Trouble Trusting

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall deliver you" (Ps. 50:15)

Oh wow. God is teaching me this a lot lately. EVEN when things don't go the way we think they should, God is still in control. When life seems unfair, God still wants to deliver us. Even in the hard times, God is still love. When we don't think we can, God can!

Trusting God is always easy when life is good and going the way we want it to. When we have the job, life, friends, and situation that we want or desire, it's easy to trust that God has our best interest in mind. After all, He has chosen to bless you with those things, your wants and desires. But when life doesn't go the way we want it to, we still have to trust that God has our best interest in mind and that HE will still bless us and provide for our needs. Going through valleys doesn't mean it's the end, it means it's the beginning of a beautiful God crafted story. Life would be boring if we couldn't tell a glory story in our lifetime. Jesus pardoned us with His blood, how much more are we deeply loved and cared for!?

Here are some sayings that are good reminders of God's love and mercy for us. We MUST trust Him. HE has our best interest in mind. He gives us EVERYTHING [& more than] we need. Besides, His LOVE is enough, it's more than we need.

//Rejection is God's protection.

//If it's God's will, it's God's bill.

Whether you've been rejected by a job that you KNEW you were going to get. Or if money doesn't seem to be growing on trees, God still/will take care of it. God knows what we need, when we need it. If we don't have it right now, we don't need it right now. God loves to teach us patience and perseverance through times like these!

Hillsong Live : Stronger/This Is Our God

Just another something that is so great about the land down under... Hillsong worship music! They just released an acoustic album of everyone's faves! This has to be my favorite so far, from what I've heard.

YWAM?

Summer Plus Dts promo from YWAM Newcastle Media on Vimeo

Questions:

What is YWAM?
Youth With A Mission. A missions program that started here in the US and now has bases all over the world. "to know God and to make Him known"

When?
January 11, 2011 - June 18, 2011

What is DTS?
Discipleship Training School. It involves three months of Lecture and three months of Outreach. While on Lecture, our group will help run Youth Street for the local teens.

Where is Newcastle?
Two hours north of that popular little city in Australia called, Sydney.

Why Australia?
God put something in my heart for Australia a while ago, it's somewhere I've always wanted to go and have been curious about. It's also very far away and it won't be easy to get there...all the more reasons God is calling me down there. Following God will never be easy or glamorous.


What is Youth Street?
From my understanding Youth Street is a community outreach program set up by YWAM. It's an opportunity to locally minister to the youth of Newcastle, through various activities. It's a time of organized group activities, worship, sharing of the Gospel and just loving on youth!

What is Lecture?
Lecture is three months time spent in a classroom setting; learning about who God is, discovering our greater purpose, and how to effectively share the Gospel.



What is Outreach?
Outreach is three months spent in various locations around the world [TBD]. Using the abilities we have as a team to lead people towards Christ.

Why now?
God doesn't want us to sit around and wait for Him. We have to use everything we've got to make His name known now, with the little time we have on earth! The Bible says, "Therefore go and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"

---

"For we are God’s masterpiece. HE has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Ephesians 2:10

Band Of Horses

Oh how I love Band of Horses. I'll never forget coming across their myspace page back in the day and falling in love. I'm happy I got to see them last night. They played two of my favorites,"No One's Gonna Love You" and "Factory". I'd say it was a pretty good show, though they definitely left out some of my favorites! Slightly bummed about that but they did play at the Fillmore... which happens to be my last name! I still want to go up to the ticket counter, show them my license and demand to be let in for free because my grandpa "owns" all the Fillmore threatre's. Unfortunately, I'm not that bold or out going. Plus they probably wouldn't buy it because I'm really bad at lying?!

Here are the two songs they didn't play, that they should have....

Please Lead Him

Every girl, whether she'd like to admit it or not, is guilty of day dreaming about the perfect surprise proposal, blue sky wedding day, and sandy beach honeymoon. A girl looks forward to the day she meets the man that was literally made for her. Waiting for the man that was put on this earth for her; the man that was made to fight for her, the man that was created to father their children, the man that she is supposed to grow old with. We wait, plan, dream, wait some more, pair our name with certain last names, and day dream again.

In the midst of our child-like behavior, how often are we on our knees, pleading for the heart and purity of the man that God already has set aside for us? How often do we go humbly before God, asking for wisdom and guidance; so we can one day be a loving, encouraging, gracious, submissive, and uplifting wife? How often are we asking for God to prepare both of our hearts for a God centered relationship? I dare say we spend too much time cutting out snippets of bridal magazines and not enough time praying for the actual relationship itself.

As women we need to be on our knees constantly praying for the marriage that we day dream about. Sanctus Real's single "Lead Me", made me realize how important it is to start praying [now] for a relationship that may not have even come into play yet. We're living in a day and age where most marriages are ending in separation or divorce, even in the Christian world, all we can do is pray that God protects our future marriage. The lyrics are a husbands humble prayer for his family. If you switch a few of the personal pronouns around, you've got the perfect prayer to pray for your future husband and relationship!

Father, give [him] the strength
To be everything [he's] called to be
Oh, Father, show [him] the way
To lead [me/us]
Won't You lead [him]?
Father, lead [us], cause [we] can't do this alone.

Whether or not you are in a current relationship, pray, pray, pray, for the man that God has set aside for you. You never know, you might already be rubbing shoulders with the guy you're praying for or you may not know him just yet [both of which scenarios are very scary to me... haha]. Either way, pray for God's protection upon him, pray against struggles he might be facing, pray for God's perfect timing, pray for patience and purity in the relationship, pray that God would use him, pray that God would lead him to Himself.

Not So Perfect People

We are all broken people in need of a Savior. After reading this meaty article on RelevantMagazine.com, I've been thinking a lot about how easily we hide brokenness. Especially after personally being broken before God and witnessing so many others with brokenness in their lives this week. We live in a broken and imperfect world, therefore all of man is broken. In all of us is something that makes us broken,"poverty and being gay and worship and money and porn and sex and depression and abuse." [the list goes on; hardship, personal struggles, divorce, addiction, pride, arrogance]

We can individually recognize that we are broken. For some reason, we've adopted the mentality that EVERYONE else around us at church is okay and seemingly perfect! How did we come to this conclusion, more so why? Christ didn't die for PERFECT people?! If we were perfect, Christ wouldn't have had to die in the first place. We look at how messed up our life is at present and hold it locked inside. We paint on our smiles every Sunday morning (or night), when asked how we're doing we nod and say good. Are we REALLY good?! It's this scary cycle of beating around the bush until we (hopefully) crack. We try to appear as perfect people. How exhausting, always trying to polish the outside, when our insides are decaying away. Always trying to be perfect gets old quick, yet we've all gotten really good at it. Jesus didn't hang out with perfect people. He surrounded himself with the people that had issues and USED THEM! After all, Christ died for the UNGODLY.

I can recall times in my life where I've felt brokenness in my life and begged God for courage to bring it to the table. I would tell myself, okay this is it, I'm going to come forward, this has to get off my chest. I would constantly talk myself out of it, in fear that I would be judged by fellow Jesus followers. If you feel that confessing your brokenness will make you feel ashamed or embarrassed...think about how ashamed and embarrassed Christ was when he WORE all of your shame on the cross. Instead of feeling ashamed feel empowered! Christ is then ready to USE you. I feel that part of the issue with us not wanting to confess our brokenness comes from being too comfortable and viewing grace as a get out jail free card. We must desire to be used by God, which can be a scary thought but it's the step we must take to follow Jesus fully.

The key here is honesty and authenticity. We have to break down the walls that make people feel less than for being broken. We have to put an end to this tendency of "having it all together". None of us have it all together. Sharing brokenness welcomes; prayer, encouragement, weight lifted, accountability, grace, mercy, and love.

To combat brokenness within the Church we must get on our knees. Ask God to reveal broken parts of your heart. Once we can recognize the brokenness of our own heart, ask God to come into it that dark, yet never hidden part of our heart. He is and will always be the healer and deliver, He longs to see your broken heart restored. Also pray that God would make you available and approachable to those around you with broken and messy hearts. God has a history of successful heart transplants, allow Him to operate on you today! It's going to be uncomfortable and the healing might take longer than hoped for, but lasting results are promised.

YOUR BLOOD IS ENOUGH TO BREAK EVERY CHAIN.

F L A G S

F I N A L L Y . Brooke Fraser's long-coming album released! So far, f l a g s is brilliant. Love it. Grab it off iTunes asap - - !

sisterhood.

I have two great sisters that I grew up with and have always done life with. They are the sisters that will never go away, in a good way of course. Then there are my other sisters, the sisters who have come into my life for seasons, some have come and gone, some have gone and come back, and some have always been there.


I’m not married, engaged and I don’t have a boyfriend, but I know plenty of women who are in relationships and they just as well need sisters around them! Men are great, don’t get me wrong, but men will never understand needing a bowl of chocolate ice cream and a romantic comedy. They will never understand changing your outfit ten times before leaving the house. They will never understand crying for without reason. That’s WHY we need a sisterhood around us.

Some more reasons why we need a sisterhood around us; we need sisters that can press into us and sisters we can press into. Sisters that we can look up to and sisters that can look up to us. We need sisters to keep us sane. We need sisters to keep us in check. We need sisters to keep us accountable. We need sisters to be there when we're down on ourselves. We need sisters to come around us when life doesn't seem fair or make sense. We need our sisters. We each need a sisterhood that will fight for our heart and souls when we cannot.

As sisters we find that we ALL face the same sorts of trials and hardships, the only difference is they are crafted to fit into each of our stories. Our trials and hardships happen at different times [conveniently], so we are equipped to coach our other sisters through the tough times. The truth is, as women we might not always see eye to eye, we might not always be “besties” [soul sisters, best friends, go-to sisters, core friends], if we aren't careful we can easily get caught in the middle of nasty gossip and tearing down of others. Despite the “drama” that gets in the way of our sister relationships, God has set the perfect example of forgiveness, grace and mercy for us!

When we are able to get past the petty things that tend to get in the way of peaceful relationships between women, and are able to have true heart-to-heart encounters, we find that we are all very similar. Deep down we want the same things; love and acceptance. Something that only our Father can fully sustain, with the help of our sisters we feel the earthly grasp of love and acceptance. No matter how thick the skin, how deep the wound, or how many times we’ve failed; true sisters are there to help you back up, with love, mercy and grace.

I'm so blessed to have been surrounded by a diverse group of twelve or so sisters for the past two years [thanks to Kairos…another reason to join a Kairos group next semester]. We came together two falls ago. Since meeting we've each grown in tremendous ways. None of us perfect, yet we all have different things to bring to the table. Each of us is unique, has different quirks, and things that make us different from the next girl over. The thing I love most about this group is that if one isn't there, there seems to be something missing... someone’s input and personality is missing and it's just not the same. In the rare occasion that most of us are able to get together, conversations pick up right where they left off. I love that! We need our sisters! As women, we desperately need other women around us that we can share, grow and fight off Satan with.

God created the emotional and spiritual bonds that link women together, so praise God for the sisters He has placed in your life. Be thankful for the sisters that have come and gone for different seasons and chapters of your story. If you find that you don’t identify with a certain sisterhood, PRAY FOR ONE! Pray that God would provide you with and surround you with a divine sisterhood.

"Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's [sister] springs from [her] earnest counsel" - PROVERBS twenty-seven:nine