Saved by Grace

What do you think of when someone says that they have been "saved by grace"? Do you think..."Yesss!! I'm not under the Law! I can do whatever I want now!! PAARTYY!!"...or do you think..... "I'm not really sure what it means...I just know that life is soooo much better off since this age started. I mean, just think of all those sacrifices they had to do in the Old Testament ....*whispers* I'm not very good around blood, you see."....or do you think ...."My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, took my sins upon Himself, so that I might be seen as righteous before God. My debt is paid for because Christ loved me so much that He was sacrificed in my place on the cross."

I would like to believe that all of you would confess the latter of the three possibilities. But then, do we always think of that? Or do we just learn something and then push all the minor details into the backs of our minds and go with the bare minimum? Do you specifically think about all that it means when someone mentions "Christ's work on the cross" or "saved by grace" or even "dead to sin"? Do you think every time about how much Christ suffered on the cross for us, the beatings He endured, the ridicule...all because He loves us (yes, present tense, LOVES us). Do you make the connection between the cross and John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."?

I ask this because I know that I don't. More times than not, I must confess that I respond to phrases such as those with "uh huh, yup, you betcha.." without even thinking about the major events that are attached to those concepts. I hope that this entry will get you thinking about this, just like I am thinking about it... Peace be with you all.

Just a little reminder that I found impacting:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

~~Ephesians 2:1-10

Blogspot is plotting against me!!

Wow!! I'm SOO sorry that it's taken me this long to update! Many (if not all) of us at NTBI have been having issues with connecting to blogspot. We originally thought that it was because the website was having issues,

but now we've figured it out! Our school internet connection has BLOCKED the website, so I am currently at my favorite coffee shop in Jackson (Jackson Coffee Co.) using their WiFi.

<--(Dorm Photo: L to R: Michelle, Grace, Jess, Kristi, Kara, Kelsey, Kati, Me!)

Well, what can I say? School has been SOO great! As always, my classes are beyond interesting. I am currently in Daniel/Revelation, Colossians, and Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus). They are ALL fascinating. One thing that we just today was Chapter 7 of Daniel and the 4 beasts. It's great. All of the End Times and Eschatological stuff interests me so much. And I'm finding that I need to invest in a Journaling Bible because I don't have enough room for all the notes that I want to write in my Bible. I have also just finished an elective class, False Deities of the Bible.

It was only 5 1-hour classes long, but my teacher (Dan Falls) was able to fit a LOT of really interesting stuff in, as usual. : )

<--(Dorm Photo. Left side: Tallest to shortest: Kara, Kati, Grace, Kels. Right side L to R: Jess, Me, Michelle, Kristi.)

(back L to R: Kara, Bethany (Dorm Mom), Grace, Me. Middle L to R: Kati, Jess, Kristi. Front L to R: Michelle, Kels @ Thrifty Christmas Party) -------->

Life in the dorm has been interesting. I swear that it's almost impossible to be bored while living in The Dungeon. I have so much fun with all of my roommates. We've managed to fit some movies in when we don't have any homework to do.

I had the opportunity to go sledding with a couple of them before classes started. It was a blast. And besides doing fun stuff with my roommates, I've made it one of my goals to do more with my friends outside of my dorm and to build more relationships with the people in the school.

An exciting bit of news is that my dorm-parents(Joel and Bethany) have had a baby girl on January 21st!! They now have a family of five and I have 3 younger "siblings": Jack, Owen, and Kate Lael. If it wasn't for this family, I would have been driven mad a LONG time ago by being cooped up in the basement of a 3 story building where there is ALWAYS someone there. lol. It's a good thing that

I love being here, it would be a bad distraction for the real reason why I am here.

All that to say, I am doing great! I am just getting over a bad cold from the end of last week, but I was up and ready to get back to classes this morning. It was exciting to have Dan./Rev. this morning because my teacher was also out sick from Wednesday to Friday.

Please, if ANY of you have questions, I am asking you to email me at CMKMacAuley@gmail.com or call me at (989) 329-2254. I also have Facebook! "Callie Rose MacAuley." Friend me!! Please! Or if you prefer snail mail, I would be beyond ecstatic to receive a letter from you!

Colleen (Callie) MacAuley

1210 E. Michigan Ave. #132

Jackson, MI 49201

(L to R: Kara, Kelsey, Kati, Jessalyn, ME! @ Dairy Queen) -->

I hope to hear from you! And I am going to try to make it somewhere more often so that I can update more. It will hopefully be easier to do now that I know what the problem is.

1. Jesus Paid It All (words- Elvina Hall; music- John T. Grape)
2. 
   
3. I hear the Savior say,
   “Thy strength indeed is small;
   Child of weakness, watch and pray,
   Find in Me thine all in all.”
   • Jesus paid it all,
     All to Him I owe;
     Sin had left a crimson stain,
     He washed it white as snow.
4. For nothing good have I
   Whereby Thy grace to claim;
   I’ll wash my garments white
   In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.
5. And now complete in Him,
   My robe, His righteousness,
   Close sheltered ’neath His side,
   I am divinely blest.
6. Lord, now indeed I find
   Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
   Can change the leper’s spots
   And melt the heart of stone.
7. When from my dying bed
   My ransomed soul shall rise,
   “Jesus died my soul to save,”
   Shall rend the vaulted skies.
8. And when before the throne
   I stand in Him complete,
   I’ll lay my trophies down,
   All down at Jesus’ feet.

