Just Love.

I get married in 47 days. The reality of that hasn't hit yet....even with all this money we are spending. :/  I'm excited and nervous and anxious all in one! Big bottle of mixed emotions! I'm just ready for it to be here already.  I feel I have waited a long time for the guy God has for me.  Most of my friends got married right out of college and I was left here in the working field to fend for myself.  But was I really?  I mean, God was with me the whole time. He guided my paths and never left my side. 

Now the time comes to marry this guy. The guy God has picked out just for me.  God loves me so much that He had this one guy selected for me before I was even born.  He molded me and Shaun both for our marriage and our relationship to ultimately bring more glory to Himself.  I pray every day for Shaun and I pray our marriage will be one that is God honoring and glorifying.  I'm excited to start this new adventure!....if it will ever get here for Pete's sake! :)

Also, this guy God appointed for me is such a great man of God.  I don't think I acknowledge this enough.  Yesterday, he was given the opportunity to preach at our church and both sermons were so great. God used him and spoke through him yesterday.  First, he preached on Daniel 3....Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. I'm a HUGE Shane & Shane fan, so here is a song of theirs about this story that I just love. Great story and great lessons and parallels to bring out of that event in history.  Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that it IS history, not just a story I heard growing up in Sunday School.  One of the amazing things you can take from this story is the obvious....just like God saved them from the fiery furnace, Jesus saves us from the fiery pits of Hell. Love love that.  It's like we almost get a visual of what Jesus saves us from by looking at that story.  Not to mention the three guy's dedication to God and how they were so willing to go in the fire not knowing for sure if God would save them from it or not.  One simple question to you.....are you will to go into the fire for God?  You can contemplate that to mean whatever you like....just as long as you take time to contemplate it.

Last night's sermon was really really hard for me.  It might have been difficult for everyone listening since I know, as humans, it's hard to love the unlovable.  And that's just what the sermon was about.  The people who have hurt you the most. The ones who have said hateful things about you, either to your face or behind your back (yet you always find out about it somehow).  The ones who are mean to your children, your siblings, your spouse or your closest friends.  We ALL know of people who are hard to love.  Yet, somehow we have to do it, we are called to love. Jesus, in the New Testament, never put conditions on it.....love only if, or don't love the mean ones or so on.  He called us to love.  That's it. Nothing fancy or hard to understand. Just love.

If only it were that easy, huh?

I want to challenge you as I was challenged....who are your "unloveables" and consciously chose to love them, no matter how hard it is.

Just love.

Being a Follower takes Confidence

Last night I finished teaching a summer bible study to my youth girls.  I will miss that closeness that we shared and being able to meet each week and be open with each other and learn about where our confidence should come from.  The name of the study was just that...."Confident."  We had a great time growing and learning.

It's kinda funny how sometimes God will have you read books that go along with a bible study you are doing and that is what happened the past few weeks of this study.  As I mentioned before I have started to read the book "Not a Fan" by Kyle something or another.  Wow.  Can I recommend that book to you?

In the book as well as the last chapter of this bible study we read and talk about the woman that came in a poured her expensive perfume on Jesus' feet and wiped it with her hair.  This woman had a reputation.  I can only assume based on what I read that she was a woman of the night, if you catch my drift. It took SO much confidence to walk in to where Jesus was....with all these men who would probably talk so horrible about her and not do it secretly.  They would mock and ridicule her and ask why in the world is she intruding on their time with Jesus.

First of all, as the book mentions, she had to of heard Jesus speak previously and had a change of heart.  Why else would she come in and pour her earnings of a whole year on his feet just to clean the dirt off of them?  She had to of gone from being a sinful sinful woman, going straight past being just a fan of Jesus and plunging into being a sold out follower of Christ!  That was her livelihood here and she just used it to clean Jesus' feet!!

It took confidence to walk in with all these people who would talk down to her and it took confidence in her faith to use all her earnings in this manner for Jesus.  And as Jesus said, the men did nothing for Him....SHE will be the one that will be remembered for what she did.  

