The One with the Little Sayings

I want this blog post to be thought provoking. These are from some books on my summer reading list.

From the book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis:

"Lord, let everything be in accordance with your will. Give what you will, as much as you will, and when you will. Do with me as You thing good, as pleases You best, and is most to Your glory. I am in Your hand; guide me according to Your will. I am indeed Your servant...how I wish I could serve You perfectly and worthily."

"Your slowness in turning to prayer is the greatest obstacle to receiving My Heavenly comfort."

"When you think I am far away, then often I am nearest to you."

"Nature regards the outward characteristics of a man: Grace considers his inner disposition. And while Nature is often misled, Grace trusts in God and cannot be deceived."

"The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be won hereafter." (Romans 8:18)

"The deeper he descends into himself and the lower he regards himself, the higher he ascends towards God."

"For those things which men regard as commendable are often blameworthy in My sight."

"Let this be your constant desire-that whether in life or death, God may at all times be glorified in you."

"If you can win complete mastery over self, you will easily master all else. To triumph over self is the perfect victory. For whoever so controls himself that his passions are subject to his reason, and his reason wholly subject to Me, is master both of himself and of the world."

"Without the Way, there is no progress; without the Truth, there is no knowledge; without the Life, there is no living."

"...so neither can anything you give Me be acceptable without the gift of yourself."

"I have given My very Body and Blood to be your food, that I may be all yours, and that you maybe mine forever."

"The more completely a man renounces worldly things, and the more perfectly he dies to self by the conquest of self, the sooner will grace be given, the more richly will it be infused, and the nearer to God will it raise the heart set free from the world."

"For were the works of God readily understandable by human reason, they would be neither wonderful nor unspeakable."

From the book Knowing God by JI Packer:

"What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiances; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?"

"What God does in time, he planned from eternity. And all that he planned in eternity, he carries out in time."

"If our God is the same as the God of the New Testament believers, how can we justify ourselves in resting content with an experience of communion with Him, and a level of Christian conduct that falls so below theirs?"

"He cannot change for the better for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse." -AW Pink

"Living becomes an awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of an omniscient, omnipresent Creator."

Past, Present and Future

It's been quite a while since I last wrote. Since then, lots has been going on. For one, Impact is over, and I have moved back home with my parents. Mommy and Daddy just closed on a house in Bishop, GA, about 10 minutes away from where we have been living the past year. We are currently in the process of moving. This house is a huge blessing to us. It is just one of many "God moments" that have been happening to me and my family the past month. I want to share those moments with you. So here it goes...

Impact graduation took place May 8. I moved out and back in with my parents the following day, May 9. Three days later, Tuesday the 12, I had a job interview at a nursing home, a half a mile from our new house in Bishop, GA. I got a job as a Certified Nursing Assistant. I took the semester class through my high school in my senior year. I started working full time Monday, May 18.

Monday, May 11, I was driving home from running errands and my cell phone rang. I was greeted with the message that I had been moved off the waiting list to full acceptance to my number one choice for a college. Which one is that you might ask? I am proud to say that this fall I will be an incoming freshman at THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA IN ATHENS. It's really cool to be going to the same college as my parents went to, as well as many of my aunts and uncles. The more I am in Athens, the more I like it.

Just that news was a tremendous gift from God in itself. What comes next is just icing on the cake. I petitioned to get in-state tuition and was approved (without in-state tuition, we couldn't afford UGA). I also asked to be exempt from the rule that freshman have to live on campus and was also granted that request. This saves us a lot of money in housing cost as well as not having to pay for a meal plan. The result, I will be living at home this fall!

As far as my future plans (you've already been told the past and present part of this blog), I will be majoring in Chemistry with a Pre-Medicine interest. The fact that I can even pursue this major is a God thing as well. All other colleges that I was looking at did not have pre-med. The only way I could do this degree program was through UGA. After my four years of undergraduate work, I will mostly likely attend a medical college in GA, Lord willing, that's the key phrase. The ultimate end goal for medicine study is in obstetrics.

God is so good! I can't say it any other way. It's been neat the past couple of weeks to see these things fall in to place. Even though moving away from WI last year (wow, it's almost been 1 year that I've lived in GA), looking back I can see God working in it all. I have seen that no matter what the cost, following Christ is worth it, even if you can't see it all right away, or even on this earth.