quick trips to vienna and prague

something to be in prayer for...i had to make a quick trip to vienna (and i mean quick...a total of ten hours on the train and six in vienna) where i had to interview for a new visa. i had a couple hours to walk around and enjoy the beautiful spring in a beautiful city.

czech embassy open hours: monday-friday from 8:30 - 10:30. seriously?

then i jumped on a train and headed to prague where i hung out with some wonderful friends, met some swedish people, and went paddle boating on the vltava river in full view of the castle. enjoy these pictures of europe :)

some seriously crazy girls.

here's a little insight into what we do at Bible study...
i seriously love these girls. a lot a lot.

Vienna/Budapest

Tessa's mom and sister flew into Vienna last Thursday, and we spent some time traveling through Europe to see Vienna and Budapest. here are some highlights...sorry about the random order!

scarf shopping at the famous naschmarkt market in vienna

beautiful church in Vienna

St. Stephen's Cathedral

oh my gosh! a phone booth!

Belvedere Palace. breathtaking.

Hungary's old metro line!

from our hostel in Budapest

Heroes Square, Busapest

the only ones on the metro!

after finally finding a place to eat

Budapest is beautiful!

there's a church carved into that cave. we walked in as they were having mass.

confessions of a recovering legalist

le·gal·ism

 [lee-guh-liz-uhm] 

noun

1.

strict adherence, or the principle of strict adherence, to law orprescription, especially to the letter rather than the spirit.

2.

Theology .

a.

the doctrine that salvation is gained through good works.

b.

the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to preciselaws.

according to dictionary.com.

i, like so many christians before and after me, have grown up believing that what will one day get me into heaven and closer to God is following the rules of the Bible and the rules of christian institutions.

but it became pretty obvious to me a couple years ago that i'd never be able to follow rules. i can't even make my bed in the mornings.

it's been about 5 years since i discovered how i was bent towards following rules, and it's been five years (and will be the rest of my life!) of recovery.

the strange thing is that what God offers is so much better than following rules. i can't believe how often the church teaches legalism when God offers something so much more kind and beautiful.

what God says is that:

we are sinners (Romans 5:8)
but Jesus has saved us. He was sacrificed for our sins so that we wouldn't be separated from God anymore. He has made us holy, blameless, and innocent before God, and he has taken our sins on himself. (Hebrews 7)
and therefore, i can do absolutely nothing but accept this grace from Jesus and praise him for saving me.

the road to recovery is always long, and i still find myself responding to sin in my legalistic way. but God is greater than my legalism!

comparison bug bites

last weekend i went on an english camp team retreat. i had had no expectations for it...i had not a single idea what we'd be doing.

so i entered the cold parsonage where we stayed without knowing that a great weekend filled with prayer (and organization and games:)) was ahead.

learning about our gifts and the body

there was a great prayer room (with a nice toasty heater!) set up, where we could paint, write on the wall, and listen to worship music. someone was in that room praying the whole weekend, even at 3 in the morning. it was beautiful.

and Taby, our youth pastor, spoke to us a couple times. he reminded us of the spiritual gifts that God blessed his believers with so that we can work as one functional body.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12

reminding us of our differences
in how we glorify God

one of the greater struggles that i think women have is that of comparison. the comparison bug can attack when we're browsing facebook or pinterest, go to another person's house which is more "clean" and "nice," or just thinking about the people around us. in college it was common for me to compare myself as a Christian to those who seemed more spiritual than me, and it really hurt my self-esteem and relationship with Christ.

and the comparison bug still bites me sometimes. but as Taby was reminding us of these spiritual gifts, i remembered that these gifts are what GOD HAS GIVEN US. when i compare my gifts and come up short next to someone else, i'm totally neglecting what God's given me. it's like i'm telling him that what He's granted me with isn't good enough or not what i want.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. 1 Peter 4:10

i need to SLAP that bug! it's ugly! it has no place on me, because I am God's - a result of God's grace. when i compare myself to others, i weaken the body of Christ, and it becomes more dysfunctional. God gave us these gifts to glorify him and his character. when i compare myself, it doesn't glorify God's grace towards me. an eye can't compare itself to the knee and try to be more like it, because that's not its place.

God has created us perfectly, and he sacrificed his Son so that we could be perfect. he blessed us with gifts to glorify him. let's not remove that perfection and glory through comparison.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good...All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 1 Corinthians 12: 4-7, 11