[no victory, no sting]

1 Corinthians 15:6

[The last enemy to be destroyed is death]

Jesus was the only One ever truly born a King.

& The manger leading the cross leading to His return...mm it's amazing. Rejoice in Christ, all of my brothers & sisters redeemed from depravity!

(you too, Mr. depraved)

The house You're building/hey,reader, you're probably in this post!!!! (which means you should read it :P)

This song is wonderful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSFUBaeQbNk&feature=BF&list=QL&index=20

(thanks bethany for the introduction)

So.

Yesterday at missions prayer Bethany came in & a bit into the few minutes we talk before praying, she announced:

"I have a confession to make. I read your blog."

Me: "Wow. Really? What d'you think of it?"

Bethany: "It's good. Hey Ricki, do you know you're on Emma's blog?"

Ricki: "I am?"

Me: "uhh..."

(Sonja walks in)

Bethany: "Sonja, you're on it too!"

(Josiah enters)

"Hey, so are you! Oh, and Zac, you are too..."

[[Katie probably asked if she was, & hasn't been-- YET, so-- Katie Albright, I LOVE YOU. You are so so wonderful.]]

Me: "You're making it sound so much creepier than just a list of people I'm thankful God's put in my life . . ."

Then later on when we were writing prayer requests on the board & just having a phenomenal time of it, and something funny (rats can't remember) happened, Ricki burst out: "You should put this on your blog!"

Henceforetowith (yeh that's a word NOW) here I am, blogging about all of you.

So if you get around to reading this, know that I love you all. & I thank my God every time I remember you.

Gonna steal Paul's words to express it:

" I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

Phillippians 1:3-11

Also, another thing we covered over dinner after MP last night is that I REALLY REALLY wish that I had been born in the Puritan era (reading & praying through valley of vision only makes the wish stronger)...Pilgrim's a great last name, but Puritan would be better. Mr. Depraved, name changes only cost a couple hundred bucks...could we possibly? - Please pray about it ;)

Yes, we are hideous without Christ, but in Him we are truly lovely & pure & perfect.

Mm. Press on. I love you all with more than mere sentiment, because of the Father, Son, & Spirit. All glory to them.

-ms. (on my own) depraved/ ms. (in Christ) redeemed & lovely

p.s. if you aren't directly in this post & really feel as if you were misled by the title, you can win a chance at achieving world fame by having me ghost write your autobiography or biography of your exciting life (for a fee of trident layers & a few new chuck norris jokes ;)

[all the small things]/"hideous without Christ"

SWEET MERCIFUL BISCUITS.

Where to start about the past few weeks?

Went home for Thanksgiving. One of the best reformed moments happened during dinner on Thursday - as everyone went around saying what we're thankful for, I said: "I'm so thankful that I'm elect."

Earned me some odd stares & eyebrow raises, plus some "Only here can you say that freely- imagine if you said that with all the extended family around, they'd be pretty weirded out..."

-For which I'm also very grateful, that I have free speech in America & in my house :)

Also good moments at home: catching a catfish out kayaking Mosquito Lagoon with Dad :) ...fed a numerous amount of skeeters there too...

Skipping forward to this Monday, a ruther embarrassing moment. Was walking through the bookstore parking lot with my new friend Austin, and had just accidentally said a word I've been trying not to say, then we were talking about James 3:
"[N]o human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water."

I was emphatically quoting it & not watching where I was going so I ran straight into someone's side mirror on their ghetto car. It must've been loose, 'cause it fell off...for a full 30 seconds we just stood there staring at it, while people walking by snickered wickedly.

I now feel as if I know (if only very slightly) what it'd feel like to break off a chunk of a precious Greek statue. [how can i say? it feels as if your eyeballs falling into your esophagus & your toes are instinctively curling in your boots from horror.]

Left a note- they ain't called me yet.

This week began the 24/7 prayer on our hall, our sister & bro dorms. Hit the prayer room today & had the hardest time concentrating. SPIRIT EMPOWER ME. I am so WEAK.

& Yesterday was an old self day :/ Ricki & I had lunch & she is SUCH AN ENCOURAGEMENT! - She's my Jonathan.

Then through Christ, Java reminded me of God's kindness that is intended to lead us to repentance, & of how it is only Christ who saves us from our mad-depravity:

"Praise God so much! Because I am so hideous without Him. & No offense, but you would be too."

(offense taken by my sin nature that hates how true that is, but the Spirit won my mind back to see how lovely the beauty of grace IS)

Very very grateful for the people God's given me this past year/semester:

Sonja Tucker

Jessica B

Josiah Wegner

Rickster

Ben

Zac Canfield

Katie

Kenny

Emily

Victoria

the fam!!! Caroline, Cate, Han, Abs, Mum, Dad, Jerms, Pablo

24 DAYS 'TIL CHRISTMAS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1Mzb-wD-U <--quoting this constantly!

"if we open all the boxes straightaway now...."

"the horse with twigs on his head!"

& waterdeep's pandora brings up incredible worship music.


All the time now I just want to share the richness of life with every Christian alive, but in Christ they have it whether we share it together over dinner or not, so I can rejoice in the Lord always & so can they!

- still a battle, but this is a fantasmic time of refreshing, now.

Christmas lights up in our postage-stamp-sized dorm room, sharpening a candy cane to a dagger-point right now :)

Much much affection in Christ,

ms. depraved

p.s. Thinking about writing a musical about a Liberty student who works in the Rot & has a horrible, awful, no-good day then gets fed up with working there & steals everyone's Flames passes (which you have to have to get into the Rot) so no one can come anymore. then he can have a song sequence dancing through the empty rot & eating all the cake :P

then there can be a scene with students in their dorms eating gruel & weeping from hunger.

& then go to campus church or something, get convicted, have a Scrooge/Grinch-esque change of heart, then return everyone's Flames passes & make gourmet meals for everyone.

silly idea, but it's fun to think those up :)

"[Abraham] grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God" - an exhortation to my own heart & to Mr. Depraved's

Dear Mr. Depraved (and other readers)

So today I picked up "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich B! Hopefully you'll read it soon if you haven't already so we can gush about it together!

& hey, this made me laugh alots-

http://stuffchristianslike.net/2008/05/240-kirk-cameron/

stuff Christians like can be a lil' iffy, but often amusing...

Here's my main thought for this letter--

Romans 4:13-25:

"For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

16That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." 19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead ( since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." 23But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."

WHAT.

Here's my stream-of-consciousness as I journaled about this passage-

"Abraham: not justified by works, but by faith-- Rich Mullins, "Screen Door" - 'Faith comes from God & every word that He breathes"

Only because of the PROMISE that GOD made Abraham was able to put his faith into sometime- because God's promise & covenant were true (*ARE TRUE NOW)

-So even in our faith it's still all glory to God & like it says in 4:20 - our faith can only become stronger if we acknowledge all glory to God.

The only reason faith is even possible & of worth is because God gives us true promises & hope to put our faith in.

Wow x a gazillion.

So, Mr. (totally) Depraved, grow strong in your faith in giving all glory to God & Jesus & His blood, as this sinful-apart-from-Christ Ms. (totally) Depraved does the same, by His grace.

[Soli Deo Gloria]

O Great God- Valley of Vision

O Fountain of all good, Destroy in me every lofty thought,
Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds,
Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness,
Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,
Open in me a fount of penitential tears,
Break me, then bind me up;
Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God;
Then can the Father take up his abode in me,
Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch,
Then can the Holy Spirit descend in sanctifying grace;
O Holy Trinity, three Persons and one God,
inhabit me, a temple consecrated to thy glory.
When thou art present, evil cannot abide;
In thy fellowship is fullness of joy,
Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience,
By thy side no fears disturb,
no apprehensions banish rest of mind,
With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance;
Make me meet, through repentance,
for thine indwelling.
Nothing exceeds thy power,
Nothing is too great for thee to do,
Nothing too good for thee to give.
Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love,
limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name.
Let angels sing for
sinners repenting,
prodigals restored,
backsliders reclaimed,
Satan’s captives released,
blind eyes opened,
broken hearts bound up,
the despondent cheered,
the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies,
the ignorant enlightened,
and saints built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God.

This past weekend with Ben (potential Mr. Depraved ;) & Mr. Luhrsen, we read alot of hymns & had rich conversations about grace. So grateful for those kinds of weekends. This one ought to be more of the same- time with Cate & Caroline & sisters :)

1/111039495 of hyperbole

i thought i could try to draw like allie brosh...y'know, just random microsoft paint pictures ...it's hard.



what is that, an owl batman wannabe?

i'm...not sure.

rejoice & lament

Josh Garrels came on shuffle on a long run through autumn-streaked mountains yesterday...

Learn this lesson well, my friend

There's a time to rejoice and lament

Every season will find an end

All will fade and be made new again

Standing on the rocks of the railroad tracks

Feet calloused, eyes open, sun beats on my back

As I gaze upon the unseen winds

And they are wandering, whispering

Wisdom that's eternal

From the heart to the mind

To the hand to the journal

Now the kernel of the seeds in the cleft of the rock

And it's watered by the winds

Having power to unlock and

Stop the clock of chronological logic

With its homogenized systems

That are dead and can't dodge it

Being deaf to the voice of the Almighty One

Spirit illumines the dark like a fire

Revealing the way that was hidden but is higher

Now we must travel on the wings

That will never grow tired

Of searching the mysteries of God

I said Father the feathers of my wax wings

Fall away by the rising of the sun

And I have descended when I was undone

And I will ascend when your Spirit comes

Because what's been done and overcome

Cannot be stopped by the power of any human

Like the number of sand we will stand

And we will fall, all

In the face of an eternal call

But those who call on His name

In the midst of the pain

In the guilt and the shame

And the world full of blame

And all the bloody stains

From the unjust gains

I learned all men suffer the same

Because we're wayward sons

And all our jokes betray

Our foolish hearts and our selfish ways

But if we would turn to the Father's grace

We would never be the same

This is an unseen land of a devastated soul

That's prepared in contemplative silence

For the mighty working hand of an unseen Lord

To come restore this land from its violence

I said walk another mile

Stare across the fields of grain

This is how the prophets train

Learn this lesson well my friend

There's a time to rejoice and lament

Every season will find an end

All will fade and be made new again