Friday, November 20, 2009
The Face of Christ
The painter Mike Lewis came to our church last Sunday and helped us wrap up a sermon series on Jesus. Here are two of the paintings he did during the service I attended.
The cool thing is that these images of Jesus don't emerge until the very end. Before that he is painting other scenes such as the cross. And then with just a couple brush strokes, suddenly the face of Christ appears. In all His simple yet powerful glory.
The cool thing is that these images of Jesus don't emerge until the very end. Before that he is painting other scenes such as the cross. And then with just a couple brush strokes, suddenly the face of Christ appears. In all His simple yet powerful glory.
I especially like the humility that seemed to drip from Mike Lewis like paint on a canvas. He let Jesus shine. If you are perchance interested in owning one of these paintings (yes, I worked the word "perchance" into a blog post about paintings), my church is holding an online auction for 6 of them this Saturday through Tuesday (11/24). Email me and I'll send you a link to learn more or to bid.
Have you ever tried drawing or painting Jesus? I'm not much of a painter, except walls. I love to paint rooms.
OK, time for a little confession .... when I was like 22 and a new Christian, I once bought a bust of Socrates at a thrift market thinking that it was Jesus. My husband and sister-in-law laughed at me over that forever. But I kept it for years because to me, I saw Jesus when I looked at it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
Which of these paintings is your favorite? I tend to favor the second one, but then the tear on the first one kinda of gets to me ...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Smell that?
My house smells soooooooo good! And here's why:
While at the luncheon this past weekend in Florida, Dana and her mother had this as a centerpiece on our thanksgivingy-decorated table. It created such a warm, comforting scent that I had to come home and make one. And it's so simple!
Here's what you'll need to try it:
- 1 medium size glass hurricane candle holder (make sure it has a bottom to it). I got mine for $3.99 at World Market.
- 1 short cinnamon scented pillar candle. I got a 3" one for $4.99 at World Market.
- About 3/4 a bag of whole bean French Vanilla coffee.
You can dump the whole bag of beans in, but I'm betting once you smell it for, oh say 6 minutes, you're going to want to grind some and brew a pot of that French Vanilla!
Even unlit the sweet coffee smell is amazing, but lit you get the cinnamon scent too, plus it heats up the beans a bit, making them release more aroma. Mmmm. If you try it, come back and tell me how much you love it!
Modern Day Noah?
I had a great time with the women in Palatka, Florida last weekend. I loved Dana, the event coordinator ... despite the fact that she nearly killed us - twice - coming back from the airport! We had a few navigation problems, and a little trouble with the 5:00 traffic, but we also had a lot of fun on that crazy ride. :) She is so sweet and such a hoot. Not only that, she sounds exactly like my friend Melissa Taylor, which put me right at ease. Here we are:
The food, decorations and women Saturday were all lovely. And the name of Jesus was lifted up as we talked about a few of the Divine Secrets of the Yahweh Sisterhood. Since they moved the date of this event from December to November this year, the nearly 50 tables were decorated with a mix of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I loved that.
Here's me and Sandy, one of the singers. They sounded amazing!
Remember how I found a lizard hanging on my hood for dear life a few weeks ago? Well flying home through the Jacksonville airport, I suddenly felt like Cinderella. Ya know how she was constantly followed by song birds? She'd hold out her arms and they'd help her get dressed? Well I sat down with some Stromboli in the airport only to have 3-4 birds join me at the table - yes, inside. I thought about asking one to get me a fork.
Here I am saying goodbye to one of my lunch companions - he was sad to see me go.
And last week I was driving along and noticed a lizard on the back windshield of the car next to me. Its a bit blurry and hard to see; we were both driving.
If God hadn't promised - famously so with a rainbow - that He'd never flood the earth again, I'd start wondering if I'm a modern-day Noah. Oh, and on the flight home I sat next to an actor from the hit show One Tree Hill. We chatted it up. Unfortunately, no pictures to show for that, but thankfully, no animals joined me on the flight either.
Labels: speaking
Monday, November 16, 2009
Journals Get Me Every Time
Does anybody besides me have a journal addiction?
I'm not obsessed with writing in them nearly as much as buying them. I just can't resist a gorgeous journal. I'm constantly finding older ones around the house that I bought, wrote 1/2 way through, then abandoned because I'd bought a new one I couldn't wait to use.
The other day I found a beautiful journal I'd kept while in grad school. I use the term "kept" loosely because apparently I only "kept" it long enough to write in the first 5 pages.
I'm pretty sure this behavior is listed as a sickness in the American Psychological Association's handbook of disorders.
I wrote notes and quotes from a book I was reading at the time called The Skillful Teacher by Stephen Brookfield. Here's a sample of my scribbling:
"Teaching is frequently a gloriously messy pursuit in which surprise, shock and risk are endemic."
"The most significant and transforming learning episodes are often experienced with pain and trauma ... students, therefore, may not see you as a good teacher for months or years to come ... after the pain has passed, and after the student evaluations are written."
"Those students who struggled in their own learning may be much better at understanding and assisting students who are struggling themselves."
(reminds me of 2 Cor. 1:4)
So are you a journal writer? What do you write in yours? Notes from books you're reading? Experiences from your life? Bible verses? Prayers? Do tell!
You might want to pop over to P31's She Reads blog today and enter for a chance to win Bonnie Grove's new novel Talking with the Dead. And get a load of this - Bonnie is also giving away an iPod Nano loaded with songs she listened to while writing her novel. How cool is that?!
I'm banned from winning this giveaway, and I'm bummed about that. But that means your chances of winning are greater. I'm off to write some more in my grad school journal. Rediscovering this journal was almost as good as buying a new one!
I'm not obsessed with writing in them nearly as much as buying them. I just can't resist a gorgeous journal. I'm constantly finding older ones around the house that I bought, wrote 1/2 way through, then abandoned because I'd bought a new one I couldn't wait to use.
The other day I found a beautiful journal I'd kept while in grad school. I use the term "kept" loosely because apparently I only "kept" it long enough to write in the first 5 pages.
I'm pretty sure this behavior is listed as a sickness in the American Psychological Association's handbook of disorders.
I wrote notes and quotes from a book I was reading at the time called The Skillful Teacher by Stephen Brookfield. Here's a sample of my scribbling:
"Teaching is frequently a gloriously messy pursuit in which surprise, shock and risk are endemic."
"The most significant and transforming learning episodes are often experienced with pain and trauma ... students, therefore, may not see you as a good teacher for months or years to come ... after the pain has passed, and after the student evaluations are written."
"Those students who struggled in their own learning may be much better at understanding and assisting students who are struggling themselves."
(reminds me of 2 Cor. 1:4)
So are you a journal writer? What do you write in yours? Notes from books you're reading? Experiences from your life? Bible verses? Prayers? Do tell!
You might want to pop over to P31's She Reads blog today and enter for a chance to win Bonnie Grove's new novel Talking with the Dead. And get a load of this - Bonnie is also giving away an iPod Nano loaded with songs she listened to while writing her novel. How cool is that?!
I'm banned from winning this giveaway, and I'm bummed about that. But that means your chances of winning are greater. I'm off to write some more in my grad school journal. Rediscovering this journal was almost as good as buying a new one!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Noshing and Painting
Hey y'all. I'm flying to Florida today to have lunch tomorrow with 3 or 4 hundred women from Palatka, FL. You know I'm excited! ... just a party looking for a place to happen.
Please pause and pray for this outreach event.
I'll be home in time to attend my own church this Sunday and I'm excited about that too. We're having that guy come who paints to worship songs, or the telling of the story of Christ, and when he's done you see that the evolving painting has turned into a portrait of Christ. He's been all over YouTube - have you seen it? (somebody post a link for me) Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend: noshing with some girlfriends in Christ, and watching this guy do his thing.
When I get back I just might put my tree up! Anybody got theirs up yet?
Please pause and pray for this outreach event.
I'll be home in time to attend my own church this Sunday and I'm excited about that too. We're having that guy come who paints to worship songs, or the telling of the story of Christ, and when he's done you see that the evolving painting has turned into a portrait of Christ. He's been all over YouTube - have you seen it? (somebody post a link for me) Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend: noshing with some girlfriends in Christ, and watching this guy do his thing.
When I get back I just might put my tree up! Anybody got theirs up yet?
Labels: speaking
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wordle Fun
Being a "work geek," I thought this was super fun.
My editor extraordinaire, Susan at David C. Cook publishers, just sent me a
of my book manuscript.
At http://www.wordle.net/ she put in my whole manuscript and it created a collage based on the frequency of words used. The more I used a word, the larger it appears on my wordle.
Click on the brown word "wordle" above to get a sense of my new book coming out next year. Then click here to see another worlde version of it.
Play around on wordle yourself. You can enter the url of your blog and it will create a wordle of your blog!
Labels: Can You Keep a Secret
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Weekend snapshots
1) So I'm on the treadmill Friday when I spot a huge spider on the ceiling. The vaulted ceiling. Which means I can't reach it to kill it. I'll have to throw something at it. I don't want to smash the spider against the ceiling (I can't reach it to repaint it), so I grab a soft tank top and take aim. Ya'll I must've thrown that tank top at least 12 times before I hit it.
