Going to the zoo, Part #1

Yesterday my family and I took a day off from everything to go to the zoo.  We had tons of fun!  I wanted to share some of the pictures we took, and, by way of explanation, the reason so many of them are of me and Rachel and there are so few pictures of actual animals is because we were kind of doing a practice run for senior pictures.  Since there were so many pictures, I decided to split this post into two parts.  Enjoy!

This really makes you want to look at the gorillas, doesn't it? 

You have to walk over this bridge to look at some of the monkeys.  I can't stand it.

Ellie told me to keep a straight face, which always make me smile. :)

The hippos were missing.



Depraved Indifference

If
I cannot catch "the sound of noise
   of rain" long before the rain falls,
and, going to some hilltop of the spirit,
   as near to my God as I can,
   have not faith to wait there with
      my face between my knees,
   though six times or sixty times I
      am told "there is nothing,"
         till at last "there arises a little
         cloud out of the sea,"
then I know nothing of Calvary love.

-- Amy Carmichael



Palm Sunday

I lift mine eyes, and see
Thee, tender Lord, in pain upon the tree,
Athirst for my sake and athirst for me.

"Yea, look upon Me there,
Compassed with thorns and bleeding everywhere,
For thy sake bearing all, and glad to bear."

I lift my heart to pray:
Thou Who didst love me all that darkened day,
Wilt Thou not love me to the end alway?

"Yea, thee My wandering sheep,
Yea, thee My scarlet sinner slow to weep,
Come to Me, I will love thee and will keep."

Yet am I racked with fear:
Behold the unending outer darkness dreare,
Behold the gulf unbridgeable and near!

"Nay, fix thy heart, thine eyes,
Thy hope upon My boundless sacrifice:
Will I lose lightly one so dear-bought prize?"

Ah, Lord; it is not Thou,
Thou that wilt fail; yet woe is me, for how
Shall I endure who half am failing now?

"Nay, weld thy resolute will
To Mine: glance not aside for good or ill:
I love thee; trust Me still and love me still."

Yet Thou Thyself hast said,
When Thou shalt sift the living from the dead
Some must depart shamed and uncomforted.

"Judge not before that day:
Trust Me with all thy heart, even tho' I slay:
Trust Me in love, trust on, love on, and pray."

-- Christina Rossetti

How deep is His love

These past weeks have been hard.  Ten days ago, there was the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.  Then there was the nuclear crisis there as well.  Along with all of this rocking the world, in some cases quite literally, things were going on in the personal lives of some of the people I know.  Last Tuesday night one of our church elders was taken to the hospital with stroke-like symptoms.  He couldn't speak properly, and over the course of a few days we found out that he was sick with herpesviral encephalitis.  It's a very serious disease, and we didn't know whether he would live or not.  Then, last Wednesday morning, we got another phone call and found out that one of our church father's had lost his father that morning.  His dad had very poor health, but they still weren't expecting his death quite so soon.

Yet even in the midst of all of this, there is hope.  In Japan, we know that God is taking care of those people just as He sees fit, even though we don't understand it.  This morning our church elder was released from the hospital, and is expected to make a full recovery.  And for the family who lost a father and a grandfather, there is the promise that they will see him again in Heaven.  Just a few years ago he came to Christ, and they are looking forward to not only seeing Jesus in His kingdom, but seeing this man too.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'

Jeremiah 29:11-14

How great is His love!

A few book reviews

At the beginning of 2011 I said I wanted to start doing more book reviews.  What I meant were ones not actually connected to Book Sneeze, and after three months I'm finally getting around to it!  I've been able to get a lot of reading done so far this year, and wanted to share with you a few of my favorites, and my thoughts on each one.

The very first book I read this year was Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.  Beth had recommended this to me a few months prior, and I ended up loving it!  It was written in a similar style to Pilgrim's Progress, but was a bit easier to get through than that other old book.  It starts out with Much-Afraid being a timid, quiet woman terrified of just about everything and certainly not up to journeying to the Celestial City in her own strength.  But then the Good Shepherd leads her to follow Him, and the rest of the story is based on her traveling with the two guides he gave to her, Sorrow and Suffering, up the high mountains to His heavenly kingdom.  The story of Much Afraid challenged me to keep fighting and pressing on towards Heaven, and encouraged me by reminding me of God's great love and protection for His children.  Hopefully I'll be able to read this again soon!

The next book I wanted to write about was Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot.  For years I had heard about this book, heard it praised time and time again, and I finally got it at the end of January.  I know I've said this before, but Elisabeth Elliot is definitely one of my favorite authors, if not my absolute favorite.  She's just so straightforward and blunt, and her clear-cut view of just about everything is something I really enjoy.  Let Me Be a Woman is written to Elliot's daughter, who was about to get married.  So there's not really a lot directed to single women, but there is a lot about submission.  At the time I was preparing for my first Twelve Extraordinary Women Bible study that I'm leading, and the topic for that month was Eve.  In Twelve Extraordinary Women one of the focuses of Eve was on submission, and Let Me Be a Woman really helped me understand that more and, hopefully, present and explain the topic of submission more clearly to my Bible study girls.  The book also helped me understand more about who I am in Christ, and how I can live as He has called me to by making me who I am.  I would definitely recommend it to any woman!

The next book is A Tale of Two Sons by John MacArthur, which I finished about a week ago.  This was also a book I had heard about a lot in the past, and when I finally got around to reading it I was not disappointed.  The book I basically an in-depth study of Luke 15:11-32--the story of the prodigal son.  John MacArthur did a great job of bringing to light the feelings, personalities, and basic lives of the prodigal son, the merciful father, and the elder brother.  I was challenged to forgive others, to thank God for His tender mercies, and to see myself as the wretched sinner I really am, among other things.  Something else I liked about this book was that, while it was theologically deep, it was so clearly explained and well-written that I never felt like I was just muddling through trying to understand what on earth the man was talking about.  An all-around good book.

The final book I wanted to review is No Graven Image by Elisabeth Elliot.  This is the only novel written by Elliot, and as such I was eager to have it for my own and read it.  I received it about a week ago, and finished it this afternoon.  No Graven Image is the fictional story of Margaret Sparhawk, a twenty-five-year-old missionary to the Quichua Indians of Ecuador.  She arrives in Ecuador with high hopes of translating the Bible into Quichuan, starting a school, perhaps building a hospital, and ultimately winning multitudes to Christ.  But she soon realizes that this work will be much harder than she had anticipated.  Every step is a baby step, and she struggles with finding just how to begin her work and how to reach the people.  I enjoyed the unhurried pace of the story, but most especially the in-depth look into the life of a missionary.  Elliot was a missionary herself, so she knows exactly what she's talking about.  As I am hoping to go to India as soon as possible after I graduate college, I've been looking for a book that can begin to prepare me for the challenges I will face.  I thought this book was very good in doing that, and will definitely be reading it again.

And that's it!  I hope these reviews were enjoyable and that you'll go find these books and read them!

Another thing I wanted to share was that today I was able to pray with a young girl at Bible club, and she accepted Jesus as her Savior.  I'm thrilled!  As it's my last year working at the Bible club, this moment was especially poignant, and will definitely be something I treasure in my heart.  Please pray for this little girl and ask that God would continue to grow her in her faith and make her more like Him.

A conglomeration of things...

First off I wanted to share a song I wrote yesterday and already recorded!  Such quickness on my part is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, but it's really nice to have it already recorded and out of the way.  It turned out pretty well, and is one of my favorites that I've written, so I wanted to share it!

I also wanted to share a song by Jeremy Camp that I've been listening to a lot over these past couple of days, so I'll be posting the video below, and after that is a poem that I read about a week ago that I wanted to share.  And I think that's it!  Enjoy!



Ash Wednesday

My God, my God, have mercy on my sin,
For it is great; and if I should begin
To tell it all, the day would be too small
           To tell it in.

My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin
For Thy Love's sake: yea, if I should begin
To tell This all, the day would be too small
           To tell it in.

Good Lord, today
I scarce find breath to say:
   Scourge, but receive me.
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse
Thy intolerable curse;
   So do not leave me.

Good Lord, lean down
In pity, tho' Thou frown;
   Smite, but retrieve me:
For so Thou hold me up to stand
And kiss Thy smiting hand,
   It less will grieve me.

-- Christina Rossetti