I'm in Central PA for the rest of the week. I've been enjoying my time out here...

Today I drove out to Elizabethtown where I got to have lunch and visit with a very special friend. When I was a part of the youth group in high school we had a "Prayer Aunt/Uncle" program. They matched us young folk with older members in the church congregation who prayed for us. Mrs. Bauer was my Prayer Aunt since probably my junior year in high school (1993!). She has been faithfully praying for my since and has been such a sweet encouragement!


We had lunch in the BEAUTIFUL dining hall (tall ceilings, wood floors and ceilings, stained glass everywhere), took a tour of the residential campus where she lives and had a great visit. She also bought me two chocolate-filled Easter eggs (coconut and peanut butter!) I already ate the coconut one... it was YUUUUMMY!!!!



After leaving Elizabethtown I drove to Grantham, PA to visit with my sister at Messiah College.



I'm staying with her in her dorm... fun!


Having fun tagging along with her, eating her guest meals at the dining hall. In general, you know just being the annoying big sis :)

...because I have a tendency to forget...
...because I have a tendency to focus on other things...

I desire that God would keep impressing on my heart the reason why I am doing this.

It is for worship of Him. That in my life, through my life I’d worship Him. It is that through my worship, others may come to worship Him. It is because He is worthy of worship.
I appreciate the writings of John Piper. His book, Let the Nations be Glad helps me to remember.

“Missions exists because worship doesn’t….The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist – who holds every person’s life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) – is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed and dishonored among the peoples of the world. That is the ultimate reason for missions."

"The opposite of this disrespect is worship. Worship is not gathering. It is not essentially a song service or sitting under preaching. Worship is not essentially any form of outward act. Worship is essentially an inner stirring of the heart to treasure God above all the treasures of the world –

• a valuing of God above all else that is valuable
• a loving of God above all else that is lovely
• a savoring of God above all else that is sweet
• an admiring of God above all else that is admirable
• a fearing of God above all else that is fearful
• a respecting of God above all else that is respectable
• a prizing of God above all else that is precious."

"In other words, worship is right affections in the heart towards God, rooted in right thoughts in the head about God, becoming visible in right actions of the body reflecting God."

"The first and ultimate goal of missions is that this worship happens among all the nations of the world – that God’s glory and greatness find a fitting reflection among the peoples." (p. 206-207)

At church this past Sunday, the little cherub choir sang the song, "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory."

Cute kids. Cute song. Basically, in sing-song style it tells the story of Noah and the ark. The song made me start thinking about Noah, his family and the animals on that ark. Something stood out to me as I looked at the story again.

Genesis 7:6 says, "Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth."

Then, in Genesis 8:13-18 it says..."By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."

So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives."

One year. Noah, his family and the animals were on the ark for one year. One year.

40 days. That's been the number I've remembered. I've never really paid attention to the fact that they were on the ark for much longer. MUCH longer.

What was that like? How patient were they? Did they wonder and question if they'd end up being there forever? Did they get antsy? What did they do during that whole time? Were they just constantly and continually filled with awe and gratitude that they weren't "out there?"

Noah was on the ark for one year. But he followed God all along the way before even stepping foot on the ark. His life was marked by faith and obedience. It is what got him safely in that ark in the first place.

That I would have the faith and obedience of Noah. To do what God asked Him to do. To wait for Him to move, work and finish what He sets out to accomplish. To see His faithfulness, remember it, and move believing it... each step along the way.

Happy Valentine's Day, my sweet friends!

"We love, because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." - Ephesians 3:14-19

I got the yummy image from this blog that had tons of ideas for celebrating Valentine's Day.

• the sun was out and it was a BEAUTIFUL day.

• I got to work from a Panera here in PA with a patio!! (Okay, it was too cold for me to sit outside, but still -- nice to know it's an option for the warmer days to come).
• I got a good bit of stuff done during my relatively short time in Panera.

• "LOST" is back tonight for a new season.
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• I experienced such sweet words of encouragement and prayers from friends from all over the place.