Title: Proper respect
Colossians 3:18-4:1
Key Verse 23

This passage starts off with very practical advice - be obedient to the respective authority in your life, whether that be parents or masters. It is good to be respectful. Then, you hit verses 23-24 and it takes a twist on perspective:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

As we are to love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength, we are to do all that we do with a mind to glorify him, and not ourselves. Even in matters of social duty, we are to have our minds set on Jesus, not only on the person we are honoring. This should make it easier for me to be sincere and respectful when I have to do things I don't like for people toward whom I don't have a deep loyalty. I need to remember to work at it with all my heart!!

Ok, but here is the trouble. I don't feel that I deserve any reward from God, so I have some trouble with verse 24... I should be so happy and filled with determination to work hard and seek good gifts, just as I work hard to earn money and buy stuff. But,...to me it seems so selfish. Shouldn't it be enough to serve God because He is worthy?

One Word: Work hard for God


(Nehemiah worked hard!! ^_^ Ok, now I gotta put word into action and face this presentation...)

I love music!!

My Vocal playlist (includes Bjork, Delerium, Vast)

My techno/trance playlist (Dj Doboy vocal editions and trancequility)

I downloaded Dj Doboy's Trancequility 26 and I was so excited to recognize a version of "North Pole" XD Yay!!

For some reason, studying sanctification makes me want to read Exodus 25-31.

"“Now take Aaron and Aaron’s sons: Nadab, Abihu, Elemazar, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty...they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked."

"And the LORD said to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices...you shall make of these an incense...salted, pure, and holy."

I have such an affinity for the Tabernacle.

If I ever meet one of the tribe of Levi, they'd better be afraid! I will ask them all sorts of questions and they won't be able to get me to stop. XD Also, I would try to get them to remind me to study Hebrew...

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Anyway, tonight I had very tasty honeydew. Mmmm. That and poppy-seed bread was a great combination :) During the day, I did homework and other sorts of things. I did not see any interesting wild animals. Last night, however, I saw a deer a few feet away. Curious, I started talking to it. It looked at me with ears raised and looked like it might start coming toward me, so I turned and rushed to my apartment. I don't mind Nara deer, but I don't yet trust DC deer. I also saw three rabbits that night! One was on the hill along Campus drive, another was hanging out with the deer, and the last one was running alongside me as I passed through the woods. So much life!

Last night I didn't sleep very well, so I am considering going to bed early. I have a presentation tomorrow about how to manage desktop records in a university.


...I still haven't had time to read the play Athalie/Athaliah. How many months has it been now?

When did it become disjointed?
The idea from the meaning?

She sits at a desk, headset on. [dah dit dit dit] They all asked why she would bother with such an outdated thing. Why not toy with the talking kind of radio? This was 30 year old technology. Sometimes, she thought, there is just character in the old stuff. Of course, they wouldn't understand. They weren't here to do the real work, anyway. They just stood guard.

She sat back and stopped transcribing. It was all the same anyway. [dit dit dah dit dit]

The roof of the tent was flapping about and the stripes seemed to bleed with the sunlight beyond. Why did they work during the day? Shouldn't they wait till nightfall?

At this time of morning, nobody was around the camp. They were all busy working. But only one of them was really interested in what they were seeking. She knew his eagerness and recklessness, but couldn't help but feel a shared sense of thrill. This was no ordinary challenge.

She looked over at the screen. From it hung a few hats and a robe.

"But you are not one of them..."

[dit dah dit dit] brought her back. Back to a troubled frame of a moment. What does one do when the meaning is taken out of the idea and the idea paraded before the eyes of men? Even if it is done as a curious, intellectual pursuit, it cannot be safe. What monstrous powers were being toyed with? What was this thunderbolt that they sought to grasp?

No, she knew it. But... the idea alone is so appealing, so why not take just the idea and leave the meaning behind?

[dah dah dah]

So many days sitting at the desk to translate old manuscripts. The relics found, examined, documented in such intricate detail. Such wondrous and beautiful things. Yet, were they all a vanity and a chasing under the sun?... [dah dah dit dah] What would you do?

Were the meaning put back into the idea, what would you do, then?

Would the proper response be to turn away in terror or to take up the shadows, now with form and spirit, to really complete a work.

Have you already forgotten and grown too cold?
In fearlessness will you go forward. Forward on Balaam's donkey into the sword of an angry angel? You cannot see it... Those things which tempt us. We think they make us holy. But don't you feel the rattling, the groaning deep in your chest when you don that breastplate?

This is now how it was meant to be.
So why am I still here?

I will remain until I learn whether or not one can live to glorify an idea.