The world of the generous gets larger and larger...The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.
~Proverbs 11:24-25
It's so easy to hang on to our treasures, believing that they'll do us better by remaining in our possession. God calls us to such a different mindset though. He challenges us to hold all with open hands, giving to those in need and seeking always to offer to others what we might want to keep for ourselves. This isn't an easy task sometimes, regardless of what is actually being given. Yet in the most excellent manner of God, He abundantly blesses when we choose to let go.
Whether it's time or money or possessions or space or your heart, know that in the holding loosely and giving to others you will be blessed in ways far beyond what you can imagine. I've seen it happen in my life and in the lives of many others. It's just how our God works! Backwards from the world but ever so beautiful to those who experience Him!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Countdown
This semester is almost over!
I can hardly wait. I want freedom from class, freedom from reading, freedom from my computer, freedom from hours of sitting at my table and studying. I want to play and goof around and do those things that I've had to neglect as I've studied like crazy.
It's taking everything in me to stay focused until the end. I am just so ready to finish!
I must be absolutely crazy to have signed up for more classes.
Ah well, those don't happen until later. In the meantime, counting down to freedom at least for the moment!
I can hardly wait. I want freedom from class, freedom from reading, freedom from my computer, freedom from hours of sitting at my table and studying. I want to play and goof around and do those things that I've had to neglect as I've studied like crazy.
It's taking everything in me to stay focused until the end. I am just so ready to finish!
I must be absolutely crazy to have signed up for more classes.
Ah well, those don't happen until later. In the meantime, counting down to freedom at least for the moment!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Playing With Photos #3
I know I've been missing from blog world but I'll jump in for a quick photo edit and then try to find some time to expound on where I've been and what I've been up to. As always, great stories to come! :)
Check out I ♥ Faces for more edits this week!
Original image:
My edits using Picnik:
My goal was to bring a bit more color into the shot, livening it up a touch. I would like to play up his beautiful eyes but can't find a way to do that on Picnik. I feel like my result is a bit grainier than I'd prefer but I liked the colors I achieved.
Second edit:
I am always hesitant about cropping beyond the face borders but decided to play a bit and give it a shot. I liked how this one turned out and I found a way to sort of bring out the eyes and mouth a touch more while softening up the rest. Such fun! :)
Anyways, still a novice...maybe learning a bit more each week!
Check out I ♥ Faces for more edits this week!
Original image:
My edits using Picnik:
My goal was to bring a bit more color into the shot, livening it up a touch. I would like to play up his beautiful eyes but can't find a way to do that on Picnik. I feel like my result is a bit grainier than I'd prefer but I liked the colors I achieved.
Second edit:
I am always hesitant about cropping beyond the face borders but decided to play a bit and give it a shot. I liked how this one turned out and I found a way to sort of bring out the eyes and mouth a touch more while softening up the rest. Such fun! :)
Anyways, still a novice...maybe learning a bit more each week!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Alabaster Boxes
3While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5It could have been sold for more than a year's wage and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly. 6"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
~Mark 14:3-9
Today is the third day of Passion Week, the days leading up to the celebration of Christ's resurrection. This past Sunday so many years ago, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, knowing for certain that the appropriate time had been reached for Him to offer up His life as a sacrifice for all. Today finds Him at the home of Simon, spending time with those He loved and continuing to teach them about the reality of what He came to do. In the midst of a discussion with the men, we find this story about a boldly courageous woman and her actions.
Here's what I'm struck with as I read this passage: this act was an enormous risk for her to take. She was a woman approaching a group of men, preparing to pour oil over one of them. I can only imagine the courage that it required for her to take that box and go to the house, to grab it from where she'd placed it when she entered, and to approach Christ as He sat with the others. Huge risk!
Yet, huge reward!
She took a chance; pushed herself to take action when prudence called for her to avoid it. Her love of the Savior eliminated her fear and drove her to leap off the cliff of safety and into the land of risk. She had to know that the outcome was uncertain but she also knew there was no choice for her in that moment but to express her adoration of Him with action. That He so vocally affirmed her simply reflects the depth of His compassion and love for those who pursue Him. For her, it was an outcome unknown and yet, in the risking, she received a beautiful new experience with her Savior.
I envy this woman. I so often fear and struggle to step out in total faith to the places where I'm uncertain and scared. Risky love frightens me and it is hard for me to be moved toward boldness. I am fearful at times to dump out the contents of my heart upon the Savior and discover what He has for me. Yet there are also moments when the imperfect love I have for the God who saved my soul drives out fear and I rush off the cliff into whatever He has called me to with arms open wide. Moments when I am so fully and completely aware that what I have in God is worth any rejection or ridicule that I might face from the world as I follow Him. Those are the moments that I love!
As I reflect on the action Mary took with her alabaster jar, I hope that I will grow ever more willing to follow the Lord completely with exuberance and the total faith that He will never fail and therefore I can risk when He calls me to do so. I want to be led by the Savior and open to taking chances even if they seem to be in places where the risk is too high. I want to break my very heart over the feet of Jesus and be willing to follow to whatever new places that action opens up before me.
I desire to live a life defined by following Christ above all fears. To know that when He calls, there is no risk so great that it outweighs the benefits of running after Him. He is always bigger than the risks. Now to just act!
~Mark 14:3-9
Today is the third day of Passion Week, the days leading up to the celebration of Christ's resurrection. This past Sunday so many years ago, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, knowing for certain that the appropriate time had been reached for Him to offer up His life as a sacrifice for all. Today finds Him at the home of Simon, spending time with those He loved and continuing to teach them about the reality of what He came to do. In the midst of a discussion with the men, we find this story about a boldly courageous woman and her actions.
Here's what I'm struck with as I read this passage: this act was an enormous risk for her to take. She was a woman approaching a group of men, preparing to pour oil over one of them. I can only imagine the courage that it required for her to take that box and go to the house, to grab it from where she'd placed it when she entered, and to approach Christ as He sat with the others. Huge risk!
Yet, huge reward!
She took a chance; pushed herself to take action when prudence called for her to avoid it. Her love of the Savior eliminated her fear and drove her to leap off the cliff of safety and into the land of risk. She had to know that the outcome was uncertain but she also knew there was no choice for her in that moment but to express her adoration of Him with action. That He so vocally affirmed her simply reflects the depth of His compassion and love for those who pursue Him. For her, it was an outcome unknown and yet, in the risking, she received a beautiful new experience with her Savior.
I envy this woman. I so often fear and struggle to step out in total faith to the places where I'm uncertain and scared. Risky love frightens me and it is hard for me to be moved toward boldness. I am fearful at times to dump out the contents of my heart upon the Savior and discover what He has for me. Yet there are also moments when the imperfect love I have for the God who saved my soul drives out fear and I rush off the cliff into whatever He has called me to with arms open wide. Moments when I am so fully and completely aware that what I have in God is worth any rejection or ridicule that I might face from the world as I follow Him. Those are the moments that I love!
As I reflect on the action Mary took with her alabaster jar, I hope that I will grow ever more willing to follow the Lord completely with exuberance and the total faith that He will never fail and therefore I can risk when He calls me to do so. I want to be led by the Savior and open to taking chances even if they seem to be in places where the risk is too high. I want to break my very heart over the feet of Jesus and be willing to follow to whatever new places that action opens up before me.
I desire to live a life defined by following Christ above all fears. To know that when He calls, there is no risk so great that it outweighs the benefits of running after Him. He is always bigger than the risks. Now to just act!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Vision
Be Thou My Vision
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
I just heard this hymn sung and it resonated deep within me. I so want my life to be always and forever caught up in the pursuit of God so that I'll find Him constantly to be my everything.
I feel like the stories that God is writing in my life right now are some of the biggest ones that I've ever walked through. My days are testimony after testimony of the greatness of the Lord and His never-ending compassion towards me, His child, and those around me. I stand amazed, completely overwhelmed, in awe of this One who gave all for me even knowing how often I would fail.
Jesus truly is everything. How I wish everyone understood the truth in that. Everything else is temporary but He will always be. Always. It honestly doesn't get any better than that!
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