Let's look to this sinful woman of the night and think about if we are truly just a fan of God or a true follower.  

Did I mention great book?  Buy it. Read it.  Grow from it.

by the way, i get married in 100 days to my best friend! ah! yay!

Old News

I'm engaged....as if you didn't know! ;)  I think I told everyone and their mama, I was so excited!

So, plans are under way. The date is November 3 of this year!!  Our 5 year dating anniversary is Sept. 3, so that's exciting!  I hope all of you, my lovely friends can make it to our special day!

You can then call me Mrs. Beth Powers! Ah!!! LOL, So excited!!!!

That's all for now! I just started to read the book Not a Fan, so I may blog about that soon.....it's a refreshing book to say the least!

Loves!

What have we been up to lately??

Good question! Thank you for asking!!  

Well, we went to the Memphis zoo with another couple and here is Shaun petting a really really big snake......no....I didn't touch it. SCARY!!

Here was a bear at the zoo trying to climb on a plastic board thing...it was comical!

We went fishing a couple of weekends.....here Shaun is acting like Forest Gump (his favorite) and saying, I caught me a fish (in his Forest voice)

I even caught a few!!  This one was jumping around a lot! Hard to hand on to 'em!

We went to a couple Jackson Generals games during opening weekend!  Weather was great!

We are laughing here at the game because Shaun kept snapping photos on my phone and me, being old school as I am, said, stop! You are wasting all my film!

                                        

For Easter lunch we went with his family to Chickasaw State Park for good food and fishin!

This was a cabin at the park that was unlocked....really pretty in there!

So, That's us lately!  What have you guys been up to?

No Matter What

You know, after church last night I wanted to write a post about the verse that was shared.  Then I realized I have more to talk about around that verse than I thought.

Without much ado, the verse is Psalm 34:1, I will praise the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.  I even put this one Facebook because I was personally very convicted by this verse.  No matter what, I will praise the Lord at all times.  No matter what, His praise will always be on my lips.  

If you know me well, you know that I can have tendencies to complain.  If you have ever read any of my past posts you also know I am the baby of the family so I'm used to getting my way, hence the complaining when I don't get my way.  Don't worry, I'm convicted about that and attempt at not doing it as much.  Nobody wants to hang out with someone who complains a lot, so, I am working on it!

So, with that being said, this verse just hit home with me a little.  No matter what, His praise will always be on my lips.

Okay, yes, I probably watch more tv than I should, but one of the shows I watch is 19 Kids and Counting.  This week's episode was the season finally.  I'm sure you can watch it at tlc.com or something.  Be warned. It's a tear-jerker.  Spoiler alert, they were pregnant with baby #20, and when they went in to find out the gender of the baby, there was no heartbeat.  The baby had died.  Wow, I was crying!!  What I found inspiring was the mom and dad's initial response.  Well, besides the tears.  Unless they did some editing, the first words out of the mom's mouth was "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord."  That is a reference to Job 1:21.  

Personally? I can't say I would have been that positive...at least not at first.  I think after a day or two I would have had that mindset, but I'm not sure I could have had it immediately.  Those parents are ones to look up to with respect and be inspired.  She was a living breathing example of "His praise will always be on my lips."

Another thing to think about when discussing this verse is how we talk about others.  In my older age, I find I am more cynical about things.  Usually when I talk about others, it's to Shaun, or a super close friend.  I try not to make a habit of it.  But you know what?  Even doing it the little I do, is wrong, because when I'm talking negatively about others, how is His praise always on my lips?  Ouch.  Something ELSE to work on.  (You know, it's weird, I always look at older people than myself and think....really....what sin could you possibly deal with?  But as I get older, I'm realizing how much we all do keep on sinning, it's just different sin from when you were in college than when you were in high school than when you were in middle school and so on.  Maybe it just means I'm growing spiritually when I find more things to work on.)

May we need to be like this Duggar mom and even like Job with the mindset of NO MATTER WHAT COMES, His praise will always be on my lips.  I know that's something I want to work toward.

