|
| 14 days and counting!Today I am at Cedarville installing some drivers for a computer belinging to the Surls (from Clearcreek). Since work blocks xanga, I rarely get to post. However, since I am waiting for the install, I can write  . God has been so gracious these past months. Let me list some of the things I am thankful for: - First of all, my beautiful Christlike fiance Shelly
- My glorious and fun family (Merkhs, and Zemmers, uncles and aunts, cousins) who know our Lord Jesus
- The Gregg's gracious help by letting me stay with them after graduation from Cedarville
- Getting the contract job with Pillar back at the end of October 06
- Spending Thanksgiving with the Grimes in Michigan
- The carwreck (of the Clearcreek car while mine was in the shop) on December 7th
- The Surls help getting my car up and running
- Jonathan and Mandy's help and encouragement
- Spending Christmas with Shelly and Dad and Mom Merkh, Daniel, Stephen, Keila and the Andersons
- Uncle Dave Southwell's help in buying my international ticket to Brasil for the wedding
- The award from Pillar that gave enough money to pay for a honeymoon
- Both Dad and Mom Merkh and Zemmer for their help in preparation for the wedding
- Shelly's graduation in May - you made it!
- Being able to See Mom Merkh and Daniel at Shelly's graduation
- The wonderful loving guidance and shepherding care from the elders at Clearcreek
- The McNeeses hospitality in including Shelly and me in their family
- Getting salary at pillar
- Being able to talk to Shelly on the phone or on Skype
- Fun time of fellowship with Jonathan while working on the home improvement projects
- The extra income for video crew at Cedarville in June
- The fact that there are only 14 days untill I go down to Brasil for the wedding
There are many more things, but I am out of time. God is glorious and good to cause us to draw near to him through His most sweet and many times difficult providences. To God be the glory! | | |
| It's Friday and I am not hanging out with Shelly  . My dearest is studying for the Praxis exam right now, and we're trying to save on gas, so I wasn't able to go out to Cedarville today. I get to see her tomorrow thought! We will be going out to Columbus to pick up the washer and dryer that Uncle Kieth and Aunt Kim Anderson gave us. Right now I am at Sips Cafe, where my Lil'sis Becky works. I stopped on my way back to the apartment to say hi to Becky, eat a Cranberry Muffin for dinner, and get caught up on e-mail (laptops are wonderful inventions).
Isn't it interesting that work preceded the fall? I can't describe what a good feeling it is to be working now. Getting started at Pillar Technology (pillartechnology.com) has been like taking final exams without having had time to study. I have been in a balance tipping back and forth between despair that I will never learn all that I need to know for this job and confidence that I am actually beginning to fit in and starting to be profitable to my employer. God has been so merciful to break me, my confidence, my hopes, and my trust that were not in Him. Though I am a hired employee, there is still a level of uncertainty that I will measure up completely to what they expect of me. This too has driven me away from confidence in myself towards trust in a loving God who feeds the sparrows and cloths the flowers. Praise God for his powerful and loving Sovereignty. He gives and He takes away. Peace and rest come when I begin to remember that life has meaning only in Christ. Descartes, a famous enlightenment philosopher gained aclaim for this refrain: "I think therefore I am". At flock (our Wednesday church meeting) Pr. Chad repeated an excellent response to the self-centered notions that pervade our culture, churches, and even myself. He said, "I am because I because I belong to Christ." I probably didn't get the quote right, but the idea carries through. Meaning starts in Christ - He is the center of all reality. He is the focus of God's redemptive plan from eternity past. What a staggering honor to realize that He has given me a small part to play in this grand story of redemption and His grand plan for bringing glory to His Son!
| | |
| Shelly comes back in 10 days! This summer has gone by faster than I thought it would. God has been so good sustaining me and shaping me. Special and relationship deepening talks with Shelly over the phone, dear time with Dad and Mom while they were here in the States, kindness and hospitality from the Greggs (the family from Clearcreek who have hosted me these past couple months), and short-term work exactly when I most needed it have all been sweet blessings. All the other not-so-sweet happenings this summer have been blessings as well...likely even greater than the first. I am so thankful for God's goodness and faithfulness even inspite of my unfaithfulness. I find it so easy to put my trust in the hope of getting a job witha particular company - Excelence in Motivation, Answers in Genesis, Franklin University, and Lowes are some good examples. Once what I had hoped in was removed, I felt sorry for myself mourning the loss of my idol and even lost motivation to keep searching for jobs. God is so good to remove from me the things that I have putin place of Him. As David said, "When You discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him"(Psalm 39:11a). Though painful in the short-run, it is oh so much better in the light of eternity. May the Lord grant that I might not continue to hope in passing pleasures and deceitful idols but that my delight will only be in Him. As I search for a job and income, grant that I not follow the folly of the sulggard resigning my self to defeatism. May this struggle instead produce in me perserverance and stead fast trust in Him as I work with all my might. I know I cannot do the even the smallest thing apart from God. So my heart resonates with David: "And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You"(Psalm 39:7). | | |
| Contrary to my uninformed thoughts prior to graduation, life does not slow down after you walk across that platform and pick up that diploma thing  . Life, along with the job search is about to get a bit busier now that I am getting reading assignments from my elders. This week's book is on biblical eldership. I am just finishing the first chapter and have untill next Wednesday to finish the whole 300 pages. If you are a CU honors student...Andy ...and you read this, you migh likely yawn. But this is quite a challange for me. We'll see how it goes. I am very grateful for the extra prodding to be reading good books! On top of that I get to ask some very wise people questions about what I'm reading. How can it get any better than this?
Speaking about even better...Shelly is coming back from Brazil on the 22nd! I'll be picking her up in Columbus. She'll be missing the first two days of classes (since school starts on the 21st). I'll help her procrastinate a bit more by taking her out on a special date after I pick her up in Columbus...don't worry, it's not a secret. She just doesn't know where we're going .
Well, got to go. Here's a good quote: "As we advance through the centuries, light and life begin to decrease in the Church. Why? Because the torch of the Scripture begins to grow dim ad because the decietful light of human authroities begins to replace it" (Merle d'Aubigne 1794-1872). | | |
| websites and job searchesMuch has changed since graduation from Cedarville only three weeks ago. With the help of my lovely fiancee and my wonderful parents I was actually able to sort through all my junk I had accumulated over the past four years. For me, getting rid of stuff I haven't used in a long while is easier said than done. But with Shelly's helpful executive decisions : ) , I was able to get rid of quite a bit of stuff! That was about two weeks ago. Now, Shelly is in New Jersey and I am with a family from Clearcreek Chapel here in Dayton still looking for a job and designing a couple websites in the mean time (check them out if you like: www.bfcbrazil.org and www.newmediafuzion.com). I had an interview on Tuesday, but haven't heard back yet. Hopefully, I will hear yet today or maybe on Monday. We'll see. Right now, uncertainty clouds my future in several ways. One is that I don't know where I will be working and the other is whether I can earn enough to pay off my school debt in four years (before I go to seminary). Yet, in the midst of this unconfortable uncertainty God has given exactly what I have needed. Most times it is simply allowing this stage of uncertainty to last longer, thus forcing me to rely more on Him. I am thankful for His so many great blessings. Shelly, my parents, Jonathan and Mandy, so many friends from Clearcreek, God's Word explained by the Elders and driven home by the Holy Spirit are constant sources of encourgement, hope, and peace. Though at times I have felt as I did when I first steped onto Cedarville's campus as a freshman, I know one thing: all I need is the richness and pleasure of knowing Christ. And the thought that these unconfortable times are what God uses to draw me nearer to His Son and to conform me to His image, makes me see that thes "light and temporary trials" are more than worth the cost. These are just musings and I do not claim to understand completely yet or to have arrived. I have a long way to go, but what a comfort to know Christ has already paved the way for me (Hebrews 6:17-20).
Trusting in our gracious and sovereign LORD! | | |
|
