Mikeschair - You Loved Me First

"I should've known all along, You're the one who loved me first

And if I had to save myself, this never would've worked

I wouldn't be in Your arms, I wouldn't know where to start

But You gave Your life to prove to me what I was worth"

"You loved me first"

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

We love him, because he first loved us." ( 1 John 4:8-9 )

Hoodwinked

Hoodwinked

You've come here for years,

Have your own favorite pew.

People know when you're here,

You come off so smooth.

You wear the right clothes,

Say all the right things.

You are a poster child for Christ's,

or is it your community?

Quickly and craftily you always take charge.

No one takes time to notice you go,

And before they blink twice,

you're on the church throne.

This throne is disguised, 

Most hard to see. 

It takes an expert to crack through your secrecy. 

To most you look innocent,

completely safe and free.

You have them all hoodwinked,

They don't see a thing.

You feel safe and secure,

Like a king or a queen.

The order you promise to easily provide,

Is simply just chaos and quickly divides.

You rest on your laurels and make all seem fine,

But your turmoil shows when you're alone at night.

You have them all hoodwinked.

They don't see a thing.

But know that while most people are fooled,

God can see right through to who's the true fool.

Dear friend know this, here's what God seeks. 

A heart that is tender, soft, and meek.

So before you stroll in,

Next Sunday in pride.

Consider the opinion,

of the Lord in your life.

And don't disregard the words that He said,

The prideful soon fall down to their...

death.

Time to be the salesman :)

You guys can help me earn money towards books by looking into this.. If you sign up for Amazon Student ( which is free:) I get a $10 credit per person. The benefits include 6 months of Prime ( free two day shipping ) and then prime is half off as long as you are a student. ( 41 bucks instead of 78 or something like that ) You also get a free kindle book a month. If you buy textbooks or anything else from Amazon look into it.. We've used Prime for a while now and love it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info?ie=UTF8&refcust=4ASJFJXKG2H2KERNLZ4SDWKOCU&ref_type=generic

Edit.. It's $49 for Prime by students.. not 41. ;)

The way to wake up..

You slumber. And if you are like me, you might slumber long. In fact, slumbering doesn't even do the event justice. The word hibernation might just come close, but still lacks the power to describe my changing sleeping patterns since school let out.

One of my favorite things to wake up and see is the sunrise. From my window I look out over our little country valley and see the silhouettes of trees, passing cars, and golden red rays of the sun just peeking up over the mountains/hills around us. It is needless to say, beautiful. The rising sun reminds me of God's grace. Every day we have a chance to start fresh and begin again. It also lets me know that He is merciful. As Matthew tells us,

"..for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew 5:45

There are times I fall in the unjust/evil category. But I know I can call on my Father when I fall, when I'm down. He helps me up, cleans the cuts and scrapes, and keeps the sun going.

This morning I couldn't resist the chance to get out and take some pictures. I've included some of my favorites. Most are raw but I put one or two into Lightroom.

Journal post

Warning. This is not a deep post.

My mom recently picked up a new camera for our family.. ok ok.. primarily her but she is gracious enough to share. It takes some really nice raw pics so I wanted to share them with you! Plus I needed a break from studying for finals. :)

......and you wonder why we are stressed?
 

My mom handles the stress so gracefully though...

The usual, "Jacob what are you doing.. you are driving me crazy" glare.

No! No paparazzi! No pictures allowed!

I wasn't joking!!!! NO PICTURES!

Color filter experiments..

As you can imagine.. that donut must not have been that good... :)

...*yummmmmmm* donut.. drifting.. can't come back to earth... I'm long gone in donut heaven...

"Oh mom.. do you have to wear those "Granny" glasses? Just promise us you will never wear them in public."

smile! :)

"Justin... just leave me alone already.."

Yes sir.. we do have fun here!

Thus.. an usual, and unusual evening. :) 

Rest.

Poll

In doing some research for something I'm mulling around I need your help. Please notice the poll on the side of my blog and vote accordingly.

As a side note.. David.. this is mandatory. Please don't refer me to your voting post. ;) Miss you guys!

Rest.

Standing Strong and Steadfast

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Theme for 2013: Standing Strong and Steadfast in 2013

Have you ever felt like you hit the wall? You've been there done that, and it seems there is nothing new. It seems like things only get hard, without any inspiring moments. You know and believe all the right things but something is still missing. This is how I have felt over this past year.  I've had this mis-understanding throughout my Christian walk and it is one that was difficult to recognize for me.

This mis-understanding is that it doesn't matter what I know, but rather what I do.

S o u n d s  s  o  s i m p l e  d o e s n' t  i t?

I t' s  n o t.

I've known this for a long time.

But I have never done anything about it.

Why?

What causes me to not stand strong? Why do I experiment with just how much sin I can righteously get away with? Why do I do what is either secret, or is "culturally" acceptable to please myself?

Have I really become so comfortable in my sinful lifestyle of apathy that I can't see anything as wrong? Have I really replaced God with myself on my throne?

It needs to stop. Right now. But I feel so trapped. Stuck in a dried glue of wrong choices and hard mistakes.

What can melt this glue? What can set me free? I don't just need a new page to turn over this year, I need a new book.

As this year closes I look back with slight despair. No change. No growth except I might know a whole lot more. But knowing isn't enough. I need to do. So all this leads to next year.

Intentional. That is the word I want to describe next year. So, I have a plan. Every month I want to work on one character/spiritual thing that I already know, but I need to do. I'm going to do a bible study through James. Breaking it up into small, digestible portions I want to "eat" and live God's Word next year.

Now is the time of turning,

Changing,

Becoming,

D o i n g.

Have you ever felt how I feel now? Then I want to invite you to join me as I start. I would love to have others join me in the journey. This journey will not be easy. It will be one that will hurt, reveal, and bring sorrow. However, the joy, light, and freedom that will come will be more than worth it.

Living an intentional life for Christ.

Standing strong and steadfast.

Are you in?