Life as a Suzal

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. Their is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. ~ From Psalm 19

I am so amazed at the majesty of God. The expanse of the heavens are but a glimpse of His workings. No matter where you are, His presence is there. That is astounding.

I am so thankful that God never leaves me alone. That I can bare my soul to Him. Confide in Him. That He hears me, and loves me, and wants to grow me more in the image of His Son Jesus.

I also love v. 7-9 describing God’s Word:

Law of the Lord = Perfect = Revives soul
Testimony of the Lord = Sure = Makes the simple wise
Precepts of the Lord = Right = Makes the heart rejoice
Commandment of the Lord = Pure = Enlightens the eyes
Judgments of the Lord* = True = Altogether Righteous

* I especially love v.9b because it is so comforting and makes my mind full of awe to know that His judgments in my life and in the world are good. Are best. God is big. I am small. And He loves me!

Where can you find hundreds of people representing dozens of countries around the world that all have something in common? This past week Lukas and I have been quite busy volunteering at our church’s biennial Missions Conference. It was a blast! I was amazed and extremely blessed meeting so many people who live oversees and in sometimes very difficult situations to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are about 30 people from my church who volunteer to put on Kids Programs during the day while the parents are in sessions, and make sure that the conference runs smoothly, helping out where needed. I was very excited that I got to hang out with the high school-ers from the group and make many new cool friends!

Also, I have to brag on my most amazing husband. Originally he was going to work with the high school-ers with me, and also take pictures. However his schedule got filled up very soon in a way that he was able to best use his talents, so high school dropped off the list. He did entire conference coverage, taught a seminar, met one on one for photo questions, and did over 18 family photo sessions for prayer cards. He did it all with a huge smile on his face and hug for me whenever we ran into each other during the busyness. And even today after getting home, while I take a nap to recover, he has been working hard editing everything from the week. Isn’t he amazing?! I LOVE my hubs!!

Make sure to check out his blog describing the week at the Missionary Conference! He also put together this AMAZING slideshow that shows how the week went. Please remember to PRAY for our missionaries around the world.

Missions Conference 2010 from Lukas VanDyke on Vimeo.

Photos: Canon 1d Mark III
Video: Canon 5d Mark II
Edited in: iMovie
Additional Photos by: Susannah, Anne, Quincy, Lauren.

Music:
Devoted to You, By: Carly Simon & James Taylor
I Saw the Light, By: David Crowder
How Deep the Father’s Love for us, By: Selah
Foreverandever Etc, By: David Crowder
Greater Than We Can Imagine, By: Sovereign Grace Music

A few weeks ago, my dear sister in law called and asked me a question. “Will you watch Caleb overnight so we can go away for our three year anniversary?” I was SO excited! And a bit nervous! Some of you will laugh… but I have never watched a baby longer than a few hours. What do you do with a little person all day? This was the closest experience to being a mommy I have ever had.

I had “little guy” for 24 hours, through dinner time, and play time, and sleep time, and wake up time, and breakfast time, and change diaper time, and snuggle time, and play in the pool time, and scare Uncle Lukas with a snake time!

I am just crazy about little nephew. He was SO much fun! And I have to say that I have a new-found respect for mommys.

Dinner time! Little guy likes the camera.

After two seconds of Caleb being here, I realized something had to be done.

Hanging out with the big people!

Alaina and Emily come over to play with Caleb. During nap time we do a quick Griffith Park Observatory Adventure for Emily, who had never been. I should mention Lukas was home to watch little guy.

He loved his blankie.

Caleb loves playing with Emily!

Hanging out with Uncle Lukas!

Haha! Classic.

Last Friday night something scary happened to me. Probably one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me.

But I have to back up. To make a long story short, I was born with one eye legally blind. Hence I have always been very careful about keeping my good eye safe. For over 20 years I have been keeping it safe. Then last weekend something scary happened… suffice it to say I had an accident that injured my eye. My good eye.

Right after if happened, I was terrified. I was seeing double vision. Would I never see again?? The idea of living the rest of my life blind in both eyes, not being able to drive, or take pictures, have Lukas take care of me, was more than I could bear. I cried out to God, “Lord if it is your will, make my eye ok, I plead with you that my eye would be ok.” After a moment, my heart wasn’t beating quite so loudly in my ears. After a moment, God’s peace enveloped me as I knelt, as the created before the Creator. As I knelt knowing that God had me in His hands no matter what, for all of this life and the one to come. What a precious, precious truth that came alive so vividly in my mind that moment. God is trustworthy. He holds me in the palm of His hand.

A hospital trip later, I found out… I was ok. Not even a scratch. PRAISE GOD!!!

Last Wednesday night my youth Pastor Austin Duncan talked alot about thankfulness. This was the perfect week for me to hear it. The fact that I am whole and healthy is an amazing gift. The fact that Jesus saved me from my sins that I may have communion with the God of the universe is an AMAZING gift!!! It is good to contemplate how much the Lord has given us, and PRAISE HIM!

I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

~Psalm 34:1-4

Four years ago, at the Bible Study I was attending, a book was given out to thirty something college students from an anonymous donor. The point was made that this book was so impacting in the life of this anonymous person that they wanted it to be accessible to our group. The challenge was made to take a book only if you truly planned on reading it. I took it eagerly and started reading right away. I recognized the book as a Christian classic, one every Christian should read. You’re probably familiar with it. The book is “Knowing God.” by J.I. Packer.

