..Affliction..

Why?

The first question many people ask when they hear this word or stories of people in other countries being persecuted. It’s not fun. or enjoyable. There will be people who think we’re weird. crazy. naive. are those things so bad though? NO! Why? Because it means that we are being “ambassadors for Christ'” desiring to be like him on this earth, knowing this is not our home!

YES – we will face afflictions and persecution – not always physically, but in any and everyway subtle and obvious that distracts us from being like Christ.

WHY do we have to face it? Because everything in this world is contrary to our God, Creator, Lover, Father, and Savior and his Name and Glory are at stake! It has NOTHING to do with us, and everything to do with Him!

HOPE – He does not leave us alone to face these things on our own! 2 Corinthians 1: 3-7:

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all
comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. ⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. ⁶If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Longing for more of Him,

Heidi

.. Worry ..

I was reading this sermon this morning, by John MacArthur. It brought up several good points on worry that I could not keep to myself!

First of all, consider this:

“…the Bureau of Standards in Washington D.C. and they had a little feature in there that was telling about fog, and what was the composite element of fog. And this I thought was fascinating, a dense fog that covers a seven city block area one hundred feet deep, and by that they mean a very dense, thick fog seven blocks and a hundred feet deep, is composed of less than one glass of water, divided into sixty thousand million drops. Not much is really there at all, but it can cripple an entire city. And I think that's a pretty good illustration of worry, put it all together and you don't have much more than a glass of water, but you can sure mess up a whole lot of people.”

How often do we let worry in our lives OVERTAKE everything?! Just like less than a glass of water can cripple a city… hmmm….

{Photo}

And besides that, 4 times in this passage, part of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ commands us not to worry:

"Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; neither yet for your body, what ye shall put on….Therefore, be not anxious saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be, therefore, not anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will be anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil." – Matthew 6:25-34.

I know, I know… easier said than done, but that’s not an excuse to not try, right? Don’t go around looking like this:

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Instead, trust and hope in Christ to provide EVERYTHING!

. A Comparison .

Found this in my drafts yesterday… not sure if it was complete at the time, but it’s still good food for thought now…

Mercy~

• Dictionary.com - compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence: Have mercy on the poor sinner
• Heidi – Not getting the consequences we deserve.

Grace ~

• Dictionary.com -
  1.elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.
  2.a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.
  3.favor or good will.
• Heidi – Receiving God’s favor that we don’t deserve.

Many times I get these two things confused. The chapter I was reading this morning was on Mercy, so it caused me to once again ponder the difference and eternal implications of these two things… won’t you ponder with me?

Love,

H

.Life Lately.

I know the last couple of posts have been on the heavy side of things. So, I think it’s time for a simple life update. Here are some things that happened/I discovered this week [In no particular order, just as they come to me]:

1. I’m a SENIOR in college. Because I’ve been taking classes on-line the timing gets a little fuzzy in my head, but it’s official by credits!
2. Mike and I were not liking the idea of not seeing each other until May… so WE BOUGHT A FLIGHT! I get to see him next weekend! {This was only after much prayer, checking bank accounts, and finding a GREAT deal on flights!}
3. As of Sunday I’ll be half-way through another set of classes {I take 2 classes every 8 weeks}. Time seems to be FLYING by!
4. 133 Days until the wedding… WHOA! I go back and forth, but today I wouldn’t mind if the countdown would slow down just a little!
5. I got my wisdom teeth out last Thursday and the recovery seems to be going well! No dry sockets, infections, or bruising. Still just a little swelling and regular doses of pain meds. I would not have been so optimistic last weekend, I cried several times, but now I’m glad I did it all as once and NEVER have to do it again!
6. Finally, and most importantly, the Lord is moving in new ways in both Mike and I. It’s SO refreshing and encouraging to go through this as a couple and not alone. Our God is TRUELY faithful, wise, and SOVREIGN in every way. I’m excited to see what He has in store!

To End- a few engagement pics. I realized I never put these on here. I never grow tired of seeing these! It was a fun. lovely. exciting. day!

All credit goes to Ria, with Ri Photography. She did a GREAT job!

Love,

Heidi

..Surrender..

This is something it seems like I used to think alot about, especially when I first moved home, has come up in my life again.

Do you ever wish that you could take the “Chalk-board” of your life and wipe it ALL clean? To start completely over. To SURRENDER everything to Christ.

I’m not sure if I would do anything differently, really. But I look at my life - the way I think, the things I believe – and I see areas that need lots of work. My mind, actions and speech are swayed so easily by the world I live in and what society dictates is the “Norm”. I wish I could have a right view of Christ, Prayer, the Holy Spirit – all the things of God that don’t always make “sense” - not tainted by the comfort of my home, abundant food, and the society I’ve been trained by my whole life.

