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A Christian woman does not put her hope in her husband, or in getting a husband.  She does not put her hope in her looks or her intelligence or her creativity.  She puts her hope in the promises of God.  She is described in Proverbs 31:25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come."  She laughs at everything the future could bring because she hopes in God.
She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focuses her attention on the sovereign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases.  She knows her bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and will help her and strengthen her no matter what.  This is the deep, unshakable root of Christian womanhood.

-John Piper

Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God…

I praise you, Jesus!  Not only did you take my place and absorb the wrath that was meant for me, but you put your righteousness on me.  There is no greater news…there is no greater gift.  Because you are ALIVE and because your love is better than life my lips will sing of your praises!  

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

It’s been a while, but if you still care I just put chapter six and seven up here.  As always, please excuse my grammar:) 

No more books until I read the ones I already have.  This is just some of the books I have waiting in line to be read.  I’ve had that blame Left Behind book for years, but I just can’t get through it. 

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m serious about my book restriction this time.  If you see me in a book store you have my permission to grab me by my hair and drag me out.  Although, I’m not making any promises that I won’t fight back.      

chapter 5:)

"I was standing today in a dark toolshed.  The sun was shinning outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam.  From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place.  Everything else was almost pitch-black.  I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.  Then I moved so that the beam fell on my eyes.  Instantly the whole previous picture was vanished.  I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam.  Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun.  Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences."  -CS Lewis

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."  Psalm 106:1

"What is most significant about this link is that our gratitude is ultimately rooted in what God is, not in what he gives.  The sensation of pleasure runs up the beam of God’s generosity until it stops in the goodness of God himself."  -John Piper 

Praying that we would all look along the beam and not just at the beam today.  Happy Thanksgiving!  

Just a week later the whole town came out for the wedding of the couple that the infamous shower had been for.  Lou and Cici were catering the reception and had been up since the crack of dawn making food.  Luckily they both had time to go home and get ready before the ceremony began.  Lou rode with Layla and Jack and when they walked into the church they saw Cici and Brad in a pew towards the back.  They all three slipped in next to them.  Cici leaned over and apologized for being so far back.

“We wanted to save yall seats so we sat back here.”

Lou didn’t care where they sat.  She was just glad she didn’t have to sit by herself.  She had been foolish enough to go to a wedding by herself once and quickly decided that she would never do it again. 

“At least from back here we can see everyone walk in” whispered Cici with a smile.

Lou surveyed the room.  It was a nice turnout with both the bride’s and groom’s sides almost full.  About the time the couple moved to light the unity candle Lou noticed Mark toward the front of the church.  She had secretly been looking forward to this wedding hoping that she would encounter him again.  She smiled to herself and looked back to the happy couple as they stared at the lit candle and waited for the solo to be over.  She always thought this was the dumbest part of weddings. 

The ceremony came to an end and everyone stood up to make their way to the reception.  Will was seated next to his sister and her friend Angela.  Neither he nor his sister had been invited to this wedding, but Angela insisted that they both come and that the bride and groom wouldn’t mind.  He knew she was used to getting what she wanted and his sister wanted to go so he reluctantly agreed to go with them.  He and his sister had been staying with Angela and her husband for almost a week.  The house was big enough for him to have nearly an entire wing to himself and Tom, Angela’s husband, stayed busy enough to make his presence in the house a rarity. 

Will had woken that morning with intentions of telling his sister and Angela that he had changed his mind about going to the wedding, but when he walked downstairs and overheard Angela and her husband arguing about his attendance to the event he knew Angela would have to go alone.  Although he wasn’t particularly found of Angela he decided he would go after all.

Now that he was at the wedding he was regretting that decision.  He didn’t know a single soul outside of the two ladies standing next to him and he had never been very good at social gatherings.  He wasn’t unsure of himself; just uninterested in everyone else. The truth was he had been in this town a week and hadn’t met anyone very appealing.

He turned to watch the couple walk out of the church and someone caught his eye.  Someone he recognized.  The woman he had met at lunch.  “What was her name” he thought to himself. “Lou.  Yes, that was it.  Strange name for a woman.”  He had gotten the same impression of her as he had from the rest of the town.  Although, he did recall Angela saying that she had lived and worked in Atlanta for a while.  “Why on earth would anyone come back to this place after they had gotten out?” he thought.  He watched Lou as she and her friend rushed out of the church.

