Breaking Free

Hi again, friends! It has been a busy December, and first week of January. My brother, Erik, visited for two weeks, and for the second week his girlfriend, Leah, and her family came to visit, too! It was a full house, and lots of fun. It was especially fun for me, I think, because I don't often get to have girls in the house, and there were several that week. :)

This week I have been getting back to doing school, and I am loving it. Having had a break over Christmas, I've come back to it with a new vigor. Also, my best friend Emily has come spent the night at my house twice this week, which has been a real treat for both of us.

As this new year is starting off, I decide to assess my life and see if there are changes that I need to commit to this year. I discovered a lot of things that need to change, but the biggest thing is the media input in my life. I realized that I watch a LOT of movies, and listen to a shocking amount of secular music, not to mention the amount of time I spent on facebook. I didn't listen to "bad" music, but it wasn't music that edifies me and inspires me to serve Christ more. The same is true about the movies I usually watch. As I became aware of these things, I felt the Lord calling me to make some significant changes this year - like I've never done before.

"Come away," Jesus was whispering to my soul. He wants me to know true joy, not settle for counterfeit joys in godless entertainment. Truly, these influences only extract joy from life; they don't add to it.

So here are the "resolutions," if you will. I have committed to God that I'm not going to waste my time watching movies or listening to songs that do not push me on to knowing Jesus Christ more deeply, which is the purpose of my life. Now, if my family wants to watch a movie together or something, that is okay. The purpose is to glorify God and break free from being saturated with our sinful culture, not to follow some spectacular rule that will magically change my life. Because, as you know, discovering God is what is life-changing, not legalism.

I also deactivated my facebook. I know my life will be much better without it. I can still email my friends, write on my blog, and all sorts of wonderful things. But, facebook just did not have a positive affect on me.

Since I am getting rid of some facets of my life, I also decided I need to replace them with better things. I am reading through the Bible this year, and I love it! I'm reading a Daily Bible, which is divided into daily, chronological readings, with devotional thoughts. Reading about Lot in the the city of Sodom today, I was convinced yet again that the changes I am making this year are necessary. I don't want to live in a such a way that I am completely imbued with sinful, secular concepts. I want to flee them! It is essential that we pursue righteousness - hard. I need to get out of "Sodom" (A place of secular influence) and live well.

I am so excited to see what will happen this year. Surely it will be a year of extreme change in my life, and hopefully I will be much more like Christ by breaking free of this entrapment.

An AMAZING weekend!!

So, this past weekend I went to snow camp and it was amazing!! We got there Friday at 7 PM for registration, then after some games and unpacking and stuff we went roller skating. It was super fun... tons of people, friends, and fun. There were lots of "special skates," like limbo, couples' skates, backwards skate, all girls skate, etc. that were lots of fun. We got back from roller skating at about 2 AM and we were all sooo tired! The next day there was lots of fun stuff like laser tron, rock wall climbing, karaoke, games, dodge ball, and (my favorite) free time! I loved free time because we would just sit around and talk, or play ping pong, or something else like that. The chapel sessions excellent. During the first chapel session a lot of people made professions of faith. One of them was my friend Lynne! I had just met her at that point, but we got to be really good friends by the end of the weekend! I'm so thankful for her! My favorite chapel session was on Sunday morning. They gave us 15 minutes of just being still and being with God. I read some scripture from 1 John, and prayed, and it was extraordinarily good. They gave us a few minutes to go around the chapel and pray with people - even people we've never met. That was really cool... realizing that even though we don't even know each other, we have something in common - our love for Christ. I think I prayed with 3 or 4 people, and it was a huge blessing to me. Sunday was fun - we had the "Donut Classic," which is a race that involves a lot of people and obstacles and a tray of donuts. It was so fun! The goal was to be the first team to go through the race ad eat all of your donuts, which were shot out into the mob by 3-man slingshots. We didn't win, but it was really fun. :) Lunch was pretty fun that day... we were all SO overtired and crazy - especially our youth leaders! We kind of had a food fight... it was so funny! Everyone in the dining hall was staring at our table. :) After all of that we had to clean our cabins and say goodbye. :'( I miss everyone so much already! All in all it was an AMAZING weekend! I hope I get to back next year! :)

Lessons from LOTR

Hey! I haven't posted in a while because there hasn't been much to tell about. We have mostly done lots of chores for the past week.

Two nights ago I watched "Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring", and last night I watched "Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers". I absolutely LOVE the LOTR movies. I also gained a lot spiritually from it. Tolkien (The writer of the LOTR books) didn't intend for it to be allegorical, but I found it to be in some ways. Some of the things that really struck me are:
-The hearts of men are so easily corrupted and deceived.
-Frodo has to carry the ring, which is evil, with him, even though he doesn't want to. In the same way, we have the burden of a sin nature that we have to take with us, even though we don't want it.
-Frodo never HAS to put on the ring, but he does several times when he wants the easy way out of situations. If we have been saved by Jesus Christ, we never HAVE to sin, but we do so many times when we are tempted.
-Then there's Gollum: he started out as a normal, hobbit-like creature, but he allowed the ring, and what seemed like pleasure, to poison his mind. He became a hideous, worthless, disgusting creature. Likewise, as Christians, we don't have to be hideous creatures, but if let we the temporary pleasures of sin poison our minds, we will be.
-Gollum meets Frodo, and realizes that he doesn't have to be Gollum. He can be Smeagol, which is who he would be if he wasn't under the control of the ring. He realizes that he doesn't have to be a slave to its power. He wrestles with this for some time. He is torn between his addiction to the ring, and his desire to be free. By the end of the series, he has completely given himself over to the ring's power, and his greed for the ring brings him to his death. We also don't have to be ugly creatures. We don't have to give ourselves over to sin. If we are born again believers in Jesus Christ, we have the power to fight the temptation to sin. We can be made new in Christ. We DO have sin natures with us though, and if we don't continue to wrestle against them, we will give in. Sin has the power to tempt us still, and if we don't fight it, we'll give in, and sin always leads to ruin.
-Gollum struggles constantly with his own self. One side of him tells him that he NEEDS the ring, and that Frodo, who helps him and understands him, is a thief, while his other side tells him the truth. We, as Christians, often struggle with listening to lies that Satan puts in our minds, instead of the Truth from Christ. If we listen to the lies, we will give in to sin, and it will destroy us.

All of that goes to say that you can learn SO much from so many things, if you think about it! Instead of just watching a movie, I try to pick it apart and see what the worldview is, and what there is to be learned. I hope that all makes sense. That's all for now. God bless! :)