Christmas!

Since it is right after Christmas, I decided to post my paper I wrote about Christmas! :) 

If you could ask Jesus a question, what would it be? My question would be, “The first time that You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior? And the first breath that left Your lips, did You know that it would change this world forever?”(Relient-K). Around 2-4 B.C., in Bethlehem, the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Life Application Study Bible). The birth of Jesus was a single act motivated by the most unconditional and everlasting love of all, the love of God for His creation.  Because of the familiarity of the Christmas story, humans often overlook the overpowering nature of what God did in that moment. In one second the whole universe changed. The birth of Christ is the prime example of God’s love and humility and is the day that marked the destruction of Satan.

God’s limitless love is what brought Him to a manger in Bethlehem and later brought him down the long path to Calvary. Christ coming to earth is the act of sublime love and humility whereby God took it upon Himself to enter into the depths of our world, our life, and our reality in order that the reconciliation and consequent union between God and humanity may be brought about (Frost and Hirsch). By becoming human, Jesus guides the path of how to become stronger Christians and how to love others. His ordinariness invites us to follow him by providing us with a template of how to be Godlike even as an ordinary human being (Frost and Hirsch). Jesus shows us that love is not optional; it is a command from God, and that our love is a reflection of our intimacy with Him.

Jesus becoming a human also shows the radical humility of God. For many people the humanity of Christ is one of the most difficult and uncomfortable things to grasp due to the extreme humility. Christians are quick to accept that Jesus is all-powerful and worthy of worship and praise. However it is harder to face that Jesus became completely human and that he came humbly to serve us. Duane Elmer says, “When God chose to connect with humans, he did so as a servant.” The first earthly image we get of Christ is of Jesus in a stable. Contrary to most Christmas cards, stables were dark and dirty; they were not the surroundings the Jews expected as the birthplace of the Messiah (Life Application Study Bible). The scene announces humility, weakness, exposure, vulnerability and lowliness. The last image we got of Jesus as he ends his earthly life is a broken body hanging on the cross. The scene communicates humiliation, suffering, failure and, to many, defeat (Elmer). This ultimate humility makes it hard for some to comprehend Christ being fully human.

When Christ was born, the destruction of Satan had begun. 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God came for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s work.” Jesus Christ came to earth to save us from our sins and to spare us from hell. Genesis 3:15 correlates with this by saying, “One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel.” This verse is predicting Satan’s repeated attempts to defeat Christ during his life on earth. “One…will crush your head” foreshadows Satan’s defeat when Christ rose from the dead. A bruise on the heel is not deadly, but a strike on the head is. God is already revealing his plan to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God has already gone through its darkest night. The most dismal evil in all history found its absolute limits at Calvary (Blue). Christ came to destroy Satan’s work in the earth.

The devil has turned Christmas from a time of celebration of Jesus Christ, into a selfish holiday. Christmas in our culture is centered around presents and receiving instead of Christ and serving. God is not bound or hindered by culture since He is sovereign, but He chooses to use diversity in culture as a way to interact with His creation (Craft). The prince of this world has made us the focus of this holiday. May we focus on the verses in Matthew which says store up treasures in Heaven and whatever we do for the least of people, we do for the Lord. Our obsessions are discovered by where we spend our time and money. When we obsess over worldly things we fail to focus on what matters. God’s first commandment requires us to be obsessed with Him alone. Christmas is meant to praise the King of Kings for his humility and love towards us. Jesus saved us from an eternity in hell and for this we should always be thankful. My favorite Christmas song ends with the verse, “and I, celebrate the day, that you were born to die, so I could one day pray for you to save my life” (Relient-K). Christmas is a time of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for what he has done for us.

Reflection on the Rhythms project

Going into this project I was soo excited. I wanted to follow after Mark 10:45 and serve others. I wanted to humble myself and also follow 1 Peter 5:6 which says "Be humble under God's powerful hand so he will lift you up when the right time comes." I was praying that through this project I would have a stronger relationship with God and that I would WANT to serve others. I wanted to keep an open heart and open ears so that I could hear what God was trying to tell me. I wanted to be a blessing to others and become vulnerable and open up to them through the process. I knew it would get stressful and hard sometimes but I was prepared. Now here I am after this project and I feel like I have grown so much. My eyes have been opened and I know what God had been trying to tell me. One of the main things through this topic that I learned was that people want to be heard! And it seems like we have increased our ability to escelate our voices and adjust the volume on listening to our friends. We communicate in two sentences or less now. We have become so selfish. We want everyone to hear us, but we want to control the amount of listening we take in. I learned that I need to become such a better listener, not reader, not another social network follower, but a listener. The world has been lieing to me by telling me that my voice needs to be heard and it has reduced my listening skills. I need to go listen. Let people finish their sentences... share their hearts... and feel like they have been heard! I have LOVED this project and it has taught me soo much and things that I want to continue doing. I feel like I have grown spiritually, which was my overall goal for this whole process!

Missions Outreach #2

Okay so for my second outreach I wanted to do something different, but I couldn't really find a time to go work at MAM or Salvation Army or work at the HFBC Christmas Store because of my crazy hectic school plan with homework and everything on the weekends. So I was trying to think of how I could do  an outreach and I realized that I could go help the homeless people. I pass by like three homeless people a day in Houston, and my heart just breaks for them. A few years ago if you talked to me about homeless people, the LAST thing you would get from me would be a broken heart. I had a hard heart and thought that homeless people could get jobs and lives if they wanted to, but they are just addicted people and are getting the easy way out. It hurts me to think I used to be like this, but at the same time I praise God for the work He has done in my life. The homeless are hurting. They are in tough positions of their life and just need someone to care. I'll tell a quick story about my brother a month ago. He was going to Burger King and saw a homeless man and just kinda felt bad for him, but went on to get his food. So he went inside to get his food and he couldn't stop thinking about this man. So Christopher decided that God put it on his heart to help this man. So he bought a bag full of food and brought it to the man and the guy was sooo thankful. He ended up talking to Christopher and told him about why he was homeless and stuff. This man had been in Oklahoma with his brother to get a job and something happened so the brother kicked him out, the guy had a family back at home in a city an hour and a half away from Lubbock. He had been traveling for three years to get back to his family and he was still slowly traveling back home. So after hearing this story my brother left, got a full tank of gas, went back and picked up the man, and drove him to the town he was trying to get too. The man told him that he wasn't going to be able to pay him or give anything to him because he truly had nothing. Christopher just told him that he didn't want anything and the guy was soo shocked that he was just being nice. My brother really got to know this guy on the hour and a half drive and then when he got to the house the man went to the door and when his sister saw him she just embraced him and cried because she got to see her brother had been gone. So anyways my brother was SOOO blessed through this and I decided to do something along the same lines soo I went and got some food and gave it to three homeless people and they were all soo appreciative and I just felt soo unbelievably blessed through this experience. I learned to be WAY more thankful and appreciative of everything I have and I just LOVE giving! It makes me feel SO good :) So I want to keep giving!(:

Missions Outreach

Last Friday, I went to Champions Community Church with Tyler Hoffman, Sam Kaestner, Lindsey Flesch, and Ryan Reeter. We all went to Ryans house and then headed over to the church. I loveee going to Champions and playing with these little kids. They are so so sweet and fun to be around and just adore everyone! Two groups of kids kept tackling and pulling down Sam and Tyler and it was just soo funny to watch at least eight kids try to bring them down and the kids were having so much fun doing it, hahahah. I talked to a lot of the same little kids this time. The girl that I have been talking to since the first time I went showed me her new boyfriend Wesley. It was soo cute she was like "Well we don't talk... but he is my boyfriend!! We just go to school together and 'go out'!" I love talking to her just because she is older than the other kids but still hangs out with all of them. When we went into the rooms later on she was soo proud to say "I'm one of the leaders this time!!" She is really cute and crazy and wants to live for Jesus and I love that!! Then there was the little girl who just LOVES everything!! and I mean everything!! I am soo jealous of her love! Every two seconds she is saying, "this is kinda fun!!" or "do you want to know whats fun??" and I love hearing her talk about what she loves because the list goes on and on! If you ask her if she loves something she will most likely say yes :). So as the night got on (after Lindsey got pegged in the eye with a ping pong ball) we went into the room and started playing games. My table played bingo and it was really fun to watch them get so excited off of a silly game, with no prize, that I usually find boring. It was also really cool to watch some of the 7 to 8 year olds help the younger kids around 5 who didn't know their alphabet so that they could play the game, it was soo sweet and genuine. I really, really liked going to Champions again, I don't think I will ever not like it. One of the things that going here always does for me is it gives me an eye-opener. I live in the world of Houston Christian, the world where sports cars are the norm, and big houses are a must. I live in the world that focuses on money and material possessions. Going to Champions always shows me how much I take for granted the things that God has blessed me with. Not only did he bless me with a full family, friends, and things I need to survive, but He has blessed me with so many things as well. I had a lot of fun going to Champions with the four other people in Practical Missions and I'm looking forward to doing it again!

End of the Spear

The last two classes of practical missions we watched the movie End of the Spear. If you have not watched this movie I totally recommend it!! I really, really liked this movie. I had never heard of some of the people before, but I do know of Jim Elliot. It was really cool to see this real movie and see how much they sacrificed. Getting up and just going to a completely foreign place and moving your whole family is just incredible. I think it is so amazing that this group of people did that. Lately I've been thinking about how appealing it is to me to be a missionary! I would absolutely love to be a missionary in Africa!! This movie made such an impact on me because it made me realize how much of a sacrifice being a missionary really is. My favorite quote from the whole movie was at the very end when Steve Saint said, "no one took my dad's life... he gave his life." Wow! That is just soo amazing. But if God calls me, what will I do? If God asked you to leave everything would I go? Have you ever wondered if He is asking you to go? But we drown out His voice so much with what we want. What are we chasing? It's easy if we work in ministry to say we are chasing the Kingdom, but are we really searching for fame, approval, and achievement? Have you ever thought about that? It's easy to say God is calling you to the very place you want to be, but perhaps the place God is calling you is not the place you currently are. Would you go? If it meant leaving your best friends, family, and everything you know, would you go? "But small is the gate, and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few will find it." -Matthew 7:14. Would you take the road less traveled? Would you be one of the few? Would you go? If it was Ninevah, would you  go? So few seem to be willing. So many seem to drown out His calling with thoughts of self promotion, fame, and worldly success. Would you go? He might be asking me to do something today that is far greater than myself, but are we blinded by trying to make ourselves greater? Would you go? I really pray that I would go, I pray that I'm ready and able to go when He calls me to! I pray that worldly things never hold me back and that I will be ready to move my family if I have to in order to do what God calls me to do. I really liked this movie because God called these men and their families to move out to somewhere that was totally foreign and uncomfortable. I want to be like these people and I want to make a difference. I love Jim Elliot's quote that says, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." I really really enjoyed this movie!! 

Unit 1 Review: God's Mission and Purpose

This unit in the Missio Dei text book has been really interesting and I've really enjoyed all that I have been learning. In this blog I'm going to reflect on some of the themes from unit one and just how I have felt about them. The first theme is that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, tells the story of God's purpose. I have always really understood this well. There has never been a point in my life where I questioned this or anything like that. The one thing that I did just fully realize through reading this book is that the Bible is one story, and that story is obviously God's story. The next major point of Unit 1 was that God's purpose is relationship, redemption, and reconciliation. I love that God wants an intimate relationship with us! I absolutely love that and I want that too. Its also so amazing to think that he wants to rescue me and to be completely reconciled with me! God is soo indescribable!! So often I say things like God is beautiful, He is amazing, He is loving; but I feel like if God is beautiful, I shouldn't be calling anyone on earth beautiful, if He is amazing, no one on earth is amazing, if He is loving, no one on earth is truly loving like him. I hope that makes since! It really is pretty stretched but God is just so incredible that I think he shouldn't be limited to the adjectives we use for people here on earth. The words that come to mind that I can't describe for anyone else on earth are PERFECT and RIGHTEOUS. The third theme of unit one is that God invites us to participate in His purpose; He blesses us so that we can bless others. I think this is so true!! I already knew this before, but reading about this in Missio Dei just reminded me of how true that really is!! :) God has blessed me so that I can go out and be a blessing to the world!! "God's story is unfolding as we see and participate in God's kingdom throughout the earth" - I'm still trying to understand this more clearly. I guess the wording is just kind of hard for me to understand? I'm not sure. But God is definitely working throughout people to further His kingdom!! The last main theme was that the spread of God's kingdom takes place in the context of warfare with Satan. I really enjoyed this chapter and learned a lot of new things. One of my favorite quotes from this chapter was that "The Kingdom of God has already gone through its darkest night. The most dismal evil in all history found its absolute limits at Calvary." I just really like this quote because I had never really thought about it in this way. It also makes me think about just how much Jesus did for me and makes me soo much more grateful!! :) Once again, this unit has been really interesting and I recommend Missio Dei to anyone who wants a good read and to see things they may have never realized before! :)

Let the Nations Be Glad!

Today we got to do a little something different and go to the chapel and read. I really loved this! It was fun to go on a little adventure to the chapel :) but also to be able to be in a place that is so big and open and I just found absolute peace being in there. It made me feel so rested and peaceful being in a place that I go to to worship Christ! We read an article by John Piper about worship being the ultimate goal of the church. "Shout to the Lord all the earth!" Here were a few of my favorite parts of the article: When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the darkest peoples on earth... RELENTLESS PURSUIT... Mark 10:45....and God is pursing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So those were a few of my favorite parts. What I wanted to focus on in this blog was worshiping God! I think that our lives should be reflections of worshiping Him! Joshua 1:8 says "This book of the law shall not depart form your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it;" Some of you may be thinking, "Courtney, I don't know how to meditate, especially not on God's Word." Or maybe you thought, "Meditating, do I have to like turn on weird music, cross my legs & close my eyes?" Both of these thoughts are normal and understandable. So let's see if you meditate and don't even know it! I wonder if you know the latest People magazine from front to back. You know the best and worst dressed from TeenVogue. You have the new gossip girl book glued to your face. You know every new song put on iTunes the moment it goes up. You know the rankings of all of the football teams. You have Facebook Mobile so you can check your wall at all times. Meditating, surely not? What in your day do you think on, look at every day? You spend time with your history book or you study for hours from your science book. (Which please continue to do. Studying = good). I just wonder if you even realize all the things you know and meditate on in your day, week, or month. You most likely check your email at least two times a day. You get on Facebook in the morning, right after school, and before bed to see all the new happenings. You hit Skype or ichat every chance you get to see what everyone at your school is typing about today. In all reality you meditate on a lot of things, and you do it well! So why in the world when it comes to the most prevalent, most translated, most popular book in the world are we so hesitant to meditate on that? if you claim to be a Christ follower, your heart should be like a huge Post-It note block as you flip through verses you have written on your heart. I wonder if 30 less minutes on Facebook could be spent in Psalm 30. Or 15 minutes texting Paul, your new crush, could be spend in Paul's text of how to live a passionate life for Christ. Meditating simply means soaking up the Word of God and pondering those things in your heart. It means to read James or Philippians and not just see truth but to write truth on your heart. So when your Facebook friend posts something mean on your formspring, you can flip through your Post-It note heart of God's Word and be able to react as Christ would have to bring glory to Him. So you know how to meditate, now you just need to prioritize what you are meditating on. I think this is a major part of worshiping Christ like this article says!

Demons? Sickness?

Satan is completely evil. John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;" Some of the works of the devil are: sin, sickness, fear, death, depression, murder, temptation, deception, lust and rebellion. 1 John 3:8 tell us, "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." Through Jesus we have victory of Satan and his works because Jesus made them of no effect. What can a person do if he believes it is God who sent sickness into his life to teach him something? He shouldn't fight against God so he allows the sickness to rob him of his health when he should be standing against it in the name of Jesus to be healed. We have to be able to recognize who is doing what in our lives to be able to react correctly according to God's word. Paul tells us that we are the determining factor in wheter the devil cna operate in our life or not. He says, "and do not give the devil a foothold." Ephesians 4:27. When we allow openings in our spiritual life the devil feels he has the right to take advantage of us in those specific territories. If we keep the doors closed he can't do what he would like to do. This is introduced in Genesis 4 :7 when the Lord says to Cain "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." God told Cain that Satan was crouched at his doorway, waiting to leap into his life. Cain had the choice and because he chose to open the door to jealousy, Satan led him into the murder of Abel. Sin is progressive. One thing leads to another until we find ourselves in big trouble. For that reason we must learn to close those doors and keep them closed before they develop into something harmful. Coach Rodden talked about how Christians cannot be possessed. Not everything is caused by demons. However, when it is an evil influence that is operating we will recognize and deal with it according to God's Word. We do not believe that Christians can be demon possessed, but they certainly can be attacked in their mind, will, emotions, and body. They can be troubled, pressed, buffeted,  harassed, depressed, obsessed, oppressed, in bondage and bruised. It is not God's will for us to live in constant bondage. John 8:36 says "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John gives us the location of the devil if God is in us saying he is "in the world". In 1 John 5:18 God says that if we are not practicing sin the devil doesn't have the right to touch us.

The Kingdom

  In Matthew 5:1-16, Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven when he gives the beatitudes. The beatitudes are overall taking our religion further from outward expressions of laws, to an inward expression of the heart. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who realize their spiritual poverty and are persecuted for righteousness sake. Christ shares that the path to the kingdom of heaven will be challenging and we will be persecuted and rejected because of our faith, yet we will be blessed through this. Jesus also says that we will have a great reward waiting for us in heaven if we do these things.

            In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ philosophy is first of all that we are going to be insulted and hurt by people, and second that we are to be the light of the earth. I think that as I shared before, a major point Christ is trying to share with us is that we are going to get persecuted, but the problem is that when we get knocked down we just lay there. We feel sorry for ourselves, we mope around, we ask God, "why did you do this too me?" instead of getting back up again. Some of the lyrics to one of my favorite songs says, " We lose our way, we get back up again It's never too late to get back up again, One day you gonna shine again, you may be knocked down, But not out forever.” We are not going to grow closer to God unless we get back up again and trust Him. You will get knocked down; I don't have a doubt in my mind that whoever is reading this will get knocked down. But we need to have a relentless mindset. Jesus was relentlessly focused on his goal when he came to earth, and we need to follow after Him. By following after Him, we will become the light of the earth. One way some people are best at sharing Christianity, is through their actions. We need to show Christ through the way that we live. If you strive to walk the way Jesus walked, talk the way Jesus talked, love the way Jesus loved, Matthew tells us that you will be praising your Father in Heaven.

Jesus’ kingdom and the kingdom and philosophy of the scribes and Pharisees had some differences. The Pharisees and scribes of this time believed that you had to follow the strict law. By following this law, you would please God and that is how you would get to heaven. They believed that you had to do the right thing and follow the law at all times. The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is all about the rules that they followed; God had Moses write this book to help people remember God. God knows the human tendency to quickly forget experiences and this is why Deuteronomy was written. While the Pharisees and scribes continued living this way, Christ came to the earth. He came he proclaimed that, “no one comes to the Father except through [him]” (John 14:6).  This was a huge difference in philosophies and views of the kingdom. All this time these people had been taught that they had to follow the law to get to heaven, but now Jesus came to earth and is telling them that all they need a personal relationship with Him and His Father.

            Jesus’ kingdom is also much different than the culture and society of today. Before Jesus came, there was a period of time where “every man did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25). I think that is how our world is becoming today. In this passage, Jesus is calling us to be the salt and light of the earth. He calls us to be examples to others. Isaiah 58:10 says that if we feed the hungry and take care of the troubled, our light will shine in the darkness. Our world is so filled with darkness and this is the time that Christians need to be stepping up the most, however it is actually the time when Christians are being called the hypocrites. We live in a world where we are all so rich and the Bible says it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. We are being called hypocrites because we are choosing to serve the master of worldly riches, and Matthew 6 tells us that we can’t serve two masters. Our world is in desperate need of this light that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. We are always wearing the name of Jesus Christ in everything that we do, how will you make him look?

Reflection

The first quarter of practical missions has been really awesome! I really like this class and enjoy blogging for homework!! While it is still homework, it is like a nice break from my other harder homework to a time when I can just rest with God and write about Him. I really liked our trip to champions community church! I loved spending time with the little kids there and I love volunteering at places. So I would love to continue doing things like that! I really like the people in my class and already feel closer to them than I was before! I want to continue living out the mission that God has called me too, which is telling others about the Lord and showing them Christ through my actions. I'm really interested in starting this new journal and I'm excited for this coming quarter!! :) 

Francis Chan Sermon!!

