OSU and Friends

Just watched the OSU game with my Lifegroup! Don't really care about the game, but the people that I got to spend time with are amazing. I look back on my life a year ago and thank God that I'm where I'm at now. He has brought me through soooo much and even thought I know I still have a lot to learn and do, I know that this is the most blessed I have ever been. My relationship with God is the best thing that ever happened in my life. That, and all the amazing people He has blessed me with.

Teachable

This lovely lday is Victoria. One of the most amazing, passionate, Christ-centered young ladies that I know. I have had the pleasure to get to know her over the past year and a half and lead her in richiousness. But for as much as I have taught her, she has tought me as well. One of the most important things that she has shown me is how to submit to spiritually authority.

This girl loves to learn, and in her desire to learn she submits to the authority in her life so that she can be taught. Shes an amazing example of how one can be humble and learn from those who know more then them. I pray she never loses that ability! Love you V!

People Will Do What You Do...

It's true. If you lead, someone will eventually follow you. I tried this theory out on the students at SWITCH one night. By the end of my experiment I had everyone on the first 4ish rows on the left side of the stage looking at the ceiling, wondering what was up there. Silly kids! I was just looking up there for fun! But they didn't know that, and the followed my example.

My point is that we need to be careful where we lead people. My little joke was harmless and got a few laughs out of those silly enough to be sucked in, but there are so many times when we don't lead people to a good place. I tell my students all the time, you wither lead people to Christ, or you don't. There is no middle ground.

So where have you lead someone lately?

1 Cor. 11:1- Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

And so it begins...

So that is me. I thought this picture summed me up pretty well. I always seem to make that face in pictures, that's just my personality. And I thought it would be a good way to introduce what I'm doing...

Today I turned 25. Whoa. So much has changed since that picture was taken. So many new memories, new friends, new struggles, old wounds, old friends, life changes. My life feels huge now, better then I ever could have asked or dreamed...and I want to remember it all.

So starting today until Sep. 27 of 2011 I'm going to post a picture every day. I want to watch my year go by and take you with me on this journey that God has me on. I don't know yet what the pictures will be of, maybe something that struck my fancy at a store, maybe a friend of mine, it might just be a phrase that I fell in love with or even a picture of my dog. But a picture everyday to remind myself that God is good. All the time.

I can't wait for this year to be over so that I can see all of the amazing things that have happened!

School Time!!!

So everything is about to change. Everything that I have worked so hard for, given up things for is about to come to fruition. I start seminary school in the morning, Lord willing.

This feels huge and scary to me. It's a fast-track program so my life, starting tomorrow, will be crazy. Work, church, and school will be my everything. And I'm kinda excited. This is a huge chapter in my life that I feel like I have been waiting for for a long time. I'm excited to see where this path goes when all is said and done.

So if your reading this please say a huge prayer for me, I;m going to need all that I can get!

The Feminist Ethic and Cheap Sex

The other night I had the chance to babysit some very fun, young kids. I believe they are in elementary school. Anyway, after the kids went to bed I had nothing to do but watch tv. After some channel surfing I landed on one of the many MTV stations that just happened to be playing music videos. Random right? Anyhoo, it didn't take long for a poppy, catchy song to blast through the speakers. Thumping bass, tight cords, jarring drums, all the things needed for pop perfection. After a small intro for one of the songs a beautiful 17year old came on the screen. She sang about how she was in always rated a 10 by all the boys, how she can get crazy if she doesn't get her way and the such. She was a strong, independent female. With no pants on. In fact, she didn't wear pants for the duration on the video, at all.

The video was glossy, creative and ascetically pleasing to the eye, but, when you looked closer it was missing a feeling of authenticity. It looked cheap. It was a young girl being sold out, selling sex and the idea of independence when in reality she isn't even of any legal age to really do any of the things she was singing about. The feminist idea she was selling was cheapened because she simply isn't old enough to have any idea of what she was talking about. And another thing, SHE WASN'T WEARING PANTS! Can you really take someone, of any age, seriously if they don't have pants on?

But it made me think. This is what the media and the world is selling our youth. A cheap version of themselves that promises freedom and self-expression when in reality all it does is lead to the bondage of sin in their lives. This is the lie that our young girls see, sex=power, freedom, and control over one's own body. For boys, it's sex=pleasure, freedom to do whatever they want to a girl, and the idea that the girl wont get hurt, because she's in control.

It's cheap and it's misleading. To combat this ultra-feminist idea we need to show our kids something real. Not sell it to them, but show them. They need Jesus. We need to show them Him, break the lies of the world and show them Christ and His redeeming power. And His freedom. We need to check ourselves and make sure that we aren't guilty of selling a cheap Jesus. Our future, our kids depend on it. It's that important.

Psalms 65:3 “When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave (or, made atonement for) our transgressions.”

Since the year started I have kept coming back to this verse. I truly stumbled upon in, seemingly by accident, one day and I have received so much comfort from it.

This verse came to me in the middle of a fast. For 21 days I prayed that God would break me and make me more like Him. I prayed that I would die to myself and live more fully for Him and not for my own satisfaction or to make much of myself, but that my life would make much of Him. I specifically prayed that God would take a specific sin away from me, something that I have struggled with for years.

During the fast a dear and close friend confided in me that they to struggled with the same sin. What was so amazing about this was that I had, up until this point, never shared this part of myself with anyone. To have someone just come to me and confide in me the same thing that I had been praying to get rid of was truly the work of God. We were able to share our struggle in a way that we never had before. Not with a condemning spirit, but with understanding and both of us having the desire to change. We prayed that night for God to give us both strength and courage to be honest. It was the most amazing experience ever.

This confession of sin in myself and the accompanying accountability of my friend has truly shown me Gods unending mercy and love for all of us. That when I felt alone, or “overwhelmed by sins”, God made a way for it to be safe for me to share and it reaffirmed that He forgives my transgressions. This verse reminds me of this every time I read it and I continue to be thankful.