No words can express what I am feeling today so I found the lyrics to one of the greatest hymns ever written.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Sanctification
In my last post, I spoke about the Lord preparing me for something big in my life. I am not sure what exactly that may be but I know I am being sanctified right now. He is constantly revealing the sins of my heart and how they keep me from fellowship with Him. At times, I do not want to accept the discipline. I think that it is too hard to let go of my pride and submit to His sharpening. I can remember a time when I thought the Christian life got easier as we grew. Boy was I wrong! God allows trials and suffering in our lives to build our character Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4
He allows these times for our good, not to be mean to us. Only the enemy wants to discourage us during these trials. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:26-28
This past Sunday morning I was really bothered by something. It continued to plague my mind throughout church and the afternoon. It was something I felt that I was supposed to be in control of therefore I was worried about it. I felt I needed to be doing something about it. The Lord helped me see that His plan is sovereign and I cannot control this. I finally felt a sense of peace.
27 "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27
10 Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10
I was encouraged by Larry Crabb's book Inside Out, which deals with the fact that our sins keep us from real change. Until we deal with the truth about our lives, we cannot move onto changing. In the chapter entitled "The Problem of Damandingness," he says to trust God is to demand nothing. He relates this demandingness to Job's condition. He then exposes Job's ugliness to him.
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
Job 42:3-6
I realized I had been demanding of God in certain areas of my life and I had to repent right away! If I am constantly demanding things from Him, I will be miserable. I have to trust Him fully to accomplish His will in my life.
Just wanted to share what was on my heart.
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4
He allows these times for our good, not to be mean to us. Only the enemy wants to discourage us during these trials. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:26-28
This past Sunday morning I was really bothered by something. It continued to plague my mind throughout church and the afternoon. It was something I felt that I was supposed to be in control of therefore I was worried about it. I felt I needed to be doing something about it. The Lord helped me see that His plan is sovereign and I cannot control this. I finally felt a sense of peace.
27 "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27
10 Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10
I was encouraged by Larry Crabb's book Inside Out, which deals with the fact that our sins keep us from real change. Until we deal with the truth about our lives, we cannot move onto changing. In the chapter entitled "The Problem of Damandingness," he says to trust God is to demand nothing. He relates this demandingness to Job's condition. He then exposes Job's ugliness to him.
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
Job 42:3-6
I realized I had been demanding of God in certain areas of my life and I had to repent right away! If I am constantly demanding things from Him, I will be miserable. I have to trust Him fully to accomplish His will in my life.
Just wanted to share what was on my heart.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Fall down like rain
It has been WAY too long since my last post and I am not sure that anyone checks this anymore but I have some things on my heart that I want to say.
I feel that the Lord has been preparing me for something really big since July of 2007 when I came back Quba. I learned a lot about people who have so few possessions yet have a huge desire for the Lord. They were in such need physically and when they were introduced to the Lord, they accepted Him so willingly. It was was amazing to see their passion for the Lord and it made me analyze my focus on "things" that take the place of God in my life.
Throughout all of last year as I experienced the life of a teacher, I was faced with many challenges. It felt like drudgery to get up incredibly early everyday and face the monsters waiting for me to teach them something important. I was tired most days and emotionally drained. I had no desire to love these hateful children. They had nothing nice to say nor did they have any real commitment to school work. Their lives outside of school were full of problems and therefore they were a product of their environment. Their parents sent them to my class to babysit them as well as discipline them, parent them, teach them social skills, educate them, give them advice and pretty much teach them anything that they had not learned at home. I did not take well to accepting my task at hand. I was so angry all the time and struggled to see anything positive about what I was doing at this school. I certainly had yelled at them and said things out of emotion. I definitely had hatred in my heart for the bad kids. I could have cared less about the gangsters. I had no compassion for the girls that gave me a nasty response when I told them to stay on task and stop talking. I tried to get the counselors to transfer these kids out of my class. They did at times but that was not always the solution to the problem.
