He is Risen!

He is risen indeed!  

(for some reason I keep typing "resin."  I suppose many representations of Him are...)


On this day in celebration of our Lord's resurrection, let us not forget to actually take a moment to contemplate and give thanks to God for what He has done!  Many people almost dread the day of Easter because they have to do so much and are busy to the point of distraction.  So, remember to pause from the preparations of your wonderful Easter dinner and the stresses of friends and family arrivals and thank the Lord and sing His praise for He is risen and has saved us from our sins so we can walk with Him.

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

Seeing the Bible in a New Light--Despite not Seeing/Hearing Philip Mantofa

I opened my Bible today to read the assigned chapter for this weeks homegroup.  I began reading the meaty Luke 15  (actually, I started with Luke 20 because I remembered incorrectly, but it all worked out because they tied in well together).  As I started the chapter, I was struck with a realization.  The Bible is God's love letter to His people!  I've heard something to this extent several times before, but today it struck me as real.  God is revealing His thoughts and character to me!  And He tells and shows His love for me, and gives me guidance, direction, and conviction when necessary.  I continued reading into chapter 16 and parts of 17 and realized I had some chores to get  done before I needed to leave. But, how could I walk away from God's Word--especially now that I see it in a new light?!  I skimmed a few more verses and set down my Bible.  While I emptied the dishwasher, I remembered I can take God with me! I have His Holy Spirit in me.  I can talk to and with Him.  And I can call upon memorized verses for encouragement, etc.  So, while time with my Bible is lovely and wonderful and necessary, I abide in Christ and abides Christ in me!

It is good to make new realizations and be reminded of old ones.

Ravi Zacharias's I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah

I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love by Ravi Zacharias

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Rating: 3.5 stars--I liked it, but it just was not as good as it should have been.



Generally Speaking: While working through Focus on the Family's The Truth Project, I became aquainted with Ravi Zacharias. I found him to be brilliant, intelligent, and insightful. I decided to rediscover the public library and borrow some books on a variety of subjects. I borrowed two by Zacharias and one edited by him. When I picked this one out, I was expecting it to be a commentary on Old Testament culture. When I got it home, I read the subtitle: "Moving from Romance to Lasting Love." Oh. I decided to read it since I had been contemplating reading some books on the subject of love and marriage anyway. So, I eagerly began reading this book...and was pretty much disappointed until I reached the second half.



My beef: I had hoped this book would enlighten me on the subject of how to grow a "romantic relationship" from one of mere attraction to one of lasting love. Except for a few quotable moments, the first three chapters of this book (it has 7) could be summarized into one sentence. "Marriage is more about your resolve to stick together than romantic feelings." I felt that Zacharias was saying it didn't matter who you married, or if you even liked the person, much less loved them. If you were willing to dedicate yourself to making it work, it would work no matter what. Now, this is not necessarily bad advice. If a person goes into marriage with the mindset it will be all sunshine and roses, they are just plain wrong. I'd like to think that my marriage to someone I loved would have a better chance than one with some random guy I just met on the street. But I digress. Zacharias does bring up the point how finding the favor of God your relationship is important. But he repeats the "all that matters is determination" mindset to the point of losing all his other points. Perhaps this focus is because he grew up in an Indian culture where arranged marriages are common (his marriage was not an arranged one, though). The dedication needed to have a successful marriage in that situation is great indeed! I imagine the Western view of lovestruck marriages with cherubs singing and puppies frolicing in meadows looks silly to him. Perhaps he felt we needed his point drilled into our heads. If that was is goal, he achieved it.



The Good Parts: After we got into the later chapters of the book (particularly the last two), it became apparant Zacharias does have a romantic bone in his body! He also dealt more with the actual romance of Rebekah and Isaac, drawing the parallels which I had waited for the whole book. He also included a lovely hymn at the end to reiterate his point about God being the ultimate one to consult in your relationship. Zacharias also talks about the things one should do in his or her life to prepare for marriage and to be ready for marriage and life: a prayer life, an ongoing personal Bible study, and being involved in a local church. But that was an odd thing about this book. For it supposed to be about love and marriage, there was a large focus on how to live a personal Christian life. Perhaps that is the point. We must be fully grounded in our faith both individually and together.



This book was definitely thought provoking. But not about what I thought Zacharias's point was. I had a lot of thoughts about prayer. About Bible study. About outside perspective. Etc. My thoughts inspired by this book regarding entering the state of marriage?



1.) Surrender your life to God.

2.) Surrender your romance to God.

3.) Do not enter a relationship without God's consent.

