25 Things About Me

Okay, so everybody is posting these on facebook..but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to do that. I figured I'd post them on here and see how many people actually read it. So here goes:).

1. I love to play flag football
2. I also love the color pink
3. I want to be a missionary to some remote part of the world someday
4. Every real job I've ever had has been in food service
5. I think way too much..about everything
6. I would rather have two or three close friends than a huge pack, but I love knowing a lot of people.
7. I used to be a very shy person.
8. I love to work out.
9. I am a perfectionist.
10. I met Nelly once at an academic awards banquet.
11. I love ruining presuppositions that people have about me.
12. No matter how much I love my roommate..I just can't keep my room clean for more than three days. Sorry Brenda! :)
13. The reason for the person I am today is Jesus Christ. When I realized that I could never do another thing to make God love me more, I began to live with a freedom and a joy that I never really had before.
14. Someday I want to dye my hair strawberry blond and get a perm..and green contacts..haha
15. I want to learn how to play the drums.
16. My first car was a black 1989 SAAB.
17. Chai tea is my favorite hot drink.
18. I love singing and hate performing.
19. I have a permanent scar on my middle finger from shutting it in a van door.
20. There's still so much I want to learn before I leave Boyce, and I wish my brain was bigger.
21. I love making people laugh.
22. My family is a huge part of my life-all 7 of them!
23. If I could grow up and be just like my mom, I would be a happy camper. She's stinkin amazing.
24. I don't like it when people make judgments about me without taking the time to get to know me.
25. I can bend my left thumb all the way back.

amazing grace part 1

I'm a perfectionist. I will admit it. For years, it was something that I jokingly referred to as part of my personality, never really admitting that it was an area that I needed to submit to Scripture. It wasn't until this summer on a mission trip that I realized it was something God needed to set me free from.
When I act like a perfectionist, I pretend like I can make myself perfect. I place that pressure on myself in regard to my Christian walk as well. I would always beat myself up when I sinned, as if I was making God look bad. I expected myself to be perfect and felt like a failure when I wasn't. Basically, I was miserable on and off for years.
Not to say that I never struggle with this now, but God recently opened my eyes to Romans 8:1-2 and what it means for people like me who struggle with perfectionism. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."
I am free!! I am free from feeling like I have to be perfect for God to love me! I have been freed from a life of self-condemnation..that is what the Gospel is all about-realizing that God's love for me doesn't change with what I do. Just like God doesn't love me more when I do great things for Him, he doesn't love me less when I screw up. The quality of my relationship with Him might change, but His love for me never does. It was the most freeing thing in the world for me to realize that because of Christ's sacrifice for me, God looks at me with a love that never changes. It frees me to live my life without a fear of failure. God has saved me to live a life of grace. Hallelujah!

Redemption

Once I walked in step with You, my ears straining for Your voice.

As the years passed and I grew older, I found things that seemed to matter more.

So I went on, gorging my fleshly soul, Starving the real me You made to be satisfied only by You…

until I'm at a place where everything disappoints,

Everything hurts my bleeding heart and crushes my crying soul,

Except You.

Do You really want me?

Am I really something?

How can I matter to You?

Me, a lowly piece of flesh who falls again and again,

Why

Do You always pick me up?

It's unexplainable, this love You have for me.

You extend Your Holy hand,

Clothe me in shining garments,

Reassure me again that You love me,

And have so much more for me.

I Must Follow

I follow
Though the terrain is treacherous
I follow
Though my soul is plagued by turmoil
My flesh craves the sinful nature
My soul wars against me daily
I follow.
Because
You have formed me
Called me unto salvation
And into Your glorious light
Adopted me into the family of God.
Your love saved me
Therefore
I take up my cross
And I follow.
You are with me
Faithful
Unchanging
The epitome of unselfish, undeserved love
It is this love
Love so glorious and pure
That calls me
To follow.

Remember...

What is the role of suffering in the life of a Christian? Americans often forget that the majority of world Christians face persecution on a daily basis. We look at situations where our brothers and sisters are in pain and suffering that we cannot even imagine. Often our response is tears for their pain, and a prayer of thanks to God that "we are fortunate enough to live in a country where we have freedom of religion." Honestly, that is most times the extent of our response: thankfulness that we are not experiencing the hardships that others are. Is this not an incredibly selfish response, and possibly a wrongful one? Consider the Bible's perspective on suffering:

I Peter 1:3-7: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
I Peter 4:1-2: "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God."
I Peter 4:12-16, 19: "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name...So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good."
2 Thess. 1: 3-5: "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering."
James 1:2-4: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This is obviously a small sampling of biblical passages that speak on the topic of suffering. But even these few passages can give us a new perspective if we allow them to. Suffering is a tool that God uses for His perfect purposes. We are to rejoice when we are persecuted for the holy Name of Christ. Hardships perfect our faith and make us more like our Savior. They bring glory to the name of God we are to be honored that God allows us to bear the name of Christ.

In light of this, I was challenged and I challenge the body of Christ to not consider ourselves better than those who are suffering, but to view our own faith as in need of the same refining as those who are currently experiencing hardships. The body of Christ in the rest of the world is going through persecution that is perfecting the faith of the saints. It will be to the ultimate glory of God if the Church in the United States someday experiences this same persecution.

Delighting in the Lord

Who is great like our God? Who has redeemed us from such depths of sin and agony as our merciful Savior? Where would my life be without the saving grace of Christ? Absolutely nowhere. I would be suffocating in sin, drowning in meaninglessness, caught up in my own false sense of self-importance. When I consider for just thirty seconds what my life would look like if God had not saved me in His mercy, it makes my soul sing. Daily reflection on this leads to my title: delight in the Lord. He is my strength, my comfort, my Rock and fortress, in whom I trust. I have no one besides Him.