Lamentations

"Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," say my soul,
"Therefore I have hope in Him."
The Lord is good to those who for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him."
-Lamentations 3:19-28

Susan Whitley sent me this passage. It seems sometimes that rejection and loneliness are great and evil shadows that come into our lives and darken our understanding of God's sovereignty. This passage is such an amazing reminder that God is always working with a purpose. Loneliness does not mean that one is forgotten, nor does rejection mean that one no longer has acceptance in anything. God has a purpose for making us poor and empty, too, making us long with greater intensity for the hope that is sure to come. Salvation continues. Hope continues. A greater dependency on God is experienced. And this dependency is not displaced, for great is his faithfulness! Great is His power to sustain! So I am able to sit alone and be silent, since the Lord has given me emptiness in all except Him. My good is only found in His nearness, my peace and power.

To His glory,

Ashley

Struggles and Prayer

I just spent an hour replying to Susan about trust and prayer and God's faithfulness and struggles. I am so grateful for our correspondence. Her honesty challenges me. God is so great. He is awesome and breath-taking and beautiful and perfect. He is my all in all...and all I have to give is myself--a living sacrifice. My life is Yours, Lord. I have been bought with a price. I am so valuable to You, and yet I am nothing in myself. Build in us skyscrapers of truth. Make us spiritual beacons. Take these ruins and this destruction and build Your own City of Glory. We confess that we need you and that our one purpose is to proclaim Your name. Your testimony is ours. Your story is on our lips and with our mouth we cry out for more understanding of Your plan. We seek wisdom in You and You alone. You alone are our good and your nearness is our joy. Thank you seems so shallow a phrase to express my deepening gratitude for Your eternal gift of salvation. Your love leaves me breathless, yet tears also have their place in my ever-failing flesh. We are encouraged that even when we are faithless, You remain faithful. This You have done that we might proclaim Your glory and not our possessions, nor talents, nor anything else given us by You. Your glory is all we desire to see. Your righteousness is mighty and unwaivering. Your love is unfailingly sustaining. Your justice, great and steadfast, deepens Your love; and Your love affirms Your justice. We love You. We praise You. It is You. It is You who brings beauty to the darkened corners which would otherwise ever hold ashes. It is You who renews our strength. It is You who fortifies, who rebuilds, who claims, who accepts, who affirms, who calls, who adopts, who sustains. Your nearness is our good. You, O Lord, are our refuge. You, O Lord, are our everlasting Help in trouble. To You, O Lord, be the glory for Your work. Your glory demands our praise, and your sacrifice demands our all. And we give, for we are so in love with You. We yearn for Your kingdom to reign in our hearts and in our friends' hearts and in the nations. We stand in awe of Your greatness. Give us hearts that are pure in a desire for Your will. Give us Your love, Your mercy, Your kindness, Your patience and grace.

"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 3:20-21

Treasure

So this morning I went to breakfast with my mom, my sister, and my grandma. My mom gave my sister and me an early Christmas present--nativity scenes! ^_^

Naturally, when I got back home, I couldn't wait to set it up. As I was unwrapping all of the figures, I noticed that the only one that had extra wrapping was the little Jesus. My heart swelled as I thought what a great treasure my Jesus is. I thought of the importance of the gospel and how this special treasure is given to us, that we might advance it....and also protect its truth.

2 Timothy 2:2 says, "These things which you have heard in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

We have been entrusted with a treasure, the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us cherish and keep it, proclaiming truth from a heart that treasures truth.

To His glory,

Ashley

No Plan B

Though it is late, I could not shake the urge to write here what God has shown me lately. This weekend, I went to my mom's church, a new branch of Calvary Chapel by her house. Man, did God want me there on Sunday.

The message was taken from Acts 27. Paul is a prisoner on a ship that gets caught in a treacherous storm. Basically, Paul tells the Roman soldiers on board that unless everyone stays on the boat and rides through the storm, they will not survive. In response to this, the soldiers cut the ropes of the row boats (I don't remember the technical term for the little boats that take you from the ship to the shore). Doing this, they eliminated any other option that they might have in case God did not keep His promise. There was no Plan B. God was all they had.

So I am going to eliminate my Plan B. God is my only hope...and He happens to be the best hope of all. I wait with expectation of salvation and abundant life (for today and tomorrow).

Oh and they were saved and stuff. :)

He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

All to His glory,

Ashley

"Sono stato crucifisso con Cristo; non sono piu' io che vivo, ma Cristo vive in me! La vita che vivo ora nella carne, la vivo nella fede nel Figlio di Dio il quale che mi ha amato e ha dato se' stesso per me."
-Galati 2:20

:)

Oh...and...

I'm applying to Japan! ^_^

Evensong

O Your unshakable rock

Is my safe place to hide

Where my heart is fastened

Protected from the endless tide

Though waters churn and walls may break

You shelter my soul from every wave

Your love holds my spirit still

Though I am laid bare: broken, depraved

Gentler showers wash over me

Your sweet, soft, unfaltering grace

Seeps down to the sinews of my heart

And quiescence expels all haste

My light, my longing, my heart’s first love

You are, and I am Yours

Faith is all that I can give

And my trust is all Your heart adores

So I will place my hope in grace

Finding peace within Your love alone

Humbly I bring my whole, my heart

To You, my foundation’s Cornerstone

I was reading Ephesians 3:8-21. I won't post the whole passage here, but I love it. Read it. Dwell on it. Drink it in.

I am in awe of the unconditional grace of God.

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Dude. God is so good.

I had an amazing talk with Sydney, Christy, and Alicia this evening on the meaning/importance of the resurrection.

"We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"
Mark 14:58


Wow...it's like my stupid humanness got in the way of God yesterday. I was overthinking...kind of...BUT today when I was talking with Sydney, God hit me in the face.

Here's what we came up with: When Jesus died, He destroyed the old temple, which was a building which man had to enter to be near to God. It was a house of God made by human hands. When Jesus rose again, He became a bodily temple, bringing the Spirit into a human body (made without hands). This allowed for the Spirit to indwell everyone adopted by God in Christ, making us sons and daughters of God. This is explained in Luke 20:36: "for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection."

Wow. This is so amazing. I knew God's promise to live in our hearts, but the power of this indwelling is magnified by the power of the resurrection. For me, it shows the incredible value of my PERSONAL relationship with Christ. I'm dumbfounded...quite literally found dumb in the presence of such amazing truth. I'm in awe of God.

AND I have the rest of the week to meditate on the ramifications of this in my personal walk with Christ...AND THEN I get to hear what everyone else thought. God is good.


Tonight I was also able to hang out with the Japanese students again. A bunch of us went to Megan's house for pizzookie and general fellowship. I was so happy to talk with Jerry about his experiences in Japan. I will seriously pray about going there for my missions trip over the summer.


All for His astounding and immeasurable glory,

Ashley

Resurrection

"We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"
-Mark 14:58

Tonight at Bible Study, Krista asked us why the resurrection was so important (or even central) to the gospel. I have thought about this before, but I could not form a good enough answer. I'm so glad that we have her to sharpen us! This is such a great question and one that I am excited to meditate on over the next week.

The verse above in Mark explains Jesus's teaching on the rebuilding of the temple, which is taken to mean His bodily resurrection. My tiny little human brain can't wrap all the way around all of these random thoughts that God is bringing to mind just yet, but I'm pretty sure this verse has something to do with it.

After study, Christy and Sydney and I went over to Gila dorm to hang out with the students visiting from Japan. It was great meeting them (However, I am not going to attempt to spell their names.) and exciting to see how God is using Mike, Ryan, Christy, and others in their lives. God is at work. It just feels like God is totally showing off to me lately in this kind of thing. I love that He shows me how amazing He is at planning and executing. It is so reassuring.

I hope that I get more opportunities to see Him work and to join His work in Maricopa and Gila. I will just have to pray for the furthering of relationships with the girls I have met in the dorms.

"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

-Philippians 3:8-11

Eccomi nel Tuo cospetto

"My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, Lord, I will seek."
-Psalm 27:8



"O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' name, Amen."

-A.W. Tozer

I love this prayer.

Today I don't have many words, so I will live off of the Word of God and prayer. I am so thankful for the intercession of the Holy Spirit and the peace and joy that are not conditional upon circumstances.

I will seek His face.

All for His glory,

Ashley