Attributes of God

Almost two months ago a friend suggested that we do a little Bible study together. What we do is daily as part of our time with God we look for an attribute of God and text the verse and any thoughts we have on it to each other. It has been a wonderful time of learning about who God really is. I though I knew Him, but I have found that there is so much more to Him than I could ever imagine. The following are some of my favorites.
(All Scriptures are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted)

• God is Our Sustainer. Psalm 3:5, "I lay down and slept; I awoke again, for the Lord sustained me."
• God is a Stronghold. Psalm 9:9, "The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble."
• God is My Portion. Psalm 119:57, "The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words."
• He is the God of the Living. Matthew 22:32b, "...He is not a God of the dead, but of the living."
• God has Steadfast Love. Psalm 52:2, "...the steadfast love of God endures all day."
• Jesus is the Same. Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever."
• He is My God. Deuteronomy 10:21, "He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen." (This is my personal favorite)
• God Calls Us. Romans 11:29 (NKJV), "For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable."
• God Rescues Us. Psalm 18:16-17 (NIV), "He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me."
• God is Patient. II Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
• The Lord knows the Way I Take. Job 23:10 (NKJV), "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold."
• God is Unique. Job 23:13 (NKJV), "But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does."
• God will be Our Rear Guard. Isaiah 52:12, "For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."
• The Lord Loves Justice. Psalm 37:28, "For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints."
• The Lord is Slow to Anger. Psalm 103:8, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."
• God Hears the Brokenhearted. Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."
• The Lord Called Me from the Womb. Isaiah 49:1, "Listen to me, O coast lands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name."
• My Redeemer Lives. Job 19:25, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth."
• God's Greatness is More than can be Told. Psalm 40:5, "You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with You! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told."
• God is Beautiful. Psalm 27:4, "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."
• The Lord Heals Backsliding. Hosea 14:4 (NKJV), "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely."
• God Supplies. Philippians 4:19, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Shall We Not Accept?

Some of you know that I am taking a semester off from school while my mom recovers from her surgery (here is the post I wrote on that decision). I made the offer to drop out willingly and am very happy to be able to help out. However, yesterday was a bit rough for me because it was the first day of classes and I was not there. It felt really weird and I was somewhat sad. Then this morning I was reading in Job when a phrase jumped out at me:

"Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"

(Job 2:10b)

It is so easy to take the blessings and good that God bring, accept it, be happy about it, and move on. But when He, in His sovereign way, chooses to bring adversity I react in sorrow. Yes, it is understandable to not always be the happiest when life throws a curve ball at me, but instead of fighting against it and asking God why He allowed something in my life, it is much better to accept His all knowing way, learn from the experience, and grow more in His image.

My heart's desire is to be more like Christ, and only by obediently following Him without question and complaint can I grow in Him. It is not an easy task, and often I fail, but He is always there to forgive and encourage me. He has promised to never leave or forsake me, and that is all I need.

Called Aside

My typical day usually starts with a cup of black coffee (if I'm in the mood) and my Bible. Today, for several reasons it did not start that way. To my shame, instead of making sure I spent time with my God, I got busy doing other things, baking cookies for the jail ministry, making Mom's breakfast, running some errands, etcetera. Suddenly in the midst of my busyness Luke 10: 41-42 popped into my head, "And Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.'" Ouch. That hurt. As soon as I finished what I was in the middle of doing I sat down to read and spend time with my Lord and Savior.

Later, I began to consider my life and how easy it is for me to get focused on the wrong things, not necessarily bad things, but my priorities are misplaced and as a result my life is not as blessed or productive as it could be if God were my primary focus. I find myself doing thing "for God" but in my own strength rather than relying on Him for help and wisdom. No matter what, God is there, but it is my choice to give Him room to work or to push Him out. Life would be so much easier if I learned to completely rely on Christ rather than relying on myself.

