Rediscover: Day 18 – For but a moment…

I would give up my sight forever if I could look on Your face…

for but a moment

I would give up my hands forever if I could feel Your hand grasp mine…

for but a moment

I would give up my hearing forever if I could hear Your voice. Or Your laugh. Or Your singing…

for but a moment

If seeing Your pure glory means I must perish, I would do so willingly.

I would gladly never walk again if I could take one walk with You, in Your presence, as Adam and Eve did in the garden.

To live in darkness after seeing Your light would be unbearable – I would rather die and cease to exist than to bear the torment of separation from You.

I have felt Your joy.

I have felt Your love.

I have hungered for You and been satisfied.

I have been empty and been filled by You.

I have been broken by You.

I have been awed by You.

I have lived my life and will live the rest of my life with one hope, and one joy – that You live in me, and that one day I will live with You.

I can’t live without You, God. Thank You that before I knew there was a separation between us, You had filled it. Thank You that before I was aware that it was Your love that fills my emptiness, You had prepared the way to pour it into my heart. Thank You that when I fail, You are able.

Lord, You’re beautiful.

Forever Following

I have been talking to you since I was a little girl
So many sweet memories of giving you my world

You are wonderful – a friend to the weary
You have been so faithful – your goodness follows me
You are beautiful your love is neverending

I was just wondering today how over all these years
You’ve carried so many cares
Calmed so many fears

You are wonderful – a friend to the weary
You have been so faithful – your goodness follows me
You are beautiful your love is neverending

-You Are Wonderful by Sara Groves -

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all  the days of my life.”

As I was listening to the song above by Sara Groves, I was struck by that word follow. I looked it up in the Hebrew and although it was what I was expecting, it still excited me. The Hebrew word is râdaph and means “to run or follow after, to pursue, to hunt or chase.” God is pursuing us! He will not stop or slow – and although we do not realize it. But what is His intent?

There’s a story that goes like this: A rabbi once stopped a member of the congregation and said, “Whenever I see you, you’re always in a hurry.  You’re always rushing somewhere.  Tell me, what are you running after all the time?”  The man answers, “I’m running after success.  I’m running after prosperity, I’m running to make a good living.”

The rabbi responds, “That’s a good answer, if you assume that all those rewards are out ahead of you.  But what if the rewards are behind you?   What if they are looking for you, pursuing you, following you.  But they can never find you because you’re running away from them. What if God has all sorts of wonderful gifts to give you, but you’re never home when God comes looking for you. So God can’t deliver the gifts to you – you’re not available.”

Goodness and mercy shall follow me. The word used here is hesed. (which oddly enough I used in my Nano novel! =) It means love, but more specifically a covenant love. Sometimes it’s interpreted as “loving kindness” or “steadfast love” or, as here, “mercy”. It’s the word used in Hosea, as well as the love  God promises to His people. It’s a love within the context of a relationship.

God is your Husband, your Father, your Good Shepherd. He is pursuing you with His kind, steadfast, merciful love. Turn around and receive.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

- Psalms 23 –

Deep to Deep

This is an older post from Facebook.

One night as I was trying to get to sleep a fragment from the song ‘All Who Are Thirsty’ kept playing over and over in my head.

It’s hard to find a meaning for ‘deep cries out to deep’ in McGee’s books or bible studies, but some meanings people have come up with are ‘the deepness of God calling to our souls’ or God rescuing us when we are overwhelmed with troubles.

But that night I was thinking about it as the ocean of God’s love, deeper than anything we could ever fathom. One thing about me – I am scared of deep water. I loathe to swim or be in water where I cannot touch bottom – I just don’t like it. The deep ocean especially sounds creepy to me – stretching down and down, all of those bug-eyed fish and creatures at the bottom. So for a moment I thought ‘An ocean of God’s love – that’s as wide and deep as eternity? Sounds kind of creepy!’

But no, the fathomless ocean of God’s is not something scary – if God’s love were an actual ocean, it would sparkle with sunlight as far down as you could see. Can you picture it? His love is something wondrous, something we should swim in every moment of our life. It’s something that never goes away – that ocean is always there – we simply have to choose daily to immerse ourselves in.

In the ocean of God’s love all doubts are stripped away – we remember that we are His children. All of our fears and worries are taken – we realize that because of His love we should leave everything in our lives up to Him. It makes us want to worship Him – for He is worthy. And it makes us want to go tell everyone about this ocean, this miraculous, endless ocean.

Unconditional

One of the themes that I notice in the Bible is “unconditional”. We are to have unconditional love – as well as unconditional faith, trust, hope, joy – the list goes on and on. For me this is one of the most difficult things to learn. Some circumstances make it so difficult to be joyful and some people (sometimes) are just sooo difficult to LOVE. Yet that’s what God calls us to do out of obedience to Him.

All of these things become simpler, somehow, at a summer camp or large gathering of Christians or anything similar. The presence of God at those events simply cannot be denied – it’s so powerful! The speaker at Awana camp this year said that when you go to a camp, etc., you’re saying “God come and get me!”. Two things follow – the first is that God DOES come and get you, and your life is changed! But the second is that Satan takes notice. The fire of your faith has been kindled into a blaze, and he cannot tolerate that.

Have you ever returned from a life-changing event to be overwhelmed with the monotony of daily life? It’s as if Satan has carved grooves into our life that we fall into, again and again, no matter what resolutions we make to do something different!

Everything you learned that impacted you so powerfully, the tears you shed, the joy that filled you… it fades into the past.

Unconditional.

Whether God is “further than the moon or closer than your skin”*, you are called to believe.

I don’t know if You’re there, Father – but I still trust. You are still my hope. No matter what happens, I have given myself to You, and You I will follow, even when the darkness threatens to overwhelm.

Unconditional. God calls you to live unconditionally, in every aspect of obedience. Will you? All it takes is a choice. Write it down, speak it aloud, make a decision to love. To hope. To trust. To praise. To believe.

Unconditionally

(p.s. – on the subject of revivals, the series by Bill Bright are excellent)

*Obsession, by David Crowder

Be unto Your name…

This past weekend I enjoyed a combination of “MissionsFest” and “CityServe”. So Friday we met with about 500 other youth for worship and a message from Steve Haas (high up there somewhere @ WorldVision). And then Sat. morning about 600 youth flooded the Seattle area, giving out meals, cleaning, weeding, painting, and much more. Our group went to a mobile home park to weed, rake, and wash windows. A lot of the people that live there are elderly and can’t do it themselves, then get frustrated looking out on the mess of weeds in their yard (I know I would!!) It was rather a simple thing… and there was so much work to do, we couldn’t finish! (they only have helpers come twice a year or so… which means either the owners get on their knees and painfully weed their small garden or we get to pull out waist-high dandelions)

But Friday night was awesome. I LOVE that feeling when so many people are gathered together to worship God and to feed on His word. You can feel His presence and His peace so strong…

I was also a volunteer usher at a Casting Crowns concert almost two weeks ago. It’s neat to stand in the aisles seeing everyone feel God’s love and love Him back, to just throw your head back and close your eyes and sing to your Maker.

It’s totally, totally awesome. One guy I know enjoys worshiping with his eyes closed, envisioning himself before the throne of God, with thousands upon millions of those the Lamb has purified with His blood. And one day we’ll be there!!!

I’m back!

da da duh da!!! I’ve returned! Not much new except school’s (almost) all out! Jobs are pretty scarce right now in this “economy”. Ugh, everyone says that word all the time, it’s very tiring.

=) I’m low on good, philosophical,smart-sounding things to say @ the moment, so here’s a few verses we were meditating on at Bible study.

Isaiah 54…

⁵ For your Maker is your husband—
the LORD Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.

⁶ The LORD will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.

⁷ “For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

⁸ In a surge of anger
I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,”
says the LORD your Redeemer.

⁹ “To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.

¹⁰ Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

¹¹ “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
I will build you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations with sapphires.

¹² I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones.

¹³ All your sons will be taught by the LORD,
and great will be your children’s peace.

¹⁴ In righteousness you will be established:
Tyranny will be far from you;
you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
it will not come near you.

¹⁵ If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
whoever attacks you will surrender to you.

neat, huh? yep. Any comments, post ‘em below!

The Love of God

thought I’d share this with y’all – I think the lyrics are cool. This is an old hymn written by Frederick M. Lehman, but I think Mercyme may have brought it back. It’s called The Love of God. You can also view it here.

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.

* Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.