Happily Holy

The past month or so I seem to have been going through a dry spell. Which, to me, inevitably means that I am in sin. I can see the down spiraling of my actions and decisions from decent to bad to worse. As I actively choose sin over the love of Christ I, like everyone else who trust/loves/follows Christ end up far away from Him.

It has taken much for God to pull me back to Him and sadly enough, I am still nowhere near where I was or where I wish I was in my relationship with Him. Through recent events with a few of my friends who have also been going through dry spells, who have also seen the results of sin in their lives, Christ has shown me my own sin against Him and against others. Each one of us, in our own way, have actively chosen to pull away from our first Love. We have chosen to stray off that narrow way and try to hop the fence to get on the wide path that looks so appealing to us. Yet, God stops us and reminds each of us that we are His. He reminds us of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7). When we, as the sheep did, stray from Him He will come find us and rejoice over us. He does not need us. He wants us. He chooses us for no other reason than to bring Himself glory. Yes, you … He chooses you to bring Him glory. The word chooses is not a typo, He actively chooses us everyday. He wants to make you righteous and holy and wants to remind you that you are loved and cared for by Him. This is not just a feel good message like the “Uncle Sam Wants You” campaign; no this is the God of the universe who wants to use you for His glory. But He declares us righteous when we are identified with Him.

Reading through Exodus proves to be difficult once I start trekking through the end of the book. All the information about how the temple was to be built and what was to be plated in gold. All the different tools and metals used and all of the measurements, OH the measurements!! But then I came upon chapter 29. Not necessarily very exciting to me, at least not until I came to verse 34 and 37. What do those two verses say, you may be asking yourself. Well I will tell you!

“It shall not be eaten, because it is holy” ~verse 34 c

“Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.” ~ verse 37

These verses are obviously referring to the rules about sacrifices. This particular way of preparing a sacrifice was only good enough for Christ. This sacrifice could be consumed on the day it was made set upon the altar but if there was any left over it was not to be eaten because it was holy. They could not eat it because it was holy. Holy means it was set apart, different, godly, pure quality. Holy has a whole slew of meanings and this is scratching the mere surface of the depth of the meaning. For now, we will leave it at “set apart” and “different.” This sacrifice was completely set apart. It was only for Christ, it was good enough for only Him. No one below the level of pure godliness could consume this. It was by far different than all the other sacrifices in the way it was prepared and what was to be with it at the end of the day.

We get down to verse 37 and see that the altar was to be consecrated and atonement was to be made for seven days. At this point the altar was considered “most holy” and “whatever touches the altar shall become holy.” After it had been declared holy, anything that touched it became holy as well. When we come to the Lord we are declared righteous and holy. He wants us to be holy as He is holy (Lev. 11:44 and I Peter 1:16). Whatever touched the altar that had been declared holy then became holy. Oooooo how I want this to be reflected in my life! If I am like Christ, who is holy, I should give off holiness. Those around me should be pushed to holiness and become more holy. All because Christ is holy! People rub off on me very easy. I pick up on mannerisms and quirky traits and even patterns of speech. When I think about rubbing off on others, this is what I want others to be getting. I want to love God so much that I would do anything to be holy as He is holy. Those that are around me (or as our pastor would say, in my sphere of influence) should be picking up on holiness more than anything.

Christ has called those who follow Him to a higher standard. We are to be holy as He is holy. Heck we should desire to be holy! Many times I catch myself wanting to be awesome as the world calls awesome rather than seeking Christ-like characteristics. Four and a half years ago I officially began my journey with Christ, well that is when I willingly began to journey with Him for He had already begun working in my heart long before then. My life is completely different from what it was 5 years ago. It is completely different than it was one year ago. Every year, month, and day I should be growing closer to Christ and being conformed to His image. This has not been an easy journey, then again nothing worth it ever is (still planning on writing a separate post about this quote).  We will never reach perfection and yet He still wants us to try. The closer we get to Him the more we should desire this. My appetite for holiness is far different than it was a few years ago as is my appetite for certain foods (ask my friends, I now eat egg rolls… crazy I know!). Just as we crave particular foods we also should crave the things of God in our love for Him.

Coming out of this particular dry season, God has taught me what it means to crave holiness and to crave Christ-likeness. Through a verse near the end of Exodus 29, He reminded me that I am to be holy as He is holy. God’s greatest concern for us is not that we are happy; it is that we are holy. People seem to interchange those two short words when they indeed should not be used interchangeably. The two are completely different. John Piper was quoted, recently, saying, “If God’s love for his children is to be measured by our health, wealth, and comfort in this life, God hated the apostle Paul.” Do you realize it pleased God to crush His own Son? God is not worried about how happy we may be while on this little journey here on earth. He wants us to be made like Him. Being made like Him does not necessarily include being sad, lonely, and depressed. I have known many who love God and have not met the adversity that Paul or Peter or many others have faced. On the other hand, I have known just as many who have experienced the tough trials and sufferings. God has a plan for each one of us and His plans for each person differ. Paul seemed loved God and was thankful to be found righteous in His eyes. I would even say he was happily holy. This too I desire to be.

A Heart like David

"O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken."

~ Psalm 15  

 Howdy! Well this has been quite a busy month so far and we are only 8 days in. But, before going to bed tonight I decided to read the two Psalms for today and both of them ... wow! God has convicted me on who I am to be and some major character flaws within myself. It is a little after 11 pm that I am starting to write this and neeeeeeeeeed sleep but I wanted to let this soak in to not only me but anyone who might read this. (I am planning on posting about Psalm 16 as well not sure it will be tonight though). Anyway... to get on with the story.

O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? 
David asks a question here, which is a very valid question. Who is allowed to abide in the dwelling place of God? Who gets to dwell at His holy hill? Sadly I have not ever just sat down to contemplate such a deep thought. To me, this is a loaded question because it means that most likely the answer will describe someone that is ... well... not me.  But just as David asks the question, he gives an answer.

He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. 
Well, the word integrity is from the Greek word tummah which means "simplicity," "soundness," "completeness," and is also rendered as "upright," and "perfection." Uh that is a packed word. That word means complete and is rendered as perfection. So the first thing seen here is those that may abide in His tent and dwell at His holy hill are to walk in completeness/perfection. Hmm ... well that isn't hard to do, YEAH RIGHT! The next thing we see is that those who may abide and reside are those who walk with works of righteousness. Now, in case you are unaware, righteousness means justification. Justification is opposed to condemnation. Then we see that those who are able to abide and reside have to speak truth in their heart. So 1. perfection, 2. not condemning, and 3. speaking truth within the heart.
This makes me very thankful that I follow the Lord that paid for all of my sin: past, present, and future. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20. Christ has exchanged His record for those who follow Him. So, if you are a follower of Christ, God looks at you as though you are holy. You have the blood of Jesus Christ on you and have been claimed as one of His. "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1. Those of us following Christ are not to condemn others just as Christ does not condemn us. We are set free from the law of sin and death. He has made us perfect in His eyes and He chooses not to condemn us. The last part here (speaking truth in his heart) I can only take it for what it says. I looked up commentaries and couldn't find anything. But when I read that it makes me think of "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Joshua 1:8. That is a whole different blog post waiting to happen, just saying ... forget how much I love that verse. But think about it, it just reminds me how much I need to be putting God's word into myself. Feeding myself with God's word and less of the world (the book of James has quite a load to say about the world). So those that get to abide in His tent and dwell at His holy hill show perfection, no condemnation, and a constant self in pouring of God's word. 
But wait, there is more!


He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. 
Not going to lie, looking up some of these words I see how much I have to learn. These words hold so much weight and I can barely even grasp the smallest of concepts here. I do, however, understand enough to tell you that this is an awesome yet weighty piece of scripture. This tells that those who are allowed to abide in His tent and dwell at His holy hill do not slander others with their tongue and does not do evil to others and the Lord does not find fault in them. He honors those who fear the LORD, which makes me think he respects his elders (usually they are the ones that fear the Lord and live their lives accordingly). When he loans out money he does not gain from the repayment, doesn't charge others interest for borrowing which also makes me think he is a very willing giver. It also says that he does not take a bribe against the innocent. So to be one that gets to abide in His tent and gets to dwell at His holy hill, this is what it looks like. The man described here lives his life with eternity in mind. This challenges me because it shows me that I do not defalt to eternal minded thinking. Just meaning that my first thoughts are not considering others as higher than myself but I seek self gain more than that of others. This is not a requirement but these are qualifications to some degree to dwell with the King at His holy hill and abiding in His tent. This passage just shows me how much I have to learn and how much I truly need my mind to be transformed daily (Romans 12:2). Sadly, I have to admit that my life doesn't match up to this fully. But God is still shaping me. Every day is another day to make choices to live for Him and to choose to live this life building up heavenly treasure and thinking about eternity. As a girl I struggle with the things that escape my very lips. (Be looking for another post called A Force to be Reckoned With sharing what scripture has to say about taming our tongue). Anyway, there is so much hope in the next line of the Psalm.

He who does these things will never be shaken.
All of this is concluded wonderfully with this statement. God makes us a promise, that if we live our lives selflessly for Him, putting others before ourselves we will never be shaken. All through the Psalms there are passages like this one. Passages that say that He will not let our foot slip and passages that say that we will not be put to shame in following Him. This is an awesome hope to hold on to. Ohhhhhh such a sweet thought!

This was David's heart, to be like God. He did not want to be God but he wanted to be like Him. We were made in the likeness of God. We were made like our Daddy and David wanted to be like his heavenly Daddy. Who could blame him, with a dad like that? Scripture tells us that David was a man after God's own heart. God loved him dearly. In an earlier post I worte about having a Heart like Hannah. David also had a heart to grow closer to the God he loves (present tense because David lives on with Him for all eternity).

Unmasked Blessings

To be honest, I just love blessings in disguise … well when I can unmask them that is. Today the co-worker I usually go eat with couldn’t do lunch as usual so I went to lunch alone. But the great thing was I spent some unexpected time with God. Something that was much needed seeing as how I didn’t get a chance to spend time with Him this morning. Anyway, done rambling about that, when I was eating I started to read the Proverb of the day and was blessed by that and brought light to some things in my own life. Then I wanted to read a Psalm, so I went to Psalm 100. When I was there I saw that I had made a note in my Bible that sent me to Ezekiel 34. It was like a little treasure map, but a treasure that I didn’t know I was looking for. It turned out to be exactly what I needed to read. As soon as I read it I wanted to share it with anyone reading this.

“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I Myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.”
- Ezekiel 34:11-16

One thing I used to do when I would send encouraging notes to my friends was take a section of scripture and just use it as a guide to encourage them. I want to do that because it is such a sweet passage of scripture.

For thus says the Lord God:
How often do we just stop and realize that these are the words of God? We recognize the red letters in the New Testament as coming from the mouth of Christ, but here… here it says “Thus says the Lord God.” Wow, how I miss that far too often. It makes me think of earlier in Ezekiel 33:30 “Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord”. We are invited to hear and examine the words of the Lord. How precious!

Behold, I, I Myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
God has sought us out. If we are His He searched for us. He pursued us and sought us out as a shepherd searches for one of his sheep when they wander out. It says that He will rescue us from the places we have been scattered. The day of clouds and thick darkness… that is a scary place to be, but He is there to rescue us. Ezekiel 33:30 sounds a whole lot better now, does it not. The Lord Himself has just told us that when we are scattered about, in the midst of a trial or a hard time, He is there. “I, I Myself…” The Lord Himself seeks us out. That excites me to no end and just makes me want to jump for joy. But there is more.

And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.
Our God, the God of the universe is going to bring His people out of other countries and into His land (our land). God promises to feed us. He promises to take care of us. More than any man could even take care of us. He is the ultimate provider. We, as girls, desire to have a man take care of us and provide for our needs. God promises to do that. Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Oh my gosh, that makes me excited! God. The God of the universe, you know, the One who created all things … He WANTS to take care of us and provide for us. In Ezekiel He tells us that He will provide food for us by the ravines and the mountains. He will give us a place to lie down. So we get to eat and sleep at peace with Him. He does not go back on His promises. Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” That says it all. He is our Shepherd, the good Shepherd. The more you read in Psalm 23 the more encouraging it gets. He tells us that we get to rest, He leads us, He restores us, we have no fear with Him, He comforts us, He provides for us, He anoints us, He overflows what we need; He is such a good Shepherd. He again reminds us in vs 15 of Ezekiel 34 that He will make us lie down. He will make us rest in Him. Sometimes we run ourselves ragged, He didn’t tell us to do that, we did that on our own. But He makes us lie down and rest in Him. He wants good things for His children. Just like we read in Matthew 7 and Luke 11 we are reminded that our own fathers give us good things, but our heavenly Father gives us so much more and such better gifts than even our earthly fathers do. Our heavenly Father knows what we need before we ever ask, He just wants us to ask for it. He provides in times we do not know what we need. He is such a good God!

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.
He seeks out the lost. People come to Christ all the time, but our Lord and Savior is seeking out the lost and He is drawing them into Himself. It is nothing we could have ever done. Our salvation is not merely based on what we do, it is Him working in us and through us and through our brothers and sisters. We can do nothing without Him. He is going to bring the strayed back to himself. He is going to bind up the wounded. Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” He wants to bind up the injured. He wants to heal us when our hearts are broken. He wants to draw us into Himself. He says He is going to strengthen the weak. II Corinthians 12:9 says, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’” Ok, so there is so much to unpack in that verse but I want to just look at the last half, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” He is our strength. There are a ton of verses that tell us how powerful our God is and a ton of verses that tell us He uses the weak to do crazy awesome things. But here is the thing, Moses didn’t think he was doing anything crazy awesome at the time. Neither did Noah or Paul or Abraham. Even the women that we look at as being great women of the faith: Ruth, Ester, Abigail, Mary … These women knew they were working for the King, yet they did not know that in their state of imperfection and weakness God was making them into strong women that we would be looking up to. His power is made perfect in our weakness. It is ok to be weak, God is the biggest, badest, strongest being ever! He cannot be defeated and cannot be shaken. He is the supreme ruler of the universe. He formed you in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). He chose you before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). He loves the weak and comforts them and gives them strength but the fat and the strong He will destroy. They do not seek Him for provisions or for strength. God wants us to rely on Him. He wants us to look to Him for all of our needs, wants, and desires. He is the greatest thing since sliced bread (well, He is way better)!

Our God loves us and wants us to find our satisfaction in Him. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost,” (Luke 19:10). He wants to bring us to Himself, He is drawing us closer and asking us to let Him be everything we want and need. He can fill us up to overflowing; “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5b). We cannot fill ourselves up with love, He pours His love into our hearts using the Holy Spirit whom He gave to us. It is not about us at all. It is all about Him, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the unglodly.” (Romans 5:6) … “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Did you catch that? We were sought out by God because we were lost. If we are saved we were once sought out. But here is the kicker, Ezekiel 34:11-16 tells us He continues to seek us out when we mess up or when we stray or when we lose our way. He at the right time sent Christ to die for our sin. Not just your sin but mine and everyone you know and don’t know and everyone in between … yes, even the person you cannot stand to be in the same room with, Christ died for their sin because they have just as much importance and value as you do in His eyes. Christ loves us so much He died for us and then rose again to prove to the world that nothing is too much for God to deal with. Our God is a powerful God.

Sand Paper People

Everyone of us have our "sandpaper" people. You know what I mean, the kind of person that no matter how nice they are or what they do they rub you the wrong way. To be honest, and I hate to admit it, but I have a sandpaper person and come to think of it, I am probably someone's sandpaper person. There is this girl who is super sweet but she just rubs me the wrong way. I hear her name and cringe at the thought of a conversation with her. But the thing is God's word tells me to love people. That is it, that is the command: to love.

For if you love those who love you what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

- Matthew 5:46

God's command to love has no criteria. Wait, I take that back. He says, "love your neighbor as yourself." That is a pretty hefty command. Sadly, I love myself alot. I would do anything to keep myself safe and comfortable. But then I read how I am called to love people. And then I read how if I am only loving those who love me I am doing nothing. It matters not if I love those who love me. That is easy. Since when is walking with God known as easy.

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

-James 2:2-7

Basically God's word tells me that if I love those that look good on the outside and who are easy to love, I am just sticking to what is easy. Seriously, since when is following Christ a breeze? He makes claims that He was hated first so we know that if we are following Him, we will be hated too. That doesn't sound like puppies and rainbows to me. We are called to live at peace with others.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

-Romans 12:18

What does it look like to live that out? It may look different for everyone. For me, with my sand paper girl it was a little different than what even I expected. This particular person is planning to do a summer mission. She sent out letters for support and I was one of the ones who received her letter. When I received the letter I wasn't quite sure what to do. My first thought was sadly, "oh crap, this means I have to meet with her." Then it was as if God Himself spoke to me and said, "Yes, yes you will have to meet with her. Not just that but I want you to financially and prayerfully supoort her. It is not about you or your comfort, it is about Me and getting My name to the nations. Did I not say that others will know you are My disciple by your love for one another? Why do you not love her?" Talk about instant conviction. I need to buy a can of that and carry it around with me every where I go. (Bad joke, I know!) God laid it on my heart to support her financially. He laid it on my heart to pray for her. He even laid it on my heart to meet with her. So I met with, gave to, and am still praying for her. To be honest, it didn't even give me the warm fuzzies. It just reminded me that this world will try to convince me that doing what I want and living how I want will make everything better. But that is such a lie! Living for myself will utterly destroy me. Loving my sand paper people is one of the many ways I can show Christ my true love for Him.

When I love people that are not well put together and people that are dirty and smell bad or people that just plain rub me the wrong way I am showing them, Christ, myself, everyone around me that it doesn't matter a person's outward or even their inward appearance. Christ has called us to know Him and make Him known. How did He call us to do that? Through love. If I loved my sand paper the way I loved myself... wow. Could you imagine that? Seriously, just once show your sand paper person the same amount of love that you show your most beloved best friend who you would do absolutely anything for.
I dare you.



Please do not think I am boasting about supporting others or even suggesting that this is the way everyone should do things. This is one particular case in my life. This honestly only reflects how God has delt with me in this particular way.

Becoming an Extraordinary Woman

The 'extraordinary' women in the Bible "aren't memorable solely because of their physical beauty, their natural abilities, their personal accomplishments, or some position they attained. Not one of them distinguished herself through a great career, some worldly accomplishment, or anything that would even stand out in the eyes of a cultural observer. All of them were basically modest, in every sense of the word - as 'is proper for women professing godliness' (I Tim 2:10)".
John MacArthur, Twelve Extraordinary Women

Recently I read the book Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur. MacArthur went through scripture and discussed Eve, Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary (mother of Jesus), Anna, the Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Lydia. It opened my eyes to what Biblical Womanhood looks like. "If these twelve women teach us anything, it is to center our lives, our faith, and our perspective of the future on Christ and Christ alone." Being a woman I think about marriage, admit it...you do to. MacArthur gave some great truth about these women. "Did you notice that not one of our twelve extraordinary women is noteworthy exclusively because of whom she was married to? These women did not derive their identities or their reputations solely from their husbands." Most of the women he covered in his book were not even married at the time of their extraordinary faith. Eve and Sarah were the only two who were married at the point of the story in which we encountered them. All of the rest were either single, widowed, betrothed, or in the case of the Samaritan woman, living with a man whom she was not married to.

These women were normal women. They had daily tasks and lives they led. They were all sinful, just as we are. The neat thing is, we can be considered extraordinary to God just like these women. Each of them were known for the faith they had in God. As I read through scripture I see that I am not supposed to be worldly or covet worldly things. It is hard sometimes to see what I am supposed to be like when everything around me screams "covet me", "dress like me", "lose 25 lbs like me", "drive a brand new car like me", "date guys that look like movie stars", ... It is so hard to ignore the things of the world when we are constantly surrounded by it. Yet, Lydia who was wealthy was considered to be extraordinary for her faith in Christ. She didn't care about the money or about any of those things. She cared about making Christ's name known in the world around her. Her whole household (it was unknown if she was married or not so this could have been servants and such) came to know Christ. They were all baptized with her in the river. She had struggles too, just like we do. We may not have been told of them, but she was human so we know she had issues too. Lydia's story alone holds so much that you would have to read what I could write about her in parts.

These women were women of faith. They were also women of love. They each loved God and recognized Him as the Almighty, Eternal God of Heaven. From looking at these women's lives it is obvious that women who are being raised up in Him are to be like they are. Now, do not think I am saying in order to be a Christian it is a requirement to do these things. We know that in coming to know Jeuse Christ we will be transformed and made more like Him. Thus our desires will change. We will desire to have faith in Him and we will desire to love Him above all else. These women very obviously displayed that. They desired to put Christ before everything else in their lives. This was not something they were forced to do to retain a religious status. They genuinely loved Christ and expressed it outwardly to others by displaying faith, love, hope, ... (Galatians 5:25).

These women did not consider themselves extraordinary. For the most part they considered others greater than themselves (you should check out their stories in scripture). So from their lives I have concluded, being an extraordinary women requires a genuine love for God and submitting your whole life to Him. He loved you enough to die for you, so what makes you think He loves you any less now then He did then?

I Am Who God Says I Am

Often times we forget who God says we are, this is such a good reminder that we are not only His but we are forever His.

Here is a sweet article about who He says we are if we are in Him. Also, here is the weblink if you would like to find more helpful articles from this author:

I am a child of God John 1: 12
I am a joint-heir with Christ Romans 8: 17
I am the righteousness of God in Christ. 2 Cor.5: 21
I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 6: 19
I am the apple of His eye. Zec.2: 8
I am an ambassador for Christ. 2 Cor.5: 20
I am free from condemnation Romans 8: 1
I am more than a conqueror Romans 8: 17
I am the salt of the earth. Mathew 5: 13
I am the light of the world Mathew 5: 14 & Eph. 5: 8
I am a member of the household of faith Gal.6 :10
I am a branch of the True Vine John 15: 5
I am the will of God James 1: 8
I am in the palm of the Lord’s Hand Isa. 49: 16
I am covered by the shadow of His Hand Isa. 51: 6
I am loved by God as much as He loves Jesus John 17:23
I am in God’s Hand and none can pluck me out John10:28
I am delivered from sin Romans 6: 7
I am free from weaknesses and diseases. Matt.8: 17
I am complete in Him. Col.2: 10
I am translated into the kingdom of God’s Son.Col.1:13 I am delivered from the power of darkness Col. 1: 13
I am accepted in Him Eph. 1: 6
I am dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.Rom.6:11
I am seated in heavenly places in Christ. Eph. 2: 6
I am redeemed from the curse of the law. Gal. 3: 13
I am in Christ. 1 Cor. 1: 30
I am hidden with Christ in God. Col. 3: 3

This revelation of God concerning me is found in His Holy Word. Sense knowledge (the knowledge gained through seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting) and my varying circumstances may not reveal the same and in reality contradict this revelation, but when I stand on the naked Word of God alone, God confirms His Word.

I am the daughter of the Almighty God through Jesus Christ, His Son. Chosen before the foundation of the world to be His witness in this world and to do His will for His glory. My Heavenly Father promised to lead, guide and provide all the days of my life.

I am the Lord’s ambassador in this world. God by His Spirit indwells me and now I am His Temple. My relationship with the Lord is real and it is a privilege to know Him, love Him and serve Him!! Praise His wonderful Name!

Wreck Me Righteous

Everyone has a story to tell. Some stories seem better than others because of detail or even the way they are told. Here is the story of how I came to know the Lord and some of the events that led up to that point.God is doing and is continuing to do many things in my life.
I grew up in a “Christian” home. My grandfather was a Baptist preacher, nana played the piano at church and was a good strong Christian woman. My parents always went to church but their relationship with each other definitely did not reflect what they said they believed. When I was 10 I walked down the isle of a tiny little Baptist church in a little bitty town. A week later I was baptized. However, those two events sadly meant nothing in my life. I was playing church at the age of 10. I thought I was safe because of praying a little prayer and walking a little isle so I wouldn’t go to hell. My life showed no reflection of what I claimed to believe. Honestly I do not believe I came to Christ until my freshman year of college. My life between 10 years of age and my freshman year (18 years of age) was spent living for myself and everything I could do to be pretty and cool and have the greatest boyfriend and etc. When I was in high school I dated a guy for about 3 months, we began talking about marriage. It freaked him out. He was not ready to settle down or do anything like that. For the most part I thought we had a moral relationship because we were not sleeping together. We did other things that very well could have led into that, yet there was strangely always a stopping point. That is sad but awesome, because even that shows God trying to protect me from something I did not understand. He called everything off. As hard as it was for me I thought, “he will come back.” The next week was the winter formal at my high school. I went with a group of girls. That night when the 3 of us left we left with 2 guys. One of the girls said she had to go home early, so we let her go. The other girl received a phone call from her mother telling her she had to come home immediately. Her mom had a bad feeling about us being out and she wanted her home right away. So we took the girl home. I thought we were going to IHOP or Waffle House, that is what the guys told my mom we were doing. We continued to drive around for a little bit and the guys decided to stop at a gas station. When we parked, the guy driving turned around, looked at me, and said “so you have a choice.” This was a normal thing. He would pretty much play the would you rather game or the ultimatum game. This time was different. He said, “you have two options. One, have sex with me or two, walk home.” I was shocked. That had not crossed my mind with him at all.
About 4 months earlier I made the mistake of having sex with a football player. I did not enjoy it and hate to admit that I even did that. When this guy found out about it he was furious that having dated him off and on I had never slept with him. He decided to change that. He repeated his words “have sex with me or walk home.” I didn’t want to choose either option, I wanted out of the whole game. By this time he had stepped out of the car and walked back to my door. He opened the door and grabbed my arm. “Have sex with me or walk home,” I looked at the guy in the passenger seat. I will never forget the look on his face. No one has ever had that look of fear in their eyes, well at least not that I had ever seen. The guy in the passenger seat took out a $5 bill and said “just go in. Go in and buy what you need. Just do it.” My eyes kept shifting back and forth. I didn’t know what to do. I finally told them I would go in but I was taking my phone with me so I could pretend to be on it and feel less awkward. He allowed me to do so. I called every person in my phone except my parents. Only one person answered, it was a friend’s mother. I couldn’t bear to tell her what was happening, I simply apologized for the late night phone call and hung up. I proceeded to buy a box of condoms and went back to the vehicle. The guy was waiting in the back seat and his friend was now in the driver seat. It was the longest walk back to the first parking space EVER. I got in and he proceeded to rape me. I cried. I just kept saying “please take me home…please just take me home.” He eventually got tired of hearing me say that and stopped. His friend had turned the radio up loud so he didn’t have to hear what was going on. The guy climbed in the front seat being so frustrated I would not just let him “enjoy” what was happening. He told the guy to just take me home. He did. That was one of the hardest things to overcome in coming to Christ. I could not believe that God would allow such a thing to happen and still be considered a loving God. My rape wrecked my view of God. I began to drink, buy drugs (didn’t take them…too big of a chicken, thank God), and race cars. I wanted to be a rebel. I acted out and was punished for my actions. The next year I decided to be little miss smarty pants. I took the hardest classes the school offered and was the president of a political club. Then when that didn’t work out I signed up for a mission trip to Venezuela. It was amazing. God did all sorts of things there and I would love to go back if given the chance.
In the fall I started college. God began working in me. The first day living on campus I met a group of students who were part of a campus ministry called Campus Outreach. One of the girls on my floor started a flag football team as well as a Bible study. I would go to parties but had no desire to drink. I was a busy body, doing anything and everything I could to be around people. I went to the Bible study, was on the flag football team, went to weekly Campus Outreach meetings, went to the BCM, went to fraternity parties, church, hung out in the school cafeteria more than I went to class, and etc. The next spring, He revealed to me how great He is and how I do not need the things of this world to be satisfied. I was not being satisfied because I did not have Him. He showed me that although I had been raped 2 years prior He could use that for His glory. He in no way desires bad things to happen to His children, just like any good father (Matthew 7). He knew that it would happen. Satan has to ask God’s permission before doing anything to His people (read Job…great example). God allowed this wretched thing in my life because He had (has) a plan to use it for His glory and to make His name great among the nations. He in no way wants me to make my own name great, rather His name is to be proclaimed through out the nations (Matthew 28:18-20).
God has given me the desire to share with anyone that breathes and does/does not know Him. Criteria, if they are breathing, hearing, and human…share with them. My goal in life is to make Christ’s name great among the world. He has given me a heart to go to another country to live for Him. He has me here right now for a reason. Because of past mistakes and taking out loans for college I am now tied to the U.S. financially until at least 2013. Until that time He has not allowed me to leave Jonesboro for more than 7 days (seriously … it is kind of funny and frustrating at the same time). God has a plan for me that will far exceed my plans for me. All I have to do is submit to Him and follow Him where He leads. I may not fully comprehend what He wants me to do, but I shall do it anyway .
God had to completely wreck me to put me on a path of righteousness. This seems to be a common theme with God though. A quote from the movie Eat, Pray, Love, "Ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation." While I do not agree where she was going with the statement in the movie I wrote it down because it reminds me of how God has worked in my own life. He had to ruin me and show me that I was absolutely nothing compared to His greatness. II Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." We have to be transformed to become Christ-like. To be transformed we must change completely who we were to something new. God has to wreck us of who we were to make us into "little Christ's"... I am content with being wrecked righteous.