So, Wednesday just about killed us all here. What a day. It has been a day of exhaustion, true brain power and learning. I needed to take a minute and just breathe.
“You’ve been invited to taste & see. Don’t be satisfied to just believe & agree.”
“I do the very best I know how–the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”
Abraham Lincoln
“Maybe the heart is tired because it has been fed with all the wrong things.”
Unknown
“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.”
Martin Luther
“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
“I have learned that if all we ever do is seek God’s hand, we may miss His face; but if we seek His face, He will be glad to open His hand and satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts.”
Daniel Henderson
Today, I learned:
Note to self: Don’t seek to be relevant, or liked, seek to be undeniable. Seek to be compassionate. Seek integrity. Seek humility. Seek light. -Unknown
Happy Monday! Freezing rain and snow have made us go slippin’ and slidin’ to school. This week is going to be a challenge. Time to get some inspiration in the veins.
I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.
Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena
Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.
Vincent van Gogh
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Theresa
These are the days that must happen to you.
Walt Whitman
The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in a single, solitary, even humble individual. For it is within the soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.
Henry David Thoreau
It’s part of our human condition: We want to be known. We want to be great. And God is whispering it to our love-hungry hearts:
You already are. You are known.
You are loved. You are approved. Look how much.
Ann Voskamp
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke
People matter, not organizations and systems. People. People. People.
Alex Seeley
Love does not pamper. It prunes and perfects and pursues. It is a sweet embrace and a sanctifying chisel.
J.S. Park
Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.
The first chapter of 2015 has just closed, and we turn the page. New beginnings; new challenges; new inspiration. I hope that you find a bit of hope, laughs, reflection and fun in this corner of January favorites.
1] Girl Meets World knows the New York struggle.
2] I’ve read a lot of Isaac Newton recently.
“Sir Isaac Newton was asked how he discovered the law of gravity. He replied, ‘By thinking about it all the time.'”
3] Hilarious. Cats.
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“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.” Job 6:24
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“God who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” C.S. Lewis
8] Macarena Garcia being retro.
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“It is easier to hide behind philosophical arguments, heavily footnoted for effect, than it is to admit our hurts, our confusions, our loves, and our passions in the marketplace of life’s heartfelt transactions.” Ravi Zacharias
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11] @YasminSewell had her baby on New Years Day. (from @YasminSewell)
12] This man writes so beautifully. T.B. LaBerge, I am a fan.
“Does she scare you a little? Good. She should make you fear her love, so that when she lets you be apart of it, you won’t take it lightly. She should remind you of the power that beauty brings, that storms reside in her veins, and that she still wants you in the middle of it all. Do not take this soul for granted, for she is fierce, and she can take you places that you never thought you could go; but she is still loving in the midst of it all, like the calm rain after a storm, she can bring life. Learn her, and cherish her, respect her, and love her; for she is so much more than a pretty face, she is a soul on fire.” T.B. LaBerge// Things I am Still Learning at 25
13] Leila Bekhti’s hairstyle. Perfection.
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“Whatever you immerse yourself in is what will pour out of you. Today and everyday, I’m choosing to make that Jesus.” -Unknown
15] Zidane.
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“It’s better to know God than to know why.” Unknown
17] Always.
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“Listen–are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” Mary Oliver
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24] I hope that at the end of 2015, we say this:
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28] The job search face. 🙂
29] Books are friends. Read something that will change your life.
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31] Open the windows to your heart to let light stream in.
32] Things to write home about: Blizzard?
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38] Blanca Suarez
39] New Yorker humor.
40] #JeSuisNico is epic.
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46] The Grace Tour came to Gainesville, Florida, and I got to see them. It was such a blessed time. Grace, service, ministry and transformation.
“We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I finished the book of Deuteronomy today. I finished the books of the law. As I continue to journey on through scripture, I am studying and scribbling down notes and observations. It is incredible when scripture brings you to see God and His character in a clearer way, and it can be impacting when it brings you face to face with yourself.
Tonight, after much praying, reading, discussion and thought, all I can say is:
The law of non-contradiction always seems to emerge. The minute you try to disprove it, you use it because of your belief that you are right and the other is wrong. It is strange that those who use the law of non-contradiction to disprove what they don’t like or understand have many contradictions in their lives. You can’t have free love and have a secure marriage, you cannot keep punctuating things with “and.” In efforts to find himself, man’s desires have him contradicting himself. -Ravi Zacharias (paraphrase)
It is interesting how in law, science, philosophy, and in so many other fields, one must be careful as to what one uses as evidence. A lot of what is used as evidence is built on assumptions that if absent, all falls apart.
Too often, we want to find what supports what we want to be true, but we forget that truth is truth regardless of our desires. We can’t have it all. Some things won’t be reconciled; they aren’t meant to hold hands.
Reading through the Old Testament has been such a treat. I am only in the book of Deuteronomy (still sticking to my 90-day challenge), and truly, it’s amazing how the Bible is a fountain in which one can find new things and learn, no matter how many times you have read certain passages. Studying intensely has been such a blessing. It’s great to see how God manifested His glory and was in control, time and time again. It brings us encouragement as we face our problems and struggles, today. We see that our struggles are not something God has not faced before, but that He is waiting for us to recognize Him as God, so He can demonstrate that “He alone is God,” as Doctor Tony Evans likes to say. “Your situation may be different, but your God is not; you serve the same God,” Dr. Tony Evans said in a message I recently heard.
Dr. Evans said, if you are in a financial crisis, see the widow who was down to her last meal, and see how God provided for her. If you need to know where to go, see Moses who was between Pharaoh and the Red Sea, and God opened a road that no one could have predicted. Dr. Evans insists that our problems, issues and insecurities are not a test case for God, instead we should look to the Bible which is full of testimony. When our problems look like Old Testament problems, look to see how God intervened when people called on His name.
I have had many prayers answered recently; for that I am so grateful. There is still a lot on my heart, and I know others are in the same situation. We wait on God in faith. God has placed people in my path who have spoken words I really needed to hear. Through the wait, God prepares our hearts.
Whatever you are going through, remember that God has the final say.
Here is some inspiration for today:
“Retreat to what you know about God. Never let your feelings sit in judgment over your faith.” Dr. Tony Evans
“I want to be a woman who overcomes obstacles by tackling them in faith instead of tiptoeing around them in fear.” Renee Swope
It is not until we are in spiritual and philosophical bankruptcy that we find God. When God wrestled with Jacob, Jacob told Him that he will not let go of Him until He blessed him. God asked him, “Who are you?” And finally, Jacob spoke truth and said, “I am Jacob.” His name means deceiver and cheat. It wasn’t until Jacob acknowledged who he was, that God told him that He would bless him and change his name. [Paraphrase from Ravi Zacharias]
“And stop asking why do bad things happen to good people, don’t do that. You should be asking, ‘Why does God give sinners grace?’ God’s plan is perfect. Isaiah 55:8-9 says it clearly, My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts. As far as the heaven is from the earth, that is how much differently I think than you. Stop trying to be God, and just trust God.” Jeremy Anderson
“Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself, and he is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with God.” Thomas Merton
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him, and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.” Deuteronomy 7:9
“You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.” Deuteronomy 3:22
“You will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29
[Based on A Crisis that Cries for Revival by Dr. Tony Evans/ Image from Tumblr]
«Ce mec est l’une des plus belles personnes que je connaisse. Quelqu’un de profondément gentil. On a vécu des choses qui nous permettent de savoir qui nous sommes vraiment. C’est un ami avec un grand A». Leila Bekhti
“God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” Numbers 23:19
GABRIELA YARELIZ 