One Step

i love how the Lord relates to people. i feel like a lot of people hold off from pursuing the Lord because they feel like they have fallen too far and where they want to be isnt even close to where they are. so the reason i love Him so much is He loves meeting us at the door when we knock, taking our baggage inside and helping us unpack. there is a process and we just have to take that first little step toward where we want to be and then years down the road we look at ourselves and realize that we have been changed in a beautiful way. when i look back at who i was in high school it makes me cringe. but i realized that i wanted to be different and i took small steps and even though it has been hard along the way i am much closer to where i want to be now. obviously, i am not perfect nor who i want to be, but in a way, i think its beautiful. the more i learn about the Lord the more i want to be like him and i just feel like with every little step that i take and every lesson that i learn i am blossoming more and more into the the woman that God desires for me to be. because he knows that only by drawing close to Him will i grasp true joy. one of my favorite things to think about is sanctification! when we accept Christ that is only the beginning and then you spend the rest of your life being drawn in closer and closer to the heart of God and it becomes who you are. i love it!!!!

so, to sum it up. figure out what it is that you want to change, maybe even make a list and then instead of being overwelmed by the list, take one thing at a time and move in the right direction. embrace the process!!!!!

Folding

"we believe there is a forefront (the position of greatest importance or prominence). on one side there is a lost and dying world and on the other is the Kingdom of God. our goal is to fold ourselves over that line. our feet are grounded in the Kingdom of God, held down by the people who support and love us and our hands are reaching over that line pulling people into the Kingdom of God!"

this is a summarized version of a quote from the music group P.O.D that i heard in a sermon not too long ago. i loved the imagery that that quote gave. this faith can be hard sometimes when we try and figure out how to live in this world and not of it. well this is the closest ive heard to a description of what our faith is supposed to look like and i love it! how beautiful is that picture. having your feet grounded with the support of the people who love you and the Lord and want whats best for you. but also, reaching across the line that separates pulling people into the Kingdom! but i think the part that is the most important here is that you are held tight because if you arent you could get pulled in a direction where you lose sight of what God has for you. but in addition to that i think we also lose sight of what God wants for the people around us. i mean if we are not reflecting who God is then we are giving people a view point that is incorrect. so we have to commit to reading about the nature of God in Scripture and then trying to model it.

OMG Amazing!

yesterday one my friends got married to a man that has just amazed us with his wisdom, humor, love for tindell and love for God from day one! it has been such a joy for the people in her life to have seen the transformation that has happened in her and everything the Lord has blessed her with for genuinely trusting the Lord. one day she just decided to trust God with her relationships and because she did she was able to meet a man that God had waiting for her as soon as she was ready to trust Him.

in this past year i have just seen soooo clearly how faithful the Lord really is when you actually trust him! ive always had trouble knowing what trusting God really means. i used to throw that word around to people who i felt like needed to but then one of them asked what it meant to do that and i was stumped! i didnt really know how to answer cause, to be completely honest, i hadnt actually done it. well this past year i have kept finding myself in situations where i have been able to practice placing my trust in God and HIS plan for me. there have been so many instances where i really do want to do what God wants for me but i end up doing what i want more because its easier or it makes me feel better for a little while. well as im sure you have experienced that doesnt really work for long. eventually all those little decisions that you have made on your own catch up with you and just kind of sting. to give a better picture of what trust is im going put a couple things below that define what trust is.

Trust
-reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
-confident expectation of something; hope.
-a person on whom or thing on which one relies

by not not relying on Gods integrity, which He has, stength, which He has, ability, which He has, and surety, which He has we are ultimately saying that he isnt those things which is a lie! how can we not have confidence in Him? you know one of the coolest things about this past year for me is actually learning that He does have a plan for me and when i actually take a second and think about what the wisest thing to do is and not just what i want to do, i have been able to experience trust in Someone that amazes me with the things that He has for me. it really does blow my mind!!! life just makes more sense with Him. so now when things come up in my life i actually desire to see what He has in mind cause, taking a look back, i obviously dont have a clue haha.

i read a pretty funny quote a long time ago and it said this:

"Jesus is my co-pilot cause i drive like a idiot!"

so if your having trouble trusting in God, which i definitely understand. just try it once. pray hard about what it means to trust God in whatever situation presents you and i promise, when He follows through, your gonna want to trust Him more and more :)

Drop Kicking Babies

i have been thinking about faith tonight and what real faith is. in the Bible it talks about faith that moves mountains!!!!! i may be mistaken but i dont think the Bible "exaggerates". real faith is one that believes, without a doubt, in the God that can do anything. even moving mountains. a couple years ago i heard a few stories about a guy that had so much faith in God and extreme humility. he was not afraid to look like an idiot if in the end God received the glory! now this man was gifted in healing and so there were a few instances where he healed people in ways that were so crazy that he HAD to have faith that God was going to follow through or else he would have looked like a complete fool! he healed an old woman's heart condition by punching her in chest several times. and another person, in order to allow them to walk again, he slung them out of their wheel chair! i mean i would be terrified that if i slung someone out of their wheel chair trying to "heal" them! i would be so scared that they would fall flat on their face and then have me arrested. i mean this man had amazing faith. now this is not to say that we should go pushing people out of wheel chairs and punching people in the chest. BUT i do believe that God calls us to do things that bring us way out of our comfort zone and require us to have BIG faith! sometimes God is gonna put us in situations where we have to trust that He is going to follow through and give us BIG results that make us fall on our knees in worship!!!!! listen and dont be scared :)

but above all else, i hope that you will be still with me and soak in this truth.

nothing in this world matters but Christ.

only when we accept that and believe it with everything in us will we begin to have big mountain moving faith. the moment we realize that He is the only thing that really matters, suddenly the pride fades away and looking an idiot isnt so bad after all, not for Him at least ;)