Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

I never paid very much attention to this song until this Christmas- today in church, to be quite honest- but when I listened to the words, it immediately became a favorite. I've been thinking a lot about how the reason we celebrate is because Jesus came to be the fulfillment and mediator of God's perfect covenant with us, and this song says that. I love it.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Oceans From The Rain

And I’m amazed by You, cause You’re never far away
And all that I’ve been through, Your love has never changed

Chorus:
You make oceans from the rain
Breathing life into this place
And I will drown inside your love
Until I see your perfect face

And nothing I’ve acquired means anything at all
Cause you’re everything I needed
You’re so much more than I deserve

(Chorus)

And I thank you Lord
And I thank you Lord
And I thank you Lord
And I thank you Lord

(Chorus)

The blood of Jesus can wash your pain away

~Seventh Day Slumber

Holding on to the promise of strength

I am more sure than ever that God is faithful. He is faithful even in the things I don't even ask for; maybe it's Him opening my eyes to see it, but I've never felt so completely proivided for. First of all, He gives me strength; the other day, in the middle of tons of homework due the next evening, Paul asked me if I was stressed out. "No," I said, "I can't be; if I am, then none of the work will get done." "That's not a good reason not to be stressed out!" He said. And he was right. A good reason is that God gives me endurance at the end of this hard semester to pull through and get everything done, even though it seems like too much to do in too little time. I've also been provided for in a way that's almost like little gifts being left for me around campus all day- I'll be hungry one morning but not want to buy breakfast, or not have time to make some, and Mama Cobb will have left a box of doughnuts in the lobby for us. Or I'll have missed dinner, and some girls will ask me if I want to order a pizza and split the cost. On Thursday night I even found my wal-mart card, which I thought I needed in October but needed even more this week. God is so good :-)
I'm working on my English paper right now, and haven't even done that much work yet today (three hours minus breaks?) but it's thinking-intensive work :P and I thought I'd write a little about my week. It's been lots of homework, but I've seen Paul a bit more than the few weeks before Christmas when he was really busy. We've learned to study together without talking :) He's good at both encouraging me and making sure I do get my work done. Last night we all went to the girls' music fraternity (SAI) concert, which Paul sat through and even seemed to enjoy pretty well even though he's strange and doesn't like much Christmas music. I'm telling you, the boy needs help in that sort of thing... doesn't decorate his room or house at all, doesn't like Christmas music and decorating... boys :P But the concert was fun, and afterward we went to the suites (dorm) for some food a friend made. Good southern food :) Paul left after a little while to go to sleep (he didn't sleep Thursday till Friday morning) and Mary Beth and I stayed and talked to Chris (who made the food) and two guys in the lobby while we held the house mom's tiny kittens... for two and a half hours. They were just so cute! They slept and played and were adorable. Once Mary Beth and I went to her room to watch Ever After, we were so tired that we fell asleep a half an hour in, and she woke up this morning to get ready to go to a short family reunion. She was very nervous, because her boyfriend Jim is meeting her extended family for the first time (I know, I know, I tried to get a claim on Paul for Thanksgiving before his sister did!) and she was, in her own words, "wigging out" about it and the way they're bound to compare Jim and her sister Ani's boyfriend Dan. So I kept her calm and then came back to get my own self ready for the day, and after lunch and laundry, here I am taking a little break from paper-writing. I am so excited about being done in a week and a half... and the Lord will take care of me until then :-)

Prayer and endurance

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [the persevering Christians who have gone before us], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him [remember, we have this joy in Christ too, as daughters by the Spirit of adoption!] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down [what He did because His work was completed] at the right hand of God." ~Hebrews 12:1-2

I sent out an email to mine and Natalie's Bible Study group, which is really just us and our friends- so fun- to see when we could do Bible Study before break, and Amy wrote back saying she'll have to skip out no matter when it is because she has papers to write. I wanted to somehow encourage her to hang in there for one more month, and Hebrews 12:1-2 is what came to mind. Poor Amy is always so stressed, and always writing papers, and I know the other girls are crazy busy too.
So I was thinking of all of you, my favorite people, and I know you are just clinging to Christ now- I know it is a deeper need for endurance, for strength, for hope, for joy, than any of us need to get through end-of-semester craziness. Know that I am praying daily, and I am so blessed to see my favorite women trusting so in the sovereignty of our God. "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe..."
I love you :-) And I will be in Minnesota in a week!

Almost Concert Week

Next Sunday is our choir's concert, which means next week is "concert week"- we will have four hours of practice Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, a practice Sunday, and then the concert once we've practiced :P I am excited, because the pieces are fun to sing and I'm sure they'll sound wonderful in the high-ceilinged old church we're performing in. We are doing the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and Daniel Pinkham's Christmas Contata in D (we start Chritsmas early in the music department ;))
I am off to practice now, thankfully for an hour and a half and not four hours ;)

Snack Time

One of the girls on my hall, Brigita, just brought me some trail mix/granola that she made herself. It's good! And healthy, too. It would be easy to make, and it tastes really good :-) Here's what she put in it:

- oatmeal- just plain old healthy oatmeal!

-dried cranberries

-unsalted almonds

-soybeans

-a few banana chips and maybe some dried apple pieces

It tastes like it would be great heated up with milk, too- all the oatmeal- but it's great just mixed up. Mmm! :-)

*sorry the picture's grainy... the light in my room isn't so good*

Sunday Dinner

Yesterday Mary Beth announced that our friend Jon had told her we were "still on" for making dinner at his house tonight... oh dear... what to make?? I had no idea we were making dinner tonight! So Mary Beth and I ran to Kroger today and this is what we came up with:

Roast Chicken
-A whole chicken, a little celery, garlic, onion, sage, and salt- and a while in the oven. Perfect! Mary Beth did this, and she is amazing.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
-A few red potatoes, and a lot of Yukon Gold potatoes, mashed up with garlic, half and half, salt & pepper... needed something else. The magic ingredient? Chicken broth!

Aparagus
-Tossed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper, this cooked up perfectly in a skillet while the chicken finished. Mmm :-)

Garlic Bread
-Natalie's specialty. We just picked up some italian bread at the store, and she buttered and season it. The two loaves she made went very quickly!

And Jon's contribution: Hot chocolate to drink with dinner!
Oh, and our friend Chris, who couldn't even come, sent over an amazing pumpkin pie with Dane, and after we were all so full! Wow. :-)

After two hours of much space-sharing in Jon's counter-space-less kitchen, we ate dinner and had a lot of fun. I brought the (few) leftovers over to Paul's house, where he and was having a study "party" for Greek class. He wasn't expecting any of the food, so he was pretty happy :-) Sometime this week I will make vegetable stock with the leftover vegetables and garlic, just as soon as I can get a carrot or two and maybe some mushrooms. Yay!