About 'carolina bible college'|Bible Study 9-18-2012
It was a retreat of sorts, a getaway from all the burdens and responsibilities of life. A run around the Lake of Serenity was the breath she needed to inhale. Emma had been breathing in the toxins of work, society, and past regrets for way too long. She needed to cleanse her lungs of it all. This vacation was not in her plans. Emma had just lost her job, lay-offs her boss Bruce Lantern said, but she knew the real reason why. Tension has been festering between Emma and Bruce for three months, and he had finally found an excuse to fire her. Two weeks prior to her lay-off notice, Emma had slept in. The batteries in her alarm had died and she had awoken only after the trash collectors carelessly dumped her metal can back onto the asphalt. Her dreams interrupted, Emma had bolted upright to discover she was due at work in 15 minutes with an hour still of preparations. "Why, Emma, you're late," Bruce stated as she had tried to slip into her cubicle unnoticed two hours later. She had wanted to plead her case, but that would have only added to her boss' victory so Emma had only blushed, swiveled to face her computer, and started working on her ad proposal. "But it's not fair," Emma explained to her mom the night after she received her layoff notice. "Mr. Lantern's just never liked me. What am I supposed to do now?" "Oh, honey, you'll find something," her mom had tried to sound reassuring, but even she knew jobs were scarce lately, and the long silence buzzing between them was hard for Emma to accept. "What? There's nothing out there. I've looked," Emma's voice almost squeaked in protest. "I don't have the experience, and Lantern's not gonna give me a glowing reference to anybody, you know that, Ma." The phone call had ended leaving Emma depressed about her future. Some help her mom was! Three days later Emma had sat scrunched over her HP laptop at her kitchen bar, absentmindedly sipping on stale coffee while she scrolled through job listings on the internet. "Experience... experience... experience, oh, only needs a four-year college degree! Shoot, and three to five years' experience." Even though she was alone, she had mumbled as she read through each listing. Her meager year at Lantern's ad agency was enough to get her own place, a cozy studio apartment on the other end of town from her parents, but it would not be enough to keep her there. She had to find another job within the next couple of weeks to avoid a break in income. If not, "Nope, no going there," Emma had declared emphatically to herself. "There's gotta be something out there. I'm not about to move back in with them. That'd be miserable." When her cell phone rang, Emma had nearly tipped her remaining coffee over onto her keyboard. Great, Mom. She'd rolled her eyes at the ceiling, taken in a quick breath, and pushed send. "Mom, hi, what's up?" "Hi, dear, how goes the hunt?" Emma had heard that tone in her mom's voice before. She was up to something. "Same. Nothing." "I'm sorry." "Is that why you called, or what, Ma?" "Well, you know, I was just thinking." "Ma, the last time you were just thinking I ended up on that blind date with Fred. And you know how that ended up." "Hey, you can't keep hanging that over my head, Emma. He seemed nice when I met him." "Ma, you met him ordering a hotdog at Sonic. He's paid to be nice." "Never mind that, this time I've actually got something good for you." "Sure, Ma, whatever." In spite of her frustrations, Emma had listened. Her mom was going to send her away, alone, up to the North Carolina mountains. It was to be spiritual retreat her mom said. While Emma wasn't much for the spiritual part (she had stopped attending church when she moved out), she wasn't about to turn down a free vacation. "But what about my looking for a job? They got internet way up there?" "Aw, you can take a weekend break from that. It'll be here when you get back," Emma's mom protested. "You can't spend all your time isolated in front of a computer." "Sure I can, Ma. Been doing it for weeks now." "And where's that gotten you that a weekend away will interrupt? Huh?" Point made, Emma had relented. Her mom had always won their arguments. So now here she was, taking it all in. Lake Serenity had all the makings of a peaceful getaway. Her early morning run was quiet except for nature's subtle treats. The calm waters were littered occasionally with humble flocks of sleeping ducks; their bills tucked under one wing, simply floating along huddled together for warmth and protection from last night's autumn chill. Most of them were Mallard ducks of various colors, but a few where what Emma called farm ducks. This pure white breed was what populated her Granddaddy Louis' farm back home in Marshville. It wasn't until she was forced to take an Agricultural Science class in high school that Emma learned they were called White Pekin ducks, but they were still farm ducks to her. Once or twice she could hear a newcomer land and disrupt the waters. As she began her cool down walk on the far side of the lake, the sun was just beginning to stretch over the mountain peaks. There was even a wispy fog floating on the landscape. Emma popped open her water bottle and let the lukewarm liquid fill her mouth to the brim before she swallowed it all in two gulps. It was a habit her mom detested. Emma smiled at the thought. Walking the last bend around the lake brought a childhood memory into view. About a hundred feet ahead, Emma saw a small stone chapel. It stood on a green patch of land just faintly touching the lake's shore. Her heart tensed and she looked around in all directions guiltily, but it was still too early for anyone else to be out on the lake. Her pace slowed, Emma questioned herself whether or not to walk towards the chapel or around it and back to the cozy cabin her mom had rented. Emma chose to walk towards it. Upon closer inspection, Emma noticed the chapel's historic character; the plaster among the brown, white, and red stones was pale with minute cracks running alongside a few of them. It also appeared to have been handcrafted for Emma thought she detected stretched ridge marks of human fingers throughout the solidified paste. Emma ran her own index finger inside the rough patterns of the walls. Wow, whoever built this must have loved this place, she