Mimu's Message.com

2004-01-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

DO YOU LIKE MIMU'S MESSAGE?
DO YOU LIKE MIMU?

then buy the book! go to http://www.cafeshops.com/mimusmessage and check out the book my aunt put together for me. buying a book is good for the economy! and for me, because i get royalties.

Thanks!

Mimu

2003-11-27T06:36:00.000-08:00

PAGE UPDATE

it has recently come to my attention that my archives are gone. if you would like to see my older mimu's messages, contact me (perhaps by email, strrynight@hotmail.com) and i will hook you up.

~Mimu

2003-11-20T18:16:00.000-08:00

from Nov 23, 2003:

Dear Authority,

Hi! I am a rebel, an insurrectionist, an affront to your power: I am a teenager. As a teenager, it is my purpose and my extreme pleasure to make life difficult for you. I will not listen to you. I very likely will completely disregard your demands and/or requests. And even beyond that, I will probably mock you behind your back. If I’m very bold, I will simply laugh in your face. So:

Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Take that.

Sincerely,
A teenager

Come on, admit it: that’s the basic teenager attitude. It’s mine sometimes… probably more often than it should be. And I think that as teenagers, people generally expect us to be like that: troublemakers who disrespect authority, and it is often tolerated to a certain degree. But not only is it unpleasant for parents and teachers and other such authority figures, it’s wrong. Yeah, that disappoints me a little too. But check this out:

“Submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men…” (1 Peter 2:11)

Here we have it, straight from Peter, the “rock” of the church. What’s more, this passage goes on to say talk about the king and the governor… for us today, the government. Yes, we have to obey the government too. We have to obey authority because it glorifies God. I’m sorry if it deflates your power of rebellion… I feel your pain.

~Mimu

2003-11-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

from Nov 16, 2003:

Everybody needs a little encouragement sometimes. Actually, everybody needs a little encouragement often. There are lots of things to bring us down: illness, stress, loss, loneliness, feelings of failure, feelings of self-hatred or even utter despair. And with all these things and many more, it can seem next to impossible to find things to help bring us back up again. Sometimes it’s just hard to see hope. But hope is out there. I know where I can find it: in a book that sits on a red plastic crate beside my bed. While you may not have a red plastic crate (you should get one! I just love mine), you probably have a copy of the book that sits on top: the Bible. It is full of encouragement and hope for me and you. On just one page in my Bible, I found the following. I hope you see in these verses the promise they contain for you: that of a loving God who wants to help you through the hard times.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I think this needs no explanation. Please, take it to heart. It’s the word of God. It’s true. Let it help you. I’ll try to do the same myself.

~Mimu

2003-11-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

from Nov 9, 2003:

If I could have lunch with ANY living person, it would be Philip Yancey. Definitely. This Christian author puts Mimu’s Message to shame. To SHAME. You should read his books. All of them. The one I’m currently reading is The Jesus I Never Knew and it just blows me away, so I thought I’d share it with you. This book is all about Jesus: who he was, what he taught, and how that applies to us today. There’s far too much in it to share it all, but one chapter I found particularly interesting was that regarding Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7. Yup, all of it.). This sermon was Jesus’ major statement to the people about living. And much of it is very extreme. It talks about not resisting an evil person and turning the other cheek (Matt. 5:39). It equates lust with adultery (Matt 5:27-28) and anger with murder (Matt.5:22). This is serious stuff. And if we are Christians, this is stuff we have to deal with. Should we SERIOUSLY gouge out our own eyes if they cause us to lust? This is so extreme, Jesus must be exaggerating. But he isn’t. Jesus has a standard of perfection for us. That’s what he wants. God is holy, so he wants us to be holy. That means me and you. We are supposed to be perfect. But I can’t do it. Neither can you. We are ALWAYS going to fail. We can’t measure up. And here’s where things get deep: we don’t have to. God has a little something called GRACE. Grace means God forgives us for EVERYTHING because Jesus dwells within us. In short, Jesus has absolute ideals, but he also has absolute grace. Is it contradictory? Yes. God is just that way sometimes. Is it awesome? Yes. God is just that way ALL the time.

I hope you guys think that’s as cool as I thought it was. And seriously, check Yancey out.

2003-10-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

from Oct 26, 2003:

Among my many great loves is TRAVEL. My family really knows how to travel. We go on tons of great trips and I really can’t thank my parents enough for showing me so much of the world. I just love seeing new places and trying new things. Plus, I frequently learn some great new stuff on vacations, like how to kayak or what the Dada art movement was all about (I learned this stuff in Glen Arbor, Michigan and Toronto, Canada, respectively). Being in a brand new place that I’ve never seen before is such a thrill. I love travel.

You know what’s weird? Our lives here on earth are kind of like a vacation. Perhaps life isn’t the most fun and relaxing vacation all the time, but it really is just a short stay somewhere away from home. Home for us is heaven. I mean, we will spend a whole lot longer there than we do here. So really, we don’t belong here permanently. In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter writes: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul.” Again, this verse implies that our stay here may not always be so pleasant… I mean, war? Sounds kinda painful. But we aren’t stuck here forever. We have to keep our eyes on the fact that someday, maybe soon, we will be going back home, to a perfect place where we will live forever with God. This is an encouragement, because it means we don’t have to put up with an imperfect world forever, but it also challenges us to keep our focus on God, who is waiting for us back home, and try to carry out our “vacation” in a way that glorifies him, by not indulging in sin while we’re here. It’s kind of a “don’t drink the water” thing. But it’s “don’t do the sin” while we are here, or we’ll be sorry, just like the poor tourist who spends his vacation in Mexico in pretty bad shape (no offense, Martin!).

So hey, try and enjoy your vacation, but don’t drink the water. And never forget about the home you’re going back to. Oh—and take lots of pictures!

2003-10-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL ONLINE SPECIAL EDITION MIMU'S MESSAGE!
only available here, online.

okay, if you know me at all, you know i am a music freak. ive written many a mimu's message on something that has to do with music, plus i am talking about or listening to or singing music all the time. in fact, I'm listening to music right now. anyway, the other day i was listening to some music. it was Fleetwood Mac. And on this cd, The Dance, which is the live album that the band released shortly after Rumors, there's this song called "Bleed to Love Her" and, no surprise, the chorus goes like this:

ooooh, I would bleed to love her
ooooh, I would bleed to love her

and i was like, wow, that intense. I wish someone loved me like that... and then i TOTALLY smacked myself in the head and i was like, DUH!

Jesus DID bleed to love me!!!

and he bled to love you too. isnt that cool?

anyway, i'm off to... i dunno... maybe listen to some music. see ya.

2003-10-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

from Oct 19, 2003:

Benjamin Franklin was an interesting (cough) guy. I had to read his autobiography for my English class this week. I won’t lie: it was a snooze. The most interesting part was probably when Franklin talked about his grand plan for moral self-improvement. Franklin was a rationalist, so his plan was to come up with a list of thirteen “virtues” which he tried to perfect in himself. They are as follows:

1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence. Speak not but which may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order. Let all things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself - i.e., waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary action.
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health and offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury or another's peace or reputation.
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

These are pretty good character traits to develop. In fact, I am currently trying to practice them because our teacher is making us do it as an assignment. But while these character traits are great for being a highly effective human being or preparing yourself to fly kites in order to discover electricity, they aren’t made to fit Christianity. But don’t fear! There is a Bible passage to help us out. 2 Peter 5-7 says:

“…Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and you or goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance; godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

So there’s a guide for Christian self-improvement. Try it out. And remember, a penny saved, even if it IS a penny earned, isn’t gonna do much towards those $130 Eagles tickets I want.

2003-10-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

from Oct 12, 2003:

Alright, this one’s for the ladies. The girls. Guys, feel free to read this, but I’m talking to my sisters in Christ today.

Alright girls, I’m going to try to write about modesty without mentioning Britney Spears. We’ll instead take a look at modesty through the eyes of Jane, a Christian teen.

Every morning when Jane picks out her clothes, she deals with modesty either directly or indirectly. If she is thinking about it, she deals with it directly. But even if she doesn’t give it a second’s thought, the clothes that go on her body have everything in the world to do with modesty. Because people see her. And guys see her. Which is pretty cool, because she likes guys. And she wants them to like her. So she flashes a little midriff, or picks the shirt that cuts down just a little bit lower. Because if guys can see how pretty her body is, they might just want to give her a little extra attention because she is beautiful.

Things just aren’t like that. When a guy sees some skin, he doesn’t think, “Wow, that girl sure knows the way to make herself look beautiful. That’s so classy.” The thought is usually one that is better expressed not by words, but by the simple action of drooling. That skin excites the guy’s appetite. He not only can’t tear his eyes away, he starts thinking about seeing more skin, and well… you know what I mean. So now Jane’s just a sex object. Guys have a lot of trouble seeing past that. The guy doesn’t like her for who she is. And if that’s the case, does Jane really want this guy to like her at all?

