promises.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you," says the Lord. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes, I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land."

Jeremiah 29:11-14, NLT

from Isaiah chapter 9

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be up on His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

"Not subjective wishful thinking but an objective, surprising joy breaking upon sinners through the grace of Christ."

from Isaiah chapter 8

"But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary...."

"The holy God, who is the sanctuary for frightened human beings, is also the snare for those who do not fear Him. Judah and Jerusalem wring their hands over surface-level crises with little awareness of the grandeur of God. By disregarding God, they find him to be an obstacle they cannot evade."

Psalm 51, a Penitent Psalm

To the choirmaster, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him,

after he has gone in to Bathsheba

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvations,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

build up the walls of Jerusalem;

then you will delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

18-19

"Do good to Zion"

"The Psalm closes by enabling worshipers to see the relationship between their own spiritual health and the well-being of the whole body of God's people (Zion). That is, each member is linked to all the others in a web of relationships, and together they share in the life of God as it pulses through the whole body. Thus each member contributes to (or else detracts from) the health of the whole. The ideal Israel is a comunity of forgiven penitents, faithfully embracing God's covenant and worshiping Him according to the rites he appointed; this is the community that can bring light to the whole world."

Psalm 34

I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

and let us exalt his name together!

"After announcing his intention to bless the Lord at all times, the singer invites all the humble to join him in song. Behind this lies the idea that the ideal praise to God is his assembled people joining their voices in thanking Him. The idea behind 'bless' is to speak a good word about someone: when God blesses someone, He speaks a good word over that person for his well-being; when a human blesses God, he speaks a good word about God's kindness and generosity."

The lord is near to the broken hearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

Pslam 32

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,"

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

"No one needs to compel God to show mercy; rather, the faithful confess their sins because they believe He is merciful."

Therefore let everyone who is godly

offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;

surely in the rush of great waters,

they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place for me;

You preserve me from trouble;

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,

and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

"The godly are not expected to be sinless, rather, they are those who believe God's promises and confess their sins."

the psalms

Psalm 19:1

The heavens above declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Psalm 19:12-14

Who can discern his errors?

Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;

let them not have dominion over me!

Then I shall be blameless,

and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in your sight,

O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

"Presumptuous sins are sins committed in arrogant disregard of divine commands (Deut 17:12). These, when repeated, come to have dominion, and thus to enslave."

today's prayer

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you."

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

or take their names on my lips.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16

Psalm 1

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

"A tree bears fruit not for itself, but for others;

thus, when the faithful prospers, it is not for himself,

nor is the prosperity even necessarily material,

but he succeeds in bringing benefit to others."

"Those who reject God's covenant are like chaff

in that they bring no benefit to anyone."

"born again"

i love this song.

tim's gonna make fun of me.

this would be the new newsboys...

with michael from dc talk as the lead singer.

talk about awesome old school fusion.

man, can this guy sing.

perspective.

"Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty."

plain & simple.

there it is.

Bonhoeffer, page 240

"His thoughts on this would be expressed in his book Discipleship, in which anything short of obedience to God smacked of 'cheap grace.' Actions must follow what one believed, else one could not claim to believe it."

the Church.

the sunday morning sermons that God uses to penetrate our specific hearts... what a gift.

i was in awe of how God used pastor Eric to deliver a message i so desperately needed to hear.

while at work tonight, i received a text message from one of my closest friends.

she shared with me how God had done the same exact thing in her heart today.

it is absolutely vital that we believers be in God's church every single sunday.

i cannot stress it enough.

and believe me, when i moved her i was a major slacker.

and a chicken.

on the weeks that tim went back to old union to work i just stayed depressed and scared

(part of me felt it was pointless, too, until tim was with me to make the decision about the next place we would call our church home... i know now that was a huge, pathetic copout)

i've said this before

old union and oasis were two places i will look back on with deep affection and gratitude

simply because i learned to love the church.

i began to share my husband's passion to serve the vessel that God chose to reach His world through.

having community with believers

worship

prayer

communion

conviction

wisdom

we need all these

everyday.

we need to live the Kingdom

we need to be the Kingdom.

i am so thankful for the church.

i tried to find the quote from this morning's sermon by john calvin that shook me to the core.

i couldn't find it this evening, but will be listening to Eric's sermon again sometime later in the week... i'll share when i can.

