I was thinking about the Rocky Top's cheesesticks coming my way in about 2 hours and wanting to be stoked about them, but I'm full. I'm still happy they're coming, but it's not the same feeling as if I was starving.
It's hard to anticipate something when you're already filled up with something else.
Hunger sounds like something you want to avoid. You don't want to be hungry, right? But I was thinking, I don't want to be filled up with food I don't even like (a substitute) when driving to eat sushi! I wasted all that time, energy, money...er, room...on a whole bag of cheetos when I could have been hungry for a while longer and been able to enjoy what I was anticipating: SUSHI!
The hunger actually makes the Godzilla Roll worth it. So, of course I'm going to relate this to God. Didn't see that coming did ya? (I hope you caught that sarcasm because I was laying it on prettttty thick.)
I don't want to fill up with the world when I'm hungry because it's easier to ingest than God.
Substitutes that make me feel better for a time make the ultimate prize less sweet. TO ME. Of course God could never be sweeter or less sweet than He is right now, He rolls like the littlest bear's porridge. Yeah that was lame, but it made me giggle. So, it's ok to feel uncomfortable for a season when you know what is coming. It makes getting there and so much more worthwhile.
This was rambly TO SAY THE LEAST, but at least it's outta my head haha!
Words fail me pic
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Lessons from a child
This happens A LOT! When the kids are playing and paying no attention to me or fighting some battle with me and I stop because whoa. I just got schooled...by someone who doesn't even know algebra!
Zoe was doing homework and she kept messing up on purpose, just so she could erase her mistake and do it again. I was getting so aggravated (I wouldn't make a good God, huh?). I started to think about why she was doing this. It seemed so backwards and was taking up so much time that could be better spent, I don't know PLAYING!
2+2=7 Oops, no. Erase. 2+2=4 Bingo!
Uuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhhh, GET ON WITH IT, ZOE! Suddenly, I had the ol' "ohhhhh" moment. I think I do this, too. Except with my life and with God. Sometimes I mess up just so I can erase the mess I've made, make it all neat and tidy and start over on the eraser bits of my past.
Why? It seems so counterproductive. It's because I'm a self-sabotager. If I know something is good for me, before I realize it I've gone out of my way to make sure I don't do that thing. I don't even know what this is about. Like with Zoe, I want to grab her hand and make her do it right the first time, because SHE CAN! I get sick of saying "focus Zoe" because it's not that she has a problem with focus, it's she not using it.
And well... I CAN! I can do these things that I think "normal" wives and "normal" moms do because they need to be done. Instead, I convince myself I'm just not that woman.
I can be that woman.
And I'm not talking about that woman, Miss Super Mom doing every activity under the sun and running every school event. There are some moms that thrive in that environment, but I wither. So I won't run in the direction of something that won't also be fun. But, I can do more than what I'm doing, period.
I'm sick of messing up so I can say "see, I just can't do it" and then I end up doing it right the 2nd time AFTER I've proven I can't do it. Oh people of the blog world, I AM INSANE!
Zoe was doing homework and she kept messing up on purpose, just so she could erase her mistake and do it again. I was getting so aggravated (I wouldn't make a good God, huh?). I started to think about why she was doing this. It seemed so backwards and was taking up so much time that could be better spent, I don't know PLAYING!
2+2=7 Oops, no. Erase. 2+2=4 Bingo!
Uuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhhh, GET ON WITH IT, ZOE! Suddenly, I had the ol' "ohhhhh" moment. I think I do this, too. Except with my life and with God. Sometimes I mess up just so I can erase the mess I've made, make it all neat and tidy and start over on the eraser bits of my past.
Why? It seems so counterproductive. It's because I'm a self-sabotager. If I know something is good for me, before I realize it I've gone out of my way to make sure I don't do that thing. I don't even know what this is about. Like with Zoe, I want to grab her hand and make her do it right the first time, because SHE CAN! I get sick of saying "focus Zoe" because it's not that she has a problem with focus, it's she not using it.
And well... I CAN! I can do these things that I think "normal" wives and "normal" moms do because they need to be done. Instead, I convince myself I'm just not that woman.
I can be that woman.
And I'm not talking about that woman, Miss Super Mom doing every activity under the sun and running every school event. There are some moms that thrive in that environment, but I wither. So I won't run in the direction of something that won't also be fun. But, I can do more than what I'm doing, period.
