Transplanting

Over spring break, mom and I transplanted tomato plants. Earlier in the spring, mom planted them in baking pans and grew them under a fluorescent light in the cellar. In about a month, it’s time to transplant them from the baking pans to their own little Highland milk pints where they will live until they are big enough to go into the garden in the backyard. This year there were only 23 to transplant – one spring, we raised nearly 200.

Baby tomato plants. These stringy plants wouldn't last long in the Kansas wind, would they?

Transplanting is not a happy time in the life of a tomato plant. You cut up its root system with the sharp spoon you use to dig it out of its baking pan environment and drop it into a paper pint, adding more soil. If you don’t water it within several minutes, the plant wilts because it is stressed.

However, transplanting gives tomato plants more earth for their roots to expand in and strengthens them. Sometimes, tomato plants are transplanted three or four times before going outside so they will be strong enough to withstand the Kansas wind.

Baby tomato plants living inside milk pints.

The reason the plants’ roots were torn up in the transplanting process was so they could eventually go outside and produce tomatoes. When it seems like our roots are being cut out of the comfortable soil around us, it is because God is transplanting us into a place where we can become stronger and bear more fruit for Him.

Bonhoeffer on the Incarnation

"The Incarnate One is the glorified God. 'The Word was made flesh and we beheld his glory.' God glorifies himself in man. This is the ultimate mystery of the Trinity. The humanity is taken up into the Trinity; not since eternity, but 'from now to all eternity.' The glorification of God in the flesh is now at the same time the glorification of man, who is to have life with the trinitarian God for eternity. So it is incorrect to see the incarnation of God as the judgment of God on man. God remains the Incarnate One even at the last judgment. The incarnation is the message of the glorification of God who sees his honor in being man. It must be observed that the incarnation is primarily a real revelation of the creator in the creature, and not a veiled revelation. Jesus Christ is the unveiled image of God."

- Christ the Center

Bonhoeffer on Patience

"Suffering produces patience." The Greek word for patience literally means to stay underneath, to endure, to bear rather than to cast off one's burden. Today we in the church know far too little about the unique blessing of enduring and bearing - to bear, not to cast off, to bear, but neither to collapse, to bear as Christ bore the cross, to endure beneath it, and there, underneath, to find Christ. When God imposes a burden, those who are patient bend their heads and believe it is good to be humbled thus - to endure beneath this burden. But to endure beneath it! To remain firm, to remain strong as well - that is what the word means, not anemic, giving in, shrinking back, enamored of suffering - but rather to gain strength under that burden as under God's grace, to preserve Go d's peace with unshakable constancy. God's peace is found among the patient."

- "Treasures of Suffering" from Meditations on the Cross

Bonhoeffer on the Psalms

Today, I began researching for my paper on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's view of Christ. While looking through one of his books, this chapter on the importance of personal and corporate use of the Psalms challenged me.

"Congregational Worship and the Psalms"
from Psalms: the Prayer Book of the Bible

In many churches the Psalms are read or sung every Sunday, or even daily, in succession. These churches have preserved a priceless treasure, for only with daily use does one appropriate this divine prayer book. When read only occasionally, these prayers are too overwhelming in design and power and tend to

turn us back to more palatable fare. But whoever has begun to pray the Psalter seriously and regularly will soon give a vacation to oth er little devotional prayers and say:"Ah, there is not the juice, the strength, the passion, the fire which I find in the Psalter. It tastes too cold and too hard" (Luther).

Therefore, wherever we no longer pray the Psalms in our churches, we must take up the Psalter that much more in our daily morning and evening prayers, reading and praying together at least several Psalms every day so that we succeed in reading through this book a number of times each year, getting into it deeper and deeper. We also ought not to select Psalms at our own discretion, thinking that we know better what we ought to pray than does God himself. To do that is to dishonor the prayer-book of the Bible. In the ancient church it was not unusual to memorize "the entire David." In one of the eastern churches this was a prerequisite for the pastoral office. The church father St. Jerome says that one heard the Psalms being sung in the fields and gardens in his time. The Psalter impregnated the life of early Christianity. Yet more important than all of this is the fact that Jesus died with the words of the Psalter on his lips.

Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, and incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian church. With its recovery will come unsuspected power.

Personal Devotions

Personal devotions are foundational to a walk with God that changes our lives.

As Bible college students, it's easy to get spiritual nourishment from classes, chapel, church, Sunday School, or small group studies. However, not even the Church can substitute for studying God's Word and knowing God through personal devotions. Sadly, in 2000, Gallup released a study that reported that out of the Christians they polled, only 16% said they read their Bible every day.*

If my personal devotions were my only source of spiritual food, how hungry would I be?

The following clip was both helpful and challenging to me. It gives practical suggestions for Bible school students on personal devotions. Technically, the speaker is applying the message to seminary students, but the same principles work for Bible college students:) Featuring D. A. Carson, it is from the Desiring God blog, January 16, 2012. I hope it is a blessing!

Read the Bible Devotionally — and No Less Critically from Desiring God on Vimeo.

* Gallup, Alec and Wendy W. Simmons, "Six in Ten Americans Read Bible at Least Occasionally," The Gallup Organization, http://www.gallup.com, October 20, 2000.

The Potter

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”

The message in chapel today was an object lesson. A potter brought his wheel into the chapel and showed us the metaphor God uses so often in Scripture. And it was very convicting. And comforting.

So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel.

And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand.

Sometimes, things in life look all messed up – like there was a mistake. Maybe my life got somebody else’s circumstances…:)

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.

God has a purpose for every single thing in my life. In fact, if it is in my life, He put it there. He gets more glory when people see that He is still worthy even when life looks messed up. And if He puts these things in my life, they are gifts from Him. And God never gives bad gifts. God only gives good gifts.

And he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Jeremiah 18:1-4, Romans 9:20-23, Romans 8:9

The Heavens Declare His Righteousness - The People See His Glory

And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,

and by the breath of His mouth all their host.

My hand laid the foundation of the earth,

and My right hand spread out the heavens;

when I call to them,

they stand forth together.

He determines the number of the stars;

He gives to all of them their names.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion…

the LORD is his name;

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

When I look at your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,

what is man that You are mindful of him,

and the son of man that You care for him?

The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You.

The heavens, without human life or voice, unceasingly praise and glorify Christ. And is it not strange that we, who were crowned with glory and honor so that we might unceasingly worship Him with our lives and voices in a way even greater than heavens, are the ones who sin against Him so often?

Genesis 1:16, Psalm 33:6, Isaiah 48:13, Psalm 147:4, Amos 5:8, Psalm 19:1-2; 8:3-4; 97:6, I Kings 8:27

Of Pianos and Pastries

On Friday evening Bekah, Arely, Un Joo, and I attended a piano recital. After waiting in a line outside the theater in the winter wind, we wound our way through the crowds gathered around the coffee bar and the ushers up to the balcony. (Un Joo isn't in the picture because she took the picture for us after all our attempts at self-portraits failed.)

We enjoying music of Beethoven's 26th Piano Sonata, Brahms 16 Waltzes, 2 Chopin ballades, Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, and an encore by Liszt. We had lovely seats in the front of the balcony looking right down onto the keyboard!

The concert was in a theater - the walls were full of golden scroll-work, highly romanticized silhouettes of people, and, arching over the stage, great heads with gaping mouths. Here you can see the boxes with red velvet curtains. (I don't think they had been dusted recently...the curvy tops of the curtains looked slightly gray-ish...)

Ever wondered what it's like to have those faces watch you for two hours? The mushroom-things are sound-reflectors. (Sshhh, don't tell anyone, but the people-watching fun goes up about 110% in a building packed with music nerds!!!)

The next morning we celebrated Bekah's half-birthday (since her birthday is during the summer) with breakfast at a Swiss pastry shop.

Between hazelnut and and almond pastries, hot chocolate, and the lemons in the drinking water, it was an entertaining breakfast...

...and a wonderful weekend.

"Happy Are They Who Are Christ’s"

O God, Thou art very great,

My lot is to approach Thee with godly fear and humble confidence, for Thy condescension equals Thy grandeur, and Thy goodness is Thy glory.

I am unworthy, but Thou dost welcome; guilty, but Thou art merciful; indigent, but Thy riches are unsearchable.

Thou hast shown boundless compassion towards me by not sparing Thy Son, and by giving me freely all things in Him;

This is the foundation of my hope, the refuge of my safety, the new and living way to Thee, the means of that conviction of sin, brokenness of heart, and self-despair, which will endear to me the gospel.

Happy are they who are Christ’s, in Him at peace with Thee, justified from all things, delivered from coming wrath, made heirs of future glory;

Give me such deadness to the world, such love to the Saviour, such attachment to His house, such devotedness to His service, as proves me a subject of His salvation.

May every part of my character and conduct make a serious and amiable impression on others, and impel them to ask the way to the Master.

Let no incident of life, pleasing or painful, injure the prosperity of my soul, but rather increase it.

Send me Thy help, for Thine appointments are not meant to make me independent of Thee, and the best means will be vain without super-added blessings.

- "Confidence" from Valley of Vision

Being Happy

There are many things in life that make Celeste happy…

Chillin’ with friends

Going to concerts

Visiting old churches

The Piano

My Sister

Coffee (preferably from Melinda:)

Books

Studying Being “mischievous” (in a good way, of course!)

The happiest time of my life has been these last 4 years of Bible college – friends, experiences, and “Bible college humor,” but the biggest joy has been the joy God gives in studying His Word. Growing up, I knew that studying God’s Word was supposed to bring happiness, but at Bible school, I experienced that happiness more and more.

January begins the final semester of Bible college, and recently I’ve been thinking about things like The Outside World and A Job and Rent, and other related matters which look more pressing then they did two years ago… (All of you college seniors out there can relate to this:) I realized that I was going to leave Bible school and go into the world and live ordinary life away from Bible classes, Greek, and systematic theology lectures. Scripture would still be the important thing, but I wouldn’t be able to study it 8 hours every day. And slowly, my enthusiasm for serving God in the Great Big Outside World seeped away because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be happy out there…

Then, on Friday evening, Valley of Vision reminded me that Things in Life never make people happy:

Thou who art righteous,

Let me not…seek satisfaction in things that perish.

What makes people happy in Bible school? Is it really Bible school or is it the delighting in God that Bible school taught about? If I’m afraid that I won’t be happy out in The World and Working a Normal Job, then I’m being satisfied by things that perish. May Christ be that which gives me happiness, not just Things.

“In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:11)