Hey Adam and Tasha,
I just wanted to pass on some awesome newsSaule came to Community Group tonight. I don't know her story with God, but tonight she volunteered to pray for one of the other people there and something going on in their life. Besides praying for that, she prayed the most beautiful prayer thanking God for hearing us and loving us.
She also took a turn reading from the Bible as we went around. It was great. When she finished her 2 or 3 verses, Kelsey cheered for her.
I am so glad you guys took her in for Christmas dinner. I think that move is going to change her life.
Yeah Jesus.
Bill
Hi!:)
How are you? What is new?
I just wanted to ask, can you send me pictures from our Christmas day?:) Thank you very much, for your kindness, that you didn't let me to be alone on the Christmas day:))) I'm very thankful for you!:)
Take care
See you soon!
Saule
Friday, January 29, 2010
From Fabermazlish- examples of unproductive parenting
I. Blaming and Accusing
"Your dirty fingerprints are on the door agian! Why do you always do that?.. What's the matter with you anyway? Can't you ever do anything right?... How many times do I have o tell you to use the doorknob? The trouble with you is you never listen."
II. Name Calling
"It's below freezing today and you're wearing a light jacket! How dumb can you get? Boy, that is a really stupid thing to do."
"Here, let me fix the bike for you. You know how unmechanical you are."
"Look at the way you eat! You're disgusting."
"You have to be a slob to keep such a filthy room. You live like an animal."
III. Threats
"Just you touch that lamp once more and you'll get a smack."
"If you don't spit that gum out this minute, i'm going to open your mouth and take it out."
"If you're not finished dressing by the time I count to three, I'm leaving without you!"
IV. Commands
"I want you to clean up your room right this minute."
"Help me carry in the packages. Hurry up!"
"You still didn't take out the garbage? Do it now... What are you waiting for? Move!"
V. Lecturing and Moralizing
"Do you think that was a nice thing to do- to grab that book from me? I can see you don't realize how important good manners are. What you have to understand is that if we expect people to be polite to us, then we must be polite to them in return. You wouldn't want anyone to grab from you, would you? Then you shouldn't grab from anyone else. We do unto others as we would have others do unto us."
VI.Warnings
"Watch it, you'll bun yourself."
"Careful, you'll get hit by a car!"
"Don't climb there! Do you want to fall?"
"Put on your sweaer on you'll catch a bad cold."
VII. Martydom Statements
"Will you two stop that screaming! What are you tryinng to do to me... make me sick...give me a heart attack?"
"Wait till you have children of your own. Then you'll know what aggrivation is."
"Do you see these grey hairs? That's because of you. You're putting me in my grave."
VIII. Comparisons
"Why can't you be more like your brother? He always gets his work done ahead of time."
"Lisa has such beauiful table manners. You'd never catch her eating with her fingers."
"Why don't you dress the way Gary does? Hw always looks so neat- short hair, shirt tucked in. It's a pleasure to look at him."
IX. Sarcasm
"You knew you had a test tomorrow and left your book in school? Oh smart! That was a brilliant thing to do."
"Is that what your're wearing- polka dots and plaid? Well you ought to get a lot of compliments today."
"Is that the homework you're bringing to school tomorrow? Well maybe your teacher can read Chinese; I can't"
X. Prophecy
"You lied to me about your report card, didn't you? Do you know what you're going to be when you grow up? A person nobody can trust."
"Just keep on being selfish. You'll se, no one is ever going to want to play with you. You'll have no friends."
"All you ever do is complain. You've never once tried to help yourself. I can see you ten years from now- stuck with the same problem and still complaining."
What methods did your parents use to get you to do what they wanted you to do?
Do you fall into the same patterns?
What parenting styles have you used?
"Your dirty fingerprints are on the door agian! Why do you always do that?.. What's the matter with you anyway? Can't you ever do anything right?... How many times do I have o tell you to use the doorknob? The trouble with you is you never listen."
II. Name Calling
"It's below freezing today and you're wearing a light jacket! How dumb can you get? Boy, that is a really stupid thing to do."
"Here, let me fix the bike for you. You know how unmechanical you are."
"Look at the way you eat! You're disgusting."
"You have to be a slob to keep such a filthy room. You live like an animal."
III. Threats
"Just you touch that lamp once more and you'll get a smack."
"If you don't spit that gum out this minute, i'm going to open your mouth and take it out."
"If you're not finished dressing by the time I count to three, I'm leaving without you!"
IV. Commands
"I want you to clean up your room right this minute."
"Help me carry in the packages. Hurry up!"
"You still didn't take out the garbage? Do it now... What are you waiting for? Move!"
V. Lecturing and Moralizing
"Do you think that was a nice thing to do- to grab that book from me? I can see you don't realize how important good manners are. What you have to understand is that if we expect people to be polite to us, then we must be polite to them in return. You wouldn't want anyone to grab from you, would you? Then you shouldn't grab from anyone else. We do unto others as we would have others do unto us."
VI.Warnings
"Watch it, you'll bun yourself."
"Careful, you'll get hit by a car!"
"Don't climb there! Do you want to fall?"
"Put on your sweaer on you'll catch a bad cold."
VII. Martydom Statements
"Will you two stop that screaming! What are you tryinng to do to me... make me sick...give me a heart attack?"
"Wait till you have children of your own. Then you'll know what aggrivation is."
"Do you see these grey hairs? That's because of you. You're putting me in my grave."
VIII. Comparisons
"Why can't you be more like your brother? He always gets his work done ahead of time."
"Lisa has such beauiful table manners. You'd never catch her eating with her fingers."
"Why don't you dress the way Gary does? Hw always looks so neat- short hair, shirt tucked in. It's a pleasure to look at him."
IX. Sarcasm
"You knew you had a test tomorrow and left your book in school? Oh smart! That was a brilliant thing to do."
"Is that what your're wearing- polka dots and plaid? Well you ought to get a lot of compliments today."
"Is that the homework you're bringing to school tomorrow? Well maybe your teacher can read Chinese; I can't"
X. Prophecy
"You lied to me about your report card, didn't you? Do you know what you're going to be when you grow up? A person nobody can trust."
"Just keep on being selfish. You'll se, no one is ever going to want to play with you. You'll have no friends."
"All you ever do is complain. You've never once tried to help yourself. I can see you ten years from now- stuck with the same problem and still complaining."
What methods did your parents use to get you to do what they wanted you to do?
Do you fall into the same patterns?
What parenting styles have you used?
Bill Bryson's Amazing us
INTRODUCTION
Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.
To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence.
Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, your atoms don't actually care about you-indeed, don't even know that you are there. They don't even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all, and not even themselves alive. (It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.) Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer to a single overarching impulse: to keep you you.
The bad news is that atoms are fickle and their time of devotion is fleeting-fleeting indeed. Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours. And when that modest milestone flashes past, or at some other point thereabouts, for reasons unknown your atoms will shut you down, silently disassemble, and go off to be other things. And that's it for you.
Still, you may rejoice that it happens at all. Generally speaking in the universe it doesn't, so far as we can tell. This is decidedly odd because the atoms that so liberally and congenially flock together to form living things on Earth are exactly the same atoms that decline to do it elsewhere. Whatever else it may be, at the level of chemistry life is curiously mundane: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, a little calcium, a dash of sulfur, a light dusting of other very ordinary elements-nothing you wouldn't find in any ordinary drugstore-and that's all you need. The only thing special about the atoms that make you is that they make you. That is of course the miracle of life.
Whether or not atoms make life in other corners of the universe, they make plenty else; indeed, they make everything else. Without them there would be no water or air or rocks, no stars and planets, no distant gassy clouds or swirling nebulae or any of the other things that make the universe so usefully material. Atoms are so numerous and necessary that we easily overlook that they needn't actually exist at all. There is no law that requires the universe to fill itself with small particles of matter or to produce light and gravity and the other physical properties on which our existence hinges. There needn't actually be a universe at all. For the longest time there wasn't. There were no atoms and no universe for them to float about in. There was nothing-nothing at all anywhere.
So thank goodness for atoms. But the fact that you have atoms and that they assemble in such a willing manner is only part of what got you here. To be here now, alive in the twenty-first century and smart enough to know it, you also had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune. Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most-99.99 percent-are no longer around. Life on Earth, you see, is not only
brief but dismayingly tenuous. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.
Not only have you been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favored evolutionary line, but you have also been extremely-make that miraculously-fortunate in your personal ancestry. Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result-eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly-in you.
Coincidence?
