Remember This, Israel.

Isaiah 44:21-22

“Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant;

I formed you;

you are my servant;

O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist.

Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

Do you see these things, child? I made you. Your form was made precious and beautiful by my hands, and because I love you. You are my servant. You are here to work in my vineyard, and to bring others home with you at the end of the day. O Israel, lovely, you will never be forgotten no matter how many people lose track of you. I will always remember you. Your life and faith are always on my mind. Your sins have been hidden as surely as a billowing white cloud hides the blue sky in summertime. When you feel blinded on a misty morning, remember that I am that blind to your sins. And when you get lost in that mist, return your soul to me, because I have purchased you from wandering and all that follows lostness.

It’s the simplest of lessons. I formed you. You are my servant. You will not be forgotten by me. I blotted out your transgressions. Return. I have redeemed you. The words are short and simple! It takes seconds to read through them and continue on to the next verses. The truths, though. Can such beautiful truth be so simple? It’s practically a complete compilation of answers to those questions life smears tauntingly in our faces

Where in this universe DID we come from?

I formed you.

Why does that matter?

You are my servant.

Who cares about that? Nobody pays attention to your servants.

I will never stop paying attention to you.

Well we messed it up. Sorry. No can do.

I am as blind to your forgiven sin as you are to the sun at night.

Oh…

Return! I have redeemed you. Come back.

And that return is the most glorious return of all.

“Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it;

Shout, O depths of the earth;

Break forth into singing, O mountains,

O forest, an every tree in it!

For the Lord has redeemed Jacob

and will be glorified in Israel.”

Love Story

I have a gift for you.

It was like gravel, dumped before her on an ebony backdrop. But diamonds made magnificent gravel.

Do you like it?

The largest gemstones caught her eyes first, crudely boasting in their irresistible purity. Each one swelled under her awestruck scrutiny, stretching out its glorious rays without letting an ounce of power escape from its diamond-hard core.

The smaller stones melded themselves into patterns and constellations, bending their iron-points of light to bring her eyes pleasure. Each pin-tip throbbed with white fire, lending life to the mental pictures that impressed themselves but momentarily over the living star-points. Then.

Look at this side too. On the edge.

Scattered in the folds and corners, the lesser star-gems made themselves brilliant, like glistening dew-drops on the points of a web, gloriously and humbly avoiding the center of the arrangement.

There’s still more.

Her eyes probed the center of the amassed diamonds again, searching for anything that might signal the end of these depths of stars. Only the beautified points of light stared back at her. Their thickness hazed the night-shades of their resting place in a deep and wide band across that velvet contrast and only the few stars resting on the backs of the others twinkled enticingly.

It’s all for you.

She strained her eyes, trying to capture all the beauty in the eroding permanence of memory.

I love you.

Me?

Yes.

I … love stars.

I know.

Do you love me?

I … yes.

The stars are yours. But there’s more.

There’s Me.

I am yours.

I haven't Got a Prayer

There were a few times this week when I came questioning before the throne of God.

Each time, I was kneeling after an enjoyable day. I had received blessings in the weather, in my company, through my family and friends, through my time and blessings in the form of opportunity;  I had nothing to pray for.

I didn't understand.

Every night I ask God for something. More of his character manifested in my life. A second chance to not yell at my brother. One day to be cooler than the rest. It is typical for me to find something that has gone wrong and pray God to put his blessing over it. I try to cover it with prayer at the end of the day for the next morning.

But those days, I came up empty. It seemed as if all those days had already been perfectly blessed. I had to wonder what I was supposed to improve upon. It was insanity to me that God would give me a day without poking my character in another direction (or again, in the same direction.)

So the first day I just thanked him.

The second day I started praising! I remembered David and turned hastily to Psalms, hoping his prescribed words would suit the helium-like joy that insisted on rising beyond me.

More perfect days followed. Sunburn, slivers, swallowing half the lake while skiing and sticking to inside of my sleeping bag ruined each evening, morning and afternoon. And I couldn't get anything out of myself but more Psalms!

Today I still can't think of anything to pray for. I am so grateful to God for the moments our church spent together worshipping and learning. I thank him for time this afternoon to work on projects and to blog. I am still excited by eating supper outside and throwing a hotdog bun over the edge of the porch to my dog. I look forward to the evening.

I see now that God is poking my character. Towards praise. Is that not a glorious thing? We were created to praise and worship! Shouldn't it be a repetitive part of our twenty-four hour lives?

And what a lovely and perfect repetition!

