secret church

“Oh, it is joy to feel Jesus living you; to find your heart all taken up by Him; to be reminded of His love by His seeking communion with you at all times, not by your painful attempts to abide in Him. He is our life, our strength, our salvation… I am no longer anxious about anything… for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. This is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient. So if God should place me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength. I have no fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine—for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me” – Hudson Taylor.


“Indeed, the more sanctified the person is, the more conformed he is to the image of his Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin that remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it… Was this not the effect in all the people of God as they came into closer proximity to the revelation of God’s holiness?” –John Murray

“O Lord Jesus, you took the narrow way; the world despised You. Give me the grace to model my life after Your life, the life the world hated; for the servant cannot be greater than his lord, nor can the disciple be above his master. Instruct me in Your life, for there lies my salvation, there lies my true holiness.” –Thomas Kempis

“O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…” –Phil 3:8-9

blessings

We pray for blessings


We pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while, You hear each spoken need

Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things



Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise



We pray for wisdom

Your voice to hear

And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love

As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

All the while, You hear each desperate plea

And long that we'd have faith to believe



Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise



When friends betray us

When darkness seems to win

We know the pain reminds this heart

That this is not, this is not our home,

It's not our home



Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy

And what if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are Your mercies in disguise
-laura story.

--love.

"Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys." (demon's perspective) -The Screwtape Letters; C.S. Lewis.

planning to write soon.

This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD.
-jeremiah 9:23-24

Beginning of a new week! Goin to try to go into it with a positive attitude. I'm sure it'll fly by. Just finished my Christian Faith & Values test! About to head to Advanced Grammar then Espanol. :/  Still praying about which minor to declare... even though I THINK i know the answer. <3

<3<3 Have a greaaaat day.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
-Psalm 92:1

Bless the Lord

I tremble at Your presence


Shaken by the truth that You are God

No deed could bring You pleasure or a word

Add a measure to Who You are



I lift my heart in worship

Taken by the truth You are God

I’m silenced by the virtue

Surrendered and in awe

Of Who You are



Bless the Lord

With all that’s in me

Bless the Lord

May kingdoms fall and rulers crawl

Before Your throne



I want to give all of me

I’m giving You all of me

-Jason Morant.

who am i?

I am God's child. (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend. (John 15:15)
I am united with the Lord. (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price. (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts1:8)
I am the salt and light of the earth. (Matt 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation. (Romans 8:1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant. (Phil. 3:20)
I am free from any charge against me. (Romans 8:31-34)
I am a minisiter of reconciliation for God. (2 Cor. 5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. (Eph 2:6)
I cannot be seperated from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God. (2 Cor 1:21-22)
I am assured all things work together for good. (Rom. 8:28)
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit. (John 15:16)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Eph. 3:12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the truth vine, a channel of His life. (John 15:1-5)
I am God's temple. (1 Cor. 3:16)
I am complete in Christ. (Col 2:10)
I am hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)
I have been justified. (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker. (1 Cor. 3:9, 2 Cor. 6:1)
I am God's workmanship. (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1:5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14)
I have been adopted as God's child (Eph. 1:5)

thankful.

I feel like today should be Thanksgiving instead of Valentine's Day because I am just overflowing with gratitude today.  First of all, I feel SO blessed.  Like just thinking about how blessed I am makes me tear up.  I almost feel like a spoiled little brat. I am SO undeserving of every single thing in my life.  The fact that God blessed me & my sister with the parents that we have seems to be a common reminder in my life lately.  The vehicles we all drive, the house I live in, the school I get to go to... I just feel so unworthy.  I have done absolutely nothing to deserve my parents' love and I guess it's just humbling.  Knowing how much my parents love me puts into perspective for me how much MORE God loves me.  Then I wonder WHY or HOW He loves me.  I'm not really sure, but I'm so thankful that He does.

Then, when I think about all these blessings it make me realize how self-centered I am.  I am so not a thoughtful person when it comes to gifts and doing sweet things for people.  I'm so lazy. I really need to get my priorities straight and try to be more thoughtful.

I'm sorry mom and dad for not expressing how thankful I really am.  :( So, from the bottom of my heart...even though words are SO inadequate...Thank you.

Random thoughts:
1. Supercross is awesome.
2. I can't wait till Camp Zoar!
3. I need to spend more time getting to know Christ in a more intimate way.
4. Just Dance is so entertaining and I am so awful at it.
5. School is ridiculous
6. I need to be praying about what direction God wants me to take concerning my minor.

discouraged.

I'm so tired of feeling like an idiot. all my classes are over my head. I'm an English major and all this deep analytical outlook on every little sentence we read is way over my head. Spanish class sucks and I honestly want to drop the class I'm so lost in there. I feel like there's nothing in the world that I'm actually good at. Ive made straight A's practically my whole life and I feel like I've got to be the stupidest person that ever made good grades. sucks. especially sucks when you're not good at the thing you wanna do with your life.

sincerely,
whiny carlee

the Sovereign Lord is my strength

"I had approached God, or my idea of God, without love, without awe, even without fear.  He was, in my mental picture of this miracle, to appear neither as Savior nor as Judge, but merely as a magician; and when He had done what was required of Him I supposed He would simply - well, go away." -C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy.

In my C.S. Lewis class, we started off by reading Surprised by Joy, which is C.S. Lewis' autobiography of how he went from atheism to Christianity. The above quote was written in the very beginning of the book as he was talking about the way he prayed when he was just a very young confused boy, but it really caught my attention. How many times have I viewed God as just that? It made me stop & think about how often I approach God in my prayers just simply in need of something.  "God help me do this, God change that, God help her, God fix this sickness, God please do that, etc."  Too often I get so caught up in myself and my world that I don't even take the time to just be in awe of who I'm talking to.  The fact that God even listens to me is SUCH a privilige and I am so undeserving and unworthy.  The man I call upon is so worthy of all praise.  I think I forget that sometimes.  It actually excites me when I think about how good He is, and how much He loves me.  <3 Seriously is that not something to be super ecstatic about?! I mean it may be sooo simply worded but it's such a profound truth. ("it's the beauty of simplicity that brings me down to my knees. i'll praise You for eternity, Lord I love You because You, you first loved me") Sometimes especially after a bad day, I can't think of anything better to do that just praise Him. ("Oh Praise the One who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead":)) So just remember, no matter what the circumstances may be, Our God is a loving God who is SOOOO deserving and worthy of our everything.  Just praise God for who He is, because He's more than enough. <3

when i think about the Lord
how He saved me, how He raised me
how He filled me with the Holy Ghost
how He healed me to the uttermost
when i think about the Lord
how he picked me up
turned me around
how He set my feet
on solid ground

it makes me want to shout
hallelujah! thank you, Jesus!
Lord, you're worthy
of all the glory, and all the honor
and all the praise!
Hallelujah! thank you, Jesus!
Lord, you're worthy
of all the glory, and all the honor
and all the praise!

-shane&shane
(ephesians 2:4-7, 2 corinthians 5:17)

two thousand eleven.

<3 Short & shallow post, but a post nonetheless! 2011 has been pretty good so far! Started it off at Passion2011 in Atlanta and LOVED it.  Finished up working at Caliente for the break and miss it immensely! Moved back to Pineville.  School is overwhelming and so hard this semester. :/ Love my C.S. Lewis class! Went on a Cruise to Cozumel with Mawmaw, PawPaw, Aunt Gay, and Amy.. loved spending time with them! Now i'm sitting here because school has been canceled due to the weather, so I'm stuck here! Next week I'm going to Houston with the Heberts.  So far been pretty busy with this year but I'm loving it. <3

From The Great Romancer.

Don't say goodbye, don't say hello
We're just standing on the surface
Don't say alright, don't say I know
I promise it's not worth it

I want to know who you are
Even if you're falling apart
Reach in and touch your scars
And all the shame you'ave kept in your heart

'Cause it's not enough
it's not enough
just to say that we're okay
i need your hurt i need your pain
it's not love any other way

Let's not pretend
Stop your parade
trying to convince me
That you're alright and everything's ok
Do you even know me

'Cause I already know who you are
And all things that kept us apart
So reach in and touch My scars
and know the price I paid for your heart

'Cause it's not enough
it's not enough
just to say that we're okay
i need your hurt i need your pain
it's not love any other way

A broken and contrite heart
I will not despise
come as you are
and i won't close my eyes
I won't close my eyes
I won't close my eyes
I won't close my eyes

'Cause it's not enough
It's not enough
Just to say that we're okay
I need your hurt I need your pain
It's not love any other way

'Cause it's not enough it's not enough
just to say that you're okay
You needed my hurt, you needed my pain
It's not love any other way
It's not love any other way
Yeah, it's not love any other way