I kept asking the Lord for another job or at least another grade level to switch to. I figured I could survive the school year and transfer somewhere else where the kids actually liked me. I mean, they did not care about what I was teaching so why should I care about them? Well the Lord was continuing to work on my prideful heart everyday. In the spring I did the Breaking Free Bible study by Beth Moore and saw the many strongholds in my life. I also learned how Satan had gotten a foothold in my heart. I was against the students and they were against me because I wanted to control them. I also had pride because if they treated me with disrespect I had no desire to give them much mercy. Once they were wrong, they were wrong always. I had to learn how to pray for the hard students in order to let the Lord soften my heart. At times, I did repair the relationship with the difficult student but mostly I tried to find them doing something wrong.
During the spring semester, I was also struggling with singleness. Several friends had gotten engaged in December and several more in the spring. It seemed that the singles department at church had a whirlwind of dating couples, engaged couples and newly married couples. My younger sister had also gotten engaged. This was crushing my spirit. I kept comparing myself to others and felt I was ready for a relationship but it was not happening. When you start comparing yourself to other believers you begin to covet what they have. I had other girlfriends who were single and it seemed to be the topic of conversation. Who likes who and who we could date and who will we marry. Why are we still single? Are we all that bad? That just further deepened the longing.
The Lord kept speaking to my heart and blessed me abundantly. He kept giving me amazing opportunities to share my faith with others and to serve Him. I formed a bond with a few students at school that felt they could trust me. I also was able to be there for some new friends in my life and encourage them. I was blessed with a summer job to pay off my taxes. I was able to be involved in the contemporary choir ministry where I met one of my closest friends. I had also grown closer to another friend of mine. God then gave then gave me rest in July 2008 since I had the summer off from teaching. It was nice to not work for a month and a half! I enjoyed spending lots of time with my friends and serving the community with my church. I got to see my parents in Lake Charles and spend much needed quality time with them.
My life was full and I was trying to walk closer with the Lord each day. He kept softening my heart towards Him. I was learning how to pray more fervently and serve wholeheartedly. I accepted that He had created me as a listener and an advice giver therefore that was how I was to serve Him.
But Lord, I want to be a wife and mother! I want to practice loving someone like You love the Church. I want someone to pursue me and challenge me in my faith. I desire to glorify You through being in a relationship Lord! I am excited about it and I will accept the task at hand! I have served my time as a single. I love all the things I get to do but I would prefer to be in relationship. This desire gets stronger everyday!
A new friend of mine showed me this verse:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
Psalm 84:11
And I also found this to be encouraging:
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:8
Lord, I trust You with my life. You created me with Your hands! How could I question You? You will bestow honor on those whose walk is blameless. You will not withhold good from me. I have no need to worry about being married because you have called me to be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4:6,7).
I heard this amazing song at choir practice on Wednesday and linked the entire song to the title of my entry (just click on it). It is called Open Up the Sky by Jonathan Stockstill who sings at Bethany Prayer Center in Baton Rouge. Here are the lyrics:
verse 1
Our beloved Father please come down and meet us
We are waiting on Your touch
Open up the heavens, shower down Your presence
We respond to Your great love
pre-chorus
We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary
We won't be satisfied at all
chorus
Open up the sky, fall down like rain
We don't want blessings, we want You
Open up the sky, fall down like fire,
We don't want anything but You
verse 2
Our beloved Jesus we just want to see You
in the glory of Your light
Earthly things don't matter
They just fade and shatter
When we're touched by love divine
chorus
Open up the sky, fall down like rain
We don't want blessings, we want You
Open up the sky, fall down like fire,
We don't want anything but You
Bridge
Here we go lets go to the throne
This is the song of my heart...
I feel that the Lord has been preparing me for something really big since July of 2007 when I came back Quba. I learned a lot about people who have so few possessions yet have a huge desire for the Lord. They were in such need physically and when they were introduced to the Lord, they accepted Him so willingly. It was was amazing to see their passion for the Lord and it made me analyze my focus on "things" that take the place of God in my life.
