Pondering Knoll: November 2012

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Glorious Fall

Ah...Fall. My favorite season of the year. I literally cannot get enough of it! My sisters and I have been wandering about on the weekends trying to find the best colors displayed in our little part of the world. Whether it was the wild Sierra Nevada's graced with the presence of the gentle glowing aspen trees, Napa Valley sparkling with yellow harvest vines, majestic snow-dusted mountains towering over a hazy emerald lake, or Half Dome seeming mellow against the quiet golden meadows, they have each, in their own unique way, reminded me of a glorious character of our Lord.

To me, absolutely nothing compares to being drawn close to the very heart of God than through His astoundingly beautiful creation. I have entirely cherished every moment. I praise and thank the Lord for the opportunities to be able to fully enjoy His wondrous creation that He has given us for our happiness. I am the happiest when I am outdoors, and as happy as that is, it doesn't even compare to the internal joy I have of being in Him! What greater joy could there be than knowing one day we'll actually be gloriously faced with our awesome Creator, where we'll be able to eternally soak in all of His glory!? Yes, earth may just be a small preview of that, but while I'm here, I'll gladly soak in as much of it as I can :) To Him be glory forever!

"Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You."

Psalm 63:3

“In order to be a disciple we must deny ourselves - this is to exercise authority over our own spirit. We must take up the cross - this is to submit to Christ’s authority. And we must follow - this is continued obedience. This is the road not to confinement, to bondage, to a stunted or arrested development, but to total personal freedom. It means not death but life, not a narrowly circumscribed life but “abundant” life. The gate is narrow but not the life. The gate opens out into largeness of life.”

-Elisabeth Elliot

“No sigh ever reached the Most High, except through Christ—I mean so as to move His heart to pour out His grace. Prayers, groans, tears, all these are like arrows without a bow, till Christ comes and fits them to the string, and shoots them home for you and me. All our prayers are like a victim, with the wood and altar; Christ must bring the fire, and then the sacrifice smokes to heaven. He is the messenger. Oh Christian, do you not rejoice in Him then as the Messenger of the Covenant? He is doing thy errands before the throne tonight, pleading for me, pleading for you."

~C. H. Spurgeon

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:28-31

"...The central place of faith in Christianity, and its significance...is precisely that which, on man's side, adjusts him to the living and merciful presence and action of a trusted God. In its nature, not by any mere arbitrary arrangement, it is his one possible receptive attitude, that in which he brings nothing, so that he may receive all. Thus "faith" is our side of union with Christ. And thus it is our means of possessing all His benefits, pardon, justification, purification, life, peace, glory."

-Handley Dunelm