Wednesday night, I sat with two of my closest friends, glued to The Weather Channel and our computers trying to find out as much information as possible as one of the most dangerous storms in recent history ripped through the hometowns of countless friends, including one of the ones watching with us. We watched video after video level entire buildings to the ground and erase entire towns almost completely off the map. At one point, my friend Jasmine even watched as a tornado went by the apartment complex where her little sister lives. We hung on every text message hoping that our friends who had taken up residence in closets and basements were okay. I had one friend in Tuscaloosa and one in Dora, with the later checking in every five minutes so i knew she was still located IN the basement. Let me just tell you, this Florida girl is MUCH more okay with hurricanes than tornadoes.
In the next several weeks and even months the towns that were hit by these tornadoes will be slowly putting their lives back together. It will be a long journey but I can guarantee you this: God will be there caring for his creation. We are assured that God cares for even the smallest of sparrows and even more so for us. Isn't that an amazingly comforting thought when we know how His people are hurting?
To all those affected by the storms, know that I am praying for you. God will be all you need in these desperate times and for the rest of your lives. He is our portion. When everything else is hurting or failing us, His love will carry us through.
"My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." -Psalm 73:26
To the rest of you, I pray that you will try to find ways to help our brothers and sisters. Love can move mountains. There's no doubt in my mind that it can heal towns.
Hello Everyone,
I know that I still have to give you the second half of my E-Women Conference notes, but since it is finals week, my life has been a little crazy lately and I'm writing this on my best friends couch at almost 1AM without my notes so I figured now would be a good time to write what's been playing in my head for a couple weeks now
But before I launch in to the main topic, left me first say Happy Easter. Isn't it a blessing that we can celebrate His Resurrection? And more than that, Isn't the Resurrection just a breathtaking miracle in and of itself?
I am finishing up a speech class tomorrow, and during the semester I have heard some very interesting speeches. One of these speeches was a comparison on Pagan and Christian holidays. During this girl's speech she mentioned spells saying that they were attempts to manipulate the energy and world around you by the things you say, like prayer for a Christian. This, of course, didn't sit well with me. Is this really what the rest of the world thinks about prayer? Then I remembered that the girl had said that she was raised in the church and met a pagan friend in high school who taught her about the pagan holidays. Do the very people in the church know so little about prayer that their children will think that a prayer is simply our version of casting spells? Is that how much understanding we have of our faith?
Prayer is not a human attempt at manipulation of the physical world. Prayer is a conversation with the Maker, asking for guidance or offering thanksgiving or praise or confessing your sins. Even when we are wanting to change the outcome of our circumstances, prayer should be us asking God what his will is and requesting that He show us the way.
Just think about the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:
9"Therefore, you should pray like this:Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]
There is a reason why Jesus prayed first to give praise (Vs. 9), then to accept the Father's will (Vs. 10) then to ask for what he needed physically (Vs. 11), then for forgiveness (Vs. 12), then guidance (Vs. 13a) and finally to praise once more. (Vs. 13b).
This is the prayer that Jesus told us to model our own prayers after. Not once does He try to manipulate the world around him. Instead, he accepts the Father's wisdom and guidance and fully submits to His plan. Those who practice spells aren't submitting to God. They are trying to change things on their own accord. And quite frankly, that is the polar opposite of prayer.
This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend one of my favorite events of the year, the E-Women Conference in Pensacola, Florida. At this conference I was able to hear some amazing speakers and see some gifted performers. Angela Thomas, Lysa Terkeurst, Carol Kent, Jennifer Rothschild, and Chonda Pierce all shared their heart-wrenching testimonies and Francesca Battestelli and Michael O'Brien shared their gift of music. during Friday night and during the day Saturday I took 8 pages of notes. This blog is going to be a compilation of verses shared and quotes by the speakers that really touched me. It has been a weekend of laughing, smiling, worshiping, singing at the tops of our lungs with hands lifted high for Jesus, crying on our sister's shoulders, and soaking in the Word. Now it's my turn to share some of that with you.
