Goodbye from Ariel

I can only echo all the wonderful things that Haylie wrote in the previous post! I'm sad to see Passion go as well - it was a big part of my life for a long time, and I got so much joy from seeing God work through everything that happened here to encourage His daughters. I'm so thankful for Him for bringing us all to and through this, and I pray and know that it touched all you girls to live more deeply for Him.

For this blog, thank you soooo much for the staff - Haylie our manager for making the schedules, welcoming our new staffers SO enthusiastically, her ideas and networking with her AWESOME current mag Lilies Among Thorns, and writing such touching posts for us to enjoy! Annie our blog designer - look at this amazing template! She's incredible. And to all of our wonderful writers who were passionate about getting their stuff sent in time, guest posters - everyone who contributed their heart-to-heart writings for our sisters to study. You guys are awesome.

My last words can only be to look to the Cross and know how MUCH God demonstrated His love for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 5:8). Our story of Jesus personally pursuing us, redeeming us from sin, giving us His Spirit to help know Him more here, and coming back to take us lovingly into heaven is true and life-changing. Let it be the root of all that you do, and be free about sharing the story with love! Let it define your life. He is worth it.

I love you girls! Again, if any of you need to contact me, my email is ariel@arieloliver.com. I hope to hear some of your stories and to know how I can pray for you!

Your sis in Him,

Ariel

Him Alone

Nothing truly satisfies but God.

My stubborn heart's been being taught that more often recently. After taking part in anything, sinful or not, for too long, I'm left feeling empty. Friends, school, career, music, guys...anything but God. And it's for such an obvious reason. God is the only thing that matters, guys. The other things may matter a little in this life, but when we're drawing our last breath, when we're rising from the grave for judgment day, and really when we're just going through life daily - acknowledging Jesus as Lord of our lives is the only important thing. The fullest life we can possibly get is a life of craving more of Him.

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth." Psalm 73:25

Everything just fades away in the light and love of God. Holding grudges become a nonsensical idea. Pursuing riches turns into a huge waste of time. Holding anything in an esteem near as high as what is meant for something holy won't even tempt us if we silence our lives for a while and realize how amazing God is, simple as that, and praise Him for saving us.

It's more simple than we make it... just worship and want to know God. That's our life, girls. Let's go after it.

Love in Him,
Ariel

Foot in Mouth Disorder

Did you know that the disciple Peter was a loud mouth?

When I went to church recently, the guest pastor announced that he was going to give a sermon about Peter. I'm not going to lie, my prideful, stupid self went, "Oh my gosh, I've heard so much about Peter, I love him but I'm very sick of him." I knew he was stubborn, and proud, as are most of us. But I didn't realize that he had a serious and noticeable problem of "answering" when there was no question being asked of him at all! Let me demonstrate to you his constant foot-in-mouth disorder:

"When the disciples saw [Jesus] walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.' Peter said to Him, 'Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.' And He said, 'Come!' And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?'" Matthew 14:26-31

You'd think at this point Peter went, "Oh jeez. I've made such a fool of myself. I'll never say anything again!" But look, he does it again in just the next chapter!

"Peter said to Him, 'Explain the parable to us.' Jesus said, 'Are you still lacking in understanding also?'" Matthew 15:15-16

Jesus probably didn't say that in a condescending way, but you can imagine Peter might have heard it like this: "You still don't get it, you stupid man?!" and went "Okay, I'm REALLY never going to open this mouth again." Let's look at chapter 16 of Matthew.

"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." Matthew 16:13-19

Finally Peter says something good! But he must have gotten kind of bigheaded about what Jesus said to him, because it wasn't long before he was literally telling Jesus that Jesus - the Messiah and Son of the living God - was WRONG about something.

"From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.' But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.' Matthew 16:21-23

Can you imagine being called the devil? By JESUS? That had to be the most tragic reprimand in the world! You can bet that Peter went, "Okay, I'm really, REALLY never going to say anything again." ...Next chapter.

Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, 'This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!'" Matthew 17:1-5

The pastor that spoke about this to my church suggested that when Jesus had called only three disciples onto this special mission, Peter once again got a big head and assumed that he was super important... and of course, he opens his mouth and says the stupidest thing! Why did he have to say anything in the first place!? Look at the text - God intervened here WHILE Peter was still speaking, and said, "listen to Him!" Essentially, the God of everything INTERRUPTED Peter's babbling and went, "Shut up, Peter!" Can you imagine? You can bet that Peter was thinking, "I'm so dumb! I can't believe I just said that! No more talking for me!" 

But take a look at Matthew 26:31-34, 69-75, and Mark 16:1-7. Peter opened his mouth again, proved himself wrong by denying the Person he had called the Messiah and Son of the Living God, and wept bitterly. He must have been absolutely shattered that he had denied his allegiance to Jesus and the Lord's death. But the incredible thing is Jesus knew it and addressed Peter specifically. When the Lord had risen from the dead, he told the women to go tell the disciples, "and Peter", that He would be going to Galilee ahead of them, and they would see him there. He pointed out Peter specifically. He knew Peter was hurting in a very deep way. And if you've read Acts, you know what Peter went on to do. He prophesied. He raised dead men up. He healed the lame. He brought an incredible amount of people to Christ. He became the rock of the church.

But first, he was a loudmouth. The whole point of this post is to say - there is hope for us! God will forgive us over and over again. He cares for us and knows our hearts and our hurts. and He can take our worst weaknesses, the things that make us so obnoxious, and turn it around for His glory. If there is hope for Peter, there is definitely hope for us.

Ariel

What to do with your life??

Until recently in my older teenage years, I've always stressed out about how I was going to live my life and how my future was going to go. Namely, I wanted to make sure that I was doing God's will in my life, and I hoped, hoped, hoped that I would never make the mistake of going to the "wrong" college, getting the wrong career, marrying the wrong person, moving to the wrong city...I kind of waited for God to suddenly appear in a glowing figuration as I prayed and send me to a country as a missionary, or tell me to go to this college, or just give me some kind of mission for my future!

But what I never knew was that, although God certainly does choose to personally in a very direct way guide us on a specific path... most of the time, we should just focus on glorifying Him in our daily lives, loving others at least as much as ourselves, and doing what we desire.

Whoa... did I just say that?? Doing what we want in life?? Let me explain.

Something that changed my perspective on this concept was a book excerpt by John MacArthur called "Found: God's Will". I encourage you to find it and purchase the book - it's definitely worth it. But he described that if we simply find our delight in the Lord, He will shape the direct of our heart and we can simply go after what we want, whether that's being an artist, moving to California, or volunteering for something. This is not an unbiblical concept. You see Paul and the team of people he was doing missionary work with in Acts executing this philosophy. Check out how it turned out:

"Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." Acts 16:6-10

Paul and his companions simply went from town to town, preaching the gospel everywhere, and where they want. They decided that they wanted to preach in a certain place of Asia - so they tried to get in. The Scripture doesn't say how the Spirit did it (perhaps it was by a closed door of opportunity?), but He kept them from going into the area. They kept trying, though! They didn't just give up and write it off as not God's will! In life, it's like we're all in a maze of walls, mirrors, and opened and closed doors, and we bump into these things and feel our way through until we find the right opening to continue on. And that's exactly what this missionary team did. They kept trying to get into Asia. Through that, it led them to other areas where they might not have gone otherwise to preach the gospel, but also they were led down a slightly different path - God wanted them to go to Europe! Christianity no longer would be an Asian cult, but spread throughout the globe through their missionary acts there.

This post is getting long, so I just want to encourage you girls about something I've learned and am learning. Abide in God, and prayerfully and intelligently go after what you want as long as it's holy, and don't give up. Pray, pray, pray, and worship Jesus, and live how He wants you to live - in kindness, in relationship, in strength, and in the Spirit, and don't worry about getting some grand vision from God about what to do with your future. If you are simply with Him, He is with you, and watching out for you - so go in life. Run. It's a short run until we reach eternity with our Father - let's live it to the fullest and to the glory of God.

The Eternal Well

Recently, I was reading John 4, the time in Jesus' ministry where He met a Samaritan woman at a well and told her that He was the Messiah. If you haven't read that before, you can read it online here. What stunned me about this story was how what He said probably paralleled to what the woman was personally struggling with. She had gone from man to man to man (at least 6 at that point in her life), perhaps looking for something to fill that longing in her spirit - that longing in all of our spirits that compelled us to all kinds of things to fill the void and give us peace inside. But it only works for a while doesn't it? Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again" (John 4:13).

It's what humans do - turn to the things of the world to fill that void. Some of us go to entertainment (movies, television shows, social media, or music) to fill the hole. A lot of us go to guys for acceptance, love, and appreciation. There are drugs. There is alcohol. There is popularity. There is physical beauty. There is intelligence. But none of these things work. We fill up and are satisfied for a shorter time - perhaps you have reached that point and remember going deeper into the things you were already exploring, or searching for the next well to fill your longing.

What can permanently fulfill us?? Let me allow Jesus to tell you:

"Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4:14

"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6:35

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves...for My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink." -John 6:53, 55

"If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink*. He who believes in Me as the Scripture said, 'From his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water.' " John 7:37-38

*Ie, keep coming to Me and keep drinking

Come to Jesus! Lay your heart on the floor. Believe in His power to heal you. Believe with all your heart that He died for your sins, redeemed you from yourself, and rose from the dead. Believe in the glory of God and His love for us, despite our unworthiness. You will find fulfillment in the arms of God, who will call you His child if you but believe in the name of Jesus.

So drink of Him! Pray to Him and listen for answers. Study the Bible with hunger. Have good, honest conversations with your brothers and sisters in Christ. The Holy Spirit will give you peace in your heart that surpasses all understanding, and your thirst will be fulfilled.

Author of our Lives

Recently I remembered how my heart once was brought to and kept a place of awe of God's work and plan in and of my life. How He used things to help me see Him in all happenings, which coincidentally was a whole part of the planning. Typically we're not hyper-aware of God's activity in our every day life -- how present and active and dynamic He is in His planning. Something happens -- we meet a new person, get a job, get invited to a party next week, receive $50 from our grandparents -- we think, "Cool" and walk away. Thinking it's just another thing that happens. Like our lives are just "happenings" stacked back to back. We forget that God has an idea for all that! That He is active and working to complete the grand picture He has for our lives. That there's a plan.

I realized the other day that if we constantly recognize that concept -- that God is the author of our lives, and that He's always writing -- we become better tools of God to shape ours and others' lives. Why? Because we embrace each moment as a moment from God more, and treat it as such! And when we treat it as such, it opens doors. We get to know that new person and keep in touch, cementing what could be a valuable new connection. We look for ways to truly serve in our new job. We cherish the time at that party with our friends, inviting God's work even there. We really think about how the Lord might lead us to spend that $50! Maybe it was an answer to one of our prayers, or He wants us to hang onto it because He intends to use it as an answer to someone else's prayers.

I think more often should we as Christ followers call events in our lives puzzle pieces, always keeping in mind that He has a big picture He's putting together...or as a domino in a chain of dominoes...or as a thread in the tapestry.

And don't forget about recognizing our entire lives as a whole as a centimeter of a thread of God's tapestry for His world plan. Now that's exciting!

Delights and Desires

"Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4

"Looking back on the whirlwind of the past few months and all the amazing things that have happened to bring us to this place, this is what I know to be true:  God takes good care of His children. He places dreams–His dreams–in our hearts. Then in His own way and in His own time, as we delight ourselves in God alone He gives us those desires of our hearts. Why are we always so surprised when extraordinary things happen? The desires of our heart have been His dreams for us all along. The real goal seems to be that we let go of our fears and find our delight in the Lord." -Robin Jones Gunn (from her February 2011 e-newsletter)

Another note I wanted to add is if we aim the focus of our affection onto Jesus, He will surely shape what we want to be aligned to what He wants. That's one of the joys of our relationship with Jesus. He gives us His eyes, and fashions our hearts to beat like His. When He becomes our first desire, the subsequent desires will be authored and accomplished by Him.

