Wow! I just spent the past three days engulfed in this book. At times debating whether I could read a couple more pages before my eyes would rebel reading any further. This book grabs you and has you falling for all the characters, just like the audience in questionable fashion in the Capital.
While I was reading the last few pages, I became torn between the "love" triangle that has emerged (if you can really call it a love triangle). Katniss is now complicatedly in the thick of feelings for Gale and Peeta. I have to confess, when I was watching the Hunger Games I thought Katniss was saying "Peter" it a funny accent.
Suzanne Collins did a great job having you hate and at the same time love some of the minor characters. I cried when Rue died peacefully as Katniss sang to her. At first, I didn't know whether to like or not like the girl nicknamed Foxface. Thresh, I wanted to destroy Cato (these are names make you question the parents' sanity who chose them).
The book is by far better than the movie, there were some things in the book that made me wonder why the director and screenwriters didn't see them as necessary. Either that or I need to go back and watch it again. :)
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Rainy Mondays
So I've finally jumped on the bandwagon and started to read the Hunger Games series. Read three chapters yesterday, it's going to be one of those books that I can't put down. I can already tell.
Right now I'm trying to finish reading Faith in Real Life as well as continuing to read the 365 day bible I have. So far, I'm almost done the month of June. It's fascinating reading 1 & 2 Kings! When you get through the whole chronology, the stories of the kings and the prophets are compelling. I think I like Elisha. He's very straightforward with people about what God wants them to do, he doesn't hold anything back.
What do you do on rainy days? Are you more like the children from the Chronicles of Narnia, trying to escape the threat of a dull and boring day by doing something adventurous that could lead you in an entirely different direction that you were expecting? Or is there a list of things that continues to build upon itself like the mythical bean stalk?
Right now I'm trying to finish reading Faith in Real Life as well as continuing to read the 365 day bible I have. So far, I'm almost done the month of June. It's fascinating reading 1 & 2 Kings! When you get through the whole chronology, the stories of the kings and the prophets are compelling. I think I like Elisha. He's very straightforward with people about what God wants them to do, he doesn't hold anything back.
What do you do on rainy days? Are you more like the children from the Chronicles of Narnia, trying to escape the threat of a dull and boring day by doing something adventurous that could lead you in an entirely different direction that you were expecting? Or is there a list of things that continues to build upon itself like the mythical bean stalk?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Prayer
It's something that at times, we deem as insignificant however, it can have the biggest impact on our lives. Prayer is something that Jesus did constantly as a man on earth. He needed to spend time alone with God, his father.
Today I learned that lesson again through a friend who asked me to pray for them. This has definitely been one area in my life where God has been refining me. Actually, a few friends have been asking me to pray for them. It really does excite me to be asked that, to me it means that they value our friendship and to be strengthened in the Church, the body of Christ.
Someday I wish to be a prayer warrior. To not backdown from someone offering and to even offer to pray for someone myself. I have to admit that I've been sheepish around the subject, especially with people who I know to be nonChristian. Guess I always have that silly fear that if I ask, people will become outraged that I should ask to pray for them. It's silly, I know. It's also sin telling me not to be obedient to God. Guess that's something you could pray about for me :)
Today I learned that lesson again through a friend who asked me to pray for them. This has definitely been one area in my life where God has been refining me. Actually, a few friends have been asking me to pray for them. It really does excite me to be asked that, to me it means that they value our friendship and to be strengthened in the Church, the body of Christ.
Someday I wish to be a prayer warrior. To not backdown from someone offering and to even offer to pray for someone myself. I have to admit that I've been sheepish around the subject, especially with people who I know to be nonChristian. Guess I always have that silly fear that if I ask, people will become outraged that I should ask to pray for them. It's silly, I know. It's also sin telling me not to be obedient to God. Guess that's something you could pray about for me :)
Friday, June 15, 2012
Truly understanding the Great Commission
It's hard to understand what the Bible tells us, even when it is being point blank with us. Jesus said in the Great Commission, that we are called to "go and make disciples". There isn't a cliffnote in there saying that He meant countries that didn't have a sufficient GNP or those who have the worst healthcare, Jesus meant what he said by all peoples and all nations. So why, as Americans, do we often confuse missions with international instead of a domestic task?
Two years ago I went to on a missions trip with my Christian college group to California and we heard a pastor, who was from South America, tell us how he and others like him were being called to the United States. This stunned me at first because I thought that people were being called from the U.S., not to it. But then I realized that there are people living among us here who need to hear the gospel as crucially as those who are living in nomadic tribes or in skyscrapers in other countries. No one is immune to sin and therefore everyone needs the salvation which is in the blood of Christ.
Next month I am taking a road trip down to Louisiana. I was told that Florida doesn't count as the real South, so this will be my first experience. In a small way, I still feel like the adventurer of my childhood; going to a land that I've never been before, getting to experience things I've only been told of, and capturing it on paper like a sociologist. The Life of the Southerners.
"Somehow we think that getting on a plane to host a children's camp in Africa is doing missions, while hosting a Sunday morning children's program is just "doing church". It is a mistake to lose sight of the fact that the church - wherever it may be - is God's missional vehicle for redeeming the world. Intersecting our faith with real life is about recapturing the church's missional identity." [Mike Tatlock, faith in real life, 61]I've grown up in church my whole life, and I never quite understood that a missions' field is wherever God puts you. I thought that it was somewhere far away: in the jungles of the Amazon, the plains of China, or in the grasslands of Africa, that God calls us to give some of our time to helping others know Christ. Apparently I had an adventurer mentality (and still do!) however, my perspective of "missions" has been aligned to cover my geographical position.
Two years ago I went to on a missions trip with my Christian college group to California and we heard a pastor, who was from South America, tell us how he and others like him were being called to the United States. This stunned me at first because I thought that people were being called from the U.S., not to it. But then I realized that there are people living among us here who need to hear the gospel as crucially as those who are living in nomadic tribes or in skyscrapers in other countries. No one is immune to sin and therefore everyone needs the salvation which is in the blood of Christ.
Next month I am taking a road trip down to Louisiana. I was told that Florida doesn't count as the real South, so this will be my first experience. In a small way, I still feel like the adventurer of my childhood; going to a land that I've never been before, getting to experience things I've only been told of, and capturing it on paper like a sociologist. The Life of the Southerners.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Getting in a rhythm
It's interesting that the summer months can be the most productive or the most sluggish, depending on what you choose to do with yourself. Currently, I'm trying to find a summer job. It's been difficult since I'm competing with high school students and the many other college kids who are attempting to save money for tuition/books/eating/books/lodging/etc. However, I did have an interview that went well last week. Praise God! The past few weeks, I've been in a small group going over the book of Jonah (did you know he was a prophet???). One thing that's natural (and sinful) is for us to compare oneself to another. For instance I can read about Jonah's disobedience and think, why didn't he just trust God; yet when I live my own life, I find myself coming up with excuses.
I believe it was Socrates who said, "Examine thyself". What type of magnifying glass do I perceive myself? Am I honestly as hard on myself as I am on others? Honestly, I'm not.
A book that I've been indulging in is faith in real life: creating community in the park, coffee shop, and living room by Mike Tatlock. In it he talks about church as being more relational experiences and less an actual building with four walls and a steeple. Two years ago I took a missions trip to China, where dilution of Christianity in the government churches, leads many Christians to have what are called "house churches". And it's exactly what it sounds like, church in your pjs (kidding about the pjs part). I never knew that this was something that could be done. It's difficult sometimes to grasp the thought that God can do anything.
We are methodical people, we plan for God to appear in others' lives. And I'm not saying let's be anarchists to agenda books and schedules, but I think that we prohibit the Holy Spirit to do what He does best, draw people to God.
On a separate subject, I finished dogsitting for a friend. This is what I realized after the 11 days: 1) I will never get a Corgi, they're too hyper and don't know when to stop chasing things, especially when that thing ends up in the pool; and 2) I miss having a dog. Over the past week or two, my mom has been looking at dogs online. I've been questioning here and there as to whether she is simply wandering on the internet or if she really wants to have a dog again. Hopefully in the next few weeks, who knows, there may be an addition to the family. :)
I believe it was Socrates who said, "Examine thyself". What type of magnifying glass do I perceive myself? Am I honestly as hard on myself as I am on others? Honestly, I'm not.
A book that I've been indulging in is faith in real life: creating community in the park, coffee shop, and living room by Mike Tatlock. In it he talks about church as being more relational experiences and less an actual building with four walls and a steeple. Two years ago I took a missions trip to China, where dilution of Christianity in the government churches, leads many Christians to have what are called "house churches". And it's exactly what it sounds like, church in your pjs (kidding about the pjs part). I never knew that this was something that could be done. It's difficult sometimes to grasp the thought that God can do anything.
We are methodical people, we plan for God to appear in others' lives. And I'm not saying let's be anarchists to agenda books and schedules, but I think that we prohibit the Holy Spirit to do what He does best, draw people to God.
On a separate subject, I finished dogsitting for a friend. This is what I realized after the 11 days: 1) I will never get a Corgi, they're too hyper and don't know when to stop chasing things, especially when that thing ends up in the pool; and 2) I miss having a dog. Over the past week or two, my mom has been looking at dogs online. I've been questioning here and there as to whether she is simply wandering on the internet or if she really wants to have a dog again. Hopefully in the next few weeks, who knows, there may be an addition to the family. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)