Here Master

well, it has been a little while since I made a post... or maybe that is just what I feel like and in all actuality it has only been a few days.... :P

So, I want to share with you a song; funny story is that this song is super popular here on campus, but not anywhere else! I can't even find the music to it anywhere else! It is written from the words that are in the hymnal, its like one of those liturgical pieces that has no music with it-- leave it to a Moody to write music to it!

The song is called Here Master In This Quiet Place:

Here, Master, in this quiet place, where anyone may kneel,

I also come to ask for grace believing you can heal.

If pain of body, stress of mind destroys my inward peace

In prayer for others may I find the secret of release.

If self upon its sickness feeds and turns my life to gall,

Let me not brood upon my needs but simply tell you all.

You never said “You ask too much” to any troubled soul.

I long to feel your healing touch. Will you not make me whole?

But if the thing I most desire is not your way for me,

May faith, when tested in the fire prove its integrity.

Of all my prayers let this be chief: Till faith is fully grown

Lord, disbelieve my unbelief and claim me as your own.

This song has been special to me all year, but this week in particular. In Thursday Night Praise, we sang it, but the guy who was leading introduced it in such a wonderful way. We need to take care to not let our sinful minds get caught up on what we think we need. God gives us everything for a reason, and He works in all situations, the good and the bad.

I have been dealing with lots of stuff lately, and I really have just been viewing them as burdens that I have to deal with or bear, which is true. But I have been missing the point of these things being given to me as lessons that I should be taking to heart, allowing them to shape me into the woman God wants me to be. God is growing my faith in spite of my wanting what I think the happy life would be. God does give us the desires of our hearts, but only if we are seeking His will for us.

The RA of my brother floor told us this week in our worship night, that someone told him that if we know we are surrendered to God's will for our lives and that we are willing to do anything for Him, how can we miss His path for our lives? If the desire of our hearts is to do God's will, and to seek Him out in the way that we live our lives, there is nothing that can come between us and Him. Not troubles or hardship or persecution or nakedness or danger or sword. God is Conquerer in all things, and only wants the absolute best for us.

I leave you with this, think it over and really ponder what it means in your life: God is the only constant in our lives, all else will change or fade or let us down, but He never will. Amen and Praise the Lord!!!!!!

Beauty Will Rise

So, I know that I just did a song, but Grace lent me this CD last night, and I have fallen in love with it. The CD is Beauty Will Rise, the artist is Steven Curtis Chapman. This is the album that he wrote after his daughter was tragically killed in a car accident. The song I want to share is Beauty Will Rise.

I cannot imagine being in his place, loosing his daughter like he did. But I do understand his pain. The hopelessness that sticks no matter how much truth you put before yourself. It reminds me of David, in the Psalms he laments before God and cries out to Him, pleading with Him. David tells himself how God is in control and that He is all that he needs to survive. Yet, we still have that voice in our heads yelling at us, telling us it is not okay. Our minds and our hearts are at odds with each other. our hearts know the truth, that God is sovereign and in control of all things of life, but our heads cannot grasp the concept. so we tell ourselves over and over again that there is so much more to life; more to life than an earthly whole family; more than the burdens our friends lay on us, or the burden our heart feels for them; more than the loss of a friendship or of a boyfriend/girlfriend. Eventually, if we tell ourselves this enough we will believe it... right? that is what David thought at least. Check out psalm 40 or psalm 73 to see what I mean.

back to the song... here are the lyrics, and a link to listen to it:

It was the day the world went wrong/ I screamed til my voice was gone

And watched through the tears as everything/ came crashing down

Slowly panic turns to pain

As we awake to what remains/ and sift through the ashes that are left behind

But buried deep beneath/ All our broken dreams
we have this hope:

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
For we know, joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning, beauty will rise

So take another breath for now/ and let the tears come washing down,
and if you can't believe I will believe/ for you.

Cuz I have seen/ the signs of spring!
Just watch and see:

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
For we know, joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning...

I can hear it in the distance/ and it's not too far away.
It's the music and the laughter/ of a wedding and a feast.
I can almost feel the hand of God/ reaching for my face
to wipe the tears away, and say/ "It's time to make everything new."

"Make it all new"

This is our hope.
This is the promise.
This is our hope.
This is the promise.
That it would take our breath away
to see the beauty that's been made

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of this darkness... new life will shine
and we'll know the joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning...beauty will rise!

Oh, Beauty will rise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6sGtkhpqeA

Revelation 21:3-7

3… I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

6He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Hold On

Why hello there friends! It has been quite a while since I last wrote here. While talking to my good friend Karyssa this week, she sent me this song and I fell in love with it.

This song really brings me back to what is important in this life. While life may bring us to a place where we have to struggle to find the same joy in life that we have been living on for so long, we need to remember what the purpose of our life is. We were designed to praise God in all that we are, in the joy and sadness, the frustrations and grief. Each day is a new one, and we need to hold on to God, there is nothing that can stop God's love from coming through! We need to be thankful in every moment for the wonderful blessings that God has given us.

It also helps that this is a song that makes you want to dance :)

Hold On by TobyMac

Wake up to the morning light
wipe away the lonely nights
let a brand new day wash over you,
Wanna see you smile again
show some love to your crazy friends
wipe your tears away
those days are through

If you move just a little bit closer you can put your head on my shoulder
Yeah, yeah

[Chorus:]
So baby hold on
just another day or two
I can see the clouds are
moving faster now
and the sun is breaking through
If you can hold on, to the one that's holding you
there is nothing that can
stop this crazy love
from breaking through

We're breaking through
We're breaking through

Wake up to the morning sun
thank the Lord for the
things He's done
lift your eyes up to the
hope that's ever true
Wanna see you smiling girl
you're a light in this jaded world
wipe away those tears
this one's for you

Come on, move a little bit closer, you can put your head on my shoulder
Yeah, yeah

[Chorus]

And the stars are up there
shining for you
oh, the Father does adore you
His love will never change
And you and I
we were born to follow
the hope that will lead us to tomorrow
and no one can take it away

So baby hold on
just another day or two
I can see the clouds are
moving faster now
and the sun is breaking through
If you could hold on
to the one that's holding you
there is nothing that can stop this crazy, crazy love from breaking [x2]

You see the clouds are
moving faster now
the clouds are moving faster

You see the clouds are
moving faster now
And the sun is breaking through

We're breaking through

ps If you think about it pray for my friend Jillian.

TTFN

Prayer

So I was looking through my chapel journal, and I found this prayer that I wrote some time ago tucked in the cover. I don't remember when I wrote it, I think it was last semester. I realized that I should still be praying it. Even when the storms of life attack us- we argue with our step moms, break up with our boyfriends, discover someone close to us has died, struggle with midterms, get homesick, loose our job... the list goes on. Thankfully, my life is not as bad as all that, God is still in control. He knows exactly where we are and what we are struggling with. If we can keep our focus, and remember that we are not here to enjoy the pleasures of life, those are just perks of being children of God. We are here to glorify, and praise, and worship, and serve, the AMAZING God who created us in His image! So while it may be hard for us to see the joy in life sometimes, don't loose sight of the fact that life does not give us that joy we seek, we find it in God.

Dear Lord,

I pray that I will be able to serve with all that I have, and get nothing in return.

May I be stripped bare of everything I know so that I can focus more on you.

My Lord, let everything that is certain in my life be taken away, leaving nothing for me to rely on but You.

May I always be broken, yet ever provided for.

Teach me Lord to trust You alone, and to not need to know what tomorrow brings, as long as I know that you are here today.

Lord please keep me broken, having nowhere to turn but to You, my Rock and my Fortress.

May my heart never heal from the pain of seeing injustice.

I pray that you would break me enough to have to take help from others.

May I be humble enough to accept and admit that I have problems and need help.

Let me always be set apart for you, never fitting in with those around me.

Thank you Lord for the life you have given me, for the joy I have found in You.

Let me never forget where true joy comes from.

Amen

Choir Tour

So I am on tour with the Moody Women's Concert Choir, we are in the mid-atlantic states for a 2 week tour over spring break. God has been teaching me so much this last week! I can't believe how many lessons God has been teaching me. My brain is on overload not only from exhaustion after having at least one concert a day, but also from all the lessons that God keeps bringing to my attention. Because I don't have much time to really process here, I am just going to put some quotes from different things that I have come across. First, I bring before you you guessed it! Much-Afraid:

"Shepherd," she shrieked, "Shepherd! Shepherd! Help me! Where are you? Do not leave me!" Next instant she was clinging to him trembling from head to foot, sobbing over and over again, "You may do anything, Shepherd. You may ask anything- only don't let me turn back. O my Lord, don't let me leave you. Entreat me not to leave thee nor turn from following after thee." Then as she continued to cling to him she sobbed out, "If you can deceive me, my Lord, about the promise and the hind's feet and the new name or anything else, you may, indeed you may; only don't let me leave you. Don't let anything turn me back. This path looked so wrong, I could hardly believe it was the right one," and she sobbed bitterly.

He lifted her up, supported her by his arm, and with his own hand wiped the tears from her cheeks, then said in his strong cheery voice, "there is no question of your turning back Much-Afraid. No one, not even your own shrinking heart can pluck you out of my hand. Don't you remember what I told you before? 'this delay is not unto death, but for the glory of God.' You haven't forgotten already the lesson you had been learning have you?

"It is no less true now that 'what I do thou knowest not how, but thou shalt know here after.' My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. It is perfectly safe for you to go on this way even though it looks wrong, and I now give you another promise: Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying,'this is the way, walk ye in it,' when ye turn to the right hand of the left."

The powerful words and promises of our dear savior. While al of life crumbles around us and we don't know where to turn because all paths look as though they lead to death, we know to stop and listen to the still small voice, that promises to never let us out of his hand. As one of the songs of our concert says: "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me."

The next thing that I want to share with you here, is a little of the story of our contact person from our last church, Ruth Moran. She shared her testimony today during the sunday school hour between services. Ruth has cancer, and a lot of it. since 1998, she has been fighting this fight, and it has left her physically disfigured in face, and unable to eat anything but a liquid diet through a feeding tube to her stomach. Yet through all this Ruth and her family are able to praise God through it all. She had her son assisting her with her slideshow during the testimony and near the end, she was talking about how they as a family deal with the pain and hurt that they face every day. too this she replied that they go back and forth with a question: what is the worst thing that can happen? starting small, they answer: she could be disfigured (that happened), she could die on the table (thankfully not), again: "what is the worst that could happen?" her son responded with confidence: "nothing." "what happens if I die?" "you go to heaven" "what happens to you if I go to heaven?" "Nothing, I'll go to heaven." The proclamation of that 14 year-old boy moved I believe the entire choir, or those who were not already, to tears.

here are a few quotes from her testimony that was printed in her pamphlet:

I honestly say that I would not take back my former life:when i find my delight in him, He literally gives me the desires of my heart, just as Psalm 37:4 promises.

I am convinced that not only does God send everything we need, but we need everything God sends.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings of the jumbled thoughts in my head. God will continue to teach and lead me, and I pray that I will one day understand, even partially, the many things that God shows me. to God be the Glory for all that He has done and will do through us, His servants.

so today I am sitting here at my desk thinking of all the things that I have to do in the next week. and as I listen to my iPod playing in the background, the song Let it Go by Tenth Avenue North came on. this song is such a great example of what our attitude towards life should be. The last few days have been a little hard to swallow, God is making sure that I am ready to follow Him no matter what happens. He wants to know if I can have the same joy in doing what He wants when it is not really what I want to happen. While it is hard, I am realizing that I can have that same joy, because I know that my Heavenly Father has only my best interests in mind, and that what He has in mind is so far above and beyond anything that I could imagine. here are some of the words from this song:

I've been holding on so tight
Look at these knuckles
They've gone white
I'm fighting for who I wanna be
I'm just trying to find security

Well it's hard enough to hear
Harder still, to move beyond this fear
We know there's nothing I can bring,
So tell me what do you want from me?

But You say let it go, You say let it go
You say life is waiting for the one's who lose control
You say You will be, everything I need
You said if I lose my life it's then I'll find my soul
You say let it go, You say let it go

What do I love?
What do I hate?
What will I lose?
What will I gain?
How do I save my soul?
What if I bend?
What if I break?
What will it cost?
What will it take?
For you to save my soul.

They talk about how we are just trying to find security and and fighting for who we want to be. But in the end, God says to us, LET IT GO! Life is waiting for us to lose control, and when we finally loose ourselves then we find our soul. In the end, what do we love? is it God? what do we hate? really what is the loss, will we loose what we think may be the best summer, or do we let God make it better than we can imagine? Does it really matter what it will cost us? I think that because God has everything in His hands, and because He loves us more than we will ever be able to love Him in return, that we will be taken care of. It may cost us now, but in the end, it will be so worth it. we serve the Creator of the universe.... need I say more?

The JOY of the Lord

I have recently discovered that they joy of the Lord is really, truly the strength of those who follow Him. I remember praying a while ago for joy; something that I could not find. Since, God has more than just given me joy, I can't stop dancing and singing!!

Reading Psalm 31 last night for my devotions:

Praise be to the Lord

for he showed his wonderful love to me

when I was in a besieged city.

In my alarm I said;

"I am cut off from your sight!"

Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help

Love the Lord all his saints!

the Lord preserves the faithful

but the proud he pays back in full

Be strong and take heart,

all you who hope in the Lord!

David's journey was a little different than mine, but he had many of the same emotions as I have. He cried to the Lord when he really needed His help and strength. David felt so alone, but He knew that there was nothing that God could not handle even if He seemed vacant. He had faith that all would be okay. the the Lord turned and heard his cry. David could not stop dancing and praising God!

Life may be hard, and there are some things that hurt more than we think that we can bear! But, take heart, God is in control. He may not like what is happening to His children, but He cares for them and will walk them through it! When all is said and done, looking back, life may have been hard, but you will have this assurance that if you made it through the hard times, that God will keep you in the palm of His hand for eternity and there is nothing you can't face with God keeping your feet on the Solid Rock.