Always Now

"We...beseech you that ye recieve not the grace of God in vain." II Corinthians 6:1

The grace you had yesterday will not do for today. Grace is the overflowing favour of God; you can always reckon it is there to draw upon. "In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses" --that is where the test for patience comes. Are you failing the grace of God there? Are you saying--Oh, well, I won't count this time? It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you; it is taking the grace of God now. We make prayer the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. Don't say,--I will endure this until I can get away and pray. Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment of need. Prayer is the most practical thing, it is not the reflex action of devotion. Prayer is the last thing in which we learn to draw on God's grace.

"In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours"--in all these things manifest a drawing upon the grace of God that will make you a marvel to yourself and to others. Draw now, not presently. The one word in the spiritual vocabulary is Now. Let circumstances bring you where they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in every conceivable condition you may be in. One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be humiliated without manifesting the slightest trace of anything but His grace.

"Having nothing..." Never reserve anything. Pour out the best you have, and always be poor. Never be diplomatic and careful about the treasure God gives. This is poverty triumphant.

From "My Utmost for His Highest" June 26th, by Oswald Chambers

A Time to Sleep

"And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison." (Acts 12:6)

Here is an amazing thing. The apostle Peter is in prison, bound with chains, heavily guarded, probably awaiting execution (his close friend James already had been put to death by Herod), and "prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him" (Acts 12:5).

Yet, here he is, fast asleep! He had been imprisoned at least once before for preaching the gospel, and the Lord had miraculously delivered him then (Act 5:17-19), so why should he be fearful now? The Lord was still in control, and there was nothing Peter himself could do about the situation, so he simply went to sleep. There are, of course, many situations where a Christian needs to stay alert and watchful. But there are also times when he has done all he can do, and there is nothing to be accomplished by further worrying, so he must leave it in the Lord’s hands.

In Peter’s case, he was sleeping so soundly that when an angel from God came to deliver him from his "impossible" circumstance, the angel had to smite him on the side (v. 7) to awaken him! In fact, he was still so sleepy that he did not really "come to himself" (v. 11) until the angel left him out
on the street alone.

Then, of course, Peter rushed back to the house of Mark’s mother, where the church was praying for him (v. 12), to tell them of the amazing answer to their prayers. As with Peter, there are times when we must simply "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exodus 14:13), "so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13:6). HMM

From Days of Praise, April 17, 2010

Is it Just Me??

This morning when my alarm I really didn't want to get up. After all it was early, it was dark outside, and no one else was up in my room. I really wanted to reset my alarm for about 30 or 45 minutes later. Mmmmm…sleep. The problem was that I knew that if I did that then I wouldn't have my devotions. I reasoned, "I'm so tired because yesterday was an insane day. Surely God will understand, after all the reason I was so busy yesterday was because I was busy for Him, I wasn't just goofing off all day." But the other side of me was arguing, "Hey! The 'spiritual' stuff you were doing yesterday won't carry over into today...each day you have to be renewed and you need to spend time with God TODAY! Don't live your life relying on yesterdays experiences, live life moment by moment with Christ." Thankfully I listened to the better side of the argument and got up and had sweet fellowship with my Savior. Sadly, that's not always the case for me...sometimes I do reset my alarm. I am wondering if I'm the only one who has that problem every day, or if anyone else also struggles? How do you overcome that problem?

