Faithfulness

An Old Greek Myth:

Once apon a time there lived a beautiful queen named Penelope
who was carefully weaving a white linen roll. (Dont ask me what a white
linen roll is- I would assume it is like a doiley?) It was a gift for her
husband apon his return. (I have no idea why a king would want a doiley...)
For years the king had been fighting in the Trojan War and the queen
anxiously awaited for his return every day. Each and every day Penolope
would say his name over and over again, somehow hoping he would hear the cry
of her aching heart.

One day, many great cheifs and princes, all in search
of a wife, set sail for Ithaca to try to win Penelop's hand. They assured the
lonely queen that the king had died in battle, and it would be best for the
people of Ithaca and for her own protection that she pick one of them to be her
new husband.

Penelope answered, "Heroes and most honored princes, I
refuse to believe what you say. I am certain that my noble
husband lives, and I must faithfully keep his kingdom for him until he returns.
I am weaving a white linen roll for him even now."

The princes and cheifs refused to return home and daily reminded her of her need
for a husband and Ithaca's need for a king.

Weeks passed by, and still Penelope did not bend but continued to failfully weave
her linen roll in hopes of the kings return. The cheifs and princes tried
every possible persuasian, but to no avail. The group of hopeful suitors
moved into the palace and they refused to depart until Penelope choose one
of them to marry.

A weary and reluctant Penelope finally agreed to
choose a new husband as soon as she finished weaving her white linen roll, if
the king had not returned by then. Weeks passed, and she kept weaving. However,
by night she would secretly unravel all the thread she had woven during the day.
Eventually she was discovered.

A leader amoung them, named Agelaus, called the assembly together and
addressed Penelope in a loud voice: "Queen Penelope,
your stubbornness has left us no choice but to take this matter into our own
hands. we have seen your trickery in delaying the
compeletion of your linen roll, and we will stand for it no longer. Finish it by
tomorrow and select your new husband by noon, or we will choose him for you! We
will not wait another day."

The next afternoon all the suitors
waited to hear Penelope's chosen one. Just as she entered the banquet
hall, a strange beggar quietly crept into the assembly. His head was hidden
beneath a tattered hood, and a ragged cloak was wrapped around his decrepit
body. He hobbled to the back of the hall quietly, unnoticed save for a few
mocking sneers from the suitors he passed. Penelope began to speak,
capturing the attention of all the present.

"Cheifs and Princes," said Penelope with a knot of
greif in her throat, "we will leave this decision to fate. Behold, I am
holding the great bow of my husband, the king.
Each of you must try your strength in bending it, and I will choose the one
amongst you who can shoot the most accurate."

"Agreed!" cried the suitors and they lined up to test their strength.

One after the other struggled to bend the
great bow. Then losing patience, each of the gallant nobles threw it to the
ground and stode away.

"Only a giant could bend that bow of iron!" they moaned.

"Perhaps the filthy old beggar would like to test his strength," one yelled with a sneer.

At that, the begger rose from his chair and moved with halting steps to the
head of the hall.

"You old fool!" the suitors called out in derision as the old travelor
picked up the great bow.

Suddenly, a remarkable change came over the stranger.
The decrepit travel straightened his back and rose to his full height, and
even in a beggars rags it was impossible to notice that this weary traveler
was every inch a king. Then, without effort, he bent the
bow and strung it as everyone in the great hall looked on in astonishment.
The king had returned!

Penelope ran to her hero and embraced him.
Then with the voice of an angel, she said, "I have
faithfully kept your kingdom, my nobel king!" She tenderly presented him
with the white linen roll. "I spent years weaving this gift in hopes of your
return. On the day I finished it, I was told to choose a husband." Then
placing a tender kiss on his soiled check, she said, "I choose you."

Isnt faithfullness beautiful? Unfortunately, if Penelope were a woman of today, she would have run off with the first cute prince that came her way. In our microwavable, fast-food generation, our desires can be answered with a click of a button. Asking you to wait for true love and actually having you listen is just as likely as my throwing a side of beef to a hungry lion and convincing him to put it in a Tupperware container and save it for tomorrow. We are used to getting everything we want as soon as we want it. To be honest- not many of us actually want to wait.

