Running for their lives

There is no one like our God. Worthy of exaltation, praise, love, worship, service. His plan is beautiful, his love is extravagant, his faithfulness is outstanding, and we cannot compare. He is Lord of all, Creator and Sustainer of all things. My God is ever so worth everything.

I am taken back at his mercy, I am uplifted by his grace. Tonight my heart is wrought with praise and sorrow. I praise my God, I praise him for the life he has given me, I praise him for giving me all the reasons in the world to have faith in him. I lift his name high as I celebrate his magnificent creation, I praise him for brothers and sisters in Christ who teach me everyday. I praise him for the hearts he makes ready for him to enter. I praise him because he is worthy of praise.

I cannot help but to mourn for those who die apart from Christ. Recently Japan has made headlines with its very tragic earthquake and tsunami. I cannot help but think of those who have died without knowing Jesus. I have caught myself stopping to recap the video I saw of the tsunami, and I keep finding myself amazed and traumatized because of the power of it all. As I watched the water whisking away boats and other large things that seem unmovable, I also noticed people running for their lives. If they did not know Jesus they were running for their lives, and rightly so, they had no promise, no assurance of salvation.

It has been said that through this tragedy blessing has occurred. People are becoming more open to the Gospel because of the imminent desperation. Picture this:

Those people who have survived being told of God and his redemptive plan. Curious, they study, more and more they become intrigued, they even catch themselves praying in times of hopelessness. Then they decide to give their lives to Christ...

They go and are baptized in the very waters that destroyed everything in its path. And there was one more added to their number.

Like that Michael Gungor song says, "You make beautiful things out of us". How true a statement is this. Our God is worthy of praise because he is able to make beautiful things out of this tragedy. He is able. There is no one like our God.

All to God

May God bless Japan and the workers for the Kingdom who are already established and those motivated to be established. May he guide the people that their hearts may be stirred for him. Our God is able.

Devoted sisters

So since the days have grown closer to the time that I am legitimately the only single person in my family, me and my sister have set aside Wednesday afternoons, after our last class of the day we go to our local coffee shop and just hang out and talk. Her life is catapulting into wedding planning and still is occupied by homework and things that take her time academically. So in response to the rising moment of the nuptials and thus her having a life that is even more consumed with upholding a marriage, job, school, and responsibilities within a church, we have decided to spend a while together during the week.

 Unfortunately when my oldest sister was getting married I was too young and far too naive to understand that I would not be able to interact much with just me and her together. However, in light of reviewing the above plan and distributing that time properly between sisters I must admit I have been unfair, I have failed in regard to finding a specific time that me and my oldest sister can just sit down and just be with one another. I see her every weekend and we sit at my mom's house together, sometimes it is just me and her, other times it's every one. This is great, I love having my family around me, but the time I share with one sister is not the same kind of time I share with the other.

I'm not ok with this aspect of distributing relationship time with my sisters, I love them both very much. I love spending time at the coffee shop, I would not stop it for anything, it's a good time and feels very nice afterward to know what is happening in my sister's life. However it does not feel good to constantly be in uncertain relationship time, although that impromptu time with my biggest sister is valued, it's nice to know that you will have that time.

But I won't always have this certain time with either of them.

Planning on going into the mission field overseas does not give that certainty of time, my sister getting married does not give me certainty of time, my oldest sister finding a career and being a ministers wife does not give me certainty of time. 

This means that in the time that we have now to be together is valuable and I have not been using it fairly or to the extent that I should because it is a blessing. I love them both greatly, God put them in my life to be wonderful support, bountiful love, and a pull back down to reality when needed. I have a responsibility to be that to them as well, equally. If I cannot nurture relationships the way they need to be nurtured then I have no business on the mission field. That is not the driving factor as to why I want to enhance the relationship between me and my sisters but it is an important parallel. The driving factor is I love God, I love my family, my sisters are terribly important people in my life so I should want them both in my life. I do! This is why I have come to this conclusion. The Bible says that three strands are strong, well, we are three sisters of the same blood, different personalities, serving the same God. He has blessed me greatly.

All to God

Sea billows

Most of the time when we are singing praise and worship to our King, our God, to the Savior of the world, we can get emotional. No matter the emotion it evokes, there is some kind of emotion. Lots of times when we feel these emotions our faces mimic the feelings romping around inside. If not our faces then our eyes, I know especially for me, they can tell you how I feel at the moment. I realize we all lift up praise differently, and that's okay.

But when I look around and I see tired faces with trained lips spitting out empty words that actually mean a whole lot, with bored eyes, it doesn't sit with me well. It's more than just another hymn or song. As long as it stands firm in doctrine, shouldn't we just be overly excited? Especially in a country that we can dance on the streets freely singing these songs (we might be acting like fools to some...). Aren't we supposed to be fools for God, yet not being foolish with his name, or his covenant with us?

Some churches begin worship as such:

Turn to hymn 215 singing only the first, second, and last stanzas, standing as we sing.


Why stand if we only think in our minds how we want to sing back down because this is a particularly long hymn? We sang this song in church and it stirred emotion in me:

Since Jesus came into my heart
Since Jesus came into my heart
Floods of joy o'er my soul like sea billows roll
Since Jesus came into my heart


I pondered sea billows, seems like powerful waves just jumping and heaving in the ocean. If floods of joy comes over my soul like sea billows, then why am I not acting like it? Looking around at the congregation I cannot say what was going on inside of them, but it seemed to me by the expressions on their face that sea billows did not overtake them as they worshiped. Like I said I cannot be their judge on how satisfactory their worship was to the Lord, and I'm no holier than thou worshiper by any means. Sometimes I am sickened by my lack of emotion during worship.

I think about the lack of emotion I had the first time I was in a worship service completely in a different language that I had never studied at all in life. My mouth was just trying to form the words and my brain was working over time to help my mouth spit out the words correctly. But when I stopped to look around, when I stopped my meaningless jumbled thing I called "worship" to look at those who knew what these words meant, I saw worship. They weren't jumping around, they stood by their seats, maybe a hand or two lifted, eyes closed, faces racked with the emotions that stirred inside. Being the one that didn't understand these words made me feel like a non-believer might feel in an American worship service;

What is this talk of blood of the Lamb?
Can anyone tell me who Hosanna is? I don't know her.
Oh ok, Jesus I know that guy. Man, these people seem really legitimate about this. Kinda nice.


This is not a post against traditional or contemporary or non-instrumental whatever. It is about the way we treat this beautiful celebration we call worship. Don't think for a moment that I am a dynamic worshiper, if there can be dynamic worshipers. I just love to worship my Lord, sometimes it might be hollow, other times, most times, I can't help but think of the implication of the words coming out of my mouth.

UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE!!! With a mighty triumph o'er his foes.


Yes! Be excited! Jesus rose from the grave! He triumphed death! He is victor! So when you sing of it will you not be excited? He is worthy of your singing, dancing, flailing, raised hands, closed eyes, emotion filled soul. He is worthy.

Let the floods of joy like sea billows overtake you.


All to God

Updated

So those of you who read this excuse for a blog (joking) maybe notice I have done some changing. I have added  an "about me" section named "enough about me" where if for some reason you need to know a little something about me there are some fun facts. Also, I've added a contact page entitled "you can find me here" just some ways you or a friend of yours or a friend of a friend of yours can get in touch with me, I'm not that important but on the off chance, it's there for ya.

I've also added the more important of the pages named "words of truth". This will be a page where I will be posting a verse that struck me in my "reading the Bible" time. This will give you, the reader, a look into what I am currently reading and contemplating about as I attempt to read and ponder this wonderful gift God has supplied us with; The Word of God. I hope that in some way it can be a blessing, it is for me because I get to share scripture from my personal reading with you guys.

So please, check it out, feedback is always great, but even if there is none, I hope you enjoy.

All to God

Loving what you do is always a plus

It is crazy what you can focus on when you are not in school. This week I have done so much because of break; Put in a faucet, cleaned out a barn, prepared a birthday celebration early for my mom, and focused a lot on preparation for this summer.

I've written letters and worked on language that I learned from the previous summer. It is great being able to focus on what you're passionate about. I love school, what I learn is valuable and interesting to me, but when I start putting my energy into what I love nothing can beat it. Preparation for it even brings excitement and pleasure, writing letters is not a daunting task, I enjoy it. Because there is something about letting other people come along with you. When I say this I really mean through their gifts financially and through their coveted prayers. I don't just write that in my letters to pull at my supporter's heartstrings, I mean it.

It's all about people knowing Jesus ya know?

I'm telling ya, I've started working hard on the language when I can, reading out of the translated New Testament when I can. It's great what all you can focus on when school is not your main priority for the moment.

New words from the Rjecnik always help one with vocabulary.

Going back to the trusty language notebook not only brings back painful memories of not being able to pronounce the "Lj" sound correctly, but also refreshes the mind of what I could understand.

Reading a little of God's word in a different language certainly has made me have to go and look some words up to understand the meaning!

It's been great working on what is very important to me this week. I love learning the language even on my own, and just studying about Bosnia, preparing for the people I will meet is absolutely fantastic! I'm excited more than anything about the possibility of sharing Jesus with them! I'm very grateful I get to spend another summer there to see how God moves in this country, and how he might use me!

Hvala Bogu thank God

All to God

I found the missions section...

Before break I realized I really needed another book to read over this week-long reason to breath. So being in our library as it were, I found the missions section of books. I was ecstatic because I had been regretfully ignoring this portion of the library to pick out "for fun" reads. After little search, I found books that have been mentioned in missions classes so I thought, no brainer.

My eyes fell on the book Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot. Three years ago in my missions intro class we read The Great Omission and we talked about the other book and there were positive remarks made, so I thought I should give it a whirl.

I have been blessed by this book, as I'm sure many others have as well. I'm not finished with it yet but daaaaaannnngg it's serving me well thus far.

As I have been reading it I have been reflecting on how I view myself in the world of missions.

Do I have the faith that these men and their wives had?

Am I as big a fool for God as I should be?

Could I be a pioneer?

Well I have prayed about where I stand and how I will grow in my position in where God leads me. I keep praying because it's all that gives me direction and secures faith tightly. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it, whether you are sold out to full time missions, or just feel that it is important, heck even if missions is not in your scopes, it's a good book either way.

I just want to share the news of the Lord with the world, wherever that leads me I will comply with the will of God. This book has given me lives of actual dynamic missionaries who committed their lives to the will of God. I'm glad God has given us such dynamic people in the history of missions to help us keep motivated and inspired. I'm also glad that God has people who keep the records of these peoples' lives to be able to write about them later.

I might not be a Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, or Roger Youderian and those of the like, but I am confident that God will use me in the field, wherever.

All to God

What happens when: you're blessed beyond recognition

To be blessed beyond recognition obviously implies that you do not recognized how blessed you are even when you are surrounded by your blessings day in and day out. When this happens we tend to fall prey to complaining and being dissatisfied with what we have...if only I had _____, life would be so much better.

We can have a house with two cars in the drive-way, well behaved, imaginative children, a wonderful spouse even though you have those rough patches. Not that I would know much, if anything about marital uproar since I have never been married, it's just an example. But there are just some blessings we are so privileged to have that we see everyday, but it's only a passing glance.

Or maybe you recognize your blessing and are continuously thankful of it, but perhaps with this blessing, you are more blessed than originally thought. That's kind of confusing, let me explain through my own recognition (if you've read this on facebook...well it's worth telling again because I am TOO excited about how God led me to it by simple providence).

Much about my support raising to go back to Bosnia has not been a huge stressor. God has blessed my life with beautiful people who care about the world and those who want to go out into it for the Kingdom. They continue their prayers for me and I cannot thank them enough.

Last night I was counting the support money to make sure I had done my math correctly in confirming that with all the support considered I would have the full $1800 I needed for Bosnia. In doing the math again I got the same figure as last time $1873, that's $73 over budget. After getting that done and praising the Lord that he has provided for me yet again and then some, I looked at the calendar I keep on my computer. Come to find out when I started raising support back in September I had put on the date of March 6th (the halfway mark of my leaving for Bosnia) a goal of having $900 on this date. I figured half way date, half of the money, seems logical.

Well when I checked this I looked at the time, it was 12:30am March 6th. Today is the half way mark to leave for Bosnia. I have all of the money I need. And then some.

I have all the money I need. And then some.

I just needed to emphasize that if you didn't catch it. So not only did God bless me with half the money, but all of it on the date in which I had set a goal for only half. God blessed me more than I originally thought and I am praising him for that....a lot.

Thank God for His continuous and non-failing grace, love, and faithfulness to us.

All to God