These are a Few of My Favorite Things!

Some days I can get so easily (and quickly) stressed out. It's like my first reaction. I don't like it. So tonight, after a long and "stressful" day, I'm going to think about some of my favorite things. Things that I'm hugely thankful for, things that make my heart smile, things that just make you sigh in that contented way. This is more for me than you-- I need to get my attitude right!

Living in a beautiful, sunshiney place with lots of pool and beach days.
A child's laughter.
"Wow" moments with God.
Singing loudly to Kari Jobe or Hillsong (or Justin Timberlake) in my car.
Riding with the windows down.
Coming home, watching HGTV, with coffee or tea in hand. Ahhh.
Buying cute, clearance coffee mugs. (It's almost getting worse than my liking for earrings! yikes!)
Putting together a new outfit with old clothes and feeling great because I didn't buy more.
Seeing the shy kids open up.
Big Train Chai latte's, dirty, with Soy :D
Bible Studies. Especially with Beth Moore.
Going over the Canal bridge and watching a breath-taking sunset.
Wandering around Target...possibly with a Starbucks....
Families.
Sharing life with people.
Cuddling with my Milly.
Waking up early, but not needing to be somewhere.
Panera Bread Company. Wish we had one!
Looking at pictures.
Dreaming of, and praying for, the day when I will go overseas again.
Catching up with old friends who I miss dearly.
The smell of my house.
Going somewhere new.
Praying with precious children & seeing God touch their hearts. And mine.
Encouragement: giving and receiving.
Letters.
Living in Him and Him living through me.
Just loving God!!!


Aw, look at that, I already feel better. All we need to do sometimes is just reflect on our lives and remember how truly wonderful and miraculous it is that we are where we are, doing what we're doing, every single day. I don't know about you, but I have a great life. And I believe it's all because of the love that my Father lavishes on me. I am not loved more than you, but I receive His love, and I reciprocate His love. I don't fully understand it, and I must confess that sometimes I think it will be taken away from me. But I know, really I know, that He is so much more than what I've learned, heard of, or imagined. And that thought alone drives me to surrender everything I am or have to His service. Not out of fear or "beacause I said so", but out of an awe for a love that is more vast than anything in this universe....
Now that right there makes my heart smile!!

"If my heart has one ambition, if my soul one goal to seek, this my solitary vision, til I only dwell in Thee, that I only dwell in Thee."

Lord, become the delight of my life.

Like I promised, this post is from Beth Moore's series "Delight in Him". Obviously, my notes do not even compare to hearing her teach, but hopefully you'll get something out of it!

*Delight-- love on fire; love having fun.
*Psalm 37:4, it's our promise. Our lives are not meant to be about denying our desires. The Word says that His love is better than life! We must learn to deny our ungodly desires. He will change your desires if you choose to let Him. You were saved to DO, not to live a life of "don't".
*Whatever you leave not consumed will destroy you. Our human condition is self-destructive. Let Him consume you with holy passion!
*We are as filled with the Holy Spirit as we are yielded to the Holy Spirit.
*Jeremiah 17:9 "the human heart is the most deceitful of all things". You can be saved but have an unsanctified heart. An unsanctified heart will lie to you. Our culture says, "Just follow your heart." Some of us could follow our hearts straight to hell! It will continually lead you astray.
*We CAN trust what we feel when our hearts are filled and flooded with the love of Christ. Give Him your whole heart. A heart that is divided cannot be sanctified by Him.
*When you begin to delight in Him, you begin to trust your desires because God Himself becomes your greatest desire.
*How do we become sanctified? John 17:17 "Make them holy by Your Truth, teach them Your word, which is Truth." We must be on a steady diet of God's Word. To delight in God is to delight in His Word!!
*Psalm 37:31 "the instruction of God is in his heart," Take in the word-- don't just read it with your mind. He wants to write His word upon your heart.

*I think the greatest mystery in the heavenlies is mediocrity. I think the angels look at us and say that we are so little moved. Our God is much more.

*A delighting life is not always fun, but it's very much alive.
*John 15:7 "But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted." (vs. 11) "I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!"
* You have biblical permission to enjoy the God who has called you!!!!

*Every time we get a "no" it's because there is a greater "yes"!

*Do NOT base your theology on your experiences. We are in such a cycle of unbelief. "I haven't seen that, so He no longer does it." We get little because we believe little so we see little! BELIEVE HIS WORD.
*Think in God's will. It will throw all your walls down.

*If He has your heart, He will do the silliest things for you just to make you laugh out loud. He wants to see us give Him glory!


I can attest to so many of those statements. My life is so drastically different because of the heart-change He has performed in me. For a while, I was learning and reading His Word, and my mind was being renewed, but my emotions were still the same. I didn't know that there is a major difference between knowing the Truth and having it written on my heart. I can say in all assurance, in complete confidence, that God is now becoming my greatest delight.

There is JOY and LIFE and PASSION awaiting us! Let's throw of all the sin that so easily entangles us, and let's run wildly and freely, witholding nothing and risking everything, into all that He is! And let's make this our prayer and our heart's one desire...

Lord,
become the Delight of my life!

The Real Awesome

Today I find myself in Auburn, AL. War Eagle. I'm thouroughly enjoying a week of vacation filled with beautiful Lake days, a Hillsong United concert, spending time with dearly loved people, and delicious shrimp & grits (which is tonight-- SO excited!). I am just so thankful. Does anyone else randomly get so overwelmed with gratitude for everything? I have that feeling right now. My heart literally feels like its overflowing and I can't stop thanking my beautiful Savior for EVERYTHING I have. It's all because of Him. Even the shrimp and grits!

I want to share something very cool with you today. It's from my Bible Study- Knowing God by Name. A couple days ago I read about El Gadol Ve-Nora, the Great and Awesome God. My understanding of the "fear of the Lord" has once again been enlightened. That phrase has always been a bit fuzzy to me, I guess because of all the manipulations or wrong teachings of scriptures that speak of fear. It is so much more! Have a listen:

"Those who KNOW fear have NO fear...
To know God is to know fear. The fear of God is a heart-pounding, knee-trembling spine-tingling, shuddering recognition that God is infinitely more good and powerful and important than me. It means that I live and think and act and speak with a keen awareness that He is the Creator and I am the creature; He is holy and I am not; He is wise and I am a fool; He is powerful and I am weak; He is Ruler and I am a servant; He is self-sufficient and I am utterly dependent.
To fear God means to be ever-aware of His all-pervasice presence, conscious of my absolute need for Him, mindful of my responsibility to follow His way, determined to obey Him, cautious of offending Him, and overwelmed in amazement and gratitude at His incredible goodness and grace.
Some people fear God because they suspect He is intent on hurting them. Theirs is a negative emotion, fraught with dread. This is not what the Bible means when it speaks of the fear of the Lord. We can only fear the Lord correctly when we understand that He is wondrously terrible yet at the same time wholly and completely good. When we do we are freed from every anxiety, and fearing Him becomes a delight."

...And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:3

I really enjoy when God so wants me to understand a certain point or subject that it will keep coming up in my life. For example, during my counseling appointment on Thursday, Dr. Q was teaching me about gladness and the difficulties we encounter when others don't share our joy. He drew a diagram of steps- the first was labeled "Disobedience", the second "Duty, the third "Desire", the last "Delight". He described how this applies to every relationship in our life, especially with God. We begin our journey with Him often saying "I don't want to," to certain things He may ask of us. Eventually we move on to "I need to," knowing that there is a certain way we must live and act if we bear His name. Next is usually the "I want to," and we begin to see the benefits and blessings of obedience and relationship with our Father. Finally, hopefully, we arrive at Delight-- "I can't wait to!" This is the place of ultimate surrender and love for Christ. We have experienced Him, and we know that He is the Life we need, and the only Life we could ever want. We cannot imagine turning away or forgetting Him. He has become our biggest Delight.

Then, on our way to the Lake on Friday, I was listening to Beth Moore's series "Delighting in Him." I had listened to the first cd a couple weeks ago, and knew it was going to get even better so I needed to finish the series. Well, yeah. God blew me away. And here is this DELIGHT thing again!

So now in this Bible Study, the woman is talking about making the fear of the Lord our delight. Do you think He wants me to get something? Ha, just a little!

My life verse has always been Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord & He'll give you the desires of your heart." I know it's kind of cliche-- many people have that one highlighted. But do we really understand those words? It's a promise, but it's a conditional promise. IF we delight in the Lord THEN He will give us what we desire... which will become Him, all of Him, nothing but Him. I will never forget when the revelation of that verse smacked me in the face and I repented of my ignorance and selfishness. I had wanted "stuff"-- a boyfriend, a new car, more money. How needy and obsurd we can be.

I will save the notes and pieces I got from Beth Moore for the next post. I'll really get goin on that!!

So stay tuned if you really want to hear some rantin' and ravin'. The good kind :)

Unveiled!

