Song of JOY!!

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Really speaking to my situation, providing me new songs of worship!!!

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Grateful.

I had a beautiful weekend with family and some crazy things happened.

First off, after around a year and a half of dating (all starting while I was in Houston) my mom and her boyfriend Paul officially got engaged! There were many different emotions and things going around it my head: the weirdness of it (after seeing my mom single for the good part of my life, then suddenly her having a boyfriend and now a fiancé), the hesitation (things are never going to be exactly the same again), the questions (is this right?), and the joy! (this is a DIRECT answer to my prayers for my mom for many years coming to life).

Not only did we get to spend the weekend with Paul and his son PJ but one of my FAVORITE people ever (not to mention, a cool aunt and uncle with 2 out-of-this-world adorable kiddos) came to town, Mikey!!!

The weekend was also full of testing, struggling to keep Shabbat set apart, struggle with sin patterns that rear their ugly head in my laxness, but none of them really could hamper the beautiful time it was.

Mikey and I even went on an EPIC bike ride and had probably one of our longest one on ones ever. Seeing the desire for growth and revelation of the love of God in Mikey was also a humblingly beautiful moment of realization that God has yet again answered a huge prayer.

God is MERCIFUL and KIND. He's coming for a PURE BRIDE. Let us make ourselves ready, live with a grateful heart, focus on what He has given, not our supposed lack and lets just bless each other!

Shalom,
Lyndsay

Be of good courage...

... and He shall strengthen your heart: wait I say, on the LORD.

Psalm 27:14

 

 

Waiting... something so counter-cultural, something so.... difficult. I feel like for the past 6 months all that I've hear from God is... wait, wait dear one. My heart has gone probably a million different directions and has looked down a million different paths since coming home from Mission Year. Coming here, back to where I'm from and doing the same ole' same ole' has been extremely difficult for me. There have been a few times where I've tried to jump the gun on God and figure things out for myself while waiting to still have His blessing... it hasn't worked. While praying the other day, seeking and desiring for my needs to be met or my frustrations to subside about where I feel my life is going, I just layed it all down. I felt better. I didn't have my answer but, i felt better. I slowly began to realize that God, in this time of waiting, is answering a prayer of my from times of passionate longing for Him. He is using this time to form me into the person that He desires me to be, cleansing out all that doesn't please Him. He's also giving me a lot of time by myself which has been pretty lonely at times if I'll admit it. But I see now that He's doing it because He wants to spend time with me... to really allow me to get to know Him (He already knows me). So now, I notice when I have a lot of free time and I spend it paroozing Facebook or the like I feel worse. I feel unfulfilled. And, to be honest, I feel jealous. But when I spend my time in His word, singing about Him, creating art inspired by Him... I don't have those feelings and I'm actually excited about the future, even though I'm seeing more and more that I have no idea what it holds for me. But one thing I do know, if I continue to allow Him, my God and King, YHVH, that its going to be alright... not just alright but GREAT.

 

Here are some verses for you, to encourage you to wait. Don't step ahead of God, "He makes all things beautiful in His time." Ecclesiastes 3:11

 

 

Lamentations 3:25 ESV        

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.              

Psalm 39:7 ESV          

“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.              

Psalm 37:7 ESV        

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!              

Micah 7:7 ESV        

But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.    

Isaiah 40:31 ESV         

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.              

Isaiah 30:18 ESV        

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.              

Isaiah 33:2 ESV        

O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.              

Isaiah 64:4 ESV        

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.              

Isaiah 49:23 ESV        

Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”         

Psalm 25:5 ESV         

Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.              

Psalm 130:6 ESV        

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.              

Psalm 62:1 ESV         

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.            

Isaiah 26:8 ESV         

In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.              

Psalm 130:5 ESV        

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;       

Psalm 69:3 ESV        

I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God    

Psalm 40:1 ESV         

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

Proverbs 20:22 ESV          

Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.              

Psalm 59:10 ESV    

My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.              

Galatians 5:5 ESV        

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.              

Hosea 12:6 ESV    

“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”    

Lamentations 3:26 ESV         

It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.              

Isaiah 25:9 ESV        

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”              

Titus 2:13 ESV    

Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

Jeremiah 14:22 ESV         

Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.    

Psalm 123:2 ESV         

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.              

Psalm 37:9 ESV        

For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.                  

Genesis 49:18 ESV          

I wait for your salvation, O Lord.              

1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV         

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant    

Isaiah 42:4 ESV         

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

       



A look into my old neighborhood, the Third Ward

A DEAR friend of mine Laura Tremblay who was in another Mission Year house in Houston last year did another year in Houston as an intern and lived down the street from where I spent a year of my life last year. For Laura's teams' justice project (a project done by every MY house at the end of their year to support their neighborhood in some way) they did a documentary on the Third Ward!!! I'd probably say about 75% of the people in this video I knew VERY well last year. It brought tears to my eyes to see them again and joy to my heart knowing that they are still being loved well by people down there. Heres their doc, "The Big Beautiful Ward":

GIVE

Not going to lie, this made me cry :)

Just... slowly read this

Isaiah 54 NASB

The Fertility of Zion

54 “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;
Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;
For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous
Than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.
² “Enlarge the place of your tent;
Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not;
Lengthen your cords
And strengthen your pegs.
³ “For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.
And your descendants will possess nations
And will resettle the desolate cities.

⁴ “Fear not, for you will not be put to shame;
And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;
But you will forget the shame of your youth,
And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
⁵ “For your husband is your Maker,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
Who is called the God of all the earth.
⁶ “For the Lord has called you,
Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”
Says your God.
⁷ “For a brief moment I forsook you,
But with great compassion I will gather you.
⁸ “In an outburst of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,”
Says the Lord your Redeemer.

⁹ “For this is like the days of Noah to Me,
When I swore that the waters of Noah
Would not flood the earth again;
So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
Nor will I rebuke you.
¹⁰ “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,
But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you,
And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,”
Says the Lord who has compassion on you.

¹¹ “O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
¹² “Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.
¹³ “All your sons will be taught of the Lord;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.
¹⁴ “In righteousness you will be established;
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear;
And from terror, for it will not come near you.
¹⁵ “If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me.
Whoever assails you will fall because of you.
¹⁶ “Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals
And brings out a weapon for its work;
And I have created the destroyer to ruin.
¹⁷ “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

All that I've been learning recently can be summed up in this statement:

Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, But humility goes before honor. Proverbs 18:12