Bless the Lord

Today we sang this song at church and I absolutely LOVED it. Here are the lyrics. Keep in mind I just got back from our choir tour where I sang pretty much constantly. My favorite part is "sing like never before." That's how I want to approach worship. Singing like I've never sung before. Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before O my soul I'll worship Your holy name The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning It's time to sing Your song again Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me Let me be singing when the evening comes You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger Your name is great, and Your heart is kind For all Your goodness I will keep on singing Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find And on that day when my strength is failing The end draws near and my time has come Still my soul will sing Your praise unending Ten thousand years and then forevermore Jesus, I'll worship Your holy name Lord, I'll worship Your holy name Sing like never before O my soul I'll worship Your holy name Jesus, I'll worship Your holy name I'll worship Your holy name

You can't go wrong with Hudson

"I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where he places me, or how." - Hudson Taylor Can I get an Amen? My "little" brother sent me that quote last week when I REALLY needed to hear it. Regan of course had no idea. All he knew is that his Asia-crazy sister likes Hudson Taylor! Hahaha. After this week I'll get to travel again out of the U.S. and get close to what has been my favorite place outside of the United States. How I need to be reminded.... "It makes no matter where...." Why? "His will is mine." Dear Lord, may that be true of us.

How Firm a Foundation

For right now I'm going to blog on both WordPress and Blogspot until I figure out how to follow everybody on both. Here's the lyrics to a song we sang a lot in Chamber Chorale. I love it.

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am your God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand."

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!"

Happy New Year!

Wow, it's been almost 6 months since I posted. I'm now on wordpress so you can follow me there...http://hilary062.wordpress.com/

This has been a full year. It’s been full of surprises, disappointments, and adventures. The spring semester last year was the best I can ever remember. It even topped college. There were so many good friends and good times. The summer was a rough patch spiritually which led into the hardest semester of my life. I’ve never been ready to get home for Christmas Break like I was this year. But I have learned SO much. Here are 11 lessons learned in 2011:

1. Pray (a lot)

2. Waiting is good for you

3. God is definitely a God of surprises. It is one of my most favorite things.

4. God is incredibly faithful.

5. And a lesson I learned last night…He is acting on behalf of His children even when we have no idea what is going on.

6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Prov. 3:4-5 I think)

7. I would be completely lost without my family

8. Life is not always perfect

9. I’m incredibly thankful for the wonderful friends God has given me. I can’t even express how much my friends have meant to me this semester.

10. You never know what is going to happen and it is incredible that God does.

11. Malachi is an awesome book in the Bible.

All in all it was a good year. Not easy, but good. I don’t know if I would do it over again, but thankfully I don’t have to make that decision. I wouldn’t want to have skipped it. I’ve been studying in Malachi very slowly over the last few months. Here is the verse that made me want to dig in deeper.

“But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves realeased from the stall.” Malachi 4:2

Only God knows what will happen in 2012, but I know I’m so excited!!!

Birthday!!

I had a wonderful birthday this year! I was able to celebrate with my friends from school and with my family!

The cake that Laura made. Delicious!!

Surprise package in the mail at school!

My cousin got me an embroidered silk wall hanging from China! Love it!

Me and the guys on the way to family dinner at the Olive Garden.

Let My People Go!!!

This weekend I planned on an exodus from Fort Worth to Austin to spend the weekend with my family. Too bad I had to go through the 10 plagues to get to the Promised Land. The journey to the car was worth a blog post, and what happened after I got to the car made it even better. So here we go. Disclaimer: any similarity to the Bible story is purely coincidence. =)

Like the Israelites, I wanted to leave in haste to beat traffic, so I grabbed the guitar, my overnight bag, and my watermelon (I had a watermelon that I needed to eat) and headed downstairs. Unfortunately my sandal slipped off my ankle and I was scared everything was going to go flying everywhere. Thankfully I made it down the elevator and out the front door. I got to the car and loaded everything inside and then the plagues hit (not all of the plagues were really bad, just funny things that happened).

1) The Passover meal:(aka peanut butter, yogurt, frozen grapes, and a ricecake). I forgot it. The whole point was to make one trip. Fail. I ran back upstairs got my dinner and set off for the Promised Land...or so I thought
2) The plague of the flat tire: I made it about 20 feet when I realized my car was driving somewhat crooked. I parked the car at the end of the parking lot and looked. Yep. Flat tire. REALLY flat tire.

So I got my cell phone and called my Mom to tell her. When I opened my phone I had a text from a friend from college who I haven't talked to in at least a year and a half. She said that I had been on her mind all day and she asked if there was anything she could be praying for! I love how the Holy Spirit brings us to other believer's minds when we need prayer. It just reassured me of His love and care. This made the whole thing worth it.

I called my friends Bradley and ErinElise. They came to the rescue!
3) The plague of the missing spare tire: Pretty self-explanatory. Couldn't find it.
4) The blue pop tent appears: This tent was in the back of my trunk. We pulled it out and EE found the spare tire! It was like the pillar of smoke/fire.

5)Bradley changes the tire!


We laughed later because the tent provided shade in the wilderness so he didn't get sunburned.

After Bradley changed the tire we got ready to take the car to Wal-Mart...One problem...
6) Where's my cell phone?: Yep...couldn't find it either. I could hear it ringing when they called it, but couldn't find it in the car. Finally Bradley found it on the curb.
7) The plague of darkness:After we all went to Wal-mart and the tired was fixed (no charge b/c there wasn't actually a hole in the tire) it was too late for me to go home so we went to Taco Bell and hung out.
8) Crossing the Red Sea: I made it to Alvarado last night so I could get a head start this morning.
9) The plague of darkness continues: Like the Israelites, I hardly slept the night before the exodus. I woke up at 3:00 this morning wide awake and ready to hit the road...too bad it was 3:00 in the morning! So I tried to rest and came up with the idea of this blog post. No joke.
10) The plague of the crazy driver: This morning I woke up early and left Alvarado for the Promised Land. FINALLY! I said goodbye to all Miss Kelly's dogs who were outside sleeping and looking at me like I was crazy. Somewhere outside of Waco a crazy man decided to pass me by coming over into my lane and forcing me into the shoulder. HELLO!??!!? Iffy tire sir! Do you know what happened to the Amalekites when they attacked the Israelites on the way out of Egypt? Don't mess with me, dude!

A land flowing with milk and honey! I made it home and was welcomed with homemade pancakes. Yum. My journey was over. CokeZero and Watermelon is my inheritance. And lo, it is very good!
Thank you so much Bradley and ErinElise for being such wonderful friends!!!!!!

Fort Worth Zoo Trip

Last Saturday I went to the Fort Worth Zoo with Tabitha and Qiong. I LOVE zoos! They just make me happy. When we were in New York we got to go the Museum of Natural History. Ever since God has been showing me how He reveals Himself to us in the world that He has created. Here is what first inspired this at the museum:



This is a lifesize model of a humpback whale. It was HUGE!!! I was reminded of how God created all the variety of animals that we saw in the museum. But those animals were stuffed. Now on to the real ones at the zoo!!!

"And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25





"And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." Genesis 1:20



The national bird of China!! We got kind of excited!





We bonded.

Our favorite part was definitely the parrot exhibit where we got to see the parakeets! One parakeet decided he really like Qiong. It was so much fun!
Overall I was reminded of this...
"The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it..." Psalm 24:1