Jumping for Joy

"For the Lord delights in you....

As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, 

So shall your God rejoice over you."  Is 62:4-5

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!  (Phil 4:4).  I was so excited when I read the verse above! God delights in you!  He rejoices over you like a groom rejoices over His bride!  So, I wanted to go further on how the Lord delights in you.....

"The Lord Your God is in your midst, 

the mighty One will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness.

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.  Zeph 3:17

The Lord your God is in your midst.....He is with you!

The mighty one will save....He is our liberator, He delivers us, He sets us free!  

He will rejoice over you with gladness....You make the Lord happy, He is literally "jumping for joy" as the Hebrew word for rejoice used here means "to leap, to spring in gladness".   

He will quiet you with His love....give you peace, to make silent....a stillness, peacefulness that only comes from resting in His love. 

He will rejoice over you with singing....He delights in you so much that He bursts out into song! 

Your God delights in you today!  Rejoice and rest in His love dear one!!! 

May I have this dance?

"You have turned my mourning into dancing..."  Ps. 30:11

My mourning into dancing....there was a period in my life of deep grief,  a deep wound that I felt would never heal.  This was a self-inflicted wound, which was infected with unworthiness, shame, and guilt.  It wasn't a physical pain, but a deep emotional pain....a sadness/emptiness only Jesus could heal.   That is why this story is even more amazing to me.........you'll see as it unfolds. 

Picture yourself wearing a white flowing dress.....

"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."  Is 1:18

It doesn't matter what you have done.  I felt like my sins were branded on me like the letter "A" in The Scarlet Letter.  I felt that everyone could see I was unworthy to be a "Christian".  Newsflash....none of us were worthy of the price He paid for us....that is why it is "by grace we have been saved"  (Ephesians 2:8).  No one is good enough, all have sinned (Rom 3:23).  The good news is....though our sins were like scarlet, He has washed them away and we are now "white as snow"!  That is the reason for the white dress.  

This is important...are you picturing yourself in a beautiful white flowing dress? 

Now, picture in your mind for a moment Jesus in front of you.  Only He isn't wearing the white cloths we are so accustomed to seeing Him in, picture Jesus in a.....tuxedo. : )

He then takes your hand to ask you to dance.  He holds you in His arms, He dips you, He twirls you around and around.....

This my friends, is what I picture every time I listen to the song playing right now.  Amazing Love is "Our song".  Sometimes during other worship songs, I will also picture dancing with my King.  It is a sweet moment with the Lord and I wanted to share it with you so you too might have this kind of sweet moment with Him.  If you have another kind of sweet moment with the Lord,  please share! 

He has turned our mourning into dancing and made us white as snow!  The King is asking you to dance, dear one. 

90 and Beautiful

  

He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Ecclesiastes 3:11

Today is my Grandmother's 90th birthday!  Her name is Zelda.  She is a wonderful woman who loves the Lord with all of her heart, soul, and mind.  Her love for the Lord shows in the way she loves people.  Her eyes shine with the light of Jesus Christ and when she smiles her face lights up!  Oh, she is soooo beautiful.  Here is a picture of my family with her below from this past weekend when we went up to visit her and celebrate her 90th birthday....

Isn't she beautiful!!!  

The world we live in today is obsessed with beauty....there are beauty products, surgeries promising the fountain of youth, magazine articles on how to be beautiful, and constant images from media that suggest what is considered beautiful.   I'm not saying that some of those things aren't good.  I am thankful for my skin lotions and makeup, that is for sure!    However, there is something missing in all of those beauty aids, and that is Jesus....

My grandma is beautiful at 90 because of  Jesus, because of the way she lives her life and loves others.  There is no amount of skin cream, surgeries or hair products that can substitute for having Jesus living inside of you.  

I pray that I am as beautiful at 90 as my Grandmother is....Happy Birthday to my dear Grandma, she truly is a beautiful person in every way!

If you have made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, He lives in you, and you are beautiful dear one.

His Masterpiece

"You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born. Everyday of my life was recorded in your book.  Everyday was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God!  They are innumerable!  I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!" Ps. 139:15-18 (NLT)

Think on these verses for just a moment......

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers--the moon and the stars you have set in place-, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"   Ps. 8:3-4 (NIV)

Have you ever gone to the ocean and just stared out at the vastness of the sea?  Have you ever just looked up at the night sky at the endless stars?  These images are only a glimpse of His unlimited glory.  Our minds cannot even grasp the depths of the universe that our God created!  To give you an idea....when you look at the stars, the nearest one is 4.3 light years away and to reach the closest star would take 51 billion years by airplane!  Yes, 51 billion!  Did you realize how far away the stars were when you looked up at them?  And that isn't even the end, there are galaxies beyond ours.  God created the universe and measured it in His hand! (Is 40:12) 

 Now, think about this....Our God, who created the heavens and the earth, who created and formed the entire universe is mindful of you!  He carefully knit you together in your mother's womb with a specific purpose and plan for your life.  His thoughts are precious towards you, you couldn't even count them.  He knows when you wake up and when you lie down....He cares about every detail of your life.  We are all precious to Him, He is our Father, our Creator.

As you look up at the sun today or at the stars tonight, think about the God who made all of it, how wonderful He is, how glorious, and then think about His love for you.  Of all His creation, you are His masterpiece dear one.

Love, Sue  (I'd love for you to leave a comment)  : )

The Ultimate Valentine

"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!
Oh, my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff,
let me see your face, let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. "  Song of Soloman 2: 13-14

When I asked God what I should write about, He said 2 things to me....

"TELL THEM I LOVE THEM" and

"TELL THEM I AM THEIR VALENTINE"

Do you remember what it was like when you were first dating someone you were crazy about....how you longed to see them....how you thought about them all the time...how you longed to hear their voice and anticipated the next time you would see them?

That is only a fraction of how Jesus feels about you!!!  He longs to be with you, He thinks about you all the time waiting for you to come to Him!  You are beautiful in His eyes, you are His beloved!  And He wants so much for us to feel that way about Him.  He wants us to long to be with Him, to think about Him all the time, to excitingly anticipate the next time we can be alone with Him in the "clefts of the rock".

He is the ultimate romantic, He is the author of romance....just read Song of Soloman.  He is the ULTIMATE VALENTINE!  He loves you more than you could know.  I will be doing a series on His love for you, I couldn't begin to express it in one blog...it would take more than a million blogs and even then, my words wouldn't be enough.

Jesus is calling you......"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away...."

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!  You are deeply loved dear one.

A Display of His Splendor

Is 61...Love this passage.  "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has annointed me to preach good news to the poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.....To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and the garment of praise instead of a spirit of dispair, that they may be called OAKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, the planting of the Lord for the DISPLAY OF HIS SPLENDOR."

I remember the first time I really read this passage....thinking, oh how I wish I could be a display of His splendor.  I felt so unworthy of it, so inadequate.  Then, a godly person spoke to me and said..."You already are."  What me?  How?  She must not realize who I am, what I have done.

However, the truth is that we all are a Display of His Splendor if we are in Christ Jesus.  It doesn't matter what we have done, where we have been.  He erases all of it, as far as the east is from the west!  (Ps. 103:12) When we give our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, He takes away all the sin, all our past mistakes.  ALL of them and makes us an Oak of Righteousness in Him, to be a Display of His Splendor!  We are righteous not because of anything we have done or anything we can do, but because of the price He paid.  We can be a display of His splendor...... only because of Him. 

Think on that today, you are a Display of His Splendor, dear one.