(by the way, don't you just love outdoor weddings? i sure dooo! :)
we dance~ bethel music
You steady me
Slow and sweet we sway
Take the lead and I will follow
Finally ready now
To close my eyes and just believe
That You won’t lead me where You don’t go
When my faith gets tired and my hope seems
lost
You spin me round and round and remind me of
that song
The one You wrote for me
And we dance
And we dance
I’ve been told to pick my sword and fight for
Love
Little did I know that Love had won for me
Here in Your arms, You still my heart again
And I breathe You in like I’ve never breathed
till now
When my faith gets tired and my hope seems
lost
You spin me round and round and remind me of
that song
The one You wrote for me
And we dance, and we dance
And we dance, and we dance, just You and me
And I will lock eyes with the One who’s ransomed
me
The One who gave me joy from mourning
And I will lock eyes with the One who’s chosen
me
The One who set my feet to dancing
We dance, just You and me. it's nice to know, i'm not alone i've found my home here in Your arms
“… I will give them praise and honor in every
land where they have suffered shame.” Zephaniah
3:19
“ ‘but you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I
have chosen, you descendants of abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of
the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, “you are my servant”
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.’” Isaiah 41:8
“the Lord your God is with you, the Mighty
Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you, in His love He will no
longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
There are some days when I just decide to twirl
around not necessarily bcos my life is perfect but bcos of the truth that Jesus loves me. :) I decide to go against my unpleasant feelings
and just dance quietly in the presence of my Redeemer. And I so bet He joins in
and dances with me.
I keep deciding to choose and pursue joy no
matter what. Try dancing sometimes despite the heaviness your soul feels. It
might just help cheer you. :)
sometimes we go through some things, and we yearn for a sign from God to assure us that we are really not alone. and sometimes this yearning is a whisper in prayer, or a thought running round in our minds, hoping that He will do something, give us some sign that He is with us.
and the truth is, He is always with us. even if we don't see the 'sign' we ask for. He is as sure as the sun. He is the sunshine in your hair, the wispy cloud in the sky, the cool, afternoon breeze softly touching your face. God is everywhere. His beautiful creation testify that He is. something cannot come out of nothing, and creation attest to this that He is the Creator, He is the very breath within us. and He is always with us.
i've always loved this song. enjoy!
light up the sky~ the afters
when i'm feeling all alone, with so far to go,
the signs are no where on this road, guiding me home,
when the night is closing in, is falling on my skin
oh, God will You come close.
light, light, light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me You are with me
i, i, i can't deny, no, i can't deny that You are right here with me
You've opened my eyes, so i can see You all around me
You light, light, light up the sky,
You light up the sky to show me, that You are with me
when stars are hiding in the clouds, i don't feel them shining
when i can't see beyond my doubt, the silver lining
when i've almost reached the end,
like a flood You're rushing in. Your love is rushing in..
so i run straight into Your arms,
You're the bright morning sun
to show Your love there's nothing You won't do.
have i not commanded you? be strong and courageous. do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." joshua 1:9
"...its truth is seen in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true Light is already shining." 1 john 2:8
"when Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." john 8:12
"the Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall i fear? the Lord is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall i be afraid?" psalm 27:1
"those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." psalm 34:5
"i lift up my eyes to the mountains- where does my help come from? my help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." psalm 121:1-2
"...and surely I (Jesus) am with you always, to the very end of the age." matthew 28:20
He is not just with you, empathizing with you, but He is actively involved in weaving your pain and heartache into something beautiful. be encouraged, friend.
sometime, when all life's lessons have been learned,
and sun and stars forevermore have set,
the things which our weak judgments here have spurned,
the things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet,
will flash before us out of life's dark night,
as stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
and we shall see how all God's plans are right,
and how what seemed reproof was love most true.
then be content poor heart;
God's plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold;
we must not tear the close-shut leaves apart,-
time will reveal the chalices of gold.
and if, through patient toil, we reach the land
where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest,
when we shall clearly see and understand,
i think that we will say, "God knew the best!"
--- may riley smith.
" 'for I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.' " jeremiah 29:11-13 someday~ jj heller
let's place our lives calendars at God's feet and allow Him to handle the scheduling of the details. He sure will reveal things under the right circumstances. sometime when we are in heaven, we will hopefully get more clarity on the questions God has withheld the answers to in the now. in this life we may not understand all He does, but sometime, we will possess the perspective of heaven.
I posted this blog a year ago, but for some reason the link got broken and i couldn't seem to fix it. So, i decided to re-post it. enjoy.
Have you ever read a book and enjoyed it so much you became sad that it
had to come to end? It’s like you’ve become a part of the story and
leaving the scene is hard for you because you want it to roll on for
your continued enjoyment. Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller
is one of such stories.Somewhere in early December last year, I was
looking up Christian books I could put on my to-read list, and I came
across Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. It had good reviews and I
found out it was even turned into a movie so I got convinced it must be
good. Around Christmas I was looking for some good music on Noisetrade
when I stumbled on a free audio version of Don’s book, Through Painted Deserts. Was I thrilled? You bet! I mean although Blue Like Jazz was what I was bent on reading, I was like why not give this a listening ear? After all it’s by the same author and if Blue Like Jazz is good, chances are Through Painted Deserts also is. Was I wrong? No!
In fact I’ve fallen in love with the
book, seriously! (Sorry I had to scream that.) This is more like say, a
short, informal review of the book with a bunch of my favorite quotes
from it.
Through Painted Deserts
is a memoir that takes you on a journey into how the author found the
meaning of why God made us, his beloved creation... about changing,
faith, finding light, friendship and beauty on the open road. It’s very
touching and warms your heart in the right places. Oh, and the soothing
voice of Don reading the book adds such calm and peace to the story
itself.
It’s a
book I will recommend for everybody especially those whose faith in God
is a bit shaky and who doubt the goodness and beauty of God, people who
wonder or doubt if God ever listens to their prayers and people who may
need to leave their comfort zones and everything behind to go on an
adventure to get a better perspective of life. It’s a book for people
who get so caught up with life and forget there’s a big world out there
full of the calmness and peace of God, people who don’t stop to enjoy
the big, blue sky, people who don’t stop to breathe and experience the
soothing nature, the works of God’s hands. Although we have to
participate in life and go about our duties in order to survive, we need
to take breaks every now and then to get away from the pressures and
noise of it all and just enjoy God.
Considering I’m a ''small'' town kinda
girl in this little country, Ghana, this book encourages me personally
to venture out from my all too familiar surroundings to somewhere new,
somewhere that’ll give me a new and beautiful perspective about life and
God. I so want to leave, to venture out and experience and enjoy the
magnificence of God somewhere away from where I call home, sharing His
truth and forging beautiful friendships along the way... and I’m
trusting God with that. I want to experience Him in canyons, on
mountains, in deserts, in falling snow, in the falling of red autumn
leaves, on beautiful beaches, on islands, on the open road... in
different cultures. Nature has such an endearing way of reminding me not
just of the greatness of God and the beautiful works of His hands but
it also affirms that God really does exist.
So
here are some quotes I totally love from the book. They’re like urm,
spoilers of a good movie. LOL They’re quite a number but you can’t
resist such lovely words that speak straight to your heart, right?!
Haha, here goes:
“Every
person has to leave, has to change like the seasons. They have to or
they die. The seasons remind me that I must keep changing and I want to
change because it’s Gods way.”
“Everybody
has to change or they expire. Everybody has to leave their homes and
come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.”
“I
want to keep my soul fertile for the changes so things keep getting
born in me, so things keep dying when it’s time for things to die.”
“I
want to repeat one word for you. Leave. Roll the word around on your
tongue for a bit. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and
forceful, the way you’ve always wanted to be. And you’ll not be alone.
You have never been alone. Don’t worry, everything will still be here
when you get back. It is you who would have changed.”
“No, life can’t be understood flat
on a page, it has to be lived, a person has to get out of his head, has
to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into
rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his
breath.”
“It’s a
living book, this life. It folds out in a million settings, cast with a
billion beautiful characters and it’s almost over for you. It doesn’t
matter how old you are. It’s coming to a close quickly and soon the
credits will roll and all of your friends will fold out of your funeral
and drive back to their homes in cold, in still, in silence and they’ll
make a fire, pour some wine and think about how you once were and feel a
kind of sickness at the idea you never again will be.”
“And
so my prayer is that your story would have involved some leaving and
some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out
like children in a play. My hope is that your story will be about
changing, about getting something beautiful born outside of you, about
learning to love a man or a woman, about learning to love a child, about
moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about
learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning
oneness as a way of understanding God.”
