Trust

Life has been very busy over the past several weeks. The closer I get to the wedding, the more details I have to work out, but everything is going very smoothly. I can't believe how quickly time goes by. When I got engaged on Valentine's Day, November 8th sounded like an eternity away, but now I have about a month and a half left. Forty five days from one of the most life altering days of my life. I don't know when it will all sink in that this is really happening.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how perfectly God provides our needs in His timing. From the apartment, to Cole's new job, to my raise, to all of the details coming to place for the wedding, I'm so grateful for the blessings I've been given recently. God's timing would have still be perfect if things weren't going how I thought they should go, of course, but I'm thankful that over the past several years He has taught me a lesson that will last me a lifetime: Trust. I don't worry about my life. He has proven time and time and time again that He will be faithful. Not that it will always be easy - far from it. But He will be there guiding and sustaining me through whatever He has for me to experience. That is a lesson I'd walk through the fire 1,000 times again to learn.

Prayer

Why don't Christian's pray more? If we really believed in prayer like we say we do, and were confident in it's power, I think we would. But somewhere along the way, most Christian's loose sense of the incredible nature of prayer. If you think about it, it's really one of the most incredible things we will ever do. To be able to approach the Creator of the Universe, the One who holds all of life in His hand is really a sobering thought. Nowadays, when someone says "I'll pray for you" it means little more than "good luck!" I'm quite guilty of this myself. I always have the best of intentions of praying for that person, and probably do at least once, but somehow I get so busy thinking and doing a million different things, I forget one of the most important things I can do in a day.
The mystery of prayer never ceases to astound me. The balance of God's sovereignty and our responsibility to obey is quite a bit over my head. All I know is this: God is sovereign and His will will be accomplished. He has commanded that I pray and in doing this, I have the privilege of being involved in His work. Just another reminder that He is God and I am not. Oh how unfathomable are His ways! Somehow not always completely understanding Him makes me feel more secure, not less.

A random update: I chose my wedding ceremony music! It was not nearly as much of a big deal as I had myself believeing it was :-)

Weddings

Today I will be playing flute for my friend Brooke's wedding. Being in weddings these days is a lot different than it used to be. It used to be a job, and occasionally I'd have a slight feeling of "this is going to be me one day...", but for the most part, I'd show up, play, eat wedding cake, and go on with my day. Now I feel like I should walk around all of these weddings with notebook in hand writing down ideas I would like to incorporate, decorations that look nice, what food is eaten most, and what things to avoid like the plague. I usually handle stress very well, but I'm finding myself laying in bed at night wondering what shoes I'll wear at the wedding, if all of the whites and blues in the decorations will go together, how many tulle bags I'm going to need for birdseed, rather or not I'll have enough decorations.... the list goes on.
This is ridiculous because I'm pretty ahead of the game as far as planning goes. Within the first month, I had all of my major vendors booked, my wedding party (mostly) chosen, all of my colors picked out and was care free as could be. But it's the details, which to me are the most important part, that are tripping me up. Mostly the music, now that I think about it. Being a musician, choosing music is a very difficult thing for me to do. I want it all, but on the other hand, none of it is nearly good enough! The only music I'm not worried about at all is my reception music. A couple of incredibly talented friends will be providing the music for that and anything they play or sing is going to be wonderful.
Alright. I've decided. My goal for this coming week is going to be choosing wedding ceremony music.

Seeking the Favor of God

I worry far too much about what other people think. I didn’t really realize this until today. I have spent the past several days very discouraged constantly thinking I’m making people mad at me, saying the wrong thing and being unreasonable. Things that shouldn’t be a big deal or conversations that the other person has probably already forgotten have come back to mind over and over. “What did they think when I said this” “I wonder if it made them mad when I said that” “Does this person approve of what I’m doing?” It gets pretty exhausting trying to worry about what everyone thinks. I’m very conservative, but there are people in my acquaintance who hold more conservative views than I do. I also know and love many people who are quite liberal. This poses a problem when trying to worry about what everyone will think when they see my life.
I decided to find my answers in the only place they can really be found: the Scriptures. I didn’t really know where I should read, but flipped to Galatians and began reading. My answer came at the end of the first chapter:

“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”
Galatians 1:10

What would my life look like if after every conversation, I looked back and asked myself if Christ was honored in the words I spoke? What if before making any decision, I thought not of what others would say I should do or what others will think about whatever decision I make, but which choice would be the most favorable in the eyes of God? I think I would be far less stressed. I’m sometimes frustrated when people say “Who cares what anyone thinks?” because it shows a general disregard for the opinions of others. But as I think about it, most people don’t follow that statement with “I’m going to follow Christ, no matter the cost.” They follow it with “I’m going to do whatever I want to.” Therein lies the difference. Not caring if people are mad or disappointed because you are doing what you believe is right, rather or not if it is what you want to do.

