Lavished

Family camp and youth camp were such fun, refreshing times.  Fellowshiping and worshiping with the body of Christ... lots of volleyball...  I'm definitely a liability, not an asset, when it comes to sports, but there were plenty of other things to do. :P  Such beautiful weather God gave us!  Only Sunday was a bit rainy, but I found reason to be thankful for all the rain we've had this summer, because the fire risk is low and campfires were allowed this year!  Oh how He blessed my heart that weekend... through the created beauty of His majesty revealed, the opportunities to encourage and be encouraged.  Three days after family camp ended, youth camp began. 

I was praying before and during those days at camp, that God would work in the hearts and lives of those who came, to build up each one and bring some to salvation, praying for many by name.  I prayed for myself as well, because I'd been feeling distant and discouraged, and I so wanted to be brought nearer to my Jesus.  The second morning at camp, as I spent a few quiet moments in my Bible, I read Ephesians 1.  Oh how the words washed over my soul, answering my prayer for God to "restore to me the joy of my salvation..." (Ps 51:12).  I'd been struggling with the nagging, subconscious thoughts that God doesn't truly, fully love or accept me... that somehow He's distanced himself or has turned away in disinterest.  Of course I'd never really believe that if I actually thought about it, but those are the subtle lies that float around like a vapour, without shape or substance, poisoning my heart.  Have you read Ephesians 1 recently?  Just read some of these verses...

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ... In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us." (Ephesians 1:3-8, select verses)

Wow.  He was thinking of love from the beginning of eternity, thinking of us, of me... His blood was shed, freely given in the One he loves... oh what riches! "Lavished." A perfect word.  Oh, but wait until you read these next verses, in Ephesians 1:18-20,

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms."

Unimaginable. Truly. I'm humbled by the greatness of that power, the riches that are extended to one so poor as I. Each night after campfire as I walked up to the washroom to brush my teeth before bed, I would stop in the quiet darkness to look up and worship. What a Creator we serve! Each point of light, far above me in the heavens, crying forth the glory of God... like pinpricks to my eyes, but in reality larger than my mind could fathom.

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Oh how gracious our God is! Not only did He speak to my heart and strengthen my spirit, He further answered my prayers and brought another soul into His kingdom that weekend. Oh how precious salvation is... I was truly overwhelmed with it... with the enormity of it, the praise of such a gracious redemption. My heart did not cease to sing those lines from Amazing Grace,

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear,

The hour I first believ'd!

Perhaps it sometimes grows less precious to us due to time, but oh how we need to remember the wonder, the freshness of that first hour... the wonder of new birth - a new creation! Surely that is not something commonplace.  When I sing of it, when I read of it in His word, may it not be merely words, but an expression of the wonder and glory of this great redemption.  Undeserving, lost, His enemy, but given all things in Christ, our Saviour.

Truly, we are loved. Lavished.

Onward Ho!

Well, this summer seems to be sailing by... relatively unobserved by myself.  There are two main reasons for this.  Firstly, the weather has all but convinced me that we have mysteriously been transported to the southern hemisphere.  This is the coldest, rainiest summer I can remember.  There have been a few warm days, today being one of them, but truly, we have had some very unseasonable temperatures.  The second reason for the lack of summer-ness is the fact that I have been finishing courses.  Thankfully, the final assignments are rapidly approaching annihilation.  Indeed, they shall be completed by the early portion of next week.  I have decreed it.

If you ask me why I am writing so strangely today, the simple answer is that I am possessed with a strong sense of felicity.  If you ask me what has induced this bout of felicitousness, I would have to attribute it to the sense of nearing the finish line in regards to school and anticipation for church family camp this weekend... and youth camp next week.  And going camping with my family in the states the two weeks after that.

Books.  I am very much bookish this summer.  Not like that's anything unusual... but instead of plowing through a dozen novels a week, I've been slowly working my way through a rather challenging list of non-fiction.  Emphasis on the slowly.  As I said, I've been working hard to get my courses finished.  But I am so looking forward to being able to dig into some good, challenging books.  Of course, I'll probably still read some novels and things that aren't on my list, but I guess I feel like I'm at a stage in my life where I need to really start challenging myself more, rather than relying on the expectations of others.  So I stood in front of the bookshelf in the living room a few weeks ago and picked out a dozen or so that caught my eye.

Here's my "official" reading list for this summer:

- Trusting God by Jerry Bridges (currently reading... still)
- 7 Men Who Rule the World From the Grave (currently reading)
- Girls Gone Wise by Mary Kassian (currently reading lol no, three at once is nothing for me :P)
- The Origin of Species
- A Brief History of Eternity
- Darwin's Black Box
- The World That Perished
- The De-Valuing of America
- The Thousand Year War
- Don't Let Canada Die of Neglect
- Free Enterprise: A Judeo-Christian Defense
- The Roots of Endurance by John Piper
- How Now Shall We Live? by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey

Also, I'm hoping to do something artistic this summer... I've got the preliminary sketch of a painting done, and I'm hoping I'll have some time in August to complete it. :)


I just finished reading through the book of Revelation last night... All I can say is, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22:20)  I've always found Revelation a difficult book to read and understand, and honestly, though I don't think it will every be easy, I did have a better understanding of it this time, and God spoke some amazing truths to my heart about His glory and power.  What amazing promises He has given to those who are in Christ.  "His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever." (Rev 22:3-5)

It makes me think of 1 John 3:2-3, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."  Wow... what an incredible thing we have to look forward to!  This is much better than camping for a weekend. ;) That heavenly worship and fellowship will be perfect... oh how I long for that day! I'm just reminded again of the fact that the goal of the Christian life is not to do enough good things to get an honorable mention in Heaven, but to see Jesus! As Paul wrote, "in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." (2 Tim 4:8) May we live our lives with this anticipation!

And off I go to round up some last minute things before we head off tonight.  Blessings to you all!

Remember Those...

Yesterday I was doing some Law homework, and the assignment asked me to research a Christian who lived true to faith in Christ but suffered at the hands of a humanly appointed justice system. My thoughts immediately flew to Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who founded the organization, The Voice of the Martyrs.  Richard and Sabina experienced a combined 17 years of torture and imprisonment for their obedience to God under the oppression of communism.  Although I was quite familiar with their story, I was deeply moved as I read again of the trials they endured for the sake of the gospel, and saw again the depth and vibrancy of their faith.

I won't tell the full story in this post, but feel free to read a more detailed biography here.

Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in Romanian prisons under communism, three of which were in solitary confinement.  He was beaten, tortured, starved, and brainwashed, but God sustained him to witness to hundreds of souls, and ultimately to bring the plight of the persecuted church to the attention of complacent Christians in free countries.  Through his three years of solitary confinement he experienced the grace of God as he composed and preached to himself hundreds of sermons, and later was able to overflow with the richness and reality of the love of Christ in the company of his fellow prisoners.  In his book, Tortured for Christ, he writes,  "It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners, as it is in captive nations today. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their terms. It was a deal: we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching; they were happy beating us—so everyone was happy."

Sabina tells of similar experiences while she was in prison in a message entitled "In God's Beauty Parlor".  She says, "Sometimes I am asked, 'But were you allowed in Communists prisons to read the bible and pray?'  We surely were allowed.  We made a deal with our Communists guards.  We allowed them to beat us so they allowed to read the bible and to pray together."

Sabina spoke of faces that shone, "like the face of an angel," while covered with the blood and tears of a brutal beating.  How could the Wurmbrands say that prison was beautiful?  These words of Richard Wurmbrand say it all:

"If a poor man is a great lover of music, he gives his last dollar to listen to a concert. He is then without money, but he does not feel frustrated. He has heard beautiful things. I don’t feel frustrated to have lost many years in prison. I have seen beautiful things. I myself have been among the weak and insignificant ones in prison, but have had the privilege to be in the same jail with great saints, heroes of faith who equaled the Christians of the first centuries. They went gladly to die for Christ. The spiritual beauty of such saints and heroes of faith can never be described. The things that I say here are not exceptional. The supernatural things have become natural to Christians in the Under­ground Church who have returned to their first love." (Tortured For Christ)

I can't help but almost wish that Christians in our nation faced such persecution.  Tonight, just singing in the car about His grace... oh how amazing.  Thinking about how I have so much, but all I really need is Him.  Looking around at a world that comfortably lives as if this is all there is - oh what sorrow!  There's so much on my heart tonight.  I'm so convicted of my lack of love for my brothers and sisters in Christ, for how I take the Word of God for granted, and for how much I complain about the most inconsequential things. 

Oh that we may have an eternal perspective, a heart that remembers those who are persecuted, as though we were in prison with them. (Hebrews 13:2) That is where our heart should be - where the crushed and the afflicted are - where true light and peace are found.  May we turn to our God, the one who brings love out of hatred, joy out of sorrow, and makes sinners into saints, and for Him forsake all else.