I'm Back..

Wow, I really need to catch up on this thing. Boy, has the Lord been doing some crazy, cool stuff in my life lately. Every day is an adventure, life with Jesus is anything but boring!  I came back from an amazing amazing summer in Central Asia, where the Lord blew me away. When I have more time I will post some sweet stories and some pictures. Right now we, Chi Alpha, are in the middle of our most busiest time of the year and that is the craziness we call Welcome Week! Its basically pure madness, no sleep, lots of coffee, and hanging out with precious, lost freshman. I LOVE IT! There is nothing like sitting and talking with sweet girls, who just have no idea what the Lord has in store for their lives. I am very excited about where the Lord is taking us this year. The harvest is plentiful!  I have no other way of explaining it other than an intense anticipation with a few butterflies of what it feels like walking around our campus right now.  The Lord is going to do something HUGE! 

JOY

Brace yourself friends, this stuff is rich, please read it all, its worth it! I was reading in Christ of Every Road by E. Stanley Jones (highly recommend anything this man writes) a couple of days ago and these paragraphs have stuck with me, so I wanted to share them. Ok here we go...

"Joy of the Spirit is no cheap joy. It has scars on it -- radiant scars! It is joy won out of the heart of pain. Those who know it have found one of life's deepest and most transforming secrets: the transmuting (transform) of pain into a paean (any song of praise, joy or triumph). Sorrow becomes not something to escape; WE CAN MAKE IT SING! We can set our tears to music, and no music is so exquisite, so completing. The early Christian learned immediately and at once the truth which the philosopher Royce puts in these words: 'Such ills we remove only as we assimilate them, idealize them, take them up into the plan of our lives, give them meaning, set them in their place in the whole.' When their heartstrings were stretched upon some cross of pain and the winds of persecution blew through them, then from this human Aeolian harp men heard the very music of God. THEY DID NOT BEAR PAIN, THEY USED IT!"

Good huh? One more!

"In a Friends' meeting in Vienna I found myself rising and saying: 'For many years I have worn a cross upon my heart, and this cross has made me. But recently it has been lifted and I miss it and I find myself asking for another cross.' 'What a terrible prayer to pray!' said a friend walking out of the meeting. Yes, it was, but it would have been more terrible not to pray it, this, if we want to know the fourth dimension of life (which is pain, he talked about it earlier in the chapter). I found myself praying recently, "If wounds must come, I have only one request to make about them--let them be clean wounds." If we can keep away from our wounds the infection of complaint and sourness of spirit, they will heal quickly and leave glorious scars!"

AAAAAAH, that stuff is soo good. Turning pain into a joyous song, who would have thought?

New Year, New Beginnings

It's been a while. I need to hop back on this thing. Well, the title says it all. It's a new year and with a new year comes new beginnings. The Lord has really pressed home with me the fact that, although last year was not bad by any means, I really do need a fresh start. A fresh start with a lot of things in my life: my house, my small group, my job, my school work, lacrosse, my relationship with Him, EVERYTHING! Oh and how the Lord has been good to me. This new semester has started off with quite a bang. I was blessed with a new job, that I am loving and being stretched at all at the same time, if you can imagine. I am loving my small group more and more each day, although I'd like to see them more than I do, the time I do get to have with them is amazing. We are learning so much together, thank you Jesus. School on the other hand is kicking me! My education classes are very difficult, but something that I have to constantly remind myself is that without these classes I can not do what the Lord has in store for my future.

Lately the Lord has been revealing to me that I must have a refreshing of His Holy Spirit. I need to experience the Pentecost. I've been reading through the book of Acts and just recently finished it. I love how the disciples have just seemed to go nuts for the Lord. I picture in my head them just running in all different directions to all different nations and cities filled with the joy that only the Holy Spirit can give. They forgot their fears and just simply shared what Jesus has done in their lives and what He did for them on Calvary. As I read, I felt their urgency. To them sharing this love was not a compromise. I always knew that Paul was an amazing man but actually reading it for myself was mind-blowing. He showed me that their truly is power in our testimony. He wasn't being rebellious, he simply had a passion for people to also be able to experience the Lord as he did on the road to Damascus. And he was not afraid. At one point the other disciples were telling him not to go to Jerusalem because they knew his fate, this is what he said in response to them, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of Jesus Christ." BAM!

What am I willing to do? What am I willing to give up? What am I waiting for?

Worship

My heart is so stirred. Chi Alpha tonight was incredible. I love our family. We have something here that I hope everyone gets to experience, it's a must, it's how it should be. Tonight we heard from one of us students, his name is Sam. This guy is beautiful, he's just one of many in our group. Tonight he was asked to share with us his thoughts on worship. It was so stirring. He discussed what he felt worship was and he also described attributes of a true worshipper. Here's a recap, be blessed...

Attributes of Worship

Personal
It is you loving your Lord who you have an intimate relationship with.
Natural
It flows from your being. If we love God, everything we do will be worship
Extravagant
We discussed, the woman who poured the very expensive perfume on Jesus' head. This is
powerful because it was everything she had. The perfume was said to have such an incredible
scent that her worship to Jesus probably lasted till the day of his death on the cross. Her love
for Jesus was big.
Realistic
Worship God for who is He is in YOUR life. Remember, you have a personal relationship with
Jesus, a relationship that is none like any other.
Choice
Love is a choice, its not a have to. Worship is a choice, not a have to.
Creative
Expression
"Joy is not complete until it is expressed." -C.S. Lewis
The right order of the Universe
We were made to worship.

Attributes of a True Worshipper
Unquenchable
Always hungry for more
Undone
Undignified
Worship as if no one is watching
Unveiled
Show the glory, see Him for who He is.
Unstoppable
Use every opportunity to worship the Lord
Unnoticed
Worship with the same heart everywhere
Undivided
Focus on your creature with undivided attention and with an undivided heart
Unsatisfied
Unending!
Eternity

My Kids!

I love these girls with everything in me. This is my small group. Small I know, but very big in heart. These ladies love the Lord and are fighting to know Him more. It's so beautiful. Patty, the girl right above me, is one of the sweetest girls I know. She is a baby but really fights to know who Jesus is and what His plan is for her life. Of all the things this girl has been through, she still clings to the cross more than I think I ever could. Mandy, the beautiful red head, is so pure. She is my freshman, but if you didn't know her you wouldn't be able to tell. She is wise beyond her years and really keeps me on my toes. Mandy and I can and do spend hours upon hours sitting in Starbucks talking about the Lord. I love it! Lindsay, directly below Mandy, has the sweetest smile you have ever seen and has a heart to match. This girl is in love with Jesus. She has a desire to know the plan the Lord has for her so deeply. She motivates me by the excitement that she daily has for the Lord AND on top of that she has a beautiful singing voice..

This is my small group and I love them very very much. The Lord reminds me daily that I need these girls just as much as they need me. I ask the Lord at the beginning of the semester to give me girls that I could truly love and grow with and my prayers were answered. I am spoiled by these girls. Thank you Jesus.

Velveteen Rabbit

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

You really can find God in everything. Even in children's books. I love love love this book. This part in the story creates such a beautiful picture in my head. Really makes you think. Everyone wants to be loved, because being loved in a real way, a way that only God can love us, makes us real and alive inside. Its something that we all long for and are searching for...everyone. And yes, it may hurt along the way, but in the end its always worth it. I look forward to the Lord wearin me out.

Free as Slaves

In Chi Alpha last week we talked about the subject of rights and how we as Christians have none. As Winkie Pratney would say, "We are as free as slaves." I've heard Eli talk about this a couple of times and it really hits home for me, I've been chewing on this talk for awhile.

Here's a quick summary:

We are to be like Jesus. Jesus was very meek. When I think of meek the first thing that comes to mind is someone who is very gentle, quite, tame, etc.. but the question is, was Jesus meek when he ran the people out of the temple with a whip? YES. Meek means having a completely yielded spirit, one who does anything that his master asks of him. This is Jesus. And we as Christians are all called to be meek just as Jesus is. But when we are not yielded three things can come of this: anger, worry, or greed. When you are feeling any one of those things, you are giving up a right that you never had in the first place, because remember we are bond-servants (a person who goes back to his master and works for free). Our "rights" are violated by what we call the "It's, Them's, and the Me's." The "It's" would be your things. Like for me, our dishwasher is broken and now I have to hand wash all my dishes. The "Them's" would be people. Example: my roommates are not doing those dirty dishes in the sink. And the "Me". You hate to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning because your just not having a good curly hair day. The Lord uses these things to see if one of two things come out of you. Eli used this example, say you have two buckets, one with a horrible, deadly acid and the other being honey. When the "It's, Them's, and the Me's" kick you, what comes out of your heart? Acid or honey. You would be surprised. I usually am. What we need to do is when we are angry, worried, or greed is: stop---->identify the right you though you had-----> burn it!

That's pretty intense. But God loves us and He takes care of His servants. God wants to put a finger on every part of our lives. I really do love how involved our God is in our lives, I would be pretty worried if He wasn't. We serve a personal God, one who is near and never distant. Thank you Jesus.

"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasures produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45