Of course, I believe that it is the responsibility of brothers and sisters in Christ to bring it to someone when they see something in the other person’s life that they don’t believe is in line with scripture. But if the response to that is changing your ways just because you don’t want the person to be upset with you, it’s the wrong kind of change. It should be considered seriously through prayer, searching the Scripture and possibly seeking other counsel. But at the end of the day, rather or not you agree with that person, you have to determine rather or not change is necessary to honor God or if your change would just be eye service to please man.

This really isn’t a sermon! And it’s not a response to anyone telling me I needed to change anything, because though I’m sure plenty of people have plenty of legitimate things they could confront me with, they haven’t. Just something I have been thinking about for myself.
So today, when I get off the phone, when I leave a conversation, when I look at what I’m wearing and when I interact with Cole or Sam or anyone else, I want to ask myself if God was honored in it. If He was, I want to give Him glory. If He wasn’t, I want to recognize it, turn from it, and do better at my next opportunity.

Engagement Day

Valentines Day, 2008 will make Valentines Day one of the most special days of the year for the rest of my life.

When I returned from breakfast with my mom (which I learned later was just a grand ploy to get me out of the house), I pulled into my driveway to see a teddy bear as big as me sitting in a lawn chair holding a rose, a huge chocolate bar and a note which read: “Follow the roses, Love.” I looked up to see a trail of roses leading down the hill in my backyard to right in front of the big azalea bush.
When I reached the end of the trail, there was a treasure chest on a bed of roses and red tulle. Upon opening the box, I saw that there was a card sitting on several inches of sand. The card was hand written in tiny print and completely full. It ended with these words: “If you ever wanto to know the depth of my love or how many ways I love you, count this sand.” I ran my fingers through the sand and shook my head, amazed at the love I had been blessed with. I was reminded again that I was the luckiest girl in the world.
I stood up and turned around and there he was, at the top of the hill :-)

We got everything ready to take to Windsor Ruins for our previously planned picnic, dropped Sam off with my mom and went on our way. Little did I know, the letter in the sand wasn’t going to be the highlight of the day. It was only beginning.

A tree blocked the entrance to the Ruins, so we continued on foot - in our formal attire – over the barbed wire fence and down the road. When I saw Windsor Ruins, I drew a quick breath. It was even more beautiful than I’d imagined. We down our picnic things and Cole asked me to walk with him. When I took his hand, I noted that he was shaking. Something big was about to happen. “Do you remember when we were in Ecuador, what I said to you? What I said I wasn’t doing?” “What do you mean?” “In the supermarket. Do you remember what I told you I wasn’t doing at that moment?” “Oh yes, that you weren’t falling down on your knees confessing undying love or anything?” I responded with a laugh. “Yeah.” He fell down to one knee, pulled a ring out of his pocket and said: “Well, now this is me falling down on my knees proclaiming undying love for you. Robin, will you make me the happiest man on earth? Will you share your life with me? Will you raise a family with me? Will you grow old with me? Robin, will you marry me?” With a voice quivering from excitement, I responded : “I always said I’d know I was in love when the prospect of being with someone forever went from seeming like an eternity to not nearly long enough. That’s exactly how I feel about you. Yes, I will marry you.”

He moved my purity ring to my right hand, placed his ring on my left and sprung to his feet. Then, the kiss we had saved our whole lives for each other. Well worth the twenty year wait :-)

Our day concluded with dinner at The Castle, where we had our first date. It was a perfect ending to the happiest day of my life up to then. But I have to say, as wonderful of day as it was, every day just gets better.

Friendship: A Beautiful Beginning

I'm pretty sure I have absolutely no readers anymore, but I'm posting anyway :-)

As I'm sure everyone knows, I became engaged to Cole Rutherford on Valentine's Day of this year. I've decided to post a couple of entries that I wrote for our wedding website here. Enjoy!

The first picture we ever had of just the two of us, a few days before our courtship began.

"There is still a bit of dispute as to when our first meeting was. He says that when we first played our harp and flute duet at Parkway Baptist Church, he introduced himself. It’s probably true, but you can’t prove it by me.

I knew of Cole long before I ever met him. He practically lived with our pastor’s family, the Walkers, and they were always talking about Cole, Cole, Cole. Cole did this, Cole blew up that. The stories seemed to be never ending. One of the first times I went to the Walker’s, Lainie took me back to her room and proceeded to show me what seemed like 50 million pictures from their recent trip to Ecuador. “Here’s Cole and Henry!” She laughed. I looked over to see a picture of a giant white man in a skirt, with black stripes painted on his face and bare chest. He had some weird red stuff in his hair and what looked like an arrangement of cotton balls on his head. He was standing next to a comparatively very small Tsachila man. “Odd.” I thought. “Very odd.”

I remember the first time I noticed him. I was sitting with my family in the back of the church, trying to concentrate, but I was distracted by a figure on the second row. I thought he may be the Cole of all of the stories I’d heard, but I wasn’t quite sure. Whoever he was, something was different about him. He radiated passion for God. I knew that what I sought above all else in my future husband was a consuming passion for the Gospel. When I saw him I thought to myself “I want a guy like that. Whoever gets him is going to be an incredibly lucky girl.”

On September 23rd, 2006, we went to an ice cream social for the College and Career group. Cole came over to where Merisha and I were sitting and talked to us the entire evening. He was pretty much the only person who said more than five words to us for several weeks, so, of course, we became friends. Over the months to come, we saw each other every day. He was over several days a week for dinner, and the three of us went everywhere together. Bonfires, to the mall, out to eat, you name it. We didn’t have a car, so he drove us around to all of the church functions too. The more we got to know each other as friends, the more I was shocked to find out how unified we were in our beliefs and views. I struggled to remain platonic, but the more I knew of him, the more I was impressed and saw in him qualities and views I wanted in my husband. I knew for several reasons that he was out of reach and “Teardrops on my Guitar” became my favorite song. I told myself everyday that if all I ever had with him was friendship, I’d be satisfied.

Around Christmas, our friendship grew deeper, and by Spring, though we were both very verbal about not being in a relationship, we were viewed by everyone as a couple. We denied it, even to ourselves, but we were both - almost against our own wills - falling in love."

A Recurring Theme

The Sunday just a few days before Christmas I attended the funeral of a lady from my church who had been suffering from cancer for years. She was survived by a son who is about twenty one, and another who will graduate high school in May.
The next weekend, I was playing and singing at the funeral of Cole's great-grandmother. We had just spent Christmas together and she seemed fine, two days later we were rushing to the hospital to hold her hand as she drew her last breaths.
A few days later, at four o'clock on New Year's morning, a man from our church accidentally shot and killed his wife mistaking her for an intruder. Very few couple's love for each other is more evident than theirs was. The wide range of emotions, the questions...

Three weekends. Three funerals. By the time I got home from the most recent funeral on Saturday, I literally had no more nice black clothes in my closet and was completely emotionally drained.
It seems like over and over I post about the brevity of life, but over and over it is impressed on me.

Cole and I started reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper today. I read it a couple of years ago, but the more I live, the more I realize I don't have forever. Life is so short. Who knows the number of years allotted to them? Who knows if they will have the next breath?
A few months ago I had a very morbid thought. I was sitting in the fellowship hall at our church looking out at the people when it occurred to me: In one hundred years, we will all be gone. I looked at Sam, I looked at Cole, I looked at my sister, I looked at my friends. All of us, in not to long a time compared to history, will die.
I look at the people that I love, the things that I do, everything that seems so important to me and realize that it will pass away.
When I think of these things I find myself identifying with Solomon in Ecclesiastics 9:
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

There is a sense in which our legacy will hopefully live on, but there is another aspect that two hundred years from now, the world will be populated with completely new people. People who never knew me and who never knew you. "What's the point? We live, we work, we love, we die. Meaningless!"

But it doesn't end there. The last few verses of the book tell us to live our short, seemingly meaningless life to the fullest
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun--all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Though after weeks like I've had recently I get frustrated with the very concept of existence, I know there is a point to life. I know there is a reason for existence.
"What is the chief end of man?" The Westminster Catechism asks.
The response sounds simple, but it's so true and so hard to keep focused on:
"To glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

With every breath, with every action, with every word. Glorify God.

Thanksmas 2007

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The main reason is because it is the one time a year that all of my family is together under one roof for a few days. It always amazes me how I can only see my cousins once a year, yet each time we see each other, we pick up right back up where we left off. Another reason is because it is one holiday that is relatively uncomercialized. I like that I can walk through a store without being bombarded with advertisements telling me that if I REALLY loved someone, I'd buy them a particular item.

This Thanksgiving I was particularly grateful to have all of my family together as my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of weeks ago. They say when someone in your family has cancer, it changes your entire outlook on life. I think that may be true. I found myself looking around the house at my family and thinking "Life is short, a mere breath then it passes away. We won't all be together long, but I am so blessed that we are together today." Every Thanksgiving I post about how grateful I am for my family, but if it's worth saying once, it's worth saying over and over again! I'm fairly convinced that I have the most wonderful family ever. Praise God for families that are centered around Him!!

All of us!

Cole meets the family. He doesn't look too nervous...

In front of the Thanksmas tree :-)

When I've been married as long as my grandparents have, I want to still be this sweet. The love they have for one another is more evident with each passing year.

The Brevity of Life

This summer has been culture shock for me.
At the beginning of the summer, the first friend of mine around my age got married. This shocked me. We’re not old enough to get married! But yes, I suppose we are. As I entered into a courtship just a few weeks later, I realized anew just how time flies. How did we go from little girls playing dress up to attending each other’s weddings? Where did the time go?

Then today I found out news that stunned me. A childhood friend of mine died. She and I weren’t close friends when we were young, and completely lost touch as we grew older. But still. I knew her; I played with her not too many years ago. “We’re too young to die!” was my first thought. Death is for the old, for the feeble...not a 22 year old young woman. But no, we aren’t too young to die.

Life is but a breath. Fleeting.
In the past several years I have had a phrase that comes to mind over and over and over. Seize the moment. Seize the moment. Seize the moment. It is hard for me to seize the moment sometimes. I am so prone to let impatience try to rush me along, not allowing me to enjoy the season I am in because I am too busy worrying about and longing for the next one.
But then I look around, see how much life has changed so quickly, see how much people have changed and I cry out “Oh Lord, help me live today for you. Don’t let me waste this life you have given me!”

Time is such a precious gift, but so easy to waste. I love the quote “Do you love life? Then do not waste time, for time is what life is made of.” That is so true. The little decisions, the melancholy tasks that I perform day to day. That is my life. Not a moment of it should be wasted.
After considering this topic for quite some time, I came across and read Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper a year or two ago. It really helped define all of the things about life and time and living each day to it’s fullest for Christ and renewed my perspective of life in general. Anyone who hasn’t read it needs to!

There is a country song out by Kenny Chesney called Don’t Blink which I decided to post here. I found it quite thought provoking.

1st Verse
I turned on the evenin' news
Saw an old man being interviewed
Turnin' a hundred and two today
They asked him what's the secret to life
He looked up from his ol' pipe
Laughed and said, 'All I can say is'

Chorus
Don't blink
Just like that
You're six years old and you take a nap
And you wake up and you're twenty-five
And your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growin' like mine did
Turnin' into moms and dads
Next thing you know
Your better half of fifty years is there in bed
And you're prayin' God takes you instead
Trust me friend
A hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

2nd Verse
I was glued to my TV
When it looked like he looked at me
And said, 'Let's start puttin' first things first'
'Cause when your hourglass runs outta sand
You can't flip it over, start again
Take every breath God gives you, for what it's worth

(Repeat Chorus)

Bridge
So I been tryin' to slow it down
I been tryin' to take it in
In this here today, gone tomorrow world we're livin' in

(Repeat Chorus)

Tag
Naw, don't blink
Don't blink
Life goes faster than you think
Don't blink
Life goes faster than you think
Don't blink
Don't blink
Life goes faster than you think

Eight Random Facts About Me

THE RULES! Each player lists 8 facts or habits about themselves; the rules of the game are to be posted first; at the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people.

1. I am glad that I went through the 80's completely oblivious.
2. Until the time I was 15, I wouldn't be caught dead in a skirt or with make up and I swore I'd never, ever have long hair. At 19, I wear skirts almost exclusively, put on makeup within 10 minutes of waking up every morning and have my hair to my waist.
3. I believe in predestination but don't take the term "Calvinist" too seriously. Though for the sake of giving an explination of what I believe, I may use the term Calvinism, I really don't consider myself a Calvinist. I'm a Christian. I don't care what Calvin said...I care what the Bible says. I just happen to believe that they are very similar.
4. I hate roaches. HATE roaches. They make me shiver and scream.
5. I am friends with a lot of people, but don't open up to them very often. Because of this, most people, even my closest friends, don't know who I really am.
6. I'm courting a guy who is nine weeks younger than me and we have spent 80% of our official relationship on different continents.
7. I have gotten attached to clothes shopping. Especially sales. Half the fun of having new clothes is saying "Oh thank you, I'm glad you like it...it was $5 at the outlet."
8. I went out of the country for the first time this summer. I liked it very much, as I knew I would. It only reinforced my dream to travel the world. Maybe someday...

People I tag- Everyone who would do it has already been tagged...so whatever.

The Prayer of the Unknown Confederate Soldier

I asked God for strength that I might achieve,

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for help that I might do greater things,

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy,

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life,

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Happy 4th of July

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Crucified with Christ

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20

This is, to me, one of the most incomprehensible passages of scripture I've read. To be crucified with Christ, dead to sin, alive to righteousness.
It a very humbling way to view your life. Dead, sacrificed completely to the will of God. It is humbling that when people see our lives, what they're seeing isn't us. Anything good...it's not us. I see more and more clearly every day just what I am apart from Christ: wretched, depraved and utterly hopeless. Because of His mercy and grace, He has seen fit to save me from myself. When you think of it that way, it really takes the boasting out of existence. When you see yourself as you truly are, and see God as he truly is, how can you even think about taking credit for anything good or holy in your life? Yes, we work toward righteousness; Yes, we strive to be more holy. But even our best efforts are in vain without His grace. He gives us the desire to be holy and righteous. That is phenomenal to me...not only does he ordain our sanctification, but He gives us the desire to strive towards it.

" But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Gal 6:14
Oh, let this be true of me!

Crucified with Christ is one of my very favorite songs. I think it is my favorite because of just how rich it is in scripture line after line, verse after verse.
I have posted it here:

Crucified with Christ
Phillips, Craig and Dean

VERSE 1:
As I look back on what I thought was living
I'm amazed at the price I choose to pay
And to think I ignored what really mattered
Cause I thought the sacrifice would be too great
But when I finally reached the point of giving in
I found the cross was calling even then
And even though it took dying to survive
I've never felt so much alive.


CHORUS:
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
Not I but Christ that lives within me
His Cross will never ask for more than I can give
For its not my strength but His
There's no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live


VERSE 2:
As I hear the Savior call for daily dying
I will bow beneath the weight of Calvary
Let my hands surrender to His piercing purpose
That holds be to the cross but sets me free
I will glory in the power of the cross
The things I thought were gain I count as loss
And with His suffering I identify
And by His resurrection power I am alive


BRIDGE:

And I will offer all I have
So that His cross is not in vain
For I found to live is Christ
And to die is truly gain

A Calmer Faith

“A calmer faith...where we don’t revolt when His plan and ours conflict. Where we relax in the midst of an answerless season. Where we accept (and expect) deserts in our spiritual journey as surely as we do joy. Where we are not intimidated or persuaded by other people’s agendas but moved only by Him. Where we weep in repentance, sleep in peace, live in fullness and sing of victory.”
-Patsy Clairmont

Gratefulness

Two weekends ago we visited New Orleans. It was the first time for me to be back at my home church since right after Katrina, and I had very mixed emotions as I walked in.
After a wonderful worship service and a time of visiting with dear church family, it started to clear out in the church. Just like old times, we were the last ones to leave :-)
But before we left, I couldn’t help but revisit the place where years ago I felt the urgency of the call of Christ so clearly and so keenly that I felt no other choice than to kneel and repent of my sin. I walked in the classroom and looked around. The room looked almost exactly the same, these 11 ½ years later. The words from the song “This is Where I Met Jesus” echoed through my mind and tears filled my eyes as I knelt in the spot where He quickened my soul and redeemed me. Thoughts flooded my mind: Why did You choose to save me? Why did you look at my 6 year old self and convict me of my need for You? I don’t understand that kind of love. You spared me the regrets and pain of living my life without Your Spirit. You carried me through the valley of the shadow of death, teaching me that You are my Father in a more real sense than I can ever comprehend.
There was only one thing I could stammer: “Thank you, Lord. Thank you.”

Thank you seems to fall so short when trying to express the immense gratitude for the salvation He has given, but what more is there to say? So here I stand, I grateful recepient of His grace. Soli Deo Gloria!

A Valentines Day Post: For Everything There is a Season

At nineteen, this is the first Valentine's Day that I've actually considered myself to be single.
All the previous years, I just considered myself too young for a relationship.
But this year it sort of hit me. When it did, I was surprised to discover that this fact doesn't devistate me. And it's not because I don't want to get married. No, not that at all. It's because I'm scared to death to get married if it's not God's timing. I assume that since I'm not in a relationship, it must not be His timing yet. His timing might be tomorrow, I don't know. But rather than concerning me, it makes me feel secure and evokes me to breathe a prayer of thanksgiving that I know I can trust the timing of my Father.

During this season of singleness, I do not see it as a burden. I see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to seize this time I have to serve God wholeheartedly, for I know not how long I have left.
Someday soon, if the Lord wills it, I will enter a new season. A season of having the privilege to be a picture to the world of Christ and his Bride, the church. A season of serving and caring for my husband and family. But now, while I anticipate and prepare and long for that day, God is teaching me that His timing is perfect and that when I trust Him, I will never be disappointed.
In contemplating these things, a certain scripture came to mind and I was inspired to post it here.

Ecclesiastes 3 1-14

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him."

The Power of the Gospel

Our pastor is taking us through a year long in-depth study of 1 Corinthians. We started a few months ago, but one thing that keeps coming back to my mind again and again are Paul's words about preaching the gospel.

After one of his sermons on this subject, I e-mail'd my pastor asking for prayer as I knew I'd be having the opportunity to share the gospel with someone dear to me.
His response was this:
"Be bold with the gospel...our confidence is not in "persuasive words of wisdom" but in the power of the gospel itself."

The power is the gospel, not how fluffy, flowery and nice I can make it sound. The Word is clear about what will follow being a Christian: pain, tribulation and persecution. But it is also clear about something else: It's worth it. Infinitely worth it.

I wonder how different our evangelism would look if we were to stop making the cross of Christ void by trying to be clever in our witnessing? What if we instead preached the purity of the gospel in all of its power and glory? What if we said what Christ said "If you follow me you will endure persecution" to people who weren't yet saved? What if the church stopped trying to trick people into coming to becoming Christians by emotional highs and half truths and simply taught them the gospel? What if we began to see what privilege it is just to have the opportunity to worship our great God and were able to share that with others without apologizing that being a Christian isn't "fun" in the secular sense? What if we stopped trying to convince them that if they become a Christian they won't have to give up anything? What if we told them the truth: That they have to give up everything. Everything. Die daily, pick up their cross and follow Christ? What would happen if we then told them of the glory of the world to come, our hope?
I wonder.

The scripture that provoked these thoughts:

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would be made void.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written,
"I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE."
And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."
1 Cor 1:18-19, 2:1-5

The bonnie lad and lassies. Merisha and I happened to be in our family tartin skirts when Cole came in with his family tartin kilt that he got for Christmas. Fun times...

The Christmas music group. After a bit of persuasion, Pastor Bart joined in our ensamble for Christmas carols. It was wonderful...it'd been waaaay too long since we'd played with a guitar :-)

Christmas dinner:
Possum...mmm!