“Everything
is like a symphony if you think about it; birds are perfect and
crickets come out of the wet woods like a choir...nature itself worked
perfectly to calm the soul.”
“Life is a dance toward God... and
the dance is not so graceful as we might want. While we glide and swing
our practiced sway, God crowds our feet, bumps our toes, and scuffs our
shoes.”
“There
is nothing I’m missing. I have everything i was supposed to have to
experience the magnitude of this story, to dance with God.”
“I
guess I’m looking for what any guy is looking for. I want a companion,
you know. Just someone to share life with. I want her to be my biggest
fan and i want to be her biggest fan too. I want us to raise kids in a
home where they know their parents are in love with each other, with
them, and with God. I guess that’s all I want.”
“I
want a friend, a true friend. Someone who knows me and loves me anyway.
Like, when I’m through putting my best foot forward, she’s still
there.”
“Real love doesn’t ask “what’s in it
for me?” It just gives unconditionally, it just tries to take the
weight out of somebody else’s pack, lessen his load and if it gets
reciprocated, that’s great, but that isn’t what you did it for.”
“Don’t kick yourself around, if you can’t climb up out of a canyon real quick, just do it slow.”
“God
made a whole beautiful earth and decided to put you in it, to
experience all of this beauty. You can’t do that watching television all
the time.”
“Life is not a story about me, but it’s told to me and I can be glad of that. I think that’s the why of life...to enjoy God.”
“Months
ago I would have told you life was about doing, about jumping through
religious hoops, about impressing people and my actions would have told
you this is done by buying possessions or keeping a good image... but I
don’t believe in that stuff anymore. I think we’re supposed to stand in
deserts and marvel at how the sun rises. I think we’re supposed to sleep
in meadows and watch stars dart across space and time. I think we’re
supposed to love our friends and introduce people to the story, to the
peaceful, calming why of life. I think life is spirituality.”
“If I ever get frustrated with life
again, if I ever get into river deep debt, I will sell it all and move
out into the woods, find some people who aren’t like me and learn to
love them and do something even harder, let them love me. I will sleep
beneath the stars and whisper “thank You” to the Creator of the universe
as a way of reacquainting myself to an old friend, a friend who says
you don’t have to be smart or good looking or religious or anything, you
just have to cling to Him, love Him, need Him, and listen to Him while
He tells His story.”
“Some
things have to end, you know. I will be leaving soon and i want to feel
this, really understand that it’s happening because God breathed some
spark into mud that became us and He did it for a reason and I want to
feel that reason, not some false explanation.”
"And if these mountains had eyes,
they would wake to find two strangers in their fences, standing in
admiration as a breathing red pours its tinge upon earth's shore. These
mountains, which have seen untold sunrises, long to thunder praise but
stand reverent, silent so that man's weak praise should be given God's
attention."
"It's a wonder that those exposed to such beauty forfeit the great questions in the face of this miraculous evidence."
“I
think again about this small period of grace, and thank God for it,
that if only for a season I could feel the why of life, see it in the
metaphor of light, in the endlessness of the cosmos, in the miracle of
friendship. And had these mountains the ability to reason, perhaps they
would contemplate the beauty of humanity and praise God for the miracle
that each of us is, pondering the majesty of God and the wonder of man
in one bewildering context. Their brows are rumpled even now and their
arms are stretched toward heaven.”
Whew! (That’s a good whew, LOL) I’ve come to the end of the lengthy but lovely quotes from Through Painted Deserts.
It’s such a good read and I love how the acoustic guitar plays in the
background at the end of the final chapter. It ends on such a beautiful
note that it even gets me teary-eyed (In a very good way.) I hope you
enjoyed them and that you’ll read the book or better still get the free
audio version right here.
It’s a good read (have I mentioned that already) and you could listen
to the audio book (all twenty-seven chapters) in a day. I personally
didn’t want to consume all the yummy goodness in one day so I chose to
listen to it in bits, over a number of days to let it all sink in. God
bless Don’s kind heart for giving it away for no cost and for allowing
others to go along on the journey with him through the mind’s eye. He
sure has a way with words and he writes from a place of honesty and
truth.
People
travel all the time. Probably you do or you currently are. What I’m
beginning to realize is that you could travel the entire world and it
wouldn’t really mean anything until you travel with meaning, with the
knowledge that God created all these magnificent things in life. Traveling should awaken us to the wonder of God and rekindle our love for Him.
It should involve loving and sharing God’s truth to the people we meet
along our journeys. Let’s always remember what Jesus said “And you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is
this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other
commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30,31 In our everyday
living, we should not lose focus on loving God and people. And if you
love people, you would want to share God’s truth with them so that they
get saved. So travel to enjoy God and love people along the way!
:)
Hi
guys! So, I’ve been a lil MIA huh. Well, I’m here now. :)
For many years, I’ve waited. Waited on the Lord for His promises to take root in my
life and bloom. Sometimes itseems as if
it’s going to take forever for what I pray for to show up, while other
times without a beat, God faithfully answers my silent prayers. (yeah, including the ones I'm too embarrassed to say. *facepalm*)
“But I will
hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.” Psalm 71:14
I’ve prayed and waited for big
things. Big things like...
Healing and good health when I was
particularly ill some years ago. Like, weird, serious sick when the doctors
couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and yet I miraculously got healed. Praise Jesus.
A change of heart on a particular
night when I knelt in prayer & for real laid it all at Jesus’ feet and
surrendered, as hot tears trickled down. I rededicated this life of mine back
to its Creator, the one who knows best. The most important decision ever I’ve
made is to accept Jesus as my very own sweet Savior. This is a daily wait, a
daily dying to self as God purifies me & plucks out all the weeds in my
heart.
Provision for school...for mission
trips.
My sanity. (The kind of crazy I deal with aint easy, people!)
Good friendships... for a heart that refuses
to give up on healthy, Godly friendships despite some of the rotten ones I’ve
had. Aint cool when friendships end up being
one-sided and, I don’t know about you but I don’t dig being the third wheel either.
Ya feel me? It’s not friendship when they try to make you beg for their
attention.
Good grades.
My undergraduate studies. I’m thankful I graduated successfully after four looong years!
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
And I’ve waited and prayed for
‘little’ things like...
Not snoozing the alarm when it goes
off and actually getting my sleepy self to rouse.
A good night’s rest.
The rain holding up on a day I
forget my umbrella.
Getting a seat on the bus early, to
avoid too much hassle.
Hoping the food i just ate isn't sticking in between my teeth.
The soles of my shoes not wearing out
too fast, cos God knows I do lotsss of walking lately, especially on work days. (I’m serious guys.)
And the list goes on...
As
I’m thankful to God for answering most of my prayers, new prayers are making
their way up to Him. And all I can do is wait.
“But if we
hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Romans 8:24
In
this season of my life, God is reminding me to wait in hope. No matter how fast
I wish and pray for my one year mandatory service of work to my country to end,
I’ll just have to wait. Why do I want it to end you ask? Cos what I’m doing is
not really my passion, and of course, the allowance is nothing to talk of. You
can barely save from it. The government aint paying well for the
hours I put in and it totally drives me nuts knowing that I could be somewhere
else on the globe, and making more for the same amount of hours I’m putting in.
It’s like my labour isn’t valued, and that’s.not.cool. So you see, low
motivation right there. But like you wait for a convenient time to give in to
that bad itch in that super awkward spot, I will wait and work as though I’m
working for the Lord. This too shall pass.
“Rejoicing
in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.”Romans 12:12
I’m
praying big, adult prayers...I’m trusting God, like reaaallly trusting Him to
honor the prayers I pray for my Godly man. I’m waiting in hope, leaving God to
write out my love story, believing that at His right and perfect time, the man
He knows deserves my heart will come and really pursue me, and I wouldn’t have
to compete or beg for his love. I’m trusting that wherever on this earth he may
be, our paths and stories will intertwine in God’s time. Because really, in
God’s time, He makes ALL things beautiful. It may seem like a fantasy or even
wishful thinking to believe that a man who loves Jesus with all His heart exists and is somewhere also waiting to meet me, to love on me, but it’s oh,
so real. I’m walking by faith, not by sight so...
I will wait in hope.
“Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews
11:1
For
all the dreams & plans I have for my future, I’m leaving the details to my
Father, whose thoughts are higher and waayyyy better than mine. I’m in safe
hands.