Unfortunately, at that time I only made it a quarter of the way through the book before it somehow ended up back on my shelf, unfinished. So last week a friend and I decided to go through the book together. Needless to say, I am very excited! I just finished chapter two this morning, and thought I would share some impacting statements.

Packer makes a point that there is a difference between knowing God and knowing about God.

“One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of Him. We read books about theological exposition and apologetics. We dip around in Christian history, and study the Christian creed. We learn to find our way around in the Scriptures… Our friends tell us how much they value our contribution… All very fine- yet interest in theology, and knowledge about God, and the capacity to think clearly and talk well on Christian themes, is not at all the same thing as knowing him.“*

“One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God…In this analytical and technological age there is no shortage of books on church booktables, or sermons from the pulpits, on how to pray, how to witness, how to read our Bibles…The questions is not whether we are good at theology…The question is, can we say, simply, honestly, not because we feel that as evangelicals we ought to, but because it is a plain matter of fact, that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us?

If we really knew God, this is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about him.”*

How convicted I am by reading that… and how I long to say, as a plain matter of fact, that I have known God…

(*Excerpt from Pages 26 & 27, italics mine)

Here are 15 Resolved Quotables that stood out to me from this year’s conference from our speakers, Rick Holland, C.J. Mahaney, Al Mohler, Steve Lawson, and John MacArthur. Can anyone get all 15 right? Leave a comment and see!

1. “Jesus is not your therapist, Jesus is not your coach, and Jesus is not your guru. Your self help manager. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…Jesus is not your homeboy.”

2. “You put your weak life into His strong hands, and He will uphold you”

3. “Too many of us want the public without the dedication of the private”

4. “The faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first”

5. “…You can get it that wrong, and you’ll end up in hell. You can get it almost right, and still end up in hell.”

6. “These men all have letters after their name. Mine come before.”

7. “We used to beat up guys like that”

8. “True Christians are distinguished from unbelievers, true Christians are distinguished from nominal Christians by their obedience to Christ.”

9. “I fear that many Christians have a tame and domesticated understanding of what it means for Jesus to be King.”

10. “What we want is an experience so that we will not have to keep ourselves in the love of God.”

11. “…On the other hand I’m fighting with everything I’ve got for the protection of the the truth in the life of the church in the world.”

12. “I pray that we are never unamazed at how MUCH the LORD has done for us!”

13. “Gazing at Christ’s beauties, his glories, his excellencies, elevates the soul to higher vantage points so that you can see and worship Him more clearly.”

14. “It’s really important to get Christ right. Who is he?”

15. “If you don’t experience joy, find something to repent of.”

The Resolved Conference 2010 is finally here! For those of you who don’t have any idea what I am talking about, check out www.resolved.org. Lukas and I have been here since Thursday morning, and Palm Springs is nice and toasty just like last year. Lukas has been backstage alot, while I have been mostly in the bookstore helping fold and sell shirts. I just have to brag on my husband a minute, because alot of people don’t realize that he completely designed all the graphics for the background on stage. Nothing was taken off a google search, or pictures off the web; he shot and designed it all AND is covering all the event footage again this year. Isn’t he amazing! While he is doing that, I have been having fun finding random people to interview for our blog. This year we are doing Faces @ Resolved, to get fun snapshots of who is at the conference. It’s soooo cool how people are here from all over!

Today we had some challenging-inspiring-convicting-encouraging-thought-provoking-encouraging sermons from Al Mohler, Steve Lawson and C.J. Mahaney. It was my first time hearing Dr. Mohler preach, and boy was it a treat. Not that I’m biased because he’s from Kentucky or anything. But what can I say? All of the speakers at this conference are amazing and God has given them incredible gifts of preaching. My pastor, John MacArthur will be joining us tomorrow, and I can’t wait to hear what else God has in store for us.

I have to say that I am just blown away every year by this conference at the passionate focus of bringing glory to God by having a true, biblical understanding of who He is. More to come! (Oh, and check out the interviews and pictures of Resolved on Lukas’ site!)

A few weekends ago, we made the long treck up to Oregon to go to our good friends, Jeremy and Jessica’s wedding! It was my first time in OR which was very fun and exciting. But along with the feelings of excitement and happiness, a deep sinking feeling dwelt in the pit of my stomach. You see, this was to be my first wedding shooting by myself.

Lukas was a groomsman in the outfield, so I was up to bat. After praying and praying my nerves would calm down, and I would be able to think quickly to get my settings, the big day came. God was so kind and everything went great! I didn’t trip over the bride and groom, I didn’t sneeze loudly in the middle of the vows, and I didn’t drop my camera up on stage.  Whew!

It was one of the funnest weddings ever!!!

Be sure to check out Lukas’ site for more pictures, and the Slideshow!

I love this song. I had it in my head all day… it’s one of the first hymns I ever learned. I remember singing it in the kitchen when I was five with my mom and dad.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

“My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”
by Edward Mote, 1797-1874
Text: 1 Timothy 1:1

Last week I had sooo much fun doing some Senior Photos for one of “my girls”, Natalie. She is adorable, bright and cheery. Before we took the photos though, I asked her if she would like for me to help her with her hair. Well, what most people don’t know is that I LOVE doing people’s hair, especially giving them a new ‘do. Due to a packed schedule, I don’t have much time for the hobby anymore so I jumped at the chance. I like changing up my color about every four months, so I have been in many salons. I feel badly sometimes for the person doing my hair because I ask so many questions about the processes of cutting and dyeing. Though I am by no means an expert, I have tried to learn as much as possible over the past seven years.

I will have Natalie’s session up this week, but here is a little before and after that I couldn’t help posting!