From Pointe to a Place

Psalm 84 (NASB)

How lovely are your dwelling places

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longed and even yearned for

  the courts of the Lord

My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the

  living God.

The bird also has found and house,

And the swallow a nest for herself,

  where she may lay her young,

Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

How blessed are those who dwell in

  Your house!

They are ever praising You.    Selah.

How blessed is the man whose strength

  is in You.

In whose heart are the highways to Zion!

Passing through the valley of Baca they

  make it a spring;

The early rain also covers it with

  blessings.

They go from strength to strength,

Every one of them appears before God

  in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;

Give ear, O God of Jacob!      Selah.

Behold our shield, O God,

And look upon the face of Your

  anointed.

For a day in Your courts is better than a

  thousand outside.

I would rather stand at the threshold of

  the house of my God

Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord gives grace and glory;

No good thing does He withhold from

  those who walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,

How blessed is the man who trusts in

  You!

I was playing the game Headbandz this weekend (if you don’t know what that is, you are missing out on life) and I was reminded about something elementary but interesting: A place doesn’t have to be a building.

I was once again reminded of this when I think of one of my favorite comical quotes from one of my favorite cartoons: “You will always hold a special place in the organ that pumps my blood.”

So, when the scripture began discussing places, I was all like, “CHURCH BUILDING TABERNACLES THINGS YEAH!!!!” And then…….souls and hearts and bird’s nest. I was clearly very far off from what the scripture actually had in mind of places.

But this is exciting! Do you know what this means? It means that if hearts are places (yes, the organ that pumps your blood) then that means feet are places, too!

Okay maybe that is not as exciting for you as it is for me.

I have been trained in ballet for nearly my entire life, and for two years I danced en pointe. I do realize that a majority of dancers dance en pointe for much longer than that, and I salute them, but I really felt like I got a good grasp of the strength it takes to dance en pointe and make it look effortless. The key to all of this is *insert dramatic drum roll here* strength!!

So, preparing to dance en pointe takes a long time. Like, I’m talking three to four years of footwork and pre-pointe classes (and crying what?). And then, you get the shoes. Contrary to popular belief, there are a few more steps before you actually get to dance in the new shoes.

I guess finding the correct shoes to fit your foot is a step of its own. There are different companies that make pointe shoes, like Capezio, Grishko, Bloch, Freed, and about a million others. Then there are styles. Let’s just not talk about those. My pointe is (what a pun) that there are a lot of different types of pointe shoes out there, and not all feet fit into all shoes.

Then comes the fun part! (Not really) After you spend your life savings on a pair of pointe shoes, you get to sew them to fit your foot! Yes, you have to sew them because your foot is different than every other foot on the planet, and it is up to you to make those shoes 100% yours. It’s beautiful and patience testing, but it is also annoying, and, well, patience testing.

Now that you have your shoes sewn you actually get the chance to dance in them. This requires even more months of footwork, adjustments, crying (what?), band-aids (blisters are real, my friend), and strength.

Oh, look! It’s that word again! It’s like it wants to be in my blog post!

“They come from strength to strength.” I really like the idea that “they” being the men whose strength is in God have the ability to be seen as coming from strengths. It is like strengths are places and each man comes from a different places before the Lord.

But why did I talk about pointe shoes?

You ask wonderful questions. I come from a place in my life where strengths are not only places, but they are journeys. Working in my pointe shoes took much more than two years of my life, and it took a big role in forming who I am today. There is a place on my body that has gained strength due to a transformational journey God dwelled in.

Places are not stationary, so when we reread the beginning of this scripture “How lovely are your dwelling places O Lord of hosts!” understand that this place does not have to be a building. It does not have to be an inanimate object. It does not have to have deep Biblical history. The place can be you, and you can come from a place of strength within yourself.

Carlene Dick is a sophomore majoring in elementary education at Southwestern College.

Walking in Faith

Exodus 19:16-25 (NIV)

16 On the morning of the third day there 
was thunder and lightning, with a thick 
cloud over the mountain, and a very loud 
trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 
17 Then Moses led the people out of the 
camp to meet with God, and they stood at 
the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai 
was covered with smoke, because the LORD 
descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed 
up from it like smoke from a furnace, and 
the whole mountain trembled violently. 
19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder 
and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of 
God answered him.
20 The LORD descended to the top of Mount 
Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. 
So Moses went up 21 and the LORD said to him,
“Go down and warn the people so they do not 
force their way through to see the LORD and
many of them perish. 22 Even the priests, 
who approach the LORD, must consecrate 
themselves, or the LORD will break out against 
them.”
23 Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot 
come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned 
us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart 
as holy.’”
24 The LORD replied, “Go down and bring 
Aaron up with you. But the priests and the 
people must not force their way through to 
come up to the LORD, or he will break out 
against them.”
25 So Moses went down to the people and 
told them.

All my life, I have asked questions like: How come? Why should I? What’s that do? How does that work? What will that mean? What for? and so on. It is not a bad thing to question. I have learned a lot by asking questions. Jesus invites questions and discussion. The college is built on the idea that asking questions is important to learning.
In today’s passage, Moses is trying to understand what is going on, and why. I can relate to that. Can you? I think we all can. So for today, I suggest our meditation time lead us to how we faithfully respond to God in times when the explanation is not clear. An old hymn my grandparents use to sing a lot was: “Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be faithful to Jesus, than to trust and obey”. And in this lies the tension for which we must pray and rely on the Holy Spirit to give us discernment.
When to seek understanding and when to walk out in faith. Much of our lives involve some of both. Sometimes a lot of both.
My prayer today and every day is: give me the curiosity to learn your ways Lord, and the faith to be obedient like Moses when I am called and I don’t understand why.

Steve Wilke is the VP of planning and new programs and the Executive Director of the Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College.

Continuous Grace

Acts 7:30-40 (NIV)

30 “Forty years later, an angel appeared to 

Moses in the flame of a burning bush in the 

wilderness near Mount Sinai. 31 Enthralled 

by the sight, Moses approached to get a 

closer look and he heard the Lord’s voice: 

32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God 

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Trembling 

with fear, Moses didn’t dare to investigate 

any further. 33 The Lord continued, ‘Remove 

the sandals from your feet, for the place 

where you are standing is holy ground. 34 

I have clearly seen the oppression my people 

have experienced in Egypt, and I have heard 

their groaning. I have come down to rescue 

them. Come! I am sending you to Egypt.’ 

35 “This is the same Moses whom they rejected 

when they asked, ‘Who appointed you as 

our leader and judge?’ This is the Moses whom 

God sent as leader and deliverer. God did this 

with the help of the angel who appeared 

before him in the bush. 36 This man led them 

out after he performed wonders and signs in 

Egypt at the Red Sea and for forty years in the 

wilderness. 37 This is the Moses who told the 

Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet 

like me from your own people.’ 38 This is the 

one who was in the assembly in the wilderness 

with our ancestors and with the angel who 

spoke to him on Mount Sinai. He is the one who 

received life-giving words to give to us. 39 He’s 

also the one whom our ancestors refused to 

obey. Instead, they pushed him aside and, 

in their thoughts and desires, returned to Egypt. 

40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will lead 

us. As for this Moses who led us out of Egypt, 

we don’t know what’s happened to him!’

                Acts 7 is a speech given by Stephen. Stephen was an outstanding leader and was also the first to give his life for the Gospel. Within this chapter, Stephen is presenting Israel’s relationship with God and relating that specific relationship to how the Jews had constantly rejected God’s message. Stephen reviews Jewish history throughout the chapter and then he talks about a familiar person: Moses. Stephen continues in talking about how the Jews rejected Moses as their leader and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. In verse 40 we can see that the Israelites turned away from the One True God and worshipped false gods, which lead to disobedience.

                As we continue the Lenten journey together, I think it is important to examine our own lives. As college students, it is easy to get wrapped up in the busyness of our individual schedules. Sometimes I find myself focusing more on my studies, friends, or any other event than actually focusing in on God: the One who continually keeps His promises! The same God who appeared to Moses appears to us daily in multiple ways! Do we follow him, or do we turn the other way as the Israelites did? God wants to use us just as He used Moses and Stephen!

Caitlyn Martin is a junior majoring in Religion/Philosophy and Elementary Education with a minor in Youth Ministry.

It's Not About Me

Psalm 19 (NIV)

1 The heavens declare the glory of 
God; the skies proclaim the work of 
his hands. 2 Day after day they 
pour forth speech; night after night 
they reveal knowledge. 3 They have 
no speech, they use no words; no 
sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their 
voice goes out into all the earth, 
their words to the ends of the world. 
In the heavens God has pitched a tent 
for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom 
coming out of his chamber, like a 
champion rejoicing to run his course. 
6 It rises at one end of the heavens and 
makes its circuit to the other; nothing 
is deprived of its warmth.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, 
refreshing the soul. The statutes of the 
Lord are trustworthy, making wise the 
simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are 
right, giving joy to the heart. The 
commands of the Lord are radiant, 
giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of 
the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The 
decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of 
them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold, 
than much pure gold; they are sweeter 
than honey, than honey from the 
honeycomb. 11 By them your servant is 
warned; in keeping them there is great 
reward. 12 But who can discern their 
own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 
13 Keep your servant also from willful 
sins; may they not rule over me. Then I 
will be blameless, innocent of great 
transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this 
meditation of my heart be pleasing in 
your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

