It was inevitable

The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
  a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
  for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

 Psalm 9 :9-10

So I officially fail at routine. which is only to be expected, really. Hit snooze this morning and slept till 8. And I'm fully aware that I'm going to continue to fail at being disciplined, especially when tired and unmotivated. What a great comfort that we trust in God who is never exhausted and who never fails in his grace and mercy. 

Tidying up

Ok, so Christmas is over. And as my digestive system finishes dealing with the remains of a quite extravagant influx of food, I'm looking forward to getting back into some semblance of routine. I know the week between Christmas and new year is hardly the best time to get a routine established but I just can't stand another day of things being all over the place. Life will continue to be messy but I'd like to at least get one corner of it tidied up, even if it's only for a short time. So I've begun with blogging. Obviously. And Lord willing, tomorrow morning I'll be rejoining the 6am club as it's sole member and getting up early to read my Bible. My sugar-induced headache just throbbed angrily at the thought. 

I'm leaving you with some photos as requested by Chlotaire. First sewing mission accomplished. Voila!

Brief notification

hey y'all! I'm in America at the moment with my buddy Chlotaire! I've decided to give blogging a break for the time that I'm here, the main reason being that she is doing a good enough job for both of us :) So if you would like to follow our travels, check out her blog at http://www.theblackcrowblog.blogspot.com/ for regular updates, photos etc. Hope you're well and trusting Jesus!

Jen xo

Exciting discovery

I figured out the other day that one of my co-workers, Debra, her name backwards is Arbed. Like, arrrr-bed! A name that encompasses both comfort and pirates! 

Steadfast God

Psalm 136

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

  for his steadfast love endures forever.
2Give thanks to the God of gods,
  for his steadfast love endures forever.
3Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;

 4to him who alone does great wonders,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
5to him who by understanding made the heavens,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
6to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
7to him who made the great lights,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
8the sun to rule over the day,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
9the moon and stars to rule over the night,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;

 10to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
11and brought Israel out from among them,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
12with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
13to him who divided the Red Sea in two,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
15but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
16to him who led his people through the wilderness,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;

 17to him who struck down great kings,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
18and killed mighty kings,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
19Sihon, king of the Amorites,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
20and Og, king of Bashan,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
21and gave their land as a heritage,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
22a heritage to Israel his servant,
  for his steadfast love endures forever.

 23It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
24and rescued us from our foes,
  for his steadfast love endures forever;
25he who gives food to all flesh,
  for his steadfast love endures forever.

 26Give thanks to the God of heaven,

  for his steadfast love endures forever.

Some of the members of our homegroup have been doing a bible college course (via corrrspondance) called Introduction to the Bible, so the rest of us have been following along. I'm still reeling from all the information we have been grappling to absorb over the past ten weeks. One of the best things about looking at an overveiw of the Bible is that we get to see a much bigger picture of God. We see God being faithful and steadfast through the whole Bible. At the very beginning (Genesis 12;1-3) God promised Abraham that his descendants would be a great nation, he would give them a special land and a great blessing and that through them, all the nations of the world would be blessed. The most exciting thing is that these promises are still being fulfilled even today as the blessing of salvation in Jesus is going out to the very ends of the earth. God is working out the same plan he has had for thousands of years, in our lives as we trust and follow him. How exciting to be an instrument in God's big plan! And how comforting to know that the God we trust is one whose steadfast love endures forever. 

It's been a while...

Back by popular demand! Well, sort of. By popular demand I mean I pinky promised Crackers yesterday that I would start blogging again this week. So as I enjoy post HSC freedom and wait for my less fortunate friends to finish exams you can expect a few posts from me. But for now I wish you goodnight and may God lavish his grace upon you.

my verse for the week

James 1:2-3 "consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

hehe, trials.

with great wisdom comes great...pain in the gum area

so i'm teething again. it's been a while actually and i'm not really accustomed to the sensation. but it's given me a bit more of an insight into why babies scream..man my gums hurt. i need a rusk.

tell you what, though, i wish real wisdom came as straightforwardly as teeth. i'd love to just wake up one day and have little wisdoms poking through the preverbial gums of my mind. but sadly, it's just not going to happen that way.

on a totally different note, i made a discovery! sovereign grace ministies are planting a church in sydney! check out the website http://www.sovgraceoz.org/

thats all for now, exam preparation calls.. jen out.

p.s. i hope you're all going to chandler on the coast tonight :D

Methinks there is much reason in his saying

went on chandler walk in the sunshine today. he was talking about the games we play to avoid repenting when God convicts us of sin. i'm not going to do an in-depth reveiw of the whole sermon. you can listen to it here. but his closing words really stuck with me, to the point that i went back, paused it and wrote them down. and i thought i'd share them with you this evening. 

"All his commands are leading us to life and not begrudging submission to his power simply because he could command what he wanted to command...He is not trying to take anything from you but what would eventually destroy you. Even if that feels like it's impossibly woven into who you are as a person."

and that leads me into some shameless free advertising for Chandler on the coast, which you should all be at on wed 26th of August. 

thats really all for now...just a bit of a chandler plug. :D

 

Title? I really cbb...

A friend of mine introduced to me a brilliant new acronym: 'cbb', meaning 'can't be bothered'. And the beauty of this little expression lies in it's overwhelming irony. Not only can you not be bothered to do whatever it is you are referring to, you also can't be bothered to type properly! Not merely content with being lazy in one area, you put the icing on the preverbial cake with the extra laziness of a dorky acronym! You're just absolutely not bothered and now the whole world has first hand proof! Quite frankly, I'm impressed.

..92 days

a little bit of arson...

burning an element of the HSC was strangely satisfying..94 days and counting..

a sinless fortress

as a recent event leaves me feeling angry and hurt, i am once again brought face to face with the reality of my pride. i so arrogantly believe that i have been wronged that wallowing in self pity seems like a justified action for me to take. i am able to push out of my mind all the times i have disobeyed God and caused pain to others, in order to focus on this one instance where my self-righteous feelings have been hurt. i crave for justice in this matter and foolishly forget about the much bigger justice that i deserve that has been graciously fulfilled in Jesus. How proud am i to be bitter in this one instance where i believe i am in the right and yet expect forgiveness for the multitude of times when i am wrong? 

so today, my prayer is that God will replace my proud and bitter heart with a humble and forgiving one. the conflict and failings we have as sinful humans are a stark contrast to the unchanging perfection of our great God. let us praise him for continuing to be good, when we so definately aren't.

i read psalm 59 this morning, and am reminded of what my attitude should be. 
 16 But I will sing of your strength,  
  in the morning I will sing of your love;  
  for you are my fortress,  
  my refuge in times of trouble.  

 17 O my Strength, I sing praise to you;  
  you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.

how reassuring that we serve a God who is strong, steadfast and unchanging :) jen out

quick hello

howdy

once again i apologise for the scarcity of blog posts. holidays are not really holidays when you have a massive food tec assignment to conquer and an accompanying cold. but God is still good, even in my weakness and frustration.

exciting things have happened! 

Calvin Andrew Mckay was born on friday at 4pm. Cathy and Steve were very generous in sharing their day-old baby with us. holding him was pretty magical :) pics on cathy's blog 

i visited a friend's church last night. its massively encouraging to meet a new group of people that have experienced the same grace and serve the same God that i do. 

more blogging-ness coming soon. until then, over and out. 

just a bit excited...

a favourite novel. a favourite actor. what more could one want in a film, really?

knowledge is power

go away. i dont want to blog about this, its too hard. trying to write something profound. its not working. damn profundity. all i really want to say is that going to uni open day was good. but a little sad. so many people seeking greatness. so many opportunities for self glorification. the world doesn't change, you leave behind years of highschool where you are pushed to be as successful and important as you can be and enter a new environment where you continue motivated to strive for distinction. we are so far from a species that wants to bring God glory or make him happy. we want to glorify ourselves and make ourselves happy. don't get me wrong, i think education is great, but today reminded me that even learning has been unaviodably tainted by sin. stoked about uni. but taken off my rose-coloured spectacles. the end. 

a little chilly..

taking a short break from biology to make a few points:

1. It. Is. Really. Cold. i know you didn't need me to tell you this (unless you live in the northern hemisphere where it is currently summer...grrrr). but yes, i thought i'd just make a mention of the icy weather. i visited the BOM this morning as i usually do, and promptly added 2 extra layers of clothing. 16 degrees maximum is not my friend.

