when you are threadbare

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WHEN WE ARE THREADBARE, TAKE DELIGHT IN KNOWING THAT HIS LOVE FOR US NEVER IS.

Do you ever come to the throne restless, desperate, and uncertain? Do you find yourself unraveling at His feet, broken-hearted, becoming increasingly threadbare?

YOU ARE NOT ALONE, MY FRIEND.

I walk the threadbare path on some days too. On those days when life is too much to handle, I remember that life comes at us in full stride, ever full of restless wondering moments, and myriads of uncertainties. And broken-heartedness will surely follow us on occasion too, threatening to consume our already-smashed-to-smithereens soul. But there, in the crying out before Him, while teetering on bent knees, the wake of our life-threads come beautifully undone.

And I remember to trust Him with my brokenness. And He begins to weave me back together.

In that moment the Threadbare-One takes delight in His love.

Even when we come to the throne threadbare, ragged, broken with nothing left, He still wants to embrace us right then and there. He loves us mightily in our wounded not-so-okay places too, and He wants nothing more than to wrap those of us who find ourselves threadbare in His fine linens of love.

No longer threadbare. Sewn in His love.

I Am Not But I Know I Am by Louie Giglio

Genre: Christian Living
Release Date: 12/18/12
Number of Pages: 167
Publisher: Waterbrook Multnomah

Tag Line: God is looking for ordinary people to play significant roles in His story.

Summary (from Amazon): Our God is more expansive and powerful than we could ever imagine, the all-mighty creator of galaxies beyond our reach. But He is also the loving creator who has formed and fashioned you.  Yet, as valuable as you are to Him, God’s best for your life is to invite you into a story that is all about Him.
 
In this intensely personal and highly motivating book, bestselling author, pastor, and Passion founder Louie Giglio shows you how to embrace your “smallness” in light of God’s greatness—and live with more meaning than you have ever dreamed possible.
 
I am not…but God knows my name.
I am not…but He has pursued me in His love.
I am not…but I know the Creator of the universe.
I am not, but I know I AM!


What I Loved: I Am Not But I Know I Am has a really fabulous blend of both Biblical Truth/New Perspectives, and glimpses into the author's own personal life to cement the teachings within this book even further. This book was also a great reminder that, yes, I am very small in the grand scheme of things, and I was not meant to write my story solo. In fact, I am not in control over my own story at all! I am not. But I know I AM. And I AM is welcoming me to glorify Him, and to be a part of His Story daily.

Ultimately this book asks us to embrace our smallness so that we can fully live out our part in God's Story

I also really enjoying how Louie broke down a few passages of scripture in a few of the chapters (the appendix at the back of the book included details regarding how to use the One-Word Bible Study Method.) I will definitely be trying this take on Bible Study in the very near future.

What I Didn't Like So Much: Absolutely nothing to report here.

I'm Recommending This Book . . . Absolutely! This book gives you great perspective on our own life sub-plots in the grand scheme of things and invites us to become small enough to partake in God's big Story.



About The Author: Louie Giglio is the pastor of Passion City Church (www.passioncitychurch.com) and founder of The Passion Movement (www.268generation.com), a ministry with a global reach that has inspired this generation of college-aged young people to live for God's fame. Louie is the author of Indescribable, The Air I Breathe, and Wired: For A Life of Worship. With his wife, Shelley, he leads the music label sixsteprecords (www.sixsteprecords.com). The Giglios live in Atlanta.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group as part of their Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255




unconquerable love in a fragile clay heart


Hullo O.R.B. readers! I recently had a lunch date with my new friend Mallory, where we nommed on yummy food and chatted it up about our faith-walk's, busy lives, and all those other things that twenty-somethings talk about. 


Do you remember this post I wrote back in October, about the time I was busily stocking the fiction shelves at the bookstore and was having a super downer of a day (which I posted about on FB of all places!) and out of the blue an acquaintance of mine shows up, mocha machiatto in hand with Philippians 4:4 scrawled on it? Yep, that sweet lady was Mallory

If that doesn't make you want to know more about her, then I don't know what will! She is a sweetheart through and through, an encourager and a real down-to-earth bold-faith kinda gal . . . and I'm pretty sure that you NEED to get to know her!  Like right now!

So, all that said . . . Mallory just started a blog! You see where I'm going with, this don't you? Thankfully Mallory jumped at the chance for me to introduce her to you guys on O.R.B. Ahem . . . I mean, little did she know that I was going to bring  along a piece of paper with so many super-deep questions on it for her to answer to our lunch date in preparation for this introduction. 

So, without further ado . . . let me set the introduction stage for you . . .

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Give us a quick intro-blurb about yourself, will you Mallory?

I'm twenty years old. I work two jobs and go to school full-time. I'm hoping to move to Charlotte in the fall to pursue a career in bridal consulting and event coordinating. Although, I would be more than happy to lay that all aside if I felt God was calling me to do something else. Who knows? I'm still very young and have a lot of time to change my mind. Or have God change it for me!

If you could choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be? Why?

Wow, what a question! I think I would choose the word "humbled." If you had asked me the same question a couple of months ago, my answer would have been quite different. I most likely would have responded with words like "saved" or "loved," but I've come to a recent understanding that God's love humbles us. I have allowed God over these past few months to break down my narrow-minded barriers and give me the sight to see that I deserve holy judgment just as much as they do. Redemption truly is a wildly humbling process.




 So, what is the story behind your blog name? We'd love to know!

Well, I'd like to be able to say that the name just came to me one day out of the blue, but truthfully, I had a lot of trouble thinking of a name. So my best friend and I sat down one day and wrote down about thirty prospective names, all based on scriptures that we loved. She had written down quite a few that I liked, and I ended up putting a couple of them together, eventually resulting in "Unconquerable Love In A Fragile Clay Heart." I loved this name so much because I wanted my blog to exemplify how fragile and powerless we are on our own, and how powerful and magnificent God's love is within us.

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure." - 2 Corinthians 4:7

What is the purpose of your blog? What sort of posts can we expect to read?

The purpose of my blog is simple, I just want people to read it and know that God loves them. If even one person's life is impacted by God through the words on my blog, that's enough for me.

You can expect thoughtful posts about what I feel God has been speaking to me. I've never been much of a writer, so I tend to need divine guidance and instruction when writing. However, I can say that my blog is primarily focused on God's love, and how it has impacted my life.

How do you personally deepen your faith-walk?

I could say it a thousand times...Prayer! I try to do a Bible study and spend time reading The Word every day, but a personal relationship with God depends quite heavily on prayer. Like any other relationship, communication is key. Can you imagine marrying someone and never speaking? Sure you sit in the same room together, and you've even read a news article or two about your spouse, but you've never talked with them. You said "I do" and that was it. Just like a marriage requires constant conversation, so does our covenant with Christ. I recently read a note in my study Bible that said "To persist in prayer and not give up does not mean endless repetition or painfully long prayer sessions. Constant prayer means keeping our requests continually before God as we live for Him day by day, believing He will answer."

Do you have any scriptures that deeply speak to your heart?

As a matter of fact, I do! Perhaps my favorite one, though incredibly simple, is Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God."

I am the world's worst worrier, so I have to constantly remind myself that God is in complete control. That doesn't mean sometimes, or half the time, or even most of the time. That means He is in control all the time. We really don't have control of much in our lives, so why should we worry? To me, that verse is God saying, "Relax, Mallory, I've got your back."

Do you have a favorite book, movie, and quote?

// Book // It's funny that you should ask me that, because I just finished the book "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers, and I have to say, that was the most amazing emotional and spiritual journey that any novel has ever taken me on. I'm actually in the process of writing a blog about what I learned from the incredibly powerful message in that book! For fear of spoiling anything, all I will say is this: It's a modern (late 1800s) take on the biblical story of Hosea. I definitely recommend it if you haven't yet had a chance to check it out.

// Movie // As for movies, it's hard to pick a favorite, but one that I watched recently and loved was called "Lost In Austen." It's a film about a modern day British woman who has an undying love for the book "Pride & Prejudice," and finds herself switching places with Elizabeth Bennet who comes to stay in present day England. It's a wonderfully humorous and light-hearted take on the classic love story.

// Quote // Moving on to quotes, I love just about any and every quote from C.S. Lewis. My absolute favorite, however, is "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him, than a lunatic can blot out the sun by scribbling the word "darkness" on the walls of his cell." Isn't that neat? It really puts into perspective just how much we don't have to do with the magnificence of God, but how much His magnificence affects us. I love it!

What are some of your aspirations and wildest dreams?

Gosh, that's a really loaded question! Let's start out with aspirations, shall we? As far as career goals go, I really, really, really want to be a wedding planner! It's quite an understatement to say that I love weddings. I love love, and I love gathering together with loved ones to celebrate it. So it's safe to say that wedding planning is the perfect career for me. I would be ecstatic if I could one day open a bridal consulting/event coordinating agency of my own.

Now for wildest dreams . . . I want so so badly to do mission work. I also know that if God has it in His plan for me to do mission work, then He will make a way for me to work out the financial aspect of it, which isn't the case right now. So as of now, I don't have any plans to travel for missions.

I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret. Seriously, you're the very first ones to know . . . I want to write a novel. There. I said it. I really want to write a novel. I have all of these stories floating around in my head, I've just never been organized enough to be able to do anything but dream about them. But I'm putting my foot down. I've decided to start using any spare time that I have to begin laying down the foundations for a future novel. I'll tell you another secret, I'm sort of telling you guys about this so I have someone to really hold me accountable. So hey, feel free to bug me about it. Maybe that will keep me going. ;)

What message do you hope readers will find nestled in the pages of your blog?

I sincerely hope that anyone who reads my blog will walk away with their minds refreshed. I hope that they will see the picture that I'm trying to paint with my words. That message is love. God's love is so incredibly powerful. If we accept His love, and truly desire to exemplify it, our lives will be a reflection of Christ. I could go on and on about how important it is to love, but that's another discussion for another time. However, I will note, 1 Corinthians 13:13 says "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." Doesn't that say it all? God calls us to love one another unconditionally, and be quick to forgive our brothers and sisters no matter how many times they have wronged us (Matthew 18: 21-22).

If you could share one monumental lesson with us that has shaped you as a person, what would it be?

This past year has been a serious emotional and spiritual roller coaster. I've gradually learned how incredibly different "religion" and "faith" are. Grace slapped me right in the face, and I woke up to realize that I have been misunderstanding so much about God my entire life. That's not to say that I now know everything there is to know about God, because I most certainly do not, but I am coming to realize that God truly does understand my heart. He knows my own heart even better than I do. And He knows how to best direct my life. I've been a huge stress-ball my whole life, but when I finally realized that God was standing right there waiting for me to hand it to Him, I did, and my life hasn't been the same since. If you guys want to know more about that story, I posted a two-part in depth blog about it a little over a month ago.

( photos provided by Mallory )


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Thanks so incredibly much for sharing your fragile clay heart with us, Mallory! 


Mallory is a fellow twenty-something, who's in love with Jesus, despite her well-worn fragile clay heart. Slowly, but surely, she is finding out what true grace and love is all about. You can find Mallory on her brand-new blog, Unconquerable Love In A Fragile Clay Heart, where she writes all about her life, faith and His great love us. 

Please feel free to get to pop on over to her blog and show her some love! Tell her the Restless Bird sent you, okay? 

embracing the white flag



God I can't do life on my own, though I aimlessly try to . . . so I'm gonna surrender to Your will and embrace everything You so greatly give, whether mountain highs or valley lows, and everything in between. 

* and she raises her white flag *

Is there something you need to surrender to Him today?

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(because blogger won't show youtube videos for some reason right now)

* WATCH THIS & PREPARE TO BE INSPIRED *