Walk Like An Egyptian!

Sorry, I was listening to that song. Gotta love The Bangles.
and pardon my postage of two blogs in one day. It's so unlike me! But somehow, I'm in the mood, and I just felt the need to.

For my baptism (just over a month ago) Digger and Masonagall gave me this awesome book called Total Devotion, with a little devo in it for every day of the year. If I was the type of person that didn't ahve a problem with defacing books, I'd so have put little notes in it and stuff. (Oh, and I need to get a bookmark.)

Admittedly, I've only read three or four pages of it so far, although Mason gave it to me at school like 2 or 3 weeks ago. For a little while it was in my locker, then my bag, and it's been out into my house for about ten days now. Hey, whenever I realize it's there on the coffee table, I have a read!

Anyway, I read one earlier on today that seemed to stick into my mind. It was called "To Die or to Die". It was about (excuse me if this is way off, this is what I took out of it) how the choices we make affect our involvement in God's plan for us. The thing I love about this book is that it doesn't just spell things out in black and white and expects you to understand it - it gives you Bible verses, it elaborates simply, gives you examples of what teenagers do and stuff (it even givs them names!)

This one featured a kid named Tadd, whose friends were encouraging him to beat up some random "wuss" just cos he could, and for acceptance, although Tadd felt super, super bad about it. And just like a soap, the story LEFT WITH A CLIFFHANGER ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT HE PUNCHED THE GUY. How frustrating.

"Read Mark 8:31-38. What did Jesus say was the toughest thing about following him?" Here's Mark 8:34: Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Allow me to explain what that means just like the book had.

Man, I love this book.

Now in dilemmas like Tadd's you're faced with two choices - One that will give you social acceptance but disappoint God; another that makes you a recluse but hey, God's proud of yah! I believe the point this story was making was - what's the point of picking the wrong path? Either way we die and into God's hands. Jesus had said that anyone devoted to him must imitate him. To "deny yourself and take up the cross". Swap your way, for his way, totally.

And I know, me, picking out those last couple of sentences, kinda of hypocritical, as I'm no Jesus. But hey, I'm getting there! You can't"imitate" him overnight. It's still been a month since my baptism and I feel more religious than ever.

The last sentence in this tale reads, "Daring to stick with jesus sometimes feels like you've been hung up to die. Tough stuff. But Jesus promises that his way leads to life."