Roadtrippin' Adventures

So Grayson and I have been traveling around Mississippi and Arkansas for the last several weeks. We love adventures! Hope y’all enjoy some of these pictures of our adventure.

We started out in Amory, MS (where Grayson was a youth minister for several years). Visiting with friends, baking half-baked cupcakes with some youth girls, playing some much-missed basketball with some of the youth guys, and seeing one of our old dogs made our trip there very enjoyable and encouraging.

Then we were on the road to Huntsville, AL to visit some great friends from college, see some relatives, and go see Lecrae and others at the Rock and Worship Roadshow.

We hit some pretty hard bumps in the road and couldn’t go to the concert. :(  During this time, the Lord taught us a lot about how our joys are only found in Him and about how the Lord is a redeeming God and that He wants to redeem all situations. Isn’t it so good to have a faithful and good God who finds joy in making all things new? Do any of you ever find yourselves putting your hope and faith in things or events or people to make life a little better or to make you feel better about terrible things that happen? I know that I had been thinking this way, because the Lord broke us that day. I know He did it so that He could teach us that our hope can only be found in Him and that He longs to be our Redeemer. #thecostofhumilityishigh

            Our next stop was Batesville, AR!

 

        Grayson grew up in Batesville until he was a junior in high school when his family moved to Hattiesburg.  It was super fun staying with his childhood babysitter and her adorable son!  We got an awesome chance to hang out with the youth and roast some marshmallows at a bonfire on a beautiful farm.

(ASIDE: While we were on the road, McDonald’s and Dairy Queen were some of our best WiFi buddies. --#coffeehousesareoverrated--While we were at one of the McDonald’s, we had the PRIVILEGE of meeting the famous Batesville Walmart Bird Lady--as she so dubbed herself haha. She introduced herself to us in McDonald’s and insisted that we take a picture and post it to Facebook. So Walmart Bird Lady, here’s your shout out!)

We LOVE adventures and road trips, but as many of you know, trips can really run you weary. We were so blessed with the opportunity to stay in a cabin for a few nights in Mountain View, Arkansas. We took many mountain dirt roads to stay in a beautiful cabin, walk mountain trails, and play in a creek. What a relaxing time with the Lord we had! The Lord really encouraged us and spoke to us while we stayed there. Thank you to the Rays and the Mays!

 

After staying there for a few days, we visited with Granny Freddie and had a great time visiting with some relatives in Mountain View. Anyone like cows? I got to feed cattle for the first time! 200 head of cattle that is. (Granted, Grayson did most of the scary parts) Doing some good manual labor and serving Granny was really enjoyable. Staying at Granny’s meant homemade breakfast every morning, fried pies, roasted pecans, and homemade pizza! Hungry anyone?
 

Now we are back in Madison, MS and so glad to be somewhere for longer than 5 days! We’re excited to see what the Lord has in store for us while we are here for a little while!

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Sinners In The Hand Of A Loving God

How much do you think you sin? Do you think you sin everyday? How many times a day? One, two, five times?

What constitutes as sin? Overindulging on food? Cheating on a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse? Not reading your Bible? Saying “JESUS!” when you’re angry? Smiling and laughing at someone’s joke when in your mind, you’re really criticizing their weird laugh and poor storytelling abilities?

What makes sin bad? Breaking God’s law? Breaking our own moral standards? Someone getting hurt?

What does God think about all our sins? Does He look at us and want to send fire down to burn us up into ashes? Or can He not even see our evil acts at all because Jesus already won that case in the courtroom? Maybe He cries? Or just shakes His head with disappointment?

Back to you. Do you ever go to bed at night thinking, “Today was a  pretty good day, I didn’t do anything really bad today (or at least bad enough to really matter)”? Do you ever go a day without sinning?

I ask all these questions, because I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks these things sometimes. I was reading When Helping Hurts the other night, and the Lord stabbed my heart and said, “Rachel, you were about to go to bed tonight thinking you lived today perfectly/without a fault/sinless. What made you think that? Do you think you live some days as holy?”

Now I know what you’re thinking, is she questioning her faith? Does she know Jesus dying on the cross wiped away all her sins and now God looks at her as holy? Is Rachel becoming all legalistic about her sins?

I promise I’m not. But…

I think God just wanted to remind me that just because Jesus’ paid for my sins and the burnt offering of His body counted in the place of the burning of my sinful body, does not mean that this fleshly, sinful body doesn’t do wrong in the eyes of the Lord. I still open up myself to evil and in turn grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). I sometimes invite the kingdom of darkness/evil instead of the kingdom of God. How? Pride. Lust. Slander. Anger. Greed.

God, Your grace is abounding. Lord, I need it everyday, every moment. There is not a day/minute/hour that I don’t need You Lord to look at me with grace. Jesus you died so we could live a holy life from God’s point of view, not a holy life from our point of view. I believe you remind us of our sin so that we love you more and know that we need your grace now. Now. And even now.

Let’s not forget what our Father thinks about sin (Mark 9:42-48). And let’s not ever forget that we are sinful beings in need of grace everyday. What would happen if we lost sight of our need for a savior and thought we could make it on our own in this world? All of us trying to be gods of our own little kingdoms. Can you imagine 7 billion little gods running around this world? I choose to live in God’s kingdom under the authority of the one and only King, Jesus.

