God, my Exceeding Joy

"Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God." Psalm 43:4

Name:
Location: Oregon, United States

I met my husband while I was a missionary in Hong Kong. He had swum out of China after the Cultural Revolution. We have been married 32 years and have four children (2 biological and 2 adopted), ages 22-30. My mother also lives with us (she just turned 90). I am truly a blessed woman.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

He has carried me

On this last day of 2008, I am again reminded of God's wonderful goodness to me every day throughout the year. It has been a year full of ups and downs from a human perspective, and yet I have come to see every detail as a gift from Him, fitting into His perfect plan to glorify Himself. He has carried me tenderly and safely through 2008, and I know He also holds the future. I'm anticipating the days ahead as He continues to "carry me" each step. What a privilege to be a part of His Kingdom!

“The Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.”

“I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.”—In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.—Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him.

“Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”—This is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.—“Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. . . . For . . . your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

“Till now the Lord has helped us.”

Deut. 1:31; Ex. 19:4; Isa. 63:9; Deut. 32:11, 12; Isa. 46:4; Ps. 48:14; Ps. 55:22; Matt. 6:25, 32; 1 Sam. 7:12

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Test of Loyalty






"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Romans 8:28

"It is only the loyal soul who believes that God engineers circumstances. We take such liberty with our circumstances, we do not believe God engineers them, although we say we do; we treat the things that happen as if they were engineered by men. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, and that is to our Lord. Suddenly God breaks up a particular set of circumstances, and the realization comes that we have been disloyal to Him by not recognizing that He had ordered them; we never saw what He was after, and that particular thing will never be repeated all the days of our life. The test of loyalty always comes just there. If we learn to worship God in the trying circumstances, He will alter them in two seconds when He chooses.

"Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the thing that we "stick at" to-day. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything, but do not ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talking about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men, and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.

"The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us - "I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine." God wants to use us as He used His own Son."

Taken from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

One thing is necessary

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?—“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”—“And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”—Mary . . . sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. . . . “One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”—It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Prov. 21:3; Mic. 6:8; 1 Sam. 15:22; Mark 12:33; Hos. 12:6; Luke 10:39, 42; Phil. 2:13