Change of Scenery
Changed up my colors a bit. :) (as if you didn't already know that!) Let me know what you think. Is it too much?

Just Keep Driving
Gone to DC to hangout. Hope everyone has an AWESOME weekend!

Aims - I just thought of something else...directions! LOL! Yeah...can't have you wandering around N. Va that late at night!
Mel - Of course, singing, "Just keep driving, Just keep driving, Just keep driving."

Heart Renovations
This school year, God has been teaching me what it means to walk in the spirit, to take off the old and put on the new, to be holy as He is holy.
It's a hard, life-long lesson and the more He teaches me, the more I have come to realize how short I fall from the Glory of God. It's humbling and it's painful, but it's needful, and refreshing. Conviction is not fun. When sin is revealed it exposes just how ugly I am apart from Jesus. My pride hates it, but my spirit feasts on it! So many times I try to hide and cover up my sin. Those selfish thoughts, hateful attitudes, impure intentions, greed, pride, etc... I remember on the Road to One Day cd that we were given to listen to while driving to One Day '03, there was a part where you were supposed to turn off the cd and confess sins to those you were with. "Expose my sin," I thought, "oh no, what will they think?" I think someone even said, "I dont like this part." But it was releasing to share and enlist the prayers of others.
All of it has brought me to a point (that doesnt stop here) of desiring that transformation more and more. I long to be RENOVATED. I am sick of my sin. It doesn't taste good. I want to taste the sweet savor of the holiness of God. I know that I will not be totally rid of the filth until I am with my Lord in eternity, so that creates a longing for me to be with Him. What a sweet day that will be. I dont know why I'm writing about all of this. I'm kind of rambling, but these are some thoughts I've had this week. Here's a song I was playing this morning that expresses my heart in all of this.

Welcome Home
Shaun Groves
Invitation to Eavesdrop

Take, me, make me
All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

Welcome to this heart of mine
I've buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I've made
Inside of me
Come decorate, Lord

Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain

Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded

Come inside this heart of mine
It's not my own
Make it home
Come and take this heart and make it
All Your own
Welcome home

Take a seat, pull up a chair
Forgive me for the disrepair
And the souvenirs from floor to ceiling
Gathered on my search for meaning

Every closet's filled with clutter
Messes yet to be discovered
I'm overwhelmed, I understand
I can't make this place all that You can

I took the space that You placed in me
Redecorated in shades of greed
And I made sure every door stayed locked
Every window blocked, and still You knocked

Colossians 3

Discipleship
Darren posted the following quote by Dallas Willard on his website a few days ago. I thought it was pretty insiteful and worth posting here too! Jerry Bridges talks about similar things in talking about desiring and pursuing holiness in his book The Pursuit of Holiness.

’The word “disciple” occurs 269 times in the New Testament. “Christian” is found only three times and was first introduced to refer precisely to the disciples…. The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ....

For at least several decades the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. One is not required to be, or to intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any sign of progress toward or in discipleship….So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional.’
Dallas Willard
The Spirit of the Disciplines

I'm NOT crazy!
At least not in this case! Today around 4ish, I was sitting at my desk and my chair began to shake, then my desk and my computer. I thought, "That was odd. Did we just have an earthquake? Here in Virginia? Nah!" But then I went into the hall, and two high school students stepped out of the computer lab and told of similar things that happened in that classroom. "It MUST have been an earthquake!" But when I went into other classrooms and into the office all I got was strange looks. No one else had experienced the shake. Ok, by then I was baffled... That was until I saw the news last night. It indeed WAS and earthquake. How CRAZY is that?!?! Read about it HERE.

Joy to the World
We sang this Christmas classic in church on Sunday and ever since I have been thinking about these words Isaac Watts penned in 1719.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love

Two phrases that really stand out to me are Glories of His Righteousness and Wonders of His Love. Awesome word pictures to meditate on!

Word of Thanx
To Adam for cluing me in on the comment problem (they werent showing up). Anyway, I think i fixed it... sorta. Gotta love free service. Ya get what you pay for! :)

Christ
It amazes me that the Creator of the world and everything in it, including me, would display His incredible humility by coming to earth as a baby. With the destination of the cross to look forward to, He didn't recant the decision. He did it out of love and to show his glory. The maker of this world, came into it, to open the door to salvation. I'm humbled.

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (God with Us)

From Labor of Love
It was not a silent night...

Noble Joseph at her side
Calloused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
On the Streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

But the Baby in the Womb
Was the maker of the moon
He was the author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

...It was a labor of love.
-Andrew Peterson