Would you?

Would you go with me to a place you've never been? Would you give up the life that you know and add onto it by an extraordinary measure? Would you sacrifice the white picket fence and surrounding family for small living spaces and no relatives anywhere in the entire continent? Would you realize that english is not the only language worth speaking?

Would you humble yourself and know that you couldn't do it alone? Would you be willing to take lessons from a small child because now you are the child? Would you be ridiculously honest with those who support you, even if it means they no longer want to support you? Would you have the faith that when all seems to daunting that you are more precious than a whole flock of sparrows to Him?

Would you have a hope that surpasses all understanding? Even where you stand now?

All to God

Apostled

I have started to read in the Acts of the Apostles again. I made this decision because I was thinking one day that if I am really an apostle, I should probably learn from the masters. Though I know that I never literally walked with Jesus I do strive to know him better and better, and while I'm on my relational journey, I should take some pointers from those who have walked with him.

So far I have read through chapter four and a lot of what this book is talking about thus far is the relationship of believers. The gift had been poured out on the Apostles and they were the teachers to those who believed. So I suppose I wanted to sit at their feet for a while.

As I am moving towards the mission field I feel more and more compelled to learn what it is to be a bold, adaptable, and pro-unification disciple. This does not just happen from reading about it but applying it to life, and to action. It is a true journey that anyone who is serious about discipleship and Christ must take. Many times it is a journey taken over a mountainous place full of valleys and mountain peaks, with sunrises and sunsets, mountain-sides full of daisies and flash-floods washing them away. But it is a journey worth taking.

To the world we go!

All to God

If the world hates you...

More and more I feel the weight of the world crashing in on my belief system with it's slander and it's vile understanding of who Christ really is and who Christians are suppose to be. Honestly the term "Christian" has become such a negative connotation to the world in many circles. I like calling myself exactly what Christian is suppose to mean and that is a "Christ follower". I may not get away from the connotation fully because even the name of Christ has become offensive to the world.

But I love Christ. 

Many don't want to hear the opinions of Christians because many "Christians" have given some opinions that are not progressive and not helpful for bringing the message of salvation to the masses. I will admit much of this I feel I am having to explain other doctrines from this dis-unified church to people who do not have a relationship with Christ. I, and many like me, are fighting people with doctrines such as the infamous Westboro Baptist. Also motives such as the pastor in Florida who was threatening to burn Qur'ans, both of these examples are what I would call ignorant, and lacking God's love. 

However, I have read articles and have watched shows/movies/documentaries advocating that Christians are ignorant fools who are unpleasant, unloving, completely hypocritical, and totally ridiculous. It seems that many (more so in America) are becoming more tolerant of other religions and philosophies but when Christianity is brought up, or talked about, it is a joke. 

I am a Christ follower, I don't hold up protest signs with hateful words like "So and so is going to Hell!" I am not the Judge. I do not stand on the street to yell "REPENT OF YOUR DIRTY SINS AND AVOID ETERNAL DAMNATION!" Because it isn't about avoidance, it is about a relationship with Jesus, and it's not all about being coaxed into a relationship because of the fear of damnation. 

I think it's ok to dance with joy

I think it doesn't matter what music you choose (granted it doesn't curse God)

I think it's good to debate with God

I think it's entirely appropriate to ask the hard questions

All I'm asking is that maybe those who judge us Christ followers, and those who may have preconceived notions to think about how you don't want Christians judging you. Well I feel the exact same way about people judging me for my beliefs. I am willing to talk about what I believe but I cannot MAKE someone change their beliefs, but I will love anyone just the same because God loved them first.

I cannot stop people from judging me, I am an imperfect being who just happens to love Christ, with this love I wish to share it. However, I cannot and will not use pressure, there will not be yelling, and I will only be compelled to speak the truth in love. Understanding Christ is understanding who I strive to be although I know I could never live up to who He is and was while he walked on earth.

All to God

Colored squares on Times Square

I wrote down a wish. I wrote it down on a tiny piece of colored paper. A man told me that on New Year's night in Times Square the wish that I wished would be flung out into the street. This wish could possibly be picked up by someone who providentially needed the words on that tiny piece of colored paper, or it could be swept into the gutter never to be seen by another human eye.

Whatever the fate of this wish that was written down, I still wish it into existence. I still pray it into being and I know it has been communicated to God over and over again.

I hope someone found my wish, but even if it wasn't found, the most important One has heard it. I hope that all of my lovely readers have a wonderful outlook, and a phenomenal hope for this year already among us. Maybe more will come to see the face of the God who has given us the choice of salvation.

All to God

Novo Godina

Whoa, it's been far to long since I've written. I hope everyone had a very good Christmas and I hope you were blessed by love and family this year. Now a new year is upon us! The Mayan calendar dreaded 2012...how doomified.

Well, I think it's obvious I do not take the stance of the innovative Mayans, but I am looking at this upcoming year at more of an adult-like stance. My LAST semester of college is basically here, May will come quickly and then something will happen that has only been a dream until now; no more school. No more tests or homework or teachers expectations. After this anything that drives my ambition has got to be purely my own incentive. That's going to be a life change in itself for some things.

I will be paying most of my own bills after graduation, and most of you are saying "welcome to life you little kid you" but really, it's different, something new. So...don't judge :)

Next on the adult bill, I will be living somewhere other than a dorm room, without girls up and down the hall and lobbies where friends normally reside. I will have to get out and make friends in the new community that i will be a part of for the time I am there. To be honest, that kind of excites me.

Also, making arrangements for my year long stay overseas which takes a lot of figuring and doing. This is a piece of my "career," something I have been working up to for a long time and executing it has to happen sooner than later. Once the gears start moving, I hope all things will...as they say....work together for my good.

Please be in prayer for all of this but specifically this last thing I mentioned it is definitely still in the works and need to be drenched with prayer. Thanks you guys.

So there are my adult happenings in the near future, Happy New Year everyone! May God work through His workers this year to bring more to Him!

All to God

Our gift for granted

Sometimes I realize just how much I take for granted. I realize how much I take my family for granted, my schooling, my health, my very being, and even my salvation. I understand that the junk I eat goes through my body and is just that, junk. I know that my family is not immortal, and any time I get to spend with them is valuable. It is in my brain that my body is a temple and there is so much more I could be doing to care for it. I realize that what Christ did for me on the cross was the most phenomenal gift that I didn't deserve and that I should do everything I can to help people receive that gift too.

It amazes me that some people do more with no legs, arms, eyes, and other commodities than I have done with the life I've been given. It sickens me to realize that sometimes I truly believe I can't do something with what I've been given and this is absolutely

sick.

I'm not invincible, this is not the point I am trying to prove, but if you sometimes think this way as I do then we have been intoxicated with a lie. I would like to say I will take a stand and always be glad for what I have, but lets face it...we are human....and we are selfish. We feel like there has been some cause and effect fallacy here and it is beyond our means to do what we have passions for or what we strive to accomplish, "If I was ___ then I could do _____", "If I had ______ then I could do _____." We aren't grateful. 

But there is this, we can try. We can wake up and be glad we have two legs to walk on, that we are free to worship the Rock of Ages, that we can walk into a college classroom and be educated. We can do these things and praise God that we are able, that we can, that it is possible, and that in any circumstance we can do what we deem impossible according to the bounds of what we think are our limits. Our capacity is more than we know, and it is God given.

All to God

Unless you have a graveyard shift...

There is this trickery that comes with Christmas break that comes for night-owls like myself. It happens quick and quite naturally. It is.....dun dun duhhhhh....

Staying up so late that you sleep so late the next day that this vicious cycle continues.

There are nights (much like this night that I am writing this post) that I try to go to sleep at night at a somewhat decent hour but somehow fail to do so, which makes an irritated Emilie. Irritated only because when I do try to sleep I can't, so yes I am the culprit of my very own demise. Then I wonder...how I do it at college. 8am classes and such, I mean I take naps like a kindergartener but I still manage to find sleep that night at a decent hour. It must be the lack of things that need to be accomplished.

So as break has just begun I wish to fill my days with things that will stimulate movement of not only the body but the mind as well, not just sit and watch TV all day. This cycle has already started and I refuse to let it take over my entire break. 

The beauty of Christmas break is that you don't have to do anything....the downfall of break is that you don't have to do anything. 

Though I am a night owl I do love the mornings, they can be the most beautiful time of day and I miss it to the extreme when this cycle begins. I don't have to do spectacular things, but I would like to challenge myself a little more than how many movies I can watch in a day. Sleep is necessary, staying up until the wee hours of the morning are not...especially when you have nothing to do. I would like to be awake most of the days of this break and letting sleep reign over the night, not the other way around.

Happy break everyone, and sleep well!

All to God