First Day of School! First Day of School!

We are Juniors!!!! Today was the first day all three of us had class. Jillian's first day was yesterday, but today was my first day as a "upperclassman". I only have 12 hours of class left because I only have 24 hours left before block so I'm taking it easy this semester with classes. Even though I'm only taking 12 hours my Tuesdays are my 8:15-3:30. All my classes are education classes, which I'm pretty excited about. I also packed my lunch for the very first time in a super cool lunch box. I got to enjoy my lunch with Erin and we had really good catch up time while we grabbed some free ice cream.  The only thing that I am not so excited about is finding parking spots on campus, it stinks big time. I am helping with a event on campus with the Well tomorrow and I am going to give walking a chance.

God Moments

Do you ever have those God moments, when something just clicks and you just wanna jump up and down cause you are so over joyed by the Lord. Yesterday, I had one of those moments. Since I am living in JC on the weekends now I went to Redeemer this morning. I really enjoyed  it. It's a lot different from my home church, but I'm excited to learn more about it. The sermon was really good this morning, and it really spoke to me. The speaker spoke about fear, and how everyone fears something, whatever it may be. At the beginning of the sermon he had us take a little test. He asked us to check off the ones we agreed with. Some of the statements  were, "When I sense someone might reject me,  I become nervous and anxious." " I constantly compare myself to others." "I am scared of being exposed."  Even though, we may have fear of these things God's glory is even bigger. I've always heard the word glory, but never really known what it means by definition. He gave us a good definition for glory and holy. Saying that God is holy is saying that his perfection is incomparable. God is perfectly holy, and his perfection cannot be touched. Then he described glory as God's display of his holiness. After, the sermon we sang the song "How He Loves Us" by David Crowder. This is a very powerful song, and while I was singing it I just got so excited and wanted to jump up and down. Then I thought to myself "Man, God is really here today". However, God is always there. Then I asked myself the question, "Why do we always say that God was in the house today!", when a service goes really well,or
"Man, God showed up during this service. Our God is always there, He is always ready for a service to be really awesome. How often do we allow Him in, and allow Him to work and do crazy awesome things. I believe that I would have so many more God moments, if only I would allow Him to work and allow Him to move. Sometimes when those random moments when we allow Him in are those that I love the most. Not too long ago I was driving home from work pretty late one night. There was a lot of lightning and the song "I Will Rise" was playing on the radio. I couldn't help, but think about the power of God during this moment. I was so excited, almost to the point where it wasn't safe for me to be driving. I am always wanting more moments like these, and instead of allowing myself to see Him I am blinded but asking for Him to show up when He already has.

C's 1st Birthday

The very first time I got to hold him!

I am such a blog slacker. It's been a little crazy with moving in my new house and working, so I've slacked quite a bit. Last weekend my parents and I went  to celebrate C's birthday. I was so excited to see my whole entire family, because Nathan flew there as well. We were only together for Christmas last year, so we don't all get to spend time together all that much. We didn't do that much while we were there We just spent a lot of time together playing cards and of course eating. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday and he loved all of the attention. He just laughed and smiled and showed off while opening his birthday presents. Then he slowly got more and more comfortable with his cake and eventually stuck his face in his cake. It was a wonderful weekend and I was sad to come home. It's hard to believe that he is getting so big. He is my favorite little boy in the entire world, and I miss him so much when I'm at home. Hurry up Christmas!!!

It's A Good Day

I started out today by eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. That's a pretty good start to a great day if you ask me. Then I spent some time in the book of Numbers. I've slacked recently in my bible reading and quiet time, and I can certainly tell a difference when I do this. I read chapters 7-11 in Numbers and chapter 7 was a little difficult to read, because it was very repetitive and detailed about the different offerings they made. Then chapter 10 was about the Israelites leaving Sinai to move the tabernacle. Reading the old testament has been hard at times, but I've also enjoyed it because I feel like I'm just reading a story book(which the bible really is), but you know what I mean. One verse in chapter 11 really stuck out to me. It was verse 23 "The Lord answered Moses, "Is the Lord's arm too short?".." I really liked this, and it's something that I can apply to my life. Often times I doubt the power of my Lord, but His arm isn't too short He can reach down and wrap his arms around me and all the little things in my life that I make out to be much bigger than they actually are. He can reach out to me, and everyone of His children. He has time to take care and listen to us not only because He can, but because He wants to. Speaking of God taking care of us, the girls and I put a deposit on our house today. I am super excited, and hopefully everything will work out. Man our God never falls through. My day didn't end there after Jillian and I took care of the house stuff we went to Babies-R-Us to shop for C's birthday present. His birthday is next Tuesday and we are going up there this weekend to celebrate. Then when I got to home, David and I went to dinner at the Chocolate Cafe. I had never been there until tonight, and I really enjoyed it. I had a Grilled Chicken Panini and it was really good and we both shared a desert after we discussed which one we wanted for about an hour. We ended up getting a Reece's pie and even though David almost pushed it in the floor it was so yummy. It was such a great day!

Radical

While I was at the beach with David's family I purchased the book Radical by David Platt. My Peru team leader Mr. Hetzel spoke a lot about it, and I knew that I wanted to hear more about it when I got home. I started reading it as soon as I got it, but it was very overwhelming. It's kind of one of those slap you in the face books, if you know what I mean. During this beach trip, I tried to read it again, because I really wanted to learn from it because I had heard so many good things about it. The main point the author is trying to make so far in the books is that even though having the "American Dream" is a good thing, it is not we as Christians are called to settle with. Platt is also sharing his concern with the American way of making Christianity. I am very motivated by this book, but also a little scared. I feel like I have failed miserably, and basically I have. One of the first things in the book that really struck me was this "While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God." I believe that he is saying that going after the American dream isn't necessarily a bad thing, but as Christians we aren't called to live to bring glory to ourselves, but to God alone. "His power is superior to ours. Why do we not desperately seek it?" Well that is a good question. I've struggled with this particularly because of my living situation in the fall. I am living with Jillian and Ashley and our plans were to live in a townhouse about a mile from campus. It was a good townhouse, good price, and a good location. Unfortunately we didn't sign a lease and went on word that the guy would hold it for us, which led to us not having anywhere to live and finding this out about three weeks ago. So we have been frantically searching and searching again while Ashley and I were at the beach last week and Jillian is in Jamaica this week. I've been praying that God would provide for us a good house at a good price in a safe location. It's been hard to be patient and wait on his timing. It's been frustrating, because we have been constantly let down house after house. I know that my God has the power to provide, but I still can't get rid of the doubt that he will. He is a powerful God and I'm seeking his power, but not with my whole heart. We have found a house that we like, and I pray that everything works out with it. I'm praying that I trust God and his power, even if this doesn't work out, and "we (should) trust that Jesus stands ready to give us everything we ask for so that he might make much of our Father in the world." My job in this word is to make much of Him by living a radical life in this world He put me in. As Platt better put it, "Enjoy his grace and extend his glory."