We live in a world of sin and imperfection. I am a child of God striving each day to live out my calling. Welcome to my blog where you get the inside scoop of this Child of God's life!
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity." - 1 Timothy 4:12
2016 has been a great year for our family. We spent most of it learning how to be parents and enjoying our bundle of joy. It has also been a year for change. We moved in March and then found out at the end of the summer that the church was thinking about changing the staffing pattern at the church. As the church was discerning what was best for the church, Adam and I were doing the same for our family. As the final decision came to vote at the church it became clear in my heart that God was calling me elsewhere. We have had the roller coaster ride of being excited about a new job and the heartbreaking experience of saying goodbye to students and a congregation that we love dearly.
I am very happy to officially announce that I am the new Director of Youth Ministries at Woodlawn UMC in Derby, KS. I start this week. We are looking forward to this new journey, Adam is currently searching for a new job in that area and we will commute until our lease is up March 1st.
To the Youth Who Are Family,
We love you so much! Our hearts are still breaking over the fact that we had to say goodbye. You mean so much to us. You will always be in our hearts. I am eternally grateful for the past five years. You accepted me as your leader and allowed me into your hearts. You graciously accepted Adam when I brought him in, and you gave him your blessing to marry me when he asked. I will never be able to express how much my heart is grateful for the way you have all loved my daughter. Thank you for all the ways you have challenged me and pushed me to be better and study harder. My faith is deeper than ever because of the questions and the lessons you have wanted to study. We may not be present every day from this point on but we still care and are very interested in what happens in your lives. We love you all!
To the Congregation We Love,
Thank you for everything. Thank you for accepting the young woman who was too young for many other churches. Thank you for nurturing her and allowing her to grow up and become the wife and mother she is now. Thank you for becoming my family and making Hesston home for me. I have grown to love this town and all of you more than I could ever have imagined. Thank you for giving me a chance to be more than my age. I am forever grateful for all the ways you have nurtured, provided for, and loved me and my family! Thank you for everything, we love you!
If you've been walking the same old road for miles and miles If you've been hearing the same old voice tell the same old lies If you're trying to feel the same old holes inside There's a better life There's a better life
This devotion is especially hard to write. It’s going to be pretty personal. I suggest listening to the songs each of these are written to if you haven’t been doing that already.
Everyone, I don’t care who you are, has some sort of vice. I do not care if you work in an oil field in Saudi Arabia, or the CEO of Frito Lay, there is something in your life that hinders your relationship with Jesus. For me, what is holding me back from full potential is indecisiveness. It seems that this year, more than others, is especially hard. Every night, and every wednesday at youth group I pray for discernment. I just want to know what He wants me to do. I have been blessed with so many opportunities I dont have the time or willpower to take advantage of all of them.
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14
My biggest fear is doing something that will cause my relationship with Jesus to fall apart even though I know that He will always welcome me home no matter what. However, I don’t want to be asking for forgiveness.
We've all search for the light of day in the dead of night We've all found ourselves worn out from the same old fight We've all run to things we know just ain't right And there's a better life There's a better life
I suppose the point I want to get across to you is that no matter your vice, Jesus will take the pain away, Jesus will show you the path, If you have chains holding you down, HE WILL BREAK THEM.
If you've got pain He's a pain taker If you feel lost He's a way maker If you need freedom or saving He's a prison-shaking Savior If you've got chains He's a chain breaker
2 Peter 3:9 ESV The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Your Turn…... Write a Music Devotion of your own and share it with us!!
Life is hard. There are so many times I want to yell at Adam and Eve and tell them not to eat the forbidden fruit in the garden. But I know if they hadn’t, someone else would have. Free will gave us the ability to have a relationship with God but it also allowed for us to mess up royally and have to reap what we sow. There are times that I get wrapped up in the day to day and the stresses of life that I forget who I am and whose I am.
Feel like I'm a nobody
Wonder if I'll ever amount to much
Seems like no matter what I do
It's never gonna be enough
Should I just give up?
Lord, I need to hear You speak
Tell me I am loved
Tell me I am known
That You died for me
I am not alone
Tell me I'm Your child
The one Your heart beats for
I can find my strength
Knowing I am Yours
You've always known what my heart needs
And You tell me
The truth is God does tell us incredibly loud over and over in the Bible that we are His.
You wrote Your name upon my heart (Revelation 3:20)
You knew me before my life began (Psalm 139:16)
You still have a plan (Jeremiah 29:11)
And when I'm starting to forget (Psalm 22:1)
Jesus, You tell me who I am (John 3:16)
Who I am
You tell me I am loved (1 John 4:9-11)
Tell me I am known (Luke 12:7)
And that You died for me (Romans 5:8)
I am not alone (John 15:4)
You tell me I'm Your child (Genesis 1:27)
This is just a drop in the ocean of how much God loves us and tells us that He loves us. He loves us so much that not only did He create us, but He died for us, He sent His one and only Son to suffer and die the death we deserved so that we could spend eternity with Him. God loves us with Agape (unconditional) love, that means that no matter what we do, He will always love us. We have been given an incredible gift of Grace by the creator of the world who loves us so much. He knows our names, our wants, our needs, our dreams, and our pain. Nothing that we could ever go through is more than He can handle. That love that God is calling out to you today to just dwell in His presence. “Come to me all who are weary.” (Matthew 11:28)
Revelation 3:20 “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”
Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”
Jeremiah 29:11 “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
1 John 4:9-11 “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”
Luke 12:7 “But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Romans 5:8 “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
John 15:4 “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
Genesis 1:27 “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
When I’m upset or stressing about something, I’m the kind of person that kicks it into overdrive and I have a really hard time slowing down and stopping, because if I do, then whatever is really bothering me is going to come tumbling down on me like an avalanche. Whenever I hear this song I can’t help but think about Mary and Martha in the Bible (Luke 10:38-42).
I resonate so well with Mary, she is stressing because her Lord is coming to her house and she is running around working to get everything done while her sister Martha is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to His teaching. When she finally breaks and says something about it, Jesus actually rebukes her saying that Martha is the one who is actually doing what is right in this situation. The idea of being still or being held is not something that a lot of us come by easily. We live in culture where the fuller your calendar and the more things you have going on, is seen as successful. I often find it weird to see a day on my calendar that is blank and sometimes I feel the need to write something there just to fill it in and appear busy.
I think that God is often watching us run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get us to hear Him say, “be still, let me hold you.”
Lift your hands, lift your eyes
In the storm is where you'll find Me
And where you are, I'll hold your heart
I'll hold your heart
Come to Me, find your rest
In the arms of the God who won't let go
God wants us to come to Him and be held before we hit the wall and fall over in exhaustion. There is nothing going on in your heart that God can’t hold for you and help you through. We need to keep our eyes on the cross and focus on Jesus, just like Martha, and allow the peace of Christ flow into our lives.
If your eyes are on the storm
You'll wonder if I love you still
But if your eyes are on the cross
You'll know I always have and I always will
Remember God is not just an arbitrary thought in the sky, He is our Lord, Savior, Creator, and Lover of our souls. He is calling us to slow down and let Him hold us daily not just during life altering events!
I'm on the throne, stop holding on and just be held
Just be held, just be held
Luke 10:38-42 “Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
So, going into this, I had no intention of turning it into some kind of lesson on today’s society and its problems. I have a feeling that’s what this is. It seems like everybody these days needs bigger and faster. Everyone wants the bigger phone, the faster car. We have no patience anymore.
Farther along we’ll know all about it Farther along we’ll understand why Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine We’ll understand this, all by and by
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9)
The Bible tells us in so many places that if we just slow down, have patience, and wait for the right time to act, we will not falter. The answer to most of our frustration today is not acting quickly and rashly like so many do. It’s waiting for the right time to act. The right time is the time God says. At that point, He will lead us in the path He has set for us. If we follow his path, we won’t get lost, we won’t stumble. But it’s not always that easy. That is why we have patience with ourselves.
This is most important: Patience with others, and patience with God.
And one day when the sky rolls back on us Some rejoice and the others fuss Cause every knee must bow and tongue confess That the son of God is forever blessed His is the kingdom, we’re the guests So put your voice up to the test Sing Lord, come soon
There are times as Christians when we fail miserably, we find ourselves face down on the floor praying no one watched us stumble. We look up and it never fails there are judging eyes standing watch. Taking on the name of Christian can often be a lonely place, many perceive Christian to mean perfection. When it truly means the opposite; a sinner covered by Grace.
Grace is the power that saves us. It says we can be broken and imperfect and still are loved. We can mess up royally and still return home into the loving arms of our Father (Luke 15:11-32) who sacrificed his most perfect lamb for us (John 1:29).
Grace gives us the freedom to learn how to be in relationship with Christ. Freedom doesn’t mean permission. We aren’t supposed to run around doing what our hearts desire (1 Corinthians 10:23) because Grace will cover our sins, but we are called to run the race (1 Corinthians 9:23-24) diligently focusing on the cross. Grace picks us up when we fall, it dusts us off, reminds us who we belong to, and tells us to keep going.
But, in the shadow of that shame
Beat down by all the blame
I hear you call my name sayin’ it’s not over
And my heart starts to beat
So loud, drowning out the doubt
I’m down but I’m not out.
We were given freedom on the cross, freedom from the weight and death from our sins. Our problem is often that we don’t allow ourselves to feel the Grace that flows from Calvary but instead we let guilt and shame weigh down our hearts and live in fear. Grace is stronger than fear but only if we let it be. Let Grace win today and don’t let your guilt have control.
There’s a war between guilt and grace,
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time.
There are numerous stories in the Bible where Grace wins. The greatest of which is on the cross. Let these stories be what you need to help you let go of your shame and guilt and be free from your sins!
For the prodigal son, grace wins
For the woman at the well, grace wins
For the blind man and the beggar, grace wins
For always and forever, grace wins
For the lost out on the street, grace wins
For the worst part of you and me, grace wins
For the thief on the cross, grace wins
For a world that it lost
Luke 15: 11-32 “Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
1 Corinthians 10:23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.”
1 Corinthians 9:23-24 ”I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.”
“The lord is my light and my salvation- Whom shall I fear? The lord is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27
War. Violence. Fighting. Everybody fights for something. Everybody has that one thing they would lay down their life for. Everybody has something in their life, whether it is a core belief, a religion, or a person. A plot of land or someone's rights as an individual, I tell you right now, everybody has that one thing that they believe in their very core. We would raise up armies, fight to the death, risk our lives and rise to our fullest to make sure that our belief is upheld in the world. For God, it's us. It's the earth and everything in it.
My strength is in Your name For You alone can save You will deliver me Yours is the victory
For me, it's the people in my life. Whether they positively or negatively affect me, I believe that everyone has the right to the amazing life god has planned for this earth and after life just as I do.
“One thing I ask of the lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the lord...” Psalm 27:4
I know Who goes before me I know Who stands behind The God of angel armies Is always by my side The One who reigns forever He is a Friend of mine The God of angel armies Is always by my side
Everyone who asks, as long as they have placed their trust in Jesus, will be rewarded with their place in heaven to gaze upon the beauty of the lord. These are the people to fight for. These are the people to fight with. Fight with these people to encourage a revolution. Rise up with others for the cause of Jesus Christ.
And nothing formed against me shall stand You hold the whole world in your hands I'm holding onto Your promises You are faithful You are faithful
