Tuesday, March 29, 2011

O Great God


  • O great God of highest heaven Occupy my lowly heart Own it all and reign supreme Conquer every rebel power Let no vice or sin remain That resists Your holy war You have loved and purchased me Make me Yours forevermore

  • I was blinded by my sin Had no ears to hear Your voice Did not know Your love within Had no taste for heaven’s joys Then Your Spirit gave me life Opened up Your Word to me Through the gospel of Your Son Gave me endless hope and peace

  • Help me now to live a life That’s dependent on Your grace Keep my heart and guard my soul From the evils that I face You are worthy to be praised With my every thought and deed O great God of highest heaven Glorify Your Name through me
Always remember that we serve a great God. I hope this song was encouraging to you; I know they were to me!

Our Purpose

Have you ever thought about what our purpose is on this earth? I mean God must have put us here for a reason right? Well, of course He did. And in this post we are going to look at what our purpose is. I know I've already done a post like this before but I think I need to do it again... I'm not quite sure why though;). Have you ever thought about why God put us on earth? We weren't put on this earth to just enjoy what it has to offer and die. We are here to bring glory to God in all that we do. I struggle with this a lot. It's hard to do everything to glorify God because our flesh longs for the things of this world, not the things of Christ. Just be constantly thinking... is what I'm doing glorifying to God? Hope y'all have a great day! :)

What Are You Learning?

Are you still reading your Bible everyday? I know I haven't checked up on this in a while and also I haven't given you guys any of the past 3 months reading plans... I'm sorry about that:). But my question is, what are you learning? If you are reading your Bible everyday, you should be learning something. If you aren't, I understand why. There have a few times where I read my Bible just because I'm supposed to, not because I need to. I've gone through my Bible reading time without focusing on it and when I was done couldn't even remember what I had just read. With school it can be easy to do that... we are too busy focusing on upcoming tests, or homework we have to do last minute, or, for me, I have soccer game and I'm so nervous I can't focus. None of those things are bad necessarily but Satan can use them to distract us from focusing on God and His Word. I just want to encourage you to read your Bible with a purpose and be learning something every time you open God's Word. Have a great day! :)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

2 Timothy 2:22

2 Timothy 2:22~ Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. I hadn't thought about this verse in awhile until a few days ago. I don't remember what I was struggling with, but the phrase "flee the evil desires of youth" came to mind. It reminded me that even though I am a technically a "youth," I don't have to surrender to youthful desires. Christ has given me the strength to overcome these. Instead, I am supposed to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. This reminded me of the book Do Hard Things. As teens, we can surpass society's expectations for us. We do not have to be a slave to youthful lusts. But, unless we trust Christ to help us overcome them, we cannot do it. I hope this encourages you to overcome youthful lusts and pursue things like righteousness, faith, love, and peace!

Monday, March 21, 2011

God vs. Satan

Spiritual warfare is something that I know very little about. I am not going to try to explain things that I do not understand, but I do know one thing: God's Word says in 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:." I do not know very much about angels, demons, etc. My goal for this post is just to remind myself and everyone that God warns us to be wary of the devil. He says that the devil is as a roaring lion. The devil is out to get us. We cannot live our lives thinking that he does not exist. Satan is trying to get us to fall into temptation and trying to get us to sin. We must constantly ask God to help us overcome sin. God is so much greater than sin, but He can't help us until we are willing to admit that we need help. For more information on this subject, I recommend reading the "Lies about Satan" section of Lies Young Women Believe. You can also read a post I wrote about Spiritual Warfare here.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

God

I said in my last post that I had been learning a lot, even from reading through the Old Testament. These are just a few examples of things that I have learned.



  • In Numbers 10:9, the LORD tells the Israelites, "When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies." I think God told them to do this because by doing it, the were obeying Him and acknowledging that they needed His help. The trumpets themselves had no special significance. It was the Israelites' mindset when they blew them that affected the outcome of the battle.
  • Numbers 11:1 explains how God felt when the Israelites wouldn't stop complaining. I am very bad about complaining and this verse reminded me how much God hates complaining.
  • In Numbers 13 and 14, the God sent several Israelites to explore the land of Canaan. They people came back scared and worried about how they would overtake the people living there. God was upset with the people for trusting in their own strength instead of His. This reminded me that I can do nothing through my own strength, but everything through God's.
  • Numbers 20:8 says, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” This reminded me of God's provision.
  • In Numbers 20:12, God says to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." Although this is a sad passage, it reminds us that God knows what He's doing and He demands obedience. Those who don't obey Him and honor Him will not go unpunished.
  • In Numbers 21, the Israelites grew impatient. God grew angry and sent deadly snakes to the people. Many Israelites died from their bites. But the people repented and said to Moses, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." Moses prayed to God and God said, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." This chapter reminded me that God honors true repentance. God is a patient God, even when we are impatient.
  • Numbers 32:11 taught me that God requires wholehearted service. God doesn't want us to follow Him only when we want to. We must follow Him through good times and bad times.
  • Numbers 32:23 reminded me that our sin will find us out. It may seem like we are getting away with something, but God always knows what we are doing and we will all have to give an account to Him one day of everything that we have ever done.

The Holy Spirit showed me all of these things just while I was reading through Numbers. It is amazing how much we can learn from God's Word. There really is no substitute for spending uninterrupted time in God's Word every day.


Monday, March 14, 2011

When Trials Come (Part 2)

Well, hopefully all of you guys read my first post about trials... if not you need to:). So I was playing piano yesterday and found a song that I have known for a long time but I had forgotten about it. I think this fits in well under the category of trials(or help when you're going through a trial). So I hope you all enjoy this song. It's called Lord, I Need You by Ron Hamilton.

