Devotional

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 

I have not fallen off the face of the earth, even if I haven't posted anything for over a month now. But I'm now a college sophomore (as of March 7th), so that may tell you something about where I've been.

A "regular" post will be coming eventually, but I will share with you a devotional from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, for now. I have been reading through this book semi-regularly over the past several months, and it has been incredible how applicable these readings have been. I pray this one will encourage you as well.

Have You Felt the Hurt of the Lord? (March 2nd)

"Jesus said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?" John 21:17

     Have you felt the hurt of the Lord to the uncovered quick, the place where the real sensitiveness of your life is lodged? The devil never hurts there, neither sin nor human affection hurts there, nothing goes through to that place but the word of God. "Peter was grieved because Jesus said unto him the third time...." He was awakening to the fact that in the real true centre of his personal life he was devoted to Jesus, and he began to see what the patient questioning meant. There was not the slightest strand of delusion left in Peter's mind, he never could be deluded again. There was no room for passionate utterance, no room for exhilaration or sentiment. It was a revelation to him to realize how much he did love the Lord, and with amazement he said--"Lord, Thou knowest all things." Peter began to see how much he did love Jesus; but he did not say--"Look at this or that to confirm it." Peter was beginning to discover to himself how much he did love the Lord, that there was no one in heaven above or upon earth beneath beside Jesus Christ; but he did not know it until the probing, hurting questions of the Lord came. The Lord's questions always reveal me to myself. 
     The patient directness and skill of Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord never asks questions until the right time. Rarely, but probably once, He will get us into a corner where He will hurt us with His undeviating questions, and we will realize that we do love Him far more deeply than any profession can ever show. 



God bless you all!

In Christ,
Kaleigh

In Whom Can One Trust?

          Isaiah 26:4 "Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength."


Here in America, our coins have an inscription that reads: "In God We Trust". It does not say "In the Government We Trust", for a specific reason. Governments are run by fallible men; whereas as Christians, we put our hope and trust in a Sovereign God. As the above verse says: "Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH,....is everlasting strength". When we rely on Christ for our every need, He supplies our hearts and minds with strength to keep going. Psalm 26:14 points out that "...He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD". In most cases, I believe, waiting and trusting go hand in hand. To wait, one must trust that the outcomes will be for God's glory. And to trust in Someone, we must sometimes wait for an outcome.

2 Corinthians 3:4-5 says: "And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,...". We can not master our tasks on our own strength. We can not rely on our own wisdom to help us get through a test. We can not guarantee that we will wake in the morning. Only by the grace of God, can we get through life without worrying what is behind every bend or what lies before us over the next hill. Valleys will always be the lowest spots in our lives, but sometimes, the most valuable lessons can be learned by walking through them. The beauty in the tragedy of walking through it though, is that we do not walk alone. We have Someone who will walk with us if we only trust Him. As a familiar verse says in Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Clinging to Christ while we're either in the midst of trouble or when life is going very well, is a constant need. It's something that we must constantly do in order that we don't slip and fall on the way.

The reason that I chose this picture of the winding river for this blog post was as an illustration. You might even remember the song "As the Deer" lyrics which are the following:

"As the deer panteth for the water
    So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
    And I long to worship You"

Just as the deer longs for the cool water to quench its physical thirst, so we lean on God to quench our Spiritual thirst. By trusting that He knows best for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11-13), can we fully be at peace about our jobs, our family problems, school, and other issues. Proverbs 3:5-6 can sum everything in this blog post: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths". When we acknowledge that we can not simply breathe or wake in the morning without God's hand of blessing, He will direct our next steps. When we cry out to Him for direction in our lives, He will come to our aid. If you "Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." (Psalm 37:5), God's saying that when we make our first desire to serve Him whatever the situation and to commit our beings to His care, He will be there with a road map. God gives us His word; our road map. When we have hundreds of choices to make and ask for guidance, He promises to give us an answer. He never promises that he'll always say "Yes!", as He can see ahead; we can't. This is why we put our trust in Him and not in our own understanding. He's had the answers since the beginning of time.  

I'd like to sum up my thoughts with this thought: The world tries to make it easy for us to believe in our own strength and talents, but we must work extra hard to put our trust in God as to resist that lie.

Psalm 84:12 "O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!"

God bless,
Julianna

In the Fog

Hebrews 6:19

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.

We are now almost through the first month of 2013. Already I have seen some challenges ahead as well as some opportunities. Sometimes I forget that it's a different year, a different day, and I just start living as if life is normal. In a way it is normal, yet I need to remember that it is new also. A new year to give God the glory in my actions, to encourage others, and to honor Him with my thinking.