“Blessed is
the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like
a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and
will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be
anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Jeremiah
17:7,8
The
wait isn’t easy. The wait is tough, it’s hard, scary even. But it’s going to be
so SO worth it.
And like
John Waller rightfully says,
I will serve You while I’m waiting, I will worship while I’m waiting.
A number of
months ago when I was still in school, something happened that encouraged me
and made me smile. It was nothing dramatic or ‘huge,’ but even in its subtle
form, it was and still is a big deal to me. It was an early morning on a Sunday
and I was heading to church. I was taking a long sidewalk from my school that
leads to a bus stop outside the campus. I can’t really place my finger on all
the thoughts I had going on but I’m pretty sure cluttered thoughts about the present
and my future and how things will play out were on my mind as they often are.
As I was
walking with my jumbled thoughts, and likely anticipating the message which God
was going to whisper to my heart in church, the chorus of a song came to me. It
was an old song I hadn’t heard in a long while. You know when something happens
and you go like ‘that must be God’? That’s exactly what I told myself. The
chorus of the song goes like this :
I'm already there
Take a look around
I'm the sunshine in your hair
I'm the shadow on the ground
I'm the whisper in the wind
I'm your imaginary friend
And I know I'm in your prayers
Oh I'm already there
I'm already there
Don't make a sound
I'm the beat in your heart
I'm the moonlight shining down
I'm the whisper in the wind
And I'll be there until the end
Can you feel the love that we share
Oh I'm already there.
I have no
idea where the song came to me from. Like I said, I hadn’t heard it in a long,
long while and from nowhere, without making any effort to remember it
whatsoever, the song filled my head. I was quite surprised and yet convinced at
the same time that God was trying to talk to me using these lyrics although the
context of the whole song isn’t necessarily from the viewpoint of God.
I believe
God speaks to us all the time. Through the Word, a friend, a movie, a song, a
dream and even a complete stranger (this happened to me years ago and yeah, you
guessed right. I was totally a lil freaked out. lol) Isn’t God so creative
to speak to His children in such different ways?!
There are
other times He speaks to us using repetition. Like, you come across something
related to a particular thing so many times you know it just can’t be
coincidence. For instance, I usually take part in an online Bible study on
twitter and a couple of months back, the book of study was Daniel. When I was
in church that week, scriptures from Daniel were part of the main reference scriptures
read (no, we don’t read Daniel every time in church), and around that time too, I
heard on the radio something about the book of Daniel. If you ask me, this
couldn’t have been coincidental. They occurred around the same period that I
began to ask myself: what is God trying to tell me specifically in this season
of my life from the book of Daniel? I thought through it and came to the wonderful
understanding that I might be going through tough stuff which may look
overwhelming to overcome, but with God by my side, just like He was in the
midst of the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and they stayed alive,
just as He protected Daniel from harm by sending an angel to shut the mouths of
the lions in the den, that is the same way He is going to protect me. I may go
through a fiery furnace or face lions, but I will NOT be harmed. I may
experience very uncomfortable situations, but that’s not going to bring me
down.
I’m oh, so thankful
to God that He thinks about me and cares enough to assure me that whatever
brand of crazy going on in my life, He’s right there with me. He really is. And
that gladdens this sometimes fretting heart of mine. I need to be attentive and
listen to Him all the time so I don’t miss anything. And though I haven’t yet experienced
hearing Him literally speak to me like in the Moses and the burning bush
scenario, (how I can’t wait for this to happen) I appreciate all the other ways
God chooses to speak to me, His beloved. :) Whenever I feel very strongly about
a scripture or convicted about something, I know that’s God right there,
tugging at my heart.
I don’t know
which ways God speaks to you specifically aside the Bible, but I pray that He
opens your heart to figure it out and be guided by His loving instructions
through every season in your life. And I hope that when someone prophesies to
you, you take the time to pray about it yourself to verify if what the person
said was actually from God before taking it in, hook, line and sinker. :) (You
need to be careful with these things.)
No matter
what you’re going through, trust me, I know what pain is. What I go through may
not be exactly what you’re going through but dear one, know that God is there with
you in the midst of it all. Is it present struggles, uncertainties about the
future that leaves you panicking and close to tears? You’ll be just fine. Keep
your head up, and listen to His still, small voice. And just like He was
speaking to me through that song, know that no matter what you’re facing, He is
already there with you. He’s always going to be with us and we shall overcome.
