Now Will on guitar...Noah rockin' hardcore on drums and Sam is....backup dancer?!
Noah really got into the drums. He's a rocker.
They are all so little! I'm not sure what year this is...or how old they all are. But they are little!
Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again Rejoice!".
You'll notice that it doesn't end with "...unless you're doing something extremely important." No, it's a command for all of us, and it follows with the charge, "Do not be anxious about anything" (v.6).
That came as a pretty staggering realization. But what I realized next was even more staggering.
When I am consumed by my problems-stressed out about my life, my family, my job-I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a "right" to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.
Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.
Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.
Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we're forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed.
Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are?
I find myself relearning this lesson often. Even though I glimpse God's holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not about me at all.
One definition of justice is "reward and/or penalty as deserved." If what we truly deserved were up to us, we would end up with as many different answers as people who responded. But it isn't up to us, mostly because none of us are good.
God is the only Being who is good, and the standards are set by Him. Because God hates sin, He has to punish those guilty of sin. Maybe that's not an appealing standard. But to put it bluntly, when you get your own universe, you can make your own standards. When we disagree, let's not assume it's His reasoning that needs correction.
It takes a lot for us to comprehend God's total hatred for sin. We make excuses like, "Yes, I am prideful at times, but everyone struggles with pride." However, God says in Proverbs 8:13, "I hate pride and arrogance." You and I are not allowed to tell Him how much He can hate it. He can hate and punish it as severely as His justice demands.
God never excuses sin. And He is always consistent with that ethic. Whenever we start to question whether God really hates sin, we have only to think of the cross, where His Son was tortured, mocked, and beaten because of sin. Our sin.
No question about it: God hates and must punish sin. And he is totally just and fair in doing so.
My friend, Nancilea, is a diver on the USA Olympic team! She has been training for awhile and this year she is there!
I received a special piece of mail a few weeks ago. This is what was in it...
The cutest little envelope you will ever see...
with this inside...
Here's what the note had to say...
Really...our love is not conditional...Numbers of Christians can view the past with pleasure, but regard the
present with dissatisfaction; they look back upon the days which they have
passed in communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have
ever known, but as to the present, it is clad in a sable garb of gloom and
dreariness. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they
have wandered from Him, and they say, "O that I were as in months past!"
They complain that they have lost their evidences, or that they have not present
peace of mind, or that they have no enjoyment in the means of grace, or that
conscience is not so tender, or that they have not so much zeal for God's
glory. The causes of this mournful state of things are manifold. It
may arise through a comparitive neglect of prayer, for a neglected closet is the
beginning of all spiritual decline. Or it may be the result of
idolatry. The heart has been occupied with something else, more than with
God; the affections have been set on the things of earth, instead of the things
of heaven. A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; He must
be loved first and best. He will withdraw the sunshine of His presence
from a cold, wandering heart. Or the cause may be found in self-confidence
and self-righteousness. Pride is busy in the heart, and self is exalted
instead of lying low at the foot of the cross. Christian, if you are not
now as you "were in months past", do not rest satisfied with wishing for a
return of former happiness, but go at once to seek your Master, and tell Him
your sad state. Ask His grace and strength to help you to walk more
closely with Him; humble yourself before Him, and He will lift you up, and give
you yet again to enjoy the light of His countenance. Do not sit down to
sigh and lament; while the beloved Physician lives there is hope, nay there is a
certainty of recovery for the worst cases.--Charles Spurgeon
Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the LORD. Be this
our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in
His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and
content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest
condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child
before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him;
we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice
no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these
would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our
hearts.
Blessed Assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road.
It will come from him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of
it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most
surely in His own time and manner. He will save from doubt, and suffering,
and slander, and distress. Though we see no sign of it as yet, we are
satisfied to bide the LORD'S will, for we have no suspicion of His love and
faithfulness. He will make sure work of it before long, and we will praise
Him at once for the coming mercy.
Colossians 1:16 tells us that everything was created for God: "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."
Don't we live instead as though God is created for us, to do our bidding, to bless us, and to take care of our loved ones?
Psalm 115:3 reveals, "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." Yet we keep on questioning Him: "Why did You make me with this body, instead of that one?" "Why are so many people dying of starvation?" "Why are there so many planets with nothing living on them?" "Why is my family so messed up?" "Why don't You make Yourself more obvious to the people who need You?"
