beauty for ashes
by shane barnard and kendall combes

beauty for ashes
a garment of praise for my heaviness
beauty for ashes
take this heart of stone and make it Yours, Yours

i delight myself in the Richest of Fare
trading all that i've had for all that is better
a garment of praise for my heaviness
You are the greatest taste
You're the richest of fair

(Psalm 63, Isaiah 61)


It's beautiful, beautiful thing to fall flat on your face in adoration of our Father. He is far worthy of all our praise. This song brings tears to my eyes and I loooove it! MY GOD IS AMAZING!! and there are no words to describe my thankfulness for how much He loves me!

From time to time fulfilling the will of God requires us to wait. In fact, more often than not, the best things that God does in our life require patience. If we learn to wait upon God in worship, we are better able to wait upon the will of God in our life.

And yet the God of all creation is known by His people. He chooses to meet with us as we call upon His name. God is not some cosmic question mark against which vain and empty prayers are hurled. God is a loving, caring Father. He desires to be known and to dwell within us. And He loves to tabernacle in the midst of the saints as they worship Him.

We do not worship an “it”, we worship a “Him.” It is to Him that I lift up my eyes when I am distressed. It is He that I call upon when I am in need. It is He that I rejoice in when He gives me victory. It is He that I go up to meet at the house of the Lord. That is why I am glad when they say unto me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psa 122:1).

We are saved by a person - not a doctrine. It is by virtue of His love for you and the blood that He shed that you are saved. Yes, salvation is received by obeying the true gospel, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ who makes salvation available. The very method by which Grace is imparted rests firmly upon the love of God for you. A person, not a doctrine saves you! We need to lift up our eyes to Him and place our confidence in Him. He is the God of the Temple; He is the God behind the doctrine. The house of God is great because of the God that dwells there. The gospel message is powerful because of the God of the message.

When Jesus walked the earth, those who placed extreme value upon the temple confronted him. The Pharisees disputed with Jesus over and over about customs having to do with the temple, the Sabbath, and dietary issues. And yet God created these ceremonial laws as a way for man to commune with Him. While arguing with Jesus about the temple, they failed to recognize that He was indeed the God of the temple. He said to them:

“But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.” Matt 12:6

Ultimately it was a false accusation about the temple that these blind leaders used to convict Jesus of blasphemy. They said He blasphemed the temple. Consider that, the God of the temple was accused of blaspheming His temple.

What are you saying? I am saying that some folks have more confidence in their prayer than they do in the God all prayer must be offered to. Some folks have more confidence in their worship than they have in the God Who meets us when we worship in spirit and in truth. Some folks have more confidence in their doctrine than they do in the God who chooses to save us through true doctrine. We must lift up our eyes to Him!

Wait Upon the Lord
“Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.” Ps 123:2

Verse two conveys the twin concepts of eager service and patience. In worship, God must have our complete attention. This is not about showing our own piety or spirituality.

A) Serving in Worship
Worship is not something that is blindly hurled in the direction of an unknown entity somewhere up there. As we worship the Lord, our spiritual eyes must be employed in watching the hand of the Lord.

In the orient, orders were seldom given to the servants in words but instead by simple motions and symbols. The servant was so attentive and attuned to his lord that words were seldom needed. It is said that often a guest would not even be able to recognize that the master had given an order to the servants, so attuned were the servants to their lord.

Can we not wait upon our God with our eyes? Must He speak every command explicitly? Must He speak the command over and over and over and over again? It is no mistake the way verse two is written. The servant or the maiden would train their eyes to watch the hand of their master or mistress.

Fearless..

"FEARLESS' is not the absense of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you've been hurt before. FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen year of high school at fifteen. FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want all over again... even though every time you've tried before, you've lost. It's FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change. FEARLESS is having the courage to ...say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you can't breathe without them. I think it's FEARLESS to fall for your best friend, even though he's in love with someone else. And when someone apologizes to you enough times for the things they'll never stop doing, I think it's FEARLESS to stop believing them. It's FEARLESS to say "you're NOT sorry," and walk away. I think loving someone despite what people think is FEARLESS. I think allowing yourselfto cry on the bathroom floor is FEARLESS. Letting go is FEARLESS. Then, moving on and being alright, that's FEARLESS too. But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. That's why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS."
— Taylor Swift

1st grade

i loooove my internship. i have the best teacher and a wonderful class! everything about it is going so well. I start teaching next week and im super excited about it. Im so glad God has blessed me with a wonderful opportunity and a great experience!!! now if only I can get all my lesson plans written today! I will be fine!

i geeet to............

GRADUATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eeeeeeek im soooo excited! The University is letting me file my intent to grad late and walk in Dec. with my fellow classmates. Gosh how I love having connections, especially with the big Man upstairs. God truly blessed me and heard my prayers. I cannot thank Him enough. He is my rock and my shield. Man I cant believe it!!!! I just had a breakdown earlier in the day, and not 5 hrs later I get the congrats email about being able to file it. Wow!! MY GOD IS SOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!! :)

Peace

Isaiah 26:3

"You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you."

I was remided that God gives us perfect peace about things if only we let him. I've had a lot on my mind lately and have just been worrying about me possibly not being able to walk at graduation (due to the fact my intent to grad form did not get filed in time.) It has made me sick to my stomach and just worried all the time. Until I opened my bible to a card from Pine Cove. We played this game where everyone sat in a circle, boys on the inside and girls on the outside, and we talked for 2 min and wrote something on their card. It was a quick get to know you game. I LOOVE THIS!! well someone wrote on mine this verse and I had never really looked at it til now. It totally took me by surprise. God has a way of speaking SOOOO clearly to me these days. I looked it up and it was perfect for my situation. I love how God uses this to speak to us and to get our attention. He is an amazing God!

wanna stay in shape??.. dont eat mcdonalds!

soo in a moment of weakness I ate mcdonalds for breakfast.. 700 CALORIES!!! I almost died when I found that out. sooo I then decided I was going to burn all 700 calories of mcdonalds off bc that is just depressing. I ran 6 miles.. whoa, that was the most ive ever ran at a time. It was hard but in the end I felt so much better!! Running is totally becoming my drug. I looove running and how I feel afterwards.. i guess you could say I have the runner's high. lol. yum :)

Graduation....

Hopfully..... Dec2010 !!! Details coming soon!!!

converse and exercise

soo we all know her as the Bachelorette.. but I know her as my new fave person im obsessed with!! I totally fell in love with her on the bachelor with Jake.. and have since, I guess you could say, "stalked" her. :) I love how carefree Ali is and she has the CUTEST fashion sense eveeer... and because of her, I will own a pair of purple converse and TOTALLY rock them!

and on another note, I am starting a serious diet/workout plan tomorrow.. and by the end I will look like this..




but if I fail in my attempts to get a rockin' body like Jessica Simpson's for Dukes of Hazzard.. this should be just fine :0)

washed car

sooo today I decide to wash my car... little did I know it would take me a full 2 hours of sweat!!!! haha but, now it is perfectly clean, inside and out!! and reeses watched me and cheered me on from the steps~|QQ

old and single..

soo if I had a penny for every time someone asked me who I was dating or why I was still single at 22.. I would be rich..


seriously??!! just because im not in a relationship now at 22, doesnt mean I wont get married lol.. old people seriosly need to back off. I dont want to be in a relationship right now. im focusing on finishing school and just enjoying my time with God!! :) so back off!! hahahahaha

great song..

If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid
Are good and true
If You call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for You.


this is a powerful song with such bold lyrics. how many of us would actually drop everything and go? it definitely makes you think. It's all about Faith. :O)

Crazy Love..

Soo I have been reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan.. I mean whoa!! At first I was so confused as to why I was reading this and forgot about it after the first chapter. Then I picked it up again and started re-reading it. God was really speaking to me through this book. It's about this radical change and breaking out of the ordinary. This is becoming my favorite book. I wanted to share some of my favorite quotes from the book. Here are just a couple..

- "In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us."
- "God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love."
- "Following Christ isnt something that can be done halfheartedly or on the side. It is not a label we can display when it is useful. It must be central to everything we do and are."
- "NOTHING should concern us more than our relationship with God; it's about eternity, and nothing compares to that."
- "God wants to change us; He died so that we could change. The ansewer lies in letting him change us."
- "Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers."
quite possibly my favorite quote so far..
-" God doesnt call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesnt come through."
aaand the last one,
-"True faith is loving a person after he has hurt you. True love makes you stand out."

These quotes each have stuck out to me in many ways. I am so excited that God is teaching me new things and I am growing deeper and deeper in love with Him. :)

well dang.. i was reminded of blogspot.com by 2 of my favorite people.. carikates and jamiegolden. so here i am once again lol.







and i still have nothing to say. im not a very good blogger, i need to work on that. :)

Well.. my 22nd birthday is approaching way faster than I ever imagined. There are so many things I thought I would have accomplished by the time I was 22.. its soooo craazy!! On the other hand, I am totally finished with school, well besides internship and finally GRADUATION!! I just hate that I have to wait til December. dude, im so just ready to be done with everything already. But there I go wishing my life away lol.. i blinked once and Im 22 (-3 days) and Im finished with college.. crazy how life just unfolds before your eyes! we grow up so quickly!!

this is the best year to date!!!!! so many things are going well and I am so in love with my life. God has truly been blessing me day by day and showing me how awesome his love is. I am learning so much from when my focus is only on him. He is in control of my life and it has never felt better!!!

on the more personal note.. i have been subbing at high school and it is intense. ha. I love education but i am definitely more comfortable with my precious little elementary students. I cannot wait to be a teacher and have my own classroom and my own little kids to shape and mold!! ohhh so exciting!!