Young people often have some sort of vision for their year and even their life. Yet that vision often becomes clouded or changed by circumstances, events, and just...life. Sometimes we can't see ahead of what we're doing now to the desired end later. When I was driving to church on Sunday, it was foggy. It was a dense fog; one where I could not see farther than 100 feet in front of the vehicle. I remarked to my sister and dad: "It [the fog] is like life. You go through life often with fog all around you, yet there are sunny parts when you can see clearly again." Life can be foggy and cloudy and it's hard to see around or in front of you. Often you live moment by moment, day by day, because anything ahead of that is unknown. Fog is often found in the valleys--that is where moisture gathers and there is little wind to drive it away--but when you reach the mountains the view is clear. You can see the road. The pathway is directly before you and you can once again see your destination. Yet, you would not know the sunshine on the mountain except for the fog in the valley. The fog and clouds are what make the clarity of the sunshine all the more beautiful.

Going through loss of direction or destination is difficult, very difficult, and it often follows with a loss of hope. If there is no destination, what are we supposed to hope in? But there is a direction still laid out for us. We just can't see it with all the confusion around us. And once we lose hope, we begin to fear. We fear what's next. We fear what we don't know and we fear what we already see happening. We fear that the future doesn't hold for us what we desire most. It is a natural feeling. We all have felt it and may continue to feel it now.

However, we are not called to fear what God already knows. I have heard that the command not to fear is in the Bible 366 times. We don't need to fear what God already holds in the palm of His hand.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 2:7)

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

God has given us the ability to love. To love family. To love friends. And to love Him most of all. The more we love Christ and create a daily living relationship with Him, the less we will fear what the future holds, because we can't help but see that a sovereign, loving God only plans and gives what is best for us. Yes, we will probably always wonder what things the future has for us, but we have no need to fear. We can have hope in a loving God's perfect plan for our lives--even when we're waiting while walking in a foggy valley.

We have hope because in the confusion God's plan is still there, even though we only snatch glimpses of it from the mountain tops. (Jeremiah 29:11) We have hope because we serve a God who is in time, on time, every time--even when time's running out. (Psalm 31:15) We have hope because we serve a God who is faithful and cannot go back on His promises. (1 Thessalonians 5:24) We can take hold of hope because we are commanded to cast tomorrow's (and each day's) cares on Him. (1 Peter 5:7; Matthew 6:25-34). We have hope because God is always walking along side of us daily. (Deuteronomy 31:8) And we as Christians have hope because our God is the God of all hope.

As you go into 2013, don't settle for fearing future events--hope in the Lord, instead, and increase your love for Him each day. Count the times He has been faithful to you before. Give Him your all, watch your future unfold, and leave the rest up to Him. You may not know what the future holds, but you do know Who holds the future. Go with confidence through the valleys, knowing that you are walking hand-in-hand with the Son of God. Don't let the waves of life wash away your hopes--allow them to make you cling even more tightly to the Rock of Ages.

Your sister in Christ,
Kaleigh

2013-The New Year

John 12:26 "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."

Well, here we are. Starting a new year all over again and it might feel kind of weird. I've found that the older I get, the faster time goes. I mean, it's the 16th of January already and it's hard to believe. However, it's a new year to grow closer to Christ and walk with Him closer than the last. It's a year to set new goals. Which is something I'd like to touch base on for this first blog post of 2013.

Being January, we tend to think of "New Year's Resolutions", but they tend to be quite a controversial topic. There are very few people who follow through, but if you are one that goes all the way with your new year plans, good for you! I, however, am not very good with continuing with my new year goals. I may set some, but after a few weeks, it becomes something that just "drags me down". Not exactly what New Year's Resolutions are supposed to do. However, this year, I decided to try something different.

Every day of this year, I'm giving one thing up. It can be as simple as avoiding sugary foods or something harder like staying off of Youtube or Facebook. You might ask, "Why?" and I'm going to tell you in a little bit. :)  But first, I'd like to say, that it's been going well for me. This year, I think I can actually stick with it, because it changes every day. It's not the same old thing like: "write more" or "eat less", because it gets old really fast. Probably the biggest reason that people give up on their new pursuit. But the plan that I came up with has one goal: to give up something that is important to me for 24 hours and replace it with something more worthwhile.

You might be asking, "But Youtube or social networking?". But it's because those things have become "routine" with me. I want to break away from things that don't matter and maybe read my Bible more that day or listen to a sermon on the radio. Things I can't do if I'm busy with social networking. The "take-aways"-as I call them-can vary and doesn't take long to plan. I usually decide the night before what I'm going to "take off" my list for the next day and what I'll "add to" that list.  I'm not saying that this will work for you; I'm just saying that it's my way of being more motivated to stick to a goal. Adds variety. And I admit, giving up YT was so hard for me. But the next day, I only listened to a little bit of music. I plan to avoid it on many other days this year. I don't want to make it so important to me that I can't live without it. Before, I didn't think it was possible to live without music; but I did it, and I'm glad I made that decision.

I'm not advocating New Year's Resolutions or trying to force you into thinking you should do what I'm doing. Not at all, as some things work for some people, but it may not work for others. It varies as we are all very different. :)

But my challenge to you this year is to continue to use your gifts to the glory of God; to be His hands and His feet; to persevere; to be the salt and light of the earth; and to live for Him and Him alone.

May God be with you this new year of 2013 and always.

Blessings,
Anna

James 1:17