How Beautiful the Feet

"How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him that... publisheth salvation"

I'll be quite honest. My feet are very frequently a great annoyance to me. They're wide so it's hard to fit in a lot of shoes. They're not long, so I can't opt for a bigger size without tripping on the toes. My feet are ugly. I tiptoed for many many years (still do.. it's why I like to wear heels ;) ) and due to the way I put my weight on my feet, my toes are at times bent to the side. As I said, my feet are ugly.

So as I've been getting older and figuring out the direction God would have me go with my life after highschool, I've been thinking of missions and praying about it. I forget how it came about but I suddenly realized that I don't have to fit into a size 7 shoe for my feet to be beautiful! I can have beautiful feet by publishing the gospel! That is the sort of beautiful feet we should want as Christians. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation"

I like that verse quite a bit. It is beautiful to me. I want those kind of beautiful feet! Feet that bring the gospel to people who need it.

Life is confusing and uncertain, but God is certain and as we need!

Isaiah's Prophecies

I was reading Isaiah 5 and in that chapter, there is a prophecy/warning. I was reading all the "because" and "woe" and the reasons behind the prophecy parts and it really began to concern me. Read the excerpts below.

"Because they are haughty" (Isaiah 3:16)

"Woe to those... they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands" (Isaiah 5:12)

"Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cart rope; that say, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it" (v. 18)

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil" (v. 20)

"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!" (v. 21)

"Woe to them... who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man!" (v. 23)

I read those passages and said to myself, "Oh, God, we have done all that against You! This passage is us- now!" It is really quite disconcerting! You know what was going to happen to Israel for all this? They were going to be put through horrible wars and famines and devastation and persecution.

We're haughty. We think we're the awesomest and whatever we say goes. (I'm speaking of us as a collective community of people here)

We don't regard the works of God.

You know how much sin goes on in this country??? And a lot of people say, "I want proof that God is who He says"

We call good evil and evil good. We call pro-life people evil, and pro-abortion people good. I don't think I can come up with a more drastic comparison than that.

We're wise in our own eyes.

We justify the wicked. We give them excuses and all kinds of loopholes.

We are collectively fulfilling this prophecy in our own country and believe me, God will respond the same way unless we repent. I've been praying for my country for quite a while now. Let's all pray that God would truly bless America and spare us and forgive our sins!

Prayer Date

Hey everybody! I hope you're reading this so you will know that I am arranging a prayer date for tomorrow night. Thirty minutes of prayer starting at 7pm EST. This time it's not prayer for the persecuted church. I want to have a prayer time for America. There are a lot of things going on, and a lot of important questions being brought up. We should pray for our leaders (in Peter it says, "Pray for those in leadership that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life") and we should pray for each other. Pray that other citizens would stand for what is right and true. Pray that their confused questions are answered through God's word. We cannot change just with human action. We must accompany effort with prayer!

So again, tomorrow, Saturday October 10th, at 7pm EST thirty minutes of prayer for our country! Let's pray that God will bless America!

Hearing God

Sometimes it is really hard to hear what God is saying. The Bible says to "Be still and know that I am God" The Bible also calls God speaking a "Still small voice" (see 1Kings 19:11,12)

In this passage, God is passing by, and it describes a great wind that "rent the mountains" and it says the Lord was not in the wind. Then after the wind there was an earthquake and it says God was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but God was not in the fire. Then it says there was a still small voice. And if you read the passage, that was God.

I know it's hard to hear God. I have a hard time doing it. I've found some things that work.

1. While you're praying, if somebody or a situation pops into your head, roll with it and pray about that! I've been doing this, and ... wow, prayer time just got so much longer. To be honest, I'll sometimes be like, Wow this is taking loooong! lol But, if God brings something to your mind, you better bet your life you need to follow it!

2. Pray and then don't just say, "In Jesus' name, Amen." Okay, I'm done! Pray, and don't finish. Just keep quiet for a while. Do your best to keep your thoughts empty!

3. If when you're doing something you feel like you should pray, or read your Bible, do it! Now, I understand if you're in the middle of talking to somebody or working at something or school, this isn't really quite going to work, but you can pray even without actually taking time to stop what you're doing! I know!

So, there are some ideas.. I may turn this into a series, I don't know!

Some cool news, I graduate next June, I'm applying to a local college, (UNC) and I am going to major (this is all grounded on if I make it in) in Nursing as a Pre-Med! I'm so excited! Working on applications and scholarships! :D

"I am holding your hand"

I was reading in Isaiah 42 and I came on this verse,

"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand."

So in the NKJV, it says "Your" with a capital "Y", but in the KJV it says "thine" with a small "t". That being said, when I read the verse, I felt like it was God telling humans He is holding their hand. However, seeing as the NKJV has it with a capital (capital usually refers to God's name) its confusing me because its smack dab in the middle of a prophecy about the coming Messiah. However, (and I know I'm using that word a lot), everything written here also goes for followers of the Messiah.

"I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the gentiles, To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house."

To sum up, my thoughts on this passage are:

This passage is written about/to God's servant. Christians are God's servants. Jesus is God's Servant. We are to be imitators of Christ who, "being found in appearance of a man, humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death" and so we also are to do as this passage says and therefore, the promise is ours as well.

These are my thoughts on the passage. What do you think? Do you think this passage is in fact a promise for Christians, not just a prophecy of the Messiah? Do you think it's just a prophecy of the Messiah and nothing to do with a promise to Christians?

Never Forget

I want to remind you, readers, to remember the people who died today fourteen years ago during the attacks on our country. Pray for their families and for their friends. Remember our emergency workers, our military members, and our leaders and don’t forget to pray for them.

When the towers fell, America came together in a great way to provide relief and cleanup and sympathy. We joined together to rid ourselves of a crisis. We were great! Because we would not be put down, because we turned to God in the midst of our calamity, we rose up from that crisis.  Never forget what we can be as a country! Never forget to pray for our nation. 

That's what I wrote for the group blog I blog with :) You can check it out over at https://girlslivingforgodsglory.wordpress.com/ 

Honestly, I cannot even imagine what would happen if we were to face such a crisis now. I hope we would be able to all pull together but at the same time, I am very glad we haven't had to find out yet! 

Our country is in my prayers. I hope it is in yours as well.

Never forget!

Forgiveness and Awkward+Awesome

I've been being taught a lot about forgiveness this year. Forgiveness and putting my trust in God because, let's face it, people are screwed up- Bad! I'm no exception but when you're on the receiving end of somebody's mess ups, it kind of is more noticeable.

Forgiveness is absolutely key to joy. If we hold back forgiveness, we're really doing a number on ourselves. It might hurt the other person for a while but in the end they're just like.. "Well okay then. What the heck do I care if they're like that anyway." and they can go on with life whereas you are still mad. Believe me, I've been on both ends of this!

Alrighty, time for awkward + awesome now!

Awkward:

1. Realizing you have quite a few scars on you and stating "I have soo many scars!" to your mom and she answers, "That's nice." .....she thought I said "scarves"

2. Dreaming that a really nice kid you knows runs off the side of a cliff and dies and everybody else at church is sad but continues with the church function while you go into deep sadness... I think too many books I write have something to do with people dying lol

Awesome:

1. Seeing a friend at church that I haven't seen in a few weeks. Who cares if I didn't get to say hi? I saw them!

2. God's Fatherhood!