His Purpose

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success.  We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God's purpose for us.  In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite.  We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not.  The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way.  What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself...

What He desires for me is that I see "Him walking on the sea" with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainly that everything is all right because I see "Him walking on the sea" It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.

-My Utmost for His Highest, July 28th

I thought this was so eye opening.  So inspiring.  I love the last paragraph. Even through the times when we can't see past the fog that is swarming in and the haze that is blinding our view, he's there. Walking on the stormy waters of our lives.  Always right beside us, holding our hand, coaxing us along or saving us from drowning.  He's even there in the good times, when the world is all rose colored.  In the times when we are blinded by such a happiness that we forget to thank the one who guided us through to brighter days.

 We may have our eyes set on some obscure goal, but His plan, His purpose for our lives is wrapped in so much more, it's our whole life story.  I don't think any one of us will ever fully be able to grasp what God has done in our lives...it's too glorious, too splendid.  His perfect interweaving of hardships, sorrows and joys. Through the mediums of our lives he creates a painting so beautiful it touches other's hearts.

Thoughtfully,
S

We Have Been Healed (from the Risen album)

This is a song from Sovereign Grace Ministries. I believe it adequately describes God's love. I hope you enjoy it!
Love, J

On Worship

I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with my true prince, Jesus.  I want my relationship with him to be first and foremost in my life.  So far I've tried waking up at 7:30 every morning to enjoy quiet time with him without any distractions.  I've woken up, but my one distraction makes it really hard to even read. Sleepyness!  My eyes go blurry and I can't even enjoy reading his word and my brain just zones out when I try to pray. But I'm sure with some consistent work on waking up, in a week I'll be doing great!  (I'll let you all know)

Today as I read Authentic Beauty this passage really struck my heart. Bare with me it is a little long.

Have you ever noticed how most worship services are filled with solemn-faced, distracted people, singing along mindlessly, more out of obligation than sincere adoration of their Prince?  Even in more expressive churches, I have talked with many worshipers who admit that they close their eyes and raise their hands simply because that is what is expected of them.  I believe the lack of sincere and heartfelt worship we often see today comes from the lack of Christians truly knowing their Lord.  Worship leaders often try to make the experience more enjoyable by adding cool guitar solos or smoke and lights on the stage.  but mere entertainment can never replace true, heartfelt worship.

There is something missing in most modern-day worship-- something I call tender reverence for our Prince.  We sing a lot of songs about our failures or desires, we shout out a lot of personal requests to heaven, and we may even get an emotional worship high by dancing, japing or clapping along with the beat.  There is a time and place for having fun, singing little mindless ditties about taking a bath, or scratching someone's back.  but how often do we tune out the rest of the world and stand speechless in wonder and awe at the incredible majesty of our Prince?  How often do we sing about His incredible love and sacrifice with tears of gratitude streaming unashamedly down our faces?  How often do we fall on our faces in adoration, stunned y His awesome power and amazed by His infinite tenderness?

I never understood what true worship was until I experienced deep, daily intimacy with my Prince in my inner sanctuary.  When I truly began to know Him, suddenly I couldn't help singing to Him of my adoration or falling on my knees in awe before HIm.  Sincere, tender reverence for my Prince became a natural outflow of my intimacy with Him, not only in worship services, but also as a lifestyle of worship every day.  nurturing ongoing intimacy with our Prince produces an effortless outpouring of adoration for Him.

Leslie Ludy Authentic Beauty Pg.183-184

Isn't that amazing to think!  Worship surrounding only him.  I mean I totally know how it feels to just go with the flow and to just robotically sing along at church, sometimes it's really tough to even worship at all. Sometimes the song just doesn't touch your soul cords, you don't understand what the words mean, so you just ignore them...I mean, got loves our pure, undivided worship.  and I want to give that to him.  I want to center my life around worshiping him and living solely for him!

Love always,
S

What Would Be Different?

Stumbling across this passage the other day I was reminded of the life we are to lead as Christians.

- Colossians 3:12-17 -
¹²Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Earlier on in chapter three Paul says: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." -Col 3:1-3

As I read this passage I couldn't help but think that if each one of us as believers imitate Christ, model our life after His, and essentially do all that we are commanded to do in this passage, how much different would the world be?  How much different would we as the Church, the body of Christ be? How much different would our relationships with those closest to us be?  How much different would we be as God's Chosen Ones?

Love in Christ,
J

'Cause every little things gonna be alright....

