Dear Readers,
I'd like to point out several new features to this blog to allow for more interaction and dialog. First of all, I've opened up comments to anyone reading the page. You no longer need to register to leave a comment. So please feel free to reply to my posts with your own provoking thoughts. Secondly, I've created a "Write Me" page that you can access at the top of the screen. Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know who you are, and if you have your own webpage. I'm starting to get busy with life, but I will do my best to reply and let you know I received your message. I really love to hear from people. Thirdly, I've installed an easy subscribe/unsubscribe bar on the right column of this page. This is a great way to be notified when I write a blog instead of bothering to check every day (unless you just like to surf my pages). My friend Karen from Mannabytes has given me a little friendly competition lately to make my site more accessible, and these changes are the result. So please have a good time checking out the site, and let me know what's happening with you.
See ya,
Ashley
Monday, August 27, 2007
Next Level Please
Everyone has some mountain to climb, some hill to ascend. Maybe it is your work or perhaps you have a favorite hobby and your job is simply the means to support your weekend fun. Even lazy people who just lie around doing almost nothing are attempting to ascend the hill of pleasure and meaning. A glance back through the years might reveal that hours of lying on the couch, watching TV, and eating potato chips hasn't really fulfilled the longing in their hearts, but they are seeking something. No one wants to remain at their current level of experience in life, but not everyone finds the strength and motivation to move on to the next level. Everyone has a longing, even if it has been buried through continual disappointment. One of the great things about faith, is it allows us to see past many disappointments and still remember the vision that first drove us to attempt something we really didn't know how to do. This is how Thomas Edison invented this lightbulb, and this is how true followers of Jesus Christ will come into maturity.
Many people tap into the reality of faith without even considering themselves to be "Christians". In fact, look at any great story of achievement and you will find someone willing to bet against terrible odds and overcome adversity. It always amazes me that we see just as many (if not more) great examples of faith in action from non-religious folk as we do from those who claim to know the Lord. Religion can be a hinderance to the follower of Christ, and we must always assess the realities we are living in (and ask God for insight) so that we do not blind ourselves by the practice of useless religous activities. True religion will always have value added to society because when we allow ourselves to be used of God, he will always use us to bless the people around us. Faith is the building, but the foundation of that building is vision. Without vision, there is nothing to "faith" in.
Moving to new levels and experiences in our relationship with God always involves letting go of something that we know and understand so that we can enter into new understandings and experiences. For the poor soul afraid of change, they will not be able to enter into new levels with God. If we are to have Christ FORMEDÂ in us, we will ultimately have to embrace layers of change as onion layers are peeled away. I have to ask myself today: In what ways have I embraced change lately? In what ways have I feared change? What areas of my life am I holding back from allowing God to dabble in? If He is Lord, he must have all.
Selah...
Many people tap into the reality of faith without even considering themselves to be "Christians". In fact, look at any great story of achievement and you will find someone willing to bet against terrible odds and overcome adversity. It always amazes me that we see just as many (if not more) great examples of faith in action from non-religious folk as we do from those who claim to know the Lord. Religion can be a hinderance to the follower of Christ, and we must always assess the realities we are living in (and ask God for insight) so that we do not blind ourselves by the practice of useless religous activities. True religion will always have value added to society because when we allow ourselves to be used of God, he will always use us to bless the people around us. Faith is the building, but the foundation of that building is vision. Without vision, there is nothing to "faith" in.
Moving to new levels and experiences in our relationship with God always involves letting go of something that we know and understand so that we can enter into new understandings and experiences. For the poor soul afraid of change, they will not be able to enter into new levels with God. If we are to have Christ FORMEDÂ in us, we will ultimately have to embrace layers of change as onion layers are peeled away. I have to ask myself today: In what ways have I embraced change lately? In what ways have I feared change? What areas of my life am I holding back from allowing God to dabble in? If He is Lord, he must have all.
Selah...
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Shhh! ABC...
Samuel,
You never cease to surprise me. You love to play with the buttons on the CD player and the keyboard, but sometimes you can be a little loud. So, the past couple of days I would turn to you and say, "Shh!! Turn it down!" in Chinese to you. You would then turn the volume down on the CD player--and then tonight on the keyboard. I was so surprised. Even the second time I asked you to turn it down, you knew what to do. You are learning so fast.
Even with the alphabet, you can recognize all the letters when we write or type except W, Y, and Z, but I bet you'll learn them in the next few days. You are the funniest kid because wherever we go, you are reading letters on cups, signs, boxes, anything with letters on them! Even at a stop light, you are saying the letters you see. You are so smart. Now, if we could get you to count! :)
Your new favorite songs are the alphabet song ("B-C"), The B-I-B-L-E, and Old MacDonald (E-I-E-I-O). Can you tell that you like letters? We love you so very much! We are very proud of you.
Your molars are coming in now, so Mommy will go back to bed. I love you!
You never cease to surprise me. You love to play with the buttons on the CD player and the keyboard, but sometimes you can be a little loud. So, the past couple of days I would turn to you and say, "Shh!! Turn it down!" in Chinese to you. You would then turn the volume down on the CD player--and then tonight on the keyboard. I was so surprised. Even the second time I asked you to turn it down, you knew what to do. You are learning so fast.
Even with the alphabet, you can recognize all the letters when we write or type except W, Y, and Z, but I bet you'll learn them in the next few days. You are the funniest kid because wherever we go, you are reading letters on cups, signs, boxes, anything with letters on them! Even at a stop light, you are saying the letters you see. You are so smart. Now, if we could get you to count! :)
Your new favorite songs are the alphabet song ("B-C"), The B-I-B-L-E, and Old MacDonald (E-I-E-I-O). Can you tell that you like letters? We love you so very much! We are very proud of you.
Your molars are coming in now, so Mommy will go back to bed. I love you!
Fun Times
Dear Samuel,
You are growing by leaps and bounds. You are now tall enough to reach the lights in our house (and the elevator at church!)and are so helpful when we ask you to turn the lights on and off. When you get hungry or thirsty, you help yourself and turn the kitchen and dining room lights on...and then proceed to the fridge and drag out whatever you want or whatever is in the way of what you want. Tonight, you brought out the juice and wanted us to pour it into your bath toy cup...the one with holes in the bottom. Thankfully, you haven't developed the dexterity to twist open the juice and pour! Yet...
At your mealtime before bed, Daddy gave you yogurt, and you fed yourself with a spoon. You slurped it up, making noises after each mouthful. When we would feed you yogurt by the spoon, you would place 1 or 2 Cheerios (or the Wal-Mart equivalent) on each spoonful and then eat it. Tonight Daddy decided to put them in your bowl for you to spoon and eat. You took one mouthful and furrowed your brow...something didn't taste right. Now, you hate to get anything on your fingers, like yogurt. So you tentatively pushed at the O's in the bowl, trying not to get the yogurt on your fingers while you picked up and pushed the O's to the side of the bowl. Daddy finally removed them (ate them), and then you decided that you wanted to put them in yourself. We had a good laugh.
You also like to help us make smoothies and things with ice in the Vitamix. You sure drank a lot of Daddy's smoothie tonight! You'll take us to the fridge and point to the freezer until we understand what you want, and then you'll take some ice and put it in the Vitamix. Sometimes we'll just make a slushy of sorts, but you don't mind. It's cold, and you like it. Then you'll say "cold" in Chinese!
You are such a fun little boy. You love to bounce on your bed, hang upside down, have Daddy throw you on our bed, and generally use up all your energy. You love to dance and jump from the step stool we bought for you. Tonight you jumped from the step stool, making a loud thud. We finally muted the noise for our neighbors downstairs by placing 2 puffy pillows down on the floor. You loved this even more.
I am just thankful you are growing up healthy and strong--even though sometimes you wear me out! I love you, little boy. Sometimes I wish you could stay this age forever...
Mommy
You are growing by leaps and bounds. You are now tall enough to reach the lights in our house (and the elevator at church!)and are so helpful when we ask you to turn the lights on and off. When you get hungry or thirsty, you help yourself and turn the kitchen and dining room lights on...and then proceed to the fridge and drag out whatever you want or whatever is in the way of what you want. Tonight, you brought out the juice and wanted us to pour it into your bath toy cup...the one with holes in the bottom. Thankfully, you haven't developed the dexterity to twist open the juice and pour! Yet...
At your mealtime before bed, Daddy gave you yogurt, and you fed yourself with a spoon. You slurped it up, making noises after each mouthful. When we would feed you yogurt by the spoon, you would place 1 or 2 Cheerios (or the Wal-Mart equivalent) on each spoonful and then eat it. Tonight Daddy decided to put them in your bowl for you to spoon and eat. You took one mouthful and furrowed your brow...something didn't taste right. Now, you hate to get anything on your fingers, like yogurt. So you tentatively pushed at the O's in the bowl, trying not to get the yogurt on your fingers while you picked up and pushed the O's to the side of the bowl. Daddy finally removed them (ate them), and then you decided that you wanted to put them in yourself. We had a good laugh.
