[soul singing :) ]

One million beautiful rays
Of golden love
stretched out in so much splendor

A beauty I can't take in
One only the Master can
Created with a whisper

I'm in awe.

Light that floods my eyes
And overwhelms my soul
Pouring across the blue

And to think of His shed blood
Poured for us, blood that spread
Across the earth and eternity

I'm undeserving.

The beauty of His grace
An unending Love
He is my Savior

Without Him,
I'm lost and hopeless
My Jesus, I adore thee

I am thankful.

I am soooooooooo

[Incredibly]

blessed

and I

DO NOT


deserve IT!!!!!!!!!


:D :D :D


Thank you Lord, for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Indescribable joy]

My soul cannot help but be joyful this morning, while I read this:

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."
Is. 53:10

When at times I feel condemned, and the weight of my own sin sits on my shoulders, I can confess them to my Jesus, and the guilt is gone, and I am free!!!!

Read this verse again. Slowly. Out loud if you have to. Read it for all its beauty and the wonder it holds.

It was the will of the Lord. To crush our Savior, yours and mine, to put to death His one and only, perfect and loving Son. It was the will of the Father, and the son in perfect humble obedience took the form of a lowly servant, for our sake. For our guilt. He made an offering of Himself!! For Us!!!!!!! So that we can be guiltless, and pure, and lovely before God!!! It is so overwhelming to think about this! Christ stepped in the way of the fire of God's wrath that should have been poured on us....
I can't comprehend.

This is the part of the verse that gets me...
"when his soul makes an offering for guilt..."
My ESV study bible makes a point that catches me when I read this...It was His soul--
"He suffered not just in his body but in his deepest inner self." I have to read it/say it again..
Jesus suffered in His deepest, innermost, self...The Lord of creation, the God of our salvation, the perfect One, suffered in His deepest being, & heart. I wonder if this was more painful for Him rather than having 4 inch nails driven through His hands and feet, or thorns shoved on His brow...

How can we really understand? How could we even comprehend what He endured for us on the cross?
Pure and complete physical pain accompanied by the deepest emotional and spiritual pain any none of us have ever felt...I cannot imagine. I cannot comprehend. I can only joy in my Savior's triumph over sin for me,
so that on days when I know satan is attacking, when He is fighting for the grip of my heart and mind I can throw of these chains with more power and vigor because of CHRIST!!

The Lord carried out His Fathers will, He fulfilled His purpose so that we, sinners worth no more than dirt, can be spared, can be forgiven, can have the freedom of life eternally and the joy of living on this earth until He takes us Home.

How can I keep from singing?
Psalms 32 is amazing, it goes with my point of forgiveness....read it if you haven't already!!
You can do that here.

What pure joy we have in Jesus, I cannot find it anywhere else! Thank you Lord!

A prayer I wrote down today:

Lord, transform my mind
so that I will daily meditate on your cross
Lord, take my heart,
so that I will see with your eyes
Lord take control of my hands and feet,
so that I will readily serve you where you lead.

[New faces, new places, and new destinations]

Election day.
Yikes, I can't believe its already here and gone! I was only able to watch part of the whole inauguration process, but I did see Obama sworn in and heard his speech.

It was incredible seeing the thousands of faces of people in the crowd in D.C. on the mall. I don't know how so many people crammed in that place, but they were most certainly there, and the whole day was certainly momentous and historical. It was said that the number of people in the crowd was the biggest its ever been to attend the swearing in of a U.S. president. I can only imagine what it would have been like to see that, and to experience it all.

There are so many cool things about this day, yet so many things that scare me. Seriously.

Good things: President Obama is now the first african-american president, and he has certainly won over the support of many many Americans.
He's promised some good change, but has promised some things for America that I'm not so sure about.
Annnnnddd.....that's all I can think about for the goods. Hopefully that list grows.

He spoke often in his speech of the big melting pot that America has become and should continue to become. He made specific mention of religions too: Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindu, etc....he said we are all coming together and working together and living together. It may be true that many other religious groups will call this place we know as America home too, but I pray to God that that does not smudge the defining line between Christianity and any other religion in the world. I hope that more than ever, we as ambassadors for Christ never forget our true mission and purpose in the crazy messed up world....and that is to do just that: to be ambassadors for Him. I hope we will hold to the guidelines God has set up for us in His word, and I pray will never stray from them, or hold them of less esteem that we do now.

It seems that his speech stressed the importance of coming together, of accepting everything, and everyone, different lifestyles, opinions, religions, ...everything. "Be one..." they say. I can't help but to refuse that. I will not melt in and be "one" with the world I have been put here to fight against. Satan's forces are ever fighting in our midst for the soul of every human being on this planet. How can I sit back and just let everyone be "one" and be happy with their sinful ways?
No. I'm sorry Obama. I will not be one with the nation. I will follow my God-given purposes in this life.

All this talk of the new-age scares me too. We're destined to see so much change happen in our lifetime. Yet it's already begun. Obama will probably sign the freedom of choice act once active in office as well-- allowing mothers to have abortions legally. I can't express how grieved I will be if this act actually passes. We're all about "equality" and being "one" in this nation, yet we've lost the VALUE of a human life!!! Apparently gays and lesbians deserve to live in peace and happiness, have equal rights and be protected by law, but a baby can't. Hmm. What's wrong with this picture??

