isaiah 55

Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
    hear, that your soul may live;

and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    My steadfast, sure love for David.

Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander for the peoples.

Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
    for He has glorified you. 

Seek the Lord while He may be found;

    call upon him while He is near.

let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him,

    and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

 

  

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are My ways higher than your ways
    and My thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

    and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall My Word be that goes out 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.

 

 

"For you shall go out in joy

    and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,

    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

thought it might be nice to post one of my (and my husband's!) favorite chapters of Scripture. hope it is a blessing to you today and a reminder of God's GOODNESS, faithfulness, and steadfast-forever-kind-of-love. all pictures are mine-- from various adventures i've had with the Lord. if you want to know more about the stories behind them, feel free to let me know. :)  God's blessings on you today!

The Blog Hiatus

Dear friends... Thank you for your patience with me.  I haven't blogged in well over 2 months. 

My Mom was in a horrible car accident and suffered many injuries, including a severe brain injury.  All that to say, my life has obviously had other priorities than blogging.  Please join me in praying that the Lord will give my Mom a full and complete recovery!

Thanks, also, for not giving up on my little blog--- I'll continue to post!  In fact, I think I'm gonna do a couple recipes right now.  ;)

6 months of marriage

today, i am grateful for 6 months of married life.

thanks for stopping in to read today; if you want to, feel free to join me in praying for my marriage today.

Lord, thank You so much for 6 months of marriage, and for providing me such a wonderful husband to share my life with.  Lord, I am so thankful for him; he reflects Your love and forgiveness to me over and over again.

I pray You would protect our marriage from anything that would harm or destroy it. Shield it from our own selfishness and neglect, from the evil plans and desires of others, and from unhealthy or dangerous situations.  May there be no thoughts of divorce or infidelity in our hearts, and none in our future. Set us free from past hurts, memories, and unrealistic expectations of one another. I pray that there be no jealousy in either of us, or the low self-esteem that precedes that. Let nothing come into our hearts and habits that would threaten our marriage in any way.  

Unite us in a bond of friendship, commitment, generosity, and understanding. Eliminate our immaturity, hostility, or feelings of inadequacy. Help us to make time for one another alone, to nurture and renew our marriage and remind ourselves of the reasons we were married in the first place. I pray that Bud (and me, too!) will be so committed to You, Lord, that his (and my!) commitment to me will not waiver, no matter what storms come. I pray that our love for each other will grow stronger every day, and help us to be used by You to love others and bring grace and truth to people around us. Fill us with Your Spirit, Lord, so that we can truly love one another out of Your strength and not our own.  In Jesus' precious name---- Amen.

adapted from The Power of a Praying Wife, Stormie Omartian (1997, Harvest House Publishers)

Today I am grateful for...

• lovely rain outside
• a chance to make "Magic Soup" :), for my dear husband, who has been fighting a cold for the last few days. :(  [recipe here]
• John 19--- what we are studying in Bible study on Wednesday.  Jesus going to the Cross.  Heart-wrenching and intense.
• homemade whole-wheat [no knead!] bread... [recipe here]
• Pity Jane (our Kitty) who lives with us.
• Brach's "Autumn Mix" candy. Tastes like the beginning of fall, and my mom buying me some on sale at CVS (which she totally did again this year.) :)
• Income.  Thank You, Father, for providing for us... through Bud's job and through the occaisional substitute-teaching jobs that I get... that we can have some money to give back to Your Kingdom, as well as paying our bills & buying groceries so we can eat.
• Sweeeet weddings where the bride and groom just loooove Jesus and are joined together in the rich covenant of marriage!  --->We went to a beautiful one yesterday.  Congrats, Luke & Shari! <3
• The gas-burning stove & oven in our apartment--- blue flames of goodness totally make sense to me in the kitchen.
• this morning's bowl of Cocoa Puffs: breakfast of champions. :)
• The beautiful voice of singer/songwriter Adele.

 And finally... today, I am grateful for Journaling. I have been keeping journals now, for... a long time!.. and I am dearly thankful for how they allow me to look back on the story of my life, and what the Lord has done in and through me... how He's changed me... the tears I cried... the giggles I had with the Lord on our dates... in places, all over this world, that He's captivated my heart, romanced me, drawn me out of the wilderness, pulled me out of the pit...... and set my feet upon a broad place where He is there, and always with me, even until the end of the age.  Thank you, Jesus :) 

bullet-point prayer list

please join me in praying for dr. bud in these next few days.  he has been working LONGGGG hours (like.... 5:30am till midnight-ish)... and even though is feels so blessed to do what he loves and learn soooo much.... he still needs lifted up to the Lord.

please pray that:

•  when first seeing a patient, he'll form a differential diagnosis in his mind
• that he'll communicate, communicate, communicate EVERYTHING to upper-level residents and attending surgeons
• that he can work quickly and efficiently
• that he the Lord will help him recall & remember everything he needs to know
• that he won't make the same mistakes twice!
• that the Lord would give him steady hands in the operating room
• that the Lord would be his STRENGTH and give him sooo much ENERGY!

 thank you for joining me in prayer---- our God is FAITHFUL!

praying for his self-image

My friend Lynn is seriously God's provision for me.  I am REALLY thankful for her.

We are reading through "Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian, and this little book is such a fantastic tool for me to learn how to pray as a wife for my husband {Bud}.  :)  The author has TONS of different things that wives can pray for their husbands-- for example: "his work," "his purpose," "his emotions," etc.  Tonight, I read through the chapter entitled "his self-image."  

I sat in my living room and prayed alone for a while, but then I remembered this blog... and I just thought, "I want to include the Body of Christ in praying for my dear, wonderful husband."  So. :)  From time to time, I will post specific prayers from chapters in the book.

Thank you for joining me in praying for my dear husband!  This prayer is a combination of my own writing & Stormie's (pg. 192 in her book). :)

Lord, I pray that Bud will find his identity in You.  Help him to understand his worth through Your eyes and by Your standards.  May he recognize the unique qualities You've placed in him and be able to appreciate them.  Enable him to see himself the way You see him, Father, for I know "The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the children of man; from where He sits enthroned He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth; He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds" (Psalm 33:13-15).  Father, You see Bud; help him know that You are a God who sees... AND who responds!  Let Bud have patience to wait on You, for as his soul waits on You-- you are "our help and our shield." (Ps. 33:20).  Give my husband ears to hear Your voice above all others, gently reminding him that it will not be his own perfection that gets him through life successfully, but it is Yours.  Remind him that You are the Shepherd, and he is a sheep; that You are the vine and he is a branch; that You are our loving Father and we are your kiddos, who can run to you and trust you with everything.  Give Bud the peace and security of knowing that he is accepted, not rejected, by You.  Free him from the self-focus and self-consciousness that can imprison his mind and emotions.  Help him to see who YOU really are so he'll know who he really is.  May his true self-image be the image of CHRIST stamped upon his soul!  In Your name I pray, Jesus--- Amen.