Showing posts with label Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thoughts. Show all posts

Springing to Life

Hello, world!  Be assured - I have not disappeared from the face of the earth altogether!  Although I had high hopes to keep this blog updated during college life, as you well know by now, that was not to case.  I apologize to all of you who wished to see this place continue to live.  But although it was dormant for quite some time (way too long!) now I am back - not with promises to continue blogging regularly (because we know that will not happen!), but rather with a simple picture and thought.  

As I sit here writing this, it is striking me how spring is such an awesome time of rediscovering life.  Sometimes we go through dreary days, where it is hard to find even little things to be thankful for.  Sometimes our souls curl up within ourselves and shun the outside world because of the bitter wind and cold.  Sometimes life seems pointless and purposeless, no matter how many times people speak words of life to us.  Yet there is always a spring ahead, always a time of renewal and new life.  And as hard as the winter days are, it is because of them that we are able to soak in spring all the more!  

Be encouraged, dear friends, that Spring is coming!  As you anticipate the warmth and beauty of the spring days to come, also remember that your soul will see many more springs in their season.  They are worth waiting for!
 



  "I lift up my eyes to the hills—
   where does my help come from?
  My help comes from the LORD,
   the Maker of heaven and earth."

~Psalm 121:1-2~ 


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Roomies :)


I'm here.  With one of the best people in the world: my roomie.  I couldn't do this without you, girl!  Love ya sooo much!!




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Today I am...

...between memories past and hopes future.


The summer is almost ended for me, and in only a few days I will have started a new phase in my life: college.  I never thought I would be doing this, but here I am, excited and nervous and hopeful and wary and all in all confused about what to think.  If you think of it, pray for me as I leave home and adjust to my new life....  This won't be easy, but the Lord is good, isn't He?



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| mystery |




"This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners, for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ's, and Christ's righteousness is not Christ's, but ours." 

~Martin Luther~



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| Jeremiah 10:23 |




I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own;
   it is not for man to direct his steps. 
Jeremiah 10:23


The Lord convicted me this morning that recently I have been trying to plan my own steps.  Not intentionally for some things, yet more intentionally that I would like to admit for others.  I have not been purposeful in the way I live my life.  I have not been seeking Him and His wisdom enough.  I have not given up my whole life and all my desires in order to see Him glorified.

I have been resisting Him.

Jeremiah 10:23 is so true.  It is not for me to direct - that is for Him to do.  My life is not my own.

I have a hard time admitting my mistakes, but how can I pretend that I have it all together when in reality I don't?  I need to be so much more committed to Jesus, so much more in love with Him, so much more willing to pick up my cross and follow Him.  I'm realizing more and more that the Christian life is not an easy one.  It is tough and many times painful.  

Yet I also have to realize that I have a Savior who is leading the way.  He is worthy of all my sacrifice and praise.

Oh, that I will hear His leading and follow.  

My life is not my own.


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Come, Lord Jesus



Death.  Struggle.   Blood.  Resist.

These words trail unpleasantly through my mind.  Pain, suffering, strenuous effort, hard times.   

Who would invite these in?


Yet as I am reading God's written words, His desires and instructions for my life, I come away with these thoughts.  How could I come to any different conclusion after reading this verse?  

"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."  (Hebrews 12:4, NIV.)

How often do I look at life as a struggle, a walk of resistance to sin to the point of shedding blood?  Do I look at life through glasses that expect and seek suffering, wanting to "become like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead"? 

Yet I need to see more of the picture.  Ok, I get it that life shouldn't be easy.  I've always 'known' that (although not always have I completely understood it or lived it).  But why should I live life as a struggle?

Because of Jesus.  

He is the reason we have hope for the future, hope that urges us on today to do our utmost for Him right now.  

"For the grace of God [Jesus - John 1:1,14-17] has appeared that offers salvation to all people.  It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope - the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good." (Titus 2:11-14

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:2-3)

"Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." (Rev. 22:12

These passages (plus Jesus' letters to the seven churches) hit me like they never have before.  Oh how I long to stand before the Lord and hear Him tell me I that have overcome!  

I feel so far from that.  Yet I realize anew that this feeling of falling short makes me not only press on to live for Him in everything, but it forces me trust Jesus all the more.  

For I realize I have nothing of myself to trust in.
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I come away from God's word encouraged and excited.  Encouraged because Jesus IS coming back - excited to see how my life will change as a result.

Life IS a struggle, a battle between good and evil.  Yet not only do we have eternity to look forward to and strive for, but we have the knowledge that Jesus will ultimately and completely have the victory over the evil one.

That is something we can praise Him for!


"He who testifies to these things [the book of Revelation] says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.'

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus."
Revelation 22:20