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MakeAJoyfulNOIISE
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Name: Amanda
Gender: Female
Interests: Ethiopia, reading, writing, foreign languages (at the moment Amharic, Spanish, and Russian), Ethiopian worship, SNOWBOARDING, [surfing...], music, God, youth ministry, etc...
Expertise: landing in hospitals!
Occupation: Student/Youth Leader
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  GracefulOnSlopes
MSN: GracefulOnSlopes@hotmail.com
Member Since:
7/25/2006
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| I'm home from Florida!! It's been such an awesome week, hanging out with my cousins/aunts/uncles. I've got a pretty good tan started, my surfing fix for the year, and lots of pictures.
Maybe I'll update later, but I'm tired and I have to work tomorrow  so for now just these two:
p.s. Alvin, I missed you!
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| Today's tidbit from Breaking Free: Christian, if you are not royalty, then He is not King.
I thought that was really encouraging. How often do we see ourselves through the eyes of the people around us, and through our own eyes? How many times in a day are we dissatisfied with who we are or rather, who we're not? We spend so much of our time striving towards some temporary status, when we're already the eternal daughters and sons of God. We devote so much of our energy pursuing the treasures of this earth, when we're already the heirs to the Heavenly stores.
I'm convinced that all the gold, and silver, and jewels of this world were created so that when God told us that He had treasures waiting for us in Heaven, we would have some idea of what the concept "treasure" meant, so we could look forward to His promise with all eagerness. But to call gold, silver, and jewels treasure would be like calling a Barbie doll a real woman.
I've gone off on a tangent here. I guess it seems natural to think that our self-image is personal, and whether it's good or bad, it's our own issue. But in reality, if we fail to see ourselves as the royalty that we are, then we deny God the glory of being King. Because, if He is King, and we are His children, logic insists that we are the rightful princes and princesses for eternity.
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On another note, I'm getting ready to move out. Joelle, you were right - packing the day and half before I move is not ideal.  Of course, I knew that you were right, but my procrastinistic (yes, I made that word up) nature compelled me to laze about instead.
I'm somewhat amazed that you can pack your whole life up in boxes. The beauty of it though, is that you can leave behind what you don't really like. Wouldn't that be handy? If you could really just compartmentalize your life into several cardboard boxes and leave behind the parts that you didn't want to keep. I guess that's not entirely healthy though.
Well, once again, I've put off packing for the Internet. When will I ever learn? 
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| So I've been doing Beth Moore's study Breaking Free and supplementing it with Tricia McCary Rhodes' Contemplating the Cross. Both are really wonderful resources, and I highly recommend them - yes, even I who am often skeptical of such studies/devotionals.
So, I've finished week five, and have been given an insight into God's character which is amazing, glorious, reassuring, and humbling all at once.
It's so easy to dwell on the question of "why?" Why
Lord, if You love us as much as You say You do, why do You allow even
one of us go through undeserved suffering, injustice, and misery?
Because, to be frank, although God certainly doesn't author
injustices or all sufferings, He does allow everything that comes our
way to - well - come our way. So...why?
How could You, who can do all things, just stand there, and do nothing?
But
when I view it in the context of the Cross - oh my - how my eyes are
re-opened to God's unchanging love! On that awful day, Jesus, the
divinely beloved Son of God, endured suffering beyond human
comprehension. For the world's sins He was slain.
If I take the pain from my personal experiences, and multiply it by the
billions of people that have ever lived, I might approach the sorrow of
Him crucified that day. He hangs there, slowly and painfully dying by a
torturous asphyxiation. Onlookers, oblivious and self-righteous alike,
mock and scorn the Saviour even as He is, right then and there,
performing the very act that will save them. "If you're really the Son of God, come down from that Cross." Did they think that He couldn't? But if any of us are to have any hope in this world, He must remain hanging there.
And thoughout all of this, God, His Father, simply stood there and did nothing. For our benefit and
our joy. He allowed this, and was even "pleased" with this horrific trial endured by His only Son.
Conclusion?
It's so easy to wonder why God allows things to happen in our lives,
why He doesn't change our circumstances when they seem to be unfair and
undeserved. But He also allowed all those things to happen to Christ -
so that we could have hope, so that we could know joy. And that same
God allows things to come our way, He waits, for our ultimate benefit.
Or maybe it's so that through us, someone else can understand hope, and
joy, and all those things that so often seem unattainable. And while I
can't claim that I really understand why all the time, it becomes
increasingly clear that what Satan creates for evil and destruction,
God can, and ultimately does, use for hope and glory.
I donno. But sometimes He just leaves me in awe.
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| I always feel somewhat sorry for my IT 103 professor. I mean, if you think about it, it's pretty bad job. You start with a class of about 60+ college students. You slave over slides that even the dumbest ones can understand. You prepare a lecture that attempts to make IT 103 not so boring. Unfortunately, this is not possible, so while a valiant attempt, it's ultimately ineffective.
Thus, halfway through the semester, it's hard not to notice that two-thirds of your class has decided to regard attendance as optional. Then, of the remaining students, 75% of them sit in the four back rows checking their emails on their laptops or looking at something profoundly interesting at the back of their eyelids. The ones that do sit closer to the front are similarly slackjawed, drooling, and make apathy an art. Let's not forget the continuous stream of students shamelessly walking in late. The three that actually seem interested are freshmen who haven't learned how to diligently not pay attention, and the shocking lack of consequences which result from this.
Lest you think that I'm criticizing my fellow classmates, I'm updating this post in the middle of a lectures. I too, came shamelessly late. And yes, attendance is optional.
Just saying, it's a pretty bad job if you're the professor.
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| Somalia's officially declared a new jihad on Ethiopia. We have contacts in Ethiopia who have confirmed reports that many Christians are now bein persecuted at the hands of radical Islamic groups - some armed with machetes and knives..
Christians are being killed, taken hostage, and the several Kale Heywet churches (Kale Hewyet is the church that our team worked with this summer. So...this is on many levels personal) are being forcibly converted into mosques.
If God brings this to your heart over the course of the week, please pray for our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, for their safety, courage, and witness.
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