It is safe...

Change-- it can happen so quickly and unexpectedly. Two and a half weeks ago, as we flew up the eastern coast of Japan, I looked down at the lights of Tokyo and Sendai flooding the coast like a million candles. As mile after mile of lights slid under our plane, I admired the scene, thinking of the millions of people and organized bustle of activity beneath... little realizing that in two short weeks many of those lights would be out, and the lives they represented decided for eternity. Thousands of lives changed in a moment-- family, friends, home, job, security and stability vanished. Life as we know it is so fragile... but fragile things are always safe in the hands of a Master.

"It is safe to let go every earthly support and take the hand of Him who lifted up and saved the sinking disciple on the stormy sea." 4T 558

It is safe... eternally safe.

Oh, to grasp His hand more firmly every day.

“Measure the cord… if you can.”

It was Sabbath afternoon-- our last Sabbath on Paata-- and we were walking through a neighboring village to visit some friends we hadn’t seen yet.  I remember this village well from when we lived here before.  It always had a dark, depressed feeling about it, but today it was worse than ever.  As we walked through the village, we passed group after group of people who were intoxicated in one way or another.  It was painful to see such pitiful demoralization, but what was even more painful was to see, in those clouded faces, the faces of the once-innocent children we grew up around.  As we walked, I thought of the terrible environment they had to grow up in, and it seemed almost hopeless.  Can anything good come out of this village-- this island?  Then another thought crept into my mind-- They said that about His village…  Oh, Lord!  Is this what You came to for me? 

I looked at the village again-- sin in its darkest hue was everywhere I turned.  But this time I looked at it with awe and gratitude, because it began to dawn on me what He really came to for me. 

“Jesus did not count heaven a place to be desired while we were lost. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and insult, and a death of shame. He who was rich in heaven's priceless treasure, became poor, that through His poverty we might be rich.  --DA 416

The same thought gives hope to the darkest corner of the world, because it was from Nazareth, a village “proverbial for its wickedness" that the Light of the world came. 

“Measure the cord, if you can, that has been let down from heaven to lift man up.  The only estimate we can give you of the length of that chain is to point you to Calvary.”  --OHC 45

Paata Mission Trip

We're at last on our way to visit our mission island for the first time since we left 12 years ago-- a trip I've wished for and dreamed of (literally) for all 12 years. :) God is so good... and I'm excited! Please see our family blog, climbingtogether.blogspot.com, for the first update.

Point of reference...

Have you ever thought of why the north star is the most important navigational star? It's dependable! While every other star constantly changes position, the north star is always the same...

Praise the Lord that He is always the same! As everything around us changes, He is still there, the same as He was yesterday and as He will be forever. Problems will certainly come when we try to use a moving object as our point of reference. But with God as our only point of reference, we will be "stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

"It is safe to let go every earthly support and take the hand of Him who lifted up and saved the sinking disciple on the stormy sea." --4T 558