I Will Exalt You

I'm loving this today

1 Peter 5:6-7

So humble yourselves under God's strong hand, and in his own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the weight of your anxieties upon Him, for you are His personal concern.
1 Peter 5:6-7

Argyle Socks Meets Monday's Fabulous Moment

oh. my. word.
My sister just sent me this picture and it just might be Monday's Fabulous Moment. My Lily knows how to work the knee socks.
She is truly lovely! I need her now.
I love being an aunt, but not when they are so far away. :(
Here's another cute one...

"Ooo Baby, Here I am..."

So it's Monday morning. Monday's are always hard...after a full day of leading worship on Sunday. It makes getting up to be to work at 8am a little difficult.
Today I've got my ipod in and am listening to some Stevie Wonder.
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" is the song that is waking me up and getting me going!
At one point a little dance move came out of me as I'm sitting at my desk. It happened to be as my boss was coming around the corner. Nice. I don't think he saw me though! haha!
what songs do you listen to that get you going in the morning?!
Let's make a playlist.

Mark Driscoll-Filthy Roman Sponge

I can't stop thinking about this.

Matt Chandler-On His Devotional Life

Exchanging My Inadequacy for Jesus' Adequacy

I read an Elisabeth Elliot devo and this particular one was talking about a friend of hers who was born with no legs. This friend encouraged a family who just had a baby with no arms or no legs. This is what she encouraged them with:

"I am convinced without a doubt that a loving Heavenly Father oversees the creative miracles in the inner sanctum of each mother's womb (Psalm 139), and that in His sovereignty there are no accidents."
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Creator calls a butterfly. As humanity we see only the imperfect, underside of God's tapestry of our lives. What we judge to be "tragic--the most dreaded thing that could happen", I expect we'll one day see as the awesome reason for the beauty and uniqueness of our life and our family. I think that's why James 1:2 is a favorite verse of min. Phillips' translation put it this way: 'When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders but welcome them as friends."
"I pray that your roots of faith will grow deep down into the faithfulness of God's Loving Plan, that you will exchange your inadequacy for the Adequacy of Jesus' resurrection power, and that you will be awed as you witness the fruits of the Spirit manifested in your family."

SO good. I love the part about exchanging our inadequacy for the adequacy of Jesus' resurrection power. I'm claiming that today.

Who Reads This Thing?

Who are you?! I want to know. I know there are some readers out there and would love to meet you if I don't know you!
Those of you I know...who are you? Who reads this thing?!
Don't be afraid...let me know who you are!
Leave a comment.
I do my fair share of blog stalking. It's ok.

God is Wooing Us To Heaven

"Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for." --Elisabeth Elliot

{Weepiness & Craziness} welcome to my life

I was weepy yesterday. It sucks. Today is better...I think.
Sometimes my best writing comes from when I'm in these weepy states and sometimes not...so we'll see what comes out.
I'm all about being raw and real lately. So just throwing that out there as a disclaimer.
When God is moving and digging into places in your heart it hurts sometimes. Those places that are still very much alive with self will hurt when God gets after it, there is still life there, it will hurt. He wants those things to die so that He can take that spot and give life back. His life. There is no room for self.
As I reflect on yesterday, there were so many things going on around me and inside of me. It's hard and frustrating to understand why I have days like this. I should be happy, I should be joyful. I generally am that way...so why the tears? Why the sadness? Why this day?
The ups and downs. It's hard.
It makes me start questioning if I'm not trusting God enough, or praying enough, or reading His word enough.
God doesn't really work like that. He doesn't punish based on our efforts to try and DO. I have to remind myself of that.

Titus 3:4-7 "When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life."

God has shown me, through a couple of amazing men, how necessary these times are. These men struggled with depression, the ups and downs, the tears, the not so joyful days.

David (man after God's own heart)-
Psalm 40:1-2 "I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along."

My man Charles Spurgeon (one of the greatest preachers in the 19th century)-
"Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. I note that some whom I greatly love and esteem, who are, in my judgment, among the very choicest of God's people, nevertheless, travel most of the way to heaven by night."
"Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith's rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide."

Joseph Hart (hymn writer)-
Come ye sinners poor and needy Weak and wounded, sick and sore Jesus ready stands to save you Full of pity, love and power I will arise and go to Jesus He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Savior
Oh, there are ten thousand charms

Come ye thirsty, come and welcome
God's free bounty glorify
True belief and true repentance
Every grace that brings you nigh

Come ye wear, heavy laden
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry till you're better
You will never come at all

View Him prostrate in the garden
On the ground your Maker lies
On the bloody tree behold Him
Sinner, will this not suffice?

