Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. ¹² And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. ¹⁴ Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 16:9-14

What an amazing picture this is of how Christ cleanses us and adorns us no matter how filthy of sin we are.  I love the last part saying our beauty is perfect because of Jehovah's splendor.  That is for sure true beauty!  The rest of this chapter goes on to say how Jerusalem idolatrated her beauty and splendor that the Lord bestowed upon her.  Things that seemed a "small matter"(v.21) to them where a huge matter to the Lord.  How too it seems in the Christian world today of making light sin ("sex scenes in movies are normal to view," "sex before marriage is what everybody does these days," "getting drunk is needed to relax from a hard work week," etc), but just because it's the norm today doesn't make it ok in God's sight.  There's a song that has some lyrics that say "break my heart for what breaks your" and how much can we say today that our heart breaks for the sin in this world not just among the unbelievers but what is in the believers as well.  I'm just as much as guilty at this as whoever is reading this is, but man this book of Ezekiel is rockin my socks off lately of God's grace, justice, love, commands, extremes, that is challenging me to live for Him alone continually and admit I'm broken and how lucky I am to be a believer today (the book of Ezekiel was just before the captivity of Israel, a very scary time, yet I wonder if the people then would be scared to live today for the increased evil since then?!?!?!)

Ok well summer camp craziness starts tomorrow basically and I'm pumped!  I had a few days off earlier this week to get some outside adventure in before my days off become my days of relaxing in my hammock all day to catch up on rest.  In three days I went to a rodeo in Sisters, OR (biggest rodeo in Oregon), went hiking at Smith Rock (every rock climber's dream), and went kayaking all day on the John Day River which is basically our backyard out here.  So yes a lot of adventure and fun and a nice treat after the last month of camp groups in every day.  There was a weekend of adventure-a-thons called Wild Canyon Games that has all these crazy intense competitions over three days (many teams were star Nike athletes, military, etc).  Seeing these people and their intensity reminded me of the verse where Paul says he beats his body to make it subject to him and running in a way to win the prize.  I had a couple of friends who formed a team and placed really well among all the others and it was fun to watch them when I could while I was in the background cleaning up (lol).  

Well I was just hoping to write a little bit before high summer season starts and I'm not sure all what to expect.  I appreciate everyone's comments and encouragements and updates.  I pray that the Lord will be glorified in whatever your doing day-to-day and that we can have a heart that breaks for what breaks His.