Even Still

 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.  -Jeremiah 31:3

   Because I have grown up in church and have been blessed with a wonderful christian family, a lot of the most basic aspects of God just seem to miss me. I've heard them so often that when people start to talk about them, my mind switches to auto pilot. So, recently I have been asking God to reveal to me the depth of His love, as this seems to be one of hardest concepts for me to grasp, and He has been so faithful. The other day, during my quiet time, I started daydreaming (surprise!), and even though that's a quiet time no-no, God used it to bring to me a greater understanding of His love for me. He brought to my mind a picture of the cross, and the suffering of Christ. And not just the physical suffering, but the reason that He was on the cross. To take the full measure of Gods wrath in our place. In my place! If I hadn't sinned, He wouldn't have had to go through what He did. And yet, when He rose from the dead, instead of hunting me down, grabbing me by the collar, and giving me a lecture on how I ought to appreciate the sacrifice He made and never sin again or else; He stretched out His arms toward me in love, extended His nail pierced palms- proof of what I deserved- and with a smile on His face said  "I love you even still".

Elisabeth Elliot

    My heart was saying, "Lord, take away this longing, or give me that for which I long."
        The Lord was answering, "I must teach you to long for something better."
                                                          -Elisabeth Elliot
                                                        Passion and Purity

His Voice

  These last few days have been incredible for my walk with Christ. I have been getting up earlier to spend time with Him and stealing away more often during the day for some extra quiet time. Over the years, I have heard people talk about how important a daily walk with God is, but I never get it quite like I do during these times of closeness with Him. There are so many blessings that come with spending added time with Him, but I think the best one of all, is the way that your heart becomes more sensitive to His voice. I love it when I'm doing laundry, or reading a book, or on the computer, and all of a sudden I feel this tug on my heart, and this desire comes over me to steal away and spend time with my Prince. I mean, how incredible is it, that the creator of the universe would -with all that I'm sure He has to do- call me by name, to come away with Him? It just blows me away sometimes. And, I think that I'm finally realizing the 'secret' to hearing His voice. It's not just spending five or ten minutes daily in His word, but a full 24 hours, of moment-by-moment awareness of Him. Now, I'm not by any means as close to God as I would like to be, and maybe should be, but I'm enjoying this season of learning to hear His voice.

Devoted

Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't posted in so long, but I was gone and then sick.
      Last week, I went to Student Life mission camp in Missouri, and the theme was Devoted. I went not expecting much, other than a tan, and maybe an emotional high,  but I came away with so much more. I came away with the knowledge of what it means to be Devoted to Christ and the realization that I'm far from it. The first day at camp they issued all of us these booklets that had our quiet times in them and some places to take notes. On the first night at family group quiet time we did an activity out of this book that really brought into focus how un-devoted I am to Christ and really set the tone for the week. So I want to share this with you in hopes that you will do it and that it will impact your life as it did mine.
      So first of all you will need a sheet of paper and something to write with. On your paper write the numbers 1-10 vertically, leaving a space large enough to write in. Next to number 5 write the word Knowledge, this represents everything you know to function each day; next to 7 write Culture, this represents your culture pretty self explanitory; next to 8 write Stuff, this represents everything you own; and  next to 9 write Values this represents what you believe, how you view right and wrong.  Now next to 1 write the most important person in your life, i.e. (mom/dad, husband/wife, mentor, best friend); for number 2 you are going to write your most important role, (daughter/son, husband/wife, student, friend); next to number 3 write your most important support group; for number 4 write down your heritage ( American, Mexican, Russian, Indian); now skip to 6 since five already has a word and write down your favorite place to be, this could be anywhere from your bedroom to a special place outside where you go to be alone; finally next to 10 write the activity that brings you the most joy ( reading, spending time with family, singing, fixing stuff).
     Now look at your list and cross off four things that you would be willing to live without to keep the rest and think about why you are willing to live without these things. Now cross off two more, and think about why you crossed these out and left the ones that you did. i.e. - (why were you willing to cross off stuff but not your heritage?) Now, cross off two more, and think about the same things. This should leave two numbers on your page not crossed off. Now I'm going to ask you to cross off one more, and really think about why you left the one you did. Why are you willing to live without the other 9 numbers in order to keep that last one? Now here comes the kicker, if you were to put God at the top of your page, would you be willing to cross off that last number in order to keep Him? Would you be willing to forsake your support group, for Him? Or what about the thing that brings you the most joy, could you give that up in order to be devoted to Him? Because this is what He asks of us, that we be willing to give up all we hold dear, to follow Him. He doesn't always ask us to, but, He does need us to be willing.
    Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

The Modern Beauty Myth

"Learn to love yourself "  " Get comfortable in your own skin "   " Let your inner  beauty shine through "   " Be yourself "   "Believe in yourself"

   As a modern young women, I have had these phrases thrown in my face numerous times from all different kinds of people, secular and christian. Yet every time I've heard them, they have seemed to fall flat. It was only recently that I discovered why. They're false! Yes you heard me. There is no Biblical support for any of these ideas. In fact the Bible teaches the exact opposite. Now, yes, I understand that these ideas are spread in order to keep girls from killing themselves or developing eating disorders, but if loving and  believing in myself is supposed to keep me from having a bad self image, then I'm done for. All these ideas do is cause girls to turn inward and focus on themselves, so that when a prettier or more 'successful' girl comes along all they can think about is how she will affect them. Anyway, off my soap box, as I was saying the teachings in the Bible run contrary to this kind of thinking. Jesus never taught us to love ourselves. He taught us that the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love others (Matt. 22: 37-40). Nowhere in there does He say anything about loving ourselves except as an example of how we are to love our neighbors. He also never taught us to 'get comfortable in our own skin'. In fact, the life he lived was anything but comfortable and I don't know about you, but he doesn't seem to be championing comfort, when He says to take up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). As to letting our inner beauty shine through, if we had any true inner beauty, Christ would not have had to die. But because 'our righteous acts are as filthy rags' (Is. 64:6) He had to sacrifice His life for ours. And I don't recall him telling us to be ourselves, in fact the Bible often exhorts us to imitate Christ, and die to our self (2Cor.5:15). Lastly, believing in ourselves, will never bring us true happiness, because I don't know about you but I often disappoint myself. Only Christ is capable of fulfilling my every need, so why should I rely on one so dismally qualified?

Yesterday, Today, and Forever

                                      Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
                                                                                          -Hebrews 13:8

  In my last post, I talked about how hollow our faith becomes when we rely on the words of others to be our guide. Since then I have found one of my old journal entries that I think goes along with that topic, and I wanted to share it with you.
                         Lord, I have just been reading a book called , "Has Christianity failed you " and I started thinking about how many books and t.v. programs are out there, that try to explain you. That train of thought , in turn made me wonder, what do You think of it? How does it look to You, watching all of us down here trying to find You, when Your there! Your there waiting for us if we would just stop running around and take a moment to look up. But we don't. We have our heads down, noses stuck in books, and eyes glued to television programs about you, instead of looking for you where you are. We over complicate you God, and yet also over simplify You. We try to explain You when You can't be explained. We try to find you when you haven't moved. We try to learn about you from sources other than your Word, when you haven't changed since you wrote it, and you never will...
   Again I hope you don't think that I am condemning books and t.v. programs that talk about God, because there are alot of great resources out there. I just want us to think about where our primary source of information should come from, and Whom we should rely on. Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.