Blessed Assurance

This is the song I named this blog after. Blessed Assurance! A line from this hymn is: "Watching and waiting, looking above." Well... and it goes on. Let me just show you the whole hymn, really read it if you would... the words are such a prayer.

 

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels, descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

 

This hymn is by Fanny Crosby. She was quite a lady. I first learned about her when looking at this hymn at camp training a month or so ago. Let me give you a snippet about her, courtesy of Wikipedia ;).

Fanny Crosby "was an American lyricist best known for her Protestant Christian hymns. A lifelong Methodist, she was one of the most prolific hymnists in history, writing over 8,000 despite becoming blind shortly after birth. Also known for her preaching and speaking, during her lifetime Fanny Crosby was one of the best known women in the United States."

That's right - Fanny Crosby was blind. And she wrote over eight thousand hymns. Wow. This one I happen to like, but there are many more well known hymns. When I looked up Ms. Fanny's name in the back of a hymnbook, there were so many more hymns than listed for most writers! She also was married to a blind musician who insisted she keep her original surname. They had a daughter... but she died as a baby. Yet in her hymns she expresses great contentment in the Lord. When she was only eight years old, she wrote these verses:

 

Oh what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see;

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don't;

To weep and sigh because I'm blind,

I cannot, and I won't.

I don't know a ton about Fanny Crosby, but I know I wish I could've met her. She strikes me as someone who would inspire faith and help Christians who came in contact with her on with their walk with God. 

Bible Reading

How many times have we, as Christians (to those of you who are), wished we read the Bible more? Well, today I'd like to try and offer you some motivation to do so!

1. The Bible is, in a word, awesome! It has all this: stories, advice, history, prophecies, and more! But that's just the worldly pitch. Though the Bible does have all those things, and that does make it awesome.... obviously it's way more than awesome!!!

2. THE BIBLE IS GOD'S WORDS TO US. Read that again. One more time. Okay. Awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. Advice from the One who made all the people and all the tendencies and functions that sociology would attempt to understand. His advice could only be the best for us. There are stories about people who were more dedicated to completely serving God than many of us are dedicated to our homework today. But then, stories about those same people and how they sinned. Sinned with atrocious and reputation-blowing sins. And how God forgave them, and worked their mistakes for good to His plan. Now that's an example and reassurance! There's history of this lowly world's creation. God incarnate entering the world. His disciplines being sent with the Holy Spirit to preform miracles and bring thousands to the Lord. Prophecies - tellings of when Jesus will come once again. 

3. God can speak to us through the Bible. For me personally, reading Jesus' very words is so incredibly comforting. It's just so amazing! Those little red, typed words are a translation of what our Savior spoke on this very earth, just about 2000 years ago. Throughout the Bible, there are letters to people groups by people such as Paul (which are so full of wisdom and lessons), the Proverbs (just read one chapter and you're bound to find at least one verse that speaks to you personally), and old testament prophecies that are fulfilled and mentioned in the new testament. Among so many other things.

So. I challenge you! (In a good way). Go right now. Pick up your Bible and read something. Maybe start a book of the Bible that you can continue every day, either section by section, or even chapter by chapter. Do it in the morning, before you go to bed, or sometime throughout the day. This is something that I struggle with all the time. I obviously know these motivators in my head, but some days it's hard to really know them in my heart. But - try to do it anyways. Read even when you're not feeling up to it. You never know what God might want to show you :).

Feedback

Ah, forgive me for taking up so much of your time today. If you are still reading, many thanks ;). I get excited to put my thoughts out there, though, truly! 

I wanted to say this - I would IMMENSELY love love love to hear your feedback! Or even your whole take on anything I bring up! It's really fun to know who's reading. Also your opinions are valued, save them of you must, but remember it's great to know where you stand at times. So if you are reading this, reply? ;). Also if you ever feel like reading the other things I post on, reply there too! You don't have to be a member of anything (at least I don't think you do...). Muchas gracias! :D

Song Lyrics in Statuses (and other opinions on online-ness)

So why do people like to put song lyrics in their statuses so much? An obvious answer: to express themselves. Sometimes our mood can be expressed in a lyric. We listen to songs and our minds memorize. We may even consciously try to memorize songs that we especially enjoy. 

Oftentimes we are online, not in the mood to talk by way of "chat" to anyone, but we want to let people know how we feel. Why? If we are not in talkative mood but put up a depressed lyric, a friend may ask what's wrong with us. Well, even is there is a problem... did we even feel like sharing it in the first place? Usually not! Unless the person asking is a close friend we often confide in, or a person we can easily give a noncommittal answer to. 

What about lyrics of happiness? When we are happy, we want to tell people! Maybe even spread the joy :). Or we may be confused. And post lyrics about the state of our mind, its sanity, and etc. Does continuously seeing lyrics in your friends statuses annoy you? Sometimes it can indeed be wearing to see consistently melodramatic, depressed, and desperate lyrics. But that's not truly our problem anyway. However... if this person if your true friend, you may want to ask what's up! Unless you're like me and have a low tolerance for drama, at least for most of your friends. 

So let's consider this. If you have Gmail or Facebook or Twitter or one of those, you probably know what I'm talking about. Next time you post a status, what do you really want to reflect? Sometimes instead of saying what we really want to, our feelings could be more appropriately and lovingly expressed with a Biblical view. Perhaps even a verse! Let's look at some examples:

This? "So-and-so everything is falling apart...'my heart unravels bit by bit, you smashed me to pieces.'"

Try this: "Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help. You turned wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy" Psalm 30:10-11. <3

This? "So-and-so is home aloneeee.... txtt."

Try this: How about not revealing that you're home alone! Yikes! It always kind of weirds me out when people say online that they're home alone. And take into consideration the fad of stretching your lettersss outt likeeee thiss. My take on it - if you want the majority of people (especially most adults) to respect you, don't go crazy. Though it's fun/fine with friends :), just keep in mind who your audience is!

This? "So-and-so is .....so mad. don't. even. ask."

Try this: Well now. Actual uncontained anger might go better UNexpressed, at least for the time being. 

At times I know I'm guilty of the giving in to posting sad-ish statuses, but still a good thing to keep in mind :). 

Senses: in the living room

Sights: Brother, Dad, Connect Four, Labyrinth, Vera Bradley purse, recliner chair, pen, paper, backpack, laptop, hands, hairbands, powercord, puppy, reading glasses, rehearsal schedule, etc, etc.

Sounds: Dad tapping, computer coming on, Dad whistling, John drumming, Dad talking to himself, car speeding by, John humming, computer dinging, me typing, me sniffing, me coughing, John still humming... music or TV?, John humming/singing/etc, chair rocking, CD dropping, Dad talking, John talking. 

Smells: Brownies maybe from yesterday?, computer..... my nose is stuffy sorry ;)

Touch: Computer keys, computer in my lap, squishy couch, etc. 

Taste: None specifically. 

Ramble

My younger brothers are in a memorial day tournament this weekend for baseball. It'll be cool to watch them play! All my siblings are very blessed athletically :). 

Recently I finished reading the book of John, and continued on to Acts. The disciples have received the Holy Spirit and are preforming sings and wonders and many multitudes are being brought to the Lord. I really like reading about these men because they were normal people, but Christians, the same as any today. 

Today is my friend Emily's birthday! This is her blog: http://inmyfathershands.blogspot.com/

Again, the weather is very very very nice. A little on the hot side, but quite amazing!

This is a very scatterbrained post. Oh well... too late!

Oh.... I apologize if this is annoying but I'd like to recommend my Flickr again, I put up new nature pictures! Thought sometimes, all I can do is observe, when pictures can't really capture God's creation. ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/la-birdie/

Well, I suppose that's all for now folks. In the words of Tigger, TTFN! :)

~Lindsay Anne

A C.S. Lewis Quote

Sigh. Today is a lovely day. I'd just like to say that if you haven't been outside yet... go quickly :).

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal." ~C.S. Lewis

I know this quote can be taken and related to in different ways, but I want to share how it came across to me. I would sometimes wonder if I could truly forgive someone for something, but not fully forget about it. Is it wrong to still worry about the sin that is "forgiven"? Because I do. What if the sin is continuous... or possibly continuous? When we love someone, a family member or close friend, we can't help but hate to see them fall. Often times their vices affect us as well. In that we may be selfish and want their problems to go away for our own sake. But we may also simply want their sin to be gone because we hate to watch them suffer. To me, this quote says that in love, we may be quick to forgive, but still wish away and despise the sin itself.