The Love of our Lord

I am taking "Hebrew Prophets" as an elective this semester...I hadn't planned to, but President Celelli asked me to be in his class and I ended up not taking Spanish, so, I agreed to join the class. I am really enjoying it. :)

This week, we are reading the book of Hosea and as I was reading the text, something the author wrote really hit me.

"Although Israel may return to Yahweh for materialistic benefit, Yahweh will take her back in love......... Even though Israel's return to Yahweh was marked by social and material exigency, Yahweh's return to Israel was motivated by love and grace." (Bullock, C. Hassel, An Introduction to Old testament Prophetic Books, (Moody Publishers: Chicago), 110.)

How often do we really screw up and do things that are so not of the Lord, but of our own fleshly, worldly desires? How often do we skip our quiet times or just 'check the box' for going to church or to life group. How many times do we do things for materialistic benefits or to climb the popularity scale?

How often does our Lord love us unconditionally? ALL THE TIME.

How often does our Lord accept us with open arms? ALL THE TIME.

How often does our Lord really and truly forgive us for all of our stupidities? ALL THE TIME.

Lord, forgive us. Help us to forget about all the worldly things and to just fall more and more in love with You. Help us to see that just like You loved Israel, despite their desires for materialistic and social things, You love us just the same. Lord, help me to be who You desire me to be. amen.

"The Lord says, 'Then I will heal you of your idolatry and faithfulness, and my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever! I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from Heaven. It will blossom like the lily; it will send roots deep into the soil like the cedars in Lebanon. Its branches will spread out like those of beautiful olive trees, as fragrant as the cedar forests of Lebanon. My people will return again to the safety of their land. They will flourish like grain and blossom like grapevines. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. O Israel, stay away from idols! I am the one who looks after yoiu and cares for you. i am like a tree that is always green, giving my fruit to you all through the year." Hosea 14:4-8

He has been found

"Friends- they have found Joe. He was in the plane. He has been w/the Lord since Wednesday October 28th, 2009. While Joe was at the prime of his life spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, & was the happiest he had EVER been, that was nothing compared to the unsurpassing glory & joy he is experiencing as he gazes into the eyes of the Creator of the Universe and the true lover of his soul." -Jenn, Joe's fiancé

This is the current facebook status of Joe's fiancé, Jenn.

Continue to pray with me for Joe's family, Jenn, and his sweet 5year old son, Asher.

A Navy memorial is planned in Joe's honor on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 12 noon. It will be held at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, in the NAS/CCAD Wings Auditorium. The memorial is open to Joe's family, friends, and those who have been a part of his and the Houston's lives.
The Houston family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to The Joe Houston fund. You can send checks/money orders to

Joe Houston fund
c/o Amy Warner
1066 Wilshire Place
Corpus Christi, TX 78411

or credit/debit payments can be sent through PayPal to
nhimitrust@yahoo.com

Thanks for your continued prayers,

Still praying...still hopeful

I'm still praying for Joe. Here's a link to the latest update:

http://www.caller.com/news/2009/nov/02/navy-officials-name-pilot-found-last-week/?partner=popular

Joe's co-pilot was found. Still searching for Joe. The first few days, it was kind of surreal to me. Yes, I knew it was him missing. But it wasn't until I saw his picture in the paper. That's when it became real. Please join me in praying for Joe. Tonight at 8pm we prayed for him. I don't know who 'we' is, but we prayed for him. There was a link on my friend Tawny's facebook that said to pray at 8pm. I was in class, but (Sorry Dr. Johnston if you read this) totally not paying attention to the lecture. This is a link to what their family would like for us to pray about: http://senduit.com/b8c5ea

Will you join us in prayer? Even though it's past 8pm, let's continue to lift Joe up.

Praying for Rescue

Please join me as I'm praying for rescue of my friend Joe. He has been missing since Wednesday afternoon...he's a Navy pilot. It's really hard for me to write this; I've heard of so many incidents like this, but this is the first that has hit this close to home. Here's a link to the most recent Caller Times article: http://www.caller.com/news/2009/oct/31/1-navy-pilots-body-found/

The most recent news is they found the body of one of the two pilots that went missing. But I'm still hopeful. Praying all the time. The past two nights, I've woken up constantly with my friend on my mind & fallen back to sleep praying (Wed night I hadn't heard about it when I went to bed).

Hopeful in prayer,

Driving...

Tomorrow I will be headed back home. Thanks so SO much to all of you who have been praying for my family and me. Please continue to pray as we all make our ways home. I will be driving the whole way by myself. My mom will be going to the Austin/Lago Vista/Round Rock area and stay the night at my aunts then come the rest of the way home Sunday with my cousins. Bill will be staying here until Sunday morning when he will head back by himself. So, please just keep us all in your prayers again.

I am planning on getting up at 6, eating continental breakfast (I am all about FREE food!), and pulling out between 630 and 7. yes...630 and 7 AM.

We'll see what happens...................

:)

This Week

This week has been such a long week. My parents and I have been up here in Arlington since Sunday, and doing all the necessary things for my grandma's funeral today. Thank you so much for all your prayers...we are all still in shock a little, I think, but we are at peace as we know that she is with Jesus and no longer in pain.

Yesterday (Wednesday), mom and I decided to explore the shopping center around our hotel. We thought it was just a few stores, but, WOW, it's a ton of stores. The shopping center is called Arlington Highlands & it has just about everything one could ever need... If you click on the link, you'll be able to see all the stores & a map. Our hotel is where the compass is on the map. Anyway, it was a really pretty shopping center, with a fountain and a stream and flowers and prettiness...

Anyway, here are some pics from that:


TODAY, I got to hang out with Kerre & Jack Thorne!!! And Kerre's dad too! We went to lunch and then hung out in the hotel lobby for awhile. God has certainly blessed Aaron & Kerre with that sweet little boy. He's so cute & a camera lover...every time I took my camera out to take his picture, he would look at it, smile, and then chase after it. I would try to get pics of him playing and the second he would hear the camera, he'd turn and smile. What a sweet boy.
Thanks so much, Kerre, for spending time with me!

Here's some pics of those:

Jack actually took this picture of Kerre....

He was looking at the flower, playing with Kerre, but as soon as he heard the sound of the camera, he turned and looked at me.... then he got up and chased me, trying to get the camera. :)

Kerre, Jack and me!!! :)

On Tuesday, we went to one of my favorite stores, Mardel, they have Education supplies as well as Christian things....for those of you in CC, it's kind of a mix of the Family Christian Store and CC Educational. It's great. Anyway, while I was there, I bought two awesome shirts. One is pink and has a big I (heart) Jesus. The other is brown....I'm wearing it in the above pictures, but here is a close up...

Prayers, Please!

My grandma, Sally Shearer, had a stroke last night sometime. My parents got a call in the wee hours of the morning, and Bill left the house between 3 & 4am to head up to the Dallas area. The doctors said that they don't give her long. I'm not sure what long means...perhaps today or tomorrow, or two months? Not sure...but it sounds like she could pass away sometime today. My mom and I are packing our things and getting stuff organized here and will be leaving soon, I hope (it's already almost 4, which means, well after midnight before we get there --mom drives carefully...)

So, please pray that she's comfortable and not in pain and for a miracle and that everyone can feel God's presence and His arms around them. Please especially pray for my grandpa (Mark) who, I'm sure, is falling to pieces.

Also pray for safe travels for mom, Bill, and me.

And for my midterms Tuesday that I think I am going to miss.

Bad Habits...

Over the Christmas Vacation, I got into the bad habit of wasting my 'free time' watching shows on abc.com or the cw.com or just looking at friends' blogs... now, that I have school work...I'm having a hard time not watching shows on abc.com and cw.com & looking at blogs.

Please pray with me that I'll be able to concentrate on school work and understand all the things that I'm reading.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life!!!

Exercise has never been something I enjoyed (unless it was swimming). I've always had to push myself, and have never really had the motivation to do so. This last semester, I took to water courses (swimming and water aerobics) and I lost over 20 pounds....not sure where because I never went down in sizes in clothes, but the digital numbers on the scale don't lie, right? Well, in this last month or so since school let out, I've gained about 8 pounds of it back; which really depresses me. No, I haven't been working out. I haven't been eating right. In fact, I've done a lot of butt sitting & eating out.

So yesterday, I went to David's Bridal to try on a bridesmaid dress for my friends wedding in June. I expected it to be one size, but no, it was 4-6 sizes bigger than I expected. I knew that those dresses ran big, but I have never even tried on something in that size, and it just kinda freaked me out. I was almost immediately depressed and went home, determined to figure out how to squeeze into a smaller size. So, I went for a walk and came home and had 2 brownies, then went to dinner with my mom where I absolutely stuffed my face with salad, a huge baked potato (loaded with butter, cheese, and sour cream of course), and steak. After doing that, I of course felt horrible again.

So I was talking to my friend Zeke last night, and he made a really good point: God doesn't want us to feel like this. He doesn't want us to turn to food instead of Him. That when we're over-eating and not taking care of our bodies, we're letting Satan have that hold on us.

I never thought of me over-eating and not taking care of myself as sin or letting Satan have a grip on my life, but, if this is causing me to not focus myself on God, then it's a sin, right?

Zeke was so encouraging, and he asked me what I'm going to do about it, and, as I was eating a very large, yummy bowl of Cap'n Crunch...(lol), I told him I'm going to stop eating as much and so much junk and start working on exercise.

But, I really just needed to turn it over to God. To completely give him my body. I spent the late evening in prayer and just asking, begging God to help me overcome this sin. To help me to become healthier and to help me wake up in the morning on fire and ready to go.

So this morning, I woke up, before my alarm, and I was on fire and ready to go.

God, I just thank you. I thank you for always being here for me and for forgiving me of my sins. I ask that you keep me on fire...not just keeping me on fire for getting healthy. I long to be on fire for You. I long for you to use me in whatever way you want. Help me to bless others while blessing you. Help me to turn to you in all areas of my life, especially in this fight with Satan over my body. Help me to win this battle. Because with you, all things are possible...

Grades

I was just looking back through my old posts and realized that I had asked you to pray for my finals & grades, but I never thanked you or told you what happened...

By the GRACE OF GOD & GOD ALONE,
Astronomy=B
Swimming=A
Water Aerobics=A
Piano=A
Biblical Interpretation=B
Special Studies in Christian Worship=B.

Also, next semester, I'm taking 15 hours (I start a week from today).
Physics & Lab (4)
World Literature (3)
Foundations for Cross Cultural Ministry (3)
Introduction to Philosophy(3)
Supervised Ministry (2)

Audie

From PJohn's Blog:

"Our Children's Pastor - Audie Lawley - has been in the hospital a couple of days now fighting an infection and dealing with issues that are preventing her from producing blood to fight the infection.

The Dr.'s still aren't sure of the cause of the infection and are running many tests . . . Please pray for healing and peace . . . and pray for her husband Tim to be encouraged and blessed.

"I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together.
I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
Fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing." (Psalm 34:1-4, 8-9)"

Please pray that the docs can figure out where this infection is coming from and how to get rid of it!

Prayer Requests

As this semester is ending, I'm asking everyone to please please please pray for me...

My Astronomy Final can either break me or save me...like it's either gonna be a C or like a 30. So please PLEASE pray that all goes well tomorrow (1045am-115pm).

Then on Tuesday, please pray for my Biblical interpretation and my Christian Worship classes...I'm doing much better in both of those classes than in Astronomy, but pray that I still do well. RIght now, I think that I have high Bs in both classes...so if I do well, I could get As...which would be AWESOME!

Please pray for Kaylee Lierman...she's having tubes put in and her adenoids taken out on Tuesday (she's 13 months old) and the surgery isn't until 3 in the afternoon & she can't eat anything after midnight the night before...So pray that it all goes well. (also, pray for her daddy, Daryl who will be having surgery on january 19th).

Hmm...what else?

Please pray for my professors Nathan and Kathy Maxwell---they're going to be relocating to Florida in about a week & just pray that all goes well with the move and the readjustments and that they find a church. All of us at SCS are really going to miss them. They are awesome...I've had so much fun in her class.

okay, it's time for me to get back to studying. :-/

Next Semester

Please pray for me as I am considering which classes to take for school next semester. Pray that God will show me exactly which ones to take and how many total hours to take (In order for me to graduate in May '10, I have to take 3 semesters of 18 hours...not sure if I can handle that).
thanks!

Baby Jackson & Leadership Summit

Please be in prayer for baby Jackson Thorne as he is going through surgery this morning. Pray that God's hands are laid on baby Jack and that He guides the doctors to do the precise thing. Pray that His loving arms are wrapped around Aaron & Kerre and that they feel His peace.

Also today, I'll be going to the Leadership Summit in San Antonio. Please pray for safe travels (I'm driving up alone so I can hang out with Amber DeLeon!) and that God will speak to me during this time in amazing ways and that I actually slow down, stop, and listend to what God has to say.

Grades & Prayers needed

So, I got all my grades today. I passed everything! YAY! Although, Western Civ was a D...my first ever (boo.)

Government 2301-B
Intro to Theatre 1310-A
Western Civilization 2311-D
Beginning Swimming 1118-B
Principles of Teaching in the Church 4380-B

So, all in all: 1 A, 3Bs, and a D...not to shabby. Not the greatest either though, unfortunately.

I'm going through some tough times right now, so if you could please pray that God would give me the wisdom to make some tough choices & that He would also provide monetarily if I make certain choices.