Fight Fight Fight!!! Maroon, Black and White!!!

This Sunday..well it was my dads birthday but that's not relevent, love you dad :)..But I also went to my cousins football game. Now my cousin Desmond, he's a beast! Dude I swear he so tall and "ocky-dock" ish (a word we use in our family for clumsy and awkward and non-gracious, which I always thought was a real word but its not). But despite his tall, awkward self, he manages to make himself agile enough to work his way through a crowd of football payers and sack that quarter-back! Every time! I'm tellin' you, he just comes out of nowhere! And of course the cheerleader in me, and the family pride in me..came out and I was jumping up and down, screaming my head off, going bonkers for him, yelling my famous line at the top of my lungs, "THAT'S MY COUSIN!!!". But it made me think...I was so proud of him and I wanted, not just him, but everyone else at the game, to know it, but why don't I do that with God? Why don't I jump up and down, pointing to heavens, losing my voice, yelling, "THAT'S MY LORD!!!!!"? That's my Lord...

"Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, 'Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.'"
-Psalm 35:27

Right Where I Left Him

Well..I found my Bible. =] Guess where it was? Right where I left it..In the Youth Room/Fellowship Hall. It made me think about an illustration used in a sermon once in my church it was about a married couple who, at the beginning of there marriage, would always drive in his pick up truck very close together. As the years went by, the wife moved closer and closer...to the door. lol One day she asked,"Hunny why is it you're so far away from me?" and he answered, "Dear, I've got the wheel, I haven't moved." Sometimes, that how our relationship with God is. He's got the wheel, we're the ones who move farther and farther away from him with a fog of sin between us. He turned on AC and blew away all that fog its up to us to scoot closer to him. Amen? God doesn't turn his back on us; he's waiting, with arms wide open, for us to come back to him.

When he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son." And he said to [his brother], "your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

Luke 15:20-21,31

Lost :: Bible : Found :: Truth

AAHHhh I've lost my bible, I may have just about lost my mind! I thank God for BibleGateway.com but still I need MYYY bible. It's this huge 4-way parallel bible and its so great because I'm experimenting with different translations right now deciding which I like better..SOooo yah no poetic writing today I was not inspired by my reading today; I feel like I'm cutting my quiet time short in a panic reaction to not having MY bible which should not be any excuse..I mean online or on paper His Word is His Word. My bible is just this material thing that I do cherish but not more then His Word itself that will never change...so the verse(s) I picked for this post are:

I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.
Ezekiel 34:16a (lol)
and

The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1 Peter 1:24b-25 (taken somewhat out of context)

God's Sorrow vs Our Own

Ok so today I was deeply troubled by the distress of another friend. I was really worried and didn't know what was going on and so I kinda freaked out. Now I know everything is somewhat ok and am a little more at peace but it made me think, I have never felt this bad about someone else's problems (for lack of a better word) and I think that's a problem. I mean not so much of my friends' problems but what about God's problems...? Ephesians 4:30 says God looks down on us and grieves over our disobedience. So why don't I feel grievous over MY OWN "problems"..or sin? I want to feel that same deep compassion over my sin as I do with my friends' pain. I also realize now that worrying and getting all worked up over worldly things is useless. There's no way that my tears could fix any problem; I needed to trust it to God hands in order to find that peace.

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death
2 Corinthians 7:10

To God be the Glory

..great things he hath done....yah that song is stuck in my head now. I read 1st Corinthians 1 this morning and I kinda skimmed through the thanks to the church at Corinth and read about unity within the church but it didn't really stick. What popped out the most, what I really think God wanted me to get out my quiet time was verses 25-31. It pretty much says, in a nut-shell of course, is that in the same way the foolish make the wise look more wise and the weak make the strong look strong it should be the same with us. We, foolish weak earthlings make God look that much bigger; that much stronger and more wise. The key verses 30- 31, state, " But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written:

“He who glories, let him glory in the LORD
1 Corinthians 1:31

Life by Grace

About a year ago, my cheer coach, Courtney, told me that I had too much on my mind and that I should try writing. I like to talk but I don't really like to write which was proved during my very unsuccessful try at my own "fiction novel" of my life. I mean that's hard work there's a lot of thinking and researching and planning involved, even when its your very own life. You still have to think of a plot line and characters and all that jazz. It was kinda fun at first but frustrating afterward. It's been almost a year since and after reading some other blogs, I think I'm ready to pick up writing again. But this time, not something I expect to be published or read by people across the world and get great reviews and scheduling book signings and special appearances on famous talk shows...<<dream cloud popping>>... just me and what's on my my mind. If this so interests you, continue reading but I'm warning you, this is no great literature! =]

The title "Life by Grace" pretty much describes my WHOLE life..literally. God has been soo good to me my entire life. Just the fact that I'm alive today, that I woke up and took a breath of life is a miracle in itself. I have the privilege to spend another day with my Father, Savior, and Best Friend. And i say God has been good to me but I dont mean my life is perfect, because I'll tell you right now...that's far from true! I have lots and lots of trials but I know for sure that the light is waiting for me at the end of the tunnel. And I know that God doesn't tempt me but tests me. When I take a test at school I expect to do well, I don't expect to fail. Same with God. He gives me hardships and I work through them making myself stronger. When things go really wrong though, He extends his arm of grace to me; He picks me up dusts me off and puts me in the right direction. He could get mad and strike me dead but that's not the God I serve, I serve a God of compassion and forgiveness. That Compassion, That Forgiveness, That Grace... is what I live by.

For it is by grace that you have been saved , through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."

~Ephesians 2:8-9