It's getting colder (and wetter) here with no promise of snow. Honestly, what's the point of being cold and wet without getting to play in it?

Being a slacker

So I'm in Virginia for 7 weeks "learning how to be a missionary." I am still amused at all of the people running around like crazy looking for books and such to read (that were assigned by their regional offices). I also feel like a slacker because I'm not doing anything. Props to my regional office for sending me our books 6 weeks ago!

"But the Cross is final. There is no turning now, no halfway stopping place." Journals of Jim Elliot, June 18, 1948
I am having to remember this these days -- that the Cross means death. Either death to myself and my desires, or death to what the Lord is doing in me. If I die to myself, God can produce fruit in my life. But if I do not die, there will be no fruit. (John 12:24)

Hope is a good thing

Psalm 51:4: “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge.”
(The end of the Portuguese version translates “Your sentence is just and You have reason to condemn me.”)
I have sinned in such a way that God’s sentence is righteous and He has every right to condemn me. This is the gravity of sin – He is right and has every reason to condemn me! But I can also ask for mercy; because Jesus died and was raised again, my sins are gone. His spilled blood takes away (leva) my sin, so that I do not have it anymore.
That is the message that He wants me to take to others – our utter defeat because we have disobeyed God (we cannot obey Him perfectly, for no one is perfect) and the hope that we have because Jesus stepped in to take away the punishment for that disobedience.
The message of hope can break down barriers.