My Life

Proverbs 27:19 (NLT) As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Decisions

We as human beings tend to make lots of decisions. Some small ones like what we are going to eat for breakfast or what we are going to wear (except for officers hahaha) and some that will change the rest of our lives. We make decisions to follow Christ and accept Him into our hearts and we make decisions to resist sin. The lists could go on and on. One decision I am dealing with right now is what college to go to. I only applied to two schools, Asbury in Kentucky and Nyack in New York. I never thought that it was going to be so hard to decide. I've been trying to work it all out in my head and trying to figure it out for myself, figure out the pros and cons and it was stressing me out. It wasn't till Carole Bate texted me this.. "At the right time you'll know. And just in time!" that I realized I wasn't putting all my trust in God as I said I was. It's easier to say then to do if you know what I mean. Well I have been looking up scripture all night to try and help me with it all and I thought I would share them with you.

Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Psalm 33:21-22 "In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you."

Psalm 62:1 "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him."

Psalm 91:1 "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."

Isaiah 11:2-3 "2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;"

Matthew 11:28-29 "28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

2 Corinthians 12:9 "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

1 John 3:18-20 "18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Deuteronomy 7:9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands."

Deuteronomy 32:4 "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

There has also been a song on my computer that has been on repeat all night. It's a song called Speak Your Name. It is on transMISSION's most recent CD Unfailing Love. If you don't have it I highly suggest you get it. And if you do have it, listen to this song. This song fits my life right now. My favorite part is HALLELUJAH FIND REST IN THE KING OF HEAVEN!!!!!

Speak Your Name
Words and Music by Murray Preston

From the valleys low to the mountains on high
There are answers you must find.
There are questions though,
you’ll leave with the father of time.
Leave your sins with Him.
Leave your worldly ways behind.

For He hears you, when you call out His name
He will listen, He will take away your pain.
As we sing to him we pray,

Chorus:
Speak your name, to the ears that haven’t heard.
Speak your name, through our hearts to tell the world.
That you are holy, amazing, conquering God.
Who holds the answers that can break our sinful hearts
Speak Your Name.

Hallelujah, find rest in the king of heaven,
Hallelujah, sing to the king of kings.



And one more thing that has blessed me immensely is this beautiful work or art written by Carole Bate

He Holds Me In The Darkness

He holds me in the darkness
He never lets me go,
I do not see the future prize
Nor have the need to know.

When life gives me a beating,
Why would I lift my hand?
To share in all His sufferings,
I know this is His plan.

He never has forgotten,
I'm always on His mind.
So in the darkness I do rest.
I know that He is kind.

Suffering for a moment
Is nothing in the end,
'cause vindication always comes
To those who trust in Him.

Amen!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

New Years and more

As you all know from my previous post I was very sick. But don't worry I am feeling much much better. My life is back to normal, I'm not going crazy from being stuck in the house for such a long time. hhaha..

Anyway as some of you already know I spent my new years eve at the Times Square Corps in... well Times Square New York! Captains Billy and Annalise Francis (who are AWESOME) agreed to having a bunch of us teens as well as other adults chill at their corps for New Years Eve. I went into the city with the Hickmans after staying at their house for a day. Once we got in we helped set up for the program that was going to happen that night. Then everyone started arriving and the city started filling up with people. A bunch of us teens were there early and had a little jam session in their awesome chapel and had a game or two or three of HALO in their awesome x-box room.

After a while of fooling around on the roof (pictures at the end of the post) we had a little meeting at around 10 oclock. Annalise sang beautifully and then she talked about the past year and how there have been good times and bad and she talked about her beautiful baby Callie. It made me look back on the entire year and it brought a tear to my eye. A whole lot happened this year and well I'm glad 2007 is finally over! Anyway, we had the priviledge of Commissioners Francis being there and leading the meeting. Commissioner Francis spoke about being light in the darkness which could not have been more perfect for me because as you have seen on my post about light I am obsessed with it. :) It was so crazy because as he was preaching he walked out near the congregation and said I see a light in you and pointed to me! AHHh.. WILD! hahaha. So it was a perfect way to bring in the new year!

After the meeting we went upstairs for some food and then we went to the roof. Commissioner Francis, Captain Billy, Captain Hickman, Felix, Juliann and I went up this ladder to a really high part of the roof. It was so scary but we definitely had the best view of the ball. After the ball dropped we went back inside, played some more x-box then walked Jamie Strain and Lili Wilson back to the ARC. Then, Stephen, Seth, Felix and I headed out into the madness of NYC to Penn station. I linked arms with Felix because there were loads of drunk crazy people out. It was really depressing actually. We had to jump over piles of vomit and beer cans and mcDonalds bags and streamers. It was gross out. It was like another world. People were stumbling all over the place, Screaming, some even crying. It was a mess. I wondered why someone would want to bring in a NEW YEAR like that. It just doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, we got to penn at like 2:00am because Stephen said there was a train leaving at 3:00 (we figured we should get there early to get our tickets and get on the train quickly so we could get seats.) Well I go to the board and look for the hempstead line and I see the time 3:51!!!! AHHHHHHh Stephen was like oopssss...By this point I really wasn't feeling good either, I had a fever, sore throat and headache. Penn station was a mess too. I have never seen so many people passed out in one place. So we decided to go Au Bon Pain were we could sit and have a bit to eat. Once we got our food and found a seat we were so relieved.

Au Bon Pain was an experience in itself. We encountered so many odd things. First there was a man passed out on a table behind me and a man working on something the smelled like he hadn't taken a shower in months by Stephen. If any of you know Stephen you know that he was freakin' out about a guy smelling near him. Then there was this man behind felix dressed in a black suit with a red shirt and tie. He was sweating like crazy and mumbling words over and over. I looked over at him because I am so nosy and noticed a Bible on his table and he was mumbling phrases from a book called Spiritual Warfare. I thought that was interesting. After the passed out man got kicked out by the cashier a group of four girls and one guy came in with mcDonalds. They didn't seem very out of it, maybe just a bit. Well all of a sudden Felix started laughing, so I turn around to see what he is laughing about and the guy with them had mayo ALL over his face. I'm talking like on his forehead, cheeks, chin, it was soo nasty! hahahhaa...After the spiritual warfare man left a rather large Asian woman came in with a cart filled with nicknacks. She seemed like the most normal person I had seen all night until she started singing really really loud. She was singing in her own language and by this point we were all delirious and exhausted that we just could not stop laughing! Finally after sitting in Au Bon Pain for nearly two hours we ran onto our train. The train ride wasn't that bad. It was packed with trashed people and some of them started fighting with each other but other than that it was pretty uneventful. We finally got off at our stop. I get home and all the doors are locked! By this time it is like 5 in the morning and I'm stuck outside in the freezing cold. I ended up just calling the house phone and waking everyone up so that I could get in.

So as you have just read new Years was very interesting. Billy and I are already planning next years! We are going to have an all night praise and worship time with all young adults. It's going to be awesome! :)
So I guess that is it for now. Oh here are some pics from that night.











Friday, January 04, 2008

Sick :(

Hey everyone,
I promise that I will update soon about New Years and all the crazy things that happened that night but right now I have the stinkin' flu. I don't really have the energy to think and write something that makes sense right now. All I know is that I'm mad that I can't go to the camp staff reunion this weekend because I'm sick. For those of you who know me, you know how I must be dying inside because I'm missing an event like this!
AHHHHHHHHH

This just in..... Dr.Rader just came over and looked at my throat and said to me "Well it looks like you've got a bad case of Tonsilitis." OH great what a wonderful way to start off the new year!