Life ........All That it Holds

A constant struggle that I have is being at peace and content with where life in the moment! I am constantly waiting and wishing for that next thing to happen, or to get the next new great thing on my wish list. The Lord has to over and over again calm my heart and teach me to live in the moment for all the moment can hold for me. I have to work extra hard to conciencly awaken myself to all the blessings that the Lord has provided and what He is doing in through and around me.
I am currently in a season of some big changes and transistions. These are new and exciting times for me and it has been truly a joy to see how God is changing my heart attitude towards the little adventures that He is taking me on.

GRADUATION: The first accomplishment and season that has come to an end is the last 4 long , hard and trying years!!! I graduate from college, yes college on this Saturday May 5th. I cannot believe how fast the past four years have flown by. So many friends have been made, so many lessons have been learned, and so much worked has been completed for the glory of God. I thank the Lord for the las four years of life for with out them I would not be the person I am today, those were truly four life changing years! I could not have made it through without the Lord's abundant grace and faithfulness.

BIRTHDAY: Holy Cow!!!!! I am turning 21!!! What the heck I dont even understand that! This of course is a second huge change that I am embarking on. Another year has gone and another year will be upon me in a few short weeks. My prayer for this next year is that I would seek the Lord more then I ever have before, and that I would come to know and love with all my heart , soul, mind, and strength. I pray that I would honor the Lord with my every desire and want! I have accomplished so many things and been give the opportunity to do so much already with my life. I pray I never take those things for granted but that I seize every opportunity and open door the Lord blesses me with in the next 12 months of my life!

GOING TO THE CHAPEL: Well to say the least I am STOKED for two of my favorite people in the world. My sister in the Lord , best friend, and roommate all throughout college is getting married June 2 ! I could not be more happy for her, I have watched Whitney and Colby grow together in their relationship with each other and the Lord over the past three years. Colby is a godly man that is going to make an amazing husband and spiritual leader for his family. I am so blessed to be a huge part of their life and to get to witness all that the Lord has for them in the future. It most definitely has been hard at times seeing them so happy and starting their lives together through my breakup with Kevin , but GOd has given me grace to be able to enjoy this exciting time with them and be able to help Whit with house and wedding planning. I have not been in a wedding since being the flower girl in my Aunt Jenny's wedding when I was 5 , so i am sooo excited and honored to have this once in a lifetime chance to stand up with my Whitney as she gives her life to Colb. Congrats you two love you both more then you know.......God bless the years of life you have together.

These are just a few highlights of whats going on in my life and all the changes and exciting happenings that are going on. With God everyday is fun and adventurous even though its not always easy God is constantly faithful and soo sooo good!!! Love you Lord!

Grace For Today!!

Taking time to sit at Jesus feet and being reminded that He loves me!! That He is faithful and full of mercy! That Jesus died so I may live , and live abundantly! That I am cleansed from sin, that I have a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone, a heart  that by the power of the Holy Spirit desires Christ above all else!

Love this verse, may it me the prayer of your heart as it was mine today!
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:25-26 

Christ Centered Prayer

I have was recently recommend to read a book by Daniel Henderson on the subject of prayer! The title of the book is Transforming Prayer. All my Christian life the area of prayer has been one that I struggle with the most. It is an area in my life that I really wish to build and mature. I want to be known as a prayer warrior, one who is constantly on her knees for her self and those around me. The following a good article I found and is a reminder of what our prayer life needs to look like and what it is all about. I know that i cannot develop an amazing prayer life over night but with the Spirits power I can become more disciplined and effective in this area of my Christian walk. 

God-Centered Prayer

by Derek Thomas

It is easy to be critical of prayer, particularly the prayers of others. Robert Murray McCheyne’s words are often cited because they remain painfully true: “You wish to humble a man? Ask him about his prayer life.”

