So many thotughts.... where do I begin?
Have I told you that I love reading?
Yes I do! Since I was like 6 years old I have been an avid reader. I just enjoy diving into a story, getting to know the characters like they are friends and family. Reading opens up my mind and I can imagine and see the story coming to life. Now I must clarify that I only enjoy reading for leisure not for work or classes.
The latest book I'm reading is written by Karen Kingsbury and it is part of her Baxter Family drama series. I've really enjoyed reading this series so far and I will reccomend it to anyone who loves reading.
Karen Kingsbury is a Christian author, and as such her books can be categorized as Christian fiction. The only complaint I can think to make is that Karen loves to describe a lot. She spends a lot of time describing a setting, the way someone's face looked when he saw his wife, the way the children played with the fish in the pond. However, overall Kingsbury knows how to bring a story to life.
In case you're that curious, here's a list of some of my fav reads:
-The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
-Redeeming Love -Francine Rivers
-The Pursuit of God -A.W. Tozer
-The Pursuit of Man -A.W. Tozer
-Blink -Ted Dekker
-Showdown -Ted Dekker
-Little Women -Louisa May Alcott
...And many more!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Passing Through Grace
I honestly believe that this year, I'm meant to really understand what it is we mean when we talk about the Grace of God. Through most of this year, I have fallen below the standards of God and the standards I set for myself. And each time this happens I find myself asking "why?" I find myself coming up with a plan to never be in that situation again. And each time I come up with a plan I find it difficult to uphold my standards. So it seems I'm faced with a dilemma. In my study of the Word I found these verses: Mark 8:14-21:
14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
16They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."
17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" "Twelve," they replied.
20"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" They answered, "Seven."
21He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
It took me a while to understand this scripture. At first I thought it must be that Jesus is saying to watch out that we don't become puffed up like the Pharisees and Herod. Then I read on, and He talks about the feeding of the 5,000 and of the 4,000 and how there were basketfuls leftover. So my eyes opened a bit and I said, "why would He connect the miracles to that statement?" Yesterday as I was at work I was listening to a message online and the pastor begins to talk about the verses above. The interesting thing was that, it wasn't even part of his message, just a side note. So he explains that what Jesus was trying to convey to the disciples was that they cannnot continue their walk in the Kingdom of God in their own flesh even though they were birthed into the Kingdom by the Grace of God. The Pharisees were more concerned about keeping with the laws of Moses, at least the exterior ones.
I believe Jesus was using the example of the feeding of the thousands to help them understand that He has the power to do anything, i.e. keep their souls. That got me thinking. If Jesus was the one that died on the cross for me and made it possible for me to die to my old ways that day I gave my life to Him. Is that Jesus still not in charge of my life as long as I surrender it to Him? So why the obsession with perfection that is only born out of my flesh? Jesus said that whosoever will save his life will lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for the sake of the Gospel will find it. Most of the time we're caught up trying to save our selves. We may not say it like that, but our actions show it. We live like now we got it together. Afterall we're blood washed, tongue speaking believers. When Christ is beckoning on us to be broken utterly, with a realisation that truely we are passing through Grace. By grace we have been saved and by grace must we walk.
P.S. This is not to say we should continue in sin so that grace may abound.
14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
16They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."
17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" "Twelve," they replied.
20"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" They answered, "Seven."
21He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
It took me a while to understand this scripture. At first I thought it must be that Jesus is saying to watch out that we don't become puffed up like the Pharisees and Herod. Then I read on, and He talks about the feeding of the 5,000 and of the 4,000 and how there were basketfuls leftover. So my eyes opened a bit and I said, "why would He connect the miracles to that statement?" Yesterday as I was at work I was listening to a message online and the pastor begins to talk about the verses above. The interesting thing was that, it wasn't even part of his message, just a side note. So he explains that what Jesus was trying to convey to the disciples was that they cannnot continue their walk in the Kingdom of God in their own flesh even though they were birthed into the Kingdom by the Grace of God. The Pharisees were more concerned about keeping with the laws of Moses, at least the exterior ones.
I believe Jesus was using the example of the feeding of the thousands to help them understand that He has the power to do anything, i.e. keep their souls. That got me thinking. If Jesus was the one that died on the cross for me and made it possible for me to die to my old ways that day I gave my life to Him. Is that Jesus still not in charge of my life as long as I surrender it to Him? So why the obsession with perfection that is only born out of my flesh? Jesus said that whosoever will save his life will lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for the sake of the Gospel will find it. Most of the time we're caught up trying to save our selves. We may not say it like that, but our actions show it. We live like now we got it together. Afterall we're blood washed, tongue speaking believers. When Christ is beckoning on us to be broken utterly, with a realisation that truely we are passing through Grace. By grace we have been saved and by grace must we walk.
P.S. This is not to say we should continue in sin so that grace may abound.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Indian Cuisine... Yum!
After being away for so long, I'm back with my account of what I did this past weekend.
Today is Labor Day, and holiday weekends being the way that they are, everybody wants to go out and do something fun. So on Saturday, some people went to the beach, some to a theme park, and well others to the circus. I was not among the early birds who hit the beach or theme park as soon as they could. I on the other hand had errands to run. The cable company was supposed to come set up my cable between the hours of 11am and 2pm, after which I was to go explore Washington D.C. with Mr. Or so I thought. The cable guy didn't get to my aprtment till about 2:45pm, and what should have taken him 1 hour to complete, ended up taking almost 3 hours. 'Why?' You ask. Because my cable company in their effort to save money, while at the same time rip people off,gives their technicians refurbished cable modems. Apparently, the cable modems the guy brought with him had not been checked so he ended up trying like 4 cable modems before the last one worked. Let me just say it was a long 3 hours waiting for everything to be fixed. Lesson learnt: patience.
Anyway, after the cable guy left, Mr. and I began to go over our options of what we could do next. We thought about going to D.C. but decided not to because it was already late to do most of the sight-seeing we wanted to do. Then he reminded me that we'd been planning to go to an Indian restaurant for some time now. So we figured we'd check one out. Okay quick bckground information: I love Indian cuisine... I eat it at least twice a month, Mr. on the other hand had never had Indian cuisine. I went online and found this restaurant called Memsahib. I clicked on their website and saw what they had to offer. It was the total Indian dining experience... Here it goes:
When we got there, we were welcomed into something right out of an Indian family room. Instead of tables and chairs like in a restaurant there were cushoined benches and pillows, with low round tables. The decor was very warm and inviting with orange/amber walls and dim lamps hanging from the ceiling. After we took our seats, one of the servers, (who I think is one of the sons of the family) came and asked for what we would like to drink. I ordered a mango lassi while Mr had orange juice. Then the guy returned to explain the menu to us, we were to have six courses that evening. First he started us out by washing our hands since we were to use our hands to eat. Then came the first course which was an assorted tray of cooked eggplant in tomato sauce, cucumbers and bell peppers in a cumin dressing, carrots in a coriander dressing and chicken kebab. Hmmmmm delicious! My favorites were the cucumbers and the chicken kebab. I wouldn't make your mouth water unnecessarily with the details of the menu, here's a link if you would like to check it out: http://www.memsahibrestaurant.com/rockville.php.
In addition to the wonderful meal, it felt like we were in an Indian home with Bollywood dance videos being played back to back on the flat screen tv and projector screen. Towards the end of our six course dinner, a bellydancer came out and thrilled the guests. The atmosphere changed and it felt like a party. Although what we were celebrating, I don't know. She invited almost all the guests to dance with her, and when she came to our table, Mr. kept looking away from her. He said jokingly, that his mother told him not to look. I guess he was not comfortable watching a woman wiggle her waist in front of him. All in all, the night went well and I'm sure Mr. left with a positive impression of Indian cuisine.
Today is Labor Day, and holiday weekends being the way that they are, everybody wants to go out and do something fun. So on Saturday, some people went to the beach, some to a theme park, and well others to the circus. I was not among the early birds who hit the beach or theme park as soon as they could. I on the other hand had errands to run. The cable company was supposed to come set up my cable between the hours of 11am and 2pm, after which I was to go explore Washington D.C. with Mr. Or so I thought. The cable guy didn't get to my aprtment till about 2:45pm, and what should have taken him 1 hour to complete, ended up taking almost 3 hours. 'Why?' You ask. Because my cable company in their effort to save money, while at the same time rip people off,gives their technicians refurbished cable modems. Apparently, the cable modems the guy brought with him had not been checked so he ended up trying like 4 cable modems before the last one worked. Let me just say it was a long 3 hours waiting for everything to be fixed. Lesson learnt: patience.
Anyway, after the cable guy left, Mr. and I began to go over our options of what we could do next. We thought about going to D.C. but decided not to because it was already late to do most of the sight-seeing we wanted to do. Then he reminded me that we'd been planning to go to an Indian restaurant for some time now. So we figured we'd check one out. Okay quick bckground information: I love Indian cuisine... I eat it at least twice a month, Mr. on the other hand had never had Indian cuisine. I went online and found this restaurant called Memsahib. I clicked on their website and saw what they had to offer. It was the total Indian dining experience... Here it goes:
When we got there, we were welcomed into something right out of an Indian family room. Instead of tables and chairs like in a restaurant there were cushoined benches and pillows, with low round tables. The decor was very warm and inviting with orange/amber walls and dim lamps hanging from the ceiling. After we took our seats, one of the servers, (who I think is one of the sons of the family) came and asked for what we would like to drink. I ordered a mango lassi while Mr had orange juice. Then the guy returned to explain the menu to us, we were to have six courses that evening. First he started us out by washing our hands since we were to use our hands to eat. Then came the first course which was an assorted tray of cooked eggplant in tomato sauce, cucumbers and bell peppers in a cumin dressing, carrots in a coriander dressing and chicken kebab. Hmmmmm delicious! My favorites were the cucumbers and the chicken kebab. I wouldn't make your mouth water unnecessarily with the details of the menu, here's a link if you would like to check it out: http://www.memsahibrestaurant.com/rockville.php.
In addition to the wonderful meal, it felt like we were in an Indian home with Bollywood dance videos being played back to back on the flat screen tv and projector screen. Towards the end of our six course dinner, a bellydancer came out and thrilled the guests. The atmosphere changed and it felt like a party. Although what we were celebrating, I don't know. She invited almost all the guests to dance with her, and when she came to our table, Mr. kept looking away from her. He said jokingly, that his mother told him not to look. I guess he was not comfortable watching a woman wiggle her waist in front of him. All in all, the night went well and I'm sure Mr. left with a positive impression of Indian cuisine.
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