I'm sick of messing up so I can say "see, I just can't do it" and then I end up doing it right the 2nd time AFTER I've proven I can't do it. Oh people of the blog world, I AM INSANE!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Yesterday 2011
September 11, 2001 I was at Marshall, in between classes in the student center. Everyone was gathered around the tv and I thought "how horrible, a plane probably carrying tourists taking pics just ran into a big building." I'd never thought of the World Trade Center, except while looking for potential jobs in editing, there were many offices there.
I left feeling a little shaken for the loss of life, but that was it. I left town, drove a few hours to judge a cheerleading try out with a friend and when we got to the school, we saw the television. During that drive, everything had changed and I didn't even know it.
Looking back, when people said "it's terrorism" I didn't even really know what that meant, nor did I know to be as scared as I should have been. I didn't know it could mean war or what war could even mean to me, as a 20 year old American.
I was single, focused on getting through school, knew no God and was suddenly scared about what all that meant. What did anything mean. I couldn't wrap my mind around the estimates of the loss of life. I don't even remember being scared that more would happen. WHAT MORE COULD HAPPEN? 4 planes, hijacked, such staggering loss of life. I remember hearing 50,000 people presumed dead in one area of NY.
On the drive back home, there were cars, 20 in a line to get gas because there were rumors on the radio that it would jump to $10.00 a gallon by morning and continue to rise after that. All the way home, I had an irrational fear that someone had put something in my gas tank or someone was hiding in the back of the car. Even though I knew no God, I was playing some type of spiritual music on the way home, whatever I could find on the radio. Pleading with SOMEONE to make this all stop, it was too much already. That night was the start of my journey that led me to Christ. I didn't necessarily believe, but always had something in me that said "i was created for..." and if I was created, who created me? I can't explain it, but that was a night I couldn't ignore the fact that if I had a loving creator, I wanted Him RIGHT THEN. And still it took weeks for me to find Him and rest in His love.
The next morning in class, everyone showed up. No one knew what else to do or where else to go. One girl was from Jersey City and she couldn't get in touch with her family and she didn't know anyone else. It was Sociology class at Marshall or sitting in her dorm with no contact.
I (like everyone else) could not tear myself away from televisions. I would stay up all night and watch people take cameras through what was once their apartment, now covered in a foot of ash and who knows what. They had no options. They couldn't stay and they couldn't leave. After I saw the first living body fall from the towers on live TV, I would turn my head away (and still do) when there is a close shot of either tower. I can't see that again.
Something that has struck me on Facebook especially is that even though a lot of the people that post anything about never forgetting were not even old enough to remember. Some, maybe 4 or a little older. Zoe's age. And yet, 9/11 is a part of their lives and they feel it as much as I do. That is how connected such a horrible tragedy made us. It's in them to feel it too, even though they weren't physically present at the time.
I don't remember who explained terrorism to me or what it meant for the future, but I think it was mostly in the rumors. Especially the ones where people were saying we live in an area with all of these power plants and if anything nuclear were to happen, this is where it would start. I didn't even question if that was true, just believed it because it felt better to put my fear somewhere else. It was the first time, i really felt vulnerable in my safety. I was a wide open target because we all were. And the night before 9/11/11 I was scared in the same way. What if it starts again? I was up all night, worried.
Now everything has changed and I'm not even sure we realize it anymore. We're more connected yes and I'm proud of that, but I can't help but wonder if that was worth it. It's not. I want to be connected, but I want all of those people back more. I've watched 9/11 coverage again this year for the first time and there are a few things that I grasp now that I could not have at the age of 20.
1. The people in the towers had NO IDEA what was going on. And when they got to the lobby, to what they thought was freedom, they witnessed a scene that looked like it was out of an end of times horror movie. What must they have been thinking? Did they think the whole world was like this?
2. I can't even imagine what it was like to lose so many service men and women. Whole fire stations gone. Families forged, GONE. It's something I never thought about as much as I am today. When one was lost, saving us, it was horrible for them, but over 300? How could they even process that?
I have no conclusion, just wanted to share some thoughts. It's not everything I'm thinking, I just can't write anymore about it.
I left feeling a little shaken for the loss of life, but that was it. I left town, drove a few hours to judge a cheerleading try out with a friend and when we got to the school, we saw the television. During that drive, everything had changed and I didn't even know it.
Looking back, when people said "it's terrorism" I didn't even really know what that meant, nor did I know to be as scared as I should have been. I didn't know it could mean war or what war could even mean to me, as a 20 year old American.
I was single, focused on getting through school, knew no God and was suddenly scared about what all that meant. What did anything mean. I couldn't wrap my mind around the estimates of the loss of life. I don't even remember being scared that more would happen. WHAT MORE COULD HAPPEN? 4 planes, hijacked, such staggering loss of life. I remember hearing 50,000 people presumed dead in one area of NY.
On the drive back home, there were cars, 20 in a line to get gas because there were rumors on the radio that it would jump to $10.00 a gallon by morning and continue to rise after that. All the way home, I had an irrational fear that someone had put something in my gas tank or someone was hiding in the back of the car. Even though I knew no God, I was playing some type of spiritual music on the way home, whatever I could find on the radio. Pleading with SOMEONE to make this all stop, it was too much already. That night was the start of my journey that led me to Christ. I didn't necessarily believe, but always had something in me that said "i was created for..." and if I was created, who created me? I can't explain it, but that was a night I couldn't ignore the fact that if I had a loving creator, I wanted Him RIGHT THEN. And still it took weeks for me to find Him and rest in His love.
The next morning in class, everyone showed up. No one knew what else to do or where else to go. One girl was from Jersey City and she couldn't get in touch with her family and she didn't know anyone else. It was Sociology class at Marshall or sitting in her dorm with no contact.
I (like everyone else) could not tear myself away from televisions. I would stay up all night and watch people take cameras through what was once their apartment, now covered in a foot of ash and who knows what. They had no options. They couldn't stay and they couldn't leave. After I saw the first living body fall from the towers on live TV, I would turn my head away (and still do) when there is a close shot of either tower. I can't see that again.
Something that has struck me on Facebook especially is that even though a lot of the people that post anything about never forgetting were not even old enough to remember. Some, maybe 4 or a little older. Zoe's age. And yet, 9/11 is a part of their lives and they feel it as much as I do. That is how connected such a horrible tragedy made us. It's in them to feel it too, even though they weren't physically present at the time.
I don't remember who explained terrorism to me or what it meant for the future, but I think it was mostly in the rumors. Especially the ones where people were saying we live in an area with all of these power plants and if anything nuclear were to happen, this is where it would start. I didn't even question if that was true, just believed it because it felt better to put my fear somewhere else. It was the first time, i really felt vulnerable in my safety. I was a wide open target because we all were. And the night before 9/11/11 I was scared in the same way. What if it starts again? I was up all night, worried.
Now everything has changed and I'm not even sure we realize it anymore. We're more connected yes and I'm proud of that, but I can't help but wonder if that was worth it. It's not. I want to be connected, but I want all of those people back more. I've watched 9/11 coverage again this year for the first time and there are a few things that I grasp now that I could not have at the age of 20.
1. The people in the towers had NO IDEA what was going on. And when they got to the lobby, to what they thought was freedom, they witnessed a scene that looked like it was out of an end of times horror movie. What must they have been thinking? Did they think the whole world was like this?
2. I can't even imagine what it was like to lose so many service men and women. Whole fire stations gone. Families forged, GONE. It's something I never thought about as much as I am today. When one was lost, saving us, it was horrible for them, but over 300? How could they even process that?
I have no conclusion, just wanted to share some thoughts. It's not everything I'm thinking, I just can't write anymore about it.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
God's silence, pearls and stuff
So, I was reading Story by Steven James (again) and this part especially jumped out at me and I wanted to share it :)
God's silence offers us the choice--faith or sight. We can either abandon our faith or learn to trust in the dark. God leaves that choice up to us. And all the while he's more interested in our faith in him than our ability to decipher his silences. The poet Coleman Barks wrote, "The only way we know the play of destiny and free will is to dance the mystery and die inside it."
When you listen to a song, you only hear the harmony because of the emptiness between the notes. If the song is too full of notes, it becomes nothing but noise. To hear the harmony you have to let the silences have their place in the song. It's like each note is a pearl upon a necklace and the silences are what strings them all together.
Maybe God knows that without his silences in our lives, we will never hear the melody of faith.
I think in every person's life a day comes when faith becomes a choice. You can either give up on the silence of God or choose to trust him in the dark as Jesus did while he was dying on the cross.
In the end, most of the Israelites gave up on God.
And at last, God stopped sending his prophets. He stopped speaking to his people. The Old Testament ends with the word curse. And that terrible word echoed in the hearts of his people for four more centuries.
While God remained silent. As silent as the sky.
I had to fight to not put quotes around the word SILENT. I feel like what we think of God being silent isn't what He thinks silence really is. But, maybe He is silent. And maybe silence is all of that...what we both think.
