Coincidence

On Saturday I was sitting at home thinking how much fun it would be to go bowling. Since my parents are coming in a couple of weeks I thought it would be cool if we went bowling with them and Rhonda and her family. Well about 4:30 i got a text from Rhonda asking me if I wanted to go bowling with her and her family!!! What a coincidence. Then I stopped to think about it. The only person who knew what I was thinking was God. I had also been praying to him lately that he might help me find people to do things with on the weekends. And I came to the conclusion that it really wasn't a coincidence but a gift from God. That stuck with me. How many times does God do things for us and we just shrug them off as coincidences. I was tell Rhonda about all of this on Monday and I told her it was like when you are dating someone and you leave tiny notes for them to find to brighten their days. Me going bowling was a note from God and it definitely brightened my day. We had a lot of fun!!(plus I won both games!) So think about this the next time a coincident pops up in your life. Maybe it is the answer to a pray you prayed once or maybe just a love note from the Father. I hope that you have a wonderful day full of coincidences.

Power in the Word

Last week was a really rough week for me. There is some things going on here at school that have been taking their toll on me. Saturday morning I was cleaning my house when I came across a picture that Larrissa had made for me when Joel was born. On it was Isaiah 41:9-10, which say "Telling you, 'You're my servant, serving on my side. I've picked you. I haven't dropped you. 'Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I'm your God. I'll give you strength. I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you." (The Message) It was the perfect verse for me to hear. I decided that the biggest problem was I was feeling sorry for myself. That things were hard and I was ready to give up. But like this verse says I am God servant and he has picked me. Serving is not always going to be easy but if you keep going it says that God will give me strength. On Sunday our Pastor asked us how big our God was because our view of God tends to be way too small. We limit him and do not trust him with everything in our life. That is one problem that seems to keep popping up in my life. I have made God too small. I try to find my own strength but this never works. I need to start trust God with everything. He will NEVER drop me, His grip on me will always been firm and He is always right there beside me holding me steady. I just need to ask for His help instead of trying to do it all on my own. So even though the circumstances have not changed this week my perspective will. This week I am not going to feel sorry for myself but instead I am going to call on God to give me the strength that I need to make it through the rough times. I know that He is here holding me steady.

Being Alone

I have start yet another book. I am reading Ted Dekker's Martyr Song Series. I just started When Heaven Weeps this week. There is a song that the priest hears and one of the lines in it says "When you were alone, I was right by your side." That really hit me. Ever since I moved to Levelland loneliness is something that I have struggled with on a regular basis. I have never lived by myself until moving here and it is hard to come home everyday to an empty apartment. It has been a struggle for me but that quote really helped me see things through a different light. To help me see that I am really never alone, that God is sitting there right beside me, that he is always there to be my comfort or my friend. I hope that this new knowledge might make being alone a little easier to bear.

Tangled Web

I was watching a movie last night and in it there was a girl who was a drug addict and had been pulled over by the cops for drunk driving. The police had assigned her to so many hours at AA but she wouldn't stay because she thought her problem was so small. One of her friends, after listening to her talk about the other peoples problems being big and out of control told her "Their problems start small just like yours." I think this is a lot like sin. God tells us that all sin is equal but for some reason we believe that their are different levels of sin. Such as lying is not as bad as murder and that the thoughts we have are nothing unless we act on them. This is not true at all. Christ says that if we commit murder in hearts we will be judged for it. Why is it so easy for us to get tangled up in sin? We seem to be drawn to it like a fly to a Venus fly trap. Something lures us in and then it grabs us and begins to tangle us up, until there is no way out. We begin to lie to others and ourselves to cover up the sin in our lives, which is only adding to the tangled mess around us. Before we hit rock bottom we become ashamed of what we have done. We feel like we do not deserve forgiveness. We finally begin to see the sin around us that has begun to suffocate us. We try to break free on our own, thinking that if we pull the right cord or move the right way some how we can break free of it all. But this is not true and after a long time of struggling we hit the bottom. It is only then that we look up to God. We have tried everything else and have failed so why not come before the Lord broken, dirty, and hurting. All it takes for Christ is us to admit and he clears that tangled sin away. When I worked a Champs Camp one spring break, the verse of the week was Hebrews 12:1 but the following two verses apply as well. "1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." We need to fix our eyes on Christ, because He has made it through and He alone is our hope. With out Christ we would stay a tangled mess until the sin finally destroyed us. Don't give up hope, God has set a path before us and he is ready and willing to help whenever we call. Do not wait to clean up your life to come to Christ but come to him dirty, broken and hurting so that he can wash you clean and fix you up.

2010

We have come to the end of another year and the beginning of a new year. 2010 held some great times and lots of fun memories. I read all the way through the Bible, which is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Thaddaeus was born, John Mark and family moved over seas, I got to travel to four new states.
The thing I love about new years is that it gives you a chance to stop and reflect on what God has done for you over the year. I know that we should do that every day but we don't so it is nice to have a day set aside to think about it. Just the fact that God has brought us through another year. So I would encourage you to take some time and reflect on how God has blessed you in the year 2010.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year's.
Can't wait to see what God has in store for 2011!!!!