ACRES OF HOPE by Shane Barnard and Robbie Seay
He will allure her
He will pursue her
And call her out
To wilderness with flowers in His hand
She is responding
Beat up and hurting
Deserving death
But offerings of life are found instead
She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope
Here in the valley
Walk close beside me
Don’t look back
For love is growing vineyards up ahead
You have called me master
And though you’re in the dark here
Call me friend
And call me lover and marry me for good
She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope
How the story ends is
Love and tenderness in Him
Not safe, but worth it
So the valley’s up ahead
Or the ones we live
We’ll sing together
We’ll sing together
We will sing
We will sing
Oh, to You
We will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead us away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope“Lord, sustain me in the valley. Give me ears to hear Your sweet tender voice and lead me in to acres of hope in this dry and weary land.”"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD,’you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. (Hosea 2:14-16)

the anthem of this season in my life~ Lord, let me listen to Your sweet tender voice as You've brought me into this desert , this dry and weary land were there is no water, hold my hand and be my all, I call You friend, I call You Lover.

Prayers Would Be Just Lovely!

So, I found out yesterday that the mono has relapsed. That explains being exhasted and wanting to give up. Guys, I am at a low. It is hard for me to have faith right now. I am having a hard time experiencing God. Also, I am just so tired, I don't enjoy anything. Please pray for a sister in need. That my will and attitude would conform to His. That I would have joy in the suffering. That I will have the opportunities to truly rest. I love you all and need you all more than ever.
Kate

Speak right to their need

A Pastor I respect wrote this...after he has shared the gospel to a lost soul through the use of a tract, and saw she was untouched still, he writes this:

She had become the victim of a formula. The tract I took her through was set up in a standard evangelical fashion: God loves you, you have sinned, Christ is the only way to God, you must receive Him to have eternal life. But her situation didn’t fit that formula. What finally resonated with her (by God’s grace, after I bailed on the tract) was Jesus’ offer of a new heart. “Yes! I need that,” she said. She could see the futility of her own efforts, the failure of her past attempts at pleasing God, the need for something new inside her. She wanted to trade her mess for the new life Jesus offers. She was practically begging me for the privilege of finding her hope in Jesus. I was trying to get her to phrase it in the language of my tract: acknowledging God’s holiness, turning from sin, and establishing relationship with God through Christ. She was saying, “Nevermind a relationship… I need to be changed on the inside!”
Astute readers are thinking at this point: “Aren’t they the same thing?” Yes. That’s the whole point. So I led her in a prayer acknowledging her brokenness, and turning her life to Jesus, and asking Him to forgive her sin and give her a new heart and never leave her. And under my breath I cursed the tract.
It’s not the tracts that I hate; it’s the formulas. I am realizing now that Jesus never used formulas. He used whatever to talk about the kingdom life. The woman at the well was chatting with him about water, so he offered her living water. The Jews were talking about manna, so he spoke of Himself as the bread which comes down from heaven. The man born blind needed to see, so Jesus spoke of Himself as “the Light of the world” – and then restored the man’s sight to prove it. Modern evangelicalism has reduced conversion to a formula that can be mass-produced in a tract… but it’s just not that simple.

Wow. Jesus never used formulas...Lord, help us to be receptive to You and meet this depraved generation where they are just as you meet us where we are...help us speak right to their hearts, to explain how You meet them right at their needs...whatever that be, a new heart, comfort, forgiveness, peace....thank You that You did that for me.

And sings my soul, how great Thou art, how great Thou art!

He has called me into a season out of ministry. I am taking a break...maybe for the semester, maybe for the year. This is not an easy thing...there is passion He has imparted in my heart for woman that i cannot ignore, but He whispers to me that for now, He wants to pour into me and restore me. It is good, because I am being radically refined...if there was any part of me that was finding validation in the "titles" and "positions" of leadership, it is being stripped fast. It seems that within the ministry circle, we respect people in direct proportion to their leadership responsibilities. That is a sad thing. I want Him to prune that out of my mindset. Although I know He loves me regardless of WHAT I do....i so often think people only love me based on that, only have respect if I am leading...but I have surrendered that. So be it. I am not here to please others, but Him. He has the authority to restore me from my burnt out status, to heal my chronic sickness, but He will not, until I cease to be busy..."when God gets us alone by affliction, heart break, temptation, disappointment, sickness or by thwarted affection, then He begins to expound." It has taken Him so long to get be "alone." But now, here i am revealed, in the desert, led to be spoken to tenderly by my King. God's responsibility is to provide the burning bush, my responsibility is to turn aside...have i been to caught up in "ministry" to turn aside?
It is ok to stop. It is ok to say, I need help. It is ok to walk with humility and know that we don't have it all together. It is ok to lean on the body.
God whispered to me yesterday in quiet time, "I want you to prosper and be in health. I want you to know Me more intimately. If difficulties come, (which they will), it is by My order and for your benefit."
He wants to make all the world has, (even His blessings), seem bitter compared to Himself. What a gracious lesson to learn, what a great God I know.
The original form of Psalm 23:26 is: "He leads me beside waters of rest."
There I will be, walking through the valley, my hand in His, until i reach the waters of rest...where I will be restored. The same One who led me into the valley, will deliver me from the valley. All out of love, as a father to a son-
..."and sings my soul, how great Thou art..."
on my knees, held by a Savior, Kate

this is an entry from my friend Phil's blog-...i loved it and thought is was well worth being read by more...


Lord if I'm the clay then lay me down on Your spinning wheel
"This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 'Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message.' So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him." - Jeremiah 18:1-4
This morning in chapel, the guest speaker for the day talked about making decisions and asking questions. As we are going through life, we need to make sure we are asking the right questions. We need to ask ourselves if we are following Colossians 3:23..."Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."
The speaker this morning held out a ball of clay and said that that was him in college. But he didn't give the entire ball to God. He kept some of the pieces of the ball of clay for himself. "I'll give you all of me, God, oh, except for this part, I can handle it myself, but the rest of me, its all Your's, oh wait, except this, I can handle this part too, but the rest of it is yours." The speaker did this until there was very little left for God and pieces of the original ball of clay lying all about the floor of the chapel. Then he posed to us a question that I think is very pertinent to everyone. Does God need more of you? We always talk about how we need more of God, and undoubtedly we do need more of Him and His strength in order to make it through, but when it concerns the masterpiece that God is trying to create, He needs ALL of us in order to form us to His perfect will. God needs more of me, I'll admit it right now. I haven't given God all of me. I've withheld. It sucks. It sucks knowing that I haven't done my part to allow God to finish His masterpiece.
Do you need more of God, or does God need more of you?

here is my comment---
Phil, I just wanted to let you know that i agree and think you, or the speaker, posed a good question...we are a half-hearted people and God is a whole-hearted God- so the question is why do we hold back? Have we laid down our life, have you counted it all loss compared to the surpassing greatness of know Him? Maybe in theory, but how about in praciticality and real life, day-to-day application...The next question is WHAT do we hold back? What do you cling to yet for our validation and false security...10 time out of 10 it is better to surrender, there is NOTHING better than the freedom and fullness in Christ, and there is no fullness unless there we are giving Him our full self. They are one in the same - your sister, His Bride, Kate