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.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Draw Near

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

"Enoch walked with God.—“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”—It is good to be near God.

“The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. . . . But when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.”

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me . . . when you seek me with all your heart.”

"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, . . . and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."

James 4:8; Gen. 5:24; Amos 3:3; Ps. 73:28; 2 Chron. 15:2, 4; Jer. 29:11-13; Heb. 10:19-22

Friday, December 18, 2009

My heart's desire

Here's an excerpt from Matthew Henry's A Method for Prayer.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you or in comparison with you. When my flesh and my heart fail, Lord, be the strength of my heart and my portion forever, Psalm 73:25-26(ESV) the chosen portion of my inheritance in the other world and of my cup in this; and then I will say that the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, and that I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6(ESV)

Your name and remembrance are the desire of my soul; my soul yearns for you in the night, and my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. Isaiah 26:8-9(ESV)

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God; my soul thirsts for God, for the living God, Psalm 42:1-2(ESV) who commands his steadfast love by day, and at night his song is with me; a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8(ESV)

O that I may come hungering and thirsting after righteousness, Matthew 5:6(ESV) for you fill the hungry with good things, but the rich you send away empty. Luke 1:53(ESV)

O that my soul may thirst for you, and my flesh faint for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water; that I may see your power and glory, as I have looked upon you in the sanctuary. Your steadfast love is better than life; Psalm 63:1-3(ESV) my soul will be satisfied with that as with fat and rich food, and then my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5(ESV)

Monday, December 14, 2009

Rejoice and give praise

I recently "discovered" a new verse in Psalms. I don't know how many times I've read the Psalms and never noticed it, but it really jumped out at me last week. It is Psalm 5:11 - "But let all those that put their trust in thee, rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee."

Do I put my trust in Him? Then rejoice! Yes, shout for joy!! Do I love His name? Then be joyful in HIM! I am His and He is mine. What more could I ask? I just can't wait to see Him face to face!

This morning I read in my Daily Light the following verses that give all the more reason to rejoice.

"Give to him glorious praise!

“The people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”—“I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth.”—Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.—I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.—“Who is like you, O Lord, . . . majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”—I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.—And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!”

Ps. 66:2; Isa. 43:21; Jer. 33:8, 9; Heb. 13:15; Ps. 86:12, 13; Ex. 15:11; Ps. 69:30; Rev. 15:3

Friday, December 11, 2009

Waiting

"Nothing can be more spiritually nourishing than waiting on God. He keeps me waiting, sometimes to what looks to me like the 'screaming edge' of the precipice. Then precisely when I need to know,
God shows me." Elisabeth Elliot

"My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him." Psalm 62:5

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

What does God require?

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

Friday, December 04, 2009

His life in us

"We're called to participate with Christ in His own work, to love with His love, to do what He does to and for one another. There's no way in the world to do it alone. We do it because He lives His life in us." Elisabeth Elliot

"And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." I John 3:23-24

Thursday, December 03, 2009

"I would seek God"

“I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause.

“'Is anything too hard for the Lord?'—Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.—Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.—Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

"Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord.

“'Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.'—The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

"I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live."

Job 5:8; Gen. 18:14; Ps. 37:5; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7; Isa. 37:14, 15; Isa. 65:24; Jas. 5:16; Ps. 116:1, 2