He who promised is faithful

This past week I've been gone to PA. My dad's parents, my grandparents live up there. They have almost 10 acres of land and once you drive into their drive way there is no sign of other life except the nature that is happening all around you. They have a pond you can row on and a gazebo you can sit out and enjoy the scenery around you. The gazebo is where I spent a LOT of time this trip. You see we haven't been up there in at least 10 years and the last time I went I wasn't really a nature person. I didn't really enjoy just sitting out and being still, but I have found over the years sitting still before the Lord is what I enjoy most. It was common for me to spend a few hours at the gazebo either doing my Bible study or just sitting out waiting for the Lord to come and visit with me. I have a Bible verse on my mirror in my bathroom from Joshua that says, "Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." I've been waiting for that amazing thing. It didn't need to be much, just something where I would find the track I needed to be back on, to find joy again in life and a reason to fight. I found it. A few years ago I was listening to a Beth Moore CD. She was talking about the fact that she was up in the mountains and the next morning she woke up to a moose at her window. Her friend couldn't believe and Beth said, "Well have you asked for one yourself?" The next morning the woman had a moose at her window and Beth had two!!! I've been doing Beth's Bible study on believing God, trying to get to a point in my life that I'm not just saying and prayer and leaving it alone, but really believing what I'm praying. I decided I put into action beth's moose prayer. May seem crazy, BUT I asked for a bunny near the gazebo. I was glad I wasn't at the gazebo when I got my bunny, because my bunny was a bunny but a medium sized Black bear.



The next day however the Lord brought me this huge deer. It got within 20 feet of the gazebo and was so gorgeous. I was so excited for my "moose experience." It was something little, but finally got me on a track to believe God at His word. satan is notorious for lies everyone would agree and most times we get swept down into the pit and don't know how to get out until we finally ask for a rescue line. I however noticed the other morning some lie of satan's came to my mind, instead of falling down into the pit and believing him, I started quoting scripture to through back into his face. It was quite amazing because immediately I knew the Lord was in power and satan got sat on!

I can't tell you how beautiful it is to sit out not hearing any traffic, any tv and only the water rippling the birds chirping and whatever animals are rustling in the brush. Although I must say I went running on Sunday (it was 3 miles away) It took my dad and I almost 20 minutes to get there!! I like Texas because you can see the open roads. If you haven't taken the time just to get away and here nothing you need to. I have found when I am still I hear so much more. I have a jar that is for rocks. I have been able to add so many more rocks to my jar because I am believing God for what I am praying. Praise be to our God who is Faithful!



We also went to this old grain mill. I couldn't believe how pretty this mill area was. Everything worked by the power of the water, but the view there was amazing. I soaked in a lot of the Lord over the past 4 days, which is exactly what I needed as I begin another year. I am praying that God will continue to show me what His will is for my life and that I will find delight in Him and Him alone. I pray that part of His plan is a husband for me, but if not that He would give me so MUCH JOY in whatever that may be. I'm praying that I will be looking for Him to work in my life and that I will watch and be a part of it.

Satisfy us in the morning.....Psalm 90:14 and following

I enjoy the mornings during the summer. Most summers I sleep late and stay up till the wee hours of the morning. This summer I haven't done that as much. I've swam with the swim team most days to get stronger as I train for the marathon. My favorite time of the summer though is July. The tour de france comes to a t.v. near you for an exciting 23 days/stages, and this year has not been a stranger to excitement. So satisfy us in the morning, my morning fix is the tour during the month of July, but this is not why I write all this today. Oh and by the way, I am putting a disclaimer out there if there are misspelled words or bad grammar, I'm a math teacher, not english. :)
I wanted to look at a whole passage this afternoon out of Psalm 90. I had memorized Psalm 90:14 during this past school year because I needed the Lord to focus me in the morning and to bring me joy. Second semester is always a little intense with TAKS. YEA! Read the following passage and think about a few questions, and I'm going to give you a little of my own commentary as well. :)

