The Choice is Ours

“The Bible has a simple story. God made man. Man rejected God. God won’t give up until He wins us back.

God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; He’ll even take away our blessings. If there are a thousand steps between us and Him, He will take all but one. But He will leave the final one to us. The choice is ours.

Please understand. His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you His. His goal is not to get you what you want; it is to get you what you need.”

Max Lucado

a puritan prayer

Grant me never to lose sight of:

• the exceeding sinfulness of sin
• the exceeding righteousness of salvation
• the exceeding glory of Christ
• the exceeding beauty of holiness
• the exceeding wonder of grace

Scrapbook from Summer 2008 in Europe

View Project at Shutterfly

true beauty

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

this verse is so comforting to me. to know that true beauty isn’t based upon this world, takes the pressures of this world away.

Michael Buble – Everything

Such a cute song:

You’re a falling star, You’re the get away car.
You’re the line in the sand when I go too far.
You’re the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you’re the perfect thing to say.

And you play it coy, but it’s kinda cute.
When you smile at me you know exactly what you do.
Baby don’t pretend, that you don’t know it’s true.
Cause you can see it when I look at you.

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It’s you, it’s you, You make me sing.
You’re every line, you’re every word, you’re everything.

You’re a carousel, you’re a wishing well,
And you light me up, when you ring my bell.
You’re a mystery, you’re from outer space,
You’re every minute of my everyday.

And I can’t believe, that I’m your man,
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.
Whatever comes our way, we’ll see it through,
And you know that’s what our love can do.

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It’s you, it’s you, You make me sing.
You’re every line, you’re every word, you’re everything.
You’re every song, and I sing along.
‘Cause you’re my everything.

sin

a quote from a Puritan prayer…

“Unmask to me sin’s deformity,

that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it…

Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin

lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed,

as in the greatness of the one sinned against.”

that’s a strong reminder to me of how deathly sin is. whether it’s murder or telling a lie, the magnitude of the sin according to our human understanding makes no difference. the truth is that any sin is an act against God, and therefore punishable by death. thank God for His amazing grace and mercy, for without it i would be lost!

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   Romans 6:23

love

so i started reading a book called “The Art of Loving” by Erich Fromm, intense book. here are some quotes from the book and my thoughts on them…

i chose the following quotes because i felt like they represented my beliefs about the main issues surrounding love.

1. love takes practice, it is not easy
2. it is every person’s deep desire to share his/her life with someone else
3. true love celebrates the uniqueness of each person and does not expect conformity
4. love is EXCITING, BREATHTAKING, and LIFE CHANGING
5. love is much more than a feeling – it requires will and effort

“The first thing we have to learn is that love is an art, just as living is an art; if we want to learn how to love we must proceed in the same way we have to proceed if we want to learn any other art. Maybe here lies the answer to the question of why people in our culture try so rarely to learn this art, in spite of their obvious failures: in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power – almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving.”

“Man is gifted with reason; he is life being aware of itself. This awareness of himself as a separate entity, the awareness of his own short  life span, of the fact that he will die before those whom he loves, or they before him, the awareness of his aloneness and separateness, of his helplessness before the forces of nature and of society, all this makes his separate, disunited existence an unbearable prison. He would become insane could he not liberate himself from the prison and reach out, unite himself in some form or other with others, with the world outside.”

“The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness.”

“Mature love is union under the condition of preserving one’s integrity, one’s individuality. Love is an active power in man, a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men, which unites him with others; love makes him overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet permits him to be himself, to retain his integrity. In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.”

“If we lack the courage to be individuals, we will never achieve love.”

“If two people who have been strangers, as all of us are, suddenly let the wall between them break down, and feel close, feel one, this moment of oneness is one of the most exhilarating, most exciting experiences in life.”

“Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.”

 

 

 

i don’t mean for all of that to mean that love is all scientific… love is much more than something to be analyzed.. who could ever explain the feeling of chemistry and attraction between two hearts or the countless love stories throughout the ages? to understand it, you need to have experienced it, to at least some degree

worry

so easily I begin to plan, stress, and anticipate what will happen in the future. then I get wrapped up in trying to “make” what I want, happen.

Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

such a simple, clear cut reminder because God knew that as humans we would try to control our futures. the beautiful thing is that all I have to do is follow God daily, and He will take care of everything.

so why is it so easy to slip back into the worry and anxiety of trying to force things to happen? I think it’s just a part of our sin nature. daily I have to seek rest in God to avoid the anxiety that I can cause myself.

Freedom of Choice Act

So the Freedom of Choice Act is an act that Obama plans to sign immediately upon entering office. The act would remove many of the restrictions which are now placed on abortions.

It would eradicate state and federal laws that the majority of Americans support, such as:

• Bans on Partial Birth Abortion
• Requirements that women be given information about the risks of getting an abortion
• Only licensed physicians can perform abortions
• Parents must be informed and give consent to their minor daughter’s abortion

FOCA would erase these laws and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.

To learn more about it, and to sign a petition against it, go to fightfoca.com

constantly

I’m constantly looking for the next exciting thing to fill my life with. Travel, times with friends, new clothes, new gadgets, a new challenge, new job…sometimes when I don’t have any of that going on in my life I’ll even reorganize and decorate my room so I have a “new” space to be in. But it’s all pointless, insignificant, unnecessary. I love this quote from Oswald Chambers, it helps me put things in perspective when I get too caught up in the things of this world…

“There is only one relationship that really matters, and that is your personal relationship to your personal Redeemer and Lord. If you maintain that at all costs, letting everything else go, God will fulfill His purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purposes, and yours may be that life.”