All is Well

Thank you all for your prayers. My parents have finally been able to get through to my relatives in Florida and they have relayed to me that everyone is well there. Amazingly, the hurricane went directly between the two cities where my relatives live. They did experience hurricane conditions, but no damage to my knowledge, and most importantly, everyone is well. So, thanks again!

Prayer Request - 08/12/04

If you've been watching the news at all lately, you've heard of Hurricane Charley. Well, today they issued evacuations for portions of the West Coast including, Hillsborough County, where my Bobcie Ginger, Bobcie Kay, and Djodju Lawrence live. (FYI: those are the polish names for grandma and grandpa- unsure of spelling. Kay and Lawrence are my great grandparents & Ginger's parents, who is my dad's mom.) Their neighborhood is at Level F according to Hillsborough County's Evacuation Information Websight. Currently only those neighborhoods at level A, B, & C are being evacuated, but we all know the weather can surprise us. Also, we have not been able to reach them all day- possibly due to increased phone usage in their area. So, I'm asking everyone to please pray for the safety and calmness of my family as well as the other families in the area, particularly the 1.3 million having to find someplace else to stay tonight.

Thank You!

Psalm 119:20 Do I have to?

"20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times."

Wow. This verse shames me. I read this and am convicted by all those times when I feel dread at the thought of reading God's Word- not because of what it says, but for the same reasons I feel dread at completing homework assignments. Simply: because it's work. It's not always easy to understand God's Word, and you sometimes have to put in some real effort in crossreferencing verses, checking the Greek source of words, reading commentaries, etc. before you can honestly say that you have some understanding of what the verse truly means. (prayer goes w/o saying) This can sometimes be time consuming and if you're at all human, there are those times when you'd rather be (insert favorite hobby here) than sitting down and scouring pages for answers.

Yet, this verse expresses not just a willingness to study the laws, but a longing for them. It expresses a longing not limited to those Sunday afternoons when you've been especially inspired by that day's sermon, but a longing for God's laws "at all times." For just a moment, sit quietly and imagine what that might look like in your own life: longing for God's law at all times. Did you picture it? What might Monday look like? Tuesday? Wednesday? What things might suddenly take a back seat or monopolize less of your time, in order to make room for more study of God's Word?

I think the next time I feel myself getting that, "Do I have to?" feeling, I'll remember this verse and choose to "long to" instead. Maybe with practice it'll become true "at all times."

After-thought: What if God thought "Do I have to?" when it came to listening to our prayers?

Praise God for His mercy and grace!

Psalm 119:19 Memories of China

"19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me."

At age 17 I had the opportunity to spend some time in China. During my stay, I spent some time in Beijing where they had very sophisticated modes of transportation and clearly marked routes. I also spent some time in a much smaller city (comparatively) and even some time in the rural agricultural areas. In each of these areas I found one common problem- I was always lost. Sure, I might be able to trace my route back to where I'd come from that morning- IF I'd been paying close attention- but if not, forget it!

In the rural areas, streets meandered, crossed, and backtracked in any number of directions (unlike most of the United States where streets are laid out largely in a grid-like pattern) and were frequently unmarked. In the smaller cities, street signs were random and infrequent, and again there was the problem of their meandering lay out. In Beijing, every street was clearly marked- in Chinese! So not only did I frequently become disoriented and have no means of reading a sign (should there be one), but very few streets outside the main couple of blocks of each city had dividing lines. You may be thinking, "What's the big deal? We have plenty of one lane roads in the U.S. without lines." The problem here is that we're talking about 4 to 8 lane roads (two to four lanes in each direction)! Combine that with the crazy number of cyclists competing with vehicles for road space, and pedestrians crossing at any given point along the road, and you can see how confusing the whole situation becomes!

Now, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen and experienced it for myself, but yes, the drivers there actually seem to know what they're doing. I'm not familiar with their license standards or education requirements, but one way or another there is a common knowledge of how to conduct oneself amid what we Americans might view as chaos.

"What," you ask "does this have to do with Psalm 119:19?" Well, the verse brought me back to these memories and showed me that without God's law to guide my life in this world, I'm very much a stranger in a foreign land without any knowledge of where I should go and/or how to get there. Without God's law, I'm just as lost spiritually here on earth, as I was physically lost in China.

Specifically, this verse places me at an exact moment in time when I had gotten lost inside a mall in Beijing, only to find my way back to our group's meeting spot and find them already gone on to the next stop. I had been to far too many places that day to retrace our route back to the small university where we were staying, and I couldn't even remember the name of it. I just stood there, helplessly wondering what in the world I was going to do. (And believe you me, I was PRAYING!) The thought, "I'm alone in a strange land, please don't leave me!" would quite aptly have described the situation. So, when I read, "I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me." I was reminded that I am just as helplessness in finding my way through life without God's Word as I was alone and lost in that mall in China.

God is my light in the dark, my guide through the world of the lost, and my comfort in times of fear.

Psalm 119: 17-18

"17 Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word."

To truly live is to be obedient to, and blessed by God.

"18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law."

Before you can obey God, you must first understand His commands. The only way for you to understand God's commands is for Him to give you an understanding, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Notice how boldly the author requests this understanding. Although we are always to have a reverence and awe of the Lord, we should never hesitate in requesting further understanding of His will and of His Word.

Make this verse a daily prayer! Memorize it and pray it for yourself before beginning any reading of God's Word!

Although I believe it would be beneficial to memorize as much of God's Word as possible, there are few verses I really push for. This is one of them. Please take the time to write this down and post it somewhere you will see each day. Another copy tucked inside the cover of your Bible would be a good idea. These will help you to initially memorize the verse, and then later they will serve as reminders to read your Bible and to do so prayerfully.

Names

It has recently come to my attention that you have three options when commenting. 1- if you have a blogger account you sign in and comment under that name. 2- if you don't have a blogger account you can sign up for one and then comment. 3- if you don't want a blogger account you can comment anonymously.
I think that this last option may present something of a problem in the future, because if I should want to respond to your comment, it could get confusing. So .... if you would like to comment, but do not have and do not want a blogger account, would you mind placing a name of some sort (real or pseudo) at the end of your comment (within the comment box) so that I can clearly respond- if I should desire to do so? Thank you very much. :-)