Doctrine pages 209-244

Total for week: 103
The picture that this chapter displays is a picture of Mary with her son Jesus in her lap. Jesus is reaching up at his mother’s face in a loving way. Mary has a halo hovering over her head as she looks genuinely into her baby’s eyes.
The verse this chapter starts out with is John 1:14 which says, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”. I had never heard this exact verse before; I had heard the concept of it, but never the real thing from the Bible. There is a song that talks about the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us which means that Jesus came down to earth to be with us. And when we see Jesus face to face, we will have seen God, and seen the truth.
Incarnation: God Comes is the name of this chapter. This was very in depth and answered a lot of questions I had never even thought about. Incarnation is used to explain how the second member of the Trinity entered into human history in flesh as the God-man Jesus Christ. This chapter explained that when Jesus was on earth he was both fully God and fully man. This concept can be hard to grasp because some people think that he either had to be fully man or fully God, and that he couldn’t be both. But this book does an excellent job of breaking down how it was possible for Jesus to be both. This book takes me deeper in thought about God than I thought was possible! I love it.

Doctrine pages 175-208

This is the sixth chapter in this book and it's called, covenant: God Pursues. Before I start talking about what I read in this chapter, I wanted to point out that at the beginning of each chapter there is a picture on the first page. This chapter's picture is of a man (I'm guessing he is supposed to represent Jesus) who is laying down with a cloud of smoke floating up from him. He looks very fatiged and in need of healing. I just thought I would share the pictures in the chapters because I think they get me thinking before I even start reading the chapters.

This chapter started out with the verse from Exodus 6:7, "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God". I love this verse because it reminds me that God didn't just create us and then abandon us here on this crazy earth; he is here with us always and he will always be our God.

This chapter brought up the point that no matter how badly someone has sinned against us, nothing compares to the sin we have committed against God. God did nothing but bless us and pour his grace out on us and our response is to sin agaisnt him. And even after God has given us all of this and we chose to respond with sin he goes even further to give us a convenant, his saving, glorious, and loving covenant. The rest of this chapter painted a really good picture of what the covenant is and why God gave us his covenant.

Doctrine pages 140-174

This chapter, called "God Judges", talks about our battles with sin, and why there is such a thing as sin in the first place. It starts out from the Bible verse: Ecclesiates 7:29 which says, "God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes". The verse at the beginning of each chapter really paints a sketch of what the chapter will be about, and it helps your brain start thinking about this topic. In the beginning of this chapter they talk about the fall of Satan, who was an angel, but then rebelled against God and was kicked out of heaven. God made this perfect world and created Adam and Eve and put them on earth and said they could do whatever they please, except for going near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve was tempted by Satan to disobey God and take from the tree that God had forbade her to take from. Satan convinced Eve that God was untrustworthy and if she took from the tree then she would become like God. Adam just stood their and watched Eve be taken into darkness and he too sinned against God. God gave Adam the job of leading his familiy in godliness, but Adam failed. When God called for them they hid and then started blaming everyone else for their own sins. Adam blamed Eve for his sin and he also blamed God for making Eve.
The bright side to this seemingly dark story, is that when Adam and Eve repented, or confessed their sins, God forgave them. God replaced guilt and shame, with a clear conscience. He also changed the human view God as an enemy to hide from, to a view of God as a friend to walk with. Sin and the fall don't have the world, but God does. Even though sin seems so powerful, nothing compares to the power of God.

End of Crazy Love!

Total reading for week: 100 pages

This part of the book talked about giving. He gave inspiring examples of how people expressed their faith through their giving. One example was a man who would always give 20 percent of his money to the church and then his income greatly decreased and he started giving 30 percent to the church. I find that amazing that a man would have that much faith that even though you would think he would start giving less to the church to accomadate for his lowered income, but instead gave even more! That just amazes me. Another thing Francis talked about along the lines of giving was giving your time. Giving time can sometimes affect your life more than giving money can because if we let God have control of our time then he will do awesome things with it. But giving that is not motivated by love will gain nothing. If we are just giving because we feel like we should then we will not gain anything.

This chapter also brought up the idea of downgrading so that others may upgrade. I love that thought. There's a Bible verse that says "He must increase and I must decrease", which is one of the favorite Bible verses. The thought of being more like Jesus and less like my sinful-self fills me with joy.

Another thing that I liked was when Chan said that pride tells us that we've given more than other people so that is sufficient enough. We always compare ourselves to other people, which is silly because we are all different people! We all have different circumstances and lives so why do we always compare to others to see if we're doing the bare minimum it takes to be considered a good Christian?

Chan starts talking about what it is like to be obsessed with something. It means to have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. God tells us in Luke chapter 6 to love our enemies and loan to them without expecting anything in return. I thought it was interesting how Francis brought up the point that it is so easy for us to lend things to our loved ones because we know that they will repay us somehow, but God says it is more important to lend to our enemies and expect nothing in return. God says that is true love.

The end of this book gave many examples of people who really live like that. Those examples were extremely touching and inspiring. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is feeling dry in their walk with Jesus becasue this book makes you think deeper than you ever thought you would! So go buy it!

Crazy Love pages 113-128

This chapter was probably one of my favorites so far. It's called "Your Best Life...Later" and it talked about how we must live our lives on earth in order to spend eternity with God. One statement that really stuck out to me was when Francis Chan said, "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers". This really stuck out to me because it is so true. Our lives as Christians shouldn't look like everyone else's, they should reflect the fact that we find love in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Having faith often means doing things that others see as crazy. The verse: 1 John 2:6 says, "whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did". This makes me reevalute my life and see if I am really doing all I can to try to live a life like Jesus did; and if i'm being honest, most of the time it doesn't look like that. It is so hard to put aside our fears of what other people will think of us if we do certain things, but we can find joy in the fact that we will be rewarded in heaven for the things we do to glorify God on earth.
This next thing that Chan talked about blew my mind. He asked the question, "How would your life change if you actually thought each person you came into contact with as Christ?". I know I definitely don't treat every person how I would treat Christ if he was human flesh again. That really makes me want to change and treat even the most annoying kid in class as if he was Christ. Doing this takes a lot of patience and love, but if Christ did it then we should strive to do it too.

Crazy Love pages 99-112

This chapter is called “When You’re in Love”, and when I first heard the title I thought this would be about our earthly relationships with one another, but I was wrong. This chapter was all about being in love with God, and what that love should look like. It blows my mind that God actually wants a relationship with me; the almighty, powerful, perfect God wants me. The part that makes me feel bad is that He wants me, but sometimes I find myself forgetting about him. It seems crazy to think that we as humans on earth could ever forget about God because he is everywhere and he reveals himself through his works. One thing it said in this chapter that I liked was when it said “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you”. I like this a lot because it says God’s love is better than life itself; life is all we can see, so it seems to be all we ever pay attention too, but his love is way better than even life. The second part of that quote kind of makes me sad because I see so many people in my school who claim to be Christians and believe in Christ, but they use his name in vain every day, or they cuss and use vulgar language.
One of the subtitles in this chapter said “Help! I Don’t Love You”, which makes us feel kind of embarrassed because how could we not love such a loving and perfect God? It said that we need God’s help to get us to love him. This statement is true because we as imperfect, sinful people can’t love him without his help.
One thing that always comforts me whenever I hear it is in Luke chapter 6 verse 23 which says this, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven”. This verse is a great reminder that we shouldn’t be discouraged by people on earth who try to condemn us for loving God because our reward for it will be in heaven when we can spend eternity praising Him.

