Hey!

Please forgive me for my lack of posts lately! Since I've been busy on vacation, catching up in my writing, and sewing, I haven't had much time or inspiration to blog. :-P

The last couple days have contained moments of sweet time with the Lord here. Those are wonderful times, aren't they? You go through a terrible time of feeling "dry" spiritually, but then you turn your eyes on the Lord and rest in Him, and suddenly His word becomes alive again, and He seems near again! Praise Him, praise Him for these wonderful times!

My friend Leah recently shared this wonderful quotation with me. I believe she keeps it on her wall at work. Allow me to share it with you.

"To be like Christ. To displace self from the inner throne, and to enthrone Him; to make not the slightest compromise with the smallest sin. We aim at nothing less than to walk with God all day long, to bide every hour in Christ and He and His words in us, to love God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves... It is possible to cast every care on Him daily, and to be at peace amidst pressure, to see the will of God in everything, to put away all bitterness and clamor and evil speaking, daily and hourly. It is possible by unreserved resort to divine power under divine conditions to become strongest through and through at our weakest point."
~Bishop Handley Moule

Isn't that beautiful?? I have it on the wall in my room now and read it almost every day. Praise the Lord that He has given us His Spirit, and therefore the power to live for Him and not for ourselves.

I hope you are all having a wonderful autumn! Let us praise the Lord with each day He gives us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD,
and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning,
and thy faithfulness every night,
Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery;
upon the harp with a solemn sound.
For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work:
I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
O LORD, how great are thy works!
and thy thoughts are very deep.
A brutish man knoweth not;
neither doth a fool understand this.
When the wicked spring as the grass,
and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish;
it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish;
all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn:
I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies,
and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked
that rise up against me.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree:
he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;
they shall be fat and flourishing;
To shew that the LORD is upright:
he is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him."
(Psalm 92)

May this be our prayer of thanksgiving every day!

Poll

This last poll was fun!

Obviously no one was interested in being a Jew in Germany in 1937!!
The Titanic option received 5 votes.
The runaway slave option received 5 votes.
The Huguenot option received 2 votes.

Check out my new one! :-)

Answer to Trivia Question

Oh my goodness! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post this. You wouldn't be able to imagine how busy we've been! Okay, so here we go.

The trivia question was:
Which epidemic is causing more casualties this year than the swine flu?

The answer...

is....

shall I tell you......

I suppose....

since I said I would.....

I should.....

It's called the L1M1 flu. In other words, the Love One/Marry One flu; in other words, the Romance flu. In other words, has it occurred to you that there is a shocking amount of marriages/courtships/dating relationships going on??? Amanda and I were discussing how we can't even count on our fingers all the people who have gotten married this year, or engaged, or dating. It's crazy! One of my closest friends just got married in March. Two of my babysitters from when I was little got married this summer. Another friend now has a boyfriend. Then, one of my favorite cousins and longest-time friends has a girl he is "talking with". One of my childhood crushes has a girlfriend.

It's crazy!!

A couple times, I have allowed it to get to me. "What about me? Why doesn't someone like me? Will I ever get married?" Unless I'm a weird person in a category by myself, you'll understand when I say that even if you don't feel ready for marriage or even extremely desirous of marriage, you still have that feeling of being left out when it seems like everyone is in a special relationship except yourself.

This feeling gets to me now and then, for instance, tonight. But quickly the Lord reminds me: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Imagine as I might, dream as I might, my plans and thoughts cannot even draw near to the excellency and perfectness of His own plans and thoughts for me.

I might think, "If everyone else has a special guy in their lives, so should I!" But He says, "Even if other people have special relationships on earth, I am the Lord your God, and I am all you need. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I commend my love toward you, in that, while you were yet sinners, I died for you."

Why should I feel discouraged; why should I feel left out? I belong to Jesus! He is all I need! He has plans so much greater than my own, and I can trust Him to fulfill them in His own timing!! When I think about Jesus, and how good and great He is, I know I have all I could ever wish for and more!

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." (Psalm 43:5)

....

Sorry guys, the trivia question's answer will have to wait til tomorrow as I haven't had time to write it today....

Trivia Question and a Great Deal of Chatter

I have a trivia question for you all. Let's see if you can get the answer right and then I'll post my answer and thoughts in a post tomorrow if I have time.

QUESTION: Which epidemic is causing more casualties this year than the swine flu?

Come back tomorrow for the answer.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I have been having SO much fun here in Indiana!! We arrived on Sunday night at our cousins' house. On Monday we went to M's, where we stayed Monday and Tuesday nights. Wooooaaahhh, such a blast!! :-D I mean, way too fun. On Tuesday Amanda went to school with Christie and met Marilynn Ham-- check her blog for details (scare though they be ;-) ). Meanwhile, the rest of us kids just "hung out" at the M's house and played Spoons and talked and stuff like that. Originally Seth and Jesse and Amanda were going to go on Wednesday for a tour of Bethel College, but Jesse asked if I wanted to come too, which I had kind of wanted to do anyway but wasn't sure whether or not to ask. But since he asked, I decided I would, so Mr. M called in and put me on the list of people touring for the day.

So Wednesday we went down to the college and got a tour. It was lots of fun, probably more being with some of my favorite people in the world (my sister, my cousin, and two great friends), than checking out the college, necessarily. It was an eye-opening day, reiterating in my mind that I am not cut out for college!! But I'm moving ahead of myself. Let me tell how the day went.

Amanda went with Christie to her sign-language class, and Seth, Jesse, and I were supposed to go to a Bible class but they were taking a test that morning, so instead the "admissions counselor" (Paula) just talked to us about the college for about an hour. (I was getting a headache.... ;-) )

Then we headed over to chapel. :-S Mr. M said it was one of the worse chapel days; he said they are usually better. It opened with a sort of "teaser" for the jazz concert that they'll be having on Friday, which was really loud and monotonous. It was funny, the speaker guy who leads chapel, I guess, said something after the group played about "stand up and tell the person next to you that you're coming to the jazz concert on Friday!"

We stood up, and Jesse turned to me and said, "I am not going to the jazz concert on Friday!"

"Now I know why I brought my headache medicine!" I replied laughing.

Then the leader guy told everyone that they had visitors today (us) and everyone turned around and clapped and wooted and hollered. Very conspicuous. :-P

Then there were two worship songs, and then they introduced their guest speakers, Dale and Jonalyn Fincher. :-S None of us were very impressed. Their message was very man-centered, I thought, and lacking Biblical substance. The only thing kind of cool about their talk was the dramatic reading Mr. Fincher did from a section in C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce". That was very well-done. But that was about the only impressive thing about their whole talk.

Well anyway, Amanda joined us there and afterwards we headed over to the class "Exploring the Christian Faith". The teacher was okay, but I think our own dear Pastor is more in-depth that he is. The teacher divided everyone (including us) into groups to discuss the seven different types of spirituality. The group I ended up with was quite shallow and there was almost no discussion; but I did end up sitting next to a very nice black girl who shared her textbook with me.

After that, we went to lunch in the cafeteria. I have only eaten in a cafeteria like once or twice so I was not sure what to do or where to go. I did know I needed a Tylenol though! That took care of my impending headache and then we went back the admissions office to begin our tour.

We went basically counter-clockwise around the campus. Not much to say along that line, except the funniest part of the tour was the dorm rooms. We went first to the freshman girls' dorms. Our tour guide (I think her name was Katie?) opened the door to the hallway and yelled, "Men on the floor!"

We all giggled as we started walking down the hall. "Nothing like standing out!" one of us said to the boys.

"Just wait til we get to the guys' dorm!" Jesse responded.

