My Father's House

My father takes down barns for a living, and he built the house where I was raised. I grew up with 200-year-old beams over my head and wood floors under my feet that my dad laid himself. He used such detail in everything. It was a perfect setting amidst a forest of white birch overlooking a pond.

I know what it means to build a house, the work it took. My dad’s hands and face bear the marks of his years spent building. He built a place where we could rest and be ourselves. After all, isn’t that what makes a house a home? It is a place of freedom—to come as you are.

Much like my dad, we too are building a house, but one for the Lord. Haggai 1:8 says, “Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified.” God is calling us up, away from our own personal building projects, into the hidden mountains of our hearts to build Him a home where He can rest and come as He is.

He asks us to bring only our humanity and recognize the magnitude of what He accomplished on the cross for us. Because those two things—who He is, and who God has made us to be—bring Him glory.

Let us be meticulous in our caring for this house. The Scripture doesn’t say, “Let God come and build,” it says, “You build.” The Lord is glorified through the labor we invest into building our lives as a habitation for Him. Just as the house my dad built was beautiful in its completion, so too will our lives be. He is worth it all!

- Laura Swift, Second Year Student

What is Your Resolve?

Daniel 1:8--"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way."

I started participating in a weekly prayer group a few months ago, and the book of Daniel was what we began studying. That particular season in my life was very hard for me. God was prodding at a lot of things that He wanted to get rid of. I was a mess. Everything was just too hard for me and I was done with it. I felt as if God could never get me through all the things that were going on in my heart and life. I was about to give up on it all and even the prayer group I had just started.

Then one day in prayer group, we were reading through Daniel and something struck me. Daniel made a resolve. A resolve is a decision that is purposed in your heart. That night, I resolved in my heart that I would press through and get through this with God. I decided right then that no matter what came against me or how much it cost, I would let God have all of me.

In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego made a similar resolve when they were faced with being thrown in the fire. These men were going to be killed; even the guards who were heating the fire were burned. Despite this, these men made a resolve in their hearts that they would serve God only and not back down.

After reading this, I began to see how the Lord was working in my heart. It started with a resolve and a decision to press through, then my coming to a place where I decided, "God, even if you completely mess with everything in my life, I know You are faithful. You are faithful."

The question burning in my heart is, "Are you going to make a resolve before God?" I don't know what fire or issues you're being faced with, but there is one thing I know: pressing into God is the only way. The only way is straight. We have to press through. We have to resolve. There is something that God wants to do in you that can only be done if you press in and determine to be obedient to Him. Let go, and let God be God.

Ashley Dedee is a Third Year student from Albany, NY.