Prayer

I just realized something that I should have realized long ago. If people read my blog, which I hope they do, and if people are active mentors in my faith, which many of you are, then I should put my prayer requests on my blog so you can pray for me. I thought of that all by myself.

Prayer requests:
1. Mexico: I'm going next summer to Guadalajara, Mexico for an internship. There I will be assisting the missionary's there. Pray that I get there and that God would bless me while I'm there.

2. School: I need help with college. I'm not independently wealthy and I'm not uber smart. Pray that I make good grades and that I glorify God with my behavior on campus.

3. Witness: I want to shine for Jesus, but I keep getting in the way for that. Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill my life and that people would see Christ in me.

4. Future: This covers so many things that it's hard to name they all. Future husband(I hope), future job, future dreams, ect.

Well, I guess that's all I have time to cover for now. Thank you and I'll be praying for you too.

In Christ,
An Exceptional Being

The Noble Savage/Person?

A lot of the time I think that man is basicly good. Then I commit some lothsome error and then I remeber that we are just dust. One of the questions that is adressed in theology and phsycology is "Is man basicly good or is man basicly evil?" THis is s tuff question. You look at a little baby, me I look at my baby cousins. They seem so sweet and pure. How could they possible be evil? But then I look closer. I watch them as they grow. Do they need to be taught to fight or hit their little sister? Do they need us to demonstrate how to be selfish? No. Do we? No. I manage to be bad enough on my own. I don't need outside forces to show me how to misbehave. So is all man evil? Yes.

Romans 3:23
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Does this mean that it is all hopeless and we should give up on the human race entirerly? No, there is hope still. Christ died to give us all eternal life. He died to make us clean and pure. In Him and Him alone lies our hope and salvation.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Marrige

I have been thinkging alot about love and the guy I will one day(hopefully) marry. I want a marrige that I will still enjoy being apart of fifteen, twenty, or fifty years down the line. I still see my grandfather take my grandmother her coffee in bed every morning when I'm staying at their house. I can still see that they are very much in love. I still see the respect and admiration my mother has for my father. I see the marriges around me as good and happy marriges. I hope that I too can be happy and respectful of my husband. I want someone to be my best friend and spiritual leader. The Lord is good and even though I still have yet to see the man He will provide, I know that there is someone out there who will love me till the day I die.

Abortion

SLED

Size = large people are not more human than small people, no matter the size

Level of Development = a 4-year old is not less human than a 21-year old, nor more human than an unborn child

Environment = where you are has no bearing on who you are, you are still human

Dependency = if viability (non-dependency) is what makes us human, then all those who depend on pacemakers, dialysis, medications, etc. are non-human

I have a real heart for unborn children. I believe that even in the wome that every child is unique and special.(and I have four sisters; talk about some sepcial people) I once heard someone talk about pro-life using these priciples. I hope that these same principles speak to your hearts as well.

One verse that had meant a lot to me recently is:

Isaiah 40:31
31“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not be faint.”

I’m reminded through this verse to continually go to the Lord. Whether I am in trouble or just to spend time with Him, He will lift my spirit and make me new again. When I am persistently spending time with God and doing His will, I am being kept from falling.

Revelation 2:8-10

⁸"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write,

"These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: ⁹"I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

I heard a pastor on the radio preach on these verses and it really spoke to me.

I have been going through an area of my life when so many things just seem to big for me to deal with. I have so many problems in my life I am unable to fix. The Holy Spirit gives us these two pieces of advice.


^10aDo not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer...

10b Be faithful until death...

Don't fear and have faith. So simple and yet so hard. I realized that I was so scared of the problems in my life. I need to trust God in everything. I need to have faith that He will work all things to His glory.

Ezekiel 16:14-15

¹⁴ And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.

¹⁵ " 'But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.

God has made us beatiful, both inside and out. He has taken His beauty and instilled it in us. Through His grace we are made whole and healed of our iniquitys. He takes away every scar every pain we had, cleans us, and dresses us in His glory.

What do we do with that? We trust not in the God who healed us and made us beautiful. We trust in works that He did for us. We trust in our strength and us the healing and beauty He instilled in us for our own sinful perpuses.

Later, when we realize that we get hurt when we don't trust in God, we come back to Him crying and praying He will forgive us. He does with out condition. He gently rebukes us and instructs us in the way we should go.

Psalm 18:2

²The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;

Psalm 18:30

³⁰As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

May this verse be true of us today.

Psalm 20:7

⁷Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

You don't need to walk by faith, you can walk by sight with a spiritual check list

You don't need to walk by faith, you can walk by sight with a spiritual check list.
My pastor said this in his sermon today. He was talking about being a legalistic Christians. As Christians it is so easy to create a bunch of rules to follow. Yet that is not trusting God. Our sin is taken care of by what what Jesus did on the cross. If we try and atone for our own sin, we are not trusting God to do it for us; however, as humans we want to control everthing. We want to control how we deal with our sin. We want to make up for it, yet we can't. Our only "job" in this Christian walk is to cast all our cares upon Christ and allow Him to make our paths straight. This is very hard and we can not do it by ourselves. We need Christ to bring our hearts to the place were we can trust Him enough to save us from our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:7

⁷For we walk by faith, not by sight.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

¹⁷Pray without ceasing.

I once heard a sermon on prayer. The only main point I remember from it is this.

The Bible says to pray with out ceasing. We do pray with out ceasing. Human beings a made to pray with out ceasing. This can also be written that we complain with out ceasing or we gossip with out ceasing or a million other ways we verbally relate. The question is who are we praying too? We talk to our friends, our therapist, and our priests: however, isn't it ironic that we can't talk to our God, our Creator and Father. Talk to your Father in heaven. He is the only one who can understand, bear, and lift our problems. He is the only one who will be there for you 24-7.

Father, please may I rest all my problems on You. May I be able to talk to You and not trust in anything in this world. Give me Your grace, Father. Amen.

I have been tagged by three different people so I am finally doing this tagging thing.

If I could be a missionary...I would go to Mexico and be the best Missionary Nurse there ever was.
If I could be a chef...I would rule my kitchen with and iron hand and wo to any man, woman, or child that stood in my way. I maybe I would just cook for my family and be the best mother cook.Yeah, that's good.
If I could be a doctor...I don't know if I could get through school, but I would like to be a kind doctor. We are somewhat lacking of those.
If I could be a musician... I would be the best rock star and drive my sister crazy, because sometimes my ignorance in music annoy her.
If I could be a world famous blogger... What are you saying? I'm already that, right?

Psalm 33:12

¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.

Happy Fourth Of July!!!!! I love my country and I hope that we will be a nation that follows the Lord.

How many times do I say when I want my sisters to stop something in public, "I will kill you if you don't stop." WAY to much. A friend of mine gently pointed this out to me. "Why do you always say 'I'll kill you' to your sisters? Are you really going to do that? What is with this violence?" He did it in such a sweet manner I didn't find it offensive at all. I was able to accept what he had to say.

Why do I say that? What is it helping? Is it glorifying to God? Jesus put the conviction in my heart to be nicer with my words. (not as easy as you'd think) My sisters may or may not notice, but I hope that they will feel like I'm trying to be kinder to them and see Christ.

Good Christian Men/Boys

There were strange men at my house this week. An old pastor of our church came to town with his new church. They were going on a missions trip to Sandtown, Baltimore. My family of five girls(six if you count my mom) decided to host a group of four men from that trip. There was our old pastor and three teenage boys. It sounds strange, but having those boys at our house was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. We stayed up late talking about politics, movies, and the like.(you know just normal everyday things) They played my sister at Egyptian Rat Screw and I think most of the time they lost. But my sisters and I really enjoyed their company. We had never had brothers before and for a week we had three!!!

Okay, but on to my main point. These guys were nice to have around because they exemplified good Christian men. My sisters and I don't have a whole lot of those kind of examples around.(I mean we have my dad, but after a while you just say oh that's just dad) So it was cool to have such a model right there in front of us for a week. So to all you Christian guys out their, keep up the good work and don't forget that girls are watching you whether it's a sister, a friend, or a friend's sister. Strive to be the Godly men that you were designed to be.

By the way I hurt my hand and it's in a bandage and that makes it very hard to type. So you know I am very serious about this godly men thing.

Eating

I'm going to be writing about something very close to my heart today. Sorry if it seems a bit to sappy or preachy.

When I turned twelve I developed an eating disorder. Why? Don't know. There are just so many reason.
I was a little chubby and my sister was uber skinny. I felt inferior next to her.
Also so many things were going on in my life beyond my control. I wanted to be able to control something, so I through this is something I can handle.
I am the second of five girls. Sometimes I can get overlooked. I wanted my family and others to notice me and to think I was pretty.
I was in rebellion. I wanted control so I took "control" of my weight. Basically I was saying to God, "You can control everything else in my life except this one thing." And then I focused only on my eating and nothing else that God would have wanted me to.
Some people made fun of me and others made gentle comment on how not to eat so much. Those comments hurt and I wanted to be good and pretty.

