One life, One song

Hey ya’ll!

Hope you have had an awesome week! Mine was a blast! I had to miss out on Mystery Monday because they went zip lining. Unfortunately I get lower back pain and the last time I did it, it was quite painful! But besides missing that I had a great week with my friends and being able to do life with them as Link Year comes to an end! Ahhh so only two more blogs. Can ya’ll live without them?? Haha just kidding but I just might miss writing them!

Well this week Joe White came and spoke to us as well as Tim Watson. Something that stood out to me was when Joe White gave an illustration of how we could compare our life to the show “The Voice”. Which I’m sure you have heard of! If not… then you are wrong. Haha just messing. I haven’t even watched it this year. But just in case there is a sad reader reading this, who has no idea what the show is about… I will tell you. Haha there are four big celebrity singers and each will form teams of singers that they will coach and mentor throughout the competition. In order for the most talented to be picked, the audition process is blind…the coaches have their backs turned and can only hear the singers performing without seeing them. So basically, if they like the voice they punch their button and their chair turns around while lighting up, “I want you!”. Picture yourself on that stage right now… except instead of you singing and it being about your voice, (thank goodness because I’m awful) it’s about your life and how you are living and what you are living for. The four judges in the chairs are God, Jesus, your future spouse, and kids. Take a moment and think about how you live your life right now. Like really… do it!! Just like the people on “The Voice” have one song to try to get the judges to turn around, you have one life. Is your life going to make those judges I named turn around and say, “I want you!”? I don’t know about you… but I want all of them to turn around and say they want me! I want them to see my ‘lifesong’ and be proud to turn that chair around and claim me to be on their team. You know… the cool thing about singing God’s song is that it’ll have all four chairs turning around at once. Reality is, when we go to Heaven we will be judged. 1 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Whether you choose to believe it or not, it is going to happen!! I promise. But I have amazing news for you that we can’t be reminded of enough. God sent his son Jesus to die a terrible death on a cross for our sins so that we could have a relationship and be able to live a life for Him! Right now is our time to decide what our ‘lifesong’ is going to be about… and if it’ll be a song (life) that will glorify and honor God. I want all four chairs to turn around for me. My future husband and kids to see that my ‘lifesong’ is for Jesus. And at the end of it, be able to make the team… the team that will be able to spend eternity in Heaven with my Father. What a great day that will be!!! And it will all have been worth it. You have a choice right now to determine what your ‘lifesong’ is about. And you only have one chance to turn those chairs around. I pray and challenge myself and you to sing a ‘lifesong’ that is glorifying and honoring to God. And you can start that song today! Don’t wait. You only have one shot at it! One song, one life. Who are you going to sing it for??

Thanks for reading this weeks blog! I can’t believe I only have one more week after this. Wow. What a blessing this year has been! Life changing! I ask for prayers that my heart will be prepared to let go of this place. It’s going to be tough. God bless!

Open Hand Living

Hey ya’ll!!

Hope you have had a fantastic week! Mine was great! Started off with Mystery Monday where we went to a marshal-arts place and learned how to beat someone up and how to make sure we don’t get beat up. Haha I had the privilege of having one of my best friends Rachael as my partner and when trying to practice how to get out of a choke hold, we somehow ended it in a dance move that was quite impressive if I say so myself! Yes… I will soon be teaching lessons that you can all sign up for. Haha, obviously kidding but it turned out to be a lot of fun and very informative! Too bad, I unfortunately don’t remember a lot of what he showed us on how to defend ourselves (awkward), so please, don’t try and beat me up. Unless it’s Rachael… challenge accepted.

This week we were joined by Austin Ochs and the thing he talked on that stood out to me was about “open hand living”. He took out his phone and placed it in his hand, gripping it, and not letting it go no matter what. This is often how we are with many things in our lives, whether that be our families, our friends, phones, cars, stuff, I mean just anything! We seem to hold on so tightly to the things that God has given us that we forget they really belong to Him. When we hold on too tightly, we are allowing two things to happen. One, if we lose them, we can become mad, hurt and even devastated. Family and friends will disappoint us, (they just will!), they may not always be there for us, and they will eventually pass away. Things we own will break, they will become old and we just want more and more different things and are NEVER truly satisfied. They never bring us real joy. We can’t depend on other people or things in our lives to satisfy us. The one who created and died for us so that we could have a relationship with Him and eternal life in Heaven is the only one who truly can. What a burden I would feel if someone was so dependent on me, you don’t want to do that to people! To be really honest this topic is something I can struggle with. I am totally in love with my family. God has blessed me with such amazing parents and siblings that while I’m writing this my eyes are getting watery. But that’s the thing… God BLESSED ME and GAVE me my family. While I was in Ireland I realized that I have loved my family more than I have loved God. And knowing that in my heart just kills me. It’s hard! I finally chose to open my hands and give my family to Christ while in Ireland. It was an emotional and big moment for me. I am continuing to learn to let go of them and trust and remind myself that they are gifts from God and He has blessed me with each of the things and people he has put in my life. I just have to be a good steward of them! The 2nd thing that can happen when we hold on to people or things too tightly is that we miss out on the possibility of God giving and blessing us with something better. God could be trying to put something else in our hands and we miss it because we only see what’s right in front of us and what we THINK will satisfy us. Ya’ll… we can’t out-give God. I become overwhelmed when I really think about the people and things he’s blessed me with. But the best gift Christ has given us has been the death of his son Jesus on the cross. I mean do you get it?? Our sins put him up on that cross! And because of what He did for us we get to have a relationship with Him and eternal life in Heaven. We just have to trust and believe in Him. It’s called faith!!! Living with open hands, trusting Him and placing our lives in His hands. Who better to give it to than the one who gave us life in the first place? We have a great God. Can I get an amen please!? I pray and challenge myself and you to live life with an open hand, not holding on and expecting the things of this world to satisfy us, but that we will be satisfied with the only one who truly can… and that’s Jesus.

Thanks ya’ll for taking time to read! Feel free to contact me if you ever have any questions or comments. God bless!

Most important truth

Hey ya’ll!

Hope you all have had a great week this week! Mine was great as it usually is! Mystery Monday we went to Dogwood Canyon which was really cool. Just got to hang out around there enjoying nature and hanging with my friends. Who wouldn’t love that!

This week we were joined by Sean McDowell who discussed the differences between subjective and objective truth. Subjective truth being for example the best ice cream. We all have different opinions of what the best ice cream is (or we are all smart and know it is obviously cookies and cream… I mean lets be real!) haha, jk but you get the point. It is more of an opinion and not a fact! And then objective truth being like we need gas in order to drive our cars. It’s evident and there’s no argument because it doesn’t change determined on our feelings as on what the best ice cream is! Sorry ya’ll… we do have to buy gas. It’s a rough life. Haha just messing but okay on a serious note I want to tell you all something that I know is subjective truth. And that is that our God is alive and active and he loves us incredibly and wants a relationship with every single one of us! There is no question and our feelings don’t change it. Yes it’s easy for me to say, but here is just one of tons of reasons why we need to believe our God is real. Did you know that all but one of the disciples were killed because they proclaimed to have seen Christ die and then to have seen Him alive. They all died because of their unwavering, confident claim that Christ rose from the grave. They died for Easter! I won’t name all of the “how they died” because they are pretty gross but here are a few so you know and understand.

James was put to death by sword
Peter believed to have been either beheaded or crucified
Matthew arrested in Ethiopia and there nailed to the ground with short spears and beheaded.
James, the brother of Jesus (not officially an apostle) – thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece.
Thomas stabbed with a spear
Matthias (the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot) was stoned and then beheaded.
Paul – tortured and then beheaded

And so on. I know ya’ll probably could have gone through life not knowing how those men died… but think about it. They wouldn’t have died for a lie!!!! They wouldn’t have gone through those awful things (not even comparing though what Jesus went through) and sacrificing their life for something that wasn’t true. I have full confidence that God is real and is our heavenly father. And I hope and pray that you do too. If you haven’t seen The Passion I also suggest you make time to watch it. I feel as a Christian we all need to watch it and see what all Jesus went through in order for us to have a relationship with Him. I believe we would all live differently and have a much deeper appreciation for Him. I continue to grow and want to remind myself every day of what Jesus did for MY sins… and for yours too. So please watch!!!!!! #thatsall

God bless and I hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks for reading!

Hey ya’ll!

Hope everyone has had an awesome week! Mine was great! Loving every minute I have with the people here and with everything that’s being poured into me. God is good!

