Change is good.

Sorry for it being sooooooooo longggggggg since i have last posted. I will now continue with the Roman blogs...
*HSV- Hannah Standard Version.... Brody wanted us as staff to rewrite the verse in our own words that week.

Romans 1:17-32

Verse 17:  When we get saved we become reconciled to God. Our God is a righteous God and can only be in the presence of righteousness. We become saved through faith in Christ and we live our lives by the faith that we have entrusted into Him.

Verse 18: When it says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven it means that through the death of Christ we were able to see how God is to punish sin and ungodliness. The wrath of God is God’s anger towards sin and how He deals with that anger. He deals with that anger by punishing those who have sinned against Him. When Paul says that they have suppressed the truth he means that the people have been hiding what God truly is because they cannot be in his presence because of how they truly are. Righteousness and unrighteousness do not mix together.

HSV: God showed us who we really are and how not being honest about Him is wrong as well.

Verses 19-20: simply states that God has revealed Himself to us in a very simple way. The two qualities we are able to see God is through His eternal power and divine nature.

HSV: There is no reason not to believe in God because He has made His existence very simple to believe in through His creation and loving nature towards mankind.

Verse 21: this verse definitely makes me think of American Christians today.  Many American Christians are found within the Bible Belt of the South and can quote scripture left and right but many of them never get the chance to experience an intimate relationship with God because they don’t pursue God the way a relationship with Him ought to be pursued. This is why they do not glorify Him In their lives or give thanks to Him for all that He has done for them. Many think that they got to wherever they are on their own when really it was all God. Most of the time, more like all of the time, mankind is willing to use the gifts of God but do not want to give Him the glory for supplying the gifts. The root of all sin is the refusal to give God the glory in all things. “futile in their thinking”… God gave every human a brain. And with that brain we can accomplish great things for the Gospel and the sake of God’s kingdom. He gave us a brain so that we could do those things. However, most of us are not focused on eternal matters but are focused on earthly matters that change every day and won’t matter ten years from now. Humans have very futile minds and ways of thinking because we are consumed by the instant self gratification society that we live in. if we didn’t have the “it’s all about me” attitude then we wouldn’t have dark hearts and would be able to focus on the real reason we were put on this earth.

HSV: by ignoring God you are only doing damage to yourself and you’re going to catch a cold from ice inside your soul.

Verse 22: many people who have doctorates think that they are super duper smart. And by society’s view point they probably are. However, they are only smart in one area of the academic world. This is why I think many people in higher education do not understand Christianity. They are trying to find solid logic in it and it can’t really be found to the degree in which they are seeking. It is very hard to grasp that a holy and invisible God sent down His only, perfect Son to die an awful death for all of mankind: past, present and future, just because He loves us. And because they do not just do as Christ says, “come with childlike faith” they remain in the status of being a “fool” because they are thinking about it way too much.

HSV: Professionals built the Titanic, amateurs built the Ark.

Verse 23: this verse makes me think of the belief in evolution and the big bang theory. And it goes along with the previous verse about people thinking they are smart but really are stupid. And an issue that we can get caught up in is worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. This is also a point that I think this verse is trying to make. But we need not to do so. The creation is a gift from the Creator and we should thank and worship Him and enjoy the gift that He has given us. This verse really hits on idolatry a lot.

HSV: Worship the Creator, not the creation.

Verse 24:  I have always been told that if a believer has fallen deep into sin and his/her heart has turned cold and hard to God that He will step back until the child is ready to come back fully to Him. He’ll let them go and do their own thing and then when they realize that what they thought they wanted is really the complete opposite then they will come back to God and He’ll melt their hearts back to the way they should be.

HSV: God took a step back and let the humans take the wheel for a ride to see if the grass was really greener on the other side.

Verse 25: kind of going back to v.23 about worshipping the creation rather than the creator. That is a bad place to be. Often times God will give you a really good gift that makes a great addition to your life. You do thank God for it, but you become way too consumed in that gift that you forget about the One who gave it to you. If you find yourself in this predicament, don’t be surprised for God to take that gift away for a while until you get your eyes back focused on Him, I know from experience. Also at the beginning of this verse it mentioned about exchanging the truth about God for a lie. Never fall into the traps of other religions and all the “good stuff” they may try to offer.

