Tomorrow

Don’t forget to dream

When joy seems forgotten

Don’t forget to dream

When your ship no longer sails

Don’t forget to dream

Look into the night sky,

Immerse your eyes in black

And don’t forget to dream

On a hill far away lives a hermit,

So lonely,

Running from all life gave him

But he forgot to dream

In a dorm room a student

Puts pen to paper

And begins to set flight to dreams

A mother silently puts her baby to bed

As he stares into her velvet brown eyes

A baby has found imagination

Don’t let him forget to not dream

When the tears stain the paper

And the war rages on

Stand strong, and have faith

Don’t forget to dream

When the battle is over

And the field covered with blood,

Remember, remember,

To dream

Dreams rebuild the heart,

The country, the world

Dreams lead to great acts of valor

Drams birth philosophers,

But better yet – dreamers

Dreamers who will tell

The next generation,

Not to forget

Don’t forget to dream

Don’t forget, there’s tomorrow

Chris Klicka

Pray for Chris Klicka and his family. Mr. Klicka has been the Colorado HSLDA representative for many years and was intregal to authoring our homeschooling law a short twenty years ago. Before this, homeschooling was illegal and punishable in CO.
Mr. Klicka was diagnosed with MS a little over 15 years ago. God has blessed him throughout this, but is finally calling him home. Pray for his wife, and his seven children to stay strong.
As quoted from the HSLDA site:
"Chris Klicka, HSLDA’s first full-time attorney, who has been fighting multiple sclerosis for many years, became very ill at our National Leaders Conference in Colorado last week. Chris was admitted to St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs but has since been moved to hospice care.
His family has traveled from Virginia to be with him. Please pray for them as they wait on the Lord during this difficult time.
For updates on Chris’s status visit CaringBridge.org.
You may leave comments about Chris on the discussion section of HSLDA’s Facebook page.
Members and friends of HSLDA are also invited to email their well-wishes and comments concerning Chris to feedback@hslda.org.
For more about Chris’s years of service to the homeschooling community, view his bio at HSLDA’s website."
You can also read the recent updates at http://www.rejoiceinprayer.blogspot.com.
Thanks so much.:)

From the Manger ---> To the Cross ---> For the World

This past Sunday my church just started a study on the gospel of Luke. This week Josh gave an overview of the entire book, which he entitled “From the Manger, to the Cross, for the World.” He said he almost named it “Our Humble God,” and you can see why by simply scanning the book. Soooo, I’m going to share the notes I took.:P And I will post the link to the sermon once PHBF gets it online.

Luke has 3 main emphasis – humility, discipleship, and salvation.

Pastor Josh quoted Andrew Murray, from his book Humility; The Journey toward Holiness, saying “There are three great motivations to humility: it becomes us as creatures, it becomes us as sinners, and is becomes us as saints.”

Humility in Luke appears as prayerfulness and joy – Jesus prays more in Luke than in any other Gospel. Luke is also the only book that speaks of our Lord having joy – which is why some call it “The Singing Gospel.”

Humility is something that I personally struggle with BIG time, always have, and probably always will. But, as Josh pointed out, God resists the proud and draws near the humble. Why does He resist the proud?  Because our perfect God can not get near those He is opposed to – God is opposed to you, God is opposed to me.

To go back to the fact that Jesus prays more in Luke than any other book – what are prayerful people/ Prayerful people are humble people. Jesus prayed at the baptism (chap. 1), for the disciples (12), at the transfiguration (8), etc.

Prayerfulness conveys a sense of need – non-prayerfulness (for lack of a better word) conveys a sense of self-sufficiency. Lack of prayer means that you are telling God you don’t need Him.

The book of Luke is unique from the other gospels in the fact of prayer, and the fact that it’s the only book that conveys Jesus’ joy. Luke is not simply a record of the historical facts, but so much more.

We can see Jesus joy in 1:14, and in 24;52.

Anxiety is pride. This statement surprised me. Now, I personally am diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. And I know my pastor was referring to anxiety in general, but still. Anxiety – like non-prayerfulness says that you perceive yourself sufficient. You believe that you can do it on your own. I do believe I can do most things on my own – and I get angry when I can’t, which goes to show the pride in my heart.

Other characteristics that are actually pride in disguise?

Thanklessness – pride

Immaturity – pride

Boredom – a sign of pride – a sign that God’s Word doesn’t impress you. THAT got my attention.

Criticism of others – pride (yeah………I struggle with that more than a lot of things)

Moving on to the second emphasis – discipleship.

If Luke were a movie, it would be shot in 5 scenes:

1:1-2:52: The Infancy Scenes

3:1-4:13: Jordan River Region

4:14-9:50: Galilee

9:51-19:27: Journey to Jerusalem (why is this journey so focused on? Because Jesus is calling you to a journey of your own)

19:28-24:53: Jerusalem

While Jesus is going to the cross he is beckoning all to the WAY of the Cross.

According to Luke 14:26 the love of family should look like hatred compared to your love for Jesus. Does it?

He calls us to name Him our Master, our Savior, and our Treasure – anything else that holds that place are idolatries of the heart (9:23-26).

Discipleship means hard core commitment to the local church – how can you say that you love Jesus – the head of the church – if you do not love the body. How can we walk this difficult road? He provides us with the power of the Holy Spirit (12:8-9, 1:67, 2:25, 3:22, 4:1, 4:14, 11:13).

Salvation – the universal reach of the Gospel. Luke contains a special emphasis on women. We must share the gospel by our own initiative. Luke was written so that one can know it really happened. Most scholars agree that Luke and the other gospels were written only one generation after Jesus life – meaning that there were still eyewitnesses alive. We have more evidence of the Life of Jesus than of Caesar’s invasion of Gaul – we have 1 manuscript written 900 years after his invasion. But for Jesus we have 5000 manuscripts written during or 1 generation after his life.

In conclusion – according to Luke 19:10 – we must look to Jesus as our Saviour, the high calling of discipleship, and the low calling of humility.

Untitled

 I was sent this a while back in an email:


 
                 






                I was shocked, confused, bewildered

                         As I entered Heaven's door,

                         Not by the beauty of it all,

                         Nor the lights or its decor.

                        But it was the folks in Heaven

                        Who made me sputter and gasp--

                     The thieves, the liars, the sinners,

                        The alcoholics and the trash.

                    There stood the kid from seventh grade

                       Who swiped my lunch money twice.

                       Next to him was my old neighbor

                        Who never said anything nice.

                         Herb, who I always thought

                          Was rotting away in hell,

                      Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,

                           Looking incredibly well.

                      I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?

                       I would love to hear Your take.

                     How'd all these sinners get up here?

                         God must've made a mistake..

                         And why's everyone so quiet,

                         So somber - give me a clue.'

                'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.

                    No one thought they'd be seeing you.'

Western (or maybe it's eastern...) Colorado's First Snow ~ September 23rd

Part of my back porch



Snow on the railing

The view from my kitchen window

View into the living room onto the deck from the upstairs little hallway thing.

Ok, this has nothing to do with snow, but it started snowing too hard for photography for a little while, so I took photos of my breakfast. Those are "fake" sausages if you couldn't tell. And I like my fried eggs really wet.:P

Front yard - the forest is beautiful, I miss the plains though.

I feel like it's time for Christmas carols...

I took this on a different day - it's blurry because it was raining and we were going like 50 mph.

For Those Tears I Died

One of my favorite hymns to play is "For Those Tears I Died."

You said you'd come and share all my sorrows

You said you'd be there for all my tomorrows

I came so close to sending you away

But just like you promised, you came here to stay

I just had to pray

Chorus

And Jesus said,

"Come to the water, stand by my side

I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied

I felt every tear drop, when in darkness you cried

And I strove to remind you,

It's for those tears I died"

Your goodness so great, I can't understand it

And dear Lord I know now that all this was planned

I know You're here now and always will be

Your love loosened my chains, and in You I'm free

But Jesus why me?

Chorus

And Jesus said,

"Come to the water, stand by my side

I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied

I felt every tear drop, when in darkness you cried

And I strove to remind you,

It's for those tears I died"

Jesus I give You, my heart and my soul

I know now without God, I'll never be whole

Savior, You opened all the right doors

And I thank You and praise You from earth's humble shores

Take me I'm Yours!

Chorus

And Jesus said,

"Come to the water, stand by my side

I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied

I felt every tear drop, when in darkness you cried

And I strove to remind you,

It's for those tears I died"

Principle #2: Love is Action - Not Just Words

Chosen Generation~

Realizing that love is an act leads to the fact that love is an action, and not just words. How simple life and consanguinity would be if love was just words.

But – at the same time how barren our subsistence would be.

You see, just as any child will eventually get sick of candy and long for casserole (as the Bible puts it – we will tire of milk and yearn for meat), so will you.

