God's mercies are new every morning

When I woke up this morning, I was in a really bad mood. I woke up a whole hour late because my stupid alarm clock was not set (my fault I know). Believe me, waking up an hour late is NOT a good start to what you know will be a crazy and hectic day. With this bad mood hanging over me like a dark cloud, I let my dog out of her cage and took her outside to let her do her business..When I opened the door, I was greeted with this beautiful picture (of course it was a little lighter outside). The fresh snow on all the trees took my breath away, and I reminded once again of God's great faithfulness. He knew that today would be a rough day for me, and he created this beautiful scene for me to enjoy this morning. I am so blessed by a loving Savior. His mercies are new every morning!

From my Favorite Blog...

The Challenging quote I posted below comes from one of my absolute favorite blogs (http://kissesfromkat­ie.blogspot.com/)Basically the girl who writes it is in her lower 20s, and has given up everything she loved in America to live in Uganda. There she has adopted 14 children and helps with other programs to feed and take care of other children. Today's blog post from her was super convicting, as I know I have said about her work that "I would Love to do what she does" but really, I don't! I don't want to sacrifice my family and my friends and the comfortable life here. I don't want to go on that narrow road that is so difficult (yet also so rewarding). When I truly stop and think about it I like my comfortable planned out life... but what if God wants more? Let me rephrase that, God DOES want more from me. He wants ALL of me.. but am I willing to give it all to Him?

"...How many times do we grieve our sweet Savior’s heart because we refuse to COUNT THE COST? How many times do we choose comfort instead of the cross? (Read Luke 9:57-62, and Luke 14:25)....In the same way any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

In Luke, in the days of Jesus, He expected EVERYTHING of his disciples. Do we believe that He requires the same today? We sure don’t act like it. If you ever read my blog or have heard me speak then you have heard me reference Matthew 25, the parable of the sheep and the goats. Jesus basically looks straight at the crowd and tells them that when He comes back, those who have seen the needy and met their needs will come with Him to heaven. He also says that those who have seen the needy and done nothing will be sent away to “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Right, hell. This is heavy, I know, but I believe that it is TRUE. I believe that the words of Jesus are timeless and therefore still apply to anyone desiring to be His follower today. (Oh, and in case you think you can get away with saying that you have not seen Jesus naked or hungry or thirsty or in need and therefore you are off the hook, let me help you. 30,000 children will die today because of hunger or preventable disease. There. Now you know. Now you are responsible too.) Faith without good deeds is DEAD, my friends. Yes, I believe fully in salvation by His grace alone. I do not believe that anything we do or work for will save us. I also believe that if we are indeed saved, meaning that He lives inside of us, we will desire to do what is pleasing to Him. That if we really love Him with all our hearts and all our strength, NOTHING will feel like sacrifice in light of the promise that one day we will get to be with Him forever. Automatically, we will help those in need, we will give our all, we will love our neighbor as our self, because our heart is aligned with His. But so many don’t. This then begs the question: If we are not walking in the words of Jesus, do we truly know Him? Do we really know and believe in the Jesus of the Bible. Because if we do, if we believe what He says is true, our lives will be powerfully, unimaginable, radically different than the lives of those around us. He requires EVERYTHING.

I wonder today if I had been one of the people listening to Jesus as He spoke in Luke 9 and 14, if Jesus would have convinced me to follow Him or if I would have walked away. I believe I would have really really wanted to say goodbye to my family. I wonder about “Christians” today. We wear Jesus on our T-shirts, we wear His cross around our neck and a bumper sticker with His name on it on our car. Have we just laid the foundation without being able to build the building? Does Jesus feel like I did when a woman I didn’t know told me she would love to do what I do but I knew that she never would? Do we claim the precious name of Jesus Christ without counting the cost? Without being willing to REALLY give it all? And does Jesus, in His infinite grace, look at us and say, “Aw, that’s nice,” but really with the furry that he flipped over the tables in the temple want to spit our lukewarm selves out of His mouth?

This is heavy on my heart. I have spent hours typing it to get the words out right and still I feel like I am rambling. If you would like more references on God’s heart for the poor, try Isaiah 56-58, Proverbs 14:31, 21:13, 28:27, Matthew 19:16- 30, Luke 6:20-25, 18:18, James 5:1… Please feel free to add more in your comments! If we believe that these words are true, the way we are living is not tolerable. How can we live in willful disobedience and claim to know Jesus Christ?

I do not claim to have the answers. I do not claim to be doing it right. I do claim to believe that the words of Jesus are absolutely true and apply to me, right now today. I want to give EVERYTHING, no matter the cost. NO MATTER THE COST. Because I believe that nothing is sacrifice in light of eternity with Christ."
If you wish to read her whole post.. http://kissesfromkat­ie.blogspot.com/2010/­02/she-was-eighteen-y­ears-old-and-she-had.­html