Lessons, Lessons, Lessons

Some learned but most (this week) being taught.  Shew, this week is going to be a growing, stretching time for me.  As of right now I am teaching four times this week (not counting what I do at work).  Really and truly I should be working on my lessons and collecting my props but I thought I would share this and ask y’all to pray for me.  Tonight at AWANA I teach the Sparkies.  We are going to talk about the Armor of God.  Tomorrow I will be teaching  my mom’s class about Ukrainian egg decorating. And this weekend we are having D-Now.  I believe I am teaching two sessions about the Bible being more than just words on a page.  I am rather excited and a little nervous.  I pray that God alone is seen and heard in all of this.  Anyway that is a quick summary of what is going on with me.  Hope you all have week filled with God’s presence!

RAK CHAZAK!

Tidbits

There is so much here to think about!  I listened to all of these today and now my mind and heart are in such an uproar.  “God, I want to be Your lady of prayer, following Your call, fighting with/for You, completely obsessed with You and bringing You complete glory- simply because You are worthy.  No other reason but You.”

Tell me what time you spend alone with God and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are. ~Leonard Ravenhill

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I want to be one who compels them to come!  I want to lend to God, but not so I can be repaid, just because I want them to know they are loved!

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I want this passion!  I want to want to fight without desiring comfort!
”We were called to advance a Kingdom!  To live with a Passion!  To fight for Him!  And to only, every once in a while, drop our swords and look up for a smile.” ~Paul Washer

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Am I all out for Jesus?  There is no in between and that makes a simple question both hard and simple.  Am I all out for Jesus?

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“Lord Jesus, I’m going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I live, even if I go to Hell at the end of the road, simply because you are worthy to be loved, and obeyed and served…” ~Reidhead 
What is God going to get out of me?

PostScript- I am trying to type up my full testimony. I believe it is about time I had it completed.

Ask yourself

Learning- The List

I feel as if I keep learning more about myself.  Today it was the fact that apparently I have not completely surrendered the pen of my love story to God.  I realized that although I had “surrendered” it to God I had my own ideals of the kind of man I want to marry.  I even went so far as to say, “God I do not want to marry _____.”  Maybe I have good reasons for saying I do not want to marry a certain person but what reason is good enough if it is God’s will? 

It is hard to lay that down.  As ladies we tend to make lists (guys may also, I do not know) but what if the man God had for us matched nothing on own carefully constructed list.  Outside of being a Christian who follows and serves God what if the man God has prepared for us is nothing we ever wished for?  Would you be willing to lay down your desires for God’s will?  Will I?  I hope I can lay this down, take up my cross and follow God into whatever He leads me. 

Through Christ,

Lady B

I am a woman of many contradictions.

Sounds quaint, does it not?  At least in writing.  I can tell you it is not so quaint as it sounds.  I was just spending some time with God in prayer and I, well, I was having trouble expressing myself…to God!  There are many contradictions within me and I do not know how to understand some of them.  How can someone be so full of contradictions.  Things such as whether or not you drink.  I will not ever drink but I think drinking is…I cannot even put into words what I think because it sounds so illogical and unformed!  Another is I really do not like the computer and being on it, but I can spend hours on end doing absolutely nothing but wasting time!  . Then there is the issue of children’s ministry.  I believe that the Bible, the truth, should be enough to bring people to Christ.  that children should not be separated from their parents, families should learn together.  But then I think that children do need to be reached out to and have a focus on them.  How do you mesh the two?  I feel that God is leading me to children’s ministry but how can I? (I am starting to get that tense, anxious feeling so I had better move on before something explodes.)  Then there are even bigger things like I know I love God, but there is a verse in the Bible that says “if you love me you will keep my commands.”   I wonder if I really love God; I do not always keep His commands…  The old adage, “Actions speak louder than words,” is my constant companion and  antagonist.  I know what I know about myself, or do I?  The saying seems to tell me otherwise.

As I was praying I just began telling God all of this and asking Him for help, and when I could say no more I began reading today’s passage, II Timothy 2.  Here is what the first verse says, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

I do not know what I am going to do with myself or my contradictory nature but I will learn to be strong in the grace God has given me in Jesus Christ!

Thank you for listening to my rambling today!

Through Christ,

Lady Helen

My first day in English Literature

I thought I would share a little of my literature class with you.  These are mainly some quotes and points I found interesting.  I also wanted to give you all a little peek at what I am going to be reading this semester (because of this class).  I am looking forward to learning more about English literature! 

I hopefully can fit some of my own leisure reading into the semester but if I do not it will not be too bad a loss.  Happy Classes to those of you still in school!

Through Christ,

Lady Helen 

 

“The unexamined life is not worth living” ~Socrates 

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” ~E. M. Forster

 

The Four Marks of an Educated Person
Grayson Kirk

1. Speaks and writes clearly and precisely.

2. Has a set of values and the courage to defend them.

3. Tries to understand those who are different and views others with compassion and respect.

4. Looks squarely at the world and all of its problems, but always with hope.

 

The Books

--The Middle Ages

--The Dream of the Rood

--Beowulf    

--Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (I have to do a presentation of this)

--Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales

--Introduction and Prologue

--The Wife of Bath's Tale

--William Langland and The Vision of Piers Plowman

--Julian of Norwich and A Book of Showings

--Margery Kempe and The Book of Margery Kempe

--Sir Thomas Malory and Morte Darthur

--The Sixteenth Century

--Edmund Spenser and The Faerie Queene, Book I

--Christopher Marlowe and The Passionate Shepherd

--The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

--William Shakespeare, Hamlet

--William Shakespeare, Sonnets

--The Early Seventeenth Century

--John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, and Andrew Marvell, Short selections TBA

--John Milton and Paradise Lost, Book I, continued

--The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

--John Dryden and Mac Flecknoe

--Aphra Behn and The Disappointment

--Jonathan Swift and A Modest Proposal

--Alexander Pope and The Rape of the Lock

--Samuel Johnson and The Vanity of Human Wishes

--James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

--Thomas Gray and Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

I am building an altar

These past few months have just been a season of lesson learning for me. I am beginning to wonder why all this seems to be happening all at once. Perhaps I have never really been open to learning more about my faults and being willing to change them. One of my biggest lessons right now is something I often face but have never dealt with, my tongue.
Everything came to a head last week at Jr. Camp. Long story short, I got aggravated with one of the counselors from the other church and said some things very unbecoming of a Christian lady. It was not until the following Tuesday that God pointed out what I had done and it was then that I decided I must surrender my speech, my tongue to Him so He can change me from the inside out. So with that long introduction here is some of what I am learning.
~Guard my heart. One of the hardest hitting chapters in Debi Pearl's book, Preparing to be a Help Meet, was the chapter on chaste conversation. She did not go on about what we should and should not say but more who we share with. Her point was that we as ladies do not need to share our hearts so openly with any other man but our husband. Doing so just forms an even deeper emotional connection with that man and it destroys our sacred mystique. This is something I really have to work at! I want my husband to be the only man (besides my daddy(s)) that knows and understands my heart.
~Honour others with my speech. Another thing that stuck out to me in Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin's book So Much More is honouring my dad(s) with my speech. That is a tough one for me. God is our Father in heaven right? Well would it not make some since to show our fathers on earth some amount of reverence also? This goes for other people as well.
~Control what comes out of my mouth. I have a horrible habit of not thinking before I speak. Often I will say something and for days afterward it will eat at me. I need God to cover m mouth and help me to think about if what I am saying is appropriate.

Proverbs 11:22
Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

I want all of my speech to honour God in what I speak, how I speak and who I speak to.

My title mentions building an altar. In one of my favourite books, Hinds Feet on High Places, the main character, Much-Afraid, often finds herself building an altar along the journey that leads her to the High Place. So I have decided that on this adventure of life when times seem rough I will stop and build an altar an give whatever is going on in my life to God.

Father, here I build an altar and on it I lay my tongue, my speech and my will. Take them and do what you will with them.

Here are some verses that stood out to me.

Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit.

Psalm 39:1
I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.”

Psalm 120:2
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue.

Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 21:23
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles.

James 1:26
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.

1 Peter 3:10
For “He who would love life and see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.

God will move. Will we?

I met a lady at the beginning of this semester and the first thing I thought after talking with her was "She is the one I am here to reach" or something along those lines. It turned out she was in one of my classes, and I could have had many times to invite her to church. Over Easter I really felt like God wanted me to invite her to our Easter program but I did not. We just had friend day at our curch and again I felt that I should really invite her to church. I even talked to her after class but did not invite her. Well today as we were leaving class she asked me if I went to church anywhere! I was excited but then I found out she has been looking for somewhere to go to church with her daughter. All this semester I was to busy with myself or the thought of being uncomfortable, and she was seeking. I am so thankful God was patient and still able to use me but so sad that it took so long. My desire is to be a door-holder, but how can I be if I am too busy on the inside?

A Lesson Learned...I Hope!

I learned a lesson today. One that I have always known and "said" I believed.
God can be trusted with everything!
For several weeks I have felt God telling me to go to work at a daycare here in town (one I had previously worked at)and I kept questioning Him about it. When I finally decided to call the owner someone pointed out something out that started all the questions again. Needless to say I did not call S for several more weeks.
All this time I had these "What if" and "What about" questions going through my head. Finally, and I really don't know how, God just really changed my heart and yesterday I called S and spoke with her. I can't say that I felt relieved or happy or anything because, well, I didn't feel anything. I guess you could say I felt- peace.
Well, today was my first time back as an actually employee, and you know what? I was excited! Yes, excited. Excited to go work with kids I have no control over, excited to clean and give teachers breaks, excited to go ahead and ruin my hands and nails with bleach solutions again, excited to work. I relized then that God had truly called me to do this. I may not know why but I don't need to. All I need to know is God is in control and if I will obey Him, He will not fail me.
So that was my lesson today, or part of it. The other part- God will work all things out, and I need not fret over anything. Those questions, "What if?" and "What about?", vanished completely. Another lady is sharing the job I have so we can switch days when ever either of us needs to. See, God is so great and He deserves all our trust and more. Why don't we give it to Him though? I can say that today I have learned to trust Him, but I pray that it is a lesson I never have to learn again!

P.S. I am going to attend Kids Kollege this weekend so I hope to have something to share about my experience. If you want to learn more here is the ministry that started it Cool Kids Ministries.