Emmanuel...God came near

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
²³ "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). ²⁴When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. "-Matthew 1:18-24

I think in this modern age, we humans can plod along, and for awhile we convince ourselves that maybe humanity needed Jesus back when Nero saw Rome burn. Maybe they needed Him in the dark ages. Maybe they needed him before science and technology made him "obsolete". By George, we're PROGRESSING. We're improving as a human race . We don't need Jesus in this modern age surely.


But then I hear of the foster child--a baby, no less-- who was systematically tortured to near death. Or I see on the news about how they're doing forced abortions on women in China. I hear of the sex trafficking of women and children. I watch the news, and almost all of it involves wars, bloodshed, murder, and mayhem. All around me, I see the blatant disregard of God's laws, both far away and before my eyes. And I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that we sinners need Jesus as much in this century as we needed him when he came.


I say WE because I am one of those sinners. There was nothing good in me, and yet God came near. Why else would he choose the name Emmanuel, "God with us"? What an amazing and wonderful thing that the infinite, holy, perfect sinless creator of the universe planned from the beginning that he loved us enough to come near! I cannot fathom it, as many years as I've known HIM. It's as unimaginable to me as me getting in a pig sty and rolling around with a bunch of pigs to get to know them. To be sinless and perfect and yet willing to tolerate the nasty, ugly STENCH of the aroma of our sins all around him....not from far away but CLOSE UP.
I don't know about you, but I have trouble with that kind of thing. I have a hard time if I'm standing in a line beside someone at Walmart who has hygiene issues, to put it nicely. I can't handle bad smells. If you think our sin doesn't stink to God, you are deceived. Psalm 38:5 says, "My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness." The author describes the sin in his life as causing emotional, psychological wounds that STINK. That's how God sees our sins.

I think it's really easy in our culture to make light of the miracle of Christmas when we lose our sensitivity to the true desolation and depravity of sin. We watch commercials of barely clad women. We watch a sitcom where they joke about pornography and act as if it's natural that all men look at it. And pretty soon we think lust is no big deal.

We watch commercials that tell us our value and status come from what we own, not who God says we are. We allow the sins of greed and covetousness to build within our hearts, all the while justifying it as a polite "keeping us with the Joneses'."

But sin is NOT just unattractive. It's NOT just mildly repulsive. Sin is WICKED. It's vile and wretched and the reason that Jesus was nailed to a cross. It's why he was beaten beyond recognition. I don't believe you can truly know the forgiveness of the SAVIOUR unless you have come to a place of first recognizing the sin within your own heart for what is is and what it did to Him. How can anyone receive His forgiveness when deep down they don't think they really need it?

But for those of us who KNOW we need it, it is indeed a miracle. To recognize that I am the chief of sinners, and the one who could have been justified in destroying me instead cried out for my forgiveness--this love defines the meaning of love for me. It is a love which can't compare with anything else I have ever known or will ever know.

And in light of that, when I think of the Christmas story, it's much more difficult to think of it as just "commonplace". The miracle of who Jesus is is not some "story" for church. It's the spiritual truth that a lost and dying, wicked and depraved world in OUR GENERATION desperately needs to hear.

Because JESUS STILL SAVES. I know because He saved me. :)

Quote I like

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
~Adam Lindsay Gordon

I have no idea who this person is, but I really like this quote. So I'm posting it to my blog.

A Pretty Good Day....okay a half decent day. lol

Okay, for those of you seeking deep spiritual truths, sorry, today is NOT that day. I just had a good day. Which in light of the recent events in my life, feels monumental but is probably actually NOT. Well maybe a little. I arose at a mostly decent hour, we got caught up on some school. We watched some dvds about Greek myths, which I am really enjoying studying with the kids right now.

I'll pause here for a minute just to say that the coolest thing to me about being a homeschooling mom is all the learning I get to do as a byproduct of educating my children. I am really digging the Greek myths right now and that whole time period. I also recently read the Percy Jackson series with my kids, which I think did a pretty good job of incorporating Greek myths into a modern context.

Anyways, we made caramel apples for dessert tonight, and watched a dvd on the haunted history of halloween, its roots in Druid Celtic culture and such.

Nobody died. The house did not catch fire. I fed the small multitude from a crockpot of beef stew and caramel apples. I delivered Kate to her ballet studio for workstudy on time. The dog only peed in the house once. So it was not a stellar day. But it was a decent day.