Lou and Cici had hired a couple of girls to help them at the reception so they could go to the actual wedding, but they hurried out of the church to make sure everything was just the way they wanted it.  With business still touch and go they couldn’t afford for anyone to be displeased.  Word of mouth was all the advertising they had the budget for and they needed those words to be kind.  Lou ran to one end of the reception hall as Cici ran to the other.  They made their way through the entire room and met in the middle.

“Everything looks good” remarked Cici.

“Why am I so nervous?” Lou said…mostly to herself.

“The whole town of Ocilla is at this wedding.  That’s our entire cliental base.  If we screw this up we’ll never get another customer in this town again” Cici replied with a sarcastic smile.

“Thanks Ci.  That makes me feel much better.” 

Lou could handle being nervous about the food, but she was afraid the nerves were about something else altogether….or someone else.  They both walked toward the back corner of the room and waited for the wolves to arrive.  

Again, let me say that none of the characters in this story are based on real life people…I promise…so you can all relax. 
Also, I fear that I’ve created a monster.  I posted the first chapter on a whim and now I see that this could go on forever.  So it’s up to yall…you can settle in and we can go the long haul with the entire story…or I can give you the abridged version and bring this bad boy to end sooner rather than later.  You tell me. 
Oh, and I know my grammar is outta control in this thing…you can thank CGHS for that.   

Chapter Two:

Monday morning Lou Ella drug herself into work bright and early.  Although she loved her job, she had never been a morning person.  She and Cici had opened a sandwich shop together about a year ago when a prime spot in the town square came available.  Layla’s grandfather was a pretty big deal in their hometown of Ocilla and had pulled some strings for the girls to get the property at a very good price.  It was a big risk, but Lou quit her job in Atlanta and moved back home to start a business with her best friend. 

“Mornin’” said Cici. 

“Hey” Lou grumbled back in reply.  Cici knew Lou well enough to know that she was going to be in a foul mood first thing in the morning. 

They spent the morning, as they did every Monday, planning out their week.  They had two big weddings to cater for the coming weekend and several other jobs lined up.  It would be a pretty busy week for them.  The first six months of business had been really slow and Lou had often wondered if she’d made the right decision.  Cici wondered the same thing more than once herself.  She had given up a lot for this venture as well.  But neither girl ever expressed their fear of failure to each other; thinking that if they said it out loud they might jinx themselves.

Around eleven o’clock the lunch crowd would start to come in.  They had a small menu of sandwiches and salads and managed to do pretty well at lunch time. 

“So” started Cici while she made a sandwich “you sure were talking to Mark a lot at the shower.”

Lou paused from making some pasta salad and just gave her a look.

“What?  I’m just saying…he seems like a nice guy.”

“He is a nice guy” said Lou.

The bell out on the counter rang to let them know someone needed assistance.  

“Can you get that?” asked Cici.

“Sure” Lou said as she put down her bowl and walked out to the counter. 

Cici smiled as she watched her friend walk to the counter and paused to wait for Lou’s reaction.

Lou was shocked when she came out from the kitchen and saw Angela Decker standing at the counter with two other people.  She glanced back to the kitchen and saw Cici watching and quickly realized that she was in on this. 

“Hey there!” shouted Angela.  Lou was convinced that the woman didn’t know how to speak in a normal tone of voice.

“Hey Angela.  Didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.” replied Lou.

“I’ve just heard so much about your little place down here I had to come and check it out.  It’s so precious!” 

Lou knew that what Angela really meant was that it was precious that they were making a measly amount of money in this hair-brained scheme.  Angela came from old money.  Everyone in her family was a lawyer and she made her daddy real proud by marrying the top lawyer at his firm.  Angela had never worked a day in her life and had a habit of looking down her nose at everyone around her.  All the while calling them precious.  Lou officially hated that word.  

“Well I’m glad you finally made it by.” said Lou with all the niceness she could muster up.

“This is Catherine” Angela said motioning to the woman beside her “and her brother Will.  He’s lives in Atlanta and works for the AJC.”  Angela turned her attention to Will, “You know Lou Ella used to work in Atlanta too.  What was it you did again?”  Without even pausing for Lou to answer Angela continued with on. “Then she just up and quit and moved back home to open this precious little place.  It really is so precious Lou.  Don’t you think it’s just precious?”

“It’s a very nice place.” Will responded dryly.

“Well yall have a seat” said Lou “anywhere’s fine.  I’ll be out to get your order in just a sec.”

Lou walked back into the kitchen and straight for Cici.

“Did you know they were coming in here today?” Lou asked accusingly.

“I didn’t know it was going to be today,” replied Cici with a smile “but she mentioned at the shower that she might come by and bring some friends with her.”

“Well you’ll be happy to know that she thinks our place is just precious” remarked Lou.

Cici just laughed as she finished making her sandwiches.  “You better get out there and take their order before she throws a precious fit for having to wait too long.”

Lou grabbed her order pad and walked out to the table where the group was seated.  There was no doubt in her mind that Will was the guy Angela had described at the shower.  He was good-looking enough, but there was something about him that put her off.  She couldn’t decide what it was, but she didn’t think she liked him.

“Have yall had a chance to decide or do you need another minute?” asked Lou.

Angela began ordering without even consulting the other guests, “I’ll have the chicken salad sandwich.  Do you put nuts in your chicken salad?”

“Nope, there’s no nuts” replied Lou.

“Cause I’m allergic to nuts.  If I have even a piece of one I’ll blow up like a balloon.”

The thought of Angela swollen beyond recognition made Lou laugh out loud.

Clearly offended Angela snapped, “It’s a very serious condition!”

“I wasn’t laughing at that.” Lou said trying to recover. “There aren’t any nuts in it…you’ll be fine.”

“I think I’ll try the grilled cheese” said Catherine.

“And for you?” Lou said to Will.

“I’d like the BLT” Will replied in his dry demeanor, “no lettuce and no tomato.”

“So you just want a bacon sandwich?” Lou asked with a perplexed look on her face.

He just looked at her. 

“Ok….I’ll bring this out in just a little bit!”  Lou walked away happy to be done with that.  She hoped Cici would offer to take their food out so she could avoid anymore contact with them.

The group ate and was gone soon enough.  Lou had waved good-bye from the kitchen.  She was genuinely busy serving the rest of the lunch crowd and she hoped Angela wouldn’t go around telling people she was rude or even worse that their food was bad.  As much as she hated to admit it people listened when Angela talked.  She should have been nicer…for the restaurants sake.  But it was too late now and she hardly had time to worry about it.  There was a line of people out the door waiting to be seated. 

is…a dull, stupid state of existence"

This is only slightly based on my life:) 

Chapter One: 

She walked into the house and felt every eye in the room on her.  It was like a scene from a movie where the music stops and everyone abruptly turns and looks at you.  Except there was no music playing…and it wasn’t so much of an abrupt look as it was a sideways glance.  Ok, so maybe no one even noticed her entrance, but it felt like they did.  Lou Ella quickly scanned the room until she spotted her friends and then made a b-line for them.  She was not an old black woman as her name might suggest, but a 25 year old white girl from Georgia who, as the story goes, was named after a rich Aunt who didn’t leave ‘em the farm after all. 

“Lou!” shouted Cici from across the room.  “Where’ve you been?!  We thought you were gonna bail on us.” 

“No”, replied Lou Ella “I just got a little lost”. 

She hadn’t gotten lost, but no one would doubt her story.  She was known for having a bad sense of direction and she wasn’t about to tell even her closest friends that she had sat in her car down the street for 15 minutes working up the courage to come in.  Lou was apart of what she liked to refer to as a dying breed.  She was over 20 years old and hadn’t managed to get herself married off or knocked up.  As a matter of fact, she was no where near walking down the isle.  She had worked in a big skyscraper in Atlanta for a while and didn’t feel so much like a member of the afore mentioned breed then.  But since coming home to the small town where she had grown up she quickly realized that she was indeed…different.  And here she was at yet another wedding shower where she would have to hear the whispers of all the married people she had gone to school with as they speculated on the reason for her not being married yet.  Truth be told she could handle the whispers.  It was the brave ones she hated.  They just had to come up and ask when her “lucky” day was or reassure her that she was next or throw-out the ever-popular “it’ll happen when you least expect it”.  To which she would fake her best smile trying with all her might to keep the eat crap look underneath from showing through.  Judging from the way they usually walked off she didn’t think she was doing a very good job of that.  At least she had a group of people she felt completely comfortable around.  She had known Cici and Layla for as long as she could remember.  They were both married but Lou had known their husbands, Brad and Jack respectively, for just as long.  She never felt like an outsider with them…even if she was always the fifth wheel.

“You didn’t drive all the way to South Carolina again did you?” said Brad.

“No, I kept it in the state this time.  How long have yall been here?”

“Not long”, said Layla “you haven’t missed anything”.

Then they all noticed something at the same time.  Everyone froze trying to decide what to do.  They all scattered.  The guys got away while the girls just bumped into each other.  By the time they regained composure it was too late.  Angela Decker was upon them. 

“Heeeeyyyy yall!” shouted Angela. 

They all three chimed in with feigned enthusiasm, “Hey Angela.”

“How are yall?!” Angela exclaimed.  “It has been way too long”.

“Didn’t we just see you at Brett’s wedding last month?” remarked Lou.  Layla shot her a glare to plead with her to be nice.  Lou picked up on it and quickly recovered with “but you’re right…it has been too long.”

“I guess I did see yall at the wedding…that thing was a disaster right from the start wasn’t it?  And that dress…good night!”

Lou just stared at Angela as she put in her two cents about everyone in the room.  She nodded every now and again to act like she was listening.  Right behind Angela’s head she saw a group of people walk in the door.  A couple of guys and a few girls.  She didn’t recognize any of them and assumed they were friends of the future bride…who wasn’t from around there.  Suffering from the plague of the dying breed she had to take inventory of every guy in the room.  It was unintentional and something she stopped fighting a long time ago.  Both of the strangers that had just walked in were good looking.  One was tall and had dark hair.  The other a little shorter with blonde hair.  She couldn’t tell from across the room if they had wedding rings on, but she was sure they were either married to or dating one of the girls in the group they had walked in with.  Just as she was about to look away she made eye contact with the dark headed one.  He smiled and she was so surprised that he had noticed her she didn’t even hear Angela say her name. 

“Lou Ella!” Layla said as she elbowed her.

“What?  I’m sorry Angela…I thought I saw someone I knew over there.”

“You know everyone in the room” Angela pointed out.  “Anyway, I was saying that I met this great guy the other day!”

Here it comes Lou thought to herself. 

Angela went on to describe this man in his entire splendor.  Apparently he was the brother of someone she knew and Angela made him sound like a Greek god.

Lou had been set up more times than she cared to recall.  Most people were under the impression that she should be more than happy to go out with anything that was male and breathing.  She had told herself that she wasn’t going to go on anymore blind dates, but try as she might she just couldn’t tell people no.  And at this point she was just ready to get rid of Angela Decker.  And she could tell by the looks on their faces that Cici and Layla were ready to see her go as well.  So when Angela volunteered to be the matchmaker Lou regretfully said yes. 

As soon as Angela was gone Lou looked around the room for the dark headed man who had smiled at her, but he was nowhere to be found.

“Expecting someone” asked Jack as he and Brad made their way back over to the girls. 

“No.” Lou mumbled to herself.

“Thanks for running off and leaving us here with Angela by ourselves.”  Layla said to her husband.

“Hey, when the town gossip is headed your way it’s every man for himself.” replied Jack. 

“Are we staying at this thing for much longer?  If we are I need another drink.” said Brad.

“I’ll go get you one.” said Lou.  She grabbed his glass and headed for the kitchen.  She could use a drink herself.

When Lou walked into the kitchen she was grateful to find it empty.  Finally a second to relax.  She made Brad another drink and was pouring herself one when she heard “rough day?”  She turned around and saw the dark headed man standing in front of her. 

“What was that?” she managed to get out.

“Well judging by the two drinks you just poured I thought maybe you were having a rough day.”  He replied.

“Oh, no…these aren’t both for me.  Somebody would have to carry me to the car if I drank both of these.” she said as she laughed nervously. 

“Is that an invitation?” He said with a smile as he walked out of the kitchen.

Lou was surprised at what an effect he had on her.  She could feel herself still blushing, but she forced any hopeful thoughts out of her head, grabbed the drinks and headed back to her friends. 

As she got closer to the group she realized that the dark headed man and the group he entered with were talking to her friends.  She briefly thought about turning around and going back to the kitchen, but it was too late.  Cici saw her.

“Lou!  Come over here and meet our new friends!” called Cici. 

Lou walked over and handed Brad his drink as Cici introduced everyone.  The girls were Caroline, Mandy, Lindsey and Katie.  She shook hands with all of them trying not to look over at the dark headed man.  Then Cici began introducing the guys.  Keith was the blonde headed one and Mark was the infamous dark headed one.  She shook their hands as well withdrawing her hand from Mark’s grip as quickly as possible.  Lou had been right about them being friends of the bride.  Cici explained that they had all gone to college together.  Cici was cut off in her explanation by the host of the shower announcing that the happy couple were about to start opening presents.  Everyone made their way into the living room and gathered around the couple to watch.  All Lou could think about was how they were never going to be able to sneak out early now.  It would cause a scene and everyone would notice.  She was too busy making another plan of escape to notice that Mark had made his way over to stand right beside her.  She wasn’t even aware of his presence until he lightly put his hand on her back and leaned down to whisper something in her ear.  She was so startled that she turned suddenly and accidentally elbowed him in the stomach.  All the commotion made everyone in the room give them the evil eye.  Lou covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.  When she regained her composure she leaned over to him. 

“I’m so sorry” she whispered.  She was mortified.  She’d never been good at first impressions, but she’d outdone herself this time.

“Don’t worry about it.  But you might have to carry me out to the car now” he whispered back. 

They spent the rest of the time talking instead of watching the couple open their presents.  Every once in a while someone would give them a look as if to say, be quiet, but she didn’t care.  She had seen a million couples open a million presents and Mark was far more interesting than them all.    

I’m not a morning person.  Anyone who has lived with me can attest to that.  Amanda used to think I was mad at her every morning when we lived together.  I tried to explain to her that that was just my normal sunny disposition shinning through and that it had nothing to do with her.  

With that being said I’ve always done my personal bible study at any time during the day, BUT morning.  I did afternoons when I was in college cause I was in college and I had jack crap else to do…besides take naps.  Oh how I miss those days.  Now that I have to work for a living I do my bible study at night.  This generally works well for me, but of course evenings can get busy and that will easily lead to no study time.  Recently I’ve wanted to become a morning bible studier.  I want to fill myself up with the Word before I go out and face the day.  The only problem is that I can’t seem to make myself wake up early and do it.

So here’s my question…does anyone have any pointers for how I can get my lazy butt outta bed in the morning?  When do yall do your bible studies?  Or could you care less about studying the bible:)?  Ok, that’s more like three questions.  

Help a sista out here!   

Fellow TSGs I have some good news for ya…this plague we suffer from is not incurable. 

As I mentioned I’ve been dealing with this for a long time and I always felt the need to fight it.  I’ve been told to embrace it, but I’m just not willing to do that.  My approach to this fight has been to just put it out of my head.  Force myself to stop daydreaming about my life with a complete stranger.  Tell myself they are already married with 8 kids.  Tell myself they’re a weird-o or that they would think I was a weird-o.  Anything that would get that crap outta my head.  Turns out I’ve been going about this all wrong.  I’ve been fighting off lies with more lies.  And let’s be real…if I could just force myself to stop thinking about it then it wouldn’t be a plague.   

But I found the cure and I thought it was only fair to share it with the rest of you.  You ready?  Don’t erase….replace (catchy huh?  I have to admit I ganked that from a TLC song…sorta…90’s what, what!).  Instead of trying to put it out of my mind I should be replacing it with something better.  A cuter guy you ask….no, that’s not exactly what I mean. 

Let’s break it down.  I am passionate about marriage.  Not about being married, but about marriage.  That sounds weird right?  The reason I’m passionate about marriage is because it’s a picture.  It’s a picture of Christ and his bride…the church…the body of Christ…you…me.  God did not look down at marriage and think "hey, that would be a good picture of what I’m talking about."  He created marriage for that purpose.  And marriage is a temporary thing.  There will be no marriage in heaven because once we get there we’ll have the real thing and we won’t need the picture anymore.  So marriage is for this life only…and it’s main purpose is to paint a picture of the relationship that exists between Christ and His bride.  

So being obsessed…dare I say worshiping…the idea of marriage is like marveling at a ray of sunlight as it dances on the ground and never looking up to see where it’s coming from.  

One of my favorite quotes is by C.S. Lewis.  He says "…it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.  We are far too easily pleased."   

Believe me I’m not trying to infer that marriage is a mud pie…cause I still wanna a slice.  But my point, TSG’s, is that we are far too easily pleased.  We gorge ourselves on fantasies and dreams of the created thing without ever considering the Creator that they were meant to point to.

Marriage is a story…a beautiful story in which some of you get to communicate to the world how Jesus loves his bride.  But not all of us get to tell the story in that way.  We get other ways.  But that doesn’t mean that we missed the boat.  God says in his presence there is fullness of joy.  Fullness…He doesn’t say there’s a whole lot, but not as much as you would have if you were cool enough to be married…fullness…all of it.  

So the point of this long rant is to encourage my fellow TSG’s and to let you know that there is a cure for our plague.  And it’s not to train our minds not to think about guys, it’s not to ignore them, it’s not to beat ourselves to a pulp for thinking about them in the first place, it’s not to desire less…it’s to desire more.  The answer is to see the longing for a husband for what it is…just a reflection of our longing for the true Bridegroom.  

I pray this over and over throughout the day as I battle the plague.  "Satisfy me this morning (afternoon or evening) with your unfailing love that I may sing for joy and be glad all my days."  I pray to be satisfied with His love above all else.  Because it is a battle…the cure is not so much a shot in your butt as it is a round of antibiotics.  You’re gonna have to give it some time. 

So, TSGs…put down the mud pie.  Pick yourself up out of the dirt and go put on your best dress.  Cause we’ve been invited to a holiday at sea…and I sure would hate to miss that.  

I just spent the better part of the morning thinking I was Nancy Drew.  It all started when I went to this website.  Then I saw an article by Rob Bell….score…I’m a fan. 

Side note:  I actually clicked on it cause I thought it said "Rob Bell on Saving Christmas" and I had just been thinking about how I didn’t want to waste Christmas.  But then I realized it didn’t say Christmas…it said Christians.  If I had a dollar for every time I did that… 

Anyway, so I read the article and noticed something interesting.  Every so often a letter was in bold.  At first I thought it was a type-o, but then I thought "hmmm…maybe it’s a secret message!"  I’m not sure what it says about me that I thought that, but guess what?!  I was right!  It WAS a secret message!  The message said "email rob at nooma dot com".  So I did.  Then I got a response that was just railing on this group called the Citizens of Virtue.  Then the email said that there were 7 people inside this group that were trying to get out.  Rob said he couldn’t help them because he was afraid more harm would come to them!  Then he said if I went to his book’s website there would be more info on how to help them.  Ok, I’ll bite.  So I went to the website.  Then I clicked on the link that said "help the seven".  Nothing.  Just some page with boxes on it.  What the heck is going on here?!  So being Nancy Drew I googled Citizens of Virtue and found their website.  After a lot of reading I came to the conclusion that these people were wack-o’s!  But I still didn’t understand why Rob Bell was making it his job to speak out against these people.  That’s when I decided to enlist some help.  I went and told McCall all that I had found.  I think she thought I was crazy.  So I told her to go to the site and within five seconds she figured out that it wasn’t real.  It’s all just made up!  Can you believe that?!  I got hoodwinked!  (ps what does that word even mean?) 

The Citizens of Virtue are not a real group, but the people behind this new book have done an amazing job at creating an alternate world….and of making me want to read the book.  Well done marketing people…well done.  Mike always said I was sharp as a marble. 

So the moral of the story is Rob Bell has a new book coming out called Jesus Wants to Save Christians and he wants you to read it.  That and I’m a marble.

that’s how I feel about this blog right now. 

Anyway, I was reading in Exodus last night and I came across this story.  I’m sure I’ve read it before, but I have no recollection of it at all.  Let me set the stage.  Moses just saw the burning bush.  He just got his commission from God to go back and wreck shop on Pharaoh (via God) and get the Israelites the hey outta Egypt.  Then outta nowhere this comes up…

24And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.

