Kissed the girls and made them cry

This morning I finally finished the book, Kissed the Girls and Made them Cry: Why women loose when they give in by Lisa Bevere*. (Yes, Lisa is the wife of John Bevere)

There is SOO much good stuff in it, and if I were to review it I would probably have to re-write the whole book! I'd even almost reccomend it to guys, because some of the stuff is just so good.

It's a book of truth, not of blame but of love! It's fantastic!

If you want to borrow it, let me know. I know of so many people that would benefit from this book, but if you WANT to read it, let me know. There's only one person in line ;)

Lisa touches on something I guess I'd led myself to believe: that feminimity is not something to be ashamed of, but should be embraced! That feminimity is so far from the wimpy image that seems should go along with it. (that is being said when I am against feminism, if that makes any sense)

So here's something I was reading last night that I'll put in here:

Psalm 51

1 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,^[a]
And blameless when You judge.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Lisa's 'review':

1. We appeal to God based on His mercy, not on our merit
   
2. We confess the issue as a sin against Him
   
3. We acknowledge His judgements as righteous.
   
4. We ask for His clensing and accept it as a done deal.
5. We ask Him to purify any defilement and renew our spirits.
6. We ask for the joy of His Salvation
7. We commit to teach others from our mistakes and walk in humility.
   

blessings,
Sammy

*Bevere, Lisa (2002) Kissed the Girls and Made them Cry: why women lose when they give in. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville

stabilo

We have an interesting maths class this semester.

I can't say it is the highlight of my week. We often get hand outs we don't use. My friend Steff can often be found colouring in a pattern on one of these odd handouts every monday before the lecture starts. If you're lucky, she'll also continue this throughout the week.

A quote from the girl herself, "it's the highlight of my week!"

*bada boom ching!!*

But as far as 'highlights' go, earlier this week, I did something very exciting. I walked into the travel agent, and put a deposit in on my airfare to Indonesia!

And as far as my travel buddy Steff goes, you can check out about what we're doing and where we're going here.

Yes, after a lot of question about my suitability to travel, I finally decided (along with persuasion from my parents) and declared that I am, on November 27, getting on that plane and going to Sulawesi! This is one of my biggest dreams, and quite honestly, when I came to this campus in 2005, I honestly hoped that an opportunity like this would come up.

God is a God beyond our wildest dreams. This is quite likely only the beginning of what he has in store for me.

So from here on, it is the process of fund raising for the trip, getting my act together, having some immunisations and what not.

Sometimes I'm just sitting there and will just randomly giggle, jiggle, or tap my fingers on the table in excitement! Can you tell, I'm super excited! eeeeeeeee!

put that thing back where it came from or so help me

Ever get so lost behind deep theology that doesnt make sense? That makes you feel like you're walking on eggshells and thus making you feel distant from God?

Although this theology is interesting, challenging, and not always bad, sometimes we forget some of the simple, yet crucial things.

Something someone said to me the other day in an sms randomlly:

I give you authority

This was taken out of Luke 10:19:

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

What is it to have authority? To have authority is to almost like take control. Take a look at Matthew 16:19:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Now that's a pretty big responsibility when you think about it. What is bound and loosed in heaven can be up to us. We can make these big shifts in the heavenlies as well as on earth! WOW!

It's not that I didn't know this. But some how out of all the deeper theology I lost this, and became myself, lost. This of course, does not mean we should live a simple life, because the road is not a highway, and life isn't simple. But some of these things need to be crucially remembered.

I remember when I used to live in Pinnaroo, one night I pretty much told God my life story! Everything that was going on I just talked and talked and talked to God for a good 3 hours. I don't know where this went from my life. The lack of real-ness between God and myself, which is particulaly silly, when God is all-knowing. It's so simple, yet so crucial.

A good mate said to me not long ago to just tell God everything. Be specific. Be real.

It was a bit like, well, duh. But of course, just like a prep, whoops, I forgot.

In 1 peter 5:7 it says:

casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Notice the word ALL, there? Take particular notice. It doesn't say some of your cares, but ALL of your care upon Him!

Keep it real.

Sammy

(PS. Edit on this. Although simple advice is good, always remember that the 'power' in the simplicity is what backs it up - the word of God!)

dirt road musings

Today I decided to go for a random (well, random with a point) trip today. After church, I found myself flying (well, driving) south. Where but to the very nice town of Kyneton, for reasons I cannot publically disclose on my blog ;)

I was following this map the lady at the information centre gave me to a place called Newham. Newham is a town near Hanging Rock, and I'd say barely 20 people live there. The significance of this town is my great great grandparents were married there, in the towns only church, which is now closed. Newhams has scary public toilets, a school, a nice playground, and one shop that's closing down. It's my kind of town, but we'll get back to that!

Going back to the map - the map wasn't very clear. All of the road names were different and strange, and I ended up getting lost. In fact, I spent a lot of time on old dirt roads with cows staring at me like they'd never seen a car before.

While getting back on the right road, it appeared to me that this is what life is like in this modern day. We get lost when the information given to us is not accurate, if we're given a copy of a copy it looses it's originallity. I think specifically with different translations of the bible. I was in a bible study the other day, and just the difference in the 'modern day' text to the 'older' texts. Perhaps it may be easier to understand, but we seem to loose some deeper meaning! And it frustrates me. gr!

I guess that's also the importance of being real, and the importance of letting God's accuracy shine forth, so that we dont become 'lost' like I did today.

Am I making sense? probably not!

Anyway, back to Newham. It made me think of how much of a country girl I really am. Recently I was reading my friend Luke (of the nice feet variety)'s blog, and initially in this post, Luke suggests that we long for something more than just a small town, that we often want more opportunity, and as human beings, we long for something bigger. He uses the example of Bendigo vs. Melbourne. There are parts of me that wants to get up and enjoy the big life of a bigger city than Bendigo. Perhaps that's a natural instinct that has been put into me because I grew up in a small town that had little opportunity.

In 12 months (if all goes to plan) I will have graduated and will be able to start thinking about a teaching job. This, of course, does mean, that there is a very good chance that this job will not exist in Bendigo. That means, indeed moving. And you know what? On one hand I want to spread my wings to somewhere like Melbourne (maybe like, somewhere in the outer east), but the other hand longs to go somewhere nice and small. Newham, like my home town, just felt right there at home. Much more picturesque than Pinnaroo :P

I want the husstle and bussle, but I want the serenity. And, no, a skyline of buildings in a smog filled sky is not serenity.

Something else I did today was put flowers on my aunties grave. Luckily, Kyneton is full of daffodils at the moment, so I picked one, along with a lei that Mez gave me for Valentines day.

Looking at all of these things to do with my past, marvelling at God's beautiful hidden creation that is so unseen unless you're lost in the middle of nowhere, I remenisced about a verse my pastor was talking about this morning (in Luke 9 NKJV):

59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

How often is it that we can dwell on things that are 'dead' in this world. Where am I focussing my attention? Why can't I ust get on in the work that God has for me to do? So many times God will have something for me to do, while I have my head up in the clouds. My focus is elsewhere, and I don't see the urgancy nor the timing in which God has given.

"Oh, but God, that's a really nice boulder."

Meditate on that verse for a while. See what that means for you. Come back and tell me.

(sorry if this post was too Sammy-esce and didn't make sense. I might come back to this and elaborate. ahg!)

In summary, this post was about:

• When information is not accurate, we can get lost.
• Humans long for something 'more' than what they're in. Whether it be location, or just for growth. This is a healthy desire that God has placed within us. Isn't that great!!?
• Sometimes we can get sidetracked from serving the kingdom of God, because we are serving something 'dead'.