Dear readers,
I would like to start trying something new. I will put a scripture verse and I will comment on it, then if any of you would like to comment you can and we can go on with that. Also, if any of you would like to suggest scripture please do so. So I will start to do this every once in a while. So my scripture for today is:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35,38-39
I love this verse!!! To put our love and bondage with God in such beautiful and accurate words. How nothing that we can do, nothing that anyone or thing can do will take us away from God! Nothing will decrease his love for us. Unlike human ties his love is so perfect and wonderful, so different. It makes me so happy to be able to know this. That anyone can have utmost confidence in God because he will never fail or never stop loving us!
Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Blinded
Dear readers,
Today at mass the gospel really touched me. It is about the man who is blind and asks Jesus for his sight back. How he was a poor beggar and the one thing he asked for was vision. Bartimeus said "Master I want to see." A prayer so simple but then Jesus told his that his faith had saved him. The priest commented how all of us should ask the same. To see. To no longer be blind to God, his hand, his will and his love. We should ask for the eyes of our heart to be opened. To be able to see the beggar and orphan with the eyes of Christ. The difference between physical and spiritual sight is substantial. I have met blind people who although can't see they can see God so much more clearly. They can see the truth and they are so happy from it!
"Master I want to see." I think we should all pray this. To be able to see with his eyes, and with the eyes of love that he is so willing to open for us.
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Today at mass the gospel really touched me. It is about the man who is blind and asks Jesus for his sight back. How he was a poor beggar and the one thing he asked for was vision. Bartimeus said "Master I want to see." A prayer so simple but then Jesus told his that his faith had saved him. The priest commented how all of us should ask the same. To see. To no longer be blind to God, his hand, his will and his love. We should ask for the eyes of our heart to be opened. To be able to see the beggar and orphan with the eyes of Christ. The difference between physical and spiritual sight is substantial. I have met blind people who although can't see they can see God so much more clearly. They can see the truth and they are so happy from it!
"Master I want to see." I think we should all pray this. To be able to see with his eyes, and with the eyes of love that he is so willing to open for us.
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Instantaneously
Dear readers,
As I sat at a stoplight the other day and after about 40 seconds started to get impatient I stopped myself and began to think. Why am I so impatient? In a world of fast food, instant play movies, rapid Internet and convenience stores on every corner than why in the world do I freak out after 2 minutes in a line to McDonald's? Everything must be now or in a few seconds to gratify me. "For I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord. His timing is not our own. Did I ever stop and think, "just maybe these 57 seconds of waiting will teach me patience and help me grow as a person." The answer is sadly, no. I don't, everything must be this instant, right now. I think how funny I must look to God. Instead of using that little bit of time for meditation or prayer it is strictly the most awful thing in existence. I am not saying I don't have something to do in a certain amount of time, but will freaking out help me? No. I need patience, what if God wants me to wait 50 years for the exact moment that will change my life forever? Am I patient enough to wait or will I actually,because of impatience, give up on God? I need to grow in the virtue of patience. Please pray for me!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
As I sat at a stoplight the other day and after about 40 seconds started to get impatient I stopped myself and began to think. Why am I so impatient? In a world of fast food, instant play movies, rapid Internet and convenience stores on every corner than why in the world do I freak out after 2 minutes in a line to McDonald's? Everything must be now or in a few seconds to gratify me. "For I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord. His timing is not our own. Did I ever stop and think, "just maybe these 57 seconds of waiting will teach me patience and help me grow as a person." The answer is sadly, no. I don't, everything must be this instant, right now. I think how funny I must look to God. Instead of using that little bit of time for meditation or prayer it is strictly the most awful thing in existence. I am not saying I don't have something to do in a certain amount of time, but will freaking out help me? No. I need patience, what if God wants me to wait 50 years for the exact moment that will change my life forever? Am I patient enough to wait or will I actually,because of impatience, give up on God? I need to grow in the virtue of patience. Please pray for me!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Praise Him!
Dear readers,
First of all I am sorry I haven't posted in forever! I have been so busy and blessed lately. Please be praying for all those discerning to be missionaries and that if it is God's will that I will be able to go on mission trips this summer.
Yesterday at mission formation my Mommee said something that got me thinking. She said how she attends a prayer group that she has attended for a long time, and how it makes an impression on her how differently everyone praises God. How differently they act in their relationship with him. And I started to think how beautiful that is. There are missionaries, nuns, priests, families, single people from every walk of life and in every situation possible and yet we all can praise God. He isn't picky how we do it or where or what language we speak or how elegant our vocabulary is. All that matters is that we praise him. We can draw close to him in so many different ways, it can be amidst thousands of people in the Vatican square or in a dark room by yourself in a jungle. I was thinking how beautiful that is! So many situations are selective, you get a certain job with certain qualifications. Or you have certain friends because of certain aspects of your life. But when we are praising God and serving him all that is stripped away and is just us and him, together sharing in his love! The most important thing is to praise him and give him praise. And I think it is one of the most beautiful things too!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
First of all I am sorry I haven't posted in forever! I have been so busy and blessed lately. Please be praying for all those discerning to be missionaries and that if it is God's will that I will be able to go on mission trips this summer.
Yesterday at mission formation my Mommee said something that got me thinking. She said how she attends a prayer group that she has attended for a long time, and how it makes an impression on her how differently everyone praises God. How differently they act in their relationship with him. And I started to think how beautiful that is. There are missionaries, nuns, priests, families, single people from every walk of life and in every situation possible and yet we all can praise God. He isn't picky how we do it or where or what language we speak or how elegant our vocabulary is. All that matters is that we praise him. We can draw close to him in so many different ways, it can be amidst thousands of people in the Vatican square or in a dark room by yourself in a jungle. I was thinking how beautiful that is! So many situations are selective, you get a certain job with certain qualifications. Or you have certain friends because of certain aspects of your life. But when we are praising God and serving him all that is stripped away and is just us and him, together sharing in his love! The most important thing is to praise him and give him praise. And I think it is one of the most beautiful things too!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Monday, May 3, 2010
Perspective
Dear readers,
I have always thought of perspective. For example, today I was walking with my mom who is about 5 ft 1 in tall. I am around 5'5 and was wearing 4 inch platform shoes and she pointed out the difference between us, and I realized the difference in perspective I got standing 4 inches taller than normal. Again, in 20,000 leagues under the sea, he talks about how different it is being way underneath the ocean. Or if you lay in a field of grass and see what it is like to be an ant. Or if you are in a choir loft of a church, all of these are different views. You catch a glimpse of what it is like to be a giant, an ant, an octopus, a 5'9 woman, all of these let you take a look with different eyes. Although they are the same ones you have had your whole life it is different to see something new again. To see the top of a dusty fridge instead of the handle, or to see underneath a house instead of the side. And my point is we don't see it unless we take the motive to do so. A man could sit in a lounger his whole life and never turn away from the television, most people would say "what a waste!" A waste of time, of life, and of the opportunities that go farther than his television. So many times we are afraid to switch perspective, to see what it is like living without anything, or to see the bottom of a gum covered table. And yet we would see so much more and understand the world just a bit better because of it. We forget to step out, I get accustomed to the perspective of a higschooling, homeschooling, missionary living in the woods. And although this is abnormal it is not enough. We should embrace the world around us and more importantly we should embrace our God! We get used to an image we have built of him and ingrained into our brains. We don't bother to know him better because we just don't. And we deprive oursleves of the multi-dimensional relationship that he offers us! If only we switched perspectives.
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
I have always thought of perspective. For example, today I was walking with my mom who is about 5 ft 1 in tall. I am around 5'5 and was wearing 4 inch platform shoes and she pointed out the difference between us, and I realized the difference in perspective I got standing 4 inches taller than normal. Again, in 20,000 leagues under the sea, he talks about how different it is being way underneath the ocean. Or if you lay in a field of grass and see what it is like to be an ant. Or if you are in a choir loft of a church, all of these are different views. You catch a glimpse of what it is like to be a giant, an ant, an octopus, a 5'9 woman, all of these let you take a look with different eyes. Although they are the same ones you have had your whole life it is different to see something new again. To see the top of a dusty fridge instead of the handle, or to see underneath a house instead of the side. And my point is we don't see it unless we take the motive to do so. A man could sit in a lounger his whole life and never turn away from the television, most people would say "what a waste!" A waste of time, of life, and of the opportunities that go farther than his television. So many times we are afraid to switch perspective, to see what it is like living without anything, or to see the bottom of a gum covered table. And yet we would see so much more and understand the world just a bit better because of it. We forget to step out, I get accustomed to the perspective of a higschooling, homeschooling, missionary living in the woods. And although this is abnormal it is not enough. We should embrace the world around us and more importantly we should embrace our God! We get used to an image we have built of him and ingrained into our brains. We don't bother to know him better because we just don't. And we deprive oursleves of the multi-dimensional relationship that he offers us! If only we switched perspectives.
