Sunday, October 19, 2008

Pain and Suffering

I went to John Piper's conference this weekend and the topic was "Job" (of the Bible). Boy does that man ever know how to dissect Scripture! And surprising to me was that he is very animated and funny! He delights in the things God made and it's fun to hear him talk about those things.

The main point that John made for this teaching was why does God allow suffering when he is a good and loving God? I think what I took away from this seminar was that above all things God is Sovereign. And it is wrong to question God, but we do it anyway! Job was a righteous man, meaning he loved the Lord with all his heart and sought after Him in all things. But God allowed Satan to kill his livestock, his family, to afflict Job with horrible sores for days. (God didn't but allowed Satan to.) Job wasn't perfect and he did question God. Another thing I got out of it is that God will use suffering to bring people together. When you are suffering you call your friends and family more, you reach out and connect more because you feel vulnerable and needy. And mainly when you are suffering you reach out to God more, it draws you closer to Him, you are tested (like Job was) at times to see if you truly mean what you say about your love for Jesus. This is a tip of the iceberg so I encourage you to go to the Desiring God website to listen to Piper's message on Job. www.desiringgod.org

Friday, October 10, 2008

so much to do, so little time

Sorry blog world, I am absolutely overwhelmed with things to do recently. There's 2 parties to attend this weekend and I went to one last weekend, preparations for my testimony on Thursday and a football game this Saturday. Oh and this is the month of October, the BIRTHDAY month. There are 7 birthdays in my family this month, not including my own. That's typically 7 cards, a few gifts and usually about one or two parties. Oh and did you all know that Christmas is coming? So there is that on my mind. Plus we're going to New York for Christmas so then there's the planning I've got to do. When I have a lot of things to do I tend to do very little. I will wait till the very last minute and run around like crazy and get everything done in like 2 hours. It's the "to do" that I don't like, so I procrastinate, I put it off, I wait until I can wait no more. Is there something wrong with that? I guess if I end up forgetting something then that can be a problem, plus I can get stressed trying to get it all done. And we all know stress is no good. I guess in the race of things I end up being the rabbit and I really should be the turtle. But in all honesty, I don't want to do all of these things. I want to be selfish with my time and do nothing else. But that benefits no one except for me so then I feel guilty. So fess up, how are you with deadlines and to do's? Any words of wisdom?

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Yikes

I am giving my testimony at Recovery at the Village exactly two weeks from tonight, less than two weeks, one week, six days and 22 hours (I think). I have had in the past MAJOR MAJOR stage fright. I'm talking about heart pounding, eyes dilated, can't breath, kind of stage fright and when I talk I sound like a squeaky mouse because my throat is closed off. I am asking for all of your prayers; prayers for God to completely envelope me and to take away the fear, prayers that my testimony is glory given to God and the truth is told in love, prayers against Satan's attacks through sickness, accidents and fear most of all. I am really looking forward to sharing my story in hopes that others can see how amazing God is and how great is His love for us!

I will be sharing my testimony on October 16th at 7:30PM, thanks again.