Tracks....

What kind are you leaving behind?

Quote by Amy Carmichael

To break with all wordly customs; to live utterly seperate from the spirit of the world, so that we shall not say "What is the harm of this and that?" but simply shall have lost all relish for what is not of the Father; to live as those who truly lay all on the altar -- time, strength, possessions, literally everything we are and have; to live, not nominally but truly, in unity; this will cost us something.
Are we ready for what it will cost?
~Amy Carmichael "I affirm, by the boasting in you
which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord,
I DIE DAILY."
~Paul (1 Corinthians 15:31)

Ponderings from Mark 1

Thoughts and application from family devotions this morning:

-Jesus says "Come follow Me." It is only after we obey and take that step to follow Him that He can make us fishers of men, use us for His purpose, equip us for His work, and shape us into what He wills.

-You can look at any person's life and see what Christ means to them. Do they really believe that Jesus is the Son of God? What fruit does their life display? Every person is only on fire for God as much they want to be -- it is a personal choice. Am I willing to count the cost and pay the price?

-Whew! Jesus had a BIG day! With preaching in the synagogue, casting out demons, healing Peter's mother-in-law -- and if that wasn't enough, the whole city gathered at His door for healing and ministering at the end of the day. How did Jesus do it? "In the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." (Mark 1:35) Fellowship with the Father.

O Lord, help me to meditate on You today. Help me to obey and continue taking steps that lead me to You. Work in me as You wilt. I want to be used of You. I want to know You. Make my heart burn for You. Let me see people and respond to situations as You would. I love You, Lord.

It's Snowing!

It is so beautiful out! We already have two feet, and it is continuing to blizzard out. It sure makes it cozy in the house! But we braved the weather, bundled everyone up and all had a blast playing tackle snow football -- or tried to anyway! It is a little difficult to run and catch when you are all bundled up with gloves on and everything.

But to think -- that of all the millions and millions of snowflakes out there, each have their own unique design. Kind of like people, eh? No two alike, each being created for His purpose, each having different skills to fulfill certain callings.

Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was
created and regenerated,
not the successful doing of a thing.
-Oswald Chambers

Why I'm not saving my heart for my husband

"What?! I thought saving my heart was a good thing! " were my thoughts when I first read the headline to this article that my friend sent me. But as I read the article, I was very encouraged and challenged, and thus -- I share it with you.

Why I am not saving my heart for my husband

As a young girl growing up I had one dream of what I was going to be when I grew up, a wife and a mommy. Yes, I thought I might want to be everything from an actress to an FBI agent at one time or another, but all those things would either take place before or were somehow molded around my dreams of my own family. This dream, as I grew into my teens, was expanded upon to become the direction in which I lived my life. Skills were taught me that would assist me when I had my own family, my homeschooling was directed that way, and I read ‘young women who are going to be homemakers’ books and articles. It was during those early years of my adolescence that I was first introduced to the idea of ‘saving my heart for my husband’.

Saving my heart for my husband was to insure (as I understood it) that when I got married I would be able to lavish upon him all my love, all my emotions, all my commitment, since I had not previously given it to any other suitor. In the mean time, while waiting for Mr. Recipient Of My Heart to make his appearance, I was to have my heart resting with my parents. In other words, until the right guy came along, I was to not set my heart on (give my heart away to) anyone.

With all this information, allow me to create a picture of my future, while waiting for marriage. Here is a girl, 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, waiting for the right one to come along that I can give all my love to. I am not waiting passively either, but learning things that will benefit me when I am married and working my way towards this ‘goal of my life’. At a glance, this seems quite ideal. I mean, who would not want a girl who will love you with everything she has, who is trained to be a homemaker, with no history of other guys you have to compete with, whose first love is you? Like I said, it seems like a picture of what the ‘courtship movement’ talks about. At this point however, please allow me to tell you about a few things that God taught my about this ‘perfect picture’ in the past year.

It started about a year and a half ago in our living room. Dad was sitting on the couch, with Mom, my two brothers, and I around him. He told us that he had been praying that God would make Himself his (Dad’s) only desire, and he was talking about it like it was some sort of spiritual breakthrough. Dad challenged each of us to pray the same way, asking God to remove all other desires and to become our only desire, but at the time I thought, "Not right now". I was 16 years old and as I listened, it seemed to me like a very boring life, to want nothing but God.

My heart was a little different from the ‘perfect picture’ I described above. In my desire for a family of my own, a desire I truly believed was the best of all professions for women; I had been keeping my eyes open for Mr.-I-can-give-my-heart-to. Prompted by my parents, as well as magazines and such, I made a list of character qualities that I wanted in a husband and even started a notebook, occasionally writing letters to ‘my future husband’. All this was done in expectation that some day the right one would happen along. The serious problem for me lay in making sure he was the right one. Already I had experienced what emotions could do to me in how I could suddenly ‘like’ someone in a way I couldn’t explain. Thoughts of, "What is going on here?" would soon change to me wondering, "Is this the right one? Could it be that he is the one God picked out for me?"

This process of wondering if he could be the one was perfectly justified. I was in a sense taught to do this. Articles to girls my age seemed to point out that there was one for me, and that I needed to be prepared to be able to tell which one he was. My parents sometimes would ask me what I thought about different young men, what good/bad qualities I saw in them, trying to teach me to be observant. I soon realized though, that if I ‘liked’ someone, I really could not be very objective in my judgement of their character. This concerned me because I imagined a courtship scenario of me trying desperately to think and pray around my emotions so that I would be able to discern if this was Mr. Right.

Of course, I planned on my parents being a big help. They would be able to tell me if he was really a bad pick when emotions had obscured my vision, and if he really was a good guy, they would be able to note that as well. Still the idea of having to be the one to say "yes" really shook me up. What if I listened to my emotions by accident and I ended up with a bad choice and ruined my life? What if the nice young man I said yes to turned out to be uncommitted, fell away and became a drunkard, leaving me penniless and with a bunch of kids to raise by myself? I prayed many times that when the time came God would make it so clear that I would have no questions. Oh, and by the way, neither would he (Mr. Right), or my parents, or his parents, just so that we would be really sure.

By sixteen I was getting closer to the age when I was going to have to start deciding who the right guy was (or was not) and I already had a few candidates I was watching to see what they were made of. A family of my own was my deepest desire, and, of course, a major part of that was a husband. Into this heart of mine, set on marriage and as many children as I could have, came the challenge to ask God to become my only desire. Maybe you understand a little of why I balked. Not only was my heart full of desire for a husband, but I also wanted other, smaller ‘side things’ such as clothes, good looks, a ‘cool’ status, etc.. So, at first I said no to this challenge.

A few months later I found myself in California, sleeping on the living room floor of some friends of ours. We had gone on a trip and were visiting for a few days. I remember thinking hard during that stay about what was going on around me. What my eyes were seeing was what I wanted to have, a happy marriage, several young kids, and it all run smoothly with lots of love. At first I looked at the wife and thought to myself, "Yep, this is it, this is what I want. I want a man who will come in the door at night and kiss me hello. A man who will put the workday behind him and play with our kids. I want to answer to "Mommy" all day long. This is what I am living for."

Yet, as I looked on, God opened my eyes to something. I realized that what I desired from their lives, the same thing I had always desired from watching my parents lives, had nothing to do with who they were with or what they were doing. It was joy. It was the joy that comes from serving the Lord with all your heart and living for Him. As I watched them, I realized that they lived that way, Jesus first, and the challenge that my dad had given came back to mind. Slowly I softened and gave in. I began, hesitantly at first, to pray that God would take away all my other desires and make Himself my only desire.

