Carissa
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
One Snowy Afternoon
Our snowy backyard. It is a lovely, crunchy walk up back. The noise of the village fades and the quiet of a bare forest is very peaceful.
But then the quiet is broken by silly giggles and the snapping of branches as two girls go tumbling through the woods. This is perfect fort building weather. Of course, when is it ever not perfect fort building weather when you are 11 years old?
The master architect and her impressive lean-to.
Two silly girls walking home from the post office with me and singing a rendition of
"We Wish You A Merry Christmas".
Oh, we are not that strange, Poland people....really.... :) Just 11 years old and full of life.
Carissa
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Ordinary
It's all so very ordinary. The bare facts offer little to jazz up this story.
9 months pass from the day of conception, and a baby is born. Ordinary. It's happened this way for hundreds of years.
This birth takes place as normal. The usual contractions give the warning signal, and the labor progresses as always. Ordinary.
How ordinary that little baby must have looked. The wrinkly skin, the impossibly small features, the little mouth all twisted up in the first wail of shock over the cold world outside the womb.
Now every birth is a miracle, don't get me wrong. Life is an extraordinary gift from God.
But it seems almost bizarre that THIS birth should be ordinary.
That it should be like every other birth before it.
I suppose that it's pretty ironic that it's the sheer ordinariness that blows my mind.
It's really no wonder that there was confusion and disbelief. I mean after all, the God of the Jews was the God who spoke this universe into existence.
He was the God who parted the Red Sea and rained manna from heaven.
The God who sent His idolatrous people into captivity as judgement on their sin.
And He was the God who was going to send a Messiah to save them from the oppressive Roman Empire.
Yes. This was the extraordinary thing that they were waiting for.
What a startling shift of events.
As heaven rushed to meet earth in the most incredible event of all time...it was almost totally missed. It happened quietly. After all, who would have expected the God of the universe to be humbly born of a woman, and in a cow barn no less? Isn't that rather sacrilegious? It took humanity by surprise.
What WAS this? A helpless Infant being rocked to sleep in the arms of a teenage girl.
I can almost seen a divine sense of humor here. God has no problem in disappointing the expectations of men to work His own mysterious, sovereign will.
This was it.
All of history reached it's peak at the first cry of a newborn Baby. This ordinary event changed everything.
Everything.
And in God's amazing and unsearchable way, the ordinariness simply added to the extraordinariness.
"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will."
~William Cowper~
Merry Christmas
posted by Lydia
Monday, December 20, 2010
Homey Kinds of Things
Still trying to finish all my mittens before the big day!
Some Christmas cards I've made...
one of my favorite Christmas ornaments...
lavender with all its new branches stretching toward the sun....
my newest love :).....
Margret over for tea.
posted by: Caroline
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving Day
My heart is filled with thankfulnessTo Him who bore my pain
\Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness
And clothed me in His light
And wrote His law of righteousness
With power upon my heart.
My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside
Who floods my weaknesses and strengths
And causes fear to fly
Whose every promise is enough
For every step I take
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.
\My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who reigns above;
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace;
Whose every thought is love.
For every day I have on earth
Is given by the King.
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow Him.
~Getty and Townend~
posted by Lydia
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Musing...
"There is one character quality that Christian young people, parents and even teachers seem to universally lack: gratitude.Astounding, isn't it, that people who have experienced God's saving grace, and who live in the most privileged nation in world history, are ungrateful for what they have received?"
Musing...
Happy Thanksgiving!
posted by Lydia
Monday, November 22, 2010
Dethroning Agag
Familiar sounds filled the ears of the aged prophet as he slowly walked through the Israeli camp. It must have sounded familiar indeed in a culture where wealth was measured by land and livestock. Yes, there was no mistaking it; Samuel was hearing the sound of animals. Animals that should have been slaughtered along with the rest of the wicked tribe, as the Lord God had commanded.Samuel’s heart sank as he began to grasp the full implications of what this meant.
Disobedience.
Greed.
Deceit.
But it didn’t stop there.
As the grieved prophet confronted King Saul, he learned another heartbreaking fact: King Agag, the brutal king of the Amalekites, was also still alive. The word of the Lord had been clear- no survivors. This blatant sin of disobedience immediately stripped Saul of his kingdom. No second chances were offered.
Samuel commanded Agag to be brought to him, then mercilessly hacked him to pieces before the Lord. Justice had been served. However, the damage of King Saul’s sin had already been done. The barbaric Amalekite tribe was not blotted out that day as it should have been.
In fact, it only took a few years for this tribe to resurface, this time to plague Israel’s king-to-be, David.
David returned home after an absence to find that his entire household, including his two wives, had been stolen by…guess who! Imagine the helplessness he and his companions must have felt as the shocked silence gave way to heartbroken mourning.
However, anger renewed resolve, and after inquiring of the Lord, David and his men set out to claim what had been stolen from them.
God gave David a great victory that day. All but 400 young men of the Amalekites were wiped out. But through those 400 young men, the wicked tribe lived on.
The next time we see these evil people resurface yet again is during a desperate time in Israel’s history. It is during a time when this nation came face to face with total annihilation at the hands of an evil man. The name of that evil man was Haman, and he was a descendant of...well...guess who.
They were like the plague. A bad taste in the mouth that couldn’t be gotten rid of. Do you see a parallel? This tribe should have been destroyed as soon as they were detected. And yet, due to disobedience and complacency, they lived on. Every time they reappeared, they caused renewed havoc.
David returned home after an absence to find that his entire household, including his two wives, had been stolen by…guess who! Imagine the helplessness he and his companions must have felt as the shocked silence gave way to heartbroken mourning.