I would have never thought that by going to Jamaica the line "'Cause every little thing gonna be alright" would come to mean so much to me.  No, not because it's Bob Marley and I love Jamaica. But because through this trip God has taught me on a much deeper level that He is sovereign (and Jamaica is responsible :)).

We spent the majority of our time at Robin's Nest working on construction, cleaning, and doing painting projects.

The time that we spent with the children was priceless.  Little did I know that nine year old boys could grab such a strong hold on my heart. As I spent time with Swade, Wade, Delroy, Sun, Devin, and Little Prince, I noticed that just like every other boy they were so full of life...not distant and withdrawn like I had expected.  Like every other boy they have likes and dislikes, they have hopes and dreams, but most of all they desire to love and be loved. They were so hungry to receive love and affection from us yet so much more willing to pour their love on us.  What broke my heart was that each one of these boys (and all the children at the Nest) have pain as well.  Deep pain. Not just skin deep, they go much deeper into emotional wounds and scars on their hearts.  I felt overwhelmed by the needs these children have....I found myself questioning God as to why these children were in their present predicament.  If God promises to be a father to the fatherless then why are these children not in homes with parents to are willing to love them and care for their every need!  Robin's Nest provides a loving shelter for the children but it is only supposed to be a temporary home for them.  These children have food, shelter and a bed to sleep in but they don't have parents to scoop them up when they fall, to rejoice with them when they get good grades or win a game, or to cry with them when they lose.

Coming home from this trip I realized that God's heart for these children is SO much bigger than mine and His heart is grieved so much more over their situation than I could ever be. I was reminded that He is sovereign over the lives of these children...using their circumstances to shape them into the people He wants them to be.  He WILL be their father and He WILL care for them in every little thing as He knows best!  He's gonna make it be all right...in His time and in His way.

Soli Deo Gloria,
<3 J

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

This past week helping out with one of my church's backyard Bible clubs I was struck by all the funny things kids say and do.  and I was reminded of all the funny things my siblings used to do and of course some of those odd things I was prone to do as kid.


One little girl at camp exclaimed in a giggly voice, "I'm lost in a world of blue gumballs!"  Where that came from I have no clue, but it was so cute!

A little boy came each day with a toy, first day he arrived with his miny "cars" skateboard and proceeded to try and sit on it during story time.  It was tough trying to hide the grin as he slipped off during a key point in the story of mephibosheth.  He came the next time with a vest of "treasures"  full of surprises the girls crowded around as he pulled forth gadgets, gizmos and all manner of toys.  He must of had entertainment for a month packed in that little cargo vest!


I am also reminded of the supposed spider webs in my nose, by my then 5 year old brother's peeping eyes during a hug.  My sister's cute struggles with words such as "yo-grit", and my  own eating wild flowers during recess and feeding my house hold monster(the garbage disposal)!

But everytime I see a child, or hear their funny antics I'm drawn to think of God's view of these precious dears.  They view the world so simply, and they love so simply and purely.

Granted all of their answers usually consist of an enthusiastic shout of "Jesus" or a sober "He died on the Cross" their answers are so true.  And although they do seem to say some of the darnedest things we shall ever hear, we should learn to come to our Father as a child as well.

Mathew 19:14:
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

and

Psalm 8:2:
From the lips of children and Infants you have ordained praise...

So next time we meet the histarics of a child, or even a child at heart, let's remember their simply joys and loves and I personally will be striving to come to God as a child at the loving feet of her gentle Father.

 Always,
S

"Love"

I believe that the world has taught us to view love as a touchy feely sort of thing.  The world often tells us that our worth comes from our looks and our relationships or how much "love" we are receiving from other people.  As a girl we get tied up in wanting and waiting for our Knight in Shining Armor to come for us.  James Barnett founder of Cloth Your Neighbor As Yourself recently posted this message:

Ladies, don’t wait for a knight on a white horse to come rescue you. Christ has already done that. No, find a man to make sure you stay on the horse you’re on. A man cannot give you your worth. He can only show it to you. A man cannot break you because you are not in his hands. You are in the safe and secure hands of God. It’s the man’s job to make sure you stay there. -James Barnett

 I found this as a rather encouraging and refreshing reminder that we shouldn't settle for less but set our standards on something more noble than what the world tells us.  To any guys who are reading this I challenge you to be the man that James Barnett addresses.

Love,

J

Today after reading Philippians 1:1-11 I was struck by a couple of sections of the text, not to make any of the other verses less potent, but today these verses just really had me sitting and pondering.

Verse 9: And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.

As I read this at first I was a bit confused.  Love can have knowledge and insight?  Whenever we think of love I usually am brought to ponder the world's view: falling in love, blind love, love that doesn't have any sort of knowledge or insight, it just happens.  I'd like to say that I was surprised to see such a verse, yet I truly should not have been.  My bible put it this way: Their love was o result in greater knowledge of Christ and deeper insight.  Their love was not based on feelings but on what Christ had done for them.  Our love shouldn't be based on feelings, but on the knowledge of Christ's own love for us. 

Verse 10: So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ--to the glory and praise of God. 

Within this verse the word best really caught me.  Best.  not good, not better, but best,  My bible suggested that it was comparing right vs. wrong, good vs. bad.  But when I looked at the verse I was drawn to the fact that God truly wants what is best for us.  Of course He doesn't want bad in our lives, but think about it, is good, good enough?  NO!  He longs to give us the best!  The cream of the crop.  He's pressing us all to discern what is best when given a plate of good, better and best. 

Always,
S

What I've Missed

School's finally out.  Crazy.  Yet, sad.
I've missed alot of opportunities to share our Father's love with people.  I've missed alot of opportunities just because I'm scared of what other people are going to think of me.  There are people I don't even know how to start to share with, but in my heart I'm crying out for them.  I pray I'm an example.  I pray I show the light of Jesus.  I pray that someday when they want to find Jesus that they think of me.  I pray I never look like a hypocrite.  I pray my words are always healing.  I pray my opinion is always true.
School's out, but I know I'll share.

Pondering these last four years,
S

????

Here is a question I have been pondering as of late:

Is is possible to love someone whom you have never met?  If so, how do you act upon that love?

The people I have fallen in love with....my sibling or siblings in Africa, Shain's twin brother and sister, the children living in the orphanage in Jamaica that I will meet in 26 days!!

Love and Peace,

J

Greater Love

 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. -John 15:12-13

<3 The dyn in Shaidyn

"There was no resurrection,

there is no Easter.

That man they called God, he was just a man.  A nice man, with great morals.  Just a simple man named Jesus, maybe a prophet but no more.

because he died...

there really is no hope.

not for me

and certainly not for you.

What possibly is the point

to life

,living?

to death

,dieing?

                                        There is no point.

...because he died.

He hung, the man that they called king,

from the brutal tree

Wasting away

for them.

Shedding his own blood

for them.

losing his life

                                           ...for nothing.

 ...because he died."

"Because he died...

My soul is free.  My heart is light.

Hope's arms are spread wide for me.

for you.

My life is worth the

living.

My death will be worth the

dieing.

I can not question his love

...because he died

for me.

he shed his blood

and it saves

ME

he breathed his last

for the sins

I

threw upon him

Mine.  My Sin.

The man I call God, he was more then a man.  We call him Jesus and he was brutally killed. and yes, he died.  Died for me.  Breathed his last on the day we nailed him to a scarlet tree.  He died and I don't have hope

if he didn't raise.

                                                           But he died...

and rose. 

There is Easter

 and there is hope.

Love Defined

            My heart cracked under the heavy burden and my sould fell weeping to the soaked soul below.  My eyes formed streams and the dust clung to my lips and lashes.  "Oh God, what have I done?"  My mouth moans, "What have I done?"  The light has grown dim to me, no joy will spark.  Trembling and moaning, my body shakes with this grave grief.  To live is a hell...what have I done?  I am no more then a rough path to be troden, who could love?  I am unworthy of any kindness and my soul knows this well.  "If all knew what I have done... Oh the shame of what I have done..."  The sky is rimmed with salty tears.  Clouds crash among themselves filling this black sorrow with flashing anger.  All around the world weeps of my deed.  and my own cries out against all that I am.  I have done this, I myself.  None other.

          My sin is lane upon his shoulders, killing him.  That is my evil riding upon his head.  That is what I have done, murdered God.  Murdered his son.  His blood is on my hands...I will never be free from this shame.  On my hands is his death.  He will die of the weighty sins I have thrown upon him.  My selfishness, conciet, theft, lies, slander, stuborness, murder, lust, gluttony, hate...Oh, the sins on his pure shoulders.  The grime and mire I have thrown upon his precious pure body.  "God what have I done?"

         Than his face gently turns to mine.  He gazes down into the roots of my soul.  he sooths my shuttering heart with his gentle touch, he wipes away the streams from my soul. 

"Father, forgive them."

