Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message?
To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
² My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
³ He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.

⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
⁸ Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.^{b]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]}
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.^{c]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[c]}
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
⁹ He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.

¹⁰ But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
¹¹ When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
¹² I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels

This passage has humbled me this week! I want to live my life in light of Jesus' death. I am so thankful that I can have the life Jesus died for. This week I have had a great sense of being lead by Christ and that brings me great joy. So many prayers have been answered. The Lord is faithful!

A new Lecrae album came out yesterday and I had a chance to listen to some of the lyrics at work today. There were many lines that stuck out to me. Here are a few.

"I am an alien about to phone home"

"God is enough"

"Won't you take the lead!"

"You came for the lame, I'm the lamest. I made a mess but you say you'll erase. I'll take it."

"Here is my moment, here is my lifetime, all that I have I will give to you."

Fireflies.

It is really hard for me to believe that it's already July. I haven't blogged since March! It feels like that was just a few weeks ago.

This summer has been one of trust. God lead me to an awesome place this summer....HOME. At first I did not want to follow because I knew Home would be a hard place. God always has the best plans. I've learned so much by being home. I'm learning how to love and serve my family, and to completely and totally rely on the Lord, my refuge.

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

On June 1st I lost my cousin in a tragic car accident. He would have been 16 this month. It has been a struggle for me. It has also been a great lesson in trusting in God's goodness. I have seen good come from this awful situation, and I know that the Lord has reason for all things. I'm learning that every morning I wake up there is reason for my life. God has great plans, and I am devoted to His will. Last semester I was praying for boldness, and I think that translated into prayer of giving my whole self to Christ to use me as he will. This has been a challenge. However, a good challenge.

Fear is often overwhelming when not focused on God. Fear is a lie.

Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

I have also learned this summer that I am extremely blessed. I am blessed to be a blessing. I have the most amazing friends. I really miss Bettina! She will be home in 7 days!! I have so many friends that encourage me. Thank you to you all.

The movie Toy Story 3 is a great movie!

Well.....this is a very very random post but I guess that happens when you don't blog for several months.

Hope to be blogging more frequently! :)

7 days til Sonshine! Woohoo!

Praise the Lord for this day!

Suffering

"There is nothing- no circumstance, no trouble, no testing- that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky and as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is- that is the rest of victory!"

Alan Redpath

Just Stop and Think

It's been a while since I spent some time just thinking and looking at the bigger picture. Today after watching one of Francis Chan's videos about "Crazy Love" I realized how necessary taking moments to think are. He challenged me. These thoughts may seem very random but here it goes anyways.

Laughter is definitely a gift from God. He designed me to laugh. (I do plenty of it with my roomie!)

Nothing that I have is mine. It's all God's. I fail quit often at giving everything I have to God. I pray that he teaches me how to surrender it all to his will to bring glory to himself.

My plans are really stupid....I like God's much better (even though they are really hard) There's nothing better than an adventure!

Corporate worship is pretty amazing. I'm very blessed to have such amazing friends, and a believing community.

My parents are pretty great! They had to raise me after all. This weekend I realized how much I trust my Dad. I'm thankful that I have qualities that come from both of my parents.

Why did God put me here? When I'm going about my busy day in the monotony, should I be doing what I'm even doing? God has a plan for me, and most days I don't even go with the purpose that he has given me. What a shame.

I have the same power in me that raised Christ from the dead. God wants to send his helper unto me to help me and give me power.

The birds I heard chirping the other morning were singing praises to the Lord. They were created by him and they are fulfilling their purpose by bringing him glory.

God makes everything glorious, what does that make me?

How could greater love than this ever possibly exist?

These are just a few. GOD IS SOOOO GOOD!!

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9

String Cheese = Best After School Snack

OOOooo Back to school, back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool.

• Today I went to Monday Morning Prayer, and it was great. It filled me with anticipation for the work of God in this Spring Semester.
• Then I went to work. It went by pretty quickly and it was pretty nice to be back in school/work mode. It actually got me back in school mode I think.
• Then I went to my first class of the day.....Hort 480. I walked into a room of 10 desks circled up in the middle of a classroom. (a little intimidating) So, I sat down and we all kind of stared at each other awkwardly in silence. Anyways, there are no exams in this class (weird). Instead we will read about modern sustainability issues in the greenhouse and in life. We will have a 3 page paper due over our daily reading written from our perspective on the current issue every time we meet for class. The class meets 3 times a week (that means I have a 3 page paper to write every other night (YUCK)! The class is a discussion time and no lecturing! Our professor is into research and this class is his research. He will use our reflective writings from the beginning of the class and the end of class to better understand the discussion learning style used in college classrooms.
• The other class I had today was Hort 283. It is a pesticide certification class (a.k.a I'm learning and being certified to kill bugs :D). I was one of maybe 7 girls in the class out of the 115 in the lecture hall.

There you have it sister, Kasey, my first day of school in the second part of 14th grade.

What's been on my mind...

Psalm 68. My favorite part is verse 10. It says "In your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy." I'm not really sure why I feel so strongly about this verse. I have a feeling that God is going to use this verse in some really big way in my life sometime soon. EXCITING! Anyways, classes start tomorrow and I'm not in the school mode yet. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be. I'm very excited to see what my classes will be like, and meeting new people. I'll update tomorrow on how the first day was! :)