Leanness of Soul

The other day in my devotions I was reading Psalm 106. The Psalm is going over the history of Israel starting from the plagues in Egypt. It describes the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea and how the Israelites praised God. Verse 13 however, drastically changes the whole attitude of the Psalm, "Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn't wait for his counsel!" How easy it is for any of us, myself included, when life is going good to forget the things that God has done for us and to not listen to Him. The Psalm goes on to tell how they began to worship other gods and go after the things that they wanted. Verse 15 says, "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." That last phrase really got me, so often I choose to go my own way and and I refuse to listen to God's warnings and every time that I do that He does give me a leanness of soul. The sad thing is, I'm so often caught up in whatever I'm doing that, like the Israelites, I don't even realize what I'm doing until God has to do something drastic to get my attention. In the Jews case, even the deaths of Dathan and Abiram didn't wake them up. It got to a point where God was ready to destroy all of His chosen people, but had it not been for the prayers of Moses the Jewish nation as we know it today would not be around. "Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them." (verse 23).
The Hebrews continually got worse. Finally God sent them into captivity. This passage hints at the fact that God not only sent them into captivity once, but He sent them many times because of their lack of ability to stay close to God. "Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity." (verse 43). The best part comes in verses 44 and 45, "Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies." Ah, how good of God to rescue us from the situations that we put ourselves into. As long as we are saved it doesn't matter where we go, or to what extent of sin we get into, if we cry to God, and repent and ask Him to rescue us, He will. "He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives." (verse 46).
It would be so much easier and better for all of us were we not to ever get out of God's will for our lives. However, I honestly don't know anyone who has never done anything wrong, or at some point been out of God's will. I know that I've been in that position, and I know that I've messed up big time in many areas and had a lot of that "leanness of soul." I also know that God has had to use some pretty drastic situations in my life to get my attention. Yet each and every time that I've cried to Him in my captivity, He has been merciful to me and rescued me from my distresses. What an awesome God. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord." (verse 48).

Why seek counsel?

There are times in my life that I really don’t know what to do. Sometimes it is simply with a decision that needs to be made, and other times it’s because life has dealt me an unexpected blow and I don’t know where to turn. It is then that I need to seek outside counsel.

A huge reason for getting counsel is because often other people can see things that are going on that I cannot see. They have an outside perspective on the issues that I’m having and they can help me deal with my problems. Another reason for seeking Biblical counseling is that the counselor will take me back to the Bible to see what God has to say about my struggles. They will also pray with and for me that God would show me what to do.

Seeking counsel is so important because it helps you to focus on what God wants you to do. It is also important to help me make a careful and thought out decision, rather than a decision based on emotions and the heat of the moment. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” –I Corinthians 10:13

Micah 7:5-8

Trust ye not in a friend,

put ye not confidence in a guide:

keep not the doors of they mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

For the son dishounoureth the father,

the daughter riseth up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

Therefore I will look unto the LORD;

I will wait for the God of my salvation:

my God will hear me.

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy:

when I fall, I will arise;

when I sit in darkness,

the LORD shall be a light unto me

~Micah 7:5-8

I'll be honest, this morning when I was reading my devotions I hadn't really gotten anything from them and almost didn't go on to chapter 7 of Micah, simply because I was tired of not getting anything. I finally decided that it was probably a better idea to go on, so almost grudgingly I continued from chapters 6 to 7. WOW!! Is all I can say, I LOVE the last part of verse 7, MY GOD WILL HEAR ME!! How much better can you get? Even when everyone and everything is against me, if I look to Jesus, He will hear me. When I fall, He will pick me up, and if I don't know what to do He will show me. Why trust in an earthly friend, who will only let me down when I have the Lord to lean upon?

Graven upon His Palms

Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands;
thy walls are continually before me.
~Isaiah 49:16

Monday night Miss Josa spoke in dorm devotions and she brought up this verse. At the time I remember thinking, "That's a good verse," but I was soooo tired that night that I really didn't think much more about it. Today in my devotions I read the verse again. Matthew Henry wrote: "Some mothers do neglect their children; but God's compassions to his people, infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents toward their children. His setting them as a mark on his hand, or a seal upon his arm, denotes his being ever mindful of them." In a sense it is like God tattoos us on His hand. We are always there, and He is constantly looking at us, thinking about us, and caring about us. In his commentary, Barnes says: "Thy walls - The meaning is, that he constantly looked upon them; that he never forgot them. He had a constant and sacred regard for his people, and amidst all their disasters and trials, still remembered them." What a wonderful God we have. To think that He is ever watching us and cares so much for us that even when we are going through trials we are literally in His hand, and we don't have to do anything on our own. He is there, not just walking beside us, but holding us, protecting us, and defending us. What a great God we serve.

