i am rich

I am rich not because I have a lot of wealth, a good career, health, or even rich relationships.

I am rich because I have Christ.

I sometimes live as if things aren't the way they should be. I don't feel at home. I don't feel like I can thrive. But I can thrive, I am home in some sense, and things are the way they should be because God is sovereign and have placed me here. True the world is not the way it should be because of sin, and true our real home is heaven. But because He is with me, I am rich.

Home is where God is

Home is an unconditional Father’s love

Home is running, like the prodigal son, to the Father

smart phones

I wanted to keep track for what life was before smart phones. Smart phones are not bad in of themselves, but it has made a huge imprint on our culture and my life.

Life before the smart phone (and texting) for me:

• woke up without looking at my phone or even my laptop
• walked to class not thinking about social media, but meditated on scripture, prayed, stressed over classes too
• more disciplined times in the Word in the morning and prayer
• if I had to contact someone, since I didn't have texts, I'd either call or wait till I had computer access at the library or at the apartment
• people in general were better with thorough emails (even though it's my form of communication, I'm getting worse at it too)
• no distractions when meeting up
• easier to have undivided attention
• more decisiveness on time and location of meet ups
• meditating on scripture or thinking about what I read from a book before sleeping
• what were selfies? (ok i guess I did some sort of it before with a digital camera, but posting them?)
• didn't play video games

Life with the smart phone for me:

• wake up checking email, instagram
• text people, pray less
• read only at night when I'm tired
• uncertain how to connect with people
• distracted from meet ups when texts or emails come in
• easier to have divided attention
• last minute meet ups or changes
• useless knowledge last on my mind before sleeping.
• I've seen someone brushing their teeth and using the phone when we used to do those mundane activities and actually used our minds to think
• I'm fed by so many opinions
• selfies taken and posted
• iPhone games 
• only a few can handle my long texts, but emails or face-to-face meetups were less frequent.

Some positives with smart phones though: maps, yelp, last minute info needed, Christian resources, it can be fun to use. 

Still thinking more about it... I know people have written tons of articles on smart phones or Internet use, but in the end it's how we use it and our hearts that need to be addressed.

Something I had posted, but deleted. Here it is again.

What has the internet done?
I can get irritated if someone says they are busy to talk, having known they spent hours on the Internet. I remember thinking in college, if my grades suffer in school, it really isn't the time from ministry or meeting with people that needed to cut down, but my idleness or wasted time on the Internet.
You can say I'm complaining, you can say I'm irrational, you can say I'm harsh.
And in the end... it is true. Before I can get bitter towards people, I have to see myself before God. Before God, I am that person who says I'm too busy to spend time with the Lord because I am the one who spends too much time idled, wasting time on the Internet, even talking to people versus talking to Him. It is I who is the neglectful one. It isn't a matter of what the Internet has done, but where our hearts has gone to. The Internet will be there, people will be there, entertainment will be there in all shapes and forms.  All things are lawful, but are all things profitable?
Will it be this smart phone that brings information around the world or this His Word where God speaks to us that will dictate how we think, entertain ourselves, love, live, know personally?

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6:5-9‬ 

Just as sin was born out of doubt of God's goodness, whenever we doubt God's goodness we sin.

I have a friend who almost lost her life many years ago. Her parents were thinking of not having her or in other words aborting her after she already existed in the womb. Thankfully they changed their mind. I love this friend and wouldn't be who I am without her. A life is a life. Regardless of gender, disability, race.

http://theliloone.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-other-day-occupational-therapist.html

on joy

“The formula to joy is not God and [blank] so much as God in [blank]” (77). Later he explains, “True joy derives not from God and job, family, sex, friends, food, rest, driving, buying a home, reading a book, drinking coffee — but from God in these things. . . . Every taste of beauty in this world, from the roar of waterfalls to the chatter of birds to the richness of true friendship to the ecstasy of sexual experience, is a drop from the ocean of divine beauty. Every pleasure is an arrow pointing back to him. Joy is from, and only finally in, God” (79).

Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God by Dane Ortlund

Found this quote in this blogpost: http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-s-beauty-for-the-bored-busy-and-depressed

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"

Matthew 16:26

repost

http://theliloone.blogspot.com/2010/08/christ-and-his-church.html

Simply put, marriage is meant to be a picture of Christ and His church. All the other blessings in weddings, marriage are so small or maybe even nothing compared to this picture. This truth is accepted by believers (hopefully) but to love it, embrace it, value it does not come quickly.
I loved weddings ever since I was small. First because I loved being with all my cousins when a relative would get married. Then I loved weddings of people from church just because my friends were there as well. I just enjoyed the environment of weddings. Now seeing how couples aim to glorify God with their marriage, aim to be selfless and to serve, to diminish themselves so Christ can be lived out in their lives, to point each other to Christ - for the wife to submit to the husband, and the husband to lead and sacrifice for his wife - is very different than how I saw it before.
The book of Hosea speaks of how God loves His people, people who are like prostitutes. He pursues and loves and protects. Christ sanctifies His bride, He cleanses her, nourishes her, cherishes her (Eph 5)... He died for her. How wonderful of a husband Christ is to His church.

(not sure if to relate God's promises to Israel the same to the church, but still reveals the character of God)
"I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord." Hosea 2:19-20