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The lack of hummmm

The base was silent today: we lost all power captain.
I am not certain, but it might have to do with the 12 cm of snow we received yesterday.
My room mate and I agreed when we figured out we had no power, we felt like children.
"Do i have to go to school today mom?"
"Just wait and see, we will listen to the radio" I guess that was more for snow days.
Nonetheless, i enjoyed the suspense of waiting for it to come back on,a nd the fear of having to do our work by hand, rather than on the computer.
Scott to the rescue! A collection of us drove 25 minutes to Okotoks, who did not face a power outage. Turns out, about 43,000 people in southern Alberta faced the same kind of dilemma. So we worked in a library all day.
When we came back to the base at 530, we were still out, and so i worked until my laptop lost all power, and proceeded to writing my work by hand. Just as I finished my first hand written chart, the surge returned, and there was much rejoicing.
The outage triggered a sociological interest for me-without power (mainly without computers) people played board games, struggled together to make coffee out of melted snow, and about 10 people were gathered together after supper just talking about traveling, and there was mention of a "work by candle light" party in the evening (on base, everything is a party, flossing, nail clipping, cereal eating...). It made me wonder what electricity has done to face to face interaction. Surely we are more socially networked than ever before via the internet, yet there was something wholesome about this blessing in disguise. Anyways, it just makes me wonder if we have truly benefited from our virtual explosion, and i just had to get on the internet to tell you about it, oh the irony.


Picture: Me running out my laptop juice while sitting at my dresser because i needed the fading sun light.

Jeremiah

1)Thank the LORD i am under God's grace
2)Reminders unique to SBS
3)Working on drawing up Jeremiah
4)Jer 3v1
5)Jer 13 enactment
6)What a colour coded prophet book looks like to me






A theme that i followed while colour coding Jeremiah was how frequently he calls Judah to repent/How God loves his people, yet has to judge their sin. My JEremiah pages are covered in hearts.

For our assignment in class, we did a visual recap on the book...

UPDATE!

Sorry, anyone who reads this, it has been a while...
Here is a general update I made beginning of april

...Last semester was an interesting transition from the good news of Christ in the New Testament to the reason we needed him to come in the first place-the fall of man and the repercussions of sin throughout many generations. Despite God’s gift to the of the Law (an amazing tool that was to develop a unique identity after the Israelites Egyptian slavery) and His patience, miracles and fatherly discipline, mankind continued to prefer the death and destruction of immorality throughout the time of Moses, the Judges, and Kings. The repeated phrase of everyone doing what was right in their own eyes seemingly echoes a mindset that is prevalent in our Western society today, making the history of the Old Testament strangely familiar.
IF ONLY THEY HAD A SAVIOUR…Going through the history of the Old Testament leaves the reader craving the coming of Jesus. The benefits of reading the Law (including Leviticus, a great book!) and the historical account of the OT is that it creates a need that could only be fulfilled by Christ, leaving one to respond to the testimony of Christ with a helpless “Of course! Christ is the absolute solution.” Without the recognition of a need for him, Christ merely becomes a gimmick for another self-serving religion, a good guy with a friendly message. A couple classmates and I concluded that the OT is a meal, and the testimony of Christ the dessert-undeserved, yet given and satisfying.
Another blessing that I have found in this semester is that it makes the hard questions of the New Testament regarding God’s sovereignty in the arena of judgment null-in that one can recognize his righteousness and consistent character as the Judge of sin, that His judgment is not out of hate towards mankind, but rather the crippling grip of sin-the difficulty is that man chooses to pick up sin.
This coming semester we will primarily be looking at the prophets of the Old Testament, which I predict will only create a greater desire for the dessert of Christ. Thankfully, we will top off the semester in June with the gospel of Matthew. Hopefully the base will be running a second DTS starting in April, which will be a welcomed change of atmosphere. Also, it will soon be rodeo season in Alberta, which will serve as relaxing distraction on the weekends. I plan to send another update before the semester is finished, and hope to see some of you while i am out for a wedding in may.
Prayer requests: Continued perseverance to get through this next semester as the weather continues to be more of a distraction. A safe trip out in May. The April DTS. Those who are going on the SBS outreach to Thailand in July.

I love Deuteronomy. It can almost be read like a NT book, packed with emotion, reflecting on the past to learn in the future, and God's character is constantly being defined.
Themes that I am following in the book include:
1)God is good (In what context it is declared, and what response it is to draw out fom the people)
2) Warnings ("Take care" is repeated on almost every page, warning them not to let their heart go against God)
3) Remembering Egypt (How is this to help them live holy, and know their God? Application-how do we view our past: Do we romanticize Our Egypt because it was a time of predictability, or can we remember God's acts in Egypt?)
4) God after the heart (to circle every time the heart is mentioned in Deut is amazing. God reveals that acts are nothing without the heart)

So I am really glad that Deut is the last book of the Pentateuch, because it is my favorite. Please read it, and possibly think about or highlight these themes or others, remembering that it is Moses' last plea to the people to fear, walk, love and serve God, and keep his commands (10v12-13)

Leviticus

A summary of Leviticus
The aspects of Leviticus may be summed up as pillars of absolutes within the old and new covenants: There is sin and judgment, need for atonement, a call to devotion, worship and faith, God desiring fellowship with man, a challenge to holiness, and the responsibility of evangelism. IT was God's way of setting apart the Israelites as holy, even in the details-the chapters of clean and unclean reveal that everything is spiritual, nothing is secular. It serves as a foreshadow for the requirements of Christ, in partnership of the book of Hebrews explaining how Christ served as the perfect priest and fulfillment of the statutes of Leviticus.
A seemingly boring book, Leviticus was a great blessing for me to study.

(Part of our assignment requirement)
In view of these truths, what changes do I have to make to my views of God, life, church, society?
God: I think looking at Leviticus has continued to show me the consistencies between the God of the OT and the NT. He is just, he is holy, he wants to dwell with his people, obedience is a sweet aroma to him, etc etc. It is fantastic to see the parallels, as well as to recognize the book of Leviticus as a foreshadow of Christ. Recognizing the offerings makes me realize how desperately God desires fellowship, and how much he hates sin.
Life. I know that I do not live daily in the recognition of the cost of Christ. Also, to recognize how zealous God is for his people, his ability to now dwell within his people. It does not get much more personal than that. To live daily in the truth of recognizing God in me would help me not be so concerned for the unknown, and to express worship more in common conversation.
Church: I kind of envy the thought of all the people gathering at the hub; the tabernacle, and seeing God work. It seems like there was a lot of value commanded of the Israelites to honor each other-especially the poor. No one should feel marginalized in the body.






Another assignment with Leviticus was to make pictures to represent some of the chapters of Leviticus: I used Playdough

1)Nadab and Ibihu are consumed by fire, for disobeying God. Ch 10
2)The year of Jubilee. A year of no work, God would supply enough to eat for 3 years so there would be no need to prepare for the coming year. (Ch 24v8ff)
3)Feast of Weeks. A wave offering, grain offering, seven lambs, one bull, and 2 rams offered, along with a drink offering. No work, watch TV... (23v15-21)
4)Sabbath. Relax, remember the God who saved the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt (23v3)
5)Consecration of the priests. Aaron and his sons are ordained with blood on the ear, right thumb and right toe, possibly to symbolize obedience in listening, doing, and walking. (Ch 8)

the golden letter journal

Today is a half relaxed day-I finished Genesis early,and I am taking some time to journal. I recognize that, at least in prayer, my mind is full of incomplete thoughts when people come to mind to pray for, and so, I have begun to write out names, and about two lines specifically about them, and what I would like to see God work in them.
A "prayer journal"? Oh, i would rather not call it that: it makes me think of scripted gold letters, a lacey journal with satin ribbon beside a cup of tea. If you know me, you would understand how i would refuse to attach myself to such imagery. No, the beginning of this journal consists of to do lists, a recipe for crepes and some simple math. I thought about tearing it out, but, no, it suits better than lace.
Anyways.
This journal was started about two weeks ago, and consists of the most random people from my past; people from camp i met when i was 14 who i havent seen since, people i met during our local outreach in australia during dts, people from 3 different churches, all sorts. AS they come to mind,and i wonder how they are doing, I am trying to pray for them instead of leaving it a half baked thought.
I also journal generally, about twice a week. Im not sure how i will balance both, since SBS is continually taking up the majority of my time. I am not writing this to brag about how deep i am (i always had a perception in the past that journalers are vast in imagination and emotionally complex beyond all verbal communication-i mean, how deep is that) but rather, explain how it helps me hammer out my thoughts in a progression, and stay dedicated to one thought long enough to really jog it out to completion. I'm an introspective extrovert, and i find that writing things out keeps me focused, and also makes me feel like i have told someone all my thoughts-leaving me less likely to pour out my self reflecting issues on an unwilling ear. Maybe this can serve as a challenge to document your life-jog things out on paper to understand your thought pattern better. You don't have to buy a lacey golden book to do it either.