I just wanted to share this with you. It's one of my favorite songs ever and a great reminder to me that I did absolutely nothing and could have done nothing. Jesus did everything for us. He paid it all. I hope you're thinking about that as you celebrate His birth. : ) Merry Christmas! or what we could say, "The Anointed One be celebrated!" (ask me about that if you're confused.)

Oh the odd things...

I don't know why, but it's always from 11:30 on that my brain just takes off and I do all of my spectacular thinking...it's really a little sad, but such is life. ; ) This is may or may not be a shocker, but I finish up this semester on THURSDAY!! And if you don't know your days of the week, that is only 2 DAYS from now (considering it's 12:45 AM, I'm counting it as being Tuesday)!!! I am super excited to be going home and to finally be able to attend my own church! : )

A few weeks ago, I started thinking of all the things that I wanted to do over break and the list just started getting longer and longer and longer and longer...I think you get the point now. My point being, I figured out that I was using the word "I" a bit toooooo much in my list. I've been so focused on my studies here that I have had to put so many other things in my life on hold, mostly things like...music (instrumental), artistic projects (woodworking and such, chainmail), and the most important being, VIDEO GAMES!!! lol, jk. I do enjoy video games, but (yes, you may not be able to believe this, some of you) I CAN LIVE WITHOUT THEM! lol.

Going in complete opposite direction, I decided that (instead of my loooong list) all I wanted to do was sleep 13 hours a day and lay around all day (the other 11 hours) reading and playing video games. I'm pretty sure that that is addressed somewhere significant..but I don't remember....OH! how about the BIBLE!! ; ) Here's a verse from Proverbs that I actually found rather amusing and fitting to this context: "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat" (Proverbs 13:4 NASB). I don't know about you people, but I don't want my soul to be a scrawny, malnourished thing, I want to be FAT!! lol.

So all of this rambling to say, that I've finally realized that my focus should be and remain to be rooted in God's word and to strive to glorify God through my life and my actions. One of the things that I am not focusing more upon is the edification of the Body of Christ. I hope to become more active in my church body while I am at home and build more relationships with those people who are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

With that, I bid thee adieu. Goodnight to all..or goodmorning, if you want to be smart about it. ; )

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to

immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God

will come upon the sons of disobedience,

and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

But now you also, put them all aside:

anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,

and have put on the new self who is being renewed

to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--

a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew,

circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman,

but Christ is all, and in all.

So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,

put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,

whoever has a complaint against anyone;

just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bod of unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,

with all wisdom teaching you and admonishing one another

with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

~~Colossians 3:5-17

Bitter or Sweet?

This semester I have been learning and growing (I hope) in things pertaining to the tongue (speech) and how I have been using it in my life. I believe that I am slowly becoming more sensitive to what comes out of my mouth and how it affects those around me and it's encouraging to me. Some of you may know that I have been going through the book of James this block at school with a phenomenal teacher, Rex, and something he said yesterday in class really hit me. I decided that I wanted to share it with you. : )

"With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?"

--James 3:9-11

After we read the verse, Rex started talking about what James was really getting at with these verses. He used as an example the well of Bethlehem. It's ALWAYS the same, every single time you go get water out of it, it is going to taste the same. It's not going to taste great one day, rotten the next, still bad but not as bad the following day, etc. It is a well that can be trusted. As Rex talked about this, he inspired me to write this in my notes for verse 11 ("Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?"): "Wouldn't it be nice if a person could come to me and always know that the words I would give to them would be refreshing and encouraging? Do I give out bitter and sweet water? Are they in doubt about what I will give to them? Can they come to me?" The underlying thought behind those questions is "Are people afraid that I will judge them, yell at them, put them down? Or do they trust me with their problems and trials, believing that I will have encouraging words to comfort them and help them, at the very least, pray for them? Or are they unsure about what will come out whenever I open up my mouth?"

Rex asked this question and I adapted it to my thoughts, I've been attempting to meditate on it since class.

"What kind of well am I? Bitter, Sweet, or unpredictable?"

This song by the band Downhere really hit a chord in me and I wanted to share it with you...

How Many Kings

Follow the star to a place unexpected.

Would you believe after all we’ve projected

A child in a manger
Lowly and small, the weakest of all

Unlikeliness hero, wrapped in his mothers shawl,

Just a child.

Is this who we’ve waited for?

Cause how many kings, stepped down from their thrones?

How many lords have abandoned their homes?

How many greats have become the least for me?

How many Gods have poured out their hearts

To romance a world that has torn all apart?

How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Bringing our gifts for the newborn savior

All that we have whether costly or meek

Because we believe.

Gold for his honor and frankincense for his pleasure

And myrrh for the cross he’ll suffer.

Do you believe, is this who we’ve waited for?

It’s who we’ve waited for.

How many kings, stepped down from their thrones?

How many lords have abandoned their homes?

How many greats have become the least for me?

How many Gods have poured out their hearts

To romance a world that has torn all apart?

How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Only one did that for me.