Most of us do not think about how our decisions today will affect us in the long run- but we need to contemplate these things! No matter how many boyfriends or girlfriends we have, no matter how many times we hear or say the words "I love you," it will always be empty and leave you wanting for more. BUT when you put God in the center of your world, you will be able to wait for your true love. It is difficult, but it will be worth it! We need to be faithfull to our future spouses. What if you found out that your future spouse has had sex with a dozen people or that they have already said "I love you" to a number of companions? I would find that to be devestating news- wouldnt you?

I encourage you to be faithfull to your Mr. or Mrs. Wonderful.

-C

Alliteracy in a Illiterate World

“Will reading become obsolete?” (Gene Edward Veith)

I am currently enjoying Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature by Gene Edward Veith. Veith is the academic dean at Patrick Henry College and has written a number of well-respected books.

Veith opens up the first chapter of this particular book with this disturbing question:

“Will reading become obsolete?”

Take a few minutes and dwell on a life without books.

I tried to imagine a world where there was no literature and became depressed. My mind recalled a book that I read last year called Fahrenheit 451. Classified as a fictional novel, the author does an amazing job at describing a life without books. In the particular town where Fahrenheit 451 takes place, books are banned. Instead of reading, the people watch their “boxes” (or television sets). The people soon become brainwashed and are obsessed with these boxes. There are a few people, however, that secretively keep books and read them. When the books owners are discovered by the local firefighters, they are imprisoned and all the books are burned to ashes. Life was depressing.

Veith writes:

“As television turns our society into a increasingly image dominated culture,
Christians must continue to be people of the Word.” The only way that we can
become an expert on God is too study Him and His Word.

John 1:1 says:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God."

Romans 10:17 says:

"Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard
through the word of Christ."

God’s word is written down in the pages of the Bible (a book!) and as we read the Bible, God is speaking to us in an intimate way- one Person to another.

When it comes to reading, our society primarily has two different 'types' of people. The first is a illiterate person. This is someone who longs to read but is not able to (whether it is the lack of opportunities or the lack of knowledge). The second type of person is one who is alliterate. This person was taught to read and has the opportunities to read but chooses not to read. Isn't there something wrong with both of those 'types' of people?

“The capacity to read is a gift from God” (Veith)

Are you taking advantage of God’s gift?

-C

Becoming an Expert

Did you know that to become an expert on something you must study the particular subject for over 10,000 hours? This means that if an average person decided to study one subject, full time (for 40 hours a week), it would take them over FIVE years to become an expert. WOW! If you think about it, five years isn't really that long. Unfortunately though, many of us don't spend 40 hours a week on one subject. We jump from one thing to another, spending a few minutes on everything. Our attention spans have been trained to be short. We spend more time on on the Internet and watching TV than praying to our Heavenly Father. When we do sit down to study God's word, we become distracted! Wouldn't it be amazing to spend five years and ONLY study God's word and TO BE AN EXPERT ON IT!?! Wouldn't it be amazing to know God that well? I think that it would be better than anything else in my life.

What are you spending your time to become an expert on? Something that has no long term gain- or something that will have a better reward than anything on this planet? Something that is temporary or something eternal?

This is a strugge for me- but I believe through prayer and dedication, I CAN become an "expert" on God's word. I truly desire to be an expert on God's word...and I hope that you do too.

-C

Just a Teenager...

I am a teenager living in difficult times. Not only has the number of unemployment sky rocketed in the last year (last week Detroit, MI had over 29% unemployment) but more importantly, we live in a time where God is forgotten. Teenagers are expected to do nothing. Satan has a grasp on most of the earths population. War and hunger are present. Slavery prevails. AIDS is taking more lives than any other disease in the history of mankind. Barack Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize for "trying" to do something. The world tells us to be self serving and lazy. Christians have let their conscious become weak. But in despite of all this despair- GOD IS STILL THERE- and He still cares!

I have adopted these words as my life motto: "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:20-21

I am constantly sinning, yet constantly forgiven by my Merciful Savior, and constantly sanctified by God become more like Him. ...

-C