early will I seek You...

Psalm 63:1 "O God, thou art my God; EARLY WILL I SEEK
THEE...." (KJV).

There is none like the one true living God. I sense His presence in the early hours of my Saturday as I type this blog entry. He is my secret place my resting grounds. His love is better than life & I am fully aware that I'm ruined for anything else. How can I express in words what following Him has done to me? There are none I suppose but I'll try. He has shown me recently that "all our righteous acts are as filthy rags"Isaiah 64:6 which tells me that there is not one thing I can physically do to earn His gift of salvation, love & forgiveness. The Word makes it clear to me what pleases Him and that is adhering and applying His commands to my life. Not that anyone ever gets that perfect but in 1 Samuel 16:7 the Lord told Samuel that He wasn't concerned with the outside appearance of a man, He was concerned with the HEART. The only way I ever lined my heart up with God was when I began to take the scripture literally. I decided that in all situations I would apply the Word. This requires obedience because as I discovered it isn't always easy to follow His commands but its worth it. It's a willingness to commit yourself to changing your way of thinking. In John 14:15 Jesus said "if you love me, you will obey what I command" The only way we learn His commands is by reading the Bible and making it apart of our everyday life. We must allow it to soak in to the depths of our being. Hebrews 4:12 says that "The the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Wow! That's powerful. The word of God has the ability to change our hearts and it has changed mine. My heart desires to walk in obedience just like Jesus did. Obedience requires faith that God will do what His word says it will do. Faith pleases God & causes Him to act upon our circumstances. Romans 10:17 "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by (what?) The word of GOD" I urge you to take this journey with me dig in to the scriptures & grasp what all Jesus accomplished on the cross for you. I know without a doubt that we won't be disappointed because God is & always has been.. so faithful!

Katie

Redemption is so much better than perfection..

More often than not we let ourselves forget the grave nature of His sacrifice. We forget how treacherous it was for Him because it's easier to keep our minds off of His suffering. Some even choose to believe that maybe, just maybe it didn't happen the way they said it did. But the truth is it happened, every single bit of human torture he endured, every single bead of sweat that hit open wounds that sent burning through out his body. The cross sealed our forgiveness of sin and was the ultimate sign of obedience to God the Father…..it was ALL for YOU and it was done out of the purest form of LOVE! His sacrifice gave us a chance for redemption no matter what our past looked like. We don't have to be perfect instead we are given a chance at redemption. I always say that my passion for Christ is fueled by how His love radically diminished my self-hate or need for perfection…how His love transcended all my past failures and mistakes. He saw my heart…he saw my potential, He knew who I could be and was committed to slowly changing my heart to be more like the Savior's. This hasn't been the easiest road but without a doubt the most rewarding. Every trial I've endured He's carried me thru and my faith has grown like crazy. I'm proudly in love with my Savior. God has become more and more tangible to me and I'm exceedingly grateful for His Holy Spirit that never leaves my side. People we serve a really big God who has an unthinkably awesome future for His followers. If you read this and have never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord, from experience I would say…give Him a chance..He will bypass any & all expectations you may have. If you do, then take this time to remember your first love. Is He your first priority? Because It's completely obvious to me that we were his first priority when He died upon the cross. I'm moving forward with my Savior I'm ready for whatever wonderful, glorious future He has planned for me and I hope and pray you are too.

Katie


But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. Romans 5:8


[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! Ephesians 3:19

this too shall pass...

Over the past few days I have been filtering a plethora of emotions that range from utter shock to fear of the unknown. These feelings at times leave me feeling desperate...devastated. I can not wrap my mind around my father's recent diagnosis nor do I want to actually. He started chemotherapy today. This makes it real & the thought of my precious daddy having to go through this makes me flat out ill. So I am left with this....a choice. I can allow these emotions to keep me on a roller coaster that will eventually leave me haggard and worn or I can stand firm,dig in my heels and remember to whom I and my father belong. We are both children of the Most High God, bought with a price, precious in His site. I again am reminded to TRUST Him with EVERYTHING. My father often reminds me of the scripture found in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." He's got it right, God has wonderful thoughts of good towards my father & me for that matter.Thoughts that are more full of perfect love than I could ever fathom. I also know deep down that God's promises are true & that every single word of scripture is nothing less than solid truth. When He said in Isaiah 53:5... by His stripes we are healed" He meant it! Every single word. That goes for ALL promises made to us in the Bible. I choose today to stand firm in my faith and claim what is rightfully ours as joint heirs in the Kingdom...knowing that if every single hair on our head numbered & known by God than God is concerned with what concerns me & above all, I can TRUST in Him.

1 Corinthians 8:3 "The man who loves God is known by God."

Katie

held close...

Thoughts of His concern for our every need flood my mind today. Be it fear, worry, doubt...He patiently waits for me to turn it over in His hands. Watching to see how long I will wrestle with these emotions, longing to take it from my grasp just to give me relief. Oh why do we hold on so tight to feelings that have no power over us. The very things that Jesus himself left the throne to conquer on our behalf by the spilling of His precious blood. Will I choose to claim the victory that is rightfully mine or choose to re-crucify Him when I try and battle anything alone denying His power to handle it for me. It boils down to trust...will I trust that His will no matter what it is, is 100% best for me? Will I accept that His Word is truth & that the real power (scripture) lay at my fingertips....ready to be absorbed to my core & proclaimed with my tongue... Isaiah 55:11 "so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." We have been made for His glory to accomplish more than our feeble minds have the ability to dream about. He longs for us to walk in our Kingdom authority instead of being hung up on the cares of this world. He longs for us to trust Him for our next step because it's in trusting Him that faith grows and its in our faith that God is pleased.  I choose to trust God, to have huge crazy faith in His power,to be held close to Him the very same way as a mother I hold my babies...   Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6


Katie

His love...

Because I have experienced His love....I've been consumed. By a love so deep, so real, so intoxicating. He is my First Love, my Redeemer, my Rock, my All in All. He sustains me through grief, through fear, and through all the unknowns life hands out. He causes peace to reside deep in my soul, nothing else matters that is occurring around me because I can trust Him with my life...my very heart and being. He would never leave me or forsake me of this I am certain. He longs to bring me good all the days of my life. His presence in my life at time is overwhelming the likes of a constant high. I am fully aware & understand that to the world, my abandonment to his call on my life is alien, somewhat foreign to them...but I am not of this world...this is not my home. So I will walk in His love with the ever increasing desire to share & prayerfully transfer this freedom to others. His desire is for us his children to walk the way Jesus did while on this Earth, to become more like Him in every way...equally yoking together with our Creator & allowing His love to transform us from the inside out. When you encounter a love so great, so amazing the end result is a life consumed, never to be the same again, one that is sickened by the remaining sin present in their life. Christ wants to burn inside all of our hearts like a fire, refining, purifying, burning away the old....an all consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Step by step sin falls out of your life as you fight to pursue Christ and all that He has in store for you. In Him there is fullness of joy, peace unspeakable, satisfaction despite what is seen with the physical eye....he simply desires our heart...every bit of it...leaving us CONSUMED by His LOVE!

Katie