The Climb

God is trying to build something in my life. I am climbing a mountain. My career, my life, my soul….all on a climb. Two songs come to mind.

Click on the photos below:

ANNNDDD!!! I leaned a new skill (i.e. how to insert a link behind a screen shot) today. Yay for new skills!

How??? Help!!

One of my Favorite Things

One of my favorite things is 'loving something' (like an item, not a person, which is different in every way).

I loved a skirt I saw at Good Will. I bought it for six dollars even though the hem at the waist is not well-done, and despite the fact that it is a Size 14. I had every intention of paying for alterations so I could wear the beautiful (!!) skirt.

Then the most exciting part comes in.....I was looking at pinterest a few nights ago and lo and behold, look what I found! You couldn't possibly know this, but the skirt is very very similar to the gorgeous dress in this photo, except it is knee length. It was just confirmation of how great my six dollar skirt is and how fabulous is will look with my black heels and black tank top.

"You Write Like A Crazy Person"

This makes me laugh because my precious journals are written in such a way that NO ONE could decode them. I scribble and inscribe all over, top to bottom and front to back to front to upside down and wrapped around, and filling in the blanks. It is rather wild, but I never want to go back and read them, so why would I write legibly? Also, I have lost a journal before--a journey FILLED to the brim with unsent love letters-- in a Harris Teeter grocery store near my house....so embarrassing! I can't let something like that happen again! One day my old coworker saw my notepad and exclaimed, "you write like a crazy person." It is true. This is the equivalent of my journals:

I have been Crucified with Christ

"If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Romans 6:5

"The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of his life. I can have the resurrection of life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.

"The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God- his complete and effective divinity—to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house—he invades all of it. and once I decide that my “old man” that is, my heredity of sin, should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to reckon that I am actually dead indeed to sin, because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness, the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of his Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order."

- My Utmost for His Highest

Psalm and Isaiah 6

Psalm 6: Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord for I am faint; heal me Lord for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave? I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes from weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayers. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

Isaiah 6: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried, “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “For how long, Lord?” And he answered: “until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.

Utmost for Today:

The Lord Jesus has sent me that you may receive your sight. Acts 9:17

When Paul received his sight, he also received spiritual insight into the person of Jesus Christ. His entire life and preaching from that point on were totally consumed with nothing but Jesus Christ, “ for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul never again allowed anything to attract and hold the attention of his mind and soul except the face of Jesus.

We must learn to maintain a strong degree of character in our lives, even to the level that has been revealed in our vision of Jesus Christ.

The lasting characteristic of a spiritual man is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purposes of God to others. The overruling passion of his life is Jesus Christ. Whenever you see this quality in a person, you get the feeling that he is truly a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22)

Never allow anything to divert you from your insight into Jesus Christ. It is the true test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you. Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.

Proverbs 2

My son if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is  blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.  

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.