"Sometimes when life seems gentle and blessings flood my way, I turn my gaze away from You and soon forget to pray. But when the sky grows darker and courage turns to fear, My anxious voice cries upward with words You long to hear."

"Lord, I need You when the sea of life is calm. O Lord, I need You when the wind is blowing strong. Whether trials come or cease, keep me always on my knees. Lord, I need You. Lord, I need You."

"Lord, help me to remember I'm weak but You are strong. I cannot sing apart from You, for Lord, You are my song. Although I'm prone to wander and boast in all I do; Lord, keep my eyes turned upward so I depend on You."

"Lord, I need You when the sea of life is calm. O Lord, I need You when the wind is blowing strong. Whether trials come or cease, keep me always on my knees. Lord, I need You. Lord, I need You."

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Take Note...

I know that no one likes taking notes at school (trust me, I know, I have to take a lot!) but I believe that it is really important to take notes when it comes to our Christian walk. I often am listening to a sermon or reading my Bible and I hear something that I really like. I think, "I am definitely going to remember that." But, I never remember unless I write it down. Whenever I am in Sunday School or a church service, I try to take notes. But recently, I have started taking notes while I do my devotions as well. Doing this has really helped me learn a lot. I used to think that there wasn't a whole lot that I was able to get out of reading the Old Testament. I mean, I acknowledged it as inspired Scripture but I didn't think that there was much I could get out of it to apply to my life. But, I started taking notes and realized that there was just as much applicable stuff in the Old Testament as in the New Testament. I learned some valuable things about God and who He is. And, because God is the same now as He was back then (Malachi 3:6), those attributes are the same today. OK, so I learned attributes about God, but what am I supposed to do with them? Joshua Harris says, "We're either building our lives on the reality of what God is truly like and what He's about or we're basing our lives on our own imagination and misconception." A.W. Tozer writes, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God." The attributes of God are so important; we live our lives based on what we think about God! For example, if we truly believe that God is a just God who hates sin, would we sin as much? If we believed that God works everything together for good, would we complain as much about our current circumstances? I realized all of this because I simply started taking notes on my Bible reading. My next post will give examples of things I learned about God from taking notes. I hope this isn't too jumbled up to understand!

In Awe

Recently, I read a post on the Lies Young Women Believe blog about being in awe of Christ. I realized that that was something I really needed to do better with. I found a quote that I really liked, but I'm not sure who wrote it. It says: ""When we are awed by something—we can't help but pass it on. It's our natural tendency. And if we are in awe of God—we become natural, unstoppable, top-notch teachers." Wow. I don't know about you, but that really gave me something to think about. Evangelism is something that I really struggle with, but this made me realize that, if I am enough in awe of Christ (which I should be according to Isaiah 33:5-6 which talks about God being exalted and fearing Him), I will automatically tell others about Him. How many times have you learned something that you thought was just amazing and just kept it to yourself? None, right? You went and told someone (or probably a lot of people) about it. This made me realize that I need to be more in awe of Christ. But, how do I do that? If I learn more about Him (by reading His Word) and see how truly awesome God is (Deuteronomy 10:17 NIV), I will tell others about Him. Awesome is a word that is way overused in our society. It really refers to something that causes awe, terror, inspiring wonder, or excitement (according to wiktionary.com). I thought that it was really interesting to see that a secular website gave the definition of inspiring wonder. If I am inspired by something, it really impacts me and I will tell people. Because God is awesome, I should feel inspiring wonder when I think about Him, and I should tell others. I really hope this post isn't too jumbled up for you to understand. I thought this was really cool to see how everything fits together.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

My Testimony

Doing math can really make you think... but in a different way then you're thinking;). While I was doing math I realized that I haven't shared my testimony with y'all! Here all this time I've just been preachin' away and I haven't even told you how I got save... It should've been the first post that I did but it wasn't... So here is my testimony! :)

I grew up in a Christian home. I went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. We did family devotions every night before bed. We did all those things and more like... pray before we eat... pray before we leave to go somewhere... Growing up like that I grew up knowing about God and about how He died on the cross for me and that I needed to be forgiven for all my sins so that He could make me clean and all that but I never really thought about it outside of church. I would like to say that I was a good kid but I really wasn't... I was actually a mean little girl (to my sister anyways...) but that's another story for another day;). To spite all that I never saw my need for a Savior. Well, not until I was 9 at least. Sometime in November, 2006 our family went back to Ohio (where we used to live) and stayed with our old pastor (Pastor V). One of the Sundays we were there I heard a message in children's church about Heaven and Hell. Now I was 9 and I knew what I hadn't been doing and what I needed to do. That night about 11:30 or so, after me and my sister were already in bed, I told my sister that I wanted to get saved. Being the great sister that she was said that I should wait until morning;)... but of course I couldn't. We went down to where my parents' room was and I told them I wanted to be saved. We talked for a really long time and they showed me some verses and we talked some more. My parents wanted to make sure that I was serious. After all of that I asked Jesus to come into my heart and immediately I just felt awesome! Kinda like when you jump into a cold pool and your body gets all tingly but the difference with me was that I was sooooo excited!!!!! not cold;). So, on November 28, 2006 I got saved at 12:30 in the morning. :D

This is really the first time that I have really shared my testimony... except for when I got baptized. I really hope that all of that made sense to you and that it's not just a jumbled up mess:). Now I would love to hear your testimony! Maybe I can soon:). Hope y'all have a great day! :)