living with some people is one of the biggest tests of patience, self control, and being slow to anger ever...holy crap!

oh christian humor.

Fantastic
Adventures
In
Trusting
Him

"just another sign that makes you wonder.."

This really encouraging to me and I think it is really cool to share how God works in people. so here is an email from Kevin, Belmont ruf pastor, about a student at Belmont.


Of course only the Lord knows, but I had a great meeting with George last night who thinks he got converted at ruf

last night. pretty cool story if you don't remember hearing me tell you about him. He came to a talk I gave on
pluralism and emailed me about meeting and following up an talking
more. He told me he is not a Christian but has started to be
interested in that stuff. After he comes to ruf the first time about
6 weeks ago he writes me an email saying that he is pleased to find
himself wanting to come back. One of my core group girls who has
known him since freshman year can't believe he's coming to ruf. He
and his girlfriend (who at one time professed faith but now has
serious doubts) begin coming regularly. Last week he and his
girlfriend (both are seniors) ask my wife if it would be ok for them
to keep coming after they graduate. So, I meet with him today and he
says that the last 24 hours have been pretty intense. He talks about
how while I was preaching he just wanted to shout out and cry at the
same time. I tell him about Wesley describing his conversion as
finding his heart strangely warmed and he says "Yeah, that's it."
Turns out he has been listening to my podcasts on the Real Jesus
every Sunday morning sitting on top of the parking garage for the
last month too. And he says he thinks he's been converted. Praise
God for George and pray for him. Grace and peace, Kevin

http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/open-book/no-28-concerning-halloween/

check out this article on where Halloween originated. its very interesting and makes you think differently about the holiday that our churches growing up said was demonic.

forgiveness

for the passed week or 2 i had been wrestling with forgiveness...basically because God's forgiveness is incomprehensible to me and all i can do is have faith and accept it. but he kept bringing stuff up to me that i'd never really thought about. one example is king david. david was the only person on earth who had the Spirit dwelling in him and speaking to him yet he still went so far as to sleep with a soldiers wife then have the husband killed to cover it up...and God still forgave him and restored his anointing! what?!!!! how much more will he forgive me? how can i even think that he would leave me? tonight alex mitchel and i went to the living room in homewood to pray. while i was praying God told me to turn to Zechariah. i think...strange, i've never even opened to this book ever i don't think. i'm pretty sure i even forgot it was in there ha. but in Zechariah 1:3 the Lord says, "Return to me AND I WILL RETURN TO YOU." He will never leave us no matter what we do if we turn back to Him. he is so faithful and so comforting!
at one point in auburn last year i was struggling with myself that i was even saved because of the same thing of how could God love me and forgive me for grieving Him. i battled this for about a month and one day while walking home from school i just cried out to him and instantly i heard almost audibly (but in my spirit) "You are my son!" i could not make myself make that up at the moment in time because i tried and there was no way i could convince myself that i was His. but He told me! He told me! Jesus...mmmmmmmm

so who is coming to iceland?

How Sad Our State by Nature Is!

i love hymns. kevin twit, belmont ruf pastor, is working on a new indelible grace cd and this hymn is on the cd. My friend Justin wrote the music for it and it touches the deepest caves of my broken heart. The words are so rich, so convicting, but so hopeful it brought tears to my eyes last night at ruf.

How sad our state by nature is!
Our sin, how deep it stains!
And Satan binds our captive souls
Fast in his slavish chains.

But hark! a voice of sovereign grace
Sounds from the sacred Word;
“Ho, ye despairing sinners, come,
And trust upon the Lord!”

My soul obeys the Almighty’s call,
And runs to this relief;
I would believe Thy promise, Lord;
O help my unbelief!

To the blest fountain of Thy blood,
Incarnate God, I fly;
Here let me wash my spotted soul
From sins of deepest dye.

Stretch out Thine arm, victorious King,
My reigning sins subdue,
Drive the old Dragon from his seat,
With all his hellish crew.

A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
Into Thy hands I fall;
Be Thou my strength and righteousness,
My Savior, and my all.

love.joy.peace.

i need His peace to reign in my heart today.

so almost daily someone comments on oh so how "chill" i am. i wish you could spend a week with me and see how many times i get told this. it can actually be quite amusing. "oh sandra, you're just so chill and layed back and calm." the other day i made a comment to my friend erica about being stressed about something and she goes, "YOU get stressed?!?" its interesting how people preceive you.
i think the Lord has given me a grace to have a good perspective a majority of the time. really, i see no reason to ever freak out. my HOPE and TRUST is in HIM. what do i have to worry about really? BUT, that does not mean i never feel that way. i just try to move past that and claim truth asap. like right now, ha.
i need a revelation of that in my heart today.
i need his understanding.
i got a friend to pray for me last night about a situation and that i wouldn't be anxious but that God's peace would consume me. im holding to the truth that he will do that. Phil4:6-8.
the word says "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition...to present your requests to God..and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus."
its hard sometimes. its a promise though. and even if i dont feel it, i believe it.

"my God will meet ALL your needs according to his GLORIOUS RICHES in Christ Jesus." phil4:19
"But seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness and ALL these things will given to you as well. do not worry about tomorrow.." matt5:33

"There's gonna be a wedding. For God is a lover and He's preparing a wedding.
The Father will have a family and the Son will have a bride.
He's not a baby in a manger anymore. He's not a broken man on a cross.
He didnt stay in the grave and He's not staying in heaven forever.
He's alive! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"

lately God has been revealing to me who we are in him and the past couple days i keep recollecting him calling is sons, we are also referred to as the bride, and we are referred to as friends. when thinking about the holy trinity and putting those 3 references together God showed me my relationship with Him. I am the Father's son, the bride of Christ, and the Spirit's friend. 3 different relationships with the 3 different members of the trinity. i know it doesn't sound too profound but i mean...it's pretty amazing if you think about it. it's weird growing up how people would tell you that they are all the same but one but would never explain what the meant (i think honestly because they didn't know what it meant except to believe it because thats what they'd heard and been taught without ever really digging into it themselves.) God is made up of the 3: GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Spirit. all of them together make up GOD and none should be seen as the lesser. a lot of times we see the Spirit as lesser and that just takes away from who GOD is. i don't know why it's so easy to do that...probably just a fat lie by the enemy because the power given to us and what moves us is the Spirit. if you take out the Spirit from our lives then we limit God and limit the part which moves in power here on earth.

in the end...Jesus is amazing. i get overwhelmed sometimes thinking about the trinity and my relationship to God and a lot of times it really confuses me but i know God will continue to reveal himself to me so that i will truly know who He really is and to truly know Him personally and intimately. let us always give thanks to Him

taylor

as weird as they are personally and spiritually... sigur ros has the most beautiful instrumental i've ever heard

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of he world to shame the wise; God chose he weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has bcome for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.'"
1 Corinthians 1:26-31

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:44

heck read John 6:25-59

I am going to see the arcade fire tonight in Louisville! it should be really good, i'm excited. Life has been really good lately. I have a great group of friends and God has been teaching me a lot. I am taking an understanding the bible class this semester, and my teacher has really challenged me. Not in a way where i see Jesus more beautiful and believable, I get that at chruch and ruf, but she teaches that the old testament isn't reliable because it is old and people back then told these stories orally and memorized them so that makes it fallible. And she says that christians look into the old testament too much and put Jesus in there when he isn't. That as humans we long for things to be meaningful so we look into it too much. So it has challenged me to find answers to these important questions and has been very fruitful.
here is a question i had:
"Do i take the old testament literally?"
answer: i found in luke 11 Jesus talks about the sign of Jonah, the guy that got swallowed by the whale. I mean that is a hard story to believe... but Jesus is teaching here as though he existed in real time and that story happened at a certain time in history. So i think we should take the old testament literally.

"Is Jesus in the Old Testament?"
answer: of course, yes he is, John 5:46-47 Jesus says, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

Yesterday in class she talked about Prophecy. She asked the class,"How do you know if someone is a prophet?" I found the answer in Hebrews 1:1-2, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."
The key words are has spoken, which is past tense, there is no need for prophets "in these last days" because God spoke to us through his son.

So even though when i leave her class i am usually upset with what she was teaching, it has challenged me to find answers in scripture to important questions.
I am so ready to be done with school. Please pray for me that I would have patience and be a diligent student.

mewithoutyou

so the band MeWithoutYou is incredible.
for some reason i havent listened to them until now, and well i cant stop.
check out these lyrics... these are probably my favorite thus far on my mewithoutyou adventure.

you're a door-without-a-key, a field-without-a-fence
you made a holy fool of me and I've thanked you ever since.
if she comes circling back we'll end where we'd begun
like two pennies on the train track the train crushed into one
or if I'm a crown without a king, if I'm a broken open seed
if I come without a thing, then I come with all I need
no boat out in the blue, no place to rest your head,
the trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead!


so good. hope yall have a great day:)

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
psalm 27:14