Now, imagine it being almost a year from that first day on the couch, and so many things have happened that I could fill a whole notebook and never be done. Now my heart is much different than it was when I first started to pray for God to become my one and only, and God has been true to His promise to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. The task of removing my desires has started, and although not complete, on its way. Now I am realizing more what it means to love God with all my heart, to be consumed with a desire for more of Him. God had shown me that I needed to gain my fulfillment from Him; that He is the One who never changes, who loves me like no one else could. (Psalm 18:31) As I asked God to become my one and only desire, He also became my one and only source of fulfillment in many ways. I discovered that His love was all that I really needed. It was for Him that I desired to live, His will that I desired to take place, His kingdom that I wanted to come.

One warm day I was out on a walk and started praying. "God," I said, "Something is bothering me and I need to talk to You about it. You see, all my life I have dreamed of getting married. I’ve planned for it, prepared for it, expected it. But now that I am trying to give You all my love and my heart, I am not really sure if I can even get married. You see, if I get married, then I will be pouring all my love into a man and living for him instead of You. Can someone who loves You with all their heart ever get married?"

As I stewed over this question, I could not make sense of it all. Yes, Paul seemed to agree with my conjunction that it was better not to marry (1 Corinthians 7) and I had often heard testimonies of people who served God single and were pleasing to Him and content. (At the time that I heard these, I had put singlehood as something I would do if I had to, but, well, I’d do my best not to get stuck there!) However, God was the One who invented marriage in the first place, and after all, if it were not for marriage, I would not be here. Even Paul in 1 Cor. 7 said that he who married did not sin, but he who did not did better than the one who did marry. Who would want second best? Yet, could marriage really be second best if God designed it? Could only non-Christians get married? As I pondered this, God opened my eyes to see that my first problem in understanding this was my idea of marriage.

My idea was two people pouring themselves into each other, working hard to make the other feel loved, needed, appreciated etc… I realized that this view of marriage put the emphasis on the wrong thing, on the people involved. The point of this type of marriage is to bring pleasure and fulfillment to the people who are taking part in it.

As a Christian, as someone who is seeking to love God with all their heart, our purpose in life is to further God’s kingdom, to bring His desires to pass, not our own. (Matthew 6:10, 33) Nothing we do should be done for our sake, but out of obedience to God. (John 15:4, 10) God’s view of marriage was vastly different than mine. While I had envisioned two people working to please each other, God showed me that His idea was two people working together to please God. God did not make Eve to make Adam feel good about himself or loved or wanted, God made Eve because Adam was better off with her than without her. God showed me that the best way for me to love someone is to love God first and foremost, and to love that person as an outpouring of my love for God. Having my eyes focused on God and living to please Him will lead me to obeying His command to love. (1 John 5:1-3, John 15:9-12)

Loving my husband would thus be an outpouring of my love for God; my love for God always coming first. It does not take away from the love (living 1 Corinthians 13) that I would give my husband by loving him out of a love for God, but rather adds to it. My love would be a godly love, directed by God’s Spirit rather than a love that I would work at in my own strength. Suddenly it started to make some sense to me. I envisioned two people, both fixing their eyes on God and living to give Him glory, working better together than alone.

Yes, God in His sovereign power could decide to make a person who could serve Him best alone. This person might be able to do things a married person could not, and would be better off without a mate. However, just as easily, God could make two people who could serve Him best if they were together. Together they would be able to pray towards the same end, work the same mission, encourage each other to keep pressing on, raise godly children for the glory of God. Their purpose in life would be the same as that of a single Christian, to obey God, only they would be working at it together. They could be ministry partners, obedience to the Lord partners, faith partners, helping each other along, and thus better than either would have been alone. (Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10)

When I saw this, I was very excited! Yes, someone can love God with all their heart and be married! But, not if marriage is what I had originally thought; the purpose of marriage had to change in my mind first, for this to be true. Putting all these thoughts together, I realized that two things which had seemed separate actually brought me to a glorious conclusion. If my job in life was to obey God, and marriage was doing that same thing with a partner, and God knew what He wanted me to do to bring His plans about, then I only had one reason ever to marry. Out of obedience to His direction. Now I was free from my concern of "how will I know if I am getting a lemon or not?" I did not have to concern myself with it at all. I needed only to concern myself with obeying Jesus Christ, and if the time comes for me to marry, He can say, "That is the one, now is the time," to us both, and we only need to obey. God knows all things, and He has a plan for my life. I need to obey Him so that His kingdom will come.