Time and Faith

I guess this should better be titled Faith and time, as faith is the more important of the two.


But let's start with time. Time is a very precious thing, especially when you get older and seemingly don't have any. We are a society that is used to getting things NOW. I can imagine in my parents time and grandparents time and so on, that things weren't quite like this. People had to wait for their dinner to be cooked, there was no fast food. People had to make their own butter instead of getting some from the fridge. People wrote snail mail letters than emails.....than text messages. People had to walk or ride bikes to get places instead of driving/flying. People had to warm the baby bottle over the stove instead of in the microwave. Do you get my point? Times have changed and time is little. Odd isn't it, that now we have things to do things quicker for us, yet we have less time. hmmmm.

Beauty? God has His own timing in things. Guess what? Since God is perfect......I guess that means His timing is perfect....in.....everything. Huh. Go figure. So, when asking God for things and it seems He isn't answering....know that maybe His answer is "Not Yet." Patience. The more you ask for patience, the more you'll be tested with it yes, but the more you will get it. If you never ask for it, you will never get it. Chew on that one! ha!

Faith is something that is seemingly easy to have. I can sit at my desk and have faith my chair will hold me when I go to sit down. I can turn on the light switch and have faith the darkness will go away because of the light. I can drive my car and have faith it won't break down on me (usually). ha! I can begin to write with a pen and have faith ink will come out as it should. Again....do you get my point? How can we have so much faith in man-made things, yet have so little faith when it comes to God. Ouch. I just slapped myself. Not cool. Let's try this again. I can have faith in God as long as He does things in my timing and in the way I want things to be done. Ouch again!! Come on, now! Slapping yourself in SO last week. One more again, I only ask God for the things I know He'll work out the way I want them to and not ask for the big things that I'm unsure of how He'll answer. OUCH!!!! Please stop now!!!

We were in devotion at work this morning and I said that statement without thinking and it really made me uncomfortable saying. As it should! But, if I am going to be honest.....it's true. When I look back on things, I can tell I'm only asking God for the things that I know He'll give me anyway....and the things that turn out in my favor. I'm too nervous to ask for the big things. Or should I say, I don't have enough faith to ask the things that are too big. God has so much to give us and to bless us with. Why the heck are we not asking for those blessings??? Sheesh!!! Sounds so easy!!

Reader, I challenge you to make a conscious effort to ask God every day for a week for more blessings....be specific....be big in your asking and see how God blesses you! You may be surprised.

I leave you with something I read recently, What if all you had today were the things you thanked God for yesterday. Ask big. Thank big. Love Big.

out. -B

A Long Obedience

I recently started studying Kelly Minter's Ruth bible study. I really like the book of Ruth, studied it through the commentary at the bottom of the pages in my bible but I wanted to go deeper with it, and I had done a study of Kelly's a while back and really enjoyed it so I thought I'd try this one as well!

I'm only on the first week of the study but I am really enjoying it. Yesterday's lesson was entitled Long Obedience and I found it to be an enlightening one!

It focused largely on the passage in Ruth where Naomi encourages Orpah and Ruth to return to their people and their gods. Something I didn't notice is that Kelly brought to light was how many times Naomi encouraged them. She did it three times. She was a persistent stinker wasn't she? Finally after that third time did Orpah agree to return to her people, but Ruth stuck to her guns.

She also referred back to Genesis when Joseph's master's wife want to [do the horizontal polka :)] with him. He said no, but she kept persisting......and....he...finally......said no again and stopped even being around her so he wouldn't even have to deal with the temptation. (If you want a refresher read Genesis 39:6b-10)

So, this is a short post, but ponder this for me will you? Are you like Orpah, who says no the first time or two? Or are you like Ruth and Joseph who, because of their love for God, resist the sin that Satan so taunts us with! Stand firm my friends, God has already won this war!!

Calvin

No, this isn't about Calvin & Hobbes, although, that'd be a fun blog....no, this is about John Calvin and his beliefs. 

I am super nervous to post this, but I am curious of what you all think.  So, with that being said, please, don't get aggressive with your thoughts towards me or anyone else who might comment.  This, at least for the past 10 years or so, has been a topic of interest for me.  I was talking with someone a few nights ago and they were struggling with which way to lean.

So, do you agree with any or all of his 5 points in "TULIP" or not?  Either answer, I request you back it up with scripture, not logic.  Thanks all!

Refresher:
T--Total Depravity (we are all totally sinful)
U--Unconditional Election (God choses the elect)
L--Limited Atonement (Jesus only died for the said elect)
I--Irresistible Grace (When God calls, you cannot resist Him)
P--Perseverance of the Saints (once saved, you will always be saved)

Traditions

What? Christmas came and went and I never blogged? What was I thinking? Why didn't you guys slap me and say Beth! What are you thinking?


I was thinking.....that I hadn't thought about it!

Go figure! Because I had plenty of time!

Every Christmas, since his birth, Shaun and his family go on vacation to Gatlinburg to spend Christmas. That is all Shaun knows of Christmas---Gatlinburg. That is his family's tradition. Sounds like a fun one too! ;)

Every year growing up, my family would go either to my dad's family's get together or my mom's. It alternated every year. We'd go to someone's house and have a big meal and exchange gifts. It was always a blast.

No matter whose house we were at though, there was one tradition that always remained the same. Someone (often times my dad) would read the Christmas story. Luke 2. That is the one tradition I will carry on forever. No matter how excited I am over gifts, hearing that story always put things back into perspective. It reminded me why we even had this day to celebrate. It was someone's birthday!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I am so thankful for Him coming to Earth. He left heaven. Where all is right, good and perfect. He came to Earth, full of sin, to live a perfect life in order to die for us so that God can see us as perfect through Christ's blood! What??!! Crazy right? His coming in such a humble way (to a virgin in a stable surrounded by animals) and then dieing for all to receive has made it possible for us to experience eternity with God. How can you NOT be amazed by all of this!?

So, now that Christmas is over, we can't simply go on and forget what we were reminded of! We have to live as if we really do understand what was done for us. Live in a way that shows our inward gratitude and surrender to the Savior of the sinful.

Man, I'm pumped now! Who wants to have church!?!

Thanksgiving

There's so many things you can be thankful for. So many cliche things to be thankful for.....which I hope we are ALL thankful for all of those cliche things!


Think about it. We couldn't even breathe the next breath without God commanding our bodies to do so....or this breathe, or this one. Amazing.

I am often torn about being excited about death or not wanting it to happen. I wish I had the mindset that Paul had, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." He says that he so wishes he could just die and be with God, but it is more important for him to be here on Earth, so while he is on Earth, it means Christ. To live is Christ. To live AS Christ; to live FOR Christ. However, I shouldn't be afraid of death as a Christian. I should be excited and anticipating it. And, I guess in a sense I am excited and I do anticipate it, it's just a fear of the unknown.....I mean, since I haven't experienced something, I'm a little fearful of it. Heaven is amazing and it will me amazing to be there, so I need to be more anxious about it, not fearful.

But, as I am still here, it means God still wants to use me here, so I will keep on, keeping on. Keep doing what wins. Lovin' Christ. Livin' as Christ.

Now, that's another thought. As I have said before, at Christmas the past couple of years, I have been thinking about what Christ did. He came, He was born, grew up, all the time knowing He came JUST so He could die for us. That is so seemingly unbelievable! So, if Christ came to the Earth just to die, and if I am supposed to live AS Christ, then I have to live a fearless life for Him. No fear of what will happen to me as long as I live out my responsibility as a Christian. Romans 8:31 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Let that verse empower you! Take the world by force! Show them God is the God of life and the very breathe we breath!

That I am very thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving friends! I pray you have a blessed day with family and friends!
(Pray I don't burn down the house, I am cooking the turkey this year!! eeekk!!)

Crazy Cool!

Well, I haven't posted in a while. My apologies. Life gets busy at different times of the year and Thanksgiving/Christmas is no different. What, with all the programs going on at church, things getting busy at work and just trying to maintain some sense of sanity, it all adds up quickly!


