Celebrate the victory

So far, all of the "religious" holidays this year (2011) have been so much more meaningful to me than before. This whole weekend has been amazing to me. What Christ did for us is so amazing. Praise the God who saves! Praise be to the King who defeated death! All praise and glory be to the One who won us this unbelievable victory! Because of His death and resurrection, we can live in marvelous freedom from sin and darkness. 

"So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the One who gave it all. I'll stand my soul, Lord, to You surrendered. All I am is Yours." 

"Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right..."
~Phillips Brooks, An Easter Carol

"Let every man and woman count himself immortal.  Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his resurrection.  Let him say not merely, "Christ is risen," but "I shall rise."  ~Phillips Brooks

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” - 1 Peter 1:18-19

With love for my King.

Yours truly,
SD

Veneration

Veneration - honoring, awe, reverence, worship.


How can I be anything but devoted to You?
How can I ignore what You did for me?
How can I compress Your love for me?
How can I thank You? 
How can I be selfish when You were so selfless?
How can I praise myself for doing nothing? 
How can I lose sight of who You are?
How can I be anything but devoted to You?
How can I be anything but devoted to You? 


With fervent love for the Savior of us all. 


Yours truly,
SD

How can it be that You my King would die for me?

It's hard to describe how I'm feeling right now. Awe. Complete and utter awe. Today is the day Christ was crucified. Left by everyone, even his Father, Jesus went to face the cross and our sin by himself. This love that was bled out on the cross is... more than amazing. There is not a word in the English language that can convey how unbelievable this is. And it is lavished upon us by our God. One of my favorite lyrics is 


"Amazing love, how can it be that you, my King, would die for me?" 


I always think about Esther. I don't know why, but I do. I also try to imagine a king, who back then was so revered and honored, sacrificing himself for ME. Little, old, worthless me. But this is MORE than that. This is the King of Kings. This is the Holy One, the Father, the great I Am, the Jehovah, the Savior, the Son of God, the Worthy Lamb. He who had no sin became sin to save us. He who did nothing but love us, was killed by his own people. He did it with love. 


If you haven't seen The Passion of the Christ, today is the day to watch it. It will open your eyes. It will change your heart. It will reveal to you a small portion of the King's great love for you. Jesus, you are my Great Love. It's my joy to honor you. 


With all of my love to the King who saved me. 


Yours truly,
SD

Mumford and Sons, keep me sane...

1.) The Cave
2.) After the Storm
3.) White Blank Page
4.) Winter Winds
5.) Awake my Soul
6.) I Gave You All

I think I'm in love. <3 I need you, Mumford and Sons. Keep singing your idyllic songs. Make my work seem more pleasant than it is. 


With love for my King and Lord.


Yours truly,
SD

Time. It flies.

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I've been really busy with school this week. A few blunt updates, and then I'll tell you what's on my mind.


1.) I got my learner's license! I've only been driving once but today (my second time) I did a lot better. I'm already comfortable with turning (for the most part) but I still really need to work on parking. I when I go to make a right turn to park, I always end up in between two spaces. 


2.) I've decided that school is a test to see how easily we go insane. And I'm afraid I won't last too much longer.


3.) I am super sad because I'm afraid that I will have to miss my school's second trip to the Friends of Refugees place. I really want to see my little friend again (I think her name is Hambi? She's from Somalia) that I met and played with last time I went. The reason I may not go is because we've been trying so hard to find a day where all of my family can meet for my birthday dinner (my birthday was last Sunday). So if I don't go this Monday, it will be May before I get my birthday dinner. If I can't go, I'll probably write Hambi a note or get a picture or something for my friend to give her. I want Hambi to know that I'm still thinking about her! I love those precious, beautiful refugee kids. 


Okay so here's my current worry. I'm running out of time! I ONLY HAVE 10 DAYS UNTIL 25 BEGINS! I need to get more money! I want to raise lots of money for 25. From what I've heard, the very successful fundraiser raisers say the key is persistence. To keep asking, keep going, be annoying, be persistent. But I feel like it's not doing anything! Oh well, I'm too tired for this. I'm just going to stop here. Sorry. 


With love for Him.


Yours truly,
SD

Spring Break

So it's spring break and I'm seeing what all my friends are doing via Facebook. There are many, many things I'd absolutely love to do on my spring break. For example, I'd love to go on a road trip. If I was just like... two years older, I would totally grab a small group of friends, pile into a Jeep or something with a huge sunroof, and take off towards the west coast. Of course with the price of gas these days, that's seeming very unlikely. Plus I can't drive yet. :P 


Another thing I'd totally love to do this week is go hiking. Grant it, I just got back from camping and want nothing more than to surround myself with soap and technology. But we went camping at Vogel and it is right by part of the AT. We stopped at this store that is like a pitstop for the hikers. It was so cool. :) I got an AT sticker. It was really awesome looking and there was a tree out front with a bunch of hikers' boots thrown over the limbs. Pictures were everywhere of people who had passed through. It really made me wanna hike part of the Appalachian and even do an overnight hike. I just think that would be so much fun. So you better count on me hiking a whole lot this summer. :) 


Though I see that a good bit of my friends are at the beach this week, I'd rather not be there. Though I love lazing around in the sand and hearing the waves splosh against the shoreline, I'm wanting adventure. I want to go somewhere and experience it head-on (does that even make any sense?). 


So where am I going for the rest of my spring break, you ask? I'm flying up north to Maine. Yes, good ole Maine. I've never been there. I'll be going with my mom and neighbor. We're painting my neighbor's townhouse. It's right on the water and it will be great. :) Though painting is no easy job. It gets to your arms after a little while. Oh well, it'll be fun flying again. I'll have fun and feel accomplished afterwards. We might even have some time to sightsee. Well I gotta go! Bye!