A Thoughtful Prayer

Jesus, would I recognize you if I saw you? What would you look like? Would you look like great blue skies, sunny days, rolling hills and anything that makes me smile? Or like a tortured soul who was a carpenter with rough hands, a knit brow and kind eyes? Or perhaps like what your current occupation implies: eyes of fire, limbs of glowing bronze, pure white hair, and dressed in golden clothes (Rev 1:13-15)? I don't know if I am more impatient to finally meet you, or terrified. Because you are the Prince of Peace, but you are also the King of Glory. 

Dagon Falls

Background scripture: "Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained." 1 Samuel 5:2-4

Her idols crumble like dust before him; like Dagon, they fall to pieces in his presence. She stands among the rubble, amazed and terrified at a God who will not let anything come between them. She is drawn in by his mercy. She has set countless Dagons up before him and has watched each and every one of them fall to the ground like they clay that they are made of. Yet, in his anger, he does not destroy her. He simply waits for her to turn to him, to realize she in his presence, and to remove her shoes. He waits for his beloved and will tear down as many of her idols as it takes for her to get tired of setting them up. He waits for her to turn to the one who will not crumble.

Adventures in the kitchen part 5 (I think)

I wanted a dippy egg.  Why do problems always occur when I’m in the kitchen? Don’t answer that.

It’s not like I haven’t made a dippy egg before, I just have problems when absentmindedly-or mindedly- cooking.  So I got out the little red frying pan, the egg and the spray cooking oil. I then turned on the stove, put the pan on the fire and sprayed the pan. 

A pan-sized bullet of fire exploded from the pan for half of a second before disappearing into the air as if it had never been there. But it had, I'd seen it and so had my dad. 

"Meg! never spray an aerosol can on the fire! Spray it before," he said. You were about 10 years too late on that advice Dad. Why couldn't I have learned this when I learned how to use the oven in the first place? I suppose most normal people know not to do be an idiot, so I guess he and my mom are justified in not teaching me this.

Thankfully my face was far enough away from the pan that it did not fry my face.  

So today I learned...Spray the pan before putting it on the gas stove

Putting Up With People

I roll my eyes a lot. Sometimes I get annoyed and complain to people of my frustration. There are many ways I react to people who do not understand what I am trying to do or when they do understand and take advantage of me.


But some people truly don't understand the gospel. They get it wrong, have preconceived notions or just have never seen the gospel. Evangelism would be easy if everyone believed and understood the gospel, but then it would not be evangelism. As Christians, it is our job to show them the true gospel. If we roll our eyes, are impatient, rude or unwelcoming in any way, we'll lose them. That isn't good and that isn't Christlike.
I am currently reading 1 Corinthians 9, and verse 12 caught my attention and made me think of this.


 "...On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ," it says. 


It served as check to my roll as a Young Life leader. Do I have in mind the things of Christ or am I complaining and being selfish?  How much do I put up with for the gospel? 


This led to me think of an earlier verse in 1 Corinthians:


"We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! ¹¹ To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. ¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." 1 Corinthians 10-13