I'm...

I'm getting baptized today...Jesus I hope you know what you're doing.  Theres a lot of prayer going on for today and if you're reading this I hope you pray too :) I'll fill you in on the story later.

"For you I sing I dance, 

I rejoice in this Divine Romance, 

lift my heart and my hands to show my love."

A trick of the trade

"Guilty, I'm so guilty, and I'm guilty for the rest of my life...How come I never do, what I'm suppose to do? How come everything I try never turns out right? You know how it is with my baby, you know I just can't stand myself, but I've found myself in trouble and I had no where else to go..."

Here's something to try next time you get consumed by yourself: Go out and minister to someone.

The enemy likes to get you trapped inside yourself and your mind where it turns into a downward spiral of awfulness. He tried that on me this week and even though I didn't feel like getting out of myself and ministering to anyone there was a need, and as soon as I got encouraging words for that person I started feeling better, like a wasn't a failure. 

That song up at the top is an old one the Blues Brothers sang which I think Randy Newman wrote. It is an extremely depressing song about a guy who falls into drugs and alcohol and thinks he has no where else to turn to but a woman; thats us...We, as humans, Are guilty, our flesh is as guilty as ever. We never do what we're suppose to do, everything we try on our own never turns out right but that is the case of the fallen man.

This post isn't all depressing, yes we are guilty and deserve death but this is where that grace blog comes in, for some unfathomable reason because this crazy God sent his Only Child to earth to shed His blood for us some two thousand years ago we are set free.

We Are (present tense) set free.

So even if you've committed "your worst sin"* you are already set free from it, you were set free from it thousands of years ago before anyone back then even knew you or thought about you!

Let's accept it!!! Lets go out and share it! Get out of yourself! This life isn't about us, it's about God! and what He wants to do, sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of that. Col 3:1-3

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things Above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things Above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

"Fake it 'till you make it!" Use that imagination! No matter how dull You think it is God gave it to you for a reason! Think clouds and golden gates, cats with halos, (cats have 9 lives duh) anything to get you out of your own mind! (Col. 1:21) If you need help ask for it! We're all in this together! Lets spread the Kingdom of God! Hallelujah? Yes and Amen.

*Fact: All sin is equal, murdering is equal to lying; sex before marriage : stealing. No one sin is greater than another.

Humor

Maybe it's just me but I think this is hilarious!

The nerd...the computer....the fat ol' God...

hilarious...

Grace

"Grace I call your name, oh won't your smile fall over me, I crouch and drink on hands and knees oh sweet grace rain down on me, I need you grace." Grace Phil Wickham

Ah! July 1st! I love new months! A new month feels so refreshing to me! New things are going to happen, I don't have much of a schedule yet-new, new, new! I always feel like coming into a new month is like wiping my slate clean again, all the mistakes I made in the last month are officially gone, all the stupid things I said last month are "Now Forgotten," it's like I'm a new person again!

But Gods been teaching me that's not exactly true...yes a new month is always exciting, but God gives us grace ALL the time! I mean Gods timing isn't human timing right? He gives us new grace   every day,   every hour,   every minute,   every second,   every millisecond!   He told me once 'Every second is a new second' This was in Costa Rica when I was walking with a lot of fear about what was going to happen and on this same trip He spoke to me about Choosing!  

God gives us a Choice to follow Him, He gives us a choice to accept His Grace and His UNFATHOMABLE LOVE! So it is our responsibility in our Relationship with God to Choose how we walk in life, we can choose to drink 'til we barf, gossip about our friends etc. OR we can choose to walk in the Fruits of The Spirit! Clothe ourselves in Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control!

It's a choice! What?! The deity that created THE UNIVERSE gives US, mere humans, a CHOICE! What Freedom we can live in if we only CHOOSE!

Whoa...

Shame

So, I don't really blog often once every six months? Hah! Only when I'm lead to...Anyways the Lord has really been teaching me about shame. I was down in Costa Rica a week ago in an area known for sexual perversion talking to teenage girls about shame-oi vay-now granted teenagers in general don't open up so talking to them about shame was like talking to a brick wall!

Regardless, the Lord has been teaching me about shame, basically when temptation comes, or for me, when the enemy brings pictures in my head or says 'hey, remember when you did this?' the Bible says to RUN away from temptation to run into the arms of your father. Your father who has already forgotten!

I was talking to one of my greatest friends about shame and hurt from the past and she was saying how us humans like to hold on to that hurt thinking God can't or won't want to take care of that! 

How true is that? 

And how untrue it is!

Of course your lover, your father, your God CAN take that pain! And of course your lover, your father and your God WANTS to take that pain! Which brings us to trust...which I'm not going to get into but the Lord has really been showing me how to Run into his arms when temptation comes and especially when Shame comes! I'm thinking about memorizing some scripture to throw into the enemy's face when he comes-thats how Jesus did it when he was tempted so....why not me?

God is a great God, let's be still and know that he IS God.

Influence

I grew up the youngest child, ive always been the youngest child, ive always felt the youngest, cutest, and could get away with the most and for the most part thats been true up until last week when i was thrown into a costa rica missions trip. there were 5 kids ages 10-14 and for some reason they all flocked to me, incessantly. i dont know why, and it baffled me why they would hang around me so much and talk my ears off and latch on to me but then i remembered being their age and hanging around my older sisters friends and on missions trips the older kids were THE coolest people EVER! and i remembered how i felt around them and i thought these kids must think im cool like the cool kids i knew! 

that felt cool

i felt very influential, like i could help shape their lives, be a role model for how they could act-i could be an older sister!

now, i feel God has given me some really cool revelations about life i know things that i want other people to know, and now i had an audience. people who would almost hang onto every word i said, i really, honestly, felt powerful-i could change the atmosphere in the room (now i realize that anyone can do this but its still really cool to realize) i wanted to be a good example i wanted to show them that i thought they were cool and im not to cool to listen to them (even when they all talk at the same time!) and to just love on them-love cures everything- and i truly believe that! i saw how they would react to things and i noticed how they changed over just that one week together. its really cool being influential, having people look up to you, but i also realized that its kind of the same with your peers and people older than you. people feed off of each other get signals and cues off of people on how to behave and how to respond. 

i think its important to know how much you affect people all around you younger, older, and peers we all feed off of each other and sometimes give each other unknown "permissions" or the opposite. but i like being a role model i think i have some good things to share.

who are you a role model for?