Studying Sanctification for a paper in a theology class and came across this analogy by Martin Luther quoted from an essay by John Samson.

Martin Luther gave the following analogy: When we are justified, it is as though a doctor has just administered a sure and certain remedy for a fatal disease. Though the patient may still endure a temporary struggle with the residual effects of his illness, the outcome is no longer in doubt. The physician pronounces the patient cured even though a rehabilitation process must still be carried out.

So it is with our justification. In Christ, God pronounces us just by the imputation of the merits of His Son. Along with that declaration, God administers something to us; He gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins immediately to work within us to bring us to holy living.

What must be the doom of those who deny Christ, when they reach another world? Perhaps they will appear with a sort of hope in their minds and they will come before the Judge, with, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” Who are you? He says. “Lord, we once took the Lord’s Supper—Lord, we were members of the Church, but there came very hard times. My mother bade me give up religion. Father was angry. Trade went bad. I was so mocked at, I could not stand it. Lord, I fell among evil acquaintances and they tempted me—I could not resist. I was Your servant—I did love You—I always had love towards You in my heart, but I could not help it—I denied You and went to the world again.”What will Jesus say? I know you not! “But, Lord, I want You to be my Advocate.” I know you not! “But, Lord, I cannot get into Heaven unless You should open the gate—open it for me.” I do not know you! I do not know you! “But, Lord, my name was in the Church Book.” I know you not—I deny you. “But will You not hear my cries?” You did not hear Mine—you did deny Me and I deny you. “Lord, give me the lowest place in Heaven, if I may but enter and escape from wrath to come.” No, you would not brook the lowest place on earth and you shall not enjoy the lowest place here. You had your choice and you did choose evil. Keep to your choice. You were filthy, be you filthy still. You were unholy, be you unholy still.

The following verse:
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful-for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim 2:13 ESV)

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if there is an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

(“Seven Stanzas at Easter,” written for a religious arts festival sponsored by the Clifton Lutheran Church of Marblehead, Massachusetts.)

I’ll try and post more of a profound life update soon. My legit reason for not doing one this semester so far: five papers due just this week. I forget sometimes that I’m majoring in paper-writing…I mean English Communications…oops, was that my outside voice?
- Joy(full)

3 Minnesotans, a Texan and a Kansan!

Modern technology may be way over my head at times, but I can understand it enough to appreciate video chat. This afternoon I was able to do just that with 5 friends from Trinity. Now, normally I wouldn’t be that excited over a simple video chatting experience, but in this case, we had a chat going with 3 friends from Minnesota (all met up at one girl’s house); 1 from Dallas, Texas; 1 from Arlington Heights, Illinois; and of course, myself, in Kansas. We did this using two-way iChat, then added my PC owning friend by way of an additional computer and Skype. The pictures may look pretty ridiculous and blurry, but chatting with friends all across the United States was so much fun!

The aforementioned states plus Jake from Illinois!

First of all I’ll tackle one huge thing.  This upcoming semester, I will not be attending Moody.  There I said it. lol.  It’s been a difficult rode arriving at this point, but I am now realizing that God’s plan is perfect, and unique for each of us and if I’m not called to be somewhere, then I’m just not.  Moody was an amazing experience for me, and a fantastic growth opportunity, but I’m also ready to see what’s next in my life  So this semester I will be taking classes at Johnson County Community College here in good ole’ KS.  That is if I can find a way to get to said classes…..

Which brings me to my next fun fun update.  As you read, I did get in a car accident yesterday.  My car wouldn’t stop at a stop sign (silly car) and slid on the ice and snow through two lanes and was smashed into by an SUV who also had some difficulty stopping.  Also, just as a side note: it was nobody’s fault when it comes down to it….. but the man behaved like an absolute jerk, which did not help things!  I’m still pretty shaken up about the whole thing, but I’m doing better.  Physically, thank God, nobody was hurt.  Why is it that after something like this it seems like television specifically singles you out?  The moment I got home, I saw a car insurance commercial…. and about lost it, lol.

Oh well, please just be praying.  This is a very difficult thing, because at the moment the car is not drivable, and that causes a lot of issues…. my dad is still unemployed, and will now have much more difficulty finding a job…. I do not know how I will be getting to classes this semester…. and I can’t even get a job to help pay for the damages.  I appreciate your prayers so much!

I had a moment after the crash when I was just cursing my life, and I had decided that everything was just absolutely horrible.  But then I thought about it, and remembered a conversation with Joy about many young people doing the very same thing.  Just because something goes wrong it doesn’t mean your life is bad.  One bad experience should be taken for what it is, be learned from, and then it should be put in the past and hopefully all parties involved can grow from it.

Anyway, the past week I got to spend in Iowa with a bunch of friends from Redeemer north, specifically Tate and Bri Glenn.  It was absolutely amazing.  What a way to ring in the new year.  I can’t imagine a more perfect week.

Well, I have to get going to get some things together for the next few days.  My great friends Rick and Tiffany are getting married on Saturday and the festivities start today  Thanks for reading everybody!!!!!!!!

All complaints aside, I must remember to keep my eyes centered on how blessed my friend and I have been to not be seriously injured. My older sister and Joey may both be minus a car in their lives; however, these losses are just replaceable specks in the grand scheme of things. I gave a speech towards the end of last semester over complaining/contentment and all of this has been fresh on my mind. Take the site FML.com., for example. Most people know what its acronym stands for, and its far from a word worthy of the Creecy scale of holiness ; ). My generation in particular tends to blow things out of proportion and label everything in their life as bad, due to one unfortunate day/incident. Have we lost perspective or what? God’s little reminders that often reveal themselves as trials, to keep us in check, are truly something to be appreciated!

That’s all for now folks…

Joy

But it was indeed this man who has turned me into an Ubuntu fanatic. Now I still don’t know all the ins and outs of what exactly is running on my computer, but I have been shown enough to have a little fun. Here are some screen shots of what Mr. Ubuntu has running on my computer now, and yes, that is windows, but is a strip downed version of XP running in as a virtual desktop.

As is evident I like the spaces (which I hear exist on macs, but hey, this was a lot cheaper than a mac).

The title of this post summarizes how much fun Joey, Zach, April & I had during our reunion last weekend. I took the Metra down to the city & met Joey at Union Station. We ventured around the city together, hitting up the Disney Store, the Apple Store, Bloomingdales & enjoyed some good eats at The Big Bowl, a Chinese/Thai noodle place–we even mastered the use  of chopsticks (at least Joey can say so…)

Later that afternoon, I got the grand tour of Moody (nice campus indeed…with breathtaking views of fabulous Chicago!) and met up with April and Zach. For dinner, we had Portillos, and our after-dinner entertainment was the four of us singing a beautiful (ha!) rendition of “Were You There” on Brian’s voicemail under Moody’s arch. Saturday night hanging out turned into Sunday morning on the roof of April’s dorm, at one am! Totally worth it for the Team Jil convo and great view of the city!

Sunday, I attended Covenant Presbyterian with April, Zach, Joey and a few other Moodies…I thouroughly enjoyed both the worship and sermon!! They provided Panera bagels after service (just an added bonus) and the worship director approached the four of us, wondering if we played any instruments/sang. Even though the commute from Trinity to Covenant is too much to make every Sunday, he was interested in me possibly coming down to play my french horn in a service once or twice, which would be a neat opportunity!

Mid-Sunday afternoon ended in me barely missing my train (gotta love Chicago for that!) and getting an unexpected extra two hours with the guys. A GREAT visit overall!

Until next time,

Joy