Holiness...

A few weeks ago I joined one of the women's Bible study groups at Grace. After hearing about The Amazing Collection for several weeks, I decided to buck up and do it. :) It's only a 10-minute drive to church for our hour and a half study on Wednesday evenings, I love the 11 other women in my Year One group, and I'm excited about going through the entire Bible in 3 years! One book a week is a pretty fast pace, but the daily homework and the teaching video we watch as a group help bring out just the highlights in each book.

This week was Leviticus. Yes, that long book of random laws, tons of blood, and weird sacrifices and feasts. I've read it twice before--as part of reading through the Bible in a year--but never stopped to really think what, if any, relevance it held for the modern Christian.

Then a quote in today's homework caught my attention. Maybe I'm sinking a little too far into the whole healthcare field! :) Read the bottom of page 38 from J.I. Packer's Rediscovering Holiness. (I love Google Books)



What do you think about Packer's statement? Do you think it's true?

Renewal 2011

This past weekend I was at the Collegiate Navigators South Central Regional Renewal Conference... it was so wonderful!

Saturday afternoon I was completely worn out and instead of going to a second breakout session I took a nap and then sat by the lake and watched the waves... Sunday morning we had two hours to spend alone with the Lord; time to reflect over what we'd learned that weekend, what God wanted us to do about that, and hear from Him. That was probably my favorite part of the weekend.

Alas, I didn't bring my camera, so pardon the cell phone pics of my Sunday morning spot:

 

(and a pic that a friend snapped of me, courtesy of Daniel Miller)

It was good to see Peter again and hang out some with other Navigators from both A&M and other schools in our region.

(Peter, Me, Susanna-another Bstud leader, Michaela-who was in my Bstud last year, and Lauren, courtesy of Daniel Miller)

(the whole A&M group, courtesy of Daniel Miller)

Every campus helped in some aspect of the conference; this was A&M's contribution!

Jello...

Today was all about Jello... I don't think I've ever heard so many analogies using Jello in one day!

It started with my 10:20am Exercise Biomechanics professor likening the squiggly stuff to the matrix component of connective tissue found within your body. It was just too "Facebook quoteable" to not post it! (Ok fine, I'm one of THOSE students who will occasionally text during class!)

Then a friend of mine continued on the medical analogies with: 

Then tonight at leadership meeting for all the Navigator's Bible study leaders Susanna shared another Jello analogy related to verse 1 of  this week's passage, 2 Timothy 2:1-13. 

"You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

 2 Timothy 2:1

Paul exhorts Timothy to be strong in grace, implying that we can be strong

 in lots of other things. Grace isn't the first thing that comes to mind when 

someone says "strong." A little like Jello--ever tried to get the bottom hard 

layer off the bowl when you forgot to completely dissolve the powder?

 Jello can be strong stuff!

Now, if you'll excuse me. My microwave's just finished boiling my 1 C. of water... 

*proceeds to tear open packet of strawberry powdered happiness*

Rice=Time

So in Wednesday's RA training I went to a workshop on time management. The Hall Director leading the session gave each of us a handout and a cup of rice. Below each little box on the handout we had to write different activities that take up our time. Eat, sleep, class, study, and RA duties were easy ones... then came FB, watching movies, volunteering at Hope, chilling with my close group of friends, and late-night "me time."

We then had to allocate the rice in our cup into the boxes on the paper based on how much time we spend doing those activities in a single day. And I discovered some interesting things about where my time goes:

Comfort...

Have you ever just opened your Bible not really sure what you're looking for, knowing that God is only one who can supply it, but not really knowing where to go?

Today is one of those days. I'm sitting here in the Starbucks right across from campus, savoring my venti triple peppermint mocha and I just opened my Bible to 2 Corinthians. No particular reason, except that I hadn't read it in a while.

And I got stuck on chapter 1:3-11

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

I needed a little comfort this morning, I guess. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting. In fact, I was skeptical that I would feel any better by reading in the Word... but I feel kind of guilty that as a Bible study leader I tell my girls to go to God with their worries and troubles and yet I rarely do so myself. So today I was like, whatever... I guess I'll try it... And God had something to show me this morning.

I think I'm supposed to be comforted today. And oddly enough, I am.

Friends, friends, and more friends...

Well, I thought it was about time to introduce the people that I spend most of my time with! :-) So, here are a few of my random friends from college!

Sarah (left) and Melody (right) are two of the girls that I spend the most time with! They're roommates whom I met in Bible study our first semester here at A&M. Over the last year we've developed a circle of mutual friends and we spend a lot of late-nights in the library together. Sarah and I laugh over the craziest things and at times "fight" over the stupidest stuff! Our late-night guy talks and monologues on life are a total God-send and I can't imagine life without her! :-)

This is the group from my "second church." I am only able to attend the Sunday night college group hangouts, but they totally welcome me! We get together at the Sunday School leaders' home for a homemade dinner, Uno, movies, and random talks standing in the kitchen. These people are so much fun to hang out with!

Cameron and Sonia lead the Navigators ministry here at A&M. My parents have been involved with the Navs for several years, as was my oldest brother, Peter. Last year I didn't get to hang out with the Navs much, but this year I have come to love both of them and totally appreciate their way of connecting with us while still keeping up a high standard for us leaders. Last semester a few of us girls invited Sonia to watch "Twilight" with us and now she is a fellow junkie! She was almost more excited than I was to get tickets to see "New Moon" at the midnight showing! :-)

This is the entire Servant-Leader team for this year. All of these Navigators are so awesome and I love seeing their passion for life and their love for the Lord! Before school started we all got to spend some time planning for this school year and it was great to get to know them all better! Sadly, this picture was taken after I had to head back to campus early from the retreat.

Hannah (middle) is like my big sister. She led the Navigators Bible study that I was in last semester and she has been discipling me as well. She and I have a lot of laughs together, share stories from the week, encourage each other to keep going, pray for each other, and are there for each other to cry or vent or get advice about school, life, or guys. I think this picture was snapped at the Navs end of the year slip-n-slide party where I decided that she needed to get muddy before changing to go down the slide... I think it turned into a tickle fight, though!

Elana led my Bible Study with Hannah last semester, and is my co-leader this semester. She has a fresh look at the Scriptures and brings a joy to life that is super-refreshing! She makes me laugh and keeps me on my toes spiritually... two awesome things in a friend!

This is the entire Sophomore Advisor team for my freshman Honors dorm. The 13 sophomores and 1 junior are the best people to work with, stress with, and laugh with! We've been through a lot ever since February when we found out we made this year's team, but I am so glad they are there to keep me sane and allow me to vent after a crazy Honors event or difficult week of studying!

This is my awesome roommate Shelby! She's also one of the Sophomore Advisors and together we rule the South end of 3rd floor with an iron fist, the always-on coffee pot, lots of laughs, and an open-door policy! She complains to me in the mornings entirely in Spanish... and we usually joke about doing dishes for several days before we actually do them! She's been an awesome roommate!

So that's a glimpse of my life here at school. I have a few different circles of friends (which means I can usually find someone to talk to, study with, work out with, or eat a meal with at any time of day--or night!), but it's good to have a break from different aspects of my life. I laugh a lot, cry a lot, and am completely random for great lengths of time, but they all put up with me... or may even love me for it! I can't imagine going through my years here without them all! Thank God for friends!