Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Seventeen

Today's Task is focused on the spiritual discipline of fasting. I decided to do a computer fast on Sunday, since fasting from food wasn't workable. I've been trying to get into regularly doing a internet fast for Sundays, but haven't worked towards doing it for a full twenty-four hours. This was good motivation to work on that. Instead of checking my email, I instead would spend time working on memorizing Romans 12, along with spending time in prayer. Fasting is an important spiritual discipline that has been greatly neglected by the church today. As circumstances allow, I hope to move towards fasting not just on Sundays, and not just from internet.

Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Fifteen

Task Fifteen is basically to read Can We Be Good Without God? It's a good article, addressing whether or not we can know and do what is good without God. It brings up some good points. One of them is that everyone has the law of God engraved on their hearts, but it is a matter of whether or not we are lying to ourselves about what we know deep-down to be true. If you repeat a lie long enough, at some point you will start to believe that the lie is actually the truth. On our own, we can do good works...occasionaly, that is. I enjoyed the way the author illustrated it:

Once one of my students asked if he could talk about God with me. I said okay. He told me he didn't see why he couldn't be good without God. I asked him why he didn't. He said, "Because I think I'm a decent person." I replied, "If you think your decency is high enough for God, your idea of God must be pretty low." At first he was shocked. But then I asked him whether he thought he could go a week without selfishness, without resentment, without lust. I asked whether he thought he could go a day, an hour, ten minutes. He got the point, because he knew he couldn't. By myself, neither can I.

Without Christ, we can't know good or do good works. It is awesome to think of how Yahweh chose me to serve Him, and that He has given me the power and ability to do good works and has graciously given me His word to discern what is good and what is evil.

Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Fourteen

Today's task focuses on life. Why should we be concerned about protecting pre-born life?

1. Yahweh creates the pre-born. "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb." (Psalm 139:13)

2. Yahweh takes seriously the life of the pre-born. "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise" (Exodus 21:22-25).

3. Yahweh has plans for the pre-born, even before they are created. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5); "But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through His grace . . ." (Galatians 1:15)



4. Children are blessings and rewards. "Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; the fruit of the womb is a reward" (Psalm 127:3).

5. They are human beings. "When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit…[saying] ‘As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy'" (Luke 1:41, 44).

6. We are commanded not to kill. "You shall not murder." (Deuteronomy 5:17)

Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Thirteen

This task  kicks off Worldview week.

What does Romans 12:1-2 reveal about God and how we live in light of His truths? We see that He is merciful and holy, and He desires us to be holy as He is holy. We should be following His truths, not what the world is telling us. We are living sacrifices to God, and as such are to be seeking, with His help, to be perfect and acceptable sacrifices to Him. There is connection here between our spiritual and physical - we are to serve Him physically as well as spiritually. We should not be seeking to satisfy our flesh, but to be storing us spiritual treasures, treasures in heaven.

John Piper's sermons, A Cause to Live For, makes some good points. To die for something is a one-time act. To live for something is a constant dying to oneself. Certainly the first can be difficult, but the latter is one of the toughest things to do. Don't just be willing to die for Christ, be willing to live for Him and to change the world around you for His glory.

Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Eleven & Twelve

For Task Eleven, I had to step outside of my comfort zone and meet somone new. Check. :)

Task Twelve was a little more difficult. It's things I know but have a hard time putting into practice. For certain reasons, I don't find it easy to plug into the church that my family attends. This is something I should probably work on more, but for various personal reasons I have not. I did send a short thank-you to a young lady who is on the worship team and does a good job selflessly serving the church. Hopefully it was an encouragement to her.

Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Nine & Ten

Task Nine was simple enough, performing an act of service for someone.

Task Ten focuses on mentorship. I haven't quite thought of mentorship in relation to myself (as either mentor or 'mentoree') so it was definitely an interesting read. Obviously,  most difficult part is when there isn't anyone there - either to learn from or to teach. As I've watched the younger girls that I know grow older (I'm still trying to believe that both one of my closest friends and my younger sister are turning eighteen...) I am starting to realize that I've already been through what some of these young ladies are just starting to embark on. It's actually a little frightening to me to realize that I am that old! ;-) Thus I've been pondering what exactly I would tell these girls when they struggle with some of the issues I've already been through. Perhaps some of these musings will appear as a future blogpost. Or if you really want to know, I'll just talk to you personally. ;-)

My family's adoption journey over the past several years has been one of those events that has aided to shape me into the person I am today. There is so much I wish I knew when we started out that took years to learn and I hope that perhaps I can save someone the pain I and my family have been through by learning from my family's experiences. Some things will only be learned by personal experience but certainly not everything. Hopefully by sharing what we've learned, others will avoid the same mistakes and won't have the same naiveness.

I've also realized how I need to be willing to have mentors. I have the privilege of having very wise friends whose counsel I trust. I certainly am thankful for that blessing, for I know that not everyone has that opportunity. It's reassuring to know that they're there whenever I need advice, and I can trust in them to give solid biblical counsel. I just need to not be afraid to ask!

Boundless Summer Challenge, Task Eight

For this task, I am to memorize and meditate on the community aspect of Romans 12:3-8.

There are two particularly good reminders in this passage. The first is that we can't function well together as a community unless we are humble. How can I get along with others if I think I am better than them all? Pride is something we all have, that can manifest itself in many different ways and is something that we have to constantly battle against. Secondly, we each will differ in our gifts (as I mentioned in the last post) and are to faithfully serve the Lord and glorify Him with the gifts He has given us.