Galatians study

Tonight we had our Galatians Bible study… I still love it. If that was even in question :) I thought I’d share some quotes with you, whoever you may be. Enjoy.

The following are from Tim Keller…

“If anything but Jesus is a requirement for being happy or worthy, that thing will become our slavemaster.”

“Now our knowing of God will rise and fall depending on many things. But God’s knowing of us is absolutely fixed and solid.”

“The gospel frees us from the need for people’s approval and adoration so that we can confront and anger the people we love, if that is what is best for them. And although it does not always work, this is the only kind of communication that really changes people. If you love a person so selfishly that you cannot risk their anger, you won’t ever tell them the truth they need to hear. If, on the other hand, you tell a person the truth they need, but with harshness and not with the agony of a lover, they won’t listen to it. But if you speak the truth with lots of love evident at the same time, there is a great chance that what you say will penetrate the heart and heal. A gospel-based ministry is marked by loving honesty, not spin, image and flattery.”

And then this last one is from “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair” by David Powlison…

“…that most basic question which God poses to each human heart: “Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart’s functional trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight?” Questions… bring some of people’s idol systems to the surface. ‘To who or what do you look for life-sustaining stability, security and acceptance? …What do you really want and expect [out of life]? What would [really] make you happy? What would make you an acceptable person? Where do you look for power and success?’ These questions or similar ones tease out whether we serve God or idols, whether we look for salvation from Christ or from false saviors. [This bears] on the immediate motivation of my behavior, thoughts, feelings. In the Bible’s conceptualization, the motivation question is the lordship question: who or what “rules my behavior, the Lord or an idol?”

Gotta love it

Today in Guizarros I had the privilege to teach these little ones about Jesus.  I love it.  I’m so glad my Spanish finally allows me to communicate well enough to work with kids.  If I’m honest, I’ve missed it.  I love kids.  I love their curiosity.  I love that once you get them talking, you can’t get them to stop.  For example, we talked about creation.

Shannon “What did God make?”
Kids “Tigers, Elephants, People, Birds, Butterflies, Trees, Water… 5 minutes later… Hippos, Fish…”  and they proceeded to name everything that they were either seeing in the room or in the pictures that I was holding up.

And, in case you were wondering, I’m still obsessed with the Jesus storybook Bible.  We talked about creation and I told the story with all the correct verb tenses, because I was reading :)  And we got to talk about Jesus because every story whispers His name!

We also got to sing… “Mi Dios es tan grande, tan fuerte y podoroso.  No hay nada que no pueda hacer.”  I’ve made a decision to start learning kids songs in Spanish.  It kills me that I know a song for probably every old testament Bible story in English, but in Spanish I’ve got nothing.  Basically my tool kit is empty.  Time to start filling it up!

Anyway… pray for these sweet little faces.  In their world most of them have been deserted by their dads and fend for themselves a lot of the time while mom works.  They eat lunch every day at the soup kitchen and don’t even have a set of crayons at home or books to read.  They have rivalries with kids from other families just because that’s the way it is, they may not even know why.  But they are kids.  They laugh and want to play duck, duck goose.  They get excited and talk too fast for me to understand.  They love games and especially love winning, even if its just bingo.  They are precious.  And they need to know Jesus and the hope and healing that comes only from HIM.

noodles, veggies, beef, and a birthday

Recently my friend Anita introduced me to a nearby restaurant that is a Mongolian Grill… YUM!  And then she was kind enough to have a birthday so that we had a reason to go :)  Thanks Anita.

I met Anita working at Guizarros and since then we have become good friends… I am so thankful for her.  Just last week she moved into my neighborhood, which is super exciting, so I’ll get to see her all the time. 

Here are some fun birthday pictures…

Things that aren’t favorites

Stray cats that find their way to my window at 3:30 in the morning crying loudly and continuously.

My alarm clock going of at 5:40 only 20 minutes after the cat stopped whining long enough for me to go back to sleep.

Roaches on my toothbrush… second time since being here.  And it was even in a case, how does that happen?

Cooking Adventures

Today Barb and I had cooking adventures together.  I LOVED it :)

The plan was to make bagels, which we did.  But bagels require lots of waiting… so as we’re waiting Barb says… “How about making pierogies?”  (p.s. I have no idea how to spell that word!)  And so we got to work.  Turns out that neither recipe is terribly complicated and both things turned out delicious!

Here is our process in pictures…

Kneading the dough for bagels after getting the pierogi shells ready

Bagels rising…

So its kind of fun that the shells stretch so much… we made some monster sizes.  Gerry decided to give you a frame of reference.

Boiling the bagels before they cook

And they’re done!  That’s right I had already eaten half of one before we remembered to take a picture :)

Delicious!!!

Rock of Ages

I’ve been listening to Jean Larroux’s sermon series on the five solas, and I love them.

The first one, Sola Scriptura, hit me because he kept bringing me back to the truth that Scripture is true.  The parts that I like and want to believe are true.  But the parts that I don’t really like and don’t want to believe are still true.  Scripture is not true because I believe it.  Its just true.  And because of that it is a measuring line that I can keep coming back to in my life.

Today I listened to the second one, Sola Fide.  Thinking about faith alone just resonates with me.  I have to be willing to come before the Lord putting all of my good works aside.  I come just with my sin and with Jesus.  Jean Larroux says this, “Faith is believing that the work of Christ will do everything that God said it would do".”  Really faith is believing that Scripture is true.  And it means that I stop trying to make a case for myself for how good I’ve been or how much more good than evil I have done (which isn’t even true).  Anyway… he ended with the words to the hymn, Rock of Ages, and I was reminded how much I love them.  So, I decided to share…

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from its guilt and power 

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

A First

Anita is super patient.  Lesson of the day :)  And kids are patient too!

Today I got in the car with Anita and the guys to head up to Guizarros and work with the kids there.  On the way I found out that it was just going to be us today.  So Anita and I got assigned to the little ones.  And she handed the lesson over to me so that I could practice leading.  YAY!  And intimidating.  All at the same time.

Good thing I had the good ‘ole Jesus Storybook Bible with me in Spanish.  We read our Bible story about Moses, colored pictures of the plagues, and played duck, duck, goose.  The kids had fun.  And I had a great time!  Anita had to step in some, of course, but I got more confident knowing that I really could work with these kids and communicate with them.

Lessons learned… next week we’re wearing nametags.  And I’m bringing more paper to color on.  And I’m going to prepare in advance!  Sounds like a plan.  YAY!