love – Page 7 – Elizabeth Smillie

announcing …………

August 24, 2007 Elizabeth

“Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please:

John Smillie has asked Elizabeth Jacobsen to be his wife. She consented (quite gladly, and without hesitation!).”

I think it may be an understatement, but both of us are VERY happy! We are prayerfully considering the future that God has in store for us, and would appreciate your prayers as well.

For more details, including the story of our courtship and John’s proposal, please follow this link.

2007-08 trip to Indiana and Lizzie an…
Photos added by Jane and Tim: 15

These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
– John 15:12-13

Hereby percieve we the love of God, because He laid down His for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the bretheren.
…
My litttle children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
– I John 3:16, 18

“We ought to” because He has. That in itself is all the reason we need

So, what does this look like in our lives today?
Probably not a literal dying, but I do not think that that is the point.
I think it is about putting someone else and their needs before yourself, serving them out of a heart that desires to love them as Christ has loved you.
Sometimes it seems like dying, and in a way it is. Dying to your own self can be more agonizing than an actual death, because it must be continued and repeated every single moment of every single day. An actual death only happens once, “and then the glory”.
Every day, learning to serve out of love. Thereby learning to love.

It does work. There is no question about that.
Learning to love those around me is a leason that I had thought I had learned. But it is something that is making me draw heavily upon the fathomless grace and strength of my Saviour.

birthday bouquet

June 19, 2007 Elizabeth

birthday bouquet, originally uploaded by Lizi Beth.

Father’s Day

June 17, 2007 Elizabeth

– Daddy O’Mine –

Each generation sees further than the generation that preceded it because we stand on the shoulders of giants.
-Ronald Reagan

Birthday musings

June 15, 2007 Elizabeth

I have been slowly reading through Ezekiel. It has taken at least two months – I am not finished yet – and something has begun to stand out with almost painful clarity. I am not sure if I will be able to articulate what I have been seeing, but I’ll try!

God was crying out for Israel to know Him.
He loved Israel with a perfect love, a love that included the wisdom of a Father and the passion of a Lover.
God expressed this love over and over. He looked for a response ……….. and repeatedly saw Israel turn away to lavish their affection on other gods (“I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols … on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak.” -6:9,13).
Over and over He showed them Himself, His power, His provision, His protection.
Israel would be dazzled by God’s greatness and His strength, but they did not make the next step of knowing Him.
They acknowledged Him, paid Him lip service and made sacrifices to Him, but never gave Him their hearts. That is all God wanted! He wanted to be their LORD, not just the God they were obligated to sacrifice to.
He wanted to have a heart relationship with the people He loved.

That is what He asks of us today.
God asks for our hearts.
God does not ask us for part of our hearts, or for our hearts for a limited amount of time. God asks for all of us, for all of time. (“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”. -Jeremiah 29:13)
He desires that we desire Him.
Not for anything He does, but for Who He Is.
LORD.
LORD of everything (Who He Is and the things He does are interchangeable, really). Do we recognize His LORDship in our lives? In every part?
Have our hearts answered to the wooing, calling, and crying of His?
God displays Himself for us over and over. He declares His love, His power, His holiness and His redemption in every place.
Just as God looked for a response from Israel, He is looking for our response today. What will it be? Will you give Him all of your heart and place Him as LORD over all of your life?

Ezekiel 36
16 Again the word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. … 18 So I poured out my wrath on them … 19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. 20 And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the LORD’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.’ …

23 “I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

24 ” ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. … 36 … I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

38 … Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

God exalted [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:9-11

Talking and Hearing

June 11, 2007 Elizabeth

My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
– song of solomon 2:14

What does God desire from us?
He wants to hear us.

This came through stronger than ever the other night as I was talking on the phone.
I realized that I did not spend two to three hours on the phone just so that I can talk about myself. I do not do it so that I can change that person to my way of thinking. I do not do it so that I can in any way control them or impose on their time.

I spend time on the phone so that I might know the other person, so that he might communicate his heart to me.

I know that God is omniscient, that He knows all things, even our hearts. But knowing a heart and having that heart opened up to you are two very, very different things.

I easily forget what I have said during the hours on the phone, but what he said sticks with me for a long time. I realized that a similar thing happens when I pray: I forget what I have brought before the LORD, but when He speaks ………….. I remember. At least, most of the time. It made me think, do I treat God as the One Who loves me like no other and Who desires to be first in my affection? Do I see Him as being the One Love of my life Who is jealous of all others? Or do I see Him as …. God?