Hosea.

Holly and I went out of town last week to visit our sister Delainey at college, which was a wonderful break and we got to visit and catch up with our friends down there and meet what seemed like hundreds of new people (most of whose names I have already forgotten because if your brain has a 'new name maximum capacity', I think mine has almost reached it!) but most significantly I fell in love with the book of Hosea.

 We were at the women's retreat sleepover and the girls on leadership were sharing their testimonies and one girl talked about how she had been sexually abused when she was younger and had come to find her worth and acceptance in boys and relationships and the Lord just spoke to her through Hosea to say that the things she thought she was finding in these destructive relationships were actually from the Lord, he had given her everything, perfect love and acceptance and it wasn't enough for her, she was seeking to find her identity in lovers. And it just spoke to me because I think we all do that, we go looking in other places for things that the Lord wants to extravagantly bestow us or worse we take the things that the Lord gives us and accredit the blessings to others.  We throw our pearls to the pigs.  We fail to see that God is enough.

"She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold- which they used for Baal."

And the rest of the girls shared their incredible testimonies and it was just good to be able to cry with them and to understand a little better that our hearts are something to be treasured and guarded and pursued and that our God is JEALOUS for all of the glory.

So I'm still reading Hosea, alongside Meredith, but its definitely my new favorite book (I say that about every book ;))  and I find myself once again challenged by, and in awe of, the sovereignty of our Father.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.  there she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt." Hosea 2:14-15

"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue" Proverbs 31

I started writing this blog about some supposedly profound thought about the eighth deadly sin and the ways Satan steals our witness and then the Lord just stops me and lets me know "Luce, you're writing for yourself here, not for me"...

So I guess I'll save the profound for another day and instead talk about whats really on my heart.  And that's the 10 girls that I got to spend this evening with as they shared their hearts in our small group and talked about what they want to do with their lives and what the Lord taught them this summer.  As they talked about their hearts for missions and children and the unique ways to which the Lord has called them I had to stop myself crying as I almost felt as if I shared in the Lords pride for his girls, his daughters daily choosing him over the ways of the world.

I can't really further explain it, I guess the Lord is just teaching me to treasure the beauty in the simple, but tonight was a reminder to me to discover exactly whats important and to not be ashamed to keep my eyes on the goal. There is SO much at stake, SO much that makes it worth it. Oh, and I guess learning to not confuse what I want the Lord to be teaching me for a good blog and what the Lord is really trying to teach me for a good heart.

Soli deo Gloria - Glory to God alone.

A wink, a wave and a wiggle ;)

"Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." Song of Solomon 8:4. 

 I've always loved this verse, and even today as I begin a new relationship with the most amazing man of God, I continue to stand by it and accept it as a personal challenge.  With the dating scene as it is today and the degrading culture in which we live, I see my sisters in Christ settling for less than they deserve all the time.  This breaks my heart, but so often the Lord has to remind me to let what breaks my heart for others, also break my heart for myself.  Sunday was a reminder to me to put down all the things I am running with and simply BE in the presence of the Lord. To not be expecting to be let down or to prepare myself for disappointment, but to fully trust in the Lord's hand on my life and his plans for me.  I believe the Lord desires excellence from his children, not that he expects us to reach him through works, but that he has provided a higher standard in discipline, devotion, purity and holiness. But also that he wishes to pour out his excellence upon us, this may not look as we think it should, but it is always GOOD and is always satisfying.


God desires our relationships to reflect the Love he has lavished on us; for me this requires the strength to be vulnerable and the commitment to be whole in the Lord. My completeness lies in the Lord alone and my heart is his first.


But today I know that I am blessed beyond measure and thankful for the gift of a new relationship: a new adventure.

Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Ronnie texts Holly and I before he gets to work (and embarrassingly before we wake up) with an encouragement and a bible verse. Yesterday the verse was this,

‎"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7

and that's been enough to have me questioning my motives since. In Colombia last summer, the Lord used a devotional one of the team members did on Romans 8:11 to literally change me.  I could no longer pretend that my doubting my ability to do God's will was some kind of humility or meekness but I was in fact doubting the Spirit of God within me... the very same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ.  Well that blew my mind and to illustrate his point the Lord had us do things in Colombia that physically I would never have thought I could.  The Lord was speaking ADEQUACY into my life on that trip (Adecuada in Spanish) and has been reminding me of this persistently since. And I guess it got flagged up again when Brent asked me to give my testimony at Wednesday night church, and I literally type out my "sorry... no" reply (I really really don't like public speaking) when the Lords like "REALLY, you're really going to be that selfish and not let me use what I've done in your life so that you can sit back and be glorified."  There goes my spirit of timidity.
So then today when we were back at the homeless shelter and I find myself doing things that I would never volunteer myself as capable of doing I am shown once again that it is in our weakness that his power is made perfect. I love people who assume I can do things that I wouldn't think I could, but more than that I LOVE Jesus for reminding me today that as his children we are bought into adequacy... throwing off the spirit of timidity and instead clothing ourselves in power, love and self-discipline.