God gave me you.

i've been addicted to the new dave barnes song...God Gave Me You. i think i might like it more than any other barnes song...idk...

I’ve been a walking heartache
I’ve made a mess of me
The person that I’ve been lately
Ain’t who I wanna be

But you stay here right beside me
Watch as the storm goes through
And I need you

God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you

There’s more here than what were seeing
A divine conspiracy
That you, an angel lovely
Could somehow fall for me
You’ll always be love’s great martyr
Ill be the flattered fool
& I need you

God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you

On my own I’m only
Half of what I could be
I can’t do without you
We are stitched together
And what love has tethered
I could baby, never undo

God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you, gave me you.
Gave me you.

abandonment to Christ

"The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity is because we have no Almighty Christ. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is not abandonment to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying-"Of course He cannot do anything," & we struggle down to the deeps & try to get the water for ourselves. Beware of the satisfactions of sinking back and saying-"It can't be done"; you know it can be done if you look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness is deep, but make the effort & look away to Him." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

ps.

it's harder than i thought it might be...idk maybe not. i knew it would be hard but it's really hard. lent seems like such a long time...

it seems so dumb that fact that i just wanna waste time on facebook and tweet things...shouldn't things be more important than this??

i just wanna give it up already...but i love my God and i want to do this for Him, to love Him more than time wasters.

Lord of Lords

i love a day when i get to have very meaningful and great conversations about God and prayer and so forth. i got to have good conversation about prayer and it was great...got me fired up and jazzed. i am truly amazed and smitten with my King.

Lord of Lords by Hillsong United

Beholding your beauty is all I long for
To worship You Jesus with my soul's desire
For this very heart you've shaped for your pleasure
The purpose to lift your name high

Hear and surrender in pure adoration
I enter your courts with an offering of praise
I am Your servant come to bring you glory
As is fit for the work of your hands

Chorus:
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of creation resounds with the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Verse 2:
The spirit now living and dwelling within me
Keep my eyes fixed ever upon Jesus' face
Let not the things of this world ever sway me
I'll run 'till I finish the race

Chorus 2:
Singing unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of creation resounds with the song
Worship and praise the Lord
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of eternity echoes the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Bridge:
Holy Lord
You are Holy
Jesus Christ is the Lord

Chorus 3:
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
Call all the saints to join in the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Ending:
Lord of Lords
Lord of Lords
Lord of Lords

lent: day 1

so i must admit that there have been multiple times today that i wanted to get on twitter. i mean really?? why do i care about twitter so much anyhow? how silly. oh well, it's something that has a hold on me. also i'm currently fighting the urge to get on facebook right now...i already got on for my one time today, so i WON'T. it wasn't that hard at points today but there were other time when i was like "i just wanna get on facebook!!" so dumb, yet it has a hold on me. it's so funny how i know these infatuations with these things are silly and especially when i compare them to knowing Christ how even sillier they seem! {phil 3:7-8, but whatever was to my profit i now consider loss for the sake of Christ. what is more i consider everything loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake i have lost all things. i consider them rubbish that i may gain Christ. !!!!!!}

tonight at core group i shared my lenting plan for this year and we were talking about mine and others and i found it so interesting what has a hold on each of us, cause it such different things! which is neat i think. i remember how one year one of my good friend gave up hitting boys, it may seem silly but it wasn't that silly to her. i mean, it's nothing i've ever had an issue with but doesn't mean it's anything "less".

have i ever mentioned that i've really really grown to love my core group. at first the whole idea of it wasn't so attractive to me...i just sort of saw it as something else to take up my time, but i love it. last semester was a little different experience for me considering out of the two weekly meeting times the only one i could attend was just boys. me and boys. now that's something that doesn't happen very often. i see myself as very awkward around the male sex and i have very few male friend friends. this year has been different for me cause i've actually talked to and related to guys more than i have in a long time...like since high school. it's something i'm still trying to get use to and trying to approach it in an appropriate and Christ honoring way while still keeping myself pure--in all areas--for my future husband. i mean i shouldn't have a relationship with a guy now that wouldn't be appropriate to continue to have once i get married. but how much is appropriate???? YBH{yes but how!}

ok i'm about to fall asleep...i feel like i should try and update this morning during my lenting esp to keep track of it all...and of course for all my avid readers, ok all two of them.