thought. The ducks were stirring on the lake now, laughing morning greetings to each other. Emma blinked. She strolled down the pebble walkway to the entrance, laid her right hand on the bronze handle of the chapel's ancient oak door, and turned. It was open. Emma hesitated briefly before pulling the door and walking inside. The view inside flooded her mind with memories of going to church with Granddaddy Louis and Grandma Nancy as a six-year-old child. She could almost hear the little country choir singing in the crisscross rafters Gloria Patri as she clicked her shiny black Patton shoes down the hardwood aisle to the front pew. Grandma Nancy has insisted that God spoke more clearly to those closest to the preacher. And now, standing in the back of this lone mountain chapel, Emma remembered what caused her to disagree with Grandma Nancy. In high summer of Emma's sixth grade year, Granddaddy Louis had fallen ill. Every Sunday morning Grandma Nancy had led her down their church aisle to the front pew. Every Sunday morning Grandma Nancy had knelt down on the puny maroon prayer cushion at the altar, crying out for God to heal her husband of 60 years. And every Sunday morning the two of them would return to Granddaddy's bedside only to watch him getting progressively weaker and weaker. A week before school resumed in September, Grandma Nancy held Emma's hand as they sat on the front pew during Granddaddy Louise's funeral. A month later, Emma sat on that same front pew, this time with her mom, as they laid Grandma Nancy to rest. Her mom had started going back to church then and dragged Emma along, but Emma no longer sat in the front pew. She couldn't. God seemed silent. It wasn't until Emma walked back outside the chapel that she realized there was another room built adjacent to the main chapel. Etched over the door were the words Room of Memory. Though her heart was burning in anger, Emma felt drawn to it. The door here was also open, but as she entered Emma saw that the floors were not hardwood, but gray stone. The air was much cooler here. There was only one stain-glassed window to let in the sunlight. The faint rainbow of color fell upon a single wooden case with a clear glass top. Emma stepped inside and found the case was protecting a worn black leather book. It was the size of a pulpit Bible. Instead; however, Emma saw an endless list of names. Some of the names had a paragraph or two written underneath them. It was a visitor's book for the chapel. A plaque hung on the wall above the wooden case: "Thank you for visiting the Lake Serenity Chapel. Please sign your name in our records book so that we may rejoice in your coming. Feel free to include a word or two about why you came. Signed, the Lake Serenity Chapel Community Church members. Established 1942" Emma lifted the latch to the glass top and began flipping back through the pages. People from all over had come to this chapel. Many of the names and places were faded or too hard to make out due to poor penmanship, but about a dozen pages of flipping brought Emma to one she recognized. What first drew her eye to the page was the hometown - Marshville. She held the page up to the only light in the room. Not only did she recognize the town, she knew the name. Nancy Perry. Grandma Nancy had come here, and she had dated her visit only two weeks after Granddaddy Louis passed. She had also added in shaky cursive a note. Thank you, Lord, for healing my Louis. I'm ready to come home now. Staring at her grandmother's inscription, Emma quivered first with confusion, then realization. Carefully turning back the pages to the next empty page, Emma picked up the ink pen lying beside the book and signed her name. She too added a note. I get it now, God. You were never silent. I just haven't always listened. |
Image of carolina bible college
carolina bible college Image 1
carolina bible college Image 2
carolina bible college Image 3
carolina bible college Image 4
carolina bible college Image 5
Related blog with carolina bible college
- mckinneyfamily.blogspot.com/... up. Those guys from my first small group Bible study became full-time pastors, college ministers, youth ministers and curriculum ...
- indefenseofthegospel.blogspot.com/...colleges gets my thumbs-up; it is Grace Baptist Bible College of Winston Salem, North Carolina. Not only has it successfully put together a program that looks...
- catholic-caveman.blogspot.com/...Godfrey Donal was born in Liverpool, England in 1959. Educated at Stonyhurst College and University College, Cork, he was then called to the Irish Bar. He ...
- macabrepoemsbydennislsiluk.blogspot.com/...Homecoming) It was the morning after Amnon had returned home from college; he had spent six-years away at Harvard gotten his law...
- zengersmag.blogspot.com/...” is Dan Gurley, former North Carolina field director for the Republican National Committee...that Democrats would take away their Bibles and turn their states over to ...
- cottonkingdom.blogspot.com/... sanctified bunch on me. WR: Why Sister Purifoy! You can keep the Bible out of the school, but you can’t keep God’s disciples out. PP: Yeah, we...
- sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/... teaching a college-level religious studies...take an elective in the Bible.” Bingham’s bill, as ... Union-North Carolina, said it is notoriously...
- youthministries.wordpress.com/... at the school that will influence your student. Ambassador Baptist College (North Carolina) Baptist Bible College Graduate School (Missouri) Berean Bible Institute (Wisconsin) Blue Letter Bible Institute (Online) Bob...
- issym.wordpress.com/... with a Business/Bible degree. It was the Bible degree that pushed me to head to South Carolina for college, stepping out of Maine, the only home I had...
- jungleloo.wordpress.com/... what He is doing in your life. While visiting Columbia Bible College in South Carolina, I found in the library a little book called Father and Son, ...
Carolina Bible College - Blog Homepage Results
... from my outpost at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in southern Minnesota. After Pillsbury ...to Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The blog name stays as is...
Related Video with carolina bible college
carolina bible college Video 1
carolina bible college Video 2
carolina bible college Video 3