All Dried Up

Have you ever felt all dried up? Like you've given what you can give but there is just nothing left that you can really do.

Sometimes I feel like that with my spiritual life. While there may be something that I can do about what God is convicting in me, I don't do it, and sometimes I don't even want to do it. It saddens my heart to admit it, but I know it's really true.

That's when I need to consult God and just say hey, I'm feeling all dried up, help me because I need it.

Grace. There is enough to cover me.

Nevertheless, I believe the lie that there isn't. I believe the lie that if I'm not good enough God will condemn me.

That's when I need to remember scripture.

Romans 8:1-3
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

It really hits home for me when I read "For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering".

Christ covers all.

Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Though we have been redeemed we are not without purpose. We have a job to do. Here Christ tells the disciples to be alert and aware of temptation praying to God for assistance to resist it.

We still live in a broken and sinful world, therefore we must watch and pray to avoid temptation. When we stop watching and praying that is when we fall into sin.

2 Peter 1:3-4
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 

This passage in second Peter is a good reminder that though we live in a broken world God has given us everything we need to succeed in living a life pleasing to Him.

An excerpt from Matthew Henry's Commentary explains verses 3 & 4 in more depth...
Those who receive the promises of the gospel partake of the divine nature. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind, after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; their hearts are set for God and his service; they have a divine temper and disposition of soul; though the law is the ministration of death, and the letter killeth, yet the gospel is the ministration of life, and the Spirit quickeneth those who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. [4.] Those in whom the Spirit works the divine nature are freed from the bondage of corruption. Those who are, by the Spirit of grace,renewed in the spirit of their mind, are translated into the liberty of the children of God; for it is the world in which corruption reigns. Those who are not of the Father, but of the world, are under the power of sin; the world lies in wickedness, 1 John 5:19. And the dominion that sin has in the men of the world is through lust; their desires are to it, and therefore it rules over them. The dominion that sin has over us is according to the delight we have in it.

The last sentence here is easy to overlook, but it is what stood out to me most. It says, "The dominion that sin has over us is according to the delight we have in it". Hearing myself read those words both encourages and saddens me. I am saddened by this because it means that I am holding a dominion of sin over myself and therefore keeping myself from what God has for me. On the other hand, I am encouraged because it means that the only sin which has power over Christians is the sin that I myself take pleasure in. This means that through the Holy Spirit, I have the power I need to get rid of any sin that is held over me. 

The only question that remains then is how. How do we get rid of the dominion of sin we are willingly holding over ourselves. Well I guess that the easy answer is to let go of it. The more helpful answer is perhaps to watch and pray. In order to get rid of it we need to ask God for help. We also need to be mindful or in other words pay attention to what thoughts lead us into sin. Then, instead of entertaining those thoughts, we need to capture them and toss them out. We can be set free by the power of the Holy Spirit if we watch and pray. 

Summer Bucket List Update

Hello Friend remember me? I'm your summer bucket list. 

So, Since it has been almost a month since our bucket list link up. I thought I would share with you an update of how I am doing on mine. For a refresher here are my goals. 

1) Go to the Beach - I haven't been to the beach in probably at least five years. So I think its about time to get myself there. 

I have not made it to the beach yet but I am still hoping too :)

2) Make a new friend - I have recently relocated to a new town near Grad school and have had to leave my friends behind. So this summer I would like to make a new friend here.

I think I can almost count this one checked off. This summer I have had the opportunity to get to know my roommate better. It has been really nice spending time with her. Also, this week two new girls moved into our house and I look forward to getting to know them as we adventure through grad school. 

3) Send Letters - I miss my distant friends and I love to write them letters. This summer I hope to send them each at least one awesome letter.

Today I wrote a letter! Now I need to write a couple more and send them out! yay!

4) Lend my time - I would have said volunteer, but I'm not sure i'll do that. So I'll keep it real and say lend my time. This summer I want to lend my time to someone or something of good cause. 

I still need to work on this one.

5) Seize the Day - Sometimes being here in my school housing, it is easy to waste the day away doing meaningless things like watching television. This summer I want to get away from the television and my computer and spend my time doing other things that involve enjoying the outdoors. 

Success! Seizing the day. When my BFF was here we seized the day! We spent some time at the mall cooked dinner and went to the movies! It may not sound all that different from normal but for me it really was. I plan to continue seizing the day as I spend my summer taking classes and enjoying the sunshine :)

Watching For God

The Prayer of Faith

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. - James 5:13-20

Prayer is an essential aspect of a relationship with God. It allows us to express our feelings and thoughts to a God who is big enough to handle them. Though we often pray to God seeking him to grant our requests, prayer has a greater purpose than that. Through prayer God transforms our hearts and minds. I think an example of this might be this excerpt from 2 Corinthians Chapter 9...

"Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" - 2 Corinthians 9:13-15

Tonight I spent some much needed time talking with God. We had a long conversation. Mostly I poured my heart out to him about everything. I shared my joys, sorrows, confessions, confusions, questions, worries, and fears, along with many requests. At the end of our conversation I don't think it was God who was changed, but rather me. After my long talk with God, I felt better. In fact, I felt at peace because I knew that my God cares for me. I know that he won't let me down. Even if things don't turn out the way that I had hoped or wanted, I know that God is faithful. He works everything out for the Good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). So, although I don't always know what I am doing or where I am going, though I may have doubts and confusion about many things, it's alright because God is faithful. I don't have to know because he knows. I don't have to know because I DO know that wherever I am there he is with me. No matter what may happen, I am not alone. 

Tonight I encourage you to pray. Tell God what you are thinking and feeling. He  can take it. After all he's a big guy. Let him know what's up with you, I assure you it will lead to good things. Pray and then watch for God's work in your life. He's there, I assure you.

"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:22
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24 
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:2

Being Vulnerable

Today was the last day of one of my classes and I will miss it. It has truly been a blessing to have the opportunity to be apart of such an amazing group of people. As you may have guessed, this wasn't just a regular class. This class was a community. A community where we could be open with one another and share our life struggles. Where we were accepted and not laughed at. Even though some weeks it may have been hard to be vulnerable, it was worth it in the end. You see, for this class each week every person completed a spiritual discipline practice from Calhon's Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. Then at class every week we would share with one another what we experienced, and what we learned through participating in that spiritual discipline. This sharing time was an opportunity to be vulnerable. Was it uncomfortable? Scary? Yes and yes. Sometimes it was difficult to share how we were feeling and what we were learning in our personal practice of spiritual disciplines. But it was worth it. In the end we learned that by being vulnerable with each other we created a community. A place where we struggled, hurt, cried, and laughed. But it was also a place where we helped, comforted, consoled, and affirmed. Taking this class I learned a very important lesson. I am flawed, imperfect, a sinner. I don't have it together and I never will. And its okay. It's okay because so is everyone else. We are all the same, we are all flawed, we make mistakes, we sin. This class was good for me because it affirmed that I am normal. I am just as human as the next one. Yes I struggle, I get hurt, I have emotions. So do you. Something a bit more important struck me in the midst of my studies. God's grace IS enough. As much as I fight it some days and think that God can't possibly want someone as flawed as me, he DOES. I don't think I will ever fully grasp the meaning of God's grace. But I do know that I am thankful for it. Because without grace my sin is not okay. Disowning the very being who thought me up through my actions is not okay. But somehow, when I was not okay, God sent his son to earth to die so that I would be alight. This is unconditional love. Unfathomable love. That a man would lay down his life for his friends.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. - 1 John 3:16

Build Each Other Up

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thess 5:9-13 

Read Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:6-11, 12-15  

Concise Commentary

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Today's sermon was on the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 and 16. You can watch the sermon here. I know its a bit long for blogger, but I've posted the chapters because I want you to have the complete picture. I hope that you will read it. If you would rather listen to it you can find the audio here.

Luke 15

The Voice (VOICE)

15 Jesus became increasingly popular among notorious sinners—tax collectors and other social outcasts. ² The Pharisees and religious scholars noticed this.

Pharisees and Religious Scholars: This man welcomes immoral people and enjoys their company over a meal!

Jesus (with another parable): ^3-4 Wouldn’t every single one of you, if you have 100 sheep and lose one, leave the 99 in their grazing lands and go out searching for the lost sheep until you find it? ⁵ When you find the lost sheep, wouldn’t you hoist it up on your shoulders, feeling wonderful? ⁶ And when you go home, wouldn’t you call together your friends and neighbors? Wouldn’t you say, “Come over and celebrate with me, because I’ve found my lost sheep”? ⁷ This is how it is in heaven. They’re happier over one sinner who changes his way of life than they are over 99 good and just people who don’t need to change their ways of life.

⁸ Or imagine a woman who has 10 silver coins. She loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the whole house, and search diligently until that coin is found? ⁹ And when she finds it, doesn’t she invite her friends and neighbors and say, “Celebrate with me! I’ve found that silver coin that I lost”? ¹⁰ Can’t you understand? There is joy in the presence of all God’s messengers over even one sinner who changes his way of life.

¹¹ Once there was this man who had two sons. ¹² One day the younger son came to his father and said, “Father, eventually I’m going to inherit my share of your estate. Rather than waiting until you die, I want you to give me my share now.” And so the father liquidated assets and divided them. ¹³ A few days passed and this younger son gathered all his wealth and set off on a journey to a distant land. Once there he wasted everything he owned on wild living. ¹⁴ He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. ¹⁵ He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything.

¹⁷ So he had this moment of self-reflection: “What am I doing here? Back home, my father’s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? ¹⁸ I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. ¹⁹ I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’” ²⁰ So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.

²¹ The son said, “Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God’s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son.”

²² But the father turned to his servants and said, “Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. ²³ Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate ²⁴ because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found.” So they had this huge party.

²⁵ Now the man’s older son was still out in the fields working. He came home at the end of the day and heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. ²⁷ The servant said, “Your brother has returned, and your father has butchered the fattest calf to celebrate his safe return.”

²⁸ The older brother got really angry and refused to come inside, so his father came out and pleaded with him to join the celebration. ²⁹ But he argued back, “Listen, all these years I’ve worked hard for you. I’ve never disobeyed one of your orders. But how many times have you even given me a little goat to roast for a party with my friends? Not once! This is not fair! ³⁰ So this son of yours comes, this wasteful delinquent who has spent your hard-earned wealth on loose women, and what do you do? You butcher the fattest calf from our herd!”

³¹ The father replied, “My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. ³² Isn’t it right to join in the celebration and be happy? This is your brother we’re talking about. He was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found again!”

16 Here’s a parable He told the disciples:

Jesus: Once there was a rich and powerful man who had an asset manager. One day, the man received word that his asset manager was squandering his assets.

² The rich man brought in the asset manager and said, “You’ve been accused of wrongdoing. I want a full and accurate accounting of all your financial transactions because you are really close to being fired.”

³ The manager said to himself, “Oh, no! Now what am I going to do? I’m going to lose my job here, and I’m too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg. ⁴ I have an idea. This plan will mean that I have a lot of hospitable friends when I get fired.”

⁵ So the asset manager set up appointments with each person who owed his master money. He said to the first debtor, “How much do you owe my boss?” ⁶ The debtor replied, “A hundred barrels^[a] of oil.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your bill by half. Just write 50 on this contract.” ⁷ Then he said to the second debtor, “How much do you owe?” This fellow said, “A hundred bales^[b] of wheat.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your debt by 20 percent. Just write down 80 bales on this contract.”

⁸ When the manager’s boss realized what he had done, he congratulated him for at least being clever. That’s how it is: those attuned to this evil age are more clever in dealing with their affairs than the enlightened are in dealing with their affairs!

⁹ Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually money will be useless to you—but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination.

¹⁰ If you’re faithful in small-scale matters, you’ll be faithful with far bigger responsibilities. If you’re crooked in small responsibilities, you’ll be no different in bigger things. ¹¹ If you can’t even handle a small thing like money, who’s going to entrust you with spiritual riches that really matter? ¹² If you don’t manage well someone else’s assets that are entrusted to you, who’s going to give over to you important spiritual and personal relationships to manage?

¹³ Imagine you’re a servant and you have two masters giving you orders. What are you going to do when they have conflicting demands? You can’t serve both, so you’ll either hate the first and love the second, or you’ll faithfully serve the first and despise the second. One master is God and the other is money. You can’t serve them both.

¹⁴ The Pharisees overheard all this, and they started mocking Jesus because they really loved money.

Jesus (to the Pharisees): ¹⁵ You’ve made your choice. Your ambition is to look good in front of other people, not God. But God sees through to your hearts. He values things differently from you. The goals you and your peers are reaching for God detests.

¹⁶ The law and the prophets had their role until the coming of John the Baptist. Since John’s arrival, the good news of the kingdom of God has been taught while people are clamoring to enter it. ¹⁷ That’s not to say that God’s rules for living are useless. The stars in the sky and the earth beneath your feet will pass away before one letter of God’s rules for living become worthless.

