Garfield

Ok, Garfield is the absolute best picture of laziness! He never gives up a chance to be lazy!

some verses that have been important to me

Acts 17:6 ...These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."

I was just reminded of this verse a week and a half ago. (Thanks, Nate!) It makes me get my focus right: What am I doing (with God's help) to make a difference in this world? Anything that might "turn the world upside down"? If not, I need to re-evaluate my life and see if I'm missing anything, and not doing all that I can and should for God.

II Cor. 5:7 "(For we walk by faith, and not by sight:)"

Thanks Dr. Bu! We sang a song in Madrigal that is based off of this verse...beautiful song, even MORE beautiful message! We do not know what God has for us in the future, even just a few days, hours, minutes from now. We cannot "see" God's path for us, but we can still walk on that path "by faith," trusting that God's way is best for us.

Acts 13:22 "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart."

God is speaking here, and what a statement it is! David's heart was going the same direction as God's heart! Wow! What a rebuke. My heart seems to go so many directions, but David's heart is described as being like God's heart. Even though David sinned, he confessed his sin and tried to do what was right.

Psalm 18:30 "As for God, His way is perfect..."

Of course, this is the verse on the top of my blog page, and one of my all-time favorites! It has helped me during SO MANY hard times when I don't know what is going on, and I hate the situation that I'm in. It reminds me that I can learn through these situations and that God has a purpose for these situations, even if for no other reason than for me to turn my eyes to Him and trust COMPLETELY in what He is doing in my life, because He knows what is best for me SO MUCH better than I could ever know.

coffee...revisited

Ok, so coffee is bad enough WITHOUT adding pickle juice to it. But, I think that the pickle juice would just IMPROVE the taste! That's just my opinion...for what it's worth :D

Wait

WAIT

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,

And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait".

"Wait? You say, wait! my indignant reply.

"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By Faith, I have asked and am claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I can relate

Hangs in the balance and YOU tell me to WAIT?

I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,

Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

And, Lord, You promised that if we believe

We need but to ask and we shall receive.

And, Lord, I've been asking and this is my cry:

I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!

Then, quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

As my Master replied once again, "You must wait."

So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut

And grumbled to God, "So I'm waiting.....for what?"

He seemed, then, to kneel and His eyes wept with mine

And he tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead and cause the mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give and pleased you would be.

You would have what you want....But you wouldn't know Me.

You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;

You'd not know the power that I give to the faint;

You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;

You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;

You'd not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You'd never experience that fullness of love

As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;

You'd know that I give and I save....(for a start),

But, you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight,

The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked

Of an infinite God who makes what you have last.

You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that "My grace is sufficient for Thee"

Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,

But, Oh, the loss, if I lost what I'm doing in you!

So, be silent, My child, and in time you will see,

That the greatest of all gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft' may My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, "Wait."

Reading

In my reading last night, I was in Psalm 139. Wow...let me tell you, there's so much in there! Let me give you just a little taste:

1 "O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me."

He knows me, even better than I know myself. He knows my thoughts, my desires, my likes, my dislikes, my loves, my hates, my past, my present, my future. He knows even the little things that we try to hide, the deep, dark secrets that we hardly admit to ourselves. He knows. Yet, He still loves us.


7 "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."


God is with me wherever I am. Not only does He know what situations, trials, and troubles I am going through; He knows all the sins that I've committed or ever will commit. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Think of it...if God didn't know of all of our sins, how could He forgive all of them? If He didn't forgive one of our sins because He didn't know about it, we wouldn't be able to get into heaven, because breaking His law in one point is as breaking every single law. He knows all of our sins, so He is able to forgive ALL OF THEM! That is a comfort!


17 "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee."

Wow! To think that God thinks of me that often. And how much do I think of Him?

23 "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

What a request! "God, look into the deep dark closest of my heart, and find all the wickedness that I have stored up in there." How many of us would actually request such a thing? Yet, that's what David did, and it was a good thing. God WANTS to cleanse our hearts of all the "wicked way(s)" that we have hidden in our hearts and thoughts, but we are afraid to admit that we have any sin that needs to be taken care of. But GOD ALREADY KNOWS THAT SIN! We don't have anything to hide, because He already knows about it all. He has already searched us; now, He wants us to search ourselves so we can confess our sin and be right with Him.

Death be not Proud

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure: then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

-John Donne

holidays

Well, things have gone very quickly since school got out. I've definitely been keeping busy! That's a good, thing, mostly! I was able to go to Michigan for Christmas last weekend, which was a lot of fun! And I got my sewing machine! Well, kindof. I was originally going to get one that my mom had in the basement. She was going to get it cleaned and fixed and give that to me. But the guy that was going to do that for her said that it would cost almost just as much to clean it as it would to buy a new machine, and that's if there were no repairs that needed to be done. So, I got a new sewing machine! Or one that wasn't used much. Something like that! But I had a good time with my family, too!

After working a few more days (including Christmas evening, which was really boring and stupid :D), I got to go to my grandma's house in Illinois! That was fun, too! Now, it's only a week until registration for next semester, and all I have left for this week is: 32 hours of work (after today), moving into and settling into my new apartment (which is going to be a chore, but exciting), church on Wednesday and Sunday, settling into my apartment, helping my roommates move back in from going home for Christmas, settling into the aparment...yeah, it's going to be a busy week! But, that's ok...it'll help the week go quickly so I can see my friends once school starts again. I can't wait!!!