However, anger renewed resolve, and after inquiring of the Lord, David and his men set out to claim what had been stolen from them.
God gave David a great victory that day. All but 400 young men of the Amalekites were wiped out. But through those 400 young men, the wicked tribe lived on.
The next time we see these evil people resurface yet again is during a desperate time in Israel’s history. It is during a time when this nation came face to face with total annihilation at the hands of an evil man. The name of that evil man was Haman, and he was a descendant of...well...guess who.
They were like the plague. A bad taste in the mouth that couldn’t be gotten rid of. Do you see a parallel? This tribe should have been destroyed as soon as they were detected. And yet, due to disobedience and complacency, they lived on. Every time they reappeared, they caused renewed havoc.
To me, this seems allegorical to sin.
We also are commanded by the Lord God to aggressively attack something. To hack it to death. Because, just like the Amalekite tribe, if you don’t annihilate it, it will do everything in its power to annihilate you.
Sin.
It’s ugly, it’s aggressive, and it’s deadly.
“Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
We also are commanded by the Lord God to aggressively attack something. To hack it to death. Because, just like the Amalekite tribe, if you don’t annihilate it, it will do everything in its power to annihilate you.
Sin.
It’s ugly, it’s aggressive, and it’s deadly.
“Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
~John Owen~
How often we forget that we are in a war. It rages around us every single day. This is real. We have a genuine opponent. Are you putting your Agag to death?
Sin is subtle, and that makes it all the more powerful. It may hide, it may lay doormat, but if you don’t kill it, it will come back with hellish fury. This story provides a sobering reminder that this battle cannot be half-hearted. You can’t just kill half of it, or even most of it. It must be aggressively done away with, or it will simply come back in a slightly different form when you least expect it.
Alright, time to get practical! What are some real ways to be aggressive with remaining sin in the Christian life?
1. Call sin by its proper name.
Yes, a white lie sounds tamer and more innocent than deceitfulness...
Now that you mention it, a “slip of the tongue” sounds waaaay better than slander...
And yes, we all understand that that was a “prayer request” as opposed to gossip...
See my point? It’s all too easy to trivialize. Call your sin by what it really is, and you will begin to see it the way that God does.
2. Keep short accounts with God.
Don’t allow a recurring sin in your life to burn bridges between you and God. This is the devil’s plan. Keeping short accounts with God is the most sure fire way of thwarting that plan and enlisting His help with your Agag.
3. Practice “Gusty Guilt”.
Here’s an easy thing to do for anyone who has ever experienced the grip of sin in their lives: despair. Despair of ever finding a cure within yourself, and practice what John Piper refers to as “gusty guilt”. It goes something like this: YES I’m a sinner. NO, I have no hope within myself. I KNOW I’m worse than a worm graveling in the dust.
How often we forget that we are in a war. It rages around us every single day. This is real. We have a genuine opponent. Are you putting your Agag to death?
Sin is subtle, and that makes it all the more powerful. It may hide, it may lay doormat, but if you don’t kill it, it will come back with hellish fury. This story provides a sobering reminder that this battle cannot be half-hearted. You can’t just kill half of it, or even most of it. It must be aggressively done away with, or it will simply come back in a slightly different form when you least expect it.
Alright, time to get practical! What are some real ways to be aggressive with remaining sin in the Christian life?
1. Call sin by its proper name.
Yes, a white lie sounds tamer and more innocent than deceitfulness...
Now that you mention it, a “slip of the tongue” sounds waaaay better than slander...
And yes, we all understand that that was a “prayer request” as opposed to gossip...
See my point? It’s all too easy to trivialize. Call your sin by what it really is, and you will begin to see it the way that God does.
2. Keep short accounts with God.
Don’t allow a recurring sin in your life to burn bridges between you and God. This is the devil’s plan. Keeping short accounts with God is the most sure fire way of thwarting that plan and enlisting His help with your Agag.
3. Practice “Gusty Guilt”.
Here’s an easy thing to do for anyone who has ever experienced the grip of sin in their lives: despair. Despair of ever finding a cure within yourself, and practice what John Piper refers to as “gusty guilt”. It goes something like this: YES I’m a sinner. NO, I have no hope within myself. I KNOW I’m worse than a worm graveling in the dust.
Can we move on? Because you know what? I have an amazing Savior.
“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this:
"I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!"
~Martin Luther~
By the grace of God, sin doesn’t have to rule over you. It will try to destroy you. It wants to annihilate you. And, just like the tribe of the Amalekites, it will never leave you alone.
So go to war. Show your obedience to the living God and be aggressive. Because sin is something that we cannot afford to allow to live. Renew that resolve, and pick up the sword of the spirit. It is the only way to hack your Agag to death.
“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this:
"I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!"
~Martin Luther~
By the grace of God, sin doesn’t have to rule over you. It will try to destroy you. It wants to annihilate you. And, just like the tribe of the Amalekites, it will never leave you alone.
So go to war. Show your obedience to the living God and be aggressive. Because sin is something that we cannot afford to allow to live. Renew that resolve, and pick up the sword of the spirit. It is the only way to hack your Agag to death.
posted by Lydia
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Cookies!
We spent one lovely evening making cookies for some of the young people in our church away at school.
Show us what you put in them, Alicia.
Alicia no.....
....no, Alicia! Stop it!
Oh, Alicia!
posted by: CarolineThursday, October 21, 2010
Having some trouble!
Okay, so this is perfect opportunity to practice patience with these little things we call computers. Blogger is giving us some problems, hopefully we'll figure them out. Is anyone else missing the "Layout" tab on their dashboard?
Any advice?
Monday, September 13, 2010
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