I've been thinking a lot about how crazy the story of creation and everything from there to here sounds. Pastor Steve spoke about that today, I was talking to Jen on the phone and she touched on it today, I was reading Story and that was the part I came to... Now, I could say "that's coincidence, like so many things in my life" or I could say "Cool God, thanks for putting it all together for me." I choose the latter because I believe in God. BUT when it's hard to swallow, but I know I believe my Father, then I just trust Him and believe it. I would rather just have faith and believe than try to explain it all away. I love how Steven James put it here, too:
It's so absurd, this king of the galaxies lying in a feed box for animals, this Creator crying in the stable. Anyone can see at this point that this story isn't man-made. Who would ever believe it? If I were making up a religion that I wanted people to believe in, I'd never insert stuff like this. Only God could tell a story this ludicrous and then claim that it is true.
Also, I can't explain a feeling. I just know inside of me that I have yearnings for something bigger than the here and now and life would be too hard to accept without a Creator who made us with a purpose in mind (to reflect him in love).
It's so cool to think about God and time. I won't get into it here, but OH EM GEE, right? We have time and everything is governed by it. God doesn't, so my right now is the same as my conception and the same as Zoe's college graduation. It's happens simultaneously...or no, that's a time word. Everything that WILL happen to us, HAS ALREADY happened. Wild! I could talk about it for hours and discuss and debate, but I shant here.
I think I'm in a time of wonderment and enjoying Jesus as a hippie would and as a fist pumping lunatic would . I'm all "oooh, pretty Jesus" while simultaneously all "POWERFUL GOD, SEND ME! SEND ME! I WILL GO FOR YOU, JUST TEACH ME HOW! I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD AND SHOW THEM YOU ARE LOVE AND THEY CAN BE LOVED"
But then, the flesh side comes in and I'm afraid I'm offending someone. But, we're all adults right? You can take what I say, like it or toss it. Wow, how did I get here in this blog? Haha, my mind is a hot crazy mess all hopped on the Holy Spirit (and i love it). That's what I get for going to Celebration Church... ;) I just didn't know it could be like this.
God's silence offers us the choice--faith or sight. We can either abandon our faith or learn to trust in the dark. God leaves that choice up to us. And all the while he's more interested in our faith in him than our ability to decipher his silences. The poet Coleman Barks wrote, "The only way we know the play of destiny and free will is to dance the mystery and die inside it."
When you listen to a song, you only hear the harmony because of the emptiness between the notes. If the song is too full of notes, it becomes nothing but noise. To hear the harmony you have to let the silences have their place in the song. It's like each note is a pearl upon a necklace and the silences are what strings them all together.
Maybe God knows that without his silences in our lives, we will never hear the melody of faith.
I think in every person's life a day comes when faith becomes a choice. You can either give up on the silence of God or choose to trust him in the dark as Jesus did while he was dying on the cross.
In the end, most of the Israelites gave up on God.
And at last, God stopped sending his prophets. He stopped speaking to his people. The Old Testament ends with the word curse. And that terrible word echoed in the hearts of his people for four more centuries.
While God remained silent. As silent as the sky.
I had to fight to not put quotes around the word SILENT. I feel like what we think of God being silent isn't what He thinks silence really is. But, maybe He is silent. And maybe silence is all of that...what we both think.
I've been thinking a lot about how crazy the story of creation and everything from there to here sounds. Pastor Steve spoke about that today, I was talking to Jen on the phone and she touched on it today, I was reading Story and that was the part I came to... Now, I could say "that's coincidence, like so many things in my life" or I could say "Cool God, thanks for putting it all together for me." I choose the latter because I believe in God. BUT when it's hard to swallow, but I know I believe my Father, then I just trust Him and believe it. I would rather just have faith and believe than try to explain it all away. I love how Steven James put it here, too:
It's so absurd, this king of the galaxies lying in a feed box for animals, this Creator crying in the stable. Anyone can see at this point that this story isn't man-made. Who would ever believe it? If I were making up a religion that I wanted people to believe in, I'd never insert stuff like this. Only God could tell a story this ludicrous and then claim that it is true.
Also, I can't explain a feeling. I just know inside of me that I have yearnings for something bigger than the here and now and life would be too hard to accept without a Creator who made us with a purpose in mind (to reflect him in love).
It's so cool to think about God and time. I won't get into it here, but OH EM GEE, right? We have time and everything is governed by it. God doesn't, so my right now is the same as my conception and the same as Zoe's college graduation. It's happens simultaneously...or no, that's a time word. Everything that WILL happen to us, HAS ALREADY happened. Wild! I could talk about it for hours and discuss and debate, but I shant here.
