Quote

How fitting is this quote considering what we talked tonight about tonight at Refuge. We basically were talking about love (dont know HOW we got on that topic, but from what I needed to hear and what i heard from a few people in the car ride home, was something that we needed to hear so it was totally from God) But it was ya..about love and how we need to perservere through love and ya...heres the scriptures that were read (which I am going to do a personal bible study on chapter 13) I like it from the message...wow

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. "

But the quote that I read in my daily quote email this evening for today was this:

God wants to speak to us more than we want to listen. He is a God of love, and love longs to communicate.

Linda Schubert

We were talking about love and that quote was the one for today..how fitting.... and the convorsation tonight was something I really needed to hear.... I have had troubles loving someone because of past hurts in my life caused by this person and now I know what to do... fall on my face and PRAY for God to fill me with complete love for this person!

Its so awesome when we go to Refuge we dont know what to expect. Karyn had something TOTALLY different to preach on but then we just got into this... its weird how God does that, when people need to hear something it is spoken... It just shows how God can totally take over the service, afterall it is all about Him, and he IS the center of our service, so why shouldnt he take over... Hes awesome!

Blessings...

Quote

A humble person is more likely to be self confident . . . a person with real humility knows how much they are loved.

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

Not sure if I understand this one....if anyone does, please explain in the comments...

Secular Songs have Spiritual Meaning

I was listening to 103.5 on the way home from school tonight and the song "Something More" by Ryan Malcolm came on... i started listening to the words and I was amazed at how much this is a song I could sing to God. Take a look:

I don't think that I can tell you what this means to me,
Here I am, its so hard to believe
That I'm standing here, that I've come this far
But you always said have faith in who you are.

I want to take this time to thank you for the love you gave
And from this moment you've got to know

I never wanted something more
And I never felt so sure
Cause now I've got this chance to be
Everything you saw in me
And even more
Then I ever dreamed before,
As long as you are here with me
I know that I can be
Something more.

Looking back now its so clear to me
That you were sent to shape my destiny,
Cause there were times that i was ready to walk away
But you gave me the strength to face another day.

And I want to take this time to thank you for the love you gave
And from this moment you've got to know

I never wanted something more
And I never felt so sure
Cause now i've got this chance to be
Everything you saw in me
And even more
Then I ever dreamed before,
As long as you are here with me
I know that I can be
Something more.

I'm reaching for the sky,
Won't let this chance go by,
I've waited all my life
For something more.
Now's the time you're gonna see,
From this moment you're gonna know

That I never wanted something more
And I never felt so sure
Cause now I've got this chance to be
Everything you saw in me
And even more
Then I ever dreamed before,
As long as you're here with me
I know that I can be
Something more.

You made me want to be
Something more,
You made me want to be
Something more.

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It seems we are tempted to put our faith in a host of things other than work of Christ on the cross. Some have even placed faith in faith itself, or in a search for fulfillment or even in a worship style or philosophy.

Chip Stam

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sorry guys, but i just havent had motivation really to blog anything spectacular except to say

GOD IS GOOD!!!

and I have a quote for today...

There are those who insist that it is a very bad thing to question God. To them, "why?" is a rude question. That depends, I believe, on whether it is an honest search, in faith, for His meaning, or whether it is the challenge of unbelief and rebellion.

Elisabeth Elliot

The optimist says, the cup is half full. The pessimist says, the cup is half empty. The child of God says; My cup runneth over.

Anonymous

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Blessed is the man who finds out which way God is moving and then gets going in the same direction.

Anonymous

Email

I got this really powerful email today... wow... it hit me....

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking..............
Dart Test...
A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a seminary class, given by her teacher, Dr. Smith. She says that Dr. Smithwas known for his elaborate object lessons.

One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they were in for a fun day.

On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Dr.
Smithtold the students to draw a
picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person's picture.

Sally's friend drew a picture of who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased with the overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry she was because she didn't have a chance to throw any darts at her target.
Dr. Smith began removing the target
from the wall.

Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words.... "In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
Matthew 25:40.

No other words were necessary; tears filled eyes of the students focused only on the picture of Christ.

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Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for -- because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.

Peter Marshall

The Blessing of Community

Wow tonight at youth was truly awesome. I didnt play the game (Sardines, i just feel claustrophobic when I play that game) but we worshipped through music and I can truly say that I felt close to God tonight. Even with the distractions of people talking, I still gave my all to God. After everyone left to go home a few of us stayed back. Luke noticed that there were a few of us that were still wanting to worship through music somemore, so we sat in a circle (there was 5 of us including Luke) and we worshpped through music. It was so awesome, because even when Lukes guitar string broke, we still sang. It truly doesnt matter whether there is music in front of us or an instrument, he cares about our hearts!