How to Let Peace Rule

Check out this post by Proverbs 31 Ministries - How to Let Peace Rule

Rest

This video sermon on rest spoke to my heart. I encourage you to take one single hour out of your day and listen to it. You need the rest anyways. 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Budgeting

"Budgeting" is probably not a title you expected to see on a blog about Jesus. But today's church sermon has made it clear to me that God needs to be at the center of our budgeting. Today's sermon was so good that I encourage you to check it out yourself. I could write about it here, but nothing that I can write here is as good as what God can say to you through the sermon itself. It is available Here today and hopefully at the link below tomorrow. I strongly encourage you to watch today's sermon because it has practical implications for Godly living.

You can click the link to go to the "We Give" Sermon Series  page. There you will find sermons on giving. Today's sermon is not yet posted but I am hoping that will be updated in the next couple of days because it spoke to my heart and I hope that it will also speak to yours.

Letting Go

This week I have been keenly aware of my desire to have control over my life. I want things to go well and so I plan the details and hope for the best result. But when that result is less than I had hoped, I am disappointed. Not because everything fell apart, but because I expected too much. I seem to have a habit of that. Setting my goals high to the point that it stresses me out because I feel the need to succeed at them even if they may be too much. Even as I am writing this I fight within myself, saying inside my head that my goals aren't that high or that hard to obtain. Which, in some aspects they are not. However, in other aspects they are. It may surprise you to know that I can set realistic goals, but it obviously takes me some time to critically think and fight the urge to extend my task just a little bit more. I always hope to get more completed than I usually do. On the other hand, my tendency to set high goals has challenged myself to reach for things that previously seemed unreachable. In this aspect, I see my perfectionist characteristic as a strength. It challenges me to grow in many ways.

As you may have or may have not gathered by now, God is asking me to let go. To give everything up and lay it down at his feet. I desperately want to do that. I would love to let it all go and relinquish my stress, anxieties, and worries to God. However, in reality this has proven to be difficult. It seems there is always something I need to do or should be doing. This sense of responsibility has been a source of stress because it hinders me from my ability to truly rest. I need to let it go and let God handle it because I know that he can, he wants to, and I need him to.

I hope that you will let go along with me. Here are the encouraging words that God has been showing me.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." - Romans 8

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" - Matthew 6

"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6

Never will I Forsake You

My best friend is wonderful and she wrote this blog post you should read... Mint Chocolate Chip Moments. What jumped out at me was the verse she quoted from Isaiah 54, "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,”says the Lord, who has compassion on you. I love this verse because it reminds me that even when the world falls apart around me, God loves me. In the book of Hebrews God makes another promise, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” God will never leave us! Lastly, Romans 8 says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This passage reminds me that there is absolutely nothing that can remove me from God's love. So there you have it, God always loves you, he will never leave you and nothing can take that away.
To dig further start reading The book of Romans especially Romans 8.

Praise God!

"It is good to praise the Lord ... For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands." Psalm 92:1a-4 (NIV 1984)

Today I read a devotional about praising God. You can read it here Turning Complaining Into Praise. It reminded me that praising God is powerful because it is contagious. The more I praise God I realize how grateful I am for all that he does in my life. This spirit of thankfulness is a source of joy for me that spills over and changes the way I act. Instead of picking out every little detail of my life I dislike or want to change, I bring forward the things I am grateful for and that I love. Praising God helps me get my focus off myself and my complaints and onto God and the grace and mercy he gives me. 

Praise be to God for his unfailing love!

SHMILY

Today I read an awesome story called SHMILY that my friend posted on her blog. It is exactly the concept I am trying to implement into my life right now. The concept to do little things for God everyday in order to keep the two greatest commandments to love God and love people. I currently have a list :) They can be big or small for example, your list could look like this...

• Time with God in the Morning
• Wash Dishes for Mom and Dad
• Write siblings a special note for them to find
• Spend time with a friend

Then at the end of each day check off what small things you did for God that day to see how you are improving. As you get better at it make a bigger list or have bigger tasks.

Kisses from Katie

Recently I've been reading "Kisses from Katie" by Katie Davis. The book is about Katie's life living in Uganda. Her story is truly inspirational. It has encouraged me to reach out and help others. Reading her book has given me a new perspective that I am thankful for. My idea of what is a need and what is a want has changed. Before reading her book I have always wanted to be generous in big ways. Only a few times in my life have I taken advantage of the opportunity to give big. In the future, I hope that I am willing to give where God calls me to give. I look forward to what God is doing in my heart and in my life. I am very excited to go where he is sending me now that I have seen what he is doing through Katie.

Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis

Katie's Blog

Katie's Ministry

Youtube Video about Katie

Amazima

Brokenhearted

Life can be extremely difficult. Sometimes it is so hard you think "Somethings gotta give" but then it doesn't and you wonder how much worse things are going to get. The truth is I can't fix your life, I don't know why you haven't been dealt a winning set of cards, and I don't know if things will get better. However, I do know that we don't have to go it alone. Thankfully there is hope even in the most broken of circumstances. 

Psalm 34:17-19

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;  he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;

Psalm 147:2-4

The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

Isaiah 61:1-3

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

Dear lonley, tired, poor, and needy,

I love you with all of my heart. I want you to know that your life is a miracle. Every breath you breath in and every move you make is a miraculous gift. Without the breathe of God your body would be a corpse without movement, without breath, and without life. But He gave you LIFE, he gave you a miracle. Stop searching for a sign of God and take a look in a mirror. You are made in the image of Christ (Genesis 9:6), you are a demonstration of what God is capable of. He formed you in your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13), he made you out of the dust (Genesis 2:7). His love is knitted in every atom of your being. He made you with love. God is love. Love made you. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37) Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31)

Full Speed Ahead!

Road Trips, got to love them.

This week is going to fly by! I have two conferences one tomorrow morning for my internship and one Thursday for my policy class. There is so much to do in addition to these two events life is full speed ahead of me. Although time is running away from me, I am excited for the rest of this week. I have been given so many wonderful opportunities at my internship I am so blessed. Today my cup is full and my heart runs over because of God's beautiful gifts. As I was walking back from the library tonight all I could think about was how much I love the people around me and how I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. Thanks be to God for His extravagant gifts! They are better than I could have ever imagined. In all of this craziness, today I was reminded to let God in on my plans. I fully intend to follow God's leading but sometimes I forget to tell him where I think I would like to go. It is good to be reminded to stop and pray. Thus, your challenge this week is to STOP and PRAY. I have a feeling it will be good for you. <3 Me

Spiritual Formation

This J-term has been quite a challenge. Right now I am taking Spiritual Formations and Art Foundations. Together it equals 5 credits, which means 5 hours of class every day for 2 and a half weeks. Thankfully there are only two days left. Although it has not been as fun as I would have liked I have really enjoyed both of my classes. In spiritual formations we have been learning about different spiritual disciplines. For example, Silence, hospitality, Sabbath, Jesus Prayer, Meditation, Spiritual Direction and a couple others. I am really glad that I have had the opportunity to learn about these different things. I now understand what these practices are all about and why we do them. I will definitely be implementing a couple of them in my life. For class we have been reading some great books on the topic. My favorite three are "The Sacred Way" by Tony Jones, "Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers" by Claiborne & Heartgrove, and "Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F. Winner. I strongly encourage you to check them out. Especially if you are interested in learning more about Spiritual Discipines, or have a yearning to get closer to God. Although, I really enjoyed reading these books I by no means encourage you to agree with everything that they say. Rather think it over, do some research, ask people around you, and come up with your own conclusions.

Anyways, J-term is the reason I have not been able to write much lately in case you were wondering. :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve! Today has been good. I spent the majority of it watching Christmas movies and baking cookies with mom. Then later on we are going to the Christmas Eve service at Church. It's a different kind of Christmas this year. Since my sister and her husband will not be able to come and celebrate with us until the 27th, we are postponing our Christmas traditions. It is somewhat strange that for the first time since I can remember, we are not doing Christmas tonight. It is different but not bad. I am still enjoying Christmas even without these things. However, I am looking forward to them later in the week. I'm looking at it as an opportunity to focus on the celebration of Christ and less on Santa Clause. I like Santa don't get me wrong, but it seems to me that there is a need to focus more on Christ and less on Santa.

Social Justice

"Living as we do in a world that suffers so much, two opposing possibilities can easily tempt us: either to turn our backs and live oblivious to the pain or to allow the pain to overwhelm us and despair to take up residence in our hearts. The truly faithful option is to face the pain and live joyfully in the midst of it. Those who suffer most remind us of how tragic and arrogant it would be for us to lose hope on behalf of people who have not lost theirs. They are teachers of joy." - Joyce Hollyday from the book Zealous Love