Beautiful. . .

This past Tuesday I went to the first meeting of a small group that I'm involved with this summer. And it went wonderfully. :) I think that it will be great! But anyways. . . we were talking about beauty, and what God sees as beautiful. We're working through a book called "Want More? Life" by Natalie Lloyd, and the title of the chapter was "You're not pretty; you're beautiful". . . or something to that extent. It talked about David when God chose him to be king, and that section there that talks about God not looking at outward appearances, but instead seeing the heart. And then it asked, if God looked at you, would He see someone beautiful?? Naturally. . . that was kind of an awkward question. I didn't think I could say yes, because I knew that I was by far not a perfect person, and the definition of beauty with God is someone perfect right??? So, I answered that I could only hope.

A few days later. . . I was busy reading a REALLY good book called "Bones of Makaidos", fourth book in the Oracles of Fire series by Bryan Davis, (if you haven't read these books–as well as the first series Dragons in Our Midst–you should go read them. . . . :) They're GOOD!) when I came across a section of the book where a character was asked almost the exact same question as I had had such trouble answering. "Are you truly beautiful in God's eyes?" But her answer wasn't "I can only hope", or some other indefinite answer. She was confident. . . Jesus had cleaned her, so she was wholly pure, and no one could make her believe that she was still buried in her sins.

It clicked.

And I realized how wrong I had been. We should never doubt the cleansing power of Jesus' blood, nor, how beautiful we are in God's sight when we truly rely on His saving grace. No one's perfect; so before I had been led to think that no one could truly be beautiful in God's sight. But sure. . . no one is perfect by their own power, but when we allow Jesus to wash our hearts with His love, we become pure, scrubbed clean of our past sins. That doesn't mean that we can never sin again. . . and we do make mistakes, we fall at times. But that is no reason not to run back to Jesus when we realize that we are wrong, and allow Him to pull us into His arms, and gently wipe away the dirt from our palms and set us back on the right path. And then. . . when God looks at us, we can have no doubt that He will smile and call us His beautiful daughters or handsome sons. :)

So yes. . . I am beautiful.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

P.S. BOOK NEWS! I just finished the 3rd draft of TSOT today!!! WOOT! :D One more, then a few others edit, and on to publishing!!! . . . This is actually happening. . . . . .

Easter!!!!! :D

Happy Easter all!!! :D I hope that you have a special day sharing this day with family and friends, or having a just you and Jesus day. :) Whatever your doing, remember who, and what you're celebrating:

Matthew 26-28

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!!! :D

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

A Path of Perfection

I would just like to direct your attention to the verse for today on the sidebar.

Psalms 18:32

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

How cool is that?!?! It is GOD who arms us with strength, and not only that! He makes our way PERFECT! WOW!!!

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Are you like Josh and Caleb?

This morning, during my time with God, I was reading Numbers 14 when I got thinking about this passage:

(The group has just come back from spying out the promised land.)

² All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! ³ Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" ⁴ And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt." ⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. ⁶ Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. ⁸ If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them." ¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. 

You see, before this, there's not much said about Joshua and Caleb; Caleb stands up and speaks when they are describing what they'd seen there, and their names are mentioned a few times, but that is pretty much it. But after this, they (at least Joshua, but also Caleb I believe) are considered bible heros. What did they do that left such a big impression? After all, they're just two members out of how many Israelites? They're just regular people up till now. But sometimes thats who has the best opportunity to act for Christ. Because we often view our leaders as far above us, but when someone from our numbers takes a stand for what's right, others are sure to follow. Like here, Moses and Aaron could only fall on their faces and plead in that way with them. Then, seeing that, Joshua and Caleb stood up and said what their leaders could not. Basically telling them to keep their cool and trust the Lord, because, since He was with them they had no reason to fear these people, no matter how big and strong they looked. Even in the face of death, they stood on the Lord's side.

    And I got thinking, would I be willing to do that? If my friends started doing something like taking drugs, or practicing wikka or something, would I have the strength to tell them that what they were doing was wrong? I doubt it! I would have to pray EXTREMELY hard for God to give me strength then close my eyes and jump right in. That's just not my personality, I'm not what you'd call a leader. 

    Last year I went to a youth conference and they were talking about leadership. One thing the speaker mentioned which has stuck with me ever since, is that you don't have to have the personality of a leader to be one. You just have to set your standards high and not compromise, and vwala! You're a spiritual leader! Of course included in there is also seeking God's direction, and being totally on fire for him, because without that, you may be a leader, but you're not going to be leading people down the right path. 

    You may be thinking "yeah, sure Josh son of Nun and Caleb son of whoever-it-was stood up, but it didn't work! The Israelites still had to spend 40 years in the dessert." And you're halfway right. Sure the Israelites didn't listen, and they did get punished for that, but neither Josh nor Caleb got punished. If you read on to verse 24 you'll read that Caleb got blessed greatly. "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it." So you see, not so useless after all! Caleb got blessed. And with Josh, he also received God's promise that he also would see the promised land. Just at this time God had different plans for him. Moses took him as his trainee and one day, he would become the leader of the Israelites, and there would serve his Lord farther. Also in verses 37-38 you can see another way which God showed his favor to them. 37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land. They were kept alive, I don't know about you, but I think that that's a pretty big blessing, don't you? 

    All that to say, serving God, and following His command to be strong and lead, does pay off. Even if it didn't, we should obey anyways, just because our God and King asks it of us, and we are at his command.

So, are you a Josh and a Caleb? Or are you more like the other spies? Think on it.

Assr lei∂r ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethOfMena~