Meditate and Declare

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
- Psalm 145:5-6

New Years

I echo this prayer.

As I look ahead to another year of life, I am reminded that I may not spend another year here on this earth. Within that space, You may call me to heaven, or the Lord Jesus may return for His Bride. 'Teach [me] to number [my] days and recognize how few they are; help [me] to spend them as [I] should' (Psalm 90:12).
Help me to live whatever days I have remaining in light of eternity. I humbly seek Your blessing and Your favor, for having them I lack nothing. I would seek to please You rather than men. This year I ask...

• to know and love You in ever-increasing intimacy
• for the protection of Your Spirit over my hear, my mind, and my affections
• that You would be faithful in fulfilling the ministry You have entrusted to me--faithful in small tasks as well as large, in secret and obscurity as well as in public
• for a heart full of love for others
• that You might make me fruitful
• that every day might be lived to the fullest and in the constant, conscious awareness of Your presence
• that I might walk in the light before You and others, without guile or pretense
• that I might be holy and humble before You and others

These things I ask in Jesus' Name and for the sake of Your Kingdom. May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done here on earth--and in this grateful heart--as it is in heaven. Amen.

- A Place of Quiet Rest by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Birthdays

A few weeks ago, it was my birthday. I'd been waiting in anticipation for some time. But when it finally arrived, disappointment crashed on me.
Let me describe my woes.
Three days before, I'd gone to the doctor's after being sick a week and learned my illness was pneumonia. Because of this, I had to skip my classes. By Sunday, I was mostly recovered, although still coughing.
Second, my best friend and sister resided 2000 miles away at college for the next two weeks. This wasn't too terrible, as I did get to see her over Thanksgiving.
Surprisingly, several members of my family got through the entire day without acknowledging my birthday. I don't care so much about presents, but I at least wanted them to wish me a "Happy birthday, Hannah." I especially wished my mom would say those three words [after being reminded to by A. she did], but she was busy preparing for my party to take place after church.
Lastly, eighty percent of the people I'd invited to the party didn't come. I was really hoping to spend some time with them. Then two of my little brother's friends showed up as we were eating cake. He had as many friends to my party as I did. That's right, two friends at my birthday party and one had to leave early.
Now, my point in telling this is not so much as to make you feel sorry for me, but because I don't want to be guilty of neglecting Jesus on the day we celebrate His birth.
What I wanted most on my birthday was to be recognized as someone of significance. I wanted people to talk to me and spend time with me.
Surely our Great King deserves to have time spent with Him more than I deserve it.
In A Place of Quiet Rest, Nancy Leigh DeMoss writes, "...the objective is to cultivate an intimate relationship between you and God. He longs for such a relationship with you, and He is eager to spend that time with you...have you ever stopped to realize that He wants to see your face and hear your voice?"
The same way that I wanted to spend time with my friends on my birthday, Jesus wants to spend time with His friends. "The God of the universe loves you, and He created you to be His friend." (A Place of Quiet Rest, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.)
Also, although I do appreciate all of the work that my mom did towards my party, what I most wanted was for her to tell me Happy birthday and that she loved me. Ms. DeMoss states, "It is not about all the things we do for God--it's about being loved by Him, loving Him in return, and walking in intimate union and communion with Him." The only way to walk in that union and communion is by spending time with Him.
Keep Christ in Christmas.

a lesson from cummings

recently i read a poem by e. e. cummings. according to my literature book, edward estlin cummings "abandoned the rules of grammar and punctuation in an attempt to write a new kind of poetry." i didn't really understand the entire poem, but some of the form and style were appealing.
one thing that stood out to me was his usage of capitalization. the whole poem was lowercase (including the title and author's name) except for words referring to God.
although it may only have been for style or to break the rules of capitalization that e. e. cummings wrote in lowercase, i'm impressed by the fact he didn't even capitalize his own signature. it shows great humility of himself and respect to God.
our Creator is the only being who deserves to be capitalized.

Reason To Be Sick

"How dreadfully old I am getting! Sixteen! Well, I don't see as I can help it." I can now truthfully quote the first line from Stepping Heavenward.
For the past week and a half I've had a cough. Mostly I've been laying on the couch. Then last Thursday my mom took me to the doctor and we found out I had pneumonia. After taking a lot of gross medicine, I am doing quite well.
Two good things seem to have come out of my pneumonia:
I believe that being sick for so long has given me a greater compassion on those who are ill. I was complaining after just several days, but I know people who've been sick for months and even years.
It's also comforting to think about how Jesus suffered for me, when I'm suffering. Reminding myself of this is awesome fact makes my slight suffering a joy. What suffering I'm having is nothing compared to His.
I can join the Green Lady from Perelandra in saying that I am so much older than I was before! [or perhaps the fact that it's my birthday adds something to that.]
'I am sixteen going on seventeen...'

'Amazing Grace At Its Most Amazing'

"When you put your faith in Jesus, God, the judge, hands down the verdict that you are righteous. He transfers the perfect, sinless record of Jesus to you.
This is amazing grace as its most amazing. In the moment that you first believed, your past sin didn't cease to exist. You hadn't done any good work that could somehow make up for your disobedience.
Yet God completely and totally forgave you. He not only wiped the record of your sin away, he credited the righteousness of His Son to you."
-from The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

It's so easy to get legalistic. But, in sincerity, there is nothing I can do of myself. I can in no way earn my salvation.
Saturday was our church's annual Ladies Retreat. There were some very good messages shared. One significant reminder was that God doesn't love me any less when I don't spend as much time as I should have reading the Bible and praying.
My status before God doesn't change.
"We're never 'more saved' or 'more loved' by God." writes C. J. Mahaney in The Cross Centered Life "...Jesus' work, not mine, is the basis of my forgiveness and acceptance by God."
I can't add anything.
Jesus already did all that needed to be done.

Gettysburg, 1863

I first read this outloud in a class two years ago. It made me want to cry. Now, having studied Pericles' Funeral Oration, it makes me want to cry even more. I'm impressed by how similar the two addresses actually are.
Today, 142 years ago, Abraham Lincoln gave the following speech.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.