Simpleness

Outside my window... is a cloudy day on the town square as cars rush past, reminding me of how fast pace life is in this country, and how time is the #1 value for Americans :( 
I am thinking...exhaustion has gotten the best of me, in every sense of the word, in every part of me...seen and unseen.

I am thankful for...a few close friends that I can be real with; ones that love me no matter what. I am also thankful for the same time zone! Love the same time zone of Mexico!
From the kitchen...garlic pepper is my new favorite seasoning and food allergies are wearing on my nerves! :o/

I am wearing...black dress pants, purple camisole, and black dress shrug. Ann Taylored from head to toe, what can I say, she keeps me lookin good.

I am creating...an egg shell masterpiece, well, in the beginning stages at least.

I am going...to Cheddars tonight with a couple of my best girlfriends and Tennessee this weekend to visit my bestest friend

I am reading...The Shack, again. :)

I am hoping...God is as trustworthy as He proclaims to be

I am hearing...my heart beat get just a lil faster as I begin to question the last one above, AH! and my boss rustling papers in his office.

Around the house...it's quiet; and a peaceful retreat from the craziness of the world. 

One of my favorite things...cuddling sweet babies and playing with children

A few plans for the rest of the week: post images to my photog, burn CD's for clients, mail CD's, work up a wedding day itinerary, drop off wedding CD and head to Tennessee.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing... I love photography and I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS LIL BOY! He makes my heart smile! :)

These simple thoughts were borrowed from The Simple Womans Day Book, check them out here http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

Extended Escape Vacation

Yes, it's been way way too long since I've sat down to write, process, or much less think. Sometimes in life, because of various circumstances, extended escape vacations are necessary. My escape vaca usually consist of exercising, movies, going non-stop with friends, work, photography, and church, etc., etc., etc. These lil escape vacas sometimes are simply survival mode in life for me, yet at other times they are pure defiance.
As I 'settle back in reality' from my vaca, I am beginning to truly appreciate the Hound of Heaven. See, even though I take vacations in my head, heart and life; my God, my Savior, my ever faithful Redeemer NEVER takes a vaca from me. Not only does He always work 24/7, overtime, all the time, on my behalf; He pursues me, leaves His 99, hunts me down, breaks into my nice lil peaceful, unrealistic escape vaca...takes me by my left hand and brings me back to a loving, but difficult reality with Him. I'll have to tell ya, this isn't an easy task at times (I mean who honestly wants to return from vacation!?!?!)... sometimes my feisty nature kicks and digs my heels in trying to make it as hard as possible for Him to bring me back, and then at other times, like this time, He softens my heart and just has to barely touch my hand and I come.
Either way, no matter what my response; the best part is He never gives up on bringing me home...He's so faithful not to leave me to myself. No matter how long I'm gone, no matter how much fight I give Him, no matter what... He faithfully brings me home. Praise God for that, because left to myself, I am the epitomy of the wandering sheep. Beside that verse in Scripture should be my picture. This one cute lil dumb Linz lamb keeps turning and going to frolic in a neighboring pasture over and over and over and over...well you get the point!
After listening to a sermon (yeh, He's definitely brought me back! ha!) this week from Hosea, my fav book of the Bible, I was convicted again. I think actually I may be related to Gomer! haha The Lord has been steadily showing me how wretched, deceitfully sinful, adulterous, and whoringly wicked my heart is. I'm full of the mess! He can ask me to do a simple thing and I quickly balk, or He can simply withold something precious that my heart wants and I balk. Basically, given any chance, with any circumstance that goes against what I want, I balk. Whew! how does He ever put up with me?!
One thing I was reminded of in the sermon was how patient, loving, kind, faithful, long-suffering, understanding, did I mention how loving He is?! Just as Hosea continually purchased back his unfaithful wife; the Lord has purchased me for Himself through His blood and continually pursues my heart, bringing me back to Himself, holding me by His righteous right hand, loving me over and over again in ways I KNOW I don't deserve.
A lot of times this is a reality that's hard for me to accept because I don't feel worthy; I feel ashamed; I feel like how could I ever come before Him, how could I face Him after leaving Him, rebelling against Him, and running off to frolic in other pastures?
The Answer: The Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, faithful Redeemer, and true Bridegroom ONLY loves whores! I know, sounds harsh right?, but it's the Truth. We are all a Gomer relative in our hearts, in our blood, in our very being, I know I am. What a deep, refreshing relief to know that I am much worse off than I can ever realize, but His love for me is deeper than I can ever know, and HE DOES REALIZE how whoringly wicked I am, yet loves me still! And He will continue to be my Hound of Heaven that hunts me down and brings me back from a vaca over and over and over and over and over and over... well you get the point!
Thank you God for ALWAYS pursuing my heart, even from before time!

The Great Exchange

“The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. It just consists in the substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner; Christ being treated as if he were the sinner and then the transgressor being treated as if he were the righteous one. It is a change of persons; Christ becomes the sinner; He stands in the sinner’s place…the sinner becomes righteous; he stands in Christ’s place…and is numbered with the righteous ones. Christ has no sin of His own, but he takes human guilt and is punished for human folly. We have no righteousness of our own, but we take the Divine righteousness; we are rewarded for it and stand accepted before God as though that righteousness had been worked out by ourselves.”
-Charles Spurgeon
The King’s Highway

-Praise God for his work of atonement or else I would be lost forever! :)

My Stand-In

“God looked on Christ as if Christ had been sin; not as if He had taken up the sins of His people, or as if they were laid on Him, though that were true, but as if He Himself had positively been that noxious—that God-hating—that soul-damning thing, called sin. When the Judge of all the earth said, ‘Where is Sin?’ Christ presented himself…what a grim picture that is, to conceive of sin gathered up into one mass—murder, lust and stealing, and adultery…and the Father looked on Christ as if He were that mass of sin. He was not sin, but the Father looked on upon Him as made sin for us. Christ stands in our place, assumes our guilt, takes on our iniquity and God treats Him as if He had been sin…How can any punishment fall on that man who ceases to possess sin, because his sin was cast upon Christ and Christ has suffered in his place? Oh, glorious triumph of faith to be able to say, whenever I feel the guilt of sin, whenever conscience pricks me, ‘Yes, it is true but my Lord is answerable for it all, for He has taken it all upon Himself and suffered in my place.”
~ Charles Spurgeon
The King’s Highway

The Ultimate Masquerade Party

I cannot even begin to take credit for this...
As God continues to open my eyes to my deep, ingrained, deceitfully sin-full heart... I am seeing, not only is He the mirror that reflects the horrible truth about me, He's also my Savior that catches me as my knees buckle under the weight of seeing the depth of my sin. HE demonstrates to me real love in showing me my need for Him and always being there. I just had to share this from Paul David Tripp.

"Sin lives in a costume; that's why it's so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for bibical wisdom. Evil simply doesn't present itself as evil, which is part of its draw.
You'll never understand sin's sleight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now, what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. I say all the time to people that no one is more influential in their own lives than they themselves are because no one talks to them more than they themselves do. We're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We're all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We're all very good at being intolerant of others of the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us not to hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but, to compound matters, we also tend to be blind to our blindness.
What does all of this mean? It means that accurate self-assessment is the product of grace. It is only in the mirror of God's Word and with the sight-giving help of the Holy Spirit that we are able to see ourselves as we acurately are. In those painful moments of accurate self-sight, we may not feel as if we are being loved, but that is exactly what is happening. God, who loves us enough to sacrifice his Son for our redemption, works so that we would see ourselves clearly, so that we would not buy into the delusion of our own righteousness, and so that with a humble sense of personal need we would seek the resources of grace that can only be found in him.
In this way, Psalm 51 is both the saddest and most joyous of all the psalms. It is sad that David has to confess what he must confess, but at the same time the fact that he is accurately seeing, and fully acknowledging his sin is a cause for celebration. Only Jesus can open blind eyes. Whenever a sinner accurately assesses his sin, the angels in heave rejoice, and so should we." ~ my emphasis added
By: Paul David Tripp
Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy