Provision

Reading through the Old Testament and the New Testament simultaneously is awesome because you get to see interesting thematic parallels that affirm the reality of God's spiritual truths.

For example:

In Exodus, we read how God led the Israelites on a desert path towards the promised land - this path was the long way, as Scripture says that they could have cut through the Philistine country, a path that was shorter (Ex. 13:17). Chapter 16, specifically, talks about how in their hunger and discomfort, Israel grumbles against God, and God - hearing their distress, supernaturally provides an abundance of quail and wafer-like-bread (manna) for the duration of the 40 years that it took for the entire community to read the border of Canaan. This passage reveals how thorough His provision is when He deliberately leads His people into circumstances that are difficult and wearisome (is "wearisome" even a word?). Essentially, if He is leading, He will provide.

The truth of God's compassionate and caring nature is more fully revealed to us through Jesus Christ. In Matthew 14:13-21, we read how Jesus longs to provide for his followers both spiritually and practically. The large group that had gathered to see and hear him remained far from home for the majority of the day, longing to hear him preach, but having nothing to eat. Instead of sending the multitude away, he miraculously tranforms 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish into a portion sufficient to satisfy over 5ooo people. He provided radically, wonderfully, and completely for those who had literally followed him. Similarly to the Israelites in the Desert of Sin, the crowd must have learned in a radical way that if they follow him, they will be provided for.

It's cool how God deeply longs to, and does provide for His people in ways that are so exceptional and thorough, when we choose to follow Him closely and authentically.

The nose ring stays. :)

Happy Reading Week!

WOW - so I'm definately exhausted, but genuinely happy. Out of the 17 days of February that I've experienced thus far, I've worked 11 of them and went up north to a crazy (but awesome) retreat with 44 screaming highschool students for 3 of them. This leaves an additional 3 days unaccounted for. Let's see if I can remember what I did during those 3 days:

Friday, February 3: went to Jack Astor's with Deej, Cindy, the Fox, and Pri, then spent the night with the Fox and Pri. We had some awesome chats.

Friday, February 10: did laundry and packed for Blizzard (the crazy, but awesome retreat), and went to Swiss Chalet with Andrew to finish planning for the purity talk that we did on Wednesday evening. Then, went to Blizzard.

Monday, February 13: worked on Bible study for this Sunday, went to weekly meeting to see/hear my beautiful Pri share about evangelism (I love how you love to share your faith, Pri!), and then went out with Caitlin and Brianne - two of my closest friends from the social work program at Ryerson. We ate some good food at Fran's: a restaurant that I really need to be going to more often with a couple of girls that I really need to be seeing more often.

This morning, I could not drag my butt out of bed. Normally, I'll get up at 9:00 and take all the time I need to get ready for the day (practically and spiritually), and be on the bus by 11:15. Today, however, I woke-up at 11:oo! And even then, it was totally one of those experiences where you wake up, and feel like you way a tonne, and even the thought of moving your body is painful. I'm so not a morning person.

So anyways, I get a ride to work (thanks Mom!), and the exhaustion just didn't go away. I was so tired and slow all day. When I was cut from lunch, I found someone to take my evening shift - and WENT HOME (thanks again Mom!). Best feeling EVER. Yes, I need the moola, but I definately need the rest a whole lot more!

So now that I truly have NOTHING time - as in, NOTHING planned, and no where to go, and no car to do that with ... I'm feeling kinda lost! My crazy schedule has kept me going and going and going to the point that even when I'm exhausted, I still "want" to keep going!

This is how I plan (I can't get away from myself) on using tonight's down time:

• Clean my room. It's impossible for me to actually relax in my room if it's messy.
• Paint my finger and toe-nails. I love doing this, but haven't had the time as of late.
• Do the whole deep-clean/exfoliate/mask thing to my face (gotta get rid of any last trace of chicken grease).
• Soak in the tub for at least half a day.
• Curl up in the biggest pair of track-pants and biggest sweater EVER, and biggest pair of socks and read and listen to music and fall asleep.

Yes, this sounds about right. Just what the doctor ordered. Ok - I'm going to get started!

Love you all!

*twinkle*

I love Valentine's Day.

Personally, I am totally captured by the idea of committing an entire day to, well, love! What is so bad about this? Even though I'm single, I fail to understand why people are so disgusted with the idea of having a legitimate excuse to spend some intentional "romantic" time with their special someone! It could be that I just love flowers, and chocolate, and having basically any reason to go out for dinner, but I just cannot comprehend why people are so grossed out by Valentine's Day.

