You have taken me to mountaintops and dark caves- o my eyes have seen the beauty of the sunrise from points where no eye has ever reached and my eyes have been amazed at the beauty found in rocks deep in the darknesss, beauty formed where no light has ever touched.
Truly there is beauty to be found anywhere that the presence of my God touches down.
Precious Lord, take my hand and lead me through the deafening darkness, through the blazing brightness, through murky hazes and misty nights, through the sparkling, cleansing rain and through the terrifying thunderstorms.
Reveal to me your beauty.
Still me with the magnitude of your presence in every step of the way. Bring color to me with the breath from your lips and may your hands envelop mine so that as I lift, you are the strength supporting me, as I paint you are the hand guiding me and as I sing, you are the melody flowing through my lips.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Are you toasting?
Today I had to go to the doctors office and fill out a "happiness level" form, which had all sorts of questions on it. Im sure most of you have filled one of these things out.. every question has a rating from 0 - 5 and you have to circle how often you feel depressed or think about dying etc.
I was happy to realize that I could very truthly circle 0's for every answer because God really has taken me and made my life so incredible. I mean we all have our ups and downs, I if anyone cry pretty regularily over things like chick flicks etc. ;) but I think the biggest thing that makes me life different is that I am living for a purpose.
My hairdresser is not a christian and I feel so bad for her becuase she honestly has no purpose to living besides cutting hair and living with her boyfriend.
We were created for so much more, and only when we are living for what we are created, will we truly feel satisfied.
Think of a toaster. A toaster can hold up a couch...and thats cool and everything, but the whole time it is propping up one end, it must be thinking to itself...I feel like I am doing something...but I am just not fulfilled...I feel like I was created for something else...
and that is like us when we try to do anything other than what we were created for
We were created to be in a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. If we are in a relationship of any kind with ANYONE else, it will not satisfy, becuase every inch of our being was created to be satisfied by one specific person: Jesus.
We were created to worship! To understand the greatness of our God and truly truly love Him. If we love anything else it will not satisfy, if we adore anything else we will still be incomplete.
We were created to love. We are emotional beings, much more than any other creature, and we were created to love everyone around us, not just our spouse or boyfriend, but everyone we come in contact with, even those people that drive us nuts. If we are not doing this we will be antsy becuase we are not doing what we were created to do.
We were created to live outside of our comfort zone. Weird I know....but God did not create us to live out our whole lives in safety, peace and comfort, having the ability to get what we want when we want it. If we do this we will not feel completely satisfied becuase we were created to do much more.
And the list goes on.
What were you created for?
Are you fulfilled?
I was happy to realize that I could very truthly circle 0's for every answer because God really has taken me and made my life so incredible. I mean we all have our ups and downs, I if anyone cry pretty regularily over things like chick flicks etc. ;) but I think the biggest thing that makes me life different is that I am living for a purpose.
My hairdresser is not a christian and I feel so bad for her becuase she honestly has no purpose to living besides cutting hair and living with her boyfriend.
We were created for so much more, and only when we are living for what we are created, will we truly feel satisfied.
Think of a toaster. A toaster can hold up a couch...and thats cool and everything, but the whole time it is propping up one end, it must be thinking to itself...I feel like I am doing something...but I am just not fulfilled...I feel like I was created for something else...
and that is like us when we try to do anything other than what we were created for
We were created to be in a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. If we are in a relationship of any kind with ANYONE else, it will not satisfy, becuase every inch of our being was created to be satisfied by one specific person: Jesus.
We were created to worship! To understand the greatness of our God and truly truly love Him. If we love anything else it will not satisfy, if we adore anything else we will still be incomplete.
We were created to love. We are emotional beings, much more than any other creature, and we were created to love everyone around us, not just our spouse or boyfriend, but everyone we come in contact with, even those people that drive us nuts. If we are not doing this we will be antsy becuase we are not doing what we were created to do.
We were created to live outside of our comfort zone. Weird I know....but God did not create us to live out our whole lives in safety, peace and comfort, having the ability to get what we want when we want it. If we do this we will not feel completely satisfied becuase we were created to do much more.
And the list goes on.
What were you created for?
Are you fulfilled?
Monday, February 16, 2009
St. Augustine + a little of myself
Grant me Lord to know and understand
Speak to my soul and tell me “I am your salvation”
Speak to me so I may hear
Be opened eyes; ephphatha ears
Chorus:
You called, you shouted and you shattered all my deafness
You shone with dazzling light and dispelled all my blindness
You are fragrant, I breathed in deeply and now
I am breathless with longing for you
Awake O Sleeper rise up from the dead
And Christ will shine you
Humbly crawl into his loving arms, the veil has been removed
I tasted you and now I hunger lord, and thirst for more of you
You’ve touched my heart and now I burn with desire
bridge:
You are great and highly to be praised
(Great is your power and your wisdom is immeasurable)
Speak to my soul and tell me “I am your salvation”
Speak to me so I may hear
Be opened eyes; ephphatha ears
Chorus:
You called, you shouted and you shattered all my deafness
You shone with dazzling light and dispelled all my blindness
You are fragrant, I breathed in deeply and now
I am breathless with longing for you
Awake O Sleeper rise up from the dead
And Christ will shine you
Humbly crawl into his loving arms, the veil has been removed
I tasted you and now I hunger lord, and thirst for more of you
You’ve touched my heart and now I burn with desire
bridge:
You are great and highly to be praised
(Great is your power and your wisdom is immeasurable)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Pharisees?
I get so frustrated by people who go around claiming to know so firmly everything there is to know about God.
Its interesting to note that the pharisees held this same view point. They looked at all the ancient writings and the torah and saw all the prophecies about Christ and they thought they had it all figured out. They knew exactly what the messiah would look like..they expected him to be a military leader who would most likely save the Israelites from opression etc.
However they believed their interpretation SO STRONGLY that when Jesus actually came...they missed him. They missed him and crucified him becuase they considered him heretical. Becuase what he was teaching didnt match with what they interpreted the Bible (or Torah) to mean.
Interesting..
how many of us, if we lived back when Jesus returned would have missed Christ as well?
Im NOT saying we cant know God
but simply getting to the point that Christians should not be arguing 24/7 over theology. There should not be different church denominations seperated over tiny tiny docrinal issues. There are certain things that Christ taught that we know without a doubt that he meant. And that is to live like Christ. Are we doing that?
Its interesting to note that the pharisees held this same view point. They looked at all the ancient writings and the torah and saw all the prophecies about Christ and they thought they had it all figured out. They knew exactly what the messiah would look like..they expected him to be a military leader who would most likely save the Israelites from opression etc.
However they believed their interpretation SO STRONGLY that when Jesus actually came...they missed him. They missed him and crucified him becuase they considered him heretical. Becuase what he was teaching didnt match with what they interpreted the Bible (or Torah) to mean.
Interesting..
how many of us, if we lived back when Jesus returned would have missed Christ as well?
Im NOT saying we cant know God
but simply getting to the point that Christians should not be arguing 24/7 over theology. There should not be different church denominations seperated over tiny tiny docrinal issues. There are certain things that Christ taught that we know without a doubt that he meant. And that is to live like Christ. Are we doing that?
Have we replaced the Holy Spirit with Scripture?
It seems to me that in many of our churches these days, the trinity looks something like this:
God
Jesus
The Bible
I am not saying at all that the Bible is not the words of God, but what has happened to the Holy Spirit?
It would be like if Jesus was sitting next to you on the couch like, hey! Lets talk, talk to me, etc. And I was just like...
mmmm
you know I think Im just gonna sit here and read these papers you wrote...
Again I am not at all saying that the Bible is not important, IT IS.. but so is the personal aspect of God..so is knowing his spirit and his voice
"my sheep know my voice..." (John 10:7)
Its interesting, I think that Satans biggest tool in America is to minimize the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows that if he can get christians to be christians without listening or developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit they are basically useless. God works through his church, and he speaks to us through his spirit. That is how the bible was written, how david knew to fight goliath, how abraham knew to believe he would have a son etc.
If these people hadnt listened to the spirit, God never would have been glorified and his kingdom would not have been furthered.
Jesus said I am leaving so that you can have my SPIRIT(john 14-15)
Jesus left so that we could have him IN us. And yet so often we ignore him and go on in or everyday lives..and when we hear that still small voice we write it off as our own random thoughts.
And thus Satan is winning. The American Church is becoming a mass of empty people, going through the motions and knowing about God but not KNOWING God or letting him use them.
God
Jesus
The Bible
I am not saying at all that the Bible is not the words of God, but what has happened to the Holy Spirit?
It would be like if Jesus was sitting next to you on the couch like, hey! Lets talk, talk to me, etc. And I was just like...
mmmm
you know I think Im just gonna sit here and read these papers you wrote...
Again I am not at all saying that the Bible is not important, IT IS.. but so is the personal aspect of God..so is knowing his spirit and his voice
"my sheep know my voice..." (John 10:7)
Its interesting, I think that Satans biggest tool in America is to minimize the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows that if he can get christians to be christians without listening or developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit they are basically useless. God works through his church, and he speaks to us through his spirit. That is how the bible was written, how david knew to fight goliath, how abraham knew to believe he would have a son etc.
If these people hadnt listened to the spirit, God never would have been glorified and his kingdom would not have been furthered.
Jesus said I am leaving so that you can have my SPIRIT(john 14-15)
Jesus left so that we could have him IN us. And yet so often we ignore him and go on in or everyday lives..and when we hear that still small voice we write it off as our own random thoughts.
And thus Satan is winning. The American Church is becoming a mass of empty people, going through the motions and knowing about God but not KNOWING God or letting him use them.
Have we stopped living Christanity and started studying it?
Ive been thinking alot recetly about how much emphasis we put on theology these days and how little we put on .. well Christ.
Last night I was studying in the Student Union and there was a table of like 4 or 5 guys debating theology....and when I mean debating I mean DEBATING.
They were getting heated and yelling and I was laughing at what they were saying becuase it was something like this
Sancitification cannot happen before purification or justification
..O no it is sancitification and then justificaction and if you wait three days without being justified your soul will not be monastaphized...
no it is four days! .. etc. for hourse
granted those are not the actual words, but basiically they were arguing down to one of the smallest most random points of christanity and fighting so hard about it that I just wanted to jump up and go over to their table and say..
does it really matter?!
You could have used these two hours you just spent fighting over this random topic and used it to be showing christ to the world. Living the way he calls us to live. To love and serve the Lord as faithful witnesses of His name.
Jesus never went around arguing theology. Rather he said be like the little children in their FAITH, love the LORD your God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Have we stopped living Christanity and started studying it?
Its interesting that until christanity passed through the Age of Reason ,Christanity was never something to be figured out. Yes there are many essential doctrines that we know, but we didnt know EVERYTHING. God still held the mystery and greatness that he deserve. Now it seems that there is an answer to EVERY question one might have. God has been condensed to a bible answer book, to theology. If we sit and argue about him enough, will ee really figure him out?
GOD
Who CREATED this earth in the midst of a universe greater than we can ever imagine. Do we think that we can define God...or that it is our job to stick up for him like he is some little guy in the clouds somewhere? If our earth is the size of a golfball, a schoolbus full of golfballs fits in the sun....and the sun is nothing compared to many of the other stars and galaxies in the universe. We have NO IDEA how great our God is.
Who is man that you are mindful of him?!
Our God is incredible, that we would love us despite how small we are, that he knows everything about us, let us not think that we are greater than him or can break him down into mere words.
Last night I was studying in the Student Union and there was a table of like 4 or 5 guys debating theology....and when I mean debating I mean DEBATING.
They were getting heated and yelling and I was laughing at what they were saying becuase it was something like this
Sancitification cannot happen before purification or justification
..O no it is sancitification and then justificaction and if you wait three days without being justified your soul will not be monastaphized...
no it is four days! .. etc. for hourse
granted those are not the actual words, but basiically they were arguing down to one of the smallest most random points of christanity and fighting so hard about it that I just wanted to jump up and go over to their table and say..
does it really matter?!
You could have used these two hours you just spent fighting over this random topic and used it to be showing christ to the world. Living the way he calls us to live. To love and serve the Lord as faithful witnesses of His name.
Jesus never went around arguing theology. Rather he said be like the little children in their FAITH, love the LORD your God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Have we stopped living Christanity and started studying it?
Its interesting that until christanity passed through the Age of Reason ,Christanity was never something to be figured out. Yes there are many essential doctrines that we know, but we didnt know EVERYTHING. God still held the mystery and greatness that he deserve. Now it seems that there is an answer to EVERY question one might have. God has been condensed to a bible answer book, to theology. If we sit and argue about him enough, will ee really figure him out?
GOD
Who CREATED this earth in the midst of a universe greater than we can ever imagine. Do we think that we can define God...or that it is our job to stick up for him like he is some little guy in the clouds somewhere? If our earth is the size of a golfball, a schoolbus full of golfballs fits in the sun....and the sun is nothing compared to many of the other stars and galaxies in the universe. We have NO IDEA how great our God is.
Who is man that you are mindful of him?!
Our God is incredible, that we would love us despite how small we are, that he knows everything about us, let us not think that we are greater than him or can break him down into mere words.
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