I believe God totally calls EVERYONE to be a radical Christian! Here are two quotes from one guy that the world knows because he's in the history books, and another guy who I personally, along with many sports fans, look up too. Booker T. Washington once said, "Those who are doing the vital things in life are those who read the Bible and are Christians and not ashamed to let the world know it." Then my second quote is - "The other day a reporter asked me if I would take my life as a success. I know she was meaning on the field, but I said, 'I would. My life is a success, but it's not for the reasons you're thinking of. It's not because I've won a national championship or because I've won the Heisman trophy. It's because i have a relationship with Jesus Christ." - Tim Tebow. Now there is a guy that has a heart for Christ! Something I think is really important to become a RADICAL Christian is to have ONE OBSESSION. God's first commandment requires us to be obsessed with God. When we obsess over worldly things we fail to focus on what matters. Our obsessions are found by where we spend our time and money. One way I've evaluated my obsessions is writing down all the hours to which I do things, to see where my obsessions lie. I put them in areas as in sleep, school, sports, internet, tv, cell phone, quiet time/journal, relationships, family, prayer/church, and miscellaneous. I constantly find the most hours in the section of cell phone and texting (besides the things like sports and school and church). Texting?? seriously? I think thats just the dumbest thing. I spend so much time texting. Its humiliating just admitting it. I have the KING of KINGS waiting for me to increase my relationship with Him, yet I want to text my friends? We are chasing after obsessions that won't fulfill us! I think that God can't tell us His will or answer us because we are so obsessed with this world! To me, it seems like we get up in the morning or after school or whenever and spend time with God and then we turn around and go to school or sports or texting and FORGET about Him. I feel like God is just crying out saying "Courtney! No!! Where are you going?? If you would have just stayed with me a little bit longer I would have answered your questions. I would have told you my plans for you. Why can't you just listen to me instead of turning your back on me?" When we rest in God, our obsessions will become His obsessions He wants to fulfill our dreams. Martin Luther said "I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess." I deffinetly believe that there is NO middle road! Matthew 7:13-14 says "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Lets first look at the narrow gate… Jesus told us that it: It is the gate that leads to heaven. It is difficult to enter. There will not be many people who go in the narrow gate. Imagine that there is a sign over the narrow gate. What would it say? Obviously, it would say, "To Heaven” Now lets look at the broad gate... Jesus told us that it: It is a wide gate. It is easy way to go. It is the gate that leads to Hell. There will be many people who go in the wide gate. Let's use our imagination again, and ask ourselves: "What does the sign over the wide gate and broad road say?" Most people, when asked this question say that the sign over the wide gate would say "To Hell." It is true, that Hell is where those who go in that gate will end, but is that what the sign would say? No! That sign over the broad gate says "To Heaven!" It is a lying sign. It is a sign that gives false directions. Think about it a moment. People going through the wide gate and broad way actually believe that they are going to end up in heaven. Prove it to yourself.. Read what Jesus says in the next verse. Matthew 7:15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." I think that God calls us all to be radical Christians. Honestly I dont know if I am a lukewarm Christian. It really scares me to think that I am, but truly I think I probably am. Am I loving it? ABSOLUTELY not!! I can't tell you how much I would love to just pack up and move and be a missionary for the rest of my life! I would just adore that! I want to daily grow closer to my Father in Heaven and become even closer best friends with Him!!! He is so mighty and so awesome and I want to soak up ALL the information I can about Him! I daily try to get rid of idols or obsessions in my life and ask God to help me and to examine my heart. I want GOD to be my one and only obsession! Oh how I long to claim God as my primary passion! Claim it with strength that is. I confess my hedonism and the search I have for pleasure in everything else but God. I find myself more excited to get a letter from a friend than to dive into the depths of Scripture that is living and active and possesses the ability to enter the very strands of my heart. To be free from this world that so easily entices me is what I long for!! But what does it even mean to be free?? The choices I freely make only seem to imprison me to their consequences. I may not be a physical slave, but I have come to realize the different forms of slavery - and it is only by being a slave to Christ that I have been able to find any freedom at all! It is within this freedom that fear begins to fade away. The understanding I received when I was enlightened that when we fear God there is nothing else in this world to fear. When God is my primary fear all other fears lose their grip on my life. The fears that prevent me from living a life of faith are not the fears from the Father, but of this world. If only I may continue to have a healthier fear of God. So many times I hear that voice deep in my soul screaming out, "Live, and live it to the full!" Far too often do I allow the thief to destroy my dreams and desires. Dreams and desires I pray have been molded by God as He continually transforms my character!! It is in Philippians 1:21 that this transformation first begins, and only by dying to myself will I ever begin to truly live. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? In order to live, I must die. Lord may I die today, and tomorrow, and the day that follows! May Your desires be my desires, Your dreams my dreams, and may Your will forever be done in my life. My character must be transformed and continually molded. This life is not a sprint, yet not even a marathon, but rather a journey. It is on this adventure that I must chase after You, and only You, never the wind! It is the wind that leaves a trail of no significance, and You know how I want to live a life of significance...eternal significance.

Rob Bell Sermon

We watched a sermon in class today given by Rob Bell. It was really awesome and he gave some really cool facts about the universe! It was surprisingly sort of hard for me to pay attention though. I had just come from Chemistry class, where we are learning about the atom, to watch this sermon where he talked about atoms and chemistry related things for a long time. Honestly, I thought I was thinking so much that my brain might have exploded in class! The other downfall was that a lot of the facts I had already heard from Joe White. Every year Joe takes us out and gives us the creation talk and we go out to this huge open field where you can see thousands of stars and he just tells us all of these amazing facts about the stars and the world and the universe and God! He tells us soo much information and since its coming from a man that I look up to and personally know, it is so much easier to just soak up all the information and want the talk to never end! Its kind of hard though when your in class, if that makes since. At the same time, I truly do love learning facts! I love reading articles about how Darwin doubted his own theory! and how crazy his ideas where. I love learning about what happened to the dinosaur and where all the water from the flood came from and where did it go! I love learning these things!  The Bible is true and it was divinely inspired to let us base ALL truth off the Bible and the Bible alone, that being said we also can't claim to know God and claim to know the full picture because our brains are petty and limited. A lot of the prophesies about Jesus that seemed so straight forward and literal did not make sense until hind sight.  Isaiah talks about how the Messiah will be a King.  But we now know that by King, God meant a spiritual King, not a worldly king. So we also need to look at Genesis and say, it could be the world was made in a literal 7 days. I dont know. It DEFINITELY could have happened like that, and thats the view I believe. but the point is I dont know. The point is that I want to seek truth.. but not get caught up on figuring out all the facts. We probably wont know the answers to those questions in our life time and just rest in the fact that we will be able to ask Jesus someday ourselves and then we will be like.. oooohhh! I get it! :) At the same time the Lord gave us inquisitive minds and science and the ability to learn so we could know and explore him more. Which means the deeper we get into understanding this world and how it was made and how it works.. the deeper we get to know GOD! This sermon, while it almost made my brain explode. Took me back to kamp, my favorite place on earth. It let me think of all these things again and I'm just excited to get to know God even more! :) 

Blessing to Others - Chapter 3 Missio Dei

I really liked our discussion on this! I love how you can spread Christ just by being a blessing to others through showing love and care! This is definitely one of my favorite ways to spread the good news! I love showing compassion to others and I love getting to know others on a deeper basis. 2 Timothy 4:5 says, "But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." (NAS version). Fulfill my ministry? What in the world? I have grown up in this so called career of "Ministry" and my friend, there was no part of me that wanted any part of "Ministry". I can't wait to look back at my life in 7 or 8 years and see my life as being FULL time ministry. I pray that I am somewhat fulfilling the ministry that the Lord has called my life to. I know for people reading this maybe you want to be an actress, a doctor, a mom, a teacher, a marketing director, a news anchor, a sports agent, and the list goes on and on... all your dreams? What if you decided right now, reading this blog on your computer, that your dream was simply to fulfill your ministry? Think of all the questions you could answer with that one simple statement.

Person A: Where are you looking at going to college?

You: Well, wherever I can fulfill my ministry.

Person B: What do you want to major in?

You: Well, whatever can help me fulfill my ministry.

Person C: What career do you want to have?

You: Well, the career of fulfilling my ministry.

Think about it. It would be unbelievable if you and I committed to that right now. If you become a doctor then you are in the ministry field of medicine... you aren't just a doctor! You are a doctor that is fulfilling the ministry the Lord has laid out for you. If you are a teacher, great, that is fulfilling your ministry, Fulfilling your ministry is not about being in full time ministry, great if you are someday, but fulfilling your ministry is the career of everyone who is a Christ follower. Bless the people around you!! Through blessing others, God will bless you!

Spiritual Emphasis Week!

So I have been writing what I have thought about each day, as each day went on so don't get confused :) When I say "today" its not all one day! Its four different days :) Maybe I will color code them for you! (: 


Today was the first day of spiritual emphasis week and it was awesome!! Dutton played for us and were really great! Greg Speck is the speaker this week which is really exciting!! He has such great messages and has all of us laughing at the same time :) His talk last year was simply amazing and I'm excited to see whats in store for this week! The theme for spiritual emphasis week this year is "I Surrender" so its about surrendering our lives to Christ! Today Greg talked about how when he was a senior in high school and through a crazy injury, he wasn't able to play football anymore which was the main thing in his life, and this led to him accepting Christ into his life! I have a story that is somewhat similar, but not as intense :). 

Last year, I was cheering pretty much every day. I had school cheer on Mondays and Thursdays, competitive cheer on Wednesdays and Sundays, and cheer privates on tuesdays! So I pretty much only got off Fridays and Saturdays. Cheer was seriously becoming an idol in my life! I was starting to find my identity in it, rather than in God. I felt like a lot of people knew me as "Courtney the cheerleader" instead of "Courtney the Christian," and I was okay with that. Cheerleading was becoming a hugggee part of my life. So, in November I lost cheerleading. It was the last game of the season and I was looking forward to it all year because we were playing FBBA, my old school. So we were in the cheer room, and I was being dumb... to fast-forward this story I'll just skip to the part where I hurt my knee! So I fell on my knee and sort of just laid on the ground for a while.. I figured it was just a hyper-extended knee, so I took some advil and put some ice on it. It didn't hurt thattt bad and even though I felt a "snap" in my knee whenever it happened, in my head I told myself I wasn't going to be a baby about it and not cheer! Haha so I tried to walk it off and cheered at the game. That night it started swelling up and hurting a little bit more. My parents were really worried so one week later I got an MRI. I figured nothing was going to be wrong and maybe I just sprained something. What I thought as a hyper-extended knee that would get better in the morning, turned out to be a torn ACL, torn Meniscus, and bruised bone. I had surgery in January and am now just getting back into the cheerleading world. So for a while I was kind of like "God, why would you take away the thing that was my world?" and He was like, "Well Courtney maybe because it was your world!!" Haha :) But through my injury and some other struggles last year, I really became so much closer to the Lord! I learned to lean on him and to put him FIRST in my life always!! Its soo awesome to just trust the Lord and know what what He is doing in your life has a PURPOSE!! He knows what He is doing! Whenever your going through struggles it is soo difficult to understand what God is doing in your life! Later on, you'll be able to step back and see what God was doing in your life and thank Him for it! But while your experiencing difficult times in your life, the best thing to do is to just trust in the Lord! He wants what is best for us and he KNOWS what is best for us!! 