Our prayers reveal much about us. Prayers with little or no worship and focusing on our needs (usually health) reveal a distorted, Adamic bent. What they reveal is self-centeredness, what Martin Luther labeled homo in se incurvatus: “man curved in on himself.” Listen to prayers at the church prayer meeting (if one still exists). You will discover that the majority of prayers are “organ recitals” — prayers for someone’s liver, kidney, or heart. Not that we shouldn’t pray for medical issues, but a preoccupation with health is itself a reflection of how little we understand why it is we desire good health. We desire it so that the person we are praying for lives for Jesus Christ.

Prayer is “talking to God” (Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, p. 15). Sometimes, perhaps too often, the “talk” is all about us. We’ve all had those annoying conversations that have been entirely one-sided, showing little or no interest in us. It’s all about them — their interests, desires, needs, and complaints. Prayer can get like that: we pour out our woes, become totally self-absorbed, and show no interest in dialogue that involves “listening” to what God has to say. God is patient and, in His grace, He responds. But it shouldn’t be like that. When Jesus taught us to pray, He showed us that prayer begins (and continues) with God: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9). Take a look at the structure of the Lord’s Prayer, and it will show you that at least half of our praying should be addressed to the praise and worship of God.

PERSON

Many factors influenced Tertullian when he coined the term personae to represent the threeness of God, but he employed this term primarily because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit “talk” to each other. They relate personally — to each other and to us. In other words, God communicates with Himself and with His people. It stands to reason, therefore, that prayer should consist of personal communion — talking to God with inquisitiveness as to His nature and His desires, and eagerness to learn about the things that please and displease Him.

The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, among other things, reminds us that there must be a clearheaded focus on our part on who God is and what God is like. Theologians have reflected on how we come to know God and what it is that we know about Him. The answer has often come in this form: we know very little in answer to the question “What is God?” What we do know (because God has revealed it to us) is in answer to the question “What is God like?” God shows us what He is like by revealing to us His name.

Our minds, whether consciously or subliminally, are (to use John Calvin’s phrase) “idol factories,” constantly succumbing to “I like to think of God as …” formulas, all of which are seriously wrong, conceived by a persistent anti-God bias in our mental, moral, and spiritual systems. To avoid idolatry in prayer, we must begin by reminding ourselves of His name — whether that be God’s covenant name “I AM WHO I AM” or Yahweh (that is, self-existent, self-sustaining, self-determining, everywhere present, and always in control); or, as the Lord’s Prayer wonderfully encapsulates, “Father” (expressive of the newness of the new covenant and the access and status to which the work of our Redeemer has introduced us); or, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (as Jesus Himself disclosed in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19). When Jesus commissioned His disciples to baptize in the “name” (singular) of “the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” He revealed the impenetrable truth that there is more than one in the one God.

God-centered prayer pauses to reflect on the nature of God, what He is like — His attributes. That, too, is the focus of an account in which God tells Moses His name. The context (Ex. 34) is the nasty business of the golden calf (man’s idol factory at work again). Having cleared up this mess, Moses ascended Sinai again only to be told God’s name once more (Yahweh, Ex. 34:5), but now expanded with an explanation of His nature: “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’” Grace, mercy, and holiness are attributes that God assigns to Himself — holiness being His moral perfection that responds in retribution to lawlessness and ingratitude. God-centered prayer requires a proper knowledge of God in His Trinitarian glory.

PRAISE

Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. (Ps. 147:1)

God is praiseworthy. Getting that fact under our skin is not as easy as we might think. Self-centered praying (which is a form of idolatry) fails to appreciate that our purpose here on earth is to praise our Creator and Redeemer. Listen to the psalmist as he extols the praiseworthiness of God again and again. The Psalter used to be the basic diet for Christians. Christians sang psalms around the dining room table and in church services on Sunday. Subliminally, the God-centered praise of the book of Psalms became the language of prayer. Since psalm-singing has waned, the rich God-exalting praise that the Psalter represents has waned as well.

