Jan 9 + Praising and ascending

I only caught the very end of class today, but I came in while we were finishing up listening to the first 8 pages of The Sorrow of War. 

I learned about a part of the story, that someone went into an old village and shot an orangutan, then it became a kind of "curse" that was blamed the cause of Kien's entire squadron eventually being killed. (all except him) This impacted me because this isn't how I imagined that the story would start out. I didn't know what to expect, and to get up to speed tonight, I have to read what I missed as well as the assigned homework of pages 8-16.

I liked how we were listening to the audio book in the lesson. There wasn't anything to dislike about today's lesson. 

I am feeling in-ascension-with-Christ today. I was really late because I kept forgetting stuff at home and this kept frustrating me. I let the enemy get to me about the rain and how many times I was turning around, but then on my third trip to school this morning, I remembered a part from a booklet I finished yesterday called Praising. It speaks of some of the psalms and a story in 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament, which show that praising the Lord isn't merely something we should do when we're happy and things are working out for us, but there is the "sacrifice of praise". The sacrifice of praise is when in the worst and most miserable situations the Lord puts us in, we continue to recognize His sovereign hand and that He is on the throne, still very much worthy of our praise. His position in the universe isn't any lower when we are feeling down, so we should praise Him nonetheless. The book unveils how this sacrificial praising is so much more sweet to Him than "celebrational" (my term) praising, and how it brings us very quickly into ascension with the Lord where everything is under our feet. When I was letting the enemy get me down this morning about the weather and how forgetful I am, I was totally under his feet, but the Lord reminded me of the booklet as I was driving to my parking spot. As soon as I started praising the Lord in the car, I was seated in the heavenlies with Christ, far out of reach from the enemy's attempts to bring me down. I'm so glad and I thank the Lord that so soon after finishing the booklet, He arranged a chance for me to put what I read into my own experience. We don't want the word or the ministry to just be dead doctrine. We need to see a vision of it and then experience it for ourselves, and by the Lord's mercy I've already entered into the reality of the sacrifice of praise; being brought into ascension with Him, far above a situation that was previously bringing me down. Thank You, Lord Jesus.