Thanks be to God for who He is! (His Attributes)

Today at service we had a responsive reading that dealt with thanksgiving. It was so wonderful; I just had to share it.

Thanks be to God for who He is! (His Attributes)

His Goodness
And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Exodus 33:19)
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good…” (Matthew 19:17)

His Love
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut 7:7-8)
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)

His Truth
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Num 23:19)
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

His Omniscience (all-knowingness)
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. (Psalm 147:5)
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Rom 11:33)

His Omnipotence (all-powerfulness)
"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. (Rev 19:6)

His Justice
Far be it from you to do such a thing-- to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen 18:25)
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. (Deut 32:4)

His Holiness
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:3)
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do… (1 Peter 1:14-15)

His Sovereignty
The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. (Ps 103:19)
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:25-28)


Thanks be to God for what He has done! (His Actions)

His Providence
He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. (Ps 104:14-15)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

His Mercy
Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. (Ps 25:6)
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-6)

His Redemption and Forgiveness of His People
Remember the people you purchased of old, the tribe of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—Mount Zion, where you dwelt. (Ps 74:2)
He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Eph 1:5-8)

(New International Version)

Saturday Spurgeon (on Sanctification)

"Those myriads of graves in the wilderness are as sure a token of God's hatred of sin as the drowning of Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen in the Red Sea! Beware, then, of having a form of faith which does not purify your lives, a profession of belief in Christ which allows you to live in sin with imputiny, for if you have this, however near you may seem to be to the people of God- even if you are counted in with them-yet God will not reckon you as His, for He is the same Lord who 'afterward destroyed them that believed not.' "-1895, Sermon 2412

What do you value most in life?

What do you value most in life?
In this order: God and Family. It has taken me quite some time to learn to value both of these things. God has the ultimate value in my life; because without Him my life has no value at all. He's saved me from the pit of hell and I can sincerely say I have no idea where I would be without Him. It's taken me most of the part of my life to learn to value and put Him number one in my whole life. For sometime I felt content with having Him as a "part" of my life... but in reality not all. See it doesn't exactly work that way. He can't just be a part of your life. He can't just be the Sunday I-wear-half-decent-clothes-for-church part. A lot of people think that by acknowledging Him or having joy on Holiday is good enough; yet these people are ignorant to the fact that even demons acknowledge Him. God has to be your whole life. You should build your life around God and what he commands you to do in his Word. You don't do things for you; you do things for Him.

Family. Boy, oh, boy. This one is a toughy. I love them so much! I loved them when I wasn't saved but I love them even more now ;) because I'm commanded to. LOL jk!!! Since I've been married I seem to miss them so much and love them and appreciate them. Living under their household and their authority was a hard hit to my pride. I was just a bad kid all around. I value them so much. They sacrificed so much for me and I never just thanked them for that. I love them so much! All of them! Happy birthday Dad! *He's 52 today*
They are so hardworking and so loving!

If you could give the world one piece of advice, what would it be?
It would be to repent. A lot of the time It's scary to be bold and just say it; but it's the most loving thing that you could ever possibly do. It's the reality that If you don't believe in Christ Jesus as your Lord you won't be going to Heaven. Good deeds don't do ANYTHING for you if you have no faith. It's especially hard when you try and say this to your friends. A lot of times at the simple thought of them not being believers... Well it just makes me cry. I love all of my friends so much and the fact that they don't take this seriously breaks my heart. They say "yeah I think about this." Well to simply think about God once in a while does nothing! And a lot of the times they just dismiss the idea of God but they have NEVER even read the bible. They think its fake or it has flaws yet "their opinions aren't even their thoughts." They have never read for themselves. So my question is how can you critique and be so bold if you have never even done the work yourself?

What do you pray about?
Most of the time I start off with thanking God for one more day because I most certainly didn't deserve it and for letting me come before Him. Then I move to asking for forgiveness (yeah I usually don't go an entire day without sinning... ;) (okay that's not funny... i know!) Then just thanking Him some more. Then I usually pray for my Husband and my marriage. Then I pray for my family and unsaved friends. Then I pray to be kept on the narrow path, for patience, for wisdom... For all the things that I really need to keep in prayer! It's usually like this... well not exactly in this little order but these are the things that I most pray for!

What has been going this semester in school?
WELLLLLLLLL... I recently started a government class with a very liberal professor. The only reason I even placed this question in here is to tell a little story. Last Thursday we were going through our packet and he began reading about Roe vs. Wade. Somehow he jumped to ask if we should keep a 2lb baby alive? I shook my head in disgust at the simple thought of the question. He asked if I had something to say and I asked for some clarification. I asked if he meant after a failed abortion or just a baby going through a natural birth. He said natural birth (either answer wouldn't of changed my opinion I just wanted to know). I said of course we should keep it alive, why not? He said well whose going to be paying for that (He was complaining about our tax money and health care and what not being spent on medical care for the child)? I responded with "So we kill a baby because we don't want to spend money!?!?!?" He said "Well we do it now anyway". I was in utter disbelief. I didn't think he would be so bold and so flat our heartless. I mean REALLY? After being born, living breathing life, he would be okay with killing the child? Sigh. It's just sad. The value of life has just diminished. It just goes to show how wicked and selfish our hearts truly are.

What has been going on in your marriage?
Well we are great thanks for asking ;)
My husband just got all 4 of his wisdom teeth pulled! He's okay but his face is swollen; he looks so cute! I don't like the fact that he is in pain but I like the fact that he gets to stay home for 3 days without work. I don't think I've told him but I've enjoyed these few days so much. He's been so kind and so sweet. Apart from that we started Prof. Horner's Bible-Reading system about 2 weeks ago. I wasn't a big fan of it when I started reading it at first but I love it now and It helps that I actually remember things. We've also just continued with school, work, going to bible study, and Sunday service! I love it here sometimes :P
We had lunch with our elder this last Sunday.... so much fun!

Only a good teacher?

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.

Director of Planned Parenthood is now "pro-life"

I love this. Praise the Lord!

Saturday Spurgeon (on Monday)

I do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration.
-Charles Spurgeon

Fort Hood Shooting

As many of you already know... My hubby and I were right by the shooting. Let me just back up for a bit to help you understand why I am so grateful for God's sovereignty.

Last night I couldn't sleep: I didn't fall a sleep until nearly 2 am. So frustrating. This entire week for everyday I have had an exam and Thursday (today) was my biggest exam. This morning was okay but near lunch time (around 11-12) I was very grumpy and tired. I lost my note cards that I was studying and took a while to find them. By the time I started it was 1:17. My exam started at 1:40.

What? Yeah... we were late. I was sooo upset :/

As I was getting out of the car Joel received a phone call saying someone was shot, we thought maybe it was just one person shot and the shooter had been arrested; boy were we wrong. He was on his way to where the shooting was happening because he was getting a physical there (he was on his way there before we found out what was going on). On his way over there he is called out to the hospital to help out with all the wounded people. By that time he realized what happened... Had we not been late he would have been there.... Where everything was going on. (Thank God we were late!)

I was in class taking an exam totally clueless.
Suddenly I heard sirens outside saying something like "find shelter: stay away from door and windows..." I hadn't realized how close I was to the shooting until later (about a block). I found out what was going on when I stepped out to answer the many phone calls and a professor passed me a paper that said "7 dead 12 injured"
argh... I freaked out.

I was so grateful that we were late. It brings me so much closer to understand and appreciate God's sovereignty. He took a sinful situation (my anger... our being late and being upset) into something so... so... good.
It is scary to think that my husband would have been right there. The Lord is just ever so sovereign... I am amazed by his love and kindness more and more everyday.

It helps us realize how close death is to us. How our lives can be taken so easily.

May God use this for his glory....

Please pray for all the families on Fort Hood.


Psalm 8:3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; 4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!