New Purpose... God Sightings

I have a hard time blogging sometimes.  Posting is pretty sporadic, mostly because I don't feel like I have much to say.  I think I've finally found something I actually want to talk about.

When we were in Israel, our American tour guide, Marty, began each day with a devotional time that consisted of prayer and reports about big things that happened the day before, aka. God sightings.  It's when the "unexplainable" happens... something that you know only God could have done.

God does big things for me every day.  I thought it would be cool to share them with you.  So, here's a recap of the week:

Monday

• During lunch had a faith discussion with some of my engineering friends.  We shared parts of our stories and talked a little about theology--one of my favorite topics.  (NEVER would have thought this would happen... oh, my little faith)
• Sold books on Amazon and made bank.

Tuesday

• Mom informed me that because of special discounts this month, we got my designer wedding dress for 50% off. 

Thursday

• Stayed calm during my Circuits exam.
• Car died in a parking lot across town.  God gave Nathan's dad wisdom to know how to make it work again.  Cost me $3.75 to get it running.

Today (Friday)

• Stayed calm during my Mechanics of Materials exam.
• Wrote a program that worked in C-programming!!!
• While sitting at the desk, I overhear a conversation about faith.  One person asking another about their recent (as in the last few months) belief in Christianity.  Person #2 explains.  Person#1 begins to talk about their faith.  Another person pipes into the faith discussion.  I am sitting in awe, witnessing an unbeliever ask a believer to share their testimony.  I pipe in when person #1 is talking about their beliefs.  Apologize for being rude, but am kindly invited to join convo as we discuss different beliefs about God.

I hope that you're encouraged as you read these stories.  I'm reading them over and thinking, HOW did that even happen...  When God shows up, crazy things happen.  Seriously.

I pray that God will open your eyes to see how he's working in your life.

Professors Say the Darndest Things/A Day in the Life

Today was an eventful day that provided much blogging material.

I am in a C programming class this semester.  It's fabulous (and by "fabulous" I mean I leave most lectures fabulously and completely confused).  One thing I really enjoy about this class is the poetic language my professor uses to describe a computer program.  Seriously.  Today, for example:
(After discussing the capabilities and possible shortcomings of a program)
"Hmm... yes, this program is quite robust.  It's really robust."
Robust, he said.  Like the Italian salad dressing my dad likes.  Robust.  Salad dressings and computer programs.  This is the life of an engineer.

Speaking of this class, I had an interesting discussion with some fellow engineers on the way home.  I mentioned that I heard some of the guys in this class confess they are completely confused most of the time, and somehow that made me feel better.  Then I realized how terrible that is.
"Yeah, other people's pain is somehow comforting," my friend C-- replied.  We all paused and let that sink in.
"Such is the life of an engineer," my other friend commented.


Prior to this class, I had another exciting event.  I was walking to the math building when suddenly the sirens started blaring.  I kept waiting for them to dip down in frequency, reasurring me that it was merely a fire somewhere (merely a fire???).  As I walked out of the engineering building I glanced at the tornado warning sign, describing safety procedures when you hear a single-tone three-minute blast.  My stomach sank to my knees as I walked out into the overcast afternoon, checking other's faces, searching for a sign of apprehensiveness.  There was none.  Am I only hearing things?  Are my ears clogged and I'm hearing a dog-whislte?  It was unreal to wonder at the serene setting, like a calm before the storm... or, I guess, actually a calm before a storm.  I quickened my pace, hoping the teacher would announce emergency procedures when I got to lecture.  I sat down by my friend T--, and (in a forced casual voice) asked if he'd heard the sirens. 
"Oh yeah.  First monday sirens.  They're so loud--make my ears ring."  I let out a sigh--no tornado after all.

This got me thinking about what Jesus says about the world.  Without Him, we are all in imminent danger.  At any moment we could be taken from our meaningless* activities to face judgement from the only one who gets to say how a life should be lived, and we'll have to account for all of our offenses to the God of the universe**.  Some of us know the truth, we hear the sirens.  And we watch those around us carry on as though everything is fine.  We should do something about this.

*more on this later.
**That is, if we are not covered by the blood of Christ, which provides us with a clean slate.

Traffic Lights

If any of you are familiar with the Gary Smalley Temperament Test, I'm a Lion-Beaver, or Beaver-Lion (depending on the day...).  I like to make decisions quickly and orderly, if they seem logical enough, and sometimes have a hard time waiting and thinking through all of the pros and cons.  If it works, I really don't want to wait around to see if something better comes along.

A friend of mine describes himself as a "red-light person".  His thought is that the best way to live life is to go until God stops you with a "red light".  Naturally, I think this is a great idea.

Lately, God has been teaching me much about waiting.  Though contrary to our culture, waiting is biblical.  I think of David and how he was anointed as a young boy, but had to wait several years and endure several trials before he recieved what was promised to him.  There's also the Jews.  Messiah was promised to them thousands of years before he came.  Even then, those who knew he was Messiah had to wait three days after he was crucified, trusting that God would finish what he had promised.

Then again, I think you can do too much waiting.  I think God calls us to big things and a brave lifestyle, not fearful baby steps.

Talking to another friend today, I had a picture of a traffic light in my head.  She was describing to me how she has trouble being patient and waiting to hear God's thoughts about decisions in her life.  I thought of how often I feel like I'm barreling through the intersections of life, not stopping to see what color the traffic light is.

Most of all, God wants us to seek his face.  He wants us to stop and look at the traffic light before we head into the intersection, but, by all means, go if the light is green!

The Meaning of Christmas

I often have a lot of questions, and, honestly, sometimes I don't ask them because it seems like everyone else already has it figured out (and I don't want to look stupid).  One of those had to do with Christmas.  I always wondered why we celebrated Jesus' birth, because if you think about it, it's his death that actually did something.  It wasn't until I started studying Israel's history that I understood why we celebrate Christmas.

Imagine that God made you a promise, and you died before you saw it come to fruition.  In fact, your children also died before it came to be, even their children, and their children... So on and so forth until people stopped hearing from God, because the last prophet was dead.  Then, add 400 more years (a total of 1,000 years, I think) of silence from God.  By now, some people may have lost hope, and to the children, the promise may seem more like folklore. 

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." (1 Cor. 1:20)

But God is faithful to his promises, and at just the right time, we begin to see God's promises fulfilled.  This poor, tiny, olive-skinned baby, is the promised Messiah, the Anointed One.  He brings HOPE to people everywhere, PRAISE THE LORD!  Hope for peace, hope for rest, hope for completion, hope for salvation.  Our Savior, Christ the Lord, was born.  Immanuel, God With Us, gives us HOPE for a new life and relationship with the King of the Universe, the Creator, God.  Even though it's not complete yet, we can see the beginning, and so we know that the end is in sight.  God's promises to Abraham and to David, of blessings and a righteous King and a House for God, all of these and more, found in Christ.  Amen and Amen.

Shema Israel, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

The Intelligent Savior

God is working on using this quote to change my life.

"Can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart? If he were divine, would he be dumb? Or uninformed? Once you stop to think about it, how could he be what we take him to be in all other respects and not be the best-informed and most intelligent person of all, the smartest person who ever lived?... 'Jesus is Lord' can mean little in practice for anyone who has to hesitate before saying, 'Jesus is smart.' He is not just nice, he is brilliant... He always has the best information on everything and certainly also on the things that matter most in human life."
The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard