GLORYYYYY

Okay okay. This feels better. God has revealed so much of His character to me and I'm so in love!

As my summer began I was just consumed with business. Selling books and all I can think of to make due with my increasing debt (which I've never had any debt and i do not like it!) Support raising for my project in Santa Monica (28 days booo yaaaa!). Being suddenly forced to move out of my apartment (my comfort, security, and home). Trying to balance life now that I've got a little space to breathe. Its been scary, interesting, yet exhilarating!

My summer reading plan is reading the Old Testament in it's entirety and I just finished reading Genesis 38-45ish and I can ALREADY see why God put this reading plan on my heart. He knows what's best for me and exactly what I need to hear. Tonight I read about Joseph :) Here are some things I love: I love that Joseph goes from being spoiled and arrogant about his dreams and relationship with Jacob to a man of righteousness. I love that whenever man tried to give glory to Joseph he accepted none of it and gave all glory to God. I love that Judah is extremely selfish and a sinful man who ends up being responsible, caring, and compassionate about his family. I love the opportunities God presents to Joseph and Judah for them to grow into men of pure hearts! I'm so encouraged by the faithfulness God shows to the people of these chapters especially Joseph. God may put road blocks and obstacles in our lives that steer us closer to Christ. We may not see it at the time or for a very long time, but trusting in Him and that He knows what is good for us is what He wants. I see what happens to Joseph and I just praise God for the hope that gives me. I want to be patient and see what God has for me. I don't want to rush ahead and look back for God to approve my decisions or actions, or dwell on happiness and memories from the past, I want to walk side by side in fellowship with God and take what he has for me one day at a time trusting in that what God has given me is good; today and always.

I could continue to ramble on about how great and faithful God is but I would hope that it's something you as readers of this fantastic blog can find for yourself. And the only way you are going to get to know God better is by being in the Word. Consistently. That's often said, and yet now I can be a witness to how true it is. Get. In. The. Word. ...It's the greatest love story ever written<3

God is faithful.

God is good.

God is sovereign.

God provides.

May my praises and joys continue through tomorrow and the rest of this week. May my wisdom and knowledge grow throughout the entire summer. May God never leave me. Goodnight! xoxo

There's something about Your Name

Today I drove home from Bible study and pictured Jesus on the cross the entire way home. It was not a warm and fuzzy ride. See for yourselves:



..and then the sin I've been struggling with for months seemed to fall at His feet. Here's to a future of limited distractions.

Are you uncomfortable yet?

I've got a question:

Do you love this God who is everything,

or do you just love everything He gives you?

I read this from a book almost 4 weeks ago and my answer to this question was: I love all the blessings God gives me and the wonderful life he has provided, but I haven't pulled my head off cloud 9 to realize my relationship is about who God is. After even further thought I realized I haven't spent much time in the past year and a half (since accepting Christ) searching for answers to who God is. When I would get in the Word it would be about reading passages that applied to my life. Or what I felt like reading. Why didn't I think to learn about my heavenly Father, the most important love of my life? (arrogance, among many other things) The scary thing is why did it take me this long for me to open my eyes to what I've been missing this whole time?

Our lives are so comfortable its disgusting.

So I took that question to heart and tried to discover who God is. For me that looked like:

reading more out of the old testament..

studying the Bible with diligence (since I don't know it very well, it's incredibly fun to actually study the Bible like schoolwork: making connections in parables as well as trying to tie everything I read to my life!)

purposely trying to clean up my heart in order to become filled with the Spirit..

and trying to make things as uncomfortable as I can just so I can feel more needy and reliant on God's direction..

Mix all of the above together and the transformation was probably the greatest thing that has happened in my spiritual journey so far. I can't describe much more besides that because there are no words; it's a feeling I pray others can discover for themselves.

I will say that I delight in waking up every morning in this temporary home as another day to serve and love my Lord. His will is my command and it's out of my love for God that I choose to act and speak. Now I love my Father for who He is as well as the abundance He has given me.

back to basics

this has really captivated my idea of how I view God lately; hopefully it will challenge you as well.