Yeah... When we got to the guys dorm, our tour guide yelled, "Ladies on the floor!" Conspicuous-- yeah. And the guys dorm was definitely more masculine. In the girls' dorm, there were all sorts of pictures and girly posters on the doors and the walls in the rooms, and the rooms were bright colors and relatively tidy. In the guys' dorm, everything was brown or gray or colors like that, and... well, not so tidy. (Guys!) It was funny.

After our tour, we went to the bookstore with our 20% off coupons. Amanda and I both got shirts that say "Bethel College" on them. Maybe I'll take and post a picture of me in mine-- I am planning to wear it on Friday to our cousins' game.

After we went to the store, we went to the gym because the guys wanted to play basketball (of course :-P ). So they did that while we watched, and then we headed back to Mr. M's office. Jesse had to stay at the college with Christie because she would be attending the deaf church that evening, so Mr. M drove Seth, Amanda, and me back to M's house. There we chatted, had dinner, and then left for cousins'.

So that was yesterday. Of course, I could diary every day but that one was especially fun. I am so excited about tonight! Lord willing, we Anderson ladies, Aunt Lois, and Cousin Samuel will be heading down to Flora for Cousin Maggie's concert. Before the concert, though, we will be seeing Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Erma (Aunt Leah's parents). Please pray for us that we would minister to and encourage them. In a couple days they will be driving out to California to spend the holidays with Aunt Katherine, Uncle John, Emily and Daniel. They will have their own little house to stay in so that their grandkids can come over to see them. Hopefully this will help make the holidays not quite so sad and lonely-- Aunt Erma and Aunt Leah used to do everything Christmas together: decorating, celebrating, gifts, all that. This will be a tough Christmas for them, so please pray. I am glad that they are going out to be with Uncle John and family though.
Maggie should be coming home with us after the concert (home to cousins', I mean) and staying the night tonight and tomorrow night. Tomorrow we'll be going to cousins' basketball game. Saturday we'll be scrapbooking and Christie will come over to cousins', and on Sunday we will go to M's church and spend the day with them. Monday, HOPEFULLY we'll get to meet up with Gabrielle and her family, but we still have to figure that all out... Tuesday we're heading back to Smithville for church and then coming home.

Coming home!?!? It seems like we just left!! :-P

Here's a teaser picture of us at the M's; more to come on Day by Day!


The Lord is so good and is patiently working in my life and teaching me out of His Word. One thing that He has been impressing on me again is that the only way for my heart and mind to be changed and renewed is for me to really fill my mind with Him and with His Word. When I am meditating on and communing with the One True God, who is so good and pure and holy, then He removes the earthly, ungodly thoughts from my mind and replaces them with good and pure and holy thoughts and ways. "How can a young [woman] keep [her] way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word." How true these words!

Okay so I can't just write one verse from that section. Here's the whole thing in the King James.

"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
With my whole heart have I sought thee:
O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
Blessed art thou, O LORD:
teach me thy statutes.
With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies,
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate in thy precepts,
and have respect unto thy ways.
I will delight myself in thy statutes:
I will not forget thy word."
(Psalm 119:9-16)

Have a great rest-of-the-week!!

Check it Out!! :-D

Here!

Hello, Friends!

We are in Indiana and will be away from the internet until Wednesday night, just to let you know so you don't think I've neglected my blog! ;-)

Keep your eyes on Jesus, and pray that I will as well, even amidst the busyness of visiting.

~Melanie

SCREAMS!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT FOR SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WHY???????????????????????????????


CLICK HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Poll!

Hee hee. Check out my goofy new poll! :-P

Poll Results

I enjoyed the last poll! Here are the answers:

8 voted for romance.
14 voted for daily life.
8 voted for mystery.
10 voted for historical.
5 voted for fantasy.
5 voted for satire.
6 voted for other.

~*~*~*~

As Christians, we are commanded to do "all to the glory of God", even mundane things such as eating and drinking. I have been challenged many a time to consider how we can glorify God as we read. When we read, we are taking in information, people's opinions or ideas, philosophies either of God or of the world. What we take in often takes root in our hearts and produces fruit. That is why we should be so careful in what we read. If we feed ourselves stories that promote selfishness or fleshiness, we may easily succumb to the same. On the other hand, if we fill our minds with stories that promote godly living and glorify God, hopefully it will become part of our thinking processes and will help us to glorify God better in our own lives.

I thank my parents for, very early on in our childhood, introducing us to godly entertainment. When we were little, we did not watch Bugs Bunny or Nickelodeon every Saturday morning. We watched Trinity Broadcasting Network's children's shows. I can't say I agree with TBN's ideals (I don't!); however, the children's shows were usually simple Bible truths, Bible stories, and Bible lessons, helping us to dwell on the things of God at an early age. We watched movies like "He is Risen", "So Dear to My Heart", and other ones with Biblical lessons or references. We grew up basically with the mindset that you can enjoy a good book or movie that helps people in their relationship with God.

We may think that the only good books are devotional type books. Those are excellent; I LOVE reading Tozer and Amy Carmichael!! But we can also glorify God in the novels we read! One of my favorite series is the A Life of Faith series, which follows the lives of fictional characters, Elsie Dinsmore, Millie Keith, Violet Travilla, and Kathleen McKenzie. The stories include aspects of adventure, history, romance (so to speak), mystery, and daily life-- but intertwined through it all, the heroines are learning to honor God in each aspect of their lives. Reading these books helps me to think Biblically and walk with God throughout the day.

As most of you know, some of my favorite authors are George MacDonald, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen. The latter two are not generally categorized as Christian authors (I am not sure whether they knew the Lord or not) but their books/stories always help me to see things through a Biblical worldview and set before me good examples of people who either strive to live godly lives (examples: Amy Dorrit, Elinor Dashwood), or people who struggle with their sin natures but learn to overcome (examples: Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Darcy). They-- especially Dickens-- present many Biblical parallels in their characters and stories. George MacDonald interweaves strong Scriptural truths and lessons throughout his books, and has inspired me to do the same in my books.

Contrast this with filling your minds with stories in which witchcraft, thieving, and conflict are tolerated or even condoned. If you fill your mind with a book or movie in which the character lives in constant rebellion of authority and never learns to check that rebellion, what will you be influenced to do? While each of us must make the decisions of how to behave/react ourselves, the influence of the press is very real. Look around you. Most of the decadence you see comes from letting the dust collect on God's Word and books that promote God's word, and from the endorsing of ungodly, antichrist literature and media.

Wow! I didn't mean for this post to go down this track, but I guess it did! My point is to ask yourselves some questions about the books you read and movies you watch:

• Does this book glorify the Lord?
• Does this book advocate practices/beliefs that are deliberately contrary to God's teachings?
• If Jesus were to come in bodily form and look over my shoulder as I was reading this book, would I snap it shut really fast and try to hide the title so he wouldn't know what I was reading? (Incidentally, He does always know what you are reading!)
• Will this book help me to honor God and love others as I should?
• Is this book distracting me from my duties around the home and my purpose as a Christian?

Feel free to add more of your own questions! And please don't think I am infallible when it comes to books. This is something I really need to think over! But it is food for thought for all of us.

Happy reading!

Following in Jesus' Steps... Looking Like Jesus

"For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps."
(1 Peter 2:21)

I so enjoyed my most recent reading of 1 Peter. I am was impressed, this time, with the beauty of the life that follows in Jesus' steps, that strives to "be holy as [God] is holy."

First off, God (speaking through Peter) reminds us of what we are...

• Redeemed from-- our futile, sinful ways (1:18)
• Redeemed by-- the precious blood of Christ (1:19)
• Redeemed unto-- an incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance in Christ (1:4) and holiness (1:15-16)

Imagine a life without any shred of

• deceit
• hypocrisy
• malice
• envy
• slander
• evil
• revenge

Imagine a life characterized instead by

• holiness (1:15-16)
  
• spiritual maturity (2:2),
• access to God through Jesus Christ (2:5)
• light (2:9)
• honorable conduct (2:12)
• submission and obedience even to the unkind and unworthy (2:13-3:6)
• love for others (2:17)
• fear of God (2:17)
• patient suffering for righteousness' sake (2:19-21)
• respectfulness and purity (3:2)
• gentleness [meekness] and quietness (3:4)
• courage and trust (3:6)
• consideration and kindness (3:7)
• unity of mind
• sympathy
• brotherly love
• tenderness of heart
• humility of mind (3:8)
• self-control (3:10)
• and so on...

Get the picture? Isn't it beautiful? That is the kind of person I want to be, because that is the kind of person Jesus is. Instead of trying to live up to the world's standards, and be physically attractive and magnificently outstanding to the world... If I can but walk with God and be like Christ... then I shall not have to present to the Lord merely wood, hay, and stubble, but instead gold, silver, and precious stones. This is imperishable beauty (3:4). Let it be true of all of us!

Answer to Prayer/Prayer Request/Thoughts on 1 Peter

I am happy to report to you that Denise is no longer in a coma and has been transferred to rehab!! Praise the Lord!!! This is truly His hand... Mommy said that it sounds like Denise is wishing she could get better quicker than she is able to, which is understandable, so if you could pray that she would heal quickly and that during this time of rehabilitation that her heart would be set on God and drawn closer to Him.

Most of the people had church seem to be coming out of the flu; the auditorium was a LOT fuller this week than last. Praise the Lord!

Thanks also for praying for Nathan; he's doing a lot better. However, now Evan Gerber has the pneumonia. :-( So if you can pray for him now! And that no one else gets it!

Here's some beautiful verses I read today:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9)

I love 1 Peter! How often I need this reminder, that the events in my life are to burn off the dross and make me more like Christ. Instead of focusing on how hard things are, I should look to Jesus, whom, having not seen, I love... And when you focus on Jesus, things take on such a new perspective, don't they?

Well, to try to expound upon these verses would pretty much be to just repeat them! So reread the verses and let the message sink into your hearts!

I am so sorry for my lack of posts! I do have a lot to write but my brain is just FRIED this evening because I wrote all morning and raked all afternoon! (I wrote about 3,000 words of my book today, trying to get ahead!!) So I will just share a poem from Amy Carmichael with you and talk more tomorrow or Monday, Lord willing.

And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine.

And work in me to will and to Thy pleasure,
Let all within me, peaceful, reconciled,
Tarry content my Well-Beloved's leisure
At last, at last, even as a weaned child.

New Poll!

I have a new poll up on the sidebar. Which genre is your favorite to read? A lot of novels are a mix of several genres, so I set it so that you can select multiple answers. I also couldn't think of all of them (or examples for all of them) so I have an option for "other". (Let me know which you chose in the comments! :-D )

Have fun! :-D

Answer!

Wow. According to Teddy, and to Nathan's brother Josiah's email to my mom, Nathan's temperature is broken and it seems like he will be on the mend!

Isn't God good! Here yesterday it was sounding very serious and then God intervenes and sets him on the mend! (He sure did give us a scary, didn't he, Ted? How dare he! ;-) ) So, praise the Lord! He hears the prayers of His people!

I'll keep you updated on Denise as best as I can!

More Prayers Please!!

Sorry, the prayer requests seem to keep coming...

Some of you guys know Nathan Barkman from church. He's a 16-year-old guy, really fun, and plays with Beth's little bluegrass group on Sundays.

Nathan has got H1N1 (swine flu) really bad-- he's had temperatures of 104 all week and it's developing into pneumonia. :-( Please, please pray for him... this swine flu thing is scary. :-S

I haven't heard much more about Denise; she is still in the hospital, but praise the Lord, she is hanging in there.

It'll be interesting though to see what kind of after-effects this has on some people! :-S

But God is in control-- through every scary thing in life, He is still orchestrating all the events for His glory and our good. I am glad we have that truth to rest in.

"Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." (Psalm 91:9-12)

"Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." (Psalm 46:10-11)