God is and has always been faithful. I am the unfaithful one. I'm so thankful that His grace covers over and over and over again.
I'm seeing how He provides in abundance.
I have amazing friends around me who love me so deeply and who encourage me daily. They know how to make me smile and laugh. They know how to just let me cry. They know how and when to pray for me.
I'm so humbled.
The day was full of hugs from God through them.
I got to spend the evening with 4 amazing women who seriously bless my life like crazy. It was the perfect way to end the day.
We went to Charlotte's softball game and at this point Kate had not arrived so it was just Jen, Ro and I...
We were told that we needed to cheer more. So we did. We got real obnoxious and the three of us even did the wave. Several times.
Ro stole my shades and looked all fly...
And she even showed us her pole sliding skills...even though she was afraid of heights.And at the end of the night she ran up to Jen and did this...I almost peed my pants right there in the parking lot when I mentioned something about her booty and she looked at the pic and said...."That girl got donk! I'd be like 'ooo can I have her number?' You gotta send me that pic". I about died.
Ok. not sure how this post started out talking about weepiness and God's love and grace then ended with...well...this.
Welcome to my life. :)

Black in Heaven. Yeah.

Jen and I explain to Ro why it is that we are gonna be black in heaven.
yeah. I said it.

A Man Worth Waiting For

So...here is a real honest post.
I am continually stirred when God starts showing me the condition of my heart.
I am stirred to realness, to vulnerability, to be honest with myself, with others and most importantly and first with God.
I was sharing with a dear friend of mine the other day about how all around me are couples coming together and getting married.
I'm 28. I'm single. With NO one interested.
I am generally very ok with that. I have prayed for God to keep my heart and for Him to keep guys away until the right one comes along and in His timing. I am thankful that He has done that. I've also prayed that He would continue to heal my heart.
During this season of seeing friends come together in marriage, I have also let doubt in. (my friend was quick to say..."doubt is not from God."...OK!!!)
I see these guys who love so deeply and live sacrificially for their girls. I know they are not perfect and they will not be able to love and live perfectly and that Christ will be the only one to satisfy and to give them the ability to love and sacrifice.
I find myself doubting that I will be loved like that. That someone would actually love me and sacrifice for me and want only me.
Enter...the Holy Spirit.
Jesus.
His love is complete. His sacrifice is complete. His desire for me is complete.
This man...whoever he is...will fail me, will not love me and sacrifice for me the way that I yearn to be loved and sacrificed for and desired.
I'm so thankful for Jesus.
I know that He yearns to give me the desires of my heart. He wants to give me sweet gifts. I'm surrendering. Surrendering to His will not mine.
My friend shared this with me in an email:

"Ultimately, its surrender. A 'Thy will, not mine be done' Placing not only our hurts and wrongs in his hands, but also our hopes and our dreams in His hands. He is the God of all hope Romans 15:3 and He cares for us!! He is the perfect Father, who wants to give every good gift to us.
I think when we dwell on His correction a bit too much that it slides over to just seeing Him as our disciplinarian, but we must never forget that He loves us with a love so amazing and unimaginable. He rejoices over us-His precious ones. So the truth is everytime our dream of "him" (the man of our dreams and the whole wedding thing) occurs what if you begin to pray for him and surrender it all back to God?
'God I give this dream to you and know that you can and will provide something so much better than what I can imagine and I just give it back to you. Please lead and guide "him" to your heart. Fill him up with you, Spirit, so that he can walk in a manner worthy of your calling."
As a wife, praying for your husband will be one of the chief things you will get to do to serve him in love. What if we started now!?"

I'm praying for this man, and he is worth waiting for! :)

Rise & Shine

One of our worship leaders, Andy Melvin, recently wrote a new song for the church. We sang it yesterday and I could really feel the Spirit move powerfully through the words of this song...challenging people to step up and be the hands and feet of Christ. Here are the words...

We were once Your enemy
Now displayers of Your mercy
Called from darkness into light
To be the very hands and feet of Christ
So in the Name that saves
Let Your love ignite a flame in us

We've got rise and shine
We've got to rise and shine
The light of the world alive in us
The hope of the world alive in us
We've got to rise and shine

To you repairers of the breach
To you restorers of these broken streets
For every hungry tongue
For all injustice done beneath the sun

For the hopeless and the weary
For the broken and the needy
For Your glory, send Your Spirit
And let it rise

Last week Andy asked me to come over and learn the song...little did I know I showed up to "rehearse" at his recording studio and he had a mic and headphones all ready for me to RECORD! what?!
I listened to the song once and hammered out a bgv part and had it recorded in 45 minutes or so!
They attached the recording to the podcast of Matt's sermon (which you should definitely listen to) from yesterday. Check it out here. It's right under the sermon title "Powerful Witness of the Resurrection".
God is stirring up His church to get up and move. It's challenging and hard but SO good.

Amos & Story

Adoption is happening all around me and I love it. But I hate it at the same time. My heart hurts when I see families who are waiting to get their kids. It just doesn't make sense to me, why it takes SO long.
My good friends Aaron & Jamie are waiting for their kids Amos and Story. I'm praying everyday, "Lord let this be the day. Lord let this be the day."
They have been able to visit them in Haiti several times and it gets harder and harder to leave, I can't imagine.
Aaron just got back and here is a video that he made of some of his time with Amos and Story.
Pray for them to come home SOON.

The E Man

My dear friends Dan & Shadley finally got their boy, Esias, from Ethiopia this summer and they just posted a video on their blog of getting him. Oh, my heart!
So sweet!

Please pray for him today as he had surgery to remove an adenoid and he also has laryngomalacia so they had to clear out his airway so that he can get the proper O2 levels.

Red Head BIG Booty Slap

Jen made me watch this in a coffee shop.
In public.
People were looking at me because I was crying...making noises...laughing SO hard. I'm seriously surprised I did not pee myself.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love this song and that I have my very own booty slap dance. But seriously, this kid has got some moves.
OH man. I'm in pain from laughing so hard.
enjoy....

Wedding Weekend!

Wedding time!!! Hilary is getting married THIS WEEKEND!!! yay!!!
This weekend is FULL. It's going to be so much fun.
We're getting together tonight to get some last minute stuff put together.
Saturday is getting the apartment put together for company coming. Picking up Miss Sarah from the airport. Bachelorette party Saturday night...which will be LEGENDARY!
We have rented out a dance studio and an instructor is going to teach us hip hop routines. On top of that...it's an 80's theme party, so we will all be sporting the coolest outfits.
I will be going as an 80's rocker chick. It will be amazing.
Sunday morning we are having a bridal breakfast up on Mt. Bonnell and then we are going to the 11:15 service of church (PAC) which I will also be singing at.
My friend Christy will get in sometime Sunday afternoon.
The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner Sunday night downtown. Complete with kareoking.
Monday wedding day!
I have taken Tuesday off of work because...well...I will be worth nothing.
It will consist of taking my friends to the airport, sleeping and a massage. It will be lovely.

Precious Faith

Spurgeon Today:

"The Lord trieth the righteous." -Psalm 11:5
All events are under the control of Providence; consequently all the trials of our outward life are traceable at once to the great First Cause. Out of the golden gate of God's ordinance the armies of trial march forth in array, clad in their iron armour, and armed with weapons of war. All providences are doors to trial. Even in our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptations: trials lurk on all roads. Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and surrounded with dangers. Yet no shower falls unpermitted from the threatening cloud; every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth. The trials which come from God are sent to prove and strengthen our graces, and so at once to illustrate the power of divine grace, to test the genuineness of our virtues, and to add to their energy. Our Lord in His infinite wisdom and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon His people's faith that He will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened. You would never have possessed the precious faith which now supports you if the trial of your faith had not been like unto fire. You are a tree that never would have rooted so well if the wind had not rocked you to and fro, and made you take firm hold upon the precious truths of the covenant grace. Worldly ease is a great foe to faith; it loosens the joints of holy valour, and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut; affliction doth this sharp service for believing souls. While the wheat sleeps comfortably in the husk it is useless to man, it must be threshed out of its resting place before its value can be known. Thus it is well that Jehovah trieth the righteous, for it causeth them to grow rich towards God.

Heartbreaking Foot Washing

This breaks my heart.

(HT Zach)

Oh How He Loves!

Throughout this series that we are doing at my church I have gotten to pray with some people after the service.
It was not planned.
They just came to me.
Several of them.
One girl just kept saying that she felt like throughout worship she felt like I was screaming her name and just knew that she needed to come ask me for prayer. Another girl came up to me with tears in her eyes and said...I just feel like I was supposed to come and talk to you.
My soul stirs when this happens. God is moving. It was no accident that these people came to me and asked for prayer.
I don't feel gifted in that area, but God uses me somehow and I love it. I love lifting hurting people up in prayer.
I felt honored that they would come to me and share what they are struggling with and humbly ask for prayer. Especially when it's someone they don't even know.
Something that I love praying over people is that they would know and believe the extent of God's love for them. Especially in the hurt.
This song is on repeat on my ipod. It's David Crowder's new song.
How He Loves

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me

And oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh how He loves us
How He loves us all

And we are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way
He loves us Oh how He loves us
Oh How He loves us

13 is a Good Age!

My sweet nephew Jackson turned 13 on Sunday! WHAT?!!?! He's a teenager. CRAZY! He is so handsome and so much fun. When I come home next time, he is the one that I am going to be most shocked by! He has now gotten taller than my sister. Which means he will be taller than me. He will for sure be able to take me out.
I'm so proud of Jack. He carries himself well and he is confident in the Lord. He is wise beyond his years and his sense of humor...is...JUST like his dads. We've got a Joe Jr. here folks. :) Love you SO much Jack!