You may have already noticed but it is getting harder and harder to keep up with this coffee/cafe themed titles for the posts.

explanation of older post "used beans"

On Sunday, May 16th I uploaded a post entitled "Used Beans" and included a video by Matt Chandler. I felt the need to add this note saying that even though the video specifically talks about sexual sins, I was referring to sin in general when I uploaded it. I think any sin can be looked upon the same way as sexual sin is talked about in the video. If you have ever done anything wrong in your life you will appreciate this video.

proper coffee

Is it weird that I have always wanted to go to a finishing school? I am reading a book right now The Lost Art of True Beauty by Leslie Ludy that is all about being feminine and is full of etiquette and all that. I suppose people who knew me in high school would not be surprised by this as I was Miss Etiquette, always giving proper table manners lessons and so on. However I don't consciously let that side show anymore so maybe people surrounding me now would be completely thrown off by this desire. I should hope not. I hope I have not strayed too far from being proper that no one would ever associate etiquette with who I am. You can still climb trees and be a lady at the same time :)

I am such a girl. I have always been basing my future ministry on what my husband is going to do:

- I used to say there was no way I would end up not being a missionary in Africa. I was going to marry/date only the guys that also said they were going to be missionaries in Africa.

- Once I accepted that I probably won't end up as a missionary wife in Africa, I moved on to say that without a doubt in my mind I am going to be a pastor's wife. I would tell people "I know no one really knows for sure what they are going to do but I know for sure I will be a pastor's wife..."

What if I don't? What if God has me fall in love and marry someone who is not in full-time ministry? What if He has a plumber, a teacher, a musician, a whatever for me? What if...? Will I be able to trust His leading? Will my faith be strong enough to follow God's will for me? Or will I plunge into some darkness because God does not place me in a marriage with a man who is a pastor?

I would love to be able to say I will be able to be 100% happy all the time no matter where God leads me, but let's face it - I am in no way a spiritual super hero. God just makes me realize so much more and more every day how I really should not be trying to put my plans in stone as He is the master Planner. He is the one Who puts plans in motion, not me. I can make so many plans and tell so many people that I am going to do something with full sincerity yet I have no more say over that then I had say over what family I was going to be born into. Trusting God's plan for me is a full-time career yet I put it off as only part-time. I take what light He has shown me and I run off in my own direction without waiting to hear from Him. You would think after 23 years of messing up I would learn to not trust my own plans and just wait for God and go where He leads me.

oswald's roast

"It is a tremendous freedom to get rid of all self-consideration and learn to care about only one thing - the relationship between Christ and ourselves."
~ Oswald Chambers

used beans

Even when others around me say how disgusting it is for someone to have done some of the things I have done, it doesn't matter. Jesus wants me anyways. He looks past all my short-comings and He dies for me. Matt Chandler illustrates this here

thank you for bad coffee

This morning I read Psalm 50:7-15. The verse that really stuck out to me was verse 14:
"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High..."

We "sacrifice" everything to God. We give Him our lives, our money and possessions, our relationships. We surrender everything to Him. We think our 100% surrender is enough. But it's not. That is not what God wants most. He wants our praise, our thanks.

God wants to hear our thanks for the life He has given us each new day, for the sunshine and the rain, for our friends and families, for everything. He wants our praise for the frustrating times, for the boss who does not treat us well, for sickness, He wants us to praise Him with thanksgiving for everything. Then can we say we have offered acceptable sacrifice to God.