When we come to the realization that God owes us absolutely nothing, it is then that we see and appreciate everything as a blessing...
this mindset has given me more hope and joy in the little things, and has helped alleviate the pain of the hard things...
as a result of an increase in joy and hope, there is a direct correlation to the love I can show to others as Christ works through me.

But as I said, it all starts with realizing that God owes us nothing. To me that means: God didn't have to give us nature, the sun, the seasons. or give me a good home in a free country. or give me the chance at a higher education. or a good family. or friends. He doesn't have to give me a rewarding career. or a husband. or a family. the list is endless. Who am I to deserve all these things? What have I done in my life to deserve these blessings? Absolutely nothing.

Humble yourselves in order to truly experience God's grace.

All You Need Is Love ♥

What an outstanding concept.

Today I talked with a friend about it. Most days I talk to God about it. A lot of the time I dream about it. I have the word tattooed on my foot so there’s no way I can forget about it.. Right.

You know what I concluded about love, and let me tell you I am certainly no expert; I just have thoughts and opinions like everyone else on the planet. I concluded this:

Take your hands and fold them together. Do you feel how perfect they align? There are no awkward ridges or bones bumping. Your skin is consistent with itself.

com⋅ple⋅ment /n. 'kom ple ment; v. 'kom ple,ment/show spelled pronunciation [n. kom-pluh-muh nt; v. kom-pluh-ment]

–noun
1. something that completes or makes perfect

Our hands are the living proof of the word!

When God created man and woman, they were complements to each other. I mean I would imagine that’s why sex is so great?

So..if we are to love someone, should we not find the perfect complement to ourselves?
Why should the controlling woman be with the nice guy? Why should mr.right find himself with an outrageous attention-craving adultress? Why should the church-loving woman be with the alcoholic? I feel like we’ve all seen or at least heard of couples such as this. It happens.

Sometimes we are just so sick of being alone that we lower our standards just to ease the pain. We may see a seed in someone and hope it grows into full bloom. Lets be honest, that is probably the most devastating and disappointing mindset to have. Yet I’m guilty of doing it, and I would imagine I’m not alone in admitting that.

You know what I find the greatest joy in these days, being single and unavailable. And let me tell you, this is a very new thing for me. Being single, and not wanting to date. Who seriously desires that?! Well, I am so content and fulfilled in God’s love, that there is no reason for me to be searching elsewhere.

I trust that one day God may give me a man who complements me like the perfect fit of my own two hands. As far as today goes, I can only be thankful that I am complete in Christ alone.

I felt like sharing this conclusion with the world. Good day!

Urgency!

With disaster striking in Haiti it makes me think about the fact that God could destroy this earth at any given second of any given day. In fact, we know that this is His plan for the world because he tells us so in scripture.

But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the
heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves
will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to
deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed
like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the
day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire,
and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to
the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s
righteousness.
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for
these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that
are pure and blameless in his sight.
And remember, the Lord’s
patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul
also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him
-2 Peter 3:10-15

(Matthew 24 is another good reference)


I could go in so many directions with this thought but the direction I want to head in is about the urgency to tell EVERYONE about Jesus. And I don't mean ask people if they believe in God, because just believing in God or a god isn't enough. Let me say that again, I don't mean ask people if they believe in God, because just believing in God or a god is not enough. Society seems to be content with acknowledging (or not acknowledging) that there is a God. I thought that way too before someone actually took the time to share with me the Good News of the gospel and how Christ wants a relationship with us.
First I must ask you, for what purpose do you think the Bible was written? For a good bedtime story? Before I decided to follow Christ I had heard verses from the Bible at my old-fashioned boring church, and the pastor might as well have been speaking a different language because those verses, that scripture stuff, it made no sense nor impact on me whatsoever. And what about this Jesus guy? I mean that was pretty nice of him to come and die on the cross, but what exactly makes that so important? I'm not going to lie, I really didn't give any attention to the Bible or Jesus before I accepted Jesus as my Savior.
Before I decided to accept Christ my life was fine, I did whatever made me happy and that was that. I never thought much about dying or the end of the earth, because I figured when the time came for that I knew there was a God so I was going to Heaven. And I don't know about you but I know a lot of people who seem to express a similar view.
Here's the deal:

• The Bible is not just a book filled with jibberish that only special pastors and Jesus freaks can understand. The Bible was created to paint a picture of who God is and most importantly to tell us about Jesus- God's one and only Son, who descended to this earth, born of a human mother, lived a perfect life, and died for us sinners as a sacrifice so that we may receive eternal life.
• Jesus. Do you think Jesus wanted to die? Do you think it was easy for him to endure all the pain and suffering He was put through? Do you think that just because Jesus is a part of God that He had it made during his time on earth? ...No! The thing is, God loves us so much that he sent Jesus so that we could be united with him, our Father in Heaven.

God wants to be apart of our lives. God doesn't want to be a distant God, He wants to be right there beside us in all that we do. By accepting what Jesus has done for us makes a relationship with God possible. What is important to understand is that you don't have to stop drinking, stop having sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend, ditch all of your friends, stop swearing or stealing or lying or cheating before you have a relationship with God. We are all sinners, and God takes us how we are and transforms our hearts and our lives. We leave the work to God and the Holy Spirit who resides within us, and it's amazing to see what the result is.
I accepted Christ as my Savior on November 23, 2008. Now when are you? And if you've accepted Christ already, when are you going to tell your friends and family about Him, when it's too late?

"Love the Lord your God, and love one another. Love one another as He loves. Love with strength and purpose and passion and no matter what comes against you. Don't weaken. Stand against the darkness, and love. That's the way back into Eden. That's the way back into life."

-- Redeeming Love 

RIP Uncle Steve

My Uncle had a sudden heart attack on Christmas Eve. He died the day before New Years.

May you rest in peace Uncle Steve, you will be truly missed. <3 span="">

(: Uncle Steve with Amy, Monica and I

Uncle Steve and Amy

Uncle Steve and I

look at the stars, look how they shine for you <3 span="">

Chutes and Ladders

Life is a game of chutes and ladders wouldn’t you say? We make our way and sometimes we get good breaks, and sometimes we get bad breaks. We can make 10 steps forward then fall back to square one at any given moment.

I realized my 10 steps forward led me back to square one. I’ve seen success in overcoming certain strongholds in my life throughout the past 4 months, and then a whole new can of worms was opened. As much as it sucks, and it’s hard… I can’t help but love and embrace what God has planned for me. I thought I was walking with the Lord, but I finally recognized the things this world and Satan were fogging my mind with. A friend once told me, we should be walking stride by stride with the Lord. It does us no good to get ahead of Him then look back for his reassurance, and it does us no good to drag behind with Him out of reach. God should be RIGHT THERE in every aspect of our lives. Imagine if we went a day constantly praying [1 Thessalonians 5:17] God what should I be saying here? What should I be doing here? How can I use this situation to glorify you? How can I pray for this person? Give me the desires of my heart.

. . .

As I began this blog on the night before New Years Eve I realized that every plan I had made for New Years was selfish and sinful. Thank you God for revealing to me the true motives of my heart. Now that I have a new laundry list of things to overcome, where can I begin? Patience and endurance are about to become my best friends that’s for sure. Meditating on these two verses has really given me strength this morning:

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure
many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is
genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is
more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through
many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when
Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
1 Peter 1:6

“Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ
can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in
the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For
when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

So now it’s my move, I have fallen 10 steps back, but the game is far from over. All I can do now is pray for openness to His Word and the willingness to change. I am so thankful for this life You have given me Lord. I share this all in Your Name.

xoxo