There's lots of things I would like to have fit in today that I did not, however. I did not read to the children today, not from any real books. (Textbooks don't count.) They did not play outside any today, which is a minus to the day in my book. I believe kids need lots of outside play time....and Kate works fairly independently studying Sonlight's American history core 100 this year, which is hard because I really want to be more hands on with her but how to do it with the little ones wanting attention is a challenge. Sometimes I wish I could travel back in time, borrow Charlotte Mason for a day, and let her follow me around and SHOW me how the heck she envisioned a mom like me doing this thing called homeschooling and life with five kids in such different ages and stages. I have faith it can be done...it's just all like breaking ground for me. I didn't grow up in a large family and I'm not a naturally chronologically organized person. Otherwise, I would not be blogging right now. I would have my butt in bed, where it probably should be. But now is the time the house is quiet. Now is the time I can think uninterrupted. So I'm awake and blogging.

Over the last few days, I've glanced at other's blogs. And honestly, I wish I hadn't. It's rather intimidating. I'm not even sure how to put pictures on here, for one thing. And then I began to feel that others had so much more valuable things to say than I ever would. I just have to remind myself that it doesn't matter. At least I'm writing again. That is a small victory for me to savor. Even if the only people who read this are me, my mom, and a lady she cleans houses for....(Love you Mrs. Stout, if you're reading this. :)) Actually, I'm not sure my mom reads this. Okay, well, the two of us then. It's still a small victory.

I'm thirty five years old. I'm not one of those ladies who cringes at telling her age, to be honest. I like the wisdom that CAN come with getting older, though not automatically. I get frustrated too,though, because I feel like by 35, I should have something to give someone else. Some wisdom or ministry to offer. But when I look at my life, I don't see that. I looked outside my door today, and believe it or not, there were no young ladies knocking my door down wanting wisdom or sage advice. Not that I think of myself as some sort of oracle. I don't. It's just I see other women my age teaching and ministering, doing their thing, and I'm never quite sure what my "thing" is. Don't get me wrong. I"m not belittling motherhood. I do think it is the highest calling. I'm not opting out or wanting a different plan. I just feel like I have more to give sometimes, and I'm not sure what to do with it or if anyone even wants it. And that leaves me frustrated.

Well, enough wonderings for one night. I'm getting my charlotte mason behind in the bed....Winnie the Pooh is calling my name for tomorrow. :)

A Blessed Mess

To put it nicely, my life is a blessed mess right now. I feel blessed to have such a caring circle of church family and other friends who have given us such love and support. So many of you have taken the time to share your own personal experiences with miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. And hearing your stories does help me to not feel so very alone. Also, I am thankful for the meals friends have brought to allow our family time to recuperate from the surgery and the grief. On the other hand, I have a lot of anger right now I'm dealing with regarding God's hand in several situations in my life. Being around me right now is alot like riding a roller coaster, probably because I feel like my life IS one, emotionally speaking. One minute I feel guilty that God is so good to me and I am so selfish. The next minute, I resent that He's so good to me in some ways but refuses to move on my behalf in others. And still the next minute, I'm crying over the baby and feel overwhelmed with all the unresolved issues in my life and hopeless. I was feeling lonely before all of this happened, and now that feels compounded. I realize many people care about me, but there seems to be no one I'm especially close to that I feel "safe" enough to share the level of pain I'm feeling right now. And while both Joe and I both are Christians, we had been working through issues in our marriage prior to all this but not totally resolved anything. Now it feels twice as painful as it was before, because our situation has changed and the stress level is so high right now. Further increasing my stress load is the realization that so much of this trauma has happened in what feels like the "public eye". People I barely know have walked up to me when I'm out and told me how sorry they are for my loss, which is so kind and compassionate. The problem is that I am aware that people who already questioned my faith are now watching to see how genuine my faith really is, and I feel so incompetent right now and weak. It's terrifying for me to think that I could be a cause for someone to stumble. But admittedly, I'm stumbling right now. I'm mad and selfish and angry and bitter--not just about the baby but also there were other things that had been weighing heavily upon me before all of this happened. Now they seem unendurable. It says in the word "A crushed reed he will not break...." Right now I feel dangerously close to being crushed and not being able to rise from the ashes. I was so desperate to feel in control of something--anything-- in my life right now that I started trying to delete every post on my Facebook wall just to make the wall "Feel "clean ---to have somewhere in life that I saw order and didn't feel like it was falling apart. Alas, I never got more than past deleting posts from sometime in June, due to the sheer # of posts I've shared. Well, about to head to bed....hopefully will feel better in the morning.
Goodnight.

