Snozzcumbers

I enjoy revisiting books I read as an elementary school student. Recently I've been re-reading The BFG by Roald Dahl. It's one of my all-time favorite books.

The BFG looked at Sophie and smiled, showing about twenty of his square white teeth. 'Yesterday,' he said, 'we was not believing in giants, was we? Today we is not believing in snozzcumbers. Just because we happen not to have actually seen something with our own two little winkles, we think it is not existing. What about for instance the great squizzly scotch-hopper?'

'I beg your pardon?' Sophie said.

'And the humplecrimp?'

'What's that?' Sophie said.

'And the wraprascal?'

'The what?' Sophie said.

'And the crumpscoddle?'

'Are they animals?' Sophie asked.

'They is common animals,' said the BFG contemptuously. 'I is not a very know-all giant myself, but it seems to me that you is an absolutely know-nothing human bean. Your brain is full of rotten-wool.'

'You mean cotton wool,' Sophie said.

'What I mean and what I say is two different things,' the BFG announced rather grandly.

Now, how could anyone disagree with logic such as that?  :  )

Bold Words

So, I have just finished reading Radical by David Platt (required reading for my internship this fall). Whenever I read for a purpose I usually underline and highlight passages and quotes, or dog-ear pages that really speak to me. Here are a few quotes from Radical that really stood out to me as I read them: "Classrooms and leactures have their place, but this is not the predominant kind of teaching we see in Jesus' relatoinship with his disciples. On the contrary, the world was a perpetual classroom for Jesus and his disciples, providing opportunities for instruction at every moment."

"We are, by nature, receivers. Even if we have a desire to learn God's Word, we still listen from a default self-centered mind-set that is always asking, What can I get out of this? But as we have seen, this is unbiblical Christianity. What if we changed the question whenever gathered to learn God's Word? What if we began to think, How can I listen to His Word so that I am equipped to teach this Word to others?"

"We think the way the world thinks - that wealth is always to our advantage. But Jesus is saying the exact opposite. He is saying that wealth can be a dangerous obstacle."

"Why not begin operating under the idea that God has given us excess, not so we could have more, but so we could give more?"

"How much is wise to save for potential future need when brothers and sisters around me (as well as people who haven't even heard the gospel) are threatened by dire present need?"

"We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, EVERYTHING CHANGES."

"The will of God is for you and me to give our lives URGENTLY and RECKLESSLY to making the gospel and the glory of God known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus."

Wind and Water

“I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze.”

Donald Miller wrote that in his book Blue Like Jazz. He is an author who writes about Christianity in a "non-religious" way. His views on Christianity are very refreshing and relatable.

•   God is in the WIND.

Every time we step outside he wisps our hair into frenzied excitement, reminding us that His presence is everlasting.

•   God is in the WATER.

Every time we get thirsty we drink Him in to replenish our physical strength.

God is in everything. God is LOVE.