Zechariah's prayer

 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
   because he has come to his people and redeemed them..."


"...to enable us to serve him without fear 
 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days."


Christ enables us to obey and to serve -- to be holy and to be righteous. His commandments, to love God and others, are now wholly possible! Praise be to God!

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Zephaniah 3:15
"The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil."

The Lord is among us. He is in our midst. How amazing. How much assurance we have that he will bring us peace.


Zephaniah 3:17
"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

The Lord is so amazing. He is among us. He will save us. He silences us because he loves us so much. He EXULTS over us.

The definition of exult: to show or feel elation or jubilation. God shows elation and jubilation through loud singing. He's singing about us, his children, because he loves us SO much. This brings such hope and peace, even when we're stressed and weary and weak and sad. Thank you so much, Lord, for peace that surpasses all understanding and a love that makes you sing.

Dave Ward's "Are you a Practicing Christian?"

Dave Ward preached this sermon in his homiletics class at the beginning of the semester. Zach Aument cries every time he talks or thinks about it. I finally watched it this morning. I want to practice the Christian life, and Advent is one piece of the puzzle. Please watch this if you have time. It is so powerful.

http://vimeo.com/21925461

Resolve

I have another image that I specifically found last night to dedicate to today and the rest of this week.

The Sovereign Lord comes with POWER. He comes with LOVE. "He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to His heart." Today God prompted me to pray for my family. I am praying that God moves in love and in power in my own family, bring healing and restoration. God promises to HEAL and to RESTORE. There is so much hope in that. He has the power and the love to do all that He promises.

Gratitude (From Saturday, Sunday, and Monday)

These are some things from my gratitude journal. I hope that they are encouraging in some way.

Mark, Sean, Zach Aument...we'd love to have you guys post some stuff ;) 

• Handels Messiah, full of friends voices, singing praises in 1st UMC, sharing smiles with Kayla, Matt, Jordan, and Zach
• Matt, Denny, Chris, and I, even for a moment, share a quick communion; Matt and I are proud, Denny and Chris are filled up; four months apart becomes nothing
• Early morning rising (Saturday), McNutts, coffee, milk, and gifts. There is nothing quite like early morning conversation with the Zach's.
•  A beautiful father-daughter dynamic in McNutts; his jokes and twinkling eyes, her laughter and joy.
• Bethany's half awake "thank you's" 
• Bethany bringing me food at the Writing Center and joining me for dinner
• Bacon with brown sugar/ eggs/ pancakes/ Home Alone 1 w/ Harrison and Zach
• Harrison reminding me so much of good friends from home; 
• Zach's brokenness, honesty, and hope scrawled on mirrors, leaking out of eyes, hanging in his words.
• Dave Ward's sermon "Practicing Christians," and glimpses of the practicing Christian in our lives
• A couple honest questions about the spiritual life from Kayla in the past few days. She wants my advice. She values my input. Yea!
• The hokey-pokey in the middle of the Student Center
• Seeing Katie at Baldwin. She brings so much to small group. I value her.
• Anne hugged me, told me I was appreciated. Such hope in her.
• David Riggs and his scholarship. He is doing work that will change people's lives. We live in a grace relationship with God. So much fruit will come from this.
• A beautiful Prose Essay and so much affirmation towards it.
• A silent Lodge, time to just lay on the couch and read a book.
• When Brian Bernius's voice cracks; his laugh.

body of hope

Advent has been a struggle for me. I have been transitioning from a season of intense spiritual growth to a dry, crusty stand-still. Instead of having hope in the anticipation of Christ's arrival, I have been consumed with my current state of hopelessness-- in the world's state of hopelessness. This semester has been a constant battle to stay positive. I can no longer muster an ounce of hope with my tainted perspective, and God has not been delivering fresh insight into my outstretched hands. My prayer life has been drooping in the light of tired disappointment from hoping without results.

The only redeeming factor during this difficult semester has been community. God has graciously blessed me by placing me among some incredible organs from his own living body. Never have I experienced a more Christ-exemplifying community of believers than I am experiencing now.

Today at church, a few girls from the Zambia team stood up to share about their trip. Laura-Marie and Kathryn shared, in particular, about the way God humbled them in their efforts. They expected to be heroes, but many of the patients they tried to save died. What a hopeless circumstance. Yet, God gave them a peace and hope in the brokenness. They were forced to trust God because they lacked all control and ability in themselves. Kayla told me the other night that a church community is important because other believers cover our weaknesses and vice-versa. This morning was an example of that fact; I was encouraged by their testimony, and their faith infected mine like a contagion. Somehow, I am hoping vicariously through the hope of others (what a tangled web.)

Hoping is hard. Praise God for a breathing, blinking, beating body of believers.

Thank goodness for a renewal in the cycle of reading. For words that can become mine. I did something a little different and made a Psalm 103 word cloud for my desktop this week. I went through each line of the Psalm and wrote down the attributes of God that were stated or implied. I then wrote down all the "praise the Lord"s and replaced them with "praiseHIM." I got a little creative because I couldn't use spaces. The colors, of course, were advent inspired. :)