"I'm weary because my saying yes when I should not will never make up for all the people who say no when they should not." -Angela Thomas facebook friend
"I am weary, God, but I can prevail." -Proverbs 30:1b
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:28-31
"We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield." Psalm 33:20
"Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:31
"Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God." Luke 5:25
"The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Acts 10:15
"If I get tired, so what? I know where to go when I get tired." -Angela Thomas
"Be the sunshine." -Angela Thomas's words of encouragement for her son during a tough soccer game.
"My calling became this, to love my life like Christ loves the church. My gifting is music. My gifting should never take precedence over my calling." -Michael O'Brien
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me." Matthew 10:37
This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.-Jeremiah 9:23-24
"A smart girl doesn't have life all figured out, she just knows who the Source of Life is." -Meghan Clinton
"If you're not willing to ask for help, it means you're not brave." - Jennifer Rothschild
"You will have hope if you have courage" -Jennifer Rothschild
"Sometimes when we say "I can't", what we're really saying is "I won't"" - Jennifer Rothschild
"Don't be defiante and call it disability" - JR
"Eyes that won't see are far worse than eyes that can't." -JR
"You are not what you think, what you feel, what you struggle with.... you are who God says you are." -JR
"Because he is worthy, you can, and you will, and sisters, you will rise" -JR
Well, guys, It's almost 1:00 AM and we're only half way through all the quotes I wrote down and I have to get up early tomorrow for an hour and a half drive before I get to church, so I'm going to call this a stopping point for now. Tomorrow, I shall put up the rest of the quotes and verses and then over the next week or so, I can almost garuntee that there will be blogs that spin off of the things that were discussed at the conference.
I will leave you with this: Love yourself, love your neighbors, love your enemies, love complete strangers and love those people that you've met once or twice. In essence, love. You're not going to win people to Christ by showing anything less than complete and utter Jesus love.
It is 1:35AM and I am sitting on my best friend's couch waiting for my laundry to dry and watching The Phantom of the Opera for about the millionth time. We were originally watching it because Tyler has never seen it, however, Tyler is also asleep on the other couch. Like seriously asleep. He started purring earlier and I almost died laughing. I love late night Best Friend Movie/Laundry Dates. You never know what is going to happen.
Last Thursday I got some pretty major news that I have been dying to share with all of you and finally got the go ahead today.
I'm going to be a GODMOTHER!
I am so excited! This baby is going to be so spoiled, even when before it gets here in December. My roommate found out that she is pregnant Last Thursday, however, she just went to the doctor this morning and I didn't want to post on here about it until the doctor confirmed.
I also feel like I should address one thing about this pregnancy. My roommate is engaged. Yes, she is in a committed relationship and I applaud her for that. I applaud even more over the fact that she is doing right by her child. Her and her fiance will be married in the beginning of June and are thrilled about this child. She never once thought "This baby is going to ruin my life." I was so proud when she went straight to "okay, I didn't plan this but I can't change that it happened now, I can just change how I react to it." Yes, I believe that sex is a sacred act for husband and wife and that that is how God intended it to be, but who are we to judge that baby for his/her parents decisions? I am proud of my roommate and her fiance for how they are responding to this situation, and I am not exagerating by saying that I am ecstatic about having a little godbaby.
Shortly after my roommate took the initial pregnancy test, she was on the phone with her fiance informing him. When I noticed that she was crying I posted Jeremiah 29:11-13 on her Facebook wall as encouragement. She then wrote verse 11 on our dry erase board and something tells me that it will stay up there until we move out at the end of the semester. That is a huge encouragement to me. I love that when times get tough, we can bond over a scripture. I love that the verse we shared is all about how God has a plan for us. I don't know what the plans are for my roommate, her fiance, or her poppy seed of an unborn child, but I know that he has them. And that is an insane amount of comfort.
I'm going to leave you with those verses and a quote from the twitter of the ministry I worship with Sunday mornings when I'm at school for the weekend.
I love you all and will be constantly praying for all of you.
Your Fellow Water Walker,
Ashlee
"Even though His ways may not be our ways, they are good, faithful, true,
and full of hope. That is something solid we can stand on!" -@TroyMomentum
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
-Jeremiah 29:11-13
