Take me Forevermore

This morning I posted this on Bookface, and thought I'd share it here too. 

I sure don't profess to be a poet, and I'm sure this is terrible from a literary standpoint. But I just pulled an allnighter, and those get me thinking a little more deeply sometimes. So here's tonight's ramble. :)

Oh my Dear Savior,

Sometimes I just long to be with You so much.

To see Your loving face, to feel Your touch.

I long to go to meet those who have gone on before

And hear how Your mercy brought them through to that door.

I long to see this beautiful home that You've prepared for me

The streets of gold, all things being new, and always shall be.

But more than that, O Lord, I'll rejoice for I shall never more sin

My wicked flesh which despairs me now shall never again win.

You, my loving Father, will I forever cease to fail

Completely broken free from wretched sin's jail.

You say I won't cry anymore, but maybe I will want to

To cry tears of joy in full relief that I will never again disappoint You.

You have forgiven my sin, but I still mess up so badly

And daily I must ask forgiveness, and You give it so gladly.

Oh, but Lord! For now, You have me still on earth in this world

So please keep me marching on for You, Your Gospel flag unfurled.

Patience I lack, and so little faith to believe

But by Your grace I trust Your promise, "Ask and ye shall receive."

Please wash from me my pride, my hate, my greed

Create in me a clean heart and spirit, this is what I need.

Tear down my earthly joys so vain, my safety, self, my sin

For unless all else is destroyed, there is not room enough to let You in.

So come, Lord Jesus, come into me and work

Build in me the mind of You, cast out my filthy murk.

Keep me abiding always forevermore, never leaving your feet's throne

For to wander and stray away, my heart is so prone.

My life, my soul, my every thought, I impart to you again right now

And when the time is right, Oh please hasten that at last, sinless in glory may I bow!

~Esserita 

It's not a disease! It's a SIN!

From my Real Estate Review CD-ROM -

10. Which of the following is a protected person under the 1988 Fair Housing Law as amended? 

Answer: B - An alcoholic
Explanation: Alcoholism is a disease and fits within the physical and mental handicap provision. A current drug user is not protected, although a reformed drug addict would be protected.

WUUUUUUHT?!?!?!?
Your own explanation states that drug addicts can be reformed... it is the CHOICE of "patient" to be in the state he or she is in!  It is NOT a disease! Sure, it'll handicap your facilities when you're under its influence, but that does NOT mean you've contracted a disease! Being diseased (to an extent) is NOT a choice! You can cause yourself to be sick, but that's different from choosing that state of mental/physical incapacity. Alcoholism is a SIN.

I don't know if people hear themselves when they say those kinds of things...

Yeah... that's it. :-/

~Mizzoria

Mix-up?

Why do the good students go to good schools with the good teachers? They're already good.

It's the bad students who need to go to good schools to have the good teachers teach them...

It's like sending a healthy athlete to the doctor...

What's the point?

Go prove yourself elsewhere and actually DO something with what you know!!!

-Mizzoria

Preservatives

Preservatives do not "preserve" the life of whatever food you're about to consume. 
No...
Preservatives kill all potential detrivores...
(or decomposers that break down living/dead beings into miniscule particles so that they can be absorbed by other beings ... 

in our case, it kills our digestive system as it travels down the alimentary canal or destroys body parts as the circulatory system carries these poisons to each part of our body, 

thus incurring innumerable diseases and imbalances in our physiological systems),

and coat or completely alter the chemical makeup of the food so that it is entirely unfit 

for "germs", bacteria, and other similar organisms to feed upon.

Well... all organisms except us silly humans.  

Of course, there are more natural ways to preserve food, like pickling, marinading, or coating with salt or sugar, 

but large intake of all those substances can be harmful to the human body as well...

Just not as detrimental as the ones synthetically composed.

Oh, mankind and scientists who think they're making progress...

~Mizzoria

Chinese Spelling Bee

​

 Watching the Chinese version of the national spelling bee makes me feel as though Americans cheated in language arts... and then proceeded to fail miserably.

And it also reminded me of this video:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxoUUbMii7Q

~Mizzoria

Can't by Edgar A. Guest

Can't is the worst word that's written or spoken;

Doing more harm here than slander and lies;

On it is many a strong spirit broken,

And with it many a good purpose dies.

It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning

And robs us of courage we need through the day;

It rings in our ears like a timely-sent warning

And laughs when we falter and fall by the way.

Can't is the father of feeble endeavor,

The parent of terror and half-hearted work;

It weakens the efforts if artisans clever,

And makes the toiler and indolent shirk.

