Overcoming Fear

I finally overcame my fear of roller coasters a few Saturdays ago. I went to Carowinds with some of the band people from my school. I had only been on one roller coaster before that, and I was terrified. But my dad and little brother somehow managed to talk me into riding the Intimidator. I'm fairly certain the only reason that I got on it was because I didn't want to look stupid waiting through the whole line and then getting off at the exit once we got to the top. So, I got on the roller coaster, and I loved it!!!!
This fear is kind of like some spiritual fears. But, fearing to do something is not an excuse that Christ will accept. Christ tells us that He will help us overcome fears, so we must depend on Him and "Just do it." One fear that I have been really struggling with is the fear of witnessing. But, Christ has been really convicting me, and I am praying that He will give me strength and courage.
So this week, trust Christ to help you overcome fear. He won't let you down!!

Worry

I know Caroline has done a post on worry before couple of times but I don't think I have... (: Worry have been a problem for me over the past year. I worry about school, soccer, piano, church, etc. I know that God tells us not to worry or be anxious about anything but, in my flesh, I still do. There is no reason you can come up with that is a good enough reason to worry. God is always watching out for us and will never give us more than we can handle. I want to challenge you to not worry about anything but give thanks to God in everything. Have a great day!

Philippians 4:6 ~ " do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. "

Are You Static or Dynamic?

In literature, a character can either be classified as static or dynamic. A static character remains the same throughout a work of literature, while a dynamic character undergoes some sort of change. So my question to you is: in the story of your life, are you static or dynamic?

The reason I ask this is because I believe that God desires for us to be dynamic. Most times in literature, the main character is dynamic. It is important that they change in some way to resolve the conflict in the story. We are all sinners, and it is important that we change so that we can be more like Christ. We must be sanctified. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are new creations once we are saved. So, we have definitely been changed. But we must not stop there. We must continue to let Christ transform our lives.

Romans 6:22 ~ But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (ESV)

The Power of God

Have you ever thought about the power of God? I have but I can't really say I've been awestruck... until now. I had thought about how powerful God was and I knew He could do anything but it never really sunk in... until now. Now that I have reread and heard it again and again I understand. God is all powerful. He is so powerful that when He says something people recognize that He is the Lord. Do you understand how amazing that is? Give me the name of one person that you know of you that can do that. You can't. You can try all you want but you will never find one. There is no other god like my God. He is the most powerful, loving, knowledgeable, caring, etc. God there is. He's beyond amazing and yet so many times we take that for granted. I just want you (and me) to be constantly reminded of how powerful our God is. Have a great day!

It's Been a Year!

This month marks the one-year anniversary of our blog! Breanna and I started this blog on May 31, 2010 (we started it at about 11pm; we were very anxious to have a blog together, and we got one as soon as I found out I was allowed:)). I just wanted to do this post as sort of a fun "lessons I've learned" kinda thing. I'll do one column of fun stuff and then another of spiritual things God has taught me.

Lessons about blogging with Breanna...
~Blogger has all sorts of awesome backgrounds, colors, etc., but Breanna is much better at changing them than I am:)
~Doing 5 posts a month is a very good goal. It's not too hard, but it does keep you busy.
~Blogging is a great way to unleash some of my obsessive-compulsiveness and organizational skills.
~You have to click on "Edit Html" before you can copy and paste! (At first, I didn't know there was a way to do at all on Blogger, and I wasted so much time typing everything out:( Lame, I know.)
~Blogging with Breanna is a great way to learn a lot:) I learn from her posts, and I learn from mine, even if no one else on the planet reads this blog and benefits from it:)
~Accountability is great!

Spiritual lessons I've learned while blogging...
~You need to be able to take knowledge from God's Word and organize it so that it can benefit you and others. (Blogging is a great way to do that.)
~Humility is important, and it must not be false humility.
~There is always a lesson to learn from others; that's why God put us all on earth together.
~It is not impossible to overcome certain sins; you just have to pray about them and work really hard. Worrying has been one of my hardest to overcome lately. It's different than some sins because it's not something that you can just physically stop doing. You have to train your mind.
~God should always come first. Blogging is one of my ways to give God more time and give other things less.

"Lay Aside Every Weight and Sin"

I know Breanna has been doing posts on "Running Your Race," so Breanna, I promise not to steal your thunder:) I just have one thought from Hebrews 12 that I'd like to share.

