A Poem about Friends

A friend is a friend to the end
There will be troubles, bubbles and chocolate truffles
And despite the lil' squobles the love still remains.
Not any love but that of which will be true honest and good
Lest a deceitful tongue scar the one of whom you love

This Here update

On this here January 11, 2013, I would like to write about my current life status. I am taking five classes; three of which are of historic in nature. well, 'doctrine of the church' i consider historic simply because it is most effectively learned from scripture, the best recorded history we have today. The other two, Church history and World history speak for themselves. I lack memory from high school or grammar school history because of my apathetic attitude toward it. Because of this, I am learning quite a bit of exciting information. I am also taking an English literature course. It is taken online. Reading is one of my most favoritist pass times. :) British Lit tends to have, in my opinion, more  volume and thought provoking material. However, I do believe one's mind is only as useful as he makes it. Needless to say, I look forward to this next ten weeks of intense reading and taking in as much knowledge as possible.


In the event of a new year here are some personal goals of mine. Inspiration and encouragement are my intent in sharing.
    I intend to discipline myself to prayer, not only prayer, but in documenting the works of God in my life and the lives of others. Practically, I write a one line theme every day of the week. It may be the grace of God, the miracles of faith, the outworking of my salvation, my attitude, love, self-control etc. I find a verse to match up with that theme and meditate on it during the day.
    Vocabulary is a struggle for me. Learning to use more words and spell them correctly is tough. I love to write, and would like to help others and communicate well someday with my writing. Therefore, I need to be a student in the Word of God, but also the English language. A great way to add to my understanding of our language is through the internet. Get a word every day via email and write it down in a journal. Copy the origin of that word, and how we use it. Use this word twice in conversation during the course of the day. You find that often these uncommon words will come up in your writing or in conversation when looking for a descriptive word. A wider variety in speech brings much clarity! As followers Jesus, we need to be clear and descriptive in teaching the Word he spoke on earth, in short, the gospel.

America vs. Literature

Here is a Post I did for my English Literature class. It's just the indroduction to the class. However, I  am looking to get a better understanding of in what ways(good or bad) American lit has and does effect us, the general public, and what we are doing about it.  So offer thoughts..Discussion is helpful.          What does it mean to be an American? - Fighting together in unity, despite our differences, for truth, justice and equality which gives us Freedom. An american understands the need for justice (law/order) and is willing to support and follow that law. Respect for differences in culture, religion and opinions is important to authentic patriotism of a true American.                  Success is defined in short as the freedom which ultimately gives American's the right to decide what happiness and success are for their own life. This success can also be defined as the as the justice and equality set in place at the start of our nation. We have not really lived up to this so called "success of America". We can believe in success and equality because American success is that lifestyle of equality of persons and freedom. We must believe in individual rights in order to believe every man has the capability to equally pursue happiness.                   There are many national "conversations" that have allowed Americans to answer these questions. Some being: gun control, religion in the school systems, murder, capital punishment, health care, and especially our economy. There could be a much larger list. However, even these issues bring about discussion, opinions and hopefully answers to which we look for often through our own Literature. Literature has often has political meaning, and reflects our leadership and religion.  Literature reflects society and changes with culture. Therefore, the rhetoric of literature is very similar to the rhetoric of our culture and it has changed over time to become less traditional and more liberal.  I believe it answers some questions but not all. It tends to be reflexive and gives meaning to our society.                     The issue of work ethics, social status, economics, governing authorities seem to be a consistent theme in literature and are often given thought provoking answers to these repeating American issues. Too often we are not inspired enough by the experience or second hand writings of these problems to really allow it to change us. As a whole I believe we do not reflect on past English Literature enough.

Marriage

One week ago today my eldest brother was bound in a marriage covenant. I typically do not like weddings. I try to shy away from revealing the fact that I'm pretty cynical, but I just am. It is definitely something that needs to change. God blessed me with a beautiful example of his Grace through marriage in my mom and dad. After Shawn's wedding last week, I now by the grace of God, see marriage much more purposeful. God is amazingly glorified through a man and a women vowing to share their lives together no matter what. Two sinners who on their own are enemies of God and cannot worship God through marriage, come together(by God's perfect redemptive love) enables those two sinners to represent the gospel.
   When I think of binding myself to one person until I die, it scares me. Thoughts run through my head like: I can't love someone that long. What if he turns out to be someone else? What if he doesn't really love Jesus?What if I cause him to stop loving me? These are all genuine things to think through, but when Christ lays down his life for the kingdom of God, we can live in complete freedom. We have joy and strength in Christ that is utterly impossible to explain. 2 Corinthians 12 talks about Paul's ailments which seem to limit him in his ministry, but he teaches us that God's strength is literally made perfect through our weaknesses. We can rejoice in God bringing two people together who live to showcase who he really is. This then radically changes the response to and in marriage. I look forward to the day I bind myself to one man for the rest of my life.
 Ephesians 5:24 "Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands."

Family by God's grace

Family is a blessing from the Lord and ultimately is to be God glorifying. How are you seeking out truth and loving those you spend most of your time with to teach them and serve by living in the Grace of God? Let's put our minds to think on pure truth of who God is. Teach...Love..Serve... make disciples in your family and they will make disciples in theirs.

Working at Cracker Barrel

     I have worked at Cracker Barrel old Country Store for about six months. It has been altogether a good experience. I do not want to be doing it anymore but would miss it if I was not working there. I suppose that's the nature of life. The grass is always greener on the other side..that is what they say anyway. Who are they?.. They sure seem to be know it alls. hmm  God teaches he is our all sufficient, comforter. Even as something as tedious and annoying at times as working at Cracker Barrel, God gives us instruction and promises to rest in. There are many other things I would enjoy doing for a living, but for the time being I am working at Cracker Barrel. Some positive things: Biscuits, strawberry jam, blueberry pancakes, carrots, green beans, and rocking chairs. Well, there are more good things, but if you did not pick up on it, I do enjoy eating there.
    I am so thankful for God always, always providing for me and giving me the ability to work with my hands. It's easy to leave work bitter at the old people who left me fifty cents after sitting at the table for two hours.When I make the effort to think about why I am at work, it makes for such a blessing. Yes, reality is, I need to make a certain amount of money to pay my bills. The thing is though, as a disciple of Jesus, I desire to go to work to showcase the gospel. I often do not. There was one day in particular I felt the Holy Spirit so strong in my heart and mind. I prayed on the way to work for God to use me. All day I was feeling sick and very tired. I just persistently prayed for God to do something to show someone he is real. I knew he was going to do something. I grudgingly got my coat, and keys and proceeded to clock out. I was disappointed the day just went as usual. As I waited in a long line to get my tips,I noticed a women walk out with to go food crying pretty intensely. My first instinct was to run after her, but then I began to rationalize not going. Thoughts like: She would think it was weird, I'm a stranger to her, I have to get my tips still, It's late and I'm starving, all began to run through my head in just a matter of seconds. The was a battle going on in my heart. I collected my tips, went outside and saw a car sitting in the parking lot with it's lights on. I walked up to the car and knocked on the window. At this point I did not have a clue if it was the lady crying or not. It was dark and cold outside and even then as I stood there shivering I was wondering why I was doing this. A sad women rolled down her window. I asked her if she was okay and she could not speak because she was still crying too hard. I just asked her if I could pray. I prayed for her for a few minutes. When I was done praying she asked me to tell her about my faith. I began to speak about Jesus and who he was and how God sent him to redeem the lost so that he receives glory and someday will forever be worshiped by dependent sinners like ourselves. I would finish sharing the gospel and she would ask me to tell her more about how God changed me.
      I never knew what was wrong with the lady. As I left, I was so humbled and broken. This is just one example of God's power in my workplace full of unbelievers. I could tell you many more stories similar to this one. My point in sharing this is not to say I did the right thing but there are several things to take away from this.
GOD IS POWERFUL!
Do not underestimate the Holy Spirit speaking to you,EVER.
do not just go to work to pay the bills, even if you do not really enjoy your job in this season of life.
PRAY..ask God to do something to make himself famous

In attempt to keep tract of some important aspects of my life in order to more readily recognize my personal growth in the Grace of God or in just practical things, I decided to keep a blog. I would also like to have those I love who are very far away and unable to keep in touch have somewhere to hear from me when they have time to read a little bit of what I'm thinking. An important aspect of the body of Christ is being fed and feeding. Discipleship is serious to God. Therefore, we as believers should take it seriously. I desire to be an encouragement to those who read my blog from time to time;I would also love to be lifted up with truth of the gospel. I will most likely post very random subjects, but all relative to what is in my brain for the time being. so..I guess you could venture to say..They will not be random to me. Hopefully, I can make  you laugh, cry, and think, but most of all challenge us (myself included) to love Jesus more.