Today at work, I had the opportunity to observe about a billion different couples - being there was SO lovely: couples young and old were enjoying each other's company - every girl I saw in the restaurant was smiling, and many were holding these awesome bouquets of flowers. One of the girls who I work with during the week - her boyfriend came in just to give her a bouquet of red and blue roses. What woman wouldn't like that? My other friend's mom made a whole bunch of cupcakes for the staff, simply because it was Valentine's Day!

In light of the fact that Valentine's Day is awesome, I have decided to share my top-5 very favourite Valentine-ish (or love) songs:

• More Than Words - Extreme
• Running - No Doubt
• I'll Be - Edwin McCain
• That's So You - The Rocket Summer
• I'll Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler (yeah - that's right!)

I hope that everyone has a most wonderful and happy Valentine's Day!

xo

Hmmm...

Entertaining the thought of losing the nose-ring.

Any thoughts?

Christianity 101

A Biblically based summation of the love of God through Jesus Christ from George Barna's Think Like Jesus:

• God's nature is so glorious that a group of his own angels, led by a renegade (the spiritual adversary we know as Satan) rebelled against God, seeking to overthrow His sovereignty. Satan's goal was - and is - to rule the universe, believing himself to be better suited for the job than its Creator.

• Backed by one-third of Heaven's angels, Satan battled God and His loyal angels - and lost. God cast Satan an all the rebel angels out of His presence. Nevertheless, God continues to rule over them even in their banishment.

• As a created being who must have God's permission to tempt people, Satan cannot cause us to sin, as we free choose to do so . The time-worn excuse - "the devil made me do it" - is theologically incorrect. The devil may persuade you to reject God's ways, but he cannot force you or make you do anything other than what you choose to do.

• While Satan gets credit for bringing us to the point of decision, the choice of doing evil is ultimately ours. We cannot blame circumstances, other people, or the spiritual world for our choices; we must own them.

• No human being has ever been able to resist sin for the duration of his or her life; every person sins against God. Regardless of the motivation leading to sin, disobedience drives a wedge between our holy and loving God and us, fracturing the relationship He seeks to have with us and that we desparately need in order to experience the fullness and joy in life.

• Too often we minize the impact of sin, believing that any given sinful act is just another insignificant and forgettable event in a life filled with thousands and thousands of choices. But our determination to trivialize sin does not mean that it is unimportant. God takes every sin seriously because it indicates the sincerity of our committment to Him.

• Sin literally destroys our relationship with God; each sin is an offense against Him, even if it is unintentional. As a result, without some type of radical mechanism of reconciliation, it is impossible for us to gain God's unmitigated favour and receive His eternal favour and blessings.

• Recognizing how impossible it is for us to remain free from sin, but unable to ignore sin, God determined that the only way for Him to enjoy an unbroken relationship with us would be through the provision of a permanent and encompassing sacrifice for our sins.

• The incredible act of love by God - sending His perfect Son to earth to take full responsibility for our sins, and to pay the price for our past, present, and future bad choices - is the ultimate example of God's grace. It is that grace alone that enables us to have the assurance that our soul will live forever with God. Without the vicarious death the Jesus on our behalf we would not have any hope of eternal reconciliation with God because we are too immersed in sin.

• When Jesus died on the cross, He did more than just expire with our sins in tow; He conquered both death and the necessity of eternal condemnation of all people through His ressurection. His return to Heaven provides us with an advocate before the eternal Judge as well as the means to become a new form of humanity through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us once we confess our sins and turn our life over to Jesus.

• Accepting God's grace (through Jesus Christ) is not merely "eternal fire insurance" - a kind of supernatural death benefit that kicks in after our funeral. Salvation introduces radical changes into our earthly experience as well. The Holy Spirit of God is sent to take up residence within us, providing power, guidance, and security that would otherwise be unavailable.

Why God's Love is So Painfully Awesome:

• He sent His own Son to die a painful and unjust death on behalf of people who did not deserve another chance, much less a free ride for eternity.

• He is so totally in love with us, and so desirous of an intense relationship with us, that He analyzed all of our dysfunctions and developed a relatively painless means our of our own frailties.

• He sees the good in the believer that he or she cannot see in him or herself.

• He fought to the finish to defend us from an adversary who merciliess exploits our weaknesses.

• He made this abudant love and care available to everyone, and is waiting for those who are not yet interested in the hope that they might have a change of heart and embrace the One who embraced Him first.

Teefed from Michelle's LiveJournal

Okay: leave one memory of you and me together as a comment on my page. It doesn't matter if I know you a little or a lot, anything you remember! Next, re-post this bulletin, and see how many people leave a memory about you.