commune

lets bother God w/
relentless prayer.
listen to podcast here.

way-to-go

Tonight was my very last lighthouse...until I come home from Australia in JUNE!! How weird is that!? It felt funny to think that I'm not going to be amongst that group of people for six whole months! This situation I find myself in of literally preparing to leave everything I know and love behind is very... sad, exciting, nerve racking and rejuvenating -- all at the same time.

Of course Cliff's message was exactly what I needed to hear & the worship was exactly what my heart needed. The message was on b e i n g the Church, through discipleship & fellowship. Um, HELLO!! That's EXACTLY what I am going to do!? God is so cool in working things out, eh?!

As followers of Christ we're called to be disciples and to disciple others. Discipleship and fellowship go hang in hand, it involves investing and wanting to pour into anothers life.

Then he spoke about how as the body of Christ we're to do our part to expand the kingdom...in turn, creating disciples and a need for fellowship. We're to go to go the ends of the earth, making disciples, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit! It doesn't matter what our vocation is, if we're a follower of Christ, we're supposed to go the ends of where ever we're at...and that's exactly what I will be doing in three very short weeks. Actually going to the ends of the earth, as a disciple and to disciple...creating fellowship to expand the Kingdom :)

It was crazy how Cliff's message was just confirming that what I'm about take on this January is "from him and through him and to him ". I love how God uses others to speak directly to us! Tonight was such a great way-to-go.

ah. d r e a m e r.

Lighthouse summer series started last week and it’s titled “DREAM”. It got me thinking about my dreams…therefore I shall type [some of] them out. Some are a little far fetch, but a dreams a dream!

[Really in no particular order…just as they come to me I guess]

Dream//Wish List:

1. Live in a trendy Ikea-ed out New York [or Chicago] loft on my own
2. Travel and experience the w o r l d with a camera in hand [Australia, India, Africa…starters]
3. Start a woman’s ministry that intertwines generations, mixing the young and the wise for a greater impact.
4. Study with YWAM..! [base TBD]
5. Write a book about the celebration & value of womanhood.
6. Get married when I'm still relatively young and raise a family.
7. Run a marathon in a reasonable time.
8. Have morning coffee with Oprah & afternoon tea with Beth Moore.
9. Climb a mountain.
10. Become a children's psychologist and/or counselor.
11. Go to Fashion Week [Paris, New York, or LA]
12. Drink coffee and read a book in a Paris a cafe.
13. Have one of my photographs on display in a museum.
14. Celebrate Christmas during the Summer.
15. Ride my bike to other side of the state.
16. Be more spontaneous.
17. Sleep on a beach.
18. Go to the Olympics [as a spectator of course...]
19. Have God and I time in the Holy Land.
20. Work at a bookstore just like, “The Shop Around the Corner” on You've Got Mail.
21. End sex trafficking, both nationally and internationally.
22. Vacation in Fiji.
23. Teach a Yoga class.
24. Adopt a baby.
25. Open a card & cupcake shoppe.
26. Wake up one day with 20/20 vision.
27. Live in a house with a wrap around porch.
28. Maintain a journal for an entire year. [...current journal started in 2006, sad I know]
29. Work for a major marketing company and know what it's like to be a power hungry career babe.
30. Get a tattoo and not regret it ten years later.

"When Jesus is at the core of our lives,

HE becomes the inspirer of our d r e a m s."

- Steven Khoshaba (via facebook status)

Let Us Pray

Jesus prayed for his followers, he modeled how we should pray through his word. We’re called to “pray without ceasing” and to “present [our] requests to God”. (1 Thessalonians 5:17 & Philippians 4:6) The house I grew up in had a stain glass window in the dinning room, with a picture of Jesus on his knees praying. This picture is a clear representation of what we, as followers of Christ are called to do...pray continuously.

Prayer is powerful. Things happen when God’s people pray. Yet, we can take prayer for granted sometimes, or at least I know I am guilty of it. Shallowly asking God to forgive my laundry list of wrongs, begging to pass an exam I know I did’t study for, or asking for things like I’m talking to Santa. Not that there’s a right way and no wrong way to pray, we just need to keep our motives in check.

Prayer is about communicating with God himself, not telling Santa what you want for Christmas. If being able to talk to the Creator of the universe is not powerful to you, I don’t what else is!? He hears us when we talk to Him. He longs for us to take time out of our day to talk to Him. As in any relationship, communication is the key.

That's why I LOVED Lighthouse last weekend! Before Lighthouse a group of us met to pray for Lighthouse. Of course, as a Collective we should constantly be praying for Lighthouse, though it seems especially important as we move into a new season. We prayed for anyone coming for the first time, for the future of Lighthouse, for those that attend regularly and that God would move through out the Collective. It was amazing to spend time in prayer before transitioning into worship.

