God is Faithful!!!!

So here I sit - another Saturday stuck at home with some kind of weird virus. And though this is day two of whatever bug I picked up this time - I feel re-energized spiritually, and ready to jump in the Word for most of the day. Yet, in a fleshly moment of weakness, I turned on the TV. I found myself mesmerized by some man show called "Trucks," and I'm learning how to install a torque converter on a Chevy Silverado (which I don't have). And then it came to me - time to set up a blog as my life is clearly exciting!

So yes, this is the first posting. I wanted some kind of catchy title (obviously the ability to come up with one eluded me), but the more I think about it this one, the more I like it. I have no idea what I'm going to write about on here - the presidential race, Christian struggles, singleness, football, God's mercy - I'm guessing it will be whatever topic has been plaguing my brain that day. But I'm hoping that it will help me to hone my writing skills, and will encourage anyone who reads it to go to Christ.

These last three weeks have been interesting for me. I woke up sick the Saturday before Christmas and I have not been at 100 percent since. But I know God is sovereign, and that He has a reason for this that I don't even need to know. During the last three weeks, He has shown me His faithfulness and has brought me out of days when I just had no desire to read His word or go to Him with my worries. But after several days of a spiritual drought, I cried out to God to bring me out of that and help me to have joy in Him again. Knowing He is a trustworthy God, I went to bed full of anxiety and worry, but more importantly full of hope, confident He would bring me through. And praise God - He did!

So I was thinking about the word saved, and it doesn't seem to capture (to me) all that God has done for me. Because we are not just undeserving of His love and saving grace, we are ill deserving. What we deserve, and what He gives us, are on completely different ends of the spectrum. Our Heavenly Father, sent His only Son to this earth, to die a horrible death for me, and to serve as my substitute. Growing up in church I heard that said thousands of times over the past 30 years. I thought I believed it, I thought I understood it - but when it came right down to it, I didn't care. The magnitude of what God had done for me through the death of His Son on the cross had never pierced my heart in all those years. And what I didn't understand until I was saved was that only God could lift the veil from my eyes and give it meaning in my life - and it was only through His grace and mercy that He gave me the ability to understand His word, and the desire to know Him. He also gave me a true feeling of indebtedness that causes one to turn to Christ with thanksgiving, love, and a desire to honor and obey Him each day.

As I read through Jerry Bridges' "Growing Your Faith," I was confronted with the truth that we are commanded to meditate on God's Word all day, while simultaneously living in a society that never sleeps. How can we constantly meditate on God when many of us work 10-12 hours a day, have families, and other commitments? As it says in Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

And as Bridges says, "Meditation on scripture is a discipline. We must commit ourselves to be proactive." How true this is. I've learned in the last three months - as a new Christian - that I desperately need God's help to train myself to think on Him when my mind begins to wander, to read His Word when I have free time, and to memorize scripture to keep my mind from going to sinful places. Yes we live in crazy, busy times, and all the more reason to meditate on Him every moment of the day.

Praise God for His mercies that are new every morning, for His love for us, and for His transforming word!!!

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one to His own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:5-6

P.S. A mechanical clutch fan is still one of the best ways to move air across your engine...so put that in your back pocket.