In my Bible Study this morning, my heart is overflowing with thankfulness and gratitude! I've just begun the week on God's names of Splendor. Oh wow, there are no words. Just glimpses of His glory are incomprehensible to me. But this author is so gifted; she has really opened my eyes and understanding. Here's some of it for you:

"The glory of the Lord is so dazzling-- so pure, radiant, brilliant, powerful, and beautiful-- that sinful human flesh would be consumed and utterly destroyed if exposed to it unprotected...
Moses couldn't see God face-to-face and live. But because of Jesus, we can. Jesus cleanses us from sin so that we can experience God's presence in a way that Moses and Ezekiel could only dream of! With unveiled faces, we can gaze at God's glory. And because of the ongoing presence of His Holy Spirit, we can be transformed into His image 'from one degree of glory to another.'"

I feel like this was written especially for me. I have always read the pages of Moses and Ezekiel's lives with longing and amazement. They really experienced God. Some ways were pretty strange, but it was the raw presence of the Lord Almighty!! It's still a reality check for me when I am reminded of all that Jesus accomplished for us. Just like she wrote in this study, we have the opportunity and priveledge to experience God in a way that our forefathers in the faith could only dream of!!!!!!

My favorite passages in Exodus are 33:17-23, and 34:29-30. God grants Moses' request when he asks to see His glory, so He covers him with His hand until He has passed by and allows him to see His back. Then after Moses received the Ten Commandments and he returns to the people at the bottom of Mount Sinai, his face is so radiant and shining that they are scared to even get near him. Moses then had to cover his face with a veil to hide, in a way, the glory that he had just been exposed to.

In 2 Corinthian 3:18, Paul explains this incredible phenomenon in new terms for us. He writes, "We all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."
I like this version, too: "So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord- who is the Spirit- makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image."

I love the fact that we, unlike the prophets and people of the Old Testament, have the Spirit INSIDE of us, not just "upon" us. I have read that in the OT the Spirit mainly came upon people to empower them, not necessarily fulfill them. Well, we get both!

Are you getting this? As I type all these thoughts, it's almost sounding too good to be true. How can God give us so much?! We can see Him, hear Him, feel Him, know Him more than those who were chosen to write the holy scriptures. We are able to reflect His glory, with an unveiled face-- the fullness of His presence indwells our very own self and there is nothing holding us back from displaying His glory and power in our lives!

My only limitation is myself- the part of me that still doubts and still fears. What is yours? Think about it. If all this is true, if the holy, living, magnificent God lives in you, why are you still the same? Why do signs and wonders not follow us who believe? Maybe we're not really believing after all...



I had this beautiful picture in my mind as I was finishing the chapter for today. She says to take a moment and gaze, with your spiritual eyes, at the glory of God. I tried to imagine the visions that others have seen-- like Ezekiel who writes in chapter 1 about the incredible vision of the likeness of God's glory... a great cloud with brilliant colors shining throughout... and me, sitting on the outside of this wonderful sight. Then it opens, and Jesus Christ comes to me, takes me by the hand, and leads me into the glorious and awe-inspiring presence of El Ha-Kavod, God of Glory.

This is a challenge to myself, and to anyone who is willing-- take time, serious time, more than a few minutes, to focus on God's splendor. Ask Him to take you deeper. Ask Him anything! He is not afraid of questions. Begin to seek new revelation and wisdom from His Word. Do more than what you are doing right now. Which may be not doing anything at all except choosing to abide in Him. Whatever it takes, I want to keep going. Every day I want to know God more intimately than the day before. It is a true challenge, but if we would begin to see God as He really is, we would do this and more.

We are unveiled. I am ready to shine!

A Wine Miracle?

Can I be very honest here? I've always thought Jesus' first miracle was sketchy. That's probably my southern roots showing themselves-- we're not so big on the "wine" thing down here. And there's always that ignorant argument about how its ok for us to always be drunk because Jesus was. Seriously, people?

So I'm still reading this book about John, and Beth Moore dives straight into this one because John is the only author who tells this particular story. She makes me laugh when she writes, "I say it's time to take the whole idea of partying back." I agree! But back to the wine issue. There are some incredible symbolic meanings to this miracle. I don't believe at all that Jesus was into people getting trashed. Who knows, maybe the "wine" back then wasn't wine at all, but more like our grape juice. Anyway, that's not the issue here. Let's talk about deeper matters.

God ordained that Christ's first miracle would be filling empty jars.

Beth writes on how God's people were at the time Christ came into our world-- religious, legalistic, empty. We were never meant to be empty! As God's children, we are meant to be full. "An unsatisfied soul is an accident waiting to happen." I've had a glimpse of that in my own life and I am so very thankful that He came to fill us! Through Him, we live abundantly.

