No one can romanticize and fully love you in the endless amount of ways that God can. He loves you in the gentlest form, with all the tenderness and compassion that you need, but only He can offer. God's love for you is incomparable to that of any earthy thing. it's unfathomable, intangible, incomprehensible, eternal, and all for us- not because He has to give that to us, but because He wants to. With that being said, let God romanticize you. fall in love with Love; fall in love with God.
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The idea for this post crossed my mind the day I wrapped up my summer internship and was on the road headed back home to see my family once more before I moved back in to school. While driving through the beautiful mountains of Tennessee, "Words," by Hawk Nelson came on the radio. It was the first time I had heard this song, so I turned it up and tuned right on in. The chorus completely captivated me and held my attention far after the song had finished. "Let my words be life Let my words be truth I don't wanna say a word Unless it points the world back to You." Of course, the one and only time I'm curious to know the name of a song I hear on the radio, the station it's played on transitions directly into another song. Ha! The chorus was still playing on repeat in my head though, so for the next hour I thought about what exactly those words meant and how they applied to me. My first thought? A battery. Yep, you heard me. A battery. My mind then started to drift off and think about the different types of batteries that exist. I laughed to myself once I pictured myself as a double A battery. To be honest, I even imagined myself as the Energizer Bunny, banging on a drum with some soft and fuzzy pink fur and those awesome stunna shades. *insert laugh here* What I'm really trying to say is I was losing sight of the path that my thought had been headed down. Once I got done laughing to myself, my heart started to focus in on one thought. Two words: Christ charged Batteries are usually the source of power to our materialistic wants and needs, correct? Correct. Well, in this case, I imagined myself as a battery whose source relies solely on the power of God. This battery is no Duracell. Nor is it a pink fuzzy bunny. (But the bunny is pretty cute, yeah?) This battery is Christ charged. And for once, you don't have to worry about when this battery will run out and when you'll need to buy a replacement. As a matter of fact, you won't ever have to buy pack after pack of this special type of battery to keep things running. Why? Because YOU are the battery, that's why. There is only ONE of you and ONE incredible God Who created you- with every intention. We are His batteries, and we are called to be His light to the world (Matthew 5:14-16). Many of us grew up with the song, "This Little Light of Mine." This light that has been sung about over and over and over again is the light God once planted in our hearts; His. It's not your own personal spotlight. Unfortunately, many of us need a wake up call for that matter. It's not about us, it's ALL about HIM. It's never been about us and it never will be. Many of us need to stop snapping our fingers and demanding our unnecessary wants. Rather, we need to start shining God's light to the world instead. How do we do this? Well, it takes a lot to say goodbye to selfishness and materialism, or whatever it is that has led us astray and we seem to find ourselves living comfortably in. HOWEVER Once you say hello to a life devoted solely to the One Who provided it to you, your life will flourish and your heart will blossom in ways you could have never imagined. Your beauty will radiate from the inside out. Empty your heart of your desires and ask God to refill it with His love and His desires for you instead. Become Christ charged. Talk about a life worth living! As His battery, the absolute only way you can run out of energy is if you start to lose focus of Him and His desires for you and, as a result, go back to recharging yourself with the wrong things (hanging with the wrong people, pursuing your own selfish desires, living a materialistic life, you and I both know the list goes on). These things can't give you the energy and spiritual nourishment you need to keep shining His light to the world. Of course, these things are appealing to the eye, but dangerous to the soul. You might tell your heart you want it, but your heart doesn't agree with you. Therefore, you go with your head over your heart. These things will make you run down, and run down fast. Not only are you not doing yourself any favors, but your actions might encourage others to live the same sort of lifestyle as well. Love Him. Invite Him in. Embrace His presence. Accept His mercy. Accept His grace. Accept Him as your Father, your Provider, Yahweh, and your Healer. He is all of these and more- to each and every one of us. Actions speak WAY louder than words, my friends. Words are a very wonderful thing, but make sure the words you speak are the words that go hand in hand with your actions. Be wise in your deeds AND wise in your words. I want to encourage you to be Christ charged. Allow His love to radiate over your entire being so that you can shine His light to the world and help the other batteries- your brothers and sisters- out there who are charging themselves with the wrong things. Think of it like this: Your regular, everyday batteries are only temporary. Christ charged batteries, on the other hand, never run out of power. God is eternal. Allow Him to be the Source of your everything. Power this world with a [Christ] charge that it has yet to see, the charge that this world needs. "Let my words be life Let my words be truth I don't wanna say a word Unless it points the world back to You." Join me, will you? In His light and love, Emily Lauren It's exactly 12:30 a.m. and I should be sleeping. But I'm not...because I'm so excited to share with you everything that's been happening as of lately!