I don't want to be all cliche and say, in this time coming up of Christmas, let's not forget the real reason. But, I am. Christ. His birth alone is a miracle, but his whole reason for existing on Earth is a greater miracle. Christ came KNOWING he was going to die a painful death, yet He still did it for us. CRAZY! right? Crazy cool!

I recently read through the book of Jonah. Most people know the story as follows....

God calls Jonah to Nineveh. Jonah runs to Tarshish on a boat. Storm comes and the verdict is to toss Jonah overboard. Big fish swallows Jonah. While in said big fish, Jonah prays to God about how he should have obeyed and will from now on. God commands the big fish to vomit Jonah out. Jonah goes to Nineveh to witness and they repent.

Am I right in thinking that is where most of us thinks the story ends. However, there is more to it than that. There is another chapter and half left in the book. Let me tell you about it....Jonah basically says one line..."In 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown." That's literally all he said. But, that's all it took. They then repented and was just hoping God would relent in sending destruction their way (since Jonah gave no further insight). Thankfully, God did relent. You wanna know what is so funny about this? Jonah got mad that God relented!! I mean, really? Turns out that this is the reason Jonah didn't want to go to begin with! He KNEW God was merciful and compassionate and the Ninevites were bad people and Jonah thought he knew what was best and didn't want God to relent from the destruction. So he got mad! So, God, gave him a plant overnight for shade, then took it away overnight. Jonah got mad enough, he wanted to die and God says to Jonah, why are you mad about a plant you did nothing to get...you didn't plant it or care for it. It came and went without your help at all, yet you are more concerned about the plant than you are this people group?

Oddly enough that is where the book of Jonah ends. We don't know Jonah's response. But there are 2 things I take from this. We can learn from Jonah what TO do and what NOT to do...We learn that even though we don't want to do something, we still must obey God. He has a greater plan. Even though we want to go the other direction and not do something, it is our duty to obey God. Then we learn what NOT to do....Jonah went to Nineveh and preached ONE LINE. When we do something, we can't half-way do it. God used that one line to change a town, so just think if we put our all into something, the great things that would come from it.

So, in the season coming up, don't forget the urgency of sharing the gospel and don't half-way do it. Be passionate about it! This is heaven or hell to someone....that is something, as Christians we have to be passionate about!

Don't be ashamed!!

Last night at church we had Youth Night.  Every once in a while the youth will be asked to be in charge of a Sunday night service, from beginning to end.  From music to sharing a word.  It is always such a blessing to be apart of it each time.  Last night was no exception.

We felt the Lord move, He was ever present!  The girls and I, (Chelsea, Lauren and Shelby) led worship.  It was a sweet time.  We could feel God there from the beginning!

Then Thomas got up to speak.  He is a former youth who is now at college in his senior year.  He is what Shaun likes to call our resident missionary.  We are sending him out to his mission field (college) every time he leaves us.  We minister and pour into him while he is here, then we send him off to minister where he is at.  That is living out the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20.

He was telling us about things going on at school and how God is using him there.  He has been apart of and led bible studies, invited and taken friends to church with him and more!  God is definitely using Thomas in a great way in East Tennessee!

The verses he spoke on last night really made me think.  First he read Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes..."  Then he read Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

When people are preaching or sharing a word, at times, we all can take away different messages according to what is going on in ones life.  For me, the thing that really hit home was that my sin is not being ashamed of the gospel, because I'm not, but my sin is not acting on my belief. 

Please know that just because you believe in God, doesn't mean you will go to heaven when you die.  Even the demons and Satan believe in God!  You have to believe in what He did for us on the cross and accept what He did as a sacrifice for your sins.  That is the only way into heaven. 

I lack sharing the gospel like I should. That is the sin that was brought to my attention last night.  It hit home for me.  I know Thomas' message was directed more toward the topic of hope and all it entails, but God wanted to speak to me with a different message and I wanted to share it with you.

I saw God moving in others last night as well.  It is such an honor to be apart of something so great to where you get the privilege of witnessing God move.  Thank you God for that opportunity.

I dare you!

There was a story, you may have heard it before, but I want to share it just because It was first told to me a month or two ago and I thought about blogging the story, but I didn’t. Then in church yesterday the fill-in preacher told the story and I knew then, I needed to share it. I’m not sure if all the specifics of the story are right, but you will get the point nonetheless!


There was this son who wasn’t the best artist, but he loved doing it. He painted a self-portrait and gave it to his father. The father so loved the son and therefore loved the painting. Not long after that, the son was killed in war serving his country. Eventually when the father passed away, there was an estate sale of all his belongings. Many people showed up because they knew the antiques this man owned. Everyone was excited about all the things they wanted to buy…the very valuable things! The auctioneer got up and the first item up for bid was the self-portrait of the son. Not a single person was bidding. All you could hear was the fast voice of the auctioneer. Finally someone bid on it, just to move on to the next item. Once that item was bought, the auctioneer closed the auction. Many people were confused and quite upset because they were ready and waiting to bid on the other items. The auctioneer simply said that in the man’s will, whoever gets my son gets everything.

Wow! Right? How true is that in the Christian walk? If you have Christ in your life, you have everything! Will life be perfect? No. Will life be easy? No. When sin entered the world, it made the answer to those two questions “No.” We are human full of sin, so those answers, unfortunately will never be a yes. But with Christ in your life and as your focus, life is full! So many other stressors don’t seem like that big of a deal, when we look at the big picture with Christ in it all, it’s so much easier to be thankful for what we have and not critical of what we don’t have.

Life will never be right without Christ. It will always seem empty and lonely and hopeless. I dare you. Try Christ.

Why should I go??

A friend said something recently on Facebook about how frustrated she is for people seemingly forcing church attendance down her throat. She doesn’t need to go to church, she says along with other things. All the points as to why she doesn’t want to go to church are all seemingly valid points. However, I can’t agree about them. I did have to say, we would have to agree to disagree and that led to a little more convo about it. I don’t know if she will read this blog or not and I’m okay with that. I just wanted to voice my opinion, based on what I know the bible says, about church attendance. Please if you have a different opinion, feel free to share it, but please don’t use bad language or get angry, it’s my blog and my viewpoint!


It IS important. In Hebrews 10:25 it tells us not to give up meeting together as a lot actually end up doing. So, if for no other reason, we are commanded to meet together with fellow Christians for encouragement in the faith and the Christian walk. One may argue that it doesn’t say go to the church building. I agree! As my church often says, the church is the people, not the building, if we don’t come together, we don’t have church! Meet in a gym, meet at your house, or meet in an open grassy field. I don’t really care WHERE you meet….just meet! Worship God, Learn about God, Grow closer to God!

1 Corinthians 12 talks about the many different parts of the body and how they should all work together as a whole. If we aren’t a part of a church body (call it whatever you want) then how can we expect to work together like your own physical body parts do? If you detach you left hand and it’s never used or practiced with, how do you expect to give an even decent guitar performance? Are you following me on this one? God calls us, as Christians to meet together, to be one body.

There are several purposes to attending church besides what I’ve already said; some are for us to grow up in the faith, to learn to serve others, to learn to love one another and also to learn to forgive others. Yes, I hear often that the church is full of hypocrites! Shaun always says, well, there’s room for one more, come join us! Granted he is joking, but think about it! The church is made up of humans! We screw up all the time. That is why we have Christ as the head of the church, and so very thankful He forgives us!

That may not be the extent of my thoughts on this, but I hope it at least communicates to you all my heart on the issue. Christ died for all of us, so why are we wasting our time not coming together to worship Him for it?

Picture time!

These are photos Shaun took on his phone when we were having fun with his neice, Caroline!  We are silly sometimes! But it's so fun to be silly!!

Love to get those sweet baby kisses! 

Wherever He leads

Here lately, my pastor has been going through each week of Experiencing God on Sunday nights as a refresher for everyone who went through the study and to teach the ones who weren't able to attend it. Last night, something he highlighted from that week's lesson really stuck with me:


"Have you come to a place in your life where you are willing to yield everything to God in order to follow Him?"

Can we truly follow God if we aren't yielding our everything to Him? God wants to bless us, when we ask to be blessed and when we fail to ask for it. He loves blessing His children. We, by not yielding our everything to Him, are missing out on so many more blessings. How can we stand in church and sing songs like, I surrender all and Wherever He leads I'll go, if that really isn't the case? I am preaching to myself too.

God is working on me right now. He is asking me to surrender to all my comforts and just submit to Him in being willing to do overseas missions. I, at this point, don't know if He really wants me to actually GO and DO overseas missions, but He at least wants me to submit to the possibility of it. There are certain luxuries I don't want to give up that I would most likely have to give up if I actually went and did. Does that make sense?

He may not want me to go, He just wants me to trust Him enough to submit to it, knowing it could be a possibility one day. When it comes to "I surrender all" and going "wherever He leads," I really have to think long and hard about it. But why? This should be an easy answer.

I just have to get to a place in my life where I am willing to yield everything to God in order to follow Him. He isn't out to harm us. He has the best in mind for us. Why is it so hard to yield everything? Arg, stupid sinful nature! :)

Sing me a song

Well, I said that soon I would post a song I had written.  This is one of my favorites and it was written back in 2004.  I find that I haven't been inspired to write like I was in college, so I haven't really written anything since then.....actually since this song, there's only one more I wrote after this....all the rest were written before this one.  So, I hope you enjoy!

Faithful


You are faithful when I run
You are faithful when I fall
How can you love me
When all I do is fail
I fail to see that, you are faithful
Your love surrounds me
Your presence is near
What more can I do but
Praise your name

Chorus
You're my all
You're my everything
But when I'm hindering
Your perfect will
Faithful You are
for the love of your child

Verse 2
Striving for happiness
in a place up in flames
dependence on my fantasies
not wanting to give
the things that I hold so dear
The trail to righteousness
is just a grasp away
I reach out my hand,
to find you are there

repeat chorus

Closing
I couldn't go through life
without Your sweet presence
You are faithful when I run
You are faithful when I fall

Faithful you are
For the love of your child (repeat twice to close)

Nothing too big

This past weekend I got the privilege to go a Priscilla Shirer conference. 7 other ladies and I drove down to Mississippi right below Memphis for this conference and boy was it worth it! Such a blessing! God has richly blessed her with a gift that I am very thankful she is using for His glory!


Her brother, Anthony, led us in worship during the weekend and let me tell you, it was amazing. All of these women, gathering together to worship our creator! AMAZING! Then, to be able to be free in the worship. To be able to raise my hands without fear of people staring at me. To be able to sing and shout out to my God and my King without fear of being judged. Such a great weekend!

I want to share a thing or two that I took away from this conference. She spoke from Judges about Gideon. The first few words in Judges 7 refer to him as Jerub-Baal. Same person new name. Paul was the same person as Saul, in the new testament, but with a new name. When we become Christians, no the life will not be easier, but it will be better. We are a new person in Christ and because of Christ.

One of the many comforting things about being a new person in Christ is that no matter the trial, no matter the battle, we can rest in knowing that God has already won the war. One thing she said that just stuck out to me so much was, "No crisis, no matter how big it is, is ever too big to keep you out of the reach of God." No matter what comes my way, I can never be out of the reach of God. Now that is comforting.

Another thing she said that I just loved was that "God doesn't call you to do the hard things, He calls you to do the impossible things, so He can be even more glorified." So true, I have never thought about it that way! So, don't be afraid to do this or that because it seems too impossible, know that if it is what God wants, He will show up and show out!

Maybe I'll bring out my notebook and share some of the notes I took because they are too good to go unshared. So, look for a post soon with them included. I was blessed this weekend by this conference and I pray you guys are blessed in your day to day living. Remember, God is on your side and He loves you. There is nothing too big for God.

