by Alaina | Apr 25, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
Give to the Lord the glory He deserves! Bring your offering and come into His presence. Worship the Lord in all His holy splendor.
1Chronicles 16:29 NLT
Do you remember when you were very young and you thought the world revolved around you? Your parents were there to take care of you and people made a fuss over you because you were little and cute and, hey, why shouldn’t they? I vaguely remember the feeling of shock (I was pretty young!) when I first started to realize that I was just one piece in a big, big world and that a vast portion of that world could care less about me.
When an elderly neighbor who had been like a grandparent to me passed away, I remember that feeling—a feeling something akin to betrayal—that the world would have the audacity to keep turning even when our corner of it had been shattered. We pause for a time over the loss of a loved one, then we slowly pick up where we left off and go about our daily lives. We start finding our new normal in the wake of a loved one’s absence. The reality of losing someone you love makes you realize that the only person whose world stops turning when you die is yours and everyone and everything else will keep going without you. It has not stopped yet for one person who has died on this earth. Loved ones may take years to get over the loss; they may never truly move on. Others will move on at a rate that may alarm us. But. The world will continue to turn. It doesn’t revolve around us.
We learn this more the older we get. We get an inkling of what real life will be like when we graduate high school. Then again when we graduate from whatever higher education, if any, that we choose, and ultimately when we are officially thrust out into the real world it always comes as a bit of a shock. I don’t mean to imply that we are all terribly self-absorbed brats for all of our formative years, or that everyone immediately grows up when we are thrusted out, but as a whole we do become intimately acquainted with these facts of life in ways that perhaps weren’t fully realized before. Many of us in the church today tend to still carry some of this self-centeredness into our spiritual walk.
I have heard many people explain why they go to church, why others should go to church, what they look for in a church, and what is important to them in a church. They may say it is important to have a great children’s ministry, or an adult outreach program, or Bible study groups, or great music, or taking time to meditate and reflect on life. All of these are important, but they are still at their heart self-centered. What about the importance of worshiping and praising God? Of glorifying Him because He is the whole reason we even exist?
We are commanded to be in fellowship with other believers, to grow in Christ, but this isn’t all. One of the fundamental principles that we are told over and over again in God’s word is that we are to worship Him. In all seasons. We are to get ourselves to church, whether it be a physical building or a house church, where we can gather with other believers, and we are to sing. To praise. To testify. And to worship our King. In all seasons. No matter what. Even when our world has crumbled. Even when we don’t feel like it. No matter what, we are to worship Him.
It’s about Him. He loves us. He wants us to be happy but He knows we will only find true joy and peace in Him. In singing His praises, in the good times and bad. It is about focusing on Him and all His goodness, rather than focusing on ourselves. It’s not about us—it is all about Him.
by Alaina | Apr 18, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
Philippians 4:5 NIV
I am not a naturally gentle person. I can be helpful, thoughtful, I can be a faithful friend; but gentle…eh… not so much. Patience- oh yes I need that one! Self-control- yep that’s a good one too! Surely the other fruits of the spirit that could compensate for what I might be lacking in that category. Maybe because I know this is a fruit of the spirit where I am especially lacking I subconsciously wrote it off as one of those Fruits of the Spirit that yes, I should practice cultivating but I mean really— if He wanted me to be gentle, wouldn’t He have made me a little more inclined that way?? I tended to write gentleness off as weakness, at least until I met someone who changed my view on gentleness.
There was a lady I knew at the church we attended while I was growing up. This woman was the kindest, most gentle woman you have ever met. She was soft spoken, and always focused her attention fully on you when she was speaking with you. She looked you in the eye and sincerity beamed from her. She was the epitome of gentleness. And she wasn’t weak. Her gentleness was evident to all.
If there was something that needed to be called out she would gently but firmly do so. She would voice her options when need be, and keep silent the rest of the time. Coincidentally she happened not to voice a strong opinion very often, which does give one pause to think about how many opinions we voice that are truly necessary. How many churches have suffered from unnecessary opinions being stated in a less-than gentle manner? I am not suggesting that we never voice an opinion- that is dangerous too- but oh how a gentle statement can change a whole discussion!
To this day, I have never met anyone who has embodied such Christlike warmth, gentleness, and love. Thanks to her, I no longer see gentleness as weakness, rather I see it as quiet strength and a loving attitude.
In the years since, I have moved and stopped attending that church. I have been in many different settings and met many more people. Some have been kind and gentle too, others so rough and abrasive that even I’m not an overly sensitive person, find myself having to steel myself in preparation to be around them. I don’t want to fall into that later camp of people. I don’t want to be someone that others have to prepare themselves to be around. I want others to feel warmth and kindness from me. I definitely am not there yet, but with God’s help someday I will be.
Do you know someone like that? Someone who after getting to know them, they open your eyes to qualities that you previously hadn’t taken that seriously. Sure gentleness is great- but patience! I thought, how much more important it is for me to be patient than gentle?— until I met someone who made me realize why Jesus listed all those fruits of the spirit and why they are all important. He wasn’t just listing enough so that we could easily pair them up with a common fruit for illustrations for Sunday school! No, He was listing all of them because they are all important and He wants us to cultivate all of them so that we can become more like him.
by Alaina | Apr 11, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6 ASV
Last week was Easter Sunday. Leading up to it I was reminded of a sermon by our pastor from a little while ago; he was talking about prayer and fasting. When was the last time we prayed and fasted over something? An issue, a situation, a health scare- when was the last time we sacrificed in order to focus on bringing something before God. This is something we are repeatedly told to do, yet how many of us practice this discipline? Why do we not practice it regularly? Are we scared of the answer? I was reminded of the story of Esther in the Bible and how she prayed and fasted for God to save her people and give her strength to go before the King and ask for them to be spared. The end result turned out favorably for Esther but not so for everyone who prayed and fasted in the Bible.
It was the night before the crucifixion. Jesus took 3 of his closest disciples out to the garden of Gethsemane to pray through the night. Even being the Divine Son of God there were still things Jesus didn’t want to do, and He did not want to hang on that cross. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to know what a grisly death was so soon to befall you. When they get to the garden Jesus leaves the 3 disciples to go off to another area of the garden to pray privately. He prays so fervently that there are little beads of blood, rather than sweat, running down his face because He is so stressed. (Incidentally sweating blood is something that can occur only when the body is under such stress that the body can barely take it.)
Jesus pauses praying for a minute and goes to check on his disciples, and what does He find? They are asleep! How could they?? Talk about having friends you can count on! He wakes them up, rebukes them and then goes back to praying. They didn’t know what was coming, But Jesus did. He prays this cup pass from Him, but not His will but the Father’s will be done.
We all know the end of this story. Jesus does have to endure a grisly death so that we can live eternally with him. Jesus plead with His Father and still had to endure the cross for us. This didn’t mean that His prayers were wasted, they drew Him close to the Father when He needed it most.
This is something we all can learn from- I know I certainly can! It isn’t about the outcome with prayer and fasting. It is about being faithful to the commands we are given and that even if life doesn’t go the way we want it to,being faithful to our God who is always faithful to us- even to the point of sending his Son to suffer on a cross so that we might live eternally with Him.
END
by Alaina | Apr 7, 2021 | Grace Notes
We recently went on vacation. A warm beach vacation. In Pennsylvania where we live, the weather is starting to warm up but it is by no means warm weather season yet, therefore making it the perfect time to escape to somewhere warm and skip out on at least a few days of the teasing spring weather.
Now I love going on vacation—despite what my friends and family may say—I’m not a total weirdo! But there is a lot to do to get ready to go away: someone has to watch the dog, the cats need to be checked on, loose ends in the business need to be taken care of, on and on the list goes. I found myself thinking, is this even worth it . . . all the loose ends, the touching base with people, and the packing! Wouldn’t it be easier to just stay home? Well, yes, of course it would! But at what cost? What about the magical part of going away?
When I was little, for several years my family used to go to the Bahamas in the spring and, though I was very young, I vividly remember the unbridled excitement I felt about going away—unsullied by the adult concerns of packing and last minute details. Furthermore, since I was so little, I had no concept of time and it was always a bit of a surprise when I realized it was the night before the big trip! My mom had a cassette tape (starting to show my age a little!) and we would listen to the Beach Boys’ song, Kokomo, on the way to the airport. That was the moment when I would be bouncing in my plastic car seat with excitement! We were going to the beach! The ocean! The water! Warm weather! Pretty flowers! (The Hibiscus bushes where we stayed, I remember, were always covered in the most exotic of blooms.)
Conjuring up these memories just a few days before leaving on my adult beach vacation I had to ask myself—what happened? What happened to that feeling of unbridled excitement that I felt as a little girl? Why did I no longer want to bounce in my chair at the realization that we were going on vacation?!
The simple answer is—I grew up. I now have adult responsibilities, and have had more experiences, more vacations, and it is easy to become jaded. But why do we settle for this excuse so easily?
Life is still full of experiences as new and joyful as they were when we were young, but it is the way we approach these experiences that changes. We go on vacation expecting that something won’t be to our standards rather than thinking about how wonderful every minute of this experience will be. We compare the experience we are having with past or similar experiences to see if this one measures up—not only measures up but surpasses past experiences and if it doesn’t we want to put a red x next to it.
