1) SG^3 surprised me at RSF last night with a picture framed with notes on the back (and a 35… yen? gift card for chipotle). Wasn’t expecting it all and I was so blessed when they prayed for me. Thank you guys so much for sharpening me and spurring me on. I will miss leading you guys next semester, but I know that you guys are in great hands

2) Instances of grace (all serious):

3) I have really been contemplating marriage a lot… I feel like such a girl. But just from reading so many blogs (mainly Gospel Coalition), the picture that is presented of Biblical, God-centered, Christ-exalting marriage is just so… amazing. Maybe they’re idealizations, but just like the sanctifying, the loving, the intimacy that these pastors present just makes me want to be in marriage and take care of my wife, sanctify her, carry her burdens, etc. But I’m not ready, and I won’t be for awhile. But I am looking forward to that day where God molds me so that I can truly take care of my significant other as Christ works for His Bride, the Church. On a kind of similar note, are you ever “ready” for marriage or is it a learning process?Interesting question.

4) This year, I have been exceptionally challenged at school. I always used to (and still do I guess) conceive of academics as an area where I operate on my own. I stopped praying for school, for good grades, and what not because I wanted to control my schoolwork. It was an area that was closed off; it was below the Lord’s work, and I just wanted to be like this is mine. I have rediscovered the joy of praying for your schoolwork, while at the same time understanding that everything is under the Lord’s sovereign control. I work heartily as if working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23) but if things don’t turn out well, I can rest in the fact that ehhh, 80 years from now the Lord won’t judge me on my GPA. I’m constantly relearning that the Lord’s sovereign hand is over all things and to not make idols, specifically myself and the facade of self control. The psalmist reminds us of the breadth of God’s sovereignty:

You have searched me, LORD, 
   and you know me. 
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; 
   you perceive my thoughts from afar. 
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; 
   you are familiar with all my ways. 
4 Before a word is on my tongue 
   you, LORD, know it completely. 
5 You hem me in behind and before, 
   and you lay your hand upon me. 
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, 
   too lofty for me to attain.

 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? 
   Where can I flee from your presence? 
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; 
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, 
   if I settle on the far side of the sea, 
10 even there your hand will guide me, 
   your right hand will hold me fast. 
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me 
   and the light become night around me,” 
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; 
   the night will shine like the day, 
   for darkness is as light to you.

 13 For you created my inmost being; 
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
   your works are wonderful, 
   I know that full well. 
15 My frame was not hidden from you 
   when I was made in the secret place, 
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; 
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book 
   before one of them came to be. 
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God! 
   How vast is the sum of them! 
18 Were I to count them, 
   they would outnumber the grains of sand— 
   when I awake, I am still with you.

-Psalm 139:1-18

Nothing is hidden from the Lord, big or small, secular or religious, academic or spiritual.

5) Be blessed during this advent season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIApy9rd7jw&feature=BFa&list=FL8wNukFyAr0sJSXj70ErSIQ&lf=plpp_video

@5 months ago with 10 notes
  1. dlchen posted this