Resolutions, Smesolutions...yep! That's about how I feel about those little pesky things. I'll make this short & sweet for 2 reasons: 1) It's just about lunch time out here at the Hatch Ranch in Memphis, Tx where I've been spending the last week hanging out with the Hatches and anticipating my husbands' first deer of the year. 2) I'm not in a long-winded talking mood.
I have this fantastic friend who is "older & wiser" (got that all you Sound of music fans?)...I digress, & every single year she prays for the Lord to give her a NEW Word to follow for the following year. It could be precisely one word or one scripture to lead her on a new journey with Him for the next year. I completely forgot about this treasured tradition until I had the pleasure of having breakfast with her last week. I began to pray the same thing immediately that day and everyday that followed. On Wednesday morning, December 30th, He swiftly answered me. I was surprised and humbled by the brilliant clarity of His answer. I have been studying Isaiah for the past month or so and this is exactly where He spoke to me in order to lead me to the ultimate answer to my prayer, Ephesians 1:17. Read it and enjoy. Have a blessed new year and keep in mind there is more than enough time to pray this same prayer for yourself.
SEA
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
O Glorious Day!
I know blogs are not all the same, some like to write about different happenings in their lives and some like to blog about food they create. I love all of these and follow a variety! Every time I sit down to write, I always want what I write to be profound and rich so that anyone who reads will be inspired and changed by the time they come to the end. That's a great feeling and experience to be had in your heart after you hear something really challenging or read a book that causes you to look deep inside your heart for the push to be different. That push for me has always come at different seasons of my life for different reasons. God has used everything from trials to excitement caused by inner desires to get me to move from where I am to where He wants me to be. The most powerful influence I hold in my soul is Jesus Himself. Just take one moment to look at His 33 years of life and the way He loved, saw people, talked to them as if they mattered...because they SO did to Him. He came for a powerful purpose, to seek and save the lost. He has to do this on a daily basis with me as my heart is so often dark and full of selfishness & sin. Reading this morning in Isaiah has beckoned my heart to re-evaluate how I see my salvation. Do I really know the full weight of what He has done for me? Do I understand the distance and time Jesus crossed to will me to know Him and believe in who He says He is? He wills us to know Him, this is fully and completely a gift of grace (Grace is such a beautiful word to me, I think it will stick with me my whole life...more on that in a later in life blog). Isaiah 4:2 stuck out to me the most:
"In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel."
The Branch, namely Jesus, will come back and I can't imagine what it will be like...like a thief in the night I suppose?! Will He be pleased with how I've lived or am presently living if He came now? Loving those around us that don't necessarily live life the way we do or believe it should be lived is hard, but good for us. It constantly reminds me that I am only in the knowledge of the grace and love of Christ because He has sovereignly willed it, that's it! I am no better than the man I saw last night outside the neighborhood library smoking pot and then inhaling a burger & fries shortly after...absolutely no better. He just isn't fully aware of the freedom he can have in his life if he were to turn his heart over to the One who came to save him. This is our lot, our goal, our mission if we choose to accept it on this earth. More and more I feel the flaming eyes of Jesus Himself looking deep into my soul, turning up the flame of His heart towards the lost...waiting patiently for me to surrender what I want for what He wants. He wants sheep. He wants lost, broken and hurting sheep. He is the Good Shepherd, why would He not? I realize I am going to eat these words again and again in the future but I'm so tired of reading books and listening to inspiring sermons to live like Jesus, being stoked about doing it...only to never put my hand to the plow in order to make it a reality. I think we are all so guilty of this in so many ways.
Approaching Christmas, I do think of "little 10 LB baby Jesus" lying in a manger, sweet and cuddly as He might've been. However, I do not see Him as a humorous, one-liner conversation I want to laugh about with my friends. I see Him as a fierce and loving warrior who was, is and always will be. He chose to come and bring light into the darkness...and I am forever thankful He did. I want to continue this legacy in my life in a very real and lasting way. When I pass away and this body is no more, I want what people know about me to be that I loved like Jesus. And that it was evident.
"And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
'Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.'"
-Revelation 4:8
Merry Christmas this season and may Christ come to be your all in all.
Love,
The Allens
"In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel."
The Branch, namely Jesus, will come back and I can't imagine what it will be like...like a thief in the night I suppose?! Will He be pleased with how I've lived or am presently living if He came now? Loving those around us that don't necessarily live life the way we do or believe it should be lived is hard, but good for us. It constantly reminds me that I am only in the knowledge of the grace and love of Christ because He has sovereignly willed it, that's it! I am no better than the man I saw last night outside the neighborhood library smoking pot and then inhaling a burger & fries shortly after...absolutely no better. He just isn't fully aware of the freedom he can have in his life if he were to turn his heart over to the One who came to save him. This is our lot, our goal, our mission if we choose to accept it on this earth. More and more I feel the flaming eyes of Jesus Himself looking deep into my soul, turning up the flame of His heart towards the lost...waiting patiently for me to surrender what I want for what He wants. He wants sheep. He wants lost, broken and hurting sheep. He is the Good Shepherd, why would He not? I realize I am going to eat these words again and again in the future but I'm so tired of reading books and listening to inspiring sermons to live like Jesus, being stoked about doing it...only to never put my hand to the plow in order to make it a reality. I think we are all so guilty of this in so many ways.
Approaching Christmas, I do think of "little 10 LB baby Jesus" lying in a manger, sweet and cuddly as He might've been. However, I do not see Him as a humorous, one-liner conversation I want to laugh about with my friends. I see Him as a fierce and loving warrior who was, is and always will be. He chose to come and bring light into the darkness...and I am forever thankful He did. I want to continue this legacy in my life in a very real and lasting way. When I pass away and this body is no more, I want what people know about me to be that I loved like Jesus. And that it was evident.
"And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
'Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.'"
-Revelation 4:8
Merry Christmas this season and may Christ come to be your all in all.
Love,
The Allens
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