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LukeRulesTheKingdom
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Name: Luke Christopher
Location: Oregon, United States
Birthday: 2/12/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: Outdoors, life, music, playing guitar/djembe, smelling the air, touch, traveling.
Expertise: RAHR
Occupation: Retired
Industry: Film star
Message: message me
AIM:  thecrazypolishdancer
MSN: duck_fuzz
Member Since:
10/26/2004
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| Here is the back of our home. See, there are windows, and the door is actually a full length glass door framed in wood. The two windows toward the top are our bedroom windows.
Oh, what's that burning in the back of the cabin?
This is a fire roasting Cornish game hens. I found the grill and hung it by two lengths of cord, and to keep it from getting overcooked I kept it swinging over the top of the fire (got the idea of swinging the meat over the fire from when I was in Germany). Hannah has this little thing... 
and you use it to grind up stuff. I use it to make my own seasoning rubs by mixing the spices that I like and grinding them with this thing, and the one I made for this chicken meal worked especially well. Needless to say, the chicken turned out great. The flavor of the wood smoke makes this my new choice over a gas or charcoal grill.
Last weekend I was finally able to clean up this back space with my landlord's excavator. Before this picture (earlier that day in fact) the back "yard" was full of forest underbrush. Soon I will be installing a couple beams to hang our hammock from, and tilling up a space for a vegetable garden. This weekend's project is cutting and splitting wood to season for this winter--thankful to have help on this one...a lot of wood to split.
Why do I post these things? Mainly, there are people out there that would like to know what I am up to, people that I almost never call and update personally. I realize that I am copping out of genuine conversations, I realize that I am terrible at contacting the people that I love when they are not in my everyday life...and what am I saying, I am even bad at keeping in touch with people who ARE in my day to day life. My schedule is full, my weaknesses are apparent, and for right now an old and dusty under used blog is my honest attempt at giving those who are interested in keeping in touch with me something of mild substance to feed on. So this whole "this is where I live and what I'm up to" stuff is here to give you a window into my life in case you find the time to look. Sorry for the disclaimer, I don't want anyone to mistake my writing or posting pictures as some narcissistic attempt at self-exaltation.
We love our new home, and I wanted you to be a part of the joy I have been filled with as the recipient of God's abundant provisions in our lives. And really, it's not about the home or the things We find that as we press into Him, and get to know Him that the gifts we receive from Him illuminate who He is, and as a result of the work His Spirit is doing in our hearts in making us more like His Son our desire for more things is replaced with a desire for more of God. We feel so spoiled because of who he has made us, not what He has given us, and once we start to see the amazing love it takes to change us from undeserving sinners to saints and joint-heirs with Christ no thing taken away can steal our joy and no thing given can truly take the place He has in out hearts. God is good, my friends, choose Him over everything else, and serve Him with all your hearts. May God bless you with a heart that yearns after Him and nothing else.
Luke
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| Hannah and I live in this little cabin overlooking the Skykomish River valley outside of Monroe, WA. We are still moving in...haven't found a place for those things in the front.
Here is the view outside our back deck:
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| Man, sometimes I am completely blown away by God's grace. I look at my life every once in a while and I fall silent at the beauty of His faithfulness. When I have put my trust in Him I have never done without, He has kept me close to Him and far from danger. When I have chosen, and so many times I have, to follow my foolish way over His He has taken me back every time; and not only has He taken me back but He has faithfully worked everything for good as He said he would (Rom. 8:28). I realized all this yesterday when I was telling my life story to a friend over breakfast, and again today as I watched my wife get ready for work. My wife...she captivates me. She is God's faithfulness made flesh in my life. Here is a picture of us on the day I asked her to marry me:
We were engaged on October 19th 2008. Both her and I love the outdoors and had grown to know one another in large part while we were on hikes or trail running or rock climbing, so I thought I would ask her in the place we both felt most at home. I had prayed that morning and said, "Lord, I am going to ask Hannah to marry me today. I was wondering if You would somehow make that moment special, maybe You could make something beautiful happen in nature?"
The day was beautiful. We went to a place we had never been, a trail that lead to a wilderness lake. Along the way the Lord made a spot where the sun poured through the trees and lit the trail like a spotlight in the dark. This was the spot, this was what I asked the Lord for. I asked her to take the dogs' leashes as I reached around in my backpack for the camera, or so I told her. I turned back around. She was gazing into the trees. I went to one knee and held out the ring as I asked her to marry me. The ring was an heirloom she had been given that had lost it's stone. It was simple and elegant--a sterling silver prong-set black pearl ring. I had taken the ring without her knowing and had the pearl replaced and the ring refurbished. It was beautiful, and she loved it. She said yes.
We wanted to keep things simple. Neither of us wanted a large wedding or reception, and we didn't see the point in being engaged for any longer than the time we needed to plan the reception and wedding. We let a few friends and family know and were married on the 7th of November. The ceremony was done in the woods on the trail of the first hike we went on together. We didn't want anything more than what we needed for the marriage to be legal--2 witnesses and the officiator--for the purpose of not having any distractions from one of the most important days we would share together. We are so glad we sis it this way. It was intimate, and quiet. We said our vows to one another without a thought of who was watching, or who could hear us. It was for one another before the Lord in His creation where we felt closest to Him. It was awesome, not to mention cheap. Our reception took place the next day. A friend hosted the party at her house and made all the food. We didn't want a cake, instead we had everyone bring pies, and had my sister make us a special one. We also had ice cream and coffee. Man, it was great. We danced and fed the pie to one another. We all sang a hymn together (How Great Thou Art) and we all watched the ceremony--which was recorded--so they could feel like they were there in some degree.
Things have been great between us. We are growing in the Lord everyday, and growing closer to one another as we get to know each other better. Man, God is faithful.
This is the latest life changing decision I have made, and I thought some of you might have wanted to know the details.
Love you guys.
Luke | | |
| This goes out to the ones I went to college with.
Do you know that you are completely fulfilled in Christ? That no career,or new home, new car, new spouse, new responsibilities, new debt, or any amount of education will ever complete you?
Some of you are saying yes, that you know that. Here is what may be a tough question:
Then why do you put more claim in those things than you do in Christ? Why do you trust those things more than you trust God? Don't agree with me?
What if you woke up tomorrow with an urgent and burning conviction to help meet the needs of the homeless and aids afflicted in Africa. Why wouldn't you go?
What if you come to find that a letter came in the mail with a large check and a simple note that said, "the Lord told me to help pay for your expenses as you set out to follow the Lord's recent direction for your life." What would make the decision hard? Passed up career opportunities, distance from family, nice new house, car payments, loan payments, other responsibilities? If you would find such an obvious call from God difficult due to some of the reasons above, then maybe you have put more claim in those things than you have in Christ.
Yes, in fact, I am guilty of trusting a job more than trusting God, trusting sleep more than trusting God, trusting a relationship more than God. We do this all the time, all of us do. But that doesn't give us permission to continue on in sin.
The truth is we are not on this earth to make money.
We are not here to have a fast car, or a nice house.
God does not have us on this earth to be wrapped up in our mate and secluded from ministering to the community.
We are not here to save up for a blackberry, to watch TV, to surround our bodies with every comfort.
We are here for one purpose, to share the good news of Christ and His love to the entire world and to make disciples of everyone. We have two commandments to follow: Love God with all we are, and to Love People with God's love. Is money or cars or relationships or houses bad? No, as long as they remain expendable, as long as they always remain secondary to the Purpose God keeps us on earth for, as long as God can say go and do this without us responding with "yeah, as soon as my show is over." As long as our house, or our job, or our money doesn't get in the way when God opens a door and says MOVE and we don't because our job is too important. Our allegiance is to God first.
You know how christ died for us? Well, he did that to free us from the bondage of sin. He died so that we might have life and have it more abundant. That is, he died for us so that we could live without being bound by the cares of the world (cares like careers, relationships, cars, houses, grades, etc), that we would be free to live in joy and in peace with God as we were meant to be from the beginning of time.
Why do we choose to be bound by the things Christ died to free us from?
It's like a dog that goes and eats its own vomit. It's nice that we don't have to clean it up, but it makes no sense on the part of the dog. Its body just went through a lot of trouble to get whatever it was out only to have the dog go back and eat it again.
I asked what you would do if a dream came true. Will you be like Peter and the disciples and drop your life in order to Follow Christ, or will you be like the pharisees who longed for the messiah but were too wrapped up in their own ideas and rituals to see Him when He was standing in front of them? Will you choose the things that Christ died to set you free from, or will you drop your nets and follow Him?
Thought it would be good for us all to remember why we are here. | | |
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