Thirsty Traveler

Quarters

2006-11-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Images from Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.

Today is significant and memorable for two reasons: Mom and Dad!

Twenty five years ago they were joined for life in a rustic Catholic church in the little-known hamlet called Foremost. Today they have five children, 9,125 days of embarrassing, impacting, precious, and unforgettable memories, a farm and homestead that they work on with love and care, a church fellowship in which to grow and invest, and most importantly--a growing and intimate relationship with their Lord and friend, Jesus Christ.

Being gone from home has caused me to grow in my respect and love for both of you! You're my best friends, greatest heroes, confidants, counselors, and valued prayer warriors. The growing life of Christ in you is evidence of His intense and passionate love for you. Twenty five years isn't long: it's just a road sign letting you know that you're one step closer to Heaven.

I know that you will be faithful to continue running the race with confidence and purpose because of how you habitually exhort me to do just that.

I love you both.

And for the rest of you who have popped on my blog, I thought you might enjoy reading my sister, Chloe's, perspective on the past twenty five years of our parent's lives.

Here 'tis.

Hey you two wonderful people known as my propagators!

25 years ago, Dad had 50% more hair
Mom had 50% more body mass (and she was slim then!)

Dad had a skinny frame
Mom had a muscled physique

Dad had glasses
Mom had pit socks

Dad had traveled 300 miles
Mom had bounced a dozen drunks

Dad gave up his priestly ambitions
Mom gave up her future in breeding pigs

Dad started driving school bus
Mom stopped driving school bus

Dad had teeth, unlike his parents
Mom had teeth (all of them)

Dad had never hiked West Buette
Mom had never made Collin spaghetti sauce

Dad liked coffee
Mom liked raw oatmeal in milk

Dad owned

The Land of New Zealand

2006-11-03T06:02:00.000-08:00

From Drudgery To Delight

2006-11-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

How vision is born through communion with God

The busyness of doing swarms your day, your prayer closet is filled with cobwebs, worship is reduced to Sunday morning, those ten how-to steps just don’t cut it, crying out to God is seen as weakness, stalemates reign in the attempt to find harmony in head knowledge and heart intuition, fasting is a hard slog, and delight in Christ seems aloof and something only the ancient monks seemed to know and understand. Is this what transformation is supposed to look like?

Not at all. In fact, this description is much closer to the reality of drinking from our own broken cisterns rather than tasting and seeing the Lord’s goodness and beauty. We become weary from living in the cruel pendulum that swings from high exaltation of Christ and Spirit-led living, to the drudgery and despair of existing in a fallen world and eating yesterday’s manna. In the midst of this nightmare, we vainly hope for a radical transformation that requires no change on our part. So what is transformation, anyway? In essence, I believe it’s what happens when we allow the Holy Dove to move truth from the head to the heart.

Do you remember God’s words in Isaiah? “Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or whine, Israel, saying, ‘God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me’? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.”

We say we need God, but we continue to drink polluted water, rush ahead of His sovereign will, and become strained under the weight of worry and fear. The vision is marred in the midst of normal life, we overlook the original glory for which we were created, slip into the habits of the old man, become despondent when the troubles of normal life approach, and fail to remember that God longs to draw near in the trouble—helping us find the faith that is worth more than gold.

Ultimately, we forget that the Holy Dove has filled the redeemed with longings that He alone can satisfy.

How do we find our way back to the source? Journey back to the land of Edom, near Mont Hor, to one of the clearest portraits of Christ in the Pentateuch, where we find ready atonement, the necessity of decision—and transformation. The ready atonement is the bronze serpent, high and lifted up; the necessity of decision is the enigma of free will that is placed before all of us; and the transformation is the result of what Elisabeth Elliot called the glad surrender.

What is surrender but the relinquishing of my right and will and the embracing of His desires? Surrender lays down the shadow-land’s weapons and picks up the heavenly armor, preparing our spirits and minds for the war of our times, and ultimately engaging in the battle so few recognize. Surrender chooses to lay aside the weights that keep us from running the race; it’s disciplines our will, mind, and emotions according to the grid of Scripture; and prefers to delight in the Source of vision and purpose. Ultimately, surrender chooses to see Christ for who He is: the Holy and Perfect Word of God, Sacrificial Lamb, Resurrected Lord, and Merciful Saviour who now lives to intercede for us.

Turning drudgery to delight is akin to feasting from the table of grace rather than sponging on the floor, searching for crumbs from the table. The daily transformation takes time. It’s okay to sit in the highchair at the table of grace, learning to drink in His goodness, and feasting on His faithfulness.

So often I forget to think about life and go from day to day without seeing the ultimate reality. But I’m learning that God is in the present, and that’s where He wants me to live, too.

“I came that they might have life, and have it to the full.”

Maritime Images

2006-10-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

Taking the 75 minute ferry ride to P.E.I.

The "Spice Island" in sight

Flower Pot Rocks in Nova Scotia

Canada, eh! Episode: 5

2006-10-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Ha! Is it any wonder that we're still single?

Avery with Theadore the Tugboat at Halifax Harbor.

More pix from Niagra Falls

Food for Thought

2006-10-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

“There is a prospect greater than the sea, and it is the sky; there is a prospect greater than the sky, and it is the human soul. To make a poem of the human conscious, even in the terms of a single man and the least of men, would be to merge all epics in a single epic transcending all. To peer at certain moments into the withdrawn face of a human being in the act of reflection, to see something of what lies beyond their outward silence, is to discern struggle on a grand scale.” —Victor Hugo

Canada, eh! Episode: 4

2006-10-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung. "

The crew closing her up for winter.

This is the famous schooner, Bluenose. Because she defines so much of the heart and soul of Canadian patriotism (including being etched on our dime), seeing her was a unique and historic experience.

Canada, eh! Episode: 3

2006-10-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Crab legs

Canada, eh! Episode: 2

2006-09-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

What could be better than stalemate chicken fights in the pool, Frosties at Wendy’s, whale watching, great music, and of course . . . Focus on the Family Radio Theatre? We are having a blast just hanging out together as a family! I’m learning a little bit more of what “taste and see that the Lord is good” really means. It seems that we’re coming to the season of family life where we just have fun together—even if there are five (soon to be six) adults in the family. I am being in being able to see more of who Christ is through the family that He has given me.

Thank You, Father, for not giving up on us, and for fashioning Your children into vessels of honour.

The real you!

Chloe the artist . . .

Avery

Niagra Falls, ON

Luke (a.k.a. Futz)

Canada, eh! Episode: 1

2006-09-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pix of our trip thus far. Since nobody takes the time to read captions, I didn't bother inserting many. Enjoy

The Macinac Bridge, MI

Down With the Old, Up With the New

2006-09-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Baptism: It’s something the nominal Christian should do, right? All too often I can slip into the conventional opinion of contemporary Christianity that says baptism is just a simple act of obedience a Christian is expected to undergo—nothing more, nothing less. Even worse, I can be tricked into believing that my obedience in baptism will be followed by the approval of God and others. The problem with this thesis is that Christ is not normal. His way of doing things is beyond what we would expect, and it cannot be followed successfully by our finite and imperfect understanding. He finds no gratification in endorsed sacrifices, acts of physical obedience, and barren prayers.

So why did God the Father institute the holy act of obedience? Think of Christ’s baptism: it was the beginning of His three year ministry and was trailed by a season of vision, holy communion with His God, and intense spiritual warfare. Heaven opened, the Dove descended, and the Father gave His hallowed approval of His Son. Baptism, this act of obedience—the answer of a good conscience toward God—opens the human heart to the pleasure of walking in His will and tasting His goodness. Why did God design the human soul to take pleasure and find its gratification in Him? Could it be that the soul of man was fashioned to contain and display His glory and honour?

Baptism is a public declaration that I am alive to Christ and dead to the world; it embodies the freedom a believer has from the enslaving power of sin and the spiritual unleashing of the soul to walk in communion with Jesus Christ. Picture yourself standing in a coffin that is filled with water. This is what the new life in Christ is all about. Life is no longer centered on me. I’m not the point. I can’t continue living for my own purposes. Christ’s life within pushes a believer beyond the normal life of drudgery and self-condemnation into transformation, freedom, purpose, and glory.

