A Call to Holy Living

1 Peter 1:13-20 (NLT)

"So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy."
And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during you time as "foreigners in the land." For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days."

As a Christian, if I am truly living a Christian life as it is modeled in the Bible, imitating Jesus John, Peter, Philip, Phoebe, Paul and the other saints (esp. in Acts), I will be guaranteed persecution. If I considered myself a Christian, but my thoughts and actions were like all others in the world and I lived daily pleasing all people and succeeding in it, then I would not be living the full Christian life that God asks of me. Rather, I would be compromising God's holy standard that I was given when I accepted Christ and hardening my heart against a fuller understanding of Him.
There is a fence and we are either on one side or the other. There is no in-between.
Please, don't harden your heart to this message!
When you hear these verses, are you humbling yourself to God (not me) or hardening your heart against his Word? It's only one way or the other.

"I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!" - Revelation 3:15-16

"Woe to you when all men speak well of you.” – Luke 6:26

God says, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” – Hebrews 13:5b

“But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name.” – 1 Peter 4:16

“Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” - Psalm 69:9

Thank the Lord for Truth! We can know the Truth! I urge you, Christian, be filled with God's Truth every single day, lest you forget and fall away. Surround yourself with believers who exemplify biblical living, who are unashamed of God's Truth and his Cross, who actively seek to build others up. This Christian life is a FULL LIFE.

Laughing Over Spilled Milk

I am the Berlin wall… no, I am not that controversial. I am a dilapidated wood and concrete building with significance to only some. I am shattered by sledge hammers and 2-ton wrecking balls, scattered as the stones. Earlier today I started laughing uncontrollably at nonsensical words about “spilled milk” by an unknown woman whom I eventually found was Suzanne Vega. Then I started crying, not because of Suzanne, but for reasons unknown even to me. I’ve been a recluse all day, speaking weirdly to people as if I had sniffed Ether for breakfast. I want to get away to a place I’ve never been before, somewhere so thoroughly peaceful that each of my senses would be satisfied. I want my nerve endings to tingle, my mouth to water, my nose to expand and consume pure oxygen, my ears to vibrate and search for sound only to find the silence, and my eyes to widen and allow the sunlight to re-energize me like a lizard. The mode of transportation to this destination will be canoe; I hear the world is “going green,” so I must go native. As a child, I enjoyed the world fully, every moment stretching out as new. My surroundings were more exhilarating; I wasn’t in charge of my time or place, I was merely along for the ride.

An Outlandish Excuse

Poetry 91 w/ Jennifer Perrine

An Outlandish Excuse for my Absence

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Brigitte awoke in the morning, greeted warmly by the shimmering sunlight that tickled her eyelashes aflutter. Her mind quickly streaked to Ms. Perrine’s Poetry course that she would soon be attending, so she slid out of her 3 foot tall bed to prepare for the day.

When she slid, she expected her feet to touch solid ground… but no. Brigitte dropped further and further into a pitch black abyss, fearing a painful impact and expecting the worst. Suddenly, hands and paws from all sides began to grab at her, slowing down her rocket descent. She screamed and tried to get them off of her, but they only grabbed harder and gripped stronger. Soon, she was cradled in mid-air by a cluster of furred and fleshy fingers. The space around her slowly became visible and she could now see clearly who her captors were.

Llamas, elephants, platypus, and hobbit-gnome-type creatures placed the girl, who was now shaking uncontrollably, on the solid ground she’d been waiting for. Brigitte looked around uneasily, thanking God that she’d worn clothes to bed last night. All of a sudden, *thwack!* She was thumped in the head by an old, frumpish elephant trunk and knocked unconscious.

“Why’d ya do that?!” squeaked a lisping platypus to the giant pachyderm.

“It was an accident,” said a beautiful llama with a British accent. She was speaking on the mute elephant’s behalf. “Arbutus has a terrible twitch.”

“So what should we do with the girl?” queried the platypus.

