Believing God

This past year, 2010, I have come to find, very certainly, that I am quite uncertain about just about everything... except that which is very simply stated about God. -- who He is and who I am to Him.


I have also been learning; that is, trying to learn that who I believe Jesus to be, is foundational to my ability to love. I assert, along with most orthodox Christians, that the primary characteristic of God lies in the fact that all things come from Him, and are completely in His jurisdiction and control.

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
     ~Colossians 1: 16, 17

But sometimes there is a gulf between what professing believers say, and what their lives reveal about what they really believe.

"You practice what you believe, the rest is all religious talk"

I have hit my head against this wall...more than once.

In the writing of words, I uncover my own meaning and unveil God. It is where His Word meets me as I listen for His voice, trying to keep the truth foremost in my mind. It is my worship, and  ultimately He is my audience of One.

But when all is said and done, though I say I love God, believe in Him and trust Him implicitly, I still live my life looking to others to supply what only He can give to me.

Love, and acts done in God's pure love, can only take place if relationships are free from expectations. And there are no expectations, if I believe God is truly the source of EVERYTHING. The moment we look to put someone, or something as our source of happiness, or comfort, we put it in the place of God.

God is not little. In fact, everything that is going on right now is in fact perfect, and is going according to God's plan EXACTLY. Everything is in His perfect timing. God's not in a hurry like we are. The people and situations which occur in our life - those good and those difficult -  are there according to God's perfect plan for us. His plan of sanctification...which is for us to become like He is.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

        ~Romans 8:28,29

    God gives great freedom when we realize that people and situations offer opportunity for God to demonstrate the reality of our relationship to Him. He gives them for the purpose of testing and revealing who his children are. As he loves through us, we realize we are loved by God. people and situations are God-given for the purpose of testing and revealing the children of God, the objects of God's love...if we only have the world's kind of love (which centers on using and getting) in us, sin's powerful, selfish grip on our hearts will be evident in our inability to love.
      ~Norm Wakefield

Here is the reality of what life is like when God is little, and I have become "bigger than God" in my own heart and life.


-worries.

-fears.

-fears what others think.

-offended.

-easily believes lies and becomes blinded to the truth.

-is bitter and questioning of God's love.

-is certain they are right. Pride. Spiritual pride.

-develops a "gospel" centered around works and performance in hopes of eliminating pain and suffering, though this may be done without even realizing it.

-works based relationship with God because though they may say, they do not live as if God is sovereign and reigning over everything.

-manipulative

-controlling.


-sleepless.

-judging of others because they do not truly believe that God is judge and must control others standards/ and or lifestyles.

-life is clouded with deception.

-gives a perception of themselves to others that is not real.

-angry. Stressed out.

This list is endless...and many times much on this list is me. But even when I make God small, in reality, He is still Big, and EVERYTHING is going exactly according to God's plan. Nothing thwarts His plan...especially not me.

Even when I blow it...at work, with my kids, my husband...He still has it all planned, from before the foundation of the world. There is meaning to suffering, even the suffering that I bring on myself.

According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love..
   ~Ephesians 1:4

The Truth is....He Reigns.

He reigns over the future.

He reigns over the past.

He is reigning now.

He will reign for all eternity.

There is nothing He doesn't reign over.

...A person’s life is like grass. Like a flower in the field it flourishes, but when the hot wind blows by, it disappears, and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.  But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, and is faithful to their descendants, to those who keep his covenant, who are careful to obey his commands. The Lord has established His throne in heaven; His kingdom extends over everything.

     ~Psalm 103:15-19

Until there is a revelation of God's "bigness", we as humans live as though He is little, or maybe not even God at all.

If I am truly His child then I will live, and keep coming back to, the freeing and liberating truth that God is working through and planning everything that comes our way. It is for our good, and it is out of His great love for us.


With this as our foundation in which we view all things in life, we have not only hope, but peace... and fear and worry are not our constant companions.

I have been learning, and am relieved to learn, that it is not my responsibility to change my heart or the hearts of others. What a great burden that would be to carry. This gives me peace especially in regards to my own children and their hearts. I am not to discipline my children in order to change them, or to break their stubborn wills, but because God tells me to discipline my children. I must trust God to change their hearts.

