When the Knight Finally Comes Part 2

Second post done! Here is the continued chronicle of the Great Efum Entrance...


One day Efum came over after church. We had fun talking, studying, playing around. Then he randomly said, I'll be right back, and went out with my dad for a minute. Needless to say, I was rather curious. They came back from the garage after about 5 minutes and I thought, "What could they possibly have talked about in that short a time?" After a little while Efum left to go home and eventually my parents casually sat down on the couch, where I was writing. I was sitting on the couch writing and Mom and Dad both sat down with me. Oh boy. Dad, being the good straight-to-the-point kinda dad he is, got straight to the point. “Well, Ethan asked today for permission to court you.” Before I could say anything we heard Laney scream from the bathroom and then she ran in with a huge smile on her face. My brain just emptied in shock. The parents asked me what I thought and I said I liked the idea of courting Efum. Daddy said he did too, and that he and Mom had been praying about him and had had their eye on him for awhile. Whoa! How neat I thought! We called his dad to schedule a date where we all could talk about it. “I just need to make sure his idea of courting is the same as ours” my dad said. I knew very well that he thought the same as we did about courtship--as a pure, lasting relationship that is not easily thrown aside. I knew my dad was prepared to give Ethan permission. And I think I was in shock, but it was a different kind of shock than I have previously experienced. Before this I would suffer lack of appetite and shakiness due to shock, but now it felt like my mind had just been wiped. It felt like walking out of the ACT. I had only one rational thought for two long days—that I knew I would court Efum. That God wanted that. For some reason I imagined God kind of doing the universal “I-know-something-and-I'm-not-gonna-say-anything-about-it” face. Trust me, I'd gotten to know that face REAL well that past month or so on God and several other people that had suspected Efum's intent. I really wanted to think or feel something--I wanted to be excited, or maybe ditzy--but my head just could not wrap my itself around what was happening...this had certainly never happened before.

Finally, two days later we were in the car on the way to Efum's house. I still wasn't able to think, though I knew very clearly what was going on and what I would be committing to. That was all God—emptying my brain, yet keeping necessary content intact. We pulled up to the house and Dad prayed in the car. It made me feel a little less jittery and nervousish. We got out and knocked on the door. The only thing I remember seeing at the time was Efum standing in the hall waiting for us. Mom, Dad, Efum, his parents and I all went and sat in the living room and small talked for awhile (I don't remember a single thing that was said then, my stomach was freaking out). After a short while, Efum and I were dismissed with his big brother Caesar so the parents could talk alone.  Then I talked with his wonderful parents while he spoke with mine (it was fun hearing each other's sides of the story at this part, even though the same thing happened). We talked about what we thought courtship was all about, and our views on marriage and commitment, etc. THEN....a knock at the door. *GASP* Butterflies invaded my whole insides and stayed there. Before I knew it I was outside walking beside Efum with our moms walking far enough behind to see, yet not hear. Efum said, "I've gotten permission from your dad, but I need to ask you personally...do you really want to court me?" Well YEAH!  I had waited my whole life to be asked that. I knew how special and important it was. I said, “yes, I'd love to”. I had finally met my knight. He had finally come for me.

Lately I've been in a poetry swing...

It's actually kinda cool. I'm not sure why this is, but poetry is sometimes a really cool and artistic way of getting a point across to the LORD. I'm not the only one--it worked for David! So anyway, last night I was working on this one, with currently no title...

Lord, you are my defender

From each and every foe.

You've defeated every enemy

That sought to wreak me woe.

But now I see a new tempter,

Her like I'vve never known.

The frightening thing is that her face

Looks just like my own.

True, she has poked at me before,

but she'd been easy to shelf.

She now, somehow, has horrid power--

This version of myself.

She makes me think of awful things,

She dirties me inside.

She makes my hands displease me Lord.

It's her I can't abide.

But my God is bigger than even this monster

And He keeps me in His sight.

I will not be held captive here,

He'll save me by His might.

Lord, set a watch over my tongue,

Allow no ill to exit.

Please stop my deeds from hurting those

Who can't and don't deserve it.

But most of all, please guard my heart,

And keep it as pure as the sea.

Suffer no evil to enter it--

Please save me Lord, from me.

So ladies and gentlemen, I am proof--even if you are no good at poetry, the Lord doesn't mind. I think he likes to hear it. Nobody take this one or anything, though it's probably not good enough for anyone to WANT to take... :)

Going to see a movie today with my dear sista and maybe some friends! :D

The one that made me smile this morning

"This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all." ~ 1 John 1:5

Something about hearing this one on the radio when you're just waking up and light is peeking through the blinds is just awesome. Our God is LIGHT! The very nature of light. Before anything existed, He said...

"Let there be LIGHT!"

And there was.

And there is no darkness at all in our God. God cannot go against His nature--He cannot ever contain any darkness! We never have to worry about darkness or grief coming from Him.

Christ Works in ME

Philippians 2:13 ~ "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

This verse really got my attention this time around. I know I've read it a million times, but this time I sat and stared at it for like 5 minutes. It dawned on me that my simply WANTING to do God's will is, well, God working! Of course it is Him working when I actually DO His will. But now it smashed me in the head that I cannot will to fulfill God's purposes unless it is Him working in me! If God is not working in somebody, that person cannot wish to do the will of God.

An encouraging thought, is it not?

Stories

Today Stuart McAllister, one of RZIM's speakers, was on at apologetics. He spoke more wonderfully than usual of Ravi Zecharias. I used to wonder if the littler evangelists knew what it was about the great evangelists that made them excellent speakers. Now I know that they know :)

One of the things he mentioned about Dr. Ravi was that he uses stories perfectly. It's true--he always has a story and it ties in perfectly to what he's saying, and he can explain his whole point with that one story. It's really amazing--it makes him easy to understand, and you can see how the point applies to real life just because he told the story.

Stories are amazing things. Dr. McAllister talked about movies, and what great conversation they are, and about WHY they are such great conversation starters. It is because the story is usually one of hope. He used Finding Nemo as an example. It's not just a story about fish. The son gets taken away, and the dad goes off and braves the ocean to find his son, and all kinds of things happen, and OH WE'RE GONNA DIE, and then..........they're reunited and live happily ever after. WHY do we love stories like that? WHY do stories work as such openers, hooks, and attention grabbers? Dr. McAllister says, "The stories we love only work because there's a primal story from which they draw their power".

"If we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendor of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get in."

~C.S. Lewis

We need to see THROUGH beauty to what beauty points to.

My new favorite quote

I heard my new favorite quote in apologetics this week. You shall hear it at the end--no skipping :) Let's start with a passage from John 11.

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said.

"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Let us compare this with Jesus's resurrection in John 20...

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed."

There are a few major differences in these resurrections. First and most obvious: Jesus was God, Lazarus was a man. But notice that in Lazarus's case, the previously dead man walked out, all wrapped up in grave clothes. When the disciples walked into the tomb, the grave clothes were still there. Now you don't see this when you just read this the first time, but I have heard Christian historians who know how dead people used to be wrapped up say that, from their recorded position, the cloths had not been moved at all. But notice, the rolling away of the stone happened in both occasions. Lazarus needed the stone to be rolled away so that he could come out. But evidently, Jesus went right through the clothes, so obviously he didn't NEED that angel to go up and roll the stone away.

And now my new favorite quote:

The stone to Jesus's tomb was rolled away not to let Him out--but to let us in.

Esther and delights of reading slowly

Does anybody know who wrote the book of Esther? Because I am reading through it and for the first time noticing how much I LOVE how it is written! There is great description of EVERYTHING and it is such an amazing story! I am loving going through it slowly. We see that Esther, who has been raised by her cousin, is very obedient to him. And in the study I am doing, it brought up the idea that, since she was so used to obeying and being respectful to Mordecai, it carried over to Hegai, who was in charge of her beauty treatments. A neat thought that I had never thought of, that :)

I've also noticed some really funny things about Haman's character. He calls his friends over JUST to brag, and also throws formal pity parties! I'm laughing as I type :D

And here's a nice ditty - Esther knows that food is a good way to open up a request :D The first thing she does is invite the King to TWO dinners before she makes such a great request as to be granted her and her people's life. I'm told by my parents that is is still effective today--and I've used it once or twice myself ;P

Can yall tell I'm having fun studying slowly? ;P

An aspect of God I never really noticed or thought of before

I love it when people are nice to me for no reason. When I'm talking to someone and they take a particular interest in what's up with me I feel special. When somebody sends me an email, private messages me, posts on my facebook wall, or otherwise goes out of their way to think of me when I'm not even there with them it just about makes my day. I think everybody likes it, but it means more to some than others :) I try to do it to other people since I like it so much. But for some reason I never thought that God ever thought about it. I read in Genesis 15 that God randomly comes up to Abram and says,

"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

How cool is THAT, thinks I!!!! Our God is a thoughtful God! Abram wasn't about to attack an army with a ball-point pen, or stand up to 50 giants with one bouncy ball as a weapon. It was just random--God knew when Abram needed/wanted a boost.

This is what I have noticed and now very much like about God. I wonder how many aspects of Him I'll discover as time goes on? It's just amazing that God has so much to Him anyway!

By the way--go drop a note on your friend's blog, it's nice to do :)

God my hero

Two things we should establish right at the start: Number 1 - I am a big sucker for knights. The sense of "awwwww..." I have when I read all those stories about the damsels in distress and the knights ride in and kill the bad guys and save the girls is the one hopelessly romantic streak in my body. When you have a knight at your side nothing TOO terrible can happen, because he is just drooling for the opportunity to save you. Same with a Dad or anybody that cares about you that happens to be bigger and stronger than you. Nothing can be all THAT bad because there is a hero standing by!

Point two - moving is quite scary and uncomfortable and unpleasant and sad and all those horrid things. Especially when you've no place to go and don't really know why you are going. Yes, there are good parts about going, but we're not at those parts yet, so now is all the bad. For some reason my mindset was that God sitting back watching all this stuff happen and thinking that I shouldn't be feeling how I am about it. Sort of a, "Well fine if you feel that way, you're doing it anyway, so you'll get over it." Don't know why I thought this - God certainly didn't say it. But after I realized this was what I was assuming, God showed me that first of all, he had been the ultimate hero in coming to earth as a human and dying in my place so that I could be with him forever. And now he wants to be my hero in my everyday life! He is waiting for when he can rush in and save me and give me good things and make me feel better.

So now, I'm not so worried about what could or could not happen, because I have a hero waiting for me to be in trouble so he can rescue me!

Yet another great Psalm

This was in yesterday's reading, but I really wanted to go back and read it again today. It is Psalm 118 and you can look it up if you wish (you should), but I am going to go through and put my favorite parts here...

In my anguish I cried to the LORD,

and he answered by setting me free.
The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?
The LORD is with me; he is my helper.

I will look in triumph on my enemies.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD

than to trust in man.

I was pushed back and about to fall,

but the LORD helped me.
The LORD is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation.
Shouts of joy and victory

resound in the tents of the righteous:

"The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!
The LORD's right hand is lifted high;

the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"
I will not die but live,

and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

Describing the LORD

In the beginning of Hebrews, the angels and the Son are compared. Paul has a great compilation of prophecies and praises about God that he puts together here.

"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,

and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

by anointing you with the oil of joy.

In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

You will roll them up like a robe;

like a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

and your years will never end."

Is this not as close as it gets to describing God? At least as far as the English language can go.

Drive em out!!!

We got a new verse memorizing curriculum type thing where they give you verses to memorize and you get prizes and awards for doing it. This week I have a verse I never really noticed before in Deuteronomy...

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, "Destroy them!" ~ Deuteronomy 33:27

This one gives me a cool visual - it's like Lucy in Prince Caspian standing across the bridge with her little knife facing a million Telmarine soldiers. I jazzed it up and made the Telmarines attack in my visual. Then... ASLAN comes with a whole army of centuars!!!! He roars and says to the centuars and the water god, "Destroy them!!!!"

It's great to have a God that will do that.

Just plain happy

For some reason, I am quite happy.

I think it may even be the "4th day" but so far I am just feeling happy!

When I feel happy and my insides are bouncy, and I don't really know why, I just assume it's all God!:) I always love to either think or hear it said that God is the reason for all things joyful and fun. Satan would have us never be happy or joyful! I think it's weird when people think Christians are boring and live lives not having any fun - Christians can have the most fun because we know where joyfulness and fun come from! Satan doesn't WANT you to be happy!

James 1:17 ~ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Or in my words at the moment, "Every happy and joyful thing has been sent by God, who loves to give us good things."

Not to say that you can't have fun doing drugs or something and say it's good because fun is from God. The... essence of fun is from God - how you do it is up to you. You can sin and have fun, but you know... well I guess I don't know, but it seems like it would be hard to just be happy like my kind of happy that you can't explain without having Jesus in you life.

Concert!!!

Last night I went with Pam, Jen, and Rommel to the Bread of Stone/VOTA/Decemberadio/newsboys concert!!! We took our seats in the balcony and got ready for da show! Bread of Stone was up first, and they were pretty great! My reputation will be ruined if you listen to their stuff on iTunes, but they were TONS better live!!!!!! They were one of the loudest bands with lotsa guitar and hot drumming! So when they get a LIVE cd, buy that one:) But check them out and see what you think!

THEN.... VOTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were amazing!!!! They sang Alright, Hard to Believe, Honestly, and Free to Fail - basically all the songs I had hoped they would sing!!! I was so excited!!! You can download a special album of theirs for free at http://www.peoplescitymission.com/ As Rommel pointed out, we could've gone home right then and I would've been satisfied, but Decemberadio was up next!!! They sang a couple new songs, Everlasting God (pleasant surprise) and even some hymns! They set the focus for some great worship time coming up after the intermission when... MICHAEL TAIT comes up as the new lead singer for newsboys!!! I knew he would be doing this, but I wasn't expecting it so soon! The crowd went nuts (like newsboys was the main attraction of the night or something:P) and the newsboys were magnificent!!!!!!!!!!! Michael Tait did a great job, and since he's Michael Tait, they sang Colored People and In the Light!!!! Since I still call DC Talk one of my favorite bands, I was insanely happy. As the Newsboys they sang their good ones like I am Free, Breakfast, Something Beautiful, Shine, and the like. They did some worship time with Blessed Be the Name and I think Amazing Grace and some other great ones that made everyone praise God. It was really amazing - worshiping God with a zillion other people I didn't even know!
After the show was over we rushed down to try to get to VOTA first. Failed miserably, but I worked my way through the free download crowd to say hey and get them to sign the little poster I made. I had earlier made an "I heart VOTA" shirt that I was wearing and they said, "No way!" "You made yourself a shirt?" "It's our first fan!":P They signed my poster and made some video of me with their phone! Then when we found our camera holder we went back and they signed my shirt and we got a picture!!! I'm still in estcasy:) Actually the lead singer didn't just SIGNATURE the shirt, he actually wrote his nickname (Bry) with a little smiley face, as I discovered later:D

Didn't take long to get a picture with Decemberadio either:D They were real nice and complimented my little homemade poster while signing:)

It was a superfun night! Thank you to Pam and Jen and Rommel for taking me and thank you to God for inventing concerts, since they are the awesomest things in the world!!!:D

Me with VOTA (Supercool!!!!!!!!)

Me with Decemberadio (Cool!!!)

Pretty Psalms

Today I read in Psalms! It was especially beautimous this time, and a lot of the passages got me hooked like when you're reading a scary novel. I found the BETTER IS ONE DAY song...

"How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God...

Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere."

~Psalm 84:1-2,10

Also here are the pretty passage that hooked me (with my notes in red)...

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. (This part made me think of the journey in Pilgrim's Progress, which is so much like what Christians do today. I should read that again...)
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. (Wherever we go the bluebirds sing, and the flowers bloom and the grass gets green... We brought the welcome mat - wherever we go, that's where the party's at:P)

They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion." (Strength to strength - think about what that means. It may seem like we find new weaknesses in ourselves all the time, but God helps us with them and makes us stronger! We go from strength to strength! God's followers do not stay in weakness!)

"I will listen to what God the LORD will say;

he promises peace to his people, his saints—

but let them not return to folly."

No turning back! Don't return to folly!

And since we're on a roll with lovely truth, here's the bridge to the song I'm listening to right now...

Let the light escape from this hole inside my soul

When I start to break then grace begins to flow

Let the light escape from this lonely place inside my soul

Where'd all the KNIGHTS go?

Yesterday I took my sword and knighted Mayf and Jess as Knights of the Oval Table, since they're in charge of cleaning it off. They thought is was VERRRY cool, and sauntered downstairs to quiet time like they were something great. Not two minutes later I heard Bird yelp and peeked down the stairs. "Mayf, what did you do?"

Mayf grinned and pointed at the flustered Bird on the floor. "I tackled her!"

"What? Mayf, knights are supposed to always protect the girls! You have to beat up the guys that tackle them!"

Mayf's eyebrows shot up. "OoOoOoOoOoOooooh... ok!"

What with this incident and a book I'm reading with the girls that has this wonderful knight in it, I started wondering... where'd all the knights go? Made me think of this kind of funny poem...

The days of Chivalry are dead,
Of which in stories I have read,
When knights were bold and acted kind of scrappy;
They used to take a lot of pains
And fight all day to please the Janes,
And if their dame was tickled they was happy.
But now the men are mild and meek:
They seem to have a yellow streak:
They never lay for other guys, to flatten 'em:
They think they've done a darned fine thing
If they just buy the girl a ring
Of imitation diamonds and platinum.

Funny, but sorta true! I miss the knights. I hope there's still one out there somewheres...

A Poetic Visual

"The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,

shining ever brighter till the full light of day."

When I read this, I pictured a good sunrise. Getting up at 5 in the morning when it's still pitch dark and driving is a good way to see one. You're in the car, then it starts to get barely lighter. You still can't see the sun, then suddenly it peeks over the horizon, sending light all around. As it rises it get steadily brighter until everything is bright and you pull out your sunglasses.

You don't usually think of the path of the righteous that way. But when you visualize it, it becomes a lot clearer. When you go along the good path more and more people see what you're doing, and the path gets brighter as the world grows darker, until that path eventually leads to our ultimate goal.

Anyone wanna go for a hike?

Psalm 45:10-11

"Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord."

Our church did a ladies' Bible study once that talked about these verses. It talked about God being enthralled by our beauty and calling us to his side. When God calls us, we can run to Him with reckless abandon, leaving our former lives in the dust! It's time to be with God and live a whole new life!

I don't know if I described that well at all, it sounded much better in the study:Z