I've have been thinking about the Chronicles of Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis. Lewis gave us a beautiful thing with this Chronicles. One of the reasons I think I am so drawn to these stories is there are so many pictures of Christ and the Christian walk. There are so many lines that Aslan says that speak right to me as if Christ was speaking right to my heart. Lewis merely skims Christ's character, warning us that "He isn't a tame lion", yet he effectively shows some of the characteristics that capture and entrance us about Christ.

I have a private goal with my self to write a poem for each of the books in the chronicles. Here are two that I've written so far.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The end of it all
Better than imagined
The end of it all
The sad, sweet surprise
All new but the same
Feels like the beginning again
Glad to be at
The end of it all

The end of it all
A journey to recollect
The end of it all
A time to reflect
Of character changed
The friendships we've made
The beauty of
The end of it all

The end of it all
The bitter goodbye
The end of it all
Questioning why
Can we come again
Don't want this to end
Don't want it to end
We are here at
The end of it all

The Silver Chair

Can I remember
All that you have said
Can I remember
What I'm suppose to do and when
Can I fail
Will I fail
At all that you have planned
Will all my work
Matter in the end

Will I follow
All that you have said
How do I know
You plan is always the for the best
Will my fear
Will my dread
Hold me back
Will you supply for all that I lack

How do I know
That you are really real
Was it all a fantasy
Can I trust what I feel
I've sensed you
Have touched you
I have been blown away by your breath
If you aren't real
What do I have left

Today was Beccah's graduation. She is now no longer in High School. Our family couldn't be prouder of her. She has accomplished so much and worked so hard. She is do and will continue to do great things.

Now comes a point of transition. She will be going to Frostburg to pursue a degree Education. She wants to be an English teacher. I think that she will do well at this. She has always had a nack for inspiring people. So here are a few words of wisdom for my sister Beccah.

Dear Beccah,

Out of all the women in the Bible I the one you most remind me of is Ruth. She was a hard worker and fiercely devoted. You have those same qualities. What made Ruth so amazing is not that she had those qualities, but what she did with them. She served the Lord. She served others in the name of the Lord. She was not slowed down by others because she was different. She didn't hesitate to do the work God placed before her. Beccah, I encourage you to follow as whole heartedly after the Lord. Nothing you do will be quite as amazing until God is with you. As you go off to do great things, I urge to walk with the Lord and so serve Him. I love you. My sister and my friend.

"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

"28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.""

Extravagant Worship

Here I am
Before You
I have come to worship You
Wiped away
My pride my shame
My pain my blame
Set aside to worship You

Majesty
Lord on high
I have come to worship You
My creator
Great Redeemer
Greatest Healer
I'm created to worship You

What can I give
What can I do
In my extravagant worship of You

I seem to be in a constant state of motion these days. I finished the Maternity section of my nursing classes and today I am about to begin Med-Surg. Josh and Kat are now married. Congratulation! And my sister Beccah caught the bouquet. ;-)

This past Sunday I heard a sermon comparing Mary of Bethany and Judas. The point of the sermon was that Mary wanted to worship Christ. She asked ,"What can I give?" Judas only wanted to know,"What can I get?" I find myself asking all to often," What can I get?" But shouldn't I as a Christian always be asking,"What can I give?"

2 Corinthians 6:2

2For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you."^[a] I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Hallelujah

Listen to this: How to Say Hallelujah with Gusto for Beginners Fans of the Dirge

Psalm 117

1 Praise the LORD, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.

2 For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD. ^[a]

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 117:2 Hebrew Hallelu Yah

I was recently reading an article about how an athiest views Christians. I believe the he offered two types of Christianity: a "spiritual police force" or a "spiritual banana republic." We are either beating others with accusations of their sin or have an "organized hypocrisy." Neither view is very favorable, and as this article would later on point out this atheist missed something about Christianity.

John Newton was a Captain of a slave ship. God worked on Newton's heart and Newton then went on to be one of the greatest hymn writers we know. I recently watched Amazing Grace and in the film Newton's time working in the slave trade weighs heavily upon him. Watching Newton reminded me of Psalm 32.

1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.

2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.

That is the kind of pain from sin that drove Newton to write these words.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

So it's crunch time. This week in school I have two tests and two projects due. This week I caught a bad cold and because I didn't stop I acquired laryngitis. Whenever I get laryngitis I require massive amounts of sleep, so not a whole lot of studying going on. To top it off I can't even talk which makes it hard to communicate. So I have been doing a lot of communicating with God.

It's a good thing that I have been communicating with God because frankly. I'm worried and stressed out. Usually I spaze out on someone at this point, but I've been to sick. I'm worried that I'll that I fail school. I'm worried that I'll disappoint people. That won't be able to live up to expectations. Yet in this I take comfort. In this I find shelter. Here is where I find hope.

Romans 8:35-39

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."^[l] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"The gospel is not a story of what you must do for God. The gospel is a story of what God has already done for you through Christ Jesus. " ~ Pastor David Wayne

Oh, what amazing grace is this that I can give not only my glory to the cross, but also my failure.

I have been struggling with a lot of things in my life lately. Something that someone said to me really made me think, "I am so tired of singing a new song every week."

Psalm 98:1a

1 Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;

Sometimes it is so hard to find a new song, especially when God puts a new trial in my life. I know that others in my life are also going through trials. Both new and old trials and like me they are having a hard time finding a song. So I take comfort in this verse.

Psalm 40:3

3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

God is the one who gives us the songs in our lives. He is the one who enables us to praise Him. "It is not by our works, so that no man can boast."

The Progression of Love
Can I love you
For who you are
Can I share with you
My shame when it is hard
Can I love with you, love with you, give you myself
And still be my self too

I want to love like the Son
Give my all for you
I want to paint the picture of love
Would you please help me too
Cause I don't, I don't love like you

How can you love me
Knowing who you are
How do you see me
When my heart is so hard
You live with me, love with me, gave of yourself for me
You set me free

So I can love like the Son
Give my all for you
I show the colors, the picture of love
Like I was designed too
Cause you love, you love me
You love, you love me
I love you too
Jesus, I love you

Think about our purpose. We were made to worship. We were made to love God. We were made to love others.

Matthew 20:28

28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Father, may I too serve like Your Son. Give me a desire to serve whole heartily. Give me a servants heart. Amen.

Tick, tick, tick
I hear the sound of your watch
Near my ear with your arms round me
It remind me of time

It reminds me of time
Time with you
Without you
Time together
Time if laughter
Time if tears
Time past
Time to come
And the time I have
In this quite moment with you

Dub,dub, dub
I hear the pulse of your heart
Near my ear with your arms wrapped around me
It reminds me of life

It reminds me of life
Life with you
without you
Life together
Life of laughter
Life of tears
Life past
Life to come
And the life I have
In this quiet moment with you

tick, tick, tick
It's the little things that draw the picture of you
Dub, dub, dub
It's the soft quiet sounds that make up the music of you
Hush, hush, hush, My dear
It's the little things that make up my love for you

"You really shouldn't say,"I love you," unless you mean it. But if you mean it you should say it a lot. People forget."

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Kindness- Be kind and what? I have to be nice to these people. But they're so, so, so... human. They sin and do unkind things to me. You're telling me that I have to be nice to them. Come on.

I find that as I grow older and hopefully wiser that kindness is a choice. As I sit there and process what is being done or said to me that I can choose my reaction. I quickly go over in my head what a great reaction would be. This one is usually unkind and without grace or mercy. Then more slowly I go over what would be a nicer reaction. What the kind thing would be. What Jesus might do. I don't always get it right. Sometimes I choose what would be unkind and sometimes what is closer to kind still isn't the right thing. Yet there is always that choice. I hope and pray that God would work in me and that desire to react unkindly would fade. I pray that God would show me how in every situation I can do what His son would have done in my place.

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Patience- It's a virtue. Not a virtue that I have in great abundance. Society does not value patience. We want to get what we want five minutes ago. In our fast society we can't wait for good things to come to us; we must ,therefore, go out to find them.

We rush into relationships, yet we are told that "love is patient."

We don't want to deal with the trials that God puts us through, but the bible reads that "we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope..."

We get tired of always doing the same good christian things; however, Paul tells the Galations ,"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

The dictionary defines it as quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; or diligence.

When you show perseverance in a job it shows strength character. The strength of Christ is reflected in your quite waters.

Funny story. I was trying to post on peace yesterday and I just could not get it done. I kept getting interrupted and people needed help. My cousin had to go to the doctor because she thought that she had broken her arm. It was not a peaceful day; however, that just made me think about God's grace is the only thing that can give me peace. So it was a good thing, just not very peaceful. ;-)

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Peace- What is peace? The whole world seeks peace in so many different ways. People try and find spiritual peace through meditation and doing good deeds. People seek peace on a national level by trying to fight for peace for others and by trying to stay out of war. We seek peace among friends and family relations. We seek peace and quite from the world. Yet we can't find it.

Christ gives us Spiritual peace. He has done that with his blood on the cross.

Colossians 1:20

20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

God offers us mental peace and peace within our hearts.

Philippians 4:7

7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It is nothing that we do. It is all the grace of God which gives us peace. This does not mean we shouldn't try and have peace in our lives.

Psalm 34:14

14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

Hebrews 12:14

14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

If I try and pursue peace apart from God, I will fail. Only God can piece together our lives so that they are complete. God is the only one who can fill our hearts with peace.

Romans 15:13

13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Forgotten Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Joy- What is joy? It's so close to so many things, but they just seem to miss the mark. Joy is not happiness. Happiness is sadly temporary and joy last longer than that. Joy is not merely contentment, it is more powerful than that. It is not exuberance or delight. Joy is all of these things. Joy is none of these things. What is joy? We are told to count it joy when we go through hard times and trials. Like love joy is often confused as an emotion, but it is not. Joy is a way of life that God calls us to be as Christians. If we were always happy, how superficial and fake would that be? Joy like love is an action, a verb. Something that must be lived out rather than felt for a time before it passes away.

How can you live out joy? Why must you live out joy? Live joyfully by spreading the gospel. It should be something that attracts the attention of both the none believer and the believer. It should draw them in and closer to Christ.

The Forgotten Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When I say the forgotten fruits of the Spirit I don't mean that we have forgotten them entirely. We can still recite them like any good Sunday School child, but we have forgotten the meaning and power behind these fruits. We have forgotten how to live them.

Love- In our culture love can get you hurt. It is much better to just seek after the physical side of love or a superficial friendship and then you won't get as hurt. To have a Christ like love to open up yourself a world of hurt, yet that kind of love is more powerful than than anything on earth. This is the kind of love that will change the world if we only have the courage to display it. I have heard it said that love is not an emotion, it is an action. As a Christian it is a picture of the sacrificial love Christ has for us and the service Christians have.