“He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Where is my heart right now? What are the things which I have set my eyes upon as treasures lately? Have I surrendered it all to Christ and set Him above all other things in my life? Have you?
With the date of departure to a far away land of which I know very little about, if anything at all, I have been facing a few questions lately. The one which has been near the top I think was made very clear to me in our last three days of prayer time in room 204. Have I truly given up everything to God, have I put Him first in my life, and is that surrender complete? It would be so easy for me to simply say yes because I know that is the answer that the Lord wants to hear from me. Yet when I think about it, have I really? Is my faith complete in knowing that what He has planned for me is truly better by far than anything I could ever hope to accomplish on my own? I am not sure why these questions in particular have been brought up in my mind, but they have. During my time in room 204, I constantly searched for stillness and silence, the ability to sit and listen to the Lord. What came to me was the word dependence. I need to just stop trying so hard to do things on my own and to depend on Him. To know that He is my only source of true strength; that it is only by His will that I can accomplish anything. I know that while we are trekking through those mountains we will all have times where we are worn out, exhausted, not able to go another step with our own strength. We will be put out of our comfort zone in the people we meet and the food that we eat. We will be squished in tight places, and we will stand at great h
eights overlooking a land we do not know. And we will be forced to overcome barriers in getting to know the local people. None of these things we can conquer or overcome on our own. God made us to be dependant on Him. I do not know what will happen while we are there and while we are traveling, but I know He has a plan and I want to follow it. I want to lift my foot before I see where it will land. I want to follow Him faithfully. Would you say the same?
Apart from that little tidbit, this week has been one of a great deal of research and paper writing. Many days passed seeming as though they were all one long and tiresome day as I poured over books and internet sources searching for information with which to write my final Theology paper. I wrote it on a passage out of Isaiah 6:1-8 pertaining to the holiness of God. As much as I can honestly say that I spent much more time looking into this paper than any other, I am almost not sure if it was because I just wanted to do well, or because I was trying to impress our professor. Either way, I found myself really wanting to dig deeper into this, I asked friends and family, I had hypothetical conversations with people to simulate what a non-believer would think about God being holy, and I called my Grandpa who is a reverend pastor. By far I can say that this is a paper which I have put great effort and much time into…hopefully the resulting grade will reflect that fact.
On the note of theology class, we had our final day of instruction from Dr. Lech Bekesza this past week. I must admit that I am somewhat saddened by this fact as I have thoroughly enjoyed the things we have been going over and what the teaching style of Lech. Yet I know that the things we have learned have been planted in my mind and my heart and I will continue to search them out whether in school again later or as I go through life.
Friday night youth did not happen for me this week as I was sitting in front of this computer screen which I have become far too familiar with. I can not even express how good it felt on Sunday evening at quarter to ten when I handed in the last three papers of this past homework crunch. The next thing to worry about academically is the exam we will be having on Friday for the Gospels class which we began today. Let me say, reading through these written records of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ has put in me a new desire to search out more of the Word of God. I pray that this fire would not be quenched by things of this world, but that it would become the one and only treasure on which I focus, that my heart would be filled with the things that God has for me to learn.
Well, here I come to it at last; this will be the last blog I write before our departures for India. As we are aiming to be away from camp by 2:00 pm on Monday afternoon of next week. I feel a sense of something almost like anxiety about that prospect and yet it still does not feel quite real as of yet. Perhaps tomorrow evening when we have a packing party as a team in order to make sure all that we will need is going to fit in our packs…I am so glad that I was able to obtain a sleeping bag compressor as it now takes up less than half the space it did before! (Thank you mom and dad!) We have continued our workouts together and will have our final one on Monday morning, before we leave for the ferry to the mainland, in the form of a run. It should be great. I feel as though there is so much more I could write and yet I feel like this is where I need to stop…perhaps a little later in the week (what with all the spare time we now have because of lack of papers to write) I will post another blog more about life at Kaleo than the deep matters of the heart and reliance on God, though these are of great importance and can not be left without thought or prayer.
And so I will ask you all for prayer for health, as many of the group are fighting down colds; for the finances still withstanding to be brought in, and for the healing of wounds which may hinder in the rough terrain, like the newly released leg of one Tom Bietz and the knee of one Shannon Allison, as well as the still-fractured wrist of one Jayme Adams. Continued prayer while we are over there for wisdom and discernment would be fantastic as well.
Where is my heart right now? What are the things which I have set my eyes upon as treasures lately? Have I surrendered it all to Christ and set Him above all other things in my life? Have you?
With the date of departure to a far away land of which I know very little about, if anything at all, I have been facing a few questions lately. The one which has been near the top I think was made very clear to me in our last three days of prayer time in room 204. Have I truly given up everything to God, have I put Him first in my life, and is that surrender complete? It would be so easy for me to simply say yes because I know that is the answer that the Lord wants to hear from me. Yet when I think about it, have I really? Is my faith complete in knowing that what He has planned for me is truly better by far than anything I could ever hope to accomplish on my own? I am not sure why these questions in particular have been brought up in my mind, but they have. During my time in room 204, I constantly searched for stillness and silence, the ability to sit and listen to the Lord. What came to me was the word dependence. I need to just stop trying so hard to do things on my own and to depend on Him. To know that He is my only source of true strength; that it is only by His will that I can accomplish anything. I know that while we are trekking through those mountains we will all have times where we are worn out, exhausted, not able to go another step with our own strength. We will be put out of our comfort zone in the people we meet and the food that we eat. We will be squished in tight places, and we will stand at great h
eights overlooking a land we do not know. And we will be forced to overcome barriers in getting to know the local people. None of these things we can conquer or overcome on our own. God made us to be dependant on Him. I do not know what will happen while we are there and while we are traveling, but I know He has a plan and I want to follow it. I want to lift my foot before I see where it will land. I want to follow Him faithfully. Would you say the same?Apart from that little tidbit, this week has been one of a great deal of research and paper writing. Many days passed seeming as though they were all one long and tiresome day as I poured over books and internet sources searching for information with which to write my final Theology paper. I wrote it on a passage out of Isaiah 6:1-8 pertaining to the holiness of God. As much as I can honestly say that I spent much more time looking into this paper than any other, I am almost not sure if it was because I just wanted to do well, or because I was trying to impress our professor. Either way, I found myself really wanting to dig deeper into this, I asked friends and family, I had hypothetical conversations with people to simulate what a non-believer would think about God being holy, and I called my Grandpa who is a reverend pastor. By far I can say that this is a paper which I have put great effort and much time into…hopefully the resulting grade will reflect that fact.
On the note of theology class, we had our final day of instruction from Dr. Lech Bekesza this past week. I must admit that I am somewhat saddened by this fact as I have thoroughly enjoyed the things we have been going over and what the teaching style of Lech. Yet I know that the things we have learned have been planted in my mind and my heart and I will continue to search them out whether in school again later or as I go through life.
Friday night youth did not happen for me this week as I was sitting in front of this computer screen which I have become far too familiar with. I can not even express how good it felt on Sunday evening at quarter to ten when I handed in the last three papers of this past homework crunch. The next thing to worry about academically is the exam we will be having on Friday for the Gospels class which we began today. Let me say, reading through these written records of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ has put in me a new desire to search out more of the Word of God. I pray that this fire would not be quenched by things of this world, but that it would become the one and only treasure on which I focus, that my heart would be filled with the things that God has for me to learn.
Well, here I come to it at last; this will be the last blog I write before our departures for India. As we are aiming to be away from camp by 2:00 pm on Monday afternoon of next week. I feel a sense of something almost like anxiety about that prospect and yet it still does not feel quite real as of yet. Perhaps tomorrow evening when we have a packing party as a team in order to make sure all that we will need is going to fit in our packs…I am so glad that I was able to obtain a sleeping bag compressor as it now takes up less than half the space it did before! (Thank you mom and dad!) We have continued our workouts together and will have our final one on Monday morning, before we leave for the ferry to the mainland, in the form of a run. It should be great. I feel as though there is so much more I could write and yet I feel like this is where I need to stop…perhaps a little later in the week (what with all the spare time we now have because of lack of papers to write) I will post another blog more about life at Kaleo than the deep matters of the heart and reliance on God, though these are of great importance and can not be left without thought or prayer.
And so I will ask you all for prayer for health, as many of the group are fighting down colds; for the finances still withstanding to be brought in, and for the healing of wounds which may hinder in the rough terrain, like the newly released leg of one Tom Bietz and the knee of one Shannon Allison, as well as the still-fractured wrist of one Jayme Adams. Continued prayer while we are over there for wisdom and discernment would be fantastic as well.
Much love to you all!! Until next blog!
And with that I will say goodbye.
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:37-39
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:37-39
1 comment:
Well, here it is "later" and I am writing a comment. :-) As I mentioned before, I feel that I am missing out on helping you get ready for your big trip. I know that you will be well taken care of, but a mother always needs to be sure that you have everything that you will need.
I love you very much, and am very proud of you. And remember that God has your future all planned out. He will direct you to where you should be next year, or in the next 10 years. Just keep being faithful to Him and He will take care of the rest.
Love
Mom
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