My favorite things list. In a particular order? yes and no.
- Bible
- Journal
- Family
- Best Friend
- Coffee
- Good Music: I.E punk, rap, rock, oldies, and of course Christmas music.
- Cute Boots
- Scarves
- Skinny Jeans
- Chocolate
- Cozy chairs
- Fireplaces
- Poetry
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Do you know The Gospel?
I do. I mean, if you know me and don’t know that I would be slightly surprised, but more then know the Gospel I LOVE The Gospel. Without knowing that Jesus Christ has died for me, and made it possible to have a loving relationship with the creator of the UNIVERSE I would be… well a drunken sex and body-image obsessed women trying to force others to love me. The Gospel is what drives me, what causes me to love and live.
Do you love the gospel? Really actually LOVE it?
If yes: why do so many of our neighbors not know it?
Aren’t we a nation with church buildings on every other corner, a “Christian” nation. How then, do so many not know the True Gospel. If you know The Gospel, do you not love it? And if you do claim to love it, why are those YOU LOVE still without relationship with The King, Lord and Saviour? Why have YOU not chosen to tell them? Why have you kept from them the very thing that sustains, the very hope that encourages you when most broken? Do you think it’s “uncomfortable” or “rude” that you are “pushing you’re beliefs on someone else”? Stop believing the lie! Love is caring enough for someone else that you are willing to be uncomfortable, and die for them, so that they can hear and have a chance to respond to the truth!
And if they know, and you so kindly feel it’s in your right to judge them because they “aren’t living like people who are trying to do what Jesus did” why are YOU not teaching them what life is REALLY about. What following Christ really IS (a constant call to die to self, and live for Him). Why have you not chosen to train them in righteousness by pointing them to The Word? Why do you think it’s okay to act like the knowledge you’ve been given mercifully by Our King is something you somehow earned.
My heart breaks at this. At just the knowledge that there are so many people in America, a “Christian nation” who don’t even know THE GOSPEL. Let alone what Jesus grants to those who obey Him. WHY!?
I think a large part of the issue lies with these false notions: I am not good enough. I am not good enough to share the gospel, I do not know enough, there are others (i.e: pastors, missionaries, bible study leaders, priests…) who should be telling The Gospel, not me. These are boldfaced lies; it is your responsibility and it is mine, it is OUR job to “preach the word; in season and out of season” (2 Tim 4:2). A wise man has said “God’s plan is His People”, and His people includes every single one of us who knows and loves The Gospel.
It causes my heart to twist with agony when I think of the many people who desperately need and are waiting for SOMEONE, (i.e: you and me) to give them The Gospel.
So please, Love someone - today.
Do you love the gospel? Really actually LOVE it?
If yes: why do so many of our neighbors not know it?
Aren’t we a nation with church buildings on every other corner, a “Christian” nation. How then, do so many not know the True Gospel. If you know The Gospel, do you not love it? And if you do claim to love it, why are those YOU LOVE still without relationship with The King, Lord and Saviour? Why have YOU not chosen to tell them? Why have you kept from them the very thing that sustains, the very hope that encourages you when most broken? Do you think it’s “uncomfortable” or “rude” that you are “pushing you’re beliefs on someone else”? Stop believing the lie! Love is caring enough for someone else that you are willing to be uncomfortable, and die for them, so that they can hear and have a chance to respond to the truth!
And if they know, and you so kindly feel it’s in your right to judge them because they “aren’t living like people who are trying to do what Jesus did” why are YOU not teaching them what life is REALLY about. What following Christ really IS (a constant call to die to self, and live for Him). Why have you not chosen to train them in righteousness by pointing them to The Word? Why do you think it’s okay to act like the knowledge you’ve been given mercifully by Our King is something you somehow earned.
My heart breaks at this. At just the knowledge that there are so many people in America, a “Christian nation” who don’t even know THE GOSPEL. Let alone what Jesus grants to those who obey Him. WHY!?
