From 'An Essay on Man'

 "All Nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear: Whatever IS, is RIGHT."
--Alexander Pope.

Dear Mr. Pope,
You've got some flawed theology.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am an artist.
I love painting. It's one of my absolute favorite pastimes. Right behind breathing and sleeping.

Much of today's modern art is full of discord and chance. Splatter painting is common, along with the seemingly random line drawings like Kandinsky. What does it mean??
As a culture, we paint what we think matters, what it is that we think is beautiful, what is important.
So we value.... lines.

This is not really where I have beef with Pope however.
The last line of his first Epistle in 'Essay on Man' is the last line quoted: "Whatever IS, is RIGHT."

The New York Times headlines are as follows:
Qaddafi's Army and Jets Strike at Rebels
U.S. Readies Military Options on Libya
Poll Shows Support for Embattled Public Sector Workers
Jane Russel, Star of Westerns, Dies at 89
Government Presses Fight Over Lesbian Employee's Benefits

Now that's what I call truth and beauty!

According to Pope, all of these things must be right, because this is how our world IS right now.
It follows Nature's rules that people should be at war with their neighbors; it is right that war should break out in a once calm area. The earth should always have death creeping across the land.
And we should accept this as good; this is Right.

Yet this contradicts how we react to our surroundings.
We seek to correct the "wrongs" around us, to fix the problems and set people at peace with their fellow man. It is a bad thing that there is a need for a military and government to keep people free and having equality.

The Bible has something very different to say about the matter:
Jeremiah 8:11
"They have treated superficially the brokenness of my dear people, claiming: 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace."

The Bible has a lot to say about how man is born sinful, and that the world is full of evil. Not only is today's vision of reality incredibly skewed from reality, but is incredibly distant from a Biblical perspective that says that man needs to be righted, rather than be "right" like Pope says.

It confounds me when I try to understand how people can think that the world is right.

Maybe you think TRUTH is objective?
Perhaps you disagree, you believe that man is not born sinful.

I've never seen a parent sit their child down to teach them how to lie, yet I have experienced a young kid look me right in the eye and tell me a blatant, obvious lie.

What you believe doesn't make sense.

Kandinsky

This is Kandisnky's Yellow, Red, Blue.
Generally, when I reference Kandinsky, this is the picture I have in my head, just to give you a personal visual.

My Junior year of high school, my favorite class was my AP English Language class.
There was a poster of this painting above my teacher's desk and I drew inspiration from it many times.
Hope you can get a tiny taste of the sweetness that I have relished.

In Christ Alone

There in the ground, His Body lay,
Light of the World by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth, to glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again.

And as He stands in victory,
Sins curse has lost its grip on me!
For I am His and He is mine-
Bought with the precious Blood of Christ

-Owl City

Passover

Today I was learning about the Plagues in Egypt.
We listed all ten, and when we got to the end, I wrote Passover, right after the plague of the death of the firstborn of Egypt, but as I looked at the list, I realized that in actuality, they happened at the same time.

As the first passover meal was prepared and partaken of, the battle between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt was coming to a close. Ra had been blocked out, and darkness covered the homes of Egypt, but the Son lit up the houses of Israel as He displayed Himself through the blood from the sacrificed lamb that was sprinkled on the doorposts of the Israelite homes.

That night the Egyptians lost every one of their first born sons, but the homes who had performed the Passover were protected by the only Son who would ever be enough to cover the life of another.

The first born boys of Israel were protected by the blood that covered the front doors of their homes. As the blood of the sacrificed lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts, it formed a shadow of the symbol of the cross over the door, the eternal sign of God's Son.

In my own life, I have entered the family of God, and live in His house. My front door has the Lamb's blood upon it, the blood that was shed to cleanse me from my sins and my sinful nature. My life has been spared because I have been eternally protected.

I've been covered by the blood.

Fireflies

Yes, overplayed song~ I just really enjoy the musicality of it.
They're so talented <3

Missions Emphasis Week LU Style

This week is going down in my history book as one of my favorite weeks at school: Missions Emphasis Week.

Liberty brought all kinds of missionaries from across America to school to show our students just a glimpse of what we could be doing a. this summer and b. the rest of our lives.

We have heard from Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint, one of the 5 young men who were killed in Ecuador whose legacies live on, and whose mission is thriving still today.

I have always been fascinated with the story of Jim and Elizabeth Elliot, and have read several books about them and their ministry and have hoped that someday I could live a life that followed the example they made, regardless of the intense life they had.


One of the main themes of the week was complete surrender.
When looking at the lives of the Elliots, there is no doubt that they were completely surrendered to God and what His will is.
While complete surrender can be such a difficult concept to understand, and even more so to actually carry out, in reality it can be one of the most freeing actions a person can do.
When I am completely surrendered to God and His will, I don't have to worry about making my own decisions. He is going to do what He wants with my life.
He is in control of everything, and will do what's best for us. Thus we don't have to worry about His decisions; they are automatically going to be unimaginably better than anything we had planned.

Although from the outside of the Elliot and other families story in Ecuador appeared to have spiraled out of control, the beautiful portrayal of love that was shown by the wives to the people shows God's bigger plan to do more than we could even imagine with our lives. His path is on a higher level.

Let me give up my rights, I want Your plan.

Awake My Soul

http://listen.grooveshark.com/s/Awake+My+Soul/2Ca3Yn?src=5

Beautiful song.

Healer

One of the leading artist groups on the christian scene, Hillsong has quickly become one of my favorite bands.

You, God, are more than enough for me!

The Art of Patience and Patients

To shed some light on my personal life: I have been sick for the past weekend and a half.

Though I feel that I am going to be better and back to normal soon, I am pretty certain that God is trying to show me something through my illness.
By being sick I have had to rely on others very much for not only getting things done but also for going through much of the healing process.
Without certain people in my life, I would probably be unable to type these letters right now.

Just as I have to rely on other people in my life in order to be healed and continue to function on a somewhat human level, we as humanity have the sam desperate need.

Much more intense than the flu or common cold, humanity has a much deeper sickness that is worse than cancer throughout us.
There is only one way for us to be healed, and there is no possible way for us as individuals to get better on our own, or even look to our peers to help us to cope with our disease.
The only One who can heal us from our inborn illness is the One who created us. God designed us to be like Him, and even though we start out fallen far from where His standard is, He wants to help us to become more like Him, but it is our own personal choice.

Just as one must set up an appointment and drive to the doctor's office in order to begin the healing process, one must come to God willing to accept His medicine and the treatment necessary to heal us inside.
He's better than the doctor's though: He is always available 100% of the time, and He is always right next to you, ready for you to talk to Him.

Everything Falls

Thank God that He has everything together!
Even when I've fallen down on my face, He lifts us up.

Cause when everything falls apart, Your Arms hold me together.
When everything falls apart, You're the only Hope for this heart
When everyhting falls apart and my strenght is gone,
I find you Mighty and Strong.
You keep holding on!

<3 Fee

Radical Follower

Here are some of my thoughts on Liberty's convo from this morning by Dr. David Platte.

Our world is full of people who are in deep, but quenchable need. The majority of people in the world die of easily curable diseases or a lack of clean water. As Americans, it's a pity that we don't really understand this.

Nearly a third of people across the globe claim to be Christians.
Now, with this in mind contemplate with me some of the DEMANDS that Jesus Christ, the leader of the Christian faith has made:

Matthew 16:24
"If any man may come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Luke 9:57-62
As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him,
"I will follow You wherever You go!"
Jesus told him, "Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head."
Then He said to another, "Follow Me."
"Lord," he said, "first let me go bury my father."
But He told him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God."
Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house."
But Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Luke 12:22-34

Then He said to His disciples:

"Therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

"Consider the ravens: they don't sow or reap; they don't have a storeroom or a barn; yet God feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than the birds?

"Can any of you add a cubit to his height by worrying? If then you're not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?

"Consider how the wildflowers grow: they don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon^" in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that's how God clothes the grass, which is in the field today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will He do for you—you of little faith?

"Don't keep striving for what you should eat and what you should drink, and don't be anxious. For the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

"But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you. Don't be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money-bags for yourselves that won't grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.^"

Matthew 28:19-20

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

I know that some of this stuff is often seen as metaphors, but when taken literally, these commands are very demanding.

Quite different from the fluff Salvation we have created for ourselves, using Jesus Christ's death as a ticket out of Hell, as an escape from an evil past, as a safety net to use for our own desires and plans. This is so varying from the true Gospel message.

As we have seen from the info posted a few days ago from John MacArthur, throughout the entire Bible we are called to be the Slaves of God, not simply servants.

Who of us is actually willing to obey the Creator of the Universe and do as He commands?

1. The command from Matthew 16:24 says that we are to pick up our cross, which was the main instrument of torture back then (our contemporary equivalent to the electric chair or water boarding) and Jesus tells us to carry it around on our shoulders. He also commands us to deny our own wants and say "no" to ourselves and "yes" to Him.

2. Luke 9:57-62 holds three comments from Jesus on what our Christian life will hold for those who decide that they will follow Him. In the first, Jesus tells us that we are not guaranteed a roof over our heads as believers. Jesus also says that we cannot look back onto our old lives once we become a follower of His. The two latter statements deal with giving proper good-byes to our family members, which He says cannot have precedent over King Jesus. Difficult though this may be, He deserves no less than our full devotion.

3. Jesus shows that even though His commands seem more demanding than we could ever bear, He tells us in Luke 12:22-34 that He will take care of us fully. He reminds us of all the other beings He cares for such as the ravens in the sky and the wildflowers on the fields, who are cared for with a watch eye by their Creator in heaven.

4. Lastly, the great commission given in Matthew 28:19-20 commands the Christian to go out, despite the fiery arrows the devil will hurl, and show people what Christ was truly all about. The message is not all fluff, as the popular vision of today's church says, for He is worthy of every breath to be used in the glorification of Himself. Our lives are to become dedicated to Him, the One who is worthy.

This is what my faith has the power to do: take an evil, self-loving sinner, and turn this person into a being who seeks only to give glory to the Creator, who is humbled in the presence of an Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent God.

Divine Romance

This song by Phil Wickham has some amazing lyrics.
I love worship songs, they are some of my favorite things to listen to.
Hope you can relish this song as much as I do.

For You I sing and I dance
Rejoice in this Divine Romance...
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love...

Eternal Beauty

I'm loving Elisabeth Elliot's book Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot.

Here is a quote from one of Jim's letters to his brother Bert,
"Eve's daughters are as flowers and none can ever say they are through unfolding. And what man can predict the consummate end of such a life when its ultimate center is Sharon's Rose?"

How beautiful an idea is this!
Thank God that He is never through with us; He is constantly waiting for us to surrender all to Him, so that He can use us in miraculous ways that we would never have been able to imagine.

He has such more for me than I can comprehend.

I remember a song I heard once, by a local band near where I lived, Desert Reign. The chorus had a line that said, "Forgiveness is the fragrance that the trampled flower casts upon the foot that crushed it into the ground."
While yes, it is quite a mouthful, the idea behind it is so precious.

It is never-ending, the love of God.
This has been true in my own life, as I have experienced the infinite forgiveness and love of God. He doesn't care what I have done in life, He wants to use me for His ends, for His purposes.
Regardless of what we encounter in life, God is always there to pick us up off the ground. He scrapes us up from the dirt that we have been ground into, breathes His life into our noses, and brings us back to life, over and over again.

He sees us as beautiful, and has freed us from our pasts with His love. The daughters of Eve will forever be blessed and used and loved of God, His mercy endures forever.
Thank God for His view of us, the mirror that never sees us as anything but what we really are: made in His image. He is Beauty, and we were created to look just like Him, from our beautiful conception to the surrendering of our last breath.
-Amen.

Just Shut Up!

"Do not be Hasty to Speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven, and you are here on earth, so let your words be few."
-Ecclesiastes 5:2

A.K.A.

Dear (fill in your name here),
I Am God in heaven, and I know what is going on in your life.
This being said, I don't need you to try to tell me what to do or what you think I need to know.
Be quiet, and listen to what I have already been saying to you.
Love everlasting,
Your Maker.

A Song For Today

The Orange County Supertones: So Great A Salvation
This song has such a great message:

I feel I got a glimpse of Heaven right here on earth...

Why me God?
Why should you chose me?

Oh, Hold me in Your arms of love
Sometimes I swear I feel Your Heartbeat...
I could never, ever thank You enough.
Here's my life for whatever it's worth.