Jonah's anger and the Lord's Compassion

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,^a and he was angry. 2And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

5Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.^c So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

-Jonah 4 (ESV)

As a teen and young adult, I must admit, I always thought Jonah was quite a doofus. I mean, really, run from God? Where does one run that God will not find you? The idea seems quite ludicrous. Then Jonah doesn't want to obey God and preach to Nineveh, but he whines and wants to die over a shade tree. What a pathetic loser. Definitely not the guy you would imagine being in God's faith hall of fame...now I'm wondering, is he listed in Hebrews in the faith hall of fame? I'm going to go check right now because I'm honestly not sure. Be right back. (cue elevator music.)

Okay I'm back. Nope, as far as I can tell, there's no mention of Jonah in Hebrews 11. Still, there had to be something about Jonah that God found noteworthy to make him a prophet and mouthpiece, right? To be honest, I'm still thinking on that one. My pride would very much like to believe that there is something special and worthy in me of the callings God has on my life and that Jonah would be evidence of that as a truth. But as far as I can tell, that just isn't the case. I'm not sure why God chooses some people to be his mouth piece and passes over others. Sometimes, like with Isaiah in Isaiah 6, we can see someone being chosen simply because they made themselves available. Not so with Jonah. Jonah is a prophet on the run from God. He recognizes who God is, as he says in Jonah 4:2, "for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster." From this statement, we can see Jonah has more than a passing knowledge of who God is. There is some sort of intimacy there between God and Jonah. And yet still, Jonah is running from a merciful, slow to anger, gracious God. Why is that? I can not say for sure, but I have some ideas from my own experience.

The fact of the matter is that ANY man or woman God chooses to use, apart from the Lord Jesus, is a sinner. And I don't mean that philosophically speaking, but as a material fact of my existence. I am a sinner, saved by grace. It is indeed amazing. I think someone wrote a hymn about how amazing it is...seriously, people can look at me on the outside and sometimes I can put on a good show. Sometimes I can't. The desire of my renewed spirit man is to be like Christ, but the truth is I have to engage in a daily, minute by minute battle of crucifixion of my flesh to make that a reality. The Holy Spirit can supernaturally empower me to nail my flesh to a proverbial cross, but often I try to go off on my own and fight the battle all by myself. And everytime I do that, I fail. again. Unfortunately, I forget this truth. Alot. I'm ashamed to say that my flesh wins the battle alot more than I like to admit.

Knowing this, I know that Jonah was a sinner too. And that is how a sinner who KNOWS God can sin and run and hide from an omniscient, omnipresent, benevolent, MERCIFUL creator. Heck, sometimes, when we meditate on that part of his nature, maybe sometimes it's even easier to run from Him cause we know he'll forgive us....we just forget that's not all there is to Him. I doubt Jonah was pondering the scriptures about the God who " judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:11) Obviously, God's anger is righteous and he is not out of control, but still the idea is presented that He will discipline his children, and deal with sin firmly and directly. He hates the sin, not the sinner. It's a little easier to obey sometimes after meditating on a scripture like that, just because you realize God is still God. He may want to be your best friend, but you are most definitely NOT on equal footing in a relationship with the creator of the entire Universe.

So if you've followed my ramblings so far, congratulations. I guess there are two reasons why I'm blogging about Jonah. First, our pastors at church have been preaching from Jonah. So he's been on my mind. But unlike other times when I've heard preachers preach from Jonah, I see myself in Jonah alot lately. And I'm not really digging it. As far as Bible Prophets I Most Admire and Wish To Identify With....well, Jonah is not on that list. I always liked Peter. Sure he denied Christ, but then he had that great comeback and led 3,ooo to Christ on Pentecost. Awesome. And Paul. Sure he stoned Stephen and all, but then he had that whole road to Damascus experience and ministered to all the Gentiles and wrote a whole bunch of the New Testament. Then there's Isaiah. God is on the lookout for a point man, and Isaiah cries out, "SEND ME LORD." How noble is that? But Jonah? yuck. Whiny, fish puked-on Jonah. Not making my top ten. And lately, he's who I identify with the most. And I'm hating every minute of it. But let me present Jonah's case to you.

First off, Nineveh was Israel's enemy. And these guys were Hitler, Nazi kind of bad guys. Probably Jonah spent most of his life wanting God to deliver His own people, Israel and destroy the bad guy Assyrians. And the Israelites were God's chosen people too. So it wasn't exactly a stupid request to make of the Lord. But who does God choose to deliver? Nineveh. That had to hurt. No wonder the poor dude ran. All of this I got from Ken and Adam's teaching at church. So these aren't my revelations. I'm just sharing them.

