Christmas Break Pilgrimage

Spending Christmas Break in Hot Springs definitely had its perks! Lots of hours at work, lots of hours sleeping, and lots of hours on the road visiting my friends Clara and Levi and Aryn. Bekah and I headed out early Wednesday morning and arrived at Clara and Levi's by early afternoon. It was wonderful to see their "nest" and enjoy their hospitality. Clara is a great hostess! Highlights of the visit included taking Bekah's senior pictures (which turned out great!), shopping for the first time in six months, and watching North and South. And, of course, good talks about the Lord and our lives.

Friday morning Bekah and I drove on to Grace University and spent time with Aryn, exploring Grace's campus, hearing about classes, and painting our nails. Roja's provided a delicious, fresh-tasting Mexican for supper. Saturday morning we rambled around the Joscelin Museum of Art feeling cultured! Here is the a picture of the reproduction that I purchased. It is Renoir's "Two Girls at the Piano."

After feeling cultured, we ate dinner at Panara. Take a bit of advice and don't order off the kids menu. It's cheap, but it was a cheese sandwich on enriched, white, store-bought bread; could have manufactured it in an a non-cook's kitchen. Eat real Panara food when you go there.

The trip home was long, but safe. Bethany and I ran into snow about 25 miles from school, and it takes a long time to drive 25 miles at 35 mph, but we did eventually get there. Special thanks to my great traveling companion, Bekah, without whom this pilgrimage would not have been possible.

Experience our trip with us through pictures!

Posing with our map and Google directions -

- Dishing out hard peppermint ice cream at
Clara and Levi's home

Finishing off the
Sparkling Grape Juice -

- Lunch at Penara's

Enjoying a Runza (bierock)at the Hajda's bakery -

Encouraging Our Friends

Before turning in at night, my roommate Christine and I read from Amy Carmichael's devotional Edges of His Ways. (If you are looking for a good devotional, I highly recommend it!) Last night, the reminders were so practical that I wanted to share them with you:

"And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood,

and strengthened his hand in God."

- I Samuel 23:16

God make us all His Jonathans. There is a greater hunter abroad in the world. Like Saul who sought David every day, he seeks souls every day, never a day's respite, always the hunt is on. Although the words stand for ever, "but God delivered him not into his hand", yet sometimes souls tire of being hunted, and like David they are in a wilderness in a wood. This is Jonathan's chance. But notice what he does, he does not so comfort David that he becomes necessary to him. "He strengthened his hand in God." He leaves his friend strong in God, resting in God, safe in God. He detaches his dear David from himself and he attaches him to his "Very Present Help". Then Jonathan went to his house, and David abode in the wood - with God....

Next time we read of David being in serious trouble he had no Jonathan to strengthen his hands. "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him....But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Long afterward when he was delivered from Saul he sang one of his songs, "It is God that girdeth me with strength....Thou hast girded me with strength....The Lord liveth." (His dear Jonathan was dead, but he does not even speak of him, all that matters is, "The Lord liveth; and blessed be my Rock".)

If he had leaned on Jonathan, if Jonathan had made himself necessary to David, he would not have leaned on his Rock and proved the glorious strength of his Rock; his whole life would have been lived on a lower level, and who can tell how many of his songs would have been left unwritten, with great loss to the glory of God and to the Church of all the ages?

- Amy Carmichael in Edges of His Ways, p. 5-6

Do I Value What Paul Valued?

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

- Philippians 3:7-14

1. What Paul Didn't Value

Paul didn't place spiritual value on his religious background, his ethnicity, his personal achievements, his attitude, or his high morality. He used the word "dung" to describe these things. His achievements gave him as much standing with God as manure. Why did he have this attitude towards these things? Because he wanted to win Christ.

2. What Paul Valued

Paul placed spiritual value on his position in Christ. He placed value in God's righteousness credited to him because of Christ' death. None of these were things he did; they were gifts given to him by God.

3. What Paul Wanted

Paul wanted resurrection. He understood that resurrection opened the door to ultimate Christlikeness. He wanted to "lay hold" (NKJV) of this goal of Christlikeness because Christ had "laid hold" of him and rescued him from a life of self-centered pride and sin.

4. What Paul Did

Because of what he didn't value, what he did value, and what he wanted, Paul did three things. First, he forgot the things of his old life that he could have valued. Second, he reached for the things before (possibly Christlikeness or resurrection). Third, he pressed for the prize of God's high calling in Christ.

What about me (and you)?

Do I value God's gift of salvation and sanctification? Or do I I value personal achievements more? Oh, yes, I say. I value God and His gifts most. But my actions demonstrate my values. What do I do everyday? What what do I fill my time? What occupies my thoughts?

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ....That I may know Him."

Growth

"The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying. The seed falls into the ground, dies as the new shoot springs up. There must be a splitting and a breaking in order for a bud to form. The bud "lets go" when the flower forms. The calyx lets go of the flower. The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form. The fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed. The seed falls into the ground....

There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.

It is easy to make a mistake here. "If God gave it to me," we say, "it's mine. I can do what I want with it. No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of--if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.

Think of the self that God has given as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God's intention when He made the acorn was the oak tree. His intention for us is "...the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Many deaths must go into reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don't feel that the "loss" of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God's purpose in your life, the less terrible will the losses seem....

We are given the chance to trust Him when He says to us, "...If any man will let himself be lost for my sake, he will find his true self."

When will we find it? we ask. The answer is, Trust Me.

How will we find it? The answer again is, Trust Me.

Why must I let myself be lost? we persist. The answer is, Look at the acorn and trust Me."

- Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity

Security

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
You hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the LORD always before me;
because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let Your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in Your presence there is fullness of joy;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

- Psalm 16:5-11

It is a secure to know that God holds my lot. Life is not a pair of dice tossed on the table, six being Option A, and two being Option C. God planed the future.

It is secure to know that God gives counsel. To worry that I will deceive myself and miss God's will is foolish, because God's counsel is not hidden.

It is secure to know that God is at my right hand. It is impossible to miss the path when the Guide stands beside me. He loves me too much to allow the yielded heart to accidentally wander away. My job is to remain yielded (surprisingly difficult:), not to worry about the path.

It is secure to know that God will not abandon me. In a college student's life, very little is stable. Home changes every six months. People run into your life and they run out. Classes come and go. The stable core is very small. But God does not change with the semesters. He will never leave, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

It is secure to know that God shows the path of life. Not only is there security right now, the there is security in the future. The next phrase speaks of God's presence. God's path of life leads to the security of His presence.

It is secure to know that God gives fullness of joy. Happy times with God now are a taste of the fullness of joy in His presence later. Imagine! The best devotional times in the morning are a small appetizer for the fullness of joy in His presence