Beauty matters

Excertp from Dr. Weber’s blog. Why Beauty Matters for Balance Against Brokenness

We teeter on the edge of freedom and fear.

Dealing only with broken pieces keeps us deprived, holds us back. The beauty is too extravagant. I can’t justify it. It’s unrealistic, unreachable. I can’t enjoy it because it’s overshadowed by the darkness and brokenness.

That’s why Jesus came. His love and beauty set us free.

He brings light into our darkness. He makes beauty from ashes.

And only the Spirit of God can release us, open our eyes and hearts to see all that Christ is, what He provides for us through the Cross. What He promises to do in us, in the new Heaven and the new earth – is goodness and beauty. Images of fresh flowing rivers, life-giving fruitful trees, no more pain and tears – instead peace, love and laughter.

Beauty matters. The beauty of Christ’s transforming life in us matters.

We can’t escape the pain, darkness, brokenness and vandalizing.

But then we open our lives to the Holy Spirit, holding on to our visions of God paying the price, transforming and empowering us now and finally making the whole of creation anew – with love, joy, peace, hope – and beauty.

 

Henri Nouwen reminds us that “every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens … we are making the vision come true…Whenever it comes alive in us we will find new energy to live it out, right where we are….this beautiful vision gets us involved.”

 

Live out the Beauty.

Great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved

God’s Voice of Love

I’ve never quit loving you and never will.

Expect love, love, love and more love. Jeremiah 31:3 The Message

Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. Great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.

Loved for ourselves. Even loved in spite of ourselves.”

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Lord help me to let go and let you Love me like you want to.

keep calm & listen to God

Lent – 40 Day Journey of God’s Renewal

“Aren’t you, like me, hoping that some person, thing, or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner well-being you desire? Don’t you often hope: ‘May this book, idea, course, trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.’ But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burn-out. This is the way to spiritual death.”
 ― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

There is something beautiful about the 40 days of Lent. There is peace. joy. giving. love. All that makes up the characteristics of God Almighty. There is nothing sweeter than the presence of God. Daily Bible Reading. Staying Connected to Him in prayer throughout the day. I love talking to him about everything and knowing that he cares about everything that concerns me.

I’m willing to give up the things that are wasteful and useless and in place draw closer to him without all the noise that fills up my days.

Lent for me is a time of surrender, giving it all up for the One Who gave His Life for me. It is a time of renewal, reflection of what Christ did for me and mankind.

It is more than just not eating certain things or doing certain tasks, it is depending on him for all that my heart desires.

It’s a time to check my heart condition and I’m not talking about the physical heart but the emotions the conditions of my soul.

It is a time of me giving my pains, disappointments to God and asking him to heal me and fill me with his love because nothing else will do.

It is a time of letting go and letting God love me.

As long as I keep running about asking: “Do you love me? Do you really love me?” I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with “ifs.” The world says: “Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.” There are endless “ifs” hidden in the world’s love. These “ifs” enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world’s love is and always will be conditional. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain “hooked” to the world-trying, failing,and trying again. It is a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart.”

“solitude begins with a time and a place for God, and God alone.  If we really believe not only that God exists but also that God is actively present in our lives– healing, teaching and guiding– we need to set aside a time and space to give God our undivided attention.  (Matt 6:6)”

As I continue with the reamining of the 40 days,  I will do what will create more room for goodness and give room for God to come in.

His Truly,

El

Hungry Soul

When we rely on over-stuffing ourselves with food, drinking until we get drunk, or conducting an adulterous relationship, we are revealing a desperate attempt to silence the cries of a hungry soul.

Our souls have the same ravenous intensity as a vacuum cleaner; that’s how God created us — with a longing to be filled. It is a longing God instilled to draw us into deep intimacy with Him.

c/o Made to Crave by Lisa TerKeurst

Here I am down on my knees again…

It’s been a bumpy month with the kiddo. Some days, I just want to having a crying sesh and I know that would do me good. But one thing that sustains me is His loving Presence. He is near. He cares. I surrender.

Here I am
Down on my knees again
Surrendering all
Surrendering all

Find me here
Lord as You draw me near
Desperate for You
Desperate for You

I surrender

Drench my soul
As mercy and grace unfold
I hunger and thirst
I hunger and thirst

With arms stretched wide
I know You hear my cry
Speak to me now
Speak to me now

I surrender
I surrender
I wanna know You more
I wanna know You more

Like a rushing wind
Jesus breathe within
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

Like a mighty storm
Stir within my soul
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

Like a rushing wind
Jesus breathe within
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

Like a mighty storm
Stir within my soul
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

Like a rushing wind
Jesus breathe within
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

Like a mighty storm
Stir within my soul
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me

I surrender
I surrender
I wanna know You more
I wanna know You more

chocolate is my comfort & coffee is my deliverer

I blogged recently about weight loss and because I committed this week to losing rest of the baby weight, I also started a devotional to go hand in hand with my eating habits called Made to crave 21 day challenge. You can dl it free from  YouVersion Bible app. It is about refocusing your mind and emotions.

I’m on day 2 with the reading called “Overweight physically and Underweight Spiritually.”

Really gets to the core of things. I think we’re naturally wired to be emotional eaters. We eat when we’re happy, sad, stressed, and bored when we should be eating when we’re hungry.

Food is good. Our bodies need good nutritious food for it to function well. We can’t have celebrations without food. But we also can’t wait for those celebrations and events to stop in order for us to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle.

God has created us to crave Him more than anything else. What is one thing that you cannot live without? He asks for the one thing and not because he is mean but because he doesn’t want us to be controlled by anything but rather be in control and have power over chocolate, donuts and cake.

He wants us to run to him when we’re stressed and not to the fridge. He wants to feed us spiritually so we can be powerful.

Made to crave.

I long to satisfy my deepest desire with God, not food. I want to consume food and not be consumed by it.

Wanna join the challenge?

 

Sign up to my blog as I will posts my thoughts and parts from the  devotional   start your own study 21 day challenge 🙂

 

 

 

New thing

With this new year I’ve been seeing the scripture below pop up a lot and I can’t get over how good it is. It gets me excited.

No matter how many timess I’ve read the bible, there is freshness and life in every Word each time that I read. This verse speaks to me so much.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See that I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up! (Isaiah 43:18-19)

We are so easily stuck in the past whether failures or accomplishments that we can’t see the future clearly. God wants us to forget the formers thing. The good and the bad. He wants us to stop dwelling on the past so we can enjoyt he present and see our future.

He promises that when we stop doing that we will see that He is doing a New thing!

It’s a New Day!

Xo,

El

All I need is Jesus and a good pair of jeans

I’m currently loving and may I say hooked on Susanna Foth Aughtmon ‘s blog Confessions of a tired supergirl and re read her book All i need is Jesus and a good pair of jeans almost three times in one week. It’s that good! She has me laughing and crying at the same time with her honesty and humor.

She will be the guess speaking at Media City Church Arise Women’s Conference next Friday and Saturday. I’m so excited about it as this will my very first Women’s Conference. If you’re in the Burbank area, check out the link for more info and come check her out. You will love it and don’t want to miss it. Arise Women’s Conference

I want to leave you with a little taste of Susanna’s writing from her book All I need is Jesus and a good pair of Jeans.

We tired girls like to have a system. We are looking to make our lives meaningful by the things we do, whereas Jesus’ life was meaningful because of who he was. The things he did, the miracles he performed, the teachings he gave, the love that he poured from him, came from the fact that his whole being was immersed in the presence of God, all day, every day. And the whole process of being, jailed, crucified and resurrected from the dead means that we can also be immersed in the presence of God, all day, every day. Since Jesus took on our sinfulness and gave us his righteousness, there is nothing keeping us from hanging out with God, being available to Him and being who God meant us to be. We no longer have to try to cram him into one neat little section of our day; we can let him overflow into every nook and cranny of the year. We can open ourselves up to his direction, his presence, his peace from Monday in the office through Sunday evening small group. We don’t have to rely on what other people think we should be doing our how much time we should allot to our spiritual upkeep. (101-102)

Time with God is about healing and giving life, not about keeping rules or maintaining others’ expectations.

Grace,

El

 

Armenian Christmas

Tomorrow we will be gathering at my in-laws to celebrate Armenian Christmas as we traditionally do every year. It’s on Jan 6th but Just like Christmas Eve, we get together the eve before.

I don’t really like doing stuff for the sake of doing stuff. I like to know meaning and be intentional.  I’m Armenian and almost 30 and I still forget why we celebrate it on the 6th. I know it has something to do with the calendar.

Fortunately one of the bloggers who I follow, Tamar Najarian wrote about it.  Here is the link in case anyone is interested.

Armenian traditions

I’m looking forward to seeing all my family and enjoying the good food and company tomorrow night 🙂

El