Slavery = Freedom

VS.

In these verses:
Crimson - represents luxury, wealth, easy-living
Yoke - represents servitude, self-denial, hard work

When it is put that way, I'd rather have a yoke in my youth than to be established in crimson. This is a good argument for why parents should not hand everything to their kids on a silver platter; why a life of simplicity, hard work, and godly learning will go much farther than any other parenting method. Of course, I've only been on the receiving end of parenting so I'm no expert.

Hebrews 12:5-11

*I've been learning a lot about the life of Moses in preparation for camp and I just found some verses that correlate closely with the thought of having a yoke in ones youth (See Deuteronomy 8:2-5.) It gives the reason for the 40 years of wandering. It was to be a discipline for the rising generation, a preparation to their entrance into the Promised Land.

On the same topic, but a slightly different vane:
There are two types of yokes. We all bear one or the other; bearing neither is not an option. The first type is satan's yoke. It is the yoke of slavery to our sins and the subsequent guilt we bear. This is the yoke that God seeks to free us from. (See Leviticus 26:13, Jeremiah 30:8,9, Lamentations 1:14) Then there is Christ's yoke. This is the yoke of slavery to Him. (See Matthew 11:29,30)

Who usually carries a yoke? Oxen, yes. And slaves. God calls us to be slaves. Sounds harsh, doesn't it? Many translations use the word servant because it sounds less discordant and more tactful. Readers today associate the word slave with 19th century slavery where brutal treatment and loss of life was commonplace. But when striving to understand the Bible, we must define terms using only the Bible and not our own conceptions of its terminology. In Biblical times, slaves were treated very humanely. They were given a Sabbath's rest and also given the major festivals and feast-days off (by the way, there were a TON of festivals.) In addition, every seven years, all the slaves were to be set free and their debts forgiven.

There were different types of slaves. Slaves captured in war, those serving to pay off a debt of theft, poverty (using your own life as collateral for debts - indentured servants), serving in order to earn something desired (example: Jacob serving for Rachel), and then the ultimate slavery: bondslaves, which were not set free every seven years. This is the concept is introduced in Exodus 21. A bondslave made a willing choice to enter into a lifetime of servitude. The motivating factor was to be love - love for the master and the family that may have been acquired while in servitude. (See Exodus 21:5) This is the kind of slavery that God has called us to, just as Christ exemplified. He calls us to be willing slaves, motivated by love.

CHRIST - our example

• Philippians 2:5-7 - Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a slave, and was made in the likeness of men.
• Psalm 40:6 - Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened*; burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. (*this is a reference to the practice of driving an aul through the ear of a declared bondservant. See Exodus 21:6)

Conclusions:

1. I am 20 and 2/3 years old. In 4 months and 3 days, I will be 21. As far as Lamentations 3:27 goes, I'm pretty much out of my youth. I'm pretty certain it was referring to childhood. However, that doesn't mean I can't still learn lessons of servitude and hard work. It will just be a bit harder to ingrain them into my life until they become habitual. Thankfully, I had great parents who taught me a lot. But there's always more to learn. I'm hoping that I am still youthful (and teachable) enough to learn the valuable lessons to be gained from a yoke of servitude.
2. I want to be a bondservant to Christ. I want my yoke to be Christ's yoke. That's what Mary the mother of Christ chose when she willingly accepted the humiliation and potential death that came with being pregnant out of wedlock. That's what Christ chose by surrendering all to the Father. I want to DELIGHT to do His will, motivated by love. This is true freedom. Bondservant to Christ = Freedom. It appears to be a paradox. Yes.

*Make Me a Captive, Lord - Hymn #568
George Matheson (1842-1906)

Make me a captive, Lord
And then I shall be free
Force me to render up my sword
And I shall conqueror be
I sink in life's alarms
When by myself I stand
Imprison me within Thine arms
And strong shall be my hand

My heart is weak and poor
Till it a master find
It has no spring of action sure
It varies with the wind
It cannot freely move
Till Thou has wrought its chain
Enslave it with Thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign

My will is not my own
Till Thou has made it Thine
If it will reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife
When on Thy bosom it has leant
And found in Thee its life

*Additional thoughts on the topic that were added later
**Also, if you want a more concise post on this topic, you can visit John Howe's post entitled Slavery.

Feeling Burly?

Journal How-to (plus quite a bit more)

I journal. You may wonder how I have anything left to say, seeing as how I blog so much. Well, that's a good point. I guess I just have lots of thoughts and need multiple avenues in which to express them.

