the battle for control: kingdoms at war

"Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will." -Oswald Chambers

God- gracious Sovereign- acts, initiates, directs, sets boundaries, supervises, and lovingly rules over HIS creation

Creation- looks to HIM, waits for HIM, bows before HIM, surrenders to HIS control, and simply does as HE directs

"To surrender to the Creator's control is not onerous or burdensome; it is, in fact, the place of blessing, fullness, and peace ... HE's GOD- we're not ... He's the only one capable of running the universe ... He is autonomous, independent, and self-existent, needing no one and nothing- we are dependent on HIM for our next breath (Ac. 17:24,25) ... the very points on which you refuse to surrender will become 'enemies' that rule over you ... Even if you are stubborn and think you will not submit to anyone, you will always be submitting to someone or something- and that can be extremely dangerous. Even life-threatening ..."

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This is the beginning of a little journaling I'm going to do from "Surrender: The Heart GOD Controls" (by Nancy Leigh DeMoss)

I began reading this book a month ago and it has given me a fresh perspective on surrender and the importance of it. The LORD has really given me a desire to dig deeper and study this topic not only in this book, but in HIS Word. "What is our purpose?" is a frequently asked question, even among believers. I really believe that it all comes down to the glory of GOD. What does he delight in? Us. What must we do? SURRENDER!

Lord, do I have the right intensions?

PLEASE continue to pray that the Lord will help me prioritize my time. I'm coming up to the last week and a half of SIL. There is quite a load with assignments, papers, and finals. After school is out, I am driving back down to the cities where I will immediately start work, move into my house (Aug. 15th), and go back to school a couple weeks later. Hmmm ... Insanity? I'm beginning to think so.

Today's chapel hit me. Albert Bickford (SIL director) spoke on the great commission and how emphasis is wrongly given more to it than the 2 greater commands. The Shema from Deut. 6 and loving your neighbor as yourself. It made me really think about my motivation for going on the field. "Lord, do I have the right intensions?" I really think that there is a balance that's hard to find. Please feel free to comment on this.

Congratulations!

Congratulations JORE family
on your coming baby boy!

Happy 25th Birthday Joey!

Happy Birthday to my favorite brother-in-law.

<-- What a proud daddy of little Lily!

Happy 16th Birthday Johnny!

Happy Birthday my handsome hunk

of a brother and one of my best friends.

I LOVE YOU BRO!

... bursting ...

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

This past week was pretty tough and I've been really on edge. I had a paper due for sociolinguistics, 2 quizzes in phonetics, 1 quiz and paper in 2nd language acquisition, 1 test in syntax & morphology ... And *sigh* the lovely word "etc." The Lord gave me the strength to remain sane, and score the highest I have yet on my syntax test. Whew. It's rough, but I'm really glad and grateful for all the preparation that I'm going through.

There are only 2 weeks left of classes and I'm beginning to notice the end coming fast. Finals and the volleyball tournament hopefully will find a good balance. :) My 3'' folder is now too small and bursting, my book bag strap is ripped and broken from the weight, my books are full of marks and scribbles. Yes, it's coming to an end ... This is what I say as I burst into finals and stress. Hmm ... life is good and we live everyday for the LORD (at least attempt to). As stated above, "Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!" Enough said.

In HIS time!

God is so good! The chapels here are amazing. People are very transparent and I'm loving the lessons that I'm learning. I won't go into details now.

I just want to ask you to pray for a friend of mine from AFLBS. Her name is Vanna. She is such a dear and I have had a great opportunity in getting to know her and praying with her. She has been having quite a bit of health problems and they have been getting worse recently. Last year, I only knew about it toward the end of the year when it got really bad. The Lord has been so faithful. She and I are both learning lessons of surrender and dependence on God. I hardly know any of the details, but I think the medicine is effecting her heart from what I understand. Please, if you think of her, pray that she would be encouraged, be filled with joy, and find hope through all circumstances. Also, that she would know that she doesn't need to know what's wrong in order for God to work His miracle. I trust the Lord will bring healing in HIS time! I really appreciate it. Also pray that the Lord gives me words of encouragement to uplift her. Thank you, thank you!

Proud Auntie Ruthie!

Cutie little shnookum.

(The latest of little Lily Margaret, my niece.)

How can I be a horse?

These are some verses that I have read in the past few days and they have really brought me some, much needed encouragement. The Lord is good and greatly to be praised!

Proverbs 16:3,9; 20:24; 21:30

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. ... In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps. ... A mans steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way? ... There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord."

Acts 29:13,18-20

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. ... Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we CANNOT HELP speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Please pass the guidance.

Ugh ... It's really hot right now. Praise the Lord, though, beause I'm sure all these Midwest farmers are happy. I can hardly believe that this weekend I'm going down to Fargo for Abby and Jonathan's wedding (AFLBS friend) and then 3 more weeks I'm finished. I wonder if I'll be sad when it's finished? There's no way that I'd ever regret coming, but it'll be nice to go back to the "real world". I'm kind of crazy though, so I might end up here again next summer. (YIKES!)

Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I'm trying to seek God and his will and I just pray that all distractions would just fade away. I know that the Lord can give me wisdom to prioritize my time and really focus on what's important, but it's hard. I really don't know where he's leading me. I know that this is good, where I am. Is that all I need to know? Sometimes, I'm content just knowing that, but there are so many times when I go crazy with questions. If you know me at all, you will know that this is true. Where am I going? What should/will I be doing? Right now I'm thinking about doing an abroad study/internship. With who? Where? "LORD, please pass the guidance!"

Thank you for the vent. :) I'm better ... for the now. The Lord will direct my steps!!!

Sanity!

90+ degrees! It's getting hot. The only airconditioning is in the basement, so we have students and staff sitting in every corner. Some people went tubing today. I stayed back and my friend Ellie and I worked on homework and played Nintendo. There are some days where you just can't do everything.

I got a book this summer from a dear friend of mine called Surrender (by Nancy DeMoss). It and the Biography of Amy Charmichael have been my sanity. I am learning that there is just something about reading that time must be taken for it.

Lamentations 3 continues to come to my mind quite often, especially when repeated in chapel, etc. His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness! Wow.

"There will likely be a time in our Christian jouneys when, like Jacob, we will wrestle with God all night long. ... But there must eventually come a dawn when we say, "OK, God, You win. ... Not my will but Thine be done."

-Gary Thomas

Bursts of Joy!

I'm learning my gifts ... not syntax ... :( Life goes on. I am really enjoying all the sounds in phonetics though. (I wonder why.) I made it through yet another day.

My beautiful niece Lily Margaret is blossoming into a girl now rather than a baby. Well, I suppose that people don't blossom into babies. Hmm ... you can figure that one out. Check out the link on the right that says Dapelos. What a little shnukum. I'm not even kidding you! She is now 3 months and 2 weeks-ish. Amazing!

I am learning so many lessons on when to lean back and kick off my shoes, and when to study. Who'm I kidding? It's boot camp. No no, I am having quite I fun time. We won our VB game last night. What a relief - by one serve. Yikes I thought I was going to hypervenalate I was so excited. ;) Life is good and full of little bursts of joy.

ma'mu(voiceless bilabial fricative)(voiceless i)si(voiceless i)ka

This means 'when he blew his nose' in Comanche, US.

I'm still alive. Made it through yesturday. I have a phonetics production test in about 25 minutes. We have to say really long words with nasals, fricatives, stops, affricates, voiceless and nasalized things, etc. Sound exciting? There are several of us in the computer lab right now with our head phones on, repeating the words over and over again. (Just a little glimpse of my world.) We say the words in the halls, in class, on the volleyball courts before we serve ... If you don't want phonetics to take over your world, don't study it. I'm not even kidding you. As for syntax, we have a test tomorrow. We were slowly becoming friends (me and syntax) and then bam attack, war, fight. Hopefully I'll come back sane.

Voiceless Nasals

O man. Syntax is driving me crazy. I don't get all of these non-active complement things. The only thing that's running through my head is voiceless nasals and glottal stops. I haven't read my ~20+ page sociolinguistic chapter yet. Eeeek! PANIC! And we started talking in our Hindi labs today. I missed a question on the test because I thought he said 'ak' instead of 'nak' and I started laughing because the little boy only had one eye instead of a nose. Duh! Oh well. The bloops of learning a language. It's great fun though, and I'm really enjoying myself.

Tomorrow our volleyball team plays the only team we haven't played yet. We're the top 2, so I'm pretty nervous. My depth perseption and hand eye cordination are horrible, but I do have a party though.

I know that it sounds like I'm going insane, and that the only thing left really to say is "If I only had a brain!" but I am having a lot of fun and the experience is totally worth it.

The fireworks were great last night!

Fireworks Tonight!

Happy 4th of July!

I'm at SIL... AKA Linguistic boot camp. I'm doing good, but my brain is getting too full. The LORD is really teaching me some amazing lessons through Lamentations 3. HIS mercies are new every morning. Wow! That's refreshing.

Ruthie