Am I getting ahead of myself or what?

My Book List for 2011 so far

Books in Progress:

Biblical Preaching-Haddon Robinson
Deep Preaching-Kent Edwards
Christian Athiest-Craig Groeschel
I don't have enough faith to be an Athiest-Frank Turek and Norman Geisler
Knowing God-JI Packer
Intro to Christian Doctrine-Milliard J Erickson
Boundaries-Dr. Henry Cloud

Books to Read:

The Power of Reason- Tim Keller
Miracles- CS Lewis
Chosen but Free- Norman Geisler
Counterfeit Gods- Tim Keller
Battlefield of the Mind- Joyce Meyers
Ravi Zacharias-End of Reason
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God-JI Packer
Screwtape Letters-CS Lewis

I will hold on.

I've lost my job and so much more, but my God is good and trustworthy despite my circumstances. He will always provide what I need. I can't let go of that promise right now.

What peace for those whose confidence is Him alone.

If our confidence is in ourselves, we will find that we are let down and dissapointed easily. If we think that when we fail we hinder God's work then we forget who we are dealing with and place power in our own works rather than in Gods work for us .

If our confidence is in God we surrender our difficult situations to Him and joyfully embrace the new ones He has placed in our paths for us to discover. If our confidence is in God we recognize that even when we fail or our circumstances seem to change for the worst his purposes do not change and they are always good. We do not beat ourselves up over our failures and we do not let our circumstances drive us towards doubt and depression.

Where is your confidence?

Flirting with fear.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than one's fear. The timid presume it is lack of fear that allows the brave to act when the timid do not. But to take action when one is not afraid is easy. To refrain when afraid is also easy. To take action regardless of fear is brave."-Ambrose Redmoon

I was not courageous tonight. I let my fear hold me back.

God I trust that your plans for me are bigger than all my worries, doubts and fears. From this day forward may I live in the strength and boldness that you provide. May I love despite my own failures and the failures of others. May I commit with my whole heart to serving you before my own will and nothing else. I will not worship others peoples opinions or my selfish desires. May I become intimate with you in giving myself over in surrender, being vulnerable and open before you and recieving the relationship you intended to have with me.

Amen.

deathbed thoughts.

At my funeral I don't want people to say "She lived a good life" or "She was a good person" or even "She touched my life". I want them to say "Because of her life I am even more sure that God exists and that he is good and powerful beyond measure".

May everything I do point to you Jesus.

Amen.

Is God on your To-Do list?

It's easy to let life spin by around you and forget why your truly living. It's easy to get so caught in tasks and goals that you neglect what you know is really important. It's easy to read books and listen to sermons about God but be too busy when it comes to investing your time in him directly.

Lately I have been asking God to show me what is means to fall in love with him again. I have been a Christian for a long time and heard many of the bible verses and stories of God over and over. I'm also studying at bible college right now and mostly all I'm learning about is God and things that have to do with him. But yet despite all you or I know about God it is easy to be so consumed in our schedules that we forget what relationship really means and we slowly draw away from him.

I read back over some of my old blog posts that I wrote in my first year at bible college and am in awe of how in love with Jesus I was. I remember the passion and life that flowed through my veins-I had extraordinary energy to serve him and bring him praise.

My prayer to fall in love with him again is coming true. He is speaking deep truth to me about who he is and making my heart burst with joy at the thought of being his daughter once again. Every time I worship or pray I either start crying tears of joy or come close to it.

God doesn't force himself on us and we grieve his spirit when we chase after our own plans and busy schedules rather than him. We need to sit at his feet like Mary and not run ourselves in circles like Martha thinking we are pursuing after him when we don't even have time to listen to "what he says."

Luke 10:38-42

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Are you a Martha?

Tess

Food for thought.

"We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God."

"I hope that we can go beyond our current understanding of the Holy Spirit and begin to commune openly...that our experience with Him would be day by day, even moment by moment. That by keeping in step with the Spirit, we might regularly fellowship over what He's doing rather than what He did months or years ago."

"My prayer is that your changed life would produce this kind of astonishment: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and percieved that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13)

Forgotten God, Francis Chan