Friend Test Thingy

After getting the idea from Rebecca,over at Texan by the Grace of God, I've created my own friends test. If you'd like to take the test and see how well you know me click the following link. Be forewarned however, this test is not for the faint hearted or the half way initiated Lauren expertise; I created this test to be hard! Enjoy, I hope.

(By the way, if you notice my username is "alright already" just know it was an accident. The Friend Test website must be incredibly overused these days because I couldn't for the life of me find an unused user name. After awhile I started to think the website was loony and began putting in crazy names - and, just my luck - got stuck with "alright already". SO, if you are going to create an account with them, my advice is, be patient. And it doesn't hurt to start in the morning when you have a full day ahead of you to discover that "perfect" never before thought of, username. Just don't try anything embarrassing or stupid. You'll wish you hadn't and chances are, you'll start the whole process over again, sheepishly)

http://www.truefriendtest.com/friendtest/2132135

St. Elmo

I was never so relieved to hear anything as the words "God has pardoned all my sins, and accepted me as a laborer worthy to enter his vineyard. Is Edna Earl more righteous than the Lord she worships?" (Emphasis added) Definite score! Thank goodness. So relieved. About time. Finally! Anyways, for those of you who don't know what I am referring to; I just finished a novel called St. Elmo written by Augusta Jane Evans; who must have been married by the way because on the copy I read she is called Augusta Evans Wilson; but do not look for it in the news because Mrs. Evans, or shall we say, Mrs. Wilson, has been dead for at least one hundred years; get a copy of St. Elmo because its an interesting read, unlike Macaria - there was something seriously wrong with that one. Alright alright. In complete seriousness St. Elmo was a good book and that I really enjoyed it is evidenced by the fact that I started reading it yesterday around 5:00 PM, and finished it today, around 6:30 PM. Taking into consideration the time I spent sleeping, eating, and doing chores, I read it in less than ten hours. Not exactly a new record for the number of pages; but it definitely attests to the quality of the book. If you don't have a copy, get one! (Imagine Woody from Toy Story saying the last sentence) Thanks Johanna for the excellent recommendation. I must admit, half way through the book I was worried it was going to be exactly like Macaria slash Beulah, but it exceeded my expectations. Now if I can only convince myself that Edna is going to survive the first few weeks of her marriage, (her health was really giving out in the end there - fainting and missing out on her own wedding service and all), I will be happy. Of course, if you think you may die young it makes perfect sense to marry someone twenty or so years older than you; that way you might make it through life together and die at the same time. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend marrying a forty something year old when your twentyish. Rather creepy. I am happy to report that St. Elmo never seemed like he was that old however (Yes, St. Elmo is the name of a guy, or I should say, the guy, in the book) and despite Mrs. Evans /Wilsons infrequent allusions to his age, I felt fairly comfortable with him and Edna's romance, choosing to ignore the unnecessary and bothersome references to his growing age and thinking of him as a remarkably "well preserved" man in his thirties. There was some slight confusion about the final, ehem, proposal scene in the book. Evans had been going on about Edna's failing health for so long that I expected her to die every minute (Like all the guys in Macaria). And for some reason I thought she died in Mr. Murray's arms before answering his question and telling him she loved him. It was rather, well, comical actually. She wasn't answering him for so long I was really worried, and I think he must have been too though he didn't say so. I had to re-read the part three or four times to assure myself that she was alive, and only speechless with joy and surprise. Then I thought for sure she was going to die before the wedding service, and had to re-read that section several times too. (I guess I had to un-train my expectations of Evans dramatically woeful endings based on my former experiences with her work) But that was the only complaint I have about the book. I didn't intend for this little review to carry on so long so I'll end it with the words - "Man-like is it to fall into sin, Fiend-like is it to dwell therein, Christ-like is it for sin to grieve, God-like is it all sin to leave!" And another favorite passage - "His house she enters, there to be a light, Shining withing when all without is night; A guardian angel o'er all his life presiding, Doubling his pleasures and all his cares dividing; Winning him back, when mingling in the throng From a vain world we love, alas! too long, To fireside happiness and hours of ease, Blest with that charm, that certainty to please. How oft her eyes read his! her gentle mind Still subject - ever on the watch to borrow Mirth of his mirth, and sorrow of his sorrow."

My Dying Heart

I have loved the Lord in a perfect way,

But my body is so far from heaven,

Fresh experiences and sparkling days,

The secret burdens won't lessen.

Two conflicting hearts beat within my chest,

One longs for spiritual joys and meaning,

The other empty worldliness,

And the church bells still ringing.

I'm looking at a face, and it's mine,

I can't describe the coldness, no heartbeat,

"God rest her soul" is the line,

Bloody water covers me head to feet.

Someone I was has just died,

There wasn't enough room inside,

But to keep me alive I was crucified,

With a lamb on a cross in a river wide.

I'm looking at His face, the agonizing pain,

Etched in the heat of hell and fiery sand,

Two bloody pools like guilty stains,

Drip from the mans outstretched hands.

And all around Him the sea is crying,

Great tears that sting the salty wounds,

Slowly, Gods Son is dying,

 His heartbeat is the only sound.

All the while I feel almost dead,

My bed is in the midst of the sea,

The water climbs above my head,

His right hand holds me.

The heartbeat stops,

I'm gasping for air,

"My God, my God, are you there?"

Suddenly I'm ethereal without care,

Blinded by swift lightnings glare.

A single heartbeat in me grows,

And it longs for the slain lamb,

Who took all my fleshly woes,

Into His great I AM.

Lo the heart that beats within,

Is fashioned after His own,

Paid is my steep debt of sin,

By a Savior on Heavens throne.

Up from the waves we wildly burst,

Resurrected from ashes of deathly night,

Dried up is my well of worldly thirst,

The one who lives is Christ. "

Lauren East

"I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:22-24  

"There are three that bear witness on earth; the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one." 1 John 5:8  

"I have been Crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20  

"If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me." Psalms 139:8-10  

"Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?...We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in the newness of life." Romans 6:3-4  

"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin." Romans 6:5-7