My Musings on this 29th of July, 2011

So my musings for tonight are many and varied as usual....

1. God, how amazing He is. and He is my Father. 
2. Salvation, how amazing that is. by GRACE not by WORKS... sola gratia - the words which hold so much blessing and joy for my life.... Just imagine that.... my salvation is not dependent on me, my repentance, my works, my inner goodness etc, (just as well) - but on Christ's sacrifice ONLY. Thankyou Lord!!
3. My sin... and to my discredit (despite my musings at #2), so often I am guilty of Phariseeism... the belief that somehow my 'good works' earn me the right for salvation, and that it mollifies God somehow. How wrong I am! So often all the right words spill out of my mouth, but so often my heart holds evil or is timid to stand out for the truth when external pressure is placed on me. 
4. Psalm 15: Who may dwell in your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. May that be my prayer for myself always, that the Spirit may empower me to live a life of integrity and purity. I pray God that He may put a zeal in my heart for Him, that ALL my thoughts and actions are motivated by love for Him and my neighbour. 
5. My daily life - how I love my studies, my current prac experience as a nurse. How this widens my horizons so amazingly, how this humbles me and makes me realise how small I am, how blessed I really am! I think of my patients on the ward, about the struggles and trials that I get to see a glimpse of in people's lives every day (and which I will see all the time when I get my full-time job) and how blessed I am to have a part in people's lives (however small), that I can touch their lives and help them through their difficulties. May God be with me while I nurse others and give me the grace, humbleness and strength I require to serve with compassion and integrity. 
6. My family - I love them so very much. And though times are hard at the moment, how together we can with God's grace pull through. My amazing parents who seem to have boundless amounts of patience - may God bless them and give them wisdom.
7. My friends - some of whom are wowing me with their wonderful words of wisdom about God and his awesome works in our lives and in the world around us... so thankyou to you guys (you know who you are), you really inspire me! May God work in you with his awesome Spirit and bless you with more insights and empower you to live as His children... I thank God for you all!!! what an amazing blessing to have friends who share my beliefs
   
   
   And ok, it's late now, seven is the number of fulness and it's time for bed. Goodnight!! 
   
   
   Merin xxxx
   
   

my musings on this 22nd day of july

Ok, so thoughts are flying around in my head, so  I will resort to points in order for you to somehow understand the muddled jumble in my head....

1. Ooops, it's been a while since I've posted- yup, for all who are interested, I'm feeling 100%better from my last post, no more tonsillitis!! yippee!! I did survive to tell the tale. Moral of the story: When you have tonsillitis, swirl 10mL of Listerine in your mouth, gargle etc for at least 30 seconds every two hours... and you''ll be sweet as....

2. Ok now that that pearl of wisdom is out of the way, my friends write such inspiring blog posts. kara and milly you are amazing!! Everytime I check my dashboard I really look forward to seeing stuff by you!! umm, so my posts are quite dull in comparison, but you know, if something inspiring comes up, then yes of course I will post :) well the thing is, something inspiring does come up, but i've usually forgotten it by the time I sit behind a computer....

3. I'm home alone... which is probably a really stupid thing to put up on the net but oh well, I'm housesitting at a undisclosed location.... and there are strange noises outside (which I think are just the neighbours saying goodbye to their visitors) and there are strange noises inside (which I'm pretty sure is the kitten....).... but I'm just saying, you never know.... and of course in the back of my mind is that horrific story of how a 61-yo woman who was house-sitting in karnup alone was threatened while some thugs stole from her house... yup, apparently they knocked on her door at 2.30am and asked to use the phone cause their tyre had come off their car.... so yeah, I'm thinking I'm housesitting, I'm alone, funny noises outside.... gthhhhh, let me think of something nicer to think about...

4. Evangelism Conference - yup I went to the evening session of the evangelism conference and enjoyed it thoroughly!! Professor de Visser was so well grounded and gave me some really important things to think about. Eg.

• The church is there as a light in the world, but also as a mother of believers (i.e. her primary role is to feed and nurture God's children).... 
• In the Lord's prayer we pray "Your kingdom come", and LD 48 of the Heidelberg Catechism includes in this petition the phrase "Preserve and Increase Your Church". The emphasis is on preserving and increasing. These two things must go hand-in-hand... increase without preserving leads to deformation, while preserving without increasing leads to stagnation.... 
• As churches we do not need to become "less Dutch" or take actions such as change the worship service or psalms to make it more friendly for visitors.... but we must always strive to become "more Christian". Churches who are struggling with evangelism must not make a disproportionate attempt to boost the evangelism, RATHER, they must work at the root problem - the lack of the congregations strength of faith. By focussing on building up the faith of the congregation, they work on the root cause of the problem and allow evangelism to flow naturally.

5. so yes, just a few thoughts from the Prof.. interesting to ponder!! and the last thought on my mind that I can remember at the moment is I'm tired. Reallly tired...so I'm going to turn off my computer, and turn off my brain (I wish it were that easy!!).....

Goodnight!!

what's on my mind

Facebook is so considerate!! It's so kind and thoughtful... every time, every single time, I log on, it want's to know what's on my mind... how selfless and attentive it is...

And today what's on my mind is food. I miss food.

Well, I miss interesting food to be precise.

5 days today. 5 days since I've had anything apart from soup, yoghurt and custard... I've missed out on pizza, chips, roast chicken, roast pork, my yummy Uncle Toby's Plus cereal, sausage rolls, Subway, salad sandwiches, cheese & ham sandwiches, paradise casserole..... and the list goes on.......

yes I know I'm whinging, but nobody wants to listen to me at home, so may as well do it online.... so let's collectively on 3 say oh... readdy.....

one...


two...


three....




ohhhhhhhhhhhh... poor Merinda.......

Aww thanks guys.... makes me feel soo much better.... not.

I'm living on panadol (4hrly by the book), antibiotics (that aren't doing ANYTHING), throat spray (1.5hrly on the dot), multivitamins and then I don't even get anything interesting to eat. Seriously.
Yoghurt for breakfast, Custard for snacks, Soup for lunch & dinner.... just as well I made myself some nice potato & broccoli soup or I'd be really sick of those ridiculous packet mixes.

so yep, that's what's on my mind... yes I admit it, I'm grumpy and cross and tired.... so now I'm going to go and cheer myself up by watching all the kids eat their freshly baked blueberry muffins for their afternoon snack while I sip my glass of water... and hope that tomorrow I'll feel better.