As thoughts turn toward vacation....

It's finally feeling a bit like summer up here in Surrey, British Columbia...and I am getting all the more excited about our summer vacation!

So, as I opened my "365 Days with Spurgeon" book...I was thankful for the timely reminder. And, since I am figuring many of you have plans for holidays (yep, that's the Canadian word for vacation!:)), vacations, weekends away and other forms of entertainment and relaxation...I thought you might be encouraged by Spurgeons wise words like I was. It was based on Zechariah 14:20 and is just a small part of a great big sermon (#399):

Even pleasure and recreation shall become “Holiness to the Lord.” When you are travelling in Alpine regions, you will be amused by the ringing of the little bells upon the horses. You are there for rest, to recruit the body, but let that rest be taken in the spirit of holiness. I fear that many leave their religion behind them when they go to the seaside, or to continental countries. It ought not to be so; in our pleasures as well as in everything else, on the very bells of the horses there should be, “Holiness to the Lord.” A Christian man needs recreation as well as another man; the bow must be unstrung, for the soul always bent to work shall soon lose the energy to labour. There must be times for breathing the fresh country air, and looking upon the meadows and the fields. I wish such days came more often for the poor toiling population of this huge labyrinth of bricks; oh that you could more often see the laughing face of the verdant earth, and the smokeless heavens! But note this, let us as Christian men see to it that we carry the spirit of this text with us wherever we go; so that the bells of the horses are, “Holiness to the Lord,” and our very recreations are done as sacredly and as much in the sight of God as our sacraments and our solemn feast days. Does recreation mean sin? Then, indeed, you have nothing to do with it. Does pleasure mean iniquity? Deny, deny yourselves. But there are pleasures which mean no such thing. As you traverse Alpine regions, let your thoughts stand on the mountain tops and talk with God, or if you walk the fair lanes of England, let the cool retreat become an oratory for your soul. Why everything that your eye looks upon, from the king cup flower in the meadow to the cedar upon the mountain may make you praise God.

May 2 Corinthians 5:9 be the cry of our heart this summer season:

"So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him."