Something Quick

'ello! This is me, Sarah. I was just gonna do a post, but first: did any of you watch the Super Bowl last night? and if so, who were you rooting for? Most of my family was going for the Indianapolis Colts(I didn't know much about either team, but I liked their colors and heard some things about the other team that I didn't like) I still don't know who won, but in the 3rd quarter, the Saints were way ahead, so........anyway.

Last night on the way home, Daniel and I were listening to songs on his iPod. I heard this one song that stuck out to me. It's called "Beloved" and it's by Tenth Avenue North.

Love of my life

Look deep in my eyes

There you will find what you need.

Give me your life,

Lust and the lies

The past you're afraid I might see.

You've been running away from me.

Chorus:

You're my beloved,

Lover I'm yours.

Death shall not part us

It's you I died for.

For better or worse

Forever we'll be

Our love, it unites us

It binds you to me

It's a mystery

Love of my life

Look deep in my eyes

Then you will find what you need

I'm the giver of life

I'll clothe you in white

My immaculate bride you will be

Oh, come running home to me.

Chorus

You're my beloved

Forever we'll be

Our love it unites us

It's a mystery

I took this song to be the idea of the Lord being the bridegroom of his people and the church. I've come across this subject a few times recently. We, as young ladies not ready for courtship or marriage, need to be focusing on falling in love with Jesus. It's very easy to be distracted by things of the world, but in this period of our lives, the most important thing we can do is to grow our relationship with the Lord. The Bible compares Christ and the church to a bridegroom and bride. I think that as young women we need to be as, or even more eager and passionate in loving the Lord right now, as we will be in the future in loving our husbands. That's just been in my mind recently, so I thought I'd go ahead and share it with ya'll!
Hope it wasn't too boring! I hadn't really collected all my thoughts about it till now.
-Sarah

Wisdom From a Day Gone By (that still stings! :)

Hey guys! Well, Sarah and I were doing dictation in school, and we had to hand copy (thankfully not dictation this time) part of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. What had started out as a large task (handcopying it all) actually turned into a blessing because the words of this man, long dead by now, still ring true today, and they are actually something that we still struggle with sometimes! I just thought I'd share the excerpt we copied for you to hopefully enjoy and be challenged by:

"They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power."

Psalm 145:11

You have only to look at the preceding verse, and you will discover, in a single moment, who are the people here spoken of who shall speak of the glory of God's kingdom, and talk of his power. They are the saints: "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee." Possibly some will ask, "Well, sir, how can we talk about religion? Upon what topic shall we converse? How are we to introduce it? It would not be polite for instance, in the company with which we associate, to begin to say anything about the doctrines of grace, or about religious matters at all." Then, beloved, be not so polite; that is all I have to say in reply to such a remark as that. If it would be accounted contrary to etiquette to begin talking of the Savior, cast etiqette to the winds, and speak about Christ somehow or other. The Christian is the aristocrat of the world; it is his place to make rules for society to obey,-- not to step down, and conform to the regulations of society when they are contrary to the commands of his Master. He is the great Maker of laws; the King of kings, the Lord of lords; and he makes his people also to be kings. Kings make rules for ordinary men to obey; so must Christians do. They are not to submit to others; they must make others, by worth of their principles, and the dignity of their character, submit to them. It is speaking too lightly of a Christian's dignity when we say that he dare not do the right, becausei t would not be fashionable. We care nothing for that, for "the fashion of this world passeth away." "but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." ....First, here is A SUBJECT FOR CONVERSATION: "They shall speak of the glory of they kingdom, and talk of they power." Here are two subjects; for God, when he puts grace into the heart, does not lack a subject upon which we shall converse. First, we are to converse concerning the glory of Christ's kingdom. The glory of Christ's kingdom should ever be a subject of discourse to a Christian; he should always be speaking, not merely of Christ's priesthood or his prophesying, but also of his kindom, which has lasted all eternity; and especially of that glorious kingdom of grace in which we now live, and of that brighter kingdom of millennial glory, which soon shall come upon this world, to conquer all other kingdoms, and break them in pieces." -Charles Spurgeon "Christian Conversation"

Isn't that great? He is so very blunt and honest that it cracked me up! I actually laughed out loud when he said, "Then, beloved, be not so polite. That is all I have to say to a remark like that." I love people who fearlessly say what is true, but with tact ;) Anyway, I thought that it was a great reminder that God's principles are timeless, and about being culture-leaders. Hope that blessed someone! -Rachel

p.s. Doesn't he look like a little fire-cracker? (That is obviously Charles Spurgeon, not my grandfather! :)

A Day Full Of Excitement (If I choose to see it that way!)

This morning something really strange happened to me. I was asleep, and had three dreams full of "something exciting happening today". One was that we were having a out-and-out young adult night, one was that I got an invitation for a barn dance in Florida this coming up December, and another that we got 10 comments and a bunch of reactions on our blog! So here I am and wake up, and I can't for the life of me remember what day of the week it is, what I'm so excited about, and everything is foggy. Then I realize it is Friday, and a school day. But then I heard God say to me in a quiet, amused way, "Don't you think the little things I put in your day are exciting? Can't you find enjoyment in the tasks at hand?"
So before even hopping out of my bed this morning, I was blessed with a challenge for today: to find it as exciting as any of the things I dreamed about above. To notice the way He works through each moment. To stop and laugh with Abby, and to tickle Gracie, to amuse Sarah with my algebraic moanings. To delight in making meals for my family and sweeping up mud from a productive pair of boots that is worn by a veyr special little boy who is always going, going, going.... these are the things I should delight in instead of wishing for excitement. Of course not that exciting this are bad! I am the first one to squeal with anticipation when we get an invitation to anywhere, (provided it is somewhere we want to go ;) but I think it is important for us all to realize that duties don't have to be drudgery. Only our ridiculous, shallow minds convert the priviledge of making bread with freshly ground wheat to a chore aligned with cleaning the boy's bathroom! Well, anyhow, that is just a brief idea for today! Now I'd better be off!

Hip-Hip-Hoorah!....*zzzzzz*

Hello all you people out there! Right now I, Rachel am almost half asleep. The reason I am so tired? The same that will probably make all you other people grumpy today. :) We had friends over and stayed up till midnight, then had a Bible-reading a sang a few worship songs to start off the new year, so they didn't leave till after 1:00! Then we had to clean up what was left over, and then wrap presents because Mr. oldest of Many and his "family is comin'" to do a late gift exchange. It is slightly more depressing than "Auld lang Syne" to note that we will officially do Christmas with the Walkers twice in 2010! :( But we are glad to see them anyhow. And Uncle Lon and Aunt Heather are here! They blessed us immensely by telling Mama that she could pick out any washer/dryer and they would pay for it!!! Gone the days of running the washer twice to get the clothes wrung out! Gone the days of running the dryer three times to dry a small load! Three cheers for those good, jolly, joyful laundry-fairies that I am pleased to have as relatives! :) Huzzah!! (Really, that "huzzah" with the exclamation point drained the last scrap of energy I had. I hope I can crawl over to the coffee pot and get a cup. :)Oooooohh! I'm the firstest person to write in the catagory 2010 on the little sidebar! Yippee......yawn. Okay. Before I slump onto the keyboard and accidently hit something weird with my forehead, I'll end this blog post with a challenge for the new year: let us make sure that our "New year's resolutions" if they are something God is trying to work with us on, are not shelfed by February. Even if they cause us some pain in giving up something, it is such a very miniscule price to pay for being right with Him! Remember, we are more than conquerers through Christ Jesus! God Bless You in this new year and may it be a year in which you grow ever closer to Him! -Rachel

A Quick Thought

Hi Everybody! Sorry I couldn't write sooner:) Okay, this is a passage in Scripture that, especially the first section, a lot of people are quite familiar with. But I don't know if ya'll have really looked at the second section.
Jeremiah 29:11-
"For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive........."
Here is yet another place in the Bible where God is making a promise to his people. The second part of this passage had never really caught my attention until recently. Well, that's it, and I hope that this was an encouragement today!!!
I'll try to write something more interesting soon!
-Sarah

A Thought

Okay! This is the long lost person who's supposed to be writing in this blog, but hasn't recently, otherwise known as: Sarah!
Today we're getting hi-speed Internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *woot, woot* (as Abigail would say)
Yeah, so I'm pretty excited about that- we'll be able to see all those blog videos that we haven't seen, Dad can watch the weather online, we can post pictures on our blog, and there are endless other possibilities! We've been trying to get hi-speed for some time, but Verizon doesn't have a line this far out in the country, I guess, the only other possible situation was Dish, and our server doesn't have hi-speed so we hadn't got it. But on Monday Dad was calling around and Ntelos had a really good deal so we got hooked up and I think we received the modem thing today in the mail! So now that that's settled I was going to talk about something that I came across this week.

This week while working with Dad and Daniel, I was reading "Christie, the King's Servant" by O.F. Walton and came across a section which made me think. (The book is set in a fishing village in Yorkshire, England and the town has just had a festival of games, including Tug of War. This segment is the next Sunday when the preacher's talking)
"The Tug of War is our subject to-day, dear friends," he began, " and a very suitable subject, I think, after what we have witnessed on this green during the past week. We have seen, have we not, a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull together, as yon heavy crab-boat was dragged up from the beach? How well she came, what progress she made! with each yodel we brought her farther from the sea. We all of us gave a helping hand; fishermen, wives,visitors,friends,all laid hold, and all pulled, and the work, hard as it seemed, was soon accomplished.Why? Because we were all united. It was a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together. And now let me bring back to your memory another event during this past week. The place is the same, our village green, the same rope is used, and those who pull are the very same men, strong, brawny,powerful fishermen. Yes, you pulled your very hardest; if possible you put forth more strength than when the crab-boat was drawn up, and yet, strange to say, there was no result, the rope did not move an inch. What were you pulling? What was the mighty weight that you had to move? What was it that, for such a long time, baffled the strength of the strongest among you? The weight you could not move was not a heavy boat, but a light handkerchief! What was there this difference? Why was the handkerchief harder to move than the boat? The answer to that question was to be found at the other end of the green. There were other pullers at the rope that day, pulling with all their might in an exactly opposite direction. It was not a united pull, and therefore for a long time there was not result, and we watched on, until a length one side was proved the stronger, and the handkerchief was drawn by them triumphantly across the line. To-day, dear friends, I speak to you of yet another tug of war. The place is the same, Runswick Bay, and our village green, but the weight to be drawn is not a boat, not a handkerchief; the weight is a human soul. It is your soul, my friend, your immortal soul; you are the one who is being drawn. And who are the pullers? Oh, how many they are! I myself have my hands on the rope. God only knows how hard I am pulling, striving with all my might, if possible to draw you, my friend , to Christ. But there are other hands on the rope besides mine. Your conscience pulls, your little child pulls, your Christian mate pulls; each sermon you hear, each Bible class you attend, each hymn you sing, each prayer uttered in your presence, each striving of the Spirit, each God-given yearning after better things, each storm you come through, each danger you escape, each sickness in your family, each death in your home, each deliverance granted you, gives you a pull God-ward, Christ-ward, heaven-ward.
Yet, oh, my dear friend, you know, as clearly as you know that you are sitting there, that, so far, Christ's pullers are drawing in vain. You have never yet, you know it, crossed the line which divides the saved from the unsaved. Why is this? Why, oh, why are you so hard to move? Oh, my friend, do you ask why? Surely you know the reason! Is it not because there are other hands on the rope, other pullers drawing in an exactly opposite direction? For Satan has many an agent, many a servant, and he sends forth a great army of soul-pullers. Each wordly friend, each desire of your evil nature, each temptation to sin, each longing after wealth, each sinful suggestion, gives you a pull, and a pull the wrong way, away from safety, away from Christ, away from God, away from heaven, away from Home. And towards what? Oh, dear friend, towards what? What are the depths, the fearful depths, towards which you are being drawn?

Alright, so I know that was sort of an old-fashioned sermon(all those "dear friends!") But the point he was making is very important. Now I know a lot of us are Christians and this is talking about the pull for your soul for Christ, but if you think about it, everyone, every day is making different choices and decisions that are either drawing them closer to God or separating them from him. We know that "We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Our sin separates us from God and it's "When we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So I just think that we all need to be conscious all throughout our day of where our choices are taking us: away from the Lord or Drawing us to Him.

So that's that, but also I wanted to tell everyone that Rachel did end up writing a story that she's very pleased with and was exactly on the word limit for the contest!!!! Yay!!! I really like the story too.
That's all for now! -Sarah