My favorite songs in general and how they affect me today

My favorite hymns:

God Moves in a Mysterious Way--always super amused by the humerous ringtone like song on the last site, but the lyrics are just so rich. This is what I need to remember as the weather changes my plans.

Lessons from the song that I need to remember right now:

• He plants His footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm
• The clouds will break with blessings on your head
• Though the bud is bitter, the flower is sweet
• God will make His word plain as we search it with faith
• Frowning providence=smiling face

This song I just really like and cannot think about too much.

Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal (third link has lyrics)

• Need to say Hallelujah
• What is coming: Land of perfect rest, mansions of the blessed
• Glory to the great I AM
• Soul fades, our inheritance though Christ does not
• We go there to worship God, not for hedonistic reasons
• This is important now, and worth meditating on, now and forever
• This song always makes me thing of the Grey Havens at the end of Lord of the Rings, which is partly why I like it so much. The image of crossing over the water... love it.
  

The changes in my plans fit into God's plans, and God's way has an incomparable result.

Snow Cream

Snow cream

When it snowed several inches back home in the suburbs of Denver, we would go outside, get a big bowl of snow and make snow cream.

Sometimes, we would just sprinkle jello powder on it, other times we would really make snow cream.

Snow cream:
1 bowl of fresh snow (clean, away from streets and pets)
vanilla
sugar
milk

Mix all ingredients, adding milk until it reaches the consistency of ice cream. Eat.

Today, my Hawaiian roommate and I made snow cream and it brought me back to my childhood. Such a simple taste, but so good.

So my blogging plan...

Obviously did not continue as much as I wanted it to.

My laptop would would no longer start, so I need to use the family computer until I go back to school. For some reason, they want to use the computer as well, so I don't have as much time to be on the computer.

But I will list the other days Chambers's writings were incredibly insightful and encouraging over this past year.

Here they are in no particular order:

September 16
October 1
December 8
December 11
December 31
October 28
December 21
June 14-15
June 24
August 12
October 18

This upcoming year I will read Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon. Yay!

A right view of salvation

Instead of starting with a quote that will not encapsulate the fullness of the devotion for 21 November, I will link to it.

There is just so much truth in this passage.

Does God love His children? Yes. However, our forgiveness did not come about because we are loved. There is nothing great about us that earns merit with God. God is holy and cannot stand sin. Christ had to become our sin for us and die for us to be forgiven because the result of sin is death.

Jesus did not come to die a martyr for a cause or to be a good example or to spread love and then death sort of surprised Him. He came to die. He came to glorify the Father by showing God's mercy.

It is also not mean Old Testament God vs. Christ who came to save us. They were not fighting over how to save the humans. God had this plan from before the beginning and Christ submitted to the Father in perfect love. Our entire purpose is to glorify God.

Basically, I think all Christians should read this day of Chamber's devotional to be reminded of what salvation really is.

peace from obedience

As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God...Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or findout the reason why it does not.

- 14 December, My Utmost for His Highest


I had trouble picking a quote from this day, because it really progresses through the whole passage.

If you disobey God to serve yourself, this causes you to lose sight of God and His peace that passes all understanding but when we obey God, regardless of what problems face us, we shall not worry.

Worth, poverty, Kingdom of Heaven

At the basis of Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty.

--August 21st, My Utmost for His Highest

We do not enter the kingdom of heaven on our own merit, but on the fact that we have nothing to offer so Christ makes the way for us.

Once we are part of the kingdom, we are to praise God in everything we do . I think that is why I like this quote. I love the phrase "loveliness of the commonplace." It makes me think of Curdie in The Princess and the Curdie by George MacDonald who was scolded for taking what is common for granted. He needed to learn to love what was common around him andto take pleasure in the love of his parents, the breakfast he ate, and the ability to work.

It is good to take pleasure in God's good gifts to us, but first we need the realize the poverty in our spiritual lives to know that we need Christ.

In the still quiet place I have yet to find...

Jesus did not say--Dream about thy Father in secret, but pray to your Father in secret... The great battle in private prayer is the overcoming of mental woolgathering. We have to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful prayer.

-- August 23, My Utmost for His Highest


Prayer has often been a struggle for me. I started reading the Bible when I was ten, I enjoyed singing praise and worship songs, loved church and learning about God, but prayer was always hard. When I did try to pray, I would either give God a wish list or I would distract myself. Disciplining myself to pray is hard, and a good reminder that I am not able to reach God without His grace.

Having a secret place, not just a closet or the front seat of my car (though both of those are very useful for praying), what I need is a secret place inside myself--A part of my soul, dedicated to communing with God from when I awake till I sleep. Sometimes more of my soul can focus on prayer, but that is something I need to cultivate.

Last night, I got to a Christmas party about ten minutes early, so instead of going inside, I prayed for about 15 minutes, out loud in my car. It was a sweet time, lifting up prayer requests, praising God for His forethought and His mercy and His creation.

Goal: To learn to better cultivate prayer.

What I have going for me: Church directory to pray through (tangibility), the Bible and other books full of encouragement, examples, and descriptions of what I need to praise God for. And the Holy Spirit can guide my prayers, and can give me the focus to remember to pray.