I've given myself "permission to fail" one of my classes. It's the "fun" one (it really is).
I'm overwhelmed with everything (due to things that only a few folks know or need to know) and I bit off way more than I could chew this semester.
So if I blow off homework (and I did), and still learn and enjoy the class...so?
Two point perspective...
just...I started to draw a hallway with a junction...did not turn out well.
After 3 hours I moved. I now have only one class plus a little bit to draw a detailed thumbnail and complete the "interior space" drawing.
My organization got knocked of kilter really, really fast this semester. The only thing I'm sort of caught up on is the drawing that we need to do in class (and I need to go to class early on Monday to get it done).
I have a panel due on Thursday (3 small projects on a poster board) that will be quite fun, but will take time.
On Wednesday I have my still life due and I have a lot of work to do on that.
I'm struggling in drawing class and can't pin down why. I can draw the structure, but I don't seem to see all of the little highlights of light and shadows and reflections that everybody else seems to see. I'm not sure if it's because my contacts are thicker and cut down glare or if my eyes are just that bad.
One of my "facebook" friends is (are) a missionary couple who are here in the states for a little while - they are stationed in Uganda.
They have two adopted babies (one of them was adopted in Uganda) and today they are adopting two snowflake babies.
Also known as "embryo adoption" these are "leftover" embryos from another couples IVF. Rather than discard, destroy or use them for research, the biological parent have chosen to give these embryos to an infertile couple.
Today, Angie is having these two embryos implanted.
plugging along, still behind on homework.
Still liking my job (although parts of it are more challenging than others)
I skipped a couple days of blogging...so here. A post. 😉
I just read the letter to the church as Ephesus again.
...For he himself is our peace...
Christ is our peace, if we look anywhere else, we won't find it.
...He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near....
Christ is our peace and He came to preach peace and He sends us to preach peace. Not peace with the world, but peace with the Father, because it is only through the Son that we can reach the Father.
...I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.
Paul was a servant of the gospel...yes, and a slave to Christ. For him, his position of servant and slave was a position of strength, not weakness.
When Paul wrote this letter, he was in prison for preaching the gospel, and he kept right on preaching. He was no wimp. He was a strong leader and he was a devoted servant.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Phil 4:12,13)
a link - Article by Gary Gilley
Includes quotes from Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Francis Schaeffer and others.
The "money quote":
I believe the Word of God has the power to transform our lives and lead us into godliness first and foremost because it makes that claim. The typical evangelical would likely pronounce a hardy “amen” to the above statement—unless and until the claims of the Scripture run cross-grain to the patterns of his life. When the authority of the Bible steps into the arena of his career, his personal habits, his psychological concepts, his finances, his marriage and family, his sports, his dealing with conflict, then suddenly the Holy Scripture is considered of no value and eliminated out of hand. After all, our friend reasons, what does the Bible have to say about such things? The answer—everything. Our friend retorts, it is an ancient book full of nice stories and good proverbs, suitable for worship services and funerals, but it has no reasonable bearing on everyday life, does it? The answer—the Bible, through the power of the Holy Spirit, says it can absolutely transform our lives—every aspect of our lives.
(I have had issues with Gary Gilley in the past...likely because he made so much sense in an area that I have had experience that contradicts his logic...and I don't care for "experiencial theology")
Today is the Jewish Day of Atonement and it brought to mind a post I wrote a while ago:
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When I think of "sacrifice" - the first sacrifice that comes to my mind is the sacrifice of my Saviour. The story of the scapegoat is such a beatiful "looking forward" to Christ. Too many times we read the New Testament through the eyes of the Old Testament; today I read the Old Testament with eyes fixed on Christ.
The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt, 1854. Hunt had this framed in a picture with the quotations "Surely he hath borne our Griefs and carried our Sorrows; Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of GOD and afflicted." (Isaiah 53:4) and "And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a Land not inhabited." (Leviticus 16:22)
The only time this word "azazel" is used in the Bible is in reference to the "Day of Atonement"
Aaron was to take two goats and cast lots over them - one of the goats would be for the sacrifice, the other would be for "Azazel" (KJV translates "azazel" as scapegoat; the word has two roots ez [she-goat, goat, kid] and azal [to go away, evaporated, gone])
Before anything - Aaron was to sacrifice a bull as a sin offering for himself and to make atonement for himself and his household...
Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil
Aaron was to do with the first goat as he had done with the bull - the blood of the sacrifice was to be sprinkled on the mercy seat.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself
Many people have never read this story - we know the word "scapegoat" but don't really know how Biblical it is.
The people of Israel were sinners (aren't we all?). On their Day of Atonement, all of their sins were placed on the scapegoat and sent away.
How does this relate to us?
As Christians, our day of atonement came on the day Christ died on the cross. On our Day of Atonement, all of our sins were laid upon the Lamb of God.
Romans 3:25
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
Just as Aaron laid the sins of Israel on the scapegoat, so God laid on Christ the iniquity of us all (Isa 53:6) Christ his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), just as the goat bore all of Israel's iniquity on itself.
The goat went out into the wilderness. The Hebrew word is midbar {mid-bawr'} and means (among other things) "uninhabited land" - a place where nobody was. Psalm 103:12 tells us that "as far as the east is from the west,so far does he remove our transgressions from us. That's a long way. Not only that, but our sins are gone out from us, Jeremiah tells us that (under the New Covenant) God will forgive our iniquity and remember our sin no more.
Our sin is GONE and God will remember it NO MORE!
The carnival theme is "the Beauty of Sacrifice" - how beautiful is "NO MORE"?
