light in a dark world

Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

 

 

Light gives of itself freely, filling all available space.  It does not seek anything in return; it asks not whether you are friend or foe.  It gives of itself and is not thereby diminished.  ~Michael Strassfeld

 

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.  ~Maori Proverb

 

When you possess light within, you see it externally.  ~Anaïs Nin

 

Job 33:28
He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light.

 

 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. ~Mother Teresa

 

 

Romans 13:12
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

 

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. ~Abraham Lincoln

 

 

John 1:3-5
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

 

 

Oh, I’m running to your arms I’m running to arms. The riches of your love will always be enough. Nothing compares to Your embrace. Light of the world forever reign -Hillsong

 

{to listen to the song from the interview above follow this link}

I hope you guys have a blessed Sunday. Go outside and enjoy the weather God has provided!

 

for the love of His people {Agape II}

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Mission exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.” John Piper

It was a rainy weekend. Rainy weekends are very close to being my favorite kinds weekends. The main reason being there is nothing to do. No school or responsibilities, so sleeping in is accepted, right??

It seems like the Summer is so far away right now. I feel like it will never be May 23rd. Why is May 23rd so significant you ask? Only because i’ll be getting on a plane and leaving the United States for about 8 weeks. It’s been a long journey waiting to hear where God is calling me this Summer, but a few weeks ago He made it very evident. I signed up in November to be on the Refuge missions team. It is unlikely for a Freshman to go on an all summer mission trip only because we are so young and most freshman haven’t been overseas or they just have too much on their plate since it’s the first year of college etc. Not knowing what my chances were to make it, I decided that if I did get accepted it was God’s way of letting me know that this was His will. I turned in my 2000+ word application/essay about me and hoped for the best. I was supposed to find out if I made it or not by mid December. Due to some internal issues with leaders and what not, the date was pushed back. This, as you can imagine, was very troublesome to me. I was beginning to think that God didn’t want me to go, or it just wasn’t my time. Not only was the date being pushed back, but the trip {Bolivia} I signed up to go to was not looking so good. There wasn’t a for-sure leader for the male team, there was conflict with churches over there, and many other issues. I knew the God was telling me no at this point and I was okay with that because I trust His plan. But when I found out for sure that Bolivia was not happening, I was not peace and no where near the point of being okay with it. I realized that maybe this was me being selfish and God is wanting me to stay in the States for the Summer. I began to pray that God would show me what He wants and that I stay out of it {as in let Him guide me}.

I realized that I had limited God from the first place. When I signed up for Bolivia, I said I’m either going to BOLIVIA {no where else} or I AM staying here and working. What if Bolivia wasn’t where God wanted me, what if that was my selfish decision. You may think someone is being unselfish by wanting to serve God for a whole summer overseas, but even though I had good intentions I was being completely selfish. I wanted to serve God because I love His people and being overseas has a huge place in my heart. I wasn’t wanting to go to glorify His name but rather I was going to serve His people. There is a fine line, and I had crossed it. I broke down at the point I realized I had given God an ultimatum.

In the beginning of the application process, the teams were required to write down three location preferences in case the first one didn’t work out. My three choices were 1) Bolivia 2) Prague 3) China. But I never really thought why I put down my second or third choice, because I was positive I would be going to Bolivia if I got accepted. I look back at it now, and I know for a fact God was writing those choices down. He knew that there was a lesson I needed to learn with my selfishness and that in the end I would be going with my unfamiliar second choice.

Everything is coming together. It’s amazing to see God’s plan actually play out and think back and remember situations that have led up to this point. I can’t wait to get on a plane with the team and fly overseas to an unfamiliar place to serve unfamiliar people for a God that loves all. I am going into this with zero expectations except for God to move in the hearts of the Prague college students and for his name to be ultimately glorified in it all.

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah 6:8

I ask only one thing from you guys and one thing only. Pray. Please pray. Pray that God will soften the hearts of the students we will be staying with and hanging out with. Pray for the teams safety. Pray that team will work together for God’s glory. Just pray.

If you have any questions about the trip, my heart for missions, or why I feel it’s life changing to go overseas ANYTHING, please comment or email me! I am more than willing to share this passion with you.

that’s agape

My fuel {Agape}

John 14:20

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

I was driving around today and I saw a {in my opinion} crazy billboard. It was a picture of a guy sitting on a couch alone with a cat rubbing against his leg. I was confused by the picture so I read the quote underneath it. It said “Fill the void. Adopt a cat”. Hmmm that didn’t help my confusion much. I understand what the point of the billboard was but I think they went about it the wrong way. In my opinion, a feline will not fill the void most people experience.

I’ve been reading the book “Mere Christianity” by C.S Lewis and it has really opened my eyes to a variety of things. It has opened my mind to what free will actually is and why God gave it to us. It’s given me a different view on a “good” and “bad” situation. But most importantly, it has shown me what God has actually done for me and why our relationship to him versus the relationship of an animal with him is so significant. I finished the last chapter with this quote by C.S. Lewis,

God design the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to feed on..God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

This really amazed me. God made us. We are His creation no matter how hard we try to run away. That’s why we are not complete nor do we feel complete until He is in our lives. He is the only one that could possibly fill the void so many people find themselves having. This verse in Colossians explains it perfectly,

So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. -Colossians 2:10

If a child grows up without any attention from his/her parents, they find themselves trying to fill the emptiness. Whether they search for it in love or other things, bottom line they are trying to fill the hole they have. In the same way, we are God’s children except he is not the only neglecting us, we are the ones running from him. Whether you want to admit it or not, you run. I run. Everybody runs from God, until they realize that he is not a God that is waiting to strike you down but rather he is a God with his arms wide open.

{Excuse the alcohol comment, but I couldn’t help but throw a creed acoustic performance in here}

I give that visual often. A God with open arms. That vision hits me so significantly because for so long I was looking for acceptance in all the wrong ways. I mean who hasn’t been through that stage. I ran away as fast as I could, but just as fast as I ran away, once I hit my wall I ran back and collapsed in His arms.

I don’t act the way I do to earn God’s love because He can’t possibly love me anymore than He already does. I act the way I do to show a watching world what and who my priorities are. Stop running away. Instead run towards Him and accept the grace and love He has already given. It just has to be accepted.

That’s agape.

works

While reading 2 Peter 1:5-11 this morning, God showed me some amazing truths.

⁵ In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.⁸ The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.¹⁰ So, dear brothers and sisters,work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. ¹¹ Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In verse 5, Paul starts by telling the Christians to make EVERY effort to respond to God’s promises. This phrase could be easily taken out of context. A legalist could take this as having to work to achieve the love of God, which we know we cannot earn God’s love. He can’t possibly love us anymore than he already does. A swaying Christian could take this as being able to try without achieving and God is satisfied. I think when Paul said “make every effort” he meant make the only effort you can make to follow God’s promise, which is salvation through Christ. That is the only work we can do to follow Christ and respond to His promises. Outside of salvation all that is happening is good works, and by yourself that won’t achieve very much except temporary satisfaction with yourself. So go ahead pat your self on the back. He continues in verse 5 by asking us to supplement our faith with many things. He goes from moral excellence with knowledge, from knowledge with self-control, from self-control with patient endurance, from patient endurance with godliness, from godliness with brotherly affection, and from brotherly affection with love for everyone. The only way I can think of that will achieve all of those things [naturally] is through Christ. Being a follower of Christ will compel us to do all of those things without even thinking about it. But notice how Paul ends in love for everyone. All throughout the Bible there is an emphasis on love. As for me, it would be impossible to love some people without having Christ pushing me to. I have to constantly remind myself that we are all made in the likeness of God. I am no better than anyone else, so what gives me the right to choose to purposely reject someone.

Paul gives us a promise from God in verse 8. He says if you continue to grow in those ways the more productive and useful you will be. Useful in the sense of furthering God’s kingdom and giving Him all the glory. Verse 9 really spoke to me. Paul said those who fail to develop in that way have forgotten that our old ways are gone. It’s like Jesus’ actions are lowered and are treated as not being very important. When I accepted Christ as my Savior and began to follow him, God put a new Spirit in me. Ezekiel put it perfectly saying “And I will put MY Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees..” [36:27] God doesn’t just say a spirit, but he distinctly says HIS spirit. Do y’all understand how powerful that is? Like wow, God’s spirit is inside of us. Think of the impact we are capable of having through Christ in us.

Paul begins to conclude in verse 10 saying “work hard to prove that you are really among those God has called and chosen”. The phrase “work hard” doesn’t mean do all the good works you can then God will consider you to be His. NO! I believe he told us this to inform us that “Hey! it’s not gonna be easy. You are going to have to work and endure hard things”. This journey isn’t meant to be a piece of pie. Through faith, we show God that this is serious to me. This isn’t just a game I want to play. You can hold to the promise he gives in 1 Corinthians 10:13.

He promises: ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

I want to work hard to glorify you and further your kingdom. He finishes in verse 11 with a magnificent image of what all of this endurance will reach. God will open his gates to his kingdom. You guys..in the end God wins. No matter how hard you may think things are going; No matter how absent you think God may be; He is there. He is waiting for your life with open arms.

I love the image of God being a papa. He is my father. He disciplines me and corrects me, but best of all he accepts me into his arms no matter what.

I hope you guys have a blessed Sunday and remember this is not an easy walk, but in the end all the glory will go to God and he WILL sustain you.