Don't Stumble

I have put off writing this week on my blog because I haven't been inspired. So, I was going to share a song I wrote back in college....when I often found myself being inspired....when I shouldn't have been.....in class! LOL, oh well. Then I realized I left my guitar notebook at church and wouldn't be back there again until Sunday, so maybe next week I'll share one I've written.

Today however, I finally have something worth sharing I hope. I am truly blessed to work in a Christian atmosphere to where usually everyday we will have a devotion/prayer time before we open the store. (For those of you who don't remember, I work at LifeWay Christian Bookstore on the campus of Union University) Each year we will pick out a devotional book from the sales floor to read from. This year we are reading from Steve Gaines' devotional book called Morning Manna.

Today's verse was Matthew 18:6, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

Wow. I mean, WOW! That is some intense stuff right there. We often don't realize what we do affects other people. One thing I have learned in dating Shaun and more specifically in dating a minister in the church is how in control you have to be of yourself. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit and it is crucial when you are in the lime light, so to speak. Growing up, I never had to be conscious of what I said and did because there weren't people in the church looking up to me and my actions. And now, I have to be overly intentional about everything I say and do. Well, what I didn't realize is that, even though they may not have been looking up to me in church, they were looking up to me everywhere else. At school, at work, at the grocery store....there are people watching my actions and making judgements based on that. People who know I am a Christian can very easily (and probably do) think that "oh, if Beth can do this and she is a Christian, then I can do that and it shouldn't be bad!"

Friends, you and I both have to be very aware of our actions so we won't be a stumbling block to our friends, aquaintances and the strangers around us! Because Jesus said it would be better for us to drown with a heavy necklace around our necks than to be stumbling blocks! Yikes!

Last food for thought. Let me challenge you in this....whether you are convicted about something you do or not....IF you do that something without personal conviction...think about how it might affect others...or cause them to stumble.

Floating By

This past weekend I got off work and went with some friends to float down a river in an inner tube.  It was so much fun! Now, the sunburn that I have now isn't that fun, but oh well.  There were about 9 of us that went.  We had a girls car and a guys car.  It was interesting!  On the way there and back was great conversation! I'll talk about that more later!

We got there fearful of the weather because it had rained earlier that morning and was cloudy the whole trip. By the time we got out of the van from a very fast and curvy ride to the river spot, the clouds were separating an the sun was out! It ended up being a very nice, hot day! The cold water is just what the doctor ordered for the sunny day! So relaxing! No cell phones, no computers, no tv's, just us, floating down a river and enjoying life.  It was great!

On the way back (we were in Missouri) we stopped by Lambert's! Home of the throwed rolls! So, we stuffed ourselves and brought home most of the food for lunch the next day! What? With all the "pass-arounds" we didn't have room in our tummies for the actual meal!!

On the way home we had another round of great conversation, which is the point of this blog today.  To share what we discussed.

Being on fire for God is such a great feeling.  Being overwhelmed with the holy spirit to where you can't contain your excitement is where it's at! I wish I was at the point 24/7!!  What we talked about is How do we motivate others to do the right thing when the wrong thing feels so good?

Youth Ministry is HARD!!!!!  I never knew until the past year or so! MOST, not all, teens today (and I'm referring to christian teens) love sex. They love drinking. They love drugs. Mostly? They love feeling accepted and wanted.  If they don't, they want to kill themselves. They feel if they don't do all that stuff, then they are missing out on something, or they will disappoint someone.  Disappoint a friend who wanted to get high with them, disappoint a significant other who wanted to experience the "act of love" with them.  I could go on.

For me, it's a choice to not do those things because it's wrong. God commands us to live a holy life. Am I perfect? Heck no. Do I mess up? Of course.  But how do you motivate others to do the right thing when they have 50 others telling them the wrong thing isn't that bad or isn't that wrong?

It's hard, but God understands. He's there to direct you on how to help others. Caring is the first way you can help.  From there, God will turn you in the directions you need to go to make the difference He wants you to make. Be submissive. Be the example. Be Christ-like.