So we get to Jonah chapter 4, and Jonah gets all worked up about a shade plant. And this is where I really can identify with Jonah. Because that's how I've felt lately. I let myself get tied in knots over our house situation, over all kinds of material things, to the point that I'm like Jonah in ignoring the bigger, more important picture. The truth is, my whole life feels like that shade tree. And I'm tied in knots over it. And God is seeing the big picture and all these people around me who don't know Jesus who will die and go to hell without him and all I can worry about are shade trees. It's not my most glorious spiritual moment, folks, I admit.

Even this pregnancy has felt a little like that. I had ONE WEEK of knowing this baby was growing inside me, that GOD put there and GOD caused to grow, and GOD took away. I had so little to do with any of it, and yet I am so mad and hurt that he took it away from me. I'm not saying a baby is insignificant like a tree in the yard...that's not my point. My point is all of my children, my spouse, every loved one in my life is a GIFT from Him. They're not mine. They're on loan very temporarily. And they all belong to Him. For some unknown reason, He chose to save my life from death of an ectopic pregnancy. Supernaturally, he gave me a dream days before I KNEW I was pregnant that I was dying in my bathroom bleeding to death from an ectopic pregnancy. It was very disturbing, and so when I felt pain, I went to the doctor the next night, not because the pain was so bad, but because I could not shake the concern that dream provoked in me. When they removed the pregnancy, the doctor said I was probably within days of rupturing. I don't believe I would have seen a doctor in time if I had not had that dream. So I believe the Lord saved my life by warning me. I am thankful for this miracle.

At the same time, my heart aches because I wanted a different miracle. I wanted God to save the life growing inside me. I wanted to get to know this precious little one and hold it in my arms and watch him/her grow. It has been a strange thing that God has used me as an instrument to bless others praying with them for pregnancies, but in this for myself my prayers were of no avail. And for reasons I cannot fathom. And what really irks me is it was His right not to. He is Sovereign. I am not. And that is why I find myself feeling more like a Jonah than a Peter or a Paul or even an Isaiah. I know God. I know His nature. Though he slays me, I will hope in him. He is my friend. But he's not a friend like my other friends with whom I'm on equal footing. Friendship with God is about submission. It helps when you know he's loving and gracious and slow to anger, but that doesn't make it easy when He chooses to do things in your life you'd have rather He handled a different way.

I know others around me have suffered through much more painful circumstances than this. But right now, it doesn't seem to help. I'm like Jonah, under the wilting sun, crying out to God to please bring back my shade tree and make it all better, wondering if he would crush my spirit beyond the point of death, as it feels like in this moment.

The one redeeming thing in the whole Jonah story? Well, for all the time, that I've considered Jonah a major loser, God loves him and sticks by Him. So even when he's whining, God is right there listening and teaching and loving. And God calls hims a prophet, and still has a good plan for his life.

I don't get you, God. Even when I want to push you away like Jonah, you keep coming back for more. I don't understand, but I am thankful that you love me that much. I don't understand this pain I'm feeling right now, but I know there seems to be peace nowhere outside your arms, the same one who allowed the pain. It's a strange paradox.

Time Management

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
-Ephesians 5:15-21

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these verses. They are so succint. It's like the Holy Spirit writing through Paul doesn't even want to waste our time as we read this. He's short, he's sweet, and to the point. He knows the way we spend our time is valuable, so instruction in the area of what we should be filling our time with is not just a luxury, but a necessity if we're to walk out this journey of faith. Time management is one of the biggest areas in my life that I struggle with. But I see in this verse a picture of a balanced Christian life. And while I am not living it at this moment, it's the goal before me in these verses. So what does a balanced Christian life look like? What does it mean to manage our time wisely? Here is what I see in these verses:

1. The Christian life should be lived with the end in sight. In other words, I should continually be asking myself if the things I am choosing to spend my time on are things that have eternal value and significance.

2. The days are evil. This shouldn't be a revelation to any Christian, but how often do I feel shocked when the world seems to run backwards to all that is good and perfect and true? When we live in revelation of this truth, it should be freeing and empowering. Not to despair, but to accept the reality in which we live and expect that when we seek to live a life for God, we WILL ENCOUNTER RESISTANCE. Just like a soldier on a battlefield, I should never leave the weapons of my warfare at home, but keep them on at all times, ready to engage the enemy and shine His light into dark places. And our weapons are not carnal, earthly weapons. The word of God hidden within the human heart, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation...all of the weapons that we find listed in Ephesians 6- these are our weapons.

