Every Tuesday night is Small Groups night.
I love my Small Group. We have the best Small Group out of all the DTS. It's a fact.
So tonight to get off the base, we drove into the nearest city, Tyler, and hung out at Barnes&Noble. Our assignment was to pick out 3 books which best describe who we are individually and then share them with the group so we can all admire one another and the desires and dreams and giftings God has given us.
The first book I picked out was a compilation book of all the wonderful things C.S. Lewis has written about Aslan in his Chronicles of Narnia series. I LOVE ASLAN. And I love love love C.S. Lewis. Anyway, I knew the other 2 books I wanted were books about music and travel.
An employee overheard my difficulty finding the Travel and Music sections, so he offered to escort me in the direction I needed. I gratefully accepted.
My new friend led me to the Travel/Music section (they are combined, how convenient!) and I thanked him. Then he asked me about my interest in travel. That question was the spark of a flame that would end up being a 10 minute conversation: two strangers talking about travels, the future, the past, and life itself. It was so beautiful! I walked away from that conversation with electricity coursing through my veins.
I love people.
People need people. It's a profound, revolutionary thought. So simple. So true.
I then walked over to the cafe area with my 3 books to join my group of beautiful, dear friends who had their 3 books to share. I ordered my coffee and blueberry muffin, sat down with the 9 ladies I love most, and smiled. The joy of the Lord was present in this place.
We went around in a circle and shared why we chose our 3 books and how they relate to our personalities; oh, how beautiful a time it was! It only lasted about 20 minutes, but something powerful and precious happened in that time. We began to realize the beauty of God's placement of each young woman in this group and how creative and wonderful our personalities are!
The drive home was the perfect, chocolate icing on the cake. I just started talking about how thankful I was that God allowed me to have such a cool conversation with the Barnes&Noble employee, but expressed how sad I was that I didn't ask what his name was! Brittany said, "It's ok, God knows his name!" and that began a quick prayer I said aloud for my new friend, to bless him and praise God for him. After that, the four of us in my car began to gush and literally get teary-eyed at the love of God. The presence of the joy of the Lord was so thick in the car and was so heavy on our hearts. We were squealing like little girls in a candy shop over this simple fact: God loves us SO MUCH.
And that's it! I just needed to get this out and tell the world how much God loves! I'm just oozing with thankfulness and joy.
Glory be.
Peace.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
God's Heartbeat
Have you ever read the Bible and suddenly felt like it had a pulse...? The thump-thump, thump-thump is almost so real you can hear it, and so strong that you can feel it in your hands?
Well, if you haven't, let me tell you: It rocked my world!
Besides being a little freaked out by a pulsing Bible in my hands, I could not stop being amazed at the love of God this morning during my Quiet Time.
It all started with Proverbs 4:23.
"Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life." (AMP)
I stared at this verse for a good couple of minutes before even praying or thinking about it. Just stared at it... and remembered that this verse had a very different meaning for me over a year ago. I had just spent an entire summer at Camp hearing this verse every single day, constantly being reminded by God to keep my heart guarded above all else. And after spending that summer assuming that my heart was as guarded as it was gonna get, I suddenly plunged into a world of confusion and hurt. Let's just say I quickly realized what can happen when your heart isn't kept and guarded.
The mercy God has is incredible, and the redemption I've experienced in the past year has been beautiful and freeing. But if God weren't the good, merciful, loving God He is, He would probably have said "I told you so" last October. Loudly. With a parade. And banners that say "This is What You Get!" across them.
Now, over a year later, I'm reading that verse again with new eyes--a new life I've been given and that I'm grateful for every day. And as I'm reading this verse, the Bible begins to softly pulsate in my hands. Then I begin to flip through to some other Books to read something else...but no matter what I read, the message was the same: God is incredibly concerned about the condition of our hearts.
Thump-thump. Thump-Thump.
For some reason, condition of man's heart is of particular interest to our God.
Let me put it another way: God is passionate about our hearts! Think about all the opportunities for repentance He gave in the Old Testament...they're countless. Think about the fact that He sent Jesus (who, being a vital part of the Trinity, left His rightful and deserved place of glory to live as a human for our sake and Salvation). What a heart the Father has.
Did you know that Jesus died of a broken heart? If you read the medical account of Jesus' death, you'll eventually discover that the physical suffering he endured before and during His crucifixion is not what killed Him. His ultimate point of death was in fact when, on the cross, the emotional stress and the literal weight of the world's sin came upon Him. Douglas Jacoby says this: "A combination of shock and suffocation killed most victims of crucifixion, but in Jesus’ case acute heart failure may have been the final trauma. This is suggested by his sudden death following a loud cry, after only a few hours: a quick death, it seems (Pilate was surprised to find Jesus already dead). A fatal cardiac arrhythmia, or perhaps cardiac rupture, are likely candidates." The Holy, Glorious Son was so emotionally stressed that His heart burst.
Did you know that God was so overwhelmingly disappointed in man that He grieved? Genesis 6:6 says that "The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." And then He sent a flood. Woah, WHAT? The condition of the hearts of the whole world were that bad?!
Yep.
Except for one.
Noah had the only right heart on earth. So God gave him (and his whole family) mercy! But that mercy came even though His heart was so broken. The people He loved and created, with purposes and value, had completely denied Him. So He came to the point of actually having to remove them from His sight. The Flood was not something God wanted to do, but had to. For His own heart's sake, and for the world's sake. The condition of man's heart, the Bible says, was so utterly wicked and corrupt that God couldn't stand it anymore. Too much violence. Too much corruption. Sound familiar? Look around. What kind of world do we live in? (I could go on and on about injustices and corruption in our world today, but let's save that for another blog, shall we?)
