Lord Most High

From the ends of the earth
From the depth of teh sea
From the heights of the heavens
Your name be praised

Throughout the endless ages
You will be crowned with praises, Lord Most High
Exalted in every nation, Soverign of all creation
Lord Most High, be magnified

From the hearts of the weak
From the shouts of teh strong
From the lips of all people
This song we raise Lord

It's Your Blood

It's your Blood that cleanses me
It's your blood that give me life
It's you blood that took my place
In redeeming sacrifice
Wahses me....Whiter than the snow, than the snow
My Jesus, God's precious Sacrifice

You are the Potter

You are the Potter I am the clay
You're will, not mine, be done
Please mold me and lead me in your way
Until my life, a victory won

Please hold me gently lest I fall
Keep me close to your side
Teach me to listen to your soft gentle call
And may I fall into your arms open wide

Your burden is light
And easy to bear
But give me the might
To wait in time of unanswered prayer

My mind is confused
And my heart is in pain
As for the countries good a soldier is used
May it all be to Christ's gain

As I wait longingly for You
And hold fast to Your Word
May each day fly by
As in your timing You fulfill the promises I have heard.

My Job

So much to do so little time…between answering the phone for the entire company, helping customers with technical support, processing hundreds of orders, taking callbacks for sales, boxing packages in shipping I am kept fairly busy at my job. Most of the time I am just Janel at customer support answering the phone and telling customers what to do to make their software work. I enjoy my job and the people I work with. I’m convinced that my department and my manager are the best in the entire company (if not the entire country). Since I came back to my job at the end of the summer things have been busy but relaxing. Each day I get to work early and leave early and have the majority of the afternoon to spend time with my family, work in my garden and read lots of books.

Soon this will all change and I’ll be going back to school. I’m excited to be back in the academic environment. I have not been to school in over a year and I’m excited to meet new people and learn new things. I may be working part time at my job which also excites me a lot. I’ll miss seeing every one every day….but at least for a while I’ll still be working one day a week and will be able to spend time with my friends and my customers then.

The Grass

Grass cannot call for dew asn I do. Surely the Lord who visits the unparying plant will answer His pleading child.
C.H. Spurgeon

Leadership Part 2

As I looked through the Bible for places where the word “lead” was mentioned I found a variety of things. I think that each of the different references has a very different meaning, some are comforting, some are commands, some are facts fro history. I wanted to share some of the ones that were special to me with you.


Hebrews 13:17 “obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls”

This was a very sobering for me both as someone under the authority who needs to obey, but even more as someone who has a certain amount of authority and who is to keep watch over the souls of those who I'm in leadership over. This is especially sobering when I think about the fact that it is my hearts desire to be a mother some day. I will be in part for watching out for the souls of my children as I lead them. Scary.

Psalms 23:2 “He leads me beside quiet waters”

Oh, was a great promise. This must be one of the most comforting passages found in scripture. The Lord leads us beside still waters. These aren't just any waters. These are not fast moving waters...sheep are afraid of fast moving waters. No, this is waters where the Shepherd can bring His sheep and they have no fear. I imagine deep quiet pools of fresh water. Perhaps there is the stream of God's word pouring into our hearts as God brings us to the still and quiet waters of a heart at peace with Him.

Isaiah 53:7 “...Like a lamb that is led to slaughter...”

Mark 15:20 “...[they] led Him out to crucify Him”

Jesus allowed Himself to be led to the worst place of all. He was led not only to the pain of crusifiction but also to separation from the Father God. The first and last time in all of history when the Trinity was separated. It may be that some day we face persecution and will be led to slaughter for what we believe but fortunately we will never be led in this way away from the Fathers love. The only thing that can lead us away is our own selfishness and empty conceit.

Romans 15:20 “For all who are being led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God”

Oh, I long so much to be led by the spirit of God, but too often I find myself being led by other things. That old man keeps popping in his ugly face and I have to chose to slay him daily. God empowers me to do this but I still much chose to use that empowerment and resist the urge to be led by things other than God.

Leadership is a passion of mine. I do want to obey those who God has placed in authority but I find this a less daunting task than leading. I want to be able to follow the Lord so that I can lead those he puts over me. I hope and pray that He will give me children some day that I will be responsible for leading to Himself and I hope to be well prepared as a leader and teacher for them.

This concludes this series. I figured I should keep it short and sweet this time since last time was so long and stretched out. I hope to keep with this trend and have shorter more compact series. One of my desires in this blog is to challenge your thinking and to bring you to the word of God.

Leadership Part 1

This summer I learned a lot about leading. Actually I learned a lot more than I would have liked to. The most important thing that I learned is that if the leader has a good relationship with the Lord not every thing will automatically go well, but if the leader has a bad relationship with the Lord then things will automatically go wrong.

Wow, I've never had a time where I had to distance myself from what I was feeling quite like I did this summer. There were so many times when I just had to give something to the Lord because there was nothing I could do. There were also times, more than I would like to admit, that I took matters into my own hands and fretted over situations until I became weepy and despondent. Nothing like having a depressed director.

The Lord did wonders in my life to show me my sin of pride when it came to leading. There were times when I needed to be firm about what was right even when I so wanted to join in on what wasn't so right. My flesh longed to be a part of what every one else was doing, but if I had participated then things would have become very unruly. God also showed me that a leader must admit when they are wrong. I had to do this multiple times this summer and there are probably things that I should have admitted that I didn't even think of or know about.

Even when I was responding rightly to the Lord the day wasn't guaranteed to go well. I could have a great time with the Lord and be well prepared, but Satan could stick his little face in the way of every thing we were doing and ruin the day. Many times I prayed for the protection of those I was leading from the devils whiles. God did answer my prayer in this and helped the other leaders and I believe the children to grow more in godliness.

The biggest lesson I learned is that it is neither easy nor fun to be the one in charge. Being the top dog may sound like fun for a little while, but then see how you like it once something goes wrong and you are the one responsible for making sure that it gets fixed. What about when people aren't getting along and you are responsible for getting to the bottom of the matter. What about when someone gets hurt and you are the lucky one who gets to explain to parents. There really are more miserable jobs than fun jobs when it comes to leading. It isn't something you chose for fun but that you chose because you must. God did not give me peace last winter until I agreed to lead camps for this summer. I think it is a good thing God doesn't really give us a choice in these things of what our preference would be, because I know I would always take the easy way and if I always take the easy way then I know that I will never grow.

Another thing that I learned was to appreciate the leaders in my life more. Working with several pastors this summer showed me the agony that they constantly go through with every thing I had to deal with and so much more. They learn to do it with grace and diligence. Each pastor I got to know worked very hard and cared about people very very much. I was so glad that I got to see them in action and learn from their example. I truly admire spiritual leaders.