The Blog of Bonnie J.

I need to correct one of the things in my list below. James W. Lanning is actually some guy I met randomly out there. It did have something to do with blog hopping (mine) from comments left at various sites of people who knew each other online, but not he is not directly a friend of a friend of Mrs. Lymans. So basically I'm wrong :) I'll try to be less confusing in my future posts, if possible...


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This morning I was awakened to a principle I've grossly overlooked. How many of you spend time in earnest prayer for your family? How many of you lay your family's burdens on the alter and pray for God's wisdom for another family member's struggles? I must admit that I haven't even given it much thought. Sure I pray that God will bless my family, but rarely do I have specific thoughts on my mind when I do so. Basically it's like a "bless my family and make us a good witness." But there's so much more to it than that. Sometimes I pray for friends and I don't really know what to pray for. But we who live with family members know each other (should know each other) very well. We know what's bothering people, what they're struggling with, what they need - even if sometimes they don't see what they need. Maybe it's just me who forgets about things like this. If you really love your family, pray for them. Intercede in prayer on behalf of those who are struggling and pray that God would bring conviction where it's needed and to comfort those who are in need of comfort.

2 Samuel 12:16
"David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground."

Luke 18:1
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

And this one is a really good one! (Not that the others aren't.)
Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

If your siblings and parents are Christians, pray for them! If they're not Christians, pray for them!

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I'm trying to make bagels. This endeavor is something both my mom and sister have successfully completed. I have yet to see if mine will be a flop or a good batch of bagels. I'm trying to take pictures as I go, maybe when I finish I'll have some pictures to post. The recipe is from a book I got at the library called The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhardt. The first 100 pages of the book are just info on the process of making bread. The 11 steps of making bread, how yeast works, how to figure mathmatical formulas for bread (ratios). It's very interesting and I'm looking forward to reading his first book, Crust and Crumb.

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I went for a run yesterday, it was so nice out! After days and days of rain the sunshine is certainly welcome. We swept the front sidewalk and cleaned. I suppose that's what they call spring cleaning. I can't wait till the temperature outside is higher than the temperature inside - that means window opening is in order. Even yesterday with the sun it was still only about 60 degrees out side and it was a few degrees warmer inside. I figured if I opened the window it'd cool my room down too much and be cold at night. I ought to have opened it anyway, because last night it was too warm to sleep under my two sheep skins and big blanket.

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I've got a cold. Hooray. I've been looking online and some people who have started weight lifting don't get enough sleep and don't eat enough so they feel like they have a cold all of the time. Amazingly enough, I'm finding that it's easy to get up in the morning as long as I do the same thing every morning. I went to bed at 8:30 the other night because I thought I was going to need the extra sleep - I got up at 5:30am like I planned (9 hours sleep?)and I was really groggy and sleepy. Now if I go to bed at the normal 10:00pm/11:00pm time, I can get up at the normal 6:30 (7 1/2 - 8 1/2 hours sleep) and feel fine in the morning. I'm guessing if I went to bed every night at midnight and got up at 6:30, I'd adjust to it. It might not be good in the long run, but I'd adjust and wouldn't feel super groggy in the morning.

I deadlifted 117 lbs yesterday and I think it was just a little much. It is hard to lift out of your comfort zone; although I can physically lift that much, I don't want to. My mind says don't do it again. It's too hard to muster the mental strength to tell your muscles to work. While deadlifts have been on my list of questionable exercises because of potential risk of back injury, I think I'm going to stick with them for now. When I was concentrating a lot on my abdominals and not as much on my back I was getting unoften occuring but very painful twinges in my lower back (hip). The same thing was happening when we were working on building a house in Kentucky. Since I've been doing deadlifts properly, I've had less pain and I can sleep on my back again without waking up and feeling like something is stabbing me in my joint. At the beginning, deadlifts did seem like an exercise that was aggravating my hip, but I'm convinced it was due to poor form. You can seriously injure yourself deadlifting improperly, so be careful if you're doing it. Research proper form and don't stray from it. Don't lift so much that you can't have good form. Note that that link I just gave does have a drawing of a guy with no clothes on but it looks like a picture you'd look at to see muscles or something and in my opinion, is not immmodest. I didn't even notice it but someone pointed it out so I figured I'd mention it. Also, the links on that page are bound to be dubious. A lot the stuff in the bodybuilding scene is really ungodly. I never want to compete, and I don't want to be a bodybuilder, but some sites that happen to be about bodybuilding have good information on proper form, whether you're lifting to get glory for yourself or if you're lifting to be stronger. And that's not to say there aren't godly people who are also bodybuilders. It just happens to be that a lot of it is not God centered at all. I wonder why, if I had to go through all of this explanation, did I put the link there to begin with? It's not as if someone who reads this is going to randomly start deadlifting!

Labels: Christian walk, exercise, food

Yesterday we spent a good bit of time at the studio.

On the way home I read a booklet by Ray Comfort called How To Get To Heaven Without Religion, or something like that. In part of it I came across his No Read No Feed idea, and he also said something interesting about reading the Bible. Sometimes I feel guilty because I'm reading my Bible just because I know I have to. I have other things to do and it makes me feel like a hypocrite because I know that I'd rather do something else. Mr. Comfort mentions that sometimes you'll really feel enthused about reading the Bible and have a huge hunger for it, and other times you'll feel like it's rather dry and you might not enjoy it as much (not his exact words!), just the way it is with food. Even if you aren't enjoying eating something, it still is doing your body good. And if you don't eat at regular intervals, you'll become weak and starve. Sometimes we don't like the foods that are good for us - vegetables, whole wheat, etc., but as you understand how good they are you actually learn to enjoy them.

Labels: Christian walk

Today we are in North Carolina. Lord willing we've got a concert tomorrow and two the next day.
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Today we played some soccer with the family we're with and I was surprised at how demanding it was. Or maybe I'm just shocked at the level to which my athletic ability has diminished to ;) I haven't run "seriously" for over two months, minus a few beach runs that got my heart running pretty good. It's actually kind of nice, despite the fact that I haven't run for a long time, as long as I can go at my own pace, I can run for at least 20 minutes. It's certainly not at the same pace I was before (and even that wasn't great) but it's fun to be able to do it at my own whim. I thought that perhaps I would lose the ability to run completely if I didn't keep up with it. Maybe I will keep up being a "fun runner," instead of a fast runner or a frustrated nauseated runner :D

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I read this article, entitled The Secret Curse of Hollywood 'Stars.' It was very interesting and thought I would pass it along. Every once in a while you come across something that makes you stop and ponder. Hopefully you ponder things often, but some things strike you more than others. You know, when you pick up the magazine someone left open and the article is exactly what you needed to hear. I can't count the number of times this has happened to me. And sometimes, it's something that occurs before I need to hear it - a warning, if you will.

I can remember thinking when I was a few years younger, "I need socks." But I decided not to worry about it. Somehow the next week I found some socks someplace that fit the bill perfectly, and they didn't cost me a thing. That experience in itself may be a small one, but it was one that stuck in my mind. The fact that God really does supply our needs. Sometimes it takes time, sometimes it takes more time than we would like, and sometimes it's not at ALL what we expected. Not too long ago I blogged about God giving me victory in an area of my life (I didn't mention specifically what it was). And no kidding, I found myself asking God to take away the very thing that was bringing me victory, because it was painful. After I realized that it was bringing about repentance in my life it was easier to bear. If you know medicine is working, it doesn't matter if it hurts. Sometimes the answer to your prayers is not what you want. Persevere anyway, and ask for God's will. If you want to be strong you not only endure the sore muscles resulting from working them hard, but you put out the effort to pump the iron. Like Paul said, beat your body and make it submit - submit to God. This is worth far more than running the world's fastest mile, or bench pressing more than the strongest guy in the world. Make it a priority.