I think I'm in a time of wonderment and enjoying Jesus as a hippie would and as a fist pumping lunatic would . I'm all "oooh, pretty Jesus" while simultaneously all "POWERFUL GOD, SEND ME! SEND ME! I WILL GO FOR YOU, JUST TEACH ME HOW! I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD AND SHOW THEM YOU ARE LOVE AND THEY CAN BE LOVED"
But then, the flesh side comes in and I'm afraid I'm offending someone. But, we're all adults right? You can take what I say, like it or toss it. Wow, how did I get here in this blog? Haha, my mind is a hot crazy mess all hopped on the Holy Spirit (and i love it). That's what I get for going to Celebration Church... ;) I just didn't know it could be like this.
Monday, June 27, 2011
It's not About Me -Max Ludado part 5
see part 1 of this Lucado blog for more info on why I'm writing it
The Hebrew word for “holy” is “qadosh” which means cut off or separate. Holiness, then, speaks of the “otherness” of God. His total uniqueness. Everything about God is different from the world he has made. -Lucado
I guess that's how He can do what is best for us, because He's separated from us. He can see objectively while lovingly. We can sort of do that as parents, but not really. We are so empathetic with our children that we can't see straight half of the time. We don't exactly have an objective view. But He made us this way as parents, so there must be a reason why WE are like this and HE is different.
NOT EVEN GOD MADE GOD. -Lucado
Yeah, I'm just gonna let that sink in. I LOVE LOVE LOVE thinking about things like this. When was the beginning? What was before that? Who made time? God had to start somewhere... Well, no He didn't. He. Just. Is. That is such a cool, crazy concept. One we can't wrap our minds around, but when we rise sometime in the future and stand before Him, and whenever the time is that we know all the whys and why nots, and hows of the world, IT WILL ALL BE CLEAR!
He knows your beginning and your end, because he has neither.-Lucado
This is just a cool statement to turn around in my head.
“he has set eternity in their hearts” Ecc 3:11 Tucked away in each of us is a hunch that we were made for forever and a hope that the hunch is true. -Lucado
This is how we can feel homesick for a place that we don’t even remember! Isn’t that crazy? That feeling when life is rushing alllll around you, and you can’t keep up and you long for something you can’t put your finger on. Haven’t you ever felt it? Out of place, but in the place you’re “supposed” to be???? I think we all have, but when we can’t define it, we try to erase it with whatever addiction/coping mechanism your body responds to best: spending money, sex, alcohol, escape, depression, shopping, ignoring life. The homesickness is from God; the self destruction you use against it is from the enemy.
Whatever weakness you hold in your body, the enemy will exploit and use it against you. And guess what? He'll do that to your strengths, too.
"Throw off your old evil nature...Yes you must be a new and different person , holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature." Eph 4:22, 24
The Hebrew word for “holy” is “qadosh” which means cut off or separate. Holiness, then, speaks of the “otherness” of God. His total uniqueness. Everything about God is different from the world he has made. -Lucado
I guess that's how He can do what is best for us, because He's separated from us. He can see objectively while lovingly. We can sort of do that as parents, but not really. We are so empathetic with our children that we can't see straight half of the time. We don't exactly have an objective view. But He made us this way as parents, so there must be a reason why WE are like this and HE is different.
NOT EVEN GOD MADE GOD. -Lucado
Yeah, I'm just gonna let that sink in. I LOVE LOVE LOVE thinking about things like this. When was the beginning? What was before that? Who made time? God had to start somewhere... Well, no He didn't. He. Just. Is. That is such a cool, crazy concept. One we can't wrap our minds around, but when we rise sometime in the future and stand before Him, and whenever the time is that we know all the whys and why nots, and hows of the world, IT WILL ALL BE CLEAR!
He knows your beginning and your end, because he has neither.-Lucado
This is just a cool statement to turn around in my head.
“he has set eternity in their hearts” Ecc 3:11 Tucked away in each of us is a hunch that we were made for forever and a hope that the hunch is true. -Lucado
This is how we can feel homesick for a place that we don’t even remember! Isn’t that crazy? That feeling when life is rushing alllll around you, and you can’t keep up and you long for something you can’t put your finger on. Haven’t you ever felt it? Out of place, but in the place you’re “supposed” to be???? I think we all have, but when we can’t define it, we try to erase it with whatever addiction/coping mechanism your body responds to best: spending money, sex, alcohol, escape, depression, shopping, ignoring life. The homesickness is from God; the self destruction you use against it is from the enemy.
