take notes

So last blog, I talked about listening. Let me follow that up with another important lesson I learned this summer: take notes. 

 Like I said, I learned a lot over the summer. I learned a lot about myself, about God, about living in community, just a lot. As I learned to listen to what God was teaching me, and as I continue to do so, I've realized how important it is to write these things down. When I go back and look at what I've written down, it's fun to see where God taught me something that blew my mind or where I had questions or prayers that God has since answered. Also, looking back helps me to remember and apply what I'm learning. Writing things down is such a good way to document God's faithfulness, as official as that sounds. At times when I need assurance, I can look at something from my own life on paper and remember that I live for a God who keeps His promises.

like trying to fit the ocean in a cup

It's been said that trying to describe God in words is like "trying to fit the ocean in a cup" (from a Josh Wilson song, 3 Minute Song). Well, somewhat similarly, I've been hesitant to blog about my summer because words do not sufficiently convey my experiences as a summer staff volunteer at JH Ranch. However, I want to share about what I learned over the summer. I won't even try to do so in one blog, even in ten. Over the next few months, nevertheless, I'll be doing the best I can to fit the multi-volume encyclopedia of what I learned and experienced over the summer into short (ha) blog posts.


First thing I would say I learned: Listen.

After probably a few days at the Ranch, I started to realize what value there is in merely listening. I would find myself sitting on the couch in The Bean (one of the girls staff houses) listening to girls from my age to a few years older than me, from different colleges, different parts of the country, different stages in life, talk for hours. I learned and gained so much just from listening to the life experiences, perspectives, and opinions of these awesome girls.

In addition to learning the value of listening and learning from my friends and peers, I learned how to better listen to teaching, in small and bigger settings. And by this, I don't mean that I am more able to sit still for long sermons or more able to remember what I'm taught. No, I mean that I learned how to approach opportunities to be taught--opportunities to learn. I acquired (even more than what I already had) a hunger for more--more truth, more wisdom, just more. And even more now that I'm home, God constantly reminds me to keep my ears open and to stay hungry and expectant. I approach classes, chapels, sermons, etc. with a kind of expectancy that I haven't had before. This semester alone, God has answered questions I've asked and taught me so much through a conglomeration of my classes, chapels, and church services. Literally a conglomeration. That part is important. These classes, chapels, church services, even conversations are great on their own, but the Holy Spirit is teaching me not only to listen to what's being taught but to listen to what He is teaching me. This means all day every day, classes, conversations, speakers, songs, books, you get the idea...my ears are attuned to the One who shows me truth. My brain has been like a big messy tangled game of connect the dots recently. Every time the Holy Spirit helps me make a connection in my overloaded brain, the picture becomes clearer. It's kinda fun. And it's only because I'm listening.

Insufficient Words

So I've been trying to crank out a post for awhile now, and I think I've just had too many deep yet incomplete thoughts in my head to produce a coherent post. However, I was looking through my old posts and drafts and realized that I started the post below literally a year ago and never finished. So here it is:

"Over the past couple of years, especially after my mission trips to Zambia and having read Crazy Love by Francis Chan, I have been fascinated by the thought of Heaven. I think Heaven is often either fantasized about to extreme levels or thought of as only the place of escape from hell. We get really excited about what we want Heaven to be like, or we just hope Jesus will let us in to avoid the fire. Heaven is so indescribably much more than a place with all of our favorite things and all of our favorite people. God is there. God--our Creator, our Savior, our Lord, the righteous judge who sacrificed His Son so that we could have a right relationship with Him, bringing Him glory with our lives--is there. We will meet Him. We will worship Him FOREVER. This thought and my own accompanying thoughts formerly scared me. Francis Chan brought up some challenging ideas in Crazy Love and so did John Piper in Don't Waste Your Life, as I have discussed on one of my other posts. Basically they challenge the reader's motivations. Does your salvation only matter because of your desire to go to Heaven rather than Hell? If you went to Heaven and God wasn't there, would you even notice? As I read these kinds of questions and thoughts awhile back, I realized that I put much more value in the fact that Heaven is a place where all my brothers and sisters in Christ will be and where there is no sin--which is definitely awesome--than in the fact that Heaven is a place where I will worship God, understanding fully who He is, with all of the people he has redeemed. I realized that, yes, I knew Jesus as my Savior and Lord, but I did not know Him in a way that I could imagine spending eternity worshipping Him; I didn't understand how truly amazing he is, how much he loves me, how worthy he is of eternal praise. When I came to this realization of the flaws in my perspective on Heaven, I decided to get more into the Word so that I could better understand why I worship God and so that I could have a closer relationship with Him. As I have studied His Word and prayed, He has shown me even more how truly great He is and how worthy He is of our eternal praise. I now think about the day when I will stand before Him in worship along with those he has purchased from every tribe and race, and I look forward to the day because He is so worthy of all nations' praise. It's hard for me to express how beautiful this picture is in my mind and in my heart."

I'll be honest and a little harsh. It makes me almost angry when people talk about seeing loved ones that have died or asking God questions about why he made mosquitos or ants when they get to heaven. I look in Scripture, and I don't see verses that tell me I will for sure see my loved ones when I get to heaven. That doesn't mean that I won't, but I just don't see it in Scripture. Maybe I'm just totally forgetting some verses or have never read them, but I don't think that's the case. Unfortunately, it seems that there is not much specific information about what life in heaven will be like for us. Nevertheless, the passages below say to me that what matters is that my God, my Savior, my Creator is there, and I will finally see him in all of his glory. The curse of sin will be eternally broken, and there will be no more suffering. I don't know about you, but I feel like at that moment the only thing that will matter to anyone who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ will be the glory of God.


John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Revelation 19:6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
9 Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 22:3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.


P.S. For those who might be offended concerning my wariness about seeing loved ones in heaven, I don't think there's anything wrong with believing that, but when seeing loved ones becomes more important that seeing Jesus, I think that's the problem.


Eagerly awaiting the day when God's glory will be undeniably real to all people

Emily

A Christmas that glorifies Christ

What if we celebrated Christmas like it was all about Christ? Oh wait. It is. Then why does Christ only receive our partial attention during the holiday meant to celebrate his coming? Good question.

Christmas has become to us a part of our culture. Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate, often in ways that are far too similar. As we (followers of Christ) are to be set apart from the world every day of our lives, how much more should we be different on the day we celebrate our Savior's birth? And by different, I mean VERY different. Going to church on Christmas Eve and reading the Christmas story together does not qualify as different. These things are great ways to fix our hearts on Christ and should not be abandoned, but when our minds are on shopping and planning (even while we sit in church), our rituals are not pleasing to God. Does this mean we should totally forgo all of the typical Christmas traditions? Maybe, maybe not. There's nothing wrong with Santa and gift giving and food and decorations, but when Christ becomes merely a side note rather than the center of our Christmas celebration, we have a problem. The problem is primarily in our hearts, our motives, our attitudes.

How can we fix this problem? We need to rethink Christmas. We should look at the way we celebrate and ask ourselves if our celebration pleases the Lord. To get down to the core of the matter, we essentially need to ask ourselves how Jesus wants us to celebrate his coming. Now I have a feeling that if we were honest with ourselves, we would realize that our celebration of Christmas is totally not the way Jesus wants it to be. Take gift giving, for example. The concept of gift giving is totally appropriate for Christmas; as God gave us the gift of his Son, we give gifts at Christmastime. However, gift giving often becomes more of an obligation than a pleasure. That's not how God gave us Jesus. God sent Jesus because he loves us and not because of anything we did to deserve him. God gave this gift to people who wronged him, denied him, hated him (yes, that's us). Maybe Jesus wants us not only to give to those who love us back and can give to us in return, but to people who don't love us back or can't give anything in return. That's what he did. Think about the way most of us have at least one big Christmas meal with extended family. Fellowship is critical, and food is sustenance, but what about the people who don't have family to eat with or even food to eat? Jesus said that we can find him in the hungry, thirsty, naked, and sick, the strangers and prisoners. Maybe we could celebrate the coming of Christ by serving these people with our families. We could make some extra food for Christmas dinner and take it to hungry people. We could clean out our closets (often our old Christmas gifts!) and give clothes to people who need them. You get the idea. Christmas is about CHRIST, not about us.

Christmas edition

I like music. A lot. So when Christmas comes around and I get to bring out another whole collection of music, I get pretty pumped. However, Christmas music serves as so much more for me than a thing to be enjoyed. It reminds me of what we are celebrating at Christmas time. You see, I like Jingle Bells and Frosty, but the Christmas songs that I really love are about the coming of our Savior. So from now until Christmas, I'll be blogging about some of my favorite Christmas songs.

One song that I listened to for the first time this year is by Shane and Shane, and it's called Born to Die. The first and last verses are my favorites:

"When the babe was born.
In a manger on the hay.
God saw a veil torn.
He saw Good Friday.
He was born to die.

We came here today
to celebrate His birth.
But let us not forget
why Jesus came to earth.
He was born to die."

This song kind of reminds me of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Journey of the Magi." The end of the poem goes like this:

"This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death."

This is way deeper than I can comment on, so take from it what you will. But my point in writing about this song and this poem is to emphasize the fact that Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, but it's also a time to remember why he came to earth in the first place. He was born to die. For us. The Son of God put on flesh so that we might be reconciled to God. That's pretty amazing stuff. I mean, really. If you're not blown away by the fact that the God of the universe loves you that much, you should be. So in the midst of the Christmas parties and presents and travels, remember and be thankful that the Father sent his Son to earth to live and to die, not because we deserve it, but because He loves us.