What is love?

I just came across this excerpt from C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity"and I wanted to share. :)

"What we call "being in love is a glorious state, and in several ways, good for us... It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last; principles can last: habits can last: but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called "being in love" usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending "They lived happily ever after" is taken to mean "They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married," then it says what probably never was nor ever could be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of  course ceasing to be "in love" need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense-- love as distinct from "being in love" is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit, reinforced by the grace which both parties ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other, as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be "in love"with someone else. "Being in love" first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run; being in love was the explosion that started it."

Your One True Prince

Today I was reading through some of my old prayer journals. I've been keeping a journal of my prayers since 2007 and it has been one of the biggest blessings to look back and see what God has done in my life. Looking back, I can read all the feelings I had and how God worked out everything in my life in time.

One area of my life particularly made me realize God knew exactly what he was doing. I've been a Christian all my life, and going to college, I knew would put a strain on my relationship with Christ. All my prayers leading up to my freshmen semester were a lot similar in asking God to always be first in my life and to let all the distractions fade away.

As first semester progressed my prayers changed from asking God to be first to telling him how much I need him to be. I was making a lot of mistakes at the time and living in the darkness, but my prayers were getting more sincere in desperate need for him to pull me out of the life I was living and give me new life. It's so encouraging to look back and think that all those times I was crying out to God, he heard me. And while I was walking away from him, he was still pursuing  me.

God is always pursuing you. Even when you feel like he isn't there. He wants to be your Prince and he will rescue you.  

What are you living for?

Well I'm still reading through the book of Luke and sure am learning a whole lot! I came across a parable today that really made me think about my eternal perspective.

Luke 14: 15-23 says,
"¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
 ¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
   ¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
   ¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
   ²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
   ²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
   ²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
   ²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full."

When I read over verses 18-20, I realized how many excuses I make each day. Excuses for why I don't share the gospel, excuses for not spending time in the word and prayer, and excuses for getting my t
"to do" list finished. Too many times I find myself wrapped up in what this world has to offer when my king is inviting me to his eternal kingdom of blessings. I'm too busy in worrying about finding the perfect job, marrying the perfect person, and building the perfect family instead of setting my mind on eternity.

Are we ignoring God's call and savoring the things of this world or are we looking forward to the glorious riches God promises us for eternity?

When Jesus calls us to "eat at the feast in the kingdom of God" (Luke 14:15) would we have been so ethralled by the things of the world that we didn't take any time to build the kingdom of God? God calls us all to live in his glory and share it with others, so that all of his children will come back to him.

True Love

I came across this quote today which really gripped my heart- "God has made us for Himself, and our hearts can never know rest and perfect satisfaction until they find it in him."- Hannah Hurnard

I read this and thought about how meaningful this quote is to God. I opened my bible to a Psalm which perfectly describes God's heart for creating us. In Psalm 8: 3-5 David says,

"When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers-
the moon and the stars you set in place-
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor."

David describes how God created the sky and all the stars and how he set everything in its perfect place. Have you ever looked up at a night sky and marveled at the beauty of God's handiwork? He knows each and every star and he purposefully placed each one to shine just so we can gaze upon his glory. While he created all of these beautiful things that amaze us each and every day, the most precious thing he created was you. Just like he knows every single star in the sky, he knows every single hair on your head (Luke 12:7) He made us to live in perfect harmony with him. He wants to be the one to meet our every need, give us rest, and find our satisfaction in knowing him. We are the crown of his creation. When we marvel at the vast sky of stars and think about how beautiful they are and how beautiful God is, we should also think about how beautiful we are and how loved we are. The only thing we need to do is let go of all that we try to fill our longings with and fall deep in love with our prince who so desperately wants to be with us. There is not another love story more perfect than his. <3

Faith in Action

Right now I'm reading through the book of Luke and learning a lot about faith; not just having faith, but also putting that faith into action. Its not enough to just trust Jesus with our lives, we have to believe that he has the power to change our lives by filling us with his Spirit to bear his image. That means not always trying to pursue a "Christian lifestyle" but pursuing Christ. If we're only trying to figure out how we should serve him according to our lifestyle we're only serving ourselves and not glorifying God.

In Luke 5 Jesus was teaching among Pharisees and teachers of the law from all over Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. Some men were carrying a paralytic on a mat and all they wanted was to get near Jesus so he would heal him. They could not find a way to get to Jesus so they went up on the roof and lowered the paralytic down to him right in the middle of Jesus' teaching. They didn't give up when they couldn't find a way because they knew that Jesus would heal him and all they had to do was get close enough to him. They had faith and they put their faith into action.

Luke 5:20 says, "When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

Jesus healed him spiritually because of his faith. Then when the Pharisees saw that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins they were skeptical. Then Jesus healed the man physically, and they were filled with awe.

Luke 5:26 says, "Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God."

What a great story about how we can put our faith into action can glorify God. When we take the initiative to step out, to trust him, and be determined to pursue his righteousness, we can exhibit his holiness and others will come to place their faith in the one true God!

Later on in Luke Jesus asks this question, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord' but do not do what I say?"

Wow. We can praise God and trust him in our hearts, but how will others know the name of Jesus if we don't do what he says?


We are called to show the love of Jesus, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

We are his special possession and he has called us out of darkness for a reason. He can use you no matter where you are in your Christian walk, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."- Luke 5:32

Lately, I've been learning a whole bunch, but one thing that keeps coming up is the subject of love. Not the love seen in chick flicks like "The Notebook" or the love you feel towards your parents, friends, or significant other, but true love. Loving someone is not supposed to be easy. Jesus' death of the cross was not easy. He bared a heavy burden to be with us and that is love.
Relationships (not just love relationships) are supposed to be Christ centered. God has been pulling at my heart a lot lately and revealing to me that I'm not loving others in my life like Christ loves them. The world says when someone does something wrong to you, or makes you feel bad you should give them the cold shoulder. My flesh wants to do this so bad all the time, but with prayer and the Holy Spirit reigning over me, He takes control.
In Matthew Chapter 5 Jesus talks about love for our enemies. I don't think in this particular passage that he was speaking strictly about our enemies, but also the people we love because the people we love tend to be the people we hurt the most sometimes. He says:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

If we only continue to love those that love us are we really loving anyone at all? Because people are broken there is no way anyone on earth is going to ever love us like Jesus does. People are going to disappoint you time and time again. And my first instinct when someone disappoints me is to be angry with them and avoid them. We disappoint God time and time again and still yet He never leaves us. Its important as Christians we show this same love to everyone in our lives, enemies or not. If we start loving those closest to us, really loving them, every relationship in our lives will be glorifying God and produce a fruitful spirit within us and others.

You're Beautiful :)

Well it's been a while again. I should probably be studying for my test on Thursday...but who needs to study really haha. I learned a lot over the past week at Big Break in Panama City Beach Florida! It was so great to have awesome fellowship and to learn more about the gospel and how to share God's love effectively with those around us. God let me experience his beauty through the gospel today!
This morning when I woke up, I was really praying for God to use me for His glory today and boy did he! I was so blessed to have two, not just one, but TWO good conversations today with friends! When you are willing, God WILL use you!
Hebrews 12:1-2 says,
"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,  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."
Whoa.  I think this is such a powerful couple of verses. If you just meditate on it for a few minutes it really sinks in how our lives should be poured out for Jesus!
The thing is, if you are a Christian you are a witness of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter if you are a good witness or a not so good one, you are still one if you believe in His name. As witnesses of Christ, we should "throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles." I just love the rich use of words here, like "throwing off" and "easily entangles". They just give such good imagery of what this verse is conveying. We shouldn't just set aside the things that we struggle with and say, "oh yeah I'm so mature now, I don't struggle with this sin anymore." Really? Because last time I checked we're all still sinners no matter how spiritually mature we are and we need His grace just as much now as we did  before we accepted Jesus. We are made alive by Christ's sacrifice and we only need embrace it by throwing off everything that hinders us because it easily entangles us again and again. Once you give yourself away under the power of the Holy Spirit, that sin is conquered BUT it is a continuous action: surrendering yourself to him every day.
I also love how it describes a race being run with perseverance. When you are running a race where do you fix your eyes? On the finish line of course. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
God reveals his beauty to us every day through the gospel and allowing us the privilege of sharing it with the people we love; with the people he loves. It's such an amazing feeling to be seen as precious enough to him that he would trust us with this gift of life and that should motivate us to tell every one that they are precious to him; YOU are PRECIOUS in his eyes. :)

Spring Break!

It's almost time for spring break, which means that BIG BREAK is almost here!!! ahhhh!!! I'm sooooo sooooo soooo excited! Not only do I get to spend a whole week in Florida with a bunch of my closest friends BUTTTT, I get to tell other college students about the best person ever----JESUS!!! I know God is going to move in the hearts of the students from our campus and also in the hearts of college students all over the country!! I'm so ready for God to rock my world!! I know that he is going to grow me closer to him through this experience and I'm going to get to see others draw closer to him as well! So fellow bloggers, or whoever reads this, please pray for the whole trip in general! Thank you thank you!

It's your life: what are you going to do with it?

I haven't blogged in forever so this is going to be a little scatter brained because God has been teaching me a bunch in the past week. Don't you find it funny that we worry sooo much about little things every day when we know the Creator of the universe? I mean really how silly is it that we worry when everything is in His hands. I can honestly say that I am a HUGE worry wart. My prayers usually go something like "Okay God, I know that you are with me always and I know this is in your hands, but I'm really freaking out and I can't do this on my own." So what's wrong with this? I'm still worried even though I'm saying I trust Him! I frustrate myself so much sometimes. I'm saying I KNOW he is in control, but I'm not sure that its going to work out. Like really, He is the God of the universe I'm positive whatever I'm worried about is going to work out. So what does it mean to TRULY TRUST Him in EVERY situation?
Romans 8: 31-32 says:
"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
God willingly gave his only son for us, why would he ever give us any less than everything? He already has. If we can put our trust in money, relationships, our to do list, any other thing that we depend on every day to get us through the day, why can't we trust God who has given us every reason to trust him?
It's more than just saying you trust him, it's actually DOING it. You can trust that a chair is going to hold you up without sitting in it, but you're not going to actually know it will hold you up until you let it; by sitting down in it. So how do we let him hold us up? By letting go.
The believers in Acts Chapter 2: 42-47 paint a beautiful picture of this
^"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Thy sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
Wow. These people devoted themselves to the word, fellowship, and prayer. They gave up EVERYTHING, sold their property and gave their possessions to anyone who needed them and God added to the number daily of those who were being saved. When you devote yourself to something, you're ready to give up everything. You're invested. You're heart and soul are lost in something. God wants us to be devoted to him. He made us so we couldn't be without him, so that without him we would feel empty and never be satisfied, but with him we would have everything.
Paul said in Phillipians 3:8
"What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ."

