danobano's Xanga

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:57:16 GMT

"I am Yours, save me..." Psalm 119:94.

This verse totally intrigues me. The psalmist says I am Yours, he gave his life to God and yet the salvation didn't depend on him giving his life to God, but on the saving power of God Himself.

The other day I heard a sermon by Mark Driscoll and he said to his congregation:

"If you're a Calvinist--God saved me in 1983. If you're an Arminian--I gave me life to Jesus in 1983."

I laughed.

On a different note. I just finished taking 5-7 girls to two TOPs competitions. TOPs is a Talented Opportunity Program designed to identify potential elite level athletes at ages 7-11. The state testing is only physical strength and flexibility tests. One of the moms loves to take photos and gives them to me. So here are a ton of photos from the competitions!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:34:31 GMT

The two things that I feel that I was supposed to learn in these 4 years of studying biology I am certain are: God is in control and God is faithful.

I took this class my last quarter called molecular cell biology. It was amazing. I cannot believe how complicated and intricate and orchestrated our cells are!!!! God is infinitely creative and perfect. Everything is remarkable. Proteins are trafficked and go to specific destinations and enter certain pores by changing shape because the right concentration of ions are in the vicinity. Some proteins are all ready to go and just hang out in the cytoplasm not completely folded in the right conformation, they are sort of in this waiting room just waiting for the right signal from the nucleus. Once the gene is expressed, spliced, and activated the protein is "awakened" or "turned on" and can now go to its destination and fulfill its purpose.

I could go on and on about the intricacies of cellular movement, signaling, growth, etc, but it might get boring and way too long. I realized though that so much goes on in our cells that we are completely unaware of. We have no idea that internally God is controlling, directing, and regulating the affairs of our body. If that is internal, how much more does the Lord do that in our external lives. Everything in our lives is under His control. The places we go, the people we meet, the circumstances we find ourselves in are all these little reactions, conformations and perfect interactions that God has ordained so we can be changed and fulfill our function: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Nothing is out of God's hands, He is entirely in control.

God is truly faithful. That which He starts He completes. I thought I would never get through school, yet I always heard God telling me, "Danielle, be faithful." Jeremiah was utterly faithful: he saw not one convert, was persecuted and mocked and would have been considered highly unsuccessful, but he was faithful. It's like that balance we can never understand: God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. That idea of "work out your salvation" but it is "I (God) who is at work in you to will and to work", that mysterious balance. God wanted to show me how faithful He was and asked me to be faithful. Of course, His faithfulness wasn't dependent on mine, but in the process I was able to be a student of Him, hang onto His faithfulness and learn much more than I ever would have by merely giving intellectual assent that "God is faithful."

I always felt like school was the thorn in my side, but I've come to learn it was the perfect tool that my perfect Creator chose to sculpt, change, and transform my character. I've learned so much, yes about biology, but more about who God is and who He has created me to be. These years were amazing.

So I guess I'm educated.

At the park with my family...

My brother and cousin at the park. I love this picture.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:27:59 GMT

No more of this stuff for awhile...

finals week at linneas.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:25:33 GMT

During this last quarter...rachael and i were going crazy studying for anatomy...

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tue, 29 May 2007 05:12:09 GMT

I recently went to a Phil Wickham Concert in Santa Barbara. Gosh, the man is anointed.

Desire

Jesus if Your love’s the fuel
Than I’m the desperate flame
I’m screaming out your name
My Desire is burning like a million stars
And I keep reaching out reaching out for You

Phil Wickham

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tue, 29 May 2007 05:09:33 GMT

True Love

Come close listen to the story
About a Love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave His only Son
Just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father’s broken heart
Tears were filling heaven’s eyes
The day that true Love died
The day that true Love died

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were freed and made alive
The day that true Love died
The day that true Love died

Well search your heart
You know you can’t deny it
Children, lose your life
Just so you can find it

The Father gave His only Son
Just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father’s broken heart
Tears were filling heaven’s eyes
The day that true Love died
The day that true Love died

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were freed and made alive
The day that true Love died
The day that true Love died

Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive
He is alive, yeah He is alive
He rose again

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were freed and made alive
The day that true Love died
The day that true Love died

Phil Wickham

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:37:04 GMT

instructions for college graduation..

SAFETY: Mustang Stadium is extremely crowded during Commencement exercises. Happiness and jubilation
on the part of graduates and their guests is natural. We ask, however, that participants take care not to become
overly enthusiastic and do something that may be dangerous to the large crowd or disruptive to the
Commencement exercises

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Thu, 03 May 2007 14:46:25 GMT

Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ. Anonymous

I like this quote. I need to hear it often.

My teacher in my Plant Taxonomy said this today:

"All leaves will carry theme of palmate leaves, but not all of them do."

a little contradictory? ha.

i have found that there is such incredible variety within flowers and plants that taxonomist come up with key features to group them by, but there are exceptions all the time. Like this flower will have 3 petals or sometimes 4 and sometimes 5. How is that distinguishing???

Adam had a cool job.

God is creative.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:36:24 GMT

The keeping of the heart is a work that is never done till life is ended. There is no time or condition in the life of a Christian which will suffer an intermission of this work. It is in keeping watch over our hearts, as it was in keeping up Moses' hands while Israel and Amalek were fighting. No sooner do the hands of Moses grow heavy and sink down, than Amalek prevails. Intermitting the watch over their own hearts for but a few minutes, cost David and Peter many a sad day and night.

John Flavel

Friday, March 23, 2007

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:21:31 GMT

Our mouths are full but our souls are starved for You.