Today was a great day. :)
Very rainy, windy, and cold. Crystal and I didn't go to bowling today, but I did go to Choral practice! :) of course. I couldn't skip that. We have a concert this Thursday, and is being performed for the endowment. We are hoping to raise a million dollars for the fine arts department here at NCU. That money will go towards funding our trips abroad (Italy next spring! :)) sound and music equipment ect. The music is very challenging but is full of passion, and it is all for the Lord. God has already blessed North Central with people donating 275 thousand and possibly another 100 thousand. Almost half way there! Miraculous things truly happen when we are dedicated to the Lord in prayer.
I went to chapel today, thinking it was just going to be another day. Worship for 25 minutes and then a speaker for the rest of the time then lunch! I sat in the fourth row to the front in the balcony, by myself, I may add :) and all of the sudden Jeff Deyo walks up to the front and explains that this chapel day was not going to be a normal chapel day. In fact, thats how we should be in our walk with God right? It should always be different, new and refreshing. Each level the Lord takes us up in our relationship with him is never the same. So I thought that was cool how Jeff put it that way. But he started to talk about the service and how we are just going to enter in to the Lord's presence and to not look at the people around us. Complete focus on God and praising Him. Deyo also explained the significance of raising hands in worship. Very cool! He showed how during the verse its just swaying side to side then the chorus BAM! raise your hands! lol. sooo funny because I have noticed that a lot in the church. He said we sometimes just do it out of habit or the normal thing, thats just what pentecostal's do. But he said that raising our hands is a symbol of exposing our love for the Lord. Expressing our longing for His presence in the place we are in.
As Jeff and the band started to play I instantly felt warm.... all over. It just hit me. I knew it was the Lord's divine Spirit moving within me. Jeff deyo began to sing the words, "let us not forget your goodness... let us not forget... oh help us God... let us not forget...." and I begin to think now. How many of us have forgotten? I know, at times, I have forgotten the Lord's goodness. In times where I just was so angry, bitter, frustrated, sad, depressed, scared or negative, I forgot the Lord's goodness. He is good. All the time. Trials and tribulations come... but they only come because something amazing is about to happen afterwards. It is during those hard times that our true selves show. Those times were not meant for torture, they were meant for building character, strengthening hearts, purifying our minds, learning how to gain wisdom and understanding. But we don't always see it that way do we.
The next song Jeff began to sing, "You are good and Your love endures forever." Wow. How amazing is it to think that the Father's love endures FOREVER. Not only think that but you have to know and believe it in your heart. How many times do we forget about the Lord's love? My first blog I brought up the footprints in the sand and how the Lord carries us through the storms of life and is with us every step of the way. His love is so powerful and so moving. We love, because HE first... loved us.
The third song he sang was, "The enemy has been defeated and death couldn't hold You down, we're gana lift our voice in victory we're gana make your praises loud, shout unto God with a voice of triumph, shout unto God with a voice of praise, we lift Your name up." Awesome song! Everytime I sing this song I always picture us punching satan in the face with the Lord's grace saying, "yeah that's right, we are on the winning side and we have already won." It is true you know. We have already won. So we need to praise the Lord like never before! We need to lift His name up, like my fiancé said, get out of our little boxes we place ourselves in called "safety zones" we are not in Kansas any more people this is the King of all Kings we are serving here! Everybody needs to know His story and His love and His goodness and His faithfulness and His grace and mercy.
Jeff's song called, "unveil." Wow. That is all I can say about that. Such an amazing, powerful song. look it up on Youtube. Jeff Deyo "Unveil" buy it on itunes. sooooo gooood! wow! the chorus is "unveil my eyes so I can see your glory, unveil my eyes so I can know You're here, You're here." The verses are just so passionate and so from God. I love it when the Lord brings a song into my heart and I seem to get the melody, chords, and words all in 15 to 20 minutes. That is impossible for me to do on my own. I am just another servant of the Lord and by His grace He chose me to sing a song through. How amazing is that? Every talent that we have He gave to us for a reason and a purpose. Every one has a calling on their life whether they want to believe it or not it is there. It is our jobs to submit to the call. Whatever our dreams are, His dreams are bigger and better. Surrender everything to Him, and I can guarantee you will not be dissapointed.
The last song he sang is "bless the Lord." Also, a very powerful song. so great. I video taped some clips so I am going to have my fiancé, Justin help me put them on here for you to see. So amazing! Today, I died to myself. I am allowing Christ to shine through me. It is an amazing feeling. Knowing everything is in His hands, not having to worry or wonder. I just know everything is going to be great because He is fully in control.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Waiting....
Today I worked from 9:40a.m. to 5:10p.m. at the great Coldstone Creamery. Can life get any greater than this?
This Thursday through Sunday is our fall break, and instead of going home, I decided to pick up a few extra hours. Crystal is staying with Danny at the pastor's house for fall break, so i've been holding down the fort here at the apartment. It is amazing what your mind will think about when you are all alone for a full 4 days! Well, it has only been three so far. the Lord has really been challenging me this semester. I have not seen my fiancé for almost 2 months now. It has been extremely difficult. I realize that throughout my relationship with the most amazing person in this entire world, I have become to dependent on him, rather than being dependent on God.
The Lord is teaching me that throughout this time I need to learn that I cannot rely on my fiancé to make me happy. Yes, we have amazing moments and fun times but true joy can only be found in the Lord and He needs to be the center of everything. The Lord needs to be our everything. It is so hard to keep priorities straight in a world full of distractions. It is easy to take our eyes off the goal of what really matters in life. That is our relationship with God. There is so much more to life... if we would only realize what amazing things the Lord could do in us, if we just gave Him complete control of our lives, instead of trying to do it all on our own. I wrote a song this semester called, "I run to you." Everytime I sing it, I can barely get through the words, they are completely from the Lord and so precious and full of passion and fire and truth.
My professor here at North Central University, Dr. Watson, would tell me every class period, "People will fail you, but God is always faithful." That statement is so true. I think if people would take hold of that quote, then we would not be so distracted and disturbed by what others do around us. As long as we are in check with the Lord's will and remain firm in what is right, the Lord's love is enough.
The title of this blog is called "Waiting." I chose that word because that is what I feel like I am doing, waiting to graduate, waiting to get married, waiting for the next step, waiting for a word from God, waiting waiting waiting. Well, as John Waller puts it, "While i'm waiting, I will serve you." I feel as though lately, I have been waiting with an attitude of, "this is taking forever!!!!" Instead of filling up this precious time I have to communicate with the Lord on a deeper level. I have always told myself I never want to be comfortable with my relationship with the Lord. I will never outgrow God, I am always going to need more of Him to get me to where He wants me to be. Where is that? sitting by His side at the throne.
This road that we Christians are on, is the most challenging, difficult, most rewarding road that the Lord could have allowed us to follow. I feel as though we take advantage of God's unfailing love and grace. His divine faithfulness and mercy. You know He will never leave us? I love the story about the footprints in the sand. How the person who was walking on a beach with the Lord and there were 2 sets of footprints and all of the sudden when trouble and chaos surrounded this person's life there were only one set of footprints. This person cried out to God and kept asking why the Lord could have left them during the hardest most challenging storms in his life. The Lord said, "My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints in the sand.... it was then that I carried you." That is just like us isn't it? Crying out to God, begging, pleading, screaming and asking how could He leave us, how could He just walk away in our greatest time of need. What we need to realize is that if we would just sit and listen... We would begin to feel his Holy Spirit moving within us. He is ready and willing to speak. It is us who walk away from Him, it is us who don't make time for Him, it is us who crucified Him on the cross. Every lie, every unclean thought, every time we deceived or misled, we were pounding in those nails..... we are the reason that He had to die so that we might live a life full and rich with His Holy Spirit living within us, speaking words of affirmation and peace, receiving extraordinary gifts that were promised to us, having the joy of the Lord as our strength, and we sit here and complain about God not being there for us??? doesn't make any sense to me.... I feel as though we allow satan to blind us from the big picture. We are so molded into the ways of this world we don't have "time" to see what God really meant when He gave us another chance.
My favorite verse is Romans 2:12, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will." To me, this verse says it all. We were born to stand out. In order to stand out we need to allow the Lord to be in every area of our lives so that He may transform us into becoming more and more like Him. We will be able to TEST and APPROVE what God's WILL is for OUR LIVES! His GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT will. Isn't that what every one wants? To be called to something great, beyond our own dreams? The truth is.... we all are called to something greater. It's just.... what are we willing to do.... to sacrifice.... to change..... to submit..... to let go....
The Lord has given us free will.... its precious. I dont know about you, but at the end of my life, I don't want to be thinking ... oh i wish i would of told this person... i wish i would have done this ... i wish i would of done that....
When I go home to be with my loving heavenly Father I want Him to look me in the eyes and say, "Well done my good and faithful servant... you have made me proud.. I love you so much. Thank-you for choosing the life I created you for. Thank-you for standing up for Me and making me your everything."
What would The Lord say to each of us... right now at this very moment... if we were to die....
Would you do anything differently?
This Thursday through Sunday is our fall break, and instead of going home, I decided to pick up a few extra hours. Crystal is staying with Danny at the pastor's house for fall break, so i've been holding down the fort here at the apartment. It is amazing what your mind will think about when you are all alone for a full 4 days! Well, it has only been three so far. the Lord has really been challenging me this semester. I have not seen my fiancé for almost 2 months now. It has been extremely difficult. I realize that throughout my relationship with the most amazing person in this entire world, I have become to dependent on him, rather than being dependent on God.
The Lord is teaching me that throughout this time I need to learn that I cannot rely on my fiancé to make me happy. Yes, we have amazing moments and fun times but true joy can only be found in the Lord and He needs to be the center of everything. The Lord needs to be our everything. It is so hard to keep priorities straight in a world full of distractions. It is easy to take our eyes off the goal of what really matters in life. That is our relationship with God. There is so much more to life... if we would only realize what amazing things the Lord could do in us, if we just gave Him complete control of our lives, instead of trying to do it all on our own. I wrote a song this semester called, "I run to you." Everytime I sing it, I can barely get through the words, they are completely from the Lord and so precious and full of passion and fire and truth.
My professor here at North Central University, Dr. Watson, would tell me every class period, "People will fail you, but God is always faithful." That statement is so true. I think if people would take hold of that quote, then we would not be so distracted and disturbed by what others do around us. As long as we are in check with the Lord's will and remain firm in what is right, the Lord's love is enough.
The title of this blog is called "Waiting." I chose that word because that is what I feel like I am doing, waiting to graduate, waiting to get married, waiting for the next step, waiting for a word from God, waiting waiting waiting. Well, as John Waller puts it, "While i'm waiting, I will serve you." I feel as though lately, I have been waiting with an attitude of, "this is taking forever!!!!" Instead of filling up this precious time I have to communicate with the Lord on a deeper level. I have always told myself I never want to be comfortable with my relationship with the Lord. I will never outgrow God, I am always going to need more of Him to get me to where He wants me to be. Where is that? sitting by His side at the throne.
This road that we Christians are on, is the most challenging, difficult, most rewarding road that the Lord could have allowed us to follow. I feel as though we take advantage of God's unfailing love and grace. His divine faithfulness and mercy. You know He will never leave us? I love the story about the footprints in the sand. How the person who was walking on a beach with the Lord and there were 2 sets of footprints and all of the sudden when trouble and chaos surrounded this person's life there were only one set of footprints. This person cried out to God and kept asking why the Lord could have left them during the hardest most challenging storms in his life. The Lord said, "My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints in the sand.... it was then that I carried you." That is just like us isn't it? Crying out to God, begging, pleading, screaming and asking how could He leave us, how could He just walk away in our greatest time of need. What we need to realize is that if we would just sit and listen... We would begin to feel his Holy Spirit moving within us. He is ready and willing to speak. It is us who walk away from Him, it is us who don't make time for Him, it is us who crucified Him on the cross. Every lie, every unclean thought, every time we deceived or misled, we were pounding in those nails..... we are the reason that He had to die so that we might live a life full and rich with His Holy Spirit living within us, speaking words of affirmation and peace, receiving extraordinary gifts that were promised to us, having the joy of the Lord as our strength, and we sit here and complain about God not being there for us??? doesn't make any sense to me.... I feel as though we allow satan to blind us from the big picture. We are so molded into the ways of this world we don't have "time" to see what God really meant when He gave us another chance.
My favorite verse is Romans 2:12, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will." To me, this verse says it all. We were born to stand out. In order to stand out we need to allow the Lord to be in every area of our lives so that He may transform us into becoming more and more like Him. We will be able to TEST and APPROVE what God's WILL is for OUR LIVES! His GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT will. Isn't that what every one wants? To be called to something great, beyond our own dreams? The truth is.... we all are called to something greater. It's just.... what are we willing to do.... to sacrifice.... to change..... to submit..... to let go....
The Lord has given us free will.... its precious. I dont know about you, but at the end of my life, I don't want to be thinking ... oh i wish i would of told this person... i wish i would have done this ... i wish i would of done that....
When I go home to be with my loving heavenly Father I want Him to look me in the eyes and say, "Well done my good and faithful servant... you have made me proud.. I love you so much. Thank-you for choosing the life I created you for. Thank-you for standing up for Me and making me your everything."
What would The Lord say to each of us... right now at this very moment... if we were to die....
Would you do anything differently?
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