The Unthinkable

Well, I’ve finally done it – the unthinkable… – I’ve purchased my own blog.  Whoopee!  You can now find me at:

http://tonjabrice.com

See you over there!

General Life Update

It’s been a couple of weeks since I updated the world about my knee.  I am doing extremely well.  I have the same range of motion in both knees now and I’m feeling stronger every day.  I can’t tell you how relieved I am that things are going so well.  I had knee surgery seven years ago and nothing, and I mean NOTHING, went as well as this one.  If ever you need knee surgery and live in the northern Chicago suburbs, I highly recommend the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute.  The entire office is great, friendly and very caring.  (They do have offices in other parts of Chicago but since I haven’t been to those offices I can’t honestly testify to their staff and physicians, however, I have a feeling that they are just as great as the staff and physicians at the Libertyville office.)

Enough about the knee.  Finals are about 3 weeks off and I’m really feeling the end-of-the-semester-crunch, but I’m sure that things will work out well. 

Tulips are my favorite flower and I found this picture on the web.  Even in black and white they are beautiful and graceful.

On the needles right now are several projects:

1. White Princess shawl for my mom.  I need to rip about 16 rows out and because it is lace I’m petrified of ripping.  I also can’t knit backwards for 16 rows so the piece is in limbo until I can find a “lace ripping out expert” to help me out.  Not sure where to find one of those.
2. I’m working on a baby blanket for my friend Stephanie who had a little girl, oh, about 2 months ago.  I need about 10 more inches to get finished.  Have a feeling that it will have to wait until after May 6.
3. Randomly working on a soft merino wool scarf – knitted at random and with random patterns.
4. Socks.  Can I just say this:  yarn for socks is small.  They take a long time.
5. I’m about to start a new project of making mittens.  I think I’m going to knit them 2 at a time on 1 very, very long circular needle.  Let you know how that goes.

On the Bed (this is where I keep the books that I’m reading..not as comfortable as a husband, but they sure do help me fall asleep!) are the following:

I think this is about it for now.  Toodles.

The Gospel in Song

I recently gave my second sermon for my preaching class and I preached on the topic of transformation using the text of Romans 1:16-17 to describe how and for what purpose transformation happens.  In highly technical, theological terms this is actually sanctification, the present tense of the word salvation that Paul uses in v.16. (Although I’m using the present tense of the word, salvation actually has three tenses, a past, present and future, and I think Paul’s writing is ambiguous enough that it is hard to tell, within just these two verses, which tense he is intending to use.  With that said, I think the ambiguity lends itself to his intention of all three tenses as he will go on in the letter to describe all three.  The three tenses are past (justification), present (salvation), and future (glorification). )

One of the things that I spoke about was the source of the power for that transformation which Paul describes is the gospel.  Paul describes the gospel in the first few verses of his letter to the Roman church, but through out his letter he sprinkled little tidbits of information that deepen the description that he started off with. 

This is a hymn that I found today and I think it speaks well to the gospel. To hear the tune click on the link of the name of the hymn below.

There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall,
where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell, what pains He had to bear;
but we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiv’n. He died to make us good,
that we might go at last to heav’n, saved by His precious blood.

There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate of heav’n and let us in.

Chorus: O dearly, dearly has He loved! And we must love Him too,
and trust in His redeeming blood, and try His works to do.

~Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, “There is a Green Hill Far Away“

 

Romans 5:6-11
⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Just thinking…

I’ve been leading a women’s bible study this year.  We taking a walk through the Old Testament and we are currently up to the Babylonian exile.  We are reading through the history in chronological order and placing each of the minor prophets in with the history to help us read them in context of when they lived and what their message was.  We will be taking a look at Ezra and Nehemiah this week and it got me thinking….do exiles happen in our day and age?  I think so.  I have a friend who is a Christian and loves God but is going through an exile right now.  She moved to a smaller town in the middle of Illinois and is working in a job that she loves and gets a lot of fulfillment from.  I believe that God has placed her there for a specific reason.  The challenge comes from being isolated from all known support systems.  I can identify with this and went through something similar about 7 years ago.  I believe she is living in exile.

I think the good news is that exile didn’t last forever.  God enacted his judgment and sent Judah into exile to teach them a lesson – a lesson that they needed and learned from.  But God, YHWH, brought them back!  He allowed a remnant, a remnant who were faithful and saw the wisdom of the exile, to come back and to rebuild the city walls and to try and rebuild the temple – dwelling place of God.

When I relate this to my friend, and while I know that she is not being punished for inerrant and sinful living, I do think that this “exile” will make her stronger – in the end.  The promise of the prophets during the exilic period were that God is faithful and God is true.  I pray that if you are going through your own exilic period you can remember this.  God brought the remnant home.  You will go back to Him someday…and what a glorious day it will be!

Knee and Life Update

I don’t have any profound biblical insights for today (although I’m not sure that I’ve ever really had any profound biblical insights…but that’s another story).  I just wanted to catch you all up on the knee thing.

I think most of my friends/family were aware that I was having knee surgery for the second time in my life (yes, the same knee too).  The initial radiologist’s report said that there was a definite meniscus tear and a possible ACL tear.  As I had an ACL tear 7 years ago that was reconstructed, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to go through that again.  As it turns out I don’t.  That was the good news.

The Dr. repaired the meniscus tear and cleaned up the cartilage surfaces, which should help me walk a little better and with less pain.  But, and there is a BUT, the Dr. is disappointed that I have an excess of arthritis in this knee.  I’m about 20 years too young for a knee replacement, so it looks like I’ll be living with an arthritic knee for quite a while to come yet.  Drugs.  That’s all I’ve got to say.

On another note, I was very glad that my Mom was able to come and stay with me for a week.  Bless her heart – she had to drive me to my doctor’s office in the midst of a rather heavy snow storm – 10 inches of snow on Friday, March 21.  She has NEVER been in a storm like that and I think I can speak for her in saying that she hopes to NEVER do that again.  She had a trip of firsts:  first snow shovel, first major winter storm, first Chipotle experience and first time flying Midwest airlines (which I HIGHLY recommend).

These are flowers that Shirlee sent me – wonderful lilies. Once the opened up the entire room smelled like Spring – even with 10 inches of snow on the balcony. 

Oh, on another note – one of my last posts was about my Discover Card and some of the debt things that I’ve been working on.  I received a "good news" letter from my bank last week.  Last year, in an attempt to start working on re-establishing my credit, I applied for a secured card with my bank.  I’ve been using it off and on for a year now and being very diligent and conscientious about paying it off.  It appears that I’ve been doing well because they will refund my security deposit back to me and slightly increase my limit.  WOOHOO!  I’m excited because this info is going on my credit report and every little bit of good news helps.

DISCOVERCARD PAID OFF!!!!!

WoooooooHoooooooooooooo!  It’s done!  It’s Finished!  It has taken me 10 very LLLLOOOOONNNNGGG years to get this sucker paid off…and as of today…IT’S DONE!

Isn’t that beautiful?  To put this into context, my limit was a meager $4,500, which at one point the balance soared to over $8,000 (closer to $9,000).  I have been diligently paying this sucker off for the better part of 8 years while living on a salary that was roughly 1/2 of my salary when I incurred the debt.  So my salary went down and my payments went up.  And now the balance is -0-.  Boy does that feel good.

Anglican Church Crisis

For some time now I have been following the progress of the breaking apart of the Anglican (Episcopal) church primarily over the issue of blessing same-sex marriages.  Certain parishes in the US and Canada are adopting views of blessing same-sex marriages on their own, putting them at odds with other parishes within a diocese.  As a whole the US and Canada both seem to be moving toward the direction of the entire national church adopting by-laws that would approve this measure, going against the larger world-wide anglican communion on this doctrinal issue.  One of the churches that is protesting their parish’s move toward same-sex blessings and is struggling to keep a conservative identity within the larger world-wide anglican church is the church that JI Packer belongs to.  Here are some  interviews with him regarding the issue of same-sex marriages.  His church has a series of 10 videos that address the issue in its entirety and they can be viewed here.  These videos with JI Packer are parts 6-9 of that series.

 Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

The Belt of Truth

I find the Belt of Truth to be little strange.  It is the first piece of armor that Paul puts on.  Why would truth be characterized as a belt?  What do belts do?  They hold you in and keep you together.   They hold your pants up and keep you from falling.  Hm…maybe there is something here after all.  The Truth, that is Christ, keeps me together.  The Truth keeps me from falling down.  Yes, now this makes a little sense.

I’ve often wondered at this Post Modern world and their idea of truth.  I was part of that “world” once.  Before I became a Christian I lived with the idea that what is right for me may not be right for you and that was okay.  We each have our on “reality” and that’s what makes us unique individuals.  But how far can that go?  Honestly, how far can that line of reasoning really go?  I think it can only go as far as our own thoughts and cannot carry over into our actions.  Once it does that then someone’s “rights” will be stepped on and they will question how valid your actions are.  So even though we may say that we can each live with our own realities, the reality is that we can’t.  We live by rules so that all of our “rights” are protected and no one gets hurt in the process.

I think that for me at least, before I became a Christian, the appeal to this line of reasoning was to have a justification for certain behavior that perhaps my parents would not have approved of.  Their reality was no pre-marital sex – my reality was – hey, sex is fun so why not?  The trouble is, who’s reality am I really living in?  Mine?  My parents?  I don’t think so.  I’m living in God’s reality, along with all the other 6 billion people in the world.  God’s truth is what we all ultimately have to live by because we are all living ultimately in God’s reality.

Yes, the Belt of Truth – it holds me together and keeps me from falling out of reality with God.  Good first piece of armor to put on.

Spiritual Warfare

I’ve made the executive decision to change my first sermon for class to Ephesians 6:10-18 which is where Paul talks about putting on the full Armor of God.

The Armor of God
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Ephesians is one letter that speaks a great deal of the devil and the spiritual world that exists.  He doesn’t justify the existence, he doesn’t explain it, he simply states that the devil is real and he works against God for our detriment.  I went through a time about 7-8 years ago where I felt that I was really facing some serious warfare.  I was not working in a great place and there were a lot of things going on that caused people to behave in ways that I honestly don’t think they would have otherwise exhibited.  The point being that I was under attack spiritually and these words of Paul’s were just the thing that I needed to help me get through that time of my life.  Thank goodness that I did survive and God was so gracious to me.

In my women’s bible study last night two of the women shared that they were experiencing some spiritual warfare in their respective work places.  My heart goes out to them and the awesome thing about God is that he has been preparing me for this message to preach on the topic that they are dealing with.  It just reaffirms to me that the devil is very real and that God is sovereign.

Links/Resources
I found a few links to some resources online that help with understanding the Armor of God.  Each of these links will open a new window.  If you are using IE 7 then you can right click on the link and open it in a new tab instead of a new window.

1. Charles Stanley/InTouch - This is a PDF file that is 22 pages and more of a lesson/bible study format. 
2. Charles Stanley/InTouch - this is just a one page document describing some basics of spiritual warfare – short and simple.
3. KGNW/Christian Radio - this is also a one page article but it walks through each of the items that Paul describes and how to use it for spiritual warfare.

Romans 1:16 – the Power of God

My first sermon for class is on this one verse:  “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (ESV)  I’ve been thinking about this in relation to the entry prior to this on Hannah Whitehall Smith.  Basically her argument is the God’s job is to work and our job is to trust in that work, which is something that is difficult for me to do on a moment by moment basis.  So here’s where knowing theology helps me understand this verse.  I may be dense, but whenever I think of the word “salvation” I usually think of the word in relation to justification, which simply means that we are put right with God because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and his sacrifice atoned for my sins.  I usually think of this as the “getting into heaven” part.

But in Romans 1:16, this, I don’t believe, is the part of salvation that Paul is referring to.  I think that the justification part is there, but I think his main thrust is the sanctification part of salvation, where we are continually being transformed from our Old selves to our New selves.  This makes sense to me especially when we read further in the chapter as Paul is describing why we fall into the sins that we do.  No one is excluded from his argument in 1:18-32, and without the daily renewing power of God we would remain on that list and never become holier than we were before we were saved.

There are a lot of ramifications on this for me.  One, I am comforted to know that the person that I was before I became a christian does not just instantaneously disappear – there is a continual work that God is doing in me.  I can’t change my sin-nature, but God can – THAT is the Power of the Gospel that Paul is talking about.  Two, the ways in which I do want to grow is also a process.  I’ve struggled over the years with being single.  I thought initially that it was just because I was too shy, too not-so-great-looking, too well-padded in certain places.  But what I’ve come to realize is that I was not the wife that God would have wanted me to be.  He has had to change me and mold me into becoming the wife that He wants me to be.  This has not been an easy process for me, but my heart has definitely changed over the last 6-7 years regarding my role as a wife in marriage and what that should look like.

The third, and probably most important, is that I also realize that this is the process that other people go through as well.  I have a friend who is my age (which shall be stated but is over 30) and became a Christian 4 years ago.  I have seen God working in her life in a very gradual process that perhaps she can’t even see, but it’s there.  I have learned to be more patient and loving towards her, and all my other friends, when I don’t condemn them to “my” standards of Christian living – hey, I don’t even live up to my standards!  The point is that I can look at other people and realize that they are on a journey every bit as profound and life changing as mine – and THAT, my friends, is the Power of the Gospel.

(for those of you who know that I live in Waukegan:  1) I was not harmed by the explosion yesterday, 2) I was not involved in the explosion yesterday, and 3) I do live about 10 blocks from where the explosion yesterday happened)