What if we approached new experiences and vacations from the point of view that we did as children? Excited and full of expectation that we are going to have so much fun! What if we stopped killing the magic of every experience and abandon ourselves to the pure joy of living in the moment? What if we embraced the magic, not just on special days in our lives, but every day? What if we lived everyday looking at it as the magical gift that it really is?
by Alaina | Mar 30, 2021 | Book Nook
Recently, I fell down a rabbit hole of spy books about the revolutionary war, and it was not just any spy books. They were ones about female spies and they are all based on real women! I have been in heaven reading these books! I love historical fiction—especially when it is fast paced and reads more like a thriller. I hold the view that the events and people of the past are as exciting as anything that can be imagined- perhaps even more so because these things actually happened. Imagine being an untrained spy and the enemy is boarding in your home with you. To add more suspense to the situation, the particular enemy boarding with you in your home was sent to ferret out the spies that they know must be living in the area. They are hunting you as you are spying on them! This stuff actually happened! This is what history is, and a good author will take you there and make your palms sweat. This is what the following 3 books about the female spies of the American Revolution did for me!
Before I launch into discussing these three books about some of the lady spies of the American Revolution, I want to give you some context for the setting of each of these books. A few years into the American Revolution, things were not going well for us Americans. Washington was in trouble and he knew he had to outsmart the British as there’s no way our little American army could over power them. He, therefore, set up with the help of one of his military men- Benjamin Tallmadge- a spy ring. There came to be 6 members of this spy ring known as the Culper Spy Ring, and without them the outcome of the American revolution could have had a very different outcome. Of these 6 agents, one of them was called 355 and the only name given her in the code book was “Lady,” rather than her real name. The term lady denotes a woman of high status. I won’t give away any spoilers as to the fate of this lady, 355, but rest assured she did exist and she did help turn the tide of the American revolution. There is much room for speculation as to this lady’s true identity. If you want a compelling but factual read about the Culper Spy Ring, I suggest George Washington’s Secret 6 by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yager. Now, onto the lady spies!
355: A Novel, The Women of Washington’s Spy Ring, By Kit Sergeant
This book is probably the most factual out of the three books I am discussing today. It follows 3 women who played a part in spying in the American Revolution. All 3 of the women portrayed in this book were actual people. They lived and did the things (at least to a certain extent) told in the book. While I really enjoyed this story, there were a few things I would like to mention:1) the book is called 355, yet none of the characters in this book quite fit what we know about the actual lady agent known as 355 in the Culper Spy Ring of New York. That doesn’t mean that these women didn’t do great things for the American revolution. Neither does it mean that none of them could have been agent 355. To this day, the identity of agent 355 still remains a mystery, but none of these women quite seem to fit the bill so if you are picking this book in order to learn specifically about agent 355 you may be a little disappointed. 2) The book came to a rather abrupt ending. I respect and value when an author stays as true to the real history as possible, and as real life doesn’t have neat little endings tied up in bows, neither does this story. The story in this book was good. I felt that the characters did come to life for me by sticking closely to the history that is known about these women the author did well, but I would say this is more of a portrayal of events told, well, than a story with a plot. Read it and judge for yourselves- I’d probably say this is a 4 star rating as far as the story goes, but 5 star if you are reading to learn the history!
Agent 355, by Marie Benedict
This is a short little story (currently only available via audio book) about agent 355 of the Culper Spy Ring in New York. Again, agent 355’s true identity remains a secret but there is a case to be made that the woman in this story is a possible candidate. The woman in the story was a real person, and she could have easily been agent 355. While short, this was a great telling of the events that the true agent 355 is suspected have had a hand in during the revolution. This woman moved in the circles with the social elite of New York during the British occupation of New York in the later years of the American revolution. She had a chance to be a fly on the wall while the British superiors spilled their intended battle plans right in front of her. There is also the social constraints of the day in which a single woman did not wander about the city unchaperoned— Agent 355 therefore would have then had the additional obstacle to face of how to get her information to another agent who could then relay the information to Washington without incriminating herself in the process. Agent 355 was a 5 star rating for me in every sense- compelling plot, lots of history, staying true to the event of those fateful years. My only complaint was that this book was simply, too short!
Rebel Spy, by Veronica Rossi
I couldn’t put this book down!! Out of the 3 books I’m discussing today, this one definitely had the most compelling plot that kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole book! Soo good! While this book also discusses the event that agent 355 is supposed to have had a hand in, the rest of this story is highly fictionalized. This makes for a very engaging read, but not quite as great of a history lesson. If you are reading this to learn about the events 355 played in the revolution read it, absorb the events, but be prepared for the fact that someone like this woman likely did not exist. However, if you are just looking for very compelling and entertaining historical fiction read it and enjoy every minute of it!
