sun + moon

If you are the sun
then I wanna be the moon
I wanna reflect the light that shines from you
And if this is war
Then I'm gonna draw my sword
This time I know what I am fighting for

God I wanna let you know
I want everything you are
I'm waiting for the morning light to show
a fire in the dark

Shine your light, I wanna feel you now
God I need a miracle
Take my heart, make it glow
Shine your light from the inside out
I wanna be more like you
If you are the sun, I wanna be the moon
I wanna be the moon

If love is a choice
Then I need you to hear my voice
I'm the one knocking on your door making all this noise
Whatever it takes
I give it all away
I wanna show my love in a thousand ways

God I wanna let you know
I love everything you are
I'm waiting for the morning light to show
a fire in the dark

Shine your light, I wanna feel you now
God I need a miracle
Take my heart, make it glow
Shine your light from the inside out
I wanna be more like you
If you are the sun, I wanna be the moon

I can't live a single day without you
I don't even want to try
And I won't take another step without your light
I need your light

Shine your light, I wanna feel you now
God I need a miracle
Take my heart, make it glow
Shine your light from the inside out
I wanna be more like you
If you are the sun, I wanna be the moon

If you are the sun
then I wanna be the moon
I wanna reflect the light that shines from

whoa-eekend.

This weekend was jam-packed!

Friday... heaps of work! wsm girl hang out... lots of giggles, chocolate, pinterest, & conversing.

Saturday... spent the day downtown, repairing an old DPS - turned church & youth outreach center... long nap... massive grocery shopping trip... date with my twin, classic dinner & bumming around Target.

Sunday... church/worship... excellent message on trusting God for our needs... huge/scary snow fall, making driving a nightmare... long arvo setting up for kairos small group kick-off dinn dinn... a huge success... I'm so excited to see what God had in store for each group starting up :)

*first ever post via my Blogger App!

sex, marriage & fairytales

realizing God's value.

my life in a nutshell:

God blessed me with a seemingly perfect childhood. I really never experienced a horrific life altering event as a kid. My parents never got divorced. I went to private school for elementary and middle school. I knew what was wrong and what was right. I've been going to church since the womb, I know all the answers, I always seem to have it all together. I memorized the fruits of the Spirit, thanks to Steve Green sing-a-longs. I managed to struggle my way through AWANA. In high school I went to all of the youth group events / small groups / retreats. I was pretty naive about things when I went to high school. I wasn't really popular in my public high school, but at church I always seemed to be in the "cool" group. I prided myself in staying out of trouble and would judge the trouble makers. I’ve never actually been on a date before; making it pretty easy to stay out of trouble with boys. I never snuck out of the house. I never partied or drank illegally. I didn't dress like I was easy, because my mom wouldn't let me. And I only listened to Christian music, of course!

My story may not seem thrilling or exciting, but I can't discredit the story that He gave me. Just because I haven't turned down certain roads, doesn't mean God didn't still have to SAVE me! I was born a SINNER, in DESPERATE need of a Savior… still in need of grasping God's VALUE for me. After all, behind my clean/polished church self, was a very broken, depressed, and hopeless girl. As Lecrae would say I was “eating on some secret sin” … holding all of my sins and problems deep down inside of me; it made me be become a really good hypocrite too. UNTIL I stepped back, let Jesus step into my life and truly REALIZED HIS value for me.

here are 5 revelations that helped me,

REALIZE God’s VALUE for me :::

1. I REALIZED God’s VALUE for me, once I understood that I had…

VICTORY over all of my dirty / hidden / embedded / embarrassing / nasty SIN.

Jesus died to bring us to life! If we remain dead in our sins, we can't be fully used by Him. In is death brought victory over our sin, through faith/trust in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:4 ... we were ONCE living in darkness, BUT GOD [He steps in] being RICH in MERCY because of the great love with which he LOVED us even when we were DEAD in our SIN made us ALIVE together with CHRIST—by GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED---and raised up with HIM and seated with HIM in the heavenly places.

IF you’re currently living in sin, run from it NOW, because your SIN WILL find YOU OUT… so why not start LIVING in FREEDOM right now!?

2. I REALIZED God’s VALUE for me once I understood that I have the…

ABILITY to carry out HIS plans…

The only way you will be equipped and ABLE to carry our HIS plans for you, is by DOING THEM! If you feel like God is calling you to do something, DO IT! He put a call on EACH of your life and has given you the ABILITY to carry our very specific/unique plans...NO ONE’S PLANS ARE THE SAME, so STOP COMPARING yourself.

+If someone told me ten years ago I would travel to AUSTRALIA by myself, God would shake my life upside down and then take me to Thailand to minster to women enslaved by the sex industry, I would have probably laughed in their face! BUT God knew, and HE knew I would be ABLE to carry out EXACTLY what He had planned.

Ephesians 3:20 … Now to him who is ABLE to do immeasurably MORE than all we ask or imagine.

He will do MORE than we can imagine once we use our ABILITIES to fearlessly proclaim His name to all the world.

3. I REALIZED God’s VALUE for me once I forgot about the…

LIES that this world tries to feed me...

The world’s definition of everything is warped. Beauty in God's economy is very different than the world, we are conditioned from an early age that we have to be PHYSICALLY perfect to get a Prince Charming or a happy life with Ken. This is in fact a LIE. We think that living the American Dream will bring us lasting joy, fulfillment and happiness, FALSE.

1 Timothy 6:7-8 ... Nothing of this world will last, be content with the basics!

1 Samuel 16:7 ... Do not look on her appearance or on the height of her stature, because I have rejected her. For the LORD sees not as the WORLD sees: THE WORLD looks at her outward appearance, but the LORD looks at her heart!

We are all going to be wrinkly and saggy one day, so worry more about WHAT will last and that is YOUR heart! Your status will not bring you joy, only Jesus can give you true joy & satisfaction.

4. I REALIZED God’s VALUE for me once I accepted His…

UNCONDITIONAL love…

This means HE loves me WITHOUT conditions! I can’t do anything to deserve HIS love. He JUST LOVES, no matter what I say or do, HE LOVES ME.

1 John 4:19 ... WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.

John 3:16 ... For GOD SO LOVED the world, that HE gave HIS only Son, that whoever believes in HIM will not perish.

His LOVE for us is evident ALL OVER SCRIPTURE, read the BIBLE as if it’s a LOVE LETTER from the world’s most ATTRACTIVE LOVER.

5. I REALIZED God’s VALUE for me once I started to …

EMBRACE HIS VALUE…

CLAIM IT, WALK IN HIS VALUE. YOU ARE HIS FAVORITE. You are HIS most PRIZED possession. This is all just HEAD knowledge until WE EMBRACE IT. Tell yourself every morning in the mirror that YOU ARE HIS FAVORITE. YOU ARE HIS MOST VALUED CREATION.

Psalm 139:13 ... YOU KNIT ME TOGETHER… I praise YOU because I am fearfully and WONDERFULLY made.

Song of Solomon 6:3 ... I am my beloved and my beloved is MINE!

You are HIS. Embrace these truths. You’ve been ADOPTED into HIS kingdom, EMBRACE the VALUE He places on you! Apply it to your life.

experience grace / accept grace.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us ALIVE together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2 v 1-10

+ as children of God, we experience grace on a daily basis -- every morning we wake up to new mercies and second chances. have we really accepted this grace though? or do we just rely/live off of countless second chances? have we truly repented and turned from our sin? have we surrendered to Grace? until we clear/confess out our embedded sin, run away from it and give up our rights to a selfish life... we will have really accepted grace.

"Fragments of brokenness
Salvaged by the art of grace
You craft life from our mistakes
A second chance is heaven's heart
Countless second chances
We've been [freely] given at the Cross"

journal roster.

It's a new year, lots of new things, including JOURNALS! the older I've gotten the more serious I've become about journal-ing...I tend to forget important details in my old age :) So here we go 2012 ::: journal 1. personal prayer journal; basically a journal between God & I, lots praises and requests... lots of forgiveness and joy goes into this one. 2. quiet time journal; in 2012 I'm trying to be more intentional about dissecting God's Word, via a journal to write, recite and memorize things. 3. to-my-future-spouse journal... in high school I tried to start a journal to my future husband and it never got kept up with... in 2012 I want to be more intentional about praying for my future husband and sharing thoughts/prayers with him, to one day have him look back on. I'm excited for new exciting adventures/seasons to be written in these journals.cheers to 2012 journal-ing!

fighting for freedom

whoa!... I went to Passion Conference last week. the theme was freedom. freedom for anyone and everyone. freedom in Christ. freedom from sin. freedom from slavery. freedom for the voiceless. freedom for the nameless. freedom for the faceless. in God's economy, everyone has a chance for freedom. [where the SPIRIT of the LORD is, THERE IS freedom]

the conference was fighting for two realms of freedom; spiritual & physical.

God taught me so much. every time a session ended I walked out dumb founded. it's not like I've never heard these truths before, this time it was just different. God seriously shook me to the core! He turned my heart inside out. I truly grasped His idea of freedom/grace, more than I ever have before.

the conference opened with a half-hour or so of spoken Word.! 44,000 people reading out loud different Bible passages, over and over again, Truth being proclaimed through this massive stadium... chills! of course the worship was amazing. the speaking was so captivating, hearing these speakers, who are all basically known around the world, share their hearts for this generation and fighting for freedom of those being held captive spiritually/physically was literally breath-taking. seeing an older generation, proud of this generation was also very humbling. God's hand was clearly over the entire week.... I don't really know how one could have sat through the sessions or worship with out sensing the Holy Spirit.! the presence of God was so tangible, lives/hearts were definitely transformed.

to make the massive sea of people seem smaller, they split everyone into 20 community groups of 2,000+, from there you got into family groups of 8! when they told us this at registration, the girls & I were so stoked! it was sweet to have a chance to connect with other college students from around the country... all finding/fighting for the same freedom. it was awesome to see God move through our family group & community group! very thankful for a sense of community amongst that many people.

with the idea of [freedom] as the running theme, we managed to raise 3 million+ dollars to help local/national/international organizations aid in ending human trafficking/modern slavery! we got to hear real-life stories of trafficking raids, hope, and heart-shattering statistic. today 27 million HUMAN beings [a story/ a face / a life] are enslaved!? His prized possessions, enslaved. His masterpieces, taken advantage of. His workmanship, chained.

a lot of times I'll hear people give the excuse that they can't help end slavery because they can't identify.. hello! we are/were all slaves! we were once enslaved by sin, until Salvation came into the picture. true freedom is only found in the HOPE of Jesus. we are all slaves to sin, until we raise our white flag to Jesus and surrender ALL to Him. Jesus' desire is that none of His prized possessions would be enslaved any longer... read the entire of Ephesians.




basically the whole week gave me chills:::

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

>MAJESTY stepped into our mess

>I am offended by [your sin],
but I am not afraid of your humanity - JESUS

>HE intersected us at the right time,
in the middle of our funeral procession...
bringing us back to LIFE

YOU REVIVE ME.
YOU TURNED MY DESERT,
INTO RIVERS OF JOY.

>You cannot be unclean enough
to make a mess out of Him

>He is clean enough for all of us,
Your faith leads to healing

DO SOMETHING NOW.
THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME,
TO NOT ACT NOW.

>Being satisfied with Christ frees you,
from the bondage of sin...
by trusting, seeing, savoring

>It must be a desire, not just a decision

>Make the Name of Christ be your sight, savor satisfaction, desire, & trust

BLIND PEOPLE DON'T DECIDED TO SEE
-- WE DON'T DECIDE TO BE FREE,
HE DECIDED TO COME SET US FREE.

[Praying search my heart / Holy Spirit search my heart / As I draw nearer, Jesus be clearer / Cause Your Word will shine a light on my life, and I'll see You / Show Your face / Jesus, would You show Your face / As I draw nearer, Jesus be clearer / Jesus would You show Your face / As I draw nearer, Jesus clearer]

>We were raised from the dead,
given authority & now have to do something with it.

>We are being set up for a destination unknown to us,
fully known by the Creator of the Universe

>proclaim His name
f e a r l e s s l y .

>Brokenness doesn't disqualify you,
it fully qualifies you!

"that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." _ EPHESIANS 6v19-20
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

* feeling overwhelmingly blessed to have been a part of such a movement.

december !

December::: quality family time / Christmas parties / work / lots of babysitting / cookie baking / pressies / hand-made-craft show / weddings / mom-sister dates / lights / candles / chilled new years eve / JESUS!