This morning in class, we were talking about who we are in Christ. This may be the biggest thing that has stuck with me from Bible school. I love to look at Ephesians 1 and see who I am in Christ: blessed with every spiritual blessing (v.3), chosen (v.4), holy and blameless before him (v.4), adopted (v. 5), in the Beloved (v.6), redeemed (v.7), forgiven (v.7), co-inheritors with Christ (v.11), and we are the praise of His glory! (v.12) These are only a few of the qualities we as Christians have now that we are hidden in the life of Christ. I love to think of these things, and know without a doubt that these things are my Truth! This is who I am, my past, and my future.
We often think of "transformation" in the picture of a butterfly. We all know that caterpillars go into a cocoon, and reveal themselves as butterflies. I learned something new about butterflies today, that I want you to really think about (even if this is not new to you!) A caterpillar does not merely sprout wings to become a butterfly. While in his cocoon, he melts down completely and is truly transformed from one being to another. He has aspects of his old caterpillar-being, but he is now a new being. So much so that he receives a new name--butterfly!
Consider the spiritual application here--before Christ we were separated from God (Eph. 2:12) and condemned by works of the flesh (Rom. 8:3). Now that we are IN CHRIST, we are together with Christ: co-inheritors in fact! (Eph. 1: 11) In contrast to our "before Christ" days, we are also created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph. 2:10). In these two ways, we see how being in Christ has drastically transformed us from one being to another--once separated, now together; one condemned by works of the flesh, now created for good works!
Feel like you're in "melt-down" mode lately? Maybe you're right where God wants you! Consider who you are in Him, read Ephesians, or check to see where you can find "in Him" or "in Christ" in your Bible. I promise, you'll be encouraged at what you find!
I'm back home from the operation. I came home Monday around noon, and spent the next few hours sleeping off the anesthesia. Today I'm doing better--lots of liquids, and even had a little bit of solid food. Thanks so much for your prayers!
This week I was thinking about how I could "liven up" my language learning. In many of my classes, I point to an object, ask what it is, and my language helper says the name. This gets tiring after a few days--let alone months or years of study! I realized I needed a change of pace. I started thinking about when I was little, and what we do with little kids when they are learning English. I remembered the game "Memory"! Do you remember it? I remember playing it, and memorizing which card had the corner torn, or which card was folded and was creased--had to find someway to remember the cards! So this week I made my own "Memory" game. I took 14 nouns, drew them twice, colored them, and pasted them on cardstock. Now my teachers and roommates get to play Memory with me! :-) The picture is the first night the game was ready: Nazareth and Silvia played a half deck with me. The rules in this Memory game require me to speak the nouns each time the card is turned over, then to say whether or not they cards are the same. This gets me saying the gender of the noun (nouns have gender in Spanish) and pluralizing them when they are the same. This is a great activity. Any other ideas out there for ways to liven up language learning?
