Grace and Stuff :)

God's grace is free!! It's soo incredible and amazing and His love that goes along with that blows me away. Now along with this grace comes a new identity, an identity in Christ. And in Christ we are: holy, blameless, without condemnation, free of guilt and shame, righteous, free, completely loved, whole, full of the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and complete. What I think people (most definitely including myself) fall in to though is not being aware of their identity and when reading things that speak of faith being full of deeds, they believe that by doing these deeds they will gain acceptance. The thing is that in Christ you have already been completely accepted!!! There is nothing that we can do to gain God's love-because it is already ours! How amazing is it that the love and acceptance of our forgiving Father who created the heavens and the earth is ours! I think as we come to know and rest in our new identity in Christ our faith will make itself evident through works. Look at Jesus-our sweet Savior-he lived fully human, living completely dependent upon the Father and his life was full of action! I think it's so neat to know that it's not up to me to do great and wondrous works for the Father, but rather Christ in me-as I rest in my new nature does works to glorify Him and love on those around so that they may taste and know the love of Abba.

Just some thoughts as I go through the day. Hope all is well in everyone's world and I pray that you will come to know and rest in your new identity in Him and allow Christ to express himself in your life! It is so incredible to see, and I must say I am so thankful for all those around me who I get to feel, see, and hear God's love from everyday!!

Predictable....

It's funny and almost a little sad how predictable my life tends to be, during the school year I have pretty much the same routine everyday which includes going nonstop from six in the morning till ten at night. Now that sweet summertime is here everything gets a little thrown off, and sometimes it gets thrown off a lot! It's sad to say, but I have a hard time doing nothing-that is being lazy and just not doing a stinkin thing. Let's just say I'll never be known as one of the "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" (who ironically sing the song, so they really do something), anyways, Papa's been kinda changin things up on me and I tend to react not all that splendidly. I find it hard to not have a schedule, not impossible, but a little more difficult. But I know that God knows what's goin on-it's actually kind of exciting to be in a position "when you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly" (Edward Teller) So I guess today I'm ready to fly! I don't know what Papa has in store for me this summer, but I'm sooo excited to see what that is, to fall deeper in love with Him, and enjoy the fellowship of my sweet friends and family-laughing the long summer nights away!

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans to prosper you not to hurt you. Plans to give you a future and a hope!" Thank you Daddy for these sweet words and the promise that I am held in Your hands!