These are a Few of My [New] Favorite Things

Stuffed Green Peppers

Earlier this week my sister and I tried our hand at making Stuffed Green Peppers.  We filled them with brown rice, Great Northern beans, chopped mushrooms, garlic, cheese and spices. They were so yummy we had them again this evening!

Soymilk

Since returning from South Asia, I haven't liked our (American) milk. I didn't like the milk there either, but I did like the thickness of it. Soymilk has the same consistency...so I converted (and so did my whole family!).

Multigrain Cheerios

I have always been a fan of Honey Nut Cheerios, but while I was staying with Melissa and James, I was introduced to Multigrain Cheerios. I have never looked back.

Pilates

I enjoy working out and I recently discovered Pilates. My posture is improving and I am learning the "art of muscle control" as I strengthen my core muscles. I am a fan...so is my sister who has become my new work out partner.

Shawls

While I was in South Asia, I bought a couple of shawls - knowing how handy they would be on the campus of Southern. Good call...I wrap one around me almost every day that I'm on campus. They are so great because they leave my hands free to type/write. I am such a baby when it comes to being cold and being on a predominantly male campus, cold is usually the temperature. :)

ESV Online Study Bible

My mom and sister got me the ESV Study Bible a couple Christmases ago. It came with a free online version. I just started using it and it is great. I can cross-reference verses with just a click of the button or search for a certain passage by using a key word. It will be a great tool for a couple of studies I want to do.

Living with My Sister [again]

Laughter, long chats, late nights, random adventures, accountability...Fun times. :)

Morning Devotion

In my morning devotion this morning, I was reading in Proverbs and came across this verse in 28:22:

A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. (ESV)

It the footnote it says the word translated "stingy man" means literally in Hebrew "a man whose eye is evil." This immediately made me think about how Jesus said that if your eye is evil, you will be full of darkness and vaguely remembered Him saying that in the context of talking about money, so I made a mental note to look it up. Right afterwards, I was reading for school in the Harmony of the Gospels (HCSB) and in Mark 7:18-23, Jesus says,

Don't you realize that nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him? For it doesn't go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated...What comes out of a person—that defiles him. For from within, out of people's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, lewdness, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.

Again, the word translated "stinginess" literally means "evil eye." Interesting. I followed up on my earlier mental note and found the passage in Matthew that had come to my mind. Here it is in context:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (6:19-23 ESV)

Now before I read about the literal translations of the first two passages that led me to this one, I had trouble making sense of Jesus' sandwiching His statement about the eye between those talking about possessions and money. It makes perfect sense to me now though! The Lord Jesus is concerned with the single-hearted devotion of His followers. Therefore He tells us not to labor for what perishes but to strive to lay up treasures in heaven. Then He tells us that we cannot serve both Him and money/possessions. If we are stingy (our eye is evil) then money is what we will serve and what will control us. It will be what we labor and strive for. We will not be generous as the Lord commands and we will not have the joy that accompanies giving (Acts 20:35). Instead, we will cling to money (which we perceive to be our strength and security) instead of the Light (Jesus Christ, John 8:12). When we know Him and serve Him, He makes our eye "healthy" and feels our body with light, but if we strive for riches or worldly things, we may think we are doing what is good and right, but we are actually fully of darkness (and poverty will come upon us according to the proverb above). Only Christ can fill us with light! (2 Corinthians 4:6)

From the sermon I heard this morning, I also made a connection between the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus constantly and continually intercedes for His people (Hebrews 7:25) and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we are unable to or don't know how to pray (Romans 8:26). How gracious is God in the way He helps us live for and serve Him and have access to Him! Also, Jesus is our guarantor (Hebrews 7:22) and the Holy Spirit is our guarantee (Ephesians 1:13-14). Not only does God graciously save us and graciously grow us in the faith, He also gives us the assurance that He will keep us to the end. Even though I have to respond willingly to God's offer of salvation presented in Jesus Christ and cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He makes me more like Christ, no part of God's election of me, saving me or keeping me to the end is dependent on me. It is all by His grace and good pleasure. In this I find great comfort and joy.

Ramblings of the Past Week

Last weekend I went home to pick up my sister and get the rest of my things to move to Louisville (since God has graciously blessed me with an apartment!). My mom and I took my sister to St. Louis for a conference. On the way back, I had a little car trouble. Thankfully, we had just picked up a few things from Whole Foods...

We got a little hungry...



...and we didn't have spoons


We made the most of it while we waited for my dad and uncle to come rescue us. We waited a little over 5 hours total, but we eventually made it home. And now I have a new fuel pump. :)

It had been nice to start settling in and cleaning my new apartment. One very unfortunate draw back to the place, though, is the wretched amount of spiders. I kill about one a day (3 today in fact). I guess that is to be expected in a basement apartment. :(

So I mentioned that Kristi is with me now. It has been nice to hang out together. She is visually impaired and we have been Kristi-proofing the apt. There is a pole between the kitchen and living room and we discovered this motion sensor light to place in front of it so she can see it. It's pretty great. She goes to campus with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last Tuesday, she had an accident with some steps. Because of her eyes, she relies on someone to guide/help her around. We were walking from chapel and because of a miscommunication between the two of us, she fell down the second set of steps. Thankfully, she was hanging onto me which minimized injury. I felt/feel so terrible because she trusted me to be her eyes. We are both extra cautious now though.

This evening we went to the annual India Day festival. After finally finding somewhere [free] to park, we walked a few blocks to join the festivities. I got the bright idea to take a street that was under construction. My thinking was that there would be less traffic, it would be safer, etc. Little did I know that the other end of the street was fenced in so we had to turn around once we got to the end of it (adding a few extra blocks to our trek). We did eventually have the oppoturnity to take in some Indian singing and dancing. We wore camises and were among the few Westerners there. I felt like I was in South Asia again!

I can sense that the Lord is on the move in my life. I mean He is always working but sometimes He prepares me in a way that  I can't describe. He is doing that now. I am not totally sure what He is up to, but I am sure I will find out soon. The last time I sensed this kind of working, He led me to South Asia... 

Can't Sleep...Sounds Like a Good Time for a Post!

The morning air is clean and crisp. The days have been cooler. And the leaves are beginning to turn. Yep, fall is definitely around the corner and I am loving it.

I spent the majority of this Labor Day weekend enjoying this beautiful weather. I went to a back to school gathering on Saturday where there was some down home music, grilled corn on the cob (freshly shucked I might add) and corn hole tournaments in typical Southern style. I met a lot of new people and saw some familiar faces as well. We ended the night singing hymns around the campfire. On Sunday, I wore my South Asian clothes and taught the ladies of RF how to make cha as I told them about my experience. Afterwards, I spent the afternoon at Parrin Park reading for my Ethics class until it was time for small group. It was the first time I had been to that park and it was beautiful. I will have to explore it some more when I have less reading. :)

So I have had this reversible belt for like five years and it has started to rip loose from the buckle. I really shouldn't complain considering it has lasted this long, but it is the perfect belt: brown on one side and black on the other. Well, today, I got out my tool kit to see if I had a mini flathead screw driver and, sure enough, I did. I was able to fix it and salvage a little more use out of it. Yay!

Current Lessons for the Lord: living in submission to His will and timing; seeking Him above all things and looking for Him at work every day

Side Note: Does anyone in Louisville know someone that is mechanically included (automotive)? My roommate needs her power steering fixed.