from the angels:

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men
on whom his favor rests."

spa day

as part of my christmas present, momma and i went for massages, manicures and pedicures today. one word - FAB-U-LOUS!

a couple pics from the day: the cute little salon. complete with bamboo. some crazy, gritty purple stuff they smear all over your feet. the finished product (aren't the pretty?).

"wanna build a snowman with me?"

i made the mistake of asking my mother the above question, to which she said, "uh, no. it's cold out there."

however, being the creative one that she is, she decided we'd make a different kind of snowman. in fact, we'd make 5. miniature ones. inside.

only my mother.

the meadows family:
complete with snow scene.

left: momma, daddy and

chesapeake (our cat)

right: gordon, brandon and sarah.
notice my bros snowboards - i added that little touch. :-)
and yes, i know g and i don't have mouths -

i couldn't get them to stay on.

they actually turned out pretty darn cute. what do you think?

Merry Christmas from the Meadows Family!

more lyrics.

these are similar to the last, but much older.
read and refresh your soul.
pray this.

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.

Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.

Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.

Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

Frances Havergal; 1874

now go listen to chris tomlin's version of this song.

i really enjoy these lyrics.

something very simple and poetic about them.
as well as truthful.

(verses only seen here)
we stutter and we stammer till You say us
a symphony of chaos till You play us
phrases on the pages of unknown
‘til You read us into poetry and prose

we are kept and we are captive till You free us
vaguely unimagined ‘til You dream us
aimlessly unguided ‘til You lead us home

passed over and passed by until you claim us
orphaned and abandoned ‘til you name us
hidden and disclosed ‘til you expose you hearts

-healed; nichole nordeman

my fav line; "a symphony of chaos til You play us"

a symphony of chaos. like when you hear a symphony warming up before a show and all the instuments are playing their own thing. there's no music; just noise. i feel like that a lot.

thankfully there is One who makes beauty out of chaos.

the count is in . . .

27 inches!

check out the snow hanging over the eves of the house. wild.

this evening dad and i went on a walk. saw just about every mode of transportation: cross country skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles, 4- and 3-wheelers, snowborad and skis being pulled by trucks, sleds full of kids being pulled by parents. it was quite wonderful. in salisbury everyone would be locked indoors with 27 inches of snow. here, people are out and about in whatever way they can be. guess you get used to it living here.

baking and shoveling, shoveling and baking.
(the two things that have consumed my day)

momma and i hit the kitchen this afternoon

(since we were/are snowed in)

at the end of the day, here's what we have to show for ourselves:

sugar cookies (of course)

peppermint patties

cinnamon rolls

cranberry-apple chutney

on the other side of things and between food prep,

i shoveled our drive with daddy

good times had by all.

yes ladies and gentlemen . . .

we are under a BLIZZARD warning!!!

was only about a half inch this a.m. when i woke up.

6.5 inches so far . . . calling for up to 30 inches by tomorrow. whoa!

Merry Christmas to me!

psst . . . guess what . . .

i have a flickr site now.

www.flickr.com/photos/pinkhouser

if you care to view, enjoy!

derek

if you don't listen to derek webb, you should. i mean really listen. whether you agree 100% with him or not, he makes you think and challenges.

link to some of his lyrics: his latest project "mockingbird"
http://derekwebb.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm?id=7013&inc=7&album_id=731

recommendations:
a new law
a king and a kingdom
rich young ruler

"if there were less of what seems like ease in our lives they would tell more for Christ and souls . . . we profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could."

--amy carmichal

leaving the waterpot behind

"Give Me a drink."

"How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?"

"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

"Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"

"Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

"Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."

. . .

"Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet . . . I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."

"I who speak to you am He."

so the woman left her waterpot . . .
and went to tell others about Him.

---------------------
she met Jesus.
he changed her.
she forgot about her old priorities.
she embraced her new purpose.

feedback required.

i'm contemplating going digital.

currently i exist solely in the old-school world of film cameras.

so i'm asking you, the readers, for some help.

question 1: should i, in fact, latch on to the digital realm?
question 2: if you answered question 1 in the affirmative, what type of camera do you recommend?

"sweet dreams" -OR-
"to avoid the wrath of linnea"

last night i was in an episode of LOST.

in my dreams, of course.

you think it's confusing and mind-blowing to watch the show, try being in an episode. it was like 10x as crazy.

the nice part was, at the end of the dream i got proposed to -
by a guy that was a cross between jack and chris tomlin.
that's never happened to me in a dream before.
it was dang exciting.

i said yes. :-)

------------------------------

dreams truly facinate me. i think if i had more time, i'd like to study them more.

i'm one of those people who always remembers their dreams. at least one a night. often more than that. in vivid detail. and while often this is both interesting and often amusing, there's also something a bit un-nerving about dreaming.

in college i had a period of about 2-3 weeks where i had very real, very scary dreams every night - so much so that i didn't want to go to sleep at night. nothing puts you on your knees quicker.

dreaming is the one place where any sense of control that i think i have disappears. your dreams just happen. the people appear (sometimes from so far back in your life that you didn't even know you remembered that person), the places become almost real, the events take place as they like (whether they make sense or not). it is the one place where i realize that i am completely at the mercy of God.

----------------------------

"when we are on our knees we know it is not we who control the world; it is not in our power, therefore, to supply our needs by our own independent efforts . . . in effect, therefore, what we do every time we pray is to confess our own impotence and God's sovereignty."
--j.i. packer, evangelism and the sovereignty of God

for kyrie anna ruth

my sincerest apologies for not posting for . . . um . . . a month and a half. i would like to offer up a list of good (and maybe some questionable) excuses/reasons for my absence. see below:

1. i've been busy. (ah, the pathetically famous excuse of the centruy. it is somewhat true here though as i have been travelling like mad this summer and have also managed to move out of my apartment and across town somewhere in between all the trips.)

2. i have had nothing to post. (this is just a flat out lie, actually. i've had plenty on my mind that i could share. see 'staggering facts' for more.)

3. i haven't had internet access. (not 100% true, as mary has been gracious to let me use hers when i visit. BUT, it is true that i do not have internet at my new place. therefore my online time is significantly decreased.)

i got nothing else.

an aside: i do have sufficient reason for not posting pictures. i will remind you that when it comes to photography i have not yet jumped into the twenty-first century. it still remains that i have only a film camera. no digital. perhaps soon. but part of me thinks that once i go digital i'm never gonna use my film again. and that makes me sad. perhaps i'll scan some shots from the summer and post them soon (when i can figure out how to do that.) until then, i remain pictureless.

love and miss you, kyrie.

staggering facts

1. there are 6,625 unreached people groups in the world. (that's 41.5% of the world's total people groups.)

2. of the world's 6.53 billion people, 2.58 billion live in these unreached people groups. (that's 2.58 billion people who have NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO HEAR THE GOSPEL.)

3. Of the approximate 6,800 langauges in the world, 4,037 are without Scripture portions available.

4. a large portion of these unreached peoples live in the 10/40 window. of the 4 billion people there, 2.23 billion are among the least reached.

5. there are only approximately 7,000 missionaries worldwide working with these unreached people groups, which puts the ratio at one missionary for every 368,570 people in these groups!

6. 94% of all ordained preachers in the world minister to the 9% that speak english.

7. there are more than 1 million full-time christian workers in the u.s.; while one half of the world's population (3 major groups - Muslim, Hindu, Chinese) - 2.2billion - have about 3,000 full time christian workers.

-------------------------------

my friend annmarie was telling me of a missionary that she heard speak last week. he works among one of the 872 people groups in papua new guinea.

2 of the unreached tribes in papua new guinea have been ASKING for a missionary to come and live among them for 9 years.

9 YEARS.

in striking contrast, a youth pastor in california just stepped down from his position to pursue something else. within 2 days, 47 people applied for his position.

-------------------------------

think on it and let it affect you. i haven't been able to get away from it since i read it. i just keep rolling the numbers around in my head and wondering what the heck i'm doing here in america.

-------------------------------

"go therefore and make disciples of all nations." --jesus

"and you shall be my witnesses, both in jerusalem, and in all judea and samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." --acts 1:8

"this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come." --matt 24:14

"after this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" --rev 7:9-10

on carving . . .

when Michaelangelo was working with that piece of granite that eventually became David, one of his assistants asked him,

"how do you do this? how do you take this block and form something so beautiful?"

and Michaelangelo stepped back, and he said,

"that stone IS david.
i am carving away everything that is NOT david."

it was clear in his mind and in his design, and when he was carving, he was carving away everything that was not david.

God does the same thing with you and i.
he took this block of stone.
he declares us children of the living God.
he justified us in Jesus Christ that we might know him, the power of his resurrection.

why is there pain in my life? he is carving away everything that is not Christ in us.

that is the path of sanctification.
blessed be the name of the Lord.

"that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." --phillipians 3:10

--from one of phil's recent sermon on "the fellowship of His sufferings"

blessed be the name of the Lord in all things, even our sufferings. for even those are meant for our good. for ALL things work together for good for those who love God.

you guys really gotta check out this phillipians series. fo' real. i ain't kiddin'. it's 100 xs better than any t.v. show. see link below.

lead me to the Rock

as we were driving thru the mountains the other day, my dad and i were marveling at these homes that are literally built on the sides of the mountains.

i had lots of questions:
where are the roads leading up there?
how do they get machinery or supplies up there?
and mostly, how do the homes stay up there?
(some of them look as if a strong wind could push them off the side.)

"i guess they should do ok," my father says. "they are built on solid rock."

and there you have it.

homes able to stand in seemingly impossible places

because they are built on rock.

hmm.
-------------------------------
"everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house,

but it did not fall because it had been founded on the Rock."

--matt 7:21

it's commanded, people.

"look amond the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
for I am doing work in your days
that you would not believe if told."
--habakkuk 1:5

notice the progression:
1. look - ("open your eyes, sarah.")
2. see - (spend a little time gazing at it until you really get it.)
3. wonder and be astounded- (a bi-product of the first two.)

read this a day after my reading by tozer (see below).

was reminded how insistent God is on showing me things

when He really wants me to get it.

as promised . . .

from the knowledge of the holy by a.w. tozer.
read if you care to have your complacent look on life destroyed.
it's weighty, but plow thru it.
and then rest awhile and wonder at the mystery of life.

------------------------
"Thomas Carlyle, following Plato, pictures a man, a deep pagan thinker, who had grown to maturity in some hidden cave and is brought out suddenly to see the sun rise. 'what would his wonder be,' exclaims Carlyle, 'his rapt astonishment at the sight we daily witness with indifference! with the free, open sense of a child, yet with the ripe faculty of a man, his whole heart would be kindled by that sight . . .'

"how different are we who have grown used to it, who have become jaded with a satiety of wonder. 'it is not by our superior insight that we escape the difficulty,' says Carlyle, 'it is by our superior levity, our inattention, our want of insight. it is by not thinking that we cease to wonder at it . . . we call that fire of the black thundercloud 'electricity' and lecture learnedly about it, and grind it out of glass and silk: but what is it? whence it comes? whither it goes? science has done much for us; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film. this world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, incrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.'

"[even after years of advances in science and technology] we still do not know. we save face by repeating frivolously the jargon of science. we harness the mighty energy that rushes through our world; we subject it to fingertip control in our cars and our kitchens; we make it work for us like aladdin's jinn, but we still do not know what it is. secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies. we cover our deep ignorance with words, but

we are ashamed to wonder,

we are afraid to whisper, 'mystery.'"

------------------------

a friend of mine named grace was standing at the kitchen sink before our bible study one day just staring at the water running over her hand.

later when i asked her about it she told me she was just thinking. about how the water washed over her hand instead of being absorbed into it. about how her thin layer of skin was created to keep out things that would harm the rest of the body. about how her brain got her fingers to do exactly what she wanted them to do.

she was marveling.

'wonder'-ing, if you will.

about hands.

and skin.

and water.

what a springboard of worship is our 'wonder'-ing.