May 2013
2 posts
“His Love is persistent, relentless, resilient. Bleeding, but never failing....”
sleuthing for joy.
My Utmost for His Highest.
tenacity
Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance plus the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not...
April 2013
5 posts
HOLY SPIRIT = power.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Acts 1:8
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish...
gambling your identity. →
what is Love?
My God is:
rescuer. redeemer.
repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings (Isaiah 58:12).
rehabilitator. renewal. rock. righteous.
rest. (Exodus 33:14).
victorious. jealous.
giver of life. breath into dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14).
Author of the Word that sustains me (Isaiah 46:4).
Creator. Potter (Isaiah 64:8).
present. Father. intimate. forgiver.
ready. patient. sincere....
Yosemite.
the parable of Yosemite.
On the way to the place He called me, I stopped a dozen times - I had to, I’d never seen such beauty. Yet that was only a glimpse; I could see only in part what He had in store. It took longer than originally planned to get to the valley, but I loved my journey. It’s not the path everyone travels, but its the one The Lord led me on, and He was with me every...
eucharisteo.
“There’s a reason I’m not writing the story, God is. He knows how it all works out, where it all leads, what it all means. The holes of my life can be see-to-God places. I can choose to live as one filling with His grace, choose to say yes to all that He freely gives. When I am despairing, I can choose to live as the Israelites gathering manna. For forty long years, God’s...
March 2013
2 posts
Called.
Dear beloved friends and family,
As many of you know, I’m on a daily journey of discovering the way God wants to use my life. When I graduated from UF seven months ago, I moved to Georgia on faith, feeling called to serve refugees through World Relief.
By faith Abraham, when called to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he...
Yahweh.
Yahweh Yahweh, great is Your glory, You go before me.
yah·weh
Noun
A form of the Hebrew name of God used in the Bible. The name came to be regarded by Jews (c.300 bc) as too sacred to be spoken.
Meaning: “He causes to be”; “He creates”.
The moments that make up my days are so rich I can hardly stand it. God is so good. He’s good even when I don’t feel...
February 2013
4 posts
Transitions →
by Caroline Hament
Times of transitions are often bridges of sadness of what’s left behind us, uncertainty of what’s ahead of us, and bitterness of the woozy path under our feet.
As we forge across these bridges of life, time twists and tricks. Sometimes daylight scorches the earth and refuses to recede, sucking us dry and leaving us bare. Other times thick darkness slides surprisingly swiftly...
“There’s always more grace than fear, than questions, than uncertainty,...”
“In Jesus’ life and mission we see what compassion means. It is not bending...”
– Henri Nouwen
fingerprints.
fingerprints.
They tell a story all by themselves.
Anointed and blessed are my days. His fingerprints are all over them.
This week began in a 15-passenger van packed with 8 languages and 7 eager faces ready to put their best foot forward. Hours and interviews later, I’d picked up new words in each language and forgot for a moment that people actually get paid to do this. I love...
January 2013
4 posts
Into this suffering & injustice, God pitches His... →
The angel of The Lord encamps around those who fear them, and he delivers them. - Psalm 34:7
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I don’t wonder anymore what I’ll tell God when I go to heaven when...”
– Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Moments.
I’ve never been a five year plan kind of girl. I used to see that as a flaw, like I was missing some clue everyone else received, but now I realize what a blessing it is that God made me this way. To live for moments. It keeps me ever-focused on the revelation of His glory, and keeps me praying fervently for Him to lead me.
Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name...
December 2012
4 posts
like coming home.
Presence.
Sometimes words aren’t necessary. Sometimes a hug or a held hand says more than my words can express. Love is a universal language.
Once upon a yesterday, there was a little girl in a windowsill, peering out shyly and chewing on a marker. I waved her outside and she cracked the door open to examine me, then closed it again when I said hello. On second thought, maybe she will...
He waits on my return.
(inspired by Hannah Katy’s most recent post, here: http://hannahbrencher.com/2012/12/11/and-hes-been-waiting-on-my-return-to-load-the-shingles-with-icing-and-guard-the-doors-with-candy-canes/ )
I sometimes find myself feeling far from God and have to remind myself that He never left. It was I who walked away - tried to slip quietly out the back door. I felt the weight of my shortcomings...
“When we hate, we just say to the world that we’re not loved.
When...”
– Louie Giglio
“His love is stronger than the things which make me undeserving of it.”
– Paul Washer
November 2012
8 posts
Beloved,
Nothing about you is ordinary or flawed.
You were fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in your mother’s womb, called before you were born. Yes, before you were born the Lord made mention of your name. Your dreams were planted there in your heart, and He knew the ways in which you’d feel small. He made you with those holes for filling up with Him; they are not accidental....
Countless Stories →
Check out my guest post on Parakletos! We remember the stories.
parakletos127:
Andres. He was hardly three years old when he went to live with Jesus. He was abandoned at birth at the public hospital, where he remained for two years awaiting a much-needed surgery. Finally the doctors performed surgery - which paralyzed him - and was taken to the public orphanage, where I met him and agonized over...
standing firm.
In this season I’m walking through, I’ve felt undone. Unsteady. Unstable. Unsure. I have had to ask for more encouragement than usual. I’ve had to remind myself daily that His hand is over me and He has a purpose HERE AND NOW. Not just plans for my future, but purpose today. I have a brain that equates purpose with visible results, physically spending oneself and feeling used up,...
Love displaces fear. →
We’ve all heard it said that “perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18). But the reverse seems to also be true. Fear casts outs perfect love. Fear paralyzes our ability to love deeply and serve selflessly. Fear prevents us from taking big risks for God. Fear is crippling and it’s often the only thing that stands between us and God’s plans for our lives.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do...
One of my favorite excerpts from Kisses From Katie:
“I am learning. I am learning to hope when nothing makes sense and to know that God knows best, even when what He is asking of us seems so impossible. I am waiting and God is teaching me this: I beg Him to bring me closer to His heart, to even transform my heart that it might be more like His. I think orphan care gets us close, because He...
“Jesus is more interested in our hearts than our plans. Plans work out or...”
– Bob Goff
He is I AM.
You are never too far for the grace of God to reach you.
Beth Moore writes: ”Life can be excruciating. Crushing, in fact. The sheer magnitude of our worries can press down on our heads until we unknowingly descend into a pit of despair one inch at a time. Something so horrible can happen that we conclude we’ll never be okay again. We can blow it so badly we think God would just as...
Overcome. →
Overcome. A verb. One that requires strength. A strength you never knew you had though it has been there all along.
Overcome: to not be washed away. Like seashells in the supermarket on the days the oceans flood.
Overcome: to not feed. The hungry lies. The impatient worries. The parts of us that have never felt loved.
Overcome: to resolve that we are lovely. Worthy of love. Time. Energy....
October 2012
11 posts
Abolish fear. Let love win.
Wake up each day & put on the armor of God. Take one day at a time.
Love with abandon.
Do the best you can, trust God to fill in the gaps.
Pray continually.
Bless anonymously.
Raise your voice for the cause you believe in.
Learn the heart of God.
Take chances.
Find grace for your mistakes.
Forgive yourself & remember that God is bigger & He is...
in whom.
In Isaiah 49:3 the Lord says to Israel, “You are my servant, in whom I will display my splendor.” At first I thought it said “through whom”, but no, it says IN whom. It’s easy to become wrapped up in what God wants to do through us and forget that He says what He is doing IN us is just as (if not more) important. Yes, through us He will display His splendor &...
“The victims of injustice in our world do not need our spasms of passion; they...”
– Gary Haugen
busyhands4beatinghearts →
A couple of kids are praying & crafting wholeheartedly so children with heart defects can get the life-saving medical attention they need.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. - Colossians 3:23
Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. - Proverbs 3:27
“The more extravagant we are with our love, the less reasonable we’ll be with our...”
– Bob Goff
Loving what is not ours... until it is →
A story of relentless love & pursuit of an adopted son, much like the story of His pursuit of us. Beautiful.
“God speaks something meaningful into our lives and it fills us up and helps us...”
– Bob Goff
Home.
Home.
Home was once a word to describe a physical address. A house filled with memories of my childhood. A front window where I’d sit waiting for Dad to come home from work. A sofa whose cushions became rocks over a sea of boiling lava that was the carpet. A safe haven where big imaginations ran wild in little footy pajamas. The house that built me.
Then the numbers on the mailbox...
“Don’t get caught up in the lie of ‘if’ and ‘when’...”
– Louie Giglio
“This is the King who loves the unlikely, conquers the uncontrollable, and serves...”
– David Platt
“Our Christian habit is to bewail the world’s deteriorating standards with an air...”
– John Stott
September 2012
12 posts
Fellowship of the Unashamed
I am a part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.
The dye has been cast,
The decision has been made,
I’ve stepped over the line.
I won’t look back, let up, slow down, or back away.
My past is redeemed
My present makes sense
My future is secure.
I’m finished with low living, site walking,
small planning, smooth knees, tame visions,
mundane talking, cheap...
My Utmost for His Highest →
The “Go” of Renunciation
by Oswald Chambers
… someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!”...
You were made for mighty things. →
But that you are a lighthouse. A lantern. A luminari. A flicker of hope. You are the bright spot in the day of someone else. You are more powerful than you’ve called yourself to be. You are more worthy than you’ve ever claimed to be. But ain’t no one gonna grant you that if your hands aren’t open and your slate isn’t cleared and you can’t find a way to...
“Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the...”
– Oswald Chambers
beauty from ashes.
Journal entry. Honduras: day 16.
No water, no electricity, internet down and international phone unable to make calls out. Ipod dead. This is no accident. God has something to teach me here, and the only way He could get my full attention was to take away all my distractions. Covered in a thick layer of sweat, dirt, and runny noses, I’m here, listening and looking. My hands and my heart are...
“The beautiful, redemptive work God is doing in the world all started when...”
Rest in Peace Andres. →
I held this little boy’s hand four days ago, and now he is with Jesus. He died in a public orphanage in Honduras. My heart is heavy for the suffering he endured here on earth, but I know he is now dancing with the Lord. May his story inspire the fight for justice for children everywhere.
Mision Miqueas.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is much more. What’s happening here is much bigger than me. This isn’t about my experience, although the Lord is using it to mold my heart and it’s desires. This is the story of God’s redemptive work in the world, right here in La Colorada, Honduras.
The story starts with a man, who in his last moments on earth spoke Micah...
Honduras.
Three days. That’s how long I’ve been in San Pedro Sula, yet there are enough details to write a short story. These are the moments that have left snapshots in my memory:
walking off the plane by myself (and going through customs). whoa.
the sun beaming behind the clouds like Heaven over the distant mountains
Mauda’s fingers over my eyes as she snuck up behind me and we hugged...
