Beyond Ourselves

Beyond Our Selves by Catherine Marshall



This is my 2nd time through this book. I read it about 10 yrs ago and find it as refreshing again today. Catherine Marshall is such an in-depth and willing "sharer" of her life and her emotions. Her book/movie A Man Called Peter is riveting.
An additional thought from the book: Catherine recounts a memory of her mother who meets a boy named Raymond. Raymond has a heart desire to attend college but he has two problems; one he is a foster child and two, his foster parents are against that idea. Catherine’s Mother is a visionary or dreamer. She tells him that you never have a dream that you cannot share with God and that He loves to hear and answer His children to fulfill that dream. God did answer that little boy’s prayer and he went on to give God the praise and God answered it beyond his wildest imaginations! He became one of the world's most authoritative voices on Atomic Energy. God not only has a sense of humor but He sees the desires of our hearts and if we pray in His will, He will answer not just answer but in mighty ways. Stay alert to hear the "inner voice" and be obedient as God is listening and He wants to answer those prayers.

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God's Underground Creation

How often do we stop to see God’s visual reminders of His grace, mercy through His creation? On a recent journey to Chattanooga, TN this author was given a glimpse of God’s amazing Creative Designs and rejoiced in His handprints of Stalactites, Stalagmites, Columns, Drapery formations, Flowstone, and Helictites. It truly is a geologist’s dream come true but for a believer in Christ it is a visual representation of the Savior who is Creator, Savior and Illuminator of all. This marvelous picture is found in Ruby Falls which is only accessible by one little elevator which drops you off 360 ft underground. From there you must walk for an hour up and down through a massive underground cave along a narrow winding walkway descending foot by foot until you are 1000 ft underground. Just seeing the different formations as you descend, twist and turn are a visual picture of Rev 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!” At the end of the walkway you expect to be greeted by this waterfall you have been told about by your tour guide-BUT-instead what greets you is an intense blackness where even your fingers and fingertips are invisible. It was a fitting reminder as I stopped and thought…this is what those miners saw everyday yet as of that one day in history they will no longer will see the rays of sunshine. It was a powerful and moving moment not lost to this author’s meditation. Yet, to this and other believers, the intense darkness was yet another visual reminder of Gen 1:2-3 where we read: darkness is without form, without shape and is impenetrable except to God alone. Then standing quietly in this intense darkness, one is instantly ushered into a time of reflection; listening to soft music which slowly radiates and rises to a thundering crescendo! Waiting in anticipation, your physical heart beats forth with a great amount of exertion, all senses primed for what lies ahead. But for the moment, this intense darkness and the radiating tempo sets the stage for something not having experienced before, and then it happens! Just as the “orchestra” reaches the climax and the light bursts forth startling your eyes and the mind, your senses are set on alert, quickened with the emotions within as you struggle to understand this new phenomena and willing your entire being to be on guard to capture this sight lest it be just a fleeting memory. Stopping on the walkway and viewing the sight before you leads one who walks with Christ to recall a similar scene in which the heavenly Father shouts from heaven , Let there be light! And there was Light”. The excitement in this moment is now, and before you in brilliant light the Creator’s full force is put into motion as the body and mind work in harmony to sense, process, take in, and hold that fleeting picture soon to be left behind. Before you is a sight of a waterfall which descends 145 ft into a pool of water, sustainable by the Hand of God from a destination only known by Him. You stop and breathe a prayer of thanksgiving for the Creator you serve and you recall Jesus’ words: John 7:37 “Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and 7:38 let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.” Ruby Falls is God’s legacy: “I AM--- there is none like ME!”