"Is Not Thine a Captured Heart? ~ Part 2

This Tuesday the meeting included Olga, Latisia, Irina, and Andre, but this time I will tell about Irina. She reminds me of one of the young sisters in Anaheim, so I was a bit more focused on her. And besides she was sitting near me. She seemed to understand what I was saying, so it was fairly easy to get to know her. And I like fun things to happen.

Perhaps I started to like her very much because she was in a playful mood. We were waiting for dinner to actually begin. The plates were set before us, and there was fruit on the table to nibble on. One sister began to put a heap of mashed potatoes on each plate. When Irina received hers first, she decided that it was too plain, so she stuck a grape stem in the middle of her potato pile on the blue plate. You know what a grape stem looks like, right? There used to be about five grapes in that cluster, so there are five awkward knobs on the end of five little sticks that jut out from the stem. The grape stem looked funky~stuck in the mashed potatoes~but Irina explained that there was a tree on her island in the middle of the blue sea. I was convinced after she perched half an orange slice on the edge of the plate because then there was a sunset for the island with the misfit little tree in the middle of it.

I could not resist helping her out with the tree. There was a bowl of little bitty mushrooms, so I got one out of the bowl, and I planted a small brown tree next to the big one, so now her island had two trees. Irina and I grinned. Supper was going to be fun.

Here are Liza and Irina:

Later we read the section in the Life-study of Exodus about Moses being called. Last week we read about how the called one needs to realize that anything he relies on is just a serpent, but if he throws it down and picks it up another way, it can be used for God's purpose.

Then we were reading the verses around the table in Russian, and it was my turn to read Exodus 4:6, so I read my verse in English: "And Jehovah further said to him, Now put your hand into your bosom." I gestured by putting my hand inside my sweater, because I wanted to be sure they were following what I was reading. "And he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, there his hand was, leprous, as white as snow." Well, I took my hand back out, and since it was supposed to be leprous--Yeek!--I let out a small cry of anguish, naturally. No one took much notice, but Irina and I exchanged glances. I like this part of Exodus because I really need to see that nothing good dwells in my flesh.

The heart of the time seemed to focus on the third sign of the called one, when the water turns to blood. This shows that the worldly supply and enjoyment are death in the eyes of God. Satan (the serpent) is against Christ, the flesh (leprosy) is against the Spirit, and the world (the blood) is against the Father. So, for that point, we read 1 John 2:15: "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Here is where the young one asks the good question.

She confessed that she loves God, but she loves other things too. What about this verse? What is she to do? So the other young ones began to consider how this question should be answered. Maybe the best answer comes from a verse right after verse 15~we have an anointing from the Holy One. We have the Holy One anointing us day by day to impart His holy life and nature into us.

Also, she opened up another matter in this wonderful small meeting.

She is not sure that engineering is the right major. She might like to work with children instead. So she needs some prayer so that she can be led by the Lord concerning her future.

I wondered if she might be led to be trained in the Word and in life. O Lord, lead this young one to Yourself.


Before anyone leaves, they have to get coats and hats and gloves and scarves and boots on.
Irina got all her stuff on and gave me a warm hug, and then she quietly motioned to her coat and squeaked, Yeek!! hee hee

Oh, may she be filled with the Holy One until no ground for anything else is left in any part of her heart!

And mine too!!