25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

26So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

Say what?!  What just happened here?!  (I wonder if that’s what Moses was saying?)  One minute God is telling Moses what to say to Pharaoh the next minute God is about to kill Moses.  Then his wife does an impromptu circumcision with a sharp rock (I’m sure the kid loved that) then she chunks the result at Moses’ feet!  Seriously you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.  And as if that whole situation was no big deal at all, Exodus just goes right back to telling us about how Aaron went out to meet his brother. 

I seriously spent the better part of an hour last night trying to figure out why this was where it was and what it’s supposed to mean.  Is it a picture of something else?  Or is it just a story of how seriously God takes our sin?  Am I reading too much into it or not enough?  Who knows!  I actually love stories like this though…you’re just chugging along reading stuff you’ve read before, thinking that you have a pretty decent understanding of it all and then you realize you just read something about somebody throwing somebody else’s foreskin at somebody else.  Sometimes I just have to say "ok, God…if you say so."   

p.s. you can thank God for the TMI in this post…I had nothing to do with it.      

Spoiler alert Rebecca…these are all from Crazy Love (she’s reading the book right now and I don’t want to ruin it for her…aren’t I sweet).

So like I said…these are from the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  Great book…hard to get through…in a good way.  These are a few of the statements that kicked my butt…in a good way.

Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers. 

Christians today like to play it safe.  We like to put ourselves in situations where we are safe "even if there is no God."  But if we truly desire to please God, we cannot live that way.  We have to do things that cost us during our life on earth, but will be more than worth it in eternity.  

Jesus is saying that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering.  He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ himself.

The concept of downsizing so that others might upgrade is biblical, beautiful…and nearly unheard of.

What are you doing right now that requires faith?

I probably wouldn’t be living very differently if I didn’t believe in God; my life was neither ordered or affected by my faith like I assumed it was.

What matters is that we spend ourselves.

People who are obsessed with Jesus aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else.  Obsessed people care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.

People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another.

Sometimes I feel like when I make decisions that are remotely biblical, people who call themselves Christians are the first to criticize and say I’m crazy, that I’m taking the Bible too literally, or that I’m not thinking about my family’s well-being.  

Obsessed people are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected or fulfilling the status quo.  A person who is obsessed with Jesus will do things that don’t always make sense in terms of success or wealth on this earth.

Non-churchgoers tend to see Christians as takers rather than givers.  When Christians sacrifice and give wildly to the poor, that is truly a light that glimmers. 

Is this the most loving way to do life?  Am I loving my neighbor and my God by living where I live, by driving what I drive, by talking how I talk?  I urge you to consider and actually live as though each person you come into contact with is Christ.

Most of us use "I’m waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life" as a means of avoiding action.

How we live our day is…how we live our lives.  Annie Dillard quoted by Chan.

I realize that is a lot of stuff up there, but these are just a few of the things that are making me think long and hard about how I live my life.  I pray I do more than just think about it. 

I bought some books today so I would have lots of reading material for the beach next week.  Here’s the description of one:

Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call.  Chan also recounts his own attempts to live crazy by significantly downsizing his home and giving away his resources to the poor.

Like I said I just bought this book to take to the beach with me…on my week long vacation….where I’ll lay around like a bum and stuff my face all week. 

I think this might be the definition of ironic.  Well at least I’ll be reading about poor people.  Sorry…feeling a little pessimistic today. 

I’ve been on a self-imposed book restriction for a while now.  I have a problem…I LOVE books!  Don’t misunderstand me though.  While I love reading books….I am more obsessed with having them.  KQ wrote a post about this.  I have a pretty sizeable stack of books that I’m trying to read.  But every time I get done with one I buy three more.  Desiring God had a book sale a few months back where everything was super cheap.  We all know that John Piper is my fav so of course I had to buy a ton of books….I mean, they were on sale!  After that I told myself that I was not allowed to buy anymore books until I read all of the ones I already had.  That hasn’t really worked very well…I’ve been sneaking books one at a time here and there.  And my list of books that I want continues to grow. 

Here are just a few that I’m buying if I ever let myself off restriction.  

what are yall reading right now?  anything good?  there’s always room on the list:)

read this post!  my heart is broken!  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Lord has been working on my heart about poverty and adoption this week.  Do they let single people adopt?:) 

Jesus is not a means to treasure.  He is the treasure. 

Good stuff!