15 years ago, a man of God left this earth to be forever with his Savior. His impact still continues to this day, through the lives of his sons and the fruit of grace in his wife's life. The man was my uncle, Jay Grauman.
He was full of joy in life and I can only imagine the crazy schemes he is hatching up in heaven! Though in life, he was used for the Savior's glory, I think that God has used his death to magnify his name far more than while he was on this earth.
I know his death has influenced my life. I'll never forget the grief and anger felt by all members of our family the day he passed away. But nor will I ever forget the way it has changed our lives. God turned a tragedy into eternal glory. My cousins are testimonies to me of the faithfulness of God. Despite the hardships of life, they have stood their ground, denying the cries of this world to turn away in anger, so that they may be a faithful witness of the mercies of God. I am proud to see them proclaiming His faithfulness to a desperate and dying world!
These 15 years, I have watched the Lord shape and mold my aunt into a beautiful vessel. Her testimony shines forth like the morning sun, displaying the comfort of Christ to a world mired in self-depression. I have seen her hurt, and through it I have seen her faith. In the midst of lonliness, Christ has been her King. Her prayers on my behalf coupled with a life dependent on Him has pointed me to the joys of our Savior. I am blessed to be apart of her family. Christ has given us each other, when no one else could understand.I thank my Lord for using her in my life!
If Israel has taught me anything, it is this: The body of Christ is so much more beautiful than we can even imagine. When it functions as it is supposed to, it stands as a poignant witness to the world of true faith. God has used the body of Christ to minister and take care of me, and that pattern has continued in Israel. I am so blessed to have members of my family all over the world!
It is my prayer that you would all stop to appreciate the family of God. To see His faithfulness throughout your life and how He has taken care of you through the vehicle that is the church (the universal church that is!). God is faithful, is He not? Overwhelmingly yes! His mercies are new every morning.. great is is faithfulness.
I thank my God for my Uncle Jay, and affirm with all my heart... as my cousin would say "When we get to heaven, we will look at the situation and say 'we would have done it the exact, same way'". Why? Because then we will finally know the extent of the goodness and perfect wisdom of our Savior - so even today we can say with confidence, that our God is good and we can trust Him to always do what is absolutely best!
May you see Him in every aspect of life!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Jewish women on true beauty
1. beauty is outward appearance that reflects the soul. True beauty is when a beautiful soul shines forth. Beauty in seen in children because it is beauty of purity and spirit.
2. God creates different people with different gifts, and each person has the exact gift needed to reach his or her potential. Every gift though, bears a challenge. If one of beauty, then the person has the tendency to focus on the physical and become lax in beautifying the soul.
3. Without objective physical beauty (i.e. not externally beautiful), people have extra encouragement to work on themselves internally, and therefore, may have a greater chance to reach their potential.(interesting thought.. the uglier you are, the more you will focus on your inner beauty, thus surpassing the beauty of those externally beautiful!)
4. In time of Adam and Eve, body and soul were in consonance with each other. The body was essentially an expression of the soul. Now, the soul wants to pray but the body groans, turns off alarm clock. The soul strives to perfect itself, the body eats chocolate cake and lies on a beach. The two work against each other. Not only that, but a focus on the body has distracted us from appreciating the person's essence and personality.
5. In relationships, touch is used to create intimacy, bypassing the knowledge and appreciation of the other person's individuality/personality/
6. Modesty allows the girl to cover up the distraction of the flesh so others may see more clearly her inner beauty.
True beauty has been sought by the world in all the wrong places. In America, we have set our affections on the physical side of beauty, and missed the inherent beauty found in every soul. Outward appearance should always be an expression that reflects the soul. To be truly beautiful, a person must have a beautiful soul. How true this is. In the garden, Adam and Eve saw each other's beauty shine forth, without becoming distracted by their outward appearance - it merely enhanced the perfection of soul.
The Bible urges us to be holy, as our heavenly Father is holy. He asks us to set our minds on things above, things that are noble and true and good. Instead of a fascination with the physical, we should strive for the eternal, letting that be the expression of our souls. And then make our bodies follow suit!This connection between mind and soul is one we as Christians should strive for!