Two words: Church camp Two more words: was INCREDIBLE! I honestly don't even know where to start. I haven't been to church camp since my senior year of high school (wow, I feel so old), but boy did this past week bring back some memories! Clear Creek's church camp ranges from 3rd-8th grade and I had 3rd and 4th grade girls. As exhausted as I may be (my body is hurting in places that probably shouldn't be hurting for a 19 [almost 20] year old- ha!), every minute of every day was so worth it. SO worth it. This year's theme was Crossfit.. I'm sure you've heard of the fitness program before. This also served as a fitness program- not physically, but spiritually. And it was incredible. Natalie, one of the women I work for, and I started to brainstorm ideas behind the theme and what it would look like for the kids at the beginning of the summer. We came up with the idea of spiritual exercises and training the kids to be fit to carry their cross. Each day we decided to focus on a different spiritual exercise. Altogether, we focused on Prayer, Scripture, and Service, We designated a time each day for the kids (and coach cabins, aka counselors) to have Solo Time. They were given about 30 minutes to read through a lesson on the spiritual exercise for the day and answer questions to challenge their faith. I was curious to see how well they would pay attention to the lesson since they were off on their own individually. All of my girls stayed in tune with each lesson, answered the questions, and had great answers to our questions for them during our small group time with them. I was so impressed! Listening to our girls willingly pray made my heart melt, too. AH! Words fail to describe the overwhelming amount of joy I'm holding in my heart right now. This summer has helped me discover my passion for writing curriculum, and to see the kids reading, writing, understanding, and talking about what they know and are constantly learning is the most rewarding feeling for me! Why? Because God is alive and at work in their hearts- and they know it! I can't help but fall more and more in love with Him after witnessing such an incredible thing. God is good. God is so good. Another thing that was very rewarding for me was to lead these precious kids in worship and watch, as they closed their eyes with big smiles and open hearts while they sang praises to the Lord. On the last night, parents joined us for a final worship session. It was hard not to feel God's presence in the room that night. So many memories were made, laughs and giggles were exchanged, and relationships were established, between the kids and the adults. Camp was a blast! Here are a few stories worth sharing: My cabin was at the bottom of a hill with a very slow incline. In addition to that, we were one of the only cabins to have a bath house. And with bath houses come spiders- LOTS of them. One morning, one of my girls went to take a shower and laid eyes on literally the biggest spider I've EVER seen. It had a bump on it's back. You know what that means, right? Yeah...it was pregnant....and also going in to labor. Babies started coming out of this icky spider and Rachel, one of the co-counselors, got a Ziploc bag to scoop it up it. The spider had its babies in the bag and one of the girls carried it up to the worship center to show everyone. One of the older girls takes a single look at it and says, "DANG! That's like 19 Kids and Counting or somethin'!" It was hilarious. One of my favorite little boys introduced himself to me as Cluckers on the first day of VBS. Therefore, I called him Cluckers. He decided to call me, "cow," in return during camp and I told him I liked "Mooey" better.. He agreed. The last day of camp, Cluckers walks up to me, gives me a hug, and says, "I sure am going to miss you Mooey." It was so sweet. One of my girls saw my car when I was packing my stuff up and she said, "Wow, Miss Emily! I love your car........can I have it?!" I smiled and said, "For your 16th birthday, absolutely Ellie!" Once dinner arrived that evening, Ellie sat across from me and said, "Now don't think I'm going to forget about my 16th birthday gift Miss Emily! That's a nice ride, and I want it! Can I have your iPhone, too?!" One of the little boys has been determined to get my number since the beginning of summer. One night, he looked at me and said, "You know, Miss Emily, you're leaving soon. I'm going to have to get your number before you do! Just as friends though, I promise!" (Right...) I told him I would come back to visit, but I would not be giving him my number, called him silly, and left it at that.. He scrunched his little nose and said, "I'm going to get it one way or another! You'll see." About 3 minutes later, he let out the longest fart I think I've ever heard, looked at me, and apologized about ten times. Determination at its finest, eh? LOL I could go on and on with the stories and hilarious happenings that happened in 4 days alone. These are just a few off the top of my head. Bottom line is, I LOVE these kids and I LOVE my job. These kids have poured an overwhelming amount of love from their hearts throughout the summer directly into mine. I'm tearing up just writing this because I love them so much. As my internship draws to an end, I'm starting to get emotional. I don't want to leave this church, I don't want to leave this family. I have been so blessed to have such incredible spiritual leaders and mentors this summer. My eyes have been opened to so much more within the field of ministry, and it makes me all the more excited to know that this is the direction in which I'm headed. This job was a dream come true for me, and I wish more than anything it didn't have to end. Excitement is an understatement for the future that God has laid out for me. I'm so happy that He chose me to pursue this path! This week is going to be bittersweet, and I refuse to think about the word goodbye until Thursday arrives. Here is an AWESOME video of the Camp Vesper Point highlights...it's lengthy, but so fun! And there may or may not be a Harlem Shake towards the end ;) Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXxj87tQrLs In His light and love, Emily Lauren I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop with my journal on one side of me, my laptop directly in front of me, and my coffee on the other side of me. I started a Scripture Journal the other night and it has already brought me such peace and joy! I have also realized that I am now resting so much better at night because of this.
