Elizabeth Smillie

Oh, the past few days/weeks have been full of decisions about the wedding. And I have been learning a bit more. Surprised? I was.

It has been absolutely wonderful to see the things that I have dreamed about for years come into being. It has also been like getting a pail of ice water being dumped on my head. Why? Because I have had to come face-to-face with the fact that dreams are not reality. There have been some rather tear-filled days, and other days of apathy. I had a very childish attitude, and am still trying to get over it. I had the whole “if I can’t have it my way, then nothing matters” attitude, as well as the “but it has to be perfect!!! Why can’t it be perfect?!!”.
But you know what? I have been learning that God really does have something special going on here, and that something has much more to do with a woman, a couple, and marriage that rely on Him for their strength and give Him glory than it has to do with a “perfect” day.

He wants us to have joy, but most of all He wants us to delight in Him as we delight in each other.

I was listening to a message by Beth Moore this morning, and as she was praising God in prayer she said: “God, you are everything to us.”

It triggered some serious thought. Is He everything to me? Everything? Really?

No glib answers will suffice here. Is Christ everything to me?

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation’s revealing your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go?
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?
Who imagined the sun and gives source to it’s light,
Yet conceals it to brings us the coolness of night?
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

You are amazing God

– Chris Tomlin, “Indescribable”

Lord you read my very heart
You who know the least thing
You who see me from afar
Sleeping or arising
Lord before me and behind
Infinite and ageless
Such a knowledge is too high
I cannot attain it

If to heaven I would fly
You would be beside me
If in Sheol I would lie
Even there You’d find me
If I fled on morning wings
Far beyond the gray sea
Even there Your hand would lead
Your right hand would guide me

In the secret of the womb
I was formed and molded
By Your skillful hand alone
Wonderfully woven
You have numbered all my days
Long before You gave them
In the pages of Your book
They have all been written

High and wondrous are Your thoughts
Vast beyond all telling
If I count them they grow more
I can never grasp them
Search me God and know my heart
Let evil never find me
Lead me on Your righteous path
Sure and everlasting

-“Psalm 139”, by Fernando Ortega

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
-Psalm 19:9-10

More desirable than gold …
Think about it.
What have people done in their pursuit of gold?
They have changed their careers, their lifestyles. They have become fanatics, only caring about the “color” that might be in the stream, the mountain, or under their feet.
Prospectors left their wives and families for years at time – sometimes indefinitely – all in pursuit of gold. Many died before they were able to return home.
Men have panned rivers, monitored away entire mountains, dug miles of tunnels, and spent the best years of their lives in their search for that precious metal.

People have done stupid stunts and endured mind numbing monotony.
They have learned patience and acted rashly.
They have gone to extremes.

Gold seems to have the ability to draw people after it. It ignites a passion in them, and they lust after it. Gold occupies all of their thoughts, their dreams. A person with “gold fever” will not let anything stand in their way in their pursuit of it.

Does any of their passion, their desire, characterize the way I follow after God and His words and ways?

Something to ponder.

and mid-terms are coming up, the leaves are starting to fall, ……. which means Thanksgiving, and then Christmas (!) will be here soon! I have eight weeks of school under my belt, which means that there are only ten left, which means that I am almost halfway done.

I am working on preparing a lesson to teach at the After School Club this afternoon. It is from I Samuel 12-15, and is about how Saul was instructed by God to kill all the Amalakites and their livestock, but instead kept the best for himself. He did not obey completely. That is the point of the lesson – complete obedience.
Last week we taught about giving God first place in your life.
It seems that each lesson teaches me something as I am preparing it, and this morning I was challenged to obey God completely, as I give Him the first place in all that I am. Do I really obey Him all the way? Or do I tend to lose interest and quit part of the way through?