Privilege

This week's word is Privilege
Just 5 minutes...go!

Today I have the privilege of inviting you into my home. I am so honored that God has given me this time to get to know you better. May I offer you a cup of tea or a glass of water?

Please tell me about yourself. I want to listen as you pour out whatever it is that you want me to know about you and your life. Too often in the past I have thought that getting together with friends was about what I could get from the encounter, but recently God has been showing me that it should be about what He can give to others if I am only willing and obedient to be His hands and feet.

Are you hurting inside? We shall pray for healing and direction. Are you joyful? I will rejoice with you and we can give God the glory for the great things He has done. Are you looking for advice? I can share my heart, but know that I have learned one key lesson in this Christian life - we all must learn to depend upon God more than we depend upon ourselves! Sometimes this takes only days, other times it takes years. Do not fret, I will pray for God to make Himself known to you and give you guidance.

I am privileged to be able to pray for you. Prayer is the line of communication from ourselves to God. When we read His Word and pray, it becomes a real conversation - the two-way line of communication that tells us to trust Him, because he sees our needs and is going to meet them according to His perfect timing. 

Let's choose to focus today on Romans 12:1-2. Listen along as I share this great passage of Scripture with you - may it speak to your heart - and tell you how much God wants that relationship with you that you crave.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable, and perfect.
~Romans 12:1-2 ESV

Mark 13:11

Mark 13:9-10

Books With Bean ~ The Giver

Title: The Giver: Giver Quartet Book One

Author: Lois Lowry

Published: 1993

Genre: Sci-Fi, Post Apocalyptic,

Summary: Jonas is nearing the time for his ceremony of 12. A time in his community when children start to become adults and get their jobs. He is apprehensive because while a lot of his friends seem to fit so well in the different jobs in the community he doesn’t know what job he might get. When the ceremony comes the children get their jobs one by one, his caring friend Fiona, will work in the house of the old, his fun loving friend Asher will help with games for the younger children, but when the Chief Elder gets to Jonas' number she skips over him. Jonas is worried, had he done something wrong? When she gets done with the last child the Chief Elder tells the crowd why she skipped over Jonas. He had not been assigned a job, Jonas had been selected to be the Receiver of Memory, an important but secretive job in the community. Jonas is a bit confused at first but when he goes to the annex where the current Receiver of Memory lives he learns that his job will be to keep all the memories of before. From before the sameness they live in now, back when the world had color and seasons, hills and valleys. But Jonas soon learns that while there are many good things that were done away with when the community decide to go to sameness there is also a lot of bad. War and famine scare Jonas at first, but knowing that this is his job he continues to take the memories from the Giver. As he learns Jonas begins to see his world in a totally new way and begins to feel different from the people around him, even his best friends from childhood. But it is not until he learns a dark secret of his community that he begins to wonder if he can help change the world for the better with his new found wisdom.

What I liked about it: I liked the wording style, and I liked Jonas. The Giver is an interesting man and I found the world and setting very interesting. It feels very real and I honestly could see our world at least trying to become like that in the future which made it more believable as a story. The problems that the community tried to solve are real problems but the author shows us while sameness sounds good at first and seems like it would be good there is always bad with the good and no society no matter how hard they try is perfect.

Language: None

Romance: Jonas begins to have feelings he can’t quite discribe for his friend Fiona, however once these feelings start he is given a pill and they go away.

Violence: There are a few parts where he receives memories of war and violence but these are brief, and while they are there to show Jonas all of what the world was like before they are not overly graphic.

Magic: None

Recommended Age: Jonas is almost 12 when the book starts and while I think that is a good age to start I would not really recommend it any younger as I don’t think a younger child would be able to grasp and understand what is really going on in the book.

Romans 12:2

Agree

Kate's word prompt for this week's Five Minute Friday free-write is: agree

Yes, I am quite aware it is Saturday - work with me here okay?

How can you and I tell if we agree upon a particular topic? We talk about it and discuss the situation or idea, and eventually we will be able to tell if we agree or not. 

What if we did not speak the same language? How would we communicate to other people our desires and our agreement or disagreement with a situation?

Might we use our faces, our body language, our actions - as we walk either towards or away from a gathering? It must be frustrating for people who cannot understand or speak our language to make their opinions or desires known to us, or for us to communicate with them.

I think about the Great Commission, when Jesus told His disciples to go and spread the Word of God, you know: Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations... and I am with you always. Matthew 28:18-20

How did these disciples share the knowledge of the love of God, and the sacrifice of Christ? Many of them probably knew the language close to their homelands, but what about later, when they ventured farther away? First they had to learn the language of the native people - and learn it well - to be able to communicate this great love and forgiveness. It is similar to what Bible translators today do through organizations like Wycliffe. First they learn the language, then they get to know the local people, then they share the Gospel with the locals. Once there are local, native speakers who have accepted Jesus, the missionaries work with them to get the Bible translated into the native language to share with others.

Maybe you are not going around the world to meet new people, so maybe your language learning will be smaller. But the first step is the same - we must go, and the second step is the same - we must learn about the people we wish to share with - as we learn about their lives through the relationship of friendship, we learn to speak their language, and we show them the love of Christ through our words and your actions.

Let us agree that the first step is this: to go!

Romans 12:1