Moving With God

Baby steps of faith, hope and love

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Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Thoughts; Published: 25 April 2011

Matt and I were talking about the Holy Spirit the other day because we have some youth who want to experience the Holy Spirit more (we have the best youth group ever, I know). The thing is, their expectations of what the Spirit does were a little bit limited and not very subtle.

The thing is, very often it is easy to think of the Holy Spirit like an amusement park ride that you climb into, buckle up, get moved, and then enjoy the adrenaline while you wait in the line for two hours to go on it again. Special youth events, conferences and retreats are places where it is easy to get on a spiritual high that makes every day life seem less than significant, not exciting, and probably not empowering. School and work and church are just things to do until our turn comes for one of those big events.

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Thoughts; Published: 21 April 2011

One of the things that adds a little variety to what is certainly a repetitive job is when we receive Christian literature along with cheque payments. Today we got the Chick Comic "Flight 144"!

This comic tells the message of salvation only through Jesus, not good deeds or a righteous life. The twist in the story is NOT that the plane lands safely (it doesn't - Chick Comics usually feature people meeting their maker sooner rather than later), but that the famous missionaries on board do NOT make it into Heaven! The problem is that all they did was build hospitals and schools, but they never taught anyone about Jesus.

Personal highlight:

Jesus has no face!! What the heck... I understand the riskiness of drawing God in a comic, but still... I think white ninja handled this issue better than Jack Chick...

Hopefully coming soon... reflections on the book of Titus! Which will have very much to do with the role of good deeds in Christian life :)

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Thoughts; Published: 20 April 2011

It struck me today when I was sitting at the doctor's office after my annual physical that I was in a room where any day a person's life could be changed forever. All it takes is for a [lump/freckle/blood level] to be not normal, and all your priorities change.

Health is really easy to take for granted (especially lately since I have been sick with a cough/cold on and off for a month or so), and it is easy to complain about aches and pains, or grey hair, or food going bad, or lack of time for hobbies. BUT today I wanted to make a point of appreciating my relative good health!

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Life; Published: 19 April 2011

I will be writing the last final exam of my B.A.

Back to studying!!!

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Thoughts; Published: 16 April 2011

Here is another aspect of tithing that people love to get riled up about! On one side we have the tithers: "If you don't give, you are robbing God!" "Jesus died for you, and you don't want to write him a cheque!?" "If you aren't willing to return a portion of God's gifts to you, don't expect him to continue to bless you." *angry scowls and fist shaking*

On the other side, the non-tithers protest: "We receive God's blessings by his grace, not by buying them!" "Jesus was homeless, and he was tortured to death, how do you get the prosperity gospel from that?!" "You Pharisees!" *outraged head shaking*

Read more: 10% Tithe

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Life; Published: 14 April 2011

I enjoyed a real day off on Tuesday (no work, no school) and was proud of myself for not succumbing to the temptation of Netflix. A friend from church got me into Mad Men, so I have been making my way through the first season. But Tuesday was a good mix of NOT watching TV all day: housework and relaxation, walking the dog a couple times, cooking a real meal and then finally after dinner making some flashcards for my biology final (which was last night and went great! I am half way to done forever!)

Part of relaxing including reading the internet, which can sometimes be a huge time drain for me (like the time Matt and I watched all the freakout kid videos on youtube for an hour and a half instead of going to bed on time), but on Tuesday was pretty good. My dear sweet sister told me the other day that I have become a "wealth of knowledge"! Although I think that comes just from telling her to read stuff that I've read, like a book on fertility awareness and a website about the GAPS diet.

Tuesday I learned about soaking whole grains to reap their nutritive benefits and the Oil Cleansing Method, which I am planning to try out starting tonight! (After all, my grad pictures have been taken, and the ceremony is not for three weeks, so if my face morphs into a shiny, smiling pimple there will hopefully be time for my old face soap to work its magic and straighten me out!)

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Life; Published: 12 April 2011

Couldn't resist - movie theatre still hasn't bothered to fix their sign :)

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Life; Published: 12 April 2011

I am heading to bed... have been heading to bed for an hour now. But for reals - I just needed to let it be known that I just pulled a grey hair out of my head... It was pure white actually, as the driven snow. Matt teased me that I shouldn't stress so much about life (first of only two final exams on Wednesday!!! I'm stoked to be so close to the end).

Now, to my beauty sleep!

Details: Written by: Alyssa; Category: Life; Published: 08 April 2011

My bus was stopped at a light near a movie theatre sign and I was slightly amused to see that a column of lights was burnt out so not all the letters showed up. Mars Needs Moms was listed as "Mars Needs Mo"

Then I was truly amused to see the board advertise Red Riding Ho!!
Let's all go see it on cheap Tuesday :)

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