Created. Beloved.

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with ABC...

That song will now be stuck in your head. Sorry.

     This morning I read out loud to myself. It was strange at first but as I kept reading out loud the words seemed to impact me more. It helped me focus. Far too often my good intention of sitting and reading the Bible ends up in me making a mental list of things I need to do that are more important than reading. How terrible am I?! Cleaning the bathroom, reading through email, Facebook...these are more important than sitting at the feet of my Savior and soaking up his words? I complain about being thirsty, about not hearing from the Lord when I really need a word, yet there He is with the cup of water I desperately need and I ignore him, taking from the cups of water that look fuller, easier, better. How terrible am I?!

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

     Those words stopped me in my tracks this morning. The words that follow knocked me off my feet. I can not wrap my head around it, and I humbly think that we are not supposed to. I have a hard time realizing that I, Angela, humanoid, wretched sinner, am created in the image of God. Not just any god, but THE God who just said the words and it was so! He knew what Adam and Eve would do in the very next chapters of our story and the words still say "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." The God of love, mercy, justice, grace; in His image I am made. I need to begin again, and again, and again, with the knowledge that we are made in the image of God. Did you hear that? YOU are made in the image of God! I believe that if we truly wrapped this truth around our weary souls, our lives would radically change. No longer measuring ourselves against man, who is fallen, dirty, and wounded. Instead arming our minds and hearts with the incredible truth that we are His children, therefor we have His characteristics, we are his likeness. 

God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness Exodus 34:6
God is jealous for me Exodus 34:14, Deut. 4:24
God is holy Leviticus 19:2
God is not man, he is not a liar Numbers 23:19
God is merciful Deuteronomy 4:31
God is our strength Psalm 73:26
God is wonderful counselor, mighty, everlasting Father, prince of peace Isaiah 9:6
God is forgiving Micah 7:18
God is an avenger ;), he is just Nahum 1:2
God is with us Matthew 1:23, Romans 5:8
God is the God of the impossible Luke 1:37
God is good Luke 18:19
God is love 1 John 4:8 1 Corinthians 13:4
there are MANY more, I encourage you to study the character of God.

     Yes, Eve and Adam ate of the forbidden apple. Yes, we are fallen, sinful men and women, coming up short of His glory every day. I tend to focus on that part of the story and sometimes end there. But it is not the ending, it is a beautifully ugly chapter. In the midst of our sinfulness, God had a plan to redeem us from the very beginning. My prayer today is that we would join God's story of redemption and love. Whether you need to make the first step in accepting Christ as the one and only Savoir of your soul, or if you need to remember your first love today, may you and I revel in the wondrous, freely given, furious, love of God.


     My heart was given to God long ago, 18 years later I continue to pry my fingers open and give my heart back to the One who gave his heart for me. I would like for this messy journey to be clean and orderly, but I am discovering this is not God's way. He delights in taking my mess, your mess, and making it clean. How do you ask? Ask Him, He will show you how, He longs to show you how. He loves you friend.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28

Adventures in Texas

     Doug and I have felt God tugging on our hearts, preparing us for change. We both have a deep desire to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before! Hmm, no, that was someone else's desire. (Maybe I have watched too many Star Trek's recently!)

     We desire to seek out where God is working and join him there. The chance to relocate, start fresh as a married couple, join a thriving community that is living out the gospel, to find a "launching pad" of sorts for us to get overseas-- these are all things we have been spending months praying for. The process of looking for such a place was daunting but God is full of grace. He lead us to three cities that each had family/friends, from those three cities we realized that only one had jobs. church, and family/friends.

     Never ceasing in our prayer we visited my cousin Kelly and her family in March. On our way to their home in Texas, we passed by a brand new Baylor hospital that was opening summer of 2012. Not wanting to mistake it for a "sign" we just tucked that away in our minds and continued on. After a wonderful time getting to know Kelly we returned home. One thing lead to another, and I found myself applying for several positions to Baylor and a other hospitals. Two weeks later I had a job offer! Sparing you all a long story, it took another few weeks to get everything figured out, but I will be starting May 21st June 4th, (in the process of writing this post, we had another change.) God is really working on me, I feel very much like he is bending me all over. I am not very flexible.

     God has just given us the opportunity to join him at The Village Church, in North Dallas. We encourage you to check them out. We have sought God's face, others wisdom and we believe that our next step is to move 6 hours away from our first home, our family and friends. This is not easy, but Christ is worth it. I personally feel that through this move, with all its change, I will grow so much greater than if I remain still.

I am so bad at this blogging business. It took me four days to peck this out on my keyboard! I hear it gets better with practice. Please join us in praying for this time of change in our life. We appreciate you!

::: I will be in Kansas for a little longer, as I wait for the Board of Nursing to process my license... the growing pains have begun :::