La sangre de Jesús: dirty streets now clean

This is a testimony of a man in a Brazilian village- I wrote it out but it's his story, and God did it. All glory to Him!

I spent most of my time, stealing, scraping up money and acquiring debts I couldn't pay, selling myself and my life to fermented corn instead of growing it for my now-motherless children who, for all I cared, could run wild.
When the white Christians came, I cursed them in my drunkenness and also on the rare days I was sober.

I hoped that my rotted teeth and see-through ribcage shocked them, made them feel guilty for their white teeth and fleshy bodies.

They tried to care for my children, and I hated the guilt that incurred on me. I went to their meetings to mock them- no curiousity in my mind, only hatred.

One week my last friend I had been borrowing money from abandoned me and I stayed sober for a few days- a miracle for me- and went to the Christian's meeting...

They read "la palabra de Dios" - I heard about mi pecado, la sangre de Jesús, y el cielo y el infierno. I was struck with fear.

I fled the streets to the jungle, and sat on a tree and called out to Jesús. He heard me. He cleaned my heart- all the dirty streets were now clean. My shriveled body felt strong, and I leapt up to praise this God.

No longer am I lost in debt and drunkenness- I reconciled with my wife and children. Now I'm learning about la palabra de Dios and going out to tell everyone I can about Jesús.

God has seen fit to bless this village. He did this.

[summer weather in our hearts]

Basically have been sharing this excerpt with anyone & everyone all day long!

"If I sin and am rebellious, help me to repent;
then take away my mourning and give me music;
remove my sackcloth and adorn me with beauty;
take away my sighs and fill my mouth with songs;
and when I am restored and rest in thee
give me summer weather in my heart."
-Valley of Vision

Since I'm not accustomed to cold weather, really, it's a rather wonderful concept for it to always be summertime somehow:)

Over break I met up with my friend Mohamed who's a Muslim. We've met to talk about Jesus several times, and his disbelief that Jesus can be fully God and yet fully man is understandable. Why would God humble Himself so much? The answers we have are in Ephesians 2 and Philippians 2...because of "the great love with which He loved us." (Eph 2:4)

"O astonishing grace that the reprobate race should be reconciled-- what a wonder of wonders that God is a child!" - Although Christmas has passed, I feel rather like Scrooge after his transformation- being amazed by & keeping Christmas in my heart all year 'round.

Then reminders are embedded in every aspect of life of WHY Jesus had to come- "the reprobate race" bit. . .

Sin. Ezekiel 23 where Israel's sin is described as the worst of whoring, so graphic it makes me sick, but also curious. Then I realize that the curiosity and wicked delight at reading it only proves that in my heart I am the harlot I'm reading about.

= total depravity.

But at that moment, grace interrupts.

Jesus says that yes, Emma, you are a reprobate, but my Father wants you as His daughter & I want you for my sister and as an heir of my righteousness & eternal joy worshiping my Father.

Then, truly, it is summer weather in my heart.

(Thanks to Emily Charles & Victoria Lee for helping me find the picture:)

[We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts]

C.S. Lewis' conjecture on why we read:

"The nearest I have yet got to answer is that we seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves. Each of us by nature sees the whole world from one point of view with a perspective and a selectiveness peculiar to himself. And even when we build disinterested fantasies, they are saturated with, and limited by, our own psychology. To acquiesce in this particularity on the sensuous level—in other words, not to discount perspective—would be lunacy. We should then believe that the railway line really grew narrower as it receded into the distance. But we want to escape the illusions of perspective on higher levels too. We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own."

(which is why i fear for this generation who doesn't read as much...have we stopped demanding windows, stopped desiring to 'imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts?' oh, i pray not!)

Eitherways, this weekend I was re-reading the third in the Melendy quartet by Elisabeth Enright, a phenomonal author. Her books are indescribably well-worded with normal people/children doing basically ordinary things but also capturing all of the things about life that we love but don't notice-- like how you see crazy colors & circles when you rub your eyes a lot, etc.

All wonderful books send this message to my brain which then for some reason shoots the info to my salivary glands that this book is good which in turn causes them to produce this reading-related saliva that's warm & merry-happy & completely unique & only comes when I read something excellent.

It's weird, but so so marvelous. Sharing that online was totally socially unacceptable too, I daresay :P

Also, a daydream I had today was about living in the Library of Congress in a fort made out of books--

Atlases for the roof (caroline thought up that bit of constructive genius:), C.S. Lewis as windowframes, an eclectic mix of Plato, Aristotle, and children's authors like Roald Dahl for the ladder, Flannery O'Connor as the floor (trample;) and much other literary architecture.

One of Jesus' names & manifestations is as the Word of God. God spoke the world into existence & gifted humans with speech. As always, all good things trace back to God.

[Soli Deo Gloria.]

on a really really (REALLY) unrelated side note:

I love NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!!!
i put a few pictures above.

quotes i've been slightly obsessing over:

"The defect in this one is bleach."

"I guess I will build her a cake or something."

"But my lips hurt real bad! Gosh!"

"Do the chickens have large talons?"

"Just practicing some..*chug* ...dance moves."

(ALL TIME FAVORITE!!)

"If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true."

-Not sure why i love it so much, but for right now it's a favourite.