Love Has Come For Us All

“Love Has Come” – Mark Schultz

Well, I know this life is filled with sorrow
And there are days when the pain just lasts and lasts
But I know there will come a day
When all our tears are washed away with a break in the clouds
His glory coming down and in that moment

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
That God is love and love has come for us all
Every heart set free, every one will see
That God is love and love has come for us all

For anybody who has ever lost a loved one
And you feel like you had to let go too soon
I know it hurts to say goodbye
But don’t you know it’s just a matter of time till the tears are gonna end
You’ll see them once again and in that moment

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
That God is love and love has come for us all
Every heart set free, every one will see
That God is love and love has come for us all

Oh, and on that day we will stand amazed
At our Savior, God and King
Just to see the face of amazing grace
As our hearts rise up and sing

Glory, glory, hallelujah
Thank You for the cross
Singing glory, glory, hallelujah
Christ has paid the cost

Glory, glory, hallelujah
Thank You for the cross
Singing glory, glory
Christ has paid the cost

And every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
That God is love and love has come for us all
Every heart set free, every one will see
That God is love and love has come for us all

Love has come for us all
Love has come for us all

And every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
God is love and love has come for us all
Every heart set free, every one will see
God is love and love has come for us all

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
God is love and love has come for us all
Every heart set free, every one will see
God is love and love has come for us all

Summer 2010

Today was the last day of my finals. I am done with school for now. Only one more semester left until graduation. I'm looking forward to summer even though it means saying goodbye to the boyfriend for a little while. I have all sorts of exciting plans for the summer which might be busier than the school year.

What I'm doing this summer:

- Five weeks of karate camp in the dojo. Some weeks will just be one hour each day and other weeks will be four and a half hours.

- A little over a week long camping trip in Northern CA with some of my family.

- A trip to Texas for the USKA World Championships.

- Teaching karate five days a week in the afternoon for the whole summer minus the camping trip and Worlds trip time.

- Bonfires and hanging out with friends on the weekends.

- At least one or two weekend trips to visit relations.

I think that basically fills up my summer.

A More Loving Heart

A much loved man went home to heaven last night. He touched the hearts of many people. My friends are grieved over his death. My regret is that I did not open my heart out to him and get to know him and his wonderful wife. My heart aches for my friends and those I know in the community. I feel like I missed out on knowing yet another person. But I know that one day I will go to heaven and meet all the people who I wished I knew on earth and all my loved ones as well.

My hope is that I would be able to follow in the example of my friend who opens her heart to all people that she encounters. I want to be like her. I pray that God will give me a more loving heart.

Zeke

I don't care for dogs that much. I don't like it when dogs jump on me and leave dirt, mud, and hair all over me. I don't like it when dogs jump on me and scratch me or slobber all over me. Above all I don't like it when dogs lick me in the face. But there was one dog that didn't do all these things. He was a great dog and I thought that he redeemed all other dogs by his good behavior. His one fault was that he would run off. Sometimes it was for a short time and other times it was for hours. This fault led to disaster. This past weekend Zeke ran off and when he came back we could tell that something was wrong. He threw up that night and several times the next morning. We took him to the vet and they wanted to pump him full of IV fluids and give him an antibiotic and pain killer. He had a fever and was in pain. We thought he may have eaten some poison but we will never know. The vet kept him overnight and Zeke died Sunday morning. He was a great dog and I will always remember him. He celebrated two Christmas's with us and was a part of the family. Every evening he was allowed to come into the house and hang out with us while we watched TV and spent time together as a family. He earned a special place in the family and will be sorely missed.

"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."

I was recently pondering over this concept. I realized that I always fall short. Sometimes I fall shorter than other times. I find myself not loving God with everything I am. I don't live to my full potential and sometimes I fail altogether. But the blessed thing is that God's grace covers all my shortcomings.

A relationship works both ways. You have to meet half way. This is the same with my relationship with God. It works both ways. But the difference is that He makes up for my falling short. Sometimes He meets me half way but more often He meets me more than half way. If my salvation or even my relationship depended on my ability to love God and follow Him then I would be lost. Thanks be to God who makes up the difference that I lack.

Leaving the Nest

Last Saturday I released my butterfly. My boyfriend and I along with friends released our butterflies together. It was a beautiful thing to hold Tiny on my finger before she took off into the big blue sky. I'm glad that she is free and happy but I miss seeing her pretty self when I sit at my desk.

A New Butterfly

Tiny came out of her chrysalis today. She is absolutely beautiful. Metamorphosis is such an amazing miracle. It shows how God has the power to change anything that He wishes. He can take something ordinary like a caterpillar and turn it into something extraordinary. I didn't get to see her emerge from her chrysalis but I still feel like I got to witness a miracle. God has given Tiny a new beginning.

The day is beautiful but not just because of Tiny. I have been nauseous and my stomach has been bothering me for over a month. This last weekend I went to the emergency room because I started throwing up. I was getting really discouraged and wondered if I would ever be able to enjoy food instead of eating it tentatively expecting to get sick from it. My boyfriend and another friend took care of me. I was not alone because I had them and God with me. Family and friends prayed for me and today I'm feeling better than I have for over a week. God is bringing healing to my body. I'm not back to normal but I know that if I take care of myself I will continue on this road to good health. So today is not just a new beginning for Tiny but it is a new beginning for me.

Butterflies

Last week my boyfriend gave me a small painted lady caterpillar. (I decided that it was a girl.) When I first looked at her I couldn't come up with a name. I knew that she had great potential even though she was just a tiny caterpillar. Some day she will be a beautiful butterfly. I decided to name her Tiny. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. It was amazing to think that such a little thing that crawls around could become a beautiful butterfly with wings. Over the past week I have watched Tiny grow and grow until she became a big caterpillar. As I watched her grow I thought about metamorphosis (the process of changing into a butterfly.)

There are two times in my life that I went through a sort of metamorphosis. The first was when I was born. Before I was born my mother couldn't see me but she knew that she had a beautiful baby growing inside of her. She had no idea what I would look like but knew that God had amazing plans for me some day. My mother knew that I had great potential. The second time was when I accepted Christ as my Saviour. The old self is gone and the new self is come. The caterpillar in me died and the butterfly was born. I think the butterfly is an amazing illustration of being born again. We are still the same person but different at the same time. It is not until we are born again that we can reach our full potential.

There is a third metamorphosis that is still to come. When I die (or Christ comes back and calls me home) I will be given a new body. This resurrection body is going to be beautiful and amazing. I'm not sure what I will look like but I do know that it is still going to be me. I know that I have not reached my full potential. I know that God has amazing plans for me in this life but He also has great plans for the next life.

Yesterday, Tiny made her chrysalis. She is going through the changing process. I'm looking forward to seeing my little baby come out totally changed into a new creation. I can't wait to see her flutter her wings and fly away when I release her. It is a beautiful thing to look forward to. But I'm also enjoying every moment of the process. Every stage of her life is beautiful to me.

Self Consciousness

This thing called self consciousness is interesting. It keeps people from doing and saying things. When I was younger I was way more self conscious than I am now. The one thing that I regret is that it kept me from enjoying myself at times. I am still self conscious to a degree but I don't care what others think as much as a used to. I do care about their feelings because I don't want to hurt them. But sometimes you end up hurting people more by staying silent or refusing to do something that you think is goofy, childish or just plain crazy. I think it is more important to be yourself. When you are yourself people can see that you are not perfect and they appreciate who you are. I consider my best friends to be the ones that I am comfortable being myself around them. The friends who I can act crazy with. My best friends are the ones who I don't have to worry about them getting upset over something careless that I said or did. They understand that my intentions toward them are good.

My challenge to you is this: let down your guard and have fun.

Step By Step

In October 2008 I posted this

http://miriamthemouse.blogspot.com/2008/10/jesus-freak.html

I also changed my about me blurb to "I am a young woman who is crazy in love with Jesus and willing to follow Him anywhere."

I have been dwelling on this recently. My one desire is to do the will of God. If God wants me to go I will go and if God wants me to stay then I will stay. I think that I have finally come to the point where I am ready to go wherever he leads. But I struggle with not knowing where I am headed. It is as if I can only see a few steps ahead. I know that I am on the right path but I can't see into the future. I have no idea how my life is going to change. It is hard to have faith that God will continue to show me the way. I guess I'm just frightened that one day I will be at a place with roads heading off in many different directions and will not know which one to chose. I'm afraid that I will be left stranded in a helpless state not knowing where to go.

So I have to remind myself that God will never leave me. I have to remind myself that God is going to show the way. I just have to take life one step of faith at a time while trusting that God will lead me. It's scary not to see ahead but I have the confidence that God will keep holding my hand throughout the journey.