Next thing: Jesus made it into NEW wine. Ephesians 5:18 wonderfully describes what newness we are able to experience, and that is the Holy Spirit. This verse implies that the filling of the Holy Spirit does in full measure what we try to accomplish when we desire to be drunk with wine. Woah. I love this quote, "Jesus came to bring the new wine of the Spirit! Something we can drink our fill of without all the negative side effects of wine and the emptiness it leaves behind in the wake of a temporary fix." AMEN!

Have you experienced how amazing the Holy Spirit really is? He's so much more than just your Teacher, or just your Comforter, or just your closest Friend-- He's a party!! I personally have felt His joy many times, which has resulted in uncontrollable laughter and occasional snorting. It's a blast!

Ok, I'll end with this:

"Just think! No matter how much you drink of His Spirit, against such there is no law. Further, the more you drink, the more fully satisfied you are with love, joy, peace, and all sorts of side effects we're so desperate to achieve. To top off the goblet, instead of losing self-control, we gain it! You can't beat a drink like that... how tragic for us to continue with pangs of emptiness. Stop feeling guilty because you crave lots of joy in your life. You were made for joy! You are a jar of clay just waiting to be filled (2 Cor. 4:7)"

I adore her and the way she explains things. Why do we keep searching for happiness in so many ways through so many things? It has already been made available to us! God's Spirit is purposed for so much more than what we allow Him to do or be in us. What if you and I started living in His goodness and not in the pursuit of temporary fixes? Can we do that? Are we as feeble and weak humans able to seek the greatness of God and actually experience His fullness here and now? Or is it just in heaven?

I believe that many of our desires will not be fulfilled until heaven, but not all. No, friends, there is an incredible life waiting for us. I have faith that we will one of these days forsake all things that hold us back from Him. The fullness of Him. I'm tired of just getting "little moments" with God. I want it all! But I'm not sure if I'm willing to give up things like movies, food, relationships... things that easily fill me for a short time. I'm not sure if I'm ready to drop everything that I'm trying to handle and control in my own strength. Are you?

Will I be like John the beloved disciple who forsook ambition for affection? Or like Augustine who wrote, "How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose. You drove them from me, You who are the true, the sovereign Joy. You drove them from me and took their place, You who are sweeter than all pleasure."

I hope I will be. I hope I will not only receive, but abundantly receive from Jesus everything that I need or desire.

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

-Beth Moore

Dress for the Wedding!

I'm wondering if any of you think I'm talking about my dress for my wedding? haha, I just realized that it kind of sounds like that! No, I'm not getting married! I wanted to share some notes on Steven Furtick's message, Dress for the Wedding. You can watch it at elevationchurch.org. He's an incredible speaker!!

-The nature of a vision: you must perceive it, not see it.
-God revealed everything to Noah in stages. "His Word is a light unto our path, not a floodlight to show the whole plan." We must take each little step in obedience.
-Lifecycle of a vision: God saw. God said. Noah did.
-In order to do as God says, we must see as God sees!

(Ok, I was trying to write this part word for word because it is so awesome!)

Have you ever been dressed to the T, ready to go somewhere like a wedding, and you realize when you get into the car that you need gas? So you pull into the gas station, you start pumpin' your gas, you're all dressed up, and you look around at what everyone else is wearing. You feel pretty stupid. You feel like you need to explain to everyone around you why you are dressed this way at a gas station, even if no one is asking! The reason you don't fit in is because you aren't dressed for where you are, you're dressed for where you are going. (DANG!)
We need to start "dressing" for where God wants to take us. You don't need to apologize or explain to the people around you why you are so different. You're just at the gas station- you won't be hangin around there for the rest of your life. Once you get where you're going, you'll fit right in!!

-Don't build your life for where you are. Build your life for where God wants to take you.
-You'll be stuck if you don't outfit your ambitions for where God wants you to be.
-Noah was building an ark when no body had EVER seen rain! He wasn't focusing on the now- he had a vision from God. The difference between a day dream and a vision is the audacity to act.

That sermon spoke to me so much! Not that I'm in a dinky, gas station place right now in my life. He just encouraged me to keep looking ahead! I must see as God sees if I want to obey what God says.
I love when he gets really passionate about certain people, and he is very passionate about youth. He goes off on talking to the young people and says to not get frustrated or embarassed when other kids make fun of you for still being a virgin, or for not partying. You are dressed for the wedding- you are dressed for something much greater! You won't be at the gas station, but they'll probably be working there for the rest of their lives!

It's so easy, for me, to get discouraged when all of my friends are away at college. I often run into parents or other people that I haven't seen since high school, and there's always that question: "So what are you doing now? How's school?" And some are not so enthusiastic about my response. They kind of give me the, "Oohhh, really? Well, that's nice," response- which hurts coming from some people.

