A Living Savior

My God, my Redeemer, my Savior- He lives.

How do I know this? Well, He shows Himself to me each and every day. Especially in the beauty and the mystery that is nature. Have you ever just sat outside and watched nature? If you haven't, I would highly recommend you try. It is something most rewarding, and breathtaking at times. The subtle changes of nature, the majesty of the creatures living in it, its just beautiful. God speaks through this nature. Going outside, silencing my thoughts, and literally just laying there is something I try to do frequently. God seems to touch the most tender parts of my heart during these times. Even though I try to silence my thoughts, I always become convicted of something and end up face down before God- talking to Him, crying out to Him, laughing with Him, Thanking Him. And that's another reason I know He's alive.

God responds back.

And they're not always in the most audible ways of responding. You have to search for them, but that's part of the beauty. Looking for subtle changes in nature, feeling the warm (or cold) breeze brush your shoulder. It's almost as if God were sitting right next to you, encompassing you with His love.

If you ever feel like God isn't responding, look for Him. Exodus 20 tells us that God is a jealous God. He's jealous for YOU. And He'll thank you for talking to Him. Obviously, He knows our every thought and our every action, but He just wants to talk with you. He's like your best friend. Spend some time talking to Him. He's alive, remember? He'll talk back.

And so it goes...

My Savior Lives, My Savior Loves
My Savior's ALWAYS there for ME.

Take Comfort

As I was driving back to school the other day, a song on my iPod came up, and it was just one of those songs that made me feel comforted and good about life. Here are the lyrics to the chorus:

You will be safe in His arms

You will be safe in His arms

' Cause the hands that hold the world
Are holding your heart

I love those lyrics. God's hands are big enough to support and contain the ENTIRE world! Obviously you will be safe in His arms. If only we can remember this in our times of trouble. "When everything is falling apart, you will be safe in His arms." This was so comforting to me, because it made me realize that God has everything under control, and He will help me through whatever I may be going through. 

It made me remember the text from Matthew 11:28- "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I love that God will provide and comfort us when we feel like we absolutely cannot go on anymore. Thank you God for keeping me safe in your arms!

And so it goes...

His Life for Mine
His life for Mine

How could it ever be?

"I'm so close to being so far away from You"

Bethany Dillon wrote those lyrics, from her song "So Close". I was listening to those words on my drive back home tonight, and it made me think. Those words are SO applicable to our walk with Jesus Christ. Each day we are drawing closer and closer to Him, yet there is still infinitely more to know. More than we could ever comprehend. But it's so intriguing to me! The path to righteousness is narrow, and I think its so cool that each day we can grow a little bit closer to the Creator of the World, knowing just a little bit more than we did before. Yet, there is always something new to discover about our God. He isn't some finite, comprehensible entity that we can describe in a number of words- He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! I can't wait til I'm in heaven and worshiping Him. It will be so awesome to stand directly in his Glory.

And so it goes...

New CD brings New Convictions

Have you ever had a "face plant moment"? You know, where they lyrics of a song, or the message in the sermon, move you so much that you find yourself able to do nothing else but fall on your face and cry out to God? I have those moments all the time, and love them. Casting Crowns is a band that causes me to have face plant moments quite frequently. I have loved Casting Crowns since I first encountered their song "Who am I?"... it pretty much became my life song.
Well, anyway.. Casting Crowns came out with a new album just a few days ago, and so of course I downloaded the entire thing off iTunes. This CD has continued to live up to Casting Crowns' standards by finding the tender strings of my heart and tugging on them like there is no tomorrow. I found myself so convicted of things, and stretched to new limits I had never before experienced. And it's amazing to me, because I had been praying for God to move in me, and strengthen me.

And let me tell ya, He did.

The biggest conviction I found was in the song entitled "Jesus Friend of Sinners". The chorus goes:

Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doorsOh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours

That last line is the one. I heard that the first time, and instantly felt ashamed. Shouldn't that be our plea? That God would break our hearts for what breaks His own? To feel the way God feels, so that we could experience the way God loves? I think that I have found myself too selfish. I'm way to wrapped up in how I feel, and how things affect me, and don't even worry about what God is feeling. I mean.. our God is a jealous God. He YEARNS for us to know Him and grow with Him, and yet I'm still standing here only concernned about my life and not allowing others to see the true love and beauty that is a relationship with Christ? Something's a little wrong here.

My friend said it best, I think. "Don't rob God of His glory. Illuminate His love. And the church of tomorrow will rise as a godly generation right before your eyes." It breaks God's heart that there are people out there who don't know Him. Isn't it our job as Christians  to show God to the helpless and hopeless? To carry our candle, and "illuminate His love"? If our hearts are supposed to break for what breaks God's, then we too should be devastated that there are so many people out there who don't even know who God is, let alone the power He possesses.

And the funny thing is, showing Christ to others is SO EASY! It's just as my friend said, we just have to Illuminate His Love- be living examples of Christ so that others can catch even the smallest glimpse of true love and friendship. There's no need to be those crazy college evangelists who tell everyone that they are going to Hell. We simply just need to love one another in the way that Christ himself loves us.

Jesus is a friend of sinners because He loves them and wants to know them. We should be like Jesus, so why not befriend those who seem almost unfriendable?

And so it goes...


"Who am I that the Lord of ALL THE EARTH would care to know my name? Would care to feel my hurt?" 

Wow

Wow. That is simply all I can say when thinking about the love Jesus has for  us. I have been thinking a lot lately how much He loves people. I mean, if He can love EVEN ME, it's just amazing and incomprehensible, God's love.

Lately, God has been challenging me to be a real person. And that's a lot harder to do than it sounds. Like, instead of just being negative or positive, to just take the real route of life.  It's going to be hard to do this, because I'm not used to always being real with people. It will start with me telling the truth about how I am feeling when asked, and go to other things that will expand and hopefully make me a better person. I asked God to do big things in my life, and He certainly is. His timing is perfect, it's just sometimes not when I would expect. Oh well..

But God is also showing me lots of powerful messages in life. It's amazing how God works. He laid a friend on my heart, and so I went about my day to make sure she was doing okay. And low and behold I found out lots about her and about how she needed some prayer. Isn't that amazing!? God knew that my friend needed someone to lift her up in prayer, so He brought the two of us together. And God answers prayers on his own time, and He answered this one. Wow!

And so it goes...

'Cause Your so perfect, I'm so broken. Here you come with arms wide open.

We serve an amazing God.

His power is everywhere; His glory is immanent. 

I mean, look at this picture. It is what was taken from a Hubble Spacecraft of the whirlpool galaxy in outerspace. This is what we as humans see when the image is transmitted back.  A CROSS! God is in the making of everything. He put the stars in their place and He knows me BY NAME. God is amazing.

And so it goes...

Indescribable, uncontainable. You placed the stars in the sky and you know them by name. You are amazing, God!

"Spread WIDE in the arms of Christ is a love that covers sin"

Aren't those words so powerful? Consider for a moment all of the sin in the world. I mean, if you think that everybody sins MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY, and then think about how many people in the world, you would begin to realize that there is a LOT of sin in the world. Now if you were to consider sin a tangible object, and then you lined them up side-by-side, it would stretch further than is fathomable.

And God's love covers ALL OF THAT.

Isn't that absolutely amazing!? God's love blankets over the entirety of our sin. He loves us regardless of what we have done. As long as we believe in Him, and return the love, of course.

It's lyrics like these that make me appreciate music so much. Casting Crowns put something hard to understand to a lyric that makes it a little more personal. I thank God that He loves me so much and can cover my sin.


And so it goes...

"Your love is extravagant; Your friendship is intimate"