Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to Everyone! :)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

My Wedding Invitation...

...Just kidding! It's not mine, though I wouldn't have put it past my ex-father-in-law. Thanks to my e-friend Julie, I got a good laugh, and just had to share it! If you're having trouble reading the small print, click on the wedding invitation.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

A John the Baptist kind of Love

I remember as a young teenager sitting in the adult service at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, OK, and hearing Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty tell sort of a parable that to this day makes the Evangelical side of me want to hop in my car, drive to the nearest public location with a mega phone, and quote John 3:16 or something. Anyways... here's the just of what he said:
Say you're driving down the road one night and it's so dark the only light shinning are the headlights from your car. As your lights shine ahead, you notice a bridge crossing sign off to your right. You slow up a bit, just out of a feeling that maybe you should, and soon you begin crossing the bridge. The lake below is pretty far down and you realize how high up you are! It's an old bridge but looks pretty solid and plenty wide. All of the sudden you slam on the brakes as you see ahead that the bridge is broken in half and there's nothing to stop you from going clear off the edge, which you almost do. After coming to a complete halt , you get out and see that you were just a foot away from death! Wheew! Back in the car now, you put yourself in reverse and get off the bridge as fast as possible. Now that you're going the other direction, you're feeling pretty good- so thankful to be alive, you say a prayer to God and try to relax. Soon you see a faint light up ahead coming towards you, It's another car- and it's headed in the wrong direction- straight towards that bridge! You have options now... Let them figure it out for themselves, ignore the other car- not your problem. Or, you could stop and try to block the road, flag them down, do anything, do whatever it takes even, to get their attention and tell them they're going the wrong way and headed for destruction.
The follow up of the story is that we all have to acknowledge that the good news is so good because it saves us from the inevitable spiritual death and separation from God that those who don't have Him will experience if they don't turn the other way. It is out of great love that John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." When we tell non believers that we are all deserving of death and Jesus came so we can have life, but we must choose that Life- that is Loving! Those who don't have the Lord will experience the great punishment - something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy if I had one.
On the flip side... I want to share an experience with you that I had in D.C. about 6 years ago. I was with Sam walking around the Washington Monument, when we heard a man yelling at people from a homemade pulpit, Bible in hand, shouting, "God hates you evil sinners, and you're all going to Hell if you don't repent!" He was pointing to random people waiting to go up the monument and yelling at them, calling them whores and thieves, snakes, foul smelling waste, and all kinds of wicked obscenities." With my face beat red, I pre-apologised to Sam for the embarrassment I was about to cause him. I made my way up to the pulpit and asked the man if I could speak with him privately. A group from his team began to move in closer to see if I had come forward to give my life to Christ... um, no. When the preacher gave me his ear, I told him - as close to his microphone as I could manage, that God loves these people! He hates sin but loves the sinner, I went on to tell him that he should not call people names, knowing nothing about them or their lives. Then I turned to the crowd and shouted, "Jesus loves you and He died to take away your sin so you can have life!" Immediately this man put the microphone to his mouth, got right up in my face and said,
"You evil daughter of Jezebel, you dirty woman who caused Adam to sin, you will burn in hell with the rest of those who belong to Satan." (No, I am not kidding) Then I was grabbed by several men and brought away from the crowd so that demons could be driven out of me. ... Finally, getting a little worried, Sam came over to see if I was OK, and they pulled him off to the side to talk to him as well. When we were able to walk away I yelled once more, "Jesus LOVES you!" as loud as I possibly could. I'll never forget that day. Part of me was glad that someone would have the guts to remind people that there's a hell, but I was outraged that my Jesus was being portrayed as a hater of sinners! Quite the opposite... or He wouldn't have died so painfully on our behalf.
How we tell others the good news is important, but pretty simple. If we know and say the words of Jesus- we can not go wrong. May we not misinterpret His life, His truth, His salvation, or His love! How can we as sinners saved by grace misinterpret true love once we've experienced it? We must keep returning our eyes to the word of God and be faithful to proclaim it with courage like John the Baptist, knowing and showing that, "It is the LOVE of God that draws man to repentance."

Friday, December 19, 2008

The beauty of being single when you belong to Christ...

Here's what John Piper had to say about being (staying) single. For obvious reason, this was interesting and valuable to me.

-The family of God grows not by propagation through sexual intercourse, but by regeneration through faith in Christ;
-Relationships in Christ are more permanent, and more precious, than relationships in families (and, of course, it is wonderful when relationships in families are also relationships in Christ; but we know that is often not the case); -Marriage is temporary, and finally gives way to the relationship to which it was pointing all along: Christ and the church—the way a picture is no longer needed when you see face to face;
-Faithfulness to Christ defines the value of life; all other relationships get their final significance from this. No family relationship is ultimate; relationship to Christ is.

Take heed here lest you minimize what I am saying and do not hear how radical it really is. I am not sentimentalizing singleness to make the unmarried feel good. I am declaring the temporary and secondary nature of marriage and family over against the eternal and primary nature of the church. Marriage and family are temporary for this age; the church is forever. I am declaring the radical biblical truth that being in a human family is no sign of eternal blessing, but being in God’s family means being eternally blessed. Relationships based on family are temporary. Relationships based on union with Christ are eternal. Marriage is a temporary institution, but what it stands for lasts forever. “In the resurrection,” Jesus said, “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (
Matthew 22:30).
And when his own mother and brothers asked to see him, Jesus said, “‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’” (
Matthew 12:48-49). Jesus is turning everything around. Yes, he loved his mother and his brothers. But those are all natural and temporary relationships. He did not come into the world to focus on that. He came into the world to call out a people for his name from all the families into a new family where single people in Christ are full-fledged family members on a par with all others, bearing fruit for God and becoming mothers and fathers of the eternal kind.
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” a woman cried out to Jesus. And he turned and said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (
Luke 11:27). The mother of God is the obedient Christian—married or single! Take a deep breath and reorder your world.
“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,” Jesus said, “who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (
Mark 10:29-30). Single person, married person, do you want children, mothers, brothers, sisters, lands? Renounce the primacy of your natural relationships and follow Jesus into the fellowship of the people of God.

What shall we say then in view this great biblical vision of the secondary and temporary nature of marriage and procreation? We will say what Jesus and Paul said. Jesus said in Matthew 19:12, “There are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” We need not take this (“made themselves eunuchs”) to mean any kind of physical sterilization any more than we take Jesus’ words “tear out your right eye” to mean physically blinding ourselves. But it does mean that Jesus approves that some of his followers renounce marriage and sexual activity for the sake of serving Christ’s kingdom. “Let him who is able to receive this receive it.”
That is what Paul chose for himself and what he encouraged others to consider in 1 Corinthians 7. “To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. . . . I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife . . . . I say this . . . to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:8, 32-33, 35). In other words, some are called to be “eunuchs” for the kingdom of God. Paul speaks about each having his own gift: “one of one kind, one of another” (1 Corinthians 7:7). In other words, “Let him who is able to receive this receive it.”
God promises those of you who remain single in Christ blessings that are better than the blessings of marriage and children.
If someone asks, wouldn’t it be better to have both? The blessings of marriage and the blessings of heaven? There are two answers to that question. One is that you will find out someday, and better to learn it now, that the blessings of being with Christ in heaven, are so far superior to the blessings of being married and raising children and that asking this question will be like asking: Wouldn’t it be better to have the ocean and the thimble full? And the second answer is that marriage and singleness both present us with unique trials and unique opportunities for our sanctification. There will be unique rewards for each, and which is greater will not depend on whether you were married or single, but on how you responded to each.
So I say it again to all singles in Christ: God promises you blessings in the age to come that are better than the blessings of marriage and children.
And with this promise there comes a unique calling and a unique responsibility. It is not a calling to extend irresponsible adolescence into your thirties. It is a calling to do what only single men and women in Christ can do in this world, namely, to display by the Christ-exalting devotion of your singleness the truths about Christ and his kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness than through marriage. As long as you are single, this is your calling: to so live for Christ as to make it clearer to the world and to the church
That the family of God grows not by propagation through sexual intercourse, but by regeneration through faith in Christ;
That relationships in Christ are more permanent, and more precious, than relationships in families;
That marriage is temporary, and finally gives way to the relationship to which it was pointing all along: Christ and the church—the way a picture is no longer needed when you see face to face;
And that faithfulness to Christ defines the value of life; all other relationships get their final significance from this. No family relationship is ultimate; relationship to Christ is.
To him be glory in the Christ-exalting drama of marriage and the Christ-exalting drama of the single life. Amen

Sunday, December 14, 2008

What a good verse!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Nothing is certain, nothing is stable, nothing is solid, nothing secure, nothing balanced, nothing wise or good apart from the Lord. No thought in my brain, nor plan nor dream, no direction is clear or hopeful, apart from the Lord.

My prayer tonight:

Lord, we know nothing is good apart from you, we can make nothing good of our lives on our own. We need your help to be good children, good men and women, good moms and dads, good neighbors, good workers, good leaders, good and faithful servants. Jesus, help us to make decisions that honor You, let our lives reflect Yours as much as possible. We know we are weak and stupid; sheep who need a shepherd. Guide us and prompt us in Your ways and let our lives give out the very same pure love that You've given us.

Amen

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Comment problem fixed...kinda sorta :)

For those of you who have not been able to post your comments before now, I think I have figured out the problem. If you don't have a URL, etc. you can post under Anonymous and then before you post hit the "preview" button. Once you've previewed your comment, hit post and it works. Remember you can still tell me who you are in your comment and then post under Anonymous if you don't fit the other categories. Sorry for any inconvenience... still learning how to use Blogger. :)

Friday, December 5, 2008

Ingida Asfaw - Volvo for life Awards Documentary

"Give honor where honor is due." Dr. Asfaw, we greatly respect and value the work you've done to help the helpless. Praise God for men like you!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Blog Comment Problems

Hello everybody... I have received several emails this month saying that some of you tried to post a comment and could not post one for some reason or another. If you are someone who has been able to post and are familiar with problems of this sort.. could you leave a comment below on what might be the problem and how I go about fixing it? I have tried different things and still can not figure out why some people can post and some people can not. Anyway, any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks. Also, feel free to email me if you want at sarahchristoph81@gmail.com Thanks!