Once we are completely emptied, He can fill us. Everything we have is worth giving up to gain a relationship with Christ for eternity.

And why shouldn't we trust Christ in EVERY situation? Paul was willing to die for the sake of preaching the gospel- Phillipians 1: 18-20
"Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."
Paul wasn't worried about what was going to happen to him, he knew that God had his back and no matter what happened, it would happen for the glory of God and he praised Him for that!
God has taught me so much about why I should trust him and how to trust him in every situation. By the power of his Holy Spirit, I'm continually sacrificing my plans to him each day. We get so caught up in our own agenda and we forget about his. Our planners become our obsession. It's easy to get caught up in the schedule of a college student, but with prayer and repetition, his plans become our plans. And we can trust that He is faithful to provide in every situation.

Lessons of confession and joy :)

God has been teaching me soo soo much lately so I'm not sure if I can focus on just one thing so sorry if this blog is a little all over the place! But anyway, I've been learning lately a lot about confession, desire, and joy. I know these seem kind of random, but it's pretty neat how they fit together.

I've been reading the book, Set-Apart Feminity by Leslie Ludy and going over this whole process of what she calls fortification. I would kind of explain it like this: Building a wall around ourselves that is impenetrable by the enemy so we can be more like Christ. One of things that has recently been popping up in my book and also bible study is confession. In order to realize where we are letting the enemy have access we must first identify those areas in which we are weak. I've been continually asking God to show me my unconfessed sin and where the enemy is targeting me. I've found that one of the areas was just confession in general. Was I being sincere? Was I actually saying I'm wrong and you're right God?  1John 5-6 says:
"This is the message we have heard from him
and declare to you: God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship
with him yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live by the truth."
By not bringing my sin into the light, my fellowship with God was hindered because God is light and he can't dwell within us if we are walking in the darkness. All God requires of us is a broken spirit and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
Now, to have earthly desires is not a bad thing. Everyone desires to get married, buy a house, start a family, but its when our lives are consumed by these desires that is where the trouble starts.  Galatians 5: 16 says:
"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the sinful nature."
Skipping to versus 18-23
"But if you are led by the Spirit, you
are not under law. The acts of the sinful
nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity
and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,
selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and
envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I
warn you, as I did before, that those who live
like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such
things there is no law."
Sometimes I have days when I can't see the fruits of the spirit in my life. And I often wonder, why is this happening? Why am I not joyful, patient, or gentle? And I realize that when this does happen the question I should ask myself should be, what desire of the flesh am I letting myself be consumed by?
If we are walking with the spirit and desiring the spirit, then we will produce his fruit, BUT if we are desiring the things of the flesh, then the result will lead to sin. The characteristics of God are encompassed in the fruits of the Spirit and are GOOD. Verse 23 says "there is no law against such things." But the desires of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, and it says "those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Verses 24 and 25 say:
"Those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature
with its passions and desires. Since we live
by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the
Spirit."
Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Christ set us free from sinful desires! If we don't accept this freedom and desire the things of the Spirit, it's like saying okay I know that my jail sentence is up, but I'll stay in jail for a little longer! That is just crazy! We should live in the freedom that Christ gave us and keep in step with the Spirit by continually confessing our sin and asking to be filled by Him!
Finally, there is joy in freedom. Just knowing that Christ died to set us free should be our joy EVERY DAY! Even though circumstances change, we have been saved from eternal death by grace through faith in Jesus Christ! That alone should be our reason to be joyful no matter what little things in our day or our week go wrong, we know that we have eternal life and peace in Jesus Christ.
I'm so thankful for the Spirit's teaching in my life lately. As a Christian, I think if we are not struggling to grow, then we can't be walking with the Spirit because Hebrews 4:12 says,
"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
We should be convicted by the word. It should point out our sin and bring us to repentance. Oswald Chambers says, "The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses." Wow.
This is the joy we have in Jesus, He loves us so much that he is always trying to lead us closer to him and closer to the overwhelming peace that can only be found in trusting him. He doesn't want us to be unaware of our sin, so the Holy Spirit is always leading us to repent and turn back away from our sin so we can grow closer to Him. So ultimately, confession leads to JOY!! Because once we have let Jesus take our burdens, we are free from sin and death and can enter into a relationship with the greatest love of all time; JESUS! :)