This is true of both our spiritual and of our physical relationships – anyone can “talk the talk,” but only the committed will truly “walk the walk.” Commitment cannot be defined as a one time decision, but as a life long pursuance.

True love takes the time to do the work necessary. True love will joyfully accept the required action, no matter how strenuous, or how tiring.

1 John 3: 18 explains how Christians are charged to love:

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."

As I gaze around at the people engaged in my life, my poisoned brain thinks only of what I can get out of them, and not what I can give them. But as one prays for renewing of the mind God will open their eyes, and they will see that every single person – whether it be family, friends, or someone at Wal-mart – gives them an opportunity to serve through love.

            The work clothes of pure and selfless love may not be your favorite to wear, but the Lord promises that they will never go out of style when the season changes.

To you, dressing in love may seem tedious, maybe even disgusting – but love works in a way such that the more often you put on that outfit and purposefully endeavor to truly love, the more beautiful it will become on you. The Love of Christ is an outfit that doesn’t look better depending on your hair or on your makeup – but on your heart.

True love is not tricked by appearances.

Impossible is Nothing~

-Be a World Changer-

Credits: A Young Woman's Wak With God, Elisabeth George, http://biblegateway.com

I'm not looking forward to class tomorrow, because I miss Credo.
And you Credo girls (because the boys are LAME - and if you guys read this, no offese - but talking once in a while would help) should comment and tell me how boring class is without the class clown.... or whatever I am. The smart class clown? The Killer of the Innocent? The Most Creative Writer Ever regarding Strange Subjects? Did you know that Neutrogena contains ox bile? This is why you need me. A fact you will never use again, yet it will be ingrained and irk your mind for the next twenty years.


Sarah to the Third Power
"Forgath," "You there!," and "Hey," works also.

There's no reason this should have a subject

Things I did or learned today:

1. Roman history is interesting - at least the war parts. But then, that's most of it, so it is interesting.

2. My mom prefers helping my elementary aged siblings more. Must be because it's easier.

3. I'm hungry, it's 3:40, I haven't eaten lunch. But I usually don't manage to eat lunch till 5pm anyway. So that's normal.

4. I shut off my phone alarm this morning, and thus didn't get up till 9:30....which wasn't a good deal. Why do I use my phone alarm? Because my mom stole my real one, and it’s just so much fun to wake up to my little sister banging on my locked door in the morning begging (screaming works also) me to turn Déjà Vu off. She’ll have to deal, because she’s the one who doesn’t wake to the alarm right next to her head. Seriously - I’m a deep sleeper and I woke up to her’s and shut it off.

5. Math is cool, and boring.

7. I really do abhor science, and I haven’t even done it yet today.

8. I started writing this at 3:40, but somehow it’s not 6:09 because I went to eat. Rise/bean/salsa/beef burrito = so good, and I’m really full.

9. I've decided I'll recharge my blog every month. I'm cool like that.

10. I want a left-handed guitar. I found a beautiful purple one, but it’s Daisy Rock, and I can’t afford it right now. I want Fender…. But they only come in the normal colors.

11. If you actually payed attention to the things I just said, you hopefully noticed that there was no #6. Anyway.

12. Right now you should be questioning why you spent time reading this.

Your answer?:P

Love - Emotional or Mental?

Chosen Generation~

I'm studying the fruit of the Spirit right now, and am working through love.

Last night I noticed several things that I've either overlooked, or just never noticed about love.

Have you ever noticed how many times the word "love" is used in both the New and the Old Testaments? I tried looking up how many, but ostensibly, people seem to have very different counts, so I couldn't trust any as truly reliable sources.

One of the first questions about love is how we are to love. To a Christian that answer may seem blatant, but it requires deeper searching to truly define such an amazing thing. But, as a basis, what is that unmitigated answer?

That, "as a child of God, we are to love others in the way that we see it modeled by God and His Son (A Young Woman's Walk with God, Elizabeth George)."

In search of passages that "prove" this truth, I find it repeated over and over again. Usually, when God repeats something - that means it's important. Just thought you'd like to know.

Ephesians 5:2: And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

John 15:12: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Matthew 22:39: And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Luke 6:27: “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you..."

So, in a nutshell, we are to love as Christ loves, love how we ourselves wish to be loved, and be forgiving.

In short, Christ-like love is nothing like what we see modeled in this world.

Many people consider themselves in love merely because of fleeting fancies, one time glimpses, and "love at first sight." But real love takes work. It takes effort, not just eyes. Jesus was and is the greatest Lover of all time, yet for some reason I doubt that He would be one you would immediately pick out from a crowd and declare undying faithfulness to.