Let’s choose to be objects of humility so we can fully receive God’s grace (Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5-6).

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Festivals! Festivals! Festivals!

 

Tihar, Diwali, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. We love learning what our friends celebrate and sharing why we celebrate holidays here in America. This has become one of our favorite parts of building relationships here in Clarkston.

Sisters blessing their newest brother

IMAGINE rainbow powder and glitter glued onto your forehead as a blessing from your brother or sister. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a festival like Tihar where we did not celebrate just our mothers or fathers, but also celebrated the relationship between brothers and sisters?

IMAGINE celebrating one of the biggest Indian festivals (Diwali) hosted by post-doctorate Indians. Add in the most intense Pictionary game you’ve ever seen, with fifteen people crowded around the table yelling and screaming for the person who is drawing and having to shove and to push through people just to see the person’s pencil eraser. Then after two hours of eating, picture a room full of VERY intelligent Indians playing the newlywed game.

IMAGINE explaining about Halloween, where Americans hollow out a pumpkin (which would make perfectly good curry), carve out a weird face, and stick a candle in it for decoration.

We are very thankful for our Nepali brothers and sisters

IMAGINE telling the story of the first Thanksgiving to your Nepali friend. Then, struggling to explain that the “Indians” are not actually from India, but they really look more like your Nepali brother than the white “Natives” of America that they know. And imagine giving your Nepali friend the honor of carving the Thanksgiving turkey, only to watch him raise the knife and begin chopping the turkey.

We live in a world that is incredibly huge and diverse. Here in Clarkston we are reminded of this almost daily. But as Christmas, another of our festivals, approaches we are reminded that our Savior “became flesh and dwelt among us”. The God who created every culture and people in the world came down and lived and celebrated and gave His life, so that we might know Him. So all of us are also called to follow His example by sharing life and sharing eternal truth with those around us.

Much Love, Grayson & Rachel Luther

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Is this real life?

What is service? What is the point of “missions”? Why do we serve the poor and feed the hungry? What makes you a “missionary”? Sometimes I find myself serving people just for the sake of doing it because God would be pleased or because it was what I was taught Jesus did. And we should do what Jesus did. But I knew deep down that there was another level to this service that followers of Jesus are called to. For what purpose do we serve people? Just for the sake of helping people? What good does that do in the end? They are happy now, but what about when something bad happens? Or a loved one dies? Or when they die? What’s next? My hope is in our future life with Christ. Can I paint you a picture?

Imagine a place where the hurting people of this world no longer hurt. A place where the blind can see again. A place where broken families are renewed. A place where there are no fatherless sons. A place where the depressed have eternal joy. A place where there is always enough to eat. A place where floods, earthquakes, and genocides don’t take thousands of people’s lives. A place where the ruler is good and kind and fair. A place where the people in this land can trust their ruler and lord, knowing that he is looking after their best interest and cares for them. A place where all types of people are working for one purpose, the praise and worship of their King, the creator of the universe.

This place is the hope I have for the future because of my trust in Jesus as this ruler. The amazing thing is that we can start living that life with Christ now and making this amazing kingdom happen now. I choose to live now with God’s kingdom in mind, and I truly believe that if people get the taste of the kingdom of God and the true life He wants us to inherit, they will want to be a part of this kingdom and to make Jesus Lord of their lives right now. So I challenge you to think about: What is your background? What are you good at? What drives you? Now think about how God has probably worked all of that in your life for the good of His kingdom and for you to use all those things to serve Him. There is a deeper level of service that the Lord really desires from us. God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him and when we use our talents and blessings to make His kingdom come to our broken world now. What could you do to make God’s kingdom come now?

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Fancy Wedding, Small Town Church, Refugee Haven

Rach and I talking about our weekend on the long car ride home and realized how crazy and different the places are that we have been in the past 24 hours. We had an absolutely amazing time with Greg and Lori May at their wedding on Saturday. It was hands down the most fancy and posh wedding/reception that I have ever been a part of. When we got to the reception I told Rachel that I felt like we were in a movie or something. It was so much fun to spend a great night celebrating two of my most favorite people with so many good friends.
It felt so strange though to be around wealthy white people again. I might have even lost some of my refugee-english while we were there. Haha. But it just reminded me again how different our life is going to look than so many of my friends.
So then, this morning we take off to go to morning worship at FUMC in Amory. Small town Mississippi church meeting. Again very different than where we had been the night before and where we would lay our heads down tonight.
It was so good to see "my kids".  I have missed them and their teenage antics... Well maybe not the teenage antics but definitely them. It was so hard to not stay all day and visit with all of them. Some short conversation before and after worship would have to do. Those students will always have a piece of my heart wherever I go.
And then, home-sweet-home, we finally got back to our wonderfully beautiful community from everywhere in the whole world. It felt very right to come home to our amazing community of believers, this crazy diverse mix of people we call neighbors (including the band of small children that bombard us with hugs when we come back from anywhere), and the place we affectionately call home.We are not worthy Lord, what more could we ask for?
What a crazy diverse weekend. It flew by and now its back to the crazy thing we call normal life.

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