Ramblings from Liz: June 2008

"The movings of the Spirit are never convenient to the interests of the flesh, and I shall engineer your circumstances to conform to My plan and My will. You will glorify Me; for My plan for you excels all other ways, and in the center of My will is a perpetual fountain of glory."

-from Come Away, My Beloved

:)

God is so good!

I feel like it has taken me soooooo long, but I finally feel content. Obviously, I am still a work in progress and I am still learning, but I feel like a great burden has been lifted off of me.

"Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved."

Song of Solomon 5:16

Thank You, Jesus, for being so faithful. Please keep me in the shadow of Your wings and help me to remain content in You and You alone.

"For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness."

Psalm 107:9

I will not fear.

From Becca's blog:

Someone sent me a letter recently and on the back they wrote, "I don't know why, but I felt like putting this verse for you." The verse is a simple one and yet one that has continued to encourage me for my trip. It is Proverbs 3:26 which says, "for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught." He is the only thing which I can truly have confidence in for He is the only thing which will not fail.

Here's something I found that has really helped me. I wrote each one of my fears on a sheet of paper. Then I progressed to find a verse that dealt with each of them and wrote it next to my fear. It is something I can go over, read the verses, and remember once again that God is sovereign.

I really liked her idea! Finding a verse that deals with every fear is a great way to see everything in perspective! God is in control. For "the Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6). I am totally gonna do this (and she already gave me permission to do so. Haha.) I suggest you give it a shot as well!

Bloated?

Hahaha! Oh how I love fisheye! :]

From fasting to feasting

3 Comments »

Janette was on a fast. I ruined it. Haha. Look! And that is not even counting all the food that is already enjoying the comfort of my stomach.

Deny Yourself.

3 Comments »

This is SO powerful, I just had to share it!

"Yes, the more you pamper the flesh as to bodily comfort, the more it will demand of you, until you become its servant, and your physical needs shall be a tyrant unto you in your house....Do you desire to truly follow Me? Look for the bloodstained prints of My feet. Go, as it were, to the cold, unyielding rock in the Garden of Gethsemane, where self is put aside, and the cup of suffering is accepted. Die to your own treacherous and deceitful heart. Rise with determination to go on unflinchingly, not hoping to spare yourself. Save your life and you will surely lose it. Offer it up to Me, this very day, in renewed consecration to sacrificial living, and I will accept you and you shall know joy as new wine." -From Come Away, My Beloved

"Then He said, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'" Luke 9:23 NKJV

I am stubborn and selfish. What can I say? This is human nature. I am learning slowly, day after day, again and again, that I need to stop being so selfish and stop worrying about my petty problems. Jesus commanded that we crucify the flesh, that we deny ourselves and follow Him. It's hard to do, but it must be done daily. Only then will we truly know the joy of the Lord.

Aww :(

Aww here is my poor car...attached to the back of a AAA truck :(

Overheated Car.

My car overheated. Sad day. :( Here i am, sitting in the heat, waiting for AAA to come rescue my car and save me from this unbearable hot weather.

Refreshing.

Short excerpt from Pastor Chuck's "Love: The More Excellent Way":

"We must allow the Lord to reignite our hearts for Him, that once more we might warm ourselves in the glow of His love. As God told His wandering people so long ago: 'I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart' (Jeremiah 24:7)."

Mmm I love this book! It's so refreshing!

On a random note, I am pretty proud of this pic so I figured I'd share it here for all you non-facebook goers!

"They slept before ten."

It's funny to think how deprived I can get when the power goes out for 2 and a half hours. Last night was definitely interesting. My phone was dying, but I couldn't charge it. And of course it did die, because I sucked all the remaining battery by texting compulsively since there was nothing else to do. I couldn't watch t.v. and I couldn't go online. Even though my laptop was still on cuz I had already charged it, the stupid dsl modem and our wireless router are run by electricity! Then, to top that off, it was suuuuuuper dark so I couldn't even read. I was SO bored. What in the world did people do during colonial days? "They slept before ten," was my dad's wise answer.

what an interesting day!

everyone on myspace always posts bulletins at this time of night (1:23 am) summarizing their day. i choose to blog about my day instead.

today was interesting. that is the perfect word for it.

today was supposed to be beach day. coincidentally, i have no tank tops in my closet. every time i go to the beach, i get really awkward farmer's tans. (see blog a few blogs below.) i decided, this was not going to happen again. so i woke up early and did my hair so i could go to the mall and get some tank tops. then i went back home.

