The best obedience of my hands
   Dares not appear before Thy throne
   But faith can answer Thy demands
   By pleading what my Lord has done

No more, my God

No more, my God

No more, my God

I boast no more.

…another step.

Originally uploaded by Hanna L.

This weekend was another step into the adventure of the future.

It’s standing on the cusp of knowing that everything is on the verge of changing, whether you want it to or not that makes me antsy.

I’m working on rejoicing in the process of things and not just the END of it all.

Not a Cheap Grace

Two days ago, this was posted on: of first importance:

“Cheap grace is the enemy of the church. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth . . . an intellectual assent to that idea is held to be sufficient to secure remission of sins. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance. . . grace without discipleship, grace without a cross . . . Costly grace is the gospel [of the church] . . . It is costly because it costs a man his life, and grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son . . . it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God . . . When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York, NY: MacMillan, 1959), 45-48.

keep calm (and carry on)

 lilacs (and tea)
photo by rachel.grace of
what could be my officially favorite
blog: http://heart-of-light.blogspot.com

 

 A week from now….I’ll be a little less crazy. Finally have time to go to a coffeeshop (or as my czech friends say “the tea house”) and sit with a novel to my introvert contentedness.

But i’ll be a little more sad. (re)JOYCE(ing) that my dear is getting married… but I’ll miss her.more on that forthcoming. {meaning that I’m going to write about all the things i appreciate about her }

I just saw this picture and thought it was gorgeous. my thoughts about being less crazy were an afterthought.

faith in his love

“You are not called to believe in your love to God, but in God’s love to you! Do not argue, ‘I cannot love God! I have striven to my uttermost to do so, but have failed in all my endeavors, until in despair I have abandoned the thought and relinquished the attempt.’ Be it so- no effort of your own can strike a spark of love to God from your heart. Nor does God demand the task at your hands. All that He requires of you is faith in His love, as embodied and expressed in Jesus Christ to poor sinners.”

– Octavius Winslow, The Foot of the Cross

just a quote

“You know that moment that comes when the last tear falls? The one when you realize that your worst fears have come to light and you’re still breathing? Never forget the moment you look into the mirror and into your red eyes and see that you aren’t broken…”

- unknown

Bridge of Grace

Some of the most prominent topics in conversations/themes from English Camp, described much more articulately by these men than by anything I could type up…

“God has declared in the gospel that whenever we come to him, we are to call upon him freely and openly as our Father, who has adopted us as his children. If we do not have this assurance, the thought of serving God will make us grind our teeth.

If, however, we are persuaded that God looks upon us favourably; if, though we are weak and can do nothing worthy of his approval, he accepts us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will surely be filled with courage.

We will be like a ship’s sail that has been stretched and filled by the breeze! Thus, our hearts will run to obey him, like a ship driven along by its sail, when we know that God delights in us and accepts our works, not wanting us to be compelled into servitude. He is happy for us to be his children, and that we desire to obey him.”

- John Calvin, {Sermons on Galatians}

“Be sure you see this most wonderful and astonishing of all truths: God took the record of all your sins that made you a debtor to wrath . . ., and instead of holding them up in front of your face and using them as the warrant to send you to hell, God put them in the palm of his Son’s hand and drove a spike through them into the cross. It is a bold and graphic statement: He canceled the record of our debt . . . nailing it to the cross (Col. 2:14).”

- John Piper {This Momentary Marriage}

“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by the thousands, by their myriads, e’er since that day when Christ first entered His glory…”

- Charles Spurgeon

“Christ is much more powerful to save than Adam was to destroy.”

- John Calvin, Commentary on Romans, Collected Works

English Camp Preview

My class from English Camp.

top row: Eliska, Sarka, Magda, Majda, Marketa, Monika, Jana, me, Elen
bottom row: Josh, Jirka, Chris

LOVE these guys!

Arrrived in CZ!

After 27 hours of travel (SD -> LA -> London -> Vienna by plane + 6 hours driving from Vienna to Ostrava) we safely arrived. We spent the day with the church family and will leave for the English Camp tomorrow, right after church.

For the past two weeks I’ve had A LOT to do and as busy as I thought last week was, it was nothing compared to the lack of sleep and late nights that made up this week…but honestly, while I feel tired and still unprepared, I’m thankful. I’m thankful that from the GET-GO, there is no illusion that I’m doing this on my own…. I sent an email out 20 minutes before I was suppose to leave for the airport describing how God has been gracious to me that I did not go crazy with all the stress… as a product of the lessons that God has taught me this past year: trust in God in all circumstances, that His will certainly will be accomplished in my life, remembering that He provides everything that I need for His will (including time), that while I might be forgetting more than I’m used to, that if I know the gospel and can share it then I really am ready to go…

but would you take a minutes to pray for me and the team over the next two weeks?

Prayer Requests:

* Love for GOD and to treasure the gospel
* Fear of God and not of man as well as passion & confidence for sharing the gospel
* God will use me as a faithful messenger of the good news and provide obvious opportunities to evangelize
* For wisdom, patience and love in building relationships with the students in my English Class
* that God would save people through the English Camp
* Hearts of worship and kindness in the members of the CZ team
* the hearts of english campers to be prepared to hear the gospel message through the Evening program and in conversations.
* Though I may be tired, discouraged, and sinful and though there may be physical challenges that I would really live out Philippians 2:14-16 because I rejoice in the God of my salvation and be a constant servant to my teammates and to the Czech church

I’m excited to see how He will answer these prayers.

Late Nights and Long Days

For the 6th (maybe 7th) night in the past 1.5 weeks  I’m up past 1:30a. It’s no because i’m playing Bejewled Blitz on facebook but rather a much more worthwhile investment of time: i’m preparing my lessons for English Camp  for my missions trip to Czech Republic. Normally that would be all fun and just a little stress but the fact that I’m leaving in 4 days (!!!) and i’m still not done withe lessons in the first draft and have to send it to my teaching partner for revision is definitely causing some anxiety. I’m sure pretty much anyone can relate to feeling that you could use more time…. I know I’ve been wishing for at least 3 more days a day, so that I could at least get 5 hours of sleep before going to work and still tie up all these loose ends.

But I’ve been stopping myself each time I feel like lamenting about all that I have to do and remember the mere straight up fact that God has given everything that I need to accomplish his will in each day. Including time.

So if you happen to wander across this in the next few days, I don’t mind one bit if you would pray for me to make it onto that plane in one piece on Thursday!