So it seems that I have had this blog site
for about a year now. My how time goes by at an alarming speed! We all know how
it feels as a youngster when your birthday is whole month away or you
can't wait until you get to go on a holiday interstate which is after an entire school term.
Now birthdays fly by and interstate trips
are not seen in such a rose-coloured-glasses-way. I keep trying to forget what
age I turned about a month ago and in about a month I'll be going to two states
with most of my fam to catch up with friends and family. Well, not simply to
catch up with them... its one of my grandma's 80th birthdays and my other
grandma will be going through chemo by the time we arrive back to the
island of my childhood and younger youth.
When I started this blog I was intending on
blogging regularly and I achieved this for a very limited amount of
time only to become bombarded with uni and namely 2 weeks of prac which
did not go how I thought it would/should. Long story.
Update on prac: But basically it put me in a
position afterwards where I was praying every morning about a resolution until
I was able to complete another prac early the following year.
Update on Interstate visit: for the next
year and a half or so dad and mum visited Tassie to look after Grandma. She
sadly passed away mid 2016.
My original intent for this post was
something along the lines of:
‘Be thankful for yesterday, rejoice in today
and entrust tomorrow to God’
as I didn’t know know what the outcomes of
these two events were going to be. And boy have I been continuing to learn
this! Especially once I finished uni. But that’s another story.
First off, I’m not going to spoil the delight of delving
into a new story by providing a detailed description of the book’s storyline.
Francine
Rivers’ protagonist in The Atonement Child is Dynah, who, for the majority of
her life, has lived a seemingly ‘perfect Christian life’ - only child,
previously homeschooled, currently studying at a Christian university, engaged
to a Christian guy who aims to be a pastor although…
Three words describe this book: Devastating, challenging and
encouraging. Initially it is devastating as it deals with a heavy topic. As I
continued to read I was challenged – we can ramble on about some issue we are
passionate about or a value we hold to but when faced with having to respond or
put this belief into action how do we act? (Habakkuk 3:17-19). I also found the story to be
encouraging as it showed "God causes everything to work together for the good of
those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them" Romans
8:28.
I find the authors choice in the main character’s name to be
interesting because of its meaning. Dynah means vindicated – freed from any
question of guilt - “is absolved from all blame”, “was now clear of the charge
of fear”, “his official honour is vindicated”. In the story Dynah’s honour or
reputation is threatened and people treat her as though she is to blame for
wrongdoing done to her which puts her in a place of fear. Dynah had to remove
herself from people she knew and loved in order to do what God wanted and not feel
pressured by what others thought, said or did. She realised that she had to seek
to please the Lord because “fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting
the Lord means safety” Prov 29:25. When she took this step she was secure in
her identity in Christ, God’s love and comfort.
·Identity in Christ: God sees us as whole, not
broken or tainted by anything that has happened to us (Col 1:21-22)
·God’s love is unchanging regardless of our
change in circumstances. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are
considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither
death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” Romans 8:35-38
·He is always there, ready to comfort us. “Jesus
said: Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
The overarching theme would have to be atonement – at first
I wasn’t fully certain as to the book’s title as a character is mentioned to be
atonement for someone’s past sin, but we all know Who the true Atonement Child
is. (1 John 2:1-2 & Romans 3:25). The dictionary defines atonement as
reconciliation.
As you (or if you) read this literary work of fiction there are many
themes real to us which are worthy of contemplation.We can be thankful to God for the identity we
have in Christ that Jesus gained for us when He died on the cross.
Love,
Talitha Lydia P.S. this post was also written for Authentic Woman which "exists to encourage young - and young-at-heart women! - in embracing themselves for who God created them to be"You can also keep updated via social media here.
This semester at my young adults we’ve been going through
the book of Acts. Amazing stuff. This week we went through the first half of
chapter 8. Check it out!
The apostles were passionately and faithfully going about
what Jesus told them to do in Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about
me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth”
The church was growing, but it was also suffering. The
question was asked as to why would God allow such strong persecution of godly
people like Stephen… We live in a fallen world.
Anyways, here’s a clue:
Philippians 1:12 -18 – “And I want you to know, my dear
brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped
to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard,
knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment,
most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s
message without fear.
It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and
rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because
they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News.
Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach
with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful
to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the
message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will
continue to rejoice”
Moving on… V 14 – 17, the apostles arrive in Samaria. It
says they had heard of the amazing work of the gospel in that place and maybe
because of the connection to the Jews, albeit hostile-ish, went themselves. Remember
the Good Samaritan story that Jesus told? Well, the Good Samaritan would have
been considered an unlikely “hero” according to the Jews. See, the Samaritans
were half-Jew so you could say that the Jews were a tad prejudice towards them.
This still didn’t stop Philip sharing the gospel there, with the Samaritans,
with great power and effect (by the power of the Holy Spirit).
Look at the different elements to Philip’s ministry in
Samaria (v 5 – 13) Pretty incredible ministry! Note he was one who had served
alongside Stephen in the waiting on tables in ch 6.
One of the last questions for the night was: How would you
“preach the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ”? Whenever
I come across this question I automatically have a Colin Buchanan song in my
head, pretty sure it’s called “This is the Gospel”
Remember Jesus Christ Raised up from the dead In the line of David Spotless Lamb of God Slaughtered for our sins Risen king of kings This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ
This is the Gospel, the risen Jesus Taking sinners from death to life, It’s the good news of our salvation So remember Jesus Christ
Remember we were lost,
We were dead in sin, But by the power of Jesus, Made alive again And though we may be changed The word of God remains, The mighty Gospel, of Jesus Christ
These verses also come to mind: John 3:16-17 “For God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through Him”
Here's a spoken word video that goes through the gospel as an acronym:
This statement ended the notes for small group: One thing is
sure – there is no formula or set of rules to follow when it comes to the work
of the Holy Spirit.
Acts is so encouraging and challenging, I'd recommend reading it!
Welcome and hope you enjoy my blog/ random ponderings…
Well, this is something different for me; I think it shall be a
good-different though :)
My aim in writing this blog is to reflect, inspire, challenge
and encourage myself and hopefully others. At this very point in time I can
only reveal that I will be writing from and about life experiences, books I’ve
read and movies I’ve watched and also stuff God’s been showing me. I’ll definitely
be sharing any quality youtube videos (a great distraction of mine – youtube), music,
perhaps a “pin” of the week (pinterest – another time stealer!), a recipe or
two, op shop finds, sketches I’ve drawn and some photography.
That’s all I can foresee I’ll be writing about, but you
never know what’ll “pop” into my head, haha.
As you may already know, the title of the blog, which is also
what I desire for my life, is taken from Psalm 19:14. I want this blog (words
of my mouth & thoughts of my heart) to reflect this (what is pleasing in
God’s sight).
Blessings,
Talitha Lydia
('Tis post is kinda short, but that’s how most of my posts
will probably have to be as I am quite busy during the semester. Hopefully I’ll
be able to ramble on more in the holidays :P)