        He gently lifts away my mirk, the black dirt of my past.  The garbage laying at my feet.  Picking up the piles of sooty sin he places it on his own shoulders.  Freely he takes what is rightfully mine.  He rips the devil's sharp claws from my soul and desperses my inequities as far as the east is from the west. 

and He dies

for me.

"Oh God, what have you done?"

Die for Love

"Christians who refuse

To look squarely into the suffering of Christ

Are not Christians at all.

They are a breed of pretenders,

Who would turn their backs on the cross,

And shame his death.

You cannot hold up the Cross,

Nor drink of the cup

Without embracing the death.

And you cannot understand love,

Unless you first die."

                                                          -The Dance of the Dead 1959

I caught this quote today as I was reading Ted DeKker's book When Heaven Weeps  and as I read the news of the destructive earthquake which ravaged Japan this morning.  The last line really got me.  You cannot understand love, unless you first die.  That's hard to wrap my mind around.  We have to die before we can fully understand love? 

Here's how I take it; we can't ever know what true love is if we don't except that it is only possible because of Jesus Christ's death.  and we can't experience it if we don't also die to ourselves for the love of others.  We can't experience love unless we raise other's above ourselves.  Our enemies, our loved ones, the ones across an ocean that we don't even know. 

Maybe we will love the people in Japan who just lost everything but their lives.  Maybe we will love the orphans.  Maybe the single mother, the single father.  Maybe we'll  love a fellow peer that sits next to us...someone we would never talk to in any context.  Maybe we'll love by giving away ourselves, our very life, our very breath, to others.  Maybe...

We'll love.

But will we today?  Or will we be the pretenders, who look at the cross and turn from it to look at our own image in a shiny mirror. 

Time In Between

I am continually humbled when I think about what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. It is humbling to me that God would send His one and only son to die, to take the punishments for the sins that I have committed, and take God's wrath upon Himself so that I can be cleansed from my sins and inherit eternal life.  However, the other day I was thinking about life here on earth in comparison to life in heaven. I was brought to my knees (and still am) as I thought about all that Jesus gave up to come and live on earth as a man. He experienced all that we have experienced, plus some. The humbling thing is though that He didn't have to. Yet He chose to. He chose to obey His father, to live a life on earth as fully human fully God. 

I love how Francesca Battistelli describes things in her song "Time In Between".

You were there when your Father said

Let there be light

You obeyed when He whispered

Son, You have to leave tonight

To spend nine months in a mothers womb

Three days in a borrowed tomb

(Chorus One)

But it’s the time in between

That brings me to my knees

Knowing you came for me

And all that I can't be

I'm amazed, so amazed

And I thank You for the time in between

Don't take much for this crazy world

To rob me of my peace

And the enemy of my soul

Says You’re holding out on me

So I stand here lifting empty hands

For you to fill me up again

(Chorus Two)

But it’s the time in between

That I fall down to my knees

Waiting on what You'll bring

And the things that I can't see

I know my song’s incomplete

Still I'll sing in the time in between

So many ways

Your love has saved the day

And I'm grateful for them all

(Chorus 3)

But it’s the time in between

The middle of two thieves

That says everything

It’s the reason I believe

I'm amazed, so amazed

And I thank you for the time in between

Oh Lord, I thank you for the time in between

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykS2ZKSzXlk&feature=related

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shaidyn

Love

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines love this way:

¹love

a (1) : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties <maternal love for a child>2: warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion <love of the sea> 3. a : the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration <baseball was his first love> b (1) : a beloved person : darling —often used as a term of endearment (2) British —used as an informal term of address 4 a : unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1) : the fatherly concern of God for humankind (2) : brotherly concern for others b : a person's adoration of God.

The Bible gives us a somewhat similar definition but also gives us a little more info on the verbiage aspect of the word.

1 John 3:16 (English Standard Version)

 ¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 4:10

¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

 ⁴Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never ends.

We live in an age that has completely warped the meaning of love; we "love" pizza, "love" our pets, "love" ourselves, "love" money, "love" that cute hairstyle or that comfy pair of sweats.  That's not what love is, or ever was.  Wouldn't it be disappointing if that WAS all that love was?  That tiny pleasure from taking a bite out of pizza or the wonderful feeling of lounging in those comfy sweats?  What if love was only a description for how we feel about the things we like and nothing more?

It's not.  Praise God, it's not. 

Given the verses above, we have a clearer definition of love, the way that God designed it to be. So there are no misconceptions, we believe the Bible's definition is the only definition.