Don't Ever Get Comfortable

I am an avid follower of stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com there was a post today that just threw me for a loop. Talking about comfort zones, I read another one that talked about putting God in a box. Okay seriously this is what I do. God wil move in my life could be anything, in a relationship, my marraige,my job, ministries I'm helping with, our church anything. Does something breakthrough I somehow think I have something to do with it and bam! I am in a comfort zone! I put God in a box and a small one, and when He shows up big time I am somehow suprised or even scarier relieved when he does! My prayer today was simple God cleanse me of my pride, my selfishness,put me in your hands and mold me. Dude I think we need to pray this everday, if we want change in anything we have to look to ourselves first!

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Peace is mentioned 247 times in the Bible. We had a missionary from church last night talk about "worry", she said that if the Prince of Peace dwells within our body, how can worry and unrest have any place. Then I fell upon this awesome verse Romans 15:13, its amazing and tells some important ingredients. As you trust in Him, God will fill you all the joy and peace....Key as you trust in Him. Also, he want us to Overflow with the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Two keys my silly self has missed! There's no peace without trusting God, no hope without the Holy Spirit. I can work myself into one big worry ball about anything, be encapsulated by FEAR!!! It's so easy to worry worry worry especially now, it's crazy out there. But, Thank God for the truth!! Also one other thing to note, the missionary stated that if where there if fear and worry there is no worship. Key word, I've been trying to coordinate the youth worship team. All along I was trying so hard, and worrying about the stupidest stuff, gosh I'm retarded, I've doubted and not trusted this whole time!! What a waste of time, if we ever want to give Glory to God through the team, its got to be in his hands completely!

A True Strong Christian

I was thinking deeply like I normally do..oh wait not so much but I often times hear, so and so is a strong christian. I've caught myself wondering and asking the question about myself. What is the definition. Previous to yesterday this was my definition: Reads bible everyday, is inspired by what's read, active prayer life, spirit filled, goes to church often, serves in ministries, has evidence of the fruits of the spirit in his/her life etc, etc. And while these are all great attributes its not the key to being strong. Because in scripture it talks about God strength being made perfect in our weaknesses!! Key word our weakness. It's not until we have full surrender to God is when we become strong, then only then will we have true peace and sustainable strength.

Octubre

October October October
What to say what to say, what is the current state of my consciousness right now:
Challenged, Tired, and Wondering What God has next. Ask my husband what’s been taking up way too much of my time the last month and a half. Youth Band, except I’m not a youth I’m old but something keeps me pursuing something better. We want; we are hungry for new songs of Praise. I’ve sang I could sing of your love forever too many times even though it is a great song. So how do you do it? Ha! Key word How do you do it, well actually You don’t do it. Something I’ve learned is that without a full dependence on God doing a ministry like this can be dangerous. One the music can become an idol; it can be all about performance, bad idea. The huge danger is that if you are a musician and you at all care about what you are doing you want something you do to sound good, you want it to be pleasing to the ear. Trouble is most times if you put in the practice and release your efforts to God it will be so much better! Something I must do from now on is to surrender it to God every time I pick up my guitar. Next song we are doing is not brand new but will be new to our kids. It’s called Here in Your Presence and it’s by the Desperation Band. The words go like this:
Found in Your hands, fullness of joy
Every fear suddenly wiped away here in Your presence
All of my gains now fade away
Every crown no longer on display, here inYour presence
Heaven in trembling in awe of Your wonders
the kings and their kingdom arestanding amazed
Chorus:
Here in Your presence, we are undone
Here in Your presence, Heaven and Earth become one
Here in Your presence, all things are new
Here in Your presence, everything bows before You
Bridge:
Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way
Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way
Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way
Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchlessin every way

2 Types of Training.

Lately, About the only time I get a chance to think is during the glorious noon hour that I usually either take a walk or now....I am running during. If your not an avid jogger or walker or exercise person, my oh my are you missing out. Two things that are amazing about it.
1. You get sometime to be by yourself and pray!
2. 9 times out of 10 you feel one hundred times better after you do it.
Right now I am training for my first 5k I have done a 10k before and was so messed up afterward that I couldn't do anything for a week. Another thing I've been doing for the last few month's is being a regular visitor to biblegateway.com. I can't tell you what a nice easy way it is to read the bible, I've been through a good majority of the new testament via this site I higly recommend. So 2 Tips from this little blog!
1. Train your brain, read the bible everyday and if your around a computer like I am all the time go to www.biblegateway.com
2. Train your body! Exercise, do it it's addicting and once you start you won't want to stop!

Holy Cow!!!

Dang! I am sitting at my desk auto-cadding along and the station I listen to everyday is a christian station out of Chicago, they keep playing the national anthem. After the second time I started wondering what was up, and I look up at my calender and sure enough it's 9-11-08, my first thought was duh!! Then I actually got chills, to think something that to this day I can remember what I was doing when I heard the news, (I was in a very boring economics class at Purdue Universtiy, sitting by my friend Eric). I was messed up, everyone was, now really seeming like a short seven years later, I forgot! I think I'm probably not the only one who forgot until then went to yahoo, or saw the news. But it makes me wonder how other people's lives are marked by such a busyness, such a event-packed moment by moment pace that we forget things, things that we shouldn't.

Why don't we say what we mean?

I've been tossing tons of ideas in my head recently about how people interact with each other. There's a verse about how we should speak the truth in love...Ephesians 4:15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. What does that mean anyway. I've also read several blogs about "To Judge or not to Judge" onhttp://aaronstern.typepad.com/aaron_sterns_blog/. For a while now before my husband and I moved to a small town, I had a very busy life, and full but I was so busy I didn't have much time to get to know anyone but my husband really. I had some close friends don't get me wrong, but never really got involved in the youth group too much I would show up most Sunday nights and help out. But ever since moving down here, I've had a chance to really get plugged into our church, and specifically our youth group. What I've noticed is a lot of people never really say what they mean. People that do say what they mean believe me I appreciate. Or if they have a real opinion of something, a lot of times that person is a "jerk", or folks get really offended by the truth. For example it was one of my good friends birthday's and I didn't even text her last night till like eleven. She could say oh that's okay whatever, but she should say to me you are a big jerk!! It's true. There is a huge difference between speaking the truth and being downright ignorant, but still to achieve unity and true friendship you must be honest and sometimes that means having conflict. Don't be afraid to tell someone if they've hurt you, and if your on the receiving end be humble and realize that hey you screwed up, and omg apologize! Crazy concepts I know.