Monday, December 27, 2010

Life Is A Mission Trip

Michael and his Mom (Aunt Missy) last Easter

Last night from 11pm to 2:30am my brother and I had the best conversation I have ever had with my cousin. Honestly I don’t really remember how it got started, but I do know that for three and a half hours straight I was able to, as clearly as I know how, lay the gospel out to my 15 year old Roman Catholic cousin Michael Sal. Last new year he was at my house and we had about a 30 minute discussion about the Gospel. He told me last night that ever since then he has been having doubts about what he has been taught as right his whole life in the Catholic church. That made my heart so glad! I can not think of anything I would love more than to see my cousin come to a true understanding of Jesus Christ and the reality of what it means to be saved. For three and a half hours last night I asked him questions about Catholic beliefs and why he believed them and he asked me questions about what I believe and why I believe them. I think he is beginning to understand in his head what it means to be a Christian but it is such a huge leap for him to accept in and with that the consequences that will come from turning his back on his family. I see what I think is the Spirit drawing him and I pray that it continues.

He asked me to sit down with him and his dad (My uncle Mark) sometime over new years and have the same basic conversation with them. I am so excited to get to do that but at the same time it scares me. I am going to be trying to defend my faith and God against someone who has been a devout Catholic his entire life and who’s sister (my mom) turned away from Catholicism when she was 19. I know that unless God loosens his heart strings that he is going be very closed to anything that I have to say about religion.

For my cousin to turn his back on his faith and his parents faith; even though he is still staying within the Christian religion would be huge. I know God can do anything though. And my prayer is that He would save not just my cousin, but his parents and sister as well. I love that family more than any other family within my extended family that I can think of. To see all four of them have their eyes opened to the error of what the Catholic church teaches, and know you personally would be so amazing and exciting for me!

So please if you are reading this, pray for me as I share the most wonderful thing we can posses on this earth with them. Please pray that the Lord brings verses to mind as I need them and that He gives me the words to say to my family.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas Time, And A Fail...

This week we are in Louisiana for Christmas. My family minus my dad and older brother drove down today. It took us about 7 hours. I drove for the first 4 and then we stopped for lunch. Well after lunch my mom and I switched off because we were going to listen to the sermon The God Of Worship by John Piper and I wanted to blog my thoughts about it while listening to the sermon. Well I ended up writing a page and a half long post in a word document (we are on the road I obviously don't have internet) about this sermon, it is just that good, and that was my fifth time to listen to it! Well I went to save and and accidentally hit no when it asked me if I wanted to save the changes...fail. And hour and a half of typing in a bumpy car...gone in half a second. I. Was. Ticked. Any good that that sermon had done me was erased with my thoughts... It was a terrible feeling! Oh well. We will listen to it again on the way home and I'll blog about it then. Be looking for it, it is excelent!!!!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Thank You God

Dear God,

Thank you.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for your sustaining grace.

Thank you for your mercy upon me, a sinner.

Thank you for what is the start to an answer to prayer.

May you continue to answer that prayer and sustain me in YOU ALONE.

Amen

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Prosperity Gospel

This is SO powerful! I just wanted to share it with anyone that might read my blog! This is the second time today that Piper has spoken to me and cut me to the quick as I realize and have been guilty of this before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s&feature=player_embedded

Please take a few minutes to watch this!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

I cried tonight.
I haven't cried since the Mexico Mission Trip in 2008.
But tonight, at 12:55am, I cried.

Friday, November 26, 2010

A Day For Giving Thanks

So I am a day late; I was going to post last night but I ended up passing out around 9:30 and slept until 10:30 this morning! I really needed that!

Yesterday was great! I helped my mom prepare what little she had left to do for lunch by carving both the turkeys up and arranging them on the platter. I really wish I had remembered to take some pictures for ya'll, but when your hands are covered in turkey fat you aren't really thinking about touching your camera. But it was beautiful thanks to my lovely sister Lauren. She had some red tip lettuce that she put all along the edge of the platter (the platter was a big peuter turkey) and then I cut the breasts and staggered them at the back and put all the dark meat at the front. Once the turkey was on we took fresh cranberries and put them in the center and along the edges for decoration. It honestly looked more like a Christmas turkey platter than a Thanksgiving platter because of the red and green, but regardless, it was gorgeous. Around 1:30 our guests began arriving. Mr. Denise Leake and the Carroll family came over for lunch. We had a wonderful time of fellowship over plates of turkey, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, sweet potato casserole, yeast rolls, strawberry congealed salad and cranberry congealed salad.

After lunch we had some coffee while continuing our fellowship and transitioning in to worship. Both Mr. Denise and Mr. Phil had brought their guitars so my father and I got ours out and we played some worship songs and sang and then watched a few Loui Giglio videos that my parents had never seen.

Then of course, you can't blog about Thanksgiving and NOT talk about dessert! Around 6:45 we had some dessert. Mrs. Carroll brought two delicious pumpkin pies and Lauren made an absolutely scrumptious apple pie that we devoured with vanilla ice cream. Then there was a pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing (my personal favorite). And of course coffee for anyone that wanted some.

All in all it was a day that made me realize again how blessed I really am. I have only been home once this semester and I loved getting to spend time with my siblings. I can't believe how big the younger ones have gotten in just a few short months. I have a God who has rescued and redeemed me from an eternal death and parents who love me more than I can imagine. The Lord has provided  money so that I can have an education and during my time at school continues to bless me financial and with wonderful christian friends. I am healthy. That alone is one of the things that I think I take for granted the most. Just waking up every morning being in perfect health is such a blessing from the Lord.

I guess I will end there before I start rambling. Until next time. =)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ok honestly, it is 2:30 in the morning and yes I am wide awake, but why? I can't sleep but it isn't because my blood is flowing to fast anymore. I am troubled. Why am I troubled? I know why, and it is very simple but at the same time it isn't. I need you more than ever right now but I refuse to do anything about it. Change in a persons life doesn't come without a price. And it certainly isn't something that is easy to acquire. A constantly healthy relationship with you doesn't just happen. I have to want it more than anything else in the world. I have to want it more than I want to keep the earthly relationships that I have surrounded my self with. I have to want it first and more than I want physical food or drink in the morning. I know all the right answers and right things to do. But that is the problem. It is all head knowledge. Only a very little of it is actually in my heart. God. I need you to help me be more disciplined. Help me to make all of this head knowledge, heart knowledge. Until then my life will only continue to go downhill, along with my earthly relationships, physical health, determination, discipline, and drive for anything that actually benefits me. God strip everything thing away until I have nothing to lean on but you and then lift me back up. I know that is SUCH a dangerous prayer. I am putting my friendships, health, relationship with my girlfriend, grades, everything I have on the line in that plea. But, if it draws me closer to the only thing that will ever be worth possessing, You, then it will be worth it. I just pray that you will give me the kind of strength that Job had when you tested him. Amen.

Thanksgiving Break Is Here! One Last Night Of Fun.

Well tonight I went to dinner at La Huerta with some people from my freshlife group. Afterward I went over to a classmates apartment and tried to finish a project so that we wouldn't have to think about it over the break, but......we ran into a few technical problems. So we did as all good college students do and we decided our time would be better spent playing Call Of Duty: Black Ops! I messed around with that for about an hour and then went to The Commons. Now for those of you out there that don't go to Arkansas Tech University, The Commons are the on campus apartments. I have some WONDERFUL friends that live over there and I can literally just go over to Landon's apartment whenever the heck I want. I do laundry over there, cook dinner, watch movies, hang out. Just what ever. There is almost always a crowd of people in the living room in the evenings! It is by far my favorite place to be on campus in the evenings. So I went over there tonight. When I got there they had just started the movie "3:10 to Yuma". That is such an amazing movie! Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, both as COWBOYS! It just doesn't get much better than that! Around 11 o'clock we all packed up and headed out to the parking lot of Second Baptist Church and played some football. Football!! At 11 pm! We played until almost 1. THIS IS COLLEGE BABY! It was pretty awesome. I met several new people, all of which are pretty awesome guys! Near the end a group of girls walked over and asked if the could play with us...we were all just kind of like...uh...sure? Like, really? 3 girls that look like they couldn't be over 16 or 17 want to play football with a bunch of guys? Several of which were about 6'6" 250 pounds. I don't think so...so they decided to just be our cheerleaders. It was odd. They wandered off into the night after about 2 minutes and 3 near misses of being pegged with the ball or players. Now I am back in the room, blogging. My blood is still pumping way to fast for me to go to sleep, but I feel like I am just rambling now...So I am gonna call it quits for this post.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Mt. Nebo

Today I went out to Mt. Nebo with a friend here from ATU, Maggie. We packed a lunch of PB&J's, Cuties, Strawberry Cheesecake Danish and drinks! We took my camera and took a bunch of pictures! It was a wonderful day to just be out in God's beautiful creation and take pictures of it! Days like these leave me in awe and wonder of God's majesty and creativity and thankful for his mercy! They also make me realize that waking up every morning should make me just as thankful for a new day, regardless of the weather.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

First Post

I love reading other peoples blogs and they are always so encouraging to me, so I want to try to do the same for others. Plus I have been wanting to find some way of Journaling/Sharing my experiences and thankfulness with friends. So I am going to try blogging.

I have made some WONDERFUL friends here at Arkansas Tech and I am so glad that this is where God saw fit to have me go to college! I am constantly surrounded by people that I love and that are an encouragement to me on a daily basis. Especially my Freshlife group! Thursday nights are my favorite part of the week as we get together to fellowship and study God's word. Staying focused on God in college has be hard, and I fail at it all the time but, my friends are always there to give me a push back in the right direction and pray for me.