With a non-Christian guy, Jane just has a guy who wants her for sex. However, it can even be worse with a Christian guy. Because if a guy is trying to keep his thoughts pure and respect Jane and her fellow females, he has to absolutely block Jane out if she is tempting. Then he’s lost for good. And if he fails to catch himself, he can compromise his faith. And while Jane is not responsible for anyone’s actions but her own, it is kind of her job as a Christian girl to help out her brothers in Christ because, lets face it, in our society it is really hard to not see sexual images. So if not for her own sake, Jane should keep her body under wraps to help guys keep their minds pure. And if she shows respect for a guy, there’s a chance that he will think, “Wow, Jane really makes an effort to be modest. That’s so refreshing… and classy.” And that’s the kind of opinion that makes a good start to a relationship.

“I want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety…(and) with good deeds, appropriate for women to profess to worship God.” -1 Tim. 2:9

2003-10-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

from Oct 5, 2003:

All I am saying is give peace a chance. Although I wish this were an original thought, the phrase was coined by John Lennon in the song “Give Peace a Chance.” The song has some questionable lyrics, but I find no fault in that singular line and its simple plea. Really, perhaps we ought to try to give peace a chance. Now, I’m no politician or protester. This isn’t about putting daisies in rifles and having sit-ins. This has NOTHING to do with world events. However, I think there is a lack of peace in the smaller spheres of our lives: our homes, our schools, our circles of friends… sometimes even our youth group. For whatever reason, I am becoming more and more acutely aware of the arguments going on all around me, and even through me: just now, getting on the computer to type this, I got in a fight with my brother. And too many times have I heard my friends complaining about one another and claiming that their friendship is “over” because of some minor disagreement. All I am saying is give peace a chance! And that’s all Paul is saying, too, in 2 Timothy 2:24: “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone…” I think “quarrel” is a good word, because while some arguments have meaning and sometimes need to happen, “quarrel,” especially in this context, basically implies a disagreement over something that doesn’t really matter. Quarrels can, and should, be let go. Let go of yours. As the verse says, being a servant means letting go of quarrels, even if it means you “lose” them. A real peace-nik—or a real servant—can stand a shot to her pride. Give peace a chance. It would allow us to live in love as God’s children, and to work together for good instead of battling each other needlessly.

Well, I’m off to make some macramé vests and burn some incense. Once more: All I am saying is GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!

Peace out
~Mimu

2003-10-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

from Sept 28, 2003:

You know what’s just FREAKY? Those “world’s strongest man” contests. You know, where they see who can pull a semi truck full of lead weights the farthest or fastest… I’m not too sure because I’m always too freaked out to watch long enough to find out. (I apologize if you love those or want to be in one some day. But personally, being able to count each sinew of muscle on someone’s body just grosses me out.) Those guys are strong. Those guys are stronger than I could ever even dream of being in my whole life. I have trouble dragging my hamper downstairs sometimes, much less a small freight train or whatever they’re pulling these days. And that’s okay with me. I don’t want to be able to lift a barbell that equals my weight, honestly. God doesn’t ask that of me. But God does want me to be strong. 2 Timothy 1 says, “You then, my son (or daughter!), be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” What this means for you and me is this: we need to be strong in our faith in Christ, but not through our own power. The “in the grace” part means that we rely utterly on Jesus and his power, not on our own. So, in terms of the “world’s strongest man” competition, instead of trying to pull the jet liner on our own, we should let our tractor (that’s a metaphor for Jesus’s power) do the pulling for us. Unlike in the school-bus-full-of-sandbags-pulling contest, in life it can be hard to relinquish that control that we sacrifice by choosing to trust Jesus. However, it’s the only way we can win. Because, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this—nobody in this room can pull a flatbed stacked with hundred-pound weights.

2003-10-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

from Sept 21, 2003:

Everything you wanted to know about zombies but were afraid to ask:

Other names: the living dead, the undead, living corpses
Favorite food: BRAINS!
Appearance: Zombies have no blood, therefore their flesh is a dead, grayish color. Their eyes are usually a good deal paler than they were in life. They wear the clothes in which they died/were buried. The clothes are usually decaying, as is the flesh it covers. The zombie may or may not have his/her internal organs hanging out. A zombie is typically very emaciated, especially in the face.
Behavior: Zombies are often characterized by the way they stare emptily and don’t blink. They roam at night because sunlight is sometimes fatal. They can sometimes be found eating brains or just wandering, their arms extended straight in front of them. Zombies are not very eloquent and usually express themselves in moans or caveman-like simple sentences.

I’m not going to lie. I made that up. But I have a point. In fact, I have a Bible reference!

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…” (Galatians 2:20a)

See, Christians are like zombies! Because we are obviously still alive, but we “no longer live” so we are like the undead! Okay, maybe not. The rest of the verse goes: “… but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” So basically… this verse isn’t about being a zombie. It’s about living not for yourself but for the sole sake of Christ.

Darn. I was SO feeling hungry for brains.

2003-09-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

from Sept 14, 2003:

Four score and…well, a long time ago, a group of people came to the continent of North America in search of religious freedom from the Church of England. They were called Pilgrims, or Puritans. Their goal was admirable: to create a pure Christian utopia. Their methods, however, were a little off. They were constantly filled with the terror of hellfire and the anxiety of following the sometimes-legalistic Puritan rules. There was no such thing as grace and any kind of fun was considered sinful.

I am actually a descendent of a Puritan elder, a man named Brewster. I don’t know much about him personally, except that he made the journey on the Mayflower and he had two children named Love and Wrestling (yes, that’s completely true). However, I am fairly certain that, as an elder, he was a strict Puritan. So this is what I have to say to him and his family: LIGHTEN UP! Philippians 4:4 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice!” I definitely respect the Puritans for really trying to keep the faith, but being happy and having fun is okay! Not only is it okay, it’s FITTING in the Christian lifestyle, as long as we do it the right way (i.e., getting drunk is not okay, playing ultimate Frisbee is). Sometimes as Christians it is easy to get bogged down under all the “rules” we feel are upon us, but what we really should feel is joy that God loves us and has chosen us as his children. So rejoice already! Don’t make me say it twice.

2003-09-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

from Sept 7, 2003:

School’s back in; your brains are warmed up. Therefore, it is now time for the first ever Mimu’s Message POP QUIZ! Don’t be scared; it’s only one question:

1. What do you want to know?

Now, don’t misunderstand me here. I can’t tell you what it is you want to know. It’s me asking the questions here and you answering. So what do you want to know? I want to know what career I should pursue. Here’s some more sample answers from my lovely, anonymous assistants:

-I want to know if Lauren wants to go to Pochi + General Tso's with Sam, Joe and Jay on Saturday at 6:30 in the pm.
-I want to know everything.
-I want to know that I'm not throwing away my life, that I'm not wasting what little precious time I have on this earth, and that when I leave this world people will attend my funeral and actually mean the nice things they say because I made a difference, no matter how inconsequential, in their lives.
-I want to know which months have 31 days and which ones don’t.

Wait, one more…

-I want to know Christ and the power of is resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:13)

Hm. Interesting. Are you sure you still want to stick to your original answer?

Just something to ponder.

~Mimu

2003-08-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

from August 31, 2003:

Ok, raise your hand if you own a mood ring. Like, seriously… right now. Do it. If you raised your hand, you are, like me, the proud owner of one of the cooler novelty fads of the 1970s. If you are unfamiliar with the mood ring, it is a piece of jewelry worn upon the finger which has a usually elliptical inset which changes color supposedly according to one’s mood. It actually reacted to body heat, but perhaps body heat and mood are somehow tied. Or perhaps the guy who invented them, Joshua Reynolds, just made that up because he knew it would sell. And it did. Either way, here is how to read a mood ring, according to Super70s.com:

Blue: Happy
Purple: Moody
Black: Down
Reddish brown: Insecure
Clear: Fraud. Your mood ring is a fake.
Green: Easily amused

Don’t you feel enlightened? Probably not. This is really useless information. Mood rings don’t do much for you. Even if they can tell your mood they can’t do anything about them and can’t really sympathize with you either (if you want sympathy, try a Pet Rock, another 70s fad). But I’ll tell you what is a better tool for dealing with your moods: the Bible! In particular, the book of Psalms. There’s 150 of them, I’m sure you can find one to match your mood. Here’s a quick guide:

Tired and Upset: Psalms 6 and 13
Full of Praise: Psalm 19
Grateful: Psalm 18
Mood Swings: Psalm 22 (it goes from a mood of despair to one of great joy)
Repentant: Psalm 51
Joyful: Psalm 100
Repetitive: Psalm 136

Okay, fine, I guess you can’t really feel “repetitive,” but still, you should check out ALL these Psalms. Whether they match your mood or not, they are pretty GROOVY!

2003-08-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

from August 10, 2003:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
-“The Walrus and the Carpenter” from Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carrol

The time has indeed come. The seniors are moving on. So this one is for you guys.

I don’t know where all of you will be (granted, I DO know where many of you will be). But I do know one thing: God’s going with you. Don’t lose sight of that. In the words, of Proverbs 3:5a, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” God will see you through in all your endeavors if you just lean on him. Keep praying. We’ll be praying for you too.

I’ll miss you guys.

Love,
Mimu

2003-07-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

from July 27, 2003:

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Look, these kids aren’t even doing it! Hey! You guys are supposed to be young and full of energy! Me, I’ve had a heck of a week and I’m TIRED! Oh great, now their parents are going to think that they had NO fun all week and I’m just a nutcase who really enjoys songs with hand motions. Even this little girl is staring at me… I really should not feel stupid for a three year old. At least my mom still loves me… and feels stupid too, two rows back and dancing like an idiot like I am. Oh my gosh now I’m yelling at Wet Willy… sheesh, he and I both know where his note is. This is so dumb…

“I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness…”
-Paul, in 2 Cor. 11:1a

I definitely performed with shining foolishness this week, at our church’s Vacation Bible School. I sang silly songs. I did the hand motions to the silly songs. I went down a huge inflatable slide. I allowed people to get me really wet, be it with foam splash bombs, spray bottles, or just a big old bucket of water. I did some rather foolish things. But I’m in good company…

Noah built a very large boat on dry land. (Genesis 6:13-22)

Moses talked to shrubbery. (Exodus 3)

Gideon, with thirty-two thousand men at his command, took only three hundred to attack a huge army. (Judges 7)

Hosea married a prostitute. (Now THERE’S a good relationship.) (Hosea 1:2-3)

David danced in the street. (His wife hated him for it, too.) (2 Samuel 6:16)

Everybody thought the Disciples were drunk after they received the Holy Spirit because of the way they were praising God. (Acts 2:1-13)

If you know anything about those stories, you know that all those men had good reason for what they did. Many of them were just following direct orders from God. Others were just reacting to what God was doing. However, all the stories turn out for the best. So did mine. 71 kids accepted Christ this week. I’d like to hope that maybe something I did helped with that; that my foolishness wasn’t in vain. And if it was…

Fine. I LIKED doing the hand motions!

2003-07-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

from July 20, 2003:

I know you’ve heard it a million times. For high school students, there practically is no present… what you’re doing now has the sole purpose of…

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE!

Yes, that’s right. You must get good grades and join lots of clubs at school and do community service so that you can go to a good college and then get a good job and make something of yourself. All this is called…

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE!

And you should do it! Because it’s good!

Alright, fine. It is a really bright idea to make sure that you are laying a path for the rest of your life academically and professionally. But do you ever plan for your spiritual future? Nowadays, you may be doing pretty well with your faith. You may read your Bible frequently, pray often, have a good amount of fellowship with other believers, and in general be living your life in an effort to glorify God. If this is the case with you, awesome. Even if you aren’t always successful, if you are trying to maintain an effective relationship with God you are on the right track.

But what happens later? When you get older and move away, or even when you start your own family, will you still be living for God? It is easy to say “Well, sure,” but unless you make a commitment to it, your faith could slip away. I’ve seen it happen; it’s really very sad. So take a tip from David, when he writes in Psalm 63:4, “I will praise [God] as long as I live.” When I see you in twenty years, I want to hear how your faith is continuing to grow and how you are teaching it to your kids (assuming you have any). I hope I will be able to say the same.

2003-07-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

from July 13, 2003:

If you’ve ever been to a movie, or even if you haven’t, you are most likely familiar with the Motion Picture Association of America Rating System. That’s the letters and numbers that give you a suggestion as to whether the content of the movie is appropriate for certain ages. Such as:

PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

But God has his own rating system. In Phillipians 4:8 he commands us to be careful with our thoughts. They should therefore be rated:

T: True. Founded in God’s word.

N: Noble. In a class above the rest.

R: Right. Not wrong?

P: Pure. Clean and free of trash that you wouldn’t want Jesus to see.

L: Lovely. Beautiful, nice.

A: Admirable. Full of worth.

E: Excellent. Most righteous, dude! Er…I mean… really good?

P-W: Praiseworthy. Worthy of recognition or glory.

Pretty simple, huh? Just keep them in mind. You might be surprised how it can revolutionize your thinking.

2003-07-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

from July 6, 2003:

You gotta look out for number one, “Number one” meaning yourself of course. I mean, if you don’t have yourself, what do you have? How can you worry about other stuff until things are going well for you?

Heh, good one.

“Number one” SHOULD be God. Your purpose on the earth is not to look out for yourself and make sure you can get all you can before you die. Your purpose is to serve God (see Mimu’s Message from February 9. Don’t have it anymore? Check the website! http://mimusmsg.blogspot.com).

Paul is one of the greatest examples I know of living with God first. He writes to his fellow disciple and protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:8b-9:

“This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.”

Not only is Paul willing to be in jail for his efforts to serve God by sharing the gospel, but he is able to rejoice that the gospel is not in jail with him. He knows that God’s word is too powerful to be held in, and he is happy that others continue to share it outside the prison walls. Think about that, he in rotting away in captivity but he is just full of joy because God’s word cannot be defeated. Is that your attitude? Who is REALLY number one?

2003-06-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

from June 29, 2003:

Forget baseball. The new American pastime could be exaggeration. It seems to be a big issue with teenagers…especially teenage girls…especially me. But anyway, because this larger/smaller/better/worse-than-life way of speaking has become so common, I have decided to provide you with a guide for translating a conversation with me or any of my exaggerating peers:

“I’m never speaking to you again”- Give me anywhere between 5 seconds and an hour.
“That’s the best”- I find that to be generally tolerable.
“That’s my favorite song!”- I don’t hate that song.
“You always do that.”- You’ve done that before. Maybe once.
“You never do that.”- You actually do that pretty frequently.
“I HATE YOU!”- Give me anywhere between 5 seconds and 10 seconds.

These tips may help in everyday conversation, but here’s my last tip: completely disregard all the above whenever you read the Bible. I didn’t know him personally, but I don’t imagine that Paul was big on exaggeration. Therefore, take every word of Philippians 4:6 literally:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

When Paul says everything, he means EVERYTHING. In our lives, talking to God shouldn’t be for bedtime and mealtimes. It should be a habit, it should be like breathing. Talk to God about anything and everything you encounter. Praise him for his creation, thank him for blessings, ask forgiveness, ask for help. Not only will this being you peace (see verse 7—that’s right, pull out your Bible. I dare you. Read the whole book of Philippians even. It’s great… and short.) but if you are in constant conversation with God, it will shift your focus to him at all times. And that’s what we’re here for… to grow close to God and serve him.
I really want to challenge you to do this. I’m working on it too. Remember, God is what really matters… talk to him.

God Bless,
Mimu

Ps. If you missed Adventure Week.... It was amazing.

2003-06-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

from June 22, 2003:

You know how it is. High school can be a really messed up place sometimes. And I don’t mean classes and grades and stuff. I mean the stuff that’s happening after class, or on the weekends. I’m talking about when half your homeroom comes in Monday morning with hangovers. You overhear someone conversing worriedly with their friend over whether they could be pregnant. Then you hear a bunch of kids in your lunchroom, maybe even people who you consider friends, talking about how they got high last night. And how they plan to do it again tonight. Even now, with it being summer, kids are doing the same stuff. They can just do it more frequently. Or at different hours. But still… it’s sad and scary.

It would not be hard to join the crowds. If you wanted to go get smashed at a party, it probably wouldn’t be hard to find one as long as you asked the right people. And while that’s great news if you’re into that kind of thing, as Christians we are NOT supposed to be into that kind of thing. It can be tempting, sure. But that isn’t the point. The Bible commands:

“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Tim 2:22)

So you’re supposed to flee your evil desires to go do wrong stuff. But beyond that you are supposed to PURSUE that good stuff… with others. And that makes sense. You need to be with the right people in order to do the right thing. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “What makes contact with wicked people so difficult is that to handle the situation successfully requires not merely good intentions, even with humility and courage thrown in; it may call for social and even intellectual talents which God has not given us. It is therefore not self-righteousness but mere prudence to avoid it when we can.” The point of that is, you don’t stand much of a chance if you’re with the wrong people. So you need friends who will HELP you try to follow God. Don’t have any? Look around. This room is full of Christians. It usually is. Spend some time here. Get to know these people. Get involved. If all of us pull together, we can form a huge web of support for each other and those evil desires will hardly be a second thought. We need each other. So come on, we need you. And you need us.

2003-06-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

from June 15, 2003:

Do you remember Miss Cleo? You know, that crazy Jamaican lady who would come on those commercials? She claimed to be a psychic. You would see her in front of a cheap green screen with weird patterns all over it and she would be like “Call today fo yo free psychic readin!” and then you’d see her on the phone with someone, looking at her tarot cards saying, “Ah yes, you have been goin troo some changes lately… do you have a new job?” and the voice would say “Yes, I did!” and then Miss Cleo would be all like, “Oh, dees card means deceit… is yo husband cheatin on you?” and the caller would say “Yes, he is!” and then you are supposed to be really amazed and call for your free reading.
Well, it turns out that Miss Cleo wasn’t a psychic. She got busted. And it also turns out she wasn’t even Jamaican… she was born in L.A.
Regardless, the idea of psychics and fortune-telling is one that has fascinated humans for centuries. The future can be a frightening thing, because it is a complete mystery. It is a field of dark ahead of us that may hold danger or heartache in its blackness. Even in this technological age, the future is out of our reach and therefore completely out of our control. And without control, there is insecurity.
I admit I often worry about the future. As a high school student, I will soon be approaching college. And after that, then what? And who knows what other obstacles or challenges may be coming my way even tomorrow. I don’t know. That can be scary.
I am not Miss Cleo. I do not know the future (I guess that’s just something we have in common). But God knows. God has our futures prepared for us. He knows it all; he holds it right there in his hand. The future isn’t an empty void; God is already there. Jesus says some great stuff on this in Matthew 6:25-34. I chose one verse that I found really reassuring:
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns [or worry!], and yet their heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (verse 26)
God cares about you, and he cares about your future. Trust him with it, and you don’t have to worry. Plus you’ll save on those calls to the phone psychic.

2003-06-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

from June 8, 2003:

“Friends applaud, the comedy is over.”
-Ludwig van Beethoven
“Et tu, Brute?”
-Julius Caesar
". . . the fog is rising."
-Emily Dickinson
“It’s very beautiful over there.”
-Thomas Edison
"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
-Nathan Hale
“Hold the cross high that I may see it through the flames!”
-Joan of Arc
“Drink to me!”
-Pablo Picasso
“I’m going over the valley.”
-Babe Ruth

Last words. They are important to human culture: they are the very last chance that person has to speak to the world before they leave it forever. Sometimes last words are a simple bid goodbye. Sometimes they are a joke, sometimes a cryptic muttering. However, some last words are really a projection of a person’s life philosophy, full of profundity and meaning. They are last words that say it all.
The book of Ecclesiastes is basically King Solomon’s last word. He wrote it near the end of his life, and it is his final statement on what life is, and what matters. And here is what he has to say:

“Fear God and do what he says, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)

Now Solomon was not just some cave-dwelling hermit. He had everything in the world. He was the richest man to ever live. He had women. He had power. He had wisdom. And at the end of his days, one thing mattered: God.
What will your last words be? It’s an interesting question. But you can take a lesson from the past and realize that Solomon is right: God is life. He is everything. Don’t wait until your last breath to acknowledge that.

2003-06-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

from June 1, 2003:

My mother was 24 when she first met the Paradises. She was living in Atlanta, Georgia, and she was applying for a job at a local school: North Cobb Christian. She was a young teacher, seeking out work in her new town. She was a little intimidated: a Christian school that was run by people named Paradise. They even lived on a road called Truth Avenue.
She got the job. She soon became friends with Gary and Carol Paradise and their two daughters, Kelly and Lisa. After teaching in Atlanta for a year and a half, she was forced to leave the job and the town due to my father being relocated to Jacksonville, Florida. However, our two families remained close friends. Carol even came to Florida shortly after I was born to help my mom out. Even when we moved to Ohio, we kept in touch. When Kelly got married last November, we attended the wedding (it was great). The Paradises sent me some balloons on my birthday last month. The Paradises have been like family to me, even though they are many miles away.
Mr. Paradise would definitely be like the cool uncle. He’s a terrific guy and he’s totally hilarious. He’s tons of fun to be around, although he embarrasses me almost as much as my own father… I suppose he’s had plenty of practice raising two girls of his own. But one thing I admire most about him is his devoted faith. My mother recently told me that he had once told her that he had a special system for sharing his faith with others. He would constantly pray that he would be able to talk to one person about Jesus every week. He asked God for the opportunity to touch just one life. And you know what? It worked. Through work or among friends, he always found his opportunity and took advantage of it.
I think that is really cool. And it’s a good idea to apply to our own lives, too. God will listen, and we will be able to share what we have with others. I have no doubt. The Bible says, in Ephesians 2 verse 10, that we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The opportunities are waiting, God has them ready for us. Let’s seek them out and take them.

2003-05-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

from May 25, 2003:

I am a terrible liar. I mean, I generally try to avoid lying, because it’s a sin, mostly. But also, I am simply awful at it. I simply can’t keep a straight face. I definitely can’t keep eye contact. I sweat. I am my own dead giveaway. Some people can lie really well. It’s a profession for secret agents who go undercover and gamblers (I suppose they actually bluff…). But yeah… lies.

What about truth?

Truth, ironically, is a rather controversial topic these days. “As long as you’re sincere” there is no such thing as real, absolute truth. And you know what? I’m just going to cut the cute transition here and say it:

JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY.

I don’t care who you are or what you think. It’s true, the Bible says so. And here’s my verses to justify it:

John 14:6- Jesus is the way
1 Tim. 3:16- All Scripture (including the above verse) is from God

So you know what? You are a liar if you claim to believe in God and don’t accept Jesus as the way to heaven. It may seem harsh for me to say that, but I take my words from John, the guy who wrote the book titled (appropriately) 1 John. This verse comes from chapter 2, verse 22:

“Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ.”

So there.

2003-05-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

from May 18, 2003:

Finally, after 19 years of hard labor, he was free. A petty crime turned into many long years of misery; an attempt to help a starving nephew by stealing bread became a life of toil… but it was over. He was no longer in chains and was ready to go on.
He wandered into a town along the French highway. The night was bitterly cold and chilled his bones, yet had no effect on his heart, hardened by the bitterness of the law’s weight upon his back those nineteen years. A light soon appeared in a doorway… a man’s voice cried out, won’t the stranger come in from the cold and have a bite to eat? He slunk towards the door and greeted an old bishop, who told him he would be glad to share his home. The trust surprised him. He was no upstanding citizen. He was a criminal, his yellow release papers gave that away. The bishop had no reason to trust him, but nonetheless he offered a seat at the table and a bed down the hall. He begrudgingly accepted the kindness, for it was indeed free food and shelter. But the kindness did not move him.
In the dark of the night, he stirred from his bed and grabbed his pack. He crept into the dining room and opened the rough wooden cabinet. In it, the silver reflected the streetlight through the window. Soon, it was enveloped in the darkness of the burlap sack that traveled into the night upon his back. What a fool the bishop was to trust him.
Morning saw a struggle and a man, seething with bitter rage, being drug to the front door of the home by the church. The constables were sorry to disturb the old bishop so early, but they found this man, this filthy crook, running from his house with metal clinking in his bag.
The statement, so atrocious: “He said this silver was a present from you! A present!”
He grunted. Free but days and soon he would be back heaving those same stones, this time in prison for life. He felt no regret, just the same heavy emptiness.
“Well of course! A parting gift for my guest. I’m so glad you returned, my friend, for you forgot the candlesticks! They are the most valuable of all!”
He was taken aback. This bishop had not been vengeful. He did not try to punish him for his crime. He saved him. He gave his freedom. He showed him… grace.

Man I wish I actually wrote that story. I just summarized it from a famous novel-turned-broadway-musical-and-movie, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It is a story of love, justice, freedom, and most of all (at least according to me) grace. This man, named Jean Valjean, takes the grace shown by the bishop, and uses it to reform his life and go on to show grace to all who he meets. That makes him a hero.

Grace is a godly quality. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

Show some grace today. You could change a life.

2003-05-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

from May 11, 2003:

Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Unless you have been living in a cave in Zimbabwe or Siberia recently, you know to what I refer. This is the “big idea” of the war that our country is currently involved in. Now, this war has been controversial, to put it lightly. And everyone seems to have an opinion about it, of course. Many people are opposed to it. But those who are for it, at least the ones in our government, say this: the Iraqi people deserve freedom. We are fighting to free them from the oppressive regime in their country. That’s why we named the operation what we did.

Freedom. In our society, if you aren’t free; you aren’t really living. Our country began with a search for freedom. It is the principle the nation is founded on. In short, it’s apparently pretty important.

We live in a free country, sure. But guess what: we are even MORE free if we are Christians. Yes, that’s right. It makes us free from sin.

“For sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14) That grace comes from Jesus dying on the cross. And if you are a Christian, you are no longer stuck under the burden of sin. It has NO power over you. With God, you can overcome it. So if you ever feel hopelessly entangled in sin, know that you have an escape. Satan is trying to trick you into thinking you are tangled up, but the truth is that God has a pair of scissors to cut the sin away. You aren’t trapped. You are FREE!

God Bless,
Mimu

2003-04-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

from Apr 27, 2003:

How much time do you take getting ready in the morning?
What do you do?
What products do you employ?
What are your special style tricks that make you look like you?

I take about 20 minutes, and my “look-pretty repertoire” on an average day consists of getting clean, then throwing on some pants (probably jeans) and a thrift-store tee shirt, tousling my hair a little bit, and putting on some powder and mascara. My routine may seem over-the top to some, average to many, and puny to the fashion divas among us, but all in all EVERYONE does SOMETHING to get themselves “looking good.” It’s something that is somewhat important in our culture (don’t believe me? Ask the president of Maybelline or Tommy Hilfiger). And that’s pretty much okay. But here’s the thing:

“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b.

God doesn’t really care how long it takes to do your hair or whether you had a hole in your pants all day today (although that would be kind of embarrassing). What God notices is the condition of your heart. Do you love Him with all of it? Are you struggling (or not struggling) against sin? Are you full of bitterness, or full of love? God knows. He sees it all.

So that’s something to think about. Do you spend as much time making your heart beautiful as you do your face? You should.

God Bless,
Mimu

Ps.
God thinks you are beautiful on the outside, of course. He made you! And He knows what he was doing.

2003-04-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

from Apr 20, 2003:

Rose petals that spell out “Will you marry me?”
A picnic in the park.
Lying on a hill at night staring at the stars.
Eating spaghetti and slurping the last noodle a la “Lady and the Tramp.”
A fresh bouquet of her favorite flowers.
Running through a golden field.
Holding hands.

Images of love. Beautiful, right? Full of happiness and sunshine.

But I left out one very important image of love. It is an image of blood. It is an image of indescribable suffering. Skin pierced and oozing blood. A dirty and broken body. Crowds full of angry words and curses. Criminals facing capital punishment. Moans of pain. People weeping. Darkness. Death.

All this ugliness is an image of love. In fact, it is THE image of perfect love. It is an image of Jesus dying on a cross so that you don’t have to. It is him giving up his life for you, not because he had to, but because he loved you. And don’t take my word for it, think about it. He raised people from the dead and healed their sicknesses. He would not have stayed on that cross if he did not feel the need to stay. He was there because he loves you.

Happy Easter.

2003-04-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

from Apr 13, 2003:

Preps. Punks. Goths. Emo kids. Ravers. Techies. Jocks. Foreign kids. Geeks. Bandies. Indie kids. Theatre geeks. Losers. Assorted wanna-bes.

Cliques. Groups. Classifications. Ah yes, the nomenclature of high-school students. Sorting people based on the music they listen to, the people the hang out with, and the places they go. It can also be dependent on the amount of money the family has or the place that they live. As far as fashion, certain colors, labels, or styles can help classify people. Shoes also carry a tremendous amount of importance. Maybe there are other things, like what classes one takes, that can make them belong to a certain crowd.

Most schools have “groups” of some sort. At some schools, they are only loosely defined. At others, especially smaller schools from what I understand, the groups nearly become a caste system, and straying from your crowd or style can cause you to be socially ostracized. Regardless of the specifics, cliques exist. But here’s what I have to say about it:

So what.

There are two things that totally nullify whether a girl wears all black or a boy likes his Abercrombie pants.

1.God loves everybody. He doesn’t care whether they like Metallica or Modest Mouse. They are still his kid. And whether a kid sports her Chuck Taylors on a daily basis or rotates 47 different pairs of Gucci heels, she can still love God. And that means…

2.We don’t have to be separated! Even within our youth group there are different types of people, but our love for God can bring us together. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body…” (1 Cor. 12:13).

That’s right, I have a dream that one day little goth boys and preppy girls will be able to join hands with little jock boys and emo girls and walk together as sisters and brothers in Christ.

God Bless!
-Mimu

ps. Mimu’s Message is now online! Check out http://mimusmsg.blogspot.com! You can find all the old Mimu’s messages, plus I plan on putting in some extra bonus stuff every so often. It will be updated weekly!

2003-04-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

from Apr 6, 2003:

Aaaaaah. Spring Break. Mine was this past week, and I had a pretty swell time. I spent four days of it in the Bahamas, in Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island (don’t throw things at me, I swear I’m going somewhere with this!). It was generally beautiful there, although the first two days were rather cold. But it was nice Wednesday, and it was that day that the major highlight of the week occurred: we went snorkeling! My grandfather is an avid scuba diver, so snorkeling is like riding with training wheels to him, and he showed us the ropes. We spent an afternoon out at a place called Deadman’s Reef. Now I have seen on TV many a time the beauties of the ocean. It is a generally assumed fact that “Ze seas, zey are teeming with life.” But there’s just nothing quite like being there and seeing a small school of sparkling, multicolored fish swimming a few short feet below your body. They came in all colors, with lots of yellows and some reds. Some were striped, some spotted, there was one whose black and white scales made almost a grid pattern. Their little “o” mouths and eyes had their own charm I just couldn’t place. My favorite fish I saw was a dazzling iridescent blue, and about a foot long. I think my little brother was most impressed with the little barracuda he saw. A girl we talked to saw a stingray. I’m not sure I exactly have the words to describe how beautiful it all was. It was like a whole different world down there. The fish didn’t notice me, they just continued looking pretty and weaving their way around the coral. The coral itself was a wonder. There were so many different kinds. Some of them were like fans that swayed in the ocean’s waves, some of them looked like brains, some of them looked like weird straw-like things, or maybe rocks, and some were even dangerous: the fire coral burns your skin if you touch it. The water was clear and blue, and it was almost like it was being gracious by allowing me to see all the beauty it held. It was quiet and peaceful, yet full of calm activity. It was, in a word, amazing. And here’s the big thing:

God made it all.

Just a little something to think about.

2003-04-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

from Mar 30, 2003:

Everyone generally agrees that doing nice things is good for you. And it makes you feel good. Like right here:

Boy and girl are walking down the hall.
Girl has lots of books.
Boy and girl approach door.
Boy speeds up a little, and opens door for girl.
Girl passes through door.
Boy feels good.

Or how about:

Girl 1 and girl 2 are walking down the hall.
Girl 1 has a lot of books.
Girl 1 drops books.
Girl 2 helps girl 1 pick up her books.
Girl 2 feels good.

There are limitless possibilities when it comes to these “random acts of kindness.” But regardless of the specifics, the outcome is usually the same: the do-gooder feels good. There is, of course, the natural joy of helping another human being. But often, another feeling creeps in: look at me. I did something nice. I’m a good person. I’m a good Christian. But here’s the thing: that is NOT good. You see, we are not responsible for the good we do. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So basically, the only reason you EVER do anything nice is because God set you up to do it. Now here’s the big question: does that mean you should pass your opportunities to do nice things up because maybe God didn’t plan that one? Psh, No! God wants you to do all the good you can. It shows love for Him and for others, and that is paramount. But just remember when you are helping anyone out: it isn’t you.

2003-04-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

from Mar 23, 2003:

You can run, but you can’t hide.
Okay, well you can’t run either.

“Run and hide from what?” you may be asking. “Why do you abuse clichés?” you may also be asking. While I don’t really have an answer to the second question, the first is easy.

You can’t run and you can’t hide from God.

Want proof?
Hiding: Genesis 3:8, Adam and Eve know they messed up by eating from the wrong tree and they try to hide from God. However, in the next verses God finds them. And we all know what happened then (If you don’t, check out Genesis!)

Running: While I don’t have specific, perfectly-tailored biblical evidence for this one, God is everywhere. So wherever you go, he’s automatically going to beat you there.

Now that we’ve established the facts, I think it’s important to establish one last thing: why you care. You care because this means two things for you. The first is you can’t escape God. When you sin, it isn’t like you can just hide in the bushes (it didn’t work for Adam and Eve). You have no choice but to face it eventually. The best way to do this is to confess it to God. He will forgive you. Which leads me to my second point: you will never be away from God’s love. Regardless of where you are, be it physically or metaphorically, he is there and he loves you. Lots. And I don’t see any reason to run from that.

2003-04-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

from Mar 16, 2003:

Ah, quiet time. A break in your busy day. A time reading the Bible. Ever have your week’s schedule go like this?

Monday: left Bible downstairs, too lazy to go get it.
Tuesday: too much homework, ran out of time
Wednesday: too tired. Spend time sleeping.
Thursday: forgot.
Friday: the very thought of the weekend excited you so much you lost all other thought, including the one that said “do quiet time”
Saturday: slept all day. No consciousness for reading.
Sunday: went to church anyway, not important.

I’ve had weeks that went pretty much that way. I don’t know about anyone else, but I sometimes feel like, because there is no deadline on it, it just isn’t THAT necessary. The report is worth the time more than that, I’m soooo tired I should just skip it… excuses are not hard to find.

However, it’s important. True, you aren’t going to hell if you skip a day or two every so often. But it is important to be devoted to the Bible. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Sure, I don’t see most of you with post-it notes on your foreheads or anything, but these verses very clearly place an emphasis on scripture. So next time you think that your time would be better spent playing a video game or rotting your brain on the internet, think again. Have you had your break today?

2003-04-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

from Mar 9, 2003:

Let’s start a little controversy here. I’ll make some statements and see how many people I can offend.

Abortion is wrong.
Homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle.
I respect our president.
Divorce should not happen.
The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
If you are offended and disagree with these statements, you are wrong.

I am right. Or rather, God is. You see, these may seem like my own whacko-way-conservative-fundamentalist ideas to some, but I am not just making them up. I took them all from the one and only source of truth, the Bible. If THAT offends you, I say again, God is right. You are not. Want proof? Here it is, in the order that it appears above:

Psalm 139:13- God creates people before they are born, when they are still inside their mommies… abortion kills those people.
Leviticus 18:22- Same-sex intercourse is forbidden in God’s law, and is further condemned in the New Testament (Rom. 1:26-27, 1 Tim. 1:10)
Romans 13:1-5-God, who has control of everything, put the leaders in their place, including our president. And because God established that authority, we need to submit to it.
Malachi 2:16- God hates divorce. He doesn’t want it to happen. Jesus doesn’t like it either. In Mark 10:9-12 Jesus says that “no man should separate” marriage.
John 14:6- “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to God except through me.” That doesn’t have any loopholes in it.
And finally, 2 Timothy 3:16- ALL scripture (including the above) is straight from God’s mouth (I paraphrased it, but you can go check out the real thing) and is the real deal.

You choose what you do with that. To those of you who don’t believe it, I suggest you change your mind. To those of you who do, stand up for it. Live it. Love it. You won’t be sorry.

2003-04-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

from Mar 2:

Do you have a best friend? I have about a million… as you see I have no understanding of superlatives. And I abuse exaggeration. Nevertheless, my friends are just the awesomest. I bet your friends are even awesomer than mine (maybe they even have good grammar!) so here is a tribute to them: a brief and less-than-meticulously researched history of friendship:

A few B.C.- 12 guys hang out with Jesus. They enjoy cruisin’ on Galilee and eating fish and stuff.

