Immanuel

This is a poem that Petra Waterstraat wrote for W.O.P. (Thanks, Petra!!!), and I hope you enjoy it:

Dear Daddy, Abba,
Father, who made me
Hear me crying.

O, Shepherd, Spirit,
Diviner of life
Guide my searching.

Jesus, my Savior,
Giver of all grace,
Forgive me now.

Awesome Creator,
Miracle maker
See me smiling.

I did, however, want to end W.O.P. with a certain prayer--the perfect prayer. I present to you Matthew 6:9b-13:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
   on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
   as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one. 

~Elizabeth

Tozer

As anyone who has looked at my ginormous list of quotes would know, I love quoting A. W. Tozer, so I thought I would put one of his prayers on for W.O.P. (WeekOfPrayer). I've been having a lot of spiritual attacks lately, and this is a prayer that really helps me in those hard times. If you haven't read anything of his, you really should. This prayer can be found in the first page of the second chapter of Knowledge of the Holy:

Lord, how great is our dilemma! In Thy Presence silence best becomes us, but love inflames our hearts and constrains us to speak.
Were we  to hold our peace the stones would cry out; yet if we speak, what shall we say? Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.
In Jesus' name. Amen.

~Elizabeth

Morning & Evening

As a Lutheran, it seems right to put on Luther's morning and evening prayers, so. . .

Luther's Morning Prayer: 

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Luther's Evening Prayer:

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

~Elizabeth

Faith

I don't know what it is you're going through, but this is a prayer that I have often said many versions of in my mind, but I've never actually written it down. This has helped me in my greatest struggles, and I hope that it will help you also.

Oh, God, I am meek, but you're power is great. Help me, oh Lord, for Your strength is made perfect in weakness. The situation you have bestowed upon me is to great for me to bear. . .guide me with Your own hand, Yahweh, and show me that you didn't make me strong enough to bear these circumstances  alone. Gird me with your faithfulness, hope, love and compassion to help others in need, and give me the strength to face not only this day, but all of the days following. Amen. 

 

Hebrews 11:13-16, 32-39:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. . . . . . . .And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.



W.O.P.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
Galatians 1:3-5

Yes, this is RWR's official Week of Prayer, and thanks for stopping by to view it. 

The theme for TOTW this week is Prayer--it can be practically anything; and essay, a story with a prayer in it, a stand-alone prayer, a personal story on prayer, a poem-style prayer, a psalm. . .anything.

I'm going to assume that everyone has heard the story of Cain and Abel (If not it can be found in Genesis chapter four), and this verse is after Cain killed him and left all of his family (wife excluded, who was either Cain's sister or niece) and had children of his own. 

And she (Eve) gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.
   At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD. 
Genesis 4:25b-26

Now pay special attention to that last part. . .At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.

The official start of prayer. Incredible.

Just think. . .There was a time when prayer didn't even exist. We are so, so blessed. . .and do we even realize it? Everyone (Jesus excluded) forgets to pray at some point in their life. We forget about the amazing connection we have with God. I love reading this passage, because it reminds that prayer didn't always exist, and it helps me not take it for granite. . .what about you? What helps remind you of His blessings to us? Not necessarily prayer, any blessing. . .what does God use to bring you back to Him?~Elizabeth 

TOTW

Here's the winning story for The Theme of the Week. . .

Bright, blood-red light flashed in front of my eyes. The vein near my temple pulsed as I pressed my fingers into my head. Focus. Concentrate. For the average human, these were commonplace words. Words that symbolized the mental capability to think pointedly towards something. But focus could be so much more. Concentration could be so much deeper. Intense thought was not the limit. Thinking could go so far beyond the mind – into the heart, soul, very spirit.
     That is where I was on a dark, muggy night in a New York City parking-lot. I had been running all my life from governments, mostly. They wanted to use me for research. Experiments in warfare against each other. Russia, Germany, Great Britain, the U.S. - but they were not all. There were the street thugs. They wanted me because I was useful to them. I could help them grow powerful, escape the authority, and get away with larger crimes. As I squeezed my eyelids shut and focused my being on the evil I knew was nearby, I felt something. Not on the outside of my body, as if someone reached out and touched me, but on the inside. Like a pinprick in my stomach. There it was. It was male, and he was not afraid. He was circling, I could tell, around the back of the parking-lot. Behind the chain-link fence where the three trees were. I turned to face that direction. Now that I had found where he was, the focus became less intense, the concentration less honed in. I could do little more until he drew closer.
     Finally, I sensed him step towards me. That was all I needed. Dropping to my knees behind a minivan, I leaned forward to learn as much about him as I could. He was tall and lean, yet athletically built. He was still not afraid as he stepped closer, closer. I waited in the pitch black without a sound. And then his voice sliced through the night like a scalpel.
     “I know you are here, Lorinne. There is no need for you to hide from me. I will find you. Standing, sitting – whatever you may be doing now, will just cause you to be worn out. No one, not even you, can be still and quiet forever.” The man's laugh grated through my mind, but he could not make me break my focus. I knew I could do it. I knew I could kneel stone-still for hours and not grow tired. So I waited. I waited and did not shift or break my focus for even a second.
     As I knelt there on the cracked pavement I listened to the man's breathing as he paced up and down between the scattered rows of vacant cars left in the parking-lot. He would walk stealthily one way, then another. He would stop, listen, and circle around another car. He was coming nearer to where I knelt.
     Then I felt it - a sort of sagging, of sighing, in his mind. He was only four feet away. He was tired, had let down his guard, and he was not ready for me.
     So I struck.
     I do not like physical combat. I hate to use my strength of body to win a fight, but these thugs and government men do not fight me with their minds. They refuse to reason, to listen to me. So I had no option. I dove out of my hiding place and in front of the man's long legs as he took a step forward. He tumbled over me and landed heavily on the ground. I twisted out from under his legs, which were kicking dangerously close to my head. I was up on my feet in another instant, but so was the man. He swarthy face was twisted into an ugly grimace as he thrust his gnarled hands at my throat. I stumbled backwards and slammed into the back of the minivan. With nowhere for me to move, the man easily grabbed my throat and began to tighten his grip.
    Even as I stood there, struggling to suck air into my burning lungs, I was not desperately afraid. His flesh was touching my flesh, so now I could stun him with my mind. I gathered up my thoughts. With all the will power I had been given, I focused my energy at the man leering down at me as I was losing consciousness. Then, after an eternity, as I was being sucked into the murky depths of oblivion, the man's clutch on my throat gave way and he fell to the ground. Pure, beautiful oxygen rushed into my lungs. I gasped in rapid breaths - nearly hyperventilating in my attempt to breathe again. Finally I gained control of myself. I looked down at the man at my feet. He was holding his head in his hands. I smiled at him as I regained my strength.
     “Tell your people to let me be. You cannot touch my art. You will never have it,” then I walked away. 

By Petra Waterstraat

Book Trailer

 I present to you the book trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children:

 

Very rarely does a book trailer peak my interest as much as this one--you would think it's a movie trailer! This is a book I hope to read and review soon, so look out for that.~Elizabeth

Fall Apart

This is one of those songs that everyone should hear and be inspired by. 

   

When I really think about it, the moments where I've gotten closest to God have been when I just start stomping around my room going, "God, what are you doing to me?!?!"

*Trust me, I've asked that questions billions of times.*

And then He answers me, "I am molding you into My child."

"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said, 'Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?' declares the LORD. 'Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.'  Jeremiah 18:4-6

He is shaping me into my unique pot--who knows, maybe I'll be a cup, that someone may be refreshed out of me, perhaps a vase, so that God could use me to showcase His beauty, only He knows.
One of His other answers is, "Who are you to judge me, who made you?"
Or, to go to His word. . .“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
   Let him who accuses God answer him!” Job 40:2  
Pretty straight forward, huh?
One of these moments was when my parents decided to home school me--picture my situation; I was eight, so not very advanced as far as my Christian life was concerned, and was being "ripped" out of public school, from all of my "friends", but through that "loss" I gained so much. I gained discernment to chose my friends wisely, faith, that I may trust in the Lord. Hard situations, that I may emphasize with others. But most importantly, I gained Him. I was truly lost, and sometimes (almost always) God chooses His servants to be those that are lost, weary and broken; looking for something. . .Looking for a savior. And, whether we know it or not, the Savior. Because it is when we are truly emptied inside that God can show His works in us, allowing people to see that miracles still exist. He shall humble us before he exalts us.

About a year and a half after I became home schooled, I picked up my Bible and began reading at a winter weekend retreat at a Christian camp. I opened up to Genesis, starting with Jacob fleeing from Esau and going from there. I have continued on with that habit, studying avidly.
Now, I realized that what was once "the worst thing that ever happened to me" turned out to be the best.

 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:27

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible."--Corrie Ten Boom
"Do you have an arm like God’s,
   and can your voice thunder like his?"  Job 40:9  

"At the timberline where the storms strike with the most fury, the sturdiest trees are found." Hudson Taylor

~Elizabeth

Voyage

I'm assuming that a lot of our readers are Narnia fans, so I thought video may interest you. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie for Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but there's a song in it by Carrie Underwood. Scott Krippayne (singer/songwriter) entered his song Voyage (written especially for that movie) for that spot, but they turned him down. Voyage is an EXTREMELY good song, one of my all time favorites. Now press play, close your eyes, and let your imagination run wild.

~Elizabeth

Twilight--A Book Review

I know what you're thinking, "Come on, another one?!?!"

