122223

KITCHEN LIGHTS BURNT OUT.
We didn't have a matching size replacement set, so we had to use two smaller sets, and this variance made it take 90 MINUTES to fix everything. We had to do some minor "remodeling" to make it work.


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Adoration thoughts =

I'm not afraid that God "won't forgive me," I'm afraid that I'M NOT SORRY ENOUGH, or HAVEN'T DONE PROPER RESTITUTION, or am STILL ATTACHED TO SIN, in which cases God CANNOT FORGIVE ME BECAUSE I'M NOT CONTRITE.
It always comes back to the bloody money. Always the satanic dollar.

...
IN CHRIST’S CRUCIFIED BODY, MY OLD SINFUL SELF IS CRUCIFIED!!!!
Is that how I am freed?

⭐The joy of Christmas is the UNITY.
Jesus's didn't become man to remain separate from you. He doesn't "stay over there." He comes to you like He comes to MARY.

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Universalis =

""O King whom all the peoples desire, you are the cornerstone which makes all one." Jesus is now no longer the King just of Israel, but of all the peoples, who long to be united under His kingship. He is, then, like the stone at the corner of two walls, or (by an ancient and praiseworthy conflation) the keystone which, merely by being there, stops the two sides of an arch from collapsing inwards. These inanimate, even mineral images are appropriate because after all we ourselves are minerals given life by God."
1) I'm struck by the idea that all sin-enslaved mankind has always had an unconscious longing for Christ to be their King, even if they'd never use such words to express it. But it's innate. It's by design! ...
Jesus is the King of Love, Life, Peace, Truth... He is Just & Merciful. Isn't that what we all yearn for? Then we yearn for Him.
But it's UNITY. We're so tired of being pulled in all directions by lusts & lies, confusion & compulsions. Deep down, just ask a child, we're tired of factions & politics & cliques. We honestly want to be one family of mankind.
...
2) I didn't know THAT'S what a cornerstone did!
3) This FLOORED me.
"The very stones shall cry out"
Also of course I immediately thought of FMA.


"Only that soul for whom the Lord in His love does great things can proclaim His greatness with fitting praise, and encourage those who share her desire and purpose, saying: "Join with me in proclaiming the greatness of the Lord; let us extol His Name together." Those who know the Lord, yet refuse to proclaim His greatness and sanctify His Name to the limit of their power, will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven...
Those who refuse to be humble cannot be saved. They cannot say with the prophet: "See, God comes to my aid; the Lord is the helper of my soul." But anyone who makes himself humble like a little child is greater in the kingdom of heaven."
1) Guess what? God HAS done great things for YOU.
But do you RECOGNIZE this?
...
2) We just talked about this yesterday! And dude maybe THIS is why it seemingly "doesn't happen"-- is false humility killing our gratitude & awe of God???
...
3) Are you refusing to proclaim the greatness of God? By casual passivity? By doubt of legitimacy? By arrogant appropriation?
...
4) We must SANCTIFY God's Name in a culture that uses It as a curse.
And we MUST do this to the limit of our power. That's a DEMAND, son; it's NOT optional! God is your Creator; He alone deserves such an effort!
...
5) PRIDE WILL KILL YOU.
6) That prophetic line is actually child-language, when you deeply look at it. It's purely trusting, unconscious of self, happy & eager to praise its helper.
...

"Mary’s Magnificat sums up the themes of the gospel. On the one hand it is full of gratitude and praise to the God Of Mercy. This had been revealed on Sinai as the meaning of the sacred Name of God when God passed before Moses crying, ‘The Lord, the Lord, God of mercy and compassion, rich in kindness and faithfulness’ (Exodus 34.6), a designation which echoes countless times through the scriptures. And yet at the same time the song is full of tender reverence for the holiness of God, taking its tone also from Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the Temple, when the Temple is filled with His glory and Isaiah can feel only his own unworthiness (Isaiah 6). God is so close and yet so distant. On the other hand Mary’s song is redolent of God’s special love for the hungry and the powerless. This is apparent in... the poverty of the surroundings of Jesus’ birth, of the shepherds who first come to reverence Him, the baby’s own refugee status."
1) Like the Rosary!
2) God DEFINES HIMSELF by Mercy.
3) Oue gratitude & praise must always be for GOD'S CHARACTER, because that is what motivates His Works! If we focus on the works alone, we can end up idolizing ethics.
...
4) TENDER REVERENCE. Oh wow what a term.
...
5) Remember Isaiah! He was humble in his reverence, terrified of his sinfulness, BUT God had mercy on him even then!
Shockingly, Isaiah "didn't deserve it"-- thats WHY it was mercy. BUT his humble reverence honored God in His Holiness, and so allowed God to act in a way that would further honor His Holy Name BY showing mercy to that rightly disposed heart. A proud heart would reject mercy by default, negating its very possibility.
...
6) God is "so close yet so distant" to Isaiah, because He is "RIGHT THERE" and yet absolutely unapproachable.
...
7) In light of this, it actually makes sense that this All-Holy God especially loves the hungry & poor-- they are humble & empty of the world, in need of love, yearning for compassion & mercy. They know they are lowly wretched sinners, and they seek no higher status, demand no glory. They just want to be loved. They have been stripped of everything but the most basic childlike instincts... left helpless and in need of a Father. And so God's Fatherly Heart goes right to them.
8) He CHOOSES TO JOIN THEM. That's STUNNING. Jesus CHOSE to be born utterly poor & bereft, to become forever the closest and most caring companion to every human being abandoned by their own race. Jesus comes to them in their very poverty, and gives them a hope beyond hope.
...