To most of our surprise, we spent a good portion of the night in prayer -- instead of listening to a message. The entire Collective lifted up prayers of thankfulness, humility and simple requests to God. Thankful for those who had gone before us, that had set the platform we now have to reach more young adults for Christ. We humbly praised God for giving us this new chapter in our ministry, asking God to not let us lose sight of Him through these next big steps. Then we asked God to move in the hearts of those who had never been to Lighthouse before and that maybe by passing out postcards, we would be inclined to reach more young adults in our community.

Last night [Wednesday] I sat with my mom at my brother’s baseball game and told her how cool it was that we had prayed so much at Lighthouse. Not only did a group pray before Lighthouse, but that the entire Collective prayed during Lighthouse as well. The next thing I know, she suddenly started asking all these questions, “When were you praying?!” or “What were you praying about specifically!?”, as I answered her hurried questions, I shot back with a “why”, curious to why she was so excited about us praying during Lighthouse.

My mom began explaining to me the story of a woman she works with. This woman, not a believer, but knows my mom is, came to her in hopes she knew of a good local church for her daughter to get involved at this summer. The daughter became a Christian during high school, therefore wanted to go to a Christian college upon graduation. Now that classes are over, she’s home for the summer and has been struggling to find a church to get plugged into. My mom mentioned that Lighthouse was a great place for college students to get involved at, even if they’re only home for the summer. The woman seemed interested and said she would tell her daughter about Lighthouse.

The following morning my mom goes into work as usual, but this time is different, she is met by the woman from the day before. She begins to exclaim how she had told her daughter about Lighthouse and that she also seemed interested. The same night she had told her daughter about Lighthouse, her daughter went into work at Macy’s and was handed a Lighthouse postcard. The daughter is now planning on coming to the launch of the Summer Series.

When we pray God hears us and if we truly want to see God move amongst the Collective and in our community, we cannot stop praying. God really does move in mysterious ways and prayer does in fact work. Some would call this a coincidence, but I would call it the power of prayer. Therefore, let us pray.

Ancient Skies

No matter the time of day, I love to observe the sky. What do you see when you look up at the sky? Do you look past the clouds? Can you believe how small we are compared to the sky? Are you quickly reminded of God when you see a pretty sunrise or a storm rolling in?


The sky is quite an intriguing part of creation. Everyone can see it; wherever you are in the world, we all see the same sky. To the human eye, the sky is constantly changing due to the weather and rotation of the Earth. No matter the change we see, its been the same sky since time began. We might see dark rain clouds, floods of red and orange hues, or simply a cloudless blue, but still it remains the same. Day might turn to night and seasons might come and go, but the sky itself doesn’t actually change; we just view it differently.

One summer night my sister and I were driving with the windows down and music blaring, when we were struck by the beauty displayed across the horizon. With my camera strap snug around my wrist, I stuck my camera out the window to snap this photo. It’s in this photo that I am reminded of our never changing God.

Our seasons might change, our view of life might be as bright as the morning or turn as dark as the night, yet we have a Creator that never changes. Our Creator, like the sky, is for everyone. No one is left out when it comes to discovering and knowing the beauty of the Creator, just like the beauty found in a sunset or flashes of lightning.

Psalms 68 says,
“Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord, Selah,
Him who rides the ancient skies above,
who thunders with mighty voice”.

God rides the ancient skies. The skies might change view but God is still in them. Even when our circumstances are a cloudy gray or a bright hue, God is there. We can find him in every part of life and every view of the sky.

When we are open to it, God reveals himself in gorgeous and magnificent ways. The Creator of the universe chooses to display a magnificent master piece across sky on a daily basis. We are on His mind when he paints the sunrise every morning or brushes in rain clouds. He is everywhere, in everything, and with everyone, just like the sky we see everyday. We serve a Creator that like the sky is: bigger than we could ever imagine and for everyone, everywhere.

marriage & second chances

the phrase second chances has gained a whole new meaning tonight.

as we ring in another new year, we always seem to ring in a slew of second chances along with a fresh start, a clean slate. not as if new years is the only time we get another chance, life is made/filled with second chances. God has chosen to give me [us] second chances (His never ending love, mercy & grace) .. to say second would be bogus in actuality, it's honestly more like, a trillionth chance - you get the gist. so tonight Cliff opened by asking how our two thousand & eight was light heartedly; going over his top tens of the year. .. then nailed us with "how was your marriage [in two thousand & eight]?". when he first said this I know I wasn't the only one (or maybe I was, it takesme a second or so to process things .. ha) that thought it was a weird thing to ask, seeing that maybe 10 percent - if that, of the people at lighthouse on a regular basis are married ... so I for one didn't really find this relevant at first. then he went on explaining how basicaly as a follower of the Creator we are in a sense 'married' to Christ. we are the Bible says, His bride after all, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride [the Church] has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7.