Crazy Love pages 83-98

This chapter is called "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God", and it's all about giving God parts of your life instead of your whole life. Francis Chan puts it very bluntly and says, "churchgoers whoare "lukewarm" are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven". This really stuck out to me because many people think that as long as you go to church and don't do too many bad things then you will go to heaven. But Chan says that if you are not a Christian with all of your heart and life then you are not going to heaven. Chan backs up his statement with scripture; in Revelation 3:16 it says, "Jesus says 'So, because you are luke warm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth'". This scripture basically says that God doesn't want people who aren't on fire for him to enter his kingdom of heaven. This means that Jesus wants all or nothing; he doesn't want us to pretend that we are christians if we aren't fully committed to serving him. Francis also made an excellent analogy of being a "lukewarm" christian to being a marine and only doing half of the work. You can't go into the marine and only do the work that you want to do and then skip out on the hard stuff. Another blunt comment he made was that people are only willing to change their lives if they think it will affect their salvation. One of the most popular questions that some Christians ask is, "What do I have to do to make it to heaven?". This question implies that we are only willing to do the bare minimun of what we think it takes to go to heaven and have eternal life, instead of going to hell and having eternal suffering.

Article on Teenage Driving

The article "Teenagers, Friends and Bad Decisions" by Tara Parker Pope was very interesting to me. Of course we all know that in the presence of friends, kids are more likely to be reckless, but this article brought up some points that I had never realized before. The test they ran was having some teenagers play a driving game in which there are stop lights that turn yellow, and the driver has a choice to stop or run through it and get a bigger prize. They compared how risky the teenagers played while they were alone, as opposed to when they knew their peers were watching. The teens appeared to be more of a derring-do when they knew their friends were watching. This proves some parents wrong when they say that kids' friends always directly pressure them into being reckless, but really they have an affect on the teen even when they are just there. I also thought it was interesting how teens being watched by people of the opposite sex did not act much more daring than under the eye of people of the same sex. I would think that teenagers would want to try to impress people of the opposite sex more to try to sway them into having an attraction to them. This article also brought up a good point that even a mature, well-behaved teenager will be influenced by his or her peers when they make the decision to be daring or play it safe.

Step Up 3 Dance In the street classical music By sp33dolino666

I love this scene because it shows the passion between the two dancers and their love of dancing. The way they smoothly glid down the street in synch with eachother amazes me.

Doctrine pages 109-139

This chapter is called "God Loves" and it is all about how God loves us and why he created us. One thing that this book said was that God created us as his image bearers, but not because he needed us in any way. Many people say that God created humans because He was lonely, but this is very untrue. God is perfect by himself; therefore, He does not need sinful people to keep him company. He created us because He genuinely loves us. There was also a list of shared and unshared attributes of God. The list of unshared attributes includes: omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, immutability, eternality, and sovereignty. The list of shared attributes includes: holiness, love, truth, righteousness, mercy, and beauty. All of these attributes show a tiny glimpse of just how amazing God is. Jesus Christ is the only person who has perfectly imaged God. In the Bible numerous times Jesus is described as the image of God, and the radiance of the glory of God. Jesus said, "Whoever sees me sees him who sent me" in John 12:45. God has called us to live godly lives, and to live in ways that serve him by making advances in his kingdom, including making culture that honors him. I try to honor him in everything I do, but of course I can never do that perfectly because I'm human.

Modern Family

Modern Family is one of my favorite shows, along with The Office. Modern Family is about three different immediate families that are all related either through marraige or blood. One of the families consists of a wife, Claire, husband, Phil, two daughters, Hayley and alex, and a son, Luke. In this family Phil is the one with the most humor, in my opinion because he makes a joke about everything. His humor can be lame, but that's what makes it funny in my opinion. Claire is more uptight than Phil, and she is a perfectionist. Hayley is the stereotype of a sixteen year old girl; she is obsessed with her cell phone, her friends and her boyfriend. Alex is the middle child who is a bookworm and excels in school. Luke is the youngest of the family; some might say he is the dumb one of the family. The next family has two gay partners who have an adopted daughter. One of the men's name is Mitchell, and he is a lawyer who is a little more quiet than his partner Cameron. Cam is a loving guy who is friendly and can pretty much get along with anyone. Their daughter, Lily is the cutest baby ever; she never cries or shows any emotion during the show, but she is adorable just the way she is. The last part of the family has a wife, Gloria, a husband, Jay, and a son, Manny. Gloria is from columbia and she is a very outspoken, beautiful women. The husband is an older man who loves to play golf and who loves his wife. Their son, Manny, is mature for his age, and by blood he is Gloria and her previous husband from Columbia's son. Jay is the father of Claire and Mitchell, and that is how all three of these families are related. The humor in this show between these families is hilarious, and flows very naturally so that people can relate to these crazy families.

Doctrine pages 77-108

This chapter was all about creation. It says that creation is a gift from God and God created everything. He created the Heavens and the Earth (as said in Genesis 1:1), he created all of the planets and the stars, he created everything. I thought it was interesting how they said that there was a pattern to God's words in Genesis, which is the first book in the Bible. They said that the announcement was "And God said", the commandment was "Let there be", separation was God's separation of night and day, water and land, animals and plants, the report was "And it was so", and the evaluation was "And God saw that it was good". I really liked this because it kind of broke it down in terms I had never thought about before. There was a long list about what creation reveals about God, and it was this: God is the only God, Trinitarian, eternally, living, independent, transcendent, immanent, personal, powerful, beautiful, holy, a prophet, and a sovereign king. I think it's so amazing how creation reveals all this about God and yet there is still so much we as humans don't know about him. This chapter went on to list all of the different theories of creation and how the earth came to be. These theories sound so silly when I know that God is the creator and nothing else helped creation. One thing that also helps me to believe that God is the creator is the fact that God is outside of time. This is hard for us to comprehend because we live inside of time, where this is all we know. We know that everything has to have been created somehow, but God has always been there, there was no creation of Him.

Doctrine pages 37-76

This chapter starts off talking about how God reveals himself. God reveals himself through creation, common grace, and conscience. Part of God's common grace is rain, the sunrising every morning, and setting every evening, the air we breath and the moon coming out every night. Everyone is blessed with God's common grace because every human being is subjected to it, and feels and sees these things that God has provided us with. One analogy that this book made that I liked a lot was when it said that Jesus is the Last Adam who passed his test in the garden and this imputed his righteousness to us to overcome the sin imputed to us through the sin of the first Adam. This was an excellent analogy because it paints a good picture for us to understand the relation between Jesus and every part of scripture. This book also taught be what moralizing is, which a lot of people are accused as. Moralizing is reading the Bible to only learn principles for how to live life as a good person instead of learning about Jesus. This kind of approach to Scripture is not Christian because it treats the Bible just like any other book, to learn a lesson. This chapter also talked about believing every single part of scripture. You can't add to or take away any parts of the Bible because it is all God-breathed; therefore, it is all true and trustworthy. You can't believe one thing in the Bible and then not believe another part, it just doesn't work. No part of the Bible can contradict another part. Some people might try to say that the Bible contradicts itself, but those people are just missinterpreting parts of the Bible and using their missinterpretation as a contradicting, false accusation.

Snow Days

These past two snow days have been amazing for me. First of all, on tuesday it was unexpected that we would have the whole day off, so that was nice. I slept in til eleven, which I haven't been able to do in a few weeks. At noon I went to my favorite place to eat, Buffalo Wild Wings! I was able to meet up there with some friends, which was nice. Even though our school lunch is pretty tastey, Buffalo Wild Wings was still much better than the food I would have been eating if we had had school. After we ate, a few of us had planned to go back to my friend's house to go sledding because she has a big hill in her neighborhood. On our way back we decided that it was way too cold to go outside, instead we just stayed inside and watched a movie. Later that night I went home and just relaxed for a while. Then surprising news came that they issued another closing for the next day!
Today, on our second snow day, I am determined to finish as much of my homework as I can bare. I slept in til eleven again today, and am now doing some homework that I know I will be gald I did, later in the week. When I woke up this morning I looked outside and was blinded by the unending sight of white snow. When I went downstairs, I looked at our outdoor porch, and everything was lightly sprinkled with snow because of the strong winds blowing the snow in. I do hope that we have school tomorrow, so that we don't have to go even farthur into summer with school days. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!