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| i've had this blog since i was 16...
new phase of life, new blog name.
www.thetreeswillapplaud.blogspot.com
i'm trying out blogger
and if i don't like it, i'll be back
but farewell for now, xanga.
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| this morning i said my goodbyes to Carmen as she is headed off to live
in Grand Rapids, MI. i cried about it some last night when the other
girls were saying their goodbyes. but it didn't really sink in much
until i was driving home from her house this morning. it all kind of
hit me at once. she is moving today and then i am moving in exactly a week.
it's seriously crazy. i was driving and listening to mates of state
(which will forever remind me of carmen!) and my mind started running a
million miles a minute... worrying about one little thing after another...
i was just sort of questioning that carmen and i were both headed in
the right directions.
and then mine and carmen's favorite MOS song, "for the actor", came on
and then a GIANT flock of birds flew right overhead. i felt that the Lord was
using that to remind me that a) both carmen and myself are worth more than thousands of those little birds (Matthew 10:29-30, Luke 12:6-7) and b)
i should stop worrying so much because the Lord is in control... He has brought
me this far and now all i have to do is step out in faith and move
Matthew 6:25-34
"Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your
body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the
body more important than clothes? Look
at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more
valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If
that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and
tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O
you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
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| so, i am leaving in 10 days to move to kansas city. its a pretty
bittersweet thing. i have lots of good friends here and i feel like
even moreso recently i've made many new friends in the past couple
months who i already feel so close to. i'm sad to be leaving my friends
and my bible study on wednesdays and my youth group girls and my
Over-the-Rhine friends... but at the same time i am beyond words to
describe how excited i am for this next season of my life. i just
really feel the Lord preparing me for something BIG and i don't know
really what that looks like... but i know that this is just the
beginning of the beginning.
i want this time out in kansas city to be a time of getting to know
God. we can say we know the Lord but in reality we've only just
scratched the surface of who He is. i want to know His heart and hear
His voice so clearly. i feel that this season of prayer and fasting out
at IHOP will be a great end to the year. this year has really been all
about suffering and discipline for me... and just learning to wait on
the
Lord. the Lord has just been working in me to build me up to be the
woman of noble character in proverbs 31... and i feel so inadequate in
comparison. but He is working in me and in my heart to bring about
change. i have been
tested many times this year and even now... i've
just been put under many trials to see if i really do trust in His
goodness... and that i do put my hope and trust in His good plans for my
life. i really feel that this next season of pulling myself away into
the "wilderness" is a time of growing more in intimacy with the Lord
as He is preparing me for marriage. i know that i am called to be
married and work right alongside my husband... to be partner's in crime
and teammates... working dangerously together for the Kingdom. one of
the big things i've had to deal with this year is making sure that i'm
aligning my life with God's will... and not settling for just any guy..
but waiting for the man
that God has made and prepared for me. this is
the longest period of time that i have been single since i was 14 years
old... and the longest time since then was not even a month long..
that's ridiculous! at the
beinning of this year i thought i was going to die because i was
single,
and thought that i had messed things up so royally that i would never
end up getting married. but now i'm liking being single. i've finally
had my heart healed from the breakup and now i'm able to push forward
into knowing the Lord as my lover and as my first true love. and when
i go out to IHOP i can firmly plant my roots in the Lord and be able to
stand strong in future trials and just learn even more to wait on His
perfect timing... and just be still and know that He is Lord and that
He is good.
Hosea 2:14-16 & 19-23, 6: 1-3, 14:5-7
14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 "In that day," declares the LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my master. '
19 I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.
21 "In that day I will respond,"
declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land
_________________
1 "Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
_________________
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like a lily.
Like a cedar of Lebanon
he will send down his roots;
6 his young shoots will grow.
His splendor will be like an olive tree,
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Men will dwell again in his shade.
He will flourish like the grain.
He will blossom like a vine,
and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
i know that in going out to IHOP, it is all or nothing. no holding
back. i know the Holy Spirit is just going to capture me and there will
be no turning back. i can't wait!
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| life is beautiful and wonderful.
i don't deserve any of the love and grace i've been shown lately.
hanging out in Over-the-Rhine yesterday
was beautiful, as always.
just praying together and loving eachother..
what more could i ask for?
shannon tells me i have the gift of interceding.
and that when i pray, things "shake loose"...
God listens and He moves.
i pray that that is true.
my friends are wonderful.
i am so encouraged by how the Spirit is moving in each of them.
i've been so blessed with all the conversations and hangouts lately.
everyone wants to see me before i leave...
and it makes me feel very loved.
the Lord is good beyond all compare.
taste and see!
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| "The vision?
The vision is JESUS –
obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The
vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't
even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was
won. They
are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no
passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their
strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and
dirty and dying.
What is the vision? The
vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and
adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to
reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is
dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It
loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is
an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a
day its soldiers choose to loose that they might one day win the great
'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters. Such
heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't
need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the
crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground.
And the army is discipl(in)ed.Young people who beat their bodies into
submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is
gain". Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can
failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them? And the
generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with
warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting.
Watching: 24/7/365.
Whatever
it takes they will give: Breaking the rules.
Shaking mediocrity from
its cosy little hide.
Laying down their rights and their precious
little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers
cannot mold them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is
powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the
cockerel cries. They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive
inside. On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like
costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they
surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their
very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A
throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and
fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it
all depends on them. Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they
breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion
with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centers.
Don't you hear them coming? Herald
the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the
frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and
trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children
of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and
invoke the ancient dream of Eden. And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How
do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning
of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My
distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer
invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from
countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he
is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner. Guaranteed. "
_redmoonrising
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True
