Monday, February 24, 2014
Winding Road
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
It has been too long!!
So it has been forever since I have blogged! Sorry!! Lots has happened since my last post. Lets see... well I am taking a detour from Ecuador and going to Moody Bible Institute to get my Masters in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship. I am still working with SIM and plan to begin raising support again once I obtain my degree.
I know what you are thinking... Isn't Moody in Chicago? Why yes, it is! I am moving this Aug to live on campus and be a part of the community there. I'm excited and scared... Reisterstown is nothing like a big city and I get lost easily haha!
Well, now that we are all (or mostly) caught up I wanted to talk about something that has been on my heart.
It really isn't anything new, but I have just noticed the fallenness of today. I was hanging out after work one night talking with one of my coworkers and my mind was blown. You see she was flirting with one of our other coworkers and when he walked away immediately said "I'm going to do him". Mind blown!
It made me so sad and my heart just breaks for this generation. This generation is so pleasure driven and blunt about it. I'm sure it's not much different from previous generations, but I believe it has gotten worse with my generation. There is no respect for others, let alone respect for ourselves. Everything is about pleasure.
I've been praying about how I can be a witness for Christ in my generation. I choose to live my life for Him and to live for honor not pleasure. I choose to find my pleasure in Him and through Him. My challenge for you is to do the same!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Fight Isn't Just Fists
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Yo dis message was on point
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Faith
Sitting in chapel that afternoon I remembered all the chapels I sat through as a student, and I didn't know it then but I was safe there. WBC gave me a plan and a purpose. Sure the purpose was to graduate, and the plan to pass my classes in order to fulfill that, but it was step by step set out.
Can I just say that I miss that security blanket of being a freshman in college and knowing the steps you have to take for the next 4yrs? Going back and visiting made me realize how much I need to continue to trust Christ with this journey He is taking me on. Only He knows where the finances will come from and when I will step foot on a plane headed to Ecuador. I am aware of who Christ is and how He holds me up in the unknown, and I'm so glad it is Him who is holding me up through it!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Hearts Cry
Hearts Cry
He knocks on the door
But she’s busy
So He comes back another day
He waits for her answer hoping
It’s today
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more
She finally answers the door
To her heart and lets true love
Embrace her
Choosing to live for Him
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more
She spends time with Him each day
Trusting loving not wanting Him to go away
Their relationship deepens and she must let go
Let go of the things that don’t help her growth
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more
She gives it all to Him
It’s not easy but she won’t let Satan win
Although the tears fill her eyes
She knows that what she’s feeling is all lies
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more
The battle she fights no one can see
It’s invisible to the eye like a sweet memory
Those who believe empathize
They’ve been there they know the cry
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more
Sacrifice that’s what’s on her heart
A deep part of who You are
Could she give her life for Him?
She contemplates and
Knows she won’t let pride win
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more
She prays her heart will be ready
Leaning into Him to keep her steady
I am yours use me as you will
I want to grow to be more like you
Papa you’re my hearts cry
You are my whole world
Papa you’re my hearts cry
The one I’ve been searching for
I’ll love you forever more!
Romans 12:1 ~ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship. (NIV)
Romans 14:8 ~ If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord,
So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. (NIV)
Sunday, November 27, 2011
What's stopping you?
I love to read so this Saturday at work instead of watching a movie to pass the time I read the Alchemist.
If you’ve never read it . . . you should! Maybe one of the reasons I love it so much is because it talks about confronting ones dream. Paulo Coelho introduces the novel by discussing why people never confront their dreams.
Why . . . Because:
“There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. but it’s still there.
If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.
Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back one the old excuse: ‘oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.’ We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that out whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.
I ask myself: are defeats necessary?
Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
So, why is it important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?
Because, once we have overcome the defeats--and we always do--we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.
Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. The comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our live.
Oscar Wilde said: ‘Each man kills the thing he loves.’ And its true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal--when it was only a step away.
This is the most dangerous of all the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the world, and you understand why you are here.”
Paulo Coelho Vi-viii
I’m not really sure if Paulo Coelho is walking with the Lord, but I know that either way this can be related to our walk with Jesus. These obstacles definitely hit me when I think about where I’m headed and how I’ve gotten this far and how I’m going to get there. I constantly think about all the people I’m leaving behind to go on this Journey. I even often feel unworthy to serve Jesus despite knowing He has prepared me for it. Although all of the thoughts that Paulo Coelho has written have crossed my mind, I’m not going to stop fighting. You know, he says that, “the universe is conspiring in our favor.” I believe it . . . I believe that Jesus will stop at nothing to help me complete the Journey that he asked me to go on. I have resolved to not allow myself to get in the way of God--as best as I can--on this Journey. My whole heart is in this and I’m going to keep fighting!
I’m praying for those who read this, that you don’t let anything stop you from fulling your dreams, especially since it’s Jesus who gave you that dream!