Sidenote: three billion "rungs" in the DNA double-helix ladder.
Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.
To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence.
Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, your atoms don't actually care about you-indeed, don't even know that you are there. They don't even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all, and not even themselves alive. (It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.) Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer to a single overarching impulse: to keep you you.
The bad news is that atoms are fickle and their time of devotion is fleeting-fleeting indeed. Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours. And when that modest milestone flashes past, or at some other point thereabouts, for reasons unknown your atoms will shut you down, silently disassemble, and go off to be other things. And that's it for you.
Still, you may rejoice that it happens at all. Generally speaking in the universe it doesn't, so far as we can tell. This is decidedly odd because the atoms that so liberally and congenially flock together to form living things on Earth are exactly the same atoms that decline to do it elsewhere. Whatever else it may be, at the level of chemistry life is curiously mundane: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, a little calcium, a dash of sulfur, a light dusting of other very ordinary elements-nothing you wouldn't find in any ordinary drugstore-and that's all you need. The only thing special about the atoms that make you is that they make you. That is of course the miracle of life.
Whether or not atoms make life in other corners of the universe, they make plenty else; indeed, they make everything else. Without them there would be no water or air or rocks, no stars and planets, no distant gassy clouds or swirling nebulae or any of the other things that make the universe so usefully material. Atoms are so numerous and necessary that we easily overlook that they needn't actually exist at all. There is no law that requires the universe to fill itself with small particles of matter or to produce light and gravity and the other physical properties on which our existence hinges. There needn't actually be a universe at all. For the longest time there wasn't. There were no atoms and no universe for them to float about in. There was nothing-nothing at all anywhere.
So thank goodness for atoms. But the fact that you have atoms and that they assemble in such a willing manner is only part of what got you here. To be here now, alive in the twenty-first century and smart enough to know it, you also had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune. Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most-99.99 percent-are no longer around. Life on Earth, you see, is not only
brief but dismayingly tenuous. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.
Not only have you been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favored evolutionary line, but you have also been extremely-make that miraculously-fortunate in your personal ancestry. Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result-eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly-in you.
Coincidence?
Sidenote: three billion "rungs" in the DNA double-helix ladder.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
reflections on death and life
My French teacher's husband passed away today. I saw him Monday pick
her up from class. He came to have lunch with our class twice in the past two months. He was not old and seemed in good health. Death comes for all of us.
"death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." Ecc. 7:2
There is a line 'vanilla twilight' by Owl City that starts 'If I could reach back in time and whisper in your ear...'
We get the chance to 'reach back in time' for the rest of our lives. What would I whisper..
believe in Jesus. He loves you. He is your hope. Your life. Your all in all.
I can't stop crying about it. Not because of regret as much as hope. My heart cries out to Jesus. What a miserable world this must be for those who don't have Jesus.
When I try to think of what death might be like without Jesus all I can think of is... horrific, unimaginable, empty, hopeless, I see the endless darkness and loss without hope, without anything to grasp, without our comforter and renewer of life by our side.
I wept for him/her today. I can't imagine living in this world without
Jesus without hope of an afterlife and going on the whole rest of one's
life without the person that you love most. How could someone even go
on. They would share life together. He was kind and gentle. They
complimented each other's personalities. I would have liked to have
know him more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqbOtK91lpI
Rest in peace Dominic P. I hope you are with Christ.
her up from class. He came to have lunch with our class twice in the past two months. He was not old and seemed in good health. Death comes for all of us.
"death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." Ecc. 7:2
There is a line 'vanilla twilight' by Owl City that starts 'If I could reach back in time and whisper in your ear...'
We get the chance to 'reach back in time' for the rest of our lives. What would I whisper..
believe in Jesus. He loves you. He is your hope. Your life. Your all in all.
I can't stop crying about it. Not because of regret as much as hope. My heart cries out to Jesus. What a miserable world this must be for those who don't have Jesus.
When I try to think of what death might be like without Jesus all I can think of is... horrific, unimaginable, empty, hopeless, I see the endless darkness and loss without hope, without anything to grasp, without our comforter and renewer of life by our side.
I wept for him/her today. I can't imagine living in this world without
Jesus without hope of an afterlife and going on the whole rest of one's
life without the person that you love most. How could someone even go
on. They would share life together. He was kind and gentle. They
complimented each other's personalities. I would have liked to have
know him more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqbOtK91lpI
Rest in peace Dominic P. I hope you are with Christ.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Anglo groups in Aix
http://provence.angloinfo.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=6691
http://www.apelevia.org/category/petites-annonces-small-ads/?lan=english
http://www.aagp-provence.com/index.php
http://www.connexionfrance.com/
Book in Bar
Movie theater
To Advertise:
http://www.connexionfrance.com/advertise.php
http://provence.angloinfo.com/sales/
http://www.aagp-provence.com/adrequest.php
http://www.apelevia.org/category/petites-annonces-small-ads/?lan=english
http://www.aagp-provence.com/index.php
http://www.connexionfrance.com/
Book in Bar
Movie theater
To Advertise:
http://www.connexionfrance.com/advertise.php
http://provence.angloinfo.com/sales/
http://www.aagp-provence.com/adrequest.php
Monday, January 18, 2010
Courses that interest me
(Talbot) TTSF 524 - History & Theory of Christian Soul Care & Direction (3)
An introduction to the history and theory of spiritual soul care, mentoring and direction from a biblical, experiential and psychological perspective. Specific focus is on assisting others in deepening their relationship with God through increased sensitivity and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit's presence and work in all areas of life (including the common and ordinary). Attention is also given to understanding the personal dynamics at work within and between the guide and directee and the role of spiritual guidance within the broader context of pastoral care and mentoring as well as in the more specific discipline of spiritual direction. Required of all SF students.
PT 500/LEAD500/U Formation & Mission
A course designed to explore how we can incarnate the story of Jesus and engage in his mission. Priority is given to assessment of character, temperament, gifts, talents, abilities, ministry and relational skills, sense of call and other characteristics relevant to spiritual formation and ministry. Special attention is given to the spiritual formation process and how it is expressed through the practice of spiritual disciplines and a missional engagement with a postmodern culture. This course must be taken early in the student's program (e.g., first or second term). Three hours.
PT 505/LEAD527/U Pastoral Counseling
Whatever ministry role you fill now or in the future, people will seek your advice and counsel. This course will provide you with the principles and basic skills of effective Christian counseling, and help you cultivate biblical wisdom. Three hours.
PT 523A Counseling in the Local Church (online, with CCEF)
This course explores how to make everyday relationships more consciously biblical and helps you to apply biblical counseling principles in many settings. It seeks to help you discern where you could serve as a biblical counselor. Its purpose is to build a thoroughly biblical understanding of the local church as a ministering community where everyone plays a part. Students are helped to find their place in ministry within the context of the local church and to help others do the same. This class emphasizes the importance of both public and private ministry of the Word of God and how they interrelate. Topics include a biblical foundation for private ministry of the Word; the role of community and relationships in the process of sanctification; developing a practical ecclesiology; and developing an eye for ministry opportunities such as conflict resolution, children's ministry, evangelism, and church discipline. Two hours
An introduction to the history and theory of spiritual soul care, mentoring and direction from a biblical, experiential and psychological perspective. Specific focus is on assisting others in deepening their relationship with God through increased sensitivity and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit's presence and work in all areas of life (including the common and ordinary). Attention is also given to understanding the personal dynamics at work within and between the guide and directee and the role of spiritual guidance within the broader context of pastoral care and mentoring as well as in the more specific discipline of spiritual direction. Required of all SF students.
PT 500/LEAD500/U Formation & Mission
A course designed to explore how we can incarnate the story of Jesus and engage in his mission. Priority is given to assessment of character, temperament, gifts, talents, abilities, ministry and relational skills, sense of call and other characteristics relevant to spiritual formation and ministry. Special attention is given to the spiritual formation process and how it is expressed through the practice of spiritual disciplines and a missional engagement with a postmodern culture. This course must be taken early in the student's program (e.g., first or second term). Three hours.
PT 505/LEAD527/U Pastoral Counseling
Whatever ministry role you fill now or in the future, people will seek your advice and counsel. This course will provide you with the principles and basic skills of effective Christian counseling, and help you cultivate biblical wisdom. Three hours.
PT 523A Counseling in the Local Church (online, with CCEF)
This course explores how to make everyday relationships more consciously biblical and helps you to apply biblical counseling principles in many settings. It seeks to help you discern where you could serve as a biblical counselor. Its purpose is to build a thoroughly biblical understanding of the local church as a ministering community where everyone plays a part. Students are helped to find their place in ministry within the context of the local church and to help others do the same. This class emphasizes the importance of both public and private ministry of the Word of God and how they interrelate. Topics include a biblical foundation for private ministry of the Word; the role of community and relationships in the process of sanctification; developing a practical ecclesiology; and developing an eye for ministry opportunities such as conflict resolution, children's ministry, evangelism, and church discipline. Two hours
Friday, January 15, 2010
Dry, Dark, Finding Him in Quiet time
Pslam 42 they are thirsty for God
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deut 31:8
God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 1Cor1:9
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done... 1chron16:11-12a
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:9-13
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 29:11-14
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-8
---------------------------------------------------------------
You are normal. God is not leaving you. It is worth it to fight for his presence, to seek his face always. We can set the boundaries (creating space for God to move) and hope. It us up to God after that. God is faithful. He will not abandon us. He will not leave us. He calls us into his fellowship. He has good plans for you, will give you good gifts, and is working all out for our good.
To think about...
Spiritual Pathways Service Description: Christians don't always access God in the same way. In fact, there are various ways in which we can feel God's presence in our lives. Some of us experience God relationally--in the presence of other believers. Or our spiritual development may come about in intellectual pursuits. People may find God in service to others. Some may have to be alone and contemplative. The opposite of contemplatives are the spiritual activists, those who like to get others going into Kingdom action. Other spiritual pathways include those who find God in His creation and those who experience Him strongest in worship. It is important for each one of us to develop and use our spiritual pathway, but also respect the pathways of others.
Take the test here... http://common.northpoint.org/sacredpathway.html
In what ways are you experiencing the presence of God ?
7Habits of QT
http://site.e100challenge.biz/downloads/7habits.pdf
Coming up with a plan
http://lifecoachinginchrist.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-only-god-can-do-and-my-part-too.html
Henri Nouwen's thoughts on Quiet time
http://lifecoachinginchrist.blogspot.com/2008/12/quiet-time-with-jesus-from-way-of-heart.html
http://lifecoachinginchrist.blogspot.com/2009/01/moving-from-solitude-to-community-to.html
The Spirit's intercession
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8:26,27
Are there sins or encumbrances holding you back?
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1
Sometimes the things that hold us back are not sin except that they hold us back from God. What do we live like we trust in? Food, money, a house, people's opinions of us, etc. I went on a plane and found that I did not have peace and was worried about dying for the first time. I had place my hope in a job and in getting a perfect house and in all the things that I wanted or wanted to do. But the material and all those dreams could vanish in a moment. Do I have hope in God?
So I skipped a few meals and re-realized that all that I was hoping for was like dirt compared with God. Why was I so bent on a home and money was becoming more important. Give it away says the LORD. It's not yours to keep. I will provide, I am your comfort. He was there the whole time but I got so focused on the desires of the world that I lost sight of him. I had to give that up before I could see him again in the fullness I was used to.
What are your encumbrances? What is God calling you to do with them?
Stories
[edit] Plot structure
Freytag's pyramidPlot is often designed with a narrative structure, storyline or story arc, that includes exposition, conflict, rising action and climax, followed by a falling action and resolution.
[edit] Exposition
Main article: Exposition (literary technique)
Exposition is the beginning of the plot usually concerned with introducing characters and setting. These elements may be largely presented at the beginning of the story, or occur as a sort of incidental description throughout. Exposition may be handled in a variety of ways—perhaps a character or a set of characters explain the elements of the plot through dialogue or thought, or perhaps media such as newspaper clippings, and diaries. In the case of film, an analogous usage of television, discovered video tape, or documentary may be used.
[edit] Conflict
Main article: Conflict (narrative)
Conflict is a clash between two or more opposing groups, around which the plot revolves. This can take a number of basic forms, where the character may have to face themselves, another person, nature, society, a machine, or even the supernatural. The conflict, along with the exposition, often defines the genre of the story. A story's conflict may be a hybrid of these, or many concurrent conflicts: for example, the protagonist may struggle with their own thoughts while fighting someone else, or battle the nature of disease while trying to change society!
[edit] Climax
Main article: Climax (narrative)
The climax is the high point of the story, where a culmination of events create the peak of the conflict. The climax usually features the most conflict and struggle, and usually reveals any secrets or missing points in the story. Alternatively, an anti-climax may occur, in which an expectedly difficult event is revealed to be incredibly easy or of paltry importance. Critics may also label the falling action as an anti-climax, or anti-climactic. The climax isn't always the first important scene in a story. In many stories, it is the last sentence, with no successive falling action or resolution.
[edit] Falling action
Main article: Falling action
The falling action is the part of a story following the climax. This part of the story shows the result of the climax, and its effects on the characters, setting, and proceeding events. Critics may label a story with falling action as the anti-climax or anti-climactic if they feel that the falling action takes away from the power of the climax.
[edit] Resolution
Main article: Dénouement
Etymologically, the French word dénouement is derived from the Old French word denoer, "to untie", and from nodus, Latin for "knot". In fiction, a dénouement consists of a series of events that follow the climax, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. Simply put, dénouement is the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot. Be aware that not all stories have a resolution.
Freytag's pyramidPlot is often designed with a narrative structure, storyline or story arc, that includes exposition, conflict, rising action and climax, followed by a falling action and resolution.
[edit] Exposition
Main article: Exposition (literary technique)
Exposition is the beginning of the plot usually concerned with introducing characters and setting. These elements may be largely presented at the beginning of the story, or occur as a sort of incidental description throughout. Exposition may be handled in a variety of ways—perhaps a character or a set of characters explain the elements of the plot through dialogue or thought, or perhaps media such as newspaper clippings, and diaries. In the case of film, an analogous usage of television, discovered video tape, or documentary may be used.
[edit] Conflict
Main article: Conflict (narrative)
Conflict is a clash between two or more opposing groups, around which the plot revolves. This can take a number of basic forms, where the character may have to face themselves, another person, nature, society, a machine, or even the supernatural. The conflict, along with the exposition, often defines the genre of the story. A story's conflict may be a hybrid of these, or many concurrent conflicts: for example, the protagonist may struggle with their own thoughts while fighting someone else, or battle the nature of disease while trying to change society!
[edit] Climax
Main article: Climax (narrative)
The climax is the high point of the story, where a culmination of events create the peak of the conflict. The climax usually features the most conflict and struggle, and usually reveals any secrets or missing points in the story. Alternatively, an anti-climax may occur, in which an expectedly difficult event is revealed to be incredibly easy or of paltry importance. Critics may also label the falling action as an anti-climax, or anti-climactic. The climax isn't always the first important scene in a story. In many stories, it is the last sentence, with no successive falling action or resolution.
[edit] Falling action
Main article: Falling action
The falling action is the part of a story following the climax. This part of the story shows the result of the climax, and its effects on the characters, setting, and proceeding events. Critics may label a story with falling action as the anti-climax or anti-climactic if they feel that the falling action takes away from the power of the climax.
[edit] Resolution
Main article: Dénouement
Etymologically, the French word dénouement is derived from the Old French word denoer, "to untie", and from nodus, Latin for "knot". In fiction, a dénouement consists of a series of events that follow the climax, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. Simply put, dénouement is the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot. Be aware that not all stories have a resolution.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
RE check resources
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leuven-Belgium/Horace-Henriot-Leadership-Team-Coaching/177840695791?v=app_2347471856#/pages/Leuven-Belgium/Horace-Henriot-Leadership-Team-Coaching/177840695791?v=wall
To Horace's strength finders facebook page
To Horace's strength finders facebook page
Alpha Jan 14
Lord What a good day.
You provided in an awesome way.
Thank you for all the tech stuff going well. The video worked, the seating, the building, the parking, the directions. Thank you for Jane lea, Jane knight, fi, Tash, Elizabeth, Francine, Tovey, Asunta, Annika, Cornelia, Reina, Martin, Hil
For Maryna, Charlotte, and all the other who can come next week.
11:15 start and eat
11:45 ice breaker
12:15 start video
1:00 refill coffee and tea and food
1:05 Discussion
1:45 End
Went great. Brilliant. Martin's comment about his having everything and then in Canada feeling lonely and dark. That all was for nothing. Needing God. And one day in.
Boring and scary churches. Strict, no's and don'ts. unusual and trying too hard to force conversion.
Not eating till after was good. You took my nervousness away. It was good to have others in this with me. Fi was remarkable in her desire to see this happen. You made all this possible with timing and place and people.
Thank you for the teaching and discussion.
Some are interested in church. Want a church that is not boring. That has energy and life to it.
You provided in an awesome way.
Thank you for all the tech stuff going well. The video worked, the seating, the building, the parking, the directions. Thank you for Jane lea, Jane knight, fi, Tash, Elizabeth, Francine, Tovey, Asunta, Annika, Cornelia, Reina, Martin, Hil
For Maryna, Charlotte, and all the other who can come next week.
11:15 start and eat
11:45 ice breaker
12:15 start video
1:00 refill coffee and tea and food
1:05 Discussion
1:45 End
Went great. Brilliant. Martin's comment about his having everything and then in Canada feeling lonely and dark. That all was for nothing. Needing God. And one day in.
Boring and scary churches. Strict, no's and don'ts. unusual and trying too hard to force conversion.
Not eating till after was good. You took my nervousness away. It was good to have others in this with me. Fi was remarkable in her desire to see this happen. You made all this possible with timing and place and people.
Thank you for the teaching and discussion.
Some are interested in church. Want a church that is not boring. That has energy and life to it.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
A study on the holy spirit
http://www.globalchristians.org/ebooks/Holy%20Spirit%20Bible%20Studies.pdf
And notes on Quiet time
It is amazing how having someone else with us can completely change the passion and realness that we pray with. Meeting with God is such a living thing. It does not stay the same from day to day or week to week. Sometimes I will be reading a book of the bible and will overflow with excitement and joy and a few days later I could have dry feelings or distraction from the same book. I think God does this to keep reminding us that we are not spending time with a book or by ourselves or with some sort of method. We are meeting with a person. The book or the method only set the boundaries for us to meet God through.
I've often needed help out of the valley or dry spots. I don't think that is unusual at all. Friends' prayers help a lot. In fact Jesus talks about how important it is to come together to pray. (Mt 18" For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.") Books like Sacred Rythms and Way of the Heart can also help us reconnect with our longings for God.
One of the most interesting things for me to think and learn about lately has been motivations and desires. It think you will really enjoy SR since it talks so much about this. Other passages like Mt 6 or Psalm 42 speak on motivations as well. It might be interesting to ask yourself, if you haven't already, if you process information better by yourself or with people, if you are relationally driven or if you are motivated in other ways, how you connect with God the most (Through Nature, tradition,your senses, activism, celebration, intellectual ideas, or contemplation). We all connect to God in different ways. We all are motivated in different ways. Most of us connect to God in several different ways.
Jesus says that "eternal life it to know God and Jesus" by experiencing him.
Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."
And notes on Quiet time
It is amazing how having someone else with us can completely change the passion and realness that we pray with. Meeting with God is such a living thing. It does not stay the same from day to day or week to week. Sometimes I will be reading a book of the bible and will overflow with excitement and joy and a few days later I could have dry feelings or distraction from the same book. I think God does this to keep reminding us that we are not spending time with a book or by ourselves or with some sort of method. We are meeting with a person. The book or the method only set the boundaries for us to meet God through.
I've often needed help out of the valley or dry spots. I don't think that is unusual at all. Friends' prayers help a lot. In fact Jesus talks about how important it is to come together to pray. (Mt 18" For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.") Books like Sacred Rythms and Way of the Heart can also help us reconnect with our longings for God.
One of the most interesting things for me to think and learn about lately has been motivations and desires. It think you will really enjoy SR since it talks so much about this. Other passages like Mt 6 or Psalm 42 speak on motivations as well. It might be interesting to ask yourself, if you haven't already, if you process information better by yourself or with people, if you are relationally driven or if you are motivated in other ways, how you connect with God the most (Through Nature, tradition,your senses, activism, celebration, intellectual ideas, or contemplation). We all connect to God in different ways. We all are motivated in different ways. Most of us connect to God in several different ways.
Jesus says that "eternal life it to know God and Jesus" by experiencing him.
Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
YG teaching Jan 6, 2010
Jesus' early life and Baptism
luke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Vhx05cWWE elmo066
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4T5uU9olko with subtitles
Messiah- The expected king and deliverer of the Hebrews; the Savior. The promised “anointed one” or Christ; the Savior. Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah who delivered mankind from its sins.
The Son of God- It occurs thirty-seven times in the New Testament as the distinctive title of our Saviour.
