Smoking Mountains, Trembling Earth

"He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke" - Psalm 104:32.

Thirty years ago this May 18th the north face of Mt. St. Helens collapsed and then literally exploded.  At this link you can watch the first eighteen seconds of what ended up being a nine hour event.  At this link you can watch a nearly four minute video.  The eruption column alone of ash and rock was over eighty thousand feet high.  The mudslide created by the melted snow and ice created a swath of destruction that stretched for over fifty miles.  Fifty-seven people died.  Two hundred and fifty homes were destroyed.  Forty-seven bridges, fifteen miles of railways, one hundred and eighty-five miles of highway, all damaged or destroyed.  An estimated one hundred and seventy-five thousand animals were killed, including seven thousand big game animals.  The blast was so strong, it was like five hundred atomic bombs went off.  Another report I read said it was more powerful than fifteen hundred atomic bombs.  The Mt. St. Helens eruption was one of the most destructive in modern U.S. history.

God had touched Mt. St. Helens and God is touching mountains today.

A person can react one of a few different ways when witnessing such an event.  Some may react with indifference.  "Aw, this was no big deal.  So, a mountain blew its top and a few people died and some animals were killed.  It's just part of living life here on this earth."

Others may curse.  They will blame God but also fail to see that God is sovereign over the universe and life.  He is the Creator and Sustainer.  He gives life, holds it and the universe together, and He takes life away.  All things live and move and have their being because of Him.  Harry Truman was proprietor of St. Helens Lodge on Spirit Lake.  He laughed and scoffed, saying the mountain couldn't hurt him.  On that late spring morning nearly thiry years ago, he was buried under one hundred feet of volcanic debris.  Harry Truman did not have a proper view of God.   

How should we respond?  I believe the way we should respond is with worship.  It is a terrifying yet glorious thing to experience the power of God when He looks at the earth and it trembles.  He is All Mighty, He is All Powerful, and He is merciful that more people didn't die when He lowered Mt. St. Helen's peak by over 1,000 feet, with just the touch of His finger...

"Salvation is not mainly the forgiveness of sins...

...but mainly the fellowship of Jesus.  Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so this can happen" - John Piper.


I'm on to a new book.  Finished "Choosing Gratitude."  Well, I am doing the devotional exercise in the back but I am finished with the meat of the book.  If you are looking for a wonderful, life-changing read, get your hands on this book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  Every once in a while a book lands in my library that becomes one of my favorites.  This book definitely fits into that category! 

I'm now reading Piper's book, "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ."  Oh, my!  This is also going to go on my shelf as a favorite.  A new believer rejoices in the grace and mercy of God over the forgiveness of their sins.  Then as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, He becomes more and more precious.  If you've been in Christ a long time and have pursued hard after Him, you know exactly what I am talking about.  Salvation truly is about fellowship with the Savior.  Our joy is derived from a Person.  Jesus Himself is our great reward and we find our ourselves longing for Him and the Blessed Hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Choosing Gratitude - 4

I woke up this morning battling anxiety.  The Holy Spirit graciously pulled my thoughts to Philippians 4:6,7.

^"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Here are Nancy Leigh DeMoss's thoughts on those verses in chapter 4...

"In every situation...prayer + thanksgiving = peace.  When prayer teams up with gratitude, when we open our eyes wide enough to see God's mercies even in the midst of our pain, and when we exercise faith and give Him thanks even when we can't see those mercies, He meets us with His indescribable peace. 


It's a promise.


Are you facing one or more chaotic, unsettled situations?  Is your soul weary from striving, stress, and strain?


There is peace.


God's peace is waiting for you just beyond the doors of deliberate gratitude.  But the only way to find it is to go there and see for yourself.  God's peace is one of the many blessings that live on the other side of gratitude."

I knew what I needed to do.  I needed to set my thoughts on the Lord and begin praising Him for all His gracious blessings.  I needed to turn a heart of faith to Him.  I needed to fully give my thoughts over to His sovereignty and care for me in all situations, with thanksgiving.  A troubled heart truly is transformed into a heart at peace through deliberate thanksgiving!