The answer to each of those questions is simply this: because He's God. He has more of a right to ask us why so many people are starving. As much as we want God to explain Himself to us, His creation, we are in no place to demand that He give an account to us.
"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?""--Daniel 4:35
Can you worship a God who isn't obligated to explain His actions to you? Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?
Do you really believe that compared to God, "all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing," including you?
I forgot that I had taken this picture awhile ago when I had gotten Fruity Pebbles and I had a little accident. I can't even remember what happened...but I , of course, took a picture of it. It was all over the floor too. I think I was finding little pebbles in random places for months afterwards.
Hilary and I with Taylor and Carrie
Hilary and Travis :)
This dude opened for Brooke. He was awesome. William Fitzsimmons. Go get his stuff. He's awesome. He has done stuff with Ingrid Michaelson (another favorite singer of mine). Seriously, get his music. I couldn't stop looking at his beard. It's massive.
It was funny...when he started playing there was a guy behind me that must not have realized how quiet he was playing, or must not have realized how loud he was speaking but he said, "Tasty!" (in reference to his guitar playing) and I turned around to look at him and he apologized! I said, "dude, I agree." It was a moment I think. It was funny!
My friend Jami...what an encourager she is! I love her!
Here she is...the beautiful Brooke Fraser...
She was just lovely. She has a great personality and she admitted to her not being very coordinated...as she bumped into mic stands and hit her guitar on the mic stand. It was great. She's cool.Isn't this an intimidating thought? Each of us, to some degree, fools our friends and family about who we really are. But it's impossible to do that with God. He knows each of us, deeply and specifically. He knows our thoughts before we think them, our actions before we commit them, whether we are lying down or sitting or walking around. He knows who we are and what we are about. We cannot escape Him, not even if we want to. When I grow weary of trying to be faithful to Him and want a break, it doesn't come as a surprise to God.
For David, God's knowledge led him to worship. He viewed it as wonderful and meaningful. He wrote in Psalm 139 that even in the darkness he couldn't hide from God; that while he was in his mother's womb, God was there.
Hebrews 4:13 says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." It is sobering to realize that this is the same God who is holy and eternal, the Maker of the billions of galaxies and thousands of tree species in the rainforest. This is the God who takes the time to know all the little details about each of us. He does not have to know us so well, but He chooses to.
Most of us would probably agree with that statement. But have you ever seriously meditated on what it means? Each of us had a beginning; everything in existence began on a particular day, at a specific time.
Everything, that is, but God. He always has been, since before there was an earth, a universe, or even angels. God exists outside of time, and since we are within time, there is no way we will ever totally grasp that concept.
Not being able to fully understand God is frustrating, but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending. What a stunted, insignificant god that would be! If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives.
Please stop here, even if just for a moment, and glorify the eternal God: "But you, O Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations...But you remain the same, and your years will never end." (Psalm 102:12,27)
A lot of people say that whatever you believe about God is fine, so long as you are sincere. But that is comparable to describing your friend in one instance as a three-hundred-pound sumo wrestler and in another as a five-foot-two, ninety pound gymnast. No matter how sincere you are in your explanations, both descriptions of your friend simply can't be true.
The preposterous part about our doing this to God is that He already has a name, an identity. We don't get to decide who God is. "God said to Moses, 'I am who I am" (Ex. 3:14). We don't change that.
To say that God is holy is to say that He is set apart, distinct from us. And because of His set apart-ness, there is no way we can ever fathom all of who He is. To the Jews, saying something three times demonstrated its perfection, so to call God, "Holy Holy Holy" is to say that He is perfectly set apart, with nothing and no one to compare Him to. That is what it means to be "holy".
Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can't contain Him. Isn't it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?
I had to represent....I hope that a crazy Longhorn fan doesn't do anything to me!
This was already on the car and I was ok with that....:) Yes...I am now a HUGE Mac fan!
I saw this outside of our apartment. It's a rat trap. Nice. I'm thankful they are no longer living in our apartment!
You've got the different kinds of Cap'n Crunch cereals...the original...the peanut butter...but I definitely think the best on is the Crunch Berries.