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Friday, April 30, 2010
Credit
Dear readers,
Last night my mom, my sister and I stopped by a plave to listen to music. We didn't spend much time there but in the time we did spend a girl got up to sing a song and then afterwards she said that it was written by Joh Maher. But it wasn't, it was just covered by him. It also is an extremely famous song and the original was much more successful, and yet the credit was give to the guy who covered it. I feel like sometimes something similar happens in our lives. So much time people give credit to themselves for something that God did. But really they just helped it along or discovered it. SOmetimes when people say "That was great how did you do that?" About a testimony, or overcoming something or a huge number of other things we take the credit for ourselves. I am not saying that we never do anything but I think that so much of the time we give credit to humans for stuff that they didn't do. And that isn't bad in itself but it gets to the point we forget that all of the work was actually done by God! A weather man doesn't control the weather he just observes it and channels it to us. I guess that is a similar point. Let us remeber God in everything we do!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Last night my mom, my sister and I stopped by a plave to listen to music. We didn't spend much time there but in the time we did spend a girl got up to sing a song and then afterwards she said that it was written by Joh Maher. But it wasn't, it was just covered by him. It also is an extremely famous song and the original was much more successful, and yet the credit was give to the guy who covered it. I feel like sometimes something similar happens in our lives. So much time people give credit to themselves for something that God did. But really they just helped it along or discovered it. SOmetimes when people say "That was great how did you do that?" About a testimony, or overcoming something or a huge number of other things we take the credit for ourselves. I am not saying that we never do anything but I think that so much of the time we give credit to humans for stuff that they didn't do. And that isn't bad in itself but it gets to the point we forget that all of the work was actually done by God! A weather man doesn't control the weather he just observes it and channels it to us. I guess that is a similar point. Let us remeber God in everything we do!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Storm
Dear readers,
Today in morning prayer we got the reading from Matthew 8 about where Jesus calmed the storm on the sea. The boat is swamping and the disciples run to Jesus who is asleep bellow deck. They wake him up, frightened for their lives, and he says "oh you of little faith." Wow. It seems that he should have said "oh my goodness! Let me help!" but no, just, you of little faith. It makes you wonder huh? After he says this he does go up and rebuke the waves and wind to calm the sea and they were amazed. But Jesus wanted them to be so filled with faith in him to not even worry. Jonathan, a missionary, commented that what would have happened if one of the disciples had gone down and napped with Jesus? They would have woken up a while later from a good nap, but instead they worried. It is just like us to, amidst a storm in our lives, to worry, be preoccupied about ourselves. Of course this is natural and not always a bad thing but Jesus wants us to have enough faith in him not to worry. He is God and he knew there was a storm and yet he chose to stay sleeping. If we could just trust that he has it under control, which he does, the worry would vanish. Since there would be no reason left to worry, that is only if we truly believe. I say I know that Jesus is in control but when the storm comes i get around to saying "hey Jesus, heads up I am not OK." And he already knows! What would happen if we went down under and napped with Jesus? Just perfectly content to be with him in full knowledge that with him we are alright? I can not answer that question, the reason being that I have never done it. But I think we should try!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
Today in morning prayer we got the reading from Matthew 8 about where Jesus calmed the storm on the sea. The boat is swamping and the disciples run to Jesus who is asleep bellow deck. They wake him up, frightened for their lives, and he says "oh you of little faith." Wow. It seems that he should have said "oh my goodness! Let me help!" but no, just, you of little faith. It makes you wonder huh? After he says this he does go up and rebuke the waves and wind to calm the sea and they were amazed. But Jesus wanted them to be so filled with faith in him to not even worry. Jonathan, a missionary, commented that what would have happened if one of the disciples had gone down and napped with Jesus? They would have woken up a while later from a good nap, but instead they worried. It is just like us to, amidst a storm in our lives, to worry, be preoccupied about ourselves. Of course this is natural and not always a bad thing but Jesus wants us to have enough faith in him not to worry. He is God and he knew there was a storm and yet he chose to stay sleeping. If we could just trust that he has it under control, which he does, the worry would vanish. Since there would be no reason left to worry, that is only if we truly believe. I say I know that Jesus is in control but when the storm comes i get around to saying "hey Jesus, heads up I am not OK." And he already knows! What would happen if we went down under and napped with Jesus? Just perfectly content to be with him in full knowledge that with him we are alright? I can not answer that question, the reason being that I have never done it. But I think we should try!
Peace and Love in Christ,
Alyse
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