Psalm 21:1-5
"O Lord, in your strengh the kind rejoices,
and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
You have given him his heart's desire
and have not witheld the request of his lips.
For you met him with rich blessings;
you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
He asked life of you; you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.
His glory is great through your salvation;
splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
For you make him most blessed forever,
you make him glad with the joy of your presence."

Broken Road

Hello everyone! My name’s Mariah Steenerson… I know, I know you were expecting a blog post by my talented friend Gianna. Sorry!

A few weeks ago I got a call from Gianna to do a guest post on her blog about something BIG that’s about to happen in my life. January 15, 2012 I will be leaving this small town of Minnesota for Townsville, Australia to do a program called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). I could give you a long complex definition of what this program is but I’ll keep it basic. YWAM is an opportunity for anyone (generally 18-25 years of age) at any place in the world to come together to be taught and teach the gospel everywhere and anywhere, to make disciples of all nations. The idea of a program such as this was originated by a man named Loren Cunningham while he was on a missions trip. It came as a vision of waves crashing onto the sand of beaches. Then, the waves turned into young people that not only were covering beaches but all the nations.

Fifty one years later and this small program that started out as just a vision is now located in 1,000 locations in over 180 countries! The waves of young people envisioned by Loren are completely evident today. I think of this and I am totally blown back at how amazing our God can work. No words can describe.

So what will a small town girl like me be doing in a big continent like Australia? For 3 months I will be going through a Discipleship Training School where I will learn more about who God is and who he made me to be. This is just like a regular school in many ways. I have a set schedule for each day of the week, tests and homework—you got it, and no sadly I don’t get to sleep in every day of the week. 

Then the next three months are filled with outreaches. Usually a YWAM Discipleship Training school will have one outreach to somewhere around the world, but my specific school will be doing two outreaches. The places I might be are: Thailand, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, or New Zealand.

It sounds as though when I arrive in Townsville I will have two weeks to pray about the two places God wants me to be. If you would be willing to pray for me and this two week period of hard decision making that would be great! I don’t want to pick a certain place just because it would be a cool place to visit; I want to go wherever God wants me.

Along with these two main phases of my trip; I will be doing a two week camping trip in the outback, visiting Billabong, involved with different ministries in Australia, and hanging out with some cool Aussies.

From reading this you may think I’ve had my mind made up about this for awhile now, but truth is it’s only been a few months. This past year has been one long broken road. I could go on and on about how difficult it was, but the main point is I was broken and defeated and through it God made me stronger. He used every difficulty, every problem to get me where I am today and for that I am very thankful. 

Don’t be afraid to get broken. In fact, you should desire to be broken; desire to be so defeated that your only option is to surrender to the one true God, because it’s when we’re broken that we are closest to God and can be used most effectively by Him. Do not fear brokenness.

For those of you that are young and are still trying to figure out college and a major, I have some simple advice for you. Instead of crying your eyes out every night like I did. Trust in the almighty God! Jer. 29:11 says He has a plan for you. Sometimes we are called to wait and be patient, but take heart God has made many promises in His book, promises that should be taken as truth so much as to thank God for them even before they become evident in your life. None of those promises say I will lead you up to the time you graduate high school and then I will leave you to make all of the decisions. No. God will be there EVERY step of the way IF you give your life to Him.

Below are some verses that have helped me through this past year.

Thank you, Gianna for allowing me to have a guest post on your blog. I am thankful to have such an encouraging and loving friend! I thank God for you daily. Keep on glorifying God with your blog posts; he has definitely given you a gift. 

 

If you’d like to check out my blog go to 

http://heart-of-a-sojourner.blogspot.com

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Blessed.

mariah

Life is! (by Faith) Pt. 2

I am just collecting my thoughts as I write this so don't criticize me for thinking abstractly or drawing strange connections that don't relate. This is a rought draft that's published.



Yesterday during my devo's I was unsure what to read in my Bible. I wanted something that would make sense. I wanted something that I hadn't been reading over mindlessly for a few weeks already. I wanted something that would give me another Life is! blog post. Finally I sacrificed all areas except the second one and started in on Romans 1.



I'm going to go re-read it now.



Only one verse really stood out to me last night: Romans 1:17 "For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, 'The righteous will live by faith.'" (This verse quotes Hubakkuk 2:4)



Then today as I read, I noticed that word so many more times. Romans 1:5, 8 and 12. "Through him and for his name's sake we received grace and apostleship to call people from among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith...First, I thank my God...because your faith is being reported all over the world...that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."



I gathered that we are to live lives of righteousness through faith. To organize this like an boring professor-ish lecture, I should present a working definition of faith. I won't be elaborate. Read Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."



What questions remain? How do we live by faith? What do we do that requires faith?

I'm really not going to answer the questions, I'm just going to put down my insights about faith and you determine if you still have questions (which you then procede to leave posted as comments.)



"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certian of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead." Hebrews 11:1-4



Wouldn't you like to leave a legacy like that? Wouldn't you love to have people talking about you and your faith after the great-grand children who attended your funeral are dead and gone...2,000 years after your favorite niece sang that horrible swinging tune at your funeral...all those years and people talk about your faith and not the flowers on your casket! That's what I'm talkin' - sign me up!



Moving on.



"And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exixts and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6.



That is a powerful verse. Read it again.



Stop and think about it.



We can't live as Christians without faith. It just doesn't work. It's like trying to make a picture-perfect puzzle without using all the pieces. Not gonna happen.



As I was reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan I came across this question. "What are you doing right now that requires faith?"

For me, it takes faith to serve God. I want to do what I want to do so that I achieve what I want to achieve. But it takes all my faith to stop inviting Self to drive my car and make him sit in the back seat (or lock him in the trunk.) It's hard to keep reminding myself that God has a plan for my life, and it is the best plan possible for me. It won't always be what I want it to be, but it will be His plan, and that is all I need to know. In theory. In truth, I am constantly asking Jesus to pull over so I can run back and unlock that trunk. Ish-ta. Horrible idea. It never works out the way I think it should. I usually end up crying and clutching the keys on the side of the road, or handing them back to Jesus and leaning my aching head on his shoulder.

I want to leave this as a challenge to us.

"What are we doing right now that requires faith?"

Related blog post by a friend.

Life is! (not Random) Pt. 1

10 minutes ago Mom said "Gianna, it's time for you to be in bed." To my credit, I am. So is the laptop. I can explain! I sat down to have my devotions when suddenly I was violently overwhelmed in an ocean wave of words. Whereupon I calmly took out my handmade wooden pen and wrote. My entry was largely regarding life in a less-than-general sort of way. Read on.

"Every time I enter a new situation I have new emotions, new stresses and a new monocle. Each time something different happens, I respond in a different way. In short, where I am, what I am doing and what happens to me interpret how I view life. I have thought all of the following at least once before.

"Life is beautiful. Life isn't fair. Life is terrible. Life is embarrassing. Life is very sad. Life is awesome. Life is good. Life is stressful. Life is easy. Life is hard. Life is insane.

"But each time, I interpreted all of life through a stained and limited monocle. Now the question becomes How are we to view Life according to God's intentions?"

That was inspiring. I've decided to look for God's view(s) of life throughout the Bible (this does not mean I will be reading the Bible in a month or anything) and write about them for all to read.

The first scripture that came to mind was Jeremiah 1:5-10, "'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.' 'Ah, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.'"

I know that's a lot, but what I got out of it is that

"Life is not Random."

I know that some of you are instantly protesting my boldness. You like Random! He's your constant companion, your closest confidant, etc. Randomness in creativity, projects, photography, writing; that is not what I'm discussing. I think that God clearly says those verses that our lives are not happenstance. God puts us in situations for God's glory. God gives you gifts for His magnification. God gives you friends and acquaintances who need the words that you have to speak, the pictures you have to draw, the doodles you have to doodles, the fish you want to catch...(ok, ok. I give on that one.)

But seriously. Before we even boasted of being 2 cells worth, God knew us. Before the doctor said, "It's a girl(boy)!" God had set apart your audience. God had and still has a plan for my life and your life.

Before I tuck in and hit my snooze button, I have polish up this facet of our newly discovered, many-faceted gem. No spiritual information is really useful until you can apply it to your life in a meaningful way. So how does Life's lack of Randomness enhance our remaining time on this planet?

This is the time where you hear how I think this can be applied, and then you leave a comment to let me know how you agree, disagree, or can add to my thoughts.

My 'umble opinion: Knowing that God has a plan for my life is reassuring. I can pray for guidance with confidence, knowing that there is a plan and that if I keep seeking His will, I will not stray from it. Also from time to time I sit down beside the trail for a moment and look back down the mountainside to see how far I've come.
When I see things in hindsight, I'm able to recognize how things that I regarded as discouraging and things that I thought must hinder God's plan were really surprises designed specially for me. A rock in the trail may have forced me to walk further - but then my detour brought me through a beautiful copse of birtch. Missing the bank and landing in the stream seemed pointless at the time but my wet footprints left a guiding mark on somebody's map.

*Yawn* "Goodnight."