No, I am not giving my heart to any young man that may come after it, but I am not saving it for my husband either. I am giving it all to God, because it is with Him that my heart belongs.

Emily Hipps

Devotion or Devotions?

With Daddy and my brothers down in New Orleans helping with clean up this week, our house seems so quiet! In the evenings we girls have watched a Nancy Leigh DeMoss teaching video. It was such a good reminder and refresher to why I start each day with time in prayer and in God's Word. To hear her speak on personal devotional time was such a blessing -- to have that deep abiding fellowship with my heavenly Father, not just "doing devotions" because that is what Christians are supposed to do.

8 reasons why I have devotions: (and why you should, too!)
~Communion with God
~Purification of my heart and life
~Restoration of my soul
~Instruction in the ways of God
~Submission to God and His will
~Direction for my life, my relationships, and my responsibilities
~Intercession on behalf of the needs of myself and others
~Transformation into the likeness of Christ

There is a place of quiet rest, dear to the heart of God.

"One thing I have desire of the Lord, that will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple."
Psalms 27:4

The worth of a smile

A smile -- it doesn't take much to do, does it? Today I was running some errands around town for Mom, and it was amazing how many people don't smile. So I had fun seeing how many people I could get to smile at me just by smiling at them! It's amazing what a smile can do to brighten one's face.

The joy of the heart colors the face.
SMILE!!! It's contagious.

Today's reflections...

God's Word is so rich. The Bible is one book that no matter how much I study and learn from it, there will always be more to learn! I just finished Jeremiah in my devotional time this morning. It is discouraging to read about Israel's pride and hard-heartedness for 52 chapters, and yet it was very good for looking at my own heart, evaluating my attitudes and emotions.

"I will give them a heart to know Me..." That is my desire -- to KNOW HIM. God cursed the Israelites because of their pride - they didn't need God, nor His word; they could live as they saw best. But look at my life - is it any better than theirs? Do I live in total dependance on Him? Surrendered? Recognizing that all I am or ever will be is because of Him? Is my day ordered as He would please, or do I take it all in my own hands, to do as I deem fit? Do I delight to do His will?

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
All His wonderful passon and purity;
O, thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine-
'Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

Can you guess what I was busy with today?

Home Sweet Home!

And I'm home again! And with coming home after a five week trip there is all the catch up to do...fun, eh? I think my "to do" list is a mile long! (At least it seems that way sometimes.) And our laundry pile is a mountain again, which reminds me that it is time to go switch the clothes in the machines. Blessings on your day! Focus on Him and let Him be your joy!

I am promised eternity -- I am not promised tomorrow.
Make each day count!

Sunsets & God's Love

Today I had a very special blessing from the Lord. Earlier this morning I was thinking, "You know, I haven't gotten any good sunset pictures on this trip yet. Bummer!" And I continued on with what I was doing. I didn't even pray, asking God to enable me to get a sunset picture. But God is so good -- He sent me one! It was so beautiful. Again it put me in awe of His creation, and His love for me that cares about the details of my life. Don't you love it when God does special things that make you feel like He reached down and gave you a big hug? I do!

Before me, even as behind,

God is, and all is well.

"You are my praise." ~Jeremiah 17:14

The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to the Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do.

"I delight to do Thy will."

The joy that Jesus gives is the result of our own disposition being at one with His disposition.

-Oswald Chambers

More beach pictures?