Let that be my heart.
Amen.

Yet another Amazing Song

So since I found this song on Pandora (and it's not on youtube that I could find) you'll have to copy and paste. but believe me, it's well worth it.

This song is melancholy~ it reminds me of my childhood: one of the songs is also on a Muppet's movie- that song Kermit sings, 'The Rainbow connection.' It also has another song mixed in that applies to my life now, which makes for a great listening mood. Absolutely fantastic!

http://www.pandora.com/land/song/6ced6e8ac0e0c185?referrer=liza-at-chs&station=71b961b0cdabd691305c5c82564ecf36029f66448ae0bc98&fb=1

Slavery

John MacArthur is an amazing, intelligent man of God.
Today in Convocation, he spoke to the students of Liberty, and he had a message for us that will impact my life perspective forever if I can only put it into full out motion.

He is a Koine Greek language scholar, and has discovered a severe discrepancy in the translation of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into English.
I myself am a second semester Greek student myself, and was thus able to keep up with him in general, and will try to explain to you the fallacy that is being sold to Americans and the English speaking population.
The word 'δοῦλος' (doulos) is used in the Greek New Testament 141 times. This word has a very specific meaning, that fortunately for our contemporaries has a very specific, particular meaning.
The word doulos literally and plainly means 'slave.'

Now, I'm not sure how many of you have read your entire Bible, or even just the New Testament- I myself have only read through the New Testament- but I digress from the point.
In the King James Version of the Bible, the word doulos is almost always translated as 'servant' rather than 'slave.' Actually, in every translation (with the exception of MacArthur's Holeman Christian Standard Bible) the word is translated as servant, especially when concerning the Christians.

I'm rather upset that this concept has been hidden from contemporary Christians.
I've been taught my whole life that I am to be a servant of Christ, but that is not at all what the entire idea of the New Testament holds for us.

God does not call me to serve Him. He requires me to be His slave.
He chose me.
He has bought me with the blood of Christ.
My life's purpose is to be His completely, do whatever He asks me to do.

This in reality makes the idea of salvation hundreds of times better.
God has bought me, and made me a slave, yes, but I have become His friend.
He has made me a Citizen of His country, but all of this was not enough.

I, through Christ, have become a Joint-Heir, a Daughter of the the Creator of the Universe.

Even though I was once a speck of dirt, nothing but dust.
Unworthy, yet allowed to one day stand in the presence of God.

Now THAT is True Love.

River Flows in You

Totally, completely love this song.
Yiruma is an amazing artist. <3 <3 <3
I can listen to it over and over without getting bored, and that means a lot in today's society, especially considering our attention span.
I'm so glad God gave us the ability to create beautiful things that reflect His Nature.

Revamp

I'm trying out a new color scheme and background for the blog now...
Sorry if it throws any of you off.
<3

Jealous God

It is so precious to think of how patient God is with us.

Humans are like endless roller coasters, we go through hundreds of ups and downs without warning, all within a matter of seconds.
God, in His infinite wisdom, understands us, knows our needs, and yet is often looked to last when we are in need.

Like the people of Israel after they had been rescued from Egypt, we first cry to God, thanking Him for rising victorious over our enemies, but soon after are bowing down to idols we ourselves have crafted, feeling powerful while using life, mind, and tools that were given us by the All-Powerful One.

I believe God feels pain, and that as He watches the very ones He rescued fall in love with something other than Him, that He is Jealous.

And we are created in the image of God.

So often I feel myself having such similar feelings, this "green monster."

God is truly the only One who can righteously be jealous, for who else is worthy of our adoration?
He is the One who gives us the breath in our lungs, yet we focus on our own accomplishments to give us satisfaction and a purpose.
We worship the created rather than the Creator.

Nevertheless I find myself full of jealousy when one that I love spend time with someone else, or focus on something that I know is ethereal or evil.
I find myself wanting to slap my friends and loved ones when they want something that I believe is harmful to themselves or that will dissuade them from their goals.
I worry about those whose lives I have invested in, that they will not aspire to the dreams I have for them.

But I can never do enough to make their lives perfect. I am of little consequence in this world; I am a grain of sand somewhere in the Sahara. I cannot move myself, but am reliant upon the breath of God to blow me where He wills.

He is jealous for me, and all I can control is what I worship.

I praise God that He never gives up on me. I stumble and fall, yet He is still picking my up continuously. Though I have scrapes, scabs, and scars covering my body, He calls me beautiful. He sees past my superficial front into my soul, and loves me and wants me to be in love with Him.

He waits, hand outstretched, asking me to dance, and never is His desire for anything else than to love and be loved by me.

Can I Live?

I believe in the sanctity of life, from the moment of conception, to the last breath of every human being.
I just watched this video from Nick Cannon, and thought it was worthy enough to share with you.

Powerful Stuff.

Eternal thanks to my mother and father who gave me the gift of Life, and to my Heavenly Father for giving me that same gift, Eternally. I am blessed to breathe the air in my lungs.

Sanctification

I'm failing miserably at an attempt to read through the Old Testament this semester.

I am in Exodus, the rest of my family are already into Leviticus.
Regardless, I am where I am.

Not to be confused with the I am WHO I am. :)

I'm reading along, enjoying the parts that do not contain large lists of numbers and laboring through those verses that do. There is one verse that has remained etched in my mind, that applies very much to my life today, even though it was written hundreds of years ago:
"And you will sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever touches them will be holy." -Exodus 30:29

I love the idea of Sanctification.

Through His Son, God has 'Sanctified' us~set us apart, took us out of bondage, and has made us able to become victorious over sin. It's a beautiful concept.
He has pulled me out of the mire, washed me clean of the filth I was stained with, and continuously washes my feet when I stray onto unclean paths that Satan tempts me with. His mercy endures forever.

The process goes deeper than even this though: God wants us as human beings to revert from our old ways into actions that glorify Him; our lives should become living mirrors of His personality and should reveal His Nature to others.
He has working an eternal action upon our lives, but we must also put actual effort into growing a relationship with God.
Our Sanctification is steadily becoming more influential in our lives, and is not a once in a lifetime event, but must be nurtured.
We were Sanctified in the past, and we are still being set apart from the world, to be lights to the darkness, shining brighter and brighter until the day of perfection.

God's Infinite Wisdom

Bad news hurts.

You know that feeling you get when you hear something from a loved one that just cuts you to your core?
That gut wrenching twist of the knife that rips through your whole body?

I hate that feeling.

Being away from home gives that feeling to you. When you are so far away, you feel helpless, restricted, powerless.
For me, that weakness is crippling, essentially because generally I have maintained a powerful hand above the devil in having control in my life and in the lives of those whom I love.

I suppose this feeling is one I should become accustomed to, even relish. Certain knowledge I have just gained has told me, blatantly, that there is stuff in life that I cannot do anything about. I have tried, but there are no words I can add to what I have already spoken, and choices that I do not LOVE are going to be made, whether or not I agree with them.

I know I'm not superwoman, although the meta-human skills would come in handy. I cannot ascertain what will happen in those lives that I love, but I do know of One that is certain, which does lighten the load that weighs down my soul.

It is only when I recognize that I cannot fix everything around the world, that I must look to the One who CAN fix it all.
God, in His Infinite Wisdom, understands and sees all.

It is so relieving to know that God is not confined to my time schedule. I have never been able to keep a watch running. They are constantly running out of batteries, falling into water, or getting lost. Perhaps that is God's way of reminding me to not become a slave to our human idea of time.
I revel in watching the second hand of an analogue clock circle round and round through the seconds. But as I watch the seconds pass me by, I see my humanity clearly.

Praise God that He is Infinite.

He is the author of the Universes, and sees the entire set of Volumes He has written at one time. My life may seem to me like a time line, but He knows my beginning and my ending. He is not restricted by the bounds of time, for He created it. He knows what happened yesterday, that which is occurring now, and what is yet to come.
Yet still He says, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of Peace, and not of Evil, to give you an expected end."
The Hebrew translation sheds a brighter, more beautiful light to this commonly treasured word: "For I know the plans that I have, declares Yahweh, plans of peace and not evil, to give a future of hope."

Thanks be to the 'One who Is, the Existing One' who is infinite in wisdom, regardless of our human error. I have a future of hope that will last for as long as He Is.