a note in relation to current events:
Eagles suck. I never claimed to be an Eagles fan. But I think I will always be a fan of the Eagle's fans. They are not tossed about by the waves of suckiness that Eagles exhibit. Even in the most humiliating displays, Eagles fans maintain their loyalty. hehe well you get the picture. I am so amused by the world of sports. I wonder if after there have been hundreds upon hundreds of Superbowls, if they will lose some of their hype?

anyway, I had a completely delightful time with my sister from start to finish. Highlights were a midnight showing of Pulp Fiction at Bryn Mawr with our dear friend Sean
(QUICK NOTE: Fight Club is this weekend at that theatre so c'mon friends, lets go),
going to Circle of Hope with her and hearing her thoughts on it, and just generally enjoying the peace, comfort and support of her presence. She always accepts me just as I am, and is there anything more refreshing?? I got weepy saying goodbye to her, but look forward to an adventure with her in Beijing in a little over a month. I know right now she is enjoying the love of a Mr. Adam Frange so that is a happy thought.

I have been up tonight (actually staying away from the computer or any technology until now) reading hundreds of pages of Jonathan Edwards that I needed to catch up on, and I had a thought. In many more words than this, Edwards writes that

'God's wrath burns towards you like fire...You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet 'tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to Hell last night. ..'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.'

He directs all kinds of devastating pictures of God's fury towards those who have not yet accepted Christ. I am familiar with this kind of preaching, but we really do not hear it anymore. Of course, it makes everyone uncomfortable, and how much more so in a time when enjoyment and the present moment are exalted above all else? Yet, is it just my own bias living in a time and a country like ours, that I would feel like such a focus on God's wrath is ineffective and incorrect? I mean, which is it? God the gracioud and patient lover who longs after our hearts, or the God whose 'ax is at the root of all trees that do not bear fruit'? CAN it be both? It is hard to imagine. Both make sense to me, and yet one just does not seem to mesh with the other.

Especially since, even after we accept Christ, try as we might not to sin, we sin anyway. Wouldn't this also, using the same idea, arouse fierce, fiery wrath? Or does God's wrath towards us cool once He joins us in a relationship? Reading this man who was so influential to American history makes me curious about these things. We are reading him in a class about the history of the American mind. Yet America is so far from thinking this way about God, when they think about God at all.

When I think of who I am REALLY, it humbles me to remember that I am made secure only in Christ throwing open a door of mercy.

On that note, I need to keep up the reading. Love and peace, friends.