The First Steps Towards True Beauty- A Devotional by Leslie Ludy

The first step to discovering true feminine beauty is exchanging all that we are for all that He is.  If we rely on something that we possess to make us beautiful, we cannot receive the supernatural, transforming beauty of Jesus Christ.  True beauty is impossible outside of Him.  If we obtain a worldly outer beauty, even if we become the most gorgeous, desirable, sought-after model in the world, we only have a propped-up, hollow, fleeting appeal that quickly fades with time and age.  Proverbs 1:30 says, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing.”  Have you ever seen a glamorous movie star on the cover of a tabloid once she has become old and lost her beauty?  All the appeal and allure she once possessed has faded into oblivion, and the only thing left is what she has on the inside – which, sadly, is not very attractive in most cases.

If we muster all the human heroism and try to become a “good person”, we only have a self-made, faltering form of goodness that can never stand against the stunning righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Isaiah 64:6 says it perfectly: “…we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (NKJV)

Any human beauty, any human value that we might find within ourselves is just a filthy rag compared to the limitless beauty and glory of Jesus Christ. Christ’s beauty is perfect.  And, in spite of what we deserve, He desires to adorn us with His spectacular glory.  It is not our unique beauty that must shine for this world to see.  It is not our own beauty that we must discover and embrace – it is His.

Spurgeon said: 

If a soul has any beauty, it is because Christ has endowed that soul with His own, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled!  There is no beauty in any of us but what our Lord has worked in us.

True feminine beauty is not a complicated formula involving hundreds of rules to remember.  It’s not something that requires spending two years at finishing school or being groomed as a beauty pageant queen.  It is the natural byproduct of a young woman who has emptied herself, given up her own life, and allowed God’s Spirit complete access to every dimension of her inner and outer life.*

God, you always get me!

Okay so you all know how stubborn I am by now and its so funny how God knows exactly how to show me that I'm wrong. Lately, my life has been extremely stressful and it's been so easy for me to just complain about every little thing that goes wrong during my day. At first, I just thought that it was a good thing to vent and let it all out, but now I've realized that I'm just making my life seem worse when I'm truly blessed.

1Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." I have so much to be thankful for why should I complain about such temporary things? 2 Corinthians 4:19 says, "So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." This verse just reminds me of how little these things matter in the big picture.

I've never really looked at complaining as sin before, but now I know its one of the unconfessed sins in my life which God had to bring to my attention the hard way. I called my mom after I had a lot of mishaps during one day and instead of saying, "poor emily" she said to me that I should stop and count my blessings. I was furious. How could she say something like that when everything was going wrong? Later on in the evening after bible study, I was complaining once again and two of my good friends both pointed out the fact that my complaining was only making things worse. It took three people and one terrible day for God to finally convince me that I'm sooo stupid for complaining when I'm sooo blessed.

He has showed me that He blesses me with enough. In  2Corinthians 12:9 Paul says, 'But he said to me, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.' It's amazing to know that its only by God's grace that he works through us because we are weak and we need Him. So we know its truly Jesus' power that rests on us when we are weak and instead of complaining we should embrace his infinite power!

Guarding your heart

Okay so I've become really upset with a woman's blog I happened to stumble upon. It suggests that the power lies within yourself to guard your heart. This is FALSE!!! The power lies within JESUS! uuhhhhh!!! really????  To quote a paragraph from her blog:   
"Maybe it is second emotional virginity that you are looking for, and you want to take steps in guarding your heart for Mr. Right? No matter what it is you are seeking in regards to chastity, it all starts within YOU. You control your heart, soul, and mind. It is yours to protect, and, one day, it will be yours to give."
YOU DO NOT CONTROL YOUR HEART, SOUL, AND MIND!!! WE are sinful and cannot do this on our own the only way our hearts can be guarded is if we completely surrender them to the power of Jesus Christ!!! HE is PERFECT and HOLY!!! HE knows our heart better than we do. In Jeremiah it says our hearts are deceitful. How can we be in control of our own heart, soul, and mind when we can deceive ourselves!! He created us so he obviously knows our hearts better than we do! The truth is, we cannot guard our hearts, HE has to. AND if your heart is after God's own heart, then it's not yours to give away anyway. And he will guard our heart,  IF we are seeking him and allowing him to have the control of our every need and desire. He will not lead us to sacrifice our precious emotions to just anyone. He knows the plans he has for us and they are good. Trust Him, not yourself ladies.

Don't Be in A Hurry: A devotional from Leslie Ludy

So many young women I talk to feel that the moment a guy shows interest in them, they are in an “urgent” situation and need to make a quick decision.  This exposes their desperation; their fear that if they don’t jump on a good opportunity, they’ll miss their only chance for true love.  It shows a lack of faith in the Author of romance.  Remember that if His plan for you is marriage, He is more than capable of keeping a guy’s interest, even if it takes months or years for you to finally give him the go-ahead.  A man who is truly worth his salt knows that you are worth the wait, and won’t put pressure on you to make a quick decision.  Jacob worked for Rachel for fourteen years and they seemed “but a few days for the love that he had for her.” (Gen. 29:20-28)  If God truly desires a relationship to happen, you don’t need to rush or feel pressure to open the door to a guy.  When a guy shows interest, the first thing to do is spend an ample amount of time in prayer and seeking Godly counsel.  I don’t just mean praying for a day or two.  I mean diligent, persistent seeking of God’s wisdom and heart for the situation.  Ask His Spirit to show you whether this is truly His highest and best for your life.  Remember that, other than your decision to come to Christ, the decision of who you marry is the most important one you will ever make.  It will affect you for the rest of your life.  It’s not something to take lightly.

It is extremely dangerous to just “experiment” with relationships to see if you really like a guy or not, giving your heart to one person after the next in an attempt to find the right one.  When God builds a relationship, He brings one man and one woman together for the rest of their lives.  He is able and willing to guide you into His perfect plan for this area of your life without taking you through a handful of failed relationships and broken hearts.  He is able and willing to write your love story in such a way where you give your heart to only one man – the man you will spend the rest of your life with.  But most of us don’t trust Him enough to allow Him to do that for us.  We feel the need to rush into a relationship so that we don’t lose a guy’s interest, and all too often we end up broken-hearted and damaged as a result.  If there is a potential relationship in your life, the best first course of action is this:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Prov. 3:6 NKJV)

If you slow down and take the time to really seek Him, you can be sure that He will direct and guide you.  There is no reason to ever take a step forward in a relationship unless you have complete peace and certainty in your heart – a certainty not based on your own emotions, but on hours of spending time in God’s presence and seeking His heart and wisdom.

In awe of God....

There are no words for the feeling I get inside when I realize the magnitude of Christ's love. I just finished listening to this sermon and I don't think I could put it any better then to say; wow God. In the Old Testament, uncleanliness couldn't be in the presence of God. Family members with diseases were cast out of their camps because it was the law that no one unclean could dwell among them. And God's people had to say goodbye to best friends, moms, dads, brothers, etc. because God spoke it and it must be done. I think it's so true when Ligon Duncan says,"There are a lot of people who say, 'Yes I believe this word. I'm going to live by the Bible.' But when this book says things that are hard to them, they are very tempted to say, 'Well I want to do it a different way.'" We'll say we believe the Bible and we want to follow God, but when the things get hard we don't want to do it His way anymore, we want to do it our own way. I know personally, I'm so guilty of this. I couldn't imagine giving up my mom or dad if they had a disease and couldn't live in my community, I would be so upset that I would never get to see them again. But if we truly follow God, if He speaks, we'll follow. Jesus touches our uncleanliness. In the Old Testament, He can't even dwell in the same camp as uncleanliness, but Jesus in the New Testament reaches out and heals the leper and takes the dead girl by the hand and says "get up, my child." He can't touch us without taking our uncleanliness because he is soooooo HOLY, yet he reaches out for our hand and says, "get up my child!" This blows my mind. I can't even express my unworthiness. Jesus touches our uncleanliness. He knows the depths of our hearts, and he still loves us and reaches out to us. I can't even say anything else about this video just that God is so awesome. 


http://vimeo.com/19830403

My Valentine :)

So with Valentines Day coming up, it can be a rough day for those of us who are living the single life. As a girl who is usually single on this particular day, I always say "I hate Valentines Day." Well this year I was thinking... I have the greatest Valentine of all time: JESUS! And because of Him I know what LOVE is! He defines true love because he died on the cross to save me from the death that I deserve to die! He lived a perfect life and I do bad things every day, yet He was the one who was punished for my failures. And His own Father gave him up. God turned his back on Jesus because my mistakes were laid on him and God is so holy and perfect he couldn't even look at Jesus when he took on all the world's sin for eternity! That is love. Agape love. Agape love means unconditional, self-sacrificing love. It is a.) unconditional because we didn't do anything to deserve it and we can't do anything to have it taken away! There is no condition or rule that we must follow, just to accept the gift of what Jesus did on the cross! And it is b.) self-sacrificing love because God sacrificed his Son and Jesus sacrificed his life! This year, I wanted to be able to share His love with others, instead of throwing my little pity party like I usually do because I'm single. So I was thinking, Valentines Day is just not a day to make single people feel bad or to just tell your significant other that you love them. It's a day that you can tell all the people in your life how much you love them and how much they are loved by the King! Jesus came so that we would know love, without him there isn't any love. And he loves us so much that he has a plan for each of our lives. As women we're always worried about when God is going to bring us our husband. Well, God says, "Love me first, then you can love someone else." And he wants us to be completely fulfilled by him. He doesn't want us to feel like we need to dress a certain way to get a guys attention, or that we have to sacrifice our purity just to be in a relationship. God wants the best for us. And he knows us better than we know ourselves. So this valentines day let everyone know the joy inside of you. Tell them about the love of Christ. And single ladies, if you're feeling lonely, Christ is all you need and is the only one who can completely fulfill our needs so tell Him how much you love him this Valentines Day!

A devotional from Leslie Ludy: Healthy Guy/Girl Friendships!

Quite a few young women have expressed frustration to me about the “politics of guy friendships”, wishing that they could simply shrug off all concern and enjoy the same closeness with their guy-friends that they share with their female friends.  But even though you might feel a close connection with a guy friend, it’s important to stay guarded in both your thoughts and your actions toward him.  It is all too easy, especially for girls, to begin giving away the kind of intimacy and affection that is meant to be saved for your future spouse.  It’s more than possible to enjoy close guy friendships without violating the sacredness of your future marriage relationship – but it doesn’t happen by accident.  It takes prayer, focus, and help from the Spirit of God.  

Ask the Spirit of God to be your guide – if you submit your every thought, action, and conversation to Him, He will guide and direct you; offering caution when it is needed and giving you freedom when it is needed. 

Before my relationship with Eric ever began, I developed close friendships with several godly young men.  Up until then, most of my interaction with the opposite sex had been flirtatious, teasing, based on physical attraction, the challenge of getting a guy’s attention, or the hope of a romantic fling developing.  But once I gave God the “pen” of my love story, I made a decision not to pursue guys in that way and to put a stop to the flirtatious relationships I had become so used to.  I wasn’t sure how to have a healthy, Christ-focused friendship with a guy.  I prayed that God would show me His pattern.  I found that the first step was entering into friendships with like-minded young men; young men who were not primarily focused on the opposite sex, but on Jesus Christ.  I hadn’t met many young men that fell into that category, but as I prayed about it, God began to bring a small handful of them into my life.  Instead of teasing, joking, and flirting when we were together, we spent time encouraging each other spiritually and discoursing about God’s Word.  They truly became like brothers to me, pointing me continually toward Christ and not toward themselves. 

In reality, a guy/girl friendship – especially one that is not headed toward marriage – is not meant to become as intimate and close as other friendships, no matter what kind of “connection” you may feel.  Once God brings your future spouse into your life, your one-on-one friendships with the opposite sex will need to diminish, being replaced by “couple friendships” instead.  And it is far less painful to make that transition when deep, personal, intimate friendship bonds have not been forged.

If there is a possibility in your mind that a friendship with a member of the opposite sex might end up as something more, it is still wise to be careful until you know for sure.  God is perfectly capable of nudging a relationship forward in His own time and way.  But in the meantime, the best thing you can do is to live as if your heart, mind, and body still belong to someone else.

Eric and Leslie Ludy's love story spurred out of a healthy friendship after they gave the pen of their relationship to God! Enjoy their video of what a beautiful story God wrote for them! <3 <3 <3

Don't you know who you are???

Today God taught me a much needed lesson. I was asked to change my appearance for a class and at first I was really upset, but now I know that God made me go through this trial because he was trying to tell me that I am beautiful. I have just recently come to be content with how I looked and my identity in Christ. I think as women image is a major issue in many of our lives (I would love to meet a woman who doesn't struggle with this) I have been obsessing over my image because of one person's opinion. I have based my personality and the way I carry myself from the way I look. Well God knows me better than I know myself. He knows how stubborn I am and that he was going to have to lead my through a trial for me to realize how stupid I am. We shouldn't build our identity from whether we have blonde, brown, or blue hair; the color of our complexion; the clothes we wear; or our personality. He wants us to find who we are in HIM. He is beautiful, pure, loving, compassionate, gracious, lovely; EVERY GOOD THING COMES FROM GOD!! I was obsessing over one measly person's opinion of me and I never thought to stop and think for a second what does God think of me? God tells us that we are "precious and honored" in his sight in Isiah chapter 43 (my favorite passage <3 ) If you look around at the wonders of this world, he has made everything and everyone beautiful because we are made in HIS IMAGE and HE IS BEAUTIFUL!! It's such a good thing to meditate on. He is beautiful. He made us in His image. Therefore, WE ARE BEAUTIFUL!! AND we find ourselves in His character! It doesn't matter where we have been, what we've done, what we look like, He loves us the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. I think Tenth Avenue North really captures how I'm feeling right now with this song and I couldn't say it better.

He is jealous for me.

So today I was thinking, you know when you get jealous when a friend spends more time with another friend than they do with you? Or your parents may give your sibling more attention than they give to you? I know sometimes I get very jealous. During bible study tonight we read a verse from Exodus 20: 4-6 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a JEALOUS God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing STEADFAST LOVE to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." God's jealousy is sooooooo much more greater for us than the stupid things that we can get jealous over. He is jealous of how we spend our time. He is jealous when we give more attention to other things in our lives, over him; THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE!! He gave us his law because he loves us. Not to fence us in, but because he loves us and he knows us better than we know ourselves. He wants to meet all of our needs and desires. When we want to be heard, he is there to listen. When we need someone to love us, only he can give us the pure, perfect, unfailing love we need. When we feel like we don't amount to anything in this life, he sees us a treasure! God loves us so much and all he asks is that we love him too.

The Cost of Intimacy: A Devotional from Leslie Ludy

We cannot expect an intimate, passionate daily relationship with Christ if we are not willing to seek Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  When we are preoccupied with pop-culture and the pursuit of our own selfish pleasure, we cannot truly know Him or hear His voice.  But when we, like Mary of Bethany, are willing to pour out everything we hold dear upon the precious head of our beloved without reserve, we will experience firsthand that “in His presence is fullness of joy and in His right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Whenever God pinpoints something in our life that is standing in the way of intimacy with Himself, our flesh (that selfish, sinful side of our being) immediately starts kicking and screaming in protest, telling you how unnecessary all of this is.  “You can have a close walk with God and enjoy the pleasures of this world!” or “If you lay down all these things, you’ll look like a ‘holier-than-thou’ bigot!” or “All the other Christians I know do all of these things!  What’s the big deal?”

    

But what is the Spirit of Christ whispering to your soul?

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. (John 14:21 NKJV)

If you want to personally experience the fullness of all that Christ is then it’s time to tune out the voice of your flesh and follow the example of Paul:  

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death… (Phil 3:7-10 NKJV)

Yes, there will be protests when we embrace Christ’s call – both from our flesh and from the outside world.  But instead of complaining about His narrow path or giving into self-pity, let us delight in the jealous love that He has for us.  Let us remember the staggering sacrifice He made on our behalf.  And let us revel in the privilege of laying our all at His feet in gratitude. Let us yield to the supernatural, transforming, purifying work of Christ’s Spirit as He makes us into His holy temple.  Let us allow Him to change us from the selfish, cowering closet-Christians we are into the valiant, valorous, virtuous example of set-apart femininity that God has called us to be.  And let the world stand back in wonder.

He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. (John 12:25-26 NKJV)

God awed me from the beginning of my day today to the end. I woke up and gazed out my window at a beautiful picture of the sun rising above the snow filled trees next to the creek in my backyard. As I was getting ready for the day I listened and sang along to worship music: today was going to be a good day. When I walked to the PRT station, I saw the snow glistening across the mountains kissed by the sun and I smiled to myself and thought, "God you are so beautiful." After my first class I couldn't help but feel defeated. I was stressed by all of the work and harsh realities of being a television journalism major. Then I went to ride the PRT back to my car so I could get my car inspected (oh yeah today happened to be the last day oops!) and of course the PRT was broken down. So I trekked to the bus stop where about 75 students were waiting on the bus and made my way on board. After returning to my car, I realized I was blocked in by two other cars who were parked illegally and had 15 minutes to get across town to my inspection appointment. Thankfully, one of my good guy friends was able to get me out while a girl friend of mine called the inspection place to let them know I'd be late. Oh and my gas tank was on E (oops again lol). Soooo, I go to get my car inspected and of course they try to rip a young college girl off, but my daddy talked them out of it so now I have the stupid orange sticker I need so I don't get pulled over! Now, this does seem like a bad day, but after it all I still feel like God is good. After a three hour Law class I finally got home to spend some sweet time with Jesus in front of the fireplace. God is so good that way. Even when we are at our lowest point, he calls us to rejoice in Him. I just felt a peace come over me while I layed with my blanket, bible, and ipod listening to God tell me how much He loves me, even when I have a bad day. He revealed this verse to me in 2 Timothy 2:11-13 it says "This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is." This just speaks wonders to my heart. Even when we have our worst day, Christ suffered so much more for us so that we could have life. It kind of makes me realize what James meant when he said "when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy." We should rejoice in the fact that we have a God that loves us so much and we can trust that He will be there through every trial, always. So, God awed my from the beginning of this day to the end and everything in between was just more proof to how much He loves me.

God is good ALL the time

Lately, the focus of my life has been really trying to figure out God's will for my life. This seems like something as Christians we always think we have the right to know. We're always praying, "Lord if it is Your will, do this or that" But we really should be praying with boldness and confidence because we often forget that anything that is in line with His nature is in accordance to His will. We don't need to wonder whether or not its in Gods will to grant us freedom from sin, joy, health, strong relationships, or a beautiful marriage because these things are encompassed in His character, that is what he wants for us. Ephesians 11-12 says, "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,  in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." How do we not have faith that God's will is being done in our lives if we really know Him? If we are truly in communion with the Holy Spirit, than we don't have to worry about what God's will for our life is because it should already be in progress. Sometimes its harder than just praying for God's will to be done. Sometimes in order for His will to be done, our own will must be sacrificed. I think Paul said it perfectly in Galatians 2:20- "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Living through Christ is not only praying for His will to be done, but doing it. Its taking the will of God no matter what you're emotions and flesh tell you, and actually succumbing to it. Once you've done this, a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders, because you will be glorifying God, "who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." We have such a great God that he has everything figured out for us, we just have to follow Him.

Come.

Toward the end of last semester someone in bible study recommended that we pick apart the verse Matthew 11:28. So for a couple weeks I broke this verse down word by word and its been so encouraging. This is the verse in its entirity- "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Now this is Jesus speaking to all of us when he says this. The first word "come". It just makes me picture abandoning EVERYTHING and running to Jesus; our deepest desires and needs, who we are, and who we want to be. He is inviting you to come. That's an open invitation to receive His love. The next two words "to me" make me think of how many different things we try to run to for rest. Only to Jesus do we need to run. He wants us to only go to HIM, not wordly things like- movies, tv, music, books, relationships, etc. We have the privilege of being able to go directly to the God of the universe!!! And he wants us to go to HIM only! "All". It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. EVERYONE IS ACCEPTED BY GOD THROUGH JESUS! "Weary" means physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, or strain. "Burdened" means you are carrying something around that is weighing you down. We are all broken people in need of a savior. We're constantly trying to work hard and carry our own failures to get to God, but we can't do it. We need Jesus! We are weak and He is strong! and the Last words- "I will give you rest". Jesus is rest for our soul. He wants to be there for you if you'll let him. So when you're feeling weary or burdened run into the arms of Jesus and you'll experience an overwhelming peace.

Set-Apart Devotional by Leslie Ludy: Experiencing God's Restoration

When I write about the level of purity and innocence that marked my relationship with Eric, it may seem hard to believe that we both came from very impure backgrounds.  Eric and I grew up in Christian homes and went to youth group, but like most Christian young people today we approached purity from a selfish vantage point.  We constantly asked, “how far is too far?” rather than “how far can I possibly go to please God and honor my future spouse?”  And as a result, our lives were full of sin, selfishness and compromise.  Both of us gave our heart, mind, emotions and bodies carelessly away in temporary flings, even though we “technically” kept our virginity.  For most of our young adult lives, saving a kiss until our wedding day would have been the last thing either of us would have considered doing.

By the time I caught a vision for the amazing purity and breathtaking beauty that marked a Christ-centered love story, I honestly felt like it was too late for me to ever experience it.  Sure, I’d technically kept my abstinence commitment, but my purity had been forsaken long ago.  I’d allowed the treasure of my heart, emotions, and body to be trampled time and time again.  I knew I was unworthy of a God-written love story.

But then, in His gentle, tender, patient way, my King began to show me that I could be completely washed clean, restored, and made new.  If I was willing to repent and receive His forgiveness, I could be set free from all the baggage of the past, cleansed from all the impurity I’d allowed into my life.  And I could experience the fullness of a brilliantly pure, God-scripted love story, through the power of His redemption.  It seemed almost too good to be true, but it was exactly what He promised.

God-scripted love stories are not just for those who have never compromised.  In fact, the very reason that Christ sacrificed everything for us was to offer us the chance to be restored, washed clean, and given a hope and future.

If you feel that you’ve “gone too far” to experience a truly pure and beautiful God-scripted love story, let me assure you that it’s never too late to be restored and made new by His amazing cleansing blood.

Repentance means turning and walking the other direction.  Once you awaken to the fact that you are heading over a cliff, simply stop, turn, ask God’s forgiveness, and then, by His grace, head in the other direction.  There is no reason to look back or second-guess your position as His child.  You should not expect a second-rate version of romance.  Once you have been restored by Him, you are clothed in His righteousness.  You are entitled to all the benefits of His amazing Kingdom.  Your forgiveness is complete.  Your sin is removed as far from you as the east is from the west.  It is finished. 

We only need to read God’s word to know for certain that He did pay the price for our sin, once and for all.  We should never cheapen His amazing sacrifice by wondering whether His work on the cross was truly sufficient.  And we shouldn’t try to improve ourselves before coming to Him in repentance.  We shouldn’t focus on our unworthiness – but on His conquering, redeeming, transforming power; His precious blood shed on our behalf.     Once you’ve been forgiven and set-free, you are ready and able to experience His very best for you in the area of romance.

Spiritual Fitness

I was at the rec center today doing my normal workout and I was thinking while I was running and jamming out to some Lecrae; i'm never going to lose weight if i don't change the way I eat. It's so true though. No matter how far I run or how many weights I lift a hundred times, I won't lose weight unless I stop eating garbage and eat healthier. I think this thought taught me a lot about my spiritual fitness. I'm never going to lose the weight of my sin if I'm not completely commited to Jesus Christ. No matter how much I read my bible, and go to church and bible study, I'm never going to grow closer to Christ without changing my spiritual diet. Lately it has been a struggle to feel close to God. But with his gentle spirit nudging my heart, He has made me realize that I've been filling my life with garbage. Eating up the things of this world, instead of His word. My desire has been to satisfy my stomach with movies, music, television, even schoolwork, and by trying to fill myself with these things, they have essentially left me feeling more empty than ever. I know my God is much bigger than any sinful stronghold. By confessing my sinful desires, He will satisfy me with His unfailing love. It blows my mind that I would even want to consume these desires instead of Him. It reminds me of when Adam and Eve were in perfect harmony with God and wanted more. How could you ever want more than to just be with God??? I know that while here on earth we're always going to try and fill up on garbage, but by walking in His redeeming Spirit there is forgiveness and He will always bring us back to Him. Through Him our desires can be truly fulfilled and we can become "Spiritually Fit" with all the fruits of His Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 says "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." This is my desire, to be used by you. Please help me walk by your Spirit Jesus and not desire the things of this world, but only desire You. Amen.