I think a large part of the issue lies with these false notions: I am not good enough. I am not good enough to share the gospel, I do not know enough, there are others (i.e: pastors, missionaries, bible study leaders, priests…) who should be telling The Gospel, not me. These are boldfaced lies; it is your responsibility and it is mine, it is OUR job to “preach the word; in season and out of season” (2 Tim 4:2). A wise man has said “God’s plan is His People”, and His people includes every single one of us who knows and loves The Gospel.
It causes my heart to twist with agony when I think of the many people who desperately need and are waiting for SOMEONE, (i.e: you and me) to give them The Gospel.
So please, Love someone - today.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Dear Women,
Don't we crave it? Adventure. Beauty. To be pursued relentlessly? It's the deepest cry from the pit of my heart; to be delighted in and enjoyed by others, and most of all by my daddy in heaven.
We run from it sometimes, run to our corners and sit down covering ourselves in hopes that noone will ever find us. Wishing, for a time, that we can forever shut all of the disappointment out and control our invisibility (don't we love/hate control so?). Hoping that we'll never be wounded (this badly) again. Wondering if we'll be okay if our beauty remains completely hidden.
From the time i can remember i always sought the attention of others: Look at me, tell me I'm caring, good, wonderful. Tell me my passion and intensity isn't too much, that it's okay to be "this way" whatever "this way" is. The thing is, others will never be consistent, anymore than i am. They will always question, critique, and some may even abhor my personality and pursuits.
But.
But my daddy in heaven always welcomes me. He has never, and will never, reject me or refuse to love. Despite my glaring inadequacies, desires, and pride he has never once ran away from me. It's His beauty that i give, It is His love that grants me permission, and even encourages, me to go on adventures (most i would never be on without Him). Ultimately, it is He who has relentlessly pursued my heart from the beginning.
& so yet again I will say: forever and always, I am His because He FIRST loved me.
We run from it sometimes, run to our corners and sit down covering ourselves in hopes that noone will ever find us. Wishing, for a time, that we can forever shut all of the disappointment out and control our invisibility (don't we love/hate control so?). Hoping that we'll never be wounded (this badly) again. Wondering if we'll be okay if our beauty remains completely hidden.
From the time i can remember i always sought the attention of others: Look at me, tell me I'm caring, good, wonderful. Tell me my passion and intensity isn't too much, that it's okay to be "this way" whatever "this way" is. The thing is, others will never be consistent, anymore than i am. They will always question, critique, and some may even abhor my personality and pursuits.
But.
But my daddy in heaven always welcomes me. He has never, and will never, reject me or refuse to love. Despite my glaring inadequacies, desires, and pride he has never once ran away from me. It's His beauty that i give, It is His love that grants me permission, and even encourages, me to go on adventures (most i would never be on without Him). Ultimately, it is He who has relentlessly pursued my heart from the beginning.
& so yet again I will say: forever and always, I am His because He FIRST loved me.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
One Descriptive Word
If I could explain God in one word it would be this: Beautiful. Not loving, merciful, just, righteous, glorious… or any other of the trillion correct attributes of God but simply beautiful. A friend once questioned me on this, acting shocked that I would describe God this way… “Beautiful?” He said, sounding incredulous, “that doesn’t make sense”. At first, I felt a little silly and withdrawn… maybe my view of God wasn’t accurate and it was just my inaptitude which caused me to see Him this way. Then… I continued reflecting.
Beauty is enticing, alluring, it calls to us asking to be delighted in and searched for. It is life-giving. Is not God these things as well? Does he not tell us “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” Jer 29:13. God does not throw himself at the feet of people, begging them to love Him. He does not throw himself away as a prostitute. No, he requires us to search for him, and that we all do even when we don’t know it’s Him we are searching for. Why? Because His beauty is alluring, enticing and mostly because His beauty makes us free.
Beautiful. My creator, daddy, king, and savior is radiantly beautiful.
*Citation Note: I am currently re-reading Captivating, the second paragraph is a
reflection of my reading.
Beauty is enticing, alluring, it calls to us asking to be delighted in and searched for. It is life-giving. Is not God these things as well? Does he not tell us “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” Jer 29:13. God does not throw himself at the feet of people, begging them to love Him. He does not throw himself away as a prostitute. No, he requires us to search for him, and that we all do even when we don’t know it’s Him we are searching for. Why? Because His beauty is alluring, enticing and mostly because His beauty makes us free.
Beautiful. My creator, daddy, king, and savior is radiantly beautiful.
*Citation Note: I am currently re-reading Captivating, the second paragraph is a
reflection of my reading.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Jumbled Notion
Beauty flourishes amidst pain, it does not wilt or bend to agony instead in the depths of great anguish beauty is often found. As i struggle through life, it is my weaknesses which have humbled me to my knees. Then, a beauty that is not from my own work or doing is revealed, a beauty that cannot be weighed down by this world but that overcomes it.
Even now, as I look up to my Father i feel his arms wrapped tightly around me, pouring His self through me. HIS BEAUTY streaming through that brings life into my brokenness. Without this beauty I would be... well... gone. I would have wilted by now in my own weakness to bitterness, anger, and hatred but He has given me amazing grace so I am able to forgive. PTL!
Random Thoughts:
It's hard for me to publish my thoughts... it makes me feel naked. Interesting how the digital world does such an excellent job of that.
Transparency seems like such an impossibilty, do we really ever allow ourselves the freedom to simply pour out our hearts?
Even now, as I look up to my Father i feel his arms wrapped tightly around me, pouring His self through me. HIS BEAUTY streaming through that brings life into my brokenness. Without this beauty I would be... well... gone. I would have wilted by now in my own weakness to bitterness, anger, and hatred but He has given me amazing grace so I am able to forgive. PTL!
Random Thoughts:
It's hard for me to publish my thoughts... it makes me feel naked. Interesting how the digital world does such an excellent job of that.
Transparency seems like such an impossibilty, do we really ever allow ourselves the freedom to simply pour out our hearts?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Fear despite a faithful God.
It's a familar place with slightly different scenary and an almost identical feel to an old comfortable spot i love. To the untrained eye, it might appear to be worlds apart from that familar place... but the heart can see it's exactly what i'm used to. You may ask, what place? Well it is colored forest blue and filled with a solitary depressiveness that somehow makes it bearable. It is fear; fear that i try and deny but that exists nontheless. Yet here I am still.
My place of fear can overwhelm if i stay sitting for long. Even having the ability to lead me, staggering drunkenly from one side to the next, sure of where I want to go but unsure I will get there. I've visited it so often that the owners, whom i've never seen, call me a resident. It is interwoven into the very fabric of my being as places sometimes can become. Despite my ability to charge ahead with God's strength it remains, continually evolving.
There isn't a good ending yet, for i can't even see the end. It is a fighting point, a place where God leads me to look up and cry "Daddy, I have no idea how to move on from this spot". I have hope, knowing that He has brought me out of this comfortable place before, but for now... I sit here. Struggling to move, yet remaining. Clinging to the promise of 1 Cor 1:9 "God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
My place of fear can overwhelm if i stay sitting for long. Even having the ability to lead me, staggering drunkenly from one side to the next, sure of where I want to go but unsure I will get there. I've visited it so often that the owners, whom i've never seen, call me a resident. It is interwoven into the very fabric of my being as places sometimes can become. Despite my ability to charge ahead with God's strength it remains, continually evolving.
There isn't a good ending yet, for i can't even see the end. It is a fighting point, a place where God leads me to look up and cry "Daddy, I have no idea how to move on from this spot". I have hope, knowing that He has brought me out of this comfortable place before, but for now... I sit here. Struggling to move, yet remaining. Clinging to the promise of 1 Cor 1:9 "God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
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