Come Thirsty... What i'm reading these days...

TRUST

" Learn well the song of Sovereignty: I know God knows what's best. Pray humbly the prayer of trust: "I trust your lordship. I belong to you. nothing comes to me that has not passed through you."

WORRY is irrelevant and irreverent...

" Worry changes nothing. You don't add one day to your life or one bit of life to your day by worrying. Your anxiety earns you heartburn, nothing more."

"Your part is prayer and gratitude. God's part? Peace and protection. 'If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful then the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.'(Phil 4:7)"

ANGELS

The angels that watch over us are two things: Many and Mighty.

In Psalm 68:17 NKJV, King David writes: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sanai, in the holy place." When referring to Mt. Sanai, David was thinking of the time ten thousand angels descended upon the mountain as God gave the law to Moses. 'God came down from Sanai... coming with ten thousand holy angels" (Deut 33:2 MSG)

Preview this book at :
http://www.google.com/ig?referrer=ign#max108



I can't wait to get the workbook for this!

I can't get over the fact that at every moment there are many MASSIVE, powerful, and mighty angels hovering over me just watching and waiting for things of and not of this world to come, so that they may fight for me in God's name. Max talks about how angels dance around the throne and and only respsond to Him. He commands them, his army, HE gives the angels charge over us. We have our only personal armies guarding us at all times. While we make coffee in the morning, on the way to work or school, while we sleep, while we work or sit in a classroom, take dance class or teach dance class, in the car toating kids about the city, making dinner, watching tv... everything we do is protected by the heavenly realms. Then I think about when bad things happen. Some people ask why. We can't know why. We just have to trust. Of course we want to know why but that doesn't mean we should. "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." haha. It's natural to want to know why. We're reasoning creatures, we use logic and equations to figure out the vector of the ball that was thrown with X amount of force. blah blah blah. I'm totally preaching to myself here. When we found out my mom had cancer the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "God is sovereign." I don'tknow how it did, but it did. Then I wanted to know everything. I didn't immediately ask why, but when. How long did she have, what were we going to do to fix it. Could we fix it? No. We could try. If God's got a plan, we can do all we will to change it if we don't like how it's playing out... That brings me back to

TRUST

" Learn well the song of Sovereignty: I know God knows what's best. Pray humbly the prayer of trust: "I trust your lordship. I belong to you. nothing comes to me that has not passed through you."

So many people prayed and claimed that they KNEW she would be healed. She was, at least, not in the way we had hoped for. It's amazing the faith that people have in time of need. The prayer that I was exposed to was far beyond what i had experienced before then. Being a 15 year old and still green in my faith, I prayed but nothing like anyone else. I had faith, but not that he would heal her. I had faith that he could and that he knew what was best even it it meant me losing my mother, my siblings losing their mother, my father losing his wife of 29 years. Those 3 years were the hardest of my life. My dad checked out for a while, I ran from our pain and reality, Will, my youngest brother clung to my dad afraid for losing him also, and David, my kid brother, was filled with anger and hurt. We all felt hurt and abandoned my God. We all expressed our pain in extremely different ways. Our family was falling apart, and at the same time, the strongest and closest we'd ever been. It made me think of how Jesus felt, hanging on tree carved into a cross, dying and left by his father who claimed he would never forsake us. Jesus, cried to his Abba, "My God, my God, WHY have you forsaken me?!" I only had the tiniest taste of that anguish and pain that he felt. God has never and will never forsake us, because he did forsake his son. To put His only son through that: the pain, rejection, lonliness, beating, and even hell, would break a human. Sometimes I think about the judgement that we all deserve and then multiply it by all the people that have and ever will live, that's the pain Christ experienced. Unfathomable.

1 John 3:1 (ESV)
" See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

(KJV)
1 John 3:1
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

I kind of like the KJV better in this verse. The words, for me, provide so much more emotion to the statement. It's like he's saying, "Behold! Take note, pay attention!!! Look what God has done! He, our Father, has bestowed, presentes as a gift, his love. Perpetual, unconditional love, that we should be called children of God. Heirs to the throne. (kinda, it's not like we'll take over lol...) Princes and princesses of Zion, the Heavenly Realms.


hmmm... oh when that day comes, it will be a glorious one.

Definition: to present as a gift; grant, give


"I trust your lordship. I belong to you. nothing comes to me that has not passed through you."

Class ehk

So first day of classes tomorrow. I have to get up at 7:00 and make sure I get into a certain Drawing II class. yippee! I don't really have much to say right now. This thursday we have our life group again. I'm glad. I love that fellowship.

Learning to Dance (follow)

So I have this friend. She's really into looking for the single guys and hanging out with them all the time. I mean, that's cool. But talking about it all the time, and in front of them is interesting i think. I could just be really rude. eh. I just don't know If I'd be telling all the single guys I know that i want to hang out with them all the time BECAUSE they are single. ha. I might get a weird reaction. I know that it would be nice to date someone. But I'm not actively looking for someone to date. Even though all my friends minus a couple are either engaged or married, I don't feel the need to be in the same stage of life as they. I need to do what's right for me. I'm letting God handle it. Yeah there are guys I know that I wouldn't mind dating or even just spending more time with to get to know them more... but I'm not going to take matters into my own hands. What's weird is that is so different from my personality, which is one that is very dominating and leader-like. I want to plan, take control of a situation if I feel nothing productive is being done. In the business world, if i led a team of people to do something, that would come in handy. Between God and me, not so much. He's the ultimate leader and I have to follow.

A few years ago my dad was teaching me how to dance. Not ballroom or anything. But you know, slow dance. He's a very good dancer. I've got rhythm and have always been able to dance salsa, bachata and other things that require SOME skill. But this was difficult for me. I had to follow his lead. We laughed because is so closely mirrored my personality. I think it's interesting that He taught me how to follow when dancing, and he's done a lot of the same in life. I've had to learn how to follow his lead. Even now that is somewhat of a battle. If we have a tiff, I normally come around a little quicker these days. I remember some of the arguments we've had in the past. Man, God is going to bring it right back and let me experience the hardship of raising me through my kids. I just know it. I'm glad I'm still under his authority. I know I'm an adult and can make my own decisions but I actually value his opinions now. I love listening to his wisdoms and seeking and taking his advice on difficult times. I love that I can talk to him openly and have intellectual conversations but at the same time, be comfortable and/or learn something from him. I'm so thankful for such an amazing father. What I've talked about in this blog has only scratched the surface of what makes him awesome. I'm so blessed to have the relationship that I do with him.

Charlie

I feel odd. The majority of my friends that I started college with, are either engaged or married. ANOTHER one of my best friends got engaged last night. I'm in no rush to get married. It's just weird. It's like there's a different stage in life just kind of circling above me waiting to dive in and swoop me into its talons. We'll call him Charlie. haha. and above Charlie is my Lord, he's the puppeteer... controlling Charlie, holding him off until the time is right. I kinda feel like I'm stuck. I want to move on and be done with school and start a life without being in school and working low paying part time jobs. Although, there's a season for everything. (Ecclesiastes 3) I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Living paycheck to paycheck, stretching every penny. I'm good at that now. I've learned to deal with it. I know God's got something that He's doing with me right now, whether it's something I'm learning or something He's having me do.

The other day, I realized that I may have moved on a bit in the grieving process. I'm actually genuinely, in my heart, excited that my mother is dancing with the King. Lately, God's been giving me tiny tastes of the wonderful Heaven that we're promised. He has been for a long time. Only recently, have I paid attention. I like to think about what that guy said in "90 Minutes in Heaven". He says that in Heaven, he heard all the worship songs ever all being sung at once, all in accord, and he felt the peace and emotions of all of the songs all at once also. How overwhelming. That alone makes me excited and even more at peace than before. Before, I knew that my mother was having a party up there, but it didn't ring true in my heart. I didn't FEEL okay with that. I KNEW in my head that she was in a better place and I was jealous. Now, I FEEL that, and yeah, I'm a little jealous, but I don't think about only that and how long it will be until I can leave this place. I'm totally focused on what God has going on for me right now, on Earth. I eagerly await the day when He comes to take us home, or when I get to go meet him; but I'm glad that I'm here trying to glorify with my life. I don't know if any of this makes sense. It does to me. Alrighty, off to grocery shopping, crafting, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and then... partying! WOO! Merry Christmas!

A whole lot of Love

God Is Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Live and breathe Jesus...

I stole these from a very good friend...  I'm so excited about reading all different books but I can only read one at a time. AH!

"You've trusted Jesus with your life; now live that life in 
Him. Inhale Him. Exhale Him. Make Him your lifesource each and every day with the faith of a little child! You were planted in the richest of soils and watered with the amazing Truth of his kingdom. Don't hide the joy-filled life of Jesus beneath the soil, but grow and bloom for all the world to see." Eric Ludy on Colossians 2:7

"But if a woman is aspiring to become a princess of purity, she must wait patiently for a Christlike knight. And though this kind of man is rare, God is raising up men after His own heart. And that kind of man is worth waiting for!" When God Writes Your Love Story

"You're seeing the institution which is a man made system. That's not what I came to build. What I see are people and their lives a living breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs." The Shack

"It's simple. Its all about relationships and simply sharing life- being open and available to others around me. My church is all about people and life is all about relationships. You can't build it. That's my job and I'm actually pretty good at it" The Shack on church

Oh sweet Jesus. You are my wonderful counselor. Guide me. Cause me to know your will. Live through me. Purify me, make me wholly yours. Help me to daily, live out the fruit of the spirit and show your love to everyone through how I treat them. God you are the almighty one. You so amazingly blessed me yesterday in the car on the way to work. You speak to me through music. You filled me up with you. A peace washed over me and I wept in thanksgiving and excitement over you. I was overwhelmed with an uncontainable joy about meeting you face to face one day.

Earlier I was reading Come Thirsty and Max Lucado was talking about Lazarus and what he might have been doing while in heaven before Jesus told him, "Lazarus, Come out!". It was really cool thinking about how amazing it will be when that time comes when He comes in the clouds and takes his children back with Him. How great is His faithfulness! I'm so at peace to know that my mother is in the company of The Almighty, the great saints, the disciples, hangin out with Elijah and Elisha... taking rides in the fiery chariot... Discussing things with Moses and Jacob and David and Esther. Ah! how cool is that. It's like there's a cool book that you're reading and finally, you get to jump into it (like in the show reading rainbow) lol... and experience being with the characters. Meeting all of them and at the same time, hanging out with the author. The perfecter of time, the potter and creator of a masterpiece so unfathomable, we just have to experience it to truly know what it's like. Until then we wait in excitement like little children, trusting that Daddy will come through, because he always does.


My toes are cold...




This is the song that is so ministering to me right now...

It’s the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain
It’s the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain
The song of Asian believers
Filled with God’s holy fire
It’s every tribe, every tongue, every nation
A love song born of a grateful choir

It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

Let it rise about the four winds
Caught up in the heavenly sound
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this

And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they’ve just heard
‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word

When all God’s children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
All God’s people singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns