Month: February 2016

Closer

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

The closer I get to You

Lord

the less I desire the praise of people

the less I desire to please them

the less I am offended by them.

I gaze at You

and all the empty spaces are filled up.

 

– Susie Stewart

 

One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the Lord And to meditate in His temple.

– Psalm 27:4 (AMP)

 

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT)

 

 

Photo by Gracie Oertli

 

Adopted

/ Susie Stewart / 2 Comments

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but He does more.  He give you His name.  It would be enough if God just set you free, but He does more.  He takes you home…

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone.  I certainly don’t mean to offend ny biological parents – I’m one myself.  We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child.  But in many cases our cribs were filled easily.  We decided to have a child and a child came.  In fact, sometimes the child came with no decision.  I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption.

That’s why adoptive parents understand God’s passion to adopt us.  They know what it means to feel an empty space inside.  They know what it means to hunt, to set out on a mission, and take responsibility for a child with a spotted past and a dubious future.  If anybody understands God’s ardor for His children, it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us.

God has adopted you.  God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.

– Max Lucado

 

Long ago, before God made the world, God chose us to be His very own, through what Christ would do for us;  He decided then to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault we who stand before Him covered in His love.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us.  And He did this because He wanted to.

– Ephesians 1:3-5 (TLB)

 

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out “Abba!  Father!”  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

– Romans 8:15-16 (NASB)

 

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

– Galatians 4:4-5 (NASB)

 

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Photos by Susie Stewart & Andy Stewart

Steady

/ Susie Stewart / 3 Comments

Steady gaze
Upon Your face
Steady eyes
Drinking in Your grace
Steady ears
Anxious to hear
Steady arms
Knowing Your near
Steady thoughts
Of You and Your life
Fragrancing my heart
Perfuming the strife
Steady gaze
Constant abide
Walking with You
Right by my side.

– LeeLee Dart

 

. . . this one committal, this one great volitional act which establishes the heart’s intention to gaze forever upon Jesus. God takes this intention for our choice and makes what allowances he must for the thousand distractions which beset us in this evil world. He knows that we have set the direction of our hearts toward Jesus, and we can know it too, and comfort ourselves with the knowledge that a habit of soul is forming which will become, after a while, a sort of spiritual reflex requiring no more conscious effort on our part.

Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied on the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves — blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

– AW Tozer

 

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

– Hebrews 12:2 (NLT)

 

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.”

– John 15:5 (NLT)

 

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

– 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)

 

Photo by Arik Stewart

Extraordinary

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Since our heavenly Father’s goal is to help us reach our full spiritual potential as believers in Christ, we will be challenged by the things He calls us to do. Sometimes really challenged…This is God’s way. Putting extraordinary tasks on the plates of ordinary people so that ordinary people can see what an extraordinary God can do through them…what He’s saying to you may sound impossible. But if you’ll just follow Him in stunned, submitted obedience, stepping out of your cozy comfort zone, you’ll find you’re leaving the realm of your natural abilities behind and entering the realm of His supernatural ones.

– PriscilIa Shirer

 

I replied, “I’m not a good speaker, Lord, and I’m too young.”
“Don’t say you’re too young,” the Lord answered. “If I tell you to go and speak to someone, then go! And when I tell you what to say, don’t leave out a word! I promise to be with you and keep you safe, so don’t be afraid.”

– Jeremiah 1:6-8 (CEV)

 

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

– John 14:12 (NLT)

 

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

– Matthew 5:14-16 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Tight Grip

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

I know your hand is outstretched

and I know You are trustworthy

so I choose to reach up to You

to grasp Your hand tightly

and to follow where You lead

 

The world is reaching out its hand to me too

with empty promises

and things that don’t fill

and roads with dead ends

 

I choose not to reach down

and take the hand of the world

for it will never satisfy

and there are many broken, plastic, soul-starved people

appearing fulfilled,

but are not

as they hold the hand of the world

 

I follow You, Jesus.

 

For every life has sorrow

and every life pain

and every life has its struggles,

but no matter the road

I want to be holding on to You

and despair will not come

 

 

You will strengthen

and comfort

and uphold

and inspire

and defend

 

and always Love

 

I am IN this world,

but holding tight to You

I will not be pulled downward

For I am IN it

but not OF it

 

I am free

 

My otherworldliness comes

by citizenship

in Your beautiful Kingdom.

 

I will follow the King.

 

– Susie Stewart

 

 

If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there Your hand will guide me,
and Your strength will support me.

– Psalm 139:9,10 (NIV)

 

So I let them follow their own stubborn desires,
living according to their own ideas.
Oh, that my people would listen to Me!
Oh, that Israel would follow Me, walking in My paths!
How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!
How soon My hands would be upon their foes!

– Psalm 81:12-14 (NLT)

 

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.

– Luke 14:27 (NIV)

 

 

Your own ears will hear Him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.

– Isaiah 30:21 (NLT)

 

But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

– Mark 9:27 (NLT)

 

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.

– 1 John 2:15 (NLT)

 

“My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given Me, because they belong to You.  All who are Mine belong to You, and You have given them to Me, so they bring Me glory.  Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to You. Holy Father, You have given Me Your name; now protect them by the power of Your name so that they will be united just as We are.  During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name You gave Me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.

“Now I am coming to You. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with My joy.  I have given them Your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  I’m not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.  They do not belong to this world any more than I do.  Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your word, which is truth.  Just as You sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world.  And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by Your truth.

– John 17:9-19 (NLT)

Worth

/ Susie Stewart / 1 Comment

It takes a profound conversion to accept that God is relentlessly tender and compassionate toward us just as we are — not in spite of our sins and faults (that would not be total acceptance), but with them.  Though God does not condone or sanction evil, He does not withhold His love because there is evil in us.

– Brennan Manning

 

We cannot accept love from another human being when we do not love ourselves, much less accept that God could possibly love us.

– Anonymous

 

Our courteous Lord does not want His servants to despair because they fall often and grievously;  for our falling does not hinder Him in loving us.

– Julian of Norwich

 

Many Christians…find themselves defeated by the most psychological weapon that satan uses against them.  This weapon has the effectiveness of  deadly missile.  Its name?  Low self-esteem.  Satan’s greatest psychological weapon is a gut level feeling of inferiority, inadequacy, and low self-worth.  This feeling shackles many Christians, in spite of wonderful spiritual experiences and knowledge of God’s Word.  Although they understand their position as sons and daughters of God, they are tied up in knots, bound by a terrible feeling of inferiority, and chained to a deep sense of worthlessness.

– David Seamands

 

But God loves who we really are — whether we like it or not.  God calls us, as He did Adam, to come out of hiding.  No amount of spiritual makeup can render us more presentable to Him.  As Merton said, “The reason we never enter into the deepest reality of our relationship with God is that we so seldom acknowledge our utter nothingness before Him.”  His love, which called us into existence, calls us to come out of self-hatred and to step into His truth.  “Come to me now,” Jesus says.  “Acknowledge and accept who I want to be for you:  A Savior of boundless compassion, infinite patience, unbearable forgiveness, and love that keeps no score of wrongs.  Quit projecting onto Me your own feelings about yourself.  At this moment your life is a bruised reed and I will not crush it, a smoldering wick and I will not quench it.  You are in a safe place.”

– Brennan Manning

 

…love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8 (NLT)

 

A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

– Isaiah 42:3 (NIV)

 

Father,

My worth

is tied beautifully to Your complete worthiness

and Your love for me.

 

Let me not slip into

corrosive thoughts self-degrading

preoccupied

with my failures.

 

But keep me in

the place

where I know

I’m completely dependent on You

and loved beyond reason.

 

 

Surrendered to grace

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

 

 

A Child Lost

/ Susie Stewart / 3 Comments

She was about to be hit by a car

 

She was unaware

and rode her bike into traffic

 

And the three-lanes-deep only noticed her small figure

as she entered each lane

 

We were coming down the hill

and could see the scene play out

from our car

 

It was terrible

and we couldn’t get there fast enough

to warn the cars,

also unaware,

that a girl of only 10

was riding her bike in heavy traffic

 

Struggling to pedal,

seemingly in a hypnotic state,

she slowly made her way,

with screeching car brakes beside her

and people watching

as if it were a dream

 

And what should they do?

 

This can’t be real

 

My heart seems to stop

and I let out bursts of,

“No, watch out!  No!  No!  Don’t hit her!…”

 

and I thought

this would end soon

in horror

 

As we near the child

and see that each lane has stopped in time

she makes her way to the edge of the road

 

people moving on slowly,

destinations in mind

 

And I was in our car

two lanes from her

and my mama heart

could take it no longer

 

I told my husband to stop the car

 

“I’ve got to get out!”

and he knew the tone

and he knew this young girl needed someone,

for she continued riding along, swervingly,

right next to stunned but moving-on cars

 

And me in my heels

just out of church

start across the slow traffic

aware of the danger

and cautiously making my way to the girl

 

I reach her

and I don’t

 

She keeps struggling along the side of the road

on her bike

ignoring my voice

 

Was she drugged?

Was she traumatized?

 

She stops.

 

I stand in front of her

holding her handle bars

and she stares through me

as if I were transparent

 

I speak softly

 

“Sweetheart, what is your name?”

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Where are you going?”

“Who are your dad and mom?”

 

Nothing

 

She pushes my hands off of her handlebars

and lays her bike down,

starting to run along the sidewalk

 

By now, husband is parked along the road,

another car has stopped,

and a man is also following

trying to help

 

911 is dialed

 

And I think to myself,

“What a strange scene I find myself in…”

 

A young girl

with messed up hair

and pajamas

jogging down the sidewalk,

a man chasing after her,

and me behind,

trying to catch up in high heels

while vehicles drive past

staring

 

I just want this dear one to be out of danger!

 

I am motivated along

by a deep concern

for this child’s safety

 

a stranger’s child

 

The girl heads back our way

to get her bike,

and as she does

both the man and I

gently but firmly

keep the bike put

 

The dazed girl straddles it

trying to free our hands gripping

 

Question after question is met with distant stares

and a noise here and there

 

And as I look into her vacant blue eyes

beneath dirty, straggly hair,

and she starts to pound on her own head,

I realize

that she is most likely

autistic

and

non-verbal

 

And my heart saddens

for this precious girl

and her parents

 

for this is their reality

every day

 

A deep bond

and eyes lit up with knowing

is not happening

for this family

 

There is brokenness

and pain

 

And as the policemen arrive

and so kindly keep this child calm

we find out that her mama is looking for her

and she is on her way

 

We are no longer needed

“You can go now.”

 

My heart is heavy

as we drive away

 

I snap a photo in the rearview mirror

because I don’t want to forget

when God showed me what some go through

and how that must hurt

and tire

and discourage

 

And how God showed me

that each life matters

and His caring God-image is stamped on my heart

 

And how this scene,

this confusing

and scary

and hold-your-breath point in time

is a picture

of how our loving God,

Knowing,

Forgiving,

and Just

chases us down the dangerous road

finding at times

people staring

but not seeing

 

People not responding to Him

to His love

to His concern

to His heart

 

And these people need to be safe in Him!

These people need to have His protection!

 

And He keeps pursuing

 

And He will

 

For that is His heart

and He seeks to save.

 

– Susie Stewart

 

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

– Luke 19:10 (NIV)

 

Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.  The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.  About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.  He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.  The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!  I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.  His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’

“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.  And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house,  and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.  Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.  We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

– Luke 15:11-32 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Obey

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

A world of confusion and disappointment results from trying to believe without obeying.  This puts us in the position of a bird trying to fly with one wing.  We merely flap in a circle and seek to cheer our hearts with the hope that the whirling ball of fathers is proof that a revival is under way.

– A.W. Tozer

 

Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:3 (NLT)

 

And he is, to them, ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence’. Yes, they stumble at the Word of God for in their hearts they are unwilling to obey it—which makes stumbling a foregone conclusion. But you are God’s “chosen generation”, His “royal priesthood”, His “holy nation”, His “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you. It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of Him who has called you out of darkness into His amazing light. In the past you were not “a people” at all: now you are the people of God. In the past you had no experience of His mercy, but now it is intimately yours.

– 1 Peter 2:7-9 (PHILLIPS)

 

Jesus said, “I will do what the Father requires of Me, so that the world will know that I love the Father.”

John 14:31 (NLT)

 

‘Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, so that it may be well with you.’

– Jeremiah 7:23 (AMP)

 

By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back from living by your righteous order. Everything’s falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word. Festoon me with your finest sayings, God; teach me your holy rules. My life is as close as my own hands, but I don’t forget what you have revealed. The wicked do their best to throw me off track, but I don’t swerve an inch from your course. I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever— what a gift! And how happy it makes me! I concentrate on doing exactly what you say— I always have and always will.

– Psalm 119:111-113 (MSG)

 

Obedience is the key to real faith.

– Chuck Colson

 

Photo by Arik Stewart

Love Never Fails

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Love never fails.

– 1 Corinthians 13:8 (NIV)

 

Love is the river that flows through. Love is the arms that are holding you. Love is the place you will fly to. Love never fails you.

-Brandon Heath

 

You stay the same through the ages. Your love never changes. There may be pain in the night. But joy comes in the morning.
The wind is strong and the water’s deep. I’m not alone here in these open seas cause Your love never fails.

-Newsboys

 

Higher than the mountains that I face. Stronger than the power of the grave. Constant in the trial and the change. One thing remains.
In death. In life. I’m confident and covered by the power of your great love.
My debt is paid. There’s nothing that can separate my heart from Your great love.
Your love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on me.

-Jesus Culture

 

Love never fails.

 

Everything else

Everyone else

may fall away

but God will never fail

you

 

He is the Love

the Constant

you are searching for.

 

– Susie Stewart

 

This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to Him.

– John 3:15-17 (MSG)

 

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Love Always Hopes

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Love always hopes…

– 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)

 

Love is hope when reason despairs.

– Jack Hyles

 

If you’ll quit moaning and crying, I’ll use the things to make you into someone I can use in the lives of others to show them that no matter where they’ve been, no matter how deep the hole, no matter how painful the trial, there’s hope. There is victory.

– Kay Arthur

 

Love always points to a brighter day ahead. Love is the lifeline that the hurting can hold on to.

– Philip Ryken

 

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

– Romans 5:2-5 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart