let His Words fall like RAIN on the tender green grass

I'm working my way through the Old Testament this year. Sadly I haven't read the entire Bible. At work the other day, a guy I worked with asked me if I had read the entire Bible.. I told him no, and that I've only been a Christian for... 3 years. How time flies. As the words came out of my mouth I felt so dumb. Not only am I a Christian.. I'm a theology major. Even better, he goes well I'm not religious.. but I've read the entire Bible, and the book of Mormon and the Koran in English. I asked which version of the Bible he read... you guessed it KJV (King James). I think that was God saying, hey Chels... if an engineering major can do it.. you can too :P

don't you love when God humbles you...

However. God is wonderful. In my slowness he has stretched me out a lot. As I DO read, what I encounter speaks to me for each place I've been in life. When I became a Christian,  I blew through the New Testament and thought I was super impressive (humble Christian.... :/)


That was until one day I realized how SMALL the NT is in comparison to the OT

 

<--- OT NT------>

The thing was, I didn't even read the NT in order. Depending on how ambitious I was feeling, I would decide on either a smaller or larger letter or epistle, gospel or even just part of Acts or something to read. So, again.. God in his grace revealed to me his nature, and taught me even though I was reading the Bible like People magazine. He's so patient (:


Honestly, when I first became a Christian I was terrified to read the Bible. You see, I only read books once. I was worried that the same thing would happen with the Bible, that once I read it I would never pick it up again. Now that I've been semi exposed to a theology tool belt full of wonderful quirky terms that help me understand the weird things people do in life, I now understand how the Bible works a lot better. I will never understand everything, no one will. I'm just excited about what I do learn (:


So the Bible is a living text. Sounds cool right. But part of this relates to the thing we know as the "Word". Well you see that Word isn't referring to our canonized Bible. It's referring to Jesus and his life which gives us salvation. He IS the Word of God, and we read about it in the word of God.. The Bible. From here, we see that the Holy Spirit counsels us now that Jesus is in heaven with the Father. This makes the Bible a living text. It's fluid. It speaks to us in different ways during different times because it's Jesus speaking to us, not the Scripture. Freaky.


ANYHOW. Back to my main point.  (This is the problem with theology, once you get started... you can't stop )


I'm reading through the OT this year... and I've reached Deuteronomy 32. I know it's May.. I need to hurry up, but I'm sure God won't smite me if I don't finish by Jan 1. I'm going to try.. but like I said earlier I've learned the importance isn't "getting through the Bible" but letting it speak into my life and refine the way i live.


So. Deut. 32 is a song that Moses is told to teach to the Israelites. Moses is about to die, and God basically says.. Hey the people are going to mess up. They're going to go into the promise land, get lazy and over indulge in their resources, and start worshiping other gods, so teach them this song to let them knew it was coming and I knew it. How would you like to die as a leader of God's people to him saying this. Nonetheless,  the first 8 verses really spoke to me. They are so beautiful, yet painful to hear.

¹ Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
   hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
² Let my teaching fall like rain
   and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
   like abundant rain on tender plants.
 ³ I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
   Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
⁴ He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
   and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
   upright and just is he.
 ⁵ They are corrupt and not his children;
   to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
⁶ Is this the way you repay the LORD,
   you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,
   who made you and formed you?
 ⁷ Remember the days of old;
   consider the generations long past.
Ask your father and he will tell you,
   your elders, and they will explain to you.
⁸ When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
   when he divided all mankind,
he set up boundaries for the peoples
   according to the number of the sons of Israel.

right next to the freckle. on my neck.

One of my favorite artists just came out with necklaces that have the lyrics to some of her songs on them. I love her music... and I definitely love the necklace. Just thought I'd share. Have a blessed day

http://www.jjheller.com/home.asp

Click HERE to listen to the song (:

.to ameliorate a grape tomato.

First off.. I would like to commend grandmas around the world who walk to the grocery store and carry their groceries home.

I walked maybe 3/4 a mile home with my groceries

Not a lot right... well my arms were killing me by the time I got home. If its any consolation it WAS uphill. Nonetheless (: it was good for me and gave me respect for all those grannies (: Sidenote: my arms are really long... so every time I came to a curb I had to lift them up... my groceries almost reached the ground.

Tonight I made my first "real" meal. I'm practicing for "Easter dinner". David's family is coming over after service for dinner, so I wanted to practice to make sure I could do it without burning the house down.

This is how I felt going into this whole production. As many of you may know. I never learned how to cook. Mom offered many times, but it has never interested me. Now... don't tell mom, but I love it.



I learned some things... like cook with clothes on. (So that's why they wear an apron) I do the dishes in a sports bra when i'm home alone, and the blinds are shut... because I always get soaking wet, and hate getting my shirts wet and soapy. So I thought the same principle would work with cooking, so I wore my pajama shorts and a tshirt. Not a good idea when you're cooking chicken in olive oil and don't have tongs. My legs are all covered in red spots from olive oil flying out of the pan on me :( Felt like an adventure at least!

Also, timing is huge. I started the chicken... and then the couscous and realized I didn’t know when I started the chicken, and then I focused on the chicken... and forgot how long the couscous had been sitting on low heat... I started figuring out that I could use my music in the background as a sloppy timer. Every time the song switched I knew it had been about 3 minutes.

Have bowls ready. Prepare everything before you start cooking stuff. I know this is common sense for all of you that are 25+ and probably actually most people my age, but hang in there. I’m so excited and just want to share what I’m going through.


(: I make a huge mess when I cook. I had to mop the floor when I was done.

I thought I destroyed the chicken... so I was terrified to try the finished product.. but here's a picture or two.. or three. I'm not proud :P

Rosemary Chicken with Garlic Couscous, Grilled ish Zucchini and Grape Tomato.

 

Good News : It was Amazing (: maybe that's just because I cooked it, and am bias
but I really liked it... it made me cry. i was so happy.
 blessings.

New Place - Free Slideshow Creator

I hate rings. I've actually ALWAYS stressed out because I'm worried about how I would handle wearing a wedding ring every day for the rest of my life. I even considered a tattoo instead. Then I wouldn't have to worry about it, and I won't play with it all the time.. and unless my finger gets amputated.. I can't lose it! Too bad I find tattoo rings increasingly unattractive. This morning, I was wasting time on Etsy and found this ring. I actually really like it.. which is odd. But I do (: so I thought I would share.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/30591529/tres-stacking-rings-turquoise-spiny

Peripatetic

My professor made a really interesting analogy this afternoon that I thought was very insightful. Of course, I don’t have his exact words, but below is the general gist.

“What if the church was a bridge? Something functional. Helpful. Necessary.

            -Well what happens, if after a storm, the body of water that the bridge went over.. moved. The course of the river changed.

In Christianity, if we see the church as this bridge, we have to be attentive to the changing course of the river. We have to be careful not to maintain the bridge for bridge’s sake, and remember our purpose. We should see the body of water, as the people the church is trying to reach out to.”

In applicable means... I guess we should look at traditions. Not only the concrete church traditions but traditions that have been developed subconsciously within the church. If they aren't helping people, we aren't do it right.

Last. Night...on a bed of lettuce.

  First day of school. First day of school.

A lot of people ask me, “Chels, what are you studying at school?”

                  I would say, “Educational Ministry”… which no one is familiar with, so I decided to start saying theology… to make it easiser.

Not until people started asking… “What is theology?” did I realize that this isn’t actually an easy answer. One.. because I didn’t REALLY know how to answer (embarrassing I know).. and two, because it means so many different things to people.

This morning in class my professor rattled off a definition I really like. I’m HORRIBLE with memory, and forget things as they are said… but this is what I was able to write down. Even if it’s not his exact words.. the general gist is captured.

“Theology is the systematic reflection process on the person of Jesus Christ”

He went on to explain that theology isn’t only about statements.. it’s about questions. Theology isn’t only about description.. but identity. Theology is something that is breathed… lived out. Theology is about God, and because God shows through everything.. theology is about everything.

From here my professor explained that he isn’t about defining truth. He knows that he is limited. His capacity to clarify truth is confined, because we are so small compared to God.

He started off class with an exercise where we spent 2 minutes getting to know the person next to us. Pretty basic. However, he did something new. He had us then turn around and tell the person on the other side of us as much as we could about the person we had just spoken with. We can’t capture a person in facts. We can spend much time studying a person and still not be able to fully describe them.

“Christ is full of grace, life and salvation.

The soul is full of sin, death and damnation.

Now let faith come between them and sins, death and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is the bridegroom, he must take upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers?” 

–Martin Luther