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To live is to suffer. But to survive, well, that's to find the meaning in the suffering.

	Thursday - October 14, 2005
I will only be given certain amount of opportunities to start fresh, so I have to take advantage of it. Time for a new beginning.

Thursday - October 6, 2005

As I look into the stars
Pondering how far away they are
How You hold them in Your hands
And still You know this man
You know my inner most being
Even better than I know, than I know myself
What a beautiful God
And what am I, that I might be called Your child
As I look off into the distance
Watching the sun roll on by
Beautiful colors all around me
Painted all over the sky
The same hands that created all of this
They created you and I
And what am I, that I might be called Your child
That You might know me, my King
That You might die, that I might live
What am I, what am I, what am I, what am I
-Shawn McDonald

Sunday - August 15, 2005

E.A.R.L, Smokey D. Fontaine:

But I also know the more you think, the more you want to know, and I'm always going to ask questions. Who are you? What are you here for? It means someting to ask yourself those things because it forces you to look inside the deepest, darkest corners of your life. There is a lockbox there, but if you ever allow yourself to open it, you will realize so much.

Let me go my way, but walk with me
See what I see, watch me, then talk with me

Monday, June 13, 2005

Because of Jesus and His death on the Cross, through my faith in Him:

I am completely forgiven and fully pleasing to God.
- 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12

I am unconditionally accepted by God.
- Colossians 1:21,22; Romans 8:38,39

I no longer stand condemned before God and I am deeply loved by God.
- Isaiah 53:4-6; Romans 8:1,2,3; 1 John 4:9-10

I am made brand new and I am now complete in Christ.
- Titus 3:3-7; colossians 2:9,10

Tuesday - May 31, 2005

From Yaerin:

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone to have a deep soul relationship with one another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively. But to a Christian, God says "NO, not until you are satisfied and fulfilled and content, living loved by me alone, with giving yourself totally, unreservedly to me alone. I love you, my child, and until you discover that only in me is your satisfaction to be found, you will not be united with another until you are united with me, exclusive of any other desires of longings. I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow me to bring it to you. You just keep watching me, expecting the greatest things. Keep experiencing that satisfaction of knowing I am. Keep learning and listening to the things I tell you. You must wait. Don't be anxious. Don't worry. Don't look around at the things others have gotten or that I've given them. Don't look at the things you think you want. Just keep looking off and away up to me, or you'll miss what I want to show you. And then when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any would ever dream of. You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready, until you both are satisfied exclusively with me and the life I have prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the love that exemplified your relationship with me, and is thus perfect love. I am working even this minute to have both of you ready at the same time. And dear child, I want you to have the most wonderful love. I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with me, and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and love that I offer you with myself. Know that I love you. I AM ALMIGHTY GOD. BELIEVE AND BE SATISFIED."

Thursday, March 10, 2005

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
- Deuteronomy 8:10-18

Tuesday - February 15, 2005

Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller writes:

The problem with Christian community was that we had ethics, we had rules and laws and principles to judge each other against. There was love in Christian community, but it was conditional love. Sure, we called it unconditional, but it wasn't. There were bad people in the world and good people in the world. We were raised to believe this. If people were bad, we treated them as though they were either evil or charity: If they were bad and rich, they were evil. If they were bad and poor, they were charity. Christianity was always right; we were always looking down on everybody else. And I hated this. I hated it with a passion. Everything in my soul told me it was wrong. It felt, to me, as wrong as sin. I wanted to love everybody. I wanted everything to be cool. I realize this sounds like tolerance, and to many in the church the word tolerance is profanity, but that is precisely what I wanted. I wanted tolerance. I wanted everybody to leave everybody else alone, regardless of their religious beliefs, regardless of their political affiliation. I wanted people to like each other. Hatred seemed, to me, the product of ignorance. I was tired of biblical ethic being used as a tool with which to judge people rather than heal them. I was tired of Christian leaders using biblical principles to protect their power, to draw a line in the sand separating the good army from the bad one.

When I am talking to somebody there are always two conversations going on. The first in on the surface; it is about politics or music or whatever it is our mouths are saying. The other is beneath the surface, on the level of the heart, and my heart is either communicating that I like the person I am talking to or I don't. God wants both conversations to be true. That is, we are supposed to speak truth in love. If both conversations are not true, God is not involved in the exchange, we are on our own, and on our own, we will lead people astray. The Bible says that if you talk to somebody with your mouth, and your heart does not love them, that you are like a person standing there smashing two cymbals together. You are only annoying everybody around you. I think that is very beautiful and true. I love the fact that it is not my responsibility to change somebody, that it's God's, that my part is just to communicate love and approval.

	Tuesday - February 15, 2005
Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller writes: Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.