The consequences of our worldly pursuit of beauty have enraptured our minds and actions and caused them to focus solely on the physical. This fascination makes us miss the beauty of the soul. Oh what we miss when we live and think as the world!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS EVER!!!
Yes. I intend to devote this ENTIRE blog post to epically proclaiming the awesomeness of my friends! I finally received my package!
After what seemed like weeks, the time had finally arrived. All the Ibex people were waiting in suspense, anxious to see what i had gotten. This package was huge! I couldn't wait to open it. We all rushed into email room (it happened to be on a break in between classes) to see what the box contained. Btw..If you think i am being dramatic, you haven't been in Israel and gotten a package, it has to be the most exciting thing ever.
I hurriedly ripped the box open (btw Mary, the duct tape was so intense!). I finally got it apart and withdrew coffee, pencils, tea, my favorite candy and the long-awaited coffee!! I pulled the T-shirts out and got to tell everyone how amazing you all were and how each t-shirt represented one of the people i loved! Sami Jo, Christina, and I skipped out on the first part of class to brew a wonderful cup of coffee with actual dairy creamer! (the non-dairy kosher stuff is killing me) haha.
After the box was triumphantly carried back to the room, my roommates and some friends got together for story time! I tried to guess which t-shirt went with each friend and got to tell them about every one of you! I love you all dearly for it! (oh.. and the price of the sending was definitely noticed. They were like "gosh! your friends must really love you!) Yes.. they do. And i love them too!!
I can't wait to wear each one of them! It's such a wonderful reminder.. the smells remind me of home and you! Thank you so so much! Can't wait to see you soon!
After what seemed like weeks, the time had finally arrived. All the Ibex people were waiting in suspense, anxious to see what i had gotten. This package was huge! I couldn't wait to open it. We all rushed into email room (it happened to be on a break in between classes) to see what the box contained. Btw..If you think i am being dramatic, you haven't been in Israel and gotten a package, it has to be the most exciting thing ever.
I hurriedly ripped the box open (btw Mary, the duct tape was so intense!). I finally got it apart and withdrew coffee, pencils, tea, my favorite candy and the long-awaited coffee!! I pulled the T-shirts out and got to tell everyone how amazing you all were and how each t-shirt represented one of the people i loved! Sami Jo, Christina, and I skipped out on the first part of class to brew a wonderful cup of coffee with actual dairy creamer! (the non-dairy kosher stuff is killing me) haha.
After the box was triumphantly carried back to the room, my roommates and some friends got together for story time! I tried to guess which t-shirt went with each friend and got to tell them about every one of you! I love you all dearly for it! (oh.. and the price of the sending was definitely noticed. They were like "gosh! your friends must really love you!) Yes.. they do. And i love them too!!
I can't wait to wear each one of them! It's such a wonderful reminder.. the smells remind me of home and you! Thank you so so much! Can't wait to see you soon!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Why the Jews don't believe in Jesus?
A strange title for a blogpost, to be sure, but it is the one topic my mind has been mulling over for some time. Why don't the Jews believe in their Messiah? How could they have missed all the signs? As Christians, we have disdain for the Pharisees for their lack of faith, but as I am starting to learn, there is much more to this issue than meets the eye.
Jewish Thought and Culture class has much to teach about this subject. For thousands of years the Jews have studied the Torah, both oral and written, dedicating their lives to a better knowledge of the text. In reality, Jewish teenagers know their Old Testament better than 95% of Evangelical Christians. Rabbinical literature has proliferated; thousands of books have been written about the OT by the greatest minds of the times.
And then we come in and claim that Jesus is the Messiah, that all they have studied is worthless and wrong. Christ came to nullify the laws, now we live by grace! Your life as a Jew with all your tradition and writing is meaningless! God gave you the Old Testament to point to our truth! (Jews don't see the Pentateuch as laws, but teaching. It is their joy and happiness to live in accordance with it. Why would God take back what He has said to the Jews? He never changes!)
