Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all

"When sin abounds, there is grace more abudant." - The Valley of Vision

Before I begin, let me clarify something. I'm not one of those girls that is obsessive over guys.
If I see a good quality in guy, I just think to myself, "Oh, he's really selfless/caring/funny/cute/yougetwhatImean," and move on with my life. I think being friends with guys is great! But anything more? At this stage? Not going to happen. I'm waiting for that one "perfect" guy who I pray God has planned for me.

Yet, something had been creeping in to my "it's all cool" attitude; I'd been becoming a little too confident in my OWN strength. Little fears started creeping in...I began thinking that my standards were too high - no, impossible - for any guy to fill. I began thinking about this future prince charming way more than I needed too. And other guys started filling my thoughts, as well.

I didn't know what was wrong, but I felt helpless against stopping these feeling and thoughts. It's not that they were wrong and totally wicked - the problem was that I was gradually, unknowingly, giving them more of my thoughts/time than God.

And even though this was all only going on in my mind - nothing had changed in my actual actions - it was still sinful. I wanted a physical, touchable, seeable love, and I felt like God's love wasn't real enough. This was straining my relationship with the truest, most perfect lover of my soul.

"Not to think of him was impossible. How to think of him was within her own power." - The Scottish Chiefs

(In my case, this him refers a multitude of good qualities I'd seen in other guys around me which I'd mushed together into this makebelieve dream boat whom I've never even met! How RIDICULOUS is that?! I was giving more of my time thinking about a fiction of my imagination that my savior whose love is greater than I can even imagine!!)

I was purusing the setapartgirl magazine when I suddenly saw what was going on. Sentences began jumping out at me:

"Even a Christ-Built Warrior-Poet can claim an unhealthy hold upon your thought-life if you are not guarded and purposeful about taking every thought captive." - setapartgirl magazine

"Being attracted to a guy isn't wrong in itself; it's a natural part of the way God made us. But if we don't handle attraction correctly, it can become one of the most dangerous stumbling blocks to our spiritual walk. If you allow attraction toward a guy to overtake your thoughts and emotions, it can easily take your focus off Christ...clouding your relationship with your king and dishonoring your relationship with your future husband." - setapartgirl magazine

"Our society...[tells you] you aren't complete alone, you have to have a partner...we need to get out of the mindset that we are 'half whole' and realize we're complete in Christ." - setapartgirl magazine

"So many of us, though we claim to know Jesus Christ, are still longing for our deepest desires to be fulfilled by someone else." - setapartgirl magazine

"Jesus Christ is your true prince...He is the one who gave His very life just to be with you...He is the only one who can meet your deepest longins, He is the only one worthy of your entire heart, life, soul, and body - all you are and all you have! Jesus Christ is the prince you should passionately pursue with all your heart." - setapartgirl magazine

"How matter how attracted you may feel toward someone, remember he could never compare to your true Bridegroom; the love of your soul. Find your satisfication in Jesus Christ alone, no matter how great or godly a man he brings into your life." - setapartgirl magazine.

I'd had my priorities all messed up. I had been isolating a part of my heart and setting it aside for my future husband, yet I wasn't isolating it from other guys - I was isolating it from God. I kept thinking of things I'd do/say when I had this future human romance, all the time forgetting that the most perfect, most satisfying love was within my reach.

I went to bed that night, and filled my mind with scripture. I prayed to God, and asked for His forgiveness. I asked to be filled with passionate, all-consuming love for Him - for He is worthy of EVERYTHING I have and will have and can become.

The sweet and beautiful words of a prayer in the book "Valley of Vision" fit my longing that perfectly: that I would know Christ as..."the path in which my feet tread, the latch upon the door of my lips, the light that shines through my eyes, the music of my ears, the marrow of my understanding, the strength of my will, the power of my affection, the sweetness of memory...unsought, thou hast given me the greatest gift, the person of thy son, and in him thou wilt give me all I need." (Those Puritans sure knew how to pray! Are those words not gorgeous?! What a fitting way to use the English language - to praise and glorify God!)

This struggle is now where near over. But I have a peace and assurance now I can't describe with words. I know the direction I want to pursue - the way I want to live - and with the help my almighty savior, I can begin to fight temptation and cling to Christ.

Wow, it felt wonderful to get that all out. Thanks for bearing with me!

I have more to say...on how I want my actions around guys to reflect my passionate love for Christ...on being judgmental and envious...and more! But, that will have to wait.

And, I would definitely recommend reading the setapartgirl magazine. It is so inspiring and convicting. You can read it for free on Leslie Ludy's website. Just type in "setapartgirl magazine" and you should find it.

Rejoicing in His AMAZING love!!

Kaley

God is awesome

I read this blog post on our Pastor's blog this week, and thought I would share it with you! It is something I have never thought about before...hope you enjoy it!

March 15, 2010

God is Awesome

A few weeks ago, I did something I don’t usually do on the short drive from our church office back to where I live… I turned on the radio.

I won’t mention the station (in order to protect the guilty), but in the three minutes when I was listening, I heard the program host use the word “awesome” roughly 38 times (I don’t want to be accused of exaggeration, so I’m conservatively low-balling here).

Here’s how it went: “That song was awesome!” “I heard an awesome quote this week… isn’t that just awesome?” I had an awesome steak last night and it was awesome! I mean, awesome!” “Hello caller! It’s awesome to hear from you today! Are you having an awesome day?”

After about three minutes of this, I had to turn the radio off. I became weary of hearing the word “awesome” used so many times and so flippantly.

Aside from the tedium of repetition, I think there’s a deeper concern that bothers me. It is the fact that “awesome” is such a superlative word that it only rightly applies to God and His works. God is awesome! And the works of God are also truly awesome!

The song you hear may be melodic, inspiring, and perhaps even beautiful, but it isn’t awesome. A quote may be insightful, but it isn’t awesome. And your steak, however well prepared, may be great and delicious, and even succulent… but it isn’t awesome. God is awesome.

Scripture is teeming with the awesomeness of God:

“Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds doing wonders?” Exodus 15:11

“Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies come cringing to You.” Psalm 66:3

“Awesome is God from His sanctuary; the God of Israel — He is the one who gives power and strength to His people. Blessed be God!” Psalm 68:35

“For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord; a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around Him?” Psalm 89:7

There are many other Scripture texts extolling the superlative awesomeness of our God! The late Rich Mullins was right: “Our God is an awesome God!”

Perhaps I’m expecting too much when I turn on the radio in rush-hour traffic. Rather than trying to re-educate the hosts on radio programs, the better option may be to simply keep the radio off and get back to praying to our awesome God on the way back home.

Yours for His glory,
Pastor Kevin

Guess What I Did Today?

Note: I wrote this yesterday, but wasn't able to post it until today :)

I made my first complete dinner (and dessert!) completely by myself! EEE!

(I'm not the most accomplished baker in the world. In fact, I am THE clumsiest person EVER in the kitchen...ask my Mom. Hah. I open a cupboard, and everything falls out. And let's not go into the time I added 2 tablespoons of salt into the pancakes instead of 2 teaspoons.)

I'm picking out the recipes, getting comments/rating on them from my elite panel of judges (i.e. my family), and then saving the recipes in paper protectors and putting them in a big binder.

My mad organization skills ;)

Fun cookbook I got from the library (I LOVE THAT PLACE).

Mmm...I know what we're having for breakfast!

This was seriously amazing. Ahh.

Starting on dinner/dessert.

SsSsSsugar!

Yes, I am one of those weird coconut lovers who eat it PLAIN. *Rachel Ray Voice* Yumo!

It's the happy spoon!

Dinner is served!

Beef and Bean Chimichangas got a star rating from the judges. (YES!)

Cilantro and Lime Rice. Note the LIME. Heh. The kids called it "sour rice" and Kate asked me never to make it again ;) So much for that!

Oatmeal Cake with coconut and pecan (and chocolate chips...not in the original recipe, but hey, you can't go wrong with chocolate) frosting...success!

Zeke asked for seconds! How sweet...wait. He does that every time we have dessert.

I am very grateful for my awesome family, who allows me to experiment on them... I mean, cook for them :)

Hopefully, this will happen every Saturday night!

Other news:

We have around 7" of snow on the ground! Yippee!

I'm practicing and practicing and practicing for the Junior Music Festival, which is on February 20. Oh dear me. I'm doing a music theatre solo (Look to the Rainbow and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again) , art song duet (Poor Wayfaring Stranger and Scarborough Fair) piano solo (Spanish Rhapsody and Variations on an American Folk Song), piano duet (Maine Mambo and Rockin' the Boat, and big singing group thing (The Power of your Love and Great is Thy Faithfulness). Whew! You probably didn't want to know all that!

The Steele Family (missionaries in Ukraine) visited our church last week! Kelsie Steele, who went to our church waaay back before we did, came and talked with the girls on Saturday night over tea, scones and fruit. It was an incredible time of encouragement. I wish I could put everything she said in here - she was such a testimony of a woman who loves the Lord and had followed his guidance faithfully in her life.

First, she talked about delighting in the Lord with your whole heart, and what that really means. She told us how, when she was 14, she made a commitment to pursue her relationship with the Lord and serve him with all her energies for the next four years of her life, rather than be focused on other relationships.
She also told us about her courtship with Joshua (her husband...what an amazing story of the perfect plan of God!). She talked about how God had used three "lemons" (not so great guys) in her life to teach her. She talked about how important our relationship with our parents is, especially with our fathers (for girls), as he is the one God has placed as the authority in our lives.
I had never really known what Courtship was before this year...it almost sounded like just a weird homeschool form of dating to me. But really, it is a God-centered way for a young man to approach a young lady THROUGH her father (and with his complete approval) as a way to get to know her better with marriage in mind. AHHHH! After this week, I have decided this is definitely what I want to do.

Our girl's bible study, led by our Pastor's wife, continues to go wonderfully. This week we sat around, talking and laughing over hot chocolate and other goodies as the snow fell out the window. We have been making our way through Ephesians. Every week, around 10 of us girls give prayer requests and pray for each other, study the Word, discuss questions we've had as well as other topics such as spiritual gifts and God's sovereignty, and have a great time learning more about our magnificent Lord and Savior! Could you get much better than that?

School...is school. Sometimes, it's a little difficult to finish everything - life is so busy!

Basketball is still going on...we're getting all the paperwork filled out for the national christian basketball tournament that we're heading to in March. FUN!

Our services at the Children's Home have been going AWESOME. We've been having a great turnout, and so many heart felt questions. I can really see a change in the behavior of some of the kids! God is so great!

EDIT:
And tonight, Hannah and Amy and Abby will be coming over to watch the second installment of Emma! Woot Woot!



"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." - John 10:28 Goodnight, dear readers! <3>

Bible Memorization

As sad as it is, it's hard to make time in our crazy lives to memorize scripture. However, it's so important to "hide God's word in our hearts"; and yet we give such little time to it.

At Bible Study, we made these very cool little deals which help you memorize Bible verses.
It works really well and it's a great idea...so, here's how to make them!

First, pick a bible verse(s). Write it on a piece of paper. Put the piece of paper in a plastic baggie.

Make a slit in the plastic baggie, and thread a ribbon through it, tying the end. Then, hang it on your shower head.

Voila! Next time you take a shower, it's there, waiting for you. Pretty ingenious, right?

Eight Reasons Why I Don't Share My Faith

This isn't techinally a post about my life, just a video :) But, it's a really good video. Shows us how stupid our excuses for not sharing THE gospel really are :)

Also, I was thinking that it'd be cool we started a blog about what's going on in our spiritual lives....like, where we could just talk about things that have stood out to us when we've been reading the bible, books we're reading, questions we have, evangelizing experiences/fears...you get the idea :)

I don't know if it'd work, since we all seem to have a severe case of procrasination-in-the-area-of-blogging, but it'd be awesome if it did!! :)

http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2006/09/eight-reasons-why-i-dont-share-my-faith-2/

Easter Egg Dyes and Hot Cross Buns

Happy Good Friday! Have a hot cross bun :)

I wonder if non-believers think its strange that we call it "Good" Friday. I mean, after all, Jesus *died* today. Isn't death a bad thing? The worst thing ever?

Well, it would be...if this was it. If it ended right here, at his death. But it didn't!! Christ rose from the dead, *conquering* death, taking away "it's grip on me." I love Phillipians 1:21, "But for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Aren't our Easter Eggs lovely? :) :) :)

I'm a rainbow girl. I LOVE rainbows. Why? Well, they're pretty, sure, but they're kinda like me.

I'm very indecisive. I love LOTS of things (as you all know :D) I can't choose just ONE favorite color, one favorite food, one favorite book...there's just too many good things! So, a rainbow's perfect :) It doesn't just have *one* color...it has all of 'em!

Look at raaaaainbow. It's awesome.

But that's not the only good thing about rainbows! They're a reminder. I like reminders :)

They're like...I'm not sure what they're like. But they're nice! And, rainbows are a reminder of an AMAZING thing, too! Every time you see one, you can be sure that God does keep his promises. All of them. And it isn't just a long time ago that he kept his promises, not something that you hear about, that you believe...but doesn't happen NOW. He keeps them today too! And the rainbow proves that. Woo hoo!

There's my intellectual thought for the day. Enjoy.

I'm EXCITED!! (I'm using caps, see? Weell...I kinda of use caps a lot. But, these are *extra* cappish caps) Tonight, we're going dancing. Doesn't that sound cool? "We're going dancing"

*sigh* Very story-bookish. It's going to be fun! Hopefully I wouldn't step on anyone's toes...or kick anyone. I have done that before :)

Have a nice afternoon!

Isn't God amazing?

Kaley Grace, lover of rainbows and eater of hot cross buns