Well I'm practically all packed and ready to go. These past few days flew by quickly. On Monday, Lisa gave her talk on heaven, the girls had tea and visited the National Wildlife Museum in Jackson Hole while the guys played paintball :)

Yesterday we finished writing our encouragement notes, got souvenirs in town, and had a banquet and an awards ceremony. I got the "Happiest Hiker" award which (wouldn't you know it..) made me happy. We followed that with some praise a worship. Country worship music is fun and upbeat ya'll ;) We were in the middle of reflection and one of the guys busts into the room exclaiming that a mother Moose and her two calves were 20 feet away from the basketball courts. Mass panic and chaos happened as we all rushed out to see for ourselves. My picture didn't turn out because it was dusk, but that was probably THE coolest wildlife sighting ever (and we saw a wolf driving back from Yellowstone earlier in the trip).

These past 3 and a half weeks have been absolutely transforming. I've learned so much about myself and my relationships with others and God. Philippians 2:14-15 tells us to live lives that are above reproach so that not even a suggestion or hint of sin is in your life. I definitely want to humbly strive to use this verse as my life mission with the help of the Holy Spirit.

My flight from Jackson Hole departs at 2:25 local time (so 4:30ish for those of you in Georgia) and I'll be arriving in Atlanta around midnight local time. Pray that I have a safe flight and I'll see you guys soon! Thanks for keeping tabs with me!!!!

-Erica-

Hiking was beautiful. The lake, canyon, snow, waterfall, etc, were all very picturesque. I love Wyoming! Pastor Don returned last night and we were once again mesmerized. He began by going over the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the people and how they were worshipping themselves. There were different translations of the name Nimrod (who in the previous chapter instigated the idea of building the tower, city, and governing system). It was fascinating to see that after the may languages were created, the translations of Nimrod resembled many names of the gods that varying peoples worshipped...the sun god, Ra, I'm still waiting to receive a copy of the powerpoint, but the list included 20 different translations of common gods that we've heard of in history. The same applied for Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, (which is pronounced the same both forwards and backwards) and the translations for her name are all very common goddesses that appear throughout history. I'll try to get more details on that later, but the point of it was that humans came from one language, tried to rebel and suppress the knowledge of God and were thus dispersed into confusion.

Did you know that ziggurats and pyramids exist all across the world, not just in Egypt, not everyone knows how they got there and it would be consistent for people who were once united to begin rebuilding things that they already knew....there is no archeological artifact that disproves the Bible, not one...and pyramids are just one. (anyway I encourage you to look at it for yourself)

More importantly, we looked at the stars and the constellations and looked up there meanings. There are 12 major constellations (12 tribes of Isreal) each with a given name and image. If you look up the meanings of the names (like Virgo--meaning virgin and the virgin) and the last one is Leo, meaning Lion. The constellation of Hercules is crushing Draco's head with his heel. Remember God saying that the serpent wounds the heel that crushes him: man. I need to look at the chart again, but the 12 names of the constellations basically display the gospel in a nutshell. This is how the wise magi knew how to find Jesus. Can you imagine? The people relied on the stars for the gospel before the Bible was even written!

So it reminds me of the question, "what happens to the good African child who has never hear the gospel?" The truth is that a) a sinless person doesn't exist (except Jesus) b) that African boy has an innate knowledge of the existence of God (it's in the stars, it's in God's creation, it's in the fact that people wonder if there is a God, etc, etc) Romans 1:18 clearly states that all men suppress the knowledge of god by their wickedness.

Pagan magi came looking for this savior because they were studying the stars and they believed in Christ! They may have been completely isolated from Christian influences (i'm not really sure, but the point is that they took advantage of the signs that existed around them that point straight to God). If you're struggling with any doubt, dive into the Word. God never denies anyone who is seeking Him.

That just blew my mind and I'm not really doing Don any justice because he was much more profound, but I encourage you to begin studies on your own.

Ask questions like, if evolution suggests that mankind evolved from single-celled mush...why do we not see any more advanced humans evolving? The Bible relates that creation was perfect. People lived 700 years, animals were bigger, there was no disease, and were probably extremely intelligent too. After the Fall and the Flood, animals got smaller, people died younger, disease existed.

I wonder if that's why the Mayans or whomever were so advanced in their calendar? I'm not sure, but it's a theory.

What is the scientific explanation for how the earth has as much water as it does currently? Asteroids crashed on the earth and left a little bit on the earth? Sorry for the ranting....

Anyway, so I'm enjoying being more critical and analyzing things and bringing them back to scripture. Always back to scripture.

Tomorrow I get to work on my life plan, making goals and figuring out how to take all of this information and actually applying it to my life. This way I'm not just growing in this vacuum in Wyoming. That does no one any good.

We're hiking Glory Bowl tomorrow. I'm told that the view is spectacular. We'll also be learning about the Soularium( I'm told it's a pictorial way to share the gospel which should be fun)

I hope everyone is doing well!

This weekend has been very relaxing. Yesterday I went bike riding in the mountains, we watched The Blind Side before Abby left to go home, and it was a nice chance to just enjoy the weather and relax for a bit. Today we went to the Community Bible Church to hear Don Landis speak again. He had a great message as usual. I love the feel of this church. Everyone knows everyone, first of all. There's hymns, worship music with a band (but not too loud for the older generation either), and Don really focuses on preaching Biblical truth. When he first joined the church, I think there were even some people who left because they thought he was being too strict, but the truth of the matter was that he was preaching straight from the Bible. And the fact that it's in the middle of this beautiful valley in the mountains makes it fun too. He spoke about understanding why there is suffering in the world and how if we misunderstand the cause it can create problems. For instance, suffering is caused because God laid a curse on the earth after Adam and Eve sinned, there's sin because of our innate nature, and there's sin because God allows Satan to still do evil. If we only focus on the fact that God allows evil, we may think that we don't have enough faith if something bad does happen to us. It's very possible that something that is painful (like a spanking when we're little kids) was done out of love and not because we lack faith or whatnot. It's necessary to remember all of those causes to make sure we understand the entire theology established in Genesis and don't live in fear unnecessarily.

Additionally, today I shared my story with the group at dinner. I prayed beforehand and I think that really helped because it went very smoothly. I had good eye contact, spoke up, spoke clearly, had good hand gestures, and actually said what I wanted to say, so it was a good feeling :) We were told to keep it under 3 minutes discussing the before, during, and after of our walk with Christ. I basically said that at first I went to church b/c that's what our family did. I intellectually understood that Christ died for our sins, and I thought I was a relatively good person and that was good enough for me. It was never an issue that I wholeheartedly pursued. In 6th grade, I went to a retreat to Panama city to meet some new friends and it was fun. Once I got there, I was inspired by all of these teenagers who not only acknowledged their Savior, but they actually actively pursued Him. I realized that this "Jesus Stuff" was pretty important. So by my 7th grade I really sensed that God was calling me to a life of adventure in Him. I told my dad about it and I prayed to receive Christ's gift of salvation and shortly thereafter I was baptized. Some people may think that my life was all sunshine and roses afterward. In fact, it was just the opposite. I, by my nature, am extremely competitive. If I attempt anything (school, athletics, etc) I want to excel at it. Now I was adding to this list the pursuit to becoming a more Christlike person. It got to the point where I thought I was this "perfect" Christian who had everything together. I discovered in college that I am just as susceptible to sin now as I was before I accepted Christ. I still need to walk with the Lord daily because I can't do it by myself. So I still have pride issues for sure, but I'm praying that God will continue to show me areas that I need to let Him control and I look forward to the adventures that He has for me in the future.

That's what I said in a nutshell at dinner. The evening finished with a two hour session playing the game "signs." That was such an intense game and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we've got a morning session (I forget the topic...) and we'll go on a hike too!

Until next time!

-Erica

So the weather cooperated today and we went on an interesting hike through the snow to see a frozen lake in the mountains. The view was gorgeous as usual.

The sun still chose to stay around and we had our session outside on the lawn about following up with new believers. Yay for new and helpful material! And I saw a circular rainbow around the sun today. Who knew that was even possible?

I'm still digesting all the information from last night. Additionally, since we as humans have finite minds. There will be truths that seem paradoxical; they're antinomies (2 truths that fit together but we can't figure out how). So concepts like free will and God's sovereignty are both established in the Bible and there's tensions when we try to fit the two concepts together. The great part is that we don't have to understand how it works together. God is God in His infinite sovereignty and we are still limited. Imagine Flatland or something, the two dimensional line can't even comprehend the three dimensional world and yet IT STILL EXISTS!

And if we have genuine questions about God it does not mean that we desire an intimacy with God (not a lack of faith). Without the Holy Spirit we can't even come to close to grasping the gospel (from 1 Cor. 2:14), but God never denies Himself from those who truly want to know and seek Him. So if there are any confusions or doubts, don't hesitate to pray that He reveal Himself to you (this only really works when you delve into the Word, because the Word is enough to transform lives). Rom 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ. So got questions? Dive into the Word and see what happens :) I'm not say you'll be able to understand the complexities of the Trinity and the virgin birth of Jesus because that's hard for anyone to understand period, but I challenge you to praying and reading the Bible consistently for 15 days. Let me know what happens.

It also blows my mind that humans can only understand the gospel if the Lord chooses to open our eyes, so my job as a Christian is not to prove everything to others. I simply need to show various evidences and the Lord takes care of the rest. Isn't that a relief?

So here are some of the resources that Don recommended:

Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
Evidence that Demands a Verdict (and New Evidence that Demands a Verdict) by Josh McDowell
Geology: A Biblical view on the age of the Earth (DVDs)
The New Answers Book 3 by Ken Ham
Creation Library Series (DVDs)
Evolution of Darwin: His Life, His Science, and His Impact (DVDs)
Ultimate Proof of Creation: resolving the original debates by Lisle

Time for dinner in Jackson Hole! Hope this is helpful!

Wow, my mind is just blown away right now. Don Landis came and spoke on apologetics today. We sent in questions that people have asked us in the past and we sat for three hours straight while being absolutely mesmerized by the passionate and enlightening words coming out of his mouth. I need to digest all of this material so I can actually do the lecture justice. I feel so much more at ease about any concept that is hard to grasp because God is infinite and we are finite. We're never ever going to understand the gospel and all it's truths apart from the Holy Spirit. Our logic is sheer foolishness without it. And I love how Dan explained that reason and faith work together to reaffirm the Word. Also, God had an initial "problem". He created us and because of our finite brains...even if we have brains the size of South America, we still couldn't understand the gospel. So how do we understand at least the basic concepts of the gospel so we can know and be in fellowship with him here in this cursed earth? This is where faith comes to the rescue. In Revelations it is said that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Everyone, believer, non-believer, agnostic, muslim, will confess that the Lord is sovereign because they finally see it. So many us struggle with believing in things we can't see. If we wait to believe in things after we've seen them, then we will not be entering the kingdom of God. It is through faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ that salvation comes.

That's only one question of the 17 that we addressed. We discussed Big Bang Theory, free will v. sovereignty, why God lets people go to Hell, etc, etc. I'm just so energized and enthused!

A side note on the why God lets people go to hell and it seems unfair. Or for that matter, why does God save someone who is a good person and is saved early and also those who have their great epiphany very late in life. Was it fair that Jesus died and suffered the price of our sin? Who are we to reject His salvation because we think we're better than others and are comparing ourselves through works?

I'm just on a roll and there will be more to come. I'll let this simmer with you guys for a bit and I'll post all the different books that we suggested too.

Not to mention we went outside and there was a new moon, so it was dark and the stars looked spectacular! Clear skies, I saw so many more stars that it was difficult to find the big dipper. I saw a falling star, a satellite or something (it just looked like a moving star across the sky), and all of it just screams "Glory to God!"

I'm incredibly pumped and more to come!

Today was definitely my favorite day yet. The weather cooperated enough for us to play outside for a bit and ride up the tram in the Teton mountain range. We threw snowballs, slid down the slope like penguins, enjoyed hot chocolate and then danced to Thriller and Party in the USA on the tram ride back down the mountain. The poor tourists didn't know what to do with a bunch of Jesus-loving, crazy college students. :)

We then proceeded to learn about how important it is not to compare yourself with others. One of the key ways to being content in any circumstance is by looking at your current situation as a blessing. Singleness is a gift from God. Marriage is a gift from God. Relationships are a gift from God. Since we are recipients of these gifts, we need to use them well. Psalm 139 says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (and as such there is only one person in the entire universe who can carry out God's plan for you). How cool is that?

I really liked Lisa's definition of humility too. Humility is not thinking high of yourself or low of yourself; humility is not thinking of yourself at all. Additionally, we have to be faithful and trust that God knows best with what he chooses to give us. There's no such thing as one Christian who is filled with "more of the Holy Spirit than I am." Or it's common for us to think, "Oh, I just wasn't made for ministry because I just wasn't blessed with as many spiritual gifts." The truth is that everyone is filled with the Holy Spirit, period. We all have different gifts, but no one is filled "any more of less than someone else." David Platt mentions that discipleship is not reserved for those especially "gifted" leaders. Everyone is commanded to disciple others by cultivating loving relationships with others, sharing the Word, and eventually baptizing them.

Another random thought that kinda ties in with this is the fact that I've noticed that faith and love have one significant thing in common. It is a choice. It is a choice to love someone even though it's difficult at times. It's a choice to remain faithful even if we can't understand what in the world God is doing in our lives. If we just make the choice to be faithful and loving, there is nothing that can prevent us from fulfilling our God given purpose.

In the spirit of avoiding comparison, the girls broke off and we wrote what we liked about each other on a little notecard as a reminder that we truly are beautiful children of God. It's so easy to compare yourself to the super thin models we see in magazines. Truth be told, God painted us painstakingly with exceptional skill. It's disrespectful for us to try and paint over the beautiful canvas God created for us.

So all in all, twas a fantabulous day!

I think if the weather cooperates, we will go horseback riding tomorrow!

Goodnight gang!

Hello again. I got back from a beautiful day in Yellowstone. I saw soo many animals, moose, elk, deer, bison, and even a wolf towards dusk on our return trip. I got to see a little bit of everything. Unfortunately we were driving around a lot and there was some construction on the roads, but I can't really complain; it was gorgeous!

I've been pondering the "once saved always saved" concept some more. If you refer back to my previous post I've cited some other key verses. I know that Matthew 7:16 says that you can tell if someone is truly Christian by looking at their fruit.

"By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"

So if we emphasize this verse, if someone supposedly accepts the gift of Christ's salvation, goes to church, etc etc and then something in their life happens and they turn away. Would this verse argue that this person never truly was a Christian and that's why their not bearing good fruit? So in this light, once you are truly saved you are always saved? because a true Christian would have leaned on God to get them through whatever circumstances rather than letting it be an excuse to ignore or get angry at God for example? or a true Christian would not have done those awful deeds?

It's incredibly difficult for me to wrap my mind around all of this. I would love to think that since I'm a true believer that there is nothing I can do to lose my salvation. The debt has been paid and I allowed Jesus to pay for all of my sins, not just some of them. But then that calls to question those who are Christians by name only.

There are two schools of thought that I know of: 1) Once saved always saved (because people who turn away were never truly saved) or 2) Once saved, not necessarily saved (if you turn your back on God)

If the second school of thought is true, then where is the line that is drawn to differentiate between someone who is sins and someone who sins significantly more for someone's eternal fate to change?

I know the Christian life is a race and not everyone finishes it, so the question we need to ask ourselves is this: "Are we in this race for the long term?" Additionally, do our lives reflect this stance? Is Jesus our number one priority? Yes we may struggle because we're human, but are we trying to reduce those idols in our life? Are we inconveniencing ourselves for the Lord because that's what we're called to do (even if it's not practical or logical)??

Regardless of which stance you take on the "once saved always saved" concept, we must always do a heart check and make sure we're doing everything we can to make sure that our lives are bearing good fruit. This way, you will know that you are truly saved and a child of God for both of those theories.

A book that I'm reading on my own that is inspiring and encouraging is David Platt's Radical. It discussed how, as Americans, we use the American dream as an excuse to pursue things like a dream home, perfect job, perfect family, living a life of luxury because we can rather than using our abundant resources and freedoms to further the gospel. We shouldn't fit the gospel into our American Dream. The American Dream IS having the ability to freely practice Christianity and make disciples of other men.

Hopefully this has inspired some soul searching. It's very deep and convicting and scary. I strongly encourage you to seek and pray so that you know 100% on the day of judgement where you stand.

I'm off to sleep after a long day of traveling in Yellowstone. Be safe and have fun with whatever you're up to!