I throw like a girl.
It fell some place I didn't see -- probably because my method was to throw and run so it wouldn't hit me. I do not run like a girl. While I sprinted, it hid. Which means its still alive somewhere in my house, but I don't know where. It was last seen near my bedroom. Which makes me want to scream like a girl. Somebody please assure me that it won't join me on the bed tonight. If you've read the P31 devo book (pg. 130) you know I have irrational fears of spiders. Sigh.
2) Caught a TV interview with Micheal Buble (boo-blay) this weekend. He's the singer dubbed "the Canadian Sinatra." I love me some Sinatra y'all, but love me some Buble even more I think. (Because I'm just geeky like that.) Anyway, he also performed his new single on the show.
I feel a download coming on.
3) My very own lead singer (Rick plays in a cover band made up of professors from the university called The Schoolboys) played Saturday evening at the college for the opening of basketball season. He even dedicated a song to me: Some Kind of Wonderful.
Awww.
4) Also on Saturday I went present-shopping for my son. His birthday is right before Christmas. My daughter's birthday is right after Christmas. So lots of presents to buy in the next 4 weeks. I'm starting early and pacing myself.
Still resisting the urge to put up the tree by the way.
5) Today I've been to church twice (2 different ones), to the grocery storey twice (same one), and cooked two dinners (at once). Feeling productive.
Tonight I have a short treadmill jog planned, followed by a gingerbread-scented bubble bath (less calories than the real stuff), and then perhaps I'll crawl into bed with my Kindle. After loudly announcing the spider is not invited.
Overall its been a good weekend. Next weekend I'm off to Florida to speak - looking forward to that. But on the flight back I'll likely have Buble's song "Home" playing on my Ipod.
I throw like a girl.
It fell some place I didn't see -- probably because my method was to throw and run so it wouldn't hit me. I do not run like a girl. While I sprinted, it hid. Which means its still alive somewhere in my house, but I don't know where. It was last seen near my bedroom. Which makes me want to scream like a girl. Somebody please assure me that it won't join me on the bed tonight. If you've read the P31 devo book (pg. 130) you know I have irrational fears of spiders. Sigh.
2) Caught a TV interview with Micheal Buble (boo-blay) this weekend. He's the singer dubbed "the Canadian Sinatra." I love me some Sinatra y'all, but love me some Buble even more I think. (Because I'm just geeky like that.) Anyway, he also performed his new single on the show.
I feel a download coming on.
3) My very own lead singer (Rick plays in a cover band made up of professors from the university called The Schoolboys) played Saturday evening at the college for the opening of basketball season. He even dedicated a song to me: Some Kind of Wonderful.
Awww.
4) Also on Saturday I went present-shopping for my son. His birthday is right before Christmas. My daughter's birthday is right after Christmas. So lots of presents to buy in the next 4 weeks. I'm starting early and pacing myself.
Still resisting the urge to put up the tree by the way.
5) Today I've been to church twice (2 different ones), to the grocery storey twice (same one), and cooked two dinners (at once). Feeling productive.
Tonight I have a short treadmill jog planned, followed by a gingerbread-scented bubble bath (less calories than the real stuff), and then perhaps I'll crawl into bed with my Kindle. After loudly announcing the spider is not invited.
Overall its been a good weekend. Next weekend I'm off to Florida to speak - looking forward to that. But on the flight back I'll likely have Buble's song "Home" playing on my Ipod.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Christmas comes early
You're thinking I've put my tree up, but I haven't yet. I'm still showing restraint. A bit of Christmas came early at my house in a different way.
My husband is a professor, the kind that likes to implement new technology in the classroom. A couple years ago he instituted a new technology in class that gives each student a clicker. It allows them to electronically "sign into class" each day, allows them all to answer quiz questions posted on a screen (paperless testing), and allows him to instantly show test/poll results from the class on the screen. So he can find out on the fly whether or not his students are "getting" the lecture. It's cool stuff. And since Rick used it in his classes, including a large lecture class with 200 students in it, he was able to test pilot the technology for the university.
My husband is a professor, the kind that likes to implement new technology in the classroom. A couple years ago he instituted a new technology in class that gives each student a clicker. It allows them to electronically "sign into class" each day, allows them all to answer quiz questions posted on a screen (paperless testing), and allows him to instantly show test/poll results from the class on the screen. So he can find out on the fly whether or not his students are "getting" the lecture. It's cool stuff. And since Rick used it in his classes, including a large lecture class with 200 students in it, he was able to test pilot the technology for the university.