Girl Talk: What are some of the desires of your heart? What have been some in the past that have changed as you've followed God?

More on Quiet Time. . .

Okay girls, so I am going to make this enormous confession! I haven't had a quiet time in a long time. And I thought it would be a good idea to share with you guys the story of how this came to be.

Essentially, a few months ago I think it was, I realized that the Bible said nothing about having a "daily quiet time." I wondered why it was so demanded in the church of God hasn't ever actually made a decree about it?? It troubled me that I had written articles that insisted you girls had to have a quiet time every day. And I apologize for that advance only in this -- it is not something that the Bible says we must do. It is not a commandment.

Anyway, I suddenly decided that I wasn't going to be "tight" about it. I would go to God when I wanted to! When I felt the Spirit calling, or I just felt like spending some time with the Lord, I'd go do it. I'd figure it would happen from a few times a day to every other day at the least! So this is what I did.

Well let me tell you. My set-apart times of prayer decreased. They went from every day to every other day. Then a couple times a week. Then a few times a month. Then they became, simply, a rare treat. And the sad thing is, this was a part of something that pulled me away from God. I have still lived for Him in that I generally follow that He has laid out for us, but, have I been living a sold-out life? Have I been focusing on hourly dedication to Him? No.

He has become farther removed from my mind, and recently I actually started to develop a secular mindset!!! Ahhh! I know, right?? Not an atheistic, particularly worldly mindset, but a more self-absorbed one. Lately I've been thinking in terms of what talents and abilities I want to cultivate, my dreams, what I want to do with my life, what difference I want to make, finding out what kind of a person I am in terms of personality and likes and dislikes, what goals I'd like to set...have you noticed something?? There's a lot of "I's" in this sequence!! What happened to "I WANT GOD!" and that's all?

I think that part of this has rooted from my lack of self-discipline to set aside time for God each day. Is it a Bible decree? No. Is not spending specific, set-apart time with God in prayer and reading Scriptures daily a sin? NO! But to put it plainly, it's just a smart idea, and using plain logic, it's something that all Christians should do. It just makes sense!

I was thinking today about desire to spend time with God. What if we don't want to spend time with God, but then do, as a chore? Is that wrong? I could be wrong, but what I think the answer is, is something like this: If you don't want to spend time with God, then you haven't been spending enough valuable (quality, not quantity) time with Him in the first place to recognize the rewards of it! I stumbled across this quote the other day and it hit me pretty hard:

"The moment you don't feel like praying, get on your knees. And the moment you don't feel like reading your Bible, you'd better get that Book open." -Lori Wick

I need to get back to daily time with God. Even if it's just 10 minutes. It doesn't matter how much time--it just has to be a reasonable (ie, more than 30 seconds ;)) amount that is valuable, spent worshiping in the Presence and learning from Him!!! It will affect our day-to-day life, and therefore, our life as a whole! So I'm going to go back to the self-discipline of reading the Bible and praying to Jesus every day. Even if I don't feel like it. Because eventually, it will become a joy.

Well, there you have it. My confession. This isn't some fancy article, obviously, where I focused on my writing skills -- it's just me chatting informally with you and sharing what's been going on in my life. So, what are your thoughts on this subject? Am I wrong? Should we only go to God when our hearts feel like it? And where are you? Let's pray for each other. :)

Ariel

Move Aside

As Christ followers, we're always pursuing more of God. How can we give Him more of our heart? What's standing in our way of a deeper relationship with Him? We should always ask ourselves these questions.

So, have you asked yourself it lately? I heard someone say to let God in more, you have to move something out of the way. What's something you could cut back on or quit for the sake of God? Maybe you need to cancel your account on one of the sites you frequent. Or cut back on the large amounts of time time you spend on your cell phone or iPod. We love God, and we love to give things up for Him! Even if it's a fast for a week to grow closer to Him, sit down to pray about what you should put aside so the Lord can have more of your heart.

Is 31,000 Verses Too Much?

I heard this on a commercial on the radio today: "The Bible is thousands of pages long, has 66 whole books, and over 31,000 verses! No wonder it's so hard to find the motivation to read it!" They went on to advertise some kind of program that split the Bible into daily readings, I think it was. I was too stuck on being mad at the "hook" message to actually hear what product they were raving about.

"The Bible isn't just a long, boring book!!! It's God's LOVE LETTER to us! It should be EASY for us to read! We should be wanting to read God's Message all of our lives, just taking bathroom and sleep breaks, it's so amazing. We should be wishing His Book was longer, not shorter, so we could have even more of God's voice and heart so accessible. It's the Creator of the universe's LOVE LETTER, you terrible man; how dare you say it's hard to read it because it's so long."

Then, as I was ranting at my radio (well, the guy), I remembered that I was 3 days behind on reading this amazing Book.

I paused. Oops? Hypocrisy, much?

Seriously, though, am I right? Are we totally crazy to say we don't have "enough time" to read God's book for us? ("Ugh, Facebook just takes up my schedule, man.") I mean, I say that we just out with it: we don't read the Bible as much as we could because we are lazy and sinful. We don't have enough of the love of God in our hearts. Once we realize that, we become vulnerable. But God can heal us and place the love of His Spirit, searching out His will, and reading His Word into our hearts. We just need to ask.

New Clothes

I found an awesome picture of God's redemption for us through the cross in Zechariah today:

"Now Joshua [a high priest] was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. And he [the angel] spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, 'Remove the filthy garments from him.' Again he said to him, 'see, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes."(Zechariah 2:3-4)

Jesus completely did this for us when we first came to Him. He removed our dirty, ugly sin--our raggedy, old clothes. We became naked. Although we were clean and free from sin, we were still plain...weak...incapable. That's when He went the extra mile. He has and/or is giving us gradually glorious robes to adorn ourselves with. They're not naturally a part of us. They are a part of Him: to be courageous...loving...capable. Capable of righteousness, His righteousness.

In our hearts, the more we shed of our uselessness, the more room He has to adorn us in His glorious righteousness. Even in this colorful robe He has clothed us in lovingly, we are still nothing. We simply have something...His something.

God will continue to transform us and clothe us in new clothes constantly. It's an ongoing process that we'll continue through our entire lives, when we surrender to Him. What stage are you at? Are you gloriously dressed? Just have small garments? Are you freshly undressed from your old clothing, ready for some of God's power? Or are you standing before a holy God, ashamed of dirty rags? He loves you and wants to remove them and replace them with new clothes of righteousness and holiness.  "'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts."

Even There

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me; Your right hand will hold me fast." -Psalm 139:9-10

It doesn't matter where in the world you are -- location-wise or heart-wise -- God is always with you and offering His guidance and protection. So when you're feeling discouraged, think about that. Fill in the blanks with your own situation:

"If I ___________________________, even there Your hand will guide me; Your right hand will hold me fast."

What's your fill-in-the-blank? "sit, lost, a graduated high school student not knowing where to go next"? "roam the lost lands of India as a missionary"? "am heartbroken and hiding in my closet so no one hears my crying"?

Hour by Hour

We talk a lot about glorifying the Lord with our lives, but how about our years...months...weeks...days...HOURS? Can we seriously look back at our day at the end of each one and say with confidence, 'God was glorified?'

We talk a whole lot. Dedicating our lives to God is not praying "God, You can have my life". Dedicating our lives is not staying away from cuss words and general bad deeds. Dedicating our lives to God is not even just setting aside 10 minutes to prayer and reading the Word a day.

Dedicating our lives to God is dedicating every hour of our life to service to Him. Seems radical, huh? Seems impossible.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)

I'm just going to be honest. I could totally be wrong, so debate with me if you want. But really - is playing video games being dedicated to God? Is surfing the net aimlessly or spending an hour on Facebook taking ridiculous quizzes or playing silly games a life dedicated to God? Is spending money you don't have on designer clothes you don't need dedication to God? What do you think?

But the purpose of this post isn't to condemn you. It's to wake you up, to wake me up.

Our minutes, hours, days, and weeks ARE OUR LIVES. If we are dedicating our lives to God, we're dedicating every second to Him. Are you dedicating every second to Him? I'm not. So today, when you're finished studying school and the priorities you have before you, think over what you're going to do with the time God's given you. Use it wisely. Will you spend it growing closer to Him in prayer? Reaching out to strangers? Helping someone who needs it? Asking your friends how you can help them...pray for them?

Is your life dedicated to God?

A Productive Summer

Summer's coming!

Isn't it exciting?? I really can't wait for school to be done with. What is your summer going to be like? Some of us are going to have jobs and tons of activities to bog us down and keep us busy the entire summer. But a lot of us also will just have time, time, time on our hands with school out of the way.

Commit to using all your new free time this summer to spend growing deeper in God! The best hope we have for our lives is to be close to Him, so utilize all this extra time in the summer to prayer and growing in the Word. Also, look for places to volunteer and serve Him. His heart is for the orphaned, poor, and widowed, so don't turn a blind eye to them. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, entertain the folks at a nursery home, or just grab a few friends, make some sandwiches, and go downtown in your city to serve the homeless for Christ! Ask God how you can serve Him this summer and allow Him to guide you to the answer.

Girl Talk: How are you going to serve God this summer? What ideas do you have for your sisters in Christ who want to serve Him by helping those in need, but don't know how?

Unknown Future

I personally am in a pretty rough spot in my life in that I don't have an inkling what to do after I graduate from high school. It's scary not knowing more than one step ahead about what you should do. It can be intimidating not knowing what God's plan for you, but the best approach for the situation is just to trust Him with all your heart, and keep loving Him and praying that He will guide you and illuminate what He has for you.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." -Proverbs 3:5

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD. 'Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" -Jeremiah 29:11

"If the Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm." -Psalm 37:23

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me [Jesus]." -John 14:1

The truth is, God knows what He's doing in your life, and it's okay if you don't know what the next step is yet. Take time to pray. Give your future to Him, and wait. He won't stay silent forever. He'll open the doors that need opening. Keep your spiritual ears tuned for the nudge of the Holy Spirit through these doors by praying daily, spending time in the Word of the Lord, and obeying the commandments He's laid out for us to follow each day, out of love, and you can't go wrong. God's got great stuff in store for you. Just trust Him.

Unearned Love

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." -Romans 5:1-2

The only thing that God has us do to receive His grace is to have confidence in the Truth of the gospel. That's grace. There is nothing that anyone in the world -- murderer or enormous missionary -- can do to earn the love of God. The cross and the empty tombstone proved that the Creator loves all of us equally, despite what we have done, thought, said, or been. Or the things you are doing, thinking, saying, or who you are. (And let's face it, every single one of us is wretched.)

In our world, we have to earn stuff most of the time. But God's love was not earned by anything we did. Even if we rejected Him and our sins sent us to Sheol after we died, He still loved us.

The question is if you really, truly grasp this...or if you're still caught in the legalism that Jesus came to overcome. Do you have some idea that Jesus doesn't love you as much as your fearless evangelistic friend or that guy you know who is starting a charity for God's cause? (Or anyone else.) Don't do anything to try and earn God's love. Our deeds that are done out of religious obligation, pride, or a vain way to get His attention are filthy rags to Him. But deeds done out of a pure heart that is grateful for how God loves you and how His Son took our penalties? To Him, those are precious jewels that He uses to draw other men to him.

Just accept it:

GOD LOVES YOU!

Now, what are you going to do about it??

Be thankful for that never-ending, unearned love, and love Him back, because the Master of the universe who loves every single one of His messed up creations completely deserves it. And tell others about this incredible affection and adoration He has for us!

Sole Rest

"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my Rock and my Salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken." (Psalm 62:1-2)

Is it a tall order to find rest and strength alone in the Creator of the universe, the King of life, the Redeemer of our souls who has an endless love for His creation? It shouldn't be. But it is. We rest in the fact that we are well off, or we have a lot of friends, or our social status in school or church, or even silly things, like how we are having a good hair day. But God wants to be our SOLE source of rest, peace, and protection. He wants us to reach the point where He is our everything. We'll never be perfect because of our sin nature, but with His help, we can get really close to it. And when we are snatched away into heaven, His glory will be the only thing there and truly our Everything.


Girl Talk: What do you find rest in? What makes it tough to lean on God instead of this?

Undignified

A poem by Ariel Oliver


Bitter cold bites my cheeks,
Sand is stinging my shins,
Harsh winds assault my hair.

But before me lies beauty -
Aqua waves tumble forward,
Darkening the beige sand.

The beach beckons.

I kick off my shoes,
My soles are greeted by coolness:
I quickly tread the grainy ground.

I breathe in the crisp air.
My caked feet meet the line
Between dry and damp sand.

Pause before the choice.

One inch up invites
The tease of surf.
Warmth surprises.

Tiptoeing breaks into a trot;
My feet slice through the water;
Sand swirls around my ankles.

Exhilaration thrills my heart.

The sea swallows my knees, and I slow down.
I see water ahead curling forward;
Trepidation births inside me and stirs.

The wave, crested in white foam
Stretches forward and nudges me back,
Sweeping past my waist and hips.

Joy inside spills forth to express itself.

Twirling
Kicking
Laughing

Dignity has become foolish.
Being a fool is dignity.
All self image has leaked away.

I spin once more, and then stop to face it.
My breaths are silenced by the surf's whisper.
I watch the waves gently reach up and roll.

The mystery, glory, and power of the ocean stuns me.



This has a hidden spiritual parallel. Are you living recklessly and without concern for dignity for Christ? I know that I am not nearly enough. Ask Him where in your life you need to throw away your self image, and pray for help. He will help us.

Going with Christ

For most of us who grew up in church before, we have heard this verse uttered a hundred times:

"And again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying: 'I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.'" (John 8:12)

I found something really intriguing when I was studying this passage today. The Greek word behind "follow" in this context is "akoloutheo" (pronounced ak-ol-oo-theh'-o). It is the combination of 2 Greek words, one that means "together" and one that means "a road". Essentially, akoloutheo means to be in the same way with, to accompany, to attend, to go with. In this light (no pun intended), the verse makes a lot more sense. If you're with light, then...you're with light! Not darkness. (By the way, the Greek verb where Jesus says "shall not walk in darkness" is double negative, which means He was more like saying, "shall definitely never, ever walk in darkness". Yep, I'm a Greek geek!)

In our everyday life, it's easy for us to envision Jesus going with and accompanying us. But what about our accompanying Him on His way? His way is clearly laid out in His Word. Are you following it day by day? And just as importantly, are you accompanying Him closely? Communicating with Him throughout the day? Are you aware of His presence with you, and do you regularly ask, "Lord, where are you staying?" Although He certainly calls us to follow and obey Him, this is also synonymous with us being WITH Him. Consulting Him. Talking to Him. Are you lagging behind Him following Him silently, or do you walk beside Him, submissive to His way and in lively fellowship with your best Friend?

God's Voice

One thing I have always struggled with is hearing and recognizing the voice of God. I'm still waiting to experience that "booming voice" from the back of your head instructing you to do something very specific. But I've come to realize that God does speak into my life, more than I realize. And He speaks into yours, and to you directly!

You know that gut feeling of The Bible says this is wrong. I need to stop? That's His prompting. Are you obeying? Or the sudden urge to go spend time with God in the middle of your day. That's the Holy Spirit beckoning you to spend some intimate time with the Lord. Or the very strong feeling to befriend a specific person at your school or write your troubled aunt a letter? That could be the voice of Jesus guiding you.

Are you obeying His voice? Are you taking the time to listen for His voice, or is your quiet time all about you talking? God has things to say. Keep your ear open. He may whisper to you as you spend time with Him, or He may suddenly speak as you go throughout your normal day doing normal things, like He did with David, Gideon, and many other people! Obey God's voice and see what amazing things will unfold because of it.