Soli Deo Gloria!

Bye, Mom!, orig­i­nally uploaded by MsRikki.

He was eager to explore his sur­round­ings, so he gave me a half-hug and ran off. I yelled for him to turn around so that I could get his pic­ture, and this is what he did.

You would think that he’d feel a LITTLE sad that he was leav­ing his mother for the FIRST time..for a WHOLE week. But no. He shot me the peace signs and said, “Bye Mom! I’m going into my HOUSE!” (refer­ring to the cabin)

I sup­pose this means I’ve done a good job of encour­ag­ing him to be inde­pen­dent.

I need to encour­age myself to be inde­pen­dent from HIM.

I do enjoy the peace and quiet.…..but I am look­ing for­ward to Fri­day.

This is one LONG week!

speak­ing: Tye Trib­bett]
When the enemy comes in like a flood,
The spirit of the Lord will raise up a stan­dard against him.
I see the enemy com­ing in like a flood in our houses, in our churches, in our fam­i­lies.
But what I don’t see is the stan­dard. Peo­ple of God where’s the stan­dard at?
We in a war y’all. It’s time to stand OUT!

[G.A.:]
It’s about to go down. The bat­tle has begun.
It’s time for you to choose, whose side you gonna be on.
The devil is recruit­ing, temptin’ every man.
But he’s already defeated, all we have to do is stand.
No time for mix­ing light with the dark­ness.
Be black or be white, no more shades of gray.
Be sep­a­rated, be holy, no mat­ter what you do, don’t bow.
And even if you stand alone, stand any­how.

[CHORUS]

[Tye:] Rise up!

[G.A.:]
Rise up peo­ple, put on your strength.
There’s a war going on and we will win.
Stand up and fight, let the king­dom pre­vail.
With power and might, we will stand out.

Stand out!
[G.A.:] Stand out!
Be not con­formed to this world.
[G.A.:] Stand out!
Be trans­formed, renew your mind.
[G.A.:] Stand out!
Just like the three Hebrew boys,
[G.A.:] Stand out!

[G.A.:]
God is playin’ it cool, don’t wanna rub nobody the wrong way.
Almost like we’re try­ing to fit in. Act­ing like we don’t know the name.
It’s time for us to stand out and go against the grain.
For­get tryin’ to be down, let the world know you’ve been changed.
How you gonna be the praise leader? But you lis­ten to R & B?
And hip-hop is on your ring­tone. I’m trynna tell you God ain’t pleased.
And since when did it become cool for you to live together unmar­ried?
Men with men?
Women with women?
I’m tellin you God ain’t gon’ have it.

[CHORUS]

[Tye:]
It’s time to rec­og­nize.
The war it’s in dis­guise.
No time for com­pro­mise.
Wake up open your eyes.
[together:] The devil is a LIE!
You must be hot or cold.
You can’t blend in the crowd.
It’s time for God’s peo­ple ta -

[CHORUS]

[Tye:]
Let me hear your war cry!

[G.A.:]
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

[Tye:]
Let me hear your war cry!

[G.A.:]
Ooh! (Let’s Stand Out!) Ooh! (Let’s Stand Out!) Ooh!

[Tye:]
Lit­tle bit louder.
[G.A.:]
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

[Tye:]
One more time!

[G.A.:]
Ooh! (Cry out loud!) Ooh! (Stand out!) Ooh!

STAND OUT!

[Speak­ing: Tye Trib­bett]
We in a war peo­ple of God.
You don’t have to fight, all you gotta do is stand.
Make some noise G.A.!
Hav­ing done all to stand…
Now stand peo­ple of God!
If you gonna stand out with us… SCREAM!

I’ve got so much to thank God for
So many won­der­ful bless­ings
and so many open doors
A brand new mercy
along with each new day
That’s why I praise You
and for this I give You praise

For wak­ing me up this morn­ing
That’s why I praise You
For start­ing me on my way
That’s why I praise You
For let­ting me see the sun­shine
that’s why I praise You
of a brand new day
A brand new mercy
along with each new day
That’s why I praise You and for this
I give You praise

You’re Jeho­vah Jhireh
That’s why I praise You
You’ve been my Provider
That’s why I praise You
You see so many times You´ve met my needs
So many times You res­cued me
That’s why I praise You
I want to thank You for the bless­ing
You give to me each day
That’s why I praise You
For this I give You praise

For every moun­tain You brought me over
For every trial you’ve seen me through
For every bless­ing
Hal­lelu­jah, for this I give You praise

Jeho­vah Jireh, my provider
You are more than enough for me.
Jeho­vah Rapha, you’re my healer
By your stripes, I have been set free
Jeho­vah Shammah, You are with me
You sup­ply all my needs.

You are more than enough
More than enough
More than enough for me.

Cur­rent Mood: Cool

Feat. Kim McFarland-Anderson

The race is not given, to the swift nor to the strong,
but to the one that endures, until the end,
There’ll be prob­lems, and some­times you walk alone, but I know,
that I know that I know, It will work out, yes it will for the good of them

For the good of them
For the good of them
For the good of them
Who loves the Lord

Eyes have not seen, and nei­ther have ears heard,
the things that God has pre­pared for them that love Him
Some­times, you may have to cry,
And some­times, You may have to may have to walk alone
But I know, that I know, that I know,
Things will work out, yes they will, For the good of them 

For the good of them
For the good of them
For the good of them
Who loves the Lord

No mat­ter what the prob­lem,
You can’t solve them
They will come, but don’t, you worry.
It will work out for the good of them who love the Lord

Cur­rent Mood: Happy

Every time I make up my mind to write on a reg­u­lar basis, I allow things to get to me to the point that I have no desire to write. I for­get that writ­ing is my chance to let things go, instead of let­ting them weigh on me all the time. So, I’m try­ing to shake it off and get to writ­ing. On top of that, I can’t find a word­press theme that I like…and I don’t have the time or the incli­na­tion to try to make one up on my own!

So what’s been going on with me?

Read­ing: I’m still read­ing Know­ing God and The Pur­suit of Holi­ness. I just haven’t writ­ten out my thoughts. It’s com­ing.

Work: Same ole, same ole. My job is pretty low stress and pretty bor­ing. Not com­plain­ing though. I’ve worked a stress­ful job. It was more money, but not worth me being stressed out.

School: This month, ori­en­ta­tion started. I’ll be going to Geneva College’s Cen­ter for Urban Bib­li­cal Min­istry. I’ll earn an A.A. in Chris­t­ian Min­istry. I plan to get a Bachelor’s after that, but I’m not sure in what. Baby steps here. School doesn’t offi­cially start until the end of August. I’m ready for it to begin!

Home: When I moved in Feb­ru­ary, I knew it would be rough finan­cially. And it has been tougher than I imag­ined. I can see some light at the end of the tun­nel, though. God is my provider, and He is faith­ful. I LOVE my home and I don’t regret mov­ing at all.

The Boy: He’s a won­der­ful child. He’ll be going away to camp for a week, start­ing Sun­day. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. He’s antic­i­pat­ing it, though…even count­ing down. I’m glad he’s not afraid. That was my main con­cern. He did tell me that he needed me to give him a pic­ture of me to take with him, though. I’ll make sure he has it.

What am I going to do for a week by myself? I have to go to work. I have 2 more ses­sions of school ori­en­ta­tion, bible study to teach. My life will pretty much go on as nor­mal, except that I won’t be get­ting my daily hugs and kisses from my lit­tle dude, and I won’t hear “Mommy!” every 5 min­utes. LOL! It’ll be real quiet at home. I’m just gonna take the time to refresh myself. Watch some movies, do some read­ing, do some writ­ing, lis­ten to some music…all with no inter­rup­tions. Yeah..that’s it.

(feat. Sheri Jones-Moffett)

Some­times you have to encour­age your­self.
Some­times you have to speak vic­tory dur­ing the test.
And no mat­ter how you feel,
speak the word and you will be healed;
speak over your­self,
encour­age your­self in the Lord. 

Some­times you have to speak the word over your­self,
the pres­sure is all around,
but God is present help.
The enemy cre­ated walls,
but remem­ber giants, they do fall;
speak over your­self,
encour­age your­self in the Lord. 

As I min­is­ter to you, oh I min­is­ter to myself,
life can hurt you so,
’til you feel there’s noth­ing left.
No mat­ter how you feel,
speak the word and you will be healed

Speak over your­self. [x4]

I’m encour­aged.
I’m encour­aged.
I’m encour­aged.
I’m encour­aged.

I’m encour­aged,
I’m encour­aged,
I’m encour­aged,
I’m encour­aged.