Do you eat breakfast every day? Do you eat lunch? Do you eat supper? My brother taught us a great saying - "No read, no feed." I think he got it from Ray Comfort. Some people don't eat breakfast, but most of us eat at least three meals a day at some point during the day. Make it a priority to read your Bible before you eat your first meal of the day. Remember, no read, no feed!

Labels: Christian walk, exercise

Just recently I stumbled across some Engrish examples.

These are from Engrish.com, but some of the examples I found to be less than clean, so please use caution if you choose to visit their site. Here are a few that I think are clean!

Ahhh...who could resist the pleasant taste of...(don't choke while consuming!)








And my very favorite so far:



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Here is a very disturbing video on youtube.com. Please make sure your evangelism presents the true Gospel. Check out this video.

The night before last I had a dream I was on a plane with illegal immigrants going back to Mexico. I thought about witnessing, but when I turned my head to the seat next to me my eyes wouldn't open and I couldn't see anyone to witness to. Weird. I don't know why but today this is striking me so strongly. There are people all around that need the Gospel, but often I think of reasons not to share the Gospel with someone. Help me God! Help me not to be cruel to others by hiding the Gospel because of my cowardice.

Labels: Christian walk, engrish, witnessing

I will try my best not to run barefoot when the thermometer reads -17 F.

Teen gets frostbite from running barefoot. Complete with a video of him getting the dead tissue removed.

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Sorry folks who already commented, this is an edit to my ealier post. A lot of things have been giving me goosebumps lately. Here's a link to a video I think you all should watch. Wonderful Plan Gospel - HiFi. There is no LoFi version of that as far as I see there but here is the main page with other videos.

Open our eyes, shall we?

Labels: Christian walk

I've been trying to blog but our connection hasn't been working correctly, and for a while wouldn't load the blogger page.
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I was going to blog a few days ago and wrote up a post. Then my connection stopped loading pages. I try to always push ctrl + c often during the time I'm writing so I won't lose any of it. This time I was talking with a friend online and I had just push ctrl + c to copy a link. When I pushed ctrl + v to recover my post into a new window, I just got a url. So the post is gone, I guess there's no sense in making a big issue out of it. (nope. No sense at all).

So moving on to another aspect of the lost post, it was probably a good thing I lost it. It was something I had to write out so I would see it better on paper, but it just wasn't a very encouraging thing to post. So here, in counter to the negative thoughts (and truly negative, not just "helpful" negatives, like realizing you've messed up, or something like that) is a little viewpoint.

We're always saying "I finally saw things in perspective," and it is very true that oftentimes we don't see things in perspective and change to see "in perspective". But God is God, we are man, we've sinned against God, and God has given us mercy through the blood of Jesus Christ. That's ultimate perspective, I believe. If we really truly understood how horrible our sin was, I don't think we'd forget it. I don't think we are able to truly understand how deep the love of God is, partially because we don't understand how bad our sin is. I started a book yesterday called My Three Years in Russia, by Comrade X. I intended to read only a chapter last night, but the chapters were so short that one lead to another, and by the time the night was over I had finished the whole thing. It was written anonymously ("as told to Ken Anderson") and was published in 1958. It tells the story of a German soldier who was in Hitler's army, and not only that but was also a Christian. He gave himself up in Berlin somewhere around 1944, from what I gather. It describes his 3 year prison camp stay in Siberia. It seems that what he experienced in Siberia was not unlike what many Russian citizens went through. The government, according to him, would take citizens they considered sub par and send them to Siberia to work in camps. I wondered if this wouldn't often include Christians who the communists didn't like.

Then the thought struck me, that at this moment, there are Christians living where people are trying to take their lives. There are children who have been murdered, and mothers to weep over them. People are being tortured for Christ. People are suffering. And I lament over the fact that I don't have enough time in the day to do what I "need" to do, or because I'm having trouble working out something on my guitar. I read a few hundred paged novel, but only have time for a chapter or two of God's word. How lame is that?