And He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
     ~Malachi 4:6

This is what it means to...

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding...

     ~Proverbs 3:5

                           This is what it means to be free.

                         Free to love God, free to love others.






Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

 

Legacy

He was the 9th son, the 12th child in a family of 14, born in a small farmhouse during hard times. The large family of immigrant parents soon found themselves moving again, from the dust-laden bowl to the heart of Washington, settling into another small farmhouse, hopeful to try their hand in the soil of the fabled Yakima Valley.



It was 1938, and my father was 3 1/2 years old.

He grew up on that farm nestled between two mountains, Rainier and Adams, helping to tend the rows of grapes with his nine brothers, inbetween lazy summer days skinny dipping in the irrigation ditch. At 9 years, when his mother died, it left a hole in his father's heart, and an ache in the boy that his sisters, though proficient enough with the house duties, couldn't fill.

Still...a smile always creeps into his voice as he tells the stories of growing up on that farm, and of the richness of Sundays spent with the Dutch community.

But all those poor, but blissful days on the farm couldn't hold him down when it came his time to go. At 18, he signed up for the army with a guarantee of adventure and a regular paycheck, and wound up in California for training.

 His wild days were cut short however, when he vied for the attention of a pretty little civilian nurse, and won her heart.

My father and mother were married in a beautiful church in 1954, in her hometown, 3 months before my father was shipped to Korea for an 18 month assignment.

He came home to a 9 month old daughter, and a home in California, far far away from the fertile soil of the valley he'd grown up in. But much of who he was came from that farm, along with the sacrificial work ethic which characterized my Dutch ancestry. He worked hard to make a home, and a little over 2 years later I joined the family.

I have inherited his wide mouth, his Van Corbach forehead, and his penchant for telling stories. We share alot of the same memories, the same bloodlines, the same ancestors, the same value for God and land, and a simple way of life. He raised me well, and

I love him with a love that is doubled and pierces right through.

I never cease to ponder how to best convey to this old dutchman with creased, work-worn hands; to this Dad of mine whose laugh and loves and life has shaped me, what he still means to me...

And on his 76th birthday, I grimace at the passage of time; time that will someday rob me of his prescence as it transports him to Glory, where he will revel in all the days spent on earth loving the God his father introduced him to long ago in the church of his birth. There, he too will reap the reward of the legacy he has passed on to his children, and his children's children.

Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding,

          ~Proverbs 4:1

                                           

But for now it's Saturday and the phone rings....

          I jump to catch the phone first, smile on my face.

eager to once again harvest his laughter, and store his wise words.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.

       ~Psalm 1:3

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

Doctrine Matters

When George Burns, playing the title role in the 1977 movie Oh God!, was asked if Jesus was his son, I can distinctly remember my stomach lurching as I heard him answer...yes, Jesus was his son-and Buddha was his son, and Muhammed was his son, and in fact, all human beings were his sons and daughters since he created them all.



Later, whenever I was with Christians and this movie was brought up, there was no mistaking the comradrie I felt when discussing this movie's, "bad theology".

Fast Forward thirty-three years later and I am appalled by the popularity (with Christians!) of the book "The Shack", by William P. Young. It was a recommended good book for me to read by my christian friends. I read it, and my stomach could not handle what I deemed the worst read of my christian life. As far as I was concerned, it belonged in some new-age bookstore, not on the shelves of the church library!

Googling the book turned up a  near-unanimous enthusiastic (and almost unbridled) praise for the book. Reviews by christians everywhere claimed, “This book is a life-changer, a transformer.” “[The Shack] has become a favorite book OF ALL TIME.” “I am changed. I pray indelibly. My oh my!”

I couldn't believe what friends and christians were saying. How could they claim that the book "straightened out their understanding of God", when the book is simply riddled with bad theology, and actual mistruths concerning basic tenets of the Christian faith? Along with perpetuated misconceptions concerning the Trinity, forgiveness and man's free will, the book also undermines the uniqueness of Christ for salvation.

The book contains surprisingly little teaching about salvation. When Young does discuss conversion, he places it firmly in the camp of relationship but also uses the stereotypical phrases such as “this is not a religion” and “Jesus isn’t a Christian.” Jesus apparently loves all people in exactly the same way, having judged them worthy of his love. Young also wades dangerously close to universalism saying that Jesus has no interest in making people into Christians. Rather, no matter what faith they come from, he wishes to “join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa.” He denies that all roads lead to him (since most roads lead nowhere) but says instead, “I will travel any road to find you.”
           ~Tim Challies (Book review)

Christians have historically believed that Jesus is nothing less than the incarnate Son of God in whom the fullness of the deity dwells in human form-fully divine and fully human-and the Way, the Truth, and the life. But from everything I've been reading lately, it seems this, and other historically affirmed Truths, are now up for grabs.


According to a 2008 national survey on religion and Public life, 52% of all American Christians believe that non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life. Though I realize many factors account for these findings, it is surprisingly clear based on my readings and conversations with fellow Christians, that these statistics are not so far off.

Saying that you are certain of the Truth, is not so popular anymore.

Evangelical leaders like T.D. Jakes and Peter Wagner no longer think the doctrine of the Trinity is essential. In his 2004 book Changing Church, Wagner says the wording of the doctrine of the Trinity — which states that the Godhead is made up of three Persons — needlessly excludes Oneness Pentecostals (who deny the Trinity) and prevents many Muslims and Jews from converting to Christianity. And Grady called the differences between Oneness Pentecostals and Trinitarian Pentecostals “pointless doctrinal hair-splitting” in a July 2002 issue of Charisma magazine. He also applauded several Pentecostal denominations who decided to no longer divide over the doctrine.

The Trinity is not the only doctrine to be challenged lately. Leaders in the emerging church movement are calling into question the doctrine of Hell and the exclusive nature of Christ's claim to be the only way of Salvation. They’ve also questioned whether the objective truth of Christian teachings can be known with certainty, believing people are so influenced by their cultures, languages and historical settings that they can’t see outside the lenses of their biases.  Open theists dispute God's omniscience claiming that he cannot possibly know in advance human actions freely chosen.

King Solomon had it right...

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
             ~Ecclesiastes 1:9

If we look back in time, a couple of centuries ago to eighteenth century Europe, and the "Age of Enlightenment", a number of key thinkers reacted against state churches and their "dogma". They questioned the authority and truthfulness of the Bible, and sought to strip it of elements they deemed false or superstitious. This unbelieving line of thought eventually trickled down to seminaries and churches causing many in traditional church traditions to fall away from orthodox faith.

In the second half of the twentieth century, churches began to accomodate this "postmodern" spirit, avoiding "dogma" of any kind, and embracing mystery. Instead of emphasizing absolute truth, they spoke of truth for communities. That is, certain communities believed one way, and that was truth for them; others might believe something entirely different, and that was also truth (for them).


Sounds like what you'd hear on Oprah doesn't it?


But would you ever expect to hear it from a current Pastor-University Professor from a mainline conservative denomination?


He was the guest speaker at my church this last Fall.


It seems many denominations are drifting away from staunch doctrinal stances. They instead are accomodating post-modernism and have moved from the teaching of absolute truths of Scripture. They give great weight to personal experience and emphasize that as the world has changed, so the church and the church's gospel must change. They consider those who claim truth to be "judgemental".

                The worst sin of all in the post modern world.

Sound, biblical doctrine is a necessary aspect of true wisdom and authentic faith. The attitude that scorns doctrine while elevating feelings or blind trust cannot legitimately be called faith at all, even if it masquerades as Christianity. It is actually an irrational form of unbelief.
         ~T.S Husker  

Scripture plainly teaches that we must be sound in the faith—which is to say that doctrine does matter (1 Tim. 4:6; 2 Tim. 4:2-3; Tit. 1:9; 2:1). It matters a lot.
        ~John MacArthur

If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing.
        ~1 Tim. 6:3-4

The content of our faith is crucial. Sincerity is not sufficient.

Evangelicals stress that the Christian faith is essentially a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But it’s precisely because Christianity is a relationship that doctrine is so important. In any relationship, if you want to grow closer to the other person then you have to know more about him or her. Our view of God affects how we relate to God and others. Wrong doctrine or the misrepresentation of right doctrine has consequences.

Those who sow disdain and disinterest in biblical doctrine will reap a harvest of rootless and fruitless Christians. Doctrine is not a challenge to experiential religion; it testifies to the content of that experience. The church is charged to call persons to Christ and to root them in a mature knowledge of Christian faith.
          ~Al Mohler

Numerous national studies conducted by pollsters such as The Gallup Organization, the Barna Group, and the Josh McDowell Ministry have revealed that the lives of Christians are largely indistinguishable from non-Christians. When it comes to divorce, materialism, and cohabitation, Christians differ only slightly from non-Christians, if at all.

For those who question the importance of doctrine, it may come as a surprise that it is Christ­ians with a biblical worldview who live radically different than the world. Forty-nine percent volunteer­ed more than an hour to an organization serving the poor, whereas only twenty-nine percent of born-again Christians without a biblical worldview and twenty-two percent of non-born-again Christians have done so. They are nine times more likely than all others to avoid “adult only” material on the Internet. They are twice as likely not to watch a movie specifically because it contained objectionable material and four times as likely to boycott objectionable products and companies.
         ~George Barna. Think Like Jesus.

The worse consequence of all,  of not being taught that doctrine matters...is that we have willingly  been lead to believe...it doesn't matter. We do not even recognize when we are being led down the road of false teaching, or that it is even important. Getting people to care about what they are being taught is very difficult. It is distressing how biblically illiterate many Christians have become.

Americans love their Bibles so much, they keep them in pristine unopened condition.
            ~Collin Hansen 

     

If our lives are based on Bible truths then we will not be steered wrong. Instead of accepting what a preacher, teacher or leader of a church says, you write the scriptures down and study them and asking God for help in understanding them. If you study God's Word and these teachers are teaching false doctrine, and lies, then you can make your decisions of attending that church or not, based on God's Word.

It is this lack of knowing the Bible and its purpose for revealing God's truths that has allowed some Emergent leaders to promote the idea the Emergent is bigger than Christianity. A female Emergent pastor of Journey Church in Dallas, TX argued that experience is a greater authority than the Bible.


She argues that Jesus, not the Bible, is the Word of God.


There is a conference occurring at Point Loma Nazarene University called "Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination". This conference has the goal of deconstructing Christian witness into social justice.

The Gnosticism [an ancient heresy that the early church faced and defeated] in our day is associated with a revival of liberalism. Brian McLaren [founder of the emergent Church] should no longer be seen as a provocative thinker seeking to stimulate the church. He sees the Fall the same way the Gnostics do. The spirit of Marcion[ancient heretic] lives on in McLaren. McLaren was invited by the Vision Project to add his vision to a list of that of many other progressive liberal thinkers. Their vision is based on synthesis. McLaren says he got there with the help of Ken Wilbur [New Gnostic prophet]. He comes to the position that there is nothing distinctive about Christianity. It is simply one expression of mysticism, the experience of the "spirit" within, and an impetus (one of many) toward social justice.
      ~Peter Jones

Ultimately it our responsibility to know the truths that God has revealed about Himself in His Word, the Bible, and in turn to teach these truths to our children. It is first and foremost the responsibility of  parents to make sure their children learn the basic truths of the faith. While they are young we need to ensure that a solid doctrinal foundation is laid for them so that when they are out in the world that disregards absolute truth they will be able to stand up against every wind of false doctrine that comes their way.

And then maybe, our children will grow up relating to the God who’s

really there...

instead of the God others want them to imagine him to be.

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

Waiting

I felt it most acutely last Sunday...the ache...the longing. This feeling, especially during church, was highly inappropriate. It wasn't that I was completely self-centered, I truly was happy for the little guy standing up before the entire congregation

          and his estatic family....

I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Shouts, whistles and clapping erupts from the congregation as the eight year old rises up from the water sputtering and smiling simultaneously. As he breaks wet with wonder and sloshes forth from the baptismal, I lean into his tear filled mom whispering awkward congratulations...

But What I really want to say is...  Is it true? I want to know. Has your son really acknowledged his death? Does he fully realize that the beginning of his new life journey starts here? That this is the most important decision of his life; to permanently proclaim Christ as Sovereign, as Savior, and as the never ending source of all his satisfaction?  


Because years of the battle-scars has given me this, and this I know...

Nail pierced grace never lets go, and Christianity takes a lifetime to become who you really are. That for a Christian, identity is never about figuring out who he is --- but accepting Whose he is.