I mean, I hear this analogy all the time, but I never grasped it the way I did tonight. as Cliff spoke of how we are in this intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe, he referred to his and Anges relationship, or any married couples relationship. he went into the example of our sin basically being lust towards another or having an affair while we are married and how we can find freedom in a pure and holy marriage. yet knowing that, we often times continue down our dangerous path of sin with the mentality of "He will always forgive me, no matter what we do". when you think of our sin as committing adultery ... it takes a whole different meaning, or to me it does. I mean I am not married .. yet, but I cannot imagine the hurt, the angst, the utter disappointment and the feeling of inadequacy that I as a wife or a man as a husband would feel if the one closest to them, the one they has once found satisfaction in was to cheat on them. to me, that would be so horrible and think to myself, well I would never let that happen if I were married ... yet it’s as if I am [all of us] committing adultery against my [our] heavenly Husband on a daily, continual basis and the worst part is that we don’t even realize it when we are lukewarm on the fence Christians. we go on in our dirty ways of sin and don’t even think of who we are cheating on -- the Creator of the universe. we are telling our spouse; "You are no longer good enough for me, You no longer satisfy my needs, I can live without you, after all You are the one that married me and I know You still love me, You will always forgive me". okay, this is such a dangerous way of life. it’s obvious that a marriage will not and cannot last when one of the spouses is constantly cheating ... marriages build on knowing the other so deeply that you cannot live without the other. in marriage, you get to know the other by effective communication, going through life with them. as Christians - brides of Christ, we are called to live our married life getting to know our Husband, through communication or prayer and go through life with Him, gaining knowledge of how He works by staying close to the Word. in Psalms 37 we find how we are called to live and go on committed to our Husband or our LORD & Savior Jesus Christ ...

3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

God just completely opened my eyes, and my heart tonight, that I am in dyer need of renewing my vows - not just verbally, I have to take action as well; constantly getting to know my Husband on a much much more intimate level through His word and by talking to Him ... how many married couples do you know that don’t talk, not many and if they don’t talk it’s not a good sign of a thriving marriage. also, by forsaking all others that would cause me to cheat on Him. what perfect timing, a new year, a fresh start to a renewed marriage. I thought of it like this, it’s like I met my Husband in 1995 [when I accepted Christ], we casually dated through elementary school and middle school - just figuring each other out. in high school our relationship sort of picked up, we got a tad more serious, we got married [I rededicated my life to Christ before high school], but we weren’t moving to fast. I thought I knew my Husband, but really He knew me better, He knew my weaknesses, He knew we would hit rough patches, so He waited for me. He waited there when I painfully cheated on Him, and time after time, He took me back as I begged for His forgiveness and wanted back into the marriage. then it took me till I was in college to see how I had hurt my Husband and realized how our marriage should be from now on. God has really been moving in my life for the past couple of weeks, and I am finally seeing my flaws, my mistakes, the times I’ve cheated. two thousand & nine Lord willing, marks my year of renewal, recharging, genesis', second chances at a marriage that means way to much to see it crumble. because no one is perfect, my marriage, just as everyone elses will have its moments, there will be times when I [and everyone else] will be tempted to lust or to cheat on my spouse, but my [our] Spouse thankfully doesn’t believe in divorce and paid way to big of a debt [His death on a cross] to see our marriage fall apart. therefore He, our Spouse always welcomes us, His bride back for a second chance and two thousand & nine is my second chance to strive for a well rounded and thriving marriage.

one more thing, Cliff mentioned opening to a part of scripture [Psalm 37] and when I went to flip to it, it was already marked. the card that was "book marking" it was an index card we were given around thanksgiving time during Sunday school and were asked to write what we were most thankful for in terms of our relationship with God, mine said “I am thankful for Gods mercy and grace. and for the second chances He offers”. it was for sure a God thing ... my God is not a god of luck or chance, He proves Himself right in front of us if we look for Him. my God is at work in my heart.

KAIROS CHRISTMAS:

[hint] kairos is the fancy name for Lighthouse Collective small groups where people; make connections, learn, make new friends, build community, grow, trust, or share meals and life together. And for our Christmas party, we were treated to Miyakoa - a Japanese steak house for a very filling dinner, photo op in a giant snow globe and dessert at the Melting Pot ... it was so fun :)

wonderful weekend get-a-way

watershed retreat 2008//re:life

this past weekend about 40 girls went to a beautiful golf resort in west michigan, for time away from the world and encountered God in ways they could have only dreamed of. they learned how to truly love God, life, others, and who God created us to be. many tears were shed and laughs were shared ... it was relaxing, refreshing, renewing, all at the same time.