Deliver us

Who built the pyramids? The Egyptians?

They usually receive the credit, right?

Weren't their Israelite slaves the ones building everything in their empire, while the Egyptians themselves cracked their whips upon the slaves' backs?

The Prince of Egypt opens with the Hebrew's song of lament, "Deliver Us". It wrenches the heart with its cry for mercy and freedom. And we feel a righteous wrath against the oppressors. We are thankful for America's call to emancipation and that we enslave no more.

Or do we? What products are we buying that were sewn together by 8 year old children in a sweatshop? How can we keep ourselves accountable for what we buy?

The Dalit of India have been living in oppression since longer than Christianity has existed. The Hindu religion has set in place a caste system that calls them the "untouchables" - they are regarded as less than animals. Once you are born into that caste, you cannot get out of it. Dalit must beg for water at the well from others, for they are not allowed to touch and "contaminate" it.

When will slavery really end?

What can we do to prevent it from happening now? Is there a way to keep track of what brands oppress their factory workers and what brands don't? I'd hate to pay $100 for a pair of boots and know that $100 was going to some fat, rich, white, American guy than the $100 going to the small girl in Guatemala who sewed them together for me.



I just got a new pair of boots. The company's website has 3 entire mission statements about their efforts to eliminate pollution, to boost the welfare of communities, and to treat all their workers fairly. I don't know if you can look into these things for all companies [I'm sure the bad ones keep their practices very secret], but I'm asking you to look into it if you can. It's good to look out for others, even if there's no chance of you ever meeting them in this life. :-)

Ugh, I feel like a pond that is small and ancient and stagnant. Somewhat pleasing to look at, but also eerie, and uninviting for naked toes.

I have stagnated my most important relationship within the past two weeks. I've barely talked to him. I haven't listened to him at all. I sang to him last night, a few of us including he had a great conversation for about 20 minutes by the fountain that cascades, but after that I probably ignored everything he said.

Church

It has been brought to my attention that there are some ecclesiastical issues that must be handled. The church I've been attending for the past 3 years [and have recently joined as an associate member] is one of evangelism. This body of Christ can be quite welcoming and encourages members and regular attendees to invite many, especially nonbelievers. This is good. Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations..." However, what about keeping the ones you've got in the faith?

I have seen, and others feel this way, that our church hooks people in and then leaves them floating around, not being challenged or shepherded properly. A person should not have to ask to be discipled; those more mature in their walk with the Lord should seek out younger Christians to help them along their journeys. A friend told me that he hasn't been to this church in 5 weeks, and no one has called him to ask him where he's been or how he's been. This concerns me.

To expand upon the "Great Commission" at the end of the book of Matthew:

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

Jesus taught a lot of things. His sermons and teachings make up most of the text in the Gospels. Can a church support its members and its believers without continuing to teach? He asked to make disciples, not just believers.

disciple: n. 1. religion
a. one of the 12 personal followers of Christ.
b. one of the 70 followers sent forth by Christ. Luke 10:1.
c. any other professed follower of Christ in His lifetime.
2. any follower of Christ.
3. a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another.
v. 4. to convert into a disciple.
5. to teach, to train.

If someone is not being taught or trained, and not being a pupil, are we truly making disciples? Converting people is not the same as making disciples, and I feel like this church has strayed from that original concept. If we are not continually growing and developing godly hearts and wisdomy minds, this is an opportunity for wickedness to enter. We must keep each other on track with our faith.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. - Matthew 24:12-13

For one's love to grow cold is an ugly thing. For one to lose zeal for the Lord and for His Word and to become lazy in caring about growing is an ugly thing. I have dealt with times like that myself, and when I drift away, I become physically unhealthy/exhausted, I have a worse work ethic, I am not as confident or friendly with others, and I'm simply less caring. I have seen firsthand the effects of walking away from God and it is simply an ugly thing. Our Father made us to be beautiful just as we are, as lovers and worshippers and as sons and daughters of Him, and if we have the desire to walk away from that, or if we have no desire to seek that, what could it do but break His heart?

We must persist in our faith. We must persevere. We can't let anyone, not Satan, not our own flesh, not the world try to tear us from our loving and perfect Father. We can't let ourselves, our doubts, our anger tear us apart from Him. He loves us too much to let us go. He let His own only begotten Son go in our place.

"For I am convinced that neither life nor death, 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 8:38-39

How can we ignore so great a salvation? It is so wonderful to be loved by God! Therefore we can't just ignore Him or be angry for the petty "bad things" in our lives. We complain because it's raining, because school is hard, because of family problems, because of friendships gone wrong. They are nothing compared to the problems of Ugandan children who fear being abducted every single night to be forced into being child soldiers for a terrible army of rebels who kill civilians and whose actions force the Ugandan governments to put their people into displacement camps without food, or clean water, where malaria kills more people than AIDS. And even in comparison with their troubles, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." [Romans 8:18] When we're with the Lord in heaven some day, we won't even remember our diseases, frustrations and hardships because it will be SO GOOD!!!

This is why I wish the church would focus more on building intimate relationships within the family of God, focus on growing these disciples closer to Him in a more trusting relationship with an eternity focus on life. Paul says best in my favourite book:

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:4-6

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. - Philippians 1:9-11

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:12-14

ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei

Feelin' down again...

"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" - Hebrews 2:1-3

"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" - Hebrews 3:7-8

"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first." - Hebrews 3:12-14

This whole situation is still not getting better. It's affecting my body; I feel a physical weight pushing down on my spine, I feel muscularly weak, and I don't feel like eating at all. And I'm dehydrated.

The weekend, however, was great. Quite a refreshing time to be carefree and adventurous with my dear Wallace. We did a Fountains of UMD tour, trespassed, frolicked [in a special way] through the thunderstorm, and I met some new friends. Saturday was Maryland Day, so campus was v. crowded. We ate Chick fil-A!

That night we slept in cardboard boxes on the Mall by the Washington Monument for Displace Me - a media/awareness event held by Invisible Children [dot com], where they showed us video testimonials of folks in Uganda who are in the displacement camps where the government put them to keep them "safe" from the rebel army. Last year they held a "Global Night Commute" which was basically reenacting what the Ugandan children do every night to avoid being abducted by the rebel army to be made into child soldiers or sex slaves. This year we were made to experience what they deal with in the displacement camps, except we had clean water and no AIDS or malaria. We had a 6-hour fast, and then were only allowed to eat water and saltine crackers. We called people and wrote to congressmen to spread the word in hopes of the U.S. or the U.N. doing something to bring peace to northern Uganda.

The next morning Wallace and I hit up Starbucks before church [how convenient to have one between dorm and campus], which was run by Maryland Christian Fellowship and was cool. We sang a "yee-haw" song.

Directly after lunch we got a call from Horatio, who had come to pick me up. So Wallace and I parted ways again. Hopefully we'll hang out again this summer - when we'll do even more crazy adventure-type things! Whee!!

The drive back with Brandon was good. It didn't even get dark until we got home. We stopped in Philly for supper with Y-von at a place called Brigid's. I got gnocchi in pesto, mm!! It was rather tasty. We also got to see her studio in this church; Ruben Ghenov also works there! How exciting! I hadn't seen Gali since he was a baby; what a cute kid!

I had a somewhat sleepless night, followed by weaving class, geometry quiz, crafts class, geometry class, glazing and then a chat. In some ways, I feel like Paul....

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" [Romans 7:15-25]

Thanks be to God indeed. Jesus will rescue me from this body of death. I want my sinful nature to die. I just hate sin so much I want it to be completely gone from my life; separated as far as the East is from the West. I know that I'm forgiven, I just want to sin no more. I won't be pressured into sinning anymore. It just burns a hole in my gut, like too many of those Warhead candies.

And I'm seeking counsel within friends. Sometimes it's hard for me to ask for help, so if you've got wisdom or advice about certain sorts of things, please just pour it upon me. If I'm not in the weaving studio this week, I'll be at the Chris House [need time in the chapel], or my phone is usually on if I'm not in class.

*le sigh*

And I feel like such a b*t*h for complaining about my stupid life problems when 5 year old kids in Uganda are being abducted from their starving, infected families to be forced to carry a gun that weighs nearly as much as they do. How do you feel about that?

oh, and pardon my french.

Greatness

How do we rank the level of greatness between one person and the next? What leaders are greater than others? Are inventors ranked by quantity of inventions or by several more impactful ones? I was browsing wikipedia.org [a new favourite pastime of mine] and I ran into two lists. One was the "Greatest American" list, which was compiled in 2005 by the Discovery Channel by taking votes from American viewers. In 1978 the Top 100 "Most Influential Persons" list was published in a book by Michael Hart [b. 1932, NYC].

Here is the beginning of the "Greatest Americans" list:

1. Ronald Reagan, former President - 24% - named "Greatest American"
2. Abraham Lincoln, former President - 23.5%
3. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader - 19.7% - named "Greatest African American"
4. George Washington, first President - 17.7%
5. Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father and scientist - 14.9%
6. George W. Bush, then President - named "Greatest Living American"
7. Bill Clinton, former President
8. Elvis Presley, singer - named "America's Greatest Entertainer"
9. Oprah Winfrey, talk show host - named "Greatest Woman in American history"
10. Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President
11. Billy Graham, evangelist
12. Thomas Jefferson, former President
13. Walt Disney, founder of Disney
14. Albert Einstein, physicist - named "Greatest American Scientist" and "Greatest Jewish American"
15. Thomas Alva Edison, inventor

Perhaps this list is less biased, as many persons' input formed one cognitive list. However, this would require each individual voter to consider all the nominees and rank them, and then vote on his or her "top American." This list does not prove that Elvis Presley was a greater American than Franklin Roosevelt, just that there are more Elvis fans than FDR enthusiasts. Surely Elvis shaped our culture in the 1950s, but aspects of Roosevelt's New Deal are still in operation today. I think that this list shows not each nominee's "greatness," but the number of Americans who were most affected by that person.

Here are Michael Hart's top 15 "Most Influential Persons":

1	Muhammad	Founder and main prophet of Islam, conquerer of Arabia, political figure
2	Isaac Newton	physicist, theory of universal gravitation, laws of motion, major developments in mathematics, optics, thermodynamics
3	Jesus	central figure of what would become Christianity
4	Buddha	founder of Buddhism
5	Confucius	founder of Confucianism
6	St. Paul	proselytizer of Christianity
7	Ts'ai Lun	inventor of paper
8	Johannes Gutenberg	developed movable type and made great advances in printing
9	Christopher Columbus	explorer, led Europe to the Americas
10	Albert Einstein	physicist, relativity, Einsteinian physics
11	Louis Pasteur	scientist, pasteurization, Germ Theory
12	Galileo Galilei	astronomer, accurately described heliocentric solar system, led way to Newton's work
13	Aristotle	Greek philosopher
14	Euclid	Greek mathematician, Euclidean geometry, author of various influential theories
15	Moses	major prophet of Judaism and leader of Israel

This list is the product of one man's research into the history of the world and into the influence that these persons still have in the world today. And how do we define influence? Is Mohammed ranked higher than Jesus because there are more Moslems in the world than Christians today? Should Confucius be ranked higher because his influence is most clearly seen within the country with the highest population?

Many of these men influenced only one area; should the list be broken into certain spheres of influence? Should we group Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Confucius, Paul, and Buddha together because of their influence on world spirituality and religion; T'sai Lun and Gutenberg together for their impact on world literature; Newton, Galileo, Euclid, and Einstein together for their help in understanding the world around us?

And can we consider chronology as well? T'sai Lun invented paper; several centuries later Gutenberg invented the printing press. Without paper, there would be no need for print, so whose influence is greater? Galileo's work led to Newton's work which led to Einstein's work - whose was more important?

15th century explorer Vasco da Gama was ranked #86 on this list. Do the Portuguese-speaking people of Brasil consider him more important than everyone else on the list? Have we considered that the men on this list may have differing rates of impact geographically?

It seems that my questions might be answered if I were to read this book [which I will probably do at some time within the next...5 years, so I'll do that and see Mr. Hart's opinions on greatness.

Clearly "greatness" is a very subjective matter when speaking about a person's influence. Does one good deed surpass several others on a scale of "greatness?" Perhaps we should each re-arrange these two lists according to our personal tastes and thoughts on these figures' works. Give me your input.

I will sing of Your lovingkindness and of Your righteousness

I HAVE FRIENDS AGAIN!!!!

That is to say, I can finally wear my friendship bracelets once more. I'd taken them off as to avoid their destruction in the pottery, but since this was our last week for wet clay, this is no longer a threat to their existence. I delight in them so much, just thinking of the individuals who made them for me. What a task! To choose colours that represent a friend. ♥ Here are the colours my friends chose:

Megeggan: brown, green, white
Ellen Melon: 'camo' colours; and the second one is 2 shades of green & beige & cream in little ICTUS shapes!
Liz: same colours as Meggegan, different pattern, and with a foam fishie!
K. Seiverling: red, light orange, yellow, & flesh tone
Steph Stroup: exact same colour scheme in a different order [gotta love those LT girls]
Alicia: hot pink, purple & blue
BEN-NETT: morphing green [light to dark], red, yellow; with ventilation slits
Kayla: green & pink
The Sauce: grey & butter yellow
Wallace: red, yellow, orange
Charity: orange, yellow, bright green
Harrison: tan & red
These two have sadly not withstood my roughness, so Chair & Harrison, send me a new one!

This excites me to the possibility of aquiring more of these in the summer. I can't wait for the outdoor, loving, person-space-invading, living-with community of the girls at camp.



However, that's not to say that that's not developing here as well. I've loved growing in relationships with the lovely ladies of the Chris House in the past few weeks. I'm glad that I spend time there; it seems as though when I don't get sufficient Bible/prayer/God communication time in the mornings, I can pop in there after class. It's so good to have that pocket of Christian community in the middle of a secular and crazy campus.

Today there was a fire drill in response to a "bomb scare" at RACC that referenced Kutztown. AND some crazy guy was prancing around the NASA base in Houston with a gun. Of course, all this happens 8 years after the Columbine shooting and on Hitler's birthday and on POT DAY as Kathy keeps reminding us... This world is ridiculous. I can't wait for the King to come back and really clean up our mess. At least His creation out in the pure wilderness is still good.

Movies

...from Miranda.

Popcorn or candy?
Popcorn is tasty, but I can always go for those sour radioactive worms.

Name a movie you've been meaning to see forever.
Oh, Marie Antoinette, I'd say. There are more that I can't think of at the moment.

You are given the power to recall one Oscar: Who loses theirs and to whom?
2002 Best Picture Award goes to The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers from stupid ol' Chicago. Grrrr, I'm still bitter about that one.

Steal one costume from a movie for your wardrobe. Which will it be?
Hamish Campbell's kilt!

Your favorite film franchise is...
The entire Lord of the Rings franchise... I'll buy those action figures anyday. And the documentation on the making of the films is even as entertaining as the movie itself!

Invite five movie people over for dinner. Who are they? Why'd you invite them? What do you feed them?
The 4 Hobbits of the Fellowship, plus Bilbo; I'd feed them breakfast, second breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper.

What is the appropriate punishment for people who answer cell phones in the movie theater?
Flush it.

Choose a female bodyguard: Matilda Wormwood

What's the scariest thing you've ever seen in a movie?
Any scene of a woman in labor. Sheesh.

Your favorite genre (excluding comedy and drama) is?
Old-type war movies are the best, and by old-type I mean anything American Civil War and prior. I like swords.

Least favorite genre: Seabiscuit.

You are given the power to greenlight movies at a major studio for one year. How do you wield this power? I would want to direct a movie about my summer camp, to prove that all the movie summer camps are weirdly unreal. Honestly, who makes their campers wear uniforms? Plus, movie bears only come when a kid is tied to a tree or something... bears come every day in real life!