"Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast." Psalm 36:6

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." Isaiah 55:12

After several days of rain(although it was much needed), the clouds parted and the blue ridge mountains were crystal clear. As the mountains came into view my heart was flooded with many thoughts and emotions. I have always loved the mountains since my first visit to Colorado in elementary school, and it seems that each spiritual place for me in my life involves mountains. I have posted a picture of mt. everest in Nepal where I traveled on my first mission trip and am reminded of the beautiful people there, and all that happened in my life on those two trips. Mt. Ranier in Washington reminds me of close friends, family, laughter, refuge. The view from 400 is the promise of adventure, growth, and all that our move to GA promises to bring.

Did I mention that I love mountains?

Eternal Perspective

On my way home the other day Christy Nockels and I were spending some quality time together jamming out. As I was belting out with her praises to our King, I was overwhelmed just at how good our God is and thats when it all hit me.

As I posted previously the last few weeks have been marked by some struggles as well as watching others walk through their own insecurity battles. As I took that time in the car to just focus on God and praise Him, my lens came into clear focus. When I was focused on myself and my insecurities, comparing myself to others, and trying to meet the percieved expectations of others, the perspective I had of myself was blurry. I couldn't see myself for who I truly was. As I shifted my focus to Christ and an eternal perspective my vision cleared and I could see myself as I truly am; and accept the creation that God crafted.

As a wise friend recently told me; "when we go to that place of insecurity we are no longer free to be ourselves nor can we be who others need us to be" (not word for word but you get the idea). Satan wants us to be focused on ourselves and he tries to do this through insecurity. As I have seen in my own life this week, when am I in that place of insecurity and focused on that it cripples me from walking in the freedom of Christ. It also hinders my being used by God because I am not looking to Him.

As I have shifted my perspective to an eternal one, I now see my insecurities from a temporal angle. Am I going to walk in security everyday for the rest of my life? No, I know that everyday will be a choice to have an Eternal perspective or an Internal perspective-so feel free to ask me if I am being Eternal or Internal!

Merry Christmas

War on Beauty

Over the last several weeks I have battled some personal insecurity struggles. During this time people have fought alongside me against their own enemies, while I have seen others crumble under the intensity of the attack. Mind you there were some days that I was badly wounded because the enemy seemed more powerful that day and I too crippled under the intensity. However, as the attack is ceasing for now, my heart is aching as I look around me and see how many have been crippled by the seemingly overwhelming power of the enemy. The war on beauty that women are facing each day is, I believe, at one of its fiercest levels.

As I am fighting this battle, I am recognizing again the importance of clinging to the truth of God's word, concerning our bodies...His Temple. Because the lies of this world concerning beauty and our bodies are so strong we have to be constantly armed with God's word in order to be able to live in victory. Now, I say this as a personal lesson I am learning myself.

I am seeing more and more Christian women falling subject to the lies of deciet concerning our bodies the world is telling us. I am not saying that exercising, wearing make-up, cute clothes, etc. is wrong I am just seeing so many women "fixing" themselves because they feel that the way they were created isn't good enough. I too have felt this deep pain of feeling like certain parts of my body weren't "just right". And although I don't always feel like my body is beautiful the way the Master crafted it, I know that the truth is that it is. Over the last several weeks I have struggled to cling to this truth, but more than anything I have longed for all women to be set free by this truth, and to know that our true beauty comes from our inside out.

Not only is the media targeting women's perceptions of true beauty, but they are also warping men's perceptions of beauty. The war on beauty is not only on us as women but also on our men.

My prayer today is that God's truth would renew our minds and that when we look in the mirror we would see ourselves as He sees us, a beautiful creation, a reflection of Him.

Very Cool video:

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home.asp

Faith, Hope, Love

We have been doing a series at church on Faith. My heart has been stirred as we have talked about God's greatness and faithfulness to work on His children's behalf. The definition that we are using for Faith is: "The belief that God can and the hope that God will". This has brought me back to my blog title and the deepest desire of my heart. I want to always believe that God can perform what might seem impossible to me, and I never want to limit His ability to work on my behalf due to my lack of belief or trust that He can. I know that in His sovereignty what I want or ask may not always be what is best...and I gladly rest in His wisdom of what is best for my life. Continuing on this path Bryan and I have started our own family "advent" since we didn't have an advent book this year but we had the candles. During the advent season there are 5 candles, 4 for the Sundays prior to Christmas and then 1 for christmas day. For our first three Sundays we have done our devotions on faith, and hope, and next week will be on love. I know that leaves two candles, but the last one obviously is about Jesus and the fourth one well...that is yet to be determined.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

You can listen or watch the messages at:
www.mountainlakechurch.org