DAY THREE (SKIPPED A DAY)


"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 14:18

Day three of spiritual emphasis week!! Today Greg talked about the four ways to live a surrendered life and they were: 1. Never ever fear your enemy 2. Starting now, live a life worthy of the Lord 3. Always speak the truth even if you have to suffer the consequences and 4. Safeguard the weak and the helpless! I don't know what other peoples feelings for this message was but it wass so amazing and it made me realize so so much! If you don't go to Houston Christian and your interested in listening to any of Greg's talks at chapel, you can go on itunes and subscribe to Houston Christian's free podcast and all of our chapels are on there.. Greg's talks should be up in a week or so, they are so great and funny and I encourage you to listen to them! :) Anyways the thing I liked the most that Greg talked about was living a life worthy of the Lord. We exist to glorify God!! We need to make God look "good" in everything we do! We can make God look good by the way we live and talk and act!! Something I loved that Greg said is that "Your yesterdays NEVER determine your tomorrows!" And I feel like the world is telling us this lie that we can't change!! The world is telling us that we are going to be the same tomorrow as we are today and yesterday. But through God's grace and love we can completely change our life!! Greg came and spoke to my practical missions class after chapel today and one of the things he told us is that after he became a Christian on a Saturday night, that Sunday he was a COMPLETELY different person!! After two days of being this new and different person his parents sat him down and asked him about it.. Two months later his parents became Christians!! It is soo awesome how God works through people!! This verse is referring to his first way to live a surrendered life which was never ever fear your enemy! God is always going to take care of us and he has this crazy unconditional love for us that we will NEVER be able to comprehend!! There is NOTHING that God can't do!! This verse says Perfect love casts out fear. The holy spirit in side of each of us gives us all power over fear. Never doubt the power of God! For there is none more powerful than Him! In the talk Greg gave last year about spiritual warfare, he said that the two things satan wants most is for us to fear him and for us to worship him. Don't fear satan for we have an AWESOME God on our side that is SOOO much more powerful than him!!






Today was AMAZING!! Greg spoke again of corse and today he talked to us about our highest calling, which is to LOVE God and to LOVE people! Greg talked about the five ways to love one another! Service, Words, Gifts, Time and Touch. After his talk, he had us stand up and genuinely go around and go apologize to the people that we had been rude to before. To go around and give people hugs and let them know if we appreciate them and if we love them (I say if because we were being genuine!). I thought this was soo cool! I've never seen us students at Houston Christian be so vulnerable and loving to each other before. It was just incredible!! God was totallyyy with us today at chapel!! Some of my good friends were crying just because they had been keeping things on their hearts and grudges towards other people for soo long and today they finally got to go talk to those people and let them go. Some of my other good friends were crying just from Greg giving them a "dad hug" because their dads maybe have never shown them love or have never been there for them. I just want to say right now that as much as some people may not like Houston Christian, I LOVE Houston Christian and I LOVE the people I go to school with! As a school we all went through a totally humbling experience today and it was so awesome to be a part of it! Something I thought was really cool is that Gregs talk totally related to the first chapter of the book my D-Group is reading, Captivating. Its an amazing book that I recommend to any girls!! (Boys there's a book called Wild at Heart by the same authors for yall) haha, so thats what happened today :)

About this verse - I don't know about you guys but I LOVE to LOVE people!! :) I love encouraging people and building people up! (maybe thats why I'm a cheerleader? or maybe I just like to do the flips(: ) anyways, I absolutely love making new friends and creating relationships!! For anybody reading this, if anyone is, if you want a friend to talk to or you need someone to be praying for you I would just adore to be that person!! But of corse I always have those days when I'm not 100% smiley courtney! Or when I am sarcastic (that happens alot, really need to work on that!) but I strive to be someone who shows Christ's love for others! Today, Greg challenged us to for the rest of the day not say one negative thing about anybody, and I challenge you to do the same! Think of the differences you could make in your schools, in your work, in your group of friends, if you were just always positive and never talked bad about anyone! Like what Greg talked about to us yesterday, we can make a difference! and you can BE different starting now!! 




Today was such an amazing day!! It's my brothers 20th birthday today.. can't believe how old he is!! Today was also the last day of spiritual emphasis week :( but it was totally awesome!! and today was the day that the Mustangs beat the Bulldogs!! (and also included the cheer/silver spur bus breaking down...awesomee) :) So overall today was great!!

So this verse is a verse Greg had us turn too today. Today he talked about CONTINUING to live a surrendered life. One thing he really hit on was that feelings NEVER last!! If you have like a retreat with you church saturday night you get alll these feelings saturday night and your soo on fire for God! But then sunday morning rolls around and you don't feel Jesus anymore. An example Greg used is if we ate everyyday how we eat for Thanksgiving! That'd be crazy!! Then he said that every once in a while God is going to give us a Thanksgiving of feelings. The main thing is that we need to follow Jesus no matter how we FEEL! because feelings never last. To live a surrendered life, we also need to walk with God. I think its really, really awesome how no matter what God is always going to love us. If I don't read my Bible ever, God is going to love me just as much as if I read my Bible every single day! I don't read my Bible so that God will love me more. I read my Bible because I LOVE God!! I don't walk with God because I want Him to love me more. I walk with my King because I LOVE Him! The third thing Greg talked about was to be HOLY. Positionally, we are already holy because of Christ's death for us. The problem is that we aren't ACTING holy!! God is always speaking to us, the problem is that we don't listen! One of my favorite songs by Addison Road says, "I've tried to hear from Heaven, but I talked the whole time. I think I made you to small, I never feared you at all. If you touched my face, would I know you? Looked into my eyes, could I behold you?" I absolutely love this song and think its so true. I think its crazy how if we won a prize to go spend a day with someone famous we would do it in a heartbeat! We would change our schedule so that just for that one day we could hang out with that celebrity! Guys, We have the opportunity and the gift to spend time with the AMAZING God!! Not for just one day, but for eternity!!To surrender your lives to God. To walk with God and be holy! I hope yall had an amazing day!

