I can complain because every rosebush has its thorns, or I can rejoice because every thorn bush has its roses. It’s all in how you look at it.

Kind of like the silver lining thing. Heh.

Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

(: Soar like eagles..

We’ve all wondered what it would be like to fly. I guess people always have. Flight was an impossibility. Still is, if you don’t count airplanes as people actually flying. The ship is flying, we’re just riding in it.

The Lord can show us what it’s like to fly. To soar like eagles. All we have to do is trust Him.

So apparently, flying with an ear infection is a common problem (:

I hope I helped those three people. Well I hope I helped anyone who read it. (Though I don’t think the scribefire person found exactly what they were looking for).

Pete over at Without Wax wrote a post a couple of days ago about a Time Magazine article about a man named David Jeselsohn who claims to have bought an ancient tablet announcing

… the raising of a messiah after three days in the grave. If true, this could mean that Jesus’ followers had access to a well-established paradigm when they decreed that Christ himself rose on the third day … (Full Article)

You can read Pete’s post on whether or not this article shook his faith here.

He brought up a good point. Even if the tablet is real, it shouldn’t shake our faith anyway. The disciples did have such a resource: The Old Testament. It’s full of third day references (I.E. Jonah in the belly of the whale for three days)(Which Jesus himself refers to in Matthew 12:40).

The article sort of got me thinking. There are a lot of things out there that are trying to shake our faith. The enemy continually throws them at us to try and knock us off balance. There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of articles, papers, documentaries, books, etc that have tried to prove that the Bible is a fake, or try and dispute some traditional belief. Like the whole Mary Magdalene and Jesus getting married and having kids thing. And countless others.

It’s everywhere. All this stuff that’s trying to get us to think twice about what we truly believe. Another thing is the whole Atheist Bandwagon as I like to call it (which can be a whole other post, and may be). ‘Oh it’s so cool to be atheist. You don’t have to listen to anyone.’

I’m going to stop there before I get myself into trouble d:

But yeah. I think we need to be careful of what we listen to/read when concerning religious things (especially on National Geographic) in a secular environment. I know I have had my doubts every now and then. But I try to remain strong in what I believe.

I feel drained of all creativity for some reason. I haven’t gotten much inspiration lately (which is obvious via the lack of posts)(not that anyone reads them anyway).

Have I really said everything I’ve wanted to say? Surely not..

I think I need to listen more. Listen to God, and even to myself. I complain to myself a lot and think… a lot. I should write about what I think. Pay attention, self! I also need to listen to God more. What does He want me to say?

Anyone else ever feel drained like this? (*crickets*)

Well I don’t know how, but I’ve managed to make my mother think that I do drugs.

It started a few days ago.. Saturday I think. I had just finished taking a nice little nap when mom called me into the kitchen for supper. Now, I’m the kind of person that after waking up from a nap is virtually dead to the world. I think it’s my body going into full on sleep mode, and then not being very happy when that is interrupted. (Did you know interrupted has two r’s in it? I didn’t.)

So I stumble into the kitchen and sit down in a chair by the microwave while I wait for her to finish dishing the food (pasta I think it was) from the pan and what not. I rest my head against the microwave.. eyes half closed.. jaw open.. hair going every which way. Mom looks over and gives me a very stern look, and very abruptly asks “Are you doing drugs!?” I responded with “What are you talking about?” and she says “You’re acting strange! I’m going to get you a drug test.” (Of course she didn’t, and isn’t. It was one of those things parents say that they think sound threatening)

“Oh yes mom.” I said “I do drugs. Lots of them. You know.. crack.. weed.. all that good stuff.”

So as if that wasn’t bad and insulting enough, here’s what happened today.

Our family keeps most of our medical drugs and prescriptions in one closet in mom and dad’s bathroom, on a certain shelf. Pretty much everything is there.. Tylenol, allergy stuff, ointments, blah blah blah. So usually when you want some sort of medicine, you go there, because most likely it’s there. Sounds like common sense right? Apparently, only kids who are doing drugs should have that knowledge.

Dad comes up to me and mom and asks her where the Tylenol 3 is. I speak up and say “In the closet..” In a ‘duh’ sort of way. Simultaneously, the two look at me and ask “Why should you know where it is?!” Mom continues to ask if I have been into them, and I ask what a Tylenol 3 is anyway.

No really. That’s the first time I’ve heard of it. I guess it’s like, extra strength Tylenol.

She tells me that that’s where most kids get their drugs, from their parents’ medicine cabinet. I agree again

“Oh yes mom! I do drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. Because I go to church and I’m very active in the youth group.. and I do drugs!”

She glares at me, but that pretty much closes the conversation.

Honestly I’m appalled and insulted. And just plain annoyed because now every time I go to get Tylenol or Aleve or something, they’ll suspect that I’m taking too many or something. Insulted because I thought my parents thought better of me than that. I mean, what reason would I have to do drugs? Blah!

A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.

–C. S. Lewis

All glory to God forever and ever! Amen. (Galatians 1:5)

Hello world. Here’s the answers to yesterday’s puzzle I posted (:

—

This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping
him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some
friends…One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from
his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo, Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is
responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this
paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this
puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight.” Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the
answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus, there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found.

—

So a friend of mine’s mother gave this to me yesterday. It’s pretty fun. There are 30 books of the Bible hidden in the paragraph down below. Your job is to find them. Actually, there are 31 if you can find the variant of one Old Testament prophet’s name. They are both Old and New Testament books.

I’ll get you started, and give you the variant of the Old Testament Prophet. It’s Osee, which is a variant of Hosea. Hmm.. I wonder if both spelling are in the puzzle.

So yeah! You can use a Bible if you want… I don’t consider that cheating. But.. don’t cheat

—–

This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an
airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping
him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some
friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his
john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine
Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in
her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving
this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves.
There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact.
Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially
since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from
answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a
scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that
something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in
seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event,
which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a
new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons
who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had
ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “The books are all right
here in plain view hidden from sight.” Those able to find all of them
will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One
revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may
occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and
spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you
compete really well against those who claim to know the answers.
Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus; there really are 30 books
of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found.

—-

I actually only had trouble finding five of them. Well, six actually. I’ll give the answers tomorrow or sometime.

Romans 5:8

But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Wow. I was driving home today from volunteering at the hospital, and this bit of scripture popped into my head. The reality of that statement hit me like a ton of bricks. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God knew what kind of people we were. God knew what kind of people we were going to be. He knew we would mess up, and how often we would do so. He knew how foul some of us would become. He knew what terrible things would come. Yet He loved us, and still does of course. He loved us even though we were sinners who had never repented. He loved us and showed us His love by giving up His only son to die for our sins. Our filthy, stinking, rotten sins. The sins of the world.

Not only did God know. Jesus knew. Jesus knew when He went to the cross what He was going to die for. He knew He was sacrificing Himself for a bunch of sinners. He knew that He was about to take on the sins of the world. Terrible, horrid sins. We can’t even begin to imagine what He had to witness on that cross. Our actions. Our deepest, darkest secrets. But He died so that we could be forgiven of those things.

God knew the whole time. Yet He loved us even when we were sinners, and sent His only son to be crucified so that we could be forgiven and live with Him forever.

Praise the merciful Lord, God Almighty!