Truth

Balmorhea

Whenever I listen to this song I can't help put picture my life as a movie.  All the wonderful things that will happen...Marriage, babies, traveling, new friendships, rainy days, a room full of candles, smiles and more smiles. 

'tis the season for a hymn

How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest.

Dear Name, the Rock on which I build,
My Shield and Hiding Place,
My never failing treasury, filled
With boundless stores of grace!

Jesus! my Shepherd, Savior, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.

Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see Thee as Thou art,
I’ll praise Thee as I ought.

Till then I would Thy love proclaim
With every fleeting breath,
And may the music of Thy Name
Refresh my soul in death!

by John Newton (writer of Amazing Grace)

PSALM 16:11

You have made known to me the path of life, You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11 (NIV)
You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. (NLT)
You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (NKJV)
You will teach me how to live a holy life.Being with you will fill me with joy;at your right hand I will find pleasure forever. (NCV)
You lead me in the path of life;I experience absolute joy in your presence; you always give me sheer delight. (NET)
You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy;in Your right hand are eternal pleasures. (HCSB)
You make the path of life known to me.Complete joy is in your presence. Pleasures are by your side forever (GWT)
You have shown me the path to life, and you make me glad by being near to me. Sitting at your right side, I will always be joyful. (CEV)

Forks and knives and spoons, oh my!

Since the Lord is always speaking, and we just need to tune in, he decided to give me an analogy about silverware.  As I was putting them away, he said "You are like this"..."My children are as silverware" He said we are his utensils, and that he uses us.  Useless without their creators hands at work.  He began to relate the five-fold ministry to each kind of utensil. He also spoke to me about our shininess and what he does to make us that way..he puts us in his washer...I love when the Lords speaks like this...it makes it so easy to understand.  He is the same Jesus who told parables then, and I know he still likes to share new ones with us this day!

Oh disappointment, shmisappointment

The cross outshines all.

Disappointments are funny. Not in the "let me go laugh because this situation cracks me up", but more in the "this sucks" kinda funny. whatever.  I have come to the conclusion that life has its disappointments and events that don't go as planned. I know I'm late in the game in figuring this out.  Life is not perfect. BUT....Amongst all of the chagrin in my life, I have this amazing, deep, constant, delight... When things don't go the way I want them to go, or the way society would want them to go; for about ten minutes I wallow in my mishap and maybe numb the pain a little bit with some good ole facebook, but after that is when the Lord speaks to me.  (Those ten minutes of self pity have been dwindling down, and I know Jesus is jealous of those minutes I choose to ignore him.) But when he does speak, he reminds me of the bigger picture and ensures that he keeps his promises.  It just sucks sometimes, ya know? This battle of flesh and spirit is so apparent at these times and really shows which one is at work... I don't know...I just want to see through the eyes of my savior.....I want to see the big picture always....I want to set my mind on things above... As much as I care about what happens to me...At the same time I really could care less...These little fender-bender's of annoyance can't set me back for more than ten minutes...

deep cries out to deep

 This summer I have been on an exploration.  I have gone far and utterly deep, searching for answers I have never asked before.  I have asked the hard questions concerning the motives behind everything I do.  I have begun to realize the importance of my thoughts that turn into words and how they affect everyday life and most importantly my relationship with Jesus.  Things like: " Why did I just say that?" or "Why am I jealous of that?" or "Why do I care what they think?"... and then going deeper...and deeper..to get to the root... I really believe that this part of the pruning/purifying process that will draw us even closer to Jesus himself.
  HEBREWS 4.12: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.   
 -What if we had so much of the word of God in us that the Spirit of God that inhabits us can discern the thoughts and intentions of our hearts?  I understand that God discerns our thoughts and intentions utterly but God says he will reveal. 
 1CORINTHIANS 2:10-12.. However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"--But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (This has to be one of my favorite passages)  So yeah, thats that..

A Day At Grandma's House

Pulled weeds & made pudding pies. Lots and lots of them.

I came across this description of beauty and I just love it!

How beautiful are the arms which have embraced Christ, the hands which have touched Christ, the eyes which have gazed upon Christ, the lips which have spoken with Christ, the feet which have followed Christ. How beautiful are the hands which have worked the works of Christ, the feet which treading in his footsteps have gone about doing good, the lips which have spread abroad His Name, the fives which have been counted loss for Him. How beautiful upon the mountains were the feet of them who brought glad tidings . . . how beautiful was the wisdom of those unlearned and ignorant men, whose very opponents felt they had been with Jesus. [Christina Rossetti, Called to Be Saints, xiii.]

my wonderful summer so far

Jersey Shore, Philadelphia, New York City, Ohio, cliff jumping, hiking, hiking, hiking, camping, Ohiopyle, ALLAN.

Pauciloquent

Which came first? the seed or the fruit?
Jeremiah 17
⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
       whose confidence is in him.
 ⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
       that sends out its roots by the stream.
       It does not fear when heat comes;
       its leaves are always green.
       It has no worries in a year of drought
       and never fails to bear fruit."
________________________________________
One thing that the Lord has been emphasizing to me is the simple truth that we as his (children/friends/lovers/carriers of himself) are to always be "bearing"good fruit.  I always thought that the word bearing was just to produce.  But, as i looked it up in the dictionary, these are the definitions:  to carry/ to have or display the mark or feature/ be called by /give birth to.
 Genesis 8:22 says it clearly "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."    
In every season everyone, everywhere, even non-christ lovers, are planting seeds, and getting the results of that seed (good or bad).  But what if the people that can no longer call themselves merely human actually recognize that every word that comes out of our mouths are seeds? Your fruit can either be blessed or cursed, depending on the seed(where it originates)

James 3:10 ESV 

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Matthew 7:17

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

James 3:2-10 ESV  

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

(From our mouths)----First the seed, then the fruit.  

It's good to be pauciloquent : Uttering few words, brief in speech

Vapors socializing

  As i sit here with a green mask on my face, whitestrips on my teeth and a bed full of unfolded clothes, I managed to feel so utterly happy.  I have learned to understand the bold differences between being happy and embodying joy.  Right now in my current situation, I feel pretty happy.  A night full of family, a great movie, and a lot of things just going right.  I try not to hold onto these things too long.  But don't get me wrong, I do love the feeling.  I'm learning and always trying to have on my mind why I should be joyous.  I actually don't want to always remind myself, I want it to be a habitual reoccurrence, on going.   Because deep down the road, Jesus is the only non-perishable I have on my journey called life.

      
 And in the words of Casting Crowns:
 I am a flower quickly fading,
 Here today and gone tomorrow,
 A wave tossed in the ocean,
 A vapor in the wind.
 Still you hear me when I'm calling,
 Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
 And you've told me who I am.
 I am yours. 

just a little something

As i sit on my semi-cluttered bed, I can hear the music being played from our downstairs.  These ethereal sounds are soothing my inmost being.  Jesus is so good.

You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is.

- Will Rogers

so celebrate the sunrise

     This summer (all eleven days of it), I've had more crazy dreams than the last 6 months combined.  Although they were probably from staying up until 3 am, eating sweets and watching movies , it is what it is.  Just as I dream when sleeping, I think the Lord is emphasizing that I need to dream again(in the spirit)// He wants to take my dreams, the ones that he has placed there, and take my mind to a place that all is unfathomable and impossible without his workings.  Just as I was writing this, the song "Those who dream" by Kristene Mueller came on.  The song is based on Psalms 126:

  ¹ When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, 
       we were like men who dreamed. ² Our mouths were filled with laughter,
       our tongues with songs of joy.
       Then it was said among the nations,
       "The LORD has done great things for them."
 ³ The LORD has done great things for us,
       and we are filled with joy.
 ⁴ Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
       like streams in the Negev.
 ⁵ Those who sow in tears
       will reap with songs of joy.
 ⁶ He who goes out weeping,
       carrying seed to sow,
       will return with songs of joy,
       carrying sheaves with him.

Proverbs 13 for March 13

"The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied."-Prov13.4

sour something

The feeling of being desired.
Every human wants it.  Being wanted and loved is just a natural response from the moment we were first born. We look left and sometimes right for people to be there to truly want us, but sometimes they never come.  I so often forget that the most important person in existence longs for me always.  He is unrelenting in calling and wanting to be with me.  He sends me love notes among the sky and whispers of his majestic secrets throughout the nighttime.  Why do I brush these acts of affection off as if they were mere sweet nothings made by mortal?

kick-off

Six days into summer and all I have to show for is a well-rested head full of season one and two of Gossip girl, remnants of Chinese food, sore legs from roller blading, and sore arms from scrubbing the garage floor from our roller blade skid marks.......Lets hope the first does not govern the last.....