Currently Reading: Beyond the Soiled Curtain - Project Rescue's Fight for the Victims of the Sex-Slave Industry by David and Beth Grant - The book of Numbers, for my Bible-in-a-year plan
Goal: Memorize the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
Currently Memorizing: Matthew 5:13-14 "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its tast, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."
Goal: Pray for the entire world (This has actually been modified - I am using the Voice of the Martyr's prayer calendar, which only lists countries with significant persecution of Christians)
Currently Praying for: Bhutan
Miscellaneous items of interest:
Mom and I made Tortellini Soup last night for dinner. It was delicious. You can find the recipe here.
Thailand Update: I booked my flight last Friday! Super exciting! Thankfully, I will be meeting up with two other girls in Chicago. Grateful that I won't be travelling alone.
Currently looking forward to: The next few days! A Milles Borne tournament, a friend coming home from school for the weekend, and a visit with an out of town friend. Also, Josh and Allie's wedding next weekend! :D
Book Review:
Well, I finished Undaunted, and thought I'd give a quick review. I would classify it as a biography. Christine Caine is sharing her life story. How she entered life: unwanted, unnamed, unqualified, and where God has brought her: unstoppable, and undaunted. It's the story of how God opened Christine's eyes to the problems around her, and showed her what she could do to help. One of the things in the books that really struck me was her insight into the story of the good Samaritan. I had always pictured the priest and Levite "turning up their noses" so to speak at the man laying on the side of the road. Christine offered a different perspective.
"Nowhere in Jesus' story does it say that the priest or the Levite were bad people. But they were busy people, religious people. They were so consumed with keeping their schedules, appointments, and commitments that they ended up walking past someone they should have helped. The man lying on the side of the road was an interruption to their ministry, rather than the object of it. The only difference between the Samaritan and the religious people was that the Samaritan actually crossed the street. The Samaritan was willing to have his plans interrupted so that he could assist the man. The Samaritan stooped down to lift up the broken man. Stopping and stooping are different. Compassion is only emotion - until you cross the street. Compassion means action. You go to them. I saw in my mind Jesus, who not only crossed the road from heaven to earth, not only stopped to see our hurts and heal our wounds, but then stopped to bear the cross for us, and looked at us, and lifted that cross to the hill where he was nailed to it in our stead."
The book challenged me to start seeing circumstances that God places in my life not as mere "interruptions", but as opportunities to share His love and know Him deeper. I have a long way to go! :-)
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