What? Preposterous. God gave us the Torah, it is His words we study, they say. We attack their tradition, the meaning for their lives and we expect them to agree? The Gentiles have come to faith because of the Jews, and now we are claiming to be the light of the world? The Jews believe that they are the ones who have been appointed for all time to point the world to God.
A Rabbi came to tell us what the Jews thought of our Messiah. In all honesty, he is a pathetic man who died on a cross. He would barely qualify as a potential Messiah in their minds. Messiah, according to the Jews, would never be a God/man. God in flesh? The Holy One whose image was burned in their hearts and history, come as a man? Never. Their Messiah was to save his people, judge the nations for their iniquity, and usher in a Kingdom for the Jews and those who would believe. He would be a deliverer, not a man who performed a couple miracles.
The gospels have come to life for me because of this understanding. In our hearts, we mock the Disciples and the Pharisees for their lack of understanding. But if we would have known what seeming insurmountable obstacles they faced to believe! It is no wonder that when John the Baptist was in prison, he had a moment of doubt and sent men to ask Jesus "Are you really the One?" John had prophesied of a Messiah who was coming with a winnowing fork in his hand, to judge the people for their sins! Instead, the Messiah was having compassion on children!
The Disciples also had an image of a conquering Messiah. Die on a cross? Peter exclaims, "May it never be!" They debate about who is the greatest, who would be the ones sitting beside Him on His throne.
Before coming to Israel, I would always ask "How could they not see?" Since being here, I can only exclaim, "All praise to our God and King, who has the power to save against all odds!"
I thank Him now, with all my heart, for making it so easy for me to believe. Lord, still help my unbelief!
P.S.
My thoughts were very scattered and I do apologize, if you desire clarity or more depth, email me!
Jewish Thought and Culture class has much to teach about this subject. For thousands of years the Jews have studied the Torah, both oral and written, dedicating their lives to a better knowledge of the text. In reality, Jewish teenagers know their Old Testament better than 95% of Evangelical Christians. Rabbinical literature has proliferated; thousands of books have been written about the OT by the greatest minds of the times.
And then we come in and claim that Jesus is the Messiah, that all they have studied is worthless and wrong. Christ came to nullify the laws, now we live by grace! Your life as a Jew with all your tradition and writing is meaningless! God gave you the Old Testament to point to our truth! (Jews don't see the Pentateuch as laws, but teaching. It is their joy and happiness to live in accordance with it. Why would God take back what He has said to the Jews? He never changes!)
What? Preposterous. God gave us the Torah, it is His words we study, they say. We attack their tradition, the meaning for their lives and we expect them to agree? The Gentiles have come to faith because of the Jews, and now we are claiming to be the light of the world? The Jews believe that they are the ones who have been appointed for all time to point the world to God.
A Rabbi came to tell us what the Jews thought of our Messiah. In all honesty, he is a pathetic man who died on a cross. He would barely qualify as a potential Messiah in their minds. Messiah, according to the Jews, would never be a God/man. God in flesh? The Holy One whose image was burned in their hearts and history, come as a man? Never. Their Messiah was to save his people, judge the nations for their iniquity, and usher in a Kingdom for the Jews and those who would believe. He would be a deliverer, not a man who performed a couple miracles.
The gospels have come to life for me because of this understanding. In our hearts, we mock the Disciples and the Pharisees for their lack of understanding. But if we would have known what seeming insurmountable obstacles they faced to believe! It is no wonder that when John the Baptist was in prison, he had a moment of doubt and sent men to ask Jesus "Are you really the One?" John had prophesied of a Messiah who was coming with a winnowing fork in his hand, to judge the people for their sins! Instead, the Messiah was having compassion on children!
The Disciples also had an image of a conquering Messiah. Die on a cross? Peter exclaims, "May it never be!" They debate about who is the greatest, who would be the ones sitting beside Him on His throne.
Before coming to Israel, I would always ask "How could they not see?" Since being here, I can only exclaim, "All praise to our God and King, who has the power to save against all odds!"
I thank Him now, with all my heart, for making it so easy for me to believe. Lord, still help my unbelief!
P.S.
My thoughts were very scattered and I do apologize, if you desire clarity or more depth, email me!
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