“Lord grant that i may always allow myself to be guided by You, always follow Your plans, and perfectly accomplish Your holy will. grant that in all things, great and small, today and all the days of my life, i may do whatever You may require of me. help me to respond to the slightest prompting of Your grace, so that i may be Your trustworthy instrument. may Your will be done in time and eternity, by me, in me, and through me. amen.” ~st. therese of lisieux

“teach me Your way, oh Lord, and i will walk in Your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that i may fear Your name.
i will praise you, oh Lord my God, with all my heart;
i will glorify Your name forever
..for great is Your love toward me..” psalm 86: 9-13

i’ll be off to paris in a few hours (jihaaa!!  ) and then i’ll move
on to germany to stay with a sister in Christ and her family.
i will be traveling by my lonesome…however, i will have my
Bible to keep me company during the 14 hour flight. (oh, and i
pray that my guitar will travel safe and land in one piece. )
i will be back near the end of next month but will continue to
visit and post here. adiós mi amigos…

be blessed by the precious One…

make me the breath of God
and i’ll show them the One that means the most to me
they’ll see the face of love
be touched by the very one who died upon the tree…
~shane b.

in one week i will be here for almost a month…



(deutschland?? yes’m! )


however, here is this for now…


“love one another. as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.“ john 13:34-35

though many may come against you….you are still to have unconditional love. this is true mark of a true disciple. we must have surrendered our own will and ‘flesh’ and have gone into complete submission, lowering and humbling ourselves under our enemies. at times, such submission and love is often blocked by what we call spiritual pride, a haughty spirit, or an un-surrendered life to Christ. does it not say to forgive as our Father forgives? yes, it does…however, i find myself sworn to “i’ve forgiven them!” but really the Lord reveals sin in me such as a hint of bitterness i still have for that person. i haven’t truly forgiven them. and many people do this…they say that they forgive, however there is still much bitterness and not much un-conditional love. often people are completely blinded and decieved that they should forgive someone! they will blame others, or they are afraid their reputation might decrease, etc. if i truly want to follow Christ, without “me” being in the way, i know that i must have un-conditional love for others around me. for as it says….if you do not learn love…you are nothing. (1 cor. 13:3)

“forgiveness is not: tolerance. pretending. forgetting. generosity of spirit.
looking the other way. making a joke of a wrong. a passive non-response.

forgiveness is something much deeper!

forgiveness is: a deliberate act of the will. a full pardon. a substitutional act.
obedience to God’s word. the key to freedom. “ ~liberty savard


 “…clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness, and patience…forgive as the Lord forgave you..” col. 3:12, 13

Lord, may i be an empty vessel full of patience and love that only You can provide… oh, not i..but Christ..

“yet i am always with You; You hold me by Your right hand.
You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will
take me into glory. whom have i in heaven but You?
and earth has nothing i desire besides You.
my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion forever. ”

psalm 73:23-26

“the higher we see God to be, the lower we should be in our own eyes. there is nothing that will humble us more than the consideration of God. i dare say of every proud heart in the world, that such a one does not know God, never had a sight of the glory of God that he has to do withal. the sight of God will wonderfully humble the heart before Him. job is very famous for this. he says, “with the hearing of the ear i have heard of Thee, but now mine eyes have seen Thee (what follows then upon that), wherefore i abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (job 42:5-6) job was a holy man, yet he confessed that he had but only heard of God, he never had such a sight of God as God gave him at this time, and upon the sight that he had of God, though he was holy and a gracious man, and could stand in his uprightness, yet he says, “mine eyes have seen Thee, wherefore i abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” oh that God would give such a sight of Himself to all your souls, to those proud, stout, and rebellious sins that have gone on in ways of rebellion against Him. you have heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but have your eyes ever seen Him? if God would but give you a sight of what i have briefly spoken to you, you would certainly fall down before Him, and abhor yourself in dust and ashes.” ~jeremiah burroughs

“please, let me see Your glorious presence” exodus 33:18

“heaven forbid familiarity
…would keep me from Your magesty, reality“
~shane b.

…oh, that we might always be in awe of Him!

something has been on my mind lately…the fear of the Lord. i have come to realize how this is missing in the Church today. while reading the Bible tonight..i decided to take a deeper look into fearing the Lord.

i read “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with your soul and with all your strength.” ( dt 6:5) but further on i read in this passage…“fear the Lord your God, serve Him only..” (dt 6:13) how we overlook these simple truths! how many of us say that we love Him…but how many really obey Him, truly take up their cross and follow Him because He is all?

fearing the Lord is more than going around, always being “afraid” of Him…the fear of the Lord is so much more than “He is just my best friend, sure, i fear Him too…”..the fear of the Lord is more than “He gives grace, so on i sin..” we must not misuse the precious grace that He gives us…oh, we must understand it is the fear of the Lord that makes us in awe of Him that will bring us to utter repentence…that will bring our sins into the light, that we might flee from our selfish desires and ambitions.

what does it mean to fear the Lord? “to fear the Lord is: to hate evil; i hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.” proverbs 8:13   oh, that we must hate what He hates (our sinful nature, evil) and love what He loves! the fear of the Lord is to finally come to the realization that He is sovereign…Holy..worthy of all! the fear of the Lord is coming to the fact that we truly are nothing…that He is all..humbling ourselves before Him in pure worship because we are lovesick for Him. “He has showed you, o man, what is good. and what does the Lord require of you? to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”micah 6:8

i see many asking for more of Him, more knowledge, more wisdom…“the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” proverbs 1:7

much of Christianity is in such a state of “self” (self-seeking, self-evaluating…”what’s in it for me?”) it is sickening.
(“there is no fear of God before their eyes.” romans 3:18)
my heart aches for the Lord…and i find that there are many teachings in our modern Christianity that completely go against this fear of the Lord, they go against self-denial, humbleness …everything the Lord has called of us!! instead, there are teachings of finding your own calling, finding the desires of your own heart, and how to be fufilled. (it seems as if it is what we can get of of the Lord, to make our own selves happy, that we can rule our own lives) …and you wonder why so many are not recieving more of Him, more knowledge of Him!! where is the fear of our God and His soverignity? where is obedience? “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.“ is 33:6

there are over 200 references on fearing the Lord in the Bible (40 of those in the new testament..) ..this must be very important to Him! in the words of Jesus Himself: “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. but I will show you whom you should fear: fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. yes, I tell you, fear Him“ luke 12:4,5

and John writing in revelation: “fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” rev. 14:6,7

oh Lord, come and take out of me what you wish…Your word says that if i truly love you that i will obey You. bring me back to that place where i stand in complete awe of You and Your beauty..

“in order to the attaining of all useful knowledge this is most necessary, that we fear God; we are not qualified to profit by the instructions that are given us unless our minds be possessed with a holy reverence of God, and every thought within us be brought into obedience to Him…. as all our knowledge must take rise from the fear of God, so it must tend to it as its perfection and centre. those know enough who know how to fear God, who are careful in every thing to please Him and fearful of offending Him in any thing; this is the Alpha and Omega of knowledge.”
—matthew henry

“Christian, let God’s distinguishing love to you be a motive to you to fear Him greatly. He has put His fear in your heart, and may not have given that blessing to your neighbor, perhaps not to your husband, your wife, your child, or your parent. oh, what an obligation should this thought lay upon your heart to greatly fear the Lord! remember also that this fear of the Lord is His treasure, a choice jewel, given only to favorites, and to those who are greatly beloved.”
—john bunyan

caption: ” i don’t care if she is a tape dispenser. i love her.“ 

have a blessed weekend in Christ!