Reading the Bible

I was listening to one of Jeff and Alyssa Bethke's podcasts recently (it's called Anything & Everything, it can be found on iTunes and it's fantastic!) and they were talking about really getting into reading the Bible, but described it in a great way that really hit home:

We're told the Bible is like food, sustaining us. But sometimes we're blown away or affected deeply by what we read and other times we aren't. It's like meals though... Some days we're going to have a big, wonderfully memorable steak dinner and other nights it's nothing special. They are both still necessary, though, because they are sustenance our body needs.

So just because some days you don't feel blown away by your Bible reading don't get discouraged! We are meant to be in the Word and through it God has, and will, do amazing things. Be patient and pray that your heart will be open to what God has to say to you through His Words.

Prayer

I've been really reminded this weekend that prayer is a powerful thing. 

Whatever is going on in your life, never forget that God is a God who listens. He is a God that is faithful and He is a God that is loving. He is also a God who puts thought into the details of every single second. 

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.

- Phillipians 4:6 (The Message; emphasis added)

Top 4

Song  on repeat:

 

Vapor - The Liturgists

 Quote:

"If nothing else the Christian faith is one masterful story of life emerging from the grave. We are resurrection people who audaciously believe that the ultimate end of our story is life not death."

Jenny Simmons

On my closet's wishlist:

via

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect re-read for the post-Easter season:

synopsis here

  

Waiting.

To some, this is a sombre day. The day that Jesus was in the grave. But to me it isn't so much a sad day as it is an amazingly beautiful day. If I had been there at the time I would like to think that it would be have been a deeply sombre day, but with the hindsight that we have in the Bible this Saturday doesn't have to be sad, it can be a joyful one. Jesus has risen. We know this and we we know that He was risen for us.

One of the most beautiful parts of the crucifixion story for me is the part where the Temple's veil is torn in two (Mark 15:38). It separated the holiest of holy areas from the not-quite-as-holy places and was where God's presence was. The tearing of the veil (to me) symbolizes that God no longer needed to be in the Temple receiving sacrifices - He had received the final, necessary sacrifice through His Son. We don't have to separate our not-quite-as-holy places with our God-filled places anymore. He looks at those places and still calls us beloved because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Nothing But The Blood - Corey Voss

Book Review - Restless

Boy, oh boy has it been a while since I've done a book review. I actually listed this book in my top 3 faith books of 2014 so this is a long time coming! Here it goes:

Restless by Jennie Allen
Ok, so if I'm being honest, it took me a while to get into this one. Once I did get into it though, it really challenged me and got me to reevaluate some aspects of my life, especially my perspective on my schooling and future career.

One of this book's purposes is to guide you in finding the threads (a term she uses a lot throughout the book) in your life that you're passionate about and help you see how these can be used to define your purpose. What the book actually taught me was something a bit different

I sort of went into this book not knowing what I was in for (which may be one of the reasons it took me so long to get into it). I was pretty sure I could name my passions and fit them into what I was (pretty) sure was my purpose. This book - while maybe meant to narrow in on a certain purpose - actually helped me broaden my sense of purpose in a really good way. Often I find that I get too focused on a worldly purpose (ie. my schooling, my future career etc.) and forget my Godly purpose which is to make disciples (see Matthew 28:18-20). Ultimately, I think God can use our wordly purpose as a vehicle for us to interact with unbelievers, but we can't lose sight of the fact that once we're gone our careers (our degrees, our success etc.) won't matter. What will matter is how we glorified God on this earth.

To get back to the book now... I thought that the writing was engaging and thought-provoking. She used a lot of personal stories that really show cased the points she was trying to make, while showing that she wasn't just teaching these ideas but actually learning them in her own life as well. There were also funky little journaling sections which looked fun (although I didn't use them).

I would highly recommend this one to women of any age but I definitely think it's an important topic for teens and young adults to dive into!

Death, Lamentations & Hope

Disclaimer: this post is a little heavier than my usual ones... 

Oh death, where is your sting?

Oh hell, where is your victory?

(1 Corinthians 15:55)

It was almost two years ago to the day. I have never had my emotions swing in such an insane way in such way ever in my life, and I doubt that I will ever feel that way again.

I was with my favorite group of ladies – ones that I had had the opportunity to live with and learn with, laugh with and cry with over the past few months – and we had just won a competition that we had been working hard and strategizing for for over a week. It was a big deal. Like mega big for us. We walked into our common living space, expecting the next few hours to be full of excitement and celebration, and instead were met with the news of the death of a family member. It was quite literally like being punched in the gut and having the joy sucked out of me all at once… a feeling that I hope I never have to feel again, but that I felt regardless of the fact that I didn’t even know the person who had passed away. I can’t even imagine how I would have felt had I actually known the person.

