Buried Feeling

Black, raging waters stretch on for miles and miles around you. Waves engulf you like a meaningless, floating piece of driftwood. Fighting to keep your head above water, arms trying to get somewhere, anywhere. Anywhere but here.

Winds howl. Rain pelts against soft skin. Drenched clothes droop miserably. This empty country road never felt more foreign. Barren fields stretch from horizon-to-horizon. Freshly-sown seeds uncovered by the heavy drops of rain drown and wash away. Months of hard work gone in a flash. You would do anything for a warm towel. But the security of warmth never seemed so far away.
They close in on you. Caught in a rundown between third base and home, the opposition methodically narrows the space you have between them. Slamming on the brakes, you dart back towards third, spin and head back to home. Stuck in the middle with no where to go. Distance shrinks. No place to escape.

Sin piles up. The weight of everyday's struggle weighs you down. Falling to your knees, banging clenched fists into the hard concrete of a cold, desolate room. Lonely and lost, tears splash into the dust-coated floor of a place untouched by light in years.


Hope dries up. Desperation sets in. Longing for a taste of something sweet. Gasping for fresh air--something new. The embrace of surrender wraps around weary shoulders. The burdens--carried so long, too long--lifted. Give up.

Grace wipes away deep stains.

Truth shields tired travelers.

Love repairs shattered hearts.

"The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still."--Exodus 14:14

Random Thoughts

belief at its root inherently results in active faith and trust. the passive approach to belief is no approach at all.

what makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance. What higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

No matter how hard walking with You is...I cannot turn away. The pain and struggles along the way to finding more of You will not be for nothing and they will be worth it. 

without it I am nothing. with it I am more than I ever could have dreamed. I am a product of His grace and the love of Christ. by this I am defined, and by this I am refined.

our God reigns. bigger. beyond. brilliantly.

For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change.

"don't worry, be still, cease striving, and know that I am God"

only in the midst of a dark and fallen world can the true magnitude of a light be seen in all of its splendor and might. the contrast between dark and light alone reflects the strength of a light. then, and only then, in that contrast, will you see that you shine brighter than you ever could have imagined.

is taking some time away from this life, dropping all hinderances, to refocus, find change and peace. "We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of that vision to be used by God?" Yes.

had the most unreal summer ever. period. i love you all...August 15, 2009

there is enough in the silence to know that You are God.

and it feels like this is the perfect time for me to say, that deep down inside, I'm hurtin', but a least I know your worth it. and if I hold myself with pride and accept the pain, life will take me through these changes, 'cause I have so much left to see-Valencia

Just let it go, the storm is over now, just let it out, the sun will shine, the tides are turning...-Divided by Friday

HIS. love. NEVER. fails.

Even though you are drowning in valleys of echoes I believe there is peace in those hills up ahead

when all the sunlight in your eyes feels forgotten, is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

"as you grow in a relationship with God what you do will simply reflect who you are"

you'll never hit the target if you're shooting empty shells

be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer

if there's a place you've prepared for me that i belong, then let these dry bones arise to live and breathe your song.

Power of Prayer

http://faithcalling.blogspot.com/2010/03/posted-using-blogpress-from-my-iphone.html#more

The power of God is incredible.

Job 37:5 says, "God thunders wondrously with his voice, doing great and mighty things we cannot comprehend."

Life Thoughts

We all doubt. We all wrestle. As we work out our salvation and who God is molding us to be, the fight of learning to live against your nature as God changes our hearts rages within. Through the challenges we go through and the ruts we get stuck in, God works.

It may never be easy, in fact it probably never will be easy, but God is working behind the scenes in every situation. You may never see Him directly in the midst of a struggle, but He is there. He is working for the victory that ultimately comes at the end of the hardships.

Romans 8:28

Thoughts

I sent this in an e-mail to someone I really care about a couple of months ago, and I read it over tonight and it spoke to my heart. I wanted to share it with everyone who gets to read this.

We keep our focus on God by merely doing...nothing. Being saved by grace through faith, we exhibited our willingness to give up our lives for God and devote ourselves to Christ. So, why we always struggle and fight is a mere product of our own humanity. The world burdens us with so much in the form of expectations. We, especially the younger generations, hold the weight of the world right now as everything is falling to pieces around us.

We are the ones expected to fix everything. So stress is natural. But God's answer is not to stress..."Cease striving and know that I am God." I AM GOD. It is the same concept as that verse from Isaiah, "I am God. That is MY name. I will not give my glory to another." But we take that glory due to God and ignore it, in essence, when we stress over the hardships presented before us.

Glory in the highest is due to God. He deserves the praise, for everything. He made us. He made everything. Through His fingertips, He ordained before time that we would both exist at this moment in time and that we would know each other...and that I would write this to you. If God can fine-tune our lives to that microscopic detail, why worry? He already has things worked out to play out in the best manner possible. It becomes hard for us to place our mind and our focus on things above when life consumes us with circumstances that appear to be like a mountain before us.

"To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances to work for our present good and oure everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction."-Tozer

Our belief in God is founded in what we know. Yet what we know is not enough. Head knowledge is completely passive, it is in our head and does not inspire action. Faith is active and in faith we LIVE and LOVE and SHOW what we belief to be true to those around us, and to ourselves. God is reflected in our faith when we live as He designed. Faith breathes Christ in us, the peace He died to bring us and the love His blood poured out for us. Above all else, Christ REIGNS. Lifting our eyes to heaven, we do see through our faith that in Christ, all our answers lie. Gazing upon the wondrous cross, everything else just...fades away. We need to see nothing else but the cross and what it represents to us.

"Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress."-Tozer.

2 Corinthians 5:7 says "for it is by faith we walk, not by sight". Faith in its most pure and perfect form exists without the need for understanding or sight. The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart...our heart are placed in Christ and with that we have all we can possibly need (as I wrote about last time).

If we have everything already given to us, why worry? We have all we can ever need in Christ, the one who lived to die for us. Man, that is cool!