4.) Make sure your parents are on board (hopefully that is an option)

5.) Keep the romance alive by doing the little things for each other.

6.) But remember, when the going gets tough, dedication is a major part of love.



View all my reviews

Cookbooks and following God's recipe

Here is a wall of text for those of you who missed me! :).

I'm sorry it has been a while.  I hope to remedy the posting droughts by properly refocusing my blog and posting what I feel like I should rather than over-analyzing everything.  So, from now on,  instead of feeling like every post has to be amazingly deep and profound, I will feel free to publish book reviews, quotes from books or articles, Bible verses from my readings that strike me for some reason, and, potentially, cooking updates!

I'm particularly excited about that last one.  While deliberating/fighting with God about what in the world I was going to do if I wasn't in school, He told me I was going to cook and bake cookies, particularly oatmeal raisin cookies.  In  case you did not know, oatmeal raisin cookies are evil.  Prior to God's voicing His plan in regards to this, I once got so angry at a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies that just weren't turning out (despite it being the exact same recipe that I had used before that had turned out wonderfully...) I reached into a 350 degree oven bare-handed to pull out a tray of said defective cookies.  So, yes, when God told me that I was going to be spending a lot of time with the most demonic baked good in existence, I became even less happy.  But when He told me that I could and should buy cookbooks, I brightened.  I love books.  A lot.  And I enjoy food.  I enjoy gardening and growing food, preparing it, cooking and baking it, talking about it, giving it to people, and eating it.  My family is like this, too.  We plan vacations around food.  We will find out about a restaurant and plan a vacation to the area, looking for other things to do while there (the buffet at Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen in Mt. Hope, OH is really good if you want some Amish food.  Nearby, there is the Walnut Creek Cheese Factory: a bulk food store with jellies, jams, and cheeses, too.  P. Graham Dunn is a nice place to stop on the way to the area.  We make this day trip at least once a year.).  

Anyway, I kind of forgot about buying cookbooks.  This was one type of book I didn't really know how to buy because the market is filled with so many different types and qualities.  So, I decided to make use of the Internet instead of physical books.  I began following blogs and became not the first person to discover Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks.  As I became a dedicated follower, she announced the upcoming publishing of her new book Super Natural Every Day.  I was pendulous about purchasing it but eventually decided in favor of doing so.  Guess what?  It came today!  Guess what else?  Today started out as one of the roughest I have had in a long time!  So, I wasn't overly thrilled with its arrival and drug it inside along with the other large boxes from Amazon containing  our next few months supply of Izze drinks.

I was feeling frustrated with several people and with life in general.  Thus, I set about my day with a bad attitude.  As my frustration faded, I became more and more light-headed to the point I was seeing stars even after standing for a long period of time.  I lay down and rested for a bit, and that helped, so long as I didn't move any part of my body and stared straight at the ceiling.  I fought through it to get some food and lemon water.  At this point, my insightful boyfriend asked me via text message how I was doing and, upon receiving my answer, suggested I put on worship music and think about for what I was thankful.  Good advice.  I didn't want to do it, but after I finished my snack I did.  It morphed into a quiet worship session. I discovered many of my problems stemmed from a temporary state of rebellion.  I didn't realize I was in such a state.  At the point of writing this, I do not know what I was rebelling against, but now that I have come out of it, I realize I was.  My chosen attire for the day, the music I had been blaring, my thoughts, and my feelings were all negative and rebellious.

The hold broke, I no longer felt dizzy and weak, but quiet and joyful.  I grabbed the package containing my cookbook.  I felt excited once I got it in my hands, I opened it, and a great joy swept over me that I had to share in my little corner of the Internet.  During my time praying to God, I had complained yet again about how I didn't feel like how I was doing anything worthwhile--just sitting around at home doing nothing (why did You do this to me again?).  And I complained about my apparent inability to do anything outside the home without being forced into a recovery day.  What I consider a busy day is considered to be an easy one by most people ("well...I had to go to the store to pick up some stuff, go to the library to drop off books, and to the bank to make an ATM withdrawal.  Now I'm exhausted. No, I'm not sick: I've always been like this!  Seriously!").  I madly asked God why He made me "defective."  In hindsight, I find this to be funny in a sad way.  Here I was telling the perfect Being who made me that He did it wrongly--"God, You screwed up!"  But, He patiently told me that there was nothing wrong with me, that He made me to be a homebody so I could effectively minister there, no one is defective when living according to His plan, and that I should go open my cookbook so I could enjoy expanding my knowledge while working to improve my food ministry.  Now, I am going to warm up some supper and do just that.