He does not bear this title in consequence of his miraculous birth, nor of his incarnation, his resurrection, and exaltation to the Father's right hand. This is a title of nature and not of office. The sonship of Christ denotes his equality with the Father. To call Christ the Son of God is to assert his true and proper divinity.
(Different from the sons of God who are anyone who acknowledge God as father and are adopted sons.)
Lamb of God- It carries out the image of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus as a new Passover: a lamb was killed for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus himself, in the sacrifice of his death and Resurrection, is the lamb for the new Passover.
Passover- The deliverance of the Israelites from the worst of the plagues of Egypt, and the annual festival kept afterward in memory of the event. Through Moses, God told the Israelites to prepare a special meal to be eaten in haste the evening before their escape from Egypt (see Exodus), with a whole roasted lamb as the main dish. The blood from the lamb was to be used to mark the Israelites' houses. That night, God would send the angel of Death to kill the firstborn males of the Egyptians (this was the worst of the plagues of Egypt), but God would see the blood on the Israelites' houses, and he would command his angel to “pass over” — to kill no one there. God told Moses that the Israelites were to repeat the meal each spring on the anniversary of their departure from Egypt. The Jews keep the festival of Passover to this day.
Baptize- "to immerse," from baptein "to dip, steep, dye, color." Is a symbol of and outward proclamation of being cleansed of sins, so that they are born into a new life with Jesus. Symbolize the death and burial to sin (immersion) on the one hand and the resurrection to the new life in Christ (Emergence) on the other.
(Baptism of fire - Made holy spiritually as a gift of the Holy Spirit) (John's baptism- a baptism of repentance)
luke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Vhx05cWWE elmo066
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4T5uU9olko with subtitles
Messiah- The expected king and deliverer of the Hebrews; the Savior. The promised “anointed one” or Christ; the Savior. Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah who delivered mankind from its sins.
The Son of God- It occurs thirty-seven times in the New Testament as the distinctive title of our Saviour.
He does not bear this title in consequence of his miraculous birth, nor of his incarnation, his resurrection, and exaltation to the Father's right hand. This is a title of nature and not of office. The sonship of Christ denotes his equality with the Father. To call Christ the Son of God is to assert his true and proper divinity.
(Different from the sons of God who are anyone who acknowledge God as father and are adopted sons.)
Lamb of God- It carries out the image of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus as a new Passover: a lamb was killed for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus himself, in the sacrifice of his death and Resurrection, is the lamb for the new Passover.
Passover- The deliverance of the Israelites from the worst of the plagues of Egypt, and the annual festival kept afterward in memory of the event. Through Moses, God told the Israelites to prepare a special meal to be eaten in haste the evening before their escape from Egypt (see Exodus), with a whole roasted lamb as the main dish. The blood from the lamb was to be used to mark the Israelites' houses. That night, God would send the angel of Death to kill the firstborn males of the Egyptians (this was the worst of the plagues of Egypt), but God would see the blood on the Israelites' houses, and he would command his angel to “pass over” — to kill no one there. God told Moses that the Israelites were to repeat the meal each spring on the anniversary of their departure from Egypt. The Jews keep the festival of Passover to this day.
Baptize- "to immerse," from baptein "to dip, steep, dye, color." Is a symbol of and outward proclamation of being cleansed of sins, so that they are born into a new life with Jesus. Symbolize the death and burial to sin (immersion) on the one hand and the resurrection to the new life in Christ (Emergence) on the other.
(Baptism of fire - Made holy spiritually as a gift of the Holy Spirit) (John's baptism- a baptism of repentance)
Monday, January 4, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Serve the city notes- hh
3 hr time slots
trained leader will be there (hopefully Christians to influence)(they email their crew)
Eventually have a meeting with all the volunteers and have them choose the projects based on interest and when available
25 existing organizations partner with Serve the city
Thurs-sat
mysignup.com create sheets for sign ups
Our goal is to give the volunteers away (to the organizations) The organization tells their story, invites them out,
trained leader will be there (hopefully Christians to influence)(they email their crew)
Eventually have a meeting with all the volunteers and have them choose the projects based on interest and when available
25 existing organizations partner with Serve the city
Thurs-sat
mysignup.com create sheets for sign ups
Our goal is to give the volunteers away (to the organizations) The organization tells their story, invites them out,
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