J.I. Packer reminds us of the need to distinguish between praise and thanks, and to ensure that we do both:

Prayers of thanks focus to some extent on us. We thank God for particular gifts given to us and others personally, and for general gifts bestowed on all. Praise, on the other hand, focuses directly on God. We praise him for who and what he is. It is the difference between a spouse saying to the other, “You are the most understanding person I know; that’s one reason I love you so much” and “Thanks for the sandwich; I needed it.” (Praying: Finding Our Way Through Duty to Delight, p. 31)

PRESENCE

Praising God does not come naturally to us. We must be resolute about it. That’s why Jesus warned His disciples in the preface to the Lord’s Prayer about a religious performance more concerned about outward spectacle and ceremony than inward authenticity and true worship. “Hypocrite” is the term Jesus uses (Matt. 6:5), a term just about as offensive now as it was then. Playacting, pretending to pray, praying without the reality of knowing we are in God’s presence, is a harsh judgment but a true one nevertheless. When we do such things, we are praying to exalt ourselves, not God. It is the self-centeredness that plagues us, that needs to be rooted out and destroyed. Authentic prayer, God-centered prayer, realizes that the promise of prayer is God Himself. Being in the presence of God is the greatest reward of prayer. Godly folk have always relished this:

O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. (Ps. 26:8)

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple (Ps. 65:4)

Do you know anything of this? If not, pursue Him until you find Him.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. (Isa. 55:6)

PRACTICE

How can we ensure that our prayers are God-centered? Consider the following five-step strategy:

1. Remind yourself that there is only one God in the universe, and that you are not Him.

2. Adoration comes first, before confession, thanksgiving, or supplication. Worship the Lord in your praying.

3. Read a psalm before you pray, and attempt to emulate what you find: a preoccupation with God in all His multifaceted nature. Find psalms of joy or grief, praise or lament, and note how the psalmist spends time with God, making Him the center of his thoughts and desires.

4. Learn to love God’s names so that saying and repeating them fills you with an inexpressible joy, a reminder of who He is and His covenant faithfulness to you in the gospel of His grace.

5. Learn to “wait” upon the Lord. Watch how the psalmist, “fainting” as he thinks of his own troubles, finds relief by deliberately focusing on the great things God has done:

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds (Ps. 77:11–12).

When Trials Come!!

When trials come no longer fear

For in the pain our God draws near

                                                        To fire a faith worth more than gold 

And there His faithfulness is told 

And there His faithfulness is told

I had the great joy and honor of spending my morning at Grace with my lovely church family, then I spent the afternoon with a dear friend from days working at the coffee bar at school. We both have had a lot going on with changes and growth in our life so it was a blessing to chat and catch up. I ended my day with having the pleasure of going to a concert the Ghetty's put on at Shadow Mountain, their music and love for the Lord is always a time of refreshing, reflection on the Savior and encouragement. 

The lyrics that I posted above pretty much sum up what I have been feeling and what has been going on in my life over the past month or so. It was just an awesome reminder of why God puts hard things in our life and why we are called to struggle with faithfulness, running the race of life with endurance. It was such a blessing to read through these words and hear them sung, and have the Lord speak directly to my heart reminding me of His great promise that is made to us believers. That yes He calls us to walk through the fire, but He also promises to never leave or forsake us there. He promises to walk through that fire and storm with us and He promises to bring out the other side as refined and purified for His glory and our good. Jesus takes EVERYTHING away from us so that we can only draw near to and rely on His grace, power, and love. 

Wallow Not!! (Breaking the Cycle of Self-Pity)

This here is an excerpt from Martin Lloyd Jones from his book Faith On Trial! From a personal stand point, as a believer and follower of Christ, I can honestly say that I have and still find myself occasionally struggling with this issue! Self-pity simply becomes a problem when we focus our thoughts inward onto ourselves, focusing on what our ideas, desires, needs, and wants are! Jones does an awesome job of pointing us back to Christ and where our focus and attention really needs to be, he gives us three simple things to do that will get our hearts and minds back on track. 