Now before I start to spiral you into a mild form of depression or you start to build your own Ark, let me remind you that we can praise God that He's promised never to wipe out all of mankind like that ever again. Jesus came with a new covenant for us, and we can freely be in relationship with our Maker without fear of sudden, wrathful obliteration. So cool your jets, take a sip of some really good coffee, and let's talk some more about how passionate He is about us.
I love God. I love His 3 persons equally and definitely. I love the ways that God reveals Himself to me and loves on me and comforts me. I even love His correction. Say WHA-?? Yep. I love being corrected by the Holy Spirit. It's another form of God's love. And the more correction He gives, the more fellowship we get to have with Him and the more we become like Jesus! So cool. Like, the more correction I get, the more I see how much He values me. He values the condition of my heart.
Proverbs 4:23 says that from the heart flow the springs of life itself. God, the life-giver, loves when we realize the value of our lives. Man, if we could only understand a fraction of how God feels about this...if we only understood a fraction of what I've even said in this blog...we could change the world.
I encourage you today to press into Jesus' chest, get really up-close and personal with Him, and listen to His heartbeat. What is on His heart? What is the rhythm of his heartbeat? When you're that close to our God, amazing, revolutionary things happen. Try it.
Peace.
Well, if you haven't, let me tell you: It rocked my world!
Besides being a little freaked out by a pulsing Bible in my hands, I could not stop being amazed at the love of God this morning during my Quiet Time.
It all started with Proverbs 4:23.
"Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life." (AMP)
I stared at this verse for a good couple of minutes before even praying or thinking about it. Just stared at it... and remembered that this verse had a very different meaning for me over a year ago. I had just spent an entire summer at Camp hearing this verse every single day, constantly being reminded by God to keep my heart guarded above all else. And after spending that summer assuming that my heart was as guarded as it was gonna get, I suddenly plunged into a world of confusion and hurt. Let's just say I quickly realized what can happen when your heart isn't kept and guarded.
The mercy God has is incredible, and the redemption I've experienced in the past year has been beautiful and freeing. But if God weren't the good, merciful, loving God He is, He would probably have said "I told you so" last October. Loudly. With a parade. And banners that say "This is What You Get!" across them.
Now, over a year later, I'm reading that verse again with new eyes--a new life I've been given and that I'm grateful for every day. And as I'm reading this verse, the Bible begins to softly pulsate in my hands. Then I begin to flip through to some other Books to read something else...but no matter what I read, the message was the same: God is incredibly concerned about the condition of our hearts.
Thump-thump. Thump-Thump.
For some reason, condition of man's heart is of particular interest to our God.
Let me put it another way: God is passionate about our hearts! Think about all the opportunities for repentance He gave in the Old Testament...they're countless. Think about the fact that He sent Jesus (who, being a vital part of the Trinity, left His rightful and deserved place of glory to live as a human for our sake and Salvation). What a heart the Father has.
Did you know that God was so overwhelmingly disappointed in man that He grieved? Genesis 6:6 says that "The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." And then He sent a flood. Woah, WHAT? The condition of the hearts of the whole world were that bad?!
Yep.
Except for one.
Noah had the only right heart on earth. So God gave him (and his whole family) mercy! But that mercy came even though His heart was so broken. The people He loved and created, with purposes and value, had completely denied Him. So He came to the point of actually having to remove them from His sight. The Flood was not something God wanted to do, but had to. For His own heart's sake, and for the world's sake. The condition of man's heart, the Bible says, was so utterly wicked and corrupt that God couldn't stand it anymore. Too much violence. Too much corruption. Sound familiar? Look around. What kind of world do we live in? (I could go on and on about injustices and corruption in our world today, but let's save that for another blog, shall we?)
Now before I start to spiral you into a mild form of depression or you start to build your own Ark, let me remind you that we can praise God that He's promised never to wipe out all of mankind like that ever again. Jesus came with a new covenant for us, and we can freely be in relationship with our Maker without fear of sudden, wrathful obliteration. So cool your jets, take a sip of some really good coffee, and let's talk some more about how passionate He is about us.
I love God. I love His 3 persons equally and definitely. I love the ways that God reveals Himself to me and loves on me and comforts me. I even love His correction. Say WHA-?? Yep. I love being corrected by the Holy Spirit. It's another form of God's love. And the more correction He gives, the more fellowship we get to have with Him and the more we become like Jesus! So cool. Like, the more correction I get, the more I see how much He values me. He values the condition of my heart.
Proverbs 4:23 says that from the heart flow the springs of life itself. God, the life-giver, loves when we realize the value of our lives. Man, if we could only understand a fraction of how God feels about this...if we only understood a fraction of what I've even said in this blog...we could change the world.
I encourage you today to press into Jesus' chest, get really up-close and personal with Him, and listen to His heartbeat. What is on His heart? What is the rhythm of his heartbeat? When you're that close to our God, amazing, revolutionary things happen. Try it.
Lord,
How gracious, giving, and loving you are! So my heart will be guarded. Because you value my heart. My heart is everything to you. So it's yours. Yours alone, God, to do what you will. We trust you and love you. With all of us. Thank you God.
Peace.
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