Throughout all of last year as I experienced the life of a teacher, I was faced with many challenges. It felt like drudgery to get up incredibly early everyday and face the monsters waiting for me to teach them something important. I was tired most days and emotionally drained. I had no desire to love these hateful children. They had nothing nice to say nor did they have any real commitment to school work. Their lives outside of school were full of problems and therefore they were a product of their environment. Their parents sent them to my class to babysit them as well as discipline them, parent them, teach them social skills, educate them, give them advice and pretty much teach them anything that they had not learned at home. I did not take well to accepting my task at hand. I was so angry all the time and struggled to see anything positive about what I was doing at this school. I certainly had yelled at them and said things out of emotion. I definitely had hatred in my heart for the bad kids. I could have cared less about the gangsters. I had no compassion for the girls that gave me a nasty response when I told them to stay on task and stop talking. I tried to get the counselors to transfer these kids out of my class. They did at times but that was not always the solution to the problem.
I kept asking the Lord for another job or at least another grade level to switch to. I figured I could survive the school year and transfer somewhere else where the kids actually liked me. I mean, they did not care about what I was teaching so why should I care about them? Well the Lord was continuing to work on my prideful heart everyday. In the spring I did the Breaking Free Bible study by Beth Moore and saw the many strongholds in my life. I also learned how Satan had gotten a foothold in my heart. I was against the students and they were against me because I wanted to control them. I also had pride because if they treated me with disrespect I had no desire to give them much mercy. Once they were wrong, they were wrong always. I had to learn how to pray for the hard students in order to let the Lord soften my heart. At times, I did repair the relationship with the difficult student but mostly I tried to find them doing something wrong.
During the spring semester, I was also struggling with singleness. Several friends had gotten engaged in December and several more in the spring. It seemed that the singles department at church had a whirlwind of dating couples, engaged couples and newly married couples. My younger sister had also gotten engaged. This was crushing my spirit. I kept comparing myself to others and felt I was ready for a relationship but it was not happening. When you start comparing yourself to other believers you begin to covet what they have. I had other girlfriends who were single and it seemed to be the topic of conversation. Who likes who and who we could date and who will we marry. Why are we still single? Are we all that bad? That just further deepened the longing.
The Lord kept speaking to my heart and blessed me abundantly. He kept giving me amazing opportunities to share my faith with others and to serve Him. I formed a bond with a few students at school that felt they could trust me. I also was able to be there for some new friends in my life and encourage them. I was blessed with a summer job to pay off my taxes. I was able to be involved in the contemporary choir ministry where I met one of my closest friends. I had also grown closer to another friend of mine. God then gave then gave me rest in July 2008 since I had the summer off from teaching. It was nice to not work for a month and a half! I enjoyed spending lots of time with my friends and serving the community with my church. I got to see my parents in Lake Charles and spend much needed quality time with them.
My life was full and I was trying to walk closer with the Lord each day. He kept softening my heart towards Him. I was learning how to pray more fervently and serve wholeheartedly. I accepted that He had created me as a listener and an advice giver therefore that was how I was to serve Him.
But Lord, I want to be a wife and mother! I want to practice loving someone like You love the Church. I want someone to pursue me and challenge me in my faith. I desire to glorify You through being in a relationship Lord! I am excited about it and I will accept the task at hand! I have served my time as a single. I love all the things I get to do but I would prefer to be in relationship. This desire gets stronger everyday!
A new friend of mine showed me this verse:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
Psalm 84:11
And I also found this to be encouraging:
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:8
Lord, I trust You with my life. You created me with Your hands! How could I question You? You will bestow honor on those whose walk is blameless. You will not withhold good from me. I have no need to worry about being married because you have called me to be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4:6,7).
I heard this amazing song at choir practice on Wednesday and linked the entire song to the title of my entry (just click on it). It is called Open Up the Sky by Jonathan Stockstill who sings at Bethany Prayer Center in Baton Rouge. Here are the lyrics:
verse 1
Our beloved Father please come down and meet us
We are waiting on Your touch
Open up the heavens, shower down Your presence
We respond to Your great love
pre-chorus
We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary
We won't be satisfied at all
chorus
Open up the sky, fall down like rain
We don't want blessings, we want You
Open up the sky, fall down like fire,
We don't want anything but You
verse 2
Our beloved Jesus we just want to see You
in the glory of Your light
Earthly things don't matter
They just fade and shatter
When we're touched by love divine
chorus
Open up the sky, fall down like rain
We don't want blessings, we want You
Open up the sky, fall down like fire,
We don't want anything but You
Bridge
Here we go lets go to the throne
This is the song of my heart...