Whatever weakness you hold in your body, the enemy will exploit and use it against you. And guess what? He'll do that to your strengths, too.
"Throw off your old evil nature...Yes you must be a new and different person , holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature." Eph 4:22, 24
Monday, June 20, 2011
I was reading the book of John and...
a few things popped out at me. They aren't necessarily insightful, just things that popped into my head. Here they are, friends:
12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him."
-- no one could deny "the world" was drawn to Jesus and that made the Pharisees mad. And what comes out of ignorance and jealousy? Destruction. Destruction in the name of God.
2:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
-- so maybe we have it backwards.. We always say where WE go, God goes; but I think it's where GOD goes, we go
12:42-43 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
-- so some may believe but for fear of others or for their own glory do not confess therefore are not saved. Ugh, we're such humans.
13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
--"his own" and he "loved them to the end". I love how the disciples are shown to be close to Jesus on earth. Even though Jesus is God and therefore created us all, when he was on earth for those 33 years, He had family and forged friendships. That is very cool.
13:27Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
-- why quickly? And crazy how with that bite he allowed Satan in. Could Judas have stopped it?
15:7-9If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
--now that is just awesome. "Abide in my love." The dictionary defies "abide" as : to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship,etc.; last. to remain; continue; stay. to wait for; await
So, He is saying REMAIN IN MY LOVE; STAY IN MY LOVE; WAIT IN MY LOVE; CONTINUE IN THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ME IN MY LOVE
15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
-- lay down his life. What does this mean? I've definitely always thought this meant death, but maybe "lay down your life" means something else, too?
16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
--so why is the Holy Spirit better than having Jesus in the flesh? And why did Jesus have to leave for The Holy Spirit to come?
16:21When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
--I know why this one always sticks out to me, it's because of my love of childbirth/pregnancy education, so I GET IT. Also, I've given birth so I know what that feeling is like. I can relate it to how after childbirth, such a rush of oxytocin "the love hormone" just going crazy in my body. So, that is what he is talking about here. I totally understand. And I love it!
17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth
--just really cool. Sanctify means to "purify or free from sin; the make holy; set apart as sacred" So it means He wants for us to be purified in the truth. And we'll get that way by reading the word.
Random: Whatever happened to Pilate?
19:38-39 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
--these 2 buried him...why is it two people who followed him in secret or at night? What is the symbolism here?
12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him."
-- no one could deny "the world" was drawn to Jesus and that made the Pharisees mad. And what comes out of ignorance and jealousy? Destruction. Destruction in the name of God.
2:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
-- so maybe we have it backwards.. We always say where WE go, God goes; but I think it's where GOD goes, we go
12:42-43 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
-- so some may believe but for fear of others or for their own glory do not confess therefore are not saved. Ugh, we're such humans.
13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
--"his own" and he "loved them to the end". I love how the disciples are shown to be close to Jesus on earth. Even though Jesus is God and therefore created us all, when he was on earth for those 33 years, He had family and forged friendships. That is very cool.
13:27Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
-- why quickly? And crazy how with that bite he allowed Satan in. Could Judas have stopped it?
15:7-9If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
--now that is just awesome. "Abide in my love." The dictionary defies "abide" as : to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship,etc.; last. to remain; continue; stay. to wait for; await
So, He is saying REMAIN IN MY LOVE; STAY IN MY LOVE; WAIT IN MY LOVE; CONTINUE IN THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ME IN MY LOVE
15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
-- lay down his life. What does this mean? I've definitely always thought this meant death, but maybe "lay down your life" means something else, too?
16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
--so why is the Holy Spirit better than having Jesus in the flesh? And why did Jesus have to leave for The Holy Spirit to come?
16:21When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
--I know why this one always sticks out to me, it's because of my love of childbirth/pregnancy education, so I GET IT. Also, I've given birth so I know what that feeling is like. I can relate it to how after childbirth, such a rush of oxytocin "the love hormone" just going crazy in my body. So, that is what he is talking about here. I totally understand. And I love it!
17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth
--just really cool. Sanctify means to "purify or free from sin; the make holy; set apart as sacred" So it means He wants for us to be purified in the truth. And we'll get that way by reading the word.
Random: Whatever happened to Pilate?
19:38-39 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
--these 2 buried him...why is it two people who followed him in secret or at night? What is the symbolism here?
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