"The trouble with this man was that his thoughts had been turned in on himself and so had got into a vicious circle. We start thinking about things in this way, we become miserable and unhappy, and we do not want to see anybody. We do not want to mix with God’s people. We become preoccupied with our troubles—the hard times we are having, the feeling that God is not fair to us and that we are being treated very harshly. We are miserable and feeling very sorry for ourselves, and there we are, going round and round in circles of self-pity. Self is always the centre of this problem. The first thing to do, therefore, is to stop this preoccupation with self and stop turning round and round in circles on the natural level! But how does one break out of the vicious circle? I suggest that there are three main things here.” 

1. Put first what the psalmist put first – literally going to the house of God.“What a wonderful place God’s house is. Often you will find deliverance by merely coming into it. Many a time have I thanked God for His house….The house of God has delivered me from ‘the mumps and measles of the soul’ a thousand times and more—merely to enter its doors…we go to the house of God, and to our amazement we find other people there before us…the healing process is going on, the cure is being continued….We look around the congregation and suddenly find ourselves looking at someone whom we know has had an infinitely worse time than we have been having…it puts our problem into a new perspective immediately [see 1 Cor 10:13]. Where the devil gets us is just here. He persuades us that nobody has ever had this trial before: no-one has ever had a problem like mine, no-one else has been dealt with like this. But Paul says, ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man,’ and the moment you remember even that much, you feel better. All God’s people know something about this, we are such strange creatures, and sin has had a strange effect upon us. We are always helped in our suffering by hearing that somebody else is suffering too!”

2. Turn to the Bible. “Turn to it in the home or in the church, it does not matter where, and it will immediately make you think spiritually. It does so in countless ways. One of the reasons why God has given us this Word is in order to help us to deal with this problem that we are considering. The mere history of the Bible is invaluable, even if there were nothing else. Take a Psalm like this one and its story. Merely to read what this man went through puts me right, and all the histories do that same. But that is not God’s only way of giving this great teaching. Begin to read your Bible and its great teaching and doctrines and you are again reminded of God’s gracious purposes for man. And at once you begin to feel ashamed of your foul thoughts. So in varied ways the same result is produced by the Scriptures.

3. Pray and meditate. “I wonder whether there is someone who is surprised that I have not put prayer first, or at least before this. I am sure there are some, because I know a number of Christian people who have a universal answer to all questions. It does not matter what the question is, they always say, ‘Pray about it.’ If a man in the Psalmist’s condition had come to any one of them they would have said, ‘Go and pray about it.’ What a glib, superficial and false bit of advice that can often be, and I am saying that from a Christian pulpit. You may ask, Is it ever wrong to tell me the make their problems a matter of prayer? it is never wrong, but it is sometimes futile. What I mean is this. The whole trouble with this poor man, in a sense, was that he was so muddled in his thinking about God that he could not pray to Him. If we have muddled thoughts in our mind and heart concerning God’s way with respect to us, how can we pray? We cannot. Before we can pray truly we must think spiritually.”

How do we think spiritually? By returning to the Word of God again, again, again, and again. When your thinking turns inward so habitually that you find yourself in the vicious circle of self-pity, begin to break free by following MLJ’s counsel. Only Scripture is consistently perfect, filled with reviving power, sure, wise, pure, clean, true, and altogether righteous (Ps 19:7-11). Turn away from your self-focus to the mind-clarifying power of the Word.

Thinking About God

Throughout my senior year of college up until the last couple weeks I have struggled with a thought that often finds its way into my head. This thought being that my 3 years of hard work and study of the Bible and Worship Ministry was a waste, and that I made a poor decision to even go to college in the first place. I know those reading this may be alittle shocked to be hearing this but I assure you that I am not at all perfect and that I daily struggle with what exactly God has for my life especially in times of struggle when nothing seems to be going the way you think it should be. God is still faithful and soo faithful and I can look back on the last 3 years of my life confidant in that truth. My mom and other spiritual leaders in my life have encouraged me and tried to correct my thinking when I would bring up this idea, but in my pride and sin I would let my hardened heart get the best of me and ignore the truth that they were so graciously reminding me of! By the grace of God there is a daily process of sanctifying work that is going on in my heart and mind and i am humbled and amazed at how God is changing my thinking and enlightening me to the truth in His Word. 

