From The Inside Out

So Thursday night I went to BSU with some friends that came down to visit. . . . . I forgot the speakers name, but she is a radio talk show person, and she was on Survivor China. . . . . anyways that is besides the point. The message she brought was pretty much amazing, and I am going to tell you what she spoke about. 1. We have to remember where we came from, in Titus 3:3-6 it says, "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior." The next thing she talked about was We should Pray that God will show us the person the way he sees them. In 1 Samuel 16:7 the Lord is talking to Samuel, and the last part of the verse says. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at, Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." And that is something we all are guilty of. We focus so much on what a person looks like on the outside, and do not even bother to find out where they stand on the inside. this leads into the next point, We have to remember We are NOT the judge! 1 Cor. 15 and James 4:12. It is not our job to judge a person, leave that up to God, We are pointing out people's sin, instead of loving them where they are. We are called to "Love above all else." Ecclesiates 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." We are all craving for the same thing: to be loved, and accepted!. We have to listen first if we want to be heard, Proverbs 18. And one of the last things she said was, If we say we are a believer, we should act like one. Have a bold sense of sadness not anger.. . . A lot of times I find myself judging someone before I even know them, and when I actually get to know them, they are actually not that bad......So i was sitting in my room tonight playing some praise and worship songs on guitar, and the first part of the message just kept coming back to me, and the verse from Titus, remember where I came from. So I began to look back over my life from the past couple of years, and God has brought me out of a lot, and I often lose sight of where I did come from and what I came through, and I was amazed to see how far God brought me, and molded me into the person I am today. Which made the song "From The Inside Out" By Hillsong. That song is true in my life. I have failed God over and over, and He knows that i will stumble but yet He still covers me with His grace. . . He has in fact changed me from the inside out! .

Random.. . .

We have about 3 weeks of school left in the semester.. I'm super excited, then I have a month and Im off to camp! I can not wait until the summer. Just to know that God is already at work in the Staffer's hearts as well as the campers that will come throughout the summer! I know it is going to be an amazing summer!! Well I think Im about to go to bed. until next time. . . .

Spring Break

I was given the opportunity to spend my Spring Break in Honduras with a Mission Team from School. We spent the week working at a camp for youth from 5 different villages, going to this school, and visiting an Orphanage. First off if you don't know me. . . I absolutly Love kids!! Thats what I want to do when I graduate college, is work in an Orphanage. ok back to the trip. . . The camp lasted 3 days, and we did bible studies, played games, sang fun songs, and had a wonderful worship service each night, You could really feel God's presence there! At the end of the camp 3 young men surrendered their all and gave their lives to Christ. After the campers left we went to a local pool and witnessed 6 people make a public profession in their faith, and saw them get baptised. The next day we went back to the first place we stayed and got cleaned up and traveled to the school, and the Orphanage. From the school you could notice these little blobs forming on the fence across the field from the school. It was the kids. We got on the bus and went down this small road and very small bridge until we reached this bobwired fence. We pulled the bus in and got off. Right when you stepped foot on the ground you had little kids all over you. This one little girl hooked onto me right away, alot of the kids did not speek English, which was a struggle for me saying I know hardly any Spanish. So i just let her take me where she wanted to. Which I did not mind at all. SO for the hour we had, these kids were ours to love and be everything for them. We eventually ended up inside this little living room of one of the houses with about 75 kids sitting around this small tv watching a movie. This little girl was sitting on the bench outside of the house who was no older than 3 and she was crying. I went over and picked her up and just loved on her. I didn't want to leave her. She stopped crying, and eventually fell asleep on me during the movie. Seeing her lay there helpless made me wonder, why did she have to go through what she did. . . See the thing about this Orphanage is all the Kids were removed from their families by the government for sexual and physical abuse. . . . The horn blew and this was our que that it was time to leave. The time seemed to fly by, and i was not ready to leave. We gave the kids hugs and told them by, it almost brought tears to my eyes seeing them cry as our bus drove away. . . We went back to the place we where we was staying and had dinner and hung out. The last day we got to shop in the Valley of the Angels. It was really fun, and I got a lot of home made things. Then we went to this giant Jesus Statue that over looked the capital. . . You could see the scars on Jesus' hands and feet, and this made me stop and think that My Savior died for me, to give me life, and I need to surrender my all to him, and that even though I can not stay in Honduras. He holds the world in his hands. . . I am really blessed to have gotten to go on the trip and be a shining light in peoples dark world for a week, and just show them love, and how it feels. . . . Well I'm off to finish writing a paper.