Love oh Love

Well today is the big day for Kevin and Julie. I am so excited for them! They have truly been so pure and honest in their relationship and I know God will honor that. So off to the wedding I go.. we have bridesmaids pics in a bout an hour then the wedding is at 3... what a fun day. I love weddings. I hope I have one some day ;)

Check out pics from the rehearsal and dinner last night here...

time

Well I got to spend time with my grandmother this morning at her house... it was a good time.. we explored and took pictures... check them out here.

new pics

Oh and I am posting some pics from the lake on my site... click here yo!

Whew

Well today was a much needed break for me. We got to spend the day at the lake... chillaxin if you will...I have been sick for the past week and I just could not feel better all weekend. I have just been exhausted more than anything... and coughing.. boo.. but nevertheless the sun did me good... and I am a little..okay a lot sunburned! Oh well as long as its okay by the wedding this weekend! Woop Woop! But this week will prove to be good I think.. last day of May Term tomorrow and finals on Wednesday.... thankkkkkk goodness! then wedding on Saturday, camp training at the lake on Sunday-Monday, class starts Monday, regular camp training through Friday, Heather's Birthday Friday, leave for Boston with Josh and Amanda on Saturday, fly home Tuesday, then Camp Wednesday!
My goooooodness.
I am excited though... and I am excited to see where God takes us this summer... because all of these are my plans... but He may have different ones.. and I am more than cool with that.
I'm listening to the Passion Podcast right now... I am so excited for them and their World Tour. I can't believe 3 stops are already down. I feel like they should be heading off in like a month not almost having a month down... crazy! I love this ministry though... they are so Jesus centered...which is hard to find these days... but I love them and I am excited they are getting to be tools used to spread the fame of Jesus around the world. But Louie talked a little bit about the cost of making the Name famous...mailnly in reference to the Chapman's trail right now with the death of their little girl... he(Louie) made an awesome point...we are usually okay with making the Name of Jesus famous when it's on our terms... but in reality the fame of Jesus is not on our terms... it is on His... no matter what it takes...
Praying for the Lord to fulfill his purpose in my life (Psalm 138) not on my terms.

Strange

Well today I was deemed "strange" in class because I made a stand that there is One true God and we have only one way to eternal life and it is through Him and that doing good deeds doesn't bring salvation and its NOT ALL RELATIVE!...... what a privilege.

Tragedy

Even in the midst of tragedy He is good... hurting for the Chapman family. Read the link for the full story of Christian singer and songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman's tragic death of his 5 year old daughter. She was hit in their driveway by an SUV driven by her older brother. I can't imagine the pain this family, especially the brother, must be feeling, but I must say that I am certainly glad that they have the one true Rock to stand on... may God's name become famous through this... otherwise it truly will be a tragedy.

When we pray we should seek the face of God, not the hand of God.

Hmm.

uh-oh

Well I think I may have lost my purse... well actually I have determined it must be in my car.. I am hoping at least... point is that my journal is in it and I wrote down some stuff yesterday that I wanted to blog about.. oh well... I'll just talk a little bit about what I remember.

Well I know I am on a "how selfish I am" kick but God is just revealing more and more to me everyday. Like por ejemplo (thought I'd throw a little Spanish twist in here it means for example) : I have been struggling lately to get up and spend time in the Word and to prioritize my time during my day and spend it on things that matter (unlike facebook and taking pictures). But I have failed miserably at it lately and I pinpointed the main reason. I have forgotten that it is not all about me. My time spent in the Word should not be what can I get out of it or even how should I live my day today... now don't misunderstand me here... these are definitely benefits of spending time with the Lord in His Word and prayer, but that can't be my motivation. That is why I have been failing at this so much, I have been doing it for me.

The Lord loves me in spite my self though and on Saturday he woke me up at 7:45 and said get and and spend time with me because you love Me not because you need an encouraging word from me or some advice for the day, but because you love me... it's as if I heard the words out loud. And I laid there for a minute... my flesh fighting with everything in me to convince me to stay in bed, but I got up. I can't tell you the last time I spent time in my Bible because I wanted nothing more than to be near God. I love the Word I do and studying it is one of my passions, but I had forgotten that me spending time in the Word was not what I could get out of it that would help me live better that day so that I could win favor with God, but it was about me being so in love with my Savior that I couldn't wait just to sit at His feet.

I think a lot of us are missing it most of the time... we are human after all... and we have tricked ourselves into thinking that it's all about us... the cross... about us... the Bible... about us... life... about us...God... about us...

ITS NOT... oh how I've tricked myself into thinking it is. I know most of us wouldn't directly say that we think it is about us and for us but everyday when we choose to put things before God we are shouting that statement loud and clear.

Most of the time we even confess sin so that we won't suffer from ill fellowship with God, not because we understand that we have truly driven the nail into His hand.


So God gave me a breath of fresh air on Saturday morning... love woke me up.

When is the last time you spent time with God just because he is God and for no other reason than you just love Him. It's hard to do...I have not figured out how to get there yet, but I am seeking. The God of the universe is shouting our name, lets listen.

Be blessed

My Photography Site

Here is a link to my new photography website... Beyond Borders Photography.

I will be posting new pictures periodically.
More info on the site.

Passion Atlanta Opening

Check this out. It was the opening for the Passion Atlanta Regional on April 11th. It is amazing. There is an awesome gospel presentation at the beginning. The first stop on the Passion World Tour is this Friday in Kyiv Ukraine. Lets pray that God will make his name great among all the nations. Praying for the Passion team. Enjoy!

5 minutes

So I cut all my hair off... and let me tell you... I just blew dry my entire head of hair in 5 minutes.. a new record for me... and had it straightened in another 8...13 minutes total... for from the previous time of 45-50 minutes.... whew... what a relief. I realize you won't appreciate this if you are one of those lucky straight haired people... but for those of us with the wave/curl... 13 minutes to straight... priceless.

Structure determines function

I wish I could count how many times I have heard that phrase the past few days... It's my Biology teachers favorite phrase.. I will never forget this fact. This has a point.... we have been doing a Bible study to prepare for our Dominican Republic trip in the summer. It brought up an awesome point that got me thinking. It said that the amount of faith you have in God depends on how much you know Him. How true is that.. I mean think about it. If you go to the doctor and he diagnosis you with a heart condition then proceeds to tell you that he spent 4 years in the cardiovascular center of Duke Research Hospital and that he specialized in vascular defects... you know have a much larger amount of faith that he will be able to help you than you did before he told you his credentials. Its the same way with God... the more we learn about Him... through His Word.. the more faith we will have in Him.. and as Romans 14 says "whatever is not of faith is sin." So therefore more faith=less sin. Oh how this should make us long for more faith. The more faith we have the less we will dishonor the name of God. And if Isaiah 26:8 rings true with us and the fame and renown of God is the desire of our souls how much more should this challenge you to dive into the Word of our God... I have become so very selfish in my faith these days... I worry about what I need to do or what I supposedly need and just throw God and His fame to the back burner... I need a dose of faith...the remedy? Seek His face in prayer and the Word.. and even that desire only can come from Him.. so pretty much we are totally dependent... duh... for even the will to seek Him... I hope this jumbled mess makes a little sense and provides a small dose of encouragement... Blessed be the Lord who seeks us cause otherwised... I'm doomed.

ribonucleic acids and cell physiology

SO I know the title makes you want to read this blog a lot... but I am taking BY 101... aka human biology as an elective in May term... I know I know... your probably thinking.. biology... an elective are you crazy... but scoence just comes easy to me and there are no papers involved so I am set...turns out it won't be too challenging... just a lot of memorization.. which I can handle.. and by the way referring to the previous post I dropped one of my May term classes.. I"m pretty sure it would have been impossible to take 3 at one time and the thought of a class titled ethic good vs evil doesn't sound too thrilling at a secular university... anyways back to biology. So today I am sitting in class... at 8 am mind you... and I'm just like can we please get this over with... i have a teacher who over explains thing if you know what I mean... but as I was sitting there... mildly sulking over the fact I was learning about cell mitosis...when God showed up.. I love it when He does that.. when I'm least expecting.. and I was in complete awe. As we learned about each cell and its parts and what had to take place in order for potassium to convert with sodium to provide our bodies with something essential (no worries I'll learn what the essential thing is before the test Tuesday) and all the complexities of the 2+million organelles in the cells of our heart I was blown away by how smart God is.. I know that is a basic theological foundation... God is omniscient... but it was so neat to just see some detail of something that we live with every day... our bodies... and how God is so brilliant... my words are not doing the moment justice... but lets just say it was an encounter with my creator... everything that the teacher said it was as if I could hear God saying yep made that... and that... that was fun to create.. I was honestly about 2 second away from getting on my face in that classroom... seriously.. I think every Christian should be required to take this class... and it should most definitly be renamed... come marvel at God. The name Biology is just plain boring... it was a theology class all in itself. So Maymester biology just got a lot cooler... I prefer to call it the study of the coolness of God... pretty much. Don't get me wrong I'm sure I'll still be plenty bored at times. But I am indeed fascinated and have quickly realized how little I know about this awesome God I serve. In desperate need of grace. Goodnight!

neverending

so I start back school tomorrow... and I'm taking 3 classes in May term... I may die... say a prayer.

Freedom

I'm DONE!!!!! The semester is over.... I start back Wednesday but I don't care I am just glad to have 18 hours under my belt... Hallelujah Thank You Lord!