Midnight Study on Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:3-5
“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression – it is by grace you have been saved.”

Ephesians 2:10
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

* we were by nature objects of wrath, but now we are created in Christ to do good works. We are designed anew by God because of his mercy and grace. *

Ephesians 2:20
“[you are] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

Ephesians 2:21-22
“In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

*
The foundation has been built
Now we form together
Building up this temple
The dwelling place of God
Christ, the tested stone
Holds us through the ages
As grace conquers sin
And downs walls of separation
In Him we are one
No longer two by law
In Him our temple grows
Adoption makes us brothers
And brother, what is better
Than giving love to one another
*

A Couple of Good Clips

to start off your afternoon…. or just for any time, really ^_^

Midnight Study on Ephesians 1

After many failed attempts at convincing friends to hang out with me I decided to take some chill time at Tim Horton’s with my bible at roughly 11:30. Sadly, Timmy’s had the doors locked so I ventured a little further down to road to Mcd’s, which has a decent atmosphere. There I came across a friend who is now a manager there and we chatted for a little bit, and he got me hot chocolate and it was good. I don’t think he’s a Christian, so if you want you can throw up a prayer for him I would greatly appreciate it. He’s a great guy and I love him to death. Eventually, he decided to to head home for the night and left me to my study. I offered up a prayer and then I began the first chapter of Ephesians. Here are the notes I made:

Ephesians 1:7-8
“In him we have redemption through his blood, and the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

Ephesians 1:17
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

Ephesians 1:18
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”

Verse 19 goes on to add God’s incomparably great power for those who believe. So, the hope to which he has called us is the riches of his glorious inheritance and incomparably great power. Ironically, wealth and power is what is sought most by worldly people. They don’t seem to understand that there are greater riches and power found in God than in the world.

The reason I copied verses 17 and 18 down is because those are things I ought to be praying for my friends as well as for myself. What greater thing can happen to someone than for him to know God better and to know the hope to which he is called?

In conclusion, the sky was beautiful tonight and it was a wonderful evening despite a lack of friends to hang out with. The moral of the story is God makes everything better, so spend as much time with Him as is possible.

Thanks

Thank you to everyone who prayed for my mom! They don’t think it’s anything serious. She should be coming home this afternoon. I would guess the chest pain was just caused by stress, but I don’t know for sure. She should be fine Thank you again!

Pray for my Mom, please

About half an hour ago my mom called me saying that she was having some chest pain and wondering if she should call 911. As I have no medical knowledge at all I told her to call my brother, who took her to the emergency room. I don’t think it’s anything serious, and I certainly hope it isn’t, but I would like your prayer for her all the same. Thank you so much!

Apostle Paul and hot-cha-cha

So, I promised you a look at why I LOVE Paul. Honestly, I want to marry Paul. If he wasn’t dead and was willing to take a wife, I wish I could be the woman he would choose. Think about it. Aside from Jesus, there was probably no one as committed to purity or serving the Lord as Paul. OK, so maybe some people tie, but still. His life was serving God. He was persecuted and beaten and imprisoned and yet he continued. He loved Jesus! That’s SOOOOO HOT! You know that if you were his girl he would totally protect your purity. He wouldn’t ask to kiss you; he wouldn’t hold you close where temptation could take over, he wouldn’t tell you how much he wishes you were married so you could be together; he would treat you as a sister with complete holiness. Then when you got married he would be so in love with you, but no matter how much he was in love with you, he would be more in love with God. That’s so hot – A man who knows who he is and knows why he is. He would lead you. He would pray with you. He would pray FOR you. It would be his goal for you to love God as much as he loves God, and that’s no small amount. Apostle Paul was the man. If he didn’t have to be persecuted so much for sharing Christ, I bet he would have been the best husband ever. I hope I’m lucky enough to marry someone as in love with Christ as Paul was… and hopefully I’ll be loving Christ just as much as well.

In other words….

Every time I picture you
I blush and turn away
The hope that you may love me
Makes my knees give way

Your love for God and family
Speaks miles of your heart
And your obedience is astounding
As you give him every part

You’d always protect my purity
And oh, that’s just so hot
A man with such conviction
Melts me on the spot

Handsome and debonair
With old-fashioned boyish charm
The country boy I dream of
Having grown up on a farm

Your smile is contagious
And your eyes are just so blue
How I’d cherish them every day
If I could marry you

Would you lead me in God’s word
Show me the way that’s true
Fall more in love with God
As I fall more in love with you

Teach me to love completely
And trust God every day
To sacrifice myself
Follow Him in every way

Flames and Feelings

Tonight I got to chill with one of my best female friends from middle school. We used to be great friends, but then she dated my older brother and it got awkward. Anyway, wanting to do something fun, we decided to go mini-golfing: unfortunately we did not realize that the mini-golf place closed about 10 minutes before we got there. So, after much sitting and discussing what to do, we decided not to set Chuck E. Cheese on fire, and instead decided to have a bonfire at my house. We didn’t have any marshmallows or hot dogs, but we did have a decent amount of wood and matches. We sat out by the fire for a while trying to get it started and playing truth or dare (though no one does the dare) with my brother and while it was entertaining it did not keep our interest for long. Around 11:00 my brother decided to head inside as he has to open in the morning, but my friend and I stayed out by the fire waiting for it to dwindle down. While the the last few flames were dying down and throughout the “ember stage” we chatted about the things girls chat about – boys and feelings. I told her about the object of my twitterpatedness and how I would be so lucky to marry such a man. He’s the type of man that is just so beautiful outside and inside. I don’t really even know him but you can see how much he loves Jesus… and someone so completely in love with Jesus is definitely someone I could love. I would be so blessed to be able to marry him, but someone so wonderful deserves someone far better than me. He deserves someone who has never let her thoughts stray to impurity; someone who has committed her way to the Lord in everything she does. I wish I was her, but my past cries out against me. I can only be that girl from now on… and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to find favor with that god-fearing, handsome man who makes my head spin. It’s funny how fire can bring out ones’ feelings…. speaking of which, have I ever told you how I feel about Apostle Paul? I think I shall next post — what a man!

—edit—

I thought that the fire picture needed some background action to go with it, so I changed the design of my site… I’ll probably change it back later though. But yeah, the fire looks way better with this design.

Twitterpated ^_^

*giggles* It’s like having crushes in middle school all over again My heart is all fluttery and my head is all spinny spinny spinny. I can barely keep myself from smiling ^_^ but why would I want to? Those bright blue eyes lit up by the fire and that melodious voice – a girl could go crazy! I think I have inspiration for a song finally… and perhaps even for a scholarship (don’t worry, you’re not supposed to understand that part). Men who love Jesus make me fall in love with them… well, not really. It’s more accurate to say that very attractive men with great personalities who love Jesus cause me to become twitterpated. While this feeling is fun, I think I should focus more on doing God’s work than focusing on the object of my twitterpatedness. Life is life and death is death: he who serves God through both is blessed!

I Need Music

Bands that I want to own their music: Waking Ashland, Mainstay, Tenth Avenue North, Anberlin

Keeping Busy

Today I’ve been trying to prepare myself for going to Cedarville. I went through the mail I received from CU and found a couple forms I needed to fill out, so I did. I still need a stamp or two to mail them in though. I also searched through some various scholarships and marked ones that I think I might be able to get. I didn’t start any of the yet, but I plan on writing some essays and submitting some pictures and possibly making a music video for one of them. Hopefully it will work out so that debt is not extremely great… that would be beneficial to me (and whoever I marry).

On a related note, I’m wavering between which Education Major to choose. I like working with little kids, and tend to think they would show me the most respect; however, I think that I may also have a difficult time keeping them under control just because kids these days tend to be more rambunctious.  If I did Middle Childhood Education, I’d be able to do a more specialized field such as science or math, but I really don’t look forward to teaching some of the science stuff I would be expected to teach and I think math may be one of the harder subjects for students to understand. Then Adolescent Education would give me an opportunity to teach a very specialized subject and might also give me an opportunity to coach, but I’m not sure that the students would respect me or that I’d be good at teaching them. I think what’s affecting me most in my decision is fear. I need to let it go and hopefully have God make my decision for me. Please be praying for me about this so that I may make the best decision. Thank you!

I’ve got a lot to do before fall semester and I can’t wait to get it all done… otherwise it will just be moving from one kind of stress to a new kind of stress. I would like some time to recover from the stresses of preparation before diving into the stresses that come with living in a new place where I will know very few people and be coached by a new coach and be taking lots of classes.