**snow**

First snow of the winter November 30, 2010!

Psalm 119:133

Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil. Psalm 119:133

God's word offers us so much. Freedom, guidance, protection, confidence. This verse is a good reminder to me that I need to take life one step at a time. And when those steps are guided by God's word I will find victory over all the evil crap that keeps trying to creep in.

Switchfoot- Let That be Enough

I wish I had what I need
to live on my own

'cause I feel so defeated

and I'm feeling alone

And it all seems so helpless

And I have no plans

I'm a plane in the sunset

with nowhere to land

And all I see

it could never make me happy

And all my sand castles
spend their time collapsing

Let me know that you hear me

let me know your touch

let me know that You love me

let that be enough

And I feel stuck
watching history repeating

yeah, who am I?

just a kid who knows he's needy

let me know that you hear me

let me know your touch

let me know that You love me

and let that be enough

I can't wait until I get to the point when just knowing God hears me and loves me is enough. I know it can be, I've been there before. But now I'm stuck in my worry and thinking that God and ______ will be enough. There's a daily, minute by minute choice I've got to make to put aside my tendancy to think like the rest of the world does until just having God is enough. It can be my first response to trust and accept God's peace and I want to push on until it is.

Seasons Change

"Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, 'Dry bones listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'" Ezekiel 37:4-6

There is nothing more life giving to me than God's word. As I read these verses today it was just like God was speaking directly to me. I've felt like dead, dried up, forgotten bones for so long and just to hear the power that God has to put flesh, muscles, and skin back on me was exactly what I needed to hear. And He doesn't stop there, after he puts me back together he breathes life into me again so that I will know that He IS THE LORD! I've had doubts, but to see the changes he has made in my life over and over again leaves me no option but to believe He is The Lord.

God gives and gives so much to us, so that we can know him, so that we can have eternal life with him. James 1:21 emplores us to "humbly accept the message God has planted in [our] heart, for it is strong enough to save [our] souls." He wants us, he gives us everything for life (true life!) here on earth and for eternity. All he asks of us is to accept. I make things way more difficult than they have to be between me and God. These past few months have been pretty horrible at times, but once again God is giving me life and peace that I know can only be found in him.

Sometimes I realize how fickle I am towards God and it makes me sick. But dang its hard to put my trust in him sometimes. Maybe it'll come easier over time. Maybe it won't get easier but I'll just get stronger. All I know is I'm thankful for the continuing cycle of the seasons. I have hope because the new life of Spring always comes after the dead of winter.

Songs of My Life Part 2

There's only grace
There's only love
There's only mercy and believe me it's enough
Your sins are gone
Without a trace
And there's nothing left now
There's only grace

-Matthew West

I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From the broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”

-David Crowder Band

"Other people at church heard directly from the Spirit, but Claudius had only seen the face of God in the world around him. Maybe hearing God would quiet the restlessness in his soul. He took the words back immediately. For seventy years Claudius couldn't remember a single day he wasn't grateful, and he wasn't going to change that today. So, he said to the good Lord Jesus, he'd take whatever God was willing to give. No less and no more." - Resurrection in May by Lisa Samson

Faith

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see" Hebrews 11:1 (Message)

Now faith is not freaking out and getting angry at God when you've followed him step by step for five years and then it seems like he has totally forgotten that you just graduated with a degree in ministry, but having the confidence that some day God will give me a full-time job that I love, and fully believing the guarantee that he has a plan for my life. Hebrews 11:1 (Crystal's life version)

So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. Romans 3:28

Getting back to the basics, Christianity IS faith, I've been severely lacking in that area. This faith revival is bringing back excitement and hope into my life. As the Message puts it faith is "the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living." God's lifting me up, he's so good.