HSV: It’s not good stuff that the world is trying to offer you through lies, so don’t take they bad stuff. And God gives and He can take away.

Verses 26-27: these two verses are referring to homosexuality. Committing the acts of homosexuality is dishonorable towards God, but not only are the acts dishonorable towards God but also just the desires and thoughts of homosexual behavior that is floating around in one’s mind and heart.

HSV: God knows your deep, inner thoughts and desires so make sure they honor Him along with your outward actions.

Verse 28: Very similar to v. 24. God is gonna let the people have free reign on their actions to prove that He knows what is best for them.

HSV: men only become worse because of the removal of the holy spirit being an active part in their everyday lives.

Verses 29-31: These verses are listing many different sins that some people may not have even considered sin. Or thought that they were just too small to count when lined up next to sexual sin and  murder.

HSV: A sin is a sin is a sin… there is no ruler or form of measurement of sin in God’s eyes, Christ died for all and we should rid ourselves of all sin.

Verse 32: my first reaction to reading this verse was “SMH” which means “shake my head”. It makes me think of how a parent knows his/her child is smoking dope and won’t do anything about it, in fact the parent might even help get the money to the child to help pay for more dope. Accountability is very important in a Christian’s life. I have definitely experience accountability since leaving SWO from 2010. Some of it has been brutal if I were being honest.

HSV: Even though what you are doing is wrong, but if it is making you happy and bringing instant satisfaction keep doing it, it’s not gonna hurt…

This passage was very deep and eye opening in my walk this week. It definitely challenged me in all areas of my life and my walk and how I need to improve on certain things and seek God in all that I do. It was a very hard passage to swallow but I enjoyed studying it and will continue to study it on my own.

preparing for summer 2011!

It's almost summer, well, it's still a few months away but I've been preparing for it since it ended. I am working at SWO for 2011! And instead of making the staff read a book from LifeWay, Brody has decided that as a staff we will go through Romans together! I am so excited! We have to submit weekly journals on the assigned passages for each week. I just sent in my first one. So I'm going to invite you all to join me on this journey and get some "online discipleship" from me through my study in Romans. :) This first section is Romans 1:1-16!
Enjoy!

Verses 1-7:

                These first seven verses are called the “greeting” in the book of Romans. Paul introduces himself as a servant of Christ and is an apostle who has been set apart for the gospel. Through the choice of words that Paul uses he is showing that he is a slave to Christ and to the call of the gospel and the impact it has on his life. The importance of the term “apostle” is that it means that Paul was specifically called by Christ Himself. And not only was he called by Christ he had also seen the Lord himself in person. We all know that Paul saw Jesus when he was on the road to Damascus and that is what lead Paul to giving his life to Christ. So in the first verse Paul basically shows the authority he has and why what he is about to write is important.

                The second verse just lets the readers know that the Christ that Paul is speaking of is the same one that was promised in Old Testament scriptures and prophets. It lets us know that God fulfilled His promise to bring a savior to the nations through Christ.

                The third verse lets us know where Christ came from genealogically. We are able to see that Christ came and was born like any other human being so that He could experience the things that humans experience and feel the things that we feel and even struggle with the same things that we struggle with on a daily basis. This is important because if Christ did not become human, His sacrifice would have meant nothing because He wouldn’t have lived a perfect, sinless life as a human.

                Verse four is bringing about the credit that Christ deserves and tells the reader who He is! Paul lets us know that Christ is the Son of God and was declared it through the power of God. God the Father personally declared Christ as His Son. This verse is proof of Christ being the Son of God and being a part in the Trinity. Paul ends the verse with “Jesus Christ our Lord”. That means that Christ is to have 100% lordship and top priority in our lives.