2. Went to the movies last week and put aside my donation money. thought you may like to know that, so far, i'm sticking to my resolution. 

3. the Mckays should have a new baby by the end of the week. praying for a safe delivery and another really cool name. Check our Cathy's blog, its marvellous.  http://bestbookco-op.blogspot.com/ 

4. i have started using the word marvellous. the sign-on lady in the office was very impressed.

back to work now. hope your having a marvellous day :)

meaningless, meaningless

firstly, i apologise that it's been so long. schoolwork and the birthdays of important people have trumped the typing of vaguely interesting observations this past week. but as you can see i've made a return and am enjoying getting my blog on. so here goes..

two unrelated references to Ecclesiastes this morning prompted me to start reading it. the Teacher has devoted himself to studying the world and has come to the conclusion that everything is meaningless "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are vanity, a chasing after the wind". In a stage of life where my occupation largely consists of memorising useless slabs of information in order to write them all down frantically in 3 hour instalments of October, I heartily agree with the Teacher here. 

For Solomon (who we assume to be the 'Teacher' in Ecclesiastes), all his great wisdom seems to have fallen into ruin. he can see no purpose or meaning in the passing of time and the activities of humanity. and i am tempted to despair that someone so wise can be so greived by the pointlessness of the world. what hope have I of ever growing in wisdom when it appears to end in sorrow? 

i think the biggest problem we have is that when we ask God for wisdom, we expect him to show us the reason behind the madness of the world. we think that being wise means understanding the intricate nature of life and seeing meaning in the cheapness and nastiness of it. but as Ecclesiastes shows us, even a man that God blessed with great wisdom failed to see purpose in the inexplicable things of life. does this mean that the teacher failed to remain wise? does it mean that we fail to attain wisdom?

we need to change our ideas about what wisdom is. God doesn't promise to make everything clear to us. our brains are midget, we are finite, so how can we expect to understand the workings of life? Romans 11:33-34 "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?" We are totally unable to gain this type of understanding and this is a humbling fact. our bewilderment teaches us to trust God, live by faith and not become proud in our feeble understanding of the world. 

Solomon tells us in the final verses of Ecclesiastes, what wisdom is.                                                  13 Now all has been heard; 
  here is the conclusion of the matter: 
  Fear God and keep his commandments, 
  for this is the whole duty of man. 

 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, 
  including every hidden thing, 
  whether it is good or evil.

Wisdom is knowing that the world is full of meaningless things like highschool, or lonliness or the death of a baby, but trusting and obeying God anyway because we know he is ultimately in control. this makes us more humble, more joyful and more ready to serve Jesus. in the words of J.I. Packer "let us see to it then, that our own quest for wisdom takes the form of a quest for these things, and that we do not frustrate the wise purpose of God by neglecting faith and faithfulness in order to pursue a kind of knowledge which in this world it is not given to us to have."

thats all for today, folks. will be blogging more this week as all assessments for the term are complete. huzzah! until then, grace to you all :)

filming away a fortune and eyebrows

"$200 million down the drain" was the comment a good friend of mine made today about the new Transformers movie. the film made $60.6 million on its opening day and for something described by critics as "loud, tedious and 147 minutes way too long", i agree that it's a lot of money wasted.

what i'm now wondering is: if 'Revenge of the fallen' was actually fantastic, would we still consider all that money to be a waste? how do we justify spending 200 million dollars on our own entertainment?

now i'm by no means a soldier for making poverty history. i'm as selfish and greedy as the next person so i'm not exempting myself from this accusation. 

isn't there something fundamentally wrong with us when we can spend billions of dollars on movies and television every year and not spare a cent of that money for people who can't even afford to eat? how can we sit in the cinema with a clear conscience as we watch the funds that could feed millions be acted away in front of us? there are people in the world starving for our entertainment. 

so i'm setting myself a challenge. i'm not sure if it's the best way to respond but it's all i've got. for every dollar i spend on entertainment each week (eg cinema, buying dvds & music etc) i'll put $1 aside to be donated to a charity (yet to be chosen) at the end of the year. it will be interesting to see how much money i spend on my own entertaiment. i shall keep you posted

on a totally different note, how weird are eyebrows?! i've never really realised before! random bits of hair in the middle of your face. i'd love to know what God's purpose for eyebrows is. i suppose it has something to do with sweat. man we are funny looking. i'm glad we all have eyebrows because i'd be freaking out if i was the only person with random strips of hair on my face.

thats all for now. trying to get as much sleep as possible this weekend. grace be with you all :D

diligent hands

'the hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor' Proverbs 12:24

Now that the intense pressure of english assesment has been lifted, i have the opportunity to blog without feeling guilty for wasting precious essay-writing time. as i think about the way i have employed my time over previous weeks, i realise my tendancy to procrastinate has festered into a sinful laziness. i spend too much of my time being idle and disregard the importance of working faithfully in the role God has put me in at the present.

In proverbs 31 we see that a woman of noble character "does not eat the bread of idleness" (v27). In 2 thessalonians 3:6, Pauls warns the christians "to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us." My idleness and procrastination is something i need to ask God to help me change. My friend Cathy reminded me the other day of the importance of having 'diligent hands'. i think as christian students, this is one area where most of us are at fault. hmm...more on this topic in the weeks to come.

now to random trivial information. i have discovered a few things in the last couple of days:

1. although shampoo smells delightful, it happens to taste like evil in foamy form. no more accidental mouthfuls. ever.

2. i am not skilled enough to eat noodles with chopsticks and in the future will choose the lesser humiliation of using a fork in order to avoid the much greater humiliation of spilling honey soy chicken everywhere.

3. table 17 is gone. it took me 6 weeks to notice

4. its nearly july!!! the year is half over and im cheering. also, i have memorised the pledge of allegiance especially for another independance day beth has to spend with people who don't think its a big deal. thank you My Girl.

one last thing before i stop assaulting your reading eyes. in a few weeks we celebrate the 500th birthday of a brilliant and controversial thologian, John Calvin. i'm positng a countdown. 

Get the John Calvin birthday clock at Calvin 500

thats all for now. grace and peace be with you all :D

no offense...

i'm on a bit of a typing roll (bad expression, im not really engaged in any sort of rolling motion) and decided to share with you something that i find fairly laughable.

and that is, the expression "no offense". it seems that any comment, no matter how inappropriate or insulting, can be made as long as it is preceded by this expression.

"no offense, but you smell like foot"

what am i suppose to say to that? "oh no worries, i'm not offended, i happen to adore the aroma of foot"

i mean, really, how am i not supposed to take offense at a comment like that? saying "no offense" doesn't change the fact that what you're saying is, in essence, offensive. it doesn't make sense. you might as well be saying, "now i know the sun doesn't exist, but it's really really bright outside"

no offense, but i think thats a bit wrong

tardis travels part 1

I think one of the coolest things about being a Doctor Who fan is the way it makes me feel like I'm a history buff. I mean, who better to get your information from than someone who has actually been back in time?

For example, as we were studying the cities of Vesuvius in my ancient history class, I made frequent reference to "that time the Doctor went to Pompeii in A.D 79".  I had thorough knowledge of the architecture, the clothing, and even the colloquial language of the exact time period we were studying. i guess the problems started to arise when we were talking about the actual eruption. my classmates couldn't quite believe me that it was caused by aliens livng inside the volcano....

stupid humans

one of the ridiculous things about humanity is our tendancy to take credit for things when they are going great but when they take a turn for the worse, immediately point the finger at someone else.

i was listening to matt chandler this morning and he made the point that thousands of planes take off and land safely every day and no-one thanks God for it but when one plane crashes and people die, we shake our fists at the sky and say "how could a loving God do such a thing!".

Seriously, we ignore God and trod all over his planet and do whatever we want and he still gives us air to breathe and food to eat and friends to enjoy. what right have we to blame him for anything? how ridiculous are we who want to ascribe greatness to ourselves?

blogging

blogging is an interesting phenomenon. why do you do it? why am i doing it? why are you even reading this? (assuming that someone is, and i'm not merely typing to an empty void...that'd be lame.)

i think the answer for most of us is that there is something strangely thrilling about baring one's soul to a computer screen in the hope that someone will read it and label us in their mind as an interesting person. 

is a blog an accurate representation of a person's heart? undoubtedly we will tend to only type things about ourselves that we want others to know. so what is actually in our hearts, our true attitudes and desires may, more often then not, remain concealed. ...