But anyways, after that, we prayed over each other. One person went in the middle and said what they would like prayer for, and each one of the other 4 prayed for them. It was so awesome. EVERYONE of the 5 got prayed for and then after we did a big group hug! It was so awesome to be in community like that. I havent felt truly in community like that in a while. I mean yes, my friends and I hang out all the time, but we rarely dig into the word, and I want to start that up. Have a small cell group at my house or something. Just something once a week so we can dig into the word together. And worship through music a little too.

I havent truly felt the community that i felt tonight in a while, it was an awesome blessing for me. It is awesome that I am not letting the whole situation with my grandparents get me down, and i find that whne I am not upset about something it helps me to be able to help someone else who is in need. I have been so selfish in the past, where I was so caught up in my depression and my own problems that i neglected my friends around me. Well NO MORE of that! Its time for a fresh start! All for God's glory!

oh please pray for me, i am doing bible study on the 29th...my FIRST VERY FIRST preach EVER! I am a little nervous, but its something God wants me to bring to everyone's attention. Its something God told me on my birthday to write. I wrote the preach (and have been editing it through the last couple days) on the 17th just before midnight.... I was coming home from youth and was in the Word and God told me to write this preach. So i did, I am going to prolly edit the heck out of it in the next few days..but oh well.... its gonna be good!!

Blessings to you all! I am just so FILLED WITH JOY. This is awesome awesome awesome!

Quote of the Day

I am going to try to put a quote here each day, the quotes come later in the day....so it might be later that I blog them... but heres yesterdays... i really like it..

A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.

Leonard Ravenhill

Ask yourself... why do you pray? Is it to get things? Is it to adore the Heavenly Father? Is it for other people's needs. All are good, but in my opinion there needs to be a little of ALL of it. But adoration should come first and foremost because God is worthy to be praised first and foremost. This is how I was taught to pray:

A.C.T.S

Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication

I gotta go, sorry that was such a short blog but i have A LOT of homework to do.. papers to write, movies to watch, questions to answer, reading to do.... wee college is fun. aha....

Blessings...

Awesome Verse!!

I heard these verses yesterday. Its about what God wants. Its such an awesome set of verses!

Amos 5:21-24 (The Message)
21"I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
22I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
23I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
24Do you know what I want?
I want justice--oceans of it.
I want fairness--rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want.

Cool eh?

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When Christ reveals Himself there is satisfaction in the slenderest portion, and without Christ there is emptiness in the greatest fullness.

Alexander Grosse

Any idea what this means? It sounds really prophetic. but I dont know what it means aha

Visions

When I was at church tonight, i felt so filled with the Holy Spirit. I wrote two poems and God gave me a vision AND a message! I will share the vision and message with you all. The poems i am still working on.

Vision: I am the only person in the santuary at CHT. I am singing to him and him alone. My arms are up in the air and I am praising him.

Message from God: Be authentic in your worship. Worship me the way that i know you can. Have your arms up if you want to, shout praises if you want to, bow before me if you want to. Dont hold back your worship to me just because you are afraid someone will hear you sing or that people will mock your worship. Worship me like you and I are the only ones in the room. Never hold back what you need to do and thats to worship me. Worship comes from your heart, not your mind. When you worship, let your heart take over. When you truly let your heart take over, you wont care what others think when you are truly authentic, truly yourself. I love you dearly my dear daughter. You are precious in my sight. Never stop believing in me. Always have faith that things will get better! Believe, just believe.

The Enemy and His pleasures

I was reading Karyn's Blog about "A Month of War" and how she has noticed that there has been a spiritual attack on many people. I agree on that, its totally true. For many of my friends and I, the holidays (Christmas and New Year's) were not great. I know that it is not about me. I know that Christmas is all about Jesus being born for us and all that, but it was just really hard because of the things going on with my Grandparents. That has seemed like a big dream that I cant get out of.

