listening to lies

this song by shane and shane changed the way i think about spiritual battling. It describes almost exactly the battle that goes on in my head about how im not doing "good enough" for God and how I'm condemned for it. it brought me a lot of grace...and after looking at the comments on the youtube videos, satan apparently uses this on so many people. 

"Embracing Accusation"

The father of lies 
Coming to steal 
Kill and destroy 
All my hopes of being good enough 
I hear him saying cursed are the ones 
Who can’t abide 
He’s right 
Alleluia he’s right! 

The devil is preaching 
The song of the redeemed 
That I am cursed and gone astray 
I cannot gain salvation 
Embracing accusation 

Could the father of lies 
Be telling the truth 
Of God to me tonight? 
If the penalty of sin is death 
Then death is mine 
I hear him saying cursed are the ones 
Who can’t abide 
He’s right 
Alleluia he’s right! 

Oh the devil’s singing over me 
An age old song 
That I am cursed and gone astray 
Singing the first verse so conveniently 
He’s forgotten the refrain 
Jesus saves!

**If you go to www.shaneandshane.com, then click on the part that says "journal", they have some pretty awesome illustrations to their songs lyrics

waterdeep

i utterly love the band Waterdeep, along with the couple who makes up the core of the band - Don and Lori Chaffer.  There is much depth to their lyrics in looking into the brokenness of life and how God enters in, but yet their songs aren't just the same old Christian song that sounds like every other.  It's creative and musically awesome - vocally, lyrically, instrumentally...so great. I want to see them in concert. They have a CD called "Live from Muncie, IN".  For those of you who don't know, that is about 2 hours from my hometown...oh if I had been a Waterdeep fan then! Bummer...but my time will come :) I was listening to the song "He Will Come" when i posted this. It's not one of my favorite songs as far as the overall sound is concerned, but I really enjoy the lyrics as it touches on what God has been doing in my life. 

It also reminds me of what Eric preached on yesterday from 2 Corinthians 1. Our God is the Father of compassion and the God of All Comfort.  I'm stoked for heaven because while God does deliver us from, in, and through things in life (I appreciate the different ways of delivering - very helpful Eric!), heaven is going to be the ultimate deliverance.  We will no longer be stuck in this broken world but will get to BE...stop, rest, and just live with God.  No more darkness, no more fighting, just full freedom.  What an awesome day that will be.  

This song appears on...

Everyone's Beautiful

Dogpaddle
 

He Will Come

by Don Chaffer and Lori Chaffer

Soon it will be hammered into what she calls her silly head
That she really isn’t silly but she’s beautiful instead

But every time she gets a hold of something pretty, it slips away
So she keeps hoping that someday soon

CHORUS

He will come. He will come
He will comfort all that’s hardened
Change the deserts into gardens
And we all will see His face.
He will come. He will come.
He will soften all the starkness
Break the chambers of our darkness
And we’ll all be overwhelmed

She spilled her coffee in her Chevy on the way to work at 8:05
She always thought that she was clumsy and she hated it and wondered why

She can handle any tragedy that happens but not little things like this
So she keeps hoping that someday soon

CHORUS

Within the world of a girl, the words she hears they mean an awful lot
And the music in her mind when she gets older has the lyrics she was taught

And when she gets to heaven all the right things will be said
And He will look on her with favor

CHORUS

All my scars will turn to fountains
All my valleys into mountains
And we all will see His face

All you watchmen lift your voices
Then every boy and girl rejoices
when we’ll all be overwhelmed

keep forgetting...

I keep forgetting to post a picture. Since I'm already at work, I'll post the picture I'll be staring at for the next few days while I'm crater hunting. It's from HiRISE, which you can check out at www.hirise.lpl.arizona.edu 

Science details which you may or may not care about:

-Western rim of impact crater on Elysium Planitia (plain on the Tharsis Rise - highlands of Mars near Olympus Mons and other big volcanoes)

-the largest rayed crater known on Mars, not sure how big but maybe close to 50 km?

-doesn't have a name yet, but is tentatively called Flagstaff

-very nicely defined impact ejecta

 

roomies

this is the family pic from the Spring semester. It never made it to the mantle...

celebration in chaos

So many crazy things have happened today...I like the red in this picture, and it reminds a little of the chaos of today. Allow me to share...:)

Wake up: 9:31 am

Kelsea calls after she sprains her ankle: 9:32 am
Who gets a sprained ankle on the day of their graduation?

Talk to Ariel - Susan's water broke!: 10:37 am
Get emails about Bouchard's

Help Cori get ready for graduation: 12:07 pm
Can you believe it??? wow! they're graduating...

Bryce and Susan have new baby boy!!!: 1:20 pm
They now have the same family dynamic as the Carnaby family :)

What next?!!? Coffee shop with Jesus...whew!

life on seneca st.

I spent a lot of the day here...it was great fun. Good conversation, lovely people, and the presence of God....yeah the Seneca House. Oh, and really really good food. Way to go Eric. :)

mystery solved

We sang this song in Indo all the time (well, Cori says she doesn't remember but I remember singing it with Danny and Andy at least, i think others...). It's a Death Cab song but the only line Danny knew was "this is fact not fiction, for the first time in years...dat dat dat dat dat dat, do do do do do do..." I finally figured out the actual song, what the real name of it is, and the rest of the lyrics: "A Lack of Color". Yeah! Now we can sing the whole thing

here's a fun video to accompany the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jduFDgIr598

a good coffee shop day

Caffe Luce is one of my favorite places in Tucson. This is my favorite drink which I always get there - a 16 oz vanilla soy latte. And the people who work there always do the foam art...so beautiful! Today feels like fall, being so cool and overcast. Its a perfect day to go sit in a coffee shop. Maybe later...

how my soul feels without school

in Indo...

Canadian geese and trees

Finals and life took over for a bit but now SUMMER IS HERE!!! WOOT! Here are some more spring pics of Indiana - pretty flowering trees and Canadian geese. But careful, they're are kinda mean and will hiss and chase you...

meditation on japanese bridges

I think photos of bridges are really cool...especially japanese bridges. They're arched, unlike most Western styled bridges. Very fun indeed...

our front yard

Ok so this isn't our front yard, but a few hours ago, it was close. Emily comes in and says we need to fix something, that there's water poured out all over the yard. To be honest, I thought she might be exaggerating something the sprinkler system did. She was most certainly not. Water had flowed across our front yard, into the alley, and down the alley almost 1 block over to Olsen St. We tore our eyes from Will Smith beating the crap out of aliens in Independence Day and rushed outside. We found the source of the water, but couldn't find the pipe. Daniel could stick his arm all in the hole/ground all the way up to his shoulder! A big leak!!! Since we couldn't figure out how to turn the water off, we woke up our neighbor John to save the day, and he certainly did...the pressure was spiked at the water valve - one of our pipes under our house broke....booo! So he got the water turned off - PRAISE GOD! But as of now, the Plumer House has absolutely no water...even the toilets. Except I microwaved some ice cubes tonight for drinking :) So fyi, if you read this, you're pry one of my closer friends, so I may be comin over to hang out, grab a drink, use the bathroom, shower...ya know, the basics :) Ahhhh community...isn't it great? Thanks in advance

beautiful flowering trees

More pics from the random Japanese garden in Mishawaka. The top one of the buds is different from the other flowers. The others are cherry blossoms (im pretty sure...), but I dont know what the top one is. But they are SO beautiful...it was crazy to see all these blossoms on trees, amidst the green, after coming from Tucson. Magnolias, cherry blossom, red buds, pear trees - it was just amazing. I forget how colorful it is until I haven't been home in a while...very strange. I wish I could have stayed longer, but not lost any time being away from Tucson. Ahhhhh if life worked that way.

meditation on a japanese maple

When I was a kid, I remember cataloging Japanese maple trees when I did a leaf collection in 5th grade. I thought they were so beautiful. They were a deep, rich red and had extra fans providing some variation from the average maple trees that were all over the Michiana area. The trees in Indiana are just starting to bloom and leaf. I was driving around near the river and stumbled upon this random Japanese garden in Mishawaka...weird. But what a little gift and invitation from Jesus so just slow down and walk with him. So I did...and took some pictures. I especially like the bridges there. It was a lovely park. Other pics to come of the garden.