MUFHH

"Paul, why are you persecuting me?" Acts 26:14

"I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ."

"Obstinancy and self will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds his spirit."

"All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can easily be put upon easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit it for His sake I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted."

"Separated unto the Gospel." Romans 1:1

"Personal holiness is an effect, not a cause, and if we place our faith in human goodness, in the effect of Redemption, we shall go under when the test comes."

"Paul did not say he separated himself, but-- 'when it pleased God who separated me...' Paul had not a hypersensitive interest in his own character. As long as our eyes are upon our own personal whiteness we shall never get near the reality of Redemption. Workers break down because their desire is for their own whiteness, and not for God. 'Don't ask me to come into contact with the rugged reality of Redemption on behalf of the filth of human life as it is; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.' ...... God cannot deliver me while my interest is in my own character. Paul is unconscious of himself, he is recklessly abandoned, separated by God for one purpose-- to proclaim the Gospel of God."

I read the latter portion of the quotes yesterday morning and didn't take any notes. There wasn't anything in particular that stuck out and so I went on to my daily Bible reading. This happens quite often. I brush over something because it takes too much time to digest and I generally don't believe it applies to me. Later that night, I was convicted. I remembered all the times that I felt like scum for the way I treat my husband. Little fits of anger, laziness, being judgmental, being too hard on him. I asked for his forgiveness and sometimes prayed for forgiveness... but why? Was it because I wanted my husband to love me more? or was it because I truly felt the pain of sinning against God? Does it bother me that I can't be good? or does it bother me because it hurts Jesus? There are definitely more examples I conjured up in my heart (or was it conjured up for me?) but I realized something: sometimes I try not to sin because it makes me feel better about myself. That's all wrong for so many reasons.... and I need to get to the point in my relationship with Jesus where it's mostly about living a life that pleases Him and brings Him joy.

the Kingdom.

Matthew 6:31-33

"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

KINGDOM: rule and reign of God in people's hearts and lives

manifested in people following Jesus and His teaching

manifested in the miraculous healings God brought through the disciples, giving

a foretaste of resurrected life in the age to come

My Utmost for His Highest ..... "Take no thought for your life."

"Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first."

"We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes or food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances."

my utmost for his highest

have any of you ever gone through this daily devotional book?

it's incredible, really.

i have to be honest with you:

some days hit home more than others.

not every day will be a giant life-changing revelation that will shake you to the core.

but some days, this just knocks the wind right out of me.

when paired with the Bible,

i guess you could say it's my inspiration for this separate little journal of mine.

in fact, i've been meaning to send tiffany a text message asking her if these past few days of reading have been as incredible for her as they have been for me.

the tone of humility throughout the book is also one i find inspiring.

reading any good devotionals as of late?

explaining to do...

little explanation? why a second blog?

no matter what my mama says, i'm not that interesting. my blog now really is good journal. even though i've had it for only a few years, i love looking back on what was happening a when i first started. where my life was at fascinates me... and i'm too lazy to write with my hands :) later when we have started our family on a greater scale, i believe it will serve as a regular update for family and our close friends.

so that's sort of the reason for a second blog, with regard to Faith. i've always kept notebooks, but i lose them... i want a way to record what God is teaching me in my day to day relationship with Him (especially since there has been so much lately!)

this will mostly be quotes and could be updated on a daily basis so i thought it best to separate. also, i know a lot of you are doing your own devo. thing and may not want daily updates about what latest reading i can't keep quiet about. if that's you, you won't be forced to! :) it's not a very good explanation because i'm not taking much time to work it through... i still have yet to shower and a lot to get done before i have to be off for work today!

i love you all.