It's been an interesting week.
Lots of struggles.
Lots of grace.
Lots of loneliness
Lots of great fellowship.
On Friday, I drove down to camp for the first time in two years. I went to visit one of my best friends who was also visiting the camp. It felt weird being there, but it also felt natural. I guess it felt weird because I wasn't there as a counselor like I was used to. It felt natural because of how much time I spent there, two full summers. Anyways, I spent the day with my best friend and two girls that we worked with during my second summer at camp who now live in Greensburg.
It was a lot of fun. We didn't really do anything super interesting. It was just good to hang out with them. I was planning on driving back late Friday, but I ended up spending the night and left Saturday morning. I'm going back down to Greensburg later this month, and I hope I get to hang out with the girls again. I think that's all I got for now. Here's a quote from Desiring God as promised. Enjoy.
People lift their hand to rebel against the Most High only to find that their rebellion is unwitting service in the wonderful designs of God. Even sin cannot frustrate the purposes of the Almighty. He Himself does not commit sin, but He has declared that there be acts that are sin, for the acts of Pilate and Herod were predestined by God's plan.
Similarly, when we come to the end of the New Testament and to the end of history in the Revelation of John, we find God in complete control of all the evil kings who wage war. In Revelation 17, John speaks of a harlot sitting on a beast with ten horns. The harlot is Rome, drunk with the blood of the saints; the beast is the Antichrist; and the ten horns are ten kings who "hand over their power and authority to the beast...[and] make war on the Lamb" (vv. 13-14).
But are these evil kings outside God's control? Are they frustrating God's designs? Far from it. They are unwittingly doing His bidding: "For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled" (Revelation 17:17). No one on earth can escape the sovereign control of God: "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will" (Proverbs 21:1; cf. Ezra 6:22)
Amen
