images that tell a story..

Here are some rad photos/images that tell a wonderful story about my heart for this past week..It's all been wonderful, and even though I haven't been really travelling, I have seen a lot by the roadside and on the streets that spoke volumes of God's magnificent heart..

“It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place.” (Elisabeth Elliot) 

May your weekend be filled with pursuing the Lover of our soul, wherever we may be in the world..It's been an amazing week in my corner of the world! [and all credits go to the owners of these photos..thank you so much!] 

John and Betty Stam

I'm writing - because the sun is out! [yay*]

Things are looking up. After days of pouring on end, it is finally bright out. The clouds still hover up there, and yet another storm is coming soon. Join me in praying for hard up places that are tremendously affected by the storm (and all the coming storms we need to weather this monsoon season). Let's take comfort in the Lord's Kingship over each and every circumstance.

I'd like to share this lovely poem with you all, written by Betty Scott Stam, an American missionary to China in the early 30s. And with it comes one of the most deeply-moving prayers that challenged me last night:

"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."  

"...at any cost..." Betty Stam was martyred, along with her husband, John Stam, by the Red Army unit in 1934, the morning after John wrote to the leaders of China Inland Mission: "My wife, baby and myself are today in the hands of communist bandits. Whether we will be released or not, no one knows. May God be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:20). 

They must have seen the angel hosts at the portals of heaven, for when their bodies were found, there was an "underlying look of quiet peace and expectancy on the faces of the two martyrs." [You can find a complete account of their life story here.]

The Gospel is "...at any cost..." Their lives are victorious testimonies that still live to this day. It has impacted me, and will impact the generations after mine. How worthy Jesus Christ is!

So here's the poem written by Betty Stam when she was 10 years old. I believe that our hearts speak the same..

I cannot live like Jesus

Example though He be

For He was strong and selfless

And I am tied to me.

I cannot live like Jesus

My soul is never free

My will is strong and stubborn

My love is weak and wee.

But I have asked my Jesus

To live His life in me

I cannot look like Jesus

More beautiful is He

In soul and eye and stature

Than sunrise on the sea.

Behold His warm, His tangible

His dear humanity.

Behold His white perfection

Of purest deity.

Yet Jesus Christ has promised

That we like Him shall be.