Five Minute Friday: Join

     Join. It has been what we as Crusade ( normally called Cru) students have been trying to encourage freshmen and transfer students to do, simply join us! Since August 10 we have been reppin' our Cru t-shirts and spreading the word about Cru on our college campus!
     I was reflecting on the strong desire we have as Cru students for others to join this ministry yet I felt the Lord asking me personally what my focus is. Is my focus on simply trying to get students to check out and potentially join Cru or is it for them to join in hopes that they would seek out and/or continue their personal relationship with Jesus? Hhmm....food for thought.
    I am so encouraged to be surround by students involved in Cru who desire for others to join so they too may experience this loving community and most importantly experience a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

"In India my dad follows behind..."

   Through a series of events I met a girl on campus from India. She expressed how different American culture is from hers as she said, "In India my dad follows behind me every where." This concept rocked my world as I understand a Father's positioning to be ahead of his daughter, but never behind. Even when thinking about Christ I never picture Him behind, but I think Christ can and does  walk and direct us while behind us.

   There are seasons in our walks with Him in which He will direct us from behind. His position behind us does not mean we are not following Him or that He has forsaken us, it simply means He is guiding us from a different position; place. I envision Him walking and directing us from behind with His hands on our shoulders.  As we can continue to seek Him His fingertips grasp our shoulders as He motions us. He may motion us to stop, pause, go forward, or to the side as we continue to keep in step with the Spirit. He may even help us by fixing our gaze in a different direction as we continue to walk out our faith by the power of His Spirit! While I may not live in India I think there are moments and seasons where my Heavenly Father has His hands on my shoulders as He directs from behind.

Five Minute Friday: Connect!

     We connect. We connect because we are daughters of the King. He has put His Holy Spirit in each of us the second we came to Him confessing our sins and our need for a Savior. We connect because He is sovereign.
      None of us were wired to do-life solo. We were wired to do-life together. We are called to connect. As a sister in Christ I need to slow down and connect with the sister beside me that God has placed in my life. A few ways to connect is to listen, talk with, walk beside, and even to cry on her shoulder.
      To the woman who is hiding behind a tree, do a little Jesus dance around her and wrap your arms around her. Pray that your arms wrapped around her while you take a moment or several moments to connect would remind her about her Heavenly Father who wants so deeply to connect with her! One of the greatest ways to connect with her is to love her where she is in her life! Go connect!

Five Minute Friday- Here

Here is wherever the Lord has placed you today and in this very moment. Here is also where we can have an encounter with Jesus. Yesterday I had the weirdest “Here, really?! experience.” Yesterday my “Here experience,” was in Target. My “here experience” was on the ground next to my best friend’s purse and a roll of moving and storage packing tape. I opened up a Bible app on my phone knowing that my best friend would be in the dressing room for quite some time. I decided to ask the Lord, very humbly and sweetly to meet me “here,” and to myself I laughed that about the fact that I never thought I would be sitting on the floor in Target having a quiet time. I totally needed Jesus in that moment. I thought, I am so thankful that His Spirit is “here,yes, here with me in Target.” Let me tell you my Heavenly Father met me when I asked Him to please meet me “here, here in Target.” 

The View-Master and The Master's-View

      A family friend asked me, "What are you going to do with your major?" I replied, "I'm still trying to figure it out," and he very seriously responded, "You have to figure out what will put money in the bank, that's whats most important." I understood there were good intentions behind the statement, I was silent and frustrated.
      I sat frustrated across the table from a friend as I recounted the story. I explained how I understood silence to be the same as agreement. I explained how I wanted to lovingly and gracefully express myself in conversations concerning my major and the future. I would love to verbalize the following. I am a follower of Jesus Christ and I know He has lead me to study Communications, but I have no idea what I'm going to do after I graduate. One of my greatest desires is to live a life of obedience unto Jesus and I am confident that as I seek Him He will reveal the next step in His perfect timing.
      The old toy in the picture captivated my attention for hours on end as a little girl, its called a View-Master. As a kid I would put a paper film into the View-Master to see a cool little picture that I could not see until I put it in. The View-Master holds the paper film in place and can show all the pictures on the paper film rotation, but it will only show one picture at a time.
      Jesus is my View-Master. I believe He is the one who holds the paper film of my life. I want to look to Him and through His eyes. I want to look to Him. I want to know, see, and experience the Master. And I want to view His heart and His plan for my life. I desire to see the next slide of my life just like the next girl. As I look through the View-Master I will View-The-Master and get the Master's-View of my life. I will view the next paper film slide of my life in His timing.
      Will you look through the View-Master and ask the Master to give you The Master's-View of your situation or season?

Pressing Into Christ Through Prayer

       I am very thankful to have been encouraged by a friend to,"press into Christ." At first I was somewhat confused as to how to do that. I later learned prayer is one way in which I can press into Jesus Christ. I am prideful and it is challenging to stop what I'm doing to be still and pray. Living out 1st Thessalonians 5: 17, where the word says, "pray continually," and that is challenging at times. It takes effort on my part to stop my restless self and be still before Jesus.
      There are days in which I have chosen to harbor bitterness against loved ones. I have brushed passed people and circumstances in bitterness, allowing bitterness to make a home in my heart, and choosing my way over Christ's. I am praying that Christ would help me not to harbor bitterness in my heart. The word says, "Each heart knows its own bitterness and no one else can share in its joy," in Proverbs 14:10. I do not want to have a bitter heart and I want to share the joy that Christ has given me.
      The above two lessons are ones that through the power of the Holy Spirit I can apply in practical ways. The Holy Spirit can totally gently nudge our arm when I need to press into Christ through prayer and ask Jesus to help me not to harbor bitterness and additionally to help me to truly forgive others.
    In what ways do you think you have been challenged or encouraged to press into Christ this past week or coming week?
      

Goodbye June, Howdy July!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are halfway through the summer of 2012! Crazy, is one word to describe what has taken place. Here is a list of several fun things I have done and would like to do before the summer is over.


Start a blog for my art projects. read "Passion and Purity". spend time with my sisters who live with my dad. go swimming. play video games with my brother (and at least win one race). spend time with family friends. Go to Magic Wings Butterfly House. start packing for school in the fall. Ride a train! Watch and listen to an awesome thunderstorm. read "Heaven is for Real". knit a few scarves for the fall. Go for a jog with my brother. watch a chick-flic at a cheap movie theater. Spend time with my roommate from SCSP 2011 summer project! go on a coffee date with my cousin. Reread: "Lies Young Women Believe." Reread: "Wild at Heart". Dance in the Rain. Go to a Kari Jobe Concert (AUG 23!). Attend She Speaks Conference. go bowling. make my own envelopes.

Freedom!

I love the word and I love artsy afternoons!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. -Galatians 5:1

When the Holy Spirit Gives a Heads Up

    I never imagined that eight words from a loved one could pierce my heart like a sword. The eight words were said, with the last one carrying a majority of the weight. This sentence is one that I will not repeat at any point in this post. In all honesty, in a certain sense, the message that was the sum of the eight words  came at no surprise to my shattering heart. The message that was conveyed verbally was one that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to. The Holy Spirit had given me a heads up. Since January the Lord had been putting this loved one on my heart, specifically to be in prayer for and to be in prayer over a future conversation. The Holy Spirit also whispered a little bit about where my loved one's heart was, where their focus was several weeks before we had the conversation.
    The word says, "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace," in 1st Corinthians 14:33. God had already been preparing my heart and my spirit for what was to come and this gave me great peace.
     This is one of the most remarkable lessons and moments that I have had with God. Its amazing to reflect on the fact that He had been speaking to my heart five months prior to the difficult conversation I had with this loved one. He had put prayers in my heart that He answered five months later and that truly impacted the way that He was healed me through the aftermath of the conversation. And through these events I have been encouraged and challenged. I believe that one of the reasons that the Holy Spirit gives us a heads up is so that we can be in prayer over a person, or an event, a situation, a pain, a heart....whatever it may be. I believe with all of my heart that the Holy Spirit often gives us a heads up so that we can turn to the Father and press in through prayer.

Giving Christ the Key

     Jesus pursues us. He pursues his those who believe and follow Him and those that do not. 
    He wants to and can use the pain, brokenness, tarnished, hurtful, and joyful parts of our lives that we've hidden deep withing our hearts. In Romans 8:28 the word says: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." He wants to use all things for good! This is amazing! Not one part of my broken past will He not use for good, it all has a purpose!
    I have lots of pain and brokenness that God has healed and mended me of and a lot more to bring to His feet.
    I know that events and circumstances in my life God can use to bring others closer to Him. I don't want to stuff even the areas of my life He is healing away in my heart, locked up, and throw away the key. I want to give Jesus the key to my heart that He may in turn come into the broken places, heal me, and embrace me so that I can in turn share what He has done in me. I know that what He has done in me, He can also do in you! In giving Jesus access to my heart I can begin living more with A Fully Committed Heart.
     Is there an area of your life that you could give Christ the key to?

Lesson From a Five Year Old Beauty

    She had both feet on the first step with her little toes hanging, yet hugging the edge of the first step. On her ankles the water and chlorine mix of the pool touched her tan skin. The air was warm and the sun shining down on her small frame. The five year old beauty stood facing ahead, her gaze fixed before her. Her sweet yet gentle shriek left others surrounding her assured that she was excited, a little nervous, yet completely safe. She was safe and she knew it. She stood with outstretched arms toward her place of refuge. Her father stood at the bottom of the the pool with outstretched arms, his words beckoning her softly. She jumped into His arms because she knew she would be safe.
    Maybe in the weeks to come Jesus is beckoning you into a new season with Him. Maybe in the next few weeks He wants you to just jump into His arms and find a refuge in Him in a way that you never have before.

Learning to Rest In Green Pastures

     As silly and bizarre as it sounds I believe I am learning a new art form; rest. I never expected to force myself to embrace such an action, or lack thereof.
    "Rest," was once four little letters sandwiched together that I longed for from November to the first week of May. I have been running from...ppsst, [in hushed tones] you know, the r-word.
     The past few weeks have been spent with mod podge in my left hand and a paint brush in my right as my Kari Jobe playlist repeats. It has been a feat of strength to simply rest. I have found myself back tracking to moments in my crazy semester, thinking of the projects I swore I would do when I had time to rest, and I've been trying, in a sense to keep myself busy. It has been quite the little journey transitioning from running all over creation: working, running errands, doing homework, and spending time with friends and family to, not having a to do list what so ever.
      As I read Psalm 23, the Lord opened my eyes to the fact that Jesus, "MAKES me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters..." I am no Bible scholar, but I do believe the Holy Spirit shed a little light on the second verse of Psalm 23, because I had always passed it over. I may have a peaceful and calm spirit overall, but He knows me well enough to know that I only rest when forced. I do believe this summer he is a season of pulling a Psalm 23:2, hardcore. He is without a doubt making me lie down, I believe in the green pastures, being the five acres I live on and this summer being a season of quiet waters.
     I need to stop leaning on my "genius" idea of what this season is supposed to be look like, feel like, and taste like and simply learn to rest in the green pastures He has provided. As I learn to simply rest here, I pray for and anticipate Him to restore my soul as He said in Psalm 23:3 and to restore yours as well!