3.It takes some degree of seeking and wisdom to find the will of God for my life. It will not come automatically. At the same time, God wants to reveal His will to me. He knows my weaknesses and He has a plan that accounts for them. He is constantly working behind the scenes in my life to bring me to a greater knowledge of Him. He pursued me first. I was not the one who pursued him in my sinful state. Nevertheless, I have a part to play in this, and it is not a passive one. If wisdom came automatically, I would not have to seek to understand the will of God.

4. True joy and peace in my life will never be found in any addiction or physical high, but only in knowing my God more and more. In knowing Him and serving Him with a grateful heart, a wellspring of joy will flow out of me to give His life to others. Such a simple truth, but how many people try to find fulfillment and escape the pain of life through the path of addiction?

5. Submission is a key part of God's plan for EVERY believer's life. I know this is almost a dirty word in our culture today. We value independence and free thinking in America, not laying your will, your agenda down to serve another. However, God's kingdom does NOT work according to the same rules as the one we live in here on earth. To be great for God, you have to be willing to make yourself last --To love another person more than you love yourself.

That is what I see in these verses. I struggle so much in this area, often because I do NOT do one or more of these things. I have never struggled with drug addiction, but I believe I have struggled with filling my time with entertainment in order to avoid painful realities in my life. I definitely struggle with submission, not just to my husband, but also to my God. There are many times by my actions I show that my true belief is that I know better how to run my life than He does. Sometimes I am just plain lazy. I know the will of God is available to me if I seek it, but I grow weary in well doing. And it is easier to be passive and just "eat, drink, and be merry." But God is so patient with me.

Well my goal for next week is to get in bed by 10 pm each night and get up by 6 am. We'll see how it goes. Sometimes the things we know are the best things for us, though simple, are still the hardest things to discipline ourselves to do.

What's the point?

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.^b]">

¹¹You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

-Psalm 16:9-11

Here are my thoughts tonight. I borrowed a book from the library that was in the children's section. It was talking about NDEs (near death experiences) and how many believe in a life after death. Then because it was a scientific book, it basically explained away all the ndes people have had as a biological reaction of the brain trying to preserve itself. Now whether or not people are getting a glimpse of the afterlife or they're just having a chemical reaction in their brain, I cannot say. But it got me thinking. Our culture is seeing the end result of evolutionary teaching in action, I think. If death has always been around, then it was not caused by sin in the Garden of Eden. If we are all just cosmic accidents and a result of all these evolutionary processes, then right and wrong become irrelevant. There is only my needs and feelings and making me happy. I think some people are totally happy with this as the state of the world. But to me, it is a depressing thought.

Either the Bible is true or it's all a big fairy tale lie. And while there is evidence presented to show evolution is true and evidence to show the Bible is true, either position as far as I can see takes some degree of faith. I am honest in saying that while my religious beliefs are based on logical analysis and reasoning, they are in the end, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It bothers me when I hear evolutionary scientists take some moral high ground that their theory of evolution (NOT natural selection, which is proven, but the idea that all life came from a single celled organism) is not a belief which requires some degree of faith. Because it does. No one alive today was there. There has yet to be a specimen presented as the "missing link". And yet we live in a world where the women of the View television show spewed hatred calling people like me a "child abuser" for teaching my children the views of creationism. Do my children know about evolution? Of course. But I have shared my faith with them. And part of that faith is in a loving Creator who sent His son to die for a totally depraved and wicked humanity. His noble purpose was to set a captive humanity free from the law of sin and death. I know that's not always been the reality the historic church has acted on. But is it really any wonder that a fallen mankind would even botch up God's best efforts in some ways if what he says about us in his word is in fact true?

I am not arguing for a state sanctioned religion. But the further mens' hearts drift from their creator, the blurrier the lines of right and wrong become. It is a sad state, and one I fear will lead our nation to ruin. What this country needs more than anything is true revival in the hearts and minds of its people, first and foremost the people who claim to be the followers of Christ. God is a god of reason and logic, though he resists the proud. He is a God of order. And in Him, " there is no shadow of turning." (James 1:17) He is well able when we humbly come to His word to teach us by His spirit and to help us see how order follows from right thinking, from renewing our minds to the truth we find in Him.

I suppose if this is not the truth, then what's the point of any of it? But if I am correct, then it's EVERYTHING. And we should live in a way that reflects that. You are either made in the image of God, or just another animal. Choose whom you will serve, but choose carefully.