I just want to surrender it ALL…

and only get back His thoughts, ways, and life.

~Heidi~

A Prayer

My heart keeps going back to this prayer from “Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ” by John Piper, a book I’ve been slowly working through because of the meat in it. This is from the chapter titled- The Incomparable Sufferings… read it keeping in mind all Christ suffered for your sake:

A P R A Y E R
Father, what can we say? We feel utterly unworthy in
the face of Christ’s unspeakable sufferings. We are
sorry. It was our sin that brought this to pass. It was
we who struck him and spit on him and mocked him.
O Father, we are so sorry. We bow ourselves to the dirt
and shut the mouths of our small, dark, petty, sinful
souls. O Father, touch us with fresh faith that we might
believe the incredible. The very pain of Christ that
makes us despair is our salvation. Open our fearful
hearts to receive the Gospel. Waken dead parts of our
hearts that cannot feel what must be felt—that we are
loved with the deepest, strongest, purest love in the
universe. Oh, grant us to have the power to comprehend
with all the saints the height and depth and length
and breadth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
and may we be filled with all the fullness of God.
Fight for us, O God, that we not drift numb and blind
and foolish into vain and empty excitements. Life is
too short, too precious, too painful to waste on
worldly bubbles that burst. Heaven is too great, hell is
too horrible, eternity is too long that we should putter
around on the porch of eternity. O God, open our eyes
to the vastness of the sufferings of Christ and what they
mean for sin and holiness and hope and heaven. We
fear our bent to trifling. Make us awake to the weight
of glory—the glory of Christ’s incomparable sufferings.
In his great and wonderful name, amen.

Kinda puts everything in perspective, huh? Yes, as you can see from my post on Monday, life isn’t always easy, but it is “…too short, too precious, too painful to waste on worldly bubbles that burst.”

Heidi

Comfortable In My Own Skin

The Lord has been doing a work in my heart this week, and it hasn’t necessarily been an easy, enjoyable journey. Insecurities in my own life have been rising to the surface, like grape skins do when you’re boiling grapes to make grape jelly.. .like this picture… a favorite childhood memory of mine. :)

And just like when making Jelly, it is important to skim this stuff off the top and not ignore it… cuz if you ignore it you’ll have to deal with it again, it never truly goes away.

For me this has come to the surface in the planning for engagement pics., invitations and really everything having to do with the wedding. I want it ALL to be PERFECT and WOW the world for years to come. In doing this though, I have walked down the treacherous path of caring more about what others think or the latest fashions than 1) The Lord… yikes! and 2)Being myself and comfortable with who I am and what I enjoy. This is a path I used to walk down alot, and by the Lord’s grace hadn’t been walking down, until now :).

So, I am slowly growing comfortable with the fact that 1) what I wear in my engagement pics. doesn’t have to be the latest fashion, because fashion really is what you make it, not trying to copy the latest trend… SO out come all the scarves I LOVE!

2) I am a big town girl, living in a small town world - which offers it’s own unique classyness for pictures and wedding locations! It may not be the nicest places, with the best food, but it is where I grew-up and thus uniquely part of me.

With all this realization, I can’t wait to share more of ME with the world and be comfortable with every part of who the Lord has created me… in my own skin :-).

“Life Chapter” for this Beautiful Season

The more and more I read Ephesians 5, which has been daily lately, the more I want my life to be modeled after this chapter. The last section hasn’t really applied to my life until now. I hope and pray I can live my life this way…

Excerpts from Ephesians 5 - NIV [source]

“1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and 2 live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. ⁴Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God…

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰and find out what pleases the Lord. ^{…. 13}But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."

¹⁵Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil….¹⁹Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Wives and Husbands

²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything…”

Such a high calling for any Christian and we could not achieve it without His Grace! We all need to be comparing our lives to scriptures, to make sure we’re living up to the standards and truths of Scripture… it’s not easy, it hurts, it’s gross sometimes… but it is SO WORTH IT to become more like our savior everyday!

...Sabbath...

This weekend is a weekend for resting in the arms of my Loving and Just Savior! For the most part I am *trying* to put aside all wedding plans, technology, and people to just BE with Him. It's a 3 day weekend and my last one before school starts again... perfect timing... don't you think??

It will be full of Journaling, Prayer, The Word, Worship and Reading this book:
http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/Books/ByTopic/46/464_Seeing_and_Savoring_Jesus_Christ/?gclid=CLDEgcS_qZ8CFQIhDQodjg-T0g

My Spirit is longing for more in this life, but that "more" can only come from THE Throne of Grace.

Scripture to Meditate on: 2: Corinthians 4:16 & 17.

See You Tuesday!