weekdate #18

I have enjoyed this past week so immensely.  There have been times of great worship through fellowship and coming together with the church, and times of laughter and fun.

One of the times of laughter was on Wednesday.  Every Wednesday morning I go to observe a class for my intro to teaching class.  This particular Wednesday, my dad was having a young man in our acquaintance assist him at his job.  The man had left his truck at our house and unintentionally blocked my car in the driveway.  But that wasn't going to stop me.  I just slammed on the gas and went backwards over this little hill, shattering some white pole sticking out of the ground in the process.  I hope it wasn't too important.  Anyway, I got out to make sure the car was alright, and didn't pay attention to what was behind me when I got back in.  I mowed our trashcan down before I'd even realized that I hit it.  So that was fun.

This weekend and into the next week, Mark, Luke, and Sara-Grace are visiting.  My family and I had such a good time with them this morning as we visited Heritage Christian Fellowship, where my dad was guest preaching, and Mark was speaking on how his parents and siblings are serving as missionaries in Cameroon.  This evening we had the Bible memorization meeting at the church and we were able to hear some of Mark, Luke, and Sara's songs.  It was such a wonderful time of fellowship.

All throughout this week, I have been filled with such immense joy in the Lord.  I have been struggling for several months now, ever since I got back from Glorieta, with having joy in the Lord.  My biggest regret of my time in Glorieta was my lack of persistence in attending church, and not actively trying to engage in godly fellowship with those around me.  I don't necessarily regret my decision in going to Glorieta.  I had a fantastic summer of meeting new people and experiencing new challenges and blessings.  But the damage to my faith was so great, I would never return to work there.  I feel that I fell so far back in my faith over the summer, and I'm only just now beginning to gain some ground forward again.

God has been so patient and good to me.  He is so kind.  Honestly, His mercy and grace have just been consuming me over the past weeks, and I am overwhelmed.

At the memorization meeting tonight, Mark shared a passage from Isaiah that I was really encouraged by.  For the discouraged, doubting believer:

Isaiah 43:1-7

But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.  For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.  Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.

"Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.  I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'  And to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'  Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made."

What wilt Thou give me?

Hi everybody!

There was a specific reason I wanted to write on my blog today, but I can't remember what it was, so I just thought I'd do a little update about how things are going lately.

Yesterday was my art history midterm.  I am seriously being over and over again shocked at God's goodness.  I have been dreading this midterm ever since the semester began.  It was the only midterm I had for any of my classes (for all the rest I have periodic exams), and this is the only test we have besides our final for this class, so it's pretty just based on those two tests.  I was so nervous about it, in fact, that I memorized the first four pages of vocabulary words I needed for the midterm within the first two weeks of starting school. :) But I was so ready for it!  Over the weekend I was feeling a little nervous because I didn't even really know what to study (we were going over ten chapters--was I supposed to everything about every one of them?), but when I woke up I read the little devotional for the day that I have in this devo book by Amy Carmichael.  I've talked about it before; it's called Edges of His Ways.  I wanted to post the devotional for yesterday because it was just so cool how God ordained it for that day.

*Gen. 15:2: Lord God, what wilt Thou give me?

   When thinking of the further reaches of prayer I came on this, the simplest of all, like the words of a small child before is has learned not to ask for things for itself.  If the friend of God could speak so to his God, we may in all simplicity do so too.  "Lord God, what wilt Thou give me?"

   Just as a child passes from the less to the greater in desire, so we find in our Bible that the desire of man, as he walks further on with God, grows and grows till we come to such words as Paul's, words that reach far beyond any earthly good--"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings"; and soon that other word follows, so often forgotten in hurried prayer: the first good thing promised is not the thing for which we prayed, but peace.

   "Lord God, what wilt Thou give me?"

   "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus."  Is not peace an answer?

Isn't that awesome?  I'm not saying that I wasn't a bit anxious throughout that day, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be (plus, I think I did really good on the test!).  God is so faithful!  He gives peace and strength and whatever else I may need, all the time.  He is so good.

Start considering joining The Voice of the Martyrs on November 13th, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  To learn more about it you can go here.  I'm posting a video from their website below; I think it's sort of a promotional thing for this day of prayer, to get you started thinking about it.  I thought it was really interesting.

I also wanted to post another little thing from Amy Carmichael (I love Amy Carmichael; she was such an inspiration!).  This one is from A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot.  It's not really inspirational or anything, but it just stilled my soul and made me stop for a moment to pray for those little children around the world that evil people use for harm.

**Just how horrible [what she was saving little girls from] she (Amy) did her best to put into words.  Things as They Are has a picture of a half-naked holy man.  "This photo is from death in life," she writes, "a carcass, moving, breathing, sinning...  I knew something about the man.  His life is simply unthinkable.  Talk of beasts in human shape!  It is slandering good animals to compare bad men to beasts.  Safer far in a tiger's den than that man's monastery.  But he is a temple saint--earthly, sensual, devilish.  Now put beside him a little girl--your own little girl--and leave her there--yes, leave her there in his hand."

Take some time today to lift up to the Lord those helpless, little children and the people who do them harm, as well as the people who work to help them.

* excerpt taken from "Edges of His Ways" by Amy Carmichael, page 193
** excerpt taken from "A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael" by Elisabeth Elliot, pages 170-171