lent 2010

so today is mari gras aka fat tuesday! woo GO and get some cajun food and bake a yummy king cake! i happen to be staying home sick today BUT my sister is uber great. she texted me and suggest that we go and get Bourbon and Toulouse {which is so good and we got it last year} but i told her i was staying home and suggested that she picks some up on her way home from campus today and she said she will! yippie!

so i was just laying in bed resting some and i was thinking about the whole lent thing...i hadn't decided if i was going to give up anything this year or not. i have only given things up two years...my freshmen year of college i gave up chocolate. it was kinda a joke cause i just ate a lot of carmel instead. last year i had decided way in advance that i would give up tv/movies...and i did and it went really well. i also decided to just read and reread the gospels in that time. the no tv thing wasn't as hard as i thought it would be, it was at times but by the end of it i accomplished what i wanted, i had cleansed myself of just wanting to waste lots of time in from on the tv, now i hardly ever watch tv and when i do i watched something with a purpose, i don't just turn it on and watch whatever i can find for hours like i used to. so needless to say i'm not doing that again this year cause it would be pointless, it wouldn't be a huge sacrifice.

so i was thinking "what can i give up this year??" i was thinking i wasn't going to end up doing anything but i think i am...it's gonna kinda be a combo of different things as opposed to just one thing that i'm completely cutting out. one of the most classic things to do is to give up meat {well that wouldn't be a real sacrifice for me either since i hardly ever eat meat} so that is going to be one of the things i'm going to do. i think it's important to pick things that aren't going to be too easy but also that you know you're just gonna fail at! also a big thing that takes up time in my life is facebook, obviously. but i would be COMPLETELY out of the loop if i gave it up for lent, like i wouldn't know what's going on or if plans and things change, so i'm going to incorporate it somehow. also i think it's important to not just cut things out of your life but to set a goal for getting more Jesus into your life. also a lot of people do whatever it is they gave up on sundays, seeing how if you cut out all the sunday's in lent it would be 40 days...but i don't, i'm sort of an all or nothing kinda girl. so here's what i think i'm going to do...

1.) no meat.

2.) only check facebook once a day, in the evening.

3.) no twitter, at all.

4.) go through {on top of my normal devotionals times} John Piper's book The Passion of Jesus Christ which if 50 reasons why Jesus suffered and died for us...so if i do one a day and a few days do two i'll go through them all

and maybe i'll think of something else to add before the day is up...i'm looking forward to focusing on the cross and falling more in love with my King.

nothing says love

nothing says love more than a clearance valentine ballon from your sister, the day after valentines day

and in case you were wondering, yes it does say "Whoa Valentine! You have stolen my ♥ " and yes there is a boy thief and a hott lady cop.

thanks sis!!

where you're suppose to be

have you ever had one of those times where you're just where you're suppose to be? we spend so much times in our lives {at least at this stage of life} where we are just always trying to figure out where it is we're suppose to be or what we're suppose to be doing. i once heard someone teach on how "God is more concerned with who you are than what you do". if you prayerfully focus on who you want to be and who God wants you to be then you'll wind up doing what you're suppose to, don't worry about that. because a person who's life is centered on our Lord and He will fix out all the details...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
~Proverbs 3:5&6

He will direct us and lead us and will put us where He can use us, and isn't that the most important thing? no matter where it is, that we live this life of a Christ follower as richly as we possibly can and that we can life poured out lives for HIS glory ("But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." Philippians 2:17). and that if we "Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart." {Ps. 37:4}. That doesn't mean that if we take 5 minutes to pray and profess to love Jesus He is going to give us the things of the world that we so badly want, no it means our desires will be for His will and for Him to be glorified and for His Kingdom to come because if we truly delight in Him the things of this world will not hold the luster that they once did, we will desire heavenly things and they will have a romantic hold on us. when you stop waiting for your life to start, to see where you're suppose to be and just wake up to the fact that you are somewhere right now, and you can live truly and deeply for your precious King, it changes everything.

i don't know if i've ever felt so sure that i'm where i'm meant to be. God is just so great and so faithful and i can't wait to see what He is going to do in me and through me.

bump it

so i managed to pull off a bump it bump without using a bump it...(even thought i'll admit i own one!)

check it.

Jesus Way

"Jesus is not interested in diverting us from life, but in revealing the 'more' that is in life beyond what we can cobble together on our own, dimensions of beauty and challenge, depths of gladness, our mouths 'filled with laughter' (Ps. 126:2)...The way of Jesus is not a sequence of exception to the ordinary, but a way of living deeply and fully with the people here and now, in the place we find ourselves." -Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way