weekends

So I got my hair done last weekend. I now have joined the ranks with the rest of the female population who have layers and highlights. I've never had layers before. Ever. And I've never dyed my hair before. I can no longer say, "I have never ever put anything in my hair. Not even lemon juice!" I was so proud to be able to say that. But I like my new hair. It's not drastic, but someday I think I want to go all the way. So don't be surprised if you see a blond Becca. It'll look good.

That was last weekend. This weekend was Brian's birthday and since he didn't need/want anything for a present I baked him cookies! Lots and lots of cookies. I spent all weekend in the kitchen. But I realized this weekend how much I love cooking. I'm so thankful that we have a stove/oven now! For the first 10 months living here we just had a toaster oven and a set of hotplates that you take camping. I was super excited and cooked lots when we first got it in December. I was cooking so much that I was afraid I'd get sick of cooking. But that hasn't happened yet! I still love cooking and trying new things. Brian and I have a good system: I cook, he eats, I eat, he cleans the dishes. I guess the final step would be a dishwasher. Once we have a dishwasher our lives will be complete. For a while.

more thoughts from Tozer

::God Incomprehensible::

• "Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe."
• however we visualize God isn't accurate and therefore is an idol
• try to imagine God by that-which-is-not-God

• we can know God when He reveals Himself through His Spirit to the seeking heart
• our yearning to know Him comes from the 'image of God in the nature of man' - deep calls unto deep

• "Faith is and organ of knowledge and love and organ of experience."

• God reveals Himself in personal experiences and stays aloof from reason.
• "Darkness to the intellect but sunshine to the heart." Frederick W. Faber

::A Divine Attribute: Something True About God::

• attribute: "whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself"
• it isn't a part of God, it is how God is
• your heart must be spiritually ready to receive before God reveals Himself

::The Holy Trinity::

• "When we consider the fearful mystery of Thy Triune Godhead we lay our hand upon our mouth."

• secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have diminished our wonder-turned us into zombies-caused us to become jaded

• God = trinity in unity, not confounding nor dividing
• every act of God is accomplished by the Trinity in Unity

• when we discuss God we have to use created words to describe the Creator
• on that note, it is better to say that the Trinity acquiesces rather than converses
• They do not come to an agreement as humans do, They simply are
• God can't divide Himself so that one Person works while the rest are inactive

• "The fact that [the doctrine of the Trinity] cannot be satisfactorily explained... is in its favor. Such a truth had to be revealed; no one could have imagined it."

thoughts from Tozer

I was looking through my notebook from this past year and came across my notes from A. W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy. I just wanted to share some thoughts that have blown me away:

::Preface::

• modern Christians don't/can't appreciate or experience life in the Spirit--we have lost the ability to withdraw and enjoy God in silence
• because we can't perform as we should when our idea of God is wrong, this book was written so we can rightly know the attributes of God

::Why We Must Think Rightly About God::

• "What comes into the mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
• thoughts and words are gifts to man from God (John 1:1)
• word and idea are indivisible, they allow us to be in communion with God

• having right thoughts about God is the foundation of our worship of Him and does 2 things:

1. relieves you of your temporal problems

2. causes you to realize the burden of never being able to obey God perfectly

• without feeling this burden the gospel means nothing

• most common sin: idolatry
• "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him."

Spirit-filled Life

This past Friday I gave a talk at our weekly meeting on campus at Simon Fraser University. You can listen to the talk at this website: http://sfu.campusforchrist.org/links.html. You can also see other things we're up to at SFU and hear other talks from previous weeks. If you follow along throughout the talk (it's about 20 minutes total) here's the diagram I used:

Let me know what you think!