But one of the comments made on Karyn's blog was someone asking these questions:
"WHY at this time do you feel there is an attack? What do you believe the root of it all is? "

Karyn's response was totally what has been on my mind too. If you want to read the comments and the blog go to her blog (linked above) but one thing that totally got me mad, was a part in her comment. Now I wasnt mad cuz she wrote it, I was mad because it is true. She said " I find that when I finally manage to open my eyes and see that the enemy has been having fun with me, it helps to stand and face him and use the authority that I'm given and the power of God to actually fend him off and chase him away. "

The enemy DOES have fun attacking us. I HATE that! It's like when people are giving us a hard time, they get great pleasure out of seeing us get upset. Its the same with the enemy. He gets great pleasure out of making us upset! When I was made fun of in school I tended to get really upset about it. The bullies had great fun with that. They LOVED seeing me get upset cuz that is the reaction that they want. Back then I couldnt stand up for myself, i seriously had no backbone. That is, until I asked Jesus to be my backbone. Then it was easy to ignore comments (i was never beaten up, so i didnt have to defend myself in that form) It was easy to not say anything in response. They get really mad that i dont respond to comments and then they stop.

However, it is not like that with the enemy. He is a persistant little devil. He takes situations in our lives and makes them HUGE. For example my grandparents are both in hospital, one is ill, she cant function, and the other is doing realy well but cant go home until grandma goes home. but PRAISE GOD that he is doing well! I am so glad! but anyways, at first, nobody expected that my grandpa would survive. my grandma said that when he fell that he had to recolection of my grandma being there beside him. My grandma thought he was dead. When I woke up that Christmas eve, i was terrified that he would die. I am no longer afraid of death, because its cool knowing where I am going when I die. and I feel the same way for my grandparents because they both are devoted christians. Even through this whole thing my grandma is saying "God is going to be there with me through this whole thing" She was telling the OT that when he was working with her the other day. That was awesome! Even through all this she knows that God is there! AWESOME! Wow that got off topic a bit. but anyways, when things like this are going on, the enemy loves to add more onto it. He loves kicking us when we are down.

He gets great pleasure out of seeing us struggle, and as Karyn's comment said, he has great fun making us struggle. He loves it. That is what makes it easier to fight him! It has taken a few weeks to figure this out, but the enemy is having fun with my family. God put this situation in our lives to make us stronger and to rely on him, and the enemy is like 'i dont think so, i am going to add more so that they will take God out of the picture" well sorry enemy, you are NOT going to take me away! U CANT HAVE ME!

Another thing, I need to rely on God more. I was walking home from the prayer meeting and I found out that Re:fuge tonight is going to be different, and it involvd me and a few people. I was asking God what I needed to improve on and he said that I need rely on him more and trust that what he tells me to do is right. I was re-reading an email that i sent to a friend asking what to do. I told her what God told me to do and i asked her what she thought. Y did I do that? I was reading it again today and I was like "how stupid am I" God tells me to do something, I SHOULD DO IT! GEEZ!

I guess that was sort of a rant blog, but it was just my thoughts for today and it is my blog, so i can rant if i want lol.

Gossip

This is my blog and its my thoughts, so this is just my thoughts for tonight, and if people dont like hearing whats actually going on in my mind, then dont read it.

I am getting kinda tired of the whole gossip thing. It is discouraging and not important. But why is it when I mention it, people tell me "dont start with the 'holier than though' crap" I am sick of it.

My New Years resolution is to not be a part of any gossip (not listening to it or speaking gossip)

Tonight in the car ride home there were many of us. Everyone was gossiping about meaningless stuff. I was told to keep people accountable for it ever since the whole topic of gossip was brought up at youth group. So when they started gossiping I said "this is gossip" and one of them said "oh dont bring up the holier than thou crap." I had enough, I just got my MP3 player out and turned it on full blast because they didnt stop. I have had enough of it. I truly want to NOT have a part of gossip but it is very discouraging when someone tells me not to pull a "holier than thou". It is not, and I am in NO way anymore holier than the people that were gossiping.

I couldnt help but cry for the whole ride home, there is just so much going on in my life right now that is making me upset (grandpa being in the hospital, helping my grandma through this time, trying to pay for school for next semester, a CT scan on tuesday to find out whats wrong with me) and that was the final straw. I have just had enough.

How can I try to live a Christ-like life when I get called a "holier than thou"? I have said it and I will say it again, I am in NO way holier than anyone else. In fact I would say I am less than holier than anyone else. I am nothing, truly. but in God's eyes I am everything. I know that I shouldnt care what people say, but when I am trying to be Christ-like and I get called that, it really hurts. I am unsure what to do next, because I am so discouraged by this whole thing. I am at my breaking point, I seriously dont know what to do. I know what you all are going to say 'just dont care what he said to you' well thats really easy to say, but even harder to do. How can people just let stuff like that go out of their mind? When someone says something hurtful, how do you get it out of your mind? How? I dont have the answers and I would really like to have some answers.