He Loves

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38-39

I mess up all the time, every day. And God still loves.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
~Hebrews 13:8

My life changes, I change, all the time. God doesn't change.

He forgives. And He is good. All the time.

I don't quite understand it, this love of His.

But I am so glad for it.

I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,'
~Isaiah 46:9-10

Overcoming

Here I am. Innocent, content, sheltered me. I write novels for the fun of it and make music for the joy of it. If there was no such thing as the outside world, I could see my life stretching out before me on a shining, exciting road.

But there is an outside world. It has tornadoes, failing economies, and terrorists. And it won't be contained by my blissful denial or ignorance.

So, again, here I am, armed with a suddenly-iffy outlook on the future. I am fifteen years old--I certainly haven't seen much of the world. But I have gathered that the future does not make or keep promises.

The future doesn't--but God does.

I have said these things tot you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. ~John 18:33

The Glory

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
~Psalm 8:3-4

As I learn more about the worlds God created, including this one I live on and especially the entire universe it's in, these verses ring increasingly true.

The universe is so huge, so mysterious, and so complex. It's amazing that humans have managed to learn so much about it has they have, but what's so much more awesome is that it's even here. Some people believe in the big bang theory, but while that offers an explanation for the beginning of our earth, it doesn't even begin to say where the universe came from.

So where did it come from?

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen is not made out of things that are visible.
~Hebrews 11:3

God created the huge, majestic amazing universe. After He made something so incredible, He made humans that were supposed to be perfect. But they sinned, and... He still loves them. What is man that you are mindful of him?

So now I think, Here in the midst of that universe, in the presence of the Being who created it and so much more, what am I to do? I mean, read Ecclesiastes and you basically find the words Life Does Not Mean Anything. And it doesn't, without God. To be awake spiritually is to be alive.

As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
~2 Corinthians 4:18

So life in the soul and body has all the potential it needs for uselessness and death. But God can reverse that! He can let you live, here on earth and afterward in eternity. And can you imagine how wonderful eternal life with God will be? Look at what He has created. He Himself is more beautiful. What will He have us do for Him once there is an eternity or perfection before us?

I can't wait to find out.

Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.

Faith

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ~Romans 5:1-2

Faith that only Jesus can save me has been on my heart lately. There is so much to understand about Him, and so much that I never will until heaven. But He loves me, He died for me, and I know that He is my savior. And that is all that matters. I have to have faith that He can forgive my sin, even though it may be a little hard for me to believe sometimes. But all I have to do is ask. Ask for the forgiveness that only, only God can give.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ~Philippians 4:6

~~~~

Hannah wrote a great post on faith that rather inspired to me get my thoughts into the blogosphere....you really should go read it!

A quick post...

Here is a very well-known Bible verse I have taken for granted for a long time:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. -Philippians 4:4

I often forget about the remarkable gift God has given me in salvation. I can only see straight ahead, looking only for the mundanely annoying things in life's many imperfections. It is really easy to become bitter.

But the verse above says to praise God all the time, not only when life is good, because it has been bad and often will be! I was not promised a perfect when I became a Christian, but I have been promised God's eternal love. I have been given everything in it; how can I not be happy?

Image credit

Phillippians 4:19

Philippians 4:19- And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in the glory of the Jesus Christ.

At first glance, I thought of this verse as referring to needs like food, clothing, and the basic physical ones. But there is more meaning than that.

Notice the word 'every'.God cares for and is willing to provide the non-physical emotional needs, too. He can be the perfect friend that is always, always accessible and loving. He cares for every aspect of my life.

And He's the Creator of this exquisite world, too! Not my image, but I just had to share it.

Doubts

It was a dark and stormy night... just kidding, it was actually a quiet and grey morning, and I was not happy. I was sad, lonely, and far from home. I wanted to be home, but I knew I wouldn't be for a week. I picked up my Bible, looking for comfort. I thought, In all the missionary biographies I have read, they just start reading and find exactly the strength they need. Do they just open to a random spot?

I asked God to please show me something comforting, but I still had doubts. After some weighing of ideas of where to read, I just decided to pick up where I had left off in the Psalms a few days ago. I was on the 13th.

I started reading, barely expecting anything.

But God still cared about me, even when I was doubting His love. That 13th psalm epitomized the feelings of loneliness I had that morning and gave me back the knowledge that God is always, always watching and caring for me.

I will sing to the LORD, because he had dealt bountifully with me. -Psalm 13:6

A higher calling? Oh yeah.

I love heroes. Stories like The Lord of the Rings infatuate me. In those stories, the good guys are fighting with they got against a great, dark, evil enemy. Their purpose is noble: keep the world free and peaceful. And when I read the trilogy or other books like it, I want so badly to somehow get into the story, like go through Lucy's wardrobe or something, and experience it for myself. But, as I far as I've experienced, that isn't possible. So I would get rather sad. I thought that I was doomed to a life of wishful thinking and empty dreams.

But I am not.

God has given me, and all Christians, a chance to do something nobler than the heroes and heroines in fiction get to do: I get to help fight His battles:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. -Ephesians 6:12

God is allowing me to fight in a war which has an eternal outcome. We by ourselves are not strong enough to fight in this war, but God gives us the strength we need through the Bible and constant contact with Him. And this is not a war with a possibly hopeless and uncertain outcome; God is going to win this one.

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. -Revelation 17:14

Guarding my heart

Whenever I am told to "guard my heart", I instantly imagine my heart being a fair innocent princess in a tower, with myself needing to be a valiant knight to keep all of the evil things in this world away from her. But as I have been reading some different books on Christian living lately, that pleasant mental picture has been, uh, distorted. In the Bible, it says to "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." -Proverbs 4:23

God laments through a prophet that "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?" -Jeremiah 17:9

And in Genesis, it says that, "...the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth..." -8:21

Okay. So now instead of a beautiful maiden representing my heart, I have a vile, evil, trouble-causing criminal. It looks like I need to be more of a jailer that will keep all of the wickedness in that criminal from entering the world! And here is a sad fact: have you ever noticed that the phrase "follow your heart" is everywhere? We are being told to allow that foul vessel to determine our lives and actions. Another translation of Proverbs 4:23 states that the "springs of life" flow from the heart. I like to experience clean water better than dirty water. So I still need to guard what goes into my heart, but I also will guard what comes out of it, too. I am just so glad that God is on my side!