The reality of death sometimes is that the hope gets sucked out of the lives that are left behind. We get so focused on Earthly things that death is sometimes a crushing blow. As I sat in my room crying for someone I had never met, his new wife and his family, all I could think about was “what if that had been my brother?” … “What if that had been my cousin?” They were sobering thoughts. It’s a moment in my life that I think will stay with me for the rest of my time here on Earth.  

Lamentations has become one of my favorite books (not something that people say often, but if I’m being honest my favorite of all the books of the Bible is Job, which is definitely not a usual favorite), not because of the dreariness that it can bring but because of the hope. Throughout the whole book the author is opening up his heart and kind of laying it all out on the table – it’s a depressing book, sure, but the hope that he finds is a bright star in the midst of a pitch black night. In chapter 3 he writes: “For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone” (3:31-33, NIV).

I guess what I’m trying to get at – and the place that I got too months later, a few weeks after one of my friends tried unsuccessfully to take their life – is that though death seems hopeless, we have the greatest hope. And when death seems to punch us in the gut and kick us while we’re down, that doesn’t have to be the end; we don’t have to stay down. God has not left us on this Earth without Him. He has not left us here with no love, with no hope and with no way out. He will show compassion because His unfailing love is so great.

David writes in Psalm 56:8 a promise that is very powerful and beautiful: “You [, God ha]ve kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book” (MSG).

God has conquered death but it’s still a part of our life while we live here on Earth. It’s normal but often earth-shattering. Don’t ever lose hope. He has conquered it and He is a comforter. He will not leave you to deal with it on your own.

P.S. As a self-diagnosed feeler, it’s easy for me to take on other peoples’ emotions and to have them sit heavily on my heart. I’ve learned (and continue to have to learn) that I can’t hold on to them for too long or they will weigh me down. God can take those. He is literally The Comforter. Don’t take that for granted.

Singleness is a Door

"Instead of seeing singleness as a wall, we need to see it as a door. A door that we can open if we want to, that will lead to opportunities that we can’t even imagine. Singleness doesn’t limit us, it expands our horizons. You might be single for four months, for four years or until the day you die, so why not take every day as it comes and do your best with the time that God has given you here. Our lack of relationship status doesn’t give us an excuse to slack off when it comes to following His Word, so don’t ever use it as an excuse. Use it as an encouragement to step out in faith and do things that you thought you would be brave enough to do."

- LN

Conflict // Song of the Week

What is life without conflict?

I'm an avid reader and I've often wondered why a book always have to have that 'get your heart racing and your palms sweating a little for the main character moment' - whether it's a physical problem (like in those classic Nancy Drew's - chloroform always got the best of that gal) or a spiritual problem. But what would a book be without it? Would there really be a story worth reading? I'm not so sure.

Conflict occurs on this Earth because we're at a time where the 'now' and the 'Kingdom to come' overlap. It won't be resolved until Jesus comes back one day. But I think that God can still use it for His glory, no doubt about it. One of my favorite verses, Lamentations 3:31-33, says: "But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness and tender mercy^. For He does not willingly and from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men" (Amplified). 

In this life, there will be conflict. But what would life be without it? Like a book character without a purpose, without conflict we would never be pushed out of our comfort zone and never grow. God has a purpose for everything we go through and a climax that far surpasses anything we can imagine: Heaven.

To bring it all together, this song by one of my all-time favorite bands has been stuck in my head for the past two days. It's a call for all Christians to fix our eyes on the One True King; a reminder that He is above all. Plus, it's got a catchy beat!

Song: Fix My Eyes

Artist: For King & Country

How wide and long and high and deep

My pastor was speaking on Ephesians 4:14-21 this Sunday, and specifically on God's love for us. While the whole sermon was fantastic, the part that hit me the most came from verses 18 and 19, when Paul prays that the church might "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge". My pastor used space to paint a picture of this love...

It is 46 billion light years from Earth to the edge of the universe. A light year is about 9.5 trillion kilometers. Times that by 46 billion and you get a number that is off the charts. So when we humans are so proud of making it to the moon... oh wait! And even to Mars... this doesn't even compare to how vast the universe is.

This is how it is with God's love...  we can only get as far as the moon and we can't even comprehend getting further than that. Sure we can put a number to it, but can we really grasp it's width, length, height and depth? 

So take heart - the God whose love is infinitely bigger than we can image has determined to love you. No matter what you do, who you think you are, what stain you think is too hard to remove, God has got it covered. He's in a position of judgement, but chooses love - a love that surpasses knowledge. As the Hillsong United song "Like An Avalanche" says: "nothing compares to this love, love, love."

Rainy Monday Moments

I think we are sometimes under the impression that we need to clean ourselves up before we come to God. That we have to get our act together before God will take us in. But that isn't right. God takes us as we are. He loves the very fact that we are coming to Him, and in His eyes we are holy and blameless when we have accepted Christ (Ephesians 1:4).

