Sometimes, I just have to step back and marvel at the people that God has put in my life.
Like the Matthews, for instance.
Tonight is my last night as a resident of the Matthews' house. I spent 7 weeks here back in the summer of '09, and 2 months (to the day) this summer. It has become one of my "home"s in my stay here on earth.
Their hospitality has amazed me. Mrs. Sarah has cooked some of the most delectable and varied foods. Mr. Craig has provided such good conversation and leadership (and patience with my quirks). Drew is my best friend here in Centreville. Their hospitality has glorified God.
The beauty of it is that, while the Matthews have offered all this (lodging, food, association, guidance, friendship, patience, etc...) willingly and out of the goodness of their heart, the fact is that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
We get to rejoice both in the giver and the Source of their giving.
He is the Wealth of the giving, the Heart of the kind.
______________________________________________________________
Since my last post:
-- Blessed to teach through Hosea 12. Just one more study. If you have time, read Hosea 11 today. It's just wow.
-- Blessed to attend the wonderful wedding of Eric and Olivia Parker. Served as the MC for the reception. Hakuna Matata. :)
-- Blessed to start running again! After 3 weeks, gingerly ran some, took days off. The tendon-thingy is still hurting periodically, but I've been stretching more, and have been able to get 2 or 3 1-hour runs in. Praise God for helping us to appreciate our health! It's so fragile.
-- Blessed to study through parts of Titus with Mrs. Matthews in the morning. Those have been excellent, and such a refreshing way to start the day.
-- Blessed to have the Chariot fixed!!! Jack Grotenroth worked some wonders in his 8-hour diagnostic/repair, and for now it's no longer on the brink! Thank God for vehicles!
-- Blessed to finish "Words Fitly Spoken" with Katie and Catherine. I've never worked so hard on a hymn, and I'm so thankful that God allows His children to serve in this way. Music + Poetry + God's inspired Word = BOOM. Best explosion ever.
-- Blessed to take a day trip to Harper's Ferry with Ashley and Ben Dixon, and their friend Thomas. Good times, good stories, good spiritual conversation. Win x3.
-- Blessed to rock out at a Marc Broussard concert--I'm not super familiar with his music, but it was fun nonetheless. Good company: Alex and Lauren Smith, and Joe Riley. There's hope for me yet.
-- Blessed to surprise Aurie Adams with an awkward wad for her birthday. Yes, that's right. Also: jet skis. Very yes.
-- Blessed to preach out at Dulles--wonderful brethren there, and wonderful lunch and conversations at the Underwoods afterwards. Crazy incident at a toll booth where I forgot my wallet. Turned out fine, but whew.
-- Blessed to work a lot on time management. I've come a long way, but I've got a long way to go. Self-control is... just that.
-- Blessed to finish the "Studies in the Cross of Christ" with Antoine. We've started a survey of the blood of Christ per his request. If you've never looked into that, do.
-- Blessed to learn to drive a stick. I need more practice, but I can get one around. Still struggling with parking uphill. Backwards.
-- Blessed to be more content with being single than I have in a long time. Thank You, Lord.
-- Blessed to finish "Erasing Hell" by Francis Chan. Highly recommended. Not a fun read. Definitely super motivating.
-- Blessed to hang out a good bit with Drew, Alex, and Lauren. Pei Wei (stellar), new car (sweet), Rango (meh), and good times all around.
-- Blessed to have a blast singing and playing countless rounds of Ninja at the Adams house with the young people. Oh, so many good times.
-- Blessed to preach several times: The Heart of Modesty, One Thing (Php 3-4), Our Great Enemy (1 John), Greater Is He Who Is in You (1 John).
-- Blessed to attend the gorgeous wedding of Micah and Kathryn Bingham. So many good people. So many good sentiments. Such a beautiful occasion. Let's make the church the most beautiful bride we can.
-- Blessed to write a little song on the uke for my mom's 50th. Workin' on fleshing it out and getting it recorded.
-- Blessed to realize just how blessed I am. Or at least begin to see more of them. :)
For Ezra had set his heart to
study the law of the LORD, and to
do it, and to
teach His statutes and rules in Israel.
- Ezra 7:10
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
This is x-posted from my old Pleonast... it's looking more and more like I'll be moving here. Strange, but here goes!
Still getting used to this whole updating-my-blog-on-a-somewhat-regular-basis thing. Heh.
Since my last post:
-- Studied several more times with Antoine. We had 3 studies last week because he had 3 days off work. Encouraging!
-- Preached in Gettysburg, and was thoroughly blessed to see the brethren there and spend some wonderful time with the Smelsers (spiritual discussions, blogs, and Cake (the band) late at night in the kitchen).
-- Spent one of the more encouraging and exhausting weeks of my life at FC Indiana camp. Opportunities to serve: Teach 13-14 year-old Bible class on Joseph ("In His Time"), lead most of the singing for the week, cabin counselor for 17-18 year-old guys with Dixon Churchill, teach classes on learning hymns and sight-singing, society helper/cheer-teacher for Psi Beta Gamma ("with a baseball bat!"), and reaching out to young people... constantly. SUCH a blessed week. Seeing young people, or just any people, grow and commit to serving the Lord more fully is such a shot in the arm! (So is singing/yelling/jumping your brains out at the Friends show Thursday night of camp, but a different kind of shot in the arm) This was, strangely, my only camp for the summer, but I'm SO blessed to have been in Indiana.
-- Attended the encouraging, gorgeous, God-glorifying wedding of Grady and Erin (Rinehart) Huggins. I was blessed to serve as a groomsman, which meant I got to spend quality time with Eric Huggins, Andrew Huggins, Colton McDaniel, David Smelser, David Watson, Nathan Wolfe, Brett Westbrook, and Craig Dehut (to name a few). The singing and prayer the night before the wedding is a memory I will cherish as long as the Lord lets me.
-- Taught a song-leading/song-worship class. This is a monthly opportunity to help focus our worship to be God-glorifying and some (hopefully) helpful suggestions for song leaders and worshipers.
-- Played some amazing ultimate frisbee with Centreville/Dulles/Annandale brethren/sistren on the lawn around the Washington monument, followed by a patriotic/spiritual singing. Good times.
-- Injured my left knee tendon thing at camp. It's not bad at all until I start running. Which means I haven't run (outside of short sprints in frisbee) in 2 weeks... Lessons in patience for the win!
-- Taught through Hosea 4. Chapters 5-6 tonight! w00t!
-- Purchased a new ukulele. She's a beaut'. And SO much more in tune than the last one (which was a wonderful starter uke).
-- Attended a thoroughly encouraging tent meeting with Josh and Becca McKinsey at the Ferencze's home in NJ. Theme: 1st Century Christianity vs. 21st Century Trends. Speakers: Doug Focht, Scott Smelser, Jeff Smelser, Tim Bunting, and Dan Koen. SO GOOD. So many blessed times with good brethren.
-- Preached on Joseph and Jesus (inspired by camp). The parallels make my head explode. In a wonderfully encouraging way.
-- Taught the high school class on Amos. Cramming a minor prophet into 45 minutes is crazy. But still so helpful! Hosea, you're next week.
-- Been working on time management. Story of my life. Thus the post title.
God is teaching me SO much about His ways right now. The tent meeting in NJ on the trends of our society, being limited to one camp this summer, the direction of different relationships, personal struggles with sin, struggles to help others with their sin... everything around me seems to cry out:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa 55:8-9)
Whenever we might doubt God's way... just compare it to something. Anything. Once you get past the "but that's not what I expected/wanted/prayed for/think is best" moment, you can see so clearly how superior God's ways are! Any hardship, disappointment, discomfort, or joy (for that matter) that helps us to see that is a blessing. And I've been very blessed (with a perfect mixture of what God knows I need)!
Lord, thank You for the perfect wisdom of Your ways. Thank You even more for recording Your wisdom and giving it to Your servants. We are lost without You.
Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
Still getting used to this whole updating-my-blog-on-a-somewhat-regular-basis thing. Heh.
Since my last post:
-- Studied several more times with Antoine. We had 3 studies last week because he had 3 days off work. Encouraging!
-- Preached in Gettysburg, and was thoroughly blessed to see the brethren there and spend some wonderful time with the Smelsers (spiritual discussions, blogs, and Cake (the band) late at night in the kitchen).
-- Spent one of the more encouraging and exhausting weeks of my life at FC Indiana camp. Opportunities to serve: Teach 13-14 year-old Bible class on Joseph ("In His Time"), lead most of the singing for the week, cabin counselor for 17-18 year-old guys with Dixon Churchill, teach classes on learning hymns and sight-singing, society helper/cheer-teacher for Psi Beta Gamma ("with a baseball bat!"), and reaching out to young people... constantly. SUCH a blessed week. Seeing young people, or just any people, grow and commit to serving the Lord more fully is such a shot in the arm! (So is singing/yelling/jumping your brains out at the Friends show Thursday night of camp, but a different kind of shot in the arm) This was, strangely, my only camp for the summer, but I'm SO blessed to have been in Indiana.
-- Attended the encouraging, gorgeous, God-glorifying wedding of Grady and Erin (Rinehart) Huggins. I was blessed to serve as a groomsman, which meant I got to spend quality time with Eric Huggins, Andrew Huggins, Colton McDaniel, David Smelser, David Watson, Nathan Wolfe, Brett Westbrook, and Craig Dehut (to name a few). The singing and prayer the night before the wedding is a memory I will cherish as long as the Lord lets me.
-- Taught a song-leading/song-worship class. This is a monthly opportunity to help focus our worship to be God-glorifying and some (hopefully) helpful suggestions for song leaders and worshipers.
-- Played some amazing ultimate frisbee with Centreville/Dulles/Annandale brethren/sistren on the lawn around the Washington monument, followed by a patriotic/spiritual singing. Good times.
-- Injured my left knee tendon thing at camp. It's not bad at all until I start running. Which means I haven't run (outside of short sprints in frisbee) in 2 weeks... Lessons in patience for the win!
-- Taught through Hosea 4. Chapters 5-6 tonight! w00t!
-- Purchased a new ukulele. She's a beaut'. And SO much more in tune than the last one (which was a wonderful starter uke).
-- Attended a thoroughly encouraging tent meeting with Josh and Becca McKinsey at the Ferencze's home in NJ. Theme: 1st Century Christianity vs. 21st Century Trends. Speakers: Doug Focht, Scott Smelser, Jeff Smelser, Tim Bunting, and Dan Koen. SO GOOD. So many blessed times with good brethren.
-- Preached on Joseph and Jesus (inspired by camp). The parallels make my head explode. In a wonderfully encouraging way.
-- Taught the high school class on Amos. Cramming a minor prophet into 45 minutes is crazy. But still so helpful! Hosea, you're next week.
-- Been working on time management. Story of my life. Thus the post title.
God is teaching me SO much about His ways right now. The tent meeting in NJ on the trends of our society, being limited to one camp this summer, the direction of different relationships, personal struggles with sin, struggles to help others with their sin... everything around me seems to cry out:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa 55:8-9)
Whenever we might doubt God's way... just compare it to something. Anything. Once you get past the "but that's not what I expected/wanted/prayed for/think is best" moment, you can see so clearly how superior God's ways are! Any hardship, disappointment, discomfort, or joy (for that matter) that helps us to see that is a blessing. And I've been very blessed (with a perfect mixture of what God knows I need)!
Lord, thank You for the perfect wisdom of Your ways. Thank You even more for recording Your wisdom and giving it to Your servants. We are lost without You.
Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
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