The other thought that struck me as I read of Comrade X's single Bible - that he had been miraculously allowed to keep through his years in the prisons (at one point he refused better food and shelter, by denying to deny the Word of God, then got sent to a punishment camp for it, but they let him keep it) - is what does it take to make us truly hunger for God's word? Is it really pleasing to God when we open our Bible just because it's there and we feel we ought to? Even if we're not just reading to fill a quota, how deep does is our hunger? Do we cry out in brokenness of heart, or do we just pray because God is there and we have a relationship with him? Do we weep over the horribleness of what sin has done? Do we get down on our knees and beg God for salvation to come to those we are acquainted with? Do we feel pain for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted?

Emotions don't make up sincerity, but sincerity will almost surely lead to emotions. If you love someone deeply, you don't discount your love just because you feel the emotions that accompany that love. Paul said in Romans he was in anguish over the plight of the Jews. If you cry out to God with a terrible flood of tears, you cannot discount the earnestness of your prayer only on the grounds that it's accompanied by emotions.

If we in America lived under conditions that would not allow us such freedom and luxury as we have, how much deeper would our relationship with God be? If you were in danger of physical harm for the sake of your relationship with God, or experiencing physical harm for his sake, how would you live differently? If your scripture amounted to a few pages passed around from family to family, how would your heart hunger for the very words of God on those pages?


How many of you actually read this entire post? It's not important that you read the words I've written, but I think it's important that you ask yourself those question.

Blogger doesn't seem to accept the post having indentions in it, so I spaced it out with empty lines.

Labels: Christian walk

Happy 2007

The new year is here.

Last night Vincent, Peter, Nathan, Carol and I went out and handed out tracts. We had some interesting discussions. The comments I can most remember are "Thank you" and "I'm all set." One of the best approaches I've found (thanks to Ray Comfort) is to say "Have you gotten one of these?" A lot of people ask what it is and I say either "It's an interesting question," "It's a pamphlet with a message inside," or "It's a Gospel tract," to which people usually say "What?"

After handing someone a tract, if they look open and are standing there looking at it, there's a good opportunity to say "Do you think you're a good person?" About 50-50 last night said they were good/bad. Most of the people who said they were bad admitted to sinning and being bad, but either deny the consequences of sin or just say hell does not concern them. A lot of people who say they're good at first will admit they've broken the 10 commandments and leave the conversation saying they're a bad person. A lot of teenagers are really open and will stand to listen and answer questions. The hardest groups to talk with are those who are only present mentally in the conversation half of the time. They'll holler to their friends across the street, or yell at passing cars and talk about the guy who went by who was drunk and has been throwing up. We talked with a few Christians, some who disagreed with presenting the law and preaching condemnation of the unsaved sinner. "I don't like your approach," is what one said. I asked if he was going towards a cliff that he couldn't see, would he rather I try to convince him not to go that way on the grounds that it would be more pleasant to turn around, or would he rather I just tell him that he's headed towards a cliff?

I felt sort of apprehensive before last night. What if no one listened? What if I drew a blank and couldn't come up with an answer for a question? What if I bothered people? I prayed that God would just take care of my fears and help me to be bold. I was really encouraged in that people would listen, and unlike many people portray witnessing as, it's not usually (in this country) a cut throat experience. I've never even been yelled at.

One of the most important things I can remember while out there is that I'm not presenting me, I'm presenting the Gospel. This is God's word, not mine. I'm fallible, God is infallible. And it's so important afterwards, when someone has listened, to not think Wow, I was smooth there. I think I made them think. It's God's message. We're just the messengers. If we preach the word, we have just done our job.

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We also visited the people who I work for - they had a concert last night. Probably not many of you have wondered what this place looks like, but since it's kind of an unusual house I took some pictures. This is, for those of you who may be googling this, Anderson Manor. This is where I polish wood, make beds, etc. And no, I don't wear those black and white maid suits :D

Front of the house:


Inside the front doors:


Front parlor:


One of the many mantels:


The lady of the house with her son (and me, on the left).


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And another fun hair picture.

Labels: Christian walk, witnessing

This is the third time I've rewritten this paragraph. I'm having a pretty indecisive day.

Do I mention the C word, or do I avoid it? Are my readers going to be insulted I didn't write an expose, or are they going to be insulted that I didn't rave in its favor? Please don't celebrate the world's "x-mas". Don't have idols. Don't serve money or earthly goods. Don't lie to your kids. Don't engage yourself in gluttony. Whatever you do today, tomorrow, or next week, do as unto the Lord. That pretty much sums it up!
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This afternoon I had some time to record something.

Silent Night. Yes, I do sing out of tune and the thing is filled with glitches. However I hope that if you find anything nice in it you'll not thank me, but thank God for all He's given, including the ears that you hear the music with.

Have a wonderful, blessed day tomorrow!

Labels: Christian walk, music

Calvinism Vs. Arminianism.
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I don't have anything to say about the above topic at the moment other than what I stated. The Bible is there, and I'm here. But how do you go about figuring out which is the right thing?

I smell something like "I follow Paul. I follow Apollos." in some of the Calvin VS Aminian discussions.

I know people who have seemingly valid points on both sides. I don't want to accept what I've grown up with JUST because it's what I grew up with. I want to find out what the Bible says.

Ok, so I'm done talking about that for now. Thoughts welcome.

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I joined a site called Paper Back Swap. It looks really intesting! It's a site where, without paying a fee, you can list book you have that you're willing to send to someone. In return, for each book you send out (you pay shipping) you can choose a book to be sent to you (they pay shipping).
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I read up recently at the Homeschool Alumni Forum about "young marriage." The age at which people are getting married at (according to stats cited in the thread) is getting older. That being said, if you marry older you tend to have less children. Are we as Christians putting off marriage for the wrong reasons? Are men neglecting their duty to ask women to marry them, seeing as women (in my opinion) shouldn't ask the men? Are Christians supposed to not marry because you don't fall in love with someone "suitable"? Is falling in love a good reason to get married? Should falling in love be the only reason to marry? What is a good reason to get married? What constitutes a "suitable" person?

There are a lot of questions right there. I'd like to just open this up to whatever comments people have on any of those questions. (I'm always open to comments!)

Labels: "deep thoughts", arminianism, calvinism, Christian walk, relationships

Mock The Devil: U2, Christian?

This is disturbing.

And so is this:
"The sanctuary at Christ Church Evangelical Covenant looked more like the stage for a rock concert than a traditional church altar on a recent Sunday night.
...Axtmann, who gave the sermon at Sanctuary that Sunday, says young people are natural skeptics, and have difficulty accepting the absolute truths the church traditionally promotes. Through art and music, young people can appeal to the beauty and mystery of religion and the truth can come later, Axtmann says....The rules were simple: There are no rules..."

Excerpt from Religion on Campus Project.

Labels: Christian walk, music

We're home! Yes, for real, I'm back with my own laptop and will be sleeping in my own bed tonight. I spend most of the morning helping unpack the bus, most of the afternoon cleaning, and most of the evening unpacking, and then I wrote a letter (or tried to) en espanol. It took me 21 minutes to write 14 sentences! I have to look up most things in the dictionary and a book I have on verbs.


One thing I learned while we were gone. When people do good things for us, I'm often much quicker to thank the person than to remember to thank God. I do thank God for the good things that happen, but I don't remember in specifics as often as I do when someone has done something before my eyes. So while it's wonderful to thank people for the nice things they've done, thank God for what you've been blessed with AND that He'll bless the person who has blessed you. And thank the person :) God can do so much more than anyone can.

Labels: Christian walk

Please pray for me.

We'll be home tomorrow, Lord willing. Our concerts have been going fine, everything is going fairly well. I just have an unrest about something and no idea how to solve it. I'm fairly sure I've caused a problem to someone I care about very much, even though they deny it. I don't know how to fix it, and I don't know if it's even fixable :( You know how some things you do you can't take back and make ok. I want very much to make things better, but I don't know how. I'm really hoping and praying somehow I'll figure out some way to make it better, even if it might not be the way it was before.

And maybe I'm just not seeing things in reality. I don't know :(

Labels: Christian walk

Today we did two concerts, one in NJ (Laurel Springs) and one in PA (Media).

This morning I said something in the service and immediately felt really stupid afterwards. I forgot where something was in the Bible and said, "...Um, I think it's in, uh, Hebrews?" and had a really funny look on my face. It wouldn't have mattered except that it was taped :p

But anyhow, the verse I was looking for indeed was in Hebrews. It is found in chapter 11 verse 6. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

That verse has been such a comfort to me. God rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Please pray for my dad, his eye has been bothering him. He had a problem before called Iritis (I don't know if that's spelled wrong) but it has something to do with the iris in his eye not acting right. It's very painful for him to focus on things up close. He's going to call the eye doctor tomorrow and see what he ought to do. We're not sure if it's the same thing this time, but if it is it could be pretty serious if not taken care of.

We have three days this week without concerts. If his eye doesn't get a lot better and the optometrist can't do something for him long distance, we may go home during those three days and come back for the weekend concerts we have here in NJ. Pray that God's will would happen!

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And I'm back...with pictures!

First off, here's Vincent cooking his squirrel.


When we got to the Randolf's and started to eat, Johnny came out with a plate he said he fixed for me. Here it is:

Yes, that's a giant beetle and giant moths.

And the worm Johnny Randolf hunted up to make me eat :p Carol blogged about it too.





Peter...


...and Vincent.


I love jamming with my family :D

Labels: Christian walk, tour pictures

What a week. I keep coming to the computer with way too many thoughts to process. First of all, I can't believe (and maybe I lack faith!) how God has blessed us. It's just incredible to think that not only has God given us salvation, he's given us so much more. I started crying at one of our concerts (which I don't think I do very often, it's so easy to distract myself with the technical aspects of doing a concert to avoid doing so) and it was out of great joy in realizing what I've been given. I have parents that seek after God, I have seven wonderful siblings, I have been homeschooled and kept from many ungodly things (and have been kept through many ungodly choices I've made), and moreover, somehow (and I'm not sure how this works) I've come to a saving knowlege of Jesus Christ. Now I'm not trying to start a debate on 'freewill' vs. 'predestined,' and I don't have all of that figured out to a T, but I'm willing to say that however God has worked in my heart, I'm very grateful for it. I'm so thankful that however God has done it, I find him working in my life. And while I can't change anyone's heart, I pray that somehow I'll be an encouragement to someone to seek after God. I've met so many people on this trip who have done just that; they've made me want the properties of Christ displayed in their lives to be manifested in my own life. And there's just no comparing this with any other aspect of life. There truly is nothing like the love of God. There's no alternative that will satisfy. And I'll have lows again, I know, but the love of God is not based on earthly physical things that will pass away. That's what's so comforting and so satisfying.

One thing I've been dealing with is comparing myself to other people. If you compare yourself to find that you're better than most, brace yourself. When you make a habit out of that you'll find yourself very much at the bottom ranks. Sometimes I find myself thinking what would I do if I had only been given the opportunities of JoeShmo? What if I had to live with that shortcoming? What if I had been giving that trial? While you may need to prepare for difficulties ahead, it isn't very wise to justify or condem yourself in comparison to another human. Mr. Myers said a few days ago how the only person you could compare yourself to is Jesus Christ, and then what a humbling thing that is. Instead of getting bent out of proportion to reality, you see things in a true perspective.

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These pictures are an edit to the post, but I didn't want the post up top to bump down yet.

I woke up this morning with a stiff neck (pulled muscle maybe? It hurt to lift my head off of my pillow.) so I didn't go to work with my dad and brothers. So I was in the bus with Carol's laptop...







Working (or not!) up at the house. I had the camera in hand...




Abi and I :D


When I blew out the candles on my birthday cake the smoke was really pouring out of those things :p


And here are the Myers girls and Carol and I the day before my birthday


Hannah can tie a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue, so I decided to try it too

Labels: Christian walk, tour pictures