I could go on about things I hope that don't happen in this new presidency, in this new path we've begun....but I can't.

I am praying for Obama this year, that God will grip his heart, guide him to make the right decisions, pass the right bills, follow not in the ways of the world, or be persuaded by those that really should not be persuading him. He's certainly not entering office during an easy time in America's history.
I pray he'll be strengthed, that he'll have endurance to make it through each day and the stresses that come with getting adjusted to living in the white house.
I pray he'll always have time for his family, that their relationship will be strengthened and not weaked by this new job he has taken on.
Most of all, though, I pray he finds a true relationship with Christ, and that he will listen to God for wisdom and guidance above all and any opinion.

It's history in the making. I'm excited to be a part of it, but I pray for God's protection as we go forward in these crazy times!

Leave a comment!

[Taking the Bait.]

I've been reading in Genesis lately, (in my ESV Study bible, btw, just a small plug for this amazing tool and road map for my life, go here to check it out yourself :)
Anyway, back to the point--
Genesis 6:
"When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. [...] 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. "

There is something significant here (noted by the esvsb,) about the way of men's hearts and the pattern of sin we have become prone too because of the fall. In the first couple verses of this chapter, it says that the sons of God "saw....attractive (good)...and took."
Remember how sin even entered into the world? Check back in Gen. 3:6:
" 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."

This really stuck out to me today....this is the pattern we as sinful people have followed since the fall in the garden of Eden.

We see something, it looks good to our human eyes, and we take it. It is the sickening pattern of our society these days. We do not consider the consequences, we are prone to satan's every temptation, and how often do we take the bait in front of us? It's everywhere. The temptations to get more, be more, have more, buy more, take take take TAKE. I only wish I could say I was good at not taking the bait, but I'm not. I fail over and over, I am a sinner in debt to His grace, and will always be imperfect. There is no one capable of being completely like Christ. We're not even worthy to call ourselves His children even after we have accepted His GIFT (the opposite of taking!) of eternal life.
I guess that's why I'm so grateful and excited that He has shown me His never-failing love and forgiveness!! To think that the sin we commit grieves the Lord's heart.....wow. Shouldn't that make us want to be like Him? To pursue godliness and righteous living? Shouldn't that make us want to guard our hearts against the tempter when he comes knocking? To give more of ourselves in love?

If the world only had more love it would be a better place to live. Love is obviously the opposite of taking, and Christ showed us the ultimate form of love on the Cross. In the words of one of Brandon Heath's songs..."No greater gift [has ever been given]... There has never be a greater love than your son, no not ONE, there will never be a greater LOVE no not one. With His life you have forgiven us, hope has come!"
What is love? (1. Cor. 13) It is definately not selfish. It is patient. It is enduring. It does not end. Isn't this what Christ showed us when he died in OUR place? He endured His fathers wrath, so we wouldn't have to. If He wasn't patient with us, would He forgive us? Does He tell of an end to His love? Of course not!

Knowing THIS should change our every action, motive, attitude, feeling, and heart. We should rejoice in our every circumstance, our true heart's desire should be for Him! To please Him in ALL that we do, not just some of the things. We should be willing and want to sacrifice everything for His glory.

I wish I could say again, that I was perfect at this. It is only by the grip of the Holy Spirit I can say I am trying all the more.

Modesty. Where has it gone?

Okay, so we're going to try blogspot now, since xanga isn't letting me on my profile anymore...*sigh*

Since a blog can be a soapbox too, I might as well start it off with the first post doing just that.

*Steps up*

I went shopping today. And I've decided being a girl and going shopping is the hardest thing to do, because of one word.

Modesty.

I wish people....girls....cared more about being modest, and I wish that society was more NOT against it. I wish girls would stop worrying about whats on TV and the magazines and realize that its ALL photoshop.

I'm tired of seeing the word SKINNY in every single store I go to....EVERY clothing store, because...word to the public....not every girl is skinny, or meant to be stick straight, or should be striving to be. Sure its good to stay fit and eat right, but you don't have to do the whole anorexic look for cryin' out loud.
I wish girls would be more aware of how their dress affects the guys around them. And I wish that stores would quit selling the stuff that should not be worn except in the privacy of your own room, let alone, out in public. Girls should be dressing to honor the Lord, and not to draw attention to themselves in promiscuous ways. If I in any way offend any of you with my dress, tell me. Because I will change it and do my best to not make the same mistake again.

I had to go all over the whole mall trying to find jeans or something that wasn't too low rise or too fitting or too tight, etc. Not to mention most stores make everything smaller fitting, so if you pick up something that should be your size, it still won't be because its made smaller. It's like society is trying to make you feel bad for what size you wear. Guys...you have it easy. They make them all look the same, fit the same, and most of them at least look nice. I got so fed up with all the girl clothes I almost bought a pair of men's jeans. *hmph*

I even overheard two women in a fitting room talking about how hard it is to find good clothes/dress for us. Society certainly doesn't make it easy. I feel like I'm not the only one with these opinions either.

I hope I haven't been to harsh sounding, but its the truth of my own thoughts. I used to have fun shopping when I was little....anymore now its a pain and a half.