my dad gets home a little later with his new ipod touch that came free with the laptop he just ordered. yes, new toy! as i am exploring the wonderful wi-fi on this tiny device, i discover a canceled facebook event. uhoh. no more beach trip! so much for waking up early!

i waste some time...a lot of time actually.

then comes the confusion of hannah's 8th grade promotion. she wants us to go but she only has 4 tickets. phone calls back and forth trying to figure out who gets to go and who doesn't. mom gets home and yells at me to get dressed to go with her. "wait, mom, i can't go! she only has four tickets and i'll be person number 5!" more confusion. guess you had to be there to truly understand the intensity of this confusion. anyways, i end up staying home with dad.

i go into my room to watch "gone with the wind." watching it leaves me with four words: gone with my life. goodbye four hours that i will never regain. and what a depressing four hours they were!

Satisfied in Him

"God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him." -John Piper

think about that.

pictures are worth a thousand words

...and since the english language is lame and the word "cute" doesn't quite suffice when describing these kids, i figured i'd just put up pics and let you see for yourself :]

Hehe :)

Just for you, melissa! See, i told you i can blog from my phone! :)

Sent from my phone...

I am testing out this whole blogging from my phone thing. I donno why i chose to test it with an embarrassing pic of my awkward farmer's tan though...

Prayer

"God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them."

-Anonymous

(taken from a myspace bulletin priscilla posted)

Random indeed.

My ankle hurts. I have no idea why and I have no idea what caused it. But it feels sprained. Funny thing is, it was fine a few hours ago and this just happened all of a sudden. Maybe it's just my in my head. Who knows? Oh, about my head, I feel like there is a bruise on the top of it. Donno how it got there. Can't see it cuz my hair is blocking it. But it hurts. Ugh. I am falling apart.

K, funny story. I was on Louie Giglio's blog. There's this pic of David Crowder and the caption says "DC in Paris." I was soooo confused. I seriously spent like 5 minutes staring at it wondering how that was possible. Finally, it dawned on me. "DC" stands for David Crowder. Wow. Slow moment?

Anyways, since this blog was completely useless, I figured I'd give you something more beneficial to read. Britt Merrick's new blog post...check it out!

Give It to Him

(excerpt from pastor chuck's book, "love: the more excellent way")

When the pressure is on and it seems as if you will be swallowed up by some calamity--when you've been waiting and waiting and nothing appears to be happening--you may feel tempted to give up on any divine response or action. But then the Spirit leads you back to the Word of God and once more you recall the faithfulness of God to His promises.

And that is where your soul finds rest.

"God," you say, "it is in Your loving hands. You are just going to have to take care of it. I cannot do it. I'm going to trust in You."

Of course, people will always try to get you back in the middle of it. They'll do their best to scare you, although usually not on purpose. Don't let them. Enjoy that beautiful rest, knowing that your problem is in the hands of your loving Lord, come what may.

So what if the whole thing collapses? So what if it all goes down the tubes? Hey, it's in His hands. If God wants it to go down the tubes, then how can you stop it anyway?

"Sometimes, praying is ALL you can do."

44 days til England! I am sooooo stinkin excited! And now I have my lovely new SLR so that makes me even more excited!

...but of course, Satan has to throw an annoying problem in my path. It's been a big distraction and frustration and I can't get it to go away! i guess i haven't been tackling it the right way either. i tend to run away from my problems rather than face them. I guess the bigger problem is that I don't know how to face this problem. People are constantly giving me advice on what to do and what not to do, but who do I listen to?? I just end up in a cloud of confusion.

So once again I am asking, if you are reading this, please say a quick prayer for me. If you know my problematic situation, don't give me more advice. I can't handle anymore. lol. Please just pray. As Mike Chaddick stressed several times yesterday, "Sometimes, praying is ALL you can do."

Thanks friends.

apple?

so, yvonne and i were talking and we came to a conclusion.

you know how a lot of people talk about when satan tempted eve in the garden, and they say that he tempted her with an apple when the Bible only specifies that it was a fruit? well, we came to the conclusion that it couldn't have been an apple. there is no way the fall of mankind would happen over an apple! chocolate covered strawberries, maybe. but not just an apple.

do you agree?

Musa? Or Mousa? hahaha!

the flirt at the chapel store.

on a different note from my blog posted a little over an hour ago, here is some awkward humor from my day...

some weirdo who doesn't even work at the chapel store insisted on helping me find every item i went to buy.
then finally as i managed to escape, he says, "well, if you ever need anything, i come here a lot and i'd be more than happy to help a pretty girl like you!"

eww weirdo.

why are there so many weird guys at church?
that's all i wanna know!

On the first day of Ju-une, four questions came to me...