Reading...

Sorina asked me what else is going on with me besides idiosyncrasies, so I promised her another post tonight.  Well, there isn’t anything too exciting going on today.  I read a bunch today, prepared for and taught English class, and will probably read some more before going to bed.  I’m currently working on Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, Conformed to His Image/The Servant As His Lord by Oswald Chambers, On the Threshold of Hope by Diane Mandt Langberg [note: I'm reading this at the request of a dear loved one, to help understand her struggles], Let Me Be A Woman and Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, and Ephesians by Paul, and I just finished Quest for Love by Elisabeth Elliot.  That I love to read is an understatement.  I used to read on the bus to school, and sometimes would finish a book a day as a kid.

 I guess I’ll write about something from Waking the Dead.  In the second chapter, Eldridge writes about how we need to open up the eyes of our heart to the spiritual war that is going on all around us.  He uses Daniel 10 as an example.  Go and read your Bible to get up to speed, but what happened was that Daniel was troubled, so he fasted and prayed for three weeks without seeing a result.  Eldridge proposes that if most of us were in that situation, we’d come to one of two conclusions – that either “I’m blowing it, or God is holding out on me” (31).

Daniel, if he’s like most of us, “might try confessing every sin and petty offense in hopes of opening up the lines of communication with God.  Or he might withdraw into a sort of disappointed resignation, drop the fast, and turn on the television.  In an effort to hang on to his faith, he might embrace the difficulty as part of ‘God’s will for his life.’  He might read a book on ‘the silence of God.’  That’s the way the people I know handle this sort of thing.

“He would be dead wrong.”                p. 31

After the three weeks of fasting and praying, an angel shows up.  God sent him out on the first day Daniel started praying, but he was delayed because of having to fight a fallen angel.  Eldredge makes his point that we are in a world at war.  There is more going on than meets the eye.

I don’t feel like I’m really communicating this well, but regardless, God spoke to me through this section.  I had a mini ‘ker-plunk’ moment.

Random link of the day - my brother and his trebuchet