I had two fainting spells during my eating disorder. The first one happened when I got up in the morning to go to the bathroom. I was walking along and the next thing I new I couldn't see anything and I felt like someone was tossing me around. I waited a few seconds and then I opened my eyes and found I could see again. I was on the floor and I had fallen, hitting the sink and the door as I fell.

The second time I was talking to my sister and my vision started to go black and out of focus. The next thing I knew I was on the floor under my sisters desk. I had just missed hitting my head on the desk.

The world would often go black and I would get dizzy, but these were the only times I lost conciseness.

Girls are not the only ones to struggle with eating disorders. Two of my friend both males also had trouble with it. They were both on the wrestling team and to be at the top of their game they wanted to be the biggest in their class. I don't understand all the rules, but I do know that it is so easy to slip into,"I'll just lose a few more pound." "Okay just a little bit more." "I have almost got it, just a little bit more."

The Bible doesn't say much about eating disorders. You won't find those words in the Bible, but here are some verses that helped me.

1 Corinthians 10:31

³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Do every thing for the glory of God. Even eat. That's heavy. Eating for the glory of God means you are not the center of attention. You are not thinking about yourself. You are thinking about God and what He wants. God wants the simple things in your life. Eating, sleeping, relationships, and so much more.

1 Samuel 16:7b

For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

1 Thessalonian 5:22

²²Abstain from all appearance of evil.

1 Peter 2:15
15It is God's will that your good lives should silence those who make foolish accusations against you.

This verse really hit home when I read it during bible study. There are sooooo many predjiduces against the Christian faith. If we were not so full of hypocrosy, deciet, jealousy, and unkind speech; the world would not have any amo to hit us with. So an encouragement to my brothers and sisters in Christ, live your lives as Christ as God would will you to.

The Last Word or Lack Of

Matthew 26:31-36a
³¹Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:
" 'I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'^{[c] 32}But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."

³³Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."

³⁴"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times."

³⁵But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.

³⁶Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane.


Why doesn't Jesus continue to argue with Peter? He know that Peter will betray Him, yet Jesus doesn't feel the need to win. He doesn't have to have the last word. When we argue, do we have to have the last word? Why is this? Are we trusting God will take are of the situation? Here Jesus gives us a good example of how to avoid fights. By not having to win. As humans this is a massive blow to our ego, yet to be like Jesus to love like Jesus we must not fight with others. "But they are wrong and if I only talk a little more they will see that I am right." Did Jesus have to convince Peter of his mistakes. No, Peter found out all in God's time.

Lord, may I not fight with my sisters today. May I not have to win with my words. Instead, may I lovingly encourage others toward You. In Jesus Name, Amen

Sick

I recently read about a church who doesn't want their church members to go to doctors and hospitals when they or their children are sick. They feel like this is not placing your trust in God's healing powers. Because of this belief, many of their members have died of diseases that are simple and very curable if given the right treatment.

I disagree with this churches point of view on this. I believe that God gave us the doctors, nurses, hospitals, and medicine that we might us them to His glory. One of Jesus's disciples was a doctor. Yes, when ever you are sick we need to trust God to heal you; however, God sometimes works through men.

At the end

At The End

The road is tough

And very rough

Are you willing

To go to the place

Where you will receive my grace

The way is daring

The load hard bearing

Few the journey even dare to start

Fewer still are those that will be part

Of the glorious end

At the end

Tears and suffering are condemned

Loads that are heavy will be transformed

To crowns with jewels adorned

We will be together with friends

At the end

The way is long

The hardship strong

But rest on me for strength

Keep the goal in sight

And you’ll find light

Keep on sharing

Keep on caring

Though it seems that it’ll never end

You never know what is around the bend

Maybe the end

I wrote this a loooonnnng time ago so don't be too jugmentle.

Hebrews 11:1

¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

A friend of mine was recently talking about faith. One of the things he said really struck a chord with me. "Faith isn't saying I'm going to think this real head and then think it is going to happen," he said. "If that is faith what are you putting your faith in?"

That is a good point. There are a million(just an estimente) bible verses about faith. Some commanding us to have faith and other verses telling us we have lost our faith. There are even some verses about faith and mustard...seeds. But what is faith? How do get and jold on to our faith?

Romans 10:17

¹⁷Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Keep youself imersed in the Bible and keep up your walk with God. Pray and preach the gospel. Basicly, live the life God has desighned us to live.

I will be going on missions trip to Mexico next summer, for the whole summer. I am going with Mission to the World, the PCA's missionary base. I am excited about the trip; however, I hate raising the money for the trip. This usually invovles me asking people for money. I hate to do that, so I need ideas for raising the money. Please let me know some of your ideas so I can start raising the money. I will need around( this is not a solid number yet, but an estimente) $2500.