Learning to live for HIS glory

"Like a bride, waiting for her groom We'll be a church ready for You Every heart, longing for our King We sing, even so come Lord Jesus come!" ~ Even So Come This song has been singing in my head the past few days.  It's a very familiar thought in this season of life.  Wedding preparations are in full swing, and I look forward with much anticipation to the day when all the planning will be done and I'll walk down an aisle in a white dress...to join Carl as his bride.  But as we've been preparing and planning for that day, and more importantly for our life as one afterwards, I've been thinking more about another wedding that's coming...another bride that's making herself ready, and another groom that will be coming back for His bride.   Spurgeon depicts this so well....here's what he says:  "Heaven is always Heaven and unspeakably full of blessedness—but even Heaven has its holidays, even bliss has its overflowing....

Great and mighty God, I praise You for being.... My all-sufficient One. The Great I AM. Holy. Loving. Just. Kind and good. Gracious, slow to anger. The Giver of all good gifts. Perfect. The Sacrifice that set me free. Ancient of Days. Glorious. All-powerful. Full of light and truth. All that is good. My hope. My salvation. My righteousness. My purity. Jehovah Jireh...God who provides. The One with power to shut the mouths of lions... Power to raise the dead. You are goodness and grace. You offer abundant grace! Life. You are abundant life. You're the Maker of life, The Sustainer of life. Thank You for all that You are! For being King over everything. For holding the universe in Your hand, Keeping the planets spinning, And my lungs breathing. You are SO great and greatly to be praised! Thank You for choosing and loving me as Your daughter. I adore You.

If not my absolute favorite, then Easter is definitely one of my favorite days of the year.  There is just so much to celebrate!  So much joy is mine because of what happened in history over 2000 years ago.  Wow.  It's hard to fathom that long span of time.  Nevertheless, what I celebrate today has been bringing joy to thousands for all of these years. It's hard for me to put into words all that I think about on Easter.  It's a day that usually involves tears and exultant singing, quiet reflection and much rejoicing.  It's a day that stirs the jubilant longing of my heart.  For although every day is a day to remember the abundant life I have because of my Savior's sacrifice, Easter is an awesome reminder of just how much He did for me. If I could go back to anytime in history, I think I'd go back to that first "Easter" weekend.  I wonder what it would have been like.  (You can see my musings on some of that from about a year ago her...

Rain, Icy rain. Warmth evades ...and even my soul feels                                     cold. Because going through the motions ...doesn't mean a thing, I'm lost in the meaningless,                                nothingness,                                    daily striving after                                          ............................. In the middle of it all, Hungry, I'm yearning for words,                                good words,                         ...

There's this song I've been playing and singing a lot lately with a line in it that I absolutely love... "Our praises, filling up the spaces, In between our frailty, and everything You are"                  ~Audrey Assad, " Restless " I know it sounds cliche...but I really do have so much to be grateful for, so much to praise God about.  My life is so frail, and He is so BIG, so strong.  Yet in the midst of my frailty, as I live a life of praise, I can know His all-consuming, empowering presence in my day-to-day.  This time of year it's easy to remember...but I know I need this always.  For as I name the graces He's poured out on me, I'm drawn ever closer to the Lover of my soul.  Thankfulness encourages love. Today, I am thankful.  I praise Your name, Jesus for things like these: Smiles. Snow. Words. Family.  Life. Love. Music. Pianos...especially in tune. Sunshine. Rainbows. Cove...

Yesterday in church, we watched and listened as one of Keystone's family members shared his story of once being a violent drug dealer, and how the Lord has worked in changing his life.  It was a hard but beautiful story to hear.  Afterwards, Pastor Keith was sharing about how God often uses stories like that in powerful ways because people think that if God can save someone like that, if He can love someone like that, then He can love and save them too.  As I sat there and listened to all this, I was once again amazed at the power of my God to take lives and turn them around, but I was wrestling with this question: "Lord, why me?"   See...I don't have a crazy story.  I grew up in a "Christian" home.  I first asked Jesus to save me at the age of three!  I can't point to my life before and after becoming a Christ-follower and say, "See the difference?!"  This is not by any means to say that I am not a sinner who needs the Righteous One'...

I came home from class last week and journaled this: "Realizing how much I need to get on my knees. Jesus!  God!  Holy One! I am SO self-focused. The world does not revolve around me. You do not revolve around me. Who am I kidding? The God of the universe. Revolve around me? No. It's ALL about You, You receiving glory. From my life and all  other lives. Be lifted high, Jesus. Burn away everything, Everything that's of myself. Teach me to shine Your glory. To revel in Your praise." As He convicts, I want to change.  This isn't about learning something and putting it on a shelf.  Life is about so much more than that.  He is SO much more than that.  The name of God is great and glorious.  He is abundant in loving-kindness, slow to anger, and yet will not leave the guilty unpunished.  His Kingdom is perfection, goodness, and light. My life . . . with open hands I release it to the Glorious ONE.  May all I am be spent f...

I walked out into the yard this evening. The sunset colored the sky with light pinks and blues . . . a few patches of blazing orange. Trees and insects raised their branches and voices to heaven. I really wanted to raise my hands to the sky and spin around. To dance. To sing. But... My neighbor was out mowing his lawn. I don't really want him to think i'm a crazy lady. (He might already?) My self consciousness got in the way of unhindered praise. I still have SO far to go. The irony of my blog title hit me today . . . I don't think I had the faintest idea what it meant when I named it. "Learning to Live for HIS Glory." Well, maybe I did. I at least realized it was a process! Do you realize, friends? Do I realize? God's GLORY! It's the only thing worth living for! At all. Nothing else will ever fulfill, Give hope, Be accomplished. His glory? We can be confident it IS being displayed. That's His purpose! We can join Him ...

Seeing my imperfections, Falling on my knees, Living in guilt, no, Rejoicing in hope. Righteousness: Mine. Blameless In His eyes. Perfect: Me? All because, His body. His blood. Broken, Beaten, Spilled out, For sinners, Like me.

Weary, unsettled...I wander out into the field.  Looking up, the sky stretches so big, and all around the land just goes on and on.  The mud squishes around my feet... I need that perspective.  SO BIG...and I so small.  He spoke, all this came to be.  His greatness fills my smallness...always more than enough. "I have set the Lord continually before me;  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." ~Psalm 16:8

Lately the Lord's been working on getting to the heart issues behind a lot of the struggles in my life. He's doing it by revealing to me the adulterer I am . . . "You adulteresses , do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."  ~James 4:4 That verse always gets me.  It makes me stop, and usually groan!  Because for me, the idol that probably creeps in to the place God should have in my life most frequently, is a desire for the approval, affirmation, & acceptance of other people.  Sound anything like being a friend of the world? Yeah..... Know what though?  Living life with pleasing people as my motivation is exhausting and frustrating. Sure, I get those high moments.  When someone notices I did a good job and points it out, when a friend or parent agrees that I made the right decision, or when someone who's usually annoyed gives me a g...

Today is Easter or Resurrection Day, a day on which we (as those who believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior) purpose to remember His sacrifice for us on the cross.  But not just His sacrifice, not just His pain and death, no we also remember His life.  For He IS RISEN!  When He died He didn't stay dead, but rose again to give us newness of life . . . to offer us the opportunity to choose Him, and in Him, victory over sin and death.  My heart is overflowing today--overflowing with joy!  For these are the truths that bring joy . . . and hope, and peace.  And I want to remember these truths, not just today, but every day.  For they are just as true tomorrow as today, and just as true next month as tomorrow.  These are the truths that put a smile on my face, and make me cheerful even when I am at work and it is 7 in the morning.  I desperately need to claim them as true in my life, to reckon them, daily.  For then I live as I a...

I've been reading through Psalms lately, and really been challenged with how much the authors purpose to give thanks and tell of the wonderful things God has done.  But it's not just something they did back then . . . it's also a command from God's Word for us today!  So with that said . . . let me recount and give thanks for some of the things God has done. Every day, without fail, He paints beautiful sunrises and sunsets!  Making the colors in the sky almost dance sometimes, as they swirl together in patterns sometimes intricate, sometimes simple and serene.   He has grown my horizons and worldview in some crazy ways through experiences I never expected.  Who knew this Lancaster County girl would spend most of her teen years less than an hour from the city of New Orleans?  And yet, through that experience He has grown and changed me in many ways!  How amazing is my God, and how truly incomprehensible are His ways! He has changed my he...

What do those four words have in common?  Maybe you'll figure that out by the end of this post.  :) Where to begin . . . Since my last blog entry life has become even more uncertain.  I don't like the unknown.  But lately that's what almost all of my life looks like.  The one known is that God is in control.  I don't know what I'd do without that truth to bank on.  Some verses that comfort me when I'm facing the unknown are Isaiah 55:8-9, " 'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, My ways, ' declares the Lord.  'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 30:15 is both a comfort and a challenge to me, "For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said, 'In repentance and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.' " In quietness and trust is your strength . . . when I'm in the mids...