Love doesn't happen.

Love grows, like a plant. The more you care and work with a plant, the stronger and healthier it will become. I don't know the percentage, but for most of those people who experience "love at first sight" - that love fails within a matter of months, weeks, maybe even minutes. You can be angry I said that, it's okay with me if you are. But deep inside, you too know that to experience a good result in any one thing, whether it be school, life, or relationships - one must work and “put his hand to the plow.” As the old adage goes, "good things never come easy."

I've established that love takes work, now realize that love is an act of the will.

Love.

What part of speech is it?

A verb.

Yes, but what kind?

An action verb…

Exactly.

Love takes action - work is action, and will is action. But, keep in mind that I'm not only referring to erotas, but also to agape, philia, storge, etc (if you don't know the meaning's of these words, go here).

As this book reiterates, it's hard to love under stressful conditions, yet that's where most of life occurs. Joy, you say. But it's time to face facts, so grow up (don't worry - I'm more immature than anyone reading this, that I can assure you). Anyway, it's at these times that love is most important, not the receiving of love, but the giving of it.

What, you say. I'm tired, my body aches, my stomach is in pain, my head hurts - and I'm supposed to continue to give?

How do you think our Lord Jesus felt on the cross, with nails in His hands and feet, blood dripping like you would never imagine?

Christian love is an act of will, a deliberate effort that we can make only by the grace of God.

As A Young Woman’s Walk with God states,

"so we choose to:

- give love when we want to withhold,

-reach out to others when we are tired and want to rest,

-serve when we want to be served, and

-help others when we ourselves are hurting."

A tall order? Of course, but with Jesus, impossible is nothing.

This kind of love comes only from our dear Savior, without Him we are nothing, and have no ability to even understand love.

In conclusion, love is not emotional, but an act of the will. A very important difference.

Well, I should go to bed, tomorrow I'll talk about Principle #2: Love is action, not just words.

By the way, did you know that there's a word called "antediluvian"? *shakes head in wonder* Just in case you'll ever have use for it, here's the definition for your arsenal:" 1 : of or relating to the period before the flood described in the Bible

2 a : made, evolved, or developed a long time ago." (Merriam-Webster)

It was first used in 1646, so I’m hoping someone’s heard of it…

Now that you can write a better paragraph, unlike the ones I just quickly scribbled, I can go to bed in peace.:P

Impossible is Nothing

Be a World Changer

In the Light

Chosen Generation~~~

So - I have a nice long post I'm working on (I really truly am), because I got a wonderful idea while photographing my sister's dead roses. Morbid? Not really. But you may feel so after you've read it... which would be after I write it. Anyways...

I wanted to share the following, because I think it's pretty much amazing - and if you could tell, I didn't write it.:)

Thanks Maresa for letting me use it.

In The Light

city lights ignite some fire at night, and i feel alive. the clock reads 10:44 and i realize that it's only an hour and sixteen minutes away.

that we'll have made it.and there are lots of things to say, but none of them really sum it up.
and all i can feel is grace, and love, and hope, and i swear its almost tangible.
one minute at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time.
and we are still here and our breaths still come out clear and my heart is still beating, strong and fast.
and tonight that is enough.
it's enough to just breathe. it's enough to just live. to be. to feel overwhelmed with love and joy andhope and change and growth. and pride.

and fear. a big amount of fear.but tonight, and tomorrow, i can let that go. i can breathe.
we can breathe. breathe grace, healing, love, redemption, freedom, laughter, inspiration, hope, change, and feeling.
tonight i am reminded that we were made for more. that it is okay to mourn, but it is also okay to dance. and tomorrow it will be okay to laugh and live and recount and rejoice together.
tomorrow, like we have for the past several months, we trade pain for healing, secrets for truth, and death for life.
and there's a big part of me that believes that as we party here on earth, Jesus and all of His angels are celebrating up in heaven, too. and it is the best feeling.
so. thank you. for reminding me that i never walk alone. for being there. for rescuing me, for being the physical hands of Christ in my life.

the city lights are bright tonight, and i'm reminded that life, too, can be bright. in the little things that provide solitary moments of joy. in the smaller bits that make up the big picture. in grace, in love, in redemption. i believe it tonight.
i hope you believe it too.

Well, I have

a lot of Chem to go do, for which I'm seven minutes late.:)

~IiN~

-Be a World-Changer-