I am a backpacker. My definition of relaxation is to drive 20 or so hours into the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, or hopefully this summer Montana, throw on a pack of 40 – 60 pounds, and walk through those mountains for a week or two.
This love of sweat, pain, freezing cold, rain, snow, sleet, and blisters started during ground survival training in the Air Force. I love it. Somewhere in my pack is a first aid kit. I always have what I need to survive with me. Food, water, means to purify water (3 different ways), shelter, clothing (appropriate for the conditions), maps, compass, and someone knows where I am and when I am supposed to come out.
I plan the trips. Can’t eliminate the pain and the sweat, but I can work to minimize it.
I have learned that these trips are some of the best training I have had for the trips I make overseas to equip pastors in the Word of God. They also are good for life in general.
I have mentioned in this blog several times, that the past couple of years have been hard for our family. There were a lot of weeks and months that we were in survival mode. Reviewing my journal just now Psalm 119:92 (here @ Bible Gateway) emerged in the midst of those times. That verse describes the means of our survival most accurately.
Our son who was most impacted by the past two years clung tightly to Romans 5:3 – 5 (here @ Bible Gateway). It was a daily touchstone and comfort.
It is my conviction that David nailed it. If we do not delight in God’s Word, when – I repeat – when life seems to be going down the toilet, we will sink with it. It is not enough to be exposed to the Word. To listen to gifted people’s messages or read gifted people’s books about the Word. As good as they may be, they are not inspired and by definition will have errors in them if not glaring, subtle.
The only thing available to us that is inspired by God is His Word. Further, He promises in John 14:26 (here @ Bible Gateway) and John 16:13 (here @ Bible Gateway), that the Holy Spirit will come and help us understand His Word. Further we are told in John 15:7 (here @ Bible Gateway) that we are to abide in His Word. We are not told to abide in commentaries, sermons, messages, video presentations about the Word, or books about the Word. We are told to abide in His Word.
That, like David reminds us in Psalm 119:92 (here @ Bible Gateway) is our survival kit.
BTW this is not an April fool’s joke.
I plan the trips. Can’t eliminate the pain and the sweat, but I can work to minimize it.
I have learned that these trips are some of the best training I have had for the trips I make overseas to equip pastors in the Word of God. They also are good for life in general.
I have mentioned in this blog several times, that the past couple of years have been hard for our family. There were a lot of weeks and months that we were in survival mode. Reviewing my journal just now Psalm 119:92 (here @ Bible Gateway) emerged in the midst of those times. That verse describes the means of our survival most accurately.
Our son who was most impacted by the past two years clung tightly to Romans 5:3 – 5 (here @ Bible Gateway). It was a daily touchstone and comfort.
It is my conviction that David nailed it. If we do not delight in God’s Word, when – I repeat – when life seems to be going down the toilet, we will sink with it. It is not enough to be exposed to the Word. To listen to gifted people’s messages or read gifted people’s books about the Word. As good as they may be, they are not inspired and by definition will have errors in them if not glaring, subtle.
The only thing available to us that is inspired by God is His Word. Further, He promises in John 14:26 (here @ Bible Gateway) and John 16:13 (here @ Bible Gateway), that the Holy Spirit will come and help us understand His Word. Further we are told in John 15:7 (here @ Bible Gateway) that we are to abide in His Word. We are not told to abide in commentaries, sermons, messages, video presentations about the Word, or books about the Word. We are told to abide in His Word.
That, like David reminds us in Psalm 119:92 (here @ Bible Gateway) is our survival kit.
BTW this is not an April fool’s joke.
Good observations, and timely as usual. Yesterday as I thought through several recent natural disasters many believers have certainly suffered in, and some of the events in my own life (common to us all and promised by Jesus Himself, Jn.16:33) as well as economic hardships and civil unrest plaguing areas of the planet I am interested and invested in, I wonder at how the heart of God can endure it, and He knows far more than I do.
ReplyDeleteAs I consider my own own disappointments, losses, insecurity and the possibility of trials yet to come has ordained for me and my family I returned again yesterday as I frequently do to the last "gift" my wife gave me before she departed to reside with the Lord she so loved, Isaiah 46:3,4, and in my all too occasional wrote a bit of personal commentary: "'Listen to Me, O 'Chuck Steen...,' you who have been borne by Me (from conception), and have been carried from the womb (birth); even to your old age, (and if I didn't get the point) I shall be the same and even to you graying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you.'"
I further wrote "I must determine to act on what God promises, not what seem reasonable to me and/or what my raging emotions are screaming at me. I must be confident of His constant open-armed presence with me to fulfill His perfect, predetermined eternal will is for my life even when my life seems to be lying in tatters around my feet. I must, and i can...."