4/30/11

God's Thoughts

Your thoughts - how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them! I couldn't even begin to count them - any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
Psalm 139:1-18

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
Psalm 33:11

How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!
Psalm 92:5

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heaves are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9

Just when we least expect it, He intrudes into our neat and tidy nothings about how He is is and how He works.
Joni Eareckson Tada

We don't understand You.
We don't understand what You do.
We catch glimpses in Your word
Of who You are:
loving
kind
gentle
powerful

But we don't really know you
We don't really know what You do.
We sometimes catch glimpses we don't expect:
wrath
judgment
jealousy
holy

We cry out to know You more
We want to listen and understand
Yet You are silent on somethings
You do not reveal all that You are.

You invade our senses and push the boundaries.
You don't fit inside of my box that I've made.
You are Who You are.
You know Who You are.

Continue to teach me the truth:
That I can know You, but never truly know You.

4/28/11

I Will Rest In You


I Will Rest in You

Lord, I’m in the dark,
Seems to me the line is dead when I come calling.
No one there, the sky is falling;

Lord, I need to know.
My mind is playing games again,
You’re right where you have always been.

Take me back to you,
The place that I once knew as a little child;
Constantly the eyes of God watched over me.
Oh, I want to be
In the place that I once knew as a little child,
Fall into the bed of faith prepared for me.
I will rest in you.

Tell me I’m a fool,
Tell me that you love me for the fool I am,
And comfort me like only you can,
And tell me there’s a place
Where I can feel your breath
Like sweet caresses on my face again.

Take me back to you.
The place that I once knew as a little child;
Constantly the eyes of God watched over me
Oh, I want to be
In the place that I once knew as a little child,
Fall into the bed of faith prepared for me.
I will rest in you

God is Good

When life is merciless,
.................God is good.
When messes are endless,
.................God is good.
When nights are sleepless,
.................God is good.

When my heart ails,
.................God is good.
When the baby wails,
.................God is good.
When a person fails,
.................God is good.

When nothing is sown,
.................God is good.
When I'm all alone,
.................God is good.
When I'm without hope,
.................God is good.

When the bills pile,
.................God is good.
When darkness is vile,
.................God is good.
When I've struggled a mile,
.................God is good.

When the rain clouds loom,
.................God is good.
When thunders boom,
.................God is good.

When the way is lost,
.................God is good.
When the river is crossed,
.................God is good,
When I've counted the cost,
.................God is good.

When I have no song,
.................God is good.
When my days are long,
.................God is good.

The truth remains:
.................God is good.
Although nothing will stay the same,
.................God is good.

No matter the lie,
.................God is good.
No matter the "why"
.................God is good.

No matter the pain,
.................God is good.
No matter the gain,
.................God is good.

No matter the way,
.................God is good.
No matter what they say,
.................God is good.

No matter the choice,
.................God is good.
No matte the voice,
.................God is good.

No matter what I feel,
.................God is good.
One thing is for sure real:
.................God is good.

The Goodness of God

I need to write about this today.  God knows that I do and He knows why I need to be reminded of His goodness.

The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend.
- A.W. Tozer

All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, all that is beneficent, be it great or small,  be it perfect or fragmentary, natural as well as supernatural, moral as wells as material, comes from God.
- John Henry Newman

We walk without fear, full of hope and courage and strength to do His will, waiting for the endless good which He is always giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in.
- George MacDonald

Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in His Word. There is no other hope in the world.
- David Wilkerson

No matter how I feel - the truth remains. Where God has me is a good place. Because I may feel a certain way, I may fail to see that.  My feelings do not dictate what is true. The truth is: God is Good. Life is hard, monotonous, and difficult, but God is good.  I am at home all day, but God is good.  I sometimes wake up with a headache, but God is good.  God is good - nothing is too bad that His goodness cannot overcome.

Rest in that. Meditate on His goodness today.  I am not going to try and find the good things in my life (I know what they are).  I am going to try and rest and be comforted with the simple, but profound fact that my
God is good. 

Psalm 34:8-9 "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him. O fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him."

4/26/11

Resting in God

What is resting in God mean?

Isaiah 30:15
For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

Lord, I pray that you will teach me what it means to rest in You.
Amen.

BP

4/25/11

Lift Up Your Eyes - God Understand

It should fill us with joy that infinite wisdom guides the affairs of the world...that infinite wisdom directs every event, brings order out of confusion, and light out of darkness, and to those who love God, causes all things, whatever be their present aspect and apparent tendency, to work together for good. - J.L. Dagg

I lift up mine eyes to the quiet hills, and my heart to the Father's throne; in all my ways, to the end of days, the Lord will preserve His own. - Timothy Dudley-Smith

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe. - Augustine

Psalm 123:1-2 "I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven. We keep looking to the Lord our God for His mercy."

Psalm 147:3-5 "He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds, He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! No, the Lord's delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love."

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Psalm 124:8 "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

Everything God does is love - even when we do not understand Him. - Basilea Schlink

God, who made the wind, the flowers, the tiny lizards - knows me. He understands my daily struggles. He watches over me when I sleep. He is there: day and night, in every season of my life. He knows the number of the stars - and gently heals my broken heart. He delights in me! Why would I not trust? When I sin, I am not trusting. When I worry, I am not trusting. His ways are perfect and He will perfectly show me the way. I may not understand Him or all of His ways - but He understand me.

4/19/11

The God of All Comfort - My God Comforts Me

We may ask, "Why does God bring thunderclouds and disasters when we want green pastures and still waters?" Bit by bit, we find behind the clouds, the Father's feet; behind the lightning, an abiding day that has no night; behind the thunder, a still small voice that comforts with a comfort that is unspeakable.
- Oswald Chambers

Regardless of the need, God comforts.
He is the God of all comfort!
That's His specialty.
-Charles Swindoll

God walks with us...He scoops us up in His arms or simply sits with us in silent strength until we cannot voice the awesome recognition that yes, even now, He is here.
-Gloria Gaither

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Isaiah 51:12

My God does not just provide comfort - He is the comfort. He gives Himself so that I am comforted. What joy awaits those who place their trust in God! He is able to comfort in all affliction. Nothing is too big (we've heard that enough), but nothing is too small either. He cares and comforts concerning the smallest of affliction. For me, He cares that my baby sleep through the night. He cares about my cold.  What is it that seems small to a great big God, but He can still comfort you? God sometimes provides comfort through others - but also through Himself. I love Isaiah 51:12 - He is the one holding our hand, even when we can't see it. He is the one embracing us though we can't feel it. He is the one whispering reassurances - and those we can hear, when we read His Word.

4/17/11

He Makes All Things New

Welcome, Palm Sunday
I'm home today with a sick baby.  Thankful for the quiet though (my toddler went to church with my husband).  Thinking about and thankful for the Resurrection.  With death clouding this past year, it is comforting to know that all will be made new.  Not just our bodies, but everything will be new.  God will make our hearts new. He will make our love new. He will show us Himself and we will be forever changed.  I am so thankful for the reminder every year of His Resurrection.  Because of His Resurrection, I have the hope of one day being made completely new. 
Today I can be new as well. I can be transformed by the renewing of my mind (Rom. 12).  I know that I am looking forward to the newness of heaven, but Christ arose so that I can have new life now.  I can rise now and be new.  I can walk in the newness of life, even today!  I don't have to wait for someday....


Come broken and weary.
Come battered and bruised.
My Jesus makes all things new, all things new.

Come lost and abandoned.
Come blown by the wind.
He’ll bring you back home again, home again.

Rise up, oh you sleeper, awake, the light of the dawn is upon you.
Rise up, oh you sleeper, awake, he makes all things new.

Come frozen with shame.
Come burning with guilt.
My Jesus, he loves you still, he loves you still.

Rise up, oh you sleeper, awake, the light of the dawn is upon you.
Rise up, oh you sleeper, awake, he makes all things new.

The world was good, the world is fallen, the world will be redeemed, so hold on to the promise.
The stories are true that Jesus makes all things new.
The dawn is upon you.
Rise up, oh you sleeper, awake, the light of the dawn is upon you.
Rise up, oh you sleeper, awake, he makes all things new.


-for Kelly

4/8/11

Hello Spring, Goodbye Winter

Yesterday we went to the park...it was such a pretty day - warm too.
I even got a little sunburned. (After this winter, I didn't care at all.)
  I was happy to be in the sunlight.

Goodbye Winter,
Hello Spring!


Wecome back, old friend
Winter is at an end.

The warm breezes blow
It is finally time to sow.

You have been gone
For far, far too long.

The rain is cool and clean
Rays of sunlight gleam.

The birds are full of joy
The wind whispers of more.

The flowers shyly drop in
Bringing a smile to our chin.

Trees bend and blow
To bow before Your throne.

The color that can be seen,
Is every shade of green.

We salute you, Spring
We love you, our dear King.

Your beauty, oh so dear.
Your ways are bright and clear.

No more dark nights
Will come with you in sight.

The days will be splended
The nights not so shaded.

Your presence fills us with light.
We are awaiting Your sight.

Abide with us for weeks.
Let Yourlove kiss our cheeks.

Blue skies.
Warm breezes.
Soft colors.
Quiet nights.
Faithful days.

The Return of Spring (and Our King)