Sunday Morning Musings

It's 7:40 am on a Sunday, and I am up in my sweats with a cup of coffee, checking up of the lives of friends via blogs and listening to the rain outside my window. These are the types of mornings you just want to take a snapshot of and keep handy for when you need a reminder of what it feels like to be content. Maybe it's just because it's Sunday (which means I am already predisposed to being in a good mood) or maybe it's because I know I don't have to go into work tomorrow (another very likely scenario.) That's right... Cher gets the whole week off for Thanksgiving :) I decided to take a little vacation time to finish studying for my last CPA exam, which I will conquer Wednesday. That way, I will truely have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Just kidding :) I could be destitute, alone, and starving this Thanksgiving and still have plenty to be thankful for. My God has never left me or forsaken me, and for that I am eternally thankful.

I just read the blog of my sweet friend Holly Southerland (there's a link on the right if you want to see it) and it helped me solidify a train of thought that I'd been trying to put my finger on all morning. God wasn't joking around when he said "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7).

I just spent an hour writing a new blog based on a quote I pulled from a different friends blog, but ended up deleting most of it in the end... The quote was: "Even if there were no heaven and there were no hell, would you follow Jesus? Would you follow Him for the life, joy, and fulfillment He gives you right now?"

At first I was like... hmm, cool thought! But as I started writing about it I realized that you can't take eternity out of the picture, and you can never fully take "me" out of the picture, because God WANTS "me" to love the love he gives, and relish how good it makes "me" feel! Eternity with Him is a love gift from God, and there is no reason that it should be considered a bad motivation. You can't ever logically take God's universe and his being and "break down the parts" for further analysis... taking eternity out of the picture skews all the other variables and makes the whole journey fruitless. Anyways- I deleted everything I wrote, clicked over to Holly's blog and read what she wrote about a recently engaged friends comment to her. Her thoughts were a perfect example of the thoughts I'd been having...

"And she said to me, “I love watching him be in love with me.” And tonight I was thinking, wow, what a neat picture of how the Church, the Bride of Christ, should respond to Christ’s love for us! Sometimes I think we are tempted to push the love away when we see that God loves us. But Amanda just took it in. And enjoyed it. And I think it is so neat that God is already using their relationship to be a picture to me of the Heavenly Bridegroom and His Bride."

AMEN! That is just what I was thinking. And Holly put it so perfectly :) He loves us, and he wants us to enjoy that love. She inadvertantly referred to this "compartmentalization" of God that so many people attempt today. People feel like they should love others, but feel guilty about relishing in the love themselves... as if God called us to one, but not the other. God didn't give me love and ask me not to soak it in. My favorite thing about God is that he is so "fluid"... that sounds weird - but what I mean is that you cannot, no matter how you try, break Him down and try to explain one part of Him apart from another.

If you've never read the book "Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer, run (no walking.) to the bookstore and pick this up. It is the most potent 117 page book you will ever read. In it, Tozer writes:

"The Father is made of none, "says the Athanasian Creed, " neither created nor begotten... ...God exists in Himself and of Himself. His being He owes to no one. His substance is indivisible. Hae has no parts but is single in His unitary being. The doctrine of the divine unity means not only that there is but one God; it means also that God is simple, uncomplex, one with Himself. The harmony of His being is the result not of a perfect balance of parts but of the absense of parts. Between His attributes no contradiction can exist. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all His attributes are one. All of God does all that God does. He does not divide Himself to perform a work, but works in the total unity of His being."

I'm honestly not sure if I've written this clearly or not - if it makes zero sense, let me know and I'll take it down. But, it makes sense in my head, and I guess that's good enough for me :)

Point being - God is amazing, you can't divide him up and analyze the pieces... he gave us Heaven and Hell, and if those are motivators for staying in the center of God's will, I'm guessing he knew that ahead of time and let it happen anyways. Just like his love - he knew we would give it and receive it... it's a fluid, seamless, synergy that can't be diminished by breakdown.

Okay - well that cleared out my head at least... I'm going to go grab some more coffee and dive into studying for the CPA exam. I've been doing the night church thing - so no worries - I'm not skipping :)

Love y'all - Cher

Houston Coffee Spots

Hey-lo friends. So this weekend I set out to visit a few local coffee spots that would provide a good place for me to study for the CPA exam (1 left! Yay!)

Yesderday I visited Bookstop, which is technically a Barnes and Noble built into the old Alabama theatre on Shephard. The coffee was Starbucks, and oh so good! I got so much studying done there... I just love bookstores.

Today I looked on CitySearch for places with free wifi and ran across Taft Street Coffee. I decided to give it a shot. Upon walking up I was greeted by a man who shook my hand, asked how I'd come across the place, and proceeded to give me a tour of the whole place! Cool! As it turns out, the place is actually the Houston Ecclesia church which I had heard of before. They have built in a coffee house, bookstore, and art gallery. The man invited me to stay for the evening 5:30 service - and considering how I had just spent time that morning in prayer about where I should visit for church, I decided it sounded like a win win to me :) Plus, I ran into a guy who went to Grace with me and we chatted for a little while. God is so cool!

I have been visiting HFBC which I like very much - but tonight we are going to give Ecclesia a try. It is very different from other churches I've ever attended - very artsy and such, but sometimes you just need to let God help you reach outside the box!

Love ya- Cher