Our youth leader had his last Sunday at our church a couple weeks ago, and Hebrews 12 was the passage he read to us as a last thought. The phrase about laying aside every weight and sin really caught my attention. I'll put an excerpt from Hebrews 12 here so that you can read it in context.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (verses 1 and 2)

This passage just really encouraged me to do away with everything that hinders me and serve God completely. "If your right hand leads you into sin, cut it off." If there is something weighing you down, or a sin that is hindering you from accomplishing God's will, get rid of it!!! If there is a person that you can't be around without sinning, stop talking to them! The only thing that really counts is glorifying God and accomplishing His will, so don't let anything keep you from doing that!!!

Run Your Race (Part 2)

Hebrews 12:1-2


"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."





When you read those two verses what did you think about? I love the line that say, "and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." Again, I want to do an athletic application. Anyone who has run for long distances or has done something similar know that endurance is a hard thing to have. It's not one of those things you just get when you're born... unless you're some freak of nature or something. Some people are determined to have endurance but it comes through commitment. Dedication for striving to do your best at what you're doing. Since I am an athlete, I understand this perfectly... but understanding and doing are two very different things. I know a ton of stuff I should be doing but I hardly ever do it, if at all. But, this is something you can't just let slide out of reach. We must have the dedication, commitment, and endurance to the race God has set before us to bring Him glory. This is easier said than done... but I think I'm up to the challenge. I'm not promising that I'm gonna be a success... I will probably fail a lot but, God is always there to forgive me if I ask Him for it. Isn't it amazing to think how wonderful our God is? Y'all have a great day!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not a topic that I like to talk about very much because I don't like "being the bigger person". I don't like having to give forgiveness or ask for forgiveness. I struggle with this a lot because my flesh does not desire to be like Christ. Forgiveness is something that most people I know, and people in general, do not like to talk about forgiveness. People at my church are constantly talking about how Christ died on the cross to forgive us for our sins. But, we never talk about how we should be the ones asking and giving forgiveness. Now me just saying stuff about this topic doesn't mean much so, I will give you some verses to go along with it. We're gonna start out in Matthew 26:28 which says,"for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Christ shed His blood so He would be able to forgive us of our sins. Without Christ dying on the cross we would not have eternal life in Heaven with Christ but instead we would spend eternity in hell. Now I want to look back in Daniel 9:9. It says, "To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him." God is merciful and forgiving... shouldn't we be too? There are several more verses that I could put up here but I won't. Feel free to look those up though. I hope this post encourages you! Have a great day! (:

Quotes...

Some quotes I read make me smile. Some quotes I read make me think. And some quotes I read I really just don't get. We read quotes a lot right? Of course we do. Whether it's people putting it up on Facebook or just telling you about them, they're everywhere. I'm not saying they're bad because a lot of them are actually good, though-provoking quotes. What I am saying is that we need to be 'quoting' the Bible first. If we spent as much time looking through the Bible at the many good verses as we do reading quotes from other people, we would learn a lot. I want to challenge you. Every time you read or find a quote I want you to find a verse and read it. It doesn't matter if you're just opening your Bible to a random page and reading a random verse. Just do it. I just realized by saying that I 'quoted' Nike... that was not my intention so just ignore it;). Hope y'all have a great day!

People Need the Lord

Yesterday in church, we sang People Need the Lord. This phrase really stuck me: "What could be too great a cost for sharing Life with one who's lost?". I had been struggling with a possible witnessing opportunity, and I was really kind of scared. We had to do a booklet on irony for English I, and my example of dramatic irony came from Luke 24 where the two men were talking to Jesus after He had risen but they did not realize who He really was. We were supposed to present the projects in class today, but I was trying to wait as long as I could before I could present. So, I'll present mine tomorrow instead. Please pray that the Lord will give me the strength to share Him with others. This phrase really made me wonder why I am so scared to witness. When the song puts it like that, there really is no reason not to. No matter how crazy some people will think we are, we know that they are without something they desperately need. If they do end up accepting Christ, they will thank us for sharing Him with them. I hope this encourages you to share the Gospel with others.
*To view all the lyrics to "People Need the Lord," click here.*

Update: I presented my project and everything went great!