Today Rick heads to the Marine base in Jacksonville to show them how to use it. Rick is a civilian, but works for the Marine Corp periodically as a "master teacher." Basically, he teaches their trainers how to teach well. Hence, he's introducing this technology to them. (Maybe we can learn to click our way out of these wars!)
So anyway, the next problem Rick is looking to solve for his students is the textbook problem. Textbooks cost students hundreds of dollars every semester. Plus, its a lot to carry around from class to class. So last night he comes home with ..... drum roll please .... something I've been wanting for a year ... an Amazon Kindle. He and a few other profs are going to test pilot these babies for the university (meaning the school paid for it) and see if they can be used effectively for teaching purposes. But that means I also get to play with it. I'm so stoked! Christmas just came early for me.
So you tell me, what book (besides the Bible of course) should I download to my Kindle to try it out? Nominations? Ideas? Anybody out there got tips for using Kindle for me?
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Hi, my name is Rachel and I'm a ...
So I woke up this morning, November 1st, stared at the clock (trying to figure out what time it "really" is after converting from daylight savings time) and thought, "Hey, I could put up the Christmas tree today!"
I'm a bit of a Christmas tree fanatic. Hi, I'm Rachel, and I'm a Christmasaholic.
Actually, the rest of the holiday decor I can completely live without. But not the tree. The tree is sacred in my mind. It transforms my family room into sacred space ... into an alter of sorts. Its little white lights somehow light up my heart, beckoning me nearer to the Light of the World.
Before you think I'm waaaay off base to think of Christmas the day after Halloween, just know that Kohl's has been thinking about it for months now. Other retailers are starting to leak info about deals they'll offer on Black Friday. And my kids have started their Christmas list because the toy catalogues hit our mailbox last week. I also started shopping for things to send to my sponsor child Mauricio - have to get international packages in the mail before Thanksgiving.
Plus, today I found the Sounds of the Season channel on my digital cable package playing Christmas songs. WOOT! Shhhh, can you hear it? Its Frank Sinatra singing "Mistletoe and Holly."
The only holiday thing besides a tree I can't do without is Christmas carols. They never lose their ability to capture my heart and hurl it heavenward. I've already heard one of my all time favs: The Little Drummer Boy. My weepy devotion to that carol has been well documented here. I realize it tells a fictional story, but at the same time it tells the story of my soul.
None of my family is in the house at the moment so I've got the carols on. I didn't put the tree up yet. I'm showing restraint. But I might have to sneak and get the mistletoe out. Its never too soon to get the love flowing in my opinion.
So I'm off to the attic to search for the red and green plastic bins that contain sparkly Christmas goodness. Any other Christmasaholics out there? Come on, please speak up and make me feel normal. Anybody else plan to put up their tree in November? (Post pics when you do please!)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
She Reads and honoring parents
Hello, if you've come over from my Forgotten No More devotion that ran yesterday about the children in Ecuador. Be sure and check out my post below from yesterday to see Mauricio.
Meanwhile, have you read today's P31 devotion? It's by my She Speaks roommate Ariel Allison. This year was the first time in eons I'd roomed with someone outside the P31 team at the conference and boy was I glad I did. Love her! She is also the main contributor now at P31's She Reads blog. Have you been there? This week she is talking about the father-daughter relationship on the blog and the commandment to honor our parents.
I found out that's a sore spot for many when I asked my readers about it in this post and this one. That command fingers and pokes at old wounds and disappointments we’re certain we were never meant to have. Nonetheless, there sits the command — in the middle of the 10 Commandments — with no exceptions or qualifications noted. Jump in the discussion over there today, or ask Ariel a question about it. She's co-authored a non-fiction book on the father-daughter relationship so she is a great person to ask.
Gotta run and teach at the university! I pray great blessings on your day!
Meanwhile, have you read today's P31 devotion? It's by my She Speaks roommate Ariel Allison. This year was the first time in eons I'd roomed with someone outside the P31 team at the conference and boy was I glad I did. Love her! She is also the main contributor now at P31's She Reads blog. Have you been there? This week she is talking about the father-daughter relationship on the blog and the commandment to honor our parents.
I found out that's a sore spot for many when I asked my readers about it in this post and this one. That command fingers and pokes at old wounds and disappointments we’re certain we were never meant to have. Nonetheless, there sits the command — in the middle of the 10 Commandments — with no exceptions or qualifications noted. Jump in the discussion over there today, or ask Ariel a question about it. She's co-authored a non-fiction book on the father-daughter relationship so she is a great person to ask.
Gotta run and teach at the university! I pray great blessings on your day!
