endless gifts and life

Hey Friends,

Well, it looks like it has been a while since I have posted. I am so sorry for that! To be honest, I have been busy living life instead of just blogging about it :-)

Summer has been good, slow and full of sunshine. Our days have been spent working on our house, being out in the garden, reading, eating good food, spending time with good friends and new friends, and long evening walks. One of my best and most favorite summers ever!

Physically I have been feeling great! There are still those days that my ribs flare up with pain, but those are really very few. I have been off of my Valley Fever medication since July, and I just seem to keep getting better. I have an appointment with my pulmonary Doctor in October in which he will test my blood one more time to make sure that the Valley Fever hasn't come back since stopping the medication. I really think that God has healed me completely, and so I'm trusting Him for that. Thank you so much for your prayers, my friends. It has meant so much to me know that you all are praying. I will be forever grateful.

I've recently started reading a book from Ann Voskamp called, " One Thousand Gifts". Can I just say WOW!? Like any book, there are things I disagree with in it, but there are more so things that I agree with. Ann write poetically about learning how to live in the moment and how to be always watchful for God's gifts. In her own life she started practicing this 'sleuthing of God's gifts' by listing the gifts as she noticed them... her goal being to list 1000 of God's gifts to her. This book has been such a huge challenge to me (and I haven't even finished it yet!)  I started my own 1000 Gifts List the other day and it has been so good for my soul! So let me take this moment to challenge you to grab this book, read it and then make your own list of 1000 Gifts.

Lots of love,
jess

devout joyfulness

I've been reading "The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life" by Charles Spurgeon, compiled by Robert Hall. I highly recommend it! The following quote it from the book, and I just loved it!

We come to a throne to be approached with devout joyfulness. If I find myself favored by divine grace to stand among those favored ones who frequent His courts, shall I not feel glad? I might have been in His prison, but now I am before His throne. I might have been driven from His presence forever, but I am permitted to come even into His royal palace, into His secret chamber of gracious audience. Shall I not then be thankful? Shall not my thankfulness ascend into joy, and shall I not feel that I am made recipient of great favors when I am permitted to pray? Why, then, is your countenance sad when you stand before the throne of grace? If you were before the throne of justice to be condemned for your sins, your hands might well be at your sides. But now that you are favored to come before the King in His silken robes of love, let your face shine with sacred delight. If your sorrows are heavy, tell them to Him, for He can comfort you. If your sins are multiplied, confess them, for He can forgive them. O you courtiers in the halls of such a monarch, be exceedingly glad and mingle praises with your prayers.
-Charles Spurgeon-

Happy Monday my friends!

God is the Gospel

I just finished reading through this amazing book by John Piper. I highly recommend it. The book ponders this main question...
Do you feel loved by God because He makes much of you? Or Do you feel loved by God because He frees you to make much of Him?
I'm still pondering this question, and mulling over it.... realizing that I really love to be made much of... I mean isn't that what our culture today says that love is? If someone loves me, they will indeed make much of me, right? Love that doesn't have God at the beginning and end of it is NOT love.

Anyway, read this book, and let me know what you think of it!

You can find a free online copy of it at www.desiringgod.org

blessings,
jess