I actually heard my alarm at 5 this morning. I let it snooze until 5:45, but that's still earlier than I've been getting up lately. And it gave me a good two hours with Jesus... which was amazing.

"I rise before the dawning of the morning,
And cry for help;
I hope in Your word."
Ps. 199:147

I feel like He's bringing me out of the desert I've been in for the past year. He's giving my prayer time life again and bringing back the thirst and desire for Him that I once had. I'm so thankful for that. I need Him so desperately, and I hate it when I sit smugly in my sin and don't pay attention to my need. This morning I actually paid attention to it. Praise Jesus that I'm finding my home at His feet once again.

I picked up a big book at the Family Christian Story yesterday: A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, edited by David W. Bercot. It's really, really interesting. Of course, the first section I studied was "Free Will and Predestination". I find it really interesting that the early church fathers held to free will. One interesting thing, which I need to look into further, was a sermon by Origen attacking those who denied free will. It read like a sermon attacking calvinism, addressing all the key verses(Romans 9, etc), but yet he was attacking the Gnostics. In introducing the sermon, the editor wrote, "These Gnostics taught that, as a result of these ruined natures, salvation was purely a matter of grace and election by the Father of Jesus." We studied Gnosticism in high school, but I don't remember anything about that. I might start a thread on the webboard about it. Though Tom wants me to stay out of the theology forum for awhile, so I might wait and ask his permission first :)

Another interesting thing about the book is the early christians practice of infant baptism... I really need to study more about infant baptism. I'm really open to re-evaluating my opinion on the matter.