Where I Stand

In this current political environment,
This is all I have to say:

For the Lord is our judge,
    the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king;
    it is he who will save us.

-Isaiah 33:22 NIV

We are only answerable to the One who made us,

Who loves us the most deeply,

The One who knows us the most

And still loves us unconditionally. 

Scripture That Stands Out

 Ephesians 3:16-19 CSB

I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of is glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. 

Jesus Loves Us

Love is what no person gets tired of hearing.

When I was being manipulated,
I realized that she did it through the façade of love.

JESUS LOVES US MORE THAN anyone or anything we love.

The Raw Fact

Still my mind is racing
We are broken in a way that I can't change
And it hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open the hardest thing to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
We are broken
Tender hands on mine
Drawing me out of a daydream
Falling out of control
Falling in was so easy
We are broken in a way that I can't change
It hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open the hardest thing to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
And I don't wanna let you down
But I know too much to turn back now
Oh
Dancing around the dark
As the dark is fading
We are broken in a way that I can't change
It hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open the hardest thing to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
We are broken in a way that I can't change
It hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open always hard to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
We are broken (2x)
With a heart wide open the hardest thing to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
We are broken
Tender hands on mine
Drawing me out of a daydream
Falling out of control
Falling in was so easy
We are broken in a way that I can't change
It hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open the hardest thing to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
And I don't wanna let you down
But I know too much to turn back now
Oh
Dancing around the dark
As the dark is fading
We are broken in a way that I can't change
It hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open the hardest thing to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
We are broken in a way that I can't change
It hurts too much to hold another day
With a heart wide open always hard to say
Is sometimes you can't save what can't be saved
We are broken (2x)

Do You Know Your Weakness?

Do you know your weakness?

We all have them.

Recently I have been some of facing some of mine -

Things that are not as they should be in my life.

In a day and age where opinions are prevalent,

May I look within, with Jesus by my side,

Examining what He wants me to give to Him.

My pride, my selfishness, my everything.

The below sums up an important message for us all.

I've met this lady in person years ago,

And she is so full of life.

I appreciate the way she can communicate succinctly.

"Do you know and own your harmartia? You’d better. Everyone has one, and it will likely destroy things that are very precious if you don’t get on top of it. Harmartia comes from the Greek language and it means a potentially fatal personal flaw that, unchecked, leads to a tragic downfall. Let’s talk about fiction or people far away from us to make it more comfortable: David’s harmartia was his lust for beautiful women; Frodo’s was his obsession with the power the ring gave him; Marty McFly’s was his inability to walk away when someone suggested he was chicken; Thanos’ harmartia was his hubris and arrogance, believing he alone knew what was best and assumed authority that was not his.

Look around you on the worldwide landscape and you will be able to identify the harmartia, the fatal flaws, everywhere. You see leaders on a big scale and a small scale doing the wildest things that are saying far more about themselves than they realize . You can probably identify the same thing within your own circle. Maybe you do. Maybe you call them out. But where we most need to focus is ourselves. What’s the thing if you don’t admit it and deal with it will most likely take you down?

Not a single one of us is a “grace graduate.” We all have tremendous ability to screwup. We need honest self-assessment, humility, grace. As I watch harmartia on a massive level at work in our world today, destroying so much, I am working with God with a new intensity of desire to not detonate bombs in my world because of my failure to own and address my flaw. God help me."

-Brenda Mason Young

It Was Good

Tonight I went out with some friends,
To celebrate one who had a birthday last week.

I didn't want to go, 

But it was good.

I knew I needed to go.

I value this person.

But I didn't feel like going.

It was so good for my soul that I did.

Even when I couldn't concentrate,

These friends didn't seem to judge me.

It doesn't matter what people believe;

It matters how people behave. 

Living Hope

How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And I spoke Your name into the night

Then through the darkness
Your loving kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Who could imagine so great a mercy
What heart could fathom such boundless grace
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame

The cross has spoken, I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Savior, I'm Yours forever
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your Name
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your Name
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the roaring lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me

Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the roaring lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is the victory
Yours is the victory Jesus

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your Name
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your Name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Jesus Christ, You're my living hope
Jesus my living hope
You're my living hope

A Preacher who Teaches

It can be awkward starting out... but that doesn't mean it's not worth listening to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=196JeTpeba4

I Am Thankful

I am thankful that though my understandings of life come and go,
There is Someone who always understands everything.

This past year I lost the relationship with my best friend,

My First BFF who was always in the back of my mind.

I should have connected more with her.

I know she is hurting and I know she is lashing out.

I know I didn't give her all she needed -

But I gave her all I knew how.

I am thankful we are at least social media friends.

I fought for that and that seems to be how she wants it.

This past year I found out that my former mentor

Was and is not who he said he was. 

The façade he carried is that of a psychopath;

There are really no words to adequately describe

Both the positive impact he made on me,

And the betrayal of those trusted times.

I am still not truly done processing it.

I am just thankful that he is not, and never has been, my whole life. 

This past year I went back to church,

As someone engaged for the first time in ten years.

I find it interesting that God brought me back to church

The decade anniversary of when I left the church. 

Sunday mornings did not last; I have not found anything there worth it. 

But I do find value in the people I have met and are getting to know.

I am thankful for those people. 

It has given me hope in the church for the first time in years.