Well, I tried this blogging thing for a little while and as with many things I start and have aspirations about this blog was figuratively shoved to the bottom of my desk drawer and left to fend for itself. The biggest thing that has prevented me from blogging is not liking my theme of being "Perfectly and Incandescently Happy in Him." It has a ring to it but it really isn't necessary to have happiness in the Lord. No I'm not happy in the Lord all the time, but that doesn't mean that I do not find joy in the Lord. Joy describes what should be found in our relationship with God in a much better way than the word "happy." In fact, sometimes I have the most joy and most keenly feel the presence of the Spirit in times of suffering. So anyways, I might change my theme when I come up with something that sticks.
I have a Savior who loves me deeply, so much so that he lived a sinless life, underwent a brutal criminal's death,and conquered death and sin by rising from the dead for me and all those who believe and trust Him as their Deliverer. In Him I find my joy and my happiness. I want to live a life that is pleasing to Him and hopefully the thoughts posted in this blog make that desire evident.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Saturday, July 10, 2010
James 4
In last couple of journals that I've written in, I've put scripture at the beginning as a sort of blessing on the journal/the year while I'm writing in it. I have read and reread this chapter so many times this year because it really speaks to me and the battles I go through in trusting the Lord.
“God opposes the proud
but favors the humble.”[c]
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
James 4 (NLT)
Drawing Close to God
1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. 4 You adulterers![a] Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?[b] 6 But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,“God opposes the proud
but favors the humble.”[c]
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Warning against Judging Others
11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.[d] If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?Warning about Self-Confidence
13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. 17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.Friday, July 9, 2010
My Summer
I can already tell that I'm not going to be a great blogger. I've been putting off doing another post for quite some time because I thought I should have some kind of set theme to my post, but I'm thinking it will be better if I just describe what is going on in my life rather than something with a plot and a lesson--though there might be some lessons from this post. I guess we'll see what my fingers decide to type.
It has been an interesting summer to say the least. It's been great at times and other times not so great. I'm living in an old hotel converted into an off campus dorm for Northwestern College in Arden Hills, MN. At the beginning of the summer I worked for a company called ACR Homes, which I have great respect for. I really struggled at this job however. For those of you who don't know what ACR Homes is, its a company that has group homes that care for individuals with disabilities of all kinds. I do not want to get into the whole story here but this job did not fit my personality at all, I've known for quite some time that I would not be working in the medical field and this helped confirm it. But after quitting there I went through a couple weeks where I was just at a loss for what to do. I was really struggling to be content with my situation. I started to prepare myself to say good bye to my roommate Brieanne and pack up all my things to go back home for the summer and most likely make little or no money. And with going home on my mind I was really confused as to why I felt God telling me that I wasn't going home when I asked for guidance. I was like really? What am I going to do here? Start a job midsummer? I wasn't really sure what to think about this, but after awhile God started giving me some peace about it even though I didn't know what was going to happen. A couple days later I was talking to my friend Liz and just said "hey you should talk to your boss and see if there are at spots available at you job," not really expecting anything to come from it. And she said that there actually might be because she was going to be leaving for three weeks and another girl had already left for a trip overseas for the summer. So that got me a little excited. Later that night while I was praying God basically hinted to me that this job was going to become a reality, of course me with my little faith didn't let that get my hopes up. Sure enough a week later I started working there. So I now work on my campus doing full time janitorial work in the dorms with some really great coworkers. God is good. Struggling with my job at ACR and leaving was really difficult for me, it was a great opportunity for Satan to plant all kinds of self doubt and loathing into me, but thankfully God is so much bigger than any of that and when I finally put my trust in Him that peace that surpasses all understanding took over.
There's so much more I should write about my summer but it is getting a bit late so I'll maybe just add some prayer requests to the end here. Pray that I will be able to find a church home soon and just know when it is the right one. Pray for guidance in my education. I love Northwestern but I've been feeling lately that I should be open to other colleges/open to taking time off to make some moolah. I just don't know what God would have me do yet. Also pray that I would find a way to be effective in a ministry here. I would really love to get involved in a ministry such as Living Hope where my sister works--a ministry to inner city kids, or Writing in the Sand--a ministry for women coming out of prostitution, but I'm not sure what I'll be able to do this year without a means of transportation. Not having a car makes life quite difficult sometimes, but God provides. Well I will end with that. Thanks for reading and God bless!
It has been an interesting summer to say the least. It's been great at times and other times not so great. I'm living in an old hotel converted into an off campus dorm for Northwestern College in Arden Hills, MN. At the beginning of the summer I worked for a company called ACR Homes, which I have great respect for. I really struggled at this job however. For those of you who don't know what ACR Homes is, its a company that has group homes that care for individuals with disabilities of all kinds. I do not want to get into the whole story here but this job did not fit my personality at all, I've known for quite some time that I would not be working in the medical field and this helped confirm it. But after quitting there I went through a couple weeks where I was just at a loss for what to do. I was really struggling to be content with my situation. I started to prepare myself to say good bye to my roommate Brieanne and pack up all my things to go back home for the summer and most likely make little or no money. And with going home on my mind I was really confused as to why I felt God telling me that I wasn't going home when I asked for guidance. I was like really? What am I going to do here? Start a job midsummer? I wasn't really sure what to think about this, but after awhile God started giving me some peace about it even though I didn't know what was going to happen. A couple days later I was talking to my friend Liz and just said "hey you should talk to your boss and see if there are at spots available at you job," not really expecting anything to come from it. And she said that there actually might be because she was going to be leaving for three weeks and another girl had already left for a trip overseas for the summer. So that got me a little excited. Later that night while I was praying God basically hinted to me that this job was going to become a reality, of course me with my little faith didn't let that get my hopes up. Sure enough a week later I started working there. So I now work on my campus doing full time janitorial work in the dorms with some really great coworkers. God is good. Struggling with my job at ACR and leaving was really difficult for me, it was a great opportunity for Satan to plant all kinds of self doubt and loathing into me, but thankfully God is so much bigger than any of that and when I finally put my trust in Him that peace that surpasses all understanding took over.
There's so much more I should write about my summer but it is getting a bit late so I'll maybe just add some prayer requests to the end here. Pray that I will be able to find a church home soon and just know when it is the right one. Pray for guidance in my education. I love Northwestern but I've been feeling lately that I should be open to other colleges/open to taking time off to make some moolah. I just don't know what God would have me do yet. Also pray that I would find a way to be effective in a ministry here. I would really love to get involved in a ministry such as Living Hope where my sister works--a ministry to inner city kids, or Writing in the Sand--a ministry for women coming out of prostitution, but I'm not sure what I'll be able to do this year without a means of transportation. Not having a car makes life quite difficult sometimes, but God provides. Well I will end with that. Thanks for reading and God bless!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Becoming a Blogger
I have now entered the world of blogging. This has been something I've wanted to do for quite some time, but I was always a little fearful of having people read my thoughts. This will be good though. I'd like to think what I put in this blog will be helpful or at least interesting to read for people. I've been an avid journaler since the age of 14 so it seems that I'm never short of thoughts to write down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx9Ke9f407k&feature=related
Maybe I should explain the reasoning behind my title. If you know me at all, you know that Pride and Prejudice is my absolute favorite movie. I prefer the 6 hour A&E version to the new one, but they are both very good. Any way, in the end of the newer version Elizabeth tells Darcy to only call her Mrs. Darcy when he is perfectly and incandescently happy. And then he calls her Mrs. Darcy over and over again and they kiss and thats the end of the movie. But I just think that "Perfectly and Incandescently Happy" should be exactly how I should be able to describe my joy in the Lord. The definition of incandescent is:characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance. How wonderful would it be to have such a joy that you just glow with brilliance? It's like the theme of being a light in a dark world that John mentions in his gospel. As Christians we shouldn't just go with the flow and do whatever we want whenever we want. We need to live life with an intentionality to build others up and teach them about the hope they can find in Christ. That is all for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx9Ke9f407k&feature=related
Maybe I should explain the reasoning behind my title. If you know me at all, you know that Pride and Prejudice is my absolute favorite movie. I prefer the 6 hour A&E version to the new one, but they are both very good. Any way, in the end of the newer version Elizabeth tells Darcy to only call her Mrs. Darcy when he is perfectly and incandescently happy. And then he calls her Mrs. Darcy over and over again and they kiss and thats the end of the movie. But I just think that "Perfectly and Incandescently Happy" should be exactly how I should be able to describe my joy in the Lord. The definition of incandescent is:characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance. How wonderful would it be to have such a joy that you just glow with brilliance? It's like the theme of being a light in a dark world that John mentions in his gospel. As Christians we shouldn't just go with the flow and do whatever we want whenever we want. We need to live life with an intentionality to build others up and teach them about the hope they can find in Christ. That is all for now.
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