Friday, January 30, 2009

My Southern Sky

Here are 2 pictures of a Texas sunset......






Totally gorgeous, and God did an AWESOME job! I made the picture, but he provided the splendor. Ain't my southern sky just beautiful?

Snow, snow, snow

There is SO MUCH snow in Illinois. Compared to Texas it's the North Pole! Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures and decided to share some with y'all.  :)  Here they are....


Forest


Big open Field
God Loves You (try to read it)

Pretty Church (we passed by while driving)
Trail in the Forest




The Sledding Hill


I had a wonderful time and I took more pictures than that OF COURSE... I'm no great photographer, but it was good practice and it was BEAUTIFUL!














Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunday

It's Sunday evening and I'm at my friend's house here in Illinois. I got here Wednesday and I'm leaving Tuesday, unless we can extend my flight, which I really wanna do. Ha! I'm having a good time and I feel just like one of the family, her family is amazing and I'll miss them when I'm gone!!!!!! But, I do miss my family right now. Everyone who visits my blog: I am asking y'all to pray for me on the flight home, please. God has blessed me with an amazing best friend and her family is so similar to my family, except she has a big brother, sadly, I do not. (lol) So when I come home, I'll post more, and I'll post some pictures of the snow here, compared to 70 degree Texas! haha! til later.....

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Freedom.......


This looks like ME! riding a horse..... but it's not, I just LOVE the picture. We don't live anywhere like this, all green and so much open space. But we want to be somewhere like that SO MUCH! There are places like this in Texas, just not in our area. Maybe with much prayer and seeking after God, we'll get our dream come true. Ü Just thought I'd share this beautiful pic with y'all. It looks like pure freedom.

Flying to Illinois

(I hope I spelled that state's name right - hehe) This coming middle-of-the-week I'm gonna fly to Illinois to see my good friend, she's a true Texan, sadly moved about 3 yrs. ago, and we've visited eachother once a year since then. The first year, I visited them, only it was in mid spring/summer time and we went to the beach!!!! I LOVED it!!! In 2008, she visited me in the dead heat of summer (It's like a sona there with all the humidity, it's like fire here with all the hot desert lands). So, maybe while I'm there (that's a maybe) I'll post about how everything's going and about all the fun we're having. I'm gonna freeze my toes off...... that's what they said. I can't imagine living in weather that gets all the way down to -30 degrees. Did you see the minus sign??? That's in fahrenheit, just so y'all know. Ü I'm going to be there for 6 days and then come home to my WARM Texas!!!! yipee.... but I'm gonna be so sad to leave my friend and her sweet family. :( Anyway, just thought I'd share that with y'all....... I'm gonna try to post again today but it might not work out....

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Beautiful

All I can say about this post is "Beautiful". I'm writing it, but I got the story from a good friend of mine and I write it, weeping in my heart because of God's grace and sovereignty. Yesterday in my youth group, our youth pastor taught a lesson about Jesus. Jesus was Man, Servant, God and King all in one. He was born of a woman (making him a human being) yet he was God in the flesh - perfectly sinless. He was King of the Jews, yet he served human kind. Here's the passage, it's John 13:1-12.

1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;
3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

Here we see Jesus - God - the King - washing his disciples feet. But he did more than that, really. He became lowly and acted as Man and Servant. I can't describe the awe I feel by just reading this passage. Neither could my youth pastor, all he could do was try and fathom the whole of it to us in class this morning. My Jesus, my perfect, precious Jesus washed 12 pairs of dirty, grimy, desert-dirt matted feet. There was scrubbing and serious pedicure work needed, y'all! These were fishermen and working guys, out in the hot sun, sweaty, and wearing sandals all day. And Jesus, the King of Kings, washed their feet. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have been first in line to do that task. But what Jesus did for us on the cross was ten times tougher than what washing feet seems! He took all our filth and all our grime and laid it upon himself. The thing that makes me want to cry is that Jesus washed Judas's feet also. Judas was possessed by the devil at this time (see verse 2 up there). He was so far gone, Satan had taken over him, and here Jesus sits washing Judas's feet. No, Jesus wasn't washing "Satan's" feet. But think of how humble Jesus was to sit there and have Satan stare down at him from inside Judas's heart. Think of how humble Jesus was to wash his betrayer's feet. I don't know about y'all, but I DO NOT hold that kind of humility within myself. So, even though Judas would betray Jesus soon, Jesus still let him know "I love you, Judas, and you can still repent. There's still an opportunity to turn back and I don't want you to lay it aside." But Judas still decided to give Jesus over to the bad guys. And Jesus already KNEW what Judas would choose! Jesus was more humble, more sovereign than any of us could ever try to be! We are so selfish these days -"I'm having a bad week" or "I don't like what the preacher's saying, I could be doing better things right now. I shouldn't have to listen to this." or "I'm soooooooooooo tired!" There's alot of 'I's' in there, if you didn't notice. Y'all, we are so selfish, it hurts. Jesus bent down as a servant, but being GOD, and he washed the sinner's feet. I've already admitted it would be tough for me to do that. But no, Jesus sat right down there and served them without complaint, he did it joyfully. It makes me so sad to see my utter selfishness displayed on a daily basis when Jesus was King, but acted as Servant that day, and every day of his life for that matter.

This week, a guy who I knew from my friend's church in Lubbock died. I didn't know him very well, but he was only 19 years old, and he passed away from this life. He's now in Heaven. He's home! But there's a deep hurt for my friends who knew him better that I did, and I hurt also, because he was so young. He had just been given the job of an usher at their church, and it was an honor for him to be able to serve Christ in the church. He loved God so much. You could see it in the way he lived. He was in this world, but not of this world, and he lived selflessly. He wasn't perfect, but he was an example to the other kids in that church, and he still remains to be an example. Think about this word - selfless. I know very few people who are selfless. I know MANY people who are selfish, including myself! We have many people in this world who show forth a great and exalted figure to the world. They're active and athletic and they are an idol to the world. But great as those people may be, they lack humility and meekness. They are filled with pride and are excited to take the glory, but disgusted by the thought of themselves washing their neighbor's feet. Jesus took his task and he was honored to be humble. He was honored to be God, and act as the servant. That makes him sovereign and that makes him my GOD and KING. His act was beautiful.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

coming soon....

I had a post ALL figured out and typed and then I clicked ONE wrong button and it deleted the whole thing, so I'll have to do it over. (grrrrr) I'll get over it. Gotta go!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Love of God

Me and my family have devotions every night (except Wednesday and Sunday, cuz it's church) anyway, tonight my dad read out of Romans. We get really into the Bible and all the secrets and little gold nuggets from the Word. Here are the verses we read tonight.





"...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,


Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39.



God's love for us is incomprehendable. My Dad also read us Ephesians 3:18


"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,


May be able to comprehend with all saints what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."





God's love for us is nothing we will ever be able to understand. I believe His love for us is more than any type of love that ever was discovered in man's heart. His love for us is so supernatural, so unexplainable, even extraordinary. Immaculate and so sure-fire powerful. It is his love that makes the world go 'round, and it is his love that enables us to love others. My first Bible-related post is about God's love.... HE LOVES YOU!!!!