One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes says: " He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand; and if only the will to walk is there, he is pleased, even with their stumbles."

See that? He wants them to learn to walk. He doesn't need us to already know everything; He doesn't need us to already be perfect. That is impossible outside of Him. He's not concerned with our good deeds or our good works or our perfect, put-together lives - because anything we do outside of Him is useless and unclean. We should seek God first. Why try to clean up the surface when Jesus has already made us clean in His sight?

My Little Heart

Something I have been pondering on over the weekend, is the fact that I can love someone soooo much, yet God loves them infinitely more. When my little heart feels so full of love for someone that it feels like it's going to burst, God's love stretches even wider and further for that person. That's why it is such an amazing thing that we can surrender our friends into His hands. He knows them even better than we think we do. His heart is so large, we can't even comprehend it with our little, human minds.

John 3:16 famously tells us that God loved us so much that He sent His only Son down to die. Often, we hear that verse and giggle a little because it's such a "Sunday school answer" to everything. I think that it's sad that we have that point of view. That beautiful verse gives us a glimpse at God's heart for His creation. And as John 3 continues, it elaborates on His love:

^"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17, emphasis added).

When God could have destroyed us for our evilness; when He could have cast us off in our sin; when He could have turned His back on us, He instead sent His Son to take our place. It's something that I don't think we will be able to understand to the fullest while we live here on Earth, but the picture that it paints is an amazing one. 

When we feel like we are at the end of our rope with a friend; when our hearts break as we watch what our friends are going through, we can remember that God's heart breaks even more for them, and that He has a perfect love for them. He will bring them through it.

Single for Life.

There have been a lot of posts flying around the internet lately on being a single Christian (some of my favorites can be found here and here) so I thought I'd add my two cents from a single young Christian women's point of view. 

I think that our society, and our Christian society especially, has come to see singleness as some kind of curse. I've definitely felt that way before, and at times I still do. It's easy to get caught up into thinking that you need to be with someone, or interested in someone, or flirting with someone, in order to be the person that your friends see you as or even the person that you see yourself as. Even as I write this, I'm listening to some country music which is a genre that is focused as much on relationships as it is with beer sometimes. Sure, you hear songs about guys and girls, and flirting, and dancing, and all of that good stuff, but who has ever heard of a song for singles? Yeah, I don't think that would sell well. Of course, there are songs in every genre talking about when you meet the right girl/guy (a favorite of mine is this one), but that's just it... the songs always focus on a relationship coming around. But what if it never does? What if you never end up with anyone?

For YEARS I struggled with this. I knew that God calls us to be content in every situation and to trust that He has a perfect plan for my life, but how could life be good without a husband? 

This is where I think that we as a Church have failed. Instead of teaching contentment, we are taught to pray about our future relationships and to think about what we want in a future mate. Don't get me wrong, these are extremely important things, but when they become the focus of someone who is single - when looking into the future to a time when the right guy/girl might come along is our focus - then it blurs our vision to the plans that God has for us right now. Because, who knows? Maybe the perfect plan that God has for you does mean that you'll end up with someone and maybe it doesn't, but that should affect how we live out our relationship with God in this moment right now.

I joke about being "single for life" a lot these days but what I really mean by that is that I am content with being single in this moment. Sure, a great guy might come along, but that isn't my focus. It's a possibility but not a driving force as I walk through each day. So when I say "single for life" that could mean that I'm single for another four months, four years or for the rest of my life, but what I mean is that I'm going to try and not get caught up in the relationship craze that happens so easily these days and try and focus on the one relationship that will last for a lifetime and beyond - my relationship with God. 

Christmas Music!

Here's a list of 10 of favorite songs that will be on repeat this Christmas season! I love looking for new Christmas songs - songs that incorporate faith and the Christmas story in a unique way - but I also love twists on old classics!

1. Light of the World - Lauren Daigle
2. The Night Before Christmas - Brandon Heath
3. Come Now Our King - Chris August
4. Christmas Must Be Something More - Taylor Swift (I have to say - I was super surprised by this one!)
5. The First Noel - Lauren Daigle
6. Joy to the World - Jeremy Camp
7. Winter Snow - Audrey Assad & Chris Tomlin
8. O Holy Night - Scotty McCreery
9. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - Carrie Underwood
10. God With Us - Jeremy Camp

** these are in no particular order, but the first one has been on serious repeat since I found it! I love that she's not super well known (she does a killer cover of Love Alone is Worth the Fight by Switchfoot) and that it's definitely a Christmas song, but it can be played all year just because it's such a phenomenal message! Needless to say, I am a Lauren Daigle fan and I can't wait for more stuff from her (she just got signed!)

But if not

I've had the huge privilege this year to walk along side an awesome team of talented, Christ-loving volleyball players. As with all highly competitive teams, their goal is to win the championship, but along side this goal they have a motto: "But if not."

We play to win, but if not we will still give God the glory.
We want to win, but if not life will go on and God will still be good.

Every time this quote is brought up, I am reminded of how powerful this outlook can be in my own life. I may have plans, but if they don't work out, God is still God and He still has a wonderful plan for my life. As David wrote: "In your heart you plan your life. But the Lord decides where your steps will take you" (Proverbs 16:9). 

So let us live with this outlook. That God is in control no matter what and His love is better than anything else. Let's live for His glory, not our own. 

What If?

This guy is so great.

A Mosaic

I've been reading Jeff Bethke's book Jesus > Religion and so far it has lived up to all the expectations that I had! He is a phenomenal writer and offers a lot of things to chew on. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book (I have highlighted too many to count though!):

Oceans

As I mentioned in my last post, the song "Oceans" by Hillsong United has been on some serious replay here in my little world. Today as I belted it out I was reminded of how powerful and how scary the lyrics of the song actually are...

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"

To be lead by God to where our trust is without borders is a HUGE prayer. It means letting down our guard and letting Him overtake our lives.

To be taken deeper than our feet will ever let us wander is a BOLD statement. It means that we have to give up our plans and let His be the only ones that matter.

Maybe you've never heard of this song or maybe, like me, you've sung it a million times... Either way, take some time to dive into the lyrics (for this song and of other praise songs). Take time to understand what you are singing because you may not realize how huge and bold a prayer those words actually are. And if you do, awesome! Sing them like you really mean them.

My challenge for myself this week is to not sing these words because they are a pretty melody, but I want to sing them because that is what I want God to actually do in my life.

Happy weekend!

Powerful Stuff.

Lately I've been really convicted about my prayer life, or rather my lack of prayer life. I don't know what it is, but when life gets busy praying seems to be the first thing that slips my mind. The Bible tells us to pray about everything (Philippians 4:6) and it's our direct communication route to God, so to say it is important is definitely an understatement.

To keep myself from falling into a lack of regular prayer slump I've developed three tricks...

1. If you find yourself getting distracted or lost in the middle of your prayers pull out your journal and write it down. Sure it takes a bit more time, but it is an easy way to stay focused. It's also cool to look back at your prayers and see how they've been answered. And on that note...

2. Write down the prayers you see answered! I used to get really discouraged because I felt like I didn't see God answering my prayers. I started keeping an "answered prayer log" in the back of my journal and I was surprised by how quickly the page filled up. It could be things that you specifically prayed for (like health or doing well on an assignment) or just little praise things (like it being sunny or a text from a friend that you haven't talked to in a while). Doing this has really opened my eyes to the different ways that God responds to our requests!

3. Keep a prayer calendar. Ok, this sounds weird and slightly confusing but all it is is a list of people/things to pray about - one for every day of the month. Write down 31 people or things that you want to pray for/about and keep it someplace that you will be able to find it again, then start praying. On day one, pray for the person/thing on day one and so and so on. I love this because it helps give me a purpose to my prayers. Sometimes I feel like I just ramble on and on, or I have way to many people I could be praying about. Writing down a prayer list helps to focus my prayers and keeps me from getting overwhelmed.

I hope these tips help you out!

New Beginnings

Just a quick thought since I haven't been around here much lately.

Spring has always been thought of as the time for new beginnings, but for me new beginnings are in the Fall. With school starting especially, but Fall is also the time where you get into a new routine after slacking off (or maybe working harder) during the summer. It's a time to get your head back into the game and start focusing on what you want to do with the rest of this year. We're already more than have way through 2013 people! It's crazy time!

Basically what I mean by this rambling is take hold of the rest of this year. Look the unknown in the face and be confident that God walks along side you all the way. He's in control and He's got your back as you take your first few steps into this season of new beginnings.

Thursday Thoughts

Sometimes I have moments where I can pretend that I know exactly what God was feeling when He looked over His beautiful creation and said that it was good... This past weekend I had one of those moments as I sat on the back of my uncle's quad, zooming through the untouched wilderness on an old train track route. Minus the few times I got hit in the face with branches (I was too distracted by the gorgeous forest and mountains), it was one of the best moments of my life. Flying past the river, gazing at the tall trees, checking out the mountains that few people have dared to climb... moments like these need to be bottled and sold to people who are having bad days.

Where am I going with this? Well, I think that sometimes we get so caught up with the itsy bitsy bad things - like getting hit in the face with branches - that we forget about the big picture - in this case the gorgeous creation.

Phillipians 3:13-14 says: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Sometimes we need to stop getting annoyed and caught up by the little things in life that aren't going our way, and look at the big picture; the picture that God is carefully weaving together. Don't worry about a few branches, take a better look at the things that distracted you from seeing that branch =)


p.s. is anyone else getting this song stuck in their heads?