Christ’s radical method of discipleship forces me to realize that I must be consumed and encompassed by Him at any cost. “. . . Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” Containing the Lord Jesus is the greatest honour we who are mere jars of clay could possibly imagine!

Witnessing someone else’s baptism is akin to attending a funeral. As the spectator, you see the old man going down and watch the new man coming up. A holy humility flooded me as I watched my brother Luke standing on the shore of the water the day of his baptism.

Luke, you’ve had to make tough choices in the last year. Christ Himself chose the less-traveled path so He could learn to desire God’s best. I see this same refining taking place in your life dear Luke, and I’m often humbled at the spiritual gait in which you are learning to live. Luke, keep making Christ your first choice; let His dreams guide your life, His Spirit fill you, and His vision consume you. Hearing the words to this song on the day you went down under the water impassioned my heart and filled my eyes with tears.

"Forgetting the things behind me;
Reaching for the high call;
Don’t care what it may cost me,
I’m ready to give my all.
There’s a passion deep inside of me
You are my one and only need.

"I really wanna know You more
My heart is hungry for You, Lord
I really wanna know You more
My prayer, O Holy Father:
Take me out to deeper water
I’m pushing now out from the shore
I really wanna know You more

"So tired of ordinary, sanctified complacency
I have this holy hunger
I wanna see Your majesty
There’s a passion deep inside of me
And that passion drives me to my knees"

Keep learning to hear His voice, Luke and He’ll be faithful to change you from glory to glory, to encompass you from before and behind, and to complete the work He started in you.

I love you.

Arousing the Dreamer

2006-09-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

In harmony with stirring a thirst for the eternal, this aged poem has been gripping my soul for the last few days and it needs to find expression on the page--not just the heart. All too often the human soul forgets its origin and the purpose for which it was created. We live in a dream: the pain of silence rules our thought life, original sin threatens to plague us, and fear of the future enslaves our longings. We need the Spirit to shake us from the dream into which we fall and awaken us to the reality of Heaven. The original glory for which the man was created is often marred by the shadowlands, making us forget that no one but Jesus Christ can awaken the soul and breate eternal life into the spirit. We talk about the sufficiency of Christ as if it were some far-out theological notion--not realizing that it should permeate our worldview, dictate our choices, and guide our dreams. "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."

"The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;
The summer morn I’ve sighed for—the fair, sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"O Christ, He is the fountain, the deep, sweet well of love!
The streams of earth I’ve tasted more deep I’ll drink above:
There to an ocean fullness His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"Oh! Well it is forever, Oh! well forevermore,
My nest hung in no forest of all this death doomed shore:
Yea, let the vain world vanish, as from the ship the strand,
While glory—glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"There the Red Rose of Sharon unfolds its heartsome bloom
And fills the air of heaven with ravishing perfume:
Oh! To behold it blossom, while by its fragrance fanned
Where glory—glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"The King there in His beauty, without a veil is seen:
It were a well spent journey, though seven deaths lay between:
The Lamb with His fair army, doth on Mount Zion stand,
And glory—glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"Oft in yon sea beat prison My Lord and I held tryst,
For Anwoth was not heaven, and preaching was not Christ:
And aye, my murkiest storm cloud was by a rainbow spanned,
Caught from the glory dwelling in Immanuel’s land.

"But that He built a Heaven of His surpassing love,
A little new Jerusalem, like to the one above,
“Lord take me over the water” hath been my loud demand,
Take me to my love’s own country, unto Immanuel’s land.

"But flowers need nights cool darkness, the moonlight and the dew;
So Christ, from one who loved it, His shining oft withdrew:
And then, for cause of absence my troubled soul I scanned
But glory shadeless shineth in Immanuel’s land.

"The little birds of Anwoth, I used to count them blessed,
Now, beside happier altars I go to build my nest:
Over these there broods no silence, no graves around them stand,
For glory, deathless, dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"Fair Anwoth by the Solway, to me thou still art dear,
Even from the verge of heaven, I drop for thee a tear.
Oh! If one soul from Anwoth meet me at God’s right hand,
My heaven will be two heavens, In Immanuel’s land.

"I’ve wrestled on towards Heaven, against storm and wind and tide,
Now, like a weary traveler that leaneth on his guide,
Amid the shades of evening, while sinks life’s lingering sand,
I hail the glory dawning from Immanuel’s land.

"Deep waters crossed life’s pathway, the hedge of thorns was sharp;
Now, these lie all behind me Oh! for a well tuned harp!
Oh! To join hallelujah with yon triumphant band,
Who sing where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"With mercy and with judgment my web of time He wove,
And aye, the dews of sorrow were lustered with His love;
I’ll bless the hand that guided, I’ll bless the heart that planned
When throned where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"Soon shall the cup of glory wash down earth’s bitterest woes,
Soon shall the desert briar break into Eden’s rose;
The curse shall change to blessing the name on earth that’s banned
Be graven on the white stone in Immanuel’s land.

"O I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved’s mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner into His “house of wine.”
I stand upon His merit—I know no other stand,
Not even where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

"I shall sleep sound in Jesus, filled with His likeness rise,
To love and to adore Him, to see Him with these eyes:
’Tween me and resurrection but Paradise doth stand;
Then—then for glory dwelling in Immanuel’s land.

"The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory but on my King of grace.
Not at the crown He giveth but on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.

"I have borne scorn and hatred, I have borne wrong and shame,
Earth’s proud ones have reproached me for Christ’s thrice blessed Name:
Where God His seal set fairest they’ve stamped the foulest brand,
But judgment shines like noonday in Immanuel’s land.

"They’ve summoned me before them, but there I may not come,
My Lord says “Come up hither,” My Lord says “Welcome home!”
My King, at His white throne, my presence doth command
Where glory—glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land."

Birth Pangs

2006-09-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

Homesick for perfection?
Can you hear the sighing of the wind?
Beyond the pain of pride
Beneath the sting of fear
Above the silence of forgetfulness

Homesick for restoration?
Can you feel the pulse of the longing seas?
Crunching through the shadows
Trusting in the darkness
Above the whispers of bitterness

Homesick for satisfaction?
Can you sense the silence of the mountains?
Pushing for so much more
Gasping for redemption
Above the pain of sickness

Homesick for realization?
Can you see the dimness of the stars?
Waiting for restoration
Singing but still dreaming
Above the waves of silence

Things aren't the way they seem
Homesick for eternity
Longing for rebirth
Waiting for resurrection
Above the shadows of the earth

"'Live each day as if it were your last day on earth. One of them will be. You have your orders--I send you to battle. You are a soldier, and I would not promise a soldier ease. I promise you difficulty, but with it resources and purpose and joy.' As long as we're still here in the parched wastelands of the present earth, God calls us to offer refreshment to a world full of people dying of thirst. What should we offer them? Exactly what they thirst for--a person and a place. Jesus is that person. Heaven is that place."--Randy Alcorn

"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. Theses sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."--Romans 8:22

"Why do we not know the country whose citizens we are? Because we have wandered so far away that we have forgotten it. But the Lord Christ, the king of the land, came down to us, and drove forgetfulness from our heart. God took to Himself our flesh so that He might be our way back."--Augustine

"Most of us find it very difficult to want 'Heaven' at all--except so far as 'Heaven' means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it."--C.S. Lewis

"I once scorned ev'ry fearful thought of death, When it was but the end of pulse and breath, But now my eyes have seen that past the pain There is a world that's waiting to be claimed. Earthmaker, Holy, let me now depart, For living's such a temporary art. And dying is but getting dressed for God, Our graves are merely doorways cut in sod." --Calvin Miller

"The church is constantly being tempted to accept this world as her home . . . but if she is wise she will consider that she stands in the valley between the mountain peaks of eternity past and eternity to come. The past is gone forever and the present is passing as swift as the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz. Even if the earth should continue a million years not one of us could stay to enjoy it. We do well to think of the long tomorrow." --A.W. Tozer