But I don't have to be intimidated or embarassed about where God has me right now-- I have a calling on my life, and I'm going to change my world for the better. My goal is not pleasing man, for if it were, I would not be living this peculiar life! I definitely would not still be in my hometown. I mean, it IS the beach, but I would much rather be somewhere that people don't know me or my past or my family. That would be easy. That would be much less challenging. But that's not God. God wants to use me, challenge me, test me, bless me, form me, shape me. And I strongly believe that He wants to use my background and the past knowledge of me to tear down misconceptions and to change the lives of those who have known me best and known me the longest. I am not the same person! I know that my career path will disturb some who want to see me be "successful" or "realistic". I love the quote from Mother Theresa: "Do not worry about your career. Concern yourselves with your vocation...and that is to be lovers of Jesus."
I'm on a road that many have gone before me, but few approve of. There is no greater desire in my life than to love my Jesus, my Father, and to be willingly obedient to whatever He tells me to do. That is the career I choose. That is what I'm dressed for. To be the obedient daughter, the apple of His eye, and for Him to be the Love of my life and the only thing I live for.

New Wardrobe

Lately I have been so enthralled in the Message version of Colossians 3. I always seem to stumble upon it when I'm just flipping through. Hope you get as much out of it as I have! Or more :D

* So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursure the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with things right in front of you. Look up, be alert to what's going on around Christ-- that's where the action is. See things from HIS perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life-- even though invisible to spectators-- is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up too-- the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is just about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with His label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear LOVE. It is your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ- the Message- have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives-- words, actions, whatever-- be done in the name of the Master Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. *


That's just the first half of the chapter. It grips my heart every time I read it. Especially the part about letting the former things of us be gone for good, irritability included! Ouch.
I just love the analogy of the wardrobe. Love is our all-purpose garment. It should be worn in sunshine, wind, rain. No matter what's going on in our lives, we should never forget to add Love to our outfit.

Update: I am NOT going to Bolivia. Crazy, but true. God has given me an amazing opportunity to take a weekend off and see Hillsong United, then laze around a lake for a couple days. I feel like it's an answered prayer for rest and also for renewal. I don't think there's a worship experience better than Hillsong! So thank you for saying some prayers for me-- God has answered in His own wonderful way!

Busy doesn't begin to describe...

...the past couple weeks! Can you believe I've made it this far without blogging? That should tell you something.

We had an amazing Easter. From being at the church every night til almost 10, to our Egg Hunt on Saturday, new service Saturday night, and the big Sunday Morning services, we were pretty exhausted. But it was so fun! We launched our 3rd campus last night, which I did not attend because I'll be doing our Small Group down here. It has surely been a whirlwind. I actually will have to take a break from this because we have our Allies (bible club thingy) with the school here at our church.

I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing my friends' pictures in their blogs, so I'll add a few too! If you have Facebook, I pretty much upoad all of them to there, but I'll add some here anyway.

It overwelms me to try to update you on everything up to now, so I'll share some tid-bits on a personal level of my readings and studies.
We've begun our Sunday series on the Holy Spirit. I know this will be good... pray with us that these young ones (and parents that sit in) will experience Him in a fresh way; that understanding will take the place of any fears or doubts about the Spirit's role in our lives.

I am leaving for Bolivia in about 6 weeks. I spent most of my weekend fundraising for the trip. I am trusting God for a full financial blessing, and I will be faithful to do my part in that even on my days off!

Hmm, let me see.. I've been reading Beth Moore's study on John- the Beloved Disciple. I LOVE it. She is so gifted in communication. I bought 2 of her Bible Studies, but haven't finished my other one yet. I am excited to begin those, though!

I feel really close to Him right now. Amidst all the crazyness lately, it's like I've been all the more hungry for His Word, strength, and power in my life. Praise God! I need it so much. And you do, too! I pray that you would see that. I just taught our small group and allies lesson about "Spiritual Belly Buttons," and how we will never have such a thing because we are not meant to be cut off from God. He is and will forever be our only life-source. We can do NO good thing apart from our Vine.
Alright, I'm done with my rambling. I must figure out how to make a form for Kids Camp. Back to work! Here are some pics: hope y'all enjoy!

Our Breakfast with the Bunny egg hunt. Great fun :)

Me, Kailey, and Lauren at our friend Meg's wedding in Auburn. Valentine's Day!

Having a blast at our Girls Sleepover in March.

Ju-Ju and Emmy- sweet girls!

Typical Sunday morning service- this is the part where they get candy, so they are really excited ;)