*****Jay Cook State Park, Minnesota*****

It's Spring!!

Last night in dorm devotions Mrs. Mushtaq spoke to us. For an illustration she handed several of us styrofoam cups and then came down the line pouring what looked like water from a cup into what looked like a small wooden goblet, and pouring from that into our cups. After we all had some in our cups she told us to drink it and then tell her what we thought. We all kinda looked at each other nervously and tried a sip, it had a really funny taste. Bitter was the best word to describe the flavor. It was regular water in the styrofoam cup, but it was poured into wormwood, which gave it the funny flavor. Apparently the longer the water is in the wormwood the worse it tastes, we were all glad that Mrs. Mushtaq had only had the water in the wormwood for at the VERY most a minute before we got it in our cups. However, it was a REALLY good illustration of sin, and how quickly it becomes bitter.
I love Tuesdays and Thursdays because I only have 3 classes, and they are all relatively easy, especially compared to my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes. First period was Christian Home, we got our test results back, I got a 95%, not bad, although it ruins my 100% average in the class, but oh well, I think I can still handle that. :)
I had a wonderful free period in which I made some phone calls following up on job applications. One of the places said they weren't hiring, another said that for some reason the online application that I had filled out said that I wasn't eligible for the job. She asked me a couple of questions and said that shouldn't have happened, so i had to fill out that application....again. The other store that I called said that I needed to talk to the manager, and he wasn't in today, so I have to call tomorrow. So far, not so good. :( Please continue to pray that I find a job.
Chapel was really good. Pastor Wes Bailey from North Carolina is here for a couple of days. He is the dad of 2 of the students here. He preached from Psalm 56, using the whole chapter, but his text was verse 9, "When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me." The title of the message was, "This I know, for God is for me." It was REALLY good! He is going to be preaching tomorrow as well, and I'm looking forward to the sermon.
My next class was Christian Womanhood. We learned more about interior decorating, finished up that topic and then went on to verse 23 of Proverbs 31 and discussed the success of a husband, and how it is the wife that makes or breaks her husband. It really is a VERY scary thing to think about. Obviously I'm not married, nor do I have a boyfriend, but hopefully some day in the future I will have one, and I want him to succeed at whatever God has called him to do. It is a good reminder to stay close to God ALWAYS!!
Let's not even go into what I learned in Intro to Missions, or rather what I didn't learn in that class. I didn't learn anything, like normal. I spent the hour IMing and texting friends, and filling out job applications online.
I actually ate lunch in the cafeteria today! They had baked chicken, so I could eat it!! It was WONDERFUL!! :)
Nothing exciting happened at work. I worked about 15 extra minutes in order to finish something up, but that was ok since I had left early yesterday.
After work I came back to my room and worked for several hours on the World History that I'm teaching. It's really hard to fit all of WWI into one 50 minute lesson! It's a LOT of info to condense down to such a small time frame.
I found one brave tulip that flowered today, so I took some pics, it is really pretty, and since tulips are my favorite flower I HAD to take some pictures!!

**********

*****Flowers on a bush*****

*****It's all green and alive! It's Spring time!!*****

Typical Tuesday

*****Daffodils*****

I know I will probably pay for this dearly, but I have to tell all of my Mid-West family and friends who are dealing with snow and other winter weather just how nice the weather is here!! :) It's not exactly sunny, but it's not raining today and the temps are probably in the low 50s! The flowers are blooming beautifully and all in all it is rather nice. It was much warmer and sunny last week, but I will still take 50s and clouds to 20s and 30s and snow! :-P I love all of you guys!! haha!

*****Tulips are my favorite flower, I can't wait until they bloom!!*****

*****I don't know what these next two flowers are but they are pretty. If anybody knows, can you please let me know?*****

Classes were pretty simple today. In Christian Home we started what Bro. Barnes said will be a several class period series on training children. It seems weird to me, who is not even dating anyone, let alone contemplating marriage, or married, or have children, to be learning about raising kids. On the other hand, as Bro. Barnes said, it is better to start learning now rather than after my kids are already born, and I'm trying to figure out how to deal with their problems.
After CH I had a free period in which I got my laundry done, took pictures of flowers, and did some studying.
Chapel was really good today. Pastor Bloom from somewhere in PA was the special speaker today. His passage was Proverbs 4:23, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." The cool thing was that I had just read that this morning in my devotions! I had really been thinking about that verse all morning already, so when he spoke on it I was ready to listen. For the most part I had heard pastor's use that verse when talking about guy/girl relationships and the importance of keeping your heart for the right one. Pastor Bloom didn't even touch that topic, instead he spoke about the heart. He defined "Heart" as "The secret place known only to you and God. It is who you really are. "Reputation" was defined as, "Who people think you are." He talked about the ways to keep your heart by watching who you spend time with, by what you meditate on, by how you rationalize your actions and thoughts, by your habits, by not desensitizing yourself to sin, and by how God will expose everything. It was a really good sermon.
Christian Womanhood was good. I really like that class cuz we are taking Proverbs 31 verse by verse. I think we did verse 20 today.
I was able to turn in my project for Intro to Missions today. What a relief! :)
Work was just that, work!! :( I really don't like my job. I like to keep things clean to an extent, but cleaning every day gets old REALLY fast! I'll be glad when this semester is over and I can leave the janitorial department behind forever!!
I want to wish a VERY happy birthday to my friend Amanda, AKA Rosebud, and also a happy birthday to Ashley!! Best wishes to both of you!! :) <3

I'm so sorry that I haven't updated my blog in several days. I do have a good excuse: I was/am sick! :( I woke up Saturday morning and was very dizzy and lightheaded. I almost passed out! It was NO fun. I felt terrible. I went back to bed and slept all day! I haven't slept that much since I had mono 2 years ago! Finally I woke up around 10:00 pm and found that my fever had broken. I actually felt kinda, sorta, maybe descent. It wasn't until I had taken a shower and opened a can of fruit that I actually turned on my computer. (Mom always says that she knows when I'm sick when I don't turn my computer on!) I was sick!
Sunday I still wasn't feeling very good. My head was all plugged up, and in general I felt like crap! UGH! I wanted to stay in bed soooo bad, and I probably should have done that, but I had too much to do. So much for my relaxing weekend! I worked Sunday night after church, but left about half an hour early. I came back to my dorm and crashed!
Monday morning everything took at least 2 times longer than usual to do. It was really depressing. I had absolutely NO energy! Classes were ok, I had 2 tests and got a 100% on one of them and an 80% on the other. I wasn't too upset about the 80 since I had forgotten about it until the teacher was handing out the papers!! Oops!
Work took forever as well. It was the most frustrating thing to deal with. I couldn't get anything done, and what I did get done took forever to do. Grrr!!!
After I was done with work I went to supper, ate quick and then came back to my room and slept for almost 2 hours! It was WONDERFUL!! After that nap I felt a lot better. I got a book report written and several other things done. YAY!!!
On Monday nights we have dorm devotions. Normally one of the ladies that is here on staff will come and give a devotional. Last night Mrs. Barnes was the one who spoke to us. Her topic: "What is love to us?" She had us share what we think love is, and there were some really good answers. One girl said that love is a teacher who takes the time to prepare for their class. I can't agree with that more! It drives me nuts when a teacher just reads the book instead of teaching. GRRRR!!! I guess it is a pet peeve of mine!
This morning I managed to move faster than yesterday which is a good thing. I'm still not up and at it completely. I still just want to crawl back in bed. :( Thankfully my head isn't as plugged as it was before, :) but now I have a really bad cough. :( I do feel as though I am on the mend.