I've had five journals throughout my lifetime (I just started on the sixth), some more well-kept than others. I have them all stashed away in my "treasure chest". I flip through them every once in a while when I'm home and trying to get rid of things. It's neat to go back in time and see what was on my mind, my worries, my joys, my life. I've always had this odd habit of naming my journals. I'm not sure why.

I started my first one, which I named Daily Nicole, on December 29, 1998. I was 10 years old. Odd name, I know. There's history behind it, if you ever want to know. I just found a funny entry written in November of 2000:

"Joel is the best.
He's my best friend.
He's so cool!"

Lol, it makes me laugh. I was a loving sister (at times).

My next journal was started on August 9, 2002 at 11:49 pm and I named it Garfield. Aptly named because it was bright orange and had a cut-out picture of Garfield on the front. I wrote something interesting in the front that I had forgotten about. Here's what I said: "Note to my family: If anything happens to me, go ahead and read my journals. My prayer is that you will get a better look at what is/was going on in my life and how I have drawn closer to my Savior. Your dearest daughter, sister, and friend, Christy Joy Kurtz." Interesting, very interesting. I'm surprised I said that!

The next one was started on August 20, 2003 at 1135 hours. I named it Pickle. Aah, I crack myself up sometimes. I mean, really, pickle!? What in the world!? I think it was because the pages were a nice bright green color. Funny, funny.

The next one is the huge leather one. I started to get into the habit of putting notes, pictures, and other mementos into my journals and that's what made it so thick. I began it on February 5, 2006 at 1124:22 hours. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever named it. Sad, I know. I don't know why, guess I just never thought of a name that was good enough.

My next one was named Blue Belle and began on September 17, 2008 at 0450:38 hours at the Front Desk of Thatcher. I got really attached to this journal because it represents an incredible amount of spiritual growth in my life. I would frequently write out favorite Bible verses, Ellen White quotes, and sermon notes. I finished it on May 12, 2009 at 0821:05. I was loathe to put it aside because I love going back and looking at lessons I've learned. I have to relearn them so many times and I find I learn from my mistakes better if I've written them down.

The whole reason I started posting this blog was to post the pictures of my newest journal. Sorry, I guess I got distracted reminiscing. I've been wanting to make a nice reusable leather cover to go over a standard sized blank book but I had planned to do that up at camp and I needed a new journal sooner. So I was trying to figure out what to do and I didn't want to go spend any money. While going through my stuff, I found a not-so-visually-appealing blank book on my shelf. Here's what I did next:

HOW-TO
I didn't think to take a picture before I started my project but you can see the fabric that I tore off of it in the first picture below. Yeah, it wasn't so cool. But I got to thinking that maybe I could recover it! I pulled out a pair of shorts that I grew out of but was saving because I wanted to use the fabric in a jean quilt that I plan to make some day when I have time. (lol) By sewing together some different parts of the shorts, I was able to make a cover for the book. I then used a hot glue gun to glue it on. The coolest part is that there is a neat pocket on the front where I can keep my nice pens. Plus, I think it makes it look unique.

I know you're all dieing to know what I named it! lol. Well, the front pocket has "UB-10" stitched into it because the shorts were by a brand of clothing called Union Bay. So I decided that would be the name of this journal: UB-10. Haha, I know, it's weird, but I thought it kinda sounded cool. Like I was a scientist naming a newly discovered star or some other celestial body. I started UB-10 on May 12, 2009 at 0915:58.

1. The original fabric that I tore off
2. Blank book without the original fabric
3. My cool shorts that no longer fit but whose fabric is going to a really awesome purpose!

4. The finished product. Yay!

Well, I know you got more than you bargained for if you read all that and I won't blame you if you decided to skip most of it. But I had a nice walk down memory lane. Memory lanes are funny things, though, they only mean something to those who have a vested interest in the memories.

in search of sunlight, harmony, and pain

Location: Howe Residence, Long Reach, Maine
Time: May 22-25
Why: For adventures, friends, harmony, awesome food, new experiences, memories, and, oh yeah, running. Lots and lots of running. Between Barry, Joel, and I, we logged 1, 103 minutes and 6 seconds of running. That's over 18 hours. (That's where the pain part comes in.)

(I love the greys in this picture. It's dark, foreboding, and yet still incredibly peaceful and beautiful)

[Before the start of Joel's 50 k (30 mi) trail race]

[Barry with 71 k down (44.4 miles) and 9 k (5.6 miles) left to go. Yeah, in case you were confused by all those numbers, that is a long ways. 50 miles to be exact. And he's smiling!?!)