Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Radical Living

     Christ said "everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life." (Matt 19:29) He also said, as most people have heard before, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lost it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matt 16:24-25)
     I have struggled with these verses for a long time. What does it mean to give up everything as a college student? We can't all quit college and move to Uganda and poor out our lives on orphans. (or can we?!) I read a book over Christmas called Kisses from Katie (which I highly recommed) that told a story of a 19ish year old woman who moved to Uganda and adopted around 14 young girls. Crazy! But everyone can't do this, as much as we long to. So what does it look like practically to live radically, with total abandonement to Christ every single day of our lives? I feel like if we do anything less, we are missing out on great joy and delight in the Lord. He wants our whole hearts, and deserves as much. How can we give it all to him in the mundane, daily busyness of our lives? Or can we?
   

Sunday, January 29, 2012

So while I'm here in the beautiful state of Colorado, I decided to create a blog about the awesome things God will be teaching and showing me in this unique time of my life. It will also be a good idea to become more technologically advanced so that if I'm ever a teacher, my students will not make me feel like a dunce. This place (the blog) will also be a great place to write about one of my passions: books! That, and lack of a better name, is why I called it Rachel's reading/writing room, which I very possibly will change. So I'll put on here review-like comments about what books I'm reading at the moment. And I also want to hear about what books any of you are reading and what God is doing in your life! Anyone feel free to comment and post things because I will definitely get sick of listening to myself talk. So welcome to my blog. Hopefully I will remember to keep it up.
    -Rach