But before the British llama could reply, 1,000 gallons of water rushed in, frothing and swirling from all sides. The only ones who lived were the platypus. Somehow the small water-animals saved Brigitte, and got her back to her bed. When she awoke, she was sopping wet and wondering only two things:

1. Was that really a dream?

2. Did I wet myself?

First Night in the Cottage

A vacant room holds only a few unused furnishings and my crude nest in the corner, with my sparse belongings scattered at the foot of the bed frame. The emptiness of the room amplifies the thick, hollow hum of the ceiling fan and the windy trees brushing and scraping violently outside. From beyond the screened windows, a sound of something like thin metal squeals long and shrill every so often, breaking my concentration and replacing it with a quick feeling of vigilant terror. It’s like the slowing brakes of a rusty bicycle, or the eerie, creaking swing of a corroded gate turning on its hinges. I feel like every time it chooses to sound, my soul shakes.

Since recently bunking here, a brief rest from my travels, I have lost track of most time. I haven’t lost track of all of it. I know it is nearing the time when my eyelids grow heavy and I will sleep alone on this foreign cot, my temporary quarters.

Something below my ribcage sends sharp pain throughout all the nerves in my body. Is my stomach the source? Am I hungry? Do I even have food here? The Cottage is foreign to me yet, and my belongings are strewn about in no such order, one that I did not choose. Once again, did I bring food? Regardless, I am off in search of rations. Let the adventure begin in the kitchen… or perhaps the basement.

Twitter Thinking

We talked about Twitter in my Freelance class today with Kyle Munson, an online entertainment editor for Des Moines Register and a personal buddy of my (awesome!) professor Jeff Inman. It's so interesting how the majority of Twitter-users are in their 30s and 40s!

I think Twitter is relevant, but I don't think it is the end-product. I think it is an invention in the beginning stages. It's like texting sort-of, only on a broader spectrum of strangers, friends and companies.

I hope this isn't the end-product at least, because personally, I'm on information overload with all the tantalizing links and quirky quotes - I want them all, but my brain can't handle them all.

I'm perpetually catching up!

Is this the life I want for myself, to constantly feel left behind in a world where no one will ever be ahead?

April's Apricot Amazingness

My friend April has inspired my newest revelation. My legs will never be the same again!

Apricot scrub consists of tiny shards of apricot pits and creams in a bottle. It is supposed to be used for face exfoliation. The only danger is, sometimes the shards of apricot pits can be too sharp and tear the pores of our faces and cause irreparable damage. Eek! Instead, it is better to use a face scrub with soft microbeads to exfoliate our beautiful mugs.

Now, here is the sweetest candy:

Don't throw away the apricot scrub! We can use it, instead, to exfoliate the tougher skin of our legs and bikini line to get rid of dead skin that clogs the pores and ultimately, keeps us from a smoother shave. Oofda, that was a mouthful!

Here's how you do it:

1. Take an appropriate amount (typically a dime-size dab) of the apricot scrub and rub it on the sections of your body where you want a smoother shave. You decide the intensity and time-length of the scrubbing.

2. Rinse the scrub off the area.

3. Use soap or body wash to lather on the area and then shave.

4. Rinse off, dry and lotion.

This process will produce a smoother, silkier shave and reduce razor burn. Hurray!
You can thank April personally by checking out her blog or her twitter.

And if you want to find me on Twitter, click here!

My Friend Jon

This is part of an email my friend Jon sent to my Bible Study tonight.

Next weekend, there's tentative plans for a low-key, Crawford worship night (location and time TBA). S'mores WILL be happening. I love s'mores & once, during the summer before my senior year in high school, I woke up in the morning and there were huge chunks of marshmallow in my hair. I don't know how that happened, but it was funny. My mom thought I was gross. I thought I was hungry. Anyways, the important thing to remember is that Jon loves s'mores.

-jon

My friend Jon is awesome. :) Enough said.