Taken with instagram
Four sessions that show you different ways our brain fills in alot of missing bits our eyes can’t see. Really cool!
I just spent my first night in my new place. I really do love it. I have space. Lots of it. It’s bright, cheery, and the best part is my roommates. I love those girls. :)
This morning, as I’m contemplating all that I need to do today, I realized something interesting. The thing about moving to a new place is there is a huge sense of renewal, a chance to ‘start again’. A chance to redo all your organization. :) …But with all the new-ness comes lots of boxes. Full of stuff. Full of past stuff. And to really get a hold of your newfound organization and cleanliness, one must unpack, organize, purge if necessary, the old life. Hopefully, if you’re really on the ball (or you have a mother like mine who is excellent at helping you get rid of stuff!) you move with the least amount of junk possible. But inevitably, you will probably still have the random box of stuff that you just don’t know what to do with. …Actually, I probably could guess that many of you, though you haven’t recently moved into your current home, probably still have that box in your basement. …Maybe it’s even multiplied a few times. :)
As I was looking at the boxes stacked and strewn (…we’re working on that organization) in my dining room, I realized that I still keep quite a large box of random stuff that I should have gotten rid of a long time ago. It is stinky and dirty and really disorganized. …This box didn’t come in the trailer. This box sits in my heart.
The most ridiculous thing about this box is that I keep having the Junk Removers take it and I go searching for it and bring it back. …Do you know the phenomenon I’m talking about? I think that’s why Romans 12:1 calls us “living sacrifices”; we keep crawling off the altar of the High God and back into our old lives. I hate that about my nature. Colossians 2 commands that I “put to death whatever belongs to [my] sinful nature”. …Except I keep trying to revive it.
Oh! how I need His forgiveness. I wade around in this box, overwhelmed by its state, forgetting that Christ has already bought and removed it from my heart. And He desires to give my heart a total renovation so as to produce in me a heart that is “filled with the fruit of righteousness” (Phil. 1: 11).
What about you? Do you have a box (or two?) lurking in your heart? Christ will remove it and replace it. Though I can’t promise that the renovations will be painless (Tozer says that God can’t use a man greatly until He wounds Him greatly), but your heart will literally glow and be filled with the fragrance of Christ (1 Cor. 1:14-15) if you let Him. ….Let Him, friend.
We are who we are. Lotteries are stupid.
That’s a quote from the most recent episode of House. The episode deals with the “turds” life throws at you. Are reactions predetermined or do we have a choice?
Biblically, we are predetermined to choose wrong. ..In fact, scripture says we don’t have a choice because we are “dead in our trespasses” (Gal. 2:1).
But the thing is that we don’t have to stay who we are. Jesus is pretty clear about that. “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30) We are predetermined to labour and be heavy burdened. I have yet to meet someone who 100%, absolutely is ‘carefree’ in every sense of the word. We all carry yokes that are breaking our necks.
But Jesus promises a better yoke. The word He uses in verse 30, “easy”, is the Greek word “chrestos” which means “more pleasant”. It’s a bit ironic, really, because there is nothing pleasant about our sin, our deep unsatisfied longings, or our burdensome broken hearts. Not even a little bit.
But there is something completely pleasant and restful about a Master, Friend, and Brother who gives us a rest in our souls, where we thirst for peace the most. There is something pleasant about knowing that this yoke will forgive all my sin, satisfy all my longings, and heal my broken heart.
Yes, we are who we are. And lotteries are stupid. But not because we live, die, and that’s the end. It’s because there is Someone who wants to change us, from the inside out, Someone who will hear all our hurts and pain, sympathize with our weakness, and, ultimately, Someone who will take our neck-breaking yoke from us, put it on Himself, and lead us, with a pleasant rule, to richer grasses and still waters. He will, can, and does restore our souls (Ps. 23), so we can say with joy, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