Sometime later A.D.- Paul and his buddy Barnabas nearly bust out of jail together, but “stick around so they can get their kicks”—Elvis, Jailhouse Rock

Another time A.D.- Paul writes a note to his friend Philemon to tell him to forgive another friend of his, Onesimus, because Onesimus bailed on Philemon… okay well he was his slave and he ran away.

But wait folks… that’s not all. Believe it or not, friendship existed before Jesus hit the planet too. In fact there were some pretty good friendships back then, but in my opinion one really stands out: David and Jonathan. Now David was the guy who killed Goliath, became king, and later committed adultery, and in between the giant slaying and being king, he became friends with Jonathan. These two were best buddies. They bailed each other out on several occasions and Jonathan even disobeyed his dad for David. Maybe you have a friendship as tight as that. But here’s the real kicker: David MAJORLY gave Jonathan the shaft. See, Jonathan was Saul’s son, and therefore next in line to be king… but we all know that David got the job. Now, David didn’t do this on purpose. He just happened to be who God chose to be king. But for real, if you were all lined up to be the next KING, how would you feel towards the guy who took your job? I would probably have trouble being civil. But you know what? Jonathan loved David like a brother. I think that is just amazing. I think it’s something to think about too: how loving are you to your friends?

Ps.
Just so you don’t think I made that whole thing up, you can find it in the Bible… 1 Samuel 18-20

2003-04-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

from Feb 23, 2003:

Stupid disciples. I mean, the guys were obviously SO dense. I mean, Jesus CONTROLS THE WEATHER right in front of them and they go, “duh…I wonder how he can do that!” (paraphrased from Matthew 8:23-27) I mean, they hung around Jesus every day and, I mean, it is pretty obvious that the guy is the Son of God. I can tell that whenever I read the Bible and I’m just a kid! You would think that Jesus could pick some smarter men to be his followers…

Well, you know, maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. They were only sorta dumb. Seriously though, sometimes it seems the disciples knew nothing… and that’s partly true. They didn’t know the end of the story like we do. I mean, how would you react if all the sudden a random guy is at your door claiming to be the messiah you and your family and everyone you know has been waiting for ever since time began? And obviously Jesus made a huge impact on the disciples because they all just picked up and followed him. That’s very impressive considering the circumstances. I mean, if my own parents decided we were moving I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming… much less some stranger who just shows up and says “C’mon.” Plus, most of these men were from the wrong side of the tracks, from what I understand. Several of them were just fishermen. I don’t know a whole lot of history or theology, but I think that being a fisherman is somewhere near being a construction worker or fry cook today… (if that is COMPLETELY wrong, I apologize… but it seems to me that being a fisherman isn’t exactly real intellectual). And apart from all that… these guys did some really amazing things after Jesus went back to heaven. Along with Paul, they really started up the church. And beyond that, most of them suffered horrible deaths because they finally understood who Christ was and had to tell everybody.

The disciples were actually pretty cool. They were obviously quite human, like you and I. And if these mere mortals can rock it for God, so can we!

2003-04-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

from Feb 16, 2003:

HOW TO RELATE BEATLES SONGS TO JESUS:

1. I Wanna Hold Your Hand… Jesus wants to be your best friend and be close to you all of the time
2. Hard Day’s Night… at the end of a long, hard day, you can turn to Jesus and He will comfort you and make you “feel all right”
3. Fool on the Hill… Jesus was perceived as a fool on a hill --or a mount-- during His lifetime. He was not accepted by many and perceived as insane by some
4. Here Comes the Sun… the Son of God

These past weeks, I have been working on a research project about the late George Harrison, guitarist for the Fab Four. Thus, I have been immersing myself in the Beatles. Apart from the actual research, my Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album (one of my prized possessions) has been spinning on our record player constantly, my own CD player has been housing 1 (a collection of the Beatles’ number one hits that came out a couple years ago) and I’ve been reading a fabulous book, A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles. It is a real work of art, meticulously researched yet still perfectly riveting –at least to a Beatles freak like me… Anyway, the book goes into detail about the innovative and brilliant music of the Beatles and it also discusses the events in the personal and especially professional lives of the band. It is no new story. The Beatles were arguably the most successful and influential band of the twentieth century, yet they broke up. Why? They weren’t happy. Things were falling apart. They had anything they could want: they could have any woman they wanted; they were very, very rich; they were the most famous band in the world; they had an endless supply of LSD for whenever they wanted a good time (note: Mimu’s Message does NOT endorse, suggest, or approve of LSD); and they were creative geniuses. However, all of that simply wasn’t enough. As the Bible puts it,

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?
(Matthew 16:26a)

The Beatles knew that. They sought out something more than their fame, but unfortunately went in a wrong direction, getting into Eastern Religion under the guidance of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who in fact turned out to be not-so-holy, and basically money-hungry. There is only one thing that could have completed the Beatles. There is only one thing that can complete any of us today. That one thing is Jesus. Don’t believe me? Think money and members of the opposite sex are going to fix your problems? No.

I leave you with this:
All you need is love … the love of Jesus!

2003-04-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

from Feb 9, 2003:

THE MEANING OF LIFE. In our culture, that seems to be a great mystery, I can recall several occasions in school when a teacher would ask if there were any questions from the class and that smart-aleck kid in the back (you know the one) would raise his hand and blurt out “What’s the meaning of life?” The class would either chuckle at his joke or chuck things at his head, depending on how early in the morning it was. Yes, it is the great enigma in our society. Nobody really knows the meaning of life.

YEAH RIGHT!

We Christians have beaten the system! We know the meaning of life! It was even handed to us, IN WRITING!
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
(1 Cor. 10:31)
Check that out. THAT is the meaning of life. Live your life doing everything to bring glory to God. Because it’s laid out so clearly, you should be able to do it perfectly.

Once again, YEAH RIGHT!

As someone who has and is trying it, it just isn’t that easy. Out lives can get complicated. We have obligations that yank us in all sorts of directions and it’s really tough to keep your motivations and priorities straight; but it’s important. This week has been a crazy, busy one for me, so I’ve been rather frazzled. I was talking to a mentor of mine, sort of my “writing guru,” about a paper I wrote and how I was feeling rather apathetic about it and my schoolwork, and honestly, life in general. He said to me, “You really just have to figure out what is the most important to you, what you are trying to do.” That gave me great pause. At the moment, I had no idea what was really important to me. It was easy to rattle off the above verse, because it is one that I know well, but I had lost myself a little bit…I didn’t seem to have any priorities.
I can’t tell you that I have that all worked out already. I don’t. I’m still ensnared in this crazy week and I’m tired and out-of-it, but I realize that I need to be paying closer attention to the driving force behind what I do. Otherwise, I’m not quite in line with the meaning of life. It is something that takes constant work. It’s impossible to be perfect at it. Here’s the thing: if you have the meaning of life, the big answer to the big question, right here in your hands, what are you going to do with it?

2003-04-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

from Feb 2, 2003:

One evening, a priest was sitting near the door of his church observing the city when he saw a woman standing outside a nearby hotel, crying hysterically and saying something that sounded like an oath of some sort, but he couldn’t understand her because of her sobs. Shocked at this sight, he began to walk over. Here was a grown woman crying like a child and acting very strangely, and he found it very odd. He figured she was drunk, and felt so all the more strongly when, as he approached, she grew silent, but her lips continued to move as if she was speaking. He said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” The woman raised her flushed, tear-stained face and said, “Not so. I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring my soul out to the Lord.” Taken slightly aback, the priest could only say “Go in peace, and may God grant you what you have asked of him.”
The Lord did in fact grant this woman’s wish, and she later bore a son. Her name was Hannah, and this son was Samuel, one of the great prophets of Israel. This story is paraphrased and slightly modernized from 1 Samuel 1:9-17.
Hannah was sad. She was socially ostracized because of her inability to bear children, and was mocked by her husband’s other wife. She was hurt. And what did she do? She told God. In all her grief and shame she poured out her heart to God, knowing he would listen. Knowing he would care. And he did. He listened to her cries, and even granted her what she asked.
Although this is an old story, God has not changed. God is not too busy to listen to you. He is always anxious to hear from his children, and he will always, always listen. There is nothing he will not listen to, either. Whether you come to him in tears like Hannah or with a small concern, your Father in heaven will not ignore you. He will hear your prayers and answer them. Sometimes, the answer may not be the one you want. He may say “no” to your request, or he may make you wait for an answer. However, He does what He does for his own reasons, and, although the answer we get may not be the one we want, who are we to question God, really? When Job did that very thing, God’s response was “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4a). And if you can justify yourself past that, go for it. I can’t. Even so, I know that we can trust God to listen to us. So talk to Him, I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.

2003-04-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

from Jan 26, 2003:

Ever had a mad crush on someone? (NOTE: Mimu’s Message does NOT endorse mad crushes) It’s an exhilarating thing. Seeing him or her makes you act sorta stupid and you may feel your heart speed up. Just thinking of them gives you a rush. You daydream about him or her when you should be doing something else, and you may even write down your feelings in poetry or a song. Basically, you just can’t stop thinking about that special someone. He/she becomes part of who you are. These crushes are fleeting. They are actually somewhat counter-productive at times, and they don’t hold anything true. It’s usually just a crazy juxtaposition of emotions and hormones, and it isn’t actually love (For more about love, read 1 Corinthians 13, but that’s not where I’m going).
I’d like you to consider something: do you have a crush on God? If you really think about it, it isn’t that hard to compare a relationship with God to a “romantic” relationship… the Bible even calls the church “the bride of Christ”. The thing is, with God, a “crush” can be more than a crush… it can be true love. The Bible commands us to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and doesn’t that mean we are thinking of God all the time, devoting everything we do to the thought of him? Although we don’t exactly pass God in the hallway or anything, we can look forward to meeting him in quiet time every day, and even more so the day when we get to meet Him in heaven. We can write love songs to God too… ever read the book of Psalms? I mean, you can have a crush on God, and it will be the most fulfilling crush of your life, I guarantee it. Plus, God has a crush on you too… the biggest crush ever, and it will never go away. That is just way exciting to me. I mean, true love is pretty cool. I want to challenge you, and myself, to really fall in love with God. Devote yourself to loving him, have a real passion. With God, you don’t have to hold back. Lose yourself in your love for God, and you won’t be lost, you will be found in his endless holiness and love.

2003-04-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

from Jan 19, 2002:

As any of my friends who have driven me home or gone anywhere with me at night can confirm, I have a fascination with the night sky. While the moon is a beautiful and amazing thing, my real passion is for stars. I live in Dublin, pretty close to i-270 and a lot of commercial area, meaning that the night sky doesn’t get very dark here. I love to go to less populated, less light-polluted places and gaze up at the millions of stars. Plain City is pretty good, but the best skyscape I’ve ever seen was in Glen Arbor, a little town in northern Michigan, right on the lake of the same name. There is a smaller lake, not two miles from Lake Michigan, called Glen Lake and over this past summer my family rented a lakeside cottage on it. One night after dark I took a flashlight and went down to our little dock, shining my flashlight in the water, scaring a crayfish (and having it scare me…), and I lay down on the end, eyes to the sky. I was blown away by the view. The sky was pitch black, but full of millions and millions of stars. The harder I looked the more stars I saw; there were stars upon stars upon stars. It was my own personal paradise. I think one thing that is great about stars is the sense of contrast they give. They are pinpoints of brilliant white light in a vast black expanse. They stand out. (Here comes the slick biblical transition…)
You can think of the world as a vast black expanse, too. It is full of sin and darkness, as is evident by reading any newspaper. What serves as the stars to that sky? Christians. Phillipians 2:27 says, “…you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…”
I think that is pretty explicit in its meaning. One thing that always disappoints me is a cloudy night, one without stars. The sky is a dark void then, empty and gloomy. Nobody wants to see our world turn into something like that. So it’s our job to shine in it. What are we waiting for? Let’s paint the sky with light.

2003-04-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

from Jan 12, 2003:

Do you know this song?

Jesus loves me, this I know,
For I try really hard to do what is right and to follow him

No? How about this one?

Jesus doesn’t love me, this I know,
For I mess up a lot and am stuck in sin

Okay, one more try:

Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so

I think that one is more recognizable, isn’t it?

I grew up hearing and singing that song. It is very simple: it is, in fact, a children’s song. It speaks of a generally “understood” concept… Jesus loves me, and you. But as I grow older, I begin to forget the words to the song; I end up singing one of the first two. Now I would never confess to you, or even consciously think, that Jesus no longer loved me. I know that isn’t true. But sometimes I get so caught up in following the rules and trying to do things right, that when I fail, I sink into utter despair. “I’m not good enough,” I cry, “I’ll never be good enough, it’s hopeless.” Then, I indeed begin to lose hope. There are few worse feelings I have ever experienced than that. I knew in my head that God still loved me, because that’s what I learned in church, but my heart just wasn’t buying it.
You know what? Part of what I was thinking was true: I cannot possibly be good enough to earn God’s love. Nobody can. But I was entirely wrong in thinking it was hopeless. See, there is this little thing called GRACE. The best way that I have heard grace defined was by Phillip Yancey, an incredibly talented and intelligent Christian author, and what he said was this: “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more… and grave means that there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” What this means is that when we screw up, God loves us abundantly; and when we are doing well God loves us… exactly the same. We cannot and do not have to prove ourselves to God and trying to do so will bring failure and despair. God’s love is a gift, a gift he gives to everybody and will never take away. He asks that we follow him, and this is something we should do out of gratitude and love for our Father, not out of duty, not to prove we deserve God’s love. Of course we don’t deserve it; but that doesn’t stop Him from giving it.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
-Romans 3:23-24 (bet you didn’t know about 24…)

2003-04-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

from Jan 5, 2003:

What’s the best thing in life?
(note: these are from actual answers from actual people)

-“guitars and computers”
-“probably music, especially classical… and friends”
-“[my girlfriend]”
-“tiny binder clips. And water.”
-“umm family and sports”
-“the answer is six”
-“The Appleseed Cast [a band] because End of the Ring Wars is good… or maybe Fugazi, hard to say.”
-“fun, music, and languages!”
-“people”
-“well first off- [the girl I have a crush on]… and then possibly ping-pong… and then baseball”
-“no, you don’t look fat in that dress”
-“it would have to be either music or religion”
-“pen and paper”
-“music or love… one of those two”

My personal opinion? The best thing in life is the color black… or maybe sugar. It’s tough to pick an absolute best thing because life is just full of things that are good. Granted there is some stuff that isn’t so good, but all of those good things make life something that can be pretty cool. But you know what? Life itself isn’t the best thing in life. Psalm 63 says “…Your love is better than life” (as if I need to specify, “You” is God). This is not only an encouragement about the greatness of God’s love, but it is also challenging. It forces us to take a look at ourselves and ask what is more important to us, our God, or the worldly things of our life? If we truly believe that god;s love is better than living, we are willing to lay our lives down for Him, and that is the ultimate test of our faith. While we may not be forced to actually make that choice, our attitude should be one that values our Savior over our life in the world. That can be really difficult. So I challenge you to think about it. God’s love is better than life, but do you recognize that?

2003-03-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

from Dec 29, 2002:

I’m sick. I have a vicious cold that has me on the couch for the second day now. Due to headache and general discomfort, it is somewhat difficult to sit here and write, much less think, so I’ve decided to do Mimu’s Message a little differently this week. God has often been called “the great physician.” He heals both our physical ills and our spiritual ones (our sins). So I’ve decided to list a few healings—physical ones—that Jesus performed while he was here on earth. Enjoy!

- Matthew 8:2-4 Jesus heals a man with leprosy
- Matthew 8:5-13 Jesus heals a centurion servant without even going to his house
- Matthew 8:20-22 A woman with internal bleeding is healed by touching Jesus’s cloak
- Mark 2:3-12 Jesus heals a paralyzed man
- Mark 3:3-5 Jesus heals a man’s “leprous” hand… and on the Sabbath! (that was a no-no, according to the Pharisees)
- Luke 4:38-39 Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law
- Luke 13:10-14 Jesus heals a crippled woman… on the Sabbath again.
- John 5:2-9 Jesus heals a lame man
- John 9:1-8 Jesus heals a blind man

I hope these passages are an encouragement to you of Jesus’s power and love. I’m headed back to the couch, I’ll see you later!

God Bless!
~Mimu

2003-03-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

from Dec 22, 2002:

Alright, Let’s get down to business here.

You may have noticed that my messages over the last few weeks have been… repetitive. My point has been “Jesus loves you,” and it’s true, he does love you; but that’s not the only thing that I want to say in Mimu’s Message. So now I’m taking a step forward, a step out of the “comfort zone.” I don’t like to use a cliché here, but if I don’t get a little deeper, then I won’t have done what I’ve set out to do.

So here goes. Now, I’ll be honest with you, I really don’t know how to write this week’s message. It isn’t warm and fuzzy, but here’s the deal: even once we are Christians, we are still neck-deep in the mire of our humanity. We will never get everything right. We will sin until we end our lives on Earth. People just can’t be good. Romans 3:23 says so. True, God will always forgive us, but our sin will always be there to drag us down. The thought can really be sickening… Paul felt it, and he talks about it in Romans 7:14-25. Here’s a highlight from verse 15:

“For what I want to do [the right thing] I do not do, but what I hate to do [sin] I do.”

We often fall prey to our sinful nature and it’s terrible. That’s the only thing I really know I should say here. I think the important thing is just to realize that we are broken and then do something about it. Although within ourselves we are powerless, defective creatures; we are not hopeless. The only way out of the pit we are in is with help from God. He is always willing to rescue us, even though we fall a million times and still turn away from his help. We can’t be perfect. The sin, the depravity, lingers within us always, but we don’t have to sink endlessly into it. If we depend on God every moment, pray to him with devotion that he may keep us from falling, He will not fail us. Our God knows no failure. This reliance upon God is difficult. It’s somewhat of a paradox: we need God to rescue us from our sin but our sin prevents us from reaching out to him sometimes.

I’ll openly admit I have zero expertise in this area. I try to be self-sufficient ad usually let myself down. Besides the threat of losing, there is the simple fact that resisting God is foolish and sinful. It may seem hypocritical of me to preach something that I don’t practice well, but I’m saying this for all our benefits. I need to hear this as much as, and probably more than, all of you do… believe it or not, writing this teaches me a lot. Plus, we are all in this together.

