Back to Where We Started

Looking in retrospect upon our travels thus far, there is one thing that must also be addressed. When traversing this great land of wonders and opportunity, even for the most seasoned traveler, at times we deviate from our travel plans. We jump on one train too quickly, or sometimes we choose to simply go in the complete opposite direction than specified. We are not faithful to follow the guidelines outlined for us, we mistake the wisdom of the only One to fully complete the journey and rely on our own wits or intuition. Perhaps we simply do not like the idea of where our journey is leading, or we simply have a change of heart as to where the most favorable destination lies.

Whatever the cause of the deviation matters not, only that we are deviated from the Master Traveller and Conductors plan. There is one truth that links any deviation from this Master Plan, no matter how far we travel away from Him, there is always an end to the line. It’s almost as we are travelling to get to San Diego from Augusta, Maine. To get to San Diego one does not travel north or east but rather south and west. Somewhere along our route we see that the immediate scenery in the north and east directions are more appealing hoping somehow there is a connecting line to bypass the desert we need to pass through to get to our destination.

However, after an hour of travel or so we see that our lush scenery has turned to death and destruction and we wish we had simply gone in the right direction from the start.
There is no connecting line to get you back on route, you simply hit a dead end and have to go back to where you started from. At this point we realize how foolish we were to waste our time and resources on such an empty pursuit, however, we are now headed back in the right direction.

It’s a long train back to where we started.

Usually at this time, there us much remorse and sorrow and regret for deviating from the main travel plan. And at this point in time we also realize how much farther towards the final destination we could be had we not had to back track. But there is always a helpful and loving Friend to accept us after we return from our deviation. The Master Conductor is always a gracious and supportive leader. He does not care where you have been so much as you are back on the right train headed in the right direction.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word
is not in us." 1 John 1:7-10

Nehemiah was a great man who was the Lord’s leading man in getting Israel back on the train in the right direction. One of the greatest things in all that he did though was to admit that he had sinned just as much as any other member of that rebellious nation. Reading through the book
of Nehemiah we can see that getting Israel back to where they had started was not an easy route. Day and night the men of Jerusalem built and guarded, building with swords and spears in hand, ready to protect the Lord’s city as well as their brothers.

When we look at the southwest train through the desert and scorching heat, there is one thing to remember: though for a short time there is oppression, we will soon reach the promised land, the final destination, the Lord’s abode, Heaven.

I hope that through reading this you began to realize the same thing our good friend Clive did when he wrote:

"But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His
love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and,
therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of
those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever
cost to Him." C.S. Lewis.

What we do know is that God is ever faithful when we are not. He is always to help us back to where we started and in progressing onto the final goal. He is gracious and merciful is He not?

Love Always,
Matt

17 Reasons to push you onto the Train:

To the soujourners abroad,

A man spoke to the college group recently and it reminded me of his message that I heard in Mexico 6 monthes ago. This message forever changed my life.

Isaiah 49:6: he says" it is too light of a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,and to bring back the preserved of Israel; i will make you as a light for the nations,that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth".

Things to say NO to: (I dont remember why he starts out with the no's but here we go)
1. Our friends: they can drone out whatever the spirit says and wants.
2. A relationship: someone who does not share any of your convictions they should not be in your heart (1 Corinthians 7).
3. Media: We live in a culture that causes us to feel shame about us.
4. Busy-ness: We value activity
5. Stuff: we live in a culture that says be all we can buy.
6. debt: school debt is a killer. ADVICE: Do not even think about owning a credit card.
7. Short cuts: Do not look for the fast way out
8. The values of our culture: it has distored everything.

Things to say YES to:
1. the right people: surround yourself with a mentor. latch onto the fellowship of the body and that mentor.
2. A war time lifestyle: We are always at war! The enemy is at hand!
3. Spiritual disciplines: We need to work hard at them and practice them. Meditate and listen to what God says.
4. Knowing the World: For some odd reason believers today think that KNOWING the world makes you APART of the world. wrong-o. We need to be praying for the countries of the world. *See Operation World*
5. Have to be useful: We need to learn to pursue things
6. the local church: Aligns itself with the heart and passion of God. Plug in and get involved!
7. A long haul approach: I totally forgot about this one. But we need to hand over our lives to God. He's got us. Dont doubt it.
8. Following Jesus: We need to live for His passions and not our own. Whatever you end up chosing (Following Him or not) you are still doing something.

The last one is one from a recent message that I heard on sunday, in which God allowed the same man to impact my life once more.

God's will: It is Gods will, His Kingdom and His name. So doesnt it make sense that our lives are about Him? We need to start doing more of the Fathers will than what we think is right, or even what society is telling us.

Take a stand. Say No to your own pursuits and Yes to His. Difficult? Heck Yes. Impossible? No.

Some people have about zero chance of being found (hearing the Gospel) because no one is going after them.

We ALL are called to missions. Deny it all you want, but scripture is clear. (Acts 1:8-But you will recieve power when the Holy spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, AND to the end of the earth").

You may not be called to go abroad, but you are called to share the gospel. You may not be called to go on an organized trip, but you are called to talk to the lost. You may not be in an environment in which you are surrouned by non believers, but you are called then to pray for them and maybe get out of your comfort zone.

Its time for a travel change. You may be scared to board that train but believe it or not your name is still on the ticket. So if the train passes you by then you hop on the next one. You are sure of your destination, but many passengers on that train with you are not. And they are afraid and in denial to ask their conductor for help.

Lets make the travel change. See you on board.

Love always,
Corrine

Go West

To the Sojourners abroad:

I was thinking about the Petshop Boys song tonight thats called "Go West". The song's chorus goes along these lines, "Go west/Life is peaceful there/Go West/in the open air/Go West/ in the great big city/Go West". Then another scene popped into my head: Opening scene of Newsies. A statue appears in the city center. On the statue it states, "Go West Young man". Which then naturally made me think of another scene from the movie Rainman. Rainman, played by Dustin Hoffman is sitting in the doctors office with Tom Cruise. An old man is talking about how back in his day all you had to do was "Go West".

I never thought about how often this phrase was and still is used in our culture today. But how much more West can you go before all you do is fall into the Pacific Ocean? Think about it.

You board your train and find your seat. Your destination: somewhere out West, but your not sure where. So you decide as you approach each stop that you will keep on going on and on before you step off that train to settle somewhere. Before you know it you've hit the farthest desitnation you can go and you have to make a train change if you want to keep going. Heres the glich. You only saved up enough money for that one-way train ride. There was no going back. You are stuck. You realize that you should have stopped in the small cute town back two stops ago, but you cannot undue the past. You have to go with it.

How often is our life like this concerning our relationship with our Master Conductor, God? We just go with the flow, not thinking, but just living our daily lives. Some continue to pursue that American Dream and embark to continue their journey out West, but what they dont realize is that todays world has discovered all that there is to be discovered, so you are sinking fast in lifes Pacific ocean. You do not research your desitination, you do not care. You'll know when you get there if you made the right choice with no regrets.

Are we ignorant to knowing and acknowleding there is a God? As pilgrims of this Earth we need to make knowing God our greatest endeavor on this Earth. Sometimes we place ourselves in the position that we know more than God. But think about this..."If we make God small enough to understand He is no longer big enough to be worshipped"(Pastor Scott Ardavanis).

Point is: "God is incomprehensible but He is not uncomprehensible" (Mr. Fred Schwamb). He is all knowing. Nothing surprises Him.

So how far west can we go without consulting our master conductor? How far west do we go before we realized we slipped up and now we are drowning in our sin?

Thank goodness for the master Engineer who died for us. Jesus Christ. Amen?

Love Always,
Corrine

To the Northbound Passenger...

To the Sojourners abroad:
Recently you experienced your first train ride: a true experience indeed. I can’t help but laugh at how uneasy you were having experienced that uneasiness myself not that long ago. So much goes into just one train ride! The time when to leave, when to arrive, where to go, where to sit, how to say goodbye…

But with everything considered, I’d like to let you know how proud I am you had the faith to step onto that train. You see you had not experienced anything like that before, at least in the context of a train, and yet you believed, without seeing how it would occur beforehand, that that train would take you to your destination.

You could not see your destination, you could not hear or smell or feel it either! But you still knew it was there, having never seen it, having never been there, just because I told you that it was there and I am here.

If you had gone off of common sense, your mind would have told you naturally that it was folly to pursue such a foolish endeavor having never seen the place before. However, I suppose that having a past, similar experience gave you faith that this place existed, that what I told you was true. You could not get to me on your own, you needed some means of conveyance.

I repeat myself because I want you to see the obvious connection between faith in trains and faith in Christ. Haha! My dearest friend, think about it! Have we ever seen heaven? Have we ever seen something relatively close to looking like heaven? I would hope the answer, although meant to be rhetorical, would be no, because if you have seen something you think is close to heaven then either heaven is not what I have come to expect in all its ecstasy, or that we need to sit down and have a serious conversation. Haha!

Stepping onto the train God wants us to be on, the one that leads us to Him, takes faith. He has told us where it is (with Him) and when we’ll get there (maybe not an exact date in our calendars, but we can extrapolate a little bit). It is also the only way to Him; there are no alternate routes or different buses that go towards Him, but only one through faith in the Son of God Jesus Christ who has cleansed our filthiness and had our relationship with the Lord begin. But there is a little more of a journey for some to understand why we would even want to go to Him.

First off, He is infinitely glorious and majestic and kind and true. His love extends far beyond anything we can imagine. Tis true that God is a just God (what need would there be for the sacrifice of His Son if He was not?) but is that not more of a motivation to want to be on His good side (I speak in human terms)? But basically this is the God that has provided a way from eternal damnation to eternal splendor. Romans 5 talks about how we are now at peace with God because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which can logically only mean that if we are now at peace with Him (if we have this faith) then previously we were enemies against Him (the God who created all things and blesses us with everything!). Would you not rather be on His good side?

Secondly, we yearn for something to fulfill our lives. Theorists try to convince people that the universe spontaneously created itself and that the matter was formed at some point in time (but by what!?!). If this theory holds true, then our lives hold no purpose. CS Lewis addresses this thought

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

There are so many other factors that play a part into this faith, but for the sake of ink I defer for now.

My final question is this, my friend: If we can believe in a place we have never seen on Earth and plan ahead to be there and spend so much time in preparation to be there, why is heaven not the same in our minds? Rather, if we expend so much energy to go to a place that is temporal and will one day no longer be, where is our passion to be in an everlasting splendorous place with the benefactor of every good ever observed?

If I am bankrupt in God’s economy and He offers me an eternal loan equal to that His own Son receives, why not take it? CS Lewis also writes

“Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing.”

Why not step onto that train?

Your fellow traveler,
Matt

To the southbound passenger:

To the sojourners abroad:

This is a new blog dedicated to exploring God's character and who He is and applying it to today's life. Life is like a train. Bet you havent heard that one before huh? Or maybe you have. The point is we are like pilgrims on this earth. Another word for pilgrim in today's day and age might be traveler, wanderer, a passenger rather and the conductor being our Lord. So sojourners we embark on our first journey. We head southbound to San Diego, and this is for a very special person there.

Christina Rossetti writes:

Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke,-
I love, as you would have me, God the most;
Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look
Unready to forego what I foresook.
This say I, having counted up the cost,
This, though I be feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.
Yet while I love my God the most I deem
That I can never love you over-much
I love Him more, so let me love you too;
Yea, as I apprehend it, love such I cannot love you if I love not Him
I cannot love Him, if I love not you

I spent a lot of time on the train yesterday and it got me to thinking about how life has many stops and go's, and pushes and pulling. Like a train. We trust the master conductor to do his job and sometimes we dont. Its our journey. This journey was something quite different however. I look forward to going to San Diego again.

Love always,
Corrine