My intention a few minutes ago was to journal more about what I journaled on just the other night. However, once I opened my journal back to the page of which I left off, I remembered this blog and thought to myself that someone might need a reminder- and that includes me, too. So here goes nothing. Did you know that we were creatively created by the most talented Artist of them all? We were created in His image and in His [perfect] timing. And it only gets better from there! He also planted a seed of purpose in each and every one of our hearts and over time, we can see that the more we give our hearts to Him, the more our purpose starts to become a little more clear and a lot less blurry. Wherever you are in this world right now, you are surrounded by His creation. And not only that, you are a part of His creation. "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." -Genesis 1::27, NIV Let's take a look at a statistic of two. !) There are 7.09 billion people in the world. 2) Every 8 seconds a baby is born into this world. Our population is off the charts! 3) At least 4 babies were born while I typed out those statistics for you. Now, let's take it a step further, shall we? God knows us ALL by name. Now if you're anything like me, it's a rarity for me to remember someone's name the first time I met them. So how exactly does He do it? Well, because He's God. That's why. And that's really the only explanation we need. "This is what the Lord says-- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself," -Isaiah 44:24 NIV There are so many things I find unfathomable about this world and the Creator that designed it. I could write a list of a million things- LITERALLY- but I won't take the time to do that. Instead, I want you to realize how unique you are. Before I proceed, I want to ask you something. Who are you living for? Think about it, and then read on. God chose YOU. You aren't just living to live. You're living to love and you're living to serve. We're living to be His hands and feet. I hope and pray He is who you're living for. Because let me tell you, there is nothing like it. It's the most amazing thing to live for the One who created us. There's no joy like His. And we get to experience that! As I told my 3rd and 4th graders this past week at VBS, no two people are the same. And although we are all different and unique, we were all given hands to serve and hearts to love. But what exactly does it mean to be created in His image? Sure, we've all heard and read it before. But do we really understand what it means to be created in the image of God? Well, let's try a little something to find out. Let's pick some words that describe God. I'll use the first 10 off the top of my head. All-Powerful, Faithful, Loving, Forgiving, Kind, Gentle, Perfect, Jealous, Strong, & Clever Now, let's pick some words that describe us. I'll choose ten that I think describe me. Happy, Caring, Loving, Faithful, Imperfect, Passionate, Emotional, Fearful, Thankful, & Sinner Finally, let us see if any of my descriptions match any of HIs. Do you see where I'm going with this? To be created in the image of God means to LIVE like Him, to BE like Him. And regardless of how different from one another we are, we are here for the very same reason! No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been or may be, it is NEVER to late to allow His love to fill our hearts and to shine Jesus from the inside out. Your past does not define you, so don't let it. Seriously. Please know that you are FORGIVEN, ACCEPTED, and LOVED more and more each and every day. Your past is a small piece that contributed to the puzzle God used to form you. Let GO of what you're holding on to. Exchange your sins for HIS love and watch the darkness that you've lived in for so long turn into light. We were not created to live in the dark. We were created to live in the light- HIS light. His light shines through the darkness, each and every ounce of it. Imagine what it would like if His light were to shine through you, too. That's what you were created for- to shine while you love and to shine while you serve. Let's live the lives that we were called to. Your vocation is a ministry- always keep that in mind. God placed you in the community you're in a for a reason. Of course we are always going to fall short, but some of us don't have the strength to get back up when we do. We can find and receive that strength through our Lord Jesus Christ. Seek Him through everything you do and you'll realize just exactly why you're here and how you can change the hearts of others and help them open their eyes to His light. It's a beautiful thing when someone shines Jesus. He is the Joy of my joy. Won't He be yours, too? Creatively created in His image. Don't you ever forget that. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 'You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.'" -Matthew 5:13-16 ESV |
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