The sun sets on 2014

 Just a couple of pictures I took while walking the other day... it has been beautiful lately and where I am there has yet to be any snow, which is truly astonishing!

Down near the boardwalk/lake

*Look the grass is still green! 

Further down the boardwalk and later as the sun is setting... 

Amazingly it's the end of December and there is no snow or ice around even the edges of the lake! 

It's beautiful and I could sit there forever! 

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

~ Romans 1:20 ~

Responsible

I have sorely neglected blogging lately. Life has continued on routinely for me, I'm enjoying these final few months that I will be a college student before my life will become a whirlwind of unknowns.

Lately I feel as if God has been teaching me the importance of time and timing. There is a time for everything under heaven you know!

I know there are things that I need to be doing and making the most of while I am in the situation and place that I'm at... And there are also things that God is saying 'hold off'...wait on me, trust me.


At the beginning of the year I prayed about a 'word for the year' and that word was 'Obedience'. I had many many short comings in that but also incredible things that God did. This year I learned to better listen to the quiet gentle leading of God's spirit.. whether it was something bigger like praying through anxious moments, me being at a specific place at a specific time that God used to bless and help others or whether it was a minuscule decision or thought that *I* would hardly consider important but then God would remind me of obedience even in the simplest and tiniest details and I found I was really blessed through that.

I've been thinking and praying about choosing another word for this coming year, since it's really kind of a neat idea. What God has been putting on my heart lately is 'Responsibility'... that may sound strange... but this has been on my heart because I've felt a huge sense of responsibility to maintain my own spiritual growth and to encourage others & help them realize they they are responsible for their souls. Responsibility also better helps me to understand that there are things I must not procrastinate on or put off- I've had that reminder come up several times in the last couple months and have always paid a price when I slacked off - whether that was in school work, personal things or devotion time.

Right now, I am feeling like this word for the year is going to be very difficult to do and to maintain, but I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do with it!

Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.

 

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings

~Psalm 17:7-8~ 

Gentle reminders

The last month for me has been ordinary yet exciting. Kind of an oxymoron I think. I've been wanting to write and yet I  haven't.

The last month or so God's just been very gently speaking to me about deliberately setting aside time to pray or worship or read the bible in the morning and.. that doesn't always happen - it's a struggle against the flesh to sit down and do that every morning even if I do have the time... And sometimes I've wanted to just cry because I really don't have my priorities in order and I just have to learn to draw closer to Him each morning.

God's also been teaching me to continually come before him and confess sin, even if it seems really small and insignificant and I've found that this gentle reminding has been really good for me especially when I feel the weight of the day starting to push me down.

This month has been full of very gentle reminders and I love when God is like that.

It reminds me of the parable in John 8 where a woman is caught in adultery and the pharisees bring her to the temple in front of Jesus. He could have condemned her, it would have been justified, but instead he was very gentle with her and yet it was still convicting and exactly what she needed at that moment.

I'm really glad that God just knows us intimately and that He knows exactly what we need and when.
Yep. I really love that! :)

Pride

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 

~2 Corinthians 7:1~

I found this verse tonight particularly convicting. Especially how the verse specifically states that we are to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit. 

The last few weeks I've let many things creep into my life totally unintentionally because I really had not been attempting to keep myself from distraction and small sins. Mostly, I'd been thinking "I can work on these things to better myself,' and they were biblical things that are commanded in scripture but I'd been attempting to do them all in my own strength, not out of reverence for God and therefore got very easily distracted from trying to walk with God each day....and didn't exactly do too well in accomplishing anything...

I didn't realize that trying to do everything in my own strength was a huge form of pride. I was thinking, 'well, maybe my circumstances have me bogged down' or 'it's this or that thing, it's not MY fault'. Ha... oh boy, how wrong I was. 

 I'd been having a hard time worshiping  God and especially praying because... well I wasn't exactly humbling myself... Then I wasn't really able to pray because of the secret pride I was harboring (though I didn't realize what it was at the time). Plus the physical aspect of being busy with school, emotional roller coaster of work/personal issues and obviously the spiritual issues I was having REALLY took a toll on me and the last few weeks, for the most part, I have felt soooo weighed down by everything and tonight, I FINALLY realized what was going on spiritually, so I prayed (for real, without being distracted and full of pride) and the weight lifted! Praise the Lord! He is with us always, waiting for us to trust Him and to walk arm in arm with Him!  :) 

The Kingdom of God

The phrase 'the Kingdom of God' is used over 60 times in the New Testament and I've been thinking about it a lot. From what I've noticed through looking it up is that there seem to be several different meanings or circumstances that it's used after my initial thought of Heaven being the literal and physical Kingdom. 

The first mention of this certain phrase is in Matthew 12, when Jesus says "But if it is by the spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you [Verse 12]).

So this made me think, well, it can't JUST be a physical place or in one fixed area called heaven.  But Jesus also taught and preached  about the kingdom :


Luke 4:43
 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. 

and He gave instructions on how to inherit or enter the kingdom

Mark 1:15 
"The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" 

and

  Mark 10:15
"Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."


Now, since the phrase seemed to be all over the place I decided to look up the word Kingdom, in the dictionary... (Trust me, I felt pretty silly because I know what it means.. but was hoping for a little more insight) 
And the definition is:

1. a country, state, or territory ruled by a king or queen.
2. the spiritual reign or authority of God



The concept of it being a spiritual kingdom (as well as a physical kingdom) had crossed my mind and it  makes a lot of sense and I found was backed up by previous verses that say 
we muct become like little children to enter it and the ever-famous 'it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom' verse. Along with two more verses that I found 


John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit 

And 

1 Corinthians 15:50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.


What also caught my attention in the definition of Kingdom was the word ruled', yes, it makes sense that a kingdom has to have a ruler.
That being said when I was reading through Luke 17:20 -21 this part really caught my attention(and was the birth of this whole blog post):
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,  nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

*Some versions say 'The kingdom of God is with in you' 
and that made me think... if the kingdom of God is a spiritual reign, with in us, who has a ruler (Jesus), then that means that we have a pretty important job- like being the mayor of a very small area in one part of the whole kingdom! And I believe that job is to help maintain the kingdom, whether in our own lives and hearts, the church or the general body of believers. 

Now if a mayor breaks the law or is corrupt usually what happens is things go downhill...pretty quickly... and people hear of it, that's why bad politician jokes exist right? Which leads to convicting, get-you-thinking kind of questions... 

Are you submitted to the rule of Jesus... or are you thinking you can do things pretty well without obeying the King and His words/ laws?

What kind of mayor for the kingdom are you going to be? 

August

I haven't blogged for a month, there hasn't been a whole lot to blog about, I've been helping out with camp, had a birthday, I was in a wedding, I've been packing for college (ok, that actually only started two days ago.. haha)! And then I've been thinking...oh boy...I graduate college in 8 months... I don't have a plan, I don't know what I'll do, or where I'll live or where I'd get a job, there are things I'd like to do before I get a job and those things are on a yellow light right now- no longer stopped but still on hold. And this is all kind of scary, I know perfectly well I'm not alone in this situation, there are millions of young adults in the same situation I am.

It seems like at the end of my school year I'll be stepping out of a boat before I know what's going to happen, and I'm trying hard not to look at the waves and to just trust that God is going to guide me and provide for me and ask me to get out of the boat. And that makes me less scared, I trust Him with my life, my career, and my dreams to see the rocky mountains. It's not your typical 5-year plan, but that's ok with me! :)

When God is silent

The last month has been kind of strange for me.

See the past month as I've been thinking about and going through various things  and praying about them God has been silent.

And (ok this might sound crazy) this hasn't been a bad thing. God has not seemed distant or aloof, just silent.
It's actually been almost a blessing because it's been teaching me to first of all, to wait on Him and secondly to place my hope in Him that He will come through even though it doesn't seem like it. Even though at times my hope seemed so fragile, I realized that my hope doesn't depend on the circumstances or what I'm feeling but on Him alone... and He's saying 'hold on'!  :) 

Ten lepers on a journey

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

~Luke 17:11-14~

I was reading these verses and found them rather interesting...As this little scene unfolds only one of the ten lepers comes back and praises God that He was healed, while  I think that the reaction is the main part of this story, I found it interesting that after the lepers addressed Jesus He responded by saying "Go show yourselves to the priests" He did not tell them they were going to be healed (at least it's not recorded that He did), and yet they headed off trusting Him and obeying what He had said and they were healed on the way-"as they went" ---sometime during the journey to the priests.

Isn't that so much like our own lives? As we journey on and obey Jesus, sometimes we are healed during the process, not always before, not always after. It could be physical healing but it could also be emotional healing, the healing any brokenness we have or soul cleansing. And it's not always obvious along the journey but eventually we realize that it has occurred. Because He will be faithful to us trusting Him. And if that happens in my own life I hope that I can be the one to "turn back and praise God with a loud voice"! :) 

 

My burden is light

"29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

For a while I've been thinking about Matthew 11:29-30 and what is meant by Jesus's burden to find a deeper meaning behind these verses. So I pulled out my dictionary & thesaurus and found that yoke can also mean: to be joined together or subjection / oppression / servitude.
This makes verse 29 make a lot more sense replacing the words:

 'Take my subjection/servitude upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart...'