You also like to help us make smoothies and things with ice in the Vitamix. You sure drank a lot of Daddy's smoothie tonight! You'll take us to the fridge and point to the freezer until we understand what you want, and then you'll take some ice and put it in the Vitamix. Sometimes we'll just make a slushy of sorts, but you don't mind. It's cold, and you like it. Then you'll say "cold" in Chinese!
You are such a fun little boy. You love to bounce on your bed, hang upside down, have Daddy throw you on our bed, and generally use up all your energy. You love to dance and jump from the step stool we bought for you. Tonight you jumped from the step stool, making a loud thud. We finally muted the noise for our neighbors downstairs by placing 2 puffy pillows down on the floor. You loved this even more.
I am just thankful you are growing up healthy and strong--even though sometimes you wear me out! I love you, little boy. Sometimes I wish you could stay this age forever...
Mommy
Friday, August 10, 2007
Choose Life!
'This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Deuteronomy 30:19-20
It's almost comical that God would make this statement. No, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but today we benefit from many thousands of years worth of understanding that these Hebrews didn't have at the time, and looking back it seems funny that at the creation of the Old Covenant God made with Moses and the people he would tell them to choose life by obeying the laws. Ultimately, what God knew, and what Paul later understood, was that the entire Old Covenant (as wonderful as it seemed) would engulf the people in wet blanket of death that they would not be able to escape. In 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Paul says that this Old Covenant 'brought death'. That's right...the 10 Commandments (and many thousands more in Leviticus) did nothing to make the people perfect in God's eyes. Romans 3:20 says that no one can be righteous by observing the law (Old Covenant), because the law was only created to make us conscious of sin. What a whopper! God is setting them up for a long hard road, but it was a necessary lesson for us to learn: righteousness doesn't come by obeying the rules. Romans 3:21 goes on to say that there is a righteousness that comes APART from observing the law (10 Commandments, Old Covenant, etc) that is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. If you would choose life in this New Covenant that God has established with man, you will have to abandon the righteousness that you can accomplish through your own works, and begin trusting in the work of Jesus Christ when he died for our sins, and resurrected to new life.
It's almost comical that God would make this statement. No, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but today we benefit from many thousands of years worth of understanding that these Hebrews didn't have at the time, and looking back it seems funny that at the creation of the Old Covenant God made with Moses and the people he would tell them to choose life by obeying the laws. Ultimately, what God knew, and what Paul later understood, was that the entire Old Covenant (as wonderful as it seemed) would engulf the people in wet blanket of death that they would not be able to escape. In 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Paul says that this Old Covenant 'brought death'. That's right...the 10 Commandments (and many thousands more in Leviticus) did nothing to make the people perfect in God's eyes. Romans 3:20 says that no one can be righteous by observing the law (Old Covenant), because the law was only created to make us conscious of sin. What a whopper! God is setting them up for a long hard road, but it was a necessary lesson for us to learn: righteousness doesn't come by obeying the rules. Romans 3:21 goes on to say that there is a righteousness that comes APART from observing the law (10 Commandments, Old Covenant, etc) that is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. If you would choose life in this New Covenant that God has established with man, you will have to abandon the righteousness that you can accomplish through your own works, and begin trusting in the work of Jesus Christ when he died for our sins, and resurrected to new life.
Website Changes/Instructions
Hi Everyone,
You might have noticed some changes within the past month to my blog. I've updated Wordpress and done some other modifications. In the process I have lost support to the software I was using to host downloads. What does that mean? Well, for now it means that if you would like to download one of my mp3's or my Evangelism Research Paper you should "right click" on the file and select "Save Target As". Then you can save it to your local computer and use it as desired. Sorry for the trouble. I'm still learning a bunch about hosting a website. Hopefully I'll have all this stuff done soon so I can get back to writing more!!!
Blessings...
You might have noticed some changes within the past month to my blog. I've updated Wordpress and done some other modifications. In the process I have lost support to the software I was using to host downloads. What does that mean? Well, for now it means that if you would like to download one of my mp3's or my Evangelism Research Paper you should "right click" on the file and select "Save Target As". Then you can save it to your local computer and use it as desired. Sorry for the trouble. I'm still learning a bunch about hosting a website. Hopefully I'll have all this stuff done soon so I can get back to writing more!!!
Blessings...
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