He has shown thee..

Had a beautiful day today at one of the sweetest spots on earth--
I enjoyed seeing many old friends and making some new ones as well
I was really blessed by the brief mediation one of my dear friends shared with us today.


He read from Micah 6:6-8 and focused on the last verse as a blessing on his son, but I was struck by the first 2 verses he read and their reflection of the good news that we are called to bring to the world. 


The writer asks, "With what shall I come before the LORD?"
Before a holy and righteous God none can stand. 
Romans 3 reminds us that "all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God"
Without the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all without hope, separated from God. 


In Micah 6:7 the writer continues, trying to discover how he can approach a Holy God when he is a sinner. He asks "shall I give my firstborn for my transgression?" 


And here there is a beautiful prophetic foreshadowing as the LORD God, the Creator of the universe, will answer in the person of His Son, Jesus. His answer is No, we could not give anything we have for the forgiveness of our sin but in His great love for us He "gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life."


The perfect, holy, Son of the Almighty, Living God came and lived and died and rose again that we could know Him and receive eternal life.


One of my favorite verses put it this way "And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3)


The God of the universe wants you to know Him. He invites you to call on Him as Savior and Lord of your life. Will you surrender today?

Much to be thankful for

grilled pizza

specialty sodas

cheesecake for dessert

cool breezes on hot days

everyone together

surprise guests

family nearby

laughing too hard to blow out my candles

learning things

making plans

opening gifts

remembering

marveling at God's creation

making things for others

air conditioning

blue grass music

cookies for breakfast 

subs for lunch

pizza for dinner

Knowing that Jesus has saved me!

 I have 2 birthdays and this is grace

Perfect love

"perfect love casts out fear."


His perfect love casts out all my fears


His love is the covanental love that walked between the sacrifices alone...one-sided oath...all dependent on Him


His love is the love that died for me while I was "still without strength."


It is the love that says "no one is able to pluck you out of My Father's hand"


It is His love that saves me, His love that Keeps me


It is the love that is greater than all my fears. 


Love that gives me...


beautiful sunsets


crickets chirruping so loud it blocks out other sounds


frogs jumping happily into the pond


farm-field dirty feet reminding me of that night long ago when the Lord washed His disciples feet


laughter of friends


hymns sings around the piano


the love in my Daddy's face


friends who love me


reveling that great is the mystery


the power of prayer


the beauty of a Spirit-led life


the grace for each day


prodigal love that loves me though I stumble and fall

For all these gifts Lord I thank Thee!

All is grace

Tonight Lord I am thankful for Your grace; Your grace that saved me and Your grace that keeps me
Lord I am thankful for laughter--for my dear friends who are gifted to act, and teach. 
Lord I am thankful that You saved us when we were still without strength and You are still our strength
I am Thankful that You make me worthy:

Lord I am thankful that You promise that You never leave me alone. 
Lord I am thankful for the wise friends you have given me
Lord I am grateful that You have shown me that I have no unique experience--in my struggles You say that You were  " in every way tempted as we are yet without sin." and "no  temptation has over taken you except that which is common to man"
Lord I am thankful for the love of my "nieces" and "nephews"
Lord I am grateful that you hear and answer prayer--hear my cry for help! I love you Lord

Confirmed and Affirmed

I had the most amazing experience the last two days.

As some of you know the last year or so has been incredibly hard for me as I have wrestled with questions of faith that I thought I already knew the answers to, and at times it frightened me that I was even asking them. 


But I always come back to the fact that I know that my Redeemer lives and on the earth again shall stand! I know Who it is Who called me and nothing can separate me from His love. 


To give you some background as to why the last 2 days were amazing; I recently applied for and did not get a job that I thought I wanted. It was a quiet,safe kind of job--inside my comfort zone not outside of it as my current job is. But over the last few days since I found out that I did not get the job the Lord Jesus has been re-affirming to me time and time again that where I am is where He wants me. 


Yesterday at church was one of those days when I was overwhelmed questions that I was scared to ask.I felt very unsettled and I cried out to the Lord asking for His peace,and His word to fill me and answer my desperate pleas. 


One of the ways I believe that He does this is found in John 10 where He says "My sheep hear My voice."  There is nothing more calming to this poor sheep than to hear the voice of my Savior and Lord. 


Not only did He speak to me, calming my fears, but He spoke to me so clearly about where He has placed me. Not once but 6 times between yesterday and today the Lord brought people into my life who told me that where I am is where I am called to be. Some of these people do not even know each other, and one of them doesn't even know me! 


I am constantly amazed at how the Lord answers out prayers giving us what we need even when we don't know our own hearts well enough to ask for it. 

Who forgives like that?

I recently recommended a book to a friend: The End of the Spear--it tells the story of the Waodani Indians in Ecuador and how Jesus used some really incredible people and events to make sure that they got to hear the gospel.

The story starts long before I was even born with 5 men who had a vision to reach this tribe--one of the most fierce with the good news that Jesus saves. On their first attempt to reach them in face to face contact they were murdered by the very people that they were trying to reach. 


But the story doesn't end there--some of their wives and family members took up the work that their husbands had started. They eventually made safe contact with the tribe and many of the very men who had killed these 5 missionaries would become followers of Jesus Christ and family to those whose family they had killed.

This kind of love and forgiveness only comes thru the Lord Jesus Christ. And ultimately this is a story about relationships:
The Lord Jesus and his passionate desire that all people should know His love. His transforming work in the lives of these men and women who gave all to reach the Waodani with the good news. And the same Lord transforming the hearts of the murderous Auca Indians and bringing these souls into sweet relationship with Him and with the very people that they had hurt. 


Jesus says, "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it."


Jim Elliot, one of those 5 missionaries killed, said "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."


A thought that impressed my heart tonight is that relationships take sacrifice and not all of us will be called to sacrifice like  those 5 men--but the Lord has called us to be living sacrifices.


Will you, will I, give all that the world may know that the Lord Jesus Christ loves them and gave Himself for them that they might have life eternal? What other answer can we give but yes!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

To my Dad

Thank you for all you've done

for early morning Perkin's dates

(And telling me I am special)

for wrestling with us

(And letting us think we are strong)

for giving us  "under-dog's" on the tire swing

(And teaching us to soar high)

For helping me with my homework

(and showing me where true wisdom comes from)

For "post office" trips

(And teaching me to enjoy the simple things in life)

For driving hours in the car for family trips

(and thereby making the point that family is important)

For saying "no" when I called you from work and asked you to pick me up

(And teaching me to confront my fears and stand firm in the Lord)

For loving mom

(and modeling how marriage is supposed to be)

For all these things and so many more...

Thank you, Dad

I love you. 

Thankful Trust

  I listened to a message the other day by one of my favorite authors, Ann Voskamp. One thing that she said jumped out at me and today when perhaps these words seem harder than they did yesterday the words came to mind again. "Anything less than thankful trust is practical atheism." You see, positionally I am in Christ. He has redeemed me, and sealed me,and nothing will ever change that. I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and by grace and through faith I am saved. But sometimes I can live like I don't believe. I can fret and worry and pray, but not believe. I can hold on to my sin, my guilt, my anxiety rather than surrendering to Him. This is what she is talking about when she says "practical atheism." I do believe but there are days when I cry "Lord, help my unbelief." 

  And thankful trust...what does this look like?

Thanking Him when things are good, thanking Him when things are bad--because in the hand of the Giver it is all good. As Jason Gray says "In the hand of our Redeemer, nothing is wasted." Romans 8:28 puts it this way "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose." 

  Thanking Him when I don't understand His ways. Thanking Him when His ways are not my ways. Thanking Him because His ways are not my ways. 

  Thanking Him today that although I did not get the job I thought I wanted I do have a job and one that I enjoy at that :) 

  Thanking Him for the graces that He gave me in the process--friends that helped me, encouraged me, loaned me suits, read my resume and cover letter over and over again :)

  Thanking Him for friendships that were deepened through the process

Thanking Him most of all that He still leads me. 

This is how I will choose to live out thankful trust today and say "Yes Lord I believe!"

Repairer & Restorer

Almost 2 weeks ago during the Lord's Supper someone read Isaiah 53--a familiar passage and one that I have heard read during the Lord's supper many times before. But then he read verse 12 "He poured out His soul unto death." That phrase has followed me over the past 2 weeks. What does that mean? For Christ, I think, though I cannot begin to understand, that it means that He gave His all to the point of death; that death He died for me. But as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ--how then shall I live in the light of this verse? What does it look like for me to pour out my soul? My search took me to Isaiah 58--read it, think about it, pray about it--And may the Lord give us grace to continue to follow after Him. 

58 Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.

² For they seek me from day to day, sad desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.

³ Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

⁴ Behold you fast for debates and strife. and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.

⁵ Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden.

⁷ Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.

⁸ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, end the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

⁹ Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.

¹⁰ When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.

¹¹ And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail

¹² And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.

¹³ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not found: to speak a word:

¹⁴ Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Youth Group 2012

This is my list of thankfulness for time spent with my youth group this past weekend...

1.Spending my weekend with the greatest group of high schoolers ever :)

2. Playing four-square all together

3. Waking up and responding to Christa talking in her sleep--and neither of  us realizing that she wasn't awake until the next morning. 

4. catching fireflies for the first time ever! 

5. Riding rides at the amusement park that I never thought I would ever get on--thanks to this crazy group for helping me overcome my fears

6. sitting in the sun and chillin with Allison

7. Watching all the crazy brave ones take on the water slides and hearing about how cool, scary, amazing they were afterward

8. Seeing the group build each other up, share their food, share their time, and share their gifts to bless each other

9. Watching friendships forged along the bond we have in Christ. 

10. Listening to Rebekah laugh

11. Hanging out with Josiah while we watched those with strong stomachs ride the Music Express over and over and over again!

12. Watching Hannah and Morgan enjoy the wave pool

13. Sharing a cup of Dipping Dots with Matthew, John and David

14. Watching William enjoy 18 consecutive rides on the Music Express and hold his lunch down ;)

15. Riding the whirlwind with Hannah G, John and Grace :)

16. All and all I am thankful for another great year in youth group. I am excited to see what God has done in our hearts and what He will do. What a mighty God we serve :)

Special sight

I am thankful tonight for the story of Elisha and his servant. You know, the one where they are trapped in a city and it looks like things are really going from bad to worse as their enemies surround them. The servant is flipping out and Elisha prays and asks the Lord to give him special vision. The Lord answers his prayer and the servant sees "that those who are for us are more than those who are against us." 

Today I needed that comfort and the Lord brought it to mind at just the right moment. Every day I need to see with that special sight; to know that  He is with me.

Lord help me to understand more fully the care and protection You give us day by day. Help me to comprehend Your sovereignty and to rest in Your care!

Needs

"My God shall supply all your need  according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" Phil 4:19

THEREFORE

"What we don't have now, we don't need now." ~ Elisabeth Elliot