the Spirit helps in our weakness

Thanks #294-351---

#294 exercise I don't loathe, and consider fun!
#301 Spirit reminding me of grace given me, and grace that needs to be extended
#307 Glimpses of heaven in community
#310 in my days of trouble, You answer me when I call
#316 male friendships, my brothers in the Lord
#321 humility
#325 exciting option for my ministry internship
#327 Your Word, Your Truth, alive in Me
#334 church planting
#337 reminder to live an intentional life
#342 miracles even though I don't understand
#343 hore frost coating every tree, fence and telephone pole
#346 wool sweaters
#347 your constant love and presence when it seems like everything is out-of-control
#350 snowy adventures with new friends in the mountains

Elpis..

¹¹ Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. ¹⁴ For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

¹⁵ The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

¹⁶ “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”

¹⁷ Then he adds:

“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”

¹⁸ And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:11-25

habit... not yet... but getting there

There are days when life is just plain difficult, and I don't always feel like giving thanks.
However, I have come to value this slowly forming habit...when I read over the blessings, the little gifts, the big gifts, I start to see a glimmer:

#270-#293

#270 -The bright full moon reflecting off snow covered mountains
#271- the Bible-study ladies I am getting to know as we delve into the Word
#273- My mom's sense of humour
#281- Sleep.
#282-Granadilla pulp in a can
#283-My little (not so little) brother is engaged to a wonderful girl!
#287-Hope-word for the year
#289-Thin electric line of pink on the horizon as the sun is waiting to explode into the winter sky.
#290-Chinooks
#293- Love, shaping me.

Hope Adventure.

I am being unconventional in my resolutions this year, by not making a ginormous list of things I want to accomplish like I usually do. Usually the list has a number of character things, practical things and some way-out idealistic things.
I'm trying something new.
I have chosen to focus on Spiritual Discipline as I was starting to do toward the end of last year.
Calhoun's Spiritual Discipline Handbook has been great, as well as a class I took in Spirituality for Global Ministry, last year.
I have sensed a push from the Holy Spirit to try some of these things. My first step was making room. Since 2009, the message I was getting from the Lord was "make room", so I am in a place now where a lot of external things have shifted in such a way that I am making a bit more room.

I come across some helpful ways that I really feel God has dropped into my life, through others.
Ann Voskamp's blog contains some awesome tips and encouragement for incorporating Spiritual Discipline into everyday life.
I particularly liked her "100 days" Calendar. You pick 3 things each day for 100 days in order to help build habits. It is realistic. Plus I get to check little boxes if I do it! I love checking boxes.
So far it's been going really great. One of these things is to memorize Philippians, 2 verses a week.
Her blog has also encouraged me to make the gratitude list I've been keeping.

By God's Grace, I am learning the difference between cooperating with the Holy Spirit for transformation as opposed to feeling the weight of duty or obligation, striving in my own strength to accomplish what I think God wants me to accomplish.
I am learning about His love, his UNFAILING love, his UNCONDITIONAL love, his FREEING love.
"The Unfettered Rhythms of His Grace..." (I forgot where I first heard this phrase)



So yesterday I found another great way of making resolutions, without really making resolutions.
On Faith Barista, I was invited to find one word that would shape the year.


God Words that have recently been shaping me:
"His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love"- Psalm 147:10-11.

The one word that nipped me in the nose...
HOPE.
Hoping....
in his unfailing love.

Hoping in His unfailing love.
His UNFAILING love.
His LOVE.

And so the journey continues...the journey to know this hope, to know the Love in which I hope.
praying in this hope....for this hope...
Waiting...
Leaning into...
with Baited breath...
...
Already it has been a butterfly in the stomach, jumping-out-of-my-skin experimental leap....
but when I open His Word, it is a prevailing, a rooting, a settling, a resting... a healing.

Boldly, we can embark on a Hope Adventure with our Love.

" For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21

greater things are yet to come...

My Thank You list as of now:

#211-#269:

#215 my friend has a little bean growing in her tummy :)
#218 being back in my birth-country, South Africa, for the first time in 14 years.
#224 cousins
#227 Your constant love, never failing, Jesus
#232 Your long awaited coming, ever drawing near...
#236 Your protection and unfailing love.
#238 the beauty of this cold place- mountains, blue skies, frosted trees, wind carved snow banks
#239 much needed telephone conversations with faraway friends
#243 midday naps
#245 bobcat under the trampoline
#247 the conviction of Your Spirit
#251 buy one, get one, quarter chicken dinners shared at Swiss Chalet
#252 the clouds on fire with the setting of the sun
#255 habits forming by Your grace
#257 twinkle lights hidden in twine balls, imperfectly draped around my window
#262 a friend's safety in a devastated flood-zone
#263 the faithful ones through the centuries, and what we learn
#265 my church takes prayer seriously, and I can be a part of that.
#268 morning coffee in a stainless steel travel mug
#269 your word being stored up in my mind, You helping me, Spirit.


"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ" Ephesians 1:3.