                Verse five: A good way to remember what grace is, is by the acronym G.R.A.C.E. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. We get grace through Christ because God loves us and sent Christ to take our place. If it were not for Christ we couldn’t have any connection to God on a personal level. Apostleship is where we are more of God’s. Meaning we are HIS, not our owns or someone else’s. We belong to God! The obedience of faith for the sake of His name is saying that we are to remain faithful to the call that God has on our lives: To conform to the image of His Son and to share the Gospel to all people. That is also why Paul adds: among all the nations, to the end of the verse so that we know as believers that obeying God and His call on our lives goes behind our local borders.

Verse six ties in very well with verse five in the fact that we belong to Christ. We are His and He is ours!

Verse seven: we see that this letter is for the believers in Rome.

Verse 8: Here Paul begins his letter to the Romans after the greeting. Within just this one verse we are able to see the hear t that Paul has for the believers in Rome. He opens up with a “thank you” to them. The fact that he thanks God for them and their faith in Christ shows where Paul is emotionally with the Romans. Paul uses the phrase: I thank my God through Jesus Christ; because he wants to emphasize the fact that Christ is the one and only mediator between God and humans. The Romans were very powerful people. This is why Paul adds that their faith is being reported all over the world. Christians from Rome are going out and using their high reputation and prestige as a way to share the gospel. My desire is that people can say that about me. That my faith and relationship with Christ is so strong and so intimate that it is being shown through my lifestyle all across the globe through everywhere I go, the people I meet and build relationships with, and the things I do.

Verses 9-10: Paul has a very strong desire for the Roman people. He longs to be with them and be able to serve with them in ministry face to face. He is in constant prayer for the Romans and that one day God will send him there. Paul uses the term “God is my witness” so that God Himself will hold Paul accountable to the things that he says.  Prayer is very important and through this verse we can see how important it was to Paul. Paul constantly prayed. Prayer is conversation with God, it is our walkie-talkie during the daily war zone that we live in spiritually every day. God will always answer your prayers, maybe not in the timing or the way you want Him to, but it will always be the best answer and timing than you could ever imagine. Paul also says in verse 9 that he preaches the Gospel with his whole heart. The Gospel was Paul’s passion in life. The Gospel was Christ’s passion. The Gospel needs to be our passion as believers. I have this saying “I want to go everywhere and do everything so that everyone can be reached” God has given me such a desire for the Gospel to be spread. He has blessed me with wonderful creativity and imagination and through those two traits many, many different ministry ideas to start and careers or jobs to take and pursue so that I can reach many different people and personalities with the Gospel. Some are even “secular” jobs. But corporate America needs Jesus just as much and the Africans in a village. But I have the Gospel as my main passion in life. I have no idea where I will end up. All I know is that whatever I end up doing and wherever that may be, the Gospel and the need for it in the people around me lives’ will always be my central focus, just like how it was Paul’s central focus.

Verses 11-12: One thing that I realized that I missed greatly about SWO was the community that was built there. Paul longs to have community with the Romans. He wants to be able to build real, intimate relationships with these people so that he can encourage them in their walks, but also so that they can encourage him in his walk. Community is a beautiful thing. It is one thing I will definitely strive to be more deeply involved with this summer at SWO.

Verse 13: Paul simply tells the Romans that he has tried many times to get to them but the opportunity just has not been successful yet. But through this verse, we can see that even though the path to Rome has been long and hard for Paul he has not given up and continues to pray and seek God as to how and when or even if he will make it to Rome.

Verses 14-15: Again, Paul lets it out about his deep and longing desire to preach the Gospel to everyone, especially the Gentiles. He, like me, wants to reach everyone. Or at least, encourage others to go out and reach those that he cannot reach himself. He is very eager to go out and share the Gospel with these people. I always pray that God daily deepens my desire for the Gospel especially with the people that I am surrounded by daily.

Verse 16: Of all the verses in the Bible, this is my favorite one. When I sign yearbooks or cards, I always put “Rom. 1:16” under my name. Kind of like how athletes put their jersey number! This has always been my motto in life since I was in high school. It is such a bold statement about the gospel and how Christians should feel when it comes to the Gospel. Too often many Christians in America are ashamed of their faith. I have never understood why though. I mean think about it, of all the religious beliefs out there, Christianity is the one that has yet to be disproven and has been the one that brings people the most satisfaction if the believer is pursuing Christ. But anyway, Paul opens up the first with the bold statement that he is NOT ashamed of the gospel. He then continues to explain why. Paul is unashamed because he knows that the gospel is the “power of God for Salvation”. Christ is the only way to heaven and Paul lets the readers know this by saying that the gospel comes from God and it is through His power that we receive the offer for salvation. He means that through the power of God the message of Salvation is delivered and people come to know the Way. He then finishes by saying that the gospel was first offered to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. The only reason why the Jews got the offer first is because they were and still are God’s special people.

 16 Reasons NOT to be ashamed of the Gospel:

·         It’s the Good News

·         It’s a love story of how a perfect God gave His only, perfect Son up for a bunch of sinful people because He loved them and wants to be in an intimate relationship with them

·         It leads people to go after Christ for salvation

·         When people accept the gospel they are able to get unending satisfaction in Christ

·         Through it people receiving unending joy, hope, peace…

·         It’s for EVERYONE

·         It is an example of God reaching down to mankind, not mankind reaching up for God

·         It is a true story

·         It’s faithful

·         It is a story of a new beginning

·         It is a message of hope

·         It reveals the righteousness of God

·         It remains the same

·         It is the bridge from sinful man to holy God

·         When we accept it Christ saves us from a wasted life

·         It is the message of ultimate grace

The Gospel begins with GO!

Just a few more days til I am off to Belize for spring break! I am super duper excited about it and I'm looking forward to the relationships that will be nurtured and established on this trip!

I have been praying for a long long long time that God would just reveal to me where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do. Tonight, I was on my way back from my hometown and it just hit me as I was passing through North Hills.. maybe God has called me to be a church planter with the man He has made just for me :) And I thought, it all makes perfect sense! I have no idea what "I want to be when I grow up" I don't want to just settle down in one city and one job and stay there until I retired. I want to experience different places and different jobs. No, I don't want to be a hobo or anything. But I want to have a fun and well-rounded life! Church planting seems like the way to go! I can have a "normal, secular" job and still serve Jesus at the same time. Which I can do by just being a layperson, but I don't just want to be a layperson, I have the desire to do more. So who knows besides God on this whole deal. But like I said, it makes perfect sense and now I know a specific quality to look for in my future husband! :)

Don't WASTE your life!

*Map of Christianity in the USA

That's my king!

This video used to be shown at my church on sunday mornings to get us pumped up. enjoy!! :-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upGCMl_b0n4

Knowledge vs. Experience

So I've been up at camp since Monday afternoon. It's been alright. One thing that Brody has mainly focused on is the difference between having knowledge about who Jesus is, but not having any experience of you knowing Jesus.

Having knowledge of Jesus is simply knowing that He died on the cross or any of the things that He did while He was on earth and by just simply reading and memorizing Scripture your knowledge of Christ is growing. But what does knowing Jesus mean? Knowing Jesus means that you have a relationship with Him. It's kinda like being married... you KNOW that you are married if you are married because you have a relationship with that person and you are in communication with that person day in and day out. That is how it should be with Christ. You need to pursue Christ, ladies, like how you pursue something that you really want such as a new Louis Vuitton handbag; men, the way you pursue getting a new truck or some kind of "hot" car.

The reason we were put on this planet was to bring glory to God in all that we do. And one thing that brings glory to God is by conforming to the image of His Son, Christ. We conform to Christ's image by being in an intimate relationship with Him. Being in a relationship with Christ is not about going to church on Sunday mornings or going to Crusade on Thursday nights. It's about dying to yourself DAILY and pursuing what God has called you to do each day. It's about studying God's Word and really diggin' into it so that you can learn what God has called you to do and the steps you may need to take to get to where He wants you to go.

The best way to study God's Word is not by randomly opening your Bible to some book and read a random verse that may not make any sense to you and then close it and be like man, that was awesome. Because 1. it's not all that awesome if you are completely lost in what the Bible was saying and 2. chances are it wasn't helping you grow that much at all. So get like a devotional book if you don't feel like you can dive into a book right away. Or you can always start with a book that may have some sort of Bible study tool that you can use to help you while going through that book. And maybe use the little devotional book as something to read when you want to take a day or two and get a breather from the book that you are mainly focusing on. I do that a few days a month. Because I get bored really easy so I need the breather so that I don't get too bored or drowned out in the book.

Also, prayer is another way to grow in your relationship with Christ. Prayer is conversation with God so you just talk to Him like you would your best friend. Because honestly, God is one of you best friends. He knows more about you than you know about yourself. Crazy huh? So talk to Him, trust me, He'll listen and He'll answer. His love never fails and it is never ending.

So basically, just because you can quote John 3:16 or the Romans Road and you go sit in a pew or chair for an hour to two on Sunday does not mean that you KNOW Christ. It simply means you know about Him. Through experience in your spiritual walk with Christ you will gain experiential knowledge of Him which is better than just philosophical knowledge of Him.
So which boat are you in? Knowledge or Experience?

snowflakes, wedding bells, and diesel gasoline...

Man! I have been busy lately. Since being home my mom keeps me pretty busy around the house. Although, sometimes, I just relax even when I should be doing chores. hahaha
I am writing from one of my favorite places in the world, The 828, Murphy, NC, 20 min from Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters (swoutfitters.com). I went up to camp Saturday morning for the SWO staff christmas party and tonight I am in the Best Western in Murphy because I about froze to death last night at camp!
This afternoon at camp however something very special happened. Two staff members got married! Yes, hitched! Oh it was so lovely. The bride was my small group leader from the summer! She is just presh and he new hubby, well, ol' Blueberry is alright I reckon. A very good example of what a godly man looks like. Their love story is so interesting, check 'em out at: http://werthandbingham.ourwedding.com/
Tomorrow morning I will leave these gorgeous mountains and head on back to JoCo. I have enjoyed myself the past 48 hours and will return to SWO just two days after Christmas to be there a week to work some retreats! So I'm not too sad about leaving tomorrow. But I will miss the view over the course of this week.

Below are views from Sisters, OR. These are the mountains known as the "Three Sisters." I am reading a book right now called, Love Finds You in Sisters, Oregon. I really want to visit this place one day. I also want to write my own Love Finds You book and base it somewhere preferably in a small NC town. 

I know that was a bit off topic but 1. i just love the book and 2. these pics were just breathtaking!

-Haymo

She left the suds in the bucket and clothes hanging out on the line

I should probably be studying. But there is only really one exam I have to study for and it isn't until Wednesday! So tonight, I have worked and pretty much finished my app for SWO 2011! I am so excited and the fact that it is pretty much done is even better! I am so ready to be back there and will be there at least twice over break!

Last night, I went home to chill because all of my friends had exams today and would be studying. So i spent time with the madre and we went to smithfield, nc to go shopping. On the way there I told her about how idk what i planned to do after 2013 came and i graduated from MC. I told her that i didn't want to immediately go out into the workforce or necessarily go straight to grad-school. I also said that there were so many things I wanted to do and places to see, people to meet that I just had no clue where I would end up in life. I just made it clear that i don't want to waste my life like most people do and be mediocre. And to my surprise, my mother was ok with it. Which is the reason the title for this post. I'm free spirited and ready to roam the planet! hahaha. Thank you Pandora for the wonderful music tonight!

See, until I came to Meredith, I was never the girl who would want to leave home. Now, you're lucky to see me on 39 once during the weekend. I've spread my wings and I'm flying away. My mom says that it is clearly a work of God in life b/c she nor anyone else around town expected me to be the way I am today. So for now, I'm a college student at Meredith, a summer staff at Snowbird, and doing other things on the side when I can. God has totally given me an eternal view on life. and I thank Him for it daily! I hope that whoever reads this will not waste his/her life and go out and make a difference for Christ. Whether it is working a 9-5 job and being a witness that way or going into missions. Where ever you go, w/e you do, there is always a lost soul around who needs Jesus. This is why I want to go everywhere and do everything so that everyone can be reached.

We only get one shot at life. Let's not waste it.