I came across a quote in a book I am reading by a well known biblical counselor, and this is what it read. "The Holy Spirit must take the Scriptures He wrote and apply them to our hearts, enlightening our minds, and freeing us from error. Incorrect thinking about God's character breeds idolatry. The only way that we can avoid the sin of idolatry is by immersing ourselves in Spirit enlightened study of God's Word through the Scripture." This book is all about how to kill the idols in our life and learn to long for Jesus alone with our whole heart. It was brought to my attention that this whole time I have been battling the idol of independence, feeling secure financially, having a solid degree that would get me a great paying job. This feeling of having wasted 3 years was coming from a heart that was desiring after wealth and treasures of this world that I so thought would make me happy if I had them. This along with having a husband and being married by the time I graduated also took up priority in my heart. When I looked at these goals and saw them not taking place, even in spite of my effort to manipulate life situations to work for my benefit I would quickly become frustrated and upset with the Lord. All these things and more I was allowing to reign on the throne of my heart and take complete control of my life, these things became more important to me then my worship and dedication to the Lord. In my attempts to try and gain these things I settled for less then God's will and best for my life. This of course was the source and root of my stress, worry, depression, unhappiness, confusion, and so many other emotions. 

It is always amazing to me how God allows things in your life for a reason to teach you specific lessons, to build Godly character, to mature your faith, and to increase your knowledge of the Lord and His Word. God forgive me for the attitude, thinking, behavior, and way of living that I allowed myself to embrace for so long. Praise God that in His mercy He has guided and directed my steps and has taken me down the path that He sovereignly already set out for me long ago. Praise God that in His loving kindness He never left me to walk alone but has faithfully taught and spoken to my heart time and time again, convicting me of my sin, and setting my feet upon the Rock. We serve a truly AMAZING God who loves never ends, His mercy never ceases and who has raised our life from the grave through His precious Son. 

Needless to say I walk in my college graduation ceremony to receive my diploma that states I have completed the requirements for a B.A. in Biblical Studies and Worship Leadership. Needless to say I wouldn't change that for the world, I have a firm foundation in the study of God's Word that is going to carry me through the rest of my life as I continue to study the greatest book ever written. This is our purpose, this is what our lives as followers of Christ needs to be about the study of, and growing in our knowledge of the Savior and Scriptures. May we seek to be diligent scholars of this book and may we never take for granted that we have our very own private Tutor living inside us enlightening our understanding and leading us into ALL truth. Praise God for Himself and His work on the cross may we study hard so that we have much to share with a dying and lost world!!! 

HAPPY EASTER, FOR HE IS RISEN INDEED! 

God's Grace ALONE!!

Read this little article in my email this morning and it convicted and spoke right to my heart. It reminded me of how often times I consider or rather do not consider the grace that the Lord has given to me, how He has called me to Himself, saved and freed me from the slavery and bondage to my sin shame!! Praise the Lord for His neverending Grace!!! May we never for one day loose our wonder of the cross and may we alway see it standing as a sinner lost! May these verses that follow serve as a reminder to you as it did me that it is all because of Jesus , through Jesus, and for Jesus! 

We Should Be Amazed by Grace

Posted: 03 Apr 2012 03:11 AM PDT

By nature our sinful hearts really do think it is all about us. But it’s not. It is all about God. Grace serves as a continual reminder of this reality: “Apart from me [Jesus], you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

God’s grace saves us – “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10).

God’s grace sets us apart by God, to God, for God – “[Believers are] called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 1:7); “saints by calling” (1 Cor 1:2).

God’s grace sanctifies us – “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).

God’s grace sustains us – “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). “This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it! (1 Pet 5:12).

God’s grace secures us – “[Through Christ] we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Rom 5:2).

Don’t stop being amazed.