While reading the first several verses of this chapter I kept thinking that God is just so amazing, everything that He created is in constant awe and praise of His awesome power. It got me thinking about how I live my life and if I live in the constant state of awe and Praise that He deserves. Everything that God does, He has done because He loves me and He will never stop loving me. Through all of my struggles and sins of this life He is constantly there with me. That is what this passage reminded me of. Everything that is in The Lord is pure and righteous so everything that I do for Him should be pure and righteous. That is easier said than done, but when you think about it, nothing could be simpler. Verse 7 says that “The law of the lord is perfect, refreshing the soul” when I remember that a perfect God gave me perfect laws to follow through his perfect son by perfect love, living a pure and righteous life comes as easy as it gets. It is when I look to the world or myself for guidance that I stray from the path. The point that I am trying to get at from this scripture is that everything in the universe was made by a perfect God and everything that is in the universe worships Him for all eternity. So why on earth would I not want to join in on the greatest party that is ever going to happen? Spending my entire life praising God with all that I have and all that I am seems like the best possible way one can spend his or her life. Christ gave his life so that I may live, the least I can do is live that life in a way that would bring Him all the Glory. After all, it isn't my life I’m living in the first place, He lives through me.

Robert Hernandez is a junior majoring in History and secondary education.

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Psalm 105 (New American Standard)

The LORD’S Wonderful Works in Behalf of Israel
105 Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon 
His name; Make known His deeds among the 
peoples. 2 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; 
Speak of all His wonders. 3 Glory in His holy 
name; Let the heart of those who seek the 
LORD be glad. 4 Seek the LORD and His 
strength; Seek His face continually. 5 Remember 
His wonders which He has done, His marvels 
and the judgments uttered by His mouth, 
6 O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of 
Jacob, His chosen ones! 7 He is the LORD our 
God; His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He has remembered His covenant forever, 
The word which He commanded to a thousand 
generations, 9 The covenant which He made 
with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. 10 Then 
He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To 
Israel as an everlasting covenant, 11 Saying, 
“To you I will give the land of Canaan As 
the portion of your inheritance,”
37 Then He brought them out with silver and 
gold, And among His tribes there was not one 
who stumbled. 38 Egypt was glad when they 
departed, For the dread of them had fallen 
upon them. 39 He spread a cloud for a covering, 
And fire to illumine by night. 40 They asked, 
and He brought quail, And satisfied them with 
the bread of heaven. 41 He opened the rock 
and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places 
like a river. 42 For He remembered His holy 
word With Abraham His servant;
43 And He brought forth His people with joy, 
His chosen ones with a joyful shout. 44 He 
gave them also the lands of the nations, That 
they might take possession of the fruit of the 
peoples’ labor, 45 So that they might keep 
His statutes And observe His laws, Praise the LORD!

Back when my four boys were youngsters, getting them dressed to go someplace was a huge effort. With only five years between the oldest and the youngest, they had all of the orderliness of a box full of puppies and they all needed help at the same time.
Find the clothes—two socks and two shoes for every single kid? Impossible! Are the right clothes are on the right kid—no, that one is too small for you. Give it to your brother. Oh, no! Did the baby just spit up all over his shirt?
That was the case until I discovered the key to getting ready—preparation. I began organizing the getting-dressed process. By finding clothes in advance (including socks and shoes) and setting out the going-out clothes for each boy, I had time to take care of any last-minute spit-ups or emergencies, and the boys learned their responsibilities for getting dressed and on the road.
Preparation was indispensable.
God knows the important of preparation—He invented it. When He called the Israelites to leave Egypt for the Canaan, he prepared a leader to take them there, he prepared a place for them live, and he prepared livelihoods for them to step into.
Now we are in the midst of the greatest preparation God has ever made. During Lent, as we ready our hearts through spending time with Him in prayer and reflection, we remember that by sending Christ as our Savior, God has prepared an eternal home for us, and given us the means to arrive in this eternal home.
He prepares us for both the journey and the destination. Now we can be ready.

Sara Weinert is vice president for communications at Southwestern College.

The Wilderness Experience

Hebrews 11:1-3, 13-19, New Living Translation

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope 
for will actually happen; it gives us assurance 
about things we cannot see. Through their 
faith, the people in days of old earned a 
good reputation. By faith we understand that 
the entire universe was formed at God's 
command, that what we now see did not 
come from anything that can be seen.
All these people died still believing what God 
had promised them. They did not receive what 
was promised, but they saw it all from a 
distance and welcomed it. They agreed that 
they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 
Obviously people who say such things are 
looking forward to a country they can call their 
own. If they had longed for the country they 
came from, they could have gone back. But they 
were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. 
That is why God is not ashamed to be called their 
God, for he has prepared a city for them. It was 
by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice 
when God was testing him. Abraham, who had 
received God's promises, was ready to sacrifice 
his only son, Isaac, even though God had told 
him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your 
descendants will be counted.’ Abraham reasoned 
that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back 
to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive 
his son back from the dead.”

The original recipients of the letter to the Hebrews had grown weary. They had put their faith in Jesus some time prior because they believed that his death on the cross had redeemed all of creation. To their great dismay, however, the world around them looked no different from the reality that existed prior to their collective step of faith. They still endured hardships, they still experienced death, they still suffered injustices. These experiences led them to question the reality of a redemption they could not see.

In an earlier chapter, the writer speaks to these questions by comparing these Christians to the Hebrews who were delivered from slavery in Egypt. Those former slaves had experienced God’s redemption in dramatic fashion. They had even seen the defeat of their master, they had witnessed Pharaoh and his army washed away. But these Hebrews were not immediately brought to the Promised Land. Instead they were made to wander in a wilderness for forty years. During this time they frequently forgot what they had seen; they forgot the reality of their deliverance.

The writer suggests that the experience of his Christian readers was the same as that of the ancient Hebrews for although they had experienced redemption in Christ, they were focused on their current struggles. Thus, in chapter 11, he shifts their focus through his famous, although often misunderstood, definition of faith. Faith, he says, is not simply the hope that redemption will happen; it is, rather, the confidence that redemption has already happened, even though we do not always see its effects.

Put differently, faith is confidence in the reality of redemption despite the experience of wilderness.

The forty days of Lent reminds us that we are still experiencing wilderness. We too have placed our faith in Christ and have believed that his work has redeemed creation. Yet, most of us, like these original readers, have endured suffering and have experienced death. Not all of us have suffered injustices, but if we are paying attention to world events, we see a world filled with injustice from the horrors of genocide and poverty to the relatively common and prevalent experiences of gender and ethnic discrimination. The promised redemption can sometimes seem illusory, its reality invisible.

But the Lenten season also keeps moving us forward, proclaiming that the suffering and sacrifice experienced in these forty days can only find their meaning and purpose in Lent’s grand conclusion—resurrection. Like the message of Hebrews, therefore, Lent reminds us to keep our focus in the right place, not on the wilderness we can see, but on the redemption and new life that we cannot see. “And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

Jackson Lashier is Assistant Professor of Religion at Southwestern College.

Family Love

Jeremiah 30.12-22-Living Bible (TLB)

12 For your sin is an incurable bruise, a terrible 
wound. 13 There is no one to help you or to bind 
up your wound, and no medicine does any good. 
14 All your lovers have left you and don’t care 
anything about you anymore; for I have wounded 
you cruelly, as though I were your enemy; 
mercilessly, as though I were an implacable foe; 
for your sins are so many, your guilt is so great. 
15 Why do you protest your punishment? Your 
sin is so scandalous that your sorrow should never 
end! It is because your guilt is great that I have 
had to punish you so much. 16 But in that coming 
day, all who are destroying you shall be destroyed, 
and all your enemies shall be slaves. Those who 
rob you shall be robbed; and those attacking 
you shall be attacked. 17 I will give you back your 
health again and heal your wounds. Now you are 
called “The Outcast” and “Jerusalem, the Place 
Nobody Wants.” 18 But, says the Lord, when I 
bring you home again from your captivity and 
restore your fortunes, Jerusalem will be rebuilt 
upon her ruins; the palace will be reconstructed 
as it was before. 19 The cities will be filled with 
joy and great thanksgiving, and I will multiply 
my people and make of them a great and honored 
nation. 20 Their children shall prosper as in 
David’s reign; their nations shall be established 
before me, and I will punish anyone who hurts 
them. 21 They will have their own ruler again. 
He will not be a foreigner. And I will invite him 
to be a priest at my altars, and he shall approach 
me, for who would dare to come unless invited. 
22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your 
God.


Throughout the journey of Lent, sacrifice and repentance are themes that seem to be the most popular. If we look at the Greek definitions of these words, we can better understand their original purpose. Sacrifice in Greek is thusia, which is defined as ‘an official sacrifice prescribed by God; hence an offering the Lord accepts because offered on His terms.’ Repentance in Greek is metanoeó is defined as ‘changing one’s mind’. Throughout this passage, God is speaking as a parent figure starting first as the disciplinary parent trying to get us to repent of our past ways. In the second half of this passage, God has changed to the protective and truthful parent asking us to remember the sacrifice it takes to completely trust Him in all of life’s situations. Similar to how our interactions with our parents are today, God is telling us how badly we messed up and how we need to correct our behavior to have a better life, and through His unending and all-forgiving love, He will restore us and bring us back to His glory as we will learn to live for Him and not for the world. As we continue through Lent as a family, let us use the same love God has for us shown in this passage to build up each other in the glory of our mighty Heavenly God.

Brandi Young is a junior majoring in business administration and religion/philosophy and minoring in Discipleship and music in worship.