Long Time No Update

Wow it has been awhile.. So a lot has been going on in my life this summer. I've been working full time and it is great! So awhile back I have had a lot of questions about what I am supposed to be doing with my life right now and it is kind of crazy the small ways that God can speak to you. I was driving and this car in front of me had a Bible verse for their license plate which was Proverbs 3:5-6 and it says: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, seek HIS will in all that you do and he will show you which path to take. then right next to that car was a car with a license plate with a verse John 15:5 that says I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Oh hey Jesus thanks for that reminder that I really need to seek you not only in all that I do but especially in this time of my life. It just blows my mind the little ways that Jesus speaks to us.

On a lighter note, I took a day off work and Nikki, Rebekah,and I went to water country for the day! It was so fun! Might I add it is a season pass woo woo!

Friday night I went to my friend Jenny from work her son Jacob's baseball game. They were in the tournament and they won. They moved on to the "world series" they placed second so I am very proud of him.

Then Saturday night I went to comchap with Renee and Wags spoke on Jonah. It was such a great much needed sermon for me. I need to realize the baby steps matter. Sometimes I forget that. I also need to remember the power God holds. I think growing up in church it is often easy to skim through certain aspects of Christianity and not even give it much thought and God's power is definitely one of the things I need to remind myself of.

Thought of the Day

So Sunday Shane was teaching on Matthew 6:9-14 which is the Lord's prayer. I decided to read that whole chapter and it is crazy the things you can see when you are not simply reading but soaking up the word.
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May YOUR will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us . And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

To begin with a few things stick out to me, May YOUR will be done. Do we really want God's will for our lives? Things won't always be easy. We won't always get things to work the way we want them to. But it doesn't say May you make our lives easy, it says May YOUR will be done.

Next, Give us today the food we need. Do we live in faith that God will provide or do we try to make sure everything will work out with a planned life? I admit it is hard for me to not be in control of what happens but perhaps that is the best way. I can make so many things go wrong if I try to control every aspect of my life, I need to give up everything to him and trust that he will give me what I need.

Finally, here is the thing I have a hard time with holding grudges and don't forgive really easily. So in verse 12 it says: and forgive us of our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Then in verse 14-15 it says: If you forgive those who sin against you your heavenly Father will forgive you. BUT if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

If I hold things against other people, then God is going to hold my mess ups against me.. And of course I screw up a million times a day, and no sin is greater than any other (except blasphemy) so why would I hold myself to a higher standard?
Just some random things floating through my head I thought I would share :) Hope everyone is having a great day and enjoying this beautiful weather

Just Some Thoughts of the Day..

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

These are lyrics of Tenth Avenue North's song By Your Side. I've love this song for so many reasons. Today when I listened to it the words just really opened my eyes. We tend to look for love in all the wrong things, in people who will fail us, in material things that will fade, in boyfriends or girlfriends who won't always be there for us. Why don't we turn to the face of love? Christ himself who is perfect love, who won't ever fail us? We fight his hand in our lives so much and we may never notice it since it can be instinct for us to be in control? He is there for us all the time we don't even have to call on him necessarily, we just have to let go completely. My favorite part could possibly be, "Look at these hands and my side They swallowed the grave on that night When I drank the world's sin So I could carry you in And give you life I want to give you life" Man why does God loves us so much that he really wants to give each of us life and it's so easy to get lost in that thought. Those are just some random thoughts.. Let me know some of your thoughts..

Retreat

So this weekend we went with the youth to Camp Willow Run. I love that place, it is all around great. So Rebekah and I had freshman girls, who I love. They are so much fun to hang out with. They have such a heart for God that I completely love to see in youth.

We had a bunch of team competitions that were pretty cool! Allyson and I faced our dislike of playing group games hah and played dizzy bat and loved it :) And of course they did gender olympics. It snowed and was freezing. The youth got to launch water balloons at some of the guy leaders.. and was one of the best retreats in awhile.

Joel Davis and his wife came to spend the weekend with us it was really awesome. The whole idea of the retreat was discipleship and the main verse for the first night was Matthew 11:28 : Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light." Joel told us that only when we are yielding to God can we see what it is like to have an easy yoke. (1John5:3 Loving God means keeping his commandments and his commandments aren't burdensome) Basically what it means to be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ, and all we have to do is come to him. What compels us to submit to the yoke of Christ?What makes us want to leave all of our garbage behind and follow Christ? (Ephesians 2) God's grace is a compelling force within us that makes us want to follow Christ wholeheartedly.

Then the next day they did something new which I really liked; they let the kids pick two of four classes to go to. I went to BJ's which was cool.. here are a list of verses he gave us:

(( Isaiah 1:10-17 James 1:27 Deuteronomy 27:19 Mark 14:3-7 Deuteronomy 15:11))

Then I went to Joel's teaching on worship. Basically he explained worship encompasses everything we are not just songs like most people think. We were made to worship, so simply everything we do is worship. ((Romans 12:1-2 Therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed by the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.)) What makes an acceptable and pleasing sacrifice to God? When we've received the grace and mercies he has to offer us. Ephesians 2:8 says For it is by grace you've been saved through faith, for it is not from yourselves but a gift from God.

-Grace that doesn't cost us anything is cheap grace. and discipleship is not found in cheap grace.

-Grace cost Jesus everything..He gave his life for each and every one of us. and it is going to cost us everything. It is costly because we have to leave our past lives behind.

-We lose our lives but with grace we gain eternal life.

-Grace absolutely does not give us freedom to continually live in our past sin.

- Grace that cost God much is going to cost us everything.

Let God's grace justify us today... start anew.. Are you willing to give everything?

So that is just a little bit of what we talked about his weekend.. maybe a few pics to come later.

Goodnight :)

Let it snow ...

So when I was younger I used to enjoy the snow much more than I do now. I would always anticipate school being closed and just being able to play in the snow no worries in the world. Now that I am in college, and realize I don't love being snowed in. Don't get me wrong there is something so peaceful about the snow, it is almost as if it drowns out some of the everyday noise it just isn't my favorite.Mostly because I still have to work and go to school if it snows and it is just a nuisance. The thing I do enjoy about the snowy weather on the weekend is sitting by the fire and drinking coffee. I also do enjoy taking pictures. So here are a few pictures I took :)! I hope that ya'll are having a lovely weekend!

My mind has officially been blown...

Today was missions sunday at church and a missionary Bob was speaking. He completely blew my mind with this thought..

We must all go. We all must give. We won't all go to the same place, BUT we will all give the same. We must give everything and live off what God gives us back.

Wow, so the whole service I am thinking about how some Christians say they are being called to certain things, but every Christian is called to some kind of mission. Then I started thinking am I trying to mask God's desire for my life with my desire for my life, a comfortable life that won't ever cause me to need to stand out for something I believe in?

Do we just say we want to know God's will for our life simply because we think that is the Christian thing to say? Or do we truely desire to know God's will for our life even if it disrupts the easy "American Dream" and causes us to leave our extremely comfortable lives as we know it?
Are we simply doing just enough to get by and make it in to Heaven? Or are we giving our all for Christ? I believe He deserves our all, I also understand it isn't the easiest thing to not have any control in a situation and to fully trust Him that everything will work out mostly because things won't always work out the way that we want it to but the way that God wants it to.

Just some random thoughts that had been stirred up in my heart today..Any thoughts from your side?

Saturday!!

I woke up this morning to the the beautiful sunshine. Then I made some peach mango tea. :)
Today my sister and I woke up and made some oatmeal raisin cookies.Then we waited for my dad to get out of work to meet us for brunch at IHOP. Other than that I cleaned the house some. Love the feeling of being organized. I am getting ready to do my statistics homework.. not good. We had a pretty delicious dinner it was tortellini soup. Overall pretty unsuccessful but wonderful nonetheless!