Yes, it is another one--but this time it is in the Christian perspective, and is going to be shown from all angles. 

Quote: "Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something." 

Summery: Bella leaves warm, sunny Arizona to go live with her dad (Charlie) in Forks, Washington, so that her mom (Renee) can travel with her minor-league husband to his baseball games. Bella's open to it, but. . .
She's entering the eleventh grade and doesn't know anyone.
She likes hot, dry, weather--not the cold and rain of Forks.
To be honest, she feels really awkward around her dad. But she doesn't lose hope. No, instead, she went to school, made friends. . .and saw something mysterious.
The Cullen Clan.  The five beautiful, pale "teenagers", the foster children of Carlisle, a doctor, and his wife that has the whole high school in wonder: Emmet and Rosalie, Jasper and Alice, and Edward.
Bella notices that Edward is the only one without a mate, and whether she wants to admit it or not, she wants to be the solution to that. She can't stop staring at him; she also can't get over his attributes: his extreme intelligence, strength and speed, but she doesn't know how she feels about the way he  loks at her. . .it's as if he's holding something back. She begins to dream about him, to have feelings for him.
Especially after he stops a car from crashing into her.
A normal girl would be enchanted over a handsome guy saving her life and leave it at that, no questions asked--but Bella wasn't ever normal. She noticed that when Edward was on the other side of the school parking lot only seconds before the crash, and the huge dent Edward's hand had left on the van that came centimeters away from killing her. With the help of Jacob, a  fifteen  year old, she figures out the truth.
Edward, and his family, are vampires. 
It turns out that the reason for his behavior around her was due to the fact that he is hungry. . .for her blood. Apparently the Cullens are "vegetarians",  they drink animal blood as opposed to sucking the life out of humans.
They start seeing each other, sometimes even sneaking out of school to do it.Then Edward meets Charlie, and asks him if he can take Bella to play baseball with his family. Charlie laughs do to Bella's poor athletic abilities, and allows her to go with him. Bella basically just sits and watches with amazement, filled with awe over their insane skills. Things went great. . .Until they showed up.
James, his mate Victoria, and their friend Laraunt step onto the field. Like the Cullens, they were vampires; unlike the Cullens, they weren't vegetarians. Soon enough they detected that Bella wasn't one of them, and though Victoria and Laraunt were willing to let it go, James was a tracker.
Laraunt warned the Cullens that night that James and Victoria would begin hunting down Bella immediately. Edward makes Bella get into a big fight with Charlie, saying the same things that Renee had said when she left all those years ago.
That got Charlie to let her go. 
Bella then  goes to Arizona with Jasper and Alice.

Don't worry, I won't give away the ending for all of you who are currently reading it/about to read it.

Violence/Romance: In the first half of the book, Bella gets stalked down a street by rapists, and gets saved by Edward at the last second. Just because the stalkers intentions did happen doesn't mean that part is completely clean. There's a lot of violence, especially in the second half of the book. Someone, I won't give it away, gets burned alive towards the end of the book. There's also a lot of romance, although this book probably has the least of it out of the whole series. There's many kissing scenes, and Bella is willing to give up everything, purity included, for Edward. Fortunately, Edward sets standards.

Spirituality: Both Bella and her parents come across as not being Christians. Them going to Church isn't mentioned. Bella seems to not care about religion one way or another. Charlie spends Sunday's fishing, and it is says that Renee tried church for a couple weeks, but, like everything else, got side tracked and moved onto something else. The only Cullen that seems to be a devout Christian is Carlisle. There are a handful of d--n's and d----t's in the book, and I'm pretty sure I can remember some H--l's and uses of the Lord's name in vain. I believe it must be mentioned that Stephenie Meyer is a mormon.

What I liked:  I must admit that SM is an excellent writer. Her descriptions are flawless, and she truly gets you to fall in love with the characters. I enjoyed Carlisle's references to Christianity, and I like Edward's integrity. Charlie comes across as a pretty good dad, not like the not-so-involved dads that pollute today's TV and books. Bella and many of the other characters genuinely care about those around them.

What I didn't like: Obviously SM's mormonism bothers me, and if I knew that before I read Twilight I wouldn't have ever picked it up. I'm not fond of Bella's. . .oh, how shall I say this?. . ."willingness", not only to give up her purity but also to become a vampire--she doesn't care that she would hardly be able to see her friends and family, not in the least. I suppose to some that may seem "incredibly romantic", but it's also selfish and irresponsible. To be honest, Twilight is a little cheesy and predictable. Bella calls her father Charlie half the time, and there were many meetings between Bella and Edward that Charlie didn't even know about.

Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

 I recommend not getting hooked on this series (This is the type of series that you have to read the next book as soon as you're done with the last one.), because the series gets more and more inappropriate the further you go.~Elizabeth