It poisons the soul of a man with a vision,

It stifles in infancy many a plan;

It greets honest toiling with open derision

And mocks at the hopes and the dreams of a man.

Can't is a word non should speak without blushing;

To utter it should be a symbol of shame;

Ambition and courage it daily is crushing;

It blights a man's purpose and shortens his Ai,.

Despise it with all of your hatred of error;

Refuse it Longmont it seeks in your brain;

Arm against it as a creature of terror,

And all that you dream of you some day shall gain.

Can't is the word that is fie to ambition,

An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;

Its prey is forever the man with a mission

And bows but to courage and patience and skill.

Hate it, with hatred that's deep and undying,

For once it is welcomes 'twill break any man;

Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying

And answer this demon by saying: I can.

-Mizzoria

Life isn't fair...

I walk around my house now, saying in my head, over and over again, "Life is not fair; it just isn't fair," but not in a complaining spirit, but rather a flow of gratitude and joy.  

I have so much in my life that makes it easier, whether it's what my parents provided or just the norm in America.  

I see how much harder it is for others to break out of poverty when they have nothing and I have all the world in comparison.  

Convenience is depicted on a new scale when I think of all the innumerable little conveniences I've enjoyed all my life that are a daily occurrence.

-Mizzoria

Star Trek... A review I guess?

I watched Star Trek into Darkness on the way home from China. 

It was interesting... And exciting (but I would attribute that to the fact that I hadn't watched an American movie for a while)... 

Not something for the family, but I loved the depiction of sacrificial love and vengeance on the parts of Kirk and Spock, even if they could be argued as rash at some point. And I loved that Spock's emotions finally expressed themselves by the end of the movie. Zachary Quinto did a great job. 

The cruelty and evil of Kahn was what I would imagine as an accurate depiction of satan's true motives, though satan probably uses a more subtle but certain method like sickness and disease, or religion and "theology" to decimate people nowadays.

Still undecided as to whether I should watch more movies or not. Can't decide if they're worth my time... :-/

-Mizzoria

No condemnation

Alright... I'm hopefully back to blogging here more often... after not having done so for what? Almost 9 months?  I have an evil grin on my face for those who care.

Thanks, Es, for keeping this place alive! :-)

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Romans 8:1-2 (NASB)Therefore, no condemnation exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

I was JUST thinking about how I've changed so much this past year.
How my thinking has changed...
How my attitude towards life has loosened...
in that I just don't care that much anymore.

Or maybe I do?
And I'm just trying to avoid conflict?

But is that conflict really conflict?
Am I perhaps actually scared to be rejected or judged?

Silly me. I can only be judged. NOT condemned!

Why? I'm set free! There's no condemnation in Him.
I should NOT care about what people see me as.

I laugh when others are bound to live by others' standards of style and fashion, but I don't realize that I myself am always trying to please everyone at the same time, or keep everyone happy.
What an ego...

So, I can't please men, but I can please God.
I should be firm in my beliefs and not worry about "offending people" or getting on the politically incorrect side of arguments.

Who cares? And so what?

~Mizzoria

Hey There, Hobo

     Hi. I'm a hobo.

     Most people don't think of me as one. Some people think I've got my act together. Some people think I don't have bad days. Some people think I'm like spiritually mature or something.

     But really, I'm insecure. I have horrible days. I drift from God.

     However, I am a hobo with some experience in this vagabond life. It hasn't been easy. There have been times when I didn't have anyone in the world to talk to who could care and listen and understand. Not my parents, nor brothers or sisters, or friends. And all I could do was ask, in my depravity and very finite understanding, why God had forsaken me. People quote Romans 8:28 all the time, and say that everything happens for good. But living like you believe it in every single thing that comes in life is a whole, huge, polarly different matter.
     And you know? A hobo who has made it through the hard times and has experienced the most knows better and better how to relate to and help hobos who are struggling now too. And the seemingly experienced ones never stop learning. The new ones know stuff the older ones wish they knew. We're all in this together, figuring things out as we go along.
     We don't have any 'money' to magically exchange for what we need. We're a classless system. We have to beg our Provider every day for our daily bread. We are often misunderstood.
     Somedays, our Great Provider gives us a ticket into the buffet. And some days, He sees fit to give us dry bread and water. We have such a great time in the buffets, that if they last very long, we often forget the Provider since we've got all we need right there in front of us. We do love the buffets. But it's the days when we've eaten that last crust of bread that we have and have no clue what to do that we know our Provider best. For when all we have is Him, it is then that we realize that He is all we need.

     So fellow hobos? Please join me on my journey. We're both penniless, and we need each other to prod ourselves along. We do have a mission, though no home here. We have a King, though no country. We have a great inheritance, though no rich relations. We have nothing tying us down from reaching our goal. No one can truly hurt us. There is nothing on this path to fear. The journey is rough, but the Destination more worth it than our little minds could ever fathom in a billion years here.

Come along, won't you?




~Esserita


Especially for my fellow hobo Jenn. 

What the King is Counting

"Not what you give
But what you keep
Is what the King is counting."

     I love that part of the song Simple Living by Keith and Kristyn Getty. At the same time, I don't like how uncomfortable it makes me most the time.
     The song tells the story of the rich young ruler in the New Testament, and the poor widow who put all her money into the offering. Think of it like, if a little kid in your area donated $10 to help a children's hospital and it came to public knowledge, he'd probably get some local newspapers' attention, a bunch of viral facebook "reshare" thingies since everyone wants to share the heartwarming story of this kid who gave everything he had to help others. However, if Bill Gates donated $10 to that same children's hospital and it came to public knowledge, he'd probably get a bunch of raised eyebrows, a pagefull of cartoons about him, and much publicity on how this miserly rich guy gave a mere $10. Of course, the hospital could use the boy's or Mr Gate's ten dollars equally - it doesn't matter to them from whom it came. But people care about other people's motives, where their hearts are in the subject. It's not what you give, but what you keep that matters.

     Okay, so  no, I'm not advocating that you sell your iPhone and your laptop and extra clothes and give the profits from that in addition to all your savings to some charity. If God asks you to do that, that's awesome. It's between you two. He doesn't really need your money though. He needs your time, your life, your heart. Spending 30 hours a week helping out Christian organizations and doing stuff at church won't cut it either. God does want you to help out in things like that, but that's not the main thing He's after.

                      [if you don't like long random parables or butter, skip the next 2 paragraphs]
     Have you ever had an obsession with something? Or someone? Let's say I have an obsession with butter (I might really have one, but let's not go there.). When I wake up, the first thing I want to do is go eat some butter. I start my studying for the day with a block of butter sitting next to my computer so I can look at it all the time, and occasionally pick it up to smell it and nibble a piece off it. It's not that I'm trying to add butter to everything. It's that everything else revolves around my butter. Then sometimes I get separated from butter. It's tragic, really. The whole time, I'm thinking about how much I miss my butter.
     Then there's my neighbor Jim. He's a butter fan too. But he tries fitting butter into his life, instead of fitting his life around butter. He dedicates 2 hours a day to keep butter with him. But when it's not those two hours, he doesn't even think about it much. Life often gets busy, and he forgets about his butter.

     Yeah, I think I might be getting into a bit of a tangent. But I think you get my point. If Christ is truly the center of your life and all you have that is of worth to you, then you should be more concerned about the minutes, hours you spend doing stuff that doesn't directly glorify Him or further His Kingdom than the time you do spend handing out bulletins at church.
     But you know... giving up those moments is hard! It's so relaxing to watch an old cartoon on YouTube and watch Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck argue over what season it is! I mean, what better way is there to spend those tired moments when you don't want to do anything that requires intentional brain activity? (yes, this is a confession.) I'm not saying it's a sin to watch that in of itself. But when we attempt to satisfy ourselves with stuff besides Him? It's great at the moment. But since I really should quit being a hypocrite and get to work, I'll just abruptly stop this extensive rambling with a quote by Sir John Piper:

“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.” 

What's Important?

     Well, since I've last posted, I've moved several hundred miles away from my home (this was at the beginning of the year) to work a temporary job in my state's beautiful Capitol. I'm part of the House Floor Staff, which means that I'm a non-partisan worker who does... Just about everything and anything from setting up committee rooms with coffee, driving Representatives to the airport, to passing notes during sessions, to giving tours, to cleaning, to filling in in at a desk in a legislator's office like I am right now. I absolutely LOVE my job and am pretty disappointed that we're already halfway through the session. However, there is one thing that I'd been wishing I could do here in the Capitol that I cannot due to my non-partisan status: Influencing legislators and legislation to reflect my values. One of my favorite activities ever is campaigning and discussing issues that concern me. However, the restrictions on me are to the extent that I must consciously maintain facial expressions that do not reflect agreement or disagreement with a representative speaking during House Floor Sessions. And believe me, that can get tough. =D

     I was eating Sunday afternoon lunch with a few friends I've made, including a Senator whom I have come to deeply respect. We were discussing work, and I was asked about how I enjoyed my job and what I'd like to do in the future. I mentioned how I love my job... and how because of my non-partisanship and constant working throughout the building I can get to know people without the barrier of politics between us... but also how I wished I could be in a position where I could have more influence and make more of a difference. Legislator's staffers have more of an influence on things than you'd ever think. It sometimes seems that it's to the extent that the staff does everything except be the figurehead that shows up in the news. 
     When I said this, the Senator paused and cocked his head. After a moment, he said something in a couple brief sentences that I can't recall well enough to transcribe here, but this is a deepened version of what he told me: "You know, all them issues and bills stuff we have to deal with that goes on is kind of important. However, what's really important is people. God doesn't need bills to get His work accomplished, but He needs people to talk to and encourage people because that's what's really important. In doing that, we can draw them to Him. And you can do that better than we can since we're partisan and have politics in the way. So you can go do the important stuff." 

I love that Senator. 

~Esserita

Rise up, children of this generation!

I saw this devotional online and it's riveting!

[Linktothe"online"version]

MATTHEW 2:16, "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men."

MATTHEW 2:16-23

Satan was the real motivator of Herod's actions. Ever since the Lord first prophesied that a man would bruise his head, Satan has been seeking out this "seed" of the woman (Gen. 3:15).

It appears that Satan is able to perceive when the Lord is making a major move in the earth. In the days of Moses, Satan moved Pharaoh to kill all the male children of the Israelite slaves, and here he motivates Herod to kill all the male children in Bethlehem. No doubt he was seeking to eliminate this "seed" who was going to bruise his head.

Once again, we see children being slaughtered today. This time it's through abortion. Our youth are also being attacked in unprecedented ways. Is it possible that Satan thinks this is the generation that is to bring in the second return of the Lord? Is he, in desperation, trying to stay off his doom by destroying this generation?

We need to have enough spiritual perception to recognize that just as in the days of Moses and Jesus, this slaughter of the innocent children today is an indication of an even more important struggle in the spiritual realm. We might be the generation that sees the Lord come back. Praise the Lord!

It's amazing to think that WE'RE the ones that are going to make a difference.  We need to fight for those children.  They are our warriors... the ones who will turn the world around.  The LORD is coming back soon!

Mizzoria~

Interconnected thoughts

Mark 3:33-35 (HCSB)

He replied to them, "Who are My mother and My brothers?"  And looking about at those who were sitting in a circle around Him, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother."

These verses really motivates us to seek out God's will and do what He's already to us to do ... and not just study and hear His word.  Of course, as we do what He says and constantly commune with Him, we draw closer and know what He wants in a better way.

James 1:22 (HCSB)

But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Along the same lines, to be a friend of Jesus', we have to obey His commands.

John 15:14 (HCSB)

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Which (I'm not backing this up with Bible, but I think it's fairly logical.  Feel free to argue if you see something wrong.) I would take to mean that being familiar (like family) with God is more than just following rules, and more of just loving Him and other people.

Matthew 22:37, 39 (HCSB)

He said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Which of course means:

Luke 6:31 (HCSB)

Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.

And we would follow Jesus' example of loving ... and living really.  Otherwise, He wouldn't give us this command:

Matthew 5:48 (HCSB)

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Cuz... you know... all those rules... They're not there so we can get on the "good side" of God.  They're for our own good.  For example the Sabbath:

Mark 2:27 (HCSB)

Then He told them, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath."

God loved His people so much, He literally commanded them to take a break, so their bodies wouldn't break down.
All He wants is to love us with His unlimited and unconditional love and that we would love Him back.  And you can't very well love someone if you don't obey Him.

Anyways... just some thoughts from Bible reading...

Mizzoria~

Niceties

Well... I've been in the "deep south" for 4 days and in Austin for 2 days.

And what was the first thing I noticed?
People are SO DANG NICE!  
I mean that in the kindest way possible.  

Seriously, the natives are friendly, talkative, chatty, sweet, smiling, willing to help, generous, and a bunch of other things that I can't even describe.
Suffice it to say...

I like it here.

I'm from NC (which is also considered the south),
but man... those people seem like northerners now.

Those snobby city-slickers should take some lessons from these sweet, kind, lovable people.

Speaking of all things sweet... this video is adorable!!


And just a random comparison that's really bugging my lips is that it's very dry in Texas... like very dry... which is nice in a way, because the cold isn't as cold and the heat isn't as bad.  Thankfully I brought chapstick and Mom bought me this awesome smelling petroleum jelly:

Anyways - Have a splendiferous new year!  I know I'm looking forward to all the new things to be!  And maybe, just maybe!   I can blog more.

Blessings!

Mizzoria~