Musings on Hebrews 11...

So this month I have been going through Hebrews and today I was in Chapter 11. The Hall of Faith chapter. Here is a little excerpt from the chapter to give you a small taste,

 "11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, [1] they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

I don't know about you, but whenever I read this chapter, chills run down my back. The faith that these people had astounds me. I wonder, if I was in the same place as they were; if I was faced with the thought of being torn in two or renouncing my faith, would I be able to STAND?

I would hope so. I would hope that the love of Christ, and passion for my SAVIOR would so permeate my being that nothing could separate me from my JESUS! But what about you? Do you have the faith of a mustard seed? 

I think that America, for far too long has been slipping back into a coma of complacency. The body has neglected its commission in life to stand and be a LIGHT in this dark world. To stand for TRUTH!  There are many, many hurting people out there. People who desperately need the truth of the gospel to set them free. But they are not just in Africa or in Indonesia. They are in your own community. You pass them at the gas-station. Maybe they don't look like they are hurting, but inside they are on the brink of letting go. They have held back the pain and the hurt for so long that they can't even cope with life. THESE are the people that GOD has called us to help. THIS is where the faith of God's people is needed. 

God has called us to a life of faith. A life of single devotion to the one who has created us. The one who saved us. Do you have the faith that can move mountains? If not, ask God for it. And hold on tight, cause He will give it to you. Don't hold back, live your life in reckless abandon for HIM.
LETS GO SHAKE THEMOUNTAINS....

What is my calling?

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet...

What is my purpose in life. What has God placed me on this earth for? What's up with all these weird talents that I have and how am I supposed to meld all of them together into some sort of lifestyle? I think this is one of the questions that Christians (especially younger ones) spend most of their lives trying to figure out. And if my experience is anything like most of you, ITS HARD! In fact looking back I spent so much time worrying if what I was doing was what God had planned for my life or if I was on a crash course with the edge of a cliff.....And the cliched "Pray about it" responses were not helping....I AM praying, but where is that {giant} pillar of fire, or that voice that shakes the ground, "Luke Sullivan you have been called to be a trash man." But it never came. {I'm kinda glad he didn't call me to be a trash man....}

But over the years, God has been changing my thinking on this. I finally came to this ground breaking discovery:  God wants you to do what you love. Wow, really God??? It might seem like such a simple thought to you, but to me it was life-changing. You see, my whole life I had lived under the assumption that there was ONE set strict plan that God had for your life. And if you weren't really tuned into to the divine calling channel and you somehow missed one of those divine answers, and picked the wrong college to go to, or ate the wrong flavor ice cream for July 4th that your life would be a failure. Ok, maybe failure is too strong a word, but in essence you would have missed out on what God wanted for you and he would be disappointed at you. And that's the last thing I want God to feel about me; disappointment...

So how did this new discovery change my perspective on life? Well let me use an example....
First off, I have never been a father before, so this is all speculation. And fathers, if I am totally off base let me know. But if I {were} a father, and I had a son, I would pour my life into him. I would want him to be the very best that he could be. And to be honest, when he was first born, I would have these awesome dreams of the man he would grow up to be. Well as he grew up, at the begging I would have quite a bit of rules, but as he matured I would pull back the control and let him make the decisions. Soon enough he would be a teenager and start his walk into independence, and he will have to start making decisions for himself. And although I would appreciate his asking me what to do on certain decisions, I would want him to make his own decisions. In essence, nothing would bring me more pleasure as a father than to finally see my son become a man and make his own decisions and be making the right choices. Now looking back, did he grow up to fulfill those dreams I first had for him? Probably not. Am I disappointed in him that he didn't grow up the way I wanted him to? Certainly not, he is an independent person who makes choices that make me proud to be his father......

Well in a sense, our heavenly Father treats us in the same way. Although he loves it when we turn to Him in prayer to ask what we should do, He also wants us to make our own choices. We are not robots. Choices are a part of life. And when we make the right choices in our lives and plot our course in order to bring ultimate glory to our Saviour in the forefront of out mind, then our Father could not be more proud of us.

So are you struggling in a career choice? Where should you go to school? What kind of pizza should you have tonight? Pray about it first. Then search the Scriptures. That is one of the biggest ways God will speak to us. But often the Scriptures doesn't tell us specifically whether to marry Mary or Jane. When you search the Scriptures and find that both sides of the issue are completely Biblical and in line with Scripture, then search your heart. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What are your passions, what drives you? And then GO FOR IT! No regrets don't look back. No second thoughts. Live your life with reckless abandon for the glory of your maker. Don't worry about whether or not it is the perfect plan for your life. Its the one your on right now, if its not where God wants you, He'll let you know. But remember, these aren't wasted times or experiences. They are a part of the grand drama we call life.

We have been called to be world changers, salt to the tasteless masses, light to the great darkness.

Now go and change the world. And maybe someday my grandson will read about your life in a book and he'll want to grow up to be just like you....who knows...

Snoopy

College Fun...

Well the semester is off to a great start so far. Its been great coming back and reconnecting with all the amazing friends I have here at LETU, and also meeting all the new freshman we have on the floor. I am really looking forward to a new year on Davis 2. And thanks to the RAs for being good sports and {letting} us duct tape you to the light pole outside.....haha that was great. 

Flying has been going really well. I had my first night flight about two weeks ago and it has to of been my second most favorite flight ever, next to my first solo. Right now I am working on specialty landings such as soft (grass) and short field landings. They are really fun. I absolutely love my new instructor Pete Greenwald. He and his wife are actually in the process right now of getting into MAF so it is very cool to hear bits and pieces of his experience as he is heading where I want to be in a few years. This week we will be finishing up landings and next be working on cross-country flights. I am really looking forward to the flight to Arkansas, where we will be landing in the MOUNTAINS.....woohoo!

Also, I have really enjoyed my maintenance classes, Aircraft Systems, and Airframe Electrical. Right not we are learning about hydraulic systems and all the amazing theories behind them. It is amazing all the things you can do an incompressible fluid.

In other areas, right now I am playing on my floor's intermural flag football team, and we are undefeated so far! GO D2 LIONS!!!!!

Hope you all are doing well, and I hope to update you on things that are happening as the year progresses, so stay tuned!!!!

Snoopy

Who's driving your chariot...

So God has been speaking to my heart lately about courage and standing alone, and it is amazing all the ways in which he brings people into my life to encourage me and to strengthen my faith. Today's chapel was one of those amazing "coincidences"....


Today's chapel was a musical chapel, which means the worship band leads us in songs for the whole service, they have these worship chapels about once a month or so. Well between songs, the band leader shared a verse that God used to speak directly to my heart. The passage was 2 Kings 6:8-17. It reads:

8 Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” 9 But the man of God (Elisha) sent word to the king of Israel, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.”10 And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.

11 And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” 12 And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” 13 And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” 14 So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

I think we all can relate to Elisha's servant's fear. The enemy is harsh and oppressive. He comes at us from all sides and sometimes its hard just to stand. We can feel so alone and stricken with fear when we focus on the great hurdles that lie in front of us.....but Elisha sees something completely different. Instead of seeing how great and horrible his problems are, Elisha sees how mighty his GOD is.

You see, the army of God was there the whole time. God promises to never leave us nor forsake us. He is ALWAYS there. But sometimes we don't remember to look for Him. Elisha prays, "OPEN his eyes that he may SEE!" Call upon the Lord to reveal himself to you. And then God pulls back the curtain, and BOOM. The sky is full of chariots of FIRE. And suddenly the whole perspective changes......

We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.....I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.....If God is for us, who can be against us?!.....over and over, God tells us He is THERE. He is fighting for us. But too often we let out fears overcome us and they reduce us to inaction and stagnancy....and our faith becomes paralyzed by fear. How many opportunities have passed you by just because you were too afraid to act. Too afraid of what other thought, or what others might do. Too afraid of ruining our reputation or losing face.......guys listen to me. I believe God has placed on my heart to remind you guys of this.....Christ did all this and MORE for you! He endured the pain of rejection from his closest friends, He endured the brutal acts of violence for what He believed, He gave more than his reputation: He gave His LIFE for you..........Shouldn't we be willing to do the same for Him?

So I would encourage you today, take that step of faith. If God has put something on your heart, do it. Don't hold back. Live without regrets. Lay it all on the line. Don't let fear take you CAPTIVE anymore. If you start to feel those doubts of fear and the flaming darts of the devil. Pray. Ask God to open your eyes to see the REAL perspective. Ask Him to show you HIS CHARIOTS of FIRE......

We are called to be WORLD-CHANGERS. The salt of the world and the light in the darkness........Lets go light the world on FIRE...... 

Summer

This Summer has been jam-packed with tons of things going on in the Sullivan household. Here are a few things that have been going on recently.

If you have ever been to our house, you know that we have cats, lots of them. And we are always having new litters of kittens. It seems like one cat with have a litter, and once we finally get those sold, another cat will give birth....

But the girls love them....

Recently, Mom and Dad celebrated their wedding anniversary...they are such wonderful parents and sacrifice so much of their lives for us. I thank God for such wonderful blessings God has bestowed on our family through these two wonderful people...

Ben was selected to the Little League All-Star team and they played in Del Mar a few weekends ago. Their team didn't do as well as was hoped, but they fought hard and gave it their all....Now the Sullivans are completely done with Little League, on to High School for Ben!

And Snoopy has been at it in the fields, mowing and weed-whipping, and more mowing....man we have alot of weeds... And no, my legs aren't really that long...

And then my family decided to drop one day while I was at work at Legoland. I even got to give them a tour  on my boat...

It's been an awesome summer so far, and we still have a month to go, can't wait to see what God has in store....

Snoopy

Some thoughts on life....

"In solitude we can listen to the voice of him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone.... In solitude we discover that life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared." -- from Out of Solitude by Henri Nouwen

Mudcaving...

The adventures of Snoopy continue...From the jungle, now to the desert. The Anza-Borrego Desert. Me, Ben and a bunch of crazy college kids decided that it was time to live on the wild side and go spelunking and find a good cave to get lost in. Well, last Saturday was the day. We all piled into two cars and set out on the two hour drive with sack lunches and excitement in tow. We finally turned on a dirt road and drove another half hour on this crazy dirt road. Bumping along on that back road was almost half the fun. I have no idea how Daniel's car ever made it through that road without completely falling to pieces. But we did blow out his back tire shocks....bummer

All of a sudden we stopped next to this cliff and everyone got out. I turned around and go, "Where's the cave?" And Andrew points to a small shadow and goes, right there! I'm like, thats a gopher hole, there's no way we can every fit in. But I watch in amazement as I watch one of the guys disappear into the hole. When we finally got to the hole, we noticed that you might be able to squeeze in and so we follow the others. Once we were in we did find that it got a little wider, but not big enough to stand up straight in, we had to crawl some of the way, and in others we had to walk sideways to get through. And it was pitch black in there. Each one of us had brought headlamps and I was glad I had bought one instead of a flashlight, I was on my hands and knees for much of the time.

But one time we decided to turn off our lights all-together and see how dark it was. The blackness was beyond anything you can imagine. You couldn't even see the hand right in front of your face. Pitch darkness.

There were quite a few caves in the area and we explores most of them. Some were fairly short before it got so narrow that we couldn't go any farther; in others we would trek for an hour and a half before we finally came out through the other side of the mountain. There was even one cave that we had to climb a rappelling rope to climb a sheer cliff inside a large room of the tunnel. It was amazing to see how tall some of the chimneys inside the cave could be. One of the ones that we tried to climb up had to be 40 or more feet from the bottom of the cave floor.

Towards lunch time we brought our lunch in and ate in one of the larger rooms of the cave. The cave had a small shaft of light at the top, so we turned off our headlights and ate in the semi-darkness. It was really a neat experience.

After a long day of hiking, we decided it was time to return home. We were covered from head to toe in a fine brown dust that was caked on our arms and clothes. But it sure was a awesome time. This is Snoopy, signing out from the caves of the California Desert...

P.S. You can click on the photos and it will enlarge the photo to see it in more detail....;)