| Today it is a little cold and icy but the roads are clear. I am feeling tired and kind of just worn out all over... physically, emotionally, spiritually--exhausted. I don't know why I always feel the need to return to xanga to vent any deep inner issues but I do... it's almost like coming home at times. It's this open space where I can freely express my needs and desires that no one reads so it's almost like a moment of prayer or meditation--and some days you just need that. I can't wait to go home and get some much needed rest and relaxation tonight--no youth group, no small group... just time at home in a nice quiet winter night. I consider myself and you should consider yourself highly blessed if you don't have any tree damage [1 in 3 with property damage], have electricity [one million are without] and haven't had a car wreck [over one hundred daily in Wichita] this week in the MidWest! Count your blessings and turn them back to praise to the One who is stable despite the season! Blessings friends, Alana 
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| a xanga post... can you believe it? |
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| "The great need today among the young is the strengthening of belief in things spiritual, for in spite of the superhuman advances in science, invention, and culture, none of this is attributed to God's gift to man; in fact, the increase of knowledge and the cult of education have but given to youth a self-reliant independence where religion has no place, and beyond admitting that Christ was 'the best man that ever lived,' there are few who concede any other tribute to the Creator. And yet the saving principles of the world are rooted in Christ, implanted in him; the Truth by which men live is the Truth as taught and lived by Jesus."
- Helen Olney "Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust, not in the living God but in dying men. The unbeliever denies the self-sufficiency of God and usurps attributes that are not his. This dual sin dishonors God and ultimately destroys the soul of man."
- A. W. Tozer |
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| "What was it that drew men to Jesus? Yes, He spoke with authority and He did miraculous and wonderful deeds, but I think the one thing that men could not ignore was the compassion and love that came from His heart and on to His face and into His words and deeds.
If we abide in Him as He abides in us, we begin to see things differently. We begin to look at things with His eyes."
-Bob Benson From Jesus' View of Sex by Donald M. Joy:
"If you want to see the highest respect for human sexuality and marriage, read it in the words and actions of Jesus. He says, "What God joins together sexually, be careful not to rip apart."
Jesus announces the warning in the face of easy divorce in His teaching in Matthew 19 [and in Mark 10]. He restates the Genesis 2 picture of one man and one woman forming one flesh unity, and suggests that the only alternative to the kind of beautiful sexual intimacy in holy celibacy: being single for the glory of God and the service of God's purposes in the world.
It is clear that to be single and sexually unattached is an expression of high human responsibility and high respect for humans everywhere.
Jesus teaches responsible "looking" in the famous "lust" teaching in Matthew 5. We are to sanctify our sexual imagination and to be careful not to fantasize sexual intimacy with inappropriate people. This high target, which keeps all of us focused on our own lifetime intimacy covenant, means looking ahead toward marriage when we are young and looking back to reconstruct a lifelong fidelity for the rest of our lives. This sex-positive focusing of sexual imagination and energy is an invitation to clear and exclusive thinking as the highest respect we can show for everyone. No one has a higher, more positive view of sex than Jesus." just some food for thought... alana |
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| yesterday I killed my beta fish...
accidently. who knew 'room temperature' water was too hot for fish when the current room temperature is a little frigid... sad times...
he was like over a year old--the longest living fish I've ever had. alana |
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