Deeper than the day-to-day

I realized at the end of last year that I was really missing being challenged to think about what I believe.  Four years of Bible college had me thinking every minute.  In contrast, teaching fifth grade has me cramming facts into my head.


So I've been trying to feed my brain information that makes me think.


- My friend's friend Jenny writes a blog.  This post made me think about my desire for acceptance and what identifies me.


- I am listening to my MN church's sermons every week before I go to bed.  This sermon by John Piper was about textual criticism (a linguist's dream!) and the woman caught in adultery.  This at the end caught me, "Come to Jesus for grace, and set your face to sin no more."


- I am reading Changing Tides: Latin America and World Mission Today by Samuel Escobar. I've been wanting to read Escobar's work for a long time, and I found one of his books at a garage sale here for less than a dollar!  :)  I'm just starting, but so far- very interesting.  Here's a quote I liked, "Today, at the beginning of a new century, we are more aware than ever that missionaries are vessels of clay, bearers of the glory of the gospel, who are themselves weak and likely to break...the missionary task as an enterprise [is] carried out by persons who are fragile and weak, subject to contingencies like perils, suffering, and persecution."


- And from the Word: Isaiah 44:22- "I have blotted out your transgression like a cloud and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." and Isaiah 44:5- "This one will say, 'I am the Lord's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's,' and name himself by the name of Israel."