His Kingdom Come

No matter the case I make against God, the Scriptures or world ideas I use to make it, or the different reality I seek to create—nothing can separate me from His perfect love. He is always loving me, even when I cannot see it or don’t want to, or am sitting in the corner shaming myself for this sin or that sin, or hating everyone for hurting me. He still loves me, and that will never change.

I am not His puppet. God has given me free will, even with the knowledge that I may use that power to do wrong instead of right. He has given me that power because He created me to be free. Free people aren’t afraid of control, because they trust that they are free. I am free because I was created to be free.

Now that I know how much God loves me—sending His Son to be in the place for all of my sins and rising again to defeat death, sin, and shame—I want to walk in the light of trusting and obeying Him as a free child of light. I was once darkness, but now I am light in the LORD. I am able to live as a dearly loved child of Him. And I want to, what’s more. He is love. Perfect love casts out all fear, because He is love. Fear has to do with punishment. I was sick with the disease of punishing myself and others for not living up to the rules. That was the Old Covenant. I desire to live under the New Covenant, as a child of light. That means I can stop shaming myself, stop trying to not sin, and accept God’s love. I can’t fix myself. I can receive Jesus’ perfecting love within me in order to be free.

And I want freedom desperately.

God is good. And love.

With the LORD there is love, and with the LORD is full redemption.

I am sad that there have been many people who have professed to be Christians but have actually been living under the Old Covenant, and have hurt others. I was one of them. Praise Him, I am now free!

Please forgive! I forgive those who hurt me by withholding love from me. I am so thankful that I have not had what I’ve needed my entire life from those around me. None of them were meant to have met those needs, for they can only be met in Christ Jesus, under the New Covenant of Love.

Praise YHWH! Praise be to my Rock, to my God and Savior!

May my soul sing and glorify the LORD!

Let us sing and make music to the LORD!

Praises to Our Strong God

God, You've given me Your Word, which is faithful and always fulfilled:
"I will continually give your children reigning favor; this is true as long as they seek Me and My covenant truth and welcome My teaching into their spirits. Forever your children will reign, either on earth since You're My people or in Heaven with me for all eternity."

How true it is that You have chosen Your people to be at peace and make Your dwelling in! You will always be here with us because You want to be here with us. Yes, a blessing shower for those who are here, and a bountiful feast for those who are hungry.

Clean righteousness garments for Your priestly children! We'll sing, sing, sing! Praise will sprout from the ground and the light will shine for the One You have anointed! Put to shame are Your enemies, but You and Your crown are resplendent!

Morning Bucket

I began a new routine in the morning with Shiloh called the "Morning Bucket." I gave her a sand pail of ours, asked her to decorate it, and explained the procedure the night before:

"In the morning before Daddy and Mama wake up, make sure to first go to your Morning Bucket. I will put special surprises in there for you, and a little snack too."

She liked the idea. The only problem was that she saw some of the special surprises at the store, since she was there as Michael and I picked them out. Therefore...she wanted the little ponies to play with NOW.

We waited until morning and they arrived in the Morning Bucket. They also came to church with us.

Now, Michael and I have about 20 more minutes to sleep in the morning...or at least minutes to not move and to think and pray. We were constantly tired and/or one of us was wrenched from sleep (usually me! No offense, Michael, but I had to pray a lot in order to overcome bitterness) so this works out much better!

My Morning Bucket ideas thus far...
*little toys like trucks (she picked them out!) and ponies
*Sweetheart candies (a real treat for Valentine's Day and are quite rationed. In this house, plain old sugar is very hard to come by.)
*stickers and little books we have around the house already
*puzzles
*Mr. Potato Head

Any more ideas?