Time...

I have 10 days off... what shall I do with my time? I know, to start off, I will make a list! I love to make lists. Whether I use them or not is irrelevant of course. So let's see. - Climb up to the Abbey besides Arthur's Seat. - Purchase a new journal - 20 pages will not last very long! - Read through to the end of 2 Samuel. - Organize all my camp papers and an interview at the US embassy. - Go to Northern Ireland to see Ruth. - Walk along the Water of Leith - Print off some recent pictures. - Take more pictures. - Tidy my room!!!! That's just a start... we'll see what the next 10 days hold. Time for God, time for me, time for others. It's gonna be great!

Speaking of Change...

This week is Holy Week. How exciting! I mean, I got the day off on Thursday and Friday, AND I have Monday off too... amazing. Seriously though, reflecting o the cross any time is wonderful, but when everyone else is at the same time, and there are crosses on buns to remind you as you walk around tesco, and setting up an "Easter" playlist on your itunes with plenty of cross-centered songs, ahhh, so good! I love Easter! Any time is a good time to sing praises to Lord of all creation. But today particularly. I love the words of a song by Starfield - Son of God. Son of God Shaper of the stars You alone The dweller of my heart Mighty King How beautiful You are How beautiful Son of God The Father's gift to us You alone Were broken on the altar of love Precious Lamb Our freedom's in your blood It's in Your blood. Jesus Oh Holy One I sing to You Forgiven Saviour I'm overcome With Your great love for me Son of God Strength beyond compare You alone The darkness cannot bear Lord of love Your kindness draws me near It draws me Son of God Prophesy of old You alone Redeemer of my soul Come again And lead Your people home Come lead us home You are worthy, You are worthy, You are worthy of all my praise You are beautiful, You are beautiful, I will lift up my hands and sing Amazing. What a gift! Nothing can compare. Even when the sun's shining, things in all areas of life are good, exciting, and enjoyable, nothing comes close to the joy I find in Christ. In fact, I've found the past few days that as much as I'm enjoying life, enjoying these things makes me want to worship God even more and has caused me to enjoy Him more. I don't know where to start. I went to see my friends the Essams for a couple of days. Whilst I was there, God showed Marie Anne the most amazing thing. This was one of the only topics of conversation for the weekend (well not really, but it came up over and over) and I think it is well worth sharing. Galatians 2:20 in most versions says something along these lines: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Notice "I live by faith IN the Son of God" Now, the KJV and the Greek (as we found out by calling Alan Compton) says this: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Notice "I live by the faith OF the Son of God" How amazing. We have Jesus' faith. As Oswald Chambers said, "this faith is not Paul's faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him - "the faith of the Son of God." It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God."

One point of focus

What comfort there is in these words. "The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow; he may be sickly today and well tomorrow; he may be in happiness today, tomorrow he may be distressed - but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God. If he loved me yesterday, he loves me today. My unmoving mansion of rest is my blessed Lord." -Charles Spurgeon "The ultimate ground of our rejoicing can never be our circumstances, even though we as Christians recognize that our circumstances are providentially arranged. If our joy derives primarily from our circumstances, then when our circumstances change, we will be miserable. Our delight must be in the Lord himself. That is what enables us to live with joy above our circumstances. As Nehemiah puts it, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the Lord sometimes allows miserable circumstances to lash us—that we may learn this lesson.…Whatever the mysteries of evil and sorrow, they do have the salutary effect of helping believers to shift the ground of their joy from created things to the Creator, from the temporary to the eternal, from jingoism to Jesus, from consumption to God." -D.A. Carson Yesterday I was reading through one of my favorite books, Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes, and one of the appendices says this. Or at least these were the bits I wrote down. I am not the point. He is. It is not about me getting out of suffocating pain. It is about His Son being revealed in me, about God's image being released in me. I need to yield to the instrument of refinement He has chosen in my life, and confess that I don't know how to yield, that I am helpless and angry. But I am willing to be taught. May He teach me through the word to trust Him and understand who He is in His love and mercy. The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different circumstance. The beloved of the Lord dwells in safety. The High God surrounds him all day long, and he dwells between His shoulders. (Deut. 33:12) Oh what a joyful and comforting thing, to know that I am right there, in God's arms, resting on his chest, between His shoulders.