Now, I realize this is NOT the part 2 of last week’s Mimu’s Message. It has very little to do with last week’s subject at all. The thing is, I started writing this and it just went in a different direction. Maybe I’ll finish that one up later… hard to say.

Anyway, God Bless!

I hope you take something from this—not because I said it—but because it’s from the word of God.

~Mimu

2003-03-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

from Dec 15, 2002:

You see them every Sunday at 11:00 am.
Maybe you catch them Sunday nights at discipleship, too.
You can hang out with them at the All-Nighter or the Christmas party.
Who are they?
Maybe they are just casual acquaintances.
Maybe you just don’t know them very well.
Maybe they’re your best friends.
Maybe they’re just “those weird kids from church.”
If you’re new, they might be complete strangers.
But I’ll tell you who they really are: they’re family.

I hate to state the obvious, but it’s true that they (most of them anyway) are not your flesh-and-blood relatives; but they are still part of your family… your spiritual family. No, we aren’t talking about your yoga and meditation group; your spiritual family is those who belong to God’s family because they are Christians. Jesus started the whole “family” thing in Matthew 12:49-50, “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”

As Christians, we are part of a huge family of believers. And (said in Godfather accent) Family’s gotta stick together, kapish? Really though, families look out for each other. They help when their brothers and sisters are hurting (unless of course, they caused the pain [not that that ever happens in my family…]), they comfort them in times of trouble, and they are ever-encouraging. What I’m getting at here is love. As a part of God’s family, you are loved not only by God, but by all of us here at Impact, all the believers at Northwest Chapel, and Jesus freaks around the world.

I hate to tag this on the end… but there’s a catch. The family is composed of people. People includes you and me. If we aren’t loving to the other people around us, and they do the same… there’s no love. So we are obligated to love (yeah it’s a real drag isn’t it?). We do it so that other can experience what we have I’ll talk more about this in PART TWO of this special-edition Mimu’s Message.

Until then, God bless, and remember: it’s all in the family.

2003-03-14T20:12:00.000-08:00

from Dec 8, 2002:

Sometimes, life just sux. Things go wrong. Things get messy. Our “perfectly-laid-out” plans fall through. The people we depend on fail us; or even worse, they disappear. We fail in areas where we are normally strong; our knowledge is proven incorrect, and life as we know it…sux. There’s sometimes very little we can do.

However, with God, there is an upside to our troubles.

WITHOUT God, our ship is sinking. Without a lifeboat. And we’re going down with it.

Anyway, thanks for reading Mimu’s message this week…

Oh wait, I’ve probably got you a little curious about this supposed “upside” in the down times. It exists…really! First of all, if we have a relationship with God, He’s always going to be with us, good times OR bad. We can trust that He will carry us through our troubles. That may not make them go away, but with eternal comfort, the burden is lighter. Secondly, our troubles give us a chance to show what we are made of. James 1 has a whole lot to say on this subject. You should really check it out to get the info straight from God; but for the sake of time and space, I picked out one verse, James 1:12:

“Blessed is the man (or woman!) who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

Isn’t that cool? If we try to fight through the hard stuff, we won’t go un-rewarded. So when life sux for you, trust in God and strive for that crown of life!

2003-03-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

from Dec 1, 2002:

“Is—is he a man?” Lucy asked.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-The-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” asked Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

He’s good.

The above is an excerpt from C.S. Lewis’s famous allegorical children’s story The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Aslan, the great Lion, is symbolic for Jesus, the Son of God.
God, believe it or not, isn’t safe. God is bigger than the atomic bomb, more powerful than a million earthquakes; he once flooded the entire earth. He holds your existence, my existence—everything—in the palm of his hand. How easy it would be for Him to crush it. BUT—He is good. Fortunately—VERY fortunately—God loves us. He loves all people as his own kids, as it says in 1 John 3:1,

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we may be called children of God!”

He cares for us as sons and daughters. He doesn’t want to destroy us! He wants to share a relationship with us, not blast us to smithereens. He even promised to never flood the earth again (Genesis 8:21). Think about it, the most awesome force in the world, in the UNIVERSE, loves you.

You know, I can’t outdo Lewis, so I leave you with his words:
“ ’Course he’s not safe. But he’s good.”

2003-03-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

From Nov 24, 2002:

As I was going though my after-school smoothie-making ritual today (it was orange-strawberry and very tasty) and thinking about how hungry I was, I jokingly quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 (you will probably recognize it from Matthew 4:4, when Jesus quoted it) to myself, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” I laughed to myself a little, and then I realized that hey, if Jesus quoted it, it must be important. Jesus said this to counter Satan when the latter was trying to tempt him in the desert. Satan said, “Hey, you’re God, and you’re hungry… So make these here rocks into food. “ (That’s the Mimu translation anyway). Jesus said no. He put the importance not on basic survival, but on the true, important thing: God. He was in the desert to fast, and that’s what he would do.

Survival is an integral part of life, right? We breathe, we eat and we sleep (sometimes). It’s a human thing. There’s even a show about it (Note: Mimu does NOT endorse the inferred show!), but survival alone is not enough. Many kids our age can feel it. That might be why they get into drugs, drinking, and other bad stuff. Sometimes these teenagers drown themselves in stuff that isn’t necessarily bad, like music, a sport, or a relationship, just to fill that hole they have inside. They know that survival isn’t all they need. Sadly, the things they try to cram into that hole inside won’t fit. There is only one thing that will complete us and bring us to an existence beyond survival, and that is a relationship with God. Jesus knew this, and so did the guy who wrote Deuteronomy (my mother informs me that it was Moses). Take a lesson from them. Simple survival alone is just for animals: you should LIVE.

2003-03-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

From Nov 17, 2002:

I have been reading one of my favorite old books recently, The Princess Bride by William Goldman. You may be familiar with the 1987 movie of the same name, starring Cary Elwes and Robin Wright. The book came first; the book is better, although the movie is also a favorite of mine. While reading, I stumbled across a great quote:

“True love is the best thing in the world, except cough drops. Everybody knows that.”

It made me giggle. This is said by Miracle Max (played in the movie by Billy Crystal) speaking, as one might presume, about romantic love (a major theme of the story). However, that’s not the only kind of love. There is a bigger love, a truer love, it is a love that is—dare I say it—BETTER that cough drops!
This perfect love can only come from one place—God. You may have heard it a million times, but have you ever really stopped to consider how much God really loves you? Even if you have and continue to do so for the rest of your lifetime, you will never totally understand. I am not questioning your ability to think… but in Ephesians 3:19 it talks about “this love that surpasses knowledge.” Even if you cannot humanly comprehend it entirely, it is still so comforting to think that there is someone who has this awesome love for YOU, even while the whole world seems to be turning its back. Hope in this, it will help.

“…How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…”
-Ephesians 3:18

ps.
One last quote: “Jesus loves You!” –Seth Boyd

2003-03-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

from Nov 10, 2002:

Ahh… it’s finally over. The mud has been flung, the chads have been punched (wait, is that one hanging? No wait… its pregnant!), and the votes have been counted. Election time is over. Our televisions are free of political propaganda (pity some of the commercial kind is still around). There aren’t any more recorded phone calls saying “Vote for So-and-so, he’s important enough to interrupt your dinner.” The paperboy is dancing in the street because without the lengthy election coverage his burden is lighter. No more big decisions about what is in control of us, right? Not so much.

As teenagers, we are not old enough to vote (except for those “special” people who are over eighteen). However, just because we can’t choose the big boys (and girls) in Dc doesn’t mean we don’t have a say in what’s ruling our lives. Joshua 24:15 says, “…Choose for yourselves this day who you will serve.” That’s right: You. Choose. Now. Who is going to be in charge of your life? When Joshua said this, he was speaking to the nation of Israel, asking them to choose whether they wanted to serve the Lord or serve the Amorite gods (because they were living in the land of the Amorites). I confess that I have no idea where these Amorite folks live and I don’t see many of you bowing down to little statues and such. However, we sometimes do take other gods into our lives: gods of wealth, popularity, even something we do (like a sport or club) or someone we know (like a boyfriend or girlfriend). If these things overtake our passion for the one true God, they become our gods. What is ruling you? Choose this day.

“…Choose for yourselves this day who you will serve… but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
-Joshua 24:15

2003-03-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

from Nov 3, 2002:

Boo! Did I scare you? Okay, well probably not. And now that you’re in high school, you probably aren’t scared of the dark, of the Boogey Man, or squirrels… well, maybe that last one is just me. Anyway, you are probably so brave you can watch “The Exorcist” and walk through a haunted house with the best of them (I can’t, but that’s another story). So you aren’t afraid of anything, right? I doubt it. I think, as we grow older, our fears just change. We fear rejection from our peers. We fear sitting alone at the lunch table and staying home, alone, every weekend. These fears can affect us in a big way, too. If we are scared of being rejected, we may shut our mouths tight and not tell others about our hope in life, Jesus. I’m scared; I’ll admit it. It’s a hard thing, but we have hope. Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship(adoption). And by Him we cry ‘Abba, Father.’” That’s right, God did not give us over to be scared, but rather he is taking care of us as a loving father, our Abba. If we express our fears to him, He can give us strength to overcome the fears that we have. Just like how your parents could get that Boogey Man out of the closet when you were a kid, your Abba can chase away your fears about sharing your faith. Just ask Him.