Sunday, September 27, 2009

ready and waiting

The past month has found little time for me to update my blog (mostly because of my own laziness). I had accidentally deleted by blog roll, and am just now finding all the blogs I used to link. Other than a quick quote yesterday, this blog has mostly gone untouched. I've had little inspiration, but maybe I should wait to be "inspired" before I write/update. I want to update with deep, thoughtful posts, but sometimes the deepest thought in my head is how fast can I get into my PJs once I get home.

A whirl of spiritual and emotional ups and downs have left me feeling dizzy and drained. In the end, I feel like I'm still in the same spot as always...

1. Still searching for church home and the energy/drive to make regular attendance.

2. Still wading through Grudem's "Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth"....I think I've been reading it by bits and pieces for the past few months. While insightful and thought-provoking, and definitely a topic I feel like I need to study more, I feel that in the case of spiritual growth, the book has had very little to offer....but perhaps more on that later when I finally finish the thing!

3. I've been extremely naughty and avoided my women's Bible study for a month now. I love the people, and I love the teacher, but we're going through a "women of the Bible" study, and honestly, I would be happier with a good book study than the same old "how-can-I-be-a-better-woman" sort of thing.

But on the brighter side...

1. I'm doing Scripture memorization. No, really. As I lamented to my husband the other day, I've tried before and usually end up quitting after three weeks and can never again remember what I memorized (which he kindly pointed out meant I hadn't memorized it). But my aim is a little bigger this time. Not a verse here or there. I want to learn a large chunk of Scripture this time, and so far, I've been pretty good about for the past four to five weeks. I think it's the fact that I'm memorizing a large whole rather than just piece-meal verse that has kept me going...

2. I'm going to spend the next few months exclusively studying Romans. I'm trying to depart from my oh-so-generic devotions of reading through a book but getting no "meat" out of it. I'm ready to take it up a notch.

So that's sort of my personal "state of the union" for the moment.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

"The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (as importation as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is...), but rather zeal - burning and passionate zeal - for the glory of Jesus Christ."

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans

I'm going through an indepth study of Romans, and I just had to share that quote.