This week we were joined by Josh Straub who talked about our attachments and relationships. I’m going to touch on something he talked about that I liked. You know how in relationships we usually date someone we are attracted to, then someday after getting to know them, we might fall in love and get married. You hear people talking about how they want the person to be beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside! As we get older those looks we are attracted to in the beginning often aren’t going to be there later (obviously we grow old!). You fall in love with that person’s heart, so that later on, the wrinkles won’t matter so much… you love them because of who they are. We should also love God for who He is too! His is also a relationship! You get to know and really learn about who God is by reading His word. Then as He shows his love for us through so many kinds of experiences, and through the beauty He created for us, it should just show us what an awesome God we have to fall in love with. I’m continuing to learn more about God and falling more in love with Him and who He is. It’s the most important relationship we’ll ever have! (What I said last week!) Yes, I’ll admit, there are times it’s a struggle for me… but what relationship isn’t a process? Fact is, love all started with God. He loved us first, and that gives us the ability to love others (1 John 4:19). The only reason you can love God or love anybody else is because God first loved you. And he showed that love by sending Jesus Christ to Earth to die for us. He showed that love by creating us. He showed that love by giving us everything we have in life; it’s all a gift of God’s love.

Thanks for taking time to read! I learned some new things about me this week. Love it! God bless and Happy Easter! HE HAS RISEN!

Thankful for my friends!

Hey Everyone!

Hope ya’ll have had a great week! Mine had it’s ups and downs… and yes I am about to tell you why so get excited:)

This week something I learned about was how awesome having good friends are and them being Christ centered makes them that much better. This week I was unfortunately affected with an illness to where lets say, I spent a lot of time over a trash can. Don’t worry I won’t go into detail about how fun and exciting it was… I’d hate for any of you to be jealous. Haha just messing but yes, it was so encouraging though to see my friends come in and out of my room wanting to help me however they could, and to pray with me for God’s healing. I gotta say I have been blessed with some great friendships here and I hope and pray that they will continue and be life-time friendships. God provides us with friends that can keep us accountable and push us towards the cross, and sometimes take care of us when we need it, but there are times we just have to go and look for them. They are there! And they play such a huge role in our walk with Him.

You know what… not only does God bless us with friendships, He provides us with parents to guide and direct us throughout our lives. He provides wise men and women in everyones life in order to direct them in the right ways (of course we have to listen to them too!). But the most important relationship any person has in their life is their relationship with God Himself. The very outcome of eternity for anyone depends on their standing with God. A man named Brain is quoted saying, “He has sovereignly drawn His people to Him so that they might live with Him in glory for eternity.” That is the relationship that God should be most praised and thanked for in a Christian’s life. For without Christ and His sacrifice, we would be living apart from Him, He who knows us best and loves us most, and have no hope, peace, or true joy in our lives.

Thanks ya’ll for taking the time to read! God is good! God bless!

Gods Amazing Grace

Hey everyone!

Hadn’t had to write a blog in like forever! I will start off by saying Ireland was awesome! Loved the green there and just being able to tour Ireland and see another part of Gods creation. So cool! I got to grow in relationships there also which was a true blessing. What a great opportunity it was! Although the weather was something I could live without, the memories will be something I keep with me forever!

 

This week we had Bret Jenson who came in and talked about God’s grace. “There is, then, a great disconnection between the understanding that God accepts us because of our efforts and the understanding that God accepts us because of what Jesus has done.” I think often peoples motivation to obey God is out of fear or we feel forced to obey Him. We believe that if we don’t obey we are going to lose God’s blessing in this world and also in Heaven. But what we forget is that in the gospel we have already received that blessing because of what Christ did! Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. A Christian is obedient because he is motivated by a desire to please the one who gave us life. If that’s not your motivation then why not? A quote that I love by Timothy Keller is, “In Christ I could know I was accepted by grace not only despite my flaws, but because I was willing to admit them. The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.” Wow! How crazy and humbling is that to think about? You know what, reality is… we are not in control of our lives. We are all living for something! And if it is not God, it will endlessly crush us. It is only through Gods grace that frees us from slavery. The gospel makes it possible to have such different lives! Jesus says, “I am the divine come to you, to do what you could not do yourselves.” Timothy Keller also says, “The Christian message is that we are saved not by our record, but by Christ’s record.” Our bad is not bad enough to put you away from Gods grace. God is happy to take us or take us back with open arms! There is no such thing as straying “too far” from God. I love how this week pointed out how huge Gods grace is, and how I would be crazy not to accept it. We all would be! Anyone can have it, it shouldn’t be a surprise when anyone takes it. We all were dead until we accepted Gods grace and found life with Christ. I challenge myself and you to be reminded of Gods grace and how we have the opportunity to live for an amazing God who offers us grace, not because of our efforts but because of what he did on the cross. There is no price that could compare to eternal life!

Thanks guys for taking time to read! If you ever have any comments or questions feel free to do so here or contact me. God bless!

We’re on a Mission! Loved this week!

Hey y’all!!

Hope everyone has had a great week!! It has gone by so fast for me! Started off with Mystery Monday going to the Titanic Museum, which was awesome. We were all given a fake (obviously) boarding pass that each had a name of a passenger who was on the Titanic. By the end of the tour we would see which of us had survived. I don’t know about y’all but I balled when I saw the Titanic for the first time. Like tears everywhere. It was awful. Ha, but the tour was way cool and depending on how serious you took it, made it either an emotional or just fun time for the students. It was a great thing to experience! And this next month on our visit to Ireland (yes Ireland!!!!!) we will get to see where the Titanic was actually built and possibly tour their Titanic museum. Can’t wait!!

This week, we were joined by David Marvin, who talked with us about how life is a mission. When we think of mission trips most often we think of going overseas to different countries and doing mission work, spreading God’s word and teaching people about Christ so that they will come to know Him. But in reality, we don’t go on mission trips… we’re already on one!!!! I mean aren’t we? I never thought of our life’s really being a “mission”. We are stewards of His word and are to pass it on to generations and to everyone we meet and see. Something David said was that we are God’s Ambassadors. Ephesians 6:19-20 says, “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Ambassadors are people who represent their country in other countries. So when he said that he is saying that in this world we are representing God’s Kingdom. I never thought of that before! It was interesting to hear it put that way. Another thing he said that really hit my heart when talking about this subject was, “How much do you have to hate someone to not share your faith with them and about what Christ has done for them?” Wow. I mean think about it. Not everyone will get into Heaven. People we know and care about, if they don’t believe and trust Christ… they won’t be there. They won’t have eternal life!! So why aren’t we telling them about it? Are we too scared? Don’t want to be put in an uncomfortable situation or it is socially awkward? Or maybe we don’t think we are good enough examples of Christ because we sin all the time? Well good news… we are the best example!!! We are ALL sinners! And because Jesus died on the cross for those sins we can have a relationship with Him and be forgiven of them. Can you imagine if everyone who claims to be a Christian went out and made it their mission to have a spiritual conversation with even one person and then with the help of the holy spirit, that person come to know Jesus? How incredible would that be!! It’d be a life change for that person! When we choose to not talk about Jesus to people we are allowing them to miss out on the best life. Jesus offers the best life!! John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” God came that we would have life!!
Here are a few ways you can strike up a conversation with someone (waitresses are easy ones to do it to! Ha!) Yes, these are random to ask, but the result of these can be so worth it, and even if there is no response right then, God could bring it to their mind some time later on. Nothing we do for God is wasted!

1. Do you have faith??
2. If something were to happen to you today, on a scale of 1-10 how sure are you that you will go to heaven? A follow up could be, “why are you _?”

A lot of people think being a Christian is about what we do. It’s not about what we do that makes us Christians… it’s about what Christ has already done. It is trusting Jesus. That’s it! You’re finished! Are we going to let the possible socially awkward, uncomfortable situations, rejection, feeling scared, stop us from letting people know about Jesus? Life goes on after those moments! But if you end up having the opportunity to possibly help lead someone to the best life and then to eternal life… isn’t that worth it? I challenge myself, and you, to step out of our comforts zones and be ambassadors here and now, wherever we are. How much do we have to hate someone to not share our faith??

Thanks for taking time to read this blog!! Prayer requests for the month of February, I will be in Ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No big deal. Haha, jk, but seriously prayers for me would be awesome! Thanks guys! God bless!! Any questions or comments feel free to contact me. Bye!