sunday-sunday

I love sundays. church in the morning, homecooked food, homework, naps, and football :)
I love every other day in the week. Sometimes I forget how blessed I am. I am at an awesome school, with beautiful people, and working on God's will for my life. I love my life, because HE is in control. Nothing I can do can mess up His plan for me. He has made it attainable as well. I feel like people sometimes forget that God doesn't give us anything we can't handle, and that includes dreams. I've been realizing that, and just loving Him for it.

I love God. I love my life. I love God being in control, and me trusting Him all the way.

TRUST

I'm a dreamer

When I was little I wanted to be Britney Spears. I wanted to be on stage, and dance and sing, but people always told me that wasn't reality. But I always dreamed of the day I would be on stage, with everyone applauding my every move. I can't say my dream has changed much. Granted, I don't want to be Britney Spears, but I do want to be on stage. It's where I feel at home. My motive has changed for God's Glory. The funny thing is, that He believes in my dream, and He has made a path for me. I don't know where it goes, but I know that He has a plan. I'm sick of people dragging me back to down to reality. I don't know how I'm going to support myself, but I know that it will happen. I trust God. I don't understand why that isn't enough for people. Everyone tells me that I should have a back up plan, but isn't that just smacking God in the face? To me that's telling God that you don't trust His plan. And He knows better than any of us, so who are we to tell Him what we're doing with our life? I am willing to go down any path for His Glory. He's telling me that my dreams will bring Him glory. That is why I'm on stage. No other reason.
It gets hard when the people that mean the most to you drag you down, and tell you that your dream is impossible, and that they don't want you to get hurt. I don't want to live in this safe box. I want to break out of it, i'm sick of Christians not GOING. Jesus commanded us to GO! And that means moving. Not just sitting in church. I don't know what is going to happen with my dreams, but I know that God is in the midst of them. No one can bring me down. I will do His will, and keep living for the kingdom.

We must go
live to feed the hungry
stand beside the broken
we must go
stepping forward
keep us from just singing
move us into action
we must go.

fill us up, and send us out.

God bless.

Come Away With Me

Just got this sweet release from the Holy Spirit, and I'm starting to write songs. Don't have any music or have a clue how it goes, but the lyrics are there. Most of the lyrics are out of Song of Songs. God bless!


Come, take my hand, lets run away from it all
Take me to a place where we can be together

My beautiful God, you are mine!
Your left arm under my head, and your right embraces me
Arise my darling, and come away with me

How handsome you are my lover
Your banner over me is love
you have stolen my heart

My lover is radiant. I a crowd of 10,000, you are all i see
when i sleep i am awake, i'm so in love with you!

i'm falling harder and harder for you beautiful lover
i belong to you, and you are mine!
place me like a seal on your heart
for our love is strong and everlasting

come away with me
come away with me

Paul's Hardships

2 Corinthians 6:3-10

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry. In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. We faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything."

Endurance.

ICTHUS

A group of friends from The Crossing in Goshen went to a christian music festival down in Kentucky. We joined a ministry from IWU called LOVESTORM, and we all volunteered to be alter ministers. Talk about an amazing experience. The music was loud, and the speakers were amazing, and God was definatly there. However, I really struggled with feeling second best to my fellow brothers and sisters. As a result of that, the last night, the speaker gave an alter call and 1,000 kids came to know Christ. Where was I? Sitting at my campsite. I came later on, and got to help send out some kids, but they had already accepted Christ. Satan definatly won that battle, and I felt defeated and worthless. I knew I went on this trip to get over the fear of ministering. That may seem like a foolish fear, but I really struggle with putting myself out there in the first place. So being an alter minister was a big stretch for me. So I went on feeling aweful throughout the night. That night we went to a band called "Sleeping Giant"(p.s. seriously amazing), and I just broke down, and Krista(awesome sister in Christ) was there. We went away, and once i composed myself, I told her about everything. How terrible I was feeling, and everything on top of that. So we prayed. She spoke on behalf of God, and He told me that He was delighted with me. That was so comforting..but He wanted me to take it a step further. I have been struggling my whole life with fear, of everything, and anything. So, I declared, then and there, "I will not be afriad anymore!" There's much more to the story, but God is now with me, and I have no reason to be afraid. My chains are gone. It's a beautiful thing. I guess the point of all this is to tell everyone that God can do anything. No task is too big or too small. And no matter what you're going through, He delights in you, and wants you to talk to Him about. He is so good. Now, I'm not saying the fear is completley gone. I still struggle with fear, but I can quote scripture and tell Satan to get away from me. I take comfort in knowing that God is with me. Victory in Jesus.

Count it all Joy

I know you've had some troubles in this life. I know sometimes the road gets so long. But I know our God is walking right with you, yes he is. And he'll give you all the strength. Oh yes, He'll give you all the strength. He'll give you all the strength you need, to carry on. So count it all joy, when you're faced with sorrow. Count it all joy, when you're faced with pain. Count it all joy, and a stronger faith will remain. Count it all joy, for this present suffering, can't be compared with the joy to come. Count it, count it all joy. Let us look to Jesus, the author of our faith. Who for the sake of the joy set before Him endured the cross. So let us not grow weary, in the face of discipline. Our father is training us how to win. We know that all things work together, for the good of those who love God. Nothing can ever separate us, from God's mighty love in Jesus. Neither life, nor death, nor angels, things present, or things to come. -"Count It All Joy" Choir Tour 09

Reflecting back on that week, I learned that God can use you, even if you don't want to be used. So many days, I just felt like crashing after long days on the bus, but we had to do concerts. Every church was such a blessing, and it was great to see what a blessing we were to them. Voices of Triumph sang for an old lady who was very sick. We sang, "Every time I feel the Spirit," and she was so touched. By the end of the song, everyone was crying. She said, "When God gives you the gift, USE it." Then VOT starting crying, because to hear her say that was such a blessing. Her spirit was so strong, despite her weakness. God was at work in her. Later that night, her husband came to the concert. The choir sang, "It is Well with my Soul," and everyone who knew could tell that he was telling God that it was well with his soul. That blew my mind, and it was such an inspiration to live everyday, and use the gifts that God has given me. Choir Tour was such a blessing, and the people have a wonderful, and irreplaceable spot in my heart.

"Right with God"

I've been learning a lot about who God is this past year. It is funny how God broke up the past two semesters. First semester a friend was going through a terrible time, so I was there coaching her through and hoping that she would come back to God. Eventually, with a lot of time, she did. Then second semester hit, and I felt more alone than ever. I was so sick of listening to people's problems. I was selfish enough to think that they should care about me a lot more than their needs/school work/spiritual life. It didn't help that I was trying to juggle school work, 2 shows, dance groups, getting ready for a recital, VOT, and choir. Not a good idea. I kinda just left God in the dust, and told myself that I could handle everything. It worked for awhile, but then everything just fell apart. I was believing all the lies that Satan was telling me, but throughout all of it, I knew God was calling me back to Him. When the world finally did crash around me, I did a lot of thinking. Was my relationship ever right with God? And what does being "right with God" even mean? That is pretty hard to accomplish. He started showing me that contentment wasn't good enough. In my opinion, being "right with God" doesn't exist. We should always be striving for the next level of our relationship with Him. There is so much about Him that most people don't see, and I know that I'm going to be discovering that more and more as I get closer to Him. It just blows my mind how He lets us walk away, and stay away, but there is always a voice calling us back to him. We serve a Mighty God, who loves us with a love that is so beautiful it is hard to comprehend. I'm so thankful for grace and people around me that push me towards Him.

GUIDANCE

G U I D A N C E
Author Unknown

When I meditated on the word GUIDANCE, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow withthe music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.When one person realizes and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music.One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudgeto the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body,moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word GUIDANCE. When I saw "G," I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i.""God, "u" and "i" "dance." God, you,and I dance! This statement is what guidance means to me.As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life.
Once again, I became willing to let God lead.My prayer for you today is that God's blessings and mercies be uponyou and your family on this day and everyday. May you abide in Him as He abides in you. Dance together with God, trusting Him to lead and to guide you through eachseason of your life. I hope you dance!!!