Giant Post o’ Randomness

Firstly, here’s a website: Pendragon: Sword of His Father.

Second, I need to stop injuring myself :p I’ve acquired various cuts over the past few days (and don’t remember how I got any. I think one was from something that had to do with sewing) and I burnt my arm on the iron.

Third, is this not the saddest picture you have ever seen?

Okay, maybe not /the/ saddest, but it makes me feel pretty bad. I mean, if a kitten came up to me like that and I asked if I eated its cookie, I might cry.

On a more serious note…I will hopefully be graduating in the spring (but the amount of school I have to get done to accomplish that is overwhelming, so I might save myself some stress and go through the summer). So I need to figure out what God wants me to do. I personally want to stay home and read and write and sew costumes, but I kinda figure He has something else in mind that will get me out of my rut. I also need to drive a lot more (like, 27 hours) so I can get my license so I can get a job and go to college or whatever. And yikes, I just used “like” and “whatever” in the same sentence. I must need to get more sleep or something.

I’m reading “How Sleep the Brave” by James H. Hunter. It’s very interesting so far. There are some annoying parts, such as: The breakage of writing rules has bothered me some (back story, passive voice, and the like). The omniscient point of view is annoying at times because the author doesn’t stay in the main character’s head and let you know what he’s thinking and I’d like to. But the story is engrossing enough to get over those things. The skipping of several years that sounded interesting bothered me even more, but it turned out well enough that I quickly got over that too. The author is good at securing your sympathy for the characters and building suspense.

I babysit tonight, as usual. It’s my weekly, two-hour character-building session. Most of the children are generally well-behaved, but there are three boys…well, two are brothers. They tend to be wild and disrespectful. The third boy is pretty good when the other two aren’t there, but when they are there, he’s worse than both of them and stirs them up so /they’re/ worse, too.

God is doing some things in my youth group that make me very happy. We (the youth group in general) used to be more involved in each others’ lives and we’d get together and hang out and talk about what God was giving us (which more often than not turned out to be the exact same thing everyone else was getting from God, down to the very same scriptures). Granted, I never talked much and still don’t, but just hanging out with them was great. Then those who were the unspoken leaders started college and other jobs, and while others stepped in to an extent to take those roles, we haven’t been as close since. My social life pretty much died and I felt guilty for wanting to just talk (or in my case listen) and hang out more than we did at the youth meetings, selfish for wanting to be known. But God is reminding use of the importance of being involved in each others’ lives, of getting to know each other and be unified with each other as well as with Him. I’ve wanted this for a long time.

There have also been some changes at Clean Place lately geared toward bringing us closer together, so that’s neat that God is doing the similar things in both of my circles of friends.

And now I have to end this so I can eat dinner and go build character for two hours kid-watching. ;p

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

Self

Our country is saturated with it. “You need to do this for yourself!” “Take time for you!” “Rely on yourself!” “Think about you!”

There is an element of truth in it – we do need to take care of ourselves. Our bodies are God’s temple. But this is what God says about selfishness.

2 Timothy 3:
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Romans 15:

1We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” 4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Philippians 2:

3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing,  taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

2 Corinthians 5:

15And he [Christ] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

1 Corinthians 10:

24Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

John 12:

25The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

And I’ll just post this whole chapter (emphasis on verse 5 mine).

1 Corinthians 13:

1If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Have an amazing rest of your life!

- WM

P. S. I’ve been listening to Michael Card’s CD “Starkindler” lately. It’s very good. If you like meaningful Celtic music, I recommend it.

A Verse

I put this up for myself as much as anyone else. I’ve recently been in a painful situation and must remind myself of this.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” – Luke 6:36-37

Have an amazing rest of your life.

- WM

Magic

I don’t remember if I’ve blogged on the subject or not. In any case, I am now. ;p

I’ll start with scripture and end with my point.

“‘Do not practice divination or sorcery.” – Leviticus 19:26

“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.  Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,  or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.” – Deuteronomy 18:9-11

“Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” – Acts 19:18-20

“The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” – Revelation 9:20-21

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” – Revelation 21:8

“Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” – Revelation 22:15

The Bible clearly condemns magic. It’s listed as a sin among sexual immorality, murder, idolotry…you read the verses. And yet, so many books (and movies, TV shows, etc.), including ones by Christian authors, contain “good guys” who have magic powers. You wouldn’t portray sexual immorality as a good thing, so why would you portray magic as favorable, cool, or desirable?

Out of the Ordinary Post

To blog about something more worthwhile -

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Not a way, a truth, or a life. The only one. No one comes to the Father except by Him. (John 14:6) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

From that time Jesus began to preach, crying out, Repent ( change your mind for the better, heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 4:17)

Jesus, the son of God who is God, is coming back. We need to prepare our hearts for His return. All we have to do is repent of our sins, ask Jesus to live in our hearts, and surrender our lives to Him. Ask Him for the Holy Spirit to fill you. God’s love for us is incredible. He loves us more than anyone on earth ever could. He wants you to come to Him. He wanted you to return His love, and save you from eternal death.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 34-40)

To love God will all that we are means we must surrender everything – our plans, our desires, our schedules, our entertainment. We must surrender it to His will and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it can be difficult and painful, but the reward is beyond our imaginations. Eternal life, and the fulfillment of God’s plans for us, which are much, much, much better than anything we could imagine for ourselves. We must give up everything on earth and suffer for a little while to save our spirits from eternal death and suffering. Giving it all up is the only way to find true joy and peace that will carry us through every circumstance.

“Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

Luke 6:17-46

 17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

 20Looking at his disciples, he said:
   ”Blessed are you who are poor,
      for yours is the kingdom of God.
 21Blessed are you who hunger now,
      for you will be satisfied.
   Blessed are you who weep now,
      for you will laugh.
 22Blessed are you when men hate you,
      when they exclude you and insult you
      and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

 23“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
 24“But woe to you who are rich,
      for you have already received your comfort.
 25Woe to you who are well fed now,
      for you will go hungry.
   Woe to you who laugh now,
      for you will mourn and weep.
 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
      for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

 27“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.

 32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

 37“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

 39He also told them this parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

 41“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

 43“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

 46“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Oh, and I recommend the book “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola and Georgia Barna.