View allAll Photos Tagged LearnIT
/edit - 2015
Well it's been 4 years since I've updated this entry, 9 years since God made me a true child of His.
I am still in awe, utterly amazed at His grace and mercy to me, a wretched sinner..and sinner still.
I say "true-child" because until that day I'd been a false convert, quite confident of my salvation yet as far and away from the true and living Christ as any religious Pharisee or Pagan from the first century to today.
One early spring day back in 2006, as I looked through the scriptures inquiring of someone else's sin (scriptures I hadn't even payed attention to in years), God showed me my own sinfulness and pride, and that my standing with Him was not good as I'd come to so firmly believe.
Not even one bit.
He showed this by revealing to me His holiness and, similarily to Isaiah I could say: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Woe indeed..there was no questioning it...I had been God's enemy, still separated from and un-reconciled to Him. All that time I'd been claiming to be a "Christian" yet living a life that totally defied real and true identity in Christ.
This shocked me. I thought I was "saved", "born again".
I'd "walked the aisle" and prayed "the prayer" numerous times-that's what the churches I'd grown up around taught and so I believed..that gospel.
Yet I'd been heading straight towards an eternal place where, upon my death, I would be forever separated from the Creator of men and of the whole the universe! Banished to a world apart from the Author of Life and Love, a conscious existence along side all that is opposite of God, where total darkness and torment are what reigns..and I knew in those moments that is exactly what I deserved, what all men deserve.
But God..
I also knew in those moments that I was being redeemed, born again to a new and Living hope, and so delivered from the final fate of the judgement to come.
Then came the joy..utter and true and pure: Joy.
All this grace, mercy and pure Love raining down on me with no accounting of my wickedness and fist-shaking and mud-dragging the name of my Lord who purchased my Life with His own blood.. He came to seek and to save the lost, and found me He did!
I am His now.
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Heb 4:12)
God used His Word to make my dead heart come alive in Christ and dead to the world-my teeny kingdom world of me-mine-ours.
Everything belongs to Him and nothing escapes His gaze. In Him we live and move and have our being-yes even the God denier (atheist) lives and breaths on the common grace, mercy and momentary long-suffering of our Lord. He upholds the universe by the word of his power.
And it's not just the men/women standing firm in their denial of God's existence who are the fool, but also those who claim to know and love Him yet who's life and character consistently prove otherwise.
Perhaps especially all the more foolish are these--no, super especially. That was me.
But God..
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved" (Eph 2:4-5)
May you be found in Christ and know the power of the Resurrection..not superficially but supernaturally; the supernatural power that comes by the Word of His grace.
May you lose your own life and humble yourself before Him and the word of His Truth.
Every blessing,
Suzanne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/edit - 2011
Another year and the God of the universe still holds me in His grip.
I am safe and secure, and can say with confidence all is well with my soul..I will rise when He calls my name . .
I don't know how many will bother to stop by here anymore, (of course, I have lost touch with most of you) but for those who do, May God bless you not with things that moths will eat and rust corrode, nor other earthly elements return to dust..
..but by opening the eyes of your heart to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to what He has done for you on the cross: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) "it is finished" (John 19:30)
My prayer is for God to grant you repentance and faith so that true reconciliation to Him takes place..
..that He turn your world completely upside down --or rather-- right-side-up just as He did for me 5 years ago.
with every sincerity,
~Suzanne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/edit - 2010 - God still hasn't changed ;-)
He really changed me though. 4 years ago last month through reading His word, God changed my heart , giving me a new one (Eze 36:26).
I always believed in God to be sure, even professed myself a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, but boy was I ignorant of what being a Christian was! I was also, to my horror as far from the living God of the bible as the day I was born of my mother. God gave me a new birth, made me a new creation in Him, (2Cor 5:17) and made me His daughter. I wasn't even asking for it or thought I needed it (I thought I was "born again") - I would not have been able to tell you even what that meant..but through a series of circumstances that called for my looking into scripture for answers, that's when God woke me from my slumber, awakened me to my own depraved state and sinful nature! This was a shock...I thought I was a "good" person! But on that day God showed me that I was as lost and far from Him as any so-called atheist, and then some.
Notice in this verse: "The fool has said in his heart..." Instead of just saying -The fool has said there is no God" it was added: "in his heart" . I find this rather significant. It seems one thing to deny God with our mouths when our hearts are not in it (yes that is possible) - but when our hearts are in it? *shudder*. Friends, I plead, know your standing with God, (2Pet 1:10) don't just assume like I did lest you be caught eternally regretful.(Luk 16:19-31) And do not assume that there is no God, don't believe the lies of the world, which belong to the enemy. (1Jhn 5:19). It is a matter of eternal life, and death.
What is salvation? here's one excellent description.
~
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/edit - 2009..Still holds true today, God hasn't changed, only man changes.
We change our own ideologies, beliefs and understanding of things, dividing them from true truth, but still, God remains God. This is the God of the scriptures; the God who created us, loves us, and desires us to be reconciled to Him, and sent us a Savior for this to be possible. The gospel of His Word written to man by men through the sovereign orchestration and by the inspiration of a living and holy God..written over a period of 2000 years in different times and places.. that we may read and know Truth, know Jesus Christ, know God.
"the bible was inscribed over a period of 2000 years. In times of war and days of peace. By Kings, Physicians, Tax Collectors, Farmers, Fishermen, Singers and Shepherds. The marvel, is that a library so perfectly cohesive could have been produced by such a diverse crowd over a period of time which staggers the imagination. Jesus is its grand subject, or good as design, and to glory of God as its end. " (taken from the song: "The Word Is Alive")
Yet that our love be pure, He gives us the choice to believe in Him and this Gospel of Grace . Some of you believe these things, but have you been changed by them? I plead, don't be fooled even in that.
When I say "God bless you" I really mean it ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(2008)
/edit - one year later....
Wow, it's been a whole year and I could say the same thing today in this caption that I did then, (below) word for word! - - and I even woke to several inches of snow again this year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(2007)
man, already April and I haven't posted any of the snomobile-trips shots from the year . . my priorities have changed, but my good wishes for y'all here sure havn't.
"while it is said:
"Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
Hebrews 3:15
~Have an inspiring, if not life changing day.
i first read this quote in one of Vaughan Oliver's books back in school in the early 90s and have worked by it ever since.
(from a series of posters devoted to it)
I've got Twitter on the brain lately because I've been prepping for the LearnIT I gave today on using Twitter to develop your PLN... slides and talk will be available on treglia.wikispaces.com/twitter...
In the fall I had attended the DevLearn conference out in Vegas (great conference, great location!) and had created a handmade twitter tag for my bag. I recreated it here because I couldn't find the picture that I had taken of it and wanted to use it as an image on one of the slides in the presentation.
Third-grade students at Westover Hills Elementary School, 1211 Jahnke Rd., will celebrate trees and their new outdoor classroom April 24 at 1:30PM. The students have been learning about trees with SOL-based lesson programs specially-created for Project Plant It! The Arbor Day event culminates this spring in Dominion Virginia Power's Project Plant It! environmental education program. Here, Zion Harris learns about the parts of a tree by observing a seedling, like those that each student will take home on Arbor Day.
C.Y.O.L., Create Your own Luck. As Doyle says, sometimes when skill isnt enough and the door is locked, you need to come in through the window. And don't forget, the harder you work, the luckier you get.
Produced on: Long Sleeve-T
T-Shirt