Times a Changing....

I haven't written on this blog since last December!   So MUCH has changed...so I thought I'd like to start updating the blog every so often with pics and info of how the Lord carried me into another season to show me more of His faithfulness and grow my dependence upon Christ, that I maybe formed more into the image of His Son!  I won't spill the beans in this post...cause out of time now. But, soon lots of news will be coming your way!! 

Psalm 34:1-4

"I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name togther!
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delievered me from all my fears."

"More Love to Thee, O Christ!"

Hymn by Elizabeth Prentiss, in 1856:

"More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea:
More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be:
More love, O Christ to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Let sorrow do its work, come grief or pain;
Sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
When they can sing with me:
More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;
This be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
This still its prayer shall be:
More love, O Christ to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

I just bought the biography of Elizabeth Prentiss and I am looking forward to reading about her life and testimony of her sweet faith in Christ. It is always joyful and helpful reading about other's faith in God and seeing the Lord's faithfulness! This book is on the list to read this coming Christmas break, which happens to be in 2 weeks and counting! I need much grace and endurance to finish out this semester well and to the Lord's glory! If you think, pray that the Lord would help me endure strong and study well for my finals and remaining reading I need to do! Thanks! And, I'll update this blog about the happenings in my life soon, or at least sooner then much later! hahahaha! :) Blessings and Grace always in our Christ! May we have more love for Him each day, for His love is better and greater then this life! May our lips and hearts and life's express God's love for us in Christ! Praise Him for loving us first, so that we are freed to love Him back!

hello strangers!

It's been awhile since I've been on this thing! Why? you may ask. I think it's a combination of several reasons:

1. Mid-semester stresses-lots of reading, paper writing, mid-terms approaching, ect. Please pray for me in this! I need motivation and don't really have it! I have a year left in my grad school track, come December! And, just feeling burnt out...please pray for more grace for me to focus and work unto the Lord in my studies!
2. Working around 30 hours, give or take a few-my library collection agency job and cleaning houses for 2 families.
3. Social life has changed some-the Lord has placed a very sweet guy in my life, who is pursuing me and really stinkin' encouraging to me in the Gospel! He makes it his aim to point me to Christ. And, honestly that's amazing! And, he's super hot! haha (I'll put a picture up eventually or check my facebook)

For now, I just want to encourage those who still read this thing (mostly my family), in the Gospel! The Lord is so faithful to His children and His love for us will never fail! I want to mediate more on God's character, His attributes. For the more we consider God's character, the more we learn how to love each other and reflect what He has given us, by showing sweet graces to each other! For we are given everything in Christ and now we have the "mind of Christ", by His doing we are hidden in Christ and able to love radically...unto His glory! By fixing our eyes on Christ, we are given an eternal perspective! May the Lord grant our hearts rich fellowship with our Maker and count all things lost in comparison of knowing Him and being identified with Him, even when this requires suffering!!

"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places."
-Habakkuk 3:17-19

read this old hymn...full of truth and grace!

I listened to this hymn on repeat the Summer of 2003 (on this cd) when I was serving as a youth intern at my old Church. I found these words super refreshing in pointing me back to the purpose of this life. Read each line and may it bring perspective in light of our "momentary struggles". One day, we will no longer need faith because we will have be able to see our Savior's face with no hindrance of sin and embrace His full glory! This hymn just points to the truth that this is not our home, and so much is still to come...when "our faith is sight."

Pray for the church in India, I heard that there was a natural disaster of flooding came yesterday morning. Pray for the Believer's to be sustained and embolden to share the Gospel, that the Word would go forth in fullness across the land in the midst all the storms of life!
Unto His glory, we pray!

"Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken"
by Henry Francis Lyte, 1793-1847

1. Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my All shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought or hoped or known;
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

2. Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
And while Thou shalt smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends may shun me;
Show Thy face, and all is bright.

3. Go, then, earthly fame and treasure!
Come, disaster, scorn, and pain!
In Thy service, pain is pleasure;
With Thy favor, loss is gain.
I have called Thee Abba, Father!
I have stayed my heart on Thee.
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather,
All must work for good to me.

4. Man may trouble and distress me,
'Twill but drive me to Thy breast;
Life with trials hard may press me,
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, 'tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, 'twere not in joy to charm me
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

5. Take, my soul, thy full salvation;
Rise o'er sin and fear and care;
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
What a Father's smile is thine,
What a Savior died to win thee;
Child of heaven, shouldst thou repine?

6. Haste, then, on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer;
Heaven's eternal day's before thee,
God's own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close the earthly mission,
Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope soon change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

let's remember, let's always remember.

wow. that is all i can say. this can never get old...

i am once again astonished at God's sweetness to me in revealing the Gospel. the only hope that i can bank on is that Christ came and lived a perfect life, died in my place to satisfy the wrath of God for sin, and then He rose gloriously and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father.

this is the Gospel.

what a gift, what a Savior!

• To be reconciled completely to my Maker, only through the blood of Christ and His imputed righteousness He has given me, through faith alone by grace alone!
• The only thing that gives me peace with God is the fact that Jesus has come and taken my sinful, dead heart and replaced it with a heart that now wants to glorify God and find my delight in Him alone!

what a joy, what a Savior!

May He grant you deeper affections in the Christ and consider more every day the wonder and beauty of the Gospel, this free gift of grace! Rejoice that even while we were dead in our trespasses, Christ died for the ungodly! May we treasure our Redeemer and long for His Return!

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

-Philippians 2:5-11-

i love this song:

O Great God
(words & music by Bob Kauflin)
~
O great God of highest heaven
Occupy my lowly heart
Own it all and reign supreme
Conquer every rebel power
Let no vice or sin remain
That resists Your holy war
You have loved and purchased me
Make me Yours forevermore
~
I was blinded by my sin
Had no ears to hear Your voice
Did not know Your love within
Had no taste for heaven’s joys
Then Your Spirit gave me life
Opened up Your Word to me
Through the gospel of Your Son
Gave me endless hope and peace
~
Help me now to live a life
That’s dependent on Your grace
Keep my heart and guard my soul
From the evils that I face
You are worthy to be praised
With my every thought and deed
O great God of highest heaven
Glorify Your Name through me