It has been quite a while since I blogged, but not much concerning Romania has happened. I am still working on learning the language. This morning I found a great little coffee shop and had some time so I decided I would do a language lesson. This may sound like a good idea, but what you must realize is that the lessons are audio and require you to speak out loud. So, there I sat with my headphones on, randomly speaking phrases in a foreign language. I didn't feel like a total crazy person, though, because there was a guy across the room who was speaking French to his computer. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was on Skype. :)
Where everyday life is concerned:
1) There are only 23 days of school left until summer. I cannot believe my 2nd year of teaching is coming to a close! I still love my job, coworkers, and students. I must confess that I have been feeling a little inadequate of late. I guess when you get to the end of a season you start to look back and ask what you accomplished. At least I do. I hope that my students have learned- that they have gained life lessons as well as music knowledge. And that they feel safe and loved in my classroom. I hope that my coworkers know me and are able to see Christ in me. I see so many areas where I need to improve and continue to learn. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Colossians 3:23)
2) I am currently going through a video series about doctrine with my small group from church. This past week was about worship. I have been thinking about several of the things that Driscoll taught. He used Romans 12:1 which says,
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship."
What do you know about sacrifices? In the Old Testament, before Jesus had come, the people of God had to follow very specific laws and offer very specific sacrifices (animals and food) as atonement (amends) for their sins (mistakes). But when Jesus Christ died for us, He gave Himself as a sacrifice that covers all sin, so we no longer are bound by the laws of sacrificing. This is an amazing and undeserved gift, but it is completely free and does not require anything of us.
So, when the Bible tells us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice as an act of worship, it kind of redefines worship. Many times we think that worship is going to church and singing songs, even if we don't like the music. But this says everything we do is worship. Sadly, our worship is not always for God and we begin to sacrifice to other things. Like work- it becomes god because we sacrifice time for family to it. Like relationships- it becomes god because we sacrifice honor, obedience, and pure bodies to it. Like money- it becomes god because we sacrifice giving and debt to it. We will sacrifice to whatever we worship. It is so easy to let good things become god. Satan deals in subtlety. He doesn't want us to realize that he is taking over. Idols creep in and before we know it, our idolatry becomes the "opposite of worship." We put people in the place of judge instead of recognizing God as judge.
Driscoll suggests that as we struggle with sin that we actually have worship problems. That our priorities are out of order. This really made me think about the areas where I put other things before God. How I long for my life to be worship. To be holy and pleasing to God. And how thankful I am for His grace, for I will fail. I will make mistakes. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)
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