Friday, July 18, 2008
My little brother
I saw my brother in the kitchen wearing this funny shirt and I asked him if I could take his picture. He obliged and then his real personality came out with this crazy face!
I love his personality...maybe because we are so simliar: Reserved, laid back (he is way laid back), introverted, self-conscious.
Things I love about him: Extremely generous, hard working, efficient, natural comedian, great chef, kind hearted and very smart.
Growing up, we were buddies. He was always so compliant when I wanted to dress him up. When we got to high school, I was a senior and he was a freshman so he hung out with mutual friends at Starbucks almost every weekend. We also lived far out in Fairfield so we had lots of time to bond in the car rides. As young adults, our relationship has grown through various one on one conversations about life. He is such a fine, young gentleman that I pray for all the time!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The neverending question
I just wrote two posts but I am making up for lost time so here is a link to a great blog post by John Piper.
iChat
I have had this amazing computer for 7 months now and I just found out how to use some of it's greatest features. That is partly because I did not pursue anyone enough to give me a tutorial but anyway, my friend Stan, who only has Apple computers and the iPhone, gladly showed me that we can video chat.
The way you do this is if the other person has a Mac and has a webcam (most Macs come with it built in) then you send them a video request to chat. When they accept, you see them in a larger video and you are a small video inset. We talk straight through the computer! I can even change my background to make it look like I am at the beach or in an aquarium. Right now I only have like 3 friends who can iChat but hopefully when we get all the PC users to switch over to a Mac I can chat with everyone!
I love communication so much. I love texting, phone calls, emailing, Facebooking, Myspace, Gchat, blogging, and now, iChatting. I unfortunately cannot get an iPhone since I have T-Mobile but as soon as I can, I will get one!
Here are reasons Why You'll Love a Mac.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Lazy dayz
These past couple of days have been spent in Lake Charles, LA with my family. It has been nice to be in a quiet home in a neighborhood as opposed to a tiny apartment next to a busy street. I also have enjoyed the family dinners. My mom and I have made dinner together at night and it gives me good practice in the kitchen. My dad and brother get home from work to have dinner with us. Then we get to catch up. It has been even more fun to have deep conversations with my mom during our quality time.
Today I spent time at the scrapbook store where she works working on a few cards. The store has every tool imaginable ! Just like technology has advanced so much in computers, it has also in scrapbooking. I also got a haircut today for $15. There is this great salon owned by 5 girls that give great cuts and color. I wanted to add more brown but decided to wait on it. I feel like changing up my look somehow but I just do not know what to do yet...
Anyway, I was thinking about the time I have had off this summer to enjoy and I am just so thankful to the Lord for it. He knew I needed rest and relaxation. He also knew that I needed a job that would not last for the entire summer so He provided that. He has blessed me with some great fellowship as well. I have gotten to know several people from church on a deeper level. We have gotten to eat together, laugh together and just hang out.
Here are some pics I have taken on my Macbook. Just having fun with the Mac camera.
Today I spent time at the scrapbook store where she works working on a few cards. The store has every tool imaginable ! Just like technology has advanced so much in computers, it has also in scrapbooking. I also got a haircut today for $15. There is this great salon owned by 5 girls that give great cuts and color. I wanted to add more brown but decided to wait on it. I feel like changing up my look somehow but I just do not know what to do yet...
Anyway, I was thinking about the time I have had off this summer to enjoy and I am just so thankful to the Lord for it. He knew I needed rest and relaxation. He also knew that I needed a job that would not last for the entire summer so He provided that. He has blessed me with some great fellowship as well. I have gotten to know several people from church on a deeper level. We have gotten to eat together, laugh together and just hang out.
Here are some pics I have taken on my Macbook. Just having fun with the Mac camera.
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