A Psalm

I don’t think I’ll comment now (maybe later) on these verses. They’re so beautiful, I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Psalm 19:

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;
         The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
 ⁸ The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
         The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
 ⁹ The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
         The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
 ¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold,
         Yea, than much fine gold;
         Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
 ¹¹ Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
         And in keeping them there is great reward.

Some New Years Resolutions

Taken from sxc.hu. Credit goes to abeall

Holy aspirations go hand in hand with New Years resolutions, if you think about it. It’s all about trying to make ourselves better, to get closer to what we would optimally like to be. I thought it might be interesting to post some I thought of this year, (and this will help me to remember them too)

• To put greater emphasis on Church.

This was something that I really lacked in during the past year.  It was so easy to make an excuse NOT to go. I was tired. I didn’t really feel like I was growing at my Church. It was a long drive. We were in the middle of a move. When you boil it all down to the heard treason thought, it comes to one thing: I didn’t feel like it. (I’ll probably make a post about church one of these days. It’s been something really brought to my attention lately). Since this was something that started about January, it was really easy to look back and see where it impacted my faith during the year. It wasn’t good, is the short way to say it. I found that without Church to ground my week in Christ, even a church which I didn’t think was deep and helping me, my week was less likely to be focused on Him. My thoughts of Him, my prayers, were less long and frequent. This year I am going to put much more effort into church, and forcing myself to go even when I don’t feel like it.

• To stop treating time with God as something I want to check off my to do list, and make it much more personal.

I often find myself falling into the habit of saying “Oh, better read two chapters of my Bible today.” It doesn’t sound bad, on the surface. But dig into it and you see that I’m really just doing it because I feel duty called to, not because I so crave to see deeper into God’s word. I’ve been working on reading the New Testament over Christmas break, and though I don’t think I’ll actually finish it all, it has pointed something out to me. When I read two chapters for the sake of reading two chapters, I’m generally focused on one thing: finishing two chapters. But when I sit down and just start reading, with an end point far in the future or not set at all, I fucus much more on the words themselves and not how many verses I’ve gotten past. I want to fucus on the Bible because I want to grow and find my Lord’s will for me, not because I should as a good little Christian. Something I’ m working on and hopefully growing in. The same goes for prayer sometimes. It’s something I’m going to change, with God’s help.

• To be much more helpful around the house.

I’ve often been frustrated about not knowing what I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve paced, and thought, and tried to figure out the path I was to take. And I kept asking God what I was to do. And somewhere in my thoughts an idea would always pop up: Maybe I’m not sure where I’m going now, but I do know where He has placed me at the moment, and there I should be working diligently. I might be frustrated about not knowing about jobs or school, but home is where He has placed me to work right now.

• To post here more often

This isn’t just a “I should be a better blogger” thing. When I post on here it draws my thoughts to Him more, makes me grow more, makes me learn more. I will think throughout the day about what I need to post and then post it. It helps me put my mind on “things above, not on things on the earth.” When I post here, it often means me discovering verses I hadn’t noticed before, things coming to mind that wouldn’t have otherwise. I often think of how much this blog is often best for me, and not for everyone else in cyberspace.

• To chip away at some of my terrible habits and sins

We all have them, different ones, all rooted in our sinful nature. One of my big issues is I can be so downright lazy and procrastinate so often. I want to fix this, to get better at it, to grow closer to what I should be. There are so many things I could have done this year, should have done this year, but I didn’t get around to because I was watching TV, or reading a book. Or didn’t feel like studying and doing hard work. This and other things, obviously. I want to be polished more to shine for God.

I’m sure I’ll think of more (New Years Resolutions are often a few day thing for me). What was going to be a short post with a list has become this (and it’s helped me to lay out my thoughts even better, trust me. Part of the posting more often resolution.) I hope you’ve got your own resolutions, even if you only have one, and are working to get closer to Him who we owe are all to.

With His help, without which we are helpless on our own, (Amen!)

Victoria

A Spirit of Fear

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

I have a confession. I can sometimes be, er, paranoid. I might go so far that it comes into my head that I’m allergic to something, which I’ll proceed to avoid for quite a while until I force myself out of it (one of my current issues. Grr). It’s annoying. Even though I know nothing is wrong, I can’t help myself worrying over it. I was telling some such thing to my mother the other day, when she quoted the above verse to me.

Now, I’m pretty sure I memorized that verse once upon a time, but I had never actually thought of it the way she was telling it to me. I don’t have to be worried about anything, because it’s all in God’s hands, He’s in control, and whatever happens He has already planned. That’s a load off my shoulders!

Of course, I’m not cured off all my little worries. I’m probably never going to be. But when they pop up, I can think of that verse, and remember that even though I have these fears, I don’t need to.

Anyway, just a thought to share. Isn’t it great we have a Lord and Savior who doesn’t want us to be afraid?

Praise be to Him!
Victoria

P.S. If you’re wondering why there’s no picture, it’s because when I searched for one I kept getting pics of spiders. Oi! I wasn’t going to look through all those.

Stars: The Heavens Declare

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.

There is something so beautiful about a star filled sky. I’ve pushed my bed against the wall, where at night I can look up into it at night. It makes me smile. When I see them, I think there is no way something so grand, so majestic, so perfectly formed could be brought about by random chance happenings out of nothing. They declare Him and His glory.

I know we live in a fallen world, with pain and thorns and death, where nothing gets better. But even so, you can still see His glory through it. It’s like a picture faded with time. It is not at all like the real place, but you can still see what it is, and who is in it. In creation we can see the work of God.

Psalm 148:1:4

Praise the LORD!         
         Praise the LORD from the heavens;
         Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His angels;
         Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
         Praise Him, all you stars of light!
Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
         And you waters above the heavens!

“She Wouldn’t Want Me To”

So it had been a long day of picking out colors for the new house, and I cheerfully sat down on the couch to see what was on TV. As watching the Bourne Supremacy on television, – Here there be spoilers, if you haven’t seen the movie before – and I came to the part where he’s got the CIA guy who’s in charge of Treadstone. Jason wants to shoot the guy, to get revenge for everything that he put him through, for making him run for years and for the death of his girlfriend. But he realizes that his girlfriend wouldn’t want him to kill this guy, that she would want him to take the high road, not the vengeful one.  And he doesn’t, telling the man who’s pretty much ruined his life “She wouldn’t want me to.”

Now, as I watched this I had a little “blogging thought” . As we go through life, we are going to come to points that we want to do something wrong. We want to take that revenge. We want to bring pain to those who have brought pain to us. But as Christians we should always turn from those things. Not grudgingly, but willingly. Because God wouldn’t want us to. We so much want to please Him that we turn from the things He wouldn’t like. We should be so in love with Him that our selves and our own desires fall by the wayside.

So, just a thought to keep in mind. (And yes, yes I can make a blog post out of such random things)

We must always work for His glory, and not our own.

Victoria

2 Youtube Videos to Listen To

Very good. You should listen to them. They speak for themselves so I won’t give them much of an introduction.

The Meaning of Words: Awesome

I’ve thought often that words no longer have the meaning that they used to. I think we all know this. Words like awesome, amazing and super have been taking down from their pedestals of being used for truly great things, like God, and have been placed instead on whatever, like coffee, or paint colors. We almost have to forcibly put away our slang as we read the Bible, because our God isn’t just awesome as in cool, He really is AWESOME as in awe-inspiring, take your breath away, Creator of the universe and Savior of our souls awesome.

Deuteronomy 10:17
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.

Nehemiah 1:5
And I said: “I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,

And His works are awesome, but not just sweet, or interesting, but AWESOME as in you can hardly understand their greatness

2 Samuel 7:23
And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name—and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land—before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods?

Psalm 66:3
Say to God, “How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.

It’s something to remember, when reading the Bible, when singing “Our God is an Awesome God”, because the last thing that we should be doing is considering our God “cool,” or “exciting”.

Give praise to our awesome Lord!

Remember

Recently I’ve been struggling with the fact I don’t spend as much time as I should in prayer and reading the Bible

It’s so easy to not prioritize it, to say “Later” and never come back to it.

It’s a shame, but often we just brush it off.

Do we realize what we’re really doing when we do this?

Do we realize that we are in essence setting aside what should be the number one thing in our lives?

We’re chosing to not make God a priority.

You know, God, the Loving Creator who has chosen us to be pulled from the fires of hell and into salvation with Him.

The God who sent His beloved Son to a painful death, so that we might have the chance of life.

I’m sure glad He didn’t brush aside me as I so often put aside Him.

I’m sure glad He didn’t say “I’ll save her later” and forget to ever do so.

Remember this when you think “Later.”

Remember it when you put off reading your Bible to learn God’s truths because you don’t see it as important as other things.

Remember it when you cut your prayers short because you’re in a rush.

I know I need to.

Being Thankful When a Doors Close

Image from sxc.hu. Credit goes to tsfree

1 Thessalonians 5:18

 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Recently, my brother has been trying to buy a truck. He was supposed to go and look at one the other weekend, but a day before he was supposed to go see it the seller called and told him that someone else had bought it. I’m sure it was frustrating.

But it got me to thinking about something. It’s really easy to be thankful to God about doors that He opens; when something falls perfectly into place, or when everything happens at just the right time. But God also closes doors sometimes. You can see this with my brother and his truck. That particular truck was closed off from him. Now, don’t you think that we should be just as thankful to God for this?

By closing doors God can guide us in the direction that we need to take, or protect us from harmful situations, or any manner of things! Closed doors are just as important as open ones. And we need to be thankful for all the guidance God gives us in our lives.

Holy Aspirations in the Bible

Taken from sxc.hu. Credit goes to raichinger

It has often come to mind that while my entire blog is on various Holy Aspirations, I have never really specified what those aspirations are. That’s a very sorry shame, especially since most of the web searches that bring people here are along the lines of “Holy Aspirations in the Bible.” So here is what my view on the title is:

First, let’s define the terms.

ho·ly 

dedicated or devoted to the service of god, the church, or religion: a holy man.

 

saintly; godly; pious; devout: a holy life.

 

having a spiritually pure quality: a holy love.

 

religious: holy rites.

 

as·pi·ra·tion

strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition: intellectual aspirations.

 

a goal or objective desired 

 

 

I’ve always had the impression (might be wrong, might be right… I’m not sure where I got it) that aspirations are a little more solid than goals. We all set goals. Big goals, little goals. But Aspirations are goals that we are really working towards. Goals in action, in progression, as it were. And that’s what I mean when I say aspirations. For me there’s a meaning of growth.

 

I haven’t ever seen the word “aspiration” in the Bible yet, so words like “goal” “progress” etc. help in finding holy aspirations in the Bible. Here are some verses I’ve found:

 

Philippians 3:10-14 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. ¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

1 Timothy 4:12-16  Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. ¹³ Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. ¹⁴ Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. ¹⁵ Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. ¹⁶ Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

 

Ephesians 4:14-16  that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.  (This one isn’t just for an individual, it’s for an entire group.)

 2 Peter 1:5-9 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶ to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

2 Corinthians 8:7 But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.

 

Romans 12:10-12 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; ¹¹ not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

 

Anything we are to do as Christian’s, which we are lacking in, or not perfected in now, is a Holy Aspiration we can move towards. A lot of the examples I gave were very broad, but yours could be specific if you wanted as well. You can make them short or long term. Patience, diligence, all that is something we are continually striving for. But maybe you want to be better prepared to “Give an answer for the faith that is in you” by reading a certain book, or raising money for a certain charity. These aren’t spelled out in the Bible like patience and diligence, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t “holy goals”. They’re important as well.

 

Anyway, I hope that explained it all for you, and that you’ll make some aspirations for yourself to achieve.

Your sister in Christ,

Victoria