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, 
      
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
May your deeds be shown to your servants, 
      
your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; 
     
  establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands."
Psalm 90:14-17

Ok so you need to know a couple of things first before we start discussing the passage. The passage is written by Moses, and if you bother to look at the verses preceding, Moses is telling the reader how people are dying in the dessert, how the Lord is upset with them. (it is my assumption that possibly this was after Israel sent spies in right outside the promised land and got scared, didn't BELIEVE God to be the God He said He was and spent another 40 years in the dessert) Back to the scripture at hand. Moses was asking in verse 12 to give them wisdom, and I ask you today: How often is it that you realize instead of continuing on whatever path you're on that you keep pressing through, when do you finally stop and ask for the Lords wisdom? When do you realize the Greatness of our God, find joy in Him and head towards the promised land that He's promised us all? Verse 14 says, "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." Moses realized that he and the Israelites needed God's mercy every morning, His love that no matter what they did God would still love them. How often do we translate how people treat us on this earth to how God treats us? We equate the fact that people will turn their backs on friendship if they don't like something we do to the Lord. We think that He will do the same. Time and time again this is proven incorrect in scripture. If he really wanted to do that He would have turned his back on David when he committed adultery and killed a man in cold blood to cover it up or when Adam and Eve first sinned against Him and they could no longer walk with Him. There were so many opportunities in scripture if God was going to act like man he could have, but that is NOT his nature.
When I first started memorizing the scripture, I needed to find joy in the situation I was in. I needed to realize that God has placed me in my job not just for it to be a job, but to find joy in where He had placed me, which by the way I'm still working on however I am finding more joy in Him. It amazes me how when we seek wisdom from the Lord as Moses did, we may not be happy with the situation still, but we do find a hope and a joy to continue on the path the Lord has placed us. I pray that as the many days that have been frustrating that I will like the Israelites experience that many days of joy as will you. Until later.....

Delight in the Lord

My friends leave tomorrow for Brasil tomorrow. I'm sad in some respects because I won't get to see my adopted family there, but at the same time know that I was not called to go there this summer. I started working with a missions team out of the U.S back in November and nothing ever worked itself out. Last summer as I got to experience Brasil and some amazing ministry, I committed to the Lord that as long as I was still single I would serve wherever He called me to serve during the summer. What I find so interesting is that after all that, this summer I am not headed anywhere. I prayed through MANY options but none ever seemed to be the place to be.

"Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to him and he will do this." Psalm 37:4,5 I've been reading a lot about this. What does it look like to Delight in Him? What does it mean to commit your ways to him, and what do the following versus say that he will do? I believe that as we begin to find joy in the Lord, asking Him to be the joy of our lives first and foremost that we will begin to find all the things we ever thought we would want. Not in the since that we will get all of these earthly possessions or that you or I would be rich, but that our joys would begin to change. Our desires would match up with what the Lord has in store for us and just maybe we would begin to find joy in the places that we don't think we really were suppose to be to begin with. (i'm still not there yet, so this is a work in progress for me). There are so many places in scripture the Lord talks about delighting in Him, or asking whatever in His name and He will do it. I believe there is a catch to this however, ok catch might not be the right term. It all comes down to belief. I can ask a lot of things from the Lord, however if I don't really believe down in my heart, my core of what I believe that God can do, then I'm not sure He's really willing to answer that. I believe He can to show me He is still and will remain the Most High, but He wants us to believe what He is saying to us. We ask in faith. So what is it that you believe. If you really look to the core of what you believe and what you are praying, do you REALLY believe He can do it? I know we all have times that we will have our ups and downs with faith. We will struggle to believe God is working. I can't tell you how many times I have prayed and I just didn't believe what I was praying, and if I would be honest with myself it all came back down to the fact that I didn't believe my LORD was big enough. How sad! The God who created the universe, the one who has made so many prophecies come to reality, who died and rose again three days later, that God wouldn't be big enough for me? Seriously? I must find delight in Him, because on those days that I ask the Lord when I first get up to be the delight of my life. He energizes my day. He gives me enough energy to go above and beyond my tired self, and become the playful person that personality really is. I pray that for you, tomorrow you will get up and realize the LORD (and yes it needs to be all caps, because all caps means yawah, the creator) is the delight of your life. I am praying that anyone who reads this will begin to think about the hugeness of our God, and that I will continue to realize that daily.

We'll see how this goes

All my friends seem to have blogs, and sometimes I wonder where in the world I can share some of the Bible studies God has laid on my heart to share with others. If your visiting this site and want some bible studies and random thoughts of what the Lord has taught me, come on for the ride. I think I also might share some about my marathon races, but we'll see.