and perfect in Heart (kindness, goodness, lovingness, etc.). But in our sin we see ourselves as justified in our complaints and, therefore, God must be wrong somehow.
So what does one do, when confronted with misplaced desires. Especially when the desires run deeply into your emotions, which cannot be changed quickly.
The answer is to run back to God. To forsake the worthless idols(desires that have too great a hold in your heart) and to cling the the Giver who became the greatest Gift (for relationship with God is the Greatest Gift). When your heart is full of Him you will have no place for lesser things. The desire for the other gifts may remain, but they will be subject to the desire for the Greatest Gift.
Jonah 2:8-9
"Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
This is the truth and this is the hope. God is the source of steadfast love and He will bring Salvation. Truly it is no sacrifice to give up all for Him. For all other idols are in vain and will not give the love or salvation we believe they promise. Therefore, with a voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice my idols to God who is my steadfast love and my mighty Savior who, even in this, stands ready to save me from my sins.
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| One of my pastors sent out an e-mail with a short story presenting the hopelessness of life without Christ. Basically, one can either be legalistic and hope you're good enough or give up and do whatever you want. It was quite interesting to me, because I was reminded of the way I'd one solved this equation.
The answer I'd come to was kill yourself and limit the damage done. This sprang from an understanding that no matter how hard I tried I would never be good enough and a desire not to pay for all the sins that would follow from do whatever you want. In the end all three paths reach the same place, Hell, but the time spent before the Judge would vary depending upon the amount of sin. I'd decided that the best course of action was to limit that time.
When I think back it is truly amazing to me the lengths that people will go to not to submit to God. In the end I did choose to submit, because I realized that there are only two Kings, and I was never going to be one of them. The King of Glory and the king of darkness. The King of Glory has already triumphed over the king of darkness, and having a deep hatred of losing I chose the King of Glory.
What is astounding in this, is that as sinful as my motivations at that time were the King of Glory accepted me. Proving once and for all to me, that He is no tyrant who waits only to squash offenders. But rather a loving Father who is not willing that any should perish. He is the King of Glory and the King of Grace.
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