My Strong and Perfect Plea

"Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart."

Sometimes I go through spells, or phases if you will, with the way I praise God. Hold on, I know you may be ready to close this page and call me crazy, but I'm serious. My mind can't handle it when I really delve into what God has to offer, and even when I do focus on one thing I am often times brought to my knees and overwhelmed. Sometimes I have to take one facet at a time, trying to learn about that side and soak it in, letting it change me. I don't forget that God is much bigger than that one aspect, but I do let myself get lost in the sea of that one trait, and then remember that this is just one part. PRAISE GOD!

Right now I have been reading, thanks to Chip and Dave at Providence, in Hebrews where it talks about Christ being our Great High Priest. I have to say, God's word alone about this subject is enough to make me bounce in my seat like I have had two cups of Global Village coffee. I mean listen to this: (!!!)

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:24-28

Christ was not only a High Priest. Christ was The High Priest. Before Him a mediator would have to make sacrifices for my sins multiple times within my lifetime. But Christ, Christ stepped in and became the sacrifice, became the mediator, became the reason I can boldly approach the throne of God. To top it all off, this sacrifice is one that covers our sin. Fully. Once our sin has been covered we do not have to go back for another sacrifice, do not have to find a way to clean up to come to the throne. My Jesus, He is enough. He is plenty. How often do I skim over this fact? THIS IS HUGE!!! Christ came once,once for our sins and when He returns, it will be to bring us home!

Oh man...I'm doing the bounce in my seat thing.

Height marked on a Wall

Oh my it has been a long while since I blogged. School is getting crazy, life is picking up, and to take thoughts from my journal and put them on here...that takes time that I don't have. It is something I want to try to do more often though, so don't give up on me!


Yesterday morning I sat in my little sister's room at 6 am and worked on homework, drinking coffee as my Dad painted it LIME green. It is part of her Christmas present from my Mimi to have her room redone, and my Daddy has NO time in his life to paint it, so Thanksgiving morning, that was his time. I also have about 6 projects on my plate right now that have to be done before I return to school, one of which involved research and could be done while talking. You see, Daddy and I talk over coffee EVERY morning. We have since I could drink coffee, and before that he made me hot chocolate and called it coffee. It is our time, before the world wakes up, to catch up and digest life. Together.

Yesterday we took time to talk about the door in Josie's room. Yes. The door. He was going to change the door and give her a "suweet new one," but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't even bring himself to paint this nasty, busted, drawn over door. That door looks like an old door, but on the side it holds the growth chart of the Edwards family, including Momma and Daddy from when Taylor, Josie, and I decided they needed to be measured too. I can stand next to that door and see when I stood knee height to myself. It is crazy. I can see when I hit my growth spurts, and when my growing leveled off. I can look back at heights and dates and remember stories that go with those times. I remember that day as the day Taylor and I ran down the hallway pulling eachother on blankets like sleds and got in trouble for crashing into the table and knocking over a picture frame. It was when she was blonde Taylor, with bouncy curls, HUGE dimples that took up her whole face, carried around her Barney stuffed animal all the time, and had a laugh that would make me do ANYTHING again. Oh, and I remember that Josie, she came up to right here on me, cried 24/7, and was Momma's baby. BUT, it was that Josie who ran around in her diaper, only her diaper, and a Native American headdress and had the whole family laughing, although she was 100% serious.

As Daddy and I were talking about those heights, dates, precious girls, and memories, they woke up one at a time and came in. Josie, rubbing her eyes and hearing us laughing walks in and says loudly, "You would have to be high to paint a room at 7 in the morning! This paint is making you high isn't it?" Taylor continues when she comes in by saying one line before she sits down. "Wow. Looks like a big booger in here." :D Ridiculous.

Each of those lines, each of those heights holds a million laughs that those little girls and I have shared. A million good times that make up for any sad, bad, angry, "downer" times (as Josie like to say.) The exciting part is that those laughs and great memories are only getting started for the three of us. My height marker has stopped, and Taylor's is slowing down, but we have so many memories to fit into that last line. Oh goodness, Josie just woke up...they are getting started now.