at home with His love

“Abide in My love.” John 15:9 NASB

You grow familiar with the surroundings. You don’t pull in the driveway and ask, “Where is the garage?” You don’t consult the blueprint to find the kitchen. To abide is to be at home.

To abide in Christ’s love is to make his love your home. Not a roadside park or hotel room you occasionally visit, but your preferred dwelling. You rest in him. Eat in him. When thunder claps, you step beneath his roof. His walls secure you from the winds. His fireplace warms you from the winters of life. As John urged, “We take up permanent residence in the life of love” (I John 4:16 MSG).

You abandon the old house of false love and move into His home of real love"

-Max Lucado

I'm packing up my boxes, renting my U HAUL and moving to a new home. You're welcome to come visit, but here's the deal..you have to promise you'll stay forever. I know you will because upon entry you won't want to leave. I will not put this house up for rent, I will not sell it, even on the days in which I want to be a child again, running away from home. But this home is storm proof, sound proof, indestructible I tell you. This house is built on solid rock. It's not going to fall. Here I will find rest. Here I will wrap up with my Security Blanket and just rest. Here I can just sprawl out everything, myself and just everything that bothers me. I can lay on the floor weeping. Here is my safe haven. They can't find me here. I don't have to be anything but me. I can hang the mask on the wall when I walk through the door. I am not being pulled like a tug-o-war rope back and forth. I stay here, content. It's comfy here, with a candle burning. Here I am home, rocking in my Father's lap in His massive rocking chair. Here He is holding me in His arms. He is quieting me with His love. My Father is wiping the tears from my eyes as He rubs my back. He is saying, it's all going to be okay. You're home..

Home is where the heart is, and mine is resting upon Your lap.

loaded with Love

"He...loads me with love and mercy."
-Psalm 103:4 (NCV)

"It's time to let God's love cover all things in your life. All secrets. All hurts. All hours of evil, minutes of worry.

The mornings you awoke in the bed of a stranger? His love will cover that. The years you peddled prejudice and pride? His love will cover that. Every promise broken, drug taken, penny stolen. Every cross word, cuss word, and harsh word. His love covers all things.

Let it. Discover along with the psalmist: "He...loads me with love and mercy." Picture a giant dump truck full of love. There you are behind it. God lifts the bed until the love starts to slide. Slowly at first, then down, down, down until you are hidden, buried, covered in his love. "Hey where are you?" someone asks. "In here, covered in love."

-Max Lucado

Hinds' Feet on High Places

sooooooo amy has a new favorite book..

"the lessons of accepting and triumphing over evil, of becoming 'acquainted with grief' and pain, and, ultimately, of finding them transformed into something incomparably precious; of learning through constant glad surrender to know the Lord of Love Himself in a new way and to experience unbroken union with Him--these are the lessons of the allegory in this book."

"the Lord God maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon mine High Places" (Psalm 18:33 and Habakkuk 3:19)

“every circumstance in life, no matter how crooked and distorted and ugly it appears to be, if it is reacted to in love and forgiveness and obedience to Your will can be transformed..You purposely allow us to be brought into contact with the bad and evil things that YOU WANT CHANGED. perhaps it is the very reason why we are here in this world, where sin and sorrow and suffering and evil abound, so that we may let You teach us so to react to them, that out of them we can create lovely qualities to live for ever. that is the only really satisfactory way of dealing with evil, not binding it so that it cannot work harm, but whenever possible, overcoming it with good.”


"to love does mean to put your SELF into the power of the loved one and to become vulnerable to pain, and you are very MUCH-AFRAID of pain are you not..but it is so happy to love. it is happy to love even if you are not loved in return. there is pain too, certainly, but Love does not think that very significant."

“nothing My Father and I have made is ever wasted..and the little wild flowers have a wonderful lesson to teach. they offer themselves so sweetly and confidently and willingly, even if it seems that there is no one to appreciate them. just as though they sang a joyous little song to themselves, that it is so happy to love, even though one is not loved in return..”

“all the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about, or can only dimly guess at. every inner response of the human heart to Love and every conquest over self-love is a new flower on the tree of Love. many a quiet, ordinary, and hidden life, unknown to the world, is a veritable garden in which Love’s flowers and fruits have come to such perfection that it is a place of delight where the King of Love Himself walks and rejoices with His friends. some of My servants have indeed won great visible victories and are rightly loved and reverenced by other men, but always their greatest victories are like the wild flowers, those which no one knows about.”

“only Love can really understand the music and the beauty and the joy which was planted in the heart of all created things.”

“then she looked at the Shepherd and suddenly knew she could not doubt Him, could not possibly turn back from following Him; that if she were unfit and unable to love anyone else in the world, yet in her trembling, miserable little heat, she did love Him. Even if He asked the impossible, she could not refuse.”

“it is not contradiction, only postponement for the best to become possible.”

“remember is always safe to obey My voice, even if it seems to call you to paths which look impossible or even crazy.”

“the heart knoweth its own sorrow and there are times when, like David, it is comforting to think that our tears are put in a bottle and not one of them are forgotten by the One who leads us in paths of sorrow.”

“I love doing preposterous things..why I don’t know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection. If there is one thing more than another which I should enjoy doing at this moment it is turning a jellyfish into a mountain goat.”

“nothing can do you any real harm while you are following the path of My will.”

“don’t ever allow yourself to begin trying to picture what it will be like. believe me, when you get to the places which you dread you will find that they are as different as possible from what you have imagined..”

“Love is beautiful, but it is also terrible—terrible in its determination to allow nothing blemished or unworthy to remain in the beloved.”

“He will never be content until He makes me what He is determined I ought to be.”

“it is the loveliest movement in all the world…to cast oneself down is to abandon oneself to ecstasy and joy indescribable.”

“at first sight perhaps the lead does look terrible..but as you can see, the water itself finds no terror in it, no moment of hesitation or shrinking, only joy unspeakable, and full of glory, because it is the movement natural to it. self-giving is its life. it has only one desire, to go down and down and give itself with no reserve or holding back of any kind. you can see that as it obeys that glorious urge the obstacles which look so terrifying are perfectly harmless, and indeed only add to the joy and glory of the movement.”

“always go forward along the path of obedience as far as you know it until I intervene, even if it seems to be leading you where you fear I could never mean you to go..”

“TRUTH cannot be understood from books alone or by any written words, but only by personal growth and development in understanding, and that things written even in the BOOK OF BOOKS can be astonishingly misunderstood while one still lives in the low levels of spiritual experience and on the wrong side of the grave on the mountains..”

"every acceptance of His will becomes an altar of sacrifice, and every such surrender and abandonment of ourselves to His will is a means of furthering us on the way to the High Places to which He desires to bring every child of His while they are still living on earth."


if even ONE of those quotes spoke to you, you NEED to read Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard..trust me, you'll love it.

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained." -C.S. Lewis

when storms rage..

"It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from."


life is beautiful. and as we tend to define what makes it this way we tend to forget where the true beauty lies..in the trials. you see "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." lately i have become more aware of the beauty which lies in my trials. as i am still amidst them, i find that it is the hope that some day soon they will turn to beauty that keeps me going most days. but on top of that i have been able to grasp a new concept which i was reminded of again today.



GOD CHOOSES OUR TRIALS FOR US! this just boggles my mind. just think about it..no only are we created for a purpose, but He picks the trials He allows in to our lives so that He can mold us into the people we are and to prepare us for what only He knows is to come. our valleys are His mountain peeks as He gives us a chance to fight, grow stronger, and cling to Him with all we have. and not only does He plop us down and throw us into the fire of trials..BUT HE WALKS THROUGH THEM WITH US! HE GIVES US THE TRIAL AND THE DIRECTIONS TO FIND OUR WAY OUT!!! it's kind of like walking with a blind fold on yet having someone hold your hand and walk you all the way through, directing you, and preventing you from going way off track or doing really awful damage. but the thing is you have to RELY on Him. you have to acknowledge His presence and LET HIM CARRY YOU! (and remember that sometimes His way of being there for us is sending angels, or even people here on Earth to help us through. i am a strong believer that God reveals Himself through other people in the body..that He does His work through others..you don't have to do this alone, and you don't have to feel like God is too distant..He IS here among us. He is in you and me, His children).

so when you're wondering why you're in a trial, why God lets Satan run rampant around and allows him to have his hand on you..REMEMBER THAT GOD'S GRASP IS FIRMER! Satan may be able to be able to have you in his hand, but HE CAN NEVER TAKE YOUR LIFE!

when we are precious to God we become important to Satan. but in those moments when we begin to fight Satan off and he attacks us even harder..the Lord is faithful at being glued by our side. even when we don't FEEL His presence, we can take great comfort in KNOWING that HE IS WITH US. we must cling to Hebrews 13:5..we must cling to truth.




remember..these trials, this pain, these moments in the valley..He brings them upon us because HE LOVES US and His goal is to use them to urge us to fall deeper into His love, the only love that will get us through these moments of our lives.

when all you have is God, you have all you need. and through these times where you feel lost in the wilderness with no strength to even begin to find your way home, when the waters rage and the winds are violent, know that there He will speak to you tenderly, reveal Himself to you, wait out the storm, and bring you safely to shore, He will bring you safely home. anchor yourself to Truth.





"so much is distilled in our tears, not the least of which is wisdom in living life. i have learned that if you follow your tears, you will find you heart. and if you find your heart, you will find what is dear to God. and if you find what is dear to God, you will find the answer to how you should live life." -ken gire