Joy in Obedience

I'm reading through the book of Nehemiah for my personal quiet time, and a few days ago I read chapter 8 - the chapter where Ezra reads the Law to the people. It's a very well-known and helpful passage, but the passage in chapter 8 that comes right after it has some insights to impart as well. It chronicles the Israelites' celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) as prescribed in the Law. One verse in particular stood out to me as I read it:

17 So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

"And there was great gladness." Isn't that interesting? God's people have been rejoicing because the Law has been made clear to them, and their joy and understanding of the law caused them to obey the commands of the Law. When they obeyed, their obedience produced more gladness. This is the way God has created us! When we do His will, when we obey His commands for us, we are glad and joyful. Obedience should not be a burden to us; it should be fulfilling!

~Mac

Playin' With LEGOs

Over the weekend, I did something I haven't done in a while - I broke out the LEGOs! And this is what took shape:

A LEGO Sako-style sniper rifle!

It's about 42 inches long, with a 23 inch barrel . . .

A removable bipod . . . 

And a scope that you can actually look through! (The field of view isn't great, but you work with what you have)

And for fun, I added an action that really cycles rounds!

It was a lot of fun to make something out of LEGOs again - and it was nice to know that I haven't completely lost my touch over the years :-)

~Mac

Happenings Grab Bag #1

I've decided that one way to make sure I blog relatively frequently is have a weekly post on a certain topic (such as the Thankful Thursdays or Funny Fridays that some of my blogging friends have come up with).

So here's introducing the . . .

:drum roll:

Happenings Grab Bag! :ta ta TUM:

(The title may change; I'm not sure it's the best. If any of you have an idea for a better title, please let me know!)

This will be a post where I can list any fun/crazy/random/wierd things I have done over the past week. So here goes:

This week I have:

1. Worn a pompadour for a day.

2. Fought Spiderman in a church, using only a pair of pencils.

3. Discovered that [a big part of] happiness is freshly trimmed fingernails.

~Mac

Hiding It In Your Heart

So much for blogging once a week. Nothing really stood out as something I should blog on, and I guess I fail at finding blogworthy things on a daily basis. Oh well!

Yesterday evening I was at a book study and the discussion turned briefly to Scripture memorization. I think I got a bit of a wakeup call! I do memorize Bible verses - our whole family memorizes a verse every one to two weeks. I just realized that I could and should be doing a lot more memorization on my own. Even though we have easy access to the Bible (right now), there is no substitute for having the Word in your heart, where it can be easily recalled in a discussion, to fight off a temptation, to meditate on, or to aid in making a decision. I believe the more Scripture we truly have in our hearts, the more our lives will reflect that. Plus, there's no telling when the Bible will not be as readily available in printed form, and when that happens, we will wish we had memorized more!

All that to say, I am trying to figure out a plan for memorizing more Scripture. I think I'll start with some of my favorite passages, but I don't want to approach this in a haphazard unstructured way. If any of you have suggestions, categories or lists of verses, or strategies that you use, please comment :-)

~Mac

A Week of Milestones

So I'm going to keep to my goal of blogging once a week . . . barely :-P And in addition, I'm going to throw you the lame "it was a busy week" excuse. I don't use it very much though, so cut me some slack this once ;-)

Several school-related milestones happened this week. First, I passed Business Ethics & Society, so I now have 90 credits. Yes, I am now officially a college senior! :party: I spent the next day relaxing and taking a study break :-) I also had my advisement call with Thomas Edison, and got my template set up with them so I know all my classes and tests have transferred/will transfer. So the rest of my degree is now mapped out!

Also, I helped my brother move to college, where he is starting his freshman year. I got to check out the campus, meet the roommate I haven't already met, have a picnic with some of the students, and attend an evening worship/consecration service which was great! It's very exciting, and also kind of wierd not having him around anymore. We are very close and I'm going to miss him! Fortunately we still have lots of ways of staying in touch.

So it's been a week of milestones and adjustments! Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow and then tackling Principles of Marketing on Monday! :-)

~Mac

Doing Penance

It seems so ancient - it conjures up images of ascetics whipping themselves, of pilgrims kneeling and kissing steps. But while physical penance is a thing of the past for most of us here in the 21st century, mental and emotional penance is a very easy trap to fall into.

I know it is for me.

After I commit a sin (especially one of the ones I commit over and over) and the Spirit convicts me, my first feeling is frustration, sadness, and sometimes anger. I quickly ask forgiveness from God. Then I often start doing penance in my mind. If I can only feel bad enough about myself for long enough, my negative feelings about my sin will disappear, and all will be right again. This attitude ruins my day every time.

But there are days - like today - when I really get it. All the penance in the world won't get me feeling right and being right with God. But Jesus performed the ultimate act of penance on the cross in my place, so now, when I receive forgiveness from God for a sin, I am free.

Free to live for Him again. Free to feel close to Him again. Free to experience the lightness of spirit that comes with knowing your sins are take care of.

There doesn't need to be some kind of waiting period, a time where I brush myself off and tidy myself up to be worthy of His affection again. It can begin the moment after I ask for and receive God's grace.

That's a freeing thing!

~Mac

AWOL

The title stands for "Absent WithOut Lettingyouallknow" - I had intended to blog once a week during the summer, but that didn't quite turn out very well :-P

So why was I AWOL for almost three weeks?

1. I starred in a musical! Granted, it was only a children's musical that our church put on, and I was only in one scene, but it still counts ;-) The musical was "Nic@Night", about Nicodemus and his journey from Pharisee to Christian (in the context of the Gospel story). I and my brothers were the Pharisees in one scene (we were the comic relief :-) ) It was quite fun - but all the practices kind of disrupted the schedule a bit.

2. I was studying for Organizational Behavior. Because of the rehearsals, I had limited study time, so I made the most of it - which meant no blogging. I did pass, however, so it was worth it! 78 credits down :-)

Those were the biggies, but I had a lot of other smaller things that I did as well (a party, starting teaching guitar). It's been very busy, but now things are beginning to slow down, so I should be able to blog weekly again! (We'll see how that goes :-P)

TTFN!

~Mac