Choosing Gratitude - 3

"The Scripture says that God inhabits the praises of His people (Ps. 22:3).  God lives in the place of praise.  If we want to be where He is, we need to go to His address...See if expressing gratitude to the Lord doesn't magnify Him in your eyes, increasing your depth perception of this One who knows your name, counts the hairs on your head, and manifests His love for you with one blessing after another.  See if the practice of intentional gratitude doesn't transport you even nearer to Him-not just where your faith can believe it but where your heart can sense it.  Thanksgiving puts us in God's living room.  It paves the way to His presence."

Family...Oh So Special!

In the shot above I had eight seconds to leap over miles of driftwood and get set before the shutter released.  I had my camera on a tripod.  It's a wonder I didn't do a face plant in the rocks, but that is why I am a bit off kilter!  The pose below was Ben's idea.  Such a fun day, Ben and Mai's American wedding day! 

Click here for entire album.  (I can explain about Daniel hanging upside down, if you are interested...)

From the Beginning of Creation...

Because we are in week two of our Discipleship Institute classes at my church, I'm going to digress with this post from my "Choosing Gratitude" series.  Discovery Discipleship Institute classes are Bible classes that we hold in lieu of our Sunday evening service.   Two to four classes are usually offered.  They run for four weeks.  We take one week off for Mother's Day and then we run them all over again so we have the opportunity to take two different classes.  I've come to really enjoy our Discipleship Institute.  Two years ago, Tim Arsenault, the friend who introduced the prewrath position to me and my husband, taught the prewrath position as one of the classes.  I was thrilled he was given this opportunity since I am convinced this position on the timing of the rapture is the most biblical.  I'm in another of Tim's classes this spring.  This time around he is teaching a class called Our Earth and Cosmos: Ancient or Recent Creation?  In other words, old earth or young earth? 

In Christendom, you find people on both sides of the coin.  There are some Christians who say that eons of time or billions of years passed between the six "days" of creation.  Not sure how you can come up with that view when you take Genesis 1 and 2 at face value.  You've got wording such as "and there was evening and there was morning, day one."  How else should this be taken other than a 24 hour period?  My husband recently heard progressive creationist Hugh Ross give his perspective on the age of the earth.  His view is that billions of years passed between the creation of light and the creation of man.  Isn't Jesus, the Creator, the authority on whether or not eons of time passed between when He uttered the words, "let there be light" on day one of creation and "let us make man in our own image" on day six of creation?  Take a look at this little nugget in Mark 10:6, where Jesus answered some Pharisees regarding some questions they had on divorce.  "But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE."  Do you see it?  What Jesus is saying here supports a face value rendering of Genesis 1 and 2.  Creation didn't take eons of time.  God made man, male and female, from the beginning of creation.  Light wasn't created first and then 14 billion years later man was created.  It was in just a span of 144 hours!  To say creation took billions of years is to have a compromised hermeneutic, in my opinion.  It just opens up the door to pick and choose where you will accept taking scripture at face value.  If the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense.  In this case, the plain sense in Genesis, that creation took six, twenty-four hour days, makes sense, and is supported by Jesus Himself, the Creator, when He was God incarnate, here on the earth, speaking to some Pharisees and His disciples on divorce.  I think we better leave the Genesis account of creation alone, and not tamper with the plain sense.

One of the reasons I now hold to the prewrath position on the timing of the rapture is because of this very same principle of hermeneutic.  Matthew 24 is pretty simple and straight forward.  And, when you compare scripture with scripture, Matthew 24 lines up perfectly with 1&2 Thessalonians.  (See this post at Prewrath Rapture Dot Com for a great comparison chart.)

Tim says he has a couple of other nuggets as well.  Can't wait to hear what they are!

Choosing Gratitude - 2

Wasn't yesterday's nugget a good one?  We've all been around whiners, or worse yet, we've been one ourselves.  Being around worshipers, those whose hearts are filled with gratitude is like walking through a beautiful garden.  Being around whiners is like trudging through a weed patch...  I know to which one I am attracted!  May we cultivate the garden of thankfulness and gratitude every day in our hearts so that we adorn the gospel of God to a hurting world...

Here's Nugget # 2:

"Gratitude is a lifestyle.  A hard-fought, grace-infused, biblical lifestyle.  And though there's a sense in which anyone can be thankful-for God has extended His common grace to all-the true glory and the transforming power of gratitude are reserved for those who know and acknowledge the Giver of every good gift and who are recipients of His redeeming grace."