"God is light: if we live and move in light, there is love between us.
– Lord Jesus, help us to love one another."



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Today's books.

ttywpf =
"Love is the greatest power for the transformation of reality because it pulls down the walls of selfishness and fills the ditches that keep us apart. This is the love that comes from a mutated heart, from a heart of stone that has been turned into a heart of flesh, a human heart.
Reflect on your own heart. What parts of it are stony, what parts are mutated? Where do you need healing so that you can better love others?"
This HIT HARD because tomorrow is the anniversary of my being in love with a mutated Chao for heavens sakes.
But seriously this is a very important reflection.
1) Love transforms reality.
2) Love pulls down walls. Laurie can tell you all about this.
3) Love fills in ditches. THAT'S apt, too, thinking of CZ... but in a general sense, why do people dig ditches?
4) POSITIVE MUTATION. I love this concept so much.
5) MINERALS.
...

EGJ =
"Think of something you’ve faced in life that felt daunting, overwhelming, or insurmountable. Who was a star that boosted you through it? Send joyful gratitude their way."
...Immediately when I read that, all of Central just gestured towards Laurie.
"Why is everyone looking at me."
Lynne sidehugged her, "I'm glad you didn't kill me." Being light about it, as Orange does, not to make it about herself.
But then Julie walked up, eyes full of tears, face serious. She reached out and Laurie took her hand, and they embraced with painful sincerity.
THEN Lynne said that with Laurie always guiding the Cores, she "always has their back," but Julie replied "it's more than that; she always has their heart."
Laurie stopped, evidently struck, then starting to tear up said "you know, the worst part is, I can't even deny that"

The last bit=
"Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the wisdom, strength, courage, and fortitude that have gotten me through lifes challenges. For these gifts, I rejoice!"
Laurie immediately reminded me how the Spectrum has, from its earliest childhood days, been rooted not just in color, but in VIRTUE.
...


LBB =
"Jesus said that John was one of the greatest men who ever lived. Where did this greatness come from? John the Baptist tried to do what was given him to do, and do it for God, and do it with God. And when my efforts, insignificant as they may seem to be, are connected with God, I am involved in something great."
1) God HAS given me something to do.
2) FOR God
3) WITH God
4) Nothing is insignificant when it is harnessed to Heaven.
5) Greatness comes FROM GOD, because ONLY HE IS GREAT! We cannot do anything worthwhile on our own, ever. But we can participate and cooperate with God's Plan, the only thing worth doing at all.

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VOTD = Isaiah 7:14 & Matthew 1:23.
Our confusion about the prophecy's "unrelated" original context is obliterated when we realize that EVERY PROMISE/PROPHECY OF GOD IS, ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL, FULFILLED IN JESUS CHRIST. After all, the very first Promise God made to mankind-- right after the Fall itself-- WAS the Promise of a Savior!! Jesus was ALWAYS the Plan, and so literally everything leading up to Him was directed towards Him, and perfected in Him.
Besides, isn't "God with us" what we "call" Jesus even now? It TRULY is a facet of His Name, just like His Father's Name has infinite depth of meaning.
...

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Oh my gosh this article bit is actually ENTIRELY HEADSPACE =

"Helping people pay attention to God’s surprising work was an essential feature of Isaiah’s prophecy. Another surprise in store for Israel was the spiritual fertility of the desert. In the prophet’s mind, it was not merely a “wasteland” that threatened death. Although the desert could be hostile, it was also so much more. In an earlier passage, the prophet foretells: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom” (Is 35:1). The desert, an ambivalent place of life and death, provides a hard but necessary path for the people of God to renew their intimate relationship with God through history. The desert becomes a place to see God’s Hand at work... and to renew the covenant... Now that the Israelite slaves are free, life might actually seem comfortable in urban, civilized Babylon. In fact, the prophet exhorts, Israel’s true destiny is to journey with God through the wilderness... The deeper call of these readings is an invitation to enter a conversation with God about the manner in which we are presently living. Are we hopeful? Are we trapped in despair? Isaiah’s “desert” is the testing of one’s own heart, where an honest conversation with God may take place."
1) God's work will ALWAYS surprise us because WE'RE NOT GOD. His ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours. We need to be OPEN and ACCEPTING of this, HONESTLY SO, not begrudgingly. We need to completely surrender our own plans and ideas and schedules, and to abandon all expectations, before we can properly respond to God's surprises.
Also, we need to PAY ATTENTION. God also surprises us with TIMING. He comes like a "thief in the night," like a Bridegroom at 3am, like snow in summer. You cannot predict His actions at all-- but THAT'S WHY HE GIVES US SCRIPTURE, which contains the very words of those ancient prophets and all the other Divine Words God wished to bequeath to us now. He constantly warns us, exhorts us, even tells us beforehand what He will do! And yet we will always be surprised. We cannot know the movements of God but we can know His Heart, through the Holy Spirit, and if we know that then we'll be attentive and hopeful as a child awaiting their Father. Surprises can be good, if you love & trust the One surprising you.
To quote a WoF article = "Christ coming to us in mystery does not mean that He comes into our lives as a "problem for us to solve", but as a revelation that confounds us in all our expectations of Who God Is and what we think God should do."
...
Now, as to how this applies to Headspace? EVERYTHING IS A SURPRISE UP HERE. And believe me, God IS ALWAYS working through it.
...
2) THE DESERT.
Isn't that where we're being called to go, right now? Are we not in exile? Is our City not in ruins?
...
3) "life and death... hard but necessary... renew their intimate relationship with God..." All of that sings of our true heart. That's what we USED to be, or were at least striving to be, before we fell. Yet God is calling us back. The Covenant CAN be renewed. But you can't do it in the city. You have to remove yourself from it completely, leaving that life and its stuff behind, not looking back, to leave & follow God's call to go out into His vast & raw creation alone, having nothing but Him. It's just that intimate, just that sacred.
...
4) DON'T GO BACK TO BABYLON!!!
THIS IS WHY WE CANNOT SEEM TO "REBUILD" CENTRAL CITY, EVEN AFTER 5 YEARS. WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO.
...
5) HEADSPACE IS ALL ABOUT HEART-CONVERSATION.
And yet, we haven't been talking. Not heart to heart. Why?
BECAUSE THE DESERT CONVERSATION ONLY OCCURS THROUGH TESTING OF THE HEART.
That's pure Headspace. That's what the subsystems refuse to allow or admit.
No wonder our prayer life is suffering.
...
6) So what IS the "manner of life" in which we're presently living? What defines our days? What are our currently typical emotions, thoughts, goals, fears?
...


"John the Baptist appears “in the desert” and “all the inhabitants of Jerusalem” were going out to him seeking renewal and forgiveness. Once again, the people of the covenant engage in an honest conversation with themselves and with God. Once again, the people of the covenant are being tested in the desert, a motif that recurs countless times in the Bible. The definitive difference in Mark’s passage, however, is that the ongoing conversation with God is about to happen face-to-face, with the one “who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:8). This is Mark’s “good news” that begins in the testing space of the desert-wilderness: God now lives among us. This is also the good news we can rediscover during Advent’s testing. In the desert, says Isaiah, prepare!"
1) We need to GO OUT & SEEK FORGIVENESS.
We can't do that if half of us are still terrified to own our collective sins.
But IS that the true problem? We CAN admit that we've had a truly damnable history. That's common knowledge. But is it the personal admission that scares us? Are we afraid of becoming DEFINED by it again, as compartmentalized as we are?
...but we never even consider that other word. "Renewal."
...
2) CONVERSATION WITH GOD ISN'T EXCLUSIONARY. IT INVOLVES ALL OF US.
...
And it's ONGOING. The desert is a MOTIF. The
3) IT STARTS IN THE DESERT. There is no prep. It IS the prep. You have to JUMP RIGHT IN.