    ~Ann Voskamp

I want to ask her if she's estatically happy,  or afraid for her son like I would be...that baptism means the releasing of one's obituary, a testament to the killing of one's self. Because that is what being a Christian is...to deny self and follow the one who gives us life.  Making this terrifying public declaration of allegiance to Christ and the tenants of the Kingdom, puts her son on a lifetime journey of having to battle with  dead flesh's daily betrayals to all he claims to hold dear. That throughout his life he will spend more time on his knees claiming, and reclaiming Gospel's promises through eyes reddened by tears, than on his feet.

We must beware that children raised in a Christian home with parents who faithfully bring them to church, can learn how to behave like a Christian without being one. Often these children “accept Jesus” when they are very young, and subsequently assume they are Christians even when there is little evidence of new birth as they mature.
      ~Children Desiring God

She grins wide in response...and I leave the sanctuary wondering when I too will burn Holy Joy...

Later on in the car, husband stops to refuel and eldest mentions that he doesn't want to get baptized like the boy from his Sunday School class.

Son, do you know what it means.....to be baptized?

Youngest pipes in...yeah it means you have accepted Jesus into your heart.

Oh....but it's so much more....it is the commitment to a lifetime of the putting to death of self. It is not a one time act. The pulse of the old, dead man can flicker long after burial, and new life in Christ is actually war against fleshly desires. The battles with your flesh will last your whole life, but you won't have to do it alone, Christ will send His Holy Spirit to empower you, and comfort you through the battles. And we have the knowledge that eventually this war will victoriously be won...and when Christ comes back to gather His own, all the heartache and joys from your battles will be rewarded. Then to one day see Him, He to whom we have sworn allegience and our love, will be the most satisfying reward of all. To be with Him for all eternity is the Hope that makes this short life meaningful. So boys, becoming a Christian, and then living as a Christian will be by far the most worthwhile, and hardest thing you'll ever do.

Eldest looks up,  stops fiddling with the sunday school prize he'd gotten for bringing his bible, and says...

I don't want to become baptized...because I would be to embarrased.

I turn back to look out the front window as we continue the drive home. I can wait. Even if  Barna report emphatically states children who become christians usually do so before age twelve...or the odds are that they wont. Even if...every child in the church my son's age make public commitments, except mine...

 I will be patient and wait on God's perfect timing.

Then when my boys are ready to make life's most important step to surrender to God's sovereignty...they will know exactly what they are doing, and will be able to count the cost before choosing to follow the path of the Christ follower.

May it be that not only would our children accept the ways of God without question, but may they also excitedly embrace the purposes and works of God-whatever they are, and no matter how it affects them personally. What a joy to see children grow to be adults who have an unshakeable faith in the purposes and promises of God. May they look with anticipation toward's God's "summons" in their lives, realizing that they are part of God's wonderfully designed plan for the world.
     ~Sally Michael

Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!        
             ~Psalm 27:14

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora

Seasons of Discontent

Placing Walmart bag onto the kitchen table, I look up at temporary dining room curtains that continually fall off of their makeshift pole; and with a familiar sinking feeling, I again find myself wishing we'd gone ahead and invested in something quality when we had had more money. As I move down the steps to empty out car's groceries, I grimace at the duct tape peeling off of pieced together car mirror. I surely didn't think it would be over a year before we could do something about it.  Seems like there is always somewhere else that we need to spend the 300 that it would take to get it fixed. I glance at the kid's weather beaten wooden fort, and unfinished landscaping of our large half-acre, and defeatedly wish again for just a little extra money, and time Lord...

Contentment is hard to find because we are a restless people; we live in a culture that purposefully creates discontent. The problem is that we are experiencing discontentedness in things that shouldn't bother us, material things, and we are not discontented about things we should be discontented about...spiritual growth.

                Things are backwards.

When mankind works in his own strength for his own satisfaction he lays up for himself earthly and spiritual misery. This is what causes lethargy in approaching our work, family, life in general and especially the work of the Lord. An un-Biblical approach to whatever mankind chooses to do sooner or later births forth an inward bitterness.
       ~Joel Nelson

To covet anything more than God, is to place that thing we covet above God, which is idolatry.


It's not like I want a new car, I really have given up all hope of ever having one of those again, I just want to be able to keep the one we have looking nicer. Things are starting to get really old around the house...I have to admit that I didn't think bath towels could go through this many washings and not fall apart. I'm not complaining though...

The core of man’s rebellion against God: a lack of thankfulness and a desire for something that God didn’t provide. This was at core of the temptation in the Garden of Eden. And it’s at the core of the battles and struggles we face daily.
     ~John MacArthur

I'm truly glad that we got the boys...going to Russia six years ago turned out to be one of the few good things I have done with this life you have given me, but...there are times, I'm rather ashamed to admit, that I really miss the freedom to make more money, and not have to continually clean a house that is starting to fall apart, and even to have uninterrupted time just for... myself.

This lack of contentment and gratitude stems in part from our efforts to control the content of our lives in spite of what Christ may or may not desire for us to have. It also stems from our tendency to focus on what we do not possess rather than all the wonderful things we have already received.

       ~J. Hampton Keathley III

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

~1 Timothy 6:6

      

In fact, this whole experience of getting married at 42, giving up my well-paying job, moving to a different state, and then adopting two boys at the same time in the following five years proved to be a lot more responsibility and sacrifice than I had anticipated and I...feel it. Sometimes alot...

If we are not grateful for God’s deliverance in the past and His benefits in the present, we will not be grateful for His promises for the future. Scripture exhorts us to lay hold of our hope in Christ and to renew it frequently so that we will maintain God’s perspective on our present journey.



We can be content when we put our hope in His character rather than our own concept of how our lives should appear.
      ~Joel Nelson

I want to be content in all things Lord...You have given me more blessings than I can count! Keep me close to You, believing in You...

 finding everything I could ever want or need

in You.

Coveting is the negative side of the positive commands, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.” The only way to not break this commandment is to find in Christ all that one needs. Anytime there’s something more that we think we need than what we already have – which then forms the impetus for breaking the other commandments – so that we turn to other “gods”, find satisfaction in things, take God’s name in vain, disregard the Lord’s day by justifying the “need” to work on that day, dishonor those in authority, boil in anger to the point of murdering in one’s heart or beyond, desire sexual relations outside the God-ordained design, take what belongs to another, tell lies, etc. – at the root is a covetous desire for something we believed we should have that we were not given.
       ~Francis Schaeffer

Keep me thankful and more alive to the grace You give in the present moment... not worrying about if there will be enough grace to deal with the future.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
      ~2 Corinthians 9:8

Father God,  JEHOVAH-JIREH~ forgive me for murmuring about my circumstances, taking issue with Your sovereignty. You order all the circumstances of human life, and I crave to be entirely satisfied with the state and situation in which You have placed me. Discontent is the very essence of ingratitude, help me to not let it stifle my voice of thanksgiving. As the deer pants for the water brooks (Ps. 42:1)... Let my soul pant only for You, O God.

Communion with God is essential for contentment. Do you spend time with God? The longer you concentrate on His glory, the less you will care about acquiring more possessions. When you are fully committed to Jesus Christ, you will be so overwhelmed with how rich you are that you couldn't care less about anything else. The world is going to pass away and everything in it (1 Jn. 2:17). Therefore, don't lay up treasure on earth; lay it up in heaven (Mt. 6:19-20).
        ~John MacArthur

      

Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none [or nothing] upon earth that I desire besides thee.

~Psalm 73:25

Joining Ann @ Holy Experience and the rest of the Gratitude Community by continuing the counting of multitudes of blessings, and being ever so grateful. Keeping a List of a 1000 Gifts that paves a way to a life of thankfulness.

161.) Income Tax Return:)

162.) my good part-time job.

163.) only two months left of this school year (then off for summer!:)

164.) Good memories of my grandpa's house, which is about to be sold.

165.) an extra heaping of snow in the mountains this last week...
         (sorely-needed for the irrigation in our valley)

166.) cherry tree blossoms..and their smell....

167.) Good group of students who are working hard
          to meet Project Fair deadline.

168.) the boy's Lego projects.

169.) Tostadas on a Sunday night.

170.) For Christians who are willing to go abroad and do the Lord's hard work...
                     in a foreign country.

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora