Senior Mission Trip!

Hi all!
Right now it is 11:40 am. At noon I'll have lunch, at 1:00pm I'll load the bus, at 11:50pm I'll board a plane that will take me from Seattle to Houston, and tomorrow I'll fly to Honduras. W00T!
My class and I are going to be building school buildings, putting on a Week of Prayer, running a music clinic, and working at an orphanage for the next 2 1/2 weeks. I can't believe it. I've seen other senior classes do the mission thing, but now it's my turn. May the Lord keep us safe, smart, and surrendered. Thanks so much to all who have helped make this trip possible. From class officers to donors, may the Lord bless you as we share the love of God with the people in Honduras.
Honduras, here I come!
Katie ; )
P.S. I'm not bringing my computer to Honduras, so the likelihood of me posting on here for the next couple weeks is about zilch. ttyl (when I get back)

Psalm 39

I said, “I will guard my ways,
Lest I sin with my tongue;
I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,
While the wicked are before me.”
² I was mute with silence,
I held my peace even from good;
And my sorrow was stirred up.
³ My heart was hot within me;
While I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ “Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.
⁵ Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah
⁶ Surely every man walks about like a shadow;
Surely they busy themselves in vain;
He heaps up riches,
And does not know who will gather them.

⁷ “And now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions;
Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
⁹ I was mute, I did not open my mouth,
Because it was You who did it.
¹⁰ Remove Your plague from me;
I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.
¹¹ When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,
You make his beauty melt away like a moth;
Surely every man is vapor. Selah

¹² “Hear my prayer, O Lord,
And give ear to my cry;
Do not be silent at my tears;
For I am a stranger with You,
A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
¹³ Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength,
Before I go away and am no more.”

Friends...

Just some random quotes that made me think....

It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not.
Mignon McLaughlin

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.
Shirley MacLaine

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.
George MacDonald

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
Thomas Aquinas

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
Thomas Jefferson

Saying and Doing

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go (Matt 21:28-30).”

Often times I find myself acting like the second son in this parable. Continually I tell the Lord how much I love Him and want to serve Him, and yet I never actually do anything for Him. In my heart I sincerely believe that I am doing what God wants, but in reality, I am simply living my life my way and talking about living it God’s way. The second son in the parable tried to make it look like he was faithful and obedient; but time proved that his profession was not real. The only love he showed his father was in his words, and he really didn’t mean them. God has called me to be a co-worker with Him in blessing the world; but no matter how many times I tell Him “I’ll go where you want me to go,” or, ”Here I am Lord,” I am still being disobedient if my actions don’t match my words.

The problem behind this isn’t that I don’t love God at all, or that I don’t want to do what’s right, on the contrary, I think I love God very much, and doing what is right is important to me. The problem is that in my actions, I love myself more than I love God. When doing what God wants makes sense to me, I gladly fulfill His requirements, but when the path God chooses looks rough, hard, or unnecessary in my human eyes, I trust my own, easier rout rather than the straight and narrow. At first I may recognize this failure to trust God’s leading as what it is - sin - but with time, the lines that divide my reasoning from God’s commands get blurred, and choosing my way above God’s way no longer looks bad. It becomes a habit. I may hear God’s voice and see His leading, but my ability to recognize and obey His Spirit is dulled.

No longer do I see my self-righteousness as filthy rags, and I no longer feel a need for Christ’s righteousness to cover me. I think I’m doing what’s right. I claim to follow Christ, but I don’t have the love of God in my heart that would cause my actions to reflect my words. I become content with only saying, “I go, sir.” Idly watching other workers for Christ, I claim to support them as a fellow child of God, but through my life and character I deny that relationship. My life is a lie.

Sitting around and making sure that I don’t do anything bad is not serving God. Unless I am actively serving Him, I am working against Him. Unless I am part of the solution, I am part of the problem. When I fail to do the work God has appointed, not only am I counteracting my own salvation, I am allowing souls that I could have won to Christ drift into the grasp of Satan.

Christ does not want us to take this downward path. He calls us to "Go work today in My vineyard." He tells us how to care for the garden of our mind, to grow a character that is more than words. “By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love (2 Peter 1:4-7).” Work today in His vineyard. Cultivate your relationship with your Father. Teach others to do the Lord’s work, and in the end, when we bring in the harvest, you will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matt. 25:23).”