I still remember the night Caleb proposed... Alexa came back to the dorm room glowing! Her face beamed with a smile that lasted the rest of the semester! I remember all the amazing meals Alexa cooked on Saturday nights for her Sunday afternoon lunches with Caleb. We had to smell her delicious crock-pot creations all night hoping there would be leftovers :) I remember her beautiful pottery creations, her art projects, our late night talks and her gracious words. She was a blessing and joy to be with! Congratulations to you both! May the Lord continue to direct your steps. ... And they lived happily ever after!
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It is a tradition of mine, if I go to the beach I build a sandcastle! Since building sandcastles last weekend, I have been thinking about the verses in Matthew where Christ tells his disciples to not build houses on sand but on rock. Actually, I thought first of the children's song (humming "the rains came down, and the floods came up... and the house on the sand fell flat!") while I was building these sandcastles and parts were crumbling.
For this reason we built the sand castles behind a fallen palm tree as far away from the water as possible. And the tide still washed it away overnight. When we came back the second day, all that remained were lumps of seaweed in its place. When we hear Biblical truths, it is easy to agree with the principles that are already a part of my life, and perhaps dismiss the ones that are not. Having been recently reading the book Radical, Platt talks about blind spots - areas of our life where we think we are ok or choose to ignore. For myself, it can be easy to think everything is going fine, but I have to ask myself what areas am I not seeing. Am I really taking God's Word and obeying it - all of it? Platt challenges us to be "radically" sold out meaning following Christ with everything, in every area of our life. So does this mean I am supposed to be preaching all the time or every sentence I speak must be quoting Scripture? No, but God wants me to evaluate every area of my life though the truths of His Word. Hearing the truth at church, chapel, Sunday School, discipleship groups, and Bible studies is passive; obeying is active. If I am only piling up knowledge, it is as good as a sand. If I am not seeking the Lord, digging into His Word to find direction and guidance for life every day it is only a matter of time before the waves come. In James 1:22-25, the Lord says,
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks in the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, he will be blessed in his doing." Am I walking away from the mirror even after doing my devotions? Or am I dwelling on the truths and praying the Lord would show me ways to apply them? Jam 4:17 says "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." When God gave Saul a mission in 1 Sam. 15:17-23, he listened to part of the command and chose to finish the story his own way to cover his tracks with a sacrifice. Makes me think of my mom telling my "partial obedience is disobedience." Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices. As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” We have been given the inspired Word of God - most of us more than one copy. I do not want to dismiss any of it; it is a treasure! We often wonder what God's will is... read it! Ex 19:5-6 … if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests ,and a holy nation… Ex 15: 26 If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Jn. 9:41 Jesus said unto them {Pharisees}, if ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. We have truth, now what are we going to do about it? What does a life lived out for Christ look like? I liked this quote by Elisabeth Eliot in the last chapter of Radical, "Jim's aim was to know God. His course, obedience - the only course that could lead to the fulfillment of his aim. His end was what some would call an extraordinary death, although in facing death he had quietly pointed out that many have died because of obedience to God. He and the other men with whom he died were hailed as heroes, 'martyrs.' I do not approve. Nor would they have approved. Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for Him, after all, so great? Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first? Furthermore, to live for God is to die 'daily' as the apostle Paul put it. It is to lose everything that we may gain Christ. It is in thus laying down our lives that we find them." I obviously still need to hear these truths again; I don't think it was coincidence that this week's Sunday School lesson and the evening service both touched on some of these passages and obedience in response to God's Word. We discussed being a hearer and doer of the Word. In the parable for the sower, the seed was the same in each circumstance. The difference was the response or the soil. What kind of hearer am I? Am I sacrificing a deeper relationship with my Heavenly Father because by devotions are choked out by weeds otherwise known as Facebook, Pinterest, lack of sleep, or simply being too busy? Is my heart tender to hear the Word preached, or do I spend time distracted during the service and let birds steal away the seed? Hearing involves paying attention and meditation. What catches my attention or motivates me to pay attention to God's Word? Is hearing important then? YES, Jesus tells the disciples to "take heed therefore how he hear…" Lk. 8:18. Meditation is then choosing to listen to God. Paul tells us to take every thought captive unto Christ, 2 Cor. 10:5. Finally, obedience is our response to what we have heard. 1 John 3:16-24 tells us that obedience is evidence of love with Christ as the ultimate example of obedience to the Father and love for His people by giving His life for us. Even if I could gain all the knowledge possible and listen to a lifetime of sermons and have not love, I am nothing. (1 Cor. 13) If I have the truth and do not love others enough to share it with them, what am I? The priest and Levite knew the Scriptures better than most anyone in Israel; they had piled castles of knowledge high but it proved to be a sandy foundation. When they passed the Jew left for dead on the side of the road, they did not take action. They read God's Word but their religion did not change their actions. 1 John 3:18 "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Ezekiel 33:31-32 "And they come unto thee… and sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but do them not." May this not be the testimony of us today. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only. "The wise man built his house upon the Rock,… and the house on the Rock stood firm!" One of my favorite summer activities is reading. I am so thankful for all the times mom hauled us kids to the library... unlike the grocery store and picking out favorite cereals, we could pick out as much as we would read! I wholehearted believe in wholesome books (not the fluff kind, life is too short to read fluff). A teacher once told me this - it is so true: "You will be the same person in five years, except for the people you meet, and the books you read." Here are a few of my favorites. OK, a lot of my favorites. I have always struggled picking just one! So, these first few are not books, but they are incredible resources I have grown up with and love. On long car trips instead of asking "Are we there yet?" it was "How many more Odyssey episodes?" :)
Lamplighter Books: Y.W.A.M books:
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AuthorI will be the first to admit that I am not a writer, but have a sincere aspiration to articulate Truth with grace, in love, seasoned with salt. Here is a journal of sorts, or photo documentations of a journey - one currently around the world in Papua New Guinea working at the Kunai Health Center. Thanks for visiting and your support! Archives
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