Best part of today ---
I'm at my best friend's house. While at the dinner table, her grandma, who has alzheimer's, tells us all about the time she broke out in red soars from head to foot.
"Have you ever been covered from head to foot in red soars before?" she directs her interrogative to me.
"I had the chicken pox once..." I say.
"Oh yes, me too, as a little girl..." but she goes on to explain the severity of this particular outbreak.
Upon finding herself covered by the endemic, my friend's grandma visited Dr. Mary, whom 'everyone worshipped back then.' After some testing, Dr. Mary diagnosed her red bumpiness as symptomatic of a dietary allergy to pork.
Moments later she reaches for the bacon on her plate.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Thursday, October 6, 2011
the mullet
Grad school is busy. In my spare time, I gave myself a mullet. Special shout out to my mom: Thanks for your advocation of the mullet on my head all of those formative years...they finally paid off!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
pretension demolished
God has put a word on my mouth, and I must speak:
And the word is that Satan uses pretensions in our mind to convince us to act a certain way or do a certain thing. The particular pretension that I must address is the pretension, "I ought to be doing something," in the most general sense. For example, I just picked up my book Praying God's Word, and the pretension entered my consciousness, "You ought to be doing something worthwhile. Something that produces visible results. Something that produces a return at the end (of the day). You have no time for such things as this. This non-activity is a waste of perfectly good time to move, be active, and use yourself." Then God showed me that this was from Satan. I understand very well that God uses prayer. It is our most powerful offensive weapon against the devil himself. And he has been using the pretension of constant activity to rob me of my strength!
Isaiah 30:15 In repentence & rest are your salvation; in quietness & trust are your strength."
Psalm 46:10 Be still & know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the all the earth.
God is most able to bring about righteousness & justice. He does not require human hands. He does invite us to rest in his Lordship & Might, & when we are still & confident enough in that, to move in it. To rise up & move about under the cloud of his Mighty Protection.
Now then, coming out of 2 Corinthians 10, 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
pre·ten·sion
And the word is that Satan uses pretensions in our mind to convince us to act a certain way or do a certain thing. The particular pretension that I must address is the pretension, "I ought to be doing something," in the most general sense. For example, I just picked up my book Praying God's Word, and the pretension entered my consciousness, "You ought to be doing something worthwhile. Something that produces visible results. Something that produces a return at the end (of the day). You have no time for such things as this. This non-activity is a waste of perfectly good time to move, be active, and use yourself." Then God showed me that this was from Satan. I understand very well that God uses prayer. It is our most powerful offensive weapon against the devil himself. And he has been using the pretension of constant activity to rob me of my strength!
Isaiah 30:15 In repentence & rest are your salvation; in quietness & trust are your strength."
Psalm 46:10 Be still & know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the all the earth.
God is most able to bring about righteousness & justice. He does not require human hands. He does invite us to rest in his Lordship & Might, & when we are still & confident enough in that, to move in it. To rise up & move about under the cloud of his Mighty Protection.
Now then, coming out of 2 Corinthians 10, 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
pre·ten·sion
verb /prēˈtenCHən/
 (in our case, under this satanic pretension of constant 'productivity,' tension is applied to us (tension hingent upon guilt), in order to make us ineffective, weak, & distant from our Source of Power: God Almighty himself.) That is what happens when we do not demolish Satan's pretension which says, "You're being a slug, go DO something worth yourself." He seeks to carry out his purpose of making us useless in the spiritual realm. How better than to keep us stuck & running like guinea pigs on a wheel. That wheel is the visible world. One final definition: pretentiousness: the quality of being pretentious (behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth). Satan lies. He says the activity will make us of 'great importance or worth.' Child, God has given you right standing with himself. Overwhelming victory is yours through him who loves you! You are already of great worth in God's sight. See: Romans 8: 30And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[n]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[o] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. May we recognize that when we feel weak or spent, the answer is not to work harder, do more, or expend greater effort. Father, please empower us to quiet ourselves, by your self-control, wisdom, & good judgement. & when we do, please don't withhold yourself from exerting your vital power upon our souls. Fill us with living water. Amen! |
Sunday, September 18, 2011
God's blessings
Today, God came through in beautiful ways.
The pastor, from Brighton, England, at King's Community Church came up to say "Hi, Staci," (as in, he remembered my name) at a very opportune time. His message was beautifully put together. It was about Amos & Hosea, who prophesied at the same time, to the same people. While Amos felt God's anger, Hosea felt His heartbreak. When we mesh the two together, we see a well-balanced picture of who God is.
I read through Jonah in the meantime. & was touched by those last few verses, seeing past the surface of...well that's a weird ending to an erksome book. God loved Ninevah. The nations he has created bring him delight. & when they turn away, he feels intense loss, the same as Jonah felt when the shady plant died off. He'd been delighted in the plant's shade, then it was gone, and he felt loss. Think of something you've missed. That's how God feels when the people he made live in darkness. Wow. I just praise God for that entire worship service. A gal spoke a word of prophesy while the congregation prayed, "I see a timeline, but this one doesn't have an end, like the ones we've seen before. It never, ever, ever ends. If what we sang in that song's true, 'every blessing You pour out, we'll turn back to praise,' then we're going to praise Him for eternity." Amen.
God provided a place for 6 of us CanIL students to go eat lunch, at a beautiful home with 2 loooooooong tables next to the kitchen. We joined a family. Like, a family of blood relatives was there, kids & all, just doing their thing. 4 grown children, 2 grandparents, and 3 little ones. Wow.
I got to play and laugh with children for a little bit.
Morgan & his girlfriend borrowed my car so that the 6 of us could switch up car-pools for lunch. & God provided a kind soul willing to drive us to & from soccer.
The church had a pick up soccer game (which they do weekly) for 2 hours straight! It was 11 on 11, and a blast! Our team was out-talented by the other team, and anticipated to lose, but....I believe God started acting on our behalf. On a debated play, an elder gentleman on our team asked the opponent, "Did you hand-ball? No, okay, then. We have to go by the integrity of the players." So they got the goal. And then we scored like 4 goals in 15 minutes. :)
I got an affordable space heater, & a candle, & my chillchillchilly room is feeling mUCH better : ).
God is just good. & greatly to be praised. Let it be.
The pastor, from Brighton, England, at King's Community Church came up to say "Hi, Staci," (as in, he remembered my name) at a very opportune time. His message was beautifully put together. It was about Amos & Hosea, who prophesied at the same time, to the same people. While Amos felt God's anger, Hosea felt His heartbreak. When we mesh the two together, we see a well-balanced picture of who God is.
I read through Jonah in the meantime. & was touched by those last few verses, seeing past the surface of...well that's a weird ending to an erksome book. God loved Ninevah. The nations he has created bring him delight. & when they turn away, he feels intense loss, the same as Jonah felt when the shady plant died off. He'd been delighted in the plant's shade, then it was gone, and he felt loss. Think of something you've missed. That's how God feels when the people he made live in darkness. Wow. I just praise God for that entire worship service. A gal spoke a word of prophesy while the congregation prayed, "I see a timeline, but this one doesn't have an end, like the ones we've seen before. It never, ever, ever ends. If what we sang in that song's true, 'every blessing You pour out, we'll turn back to praise,' then we're going to praise Him for eternity." Amen.
God provided a place for 6 of us CanIL students to go eat lunch, at a beautiful home with 2 loooooooong tables next to the kitchen. We joined a family. Like, a family of blood relatives was there, kids & all, just doing their thing. 4 grown children, 2 grandparents, and 3 little ones. Wow.
I got to play and laugh with children for a little bit.
Morgan & his girlfriend borrowed my car so that the 6 of us could switch up car-pools for lunch. & God provided a kind soul willing to drive us to & from soccer.
The church had a pick up soccer game (which they do weekly) for 2 hours straight! It was 11 on 11, and a blast! Our team was out-talented by the other team, and anticipated to lose, but....I believe God started acting on our behalf. On a debated play, an elder gentleman on our team asked the opponent, "Did you hand-ball? No, okay, then. We have to go by the integrity of the players." So they got the goal. And then we scored like 4 goals in 15 minutes. :)
I got an affordable space heater, & a candle, & my chillchillchilly room is feeling mUCH better : ).
God is just good. & greatly to be praised. Let it be.
Friday, September 16, 2011
BCingyousoon!
British Columbia is pretty.
It's also pretty close to Washington.
They don't have cinnamon pop tarts.
Their streets are really well marked.
I searched 5 stores before I found one with CoffeMate liquid creamer.
It's the closest one to me..in the other direction I'd been looking.
It has great stuff. Including produce galore.
A sweet Asian woman directed me to the supreme items/brands in the Asian aisle. : ) Mmm!
I'm excited to start experiment cooking. And probably eating healthier than I ever have before.
Cereal also costs an arm and a leg here. $5 is standard for a normal size box. However, with a hound-dog like nose, there are deals to be found.
I like Chilliwack.
I had no idea what Chilliwack was until I googled it 20 seconds ago, after typing what came to my head. Turns out its a city. 2 1/2 east of me...in BC. Well. There's that.
People are great.
God is greater.
Health comes from following instruction.
Freedom ensues.
Psalm 119 declares.
Proverbs heeds.
Well. God bless your heart's reliance on him.
It's also pretty close to Washington.
They don't have cinnamon pop tarts.
Their streets are really well marked.
I searched 5 stores before I found one with CoffeMate liquid creamer.
It's the closest one to me..in the other direction I'd been looking.
It has great stuff. Including produce galore.
A sweet Asian woman directed me to the supreme items/brands in the Asian aisle. : ) Mmm!
I'm excited to start experiment cooking. And probably eating healthier than I ever have before.
Cereal also costs an arm and a leg here. $5 is standard for a normal size box. However, with a hound-dog like nose, there are deals to be found.
I like Chilliwack.
I had no idea what Chilliwack was until I googled it 20 seconds ago, after typing what came to my head. Turns out its a city. 2 1/2 east of me...in BC. Well. There's that.
People are great.
God is greater.
Health comes from following instruction.
Freedom ensues.
Psalm 119 declares.
Proverbs heeds.
Well. God bless your heart's reliance on him.
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