(I had never thought that the "learn from me" part had made much sense and seemed a little out of place in the middle of the verse, now it makes sense!)
So Jesus is telling us to learn from Him how to be a servant and to take it upon ourselves, but that still doesn't answer, what is His burden?

I had gathered from what the rest of this verse is saying is that His burden or responsibility / load is to humbly serve others. But that's not easy or light at all! In fact, it's very difficult!

So then I thought...well Jesus sees the grand scheme of things because...well, He's God, so what if He meant that those who truly take it [servitude] on consider it light and doesn't encumber them simply because they have joined with Jesus in taking His yoke, become humble in heart and know humbly serving others like Jesus did is totally worth it in the light of eternity.  :)

Never forget

As humans we all have faulty memories, but God calls us to remember. 
Remember what exactly? 

Well, lots of things...

~Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.~

Psalm 103:2

~Be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.~

Deuteronomy 6:12

~Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ~

Deuteronomy 8:11

Throughout the Old Testament God is constantly reminding Israel and His people to not forget who brought them out of Egypt and all the things He had done for them. He wants us to always be thankful, to remember His commandments and the things He has done for us. Not for His benefit but for ours, it's difficult to be caught in self-pity, sadness or hopelessness if we are always thankful and remembering His commandments, our blessings and the great things He has done! 

Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced

1 Chronicles 16:12 

Discouraged?

Have you ever had those times when you're not sure what's next and nothing seems to be happening? It can be pretty discouraging,  you start counting your failures and shortcomings and when you do count your blessings it's seems pretty short lived. 

I've been going through something like that lately and it can be tough. But the last couple of nights I've just had to take it to God, and pray about it. What should I do with my time right now? ...when nothing seems to be going on...nothing is making sense...When your plans aren't happening...when you don't know what to do day to day? 

And God said (to me anyway): Serve others where you can, whether it's cleaning the house everyday for your parents, encouraging others, and just being available to others. 

God doesn't approve of self-pity parties anyway, but instead wants us to be joyful,  thankful for everything and pray without ceasing. :) 

1 Thessalonians 5:16- 18

Follow your heart?

"Well what are you going to do?"

"I don't know...I could do this, but then there's this other option too..."

"Don't worry, just follow your heart, do what feels right!" 

This sounds all too familiar, especially if you add some inspirational type of music in the background and said person suddenly gets everything they want (even the guy) and it's happily ever after. This portrayed in tv shows, movies, this kind of conversation happens in real life especially among girls. 

And the popular advice to 'Follow your dreams' and 'Do what feels right' are overwhelming. 

It certainly sounds nice but the problem is that it's not what God says. 

So what does God say on this subject:

'He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.'

Proverbs 28:26

'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?'

Jeremiah 17:9

'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.' 

Matthew 15:19

Those are just a few examples that show up in the bible about what our hearts are like. As humankind is born into a world of sin so are our hearts. Often following our hearts can be selfish, we want the best for ourselves and we strive for it, some will do anything we can to chase after what we want, which can often lead us to slander, trample over, and be mean to others. 

I know if I'm not actively seeking God and keeping His words and commandments in my heart it tends to get...not very nice in there... I know I can become very judgmental, bitter, easily annoyed, prideful and  selfish, wanting to do things for the wrong reason rather than just being willing to help someone else.
 We can't follow Jesus if we're too busy following our own hearts.

I'm not saying having dreams and goals is a bad thing, in fact they can be very good, and God can give us a certain desire to want to do something in particular and replace or change that at anytime (I used to want to be a fashion model)  but these dreams and desires need to be prayed about. I know there are lots of things that I would like to do but God is saying 'wait, I'm planning something else that's ever better'.  We want what's best for us, so does God, in fact He wants the very best for us because we're His children and He wants to bless us more than we could have ever imagined. He just really loves us, 

that's no dream, that's reality. 

The Passover Lamb

I'm shared this with a few friends already but I just love how God planned out His story before the beginning of time and is in control of everything! 

So Jesus came into Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday four days before the Passover and was in the temple and being questioned by the religious leaders and they couldn't find fault with him... Well in Exodus 12, when Moses was talking about the Passover lamb and the laws surrounding that, the lamb had to be brought into the house 4 days before Passover and inspected by the priests or leaders to make sure it was without fault before it was sacrificed and fully cooked. 

Also the lamb had to have one stake going through it vertically and one horizontally otherwise it wouldn't be  be fully cooked through like it was supposed to be as stated in the laws about the Passover lamb,  these two sticks the lamb would die on makes the shape of a cross strangely enough. 



How amazing is that? 
God is good!
Happy Easter! :) 

Toeing the line

"Hmm... how close can I come to doing this without actually sinning?"

Have you ever had that mindset. I have, and I know it's a very slippery slope that leads to full out rebellion against God.

It's not a good mindset, and it's not something I've struggled with recently but I see a lot of people who do, especially within youth groups but this issue is definitely not limited to youth, it can happen with anyone, so I have a word of advice...


Rebel.  Full out... against the WORLD. 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind... [Romans 12:2]

It is my personal desire to be so far from toeing that line that others wonder... what is she all about? 

To be calm in the midst of exams rather than stressed, to be a joyful helper, to serve, to only speak well of others, to have confidence in God alone. 

And I want to encourage others to do the same. 

 Think about what areas of life you may fall short in or have this mindset, read what God says about the subject or ask someone you trust about it, and then run from that line. 

Thus said the Lord

I just wanted to briefly share something that was on my mind a few months ago that I briefly touched on in my blog post from February ::  (The Shortest Month).

When I talked about what it means to deny yourself and what makes me, me?
 This was probably something that I should have included in my brief list but...relationships. They play  huge part in it and make us who we are. We have family and friendships that change us (and these changes are not always in a  good way, been there done that), and there's also the whole issue of romantic relationships.
See I've decided I'm not dating anybody who does not love Jesus with all their heart. So I'm waiting for that person.  While I was thinking about all this it really struck me that denying myself included this... God may keep me single for the rest of my life,  I'm much too stubborn to settle for someone, so the possibility of being 'alone' the rest of my life is quite real at this point. And I had a really intense prayer time about it, lots of crying, and coming to terms with that and then embarrassment that...it seemed harder for me to give up   marriage for Jesus than it was to give up my life for Jesus. And that made me cry some more. He asks for our lives, that includes my relationships.
I know I'm probably not alone in this as a young woman, I'm sure many struggle or have struggled with it, and I'm sure I will from time to time but that's ok, I've got my Prince. ;P


On a more recent note, It feels like a lot has happened since I wrote a post last week,

 I've been getting up and reading a chapter or two ...or five of my bible in the morning, right now I'm reading through 1 Corinthians, but I've also been reading  in Genesis, Zachariah, and John.


I've also found that I've really been hearing God speak to me more lately about things He wants me to do and I feel really blessed that He trusts me to help Him do those things! :)  It's really neat and I'm excited to see what He's going to do with it!

AND  I've just been really joyful this past week, you know why? Because we're prisoners of HOPE! :)

As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.  Return to your fortress,  prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. 

                                  ~~Zechariah 9:11-12~~

Multi-tasking

You know when you read a good book and you can tell that all the little things are going to come together for a really great ending where it all makes sense?

Well the last month or so God has been speaking and opened my eyes about a few seemingly random little lessons or things in my life and these things are all adding together to bring Him glory, and I'm fairly certain most of it (whatever 'it' is) hasn't happened yet, but that's the neat part!

I know that's pretty vague so I'll fill you in a little bit. So I've been going through a real time of growth with God and during one of my prayer times a little while ago I actually asked God if He would test my faith. Crazy right? 

God's also been speaking to me about being more bold about standing up for Him and being more bold about my faith (kind of funny since that was the other word I kept praying about for my 'word of the year')
And so the next couple weeks after that there were small opportunities in conversations with friends or how I could have acted that would show what He's like. And some of those times went well and some didn't...because I didn't always realize right at that moment that it was a moment to stand up and be a little bolder. And I was reflecting on a few of those things and sort of feeling like a failure and God reminded me of this little verse 

"His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’"

~Matthew 25:23~

So God has sort of been doing two things at once in my life and they're dependent on each other!
 How cool is that?! :)

The Fruit of the Spirit

Just a quick thought on this verse...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

~Galatians 5:22-23~ 

The fruits of the spirit are the things listed above, what it looks like when God is obviously guiding someone's life, these are the attitudes, actions and the way to treat others. I could break each one down, into categories and what each one really means, what it really looks like, and I'm sure there's whole books on it, But I started thinking, if we know what the fruits of the Spirit are, then we also know what they aren't... they are the opposite

Which is: 

Hate, depression, anger, impatience, unkindness, wickedness, unfaithfulness, aggressiveness and being unrestrained


We can choose to seek God and the things of His spirit or we can have it choked out by other things and the opposites crop up in our daily life. So... in closing...

 Those who belong to Christ  have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

~Galatians: 5:24-25~

:)