Speak over your­self,
encour­age your­self in the Lord 

This has become the theme music for my life!

even though i can’t see
and i can’t feel your touch
i will trust you lord
how i love you so much
though my nights my seem long
and i feel so alone
lord my trust is in you
i sur­ren­der to you 

so many painful thoughts
travel through my mind
and i won­der how
i will make it through this time 

but i trust you
lord it’s not easy
some­times the pain in my life
makes you seem far away
but i’ll trust you
i need to know you’re here
through the tears and the pain
through the heartache and rain 

i’ll trust you 

every­thing that i see
tells me not to believe
but i’ll trust you lord
you have never failed me
my past still con­trols me
will this hurt ever leave?
i can only trust you
no one else like you do 

i can
i will
i must
trust you 

i will
trust you 

i’ll trust you
i will

god will make a way 

What Doc­trines Are Fun­da­men­tal?, Part 1 :: Grace to You.

How can a Chris­t­ian deter­mine which doc­trines are essen­tial and which are not? 

To begin with, the strongest words of con­dem­na­tion in all the New Tes­ta­ment are aimed at false teach­ers who cor­rupt the Gospel. There­fore the Gospel mes­sage itself must be acknowl­edged as a pri­mary point of fun­da­men­tal doc­trine.

But what mes­sage will deter­mine the con­tent of our gospel tes­ti­mony? Let’s turn to Scrip­ture itself and attempt to lay out some bib­li­cal prin­ci­ples for deter­min­ing which arti­cles of faith are truly essen­tial to authen­tic Chris­tian­ity.

I moved to a new home in Feb­ru­ary and in my pack­ing, came across The Pur­suit of Holi­ness by Jerry Bridges. I KNEW I had it, but had for­got­ten where I put it. When I got into my new space, I placed the book and the accom­pa­ny­ing study guide in a place where I could NOT mis­place it. Now, I’m dig­ging in.

In the pref­ace, Bridges says:

…the pur­suit of holi­ness is a joint ven­ture between God and the Chris­t­ian. No one can attain any degree of holi­ness with­out God work­ing work­ing in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it with­out effort on his own part. God has made it pos­si­ble for us to walk in holi­ness. But He has given to us the respon­si­bil­ity of doing the walk­ing. He does not do that for us.

We can­not say we’re Chris­tians if we take no actions toward con­form­ing to Christ. There are things that WE must do (or not do) in striv­ing to attain holi­ness. Funny thing is, I rarely (if ever) hear Chris­tians talk about being holy, liv­ing holy lives, or pur­su­ing holi­ness. It’s as if once God saved us, we think we can wear HOLY across our chests like a super­hero. I don’t hear much talk about what being holy looks like in every­day life. More often than not, it’s “God knows my heart!” or, “I’m still grow­ing in that area!” But no talk about how to tackle our sin­ful issues and con­quer them by God’s grace. Bridges says there are two rea­sons for this:

1. We don’t want to face up to our respon­si­bil­ity. We pre­fer to pray to God for vic­tory when we know we should be act­ing in obe­di­ence.
2. We do not under­stand the proper dis­tinc­tion between God’s pro­vi­sion and our own respon­si­bil­ity for holi­ness. We strug­gle with what we’re sup­posed to do and what we’re sup­posed to rely on God to do.

When the word pur­sue is used in ref­er­ence to holi­ness, it sug­gests two things: First, that EFFORT and DILIGENCE are required. A pur­suit is not a pur­suit at all with­out EFFORT and a com­mit­ment to see­ing the pur­suit through. Sec­ond, this pur­suit is a task that will last our whole lives. It does not end. We will never attain per­fec­tion in this life, but we have to keep striv­ing for it until we breathe our last breath. We strive to con­form to the will of God in one area of life…and surely he’ll reveal our need for holi­ness in another area. We will ALWAYS be pur­su­ing holiness…that is, if we’re com­mit­ted to fol­low­ing Christ.

And that’s just a part of the pref­ace, ya’ll. LOL

Going on through­out the book, we’ll dis­cover what holi­ness is, what our respon­si­bil­ity is for liv­ing a holy life, why we strug­gle so hard to defeat sin,and what God has pro­vided to help us over come it.

GOOD STUFF! If you don’t have the book, get it. But even if you don’t, I hope you’ll keep read­ing as I go through it.

I’d love to know your thoughts so far..so reg­is­ter and leave a com­ment. I know reg­is­ter­ing is a pain, but it cuts down on spam…and I HATE SPAM!!