[living thru the flames]

Standing in a huge huddle with all the rest of summer staff tonight,
praying,
feeling the power and truth behind the words,
I knew that a mere fire cannot burn down Eagle Lake Camp.

{The real Eagle Lake is a group of people, who come together in Him, and make up the body.}

Eagle Lake might look like a group of highly flammable wooden buildings from the outside, but on the inside, it will stand even if the buildings burn. Jesus is with us in this fiery furnace.

And He will protect us.      

For the time being, the physical camp site of Eagle Lake Camps is safe. Firefighters have decided to use the property as a base for trying to keep the fire on the south side of Rampart Range and not any further past ELC's property. So far we do not have any structures on fire. It's looking promising, no doubt because of the powerful prayers that everyone has been praying over the property. If you get a chance, please pray for the men and women fighting the fire right now, as well as the numerous families that have been evacuated from surrounding areas. Also be in prayer for the children who will not make it to camp, and the campers who had to cut their time at Eagle Lake short because of the fire. Please be in prayer for staff, that we can keep running this race with the same endurance we were able to have before the fire. We are all evacuated and have been meeting here in the Springs. And one of the things that even the two-year-old that I nanny have been doing is praying. Continuously. Always. Unconditionally.

Fire, even this much of it, isn't going to stop the power of those prayers.

Update

A lot's happened since my last blog post—I've been fighting off a bad case of writers block, and haven't been able to keep up on my blog or journal or book writing the way I'd like to.  But as I said, a lot has happened.

I got a job, at Starbucks, and have been working pretty hard lately to begin saving up for mission trips and college funds.  I've tried to keep up on school, but with work being such a high priority, doing school has become harder... I think that God's teaching me perseverance in all that I'm going through right now.  I have made a decision regarding going up to camp (www.eaglelakecamps.com) this summer, and I've decided to go up as a nanny.   I'm excited about the time I'll get to spend with the two kids I'll be watching, and very glad to be going up to camp again.  Not only is the scenery beautiful, but the Lord has worked in mighty ways through the camp, and I'm ready to see Him work there again.

I hope that this finds you all well, and that you have all had a blessed Easter!  He has RISEN!   

Book of the Week: Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris

Be warned: don't read this book unless you're ready to make some change in your life.  The book Do Hard Things is a good one about teenagers doing things for God—and not just any old "things", but hard things, things that make us "rebel against low expectations."  This is the book that started it all off for the Harris' boys movement, one that hundreds of teens have stood for in the last four years.  It's about the need for teens to go above and beyond the small prospects their parents, teachers, and other adults constantly (and unknowingly) give them.  How hard can it be to take a little more initiative and get some other things done—something other than the normal, "make your bed, do most of your homework, and have a semi-daily record of taking out the trash?"  Instead, Alex and Brett chose to do above and beyond what they needed to by launching the Rebelution.

This book helps us figure out how to change the way we think based on 1^st Timothy 4:12, "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."  It helps us to go above and beyond the low values and expectations that our country has given to teenagers and help lead a growing group of young people who are totally sold out for God and what He wants for us.  There is a quote by Randy Alcorn on the front cover of this book that defines the whole book—"Will prove to be one of the most life-changing and culture-changing books of this generation."

He'll love till the world ends

Life's been crazy, as usual, but I can't say that I would change that for anything.  Sometimes I think that crazy is good, and other times that good is crazy... it gets complicated. 

 But no matter what, I want to talk about something that I've been relearning lately:  God won't give up on you.  It doesn't matter what you do, how horrible you've been, what your past is like.  God simply won't give up.  He won't let go.  I'm listening to a song by Disciple right now, an older one called After the World.  You've probably heard it before...

 "Was I there for the worst of all your pain?
And was I there when your blue skies ran away?
Was I there when the rains were flooding you off of your feet?
Those were my tears falling down for you, falling down for you

(chorus)
I'm the one that you've been looking for
I'm the one that you've been waiting for
I've had my eyes on you ever since you were born
I will love you after the rain falls down
I will love you after the sun goes out
I'll have my eyes on you after the world is no more

Did I arrange the light of your first day?
Did I create the rhythm your heart makes?
Could you believe when your candle starts to fade
I want to be the one that you believe
could take it all away, take your heart away"

This song is a direct letter from God to me—this is when I love music so much, when the lyrics stands out among the beat and teach me something that I wasn't even looking for.  In this case, it's teaching me that life, however horrible, however hard, is lived with a certain SomeOne at my side.  And that SomeOne has loved me since I was born, and He'll love me until the world ends. 

 That's true for us all—God will never, never let us go or stop loving us.  He is there for the worst of our life, just standing there next to us, waiting for us to talk to Him.  Waiting for us to recognize Him, to let Him help us through.  He won't let you go.

The Relationship of a Lifetime

I went to the Rock and Worship Roadshow over the weekend and Bart Millard, the lead singer of MercyMe, said something that really struck me. He was talking about our relationship with God and how our lives shouldn't be the same after we accept Jesus into our lives as before. He said, "is there ever one of those times when all of a sudden, when you're praying or reading the Bible or just thinking about the Lord, that all of a sudden He's just all over you, dripping from your beard [for those of you who have one!], so close to you that He's inside of you, and you know, you just know that life will never be the same?" That's the relationship between you and God. And your life is going to be different. There's no way around it.Mary knew about this relationship when she sang the song recorded in Luke chapter 1:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”

When you read this song of adoration you can see the joy and peace that lies behind it. When Mary sang it she was so exultant to the Lord that the words most likely poured out, almost on their own, trying to let the wonderful joy Mary had stored up inside her out to the world, to show it a little bit of the love the Lord had for His people. David, in many of the Psalms, shows this same spirit of exultation in Psalm 111, when he says,

"Praise the LORD.
I will extol the LORD with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.
Great are the works of the LORD;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.
Glorious and majestic are his deeds,
and his righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and compassionate.
He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works,
giving them the lands of other nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
They are established for ever and ever,
enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.
He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise."

I can just picture the people of Israel dancing to such a song of glorification and joy, dancing a wild dance of raw beauty and love for their wonderful Lord and true King. That's what I think of when I look back on listening to Bart from MercyMe that night—that's what true joy and adoration are, what it really means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Footsteps

This is the video "Footsteps" by New Tribes Mission, featuring the Bible Translator Lisa Kappeler.  It's an amazing look into the lives of the people serving the Lord on the mission field.

When life gives you lemons...

Have you ever heard the phrase, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?"   My understanding of the sentence is that when bad things come your way, you should simply make something good out of them, or at least look at them in the most positive manner possible.  I struggle with that one, with being happy despite the circumstances, and I think that a lot of other people do, too.  Sometimes other people become down about something that we think isn't a big deal, and we think that they just need to lighten up a bit and then life'll go on just fine.  Other times, it's the opposite—we make a big deal out of a seemingly small thing, and other people start avoiding us because we're complaining and upset about something that's really out of our control.  That's where we need to look to God.
I did a study on the will of God and how we should react to it today, just so I can understand why "bad things" happen in our lives, and what we should do when things don't exactly go our way.  1 Peter 4:19 sums up the whole matter really well:

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

That passage is really hard to comprehend, even though it reads easily enough.  Some people may say that the summery of the verse is "if you're suffering or hurting, it's according to God's will and you should respond to his will by doing good."  I disagree.  I think that the summery should go something like this: "Our faithful and loving Lord will at times make us suffer by His will; during these times we must commit ourselves to His faithfulness and continue to grow and mature in Him."  We need to trust Jesus in the times of our suffering, rejection, pain, or frustration—this is the only way that we are able to grow and do good.  If we chose instead to turn away from God and vent our frustration and anger against other people, all it does is cause more hurt, but God's made a way for us to grow through it instead—by keeping close to Him.
So the next time "life's giving you lemons," don't give them back or act like they don't exist.  Make a big pitcher of lemonade—something sweet from the pain—and share it with family, friends, and most importantly, God!

My Hero

I was listening to the radio today and heard the song Hero by Abandon.  The song has a really neat chorus in it—

There he goes—a hero

A savior to the world
Here he stands with scars in his hands
With love he gave his life so we could be free
The savior of the world

The song really made me stop and think—it's truly about what trusting, believing, and living in God is all about—the Savior of the world, the One who stands watching us with love in His eyes as He is nailed to a tree.  This is the One who let men beat Him, women spit on Him, carried His own cross up the hill until He collapsed under the weight and pain.  He gave Himself to us to be killed, and He let us kill Him without mercy.  And then we watched Him die.
Acts 3:14-15 says exactly what I'm trying to get across here: "You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.  You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead." (emphasis added)

We, (you, me, everyone) in this crazy, broken, hurting, dead world we live in killed that Man.  And it wasn't just a man—it was the Lord, God, the One and Only, the Beginning and the End.  The Author of Life.  Our Creator.

He died, we live.  He rose, we'll rot.  How do we explain this?  Christ the Lord died, we killed him, but then He rose.  And here we are—alive in the body, moving, living, breathing, but when we die, we don't ascend into heaven, we get tossed into the ground.  As I read my Bible during school today I came across some other people who were wondering about this—why the Savior of the world died, and why we killed Him—and why He rose and we die.  The people of Acts were sort of concerned about the whole confusing thing, so Peter began explaining it to them.  They were "cut to the heart" and scared, unsure of how they would enter heaven if they were simply going to die.  They asked Peter and his friends,

"'Brothers, what shall we do?'

Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.'"  (Acts 2:37-38, emphasis added)

That's what the song makes me think off—here's this guy with blood running off his hands, his head, his feet, with bruises and cuts all over his body, and yet he endures it without complaint.  For us.  He wants us to understand that a true hero is one who loves above all else, who doesn't mind ridicule, who is willing to forgive.  He is the hero, the Savior of the world.

Dishes, Names, and Burning Bushes

As I was standing in front of a mountain of dishes tonight, the kitchen lit by a dim florescent bulb, I realized that I had been letting my blog become sadly neglected.  I think that my dog did too, based on the dejected way that she was looking up at me from her bed next to the sink, but then again, that could be because she has a love for maple syrup and eggs.  She has the best I'm-starving-pitiful looks.  And I usually fall for them.

But back to the subject, as I stood there listening to Cat Steven's Greatest Hits and sinking my hands into the dirty dishwater, I wondered what I should write for my next blog post.  At one time (actually, not too long ago), I had it all figured out—I actually came up with ideas of what to write about, and then I sat down and wrote them, but that hasn't been happening lately.  So while I brainstormed, I came across a totally unrelated thought: people seem to get my name wrong when I call them on the phone or introduce myself for the first time.  Grace doesn’t seem that hard to pronounce to me, but I've been called everything from Stacy to Trace—I must have bad pronunciation.  Then I wondered if I could use that in a blog post, you know, stem off of the "getting my name wrong" thing and do something cool with it.  I started thinking of passages in the Bible that might somewhat sort of correspond with that topic.  Can you come up with any?  Most likely not... but I remembered a passage that definitely had to do with names: Moses being called by God.
In Exodus 3-4, God (in the form of a burning bush) and Moses have a very serious conversation.  God's obviously chosen Moses to do His work here on earth, to take the people of Israel out of the land of the Egyptians and to the Promised Land, but Moses isn't so sure.  After a number of questions and excuses—Moses goes from wondering out loud if the people will even believe him to how horrible of a speaker he was—Moses finally asks the One Question that he had been dying to ask.  I can imagine how his knees were knocking as he asked it:

"But Moses said, 'Pardon your servant, Lord.  Please send someone else.'" (Exodus 4:13)

God was angry.  In fact, the passage states that his "anger burned against Moses."  Now I don't know about you, but I don't want the anger of the Lord of everything burning against me.  Moses was probably scared to death and didn't know what to do next.  He was upset, because the Lord had found the "wrong person" for the job.  Not that the Lord ever makes mistakes, Moses most likely reasoned that He just confused the name "Moses" with someone else's, someone braver, better, a public speaker and rabble-rouser.  But no. 
God had chosen Moses for a Big Purpose—to show that the smallest, most incompetent among us can become great and accomplish his dreams.  Although I don't know if Moses' dream at that time was leading thousands of people out of a city and into the desert with a king and his army trailing behind.  But one day, God knew that Moses would come to love the people that he lived for.  And the Lord wasn't about to let Moses miss that opportunity to love them.

Even though that's completely off-topic from people getting my name wrong, I think it's an important lesson to learn—God gives us seemingly impossible, unfathomable, crazy, unacceptable, strange tasks because He wants the best for us.  So the next time you meet up with a burning bush... but seriously.  When He calls, listen.  Don't assume that He's mixed up His names.

Honestly, by VOTA

This is one of the best songs about honesty and what our lives really look like that I've ever heard.

Eagle Lake in the winter!