The March of the Unqualified

One of the questions that were asked is, "Are you fishing for men?" I really started thinking about his and it made me turn back to Matthew 4:19 which says "And he said to them, 'follow me, & I will make you fishers of men'." I live on a lake full of fish! Growing up me and my brother would always want to go fishing!! So we would dig for an hour to get as many worms as we could, then go to our backyard and start fishing! He was totally a pro! He caught all of the fish and I would only catch them with his help. I on the other hand, pretty much wanted to do anything but sit there and wait patiently for a fish to bite. I obviously made an awful fisherman! In this verse in Matthew, Jesus says to his four disciples, "Follow me." When you begin to think of discipleship, Jesus is the perfect example of the first step of finding someone. Jesus knew he wanted a small group of twelve men. He, even within the twelve, had an inner core group of three men. Jesus went to these men and just said "Follow me," and in verse 20 it goes on to tell us that, "At once they left their nets and followed him." "At once," "immediately", "vaminos," these men responded right then and right there. There was something so magnetic about this Jesus that these men dropped everything and followed him immediately. I wonder if we are like that in our schools. People see something so different. Younger Christians are encouraged by us and non-Christians may persecute us or ponder us. Can you imagine Jesus approaching you and saying these same words? I pray that I would react just as the four newest disciples by following at once. After deciding to follow Jesus, I wonder if I should look at Christ's example and find someone to say to, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Although I might not be a great fisherman of fish, I pray I am a constant fisherman of people to pour my life into as Jesus did when He walked this earth.

So basically I want to constantly be pouring love and life into others and create relationships with everyone I know! I want to be heart broken for my friends and for people who aren't my friends! I want to get out into the world and be a friend to the friendless!! I love the song "My own little world" by Matthew West!! Its for sure one of my favorites!! It is so easy for, like I explained in my very first blog, us to have "tunnel-me-vision". Its like we don't pay attention to the rest of the world!! One verse that always sticks out to me is, "I throw a twenty in the plate, but I never give till it hurts, and I turn off the news when I don't like what I see. Yeah its easy to do when its population me." Umm hi mister west, where you writing to me when you wrote this song?? haha! To be completely honest I never watch the news because it scares me!! And after I have a babysitting job or something like that where I make some money, I'll put five dollars in the offering plate at church, but I NEVER give till it hurts!! at the Tenth Avenue North concert, Matt talked about how so often we are like, "yeah I can't help this dude because taxes on my $600,000 house are pretty tight. or I have two new cars I have to pay insurance for" and stuff like that! We have become so selfish!! I want to totally become selfless!! As much as I feel incapable to help someone who is in a low part of their life, I'm going to do it anyways! Because no matter how inadequate I am, God can totally work through me!! I think that is so cool! I'm so tired of the world referring to Christians as hypocrites and I'm so tired of it being true! In order to stop myself from being a hypocrite, some days I may have to get my hands dirty. I may risk my reputation or maybe cause people to question my choice of friends. It's time for Christians to STOP walking past others who are suffering on the side of the road. I refuse to let fear stop me! If I were one of the people walking past the Levite traveler, I want to be the good Samaritan!! I want to visit people lying in the ditch that the traveler was in! I want to view the world in a totally different way!! More than anything I want to abandon my comfort boundaries and love others not for what they do but because the almighty GOD loves them!!

When was the last time I was heart broken for other people? Daily my heart goes out to people who are struggling and I love reaching out to them! I've been in really tough places in my life, and to see other people hurt makes me hurt. Constantly my heart hurts for others that I can see are hurting! For me, what stood out of the sermon we heard, was when he was saying "where are the tears?" To cry in front of other people is extremely tough for me. To be honest, when I am going through struggles no one really knows. I keep everything bottled up because I don't want people to feel sorry for me or to feel like they have to be nice to me or love me because I'm going through a rough time. The last time I openly cried with people was the choir trip in Dallas last year. The people in my room I was really close friends with and it was totally cool what God did! The night started off with us just being crazy and having a silly fashion show in the room! (plus a little bit of a dance party) :) but then it turned into a five hour Bible study!! from 12 am to 5 am we just talked about things on our heart. Hearing what the other girls had to say and finally admitting all my struggles going on in my life just made me cry uncontrollably. It was totally a good cry though! A cry I needed! For probably 30 minutes all we did was pray over each other and it was soo awesome!! It created this awesome bond between all of us and it was so great to experience that. We also took about thirty minutes and wrote letters to each other telling the other person everything we adore about them and just encouraging each other! One of the girls, Leigh Lloveras, was my very best friend in 8th grade and one of my best friends in 9th grade. She no longer goes to Houston Christian, but she was on the choir trip with us. We were talking together and she told me one of the things that made her cry was seeing me cry. She talked about how I've watched her cry and fall to pieces so many times and I've just been there for her and comforted her. She said she'd never thought about it but for two years of knowing me and being my best friend she had never seen me cry, and seeing me cry made her fall apart. I remember after telling the girls everything that was going wrong in my life they were all so shocked, as would be probably the whole grade would have been if they knew. I really am just genuinely a happy person and whenever pain comes into my life I try to ignore it as much as I can, and then certain days when I get home it all falls apart. I'm also really emotionally strong so thats also why I dont cry. In school I'm constantly smiling and saying hello to everyone in the hallways because thats what I love to do! So whenever I am having a bad day I just try to cover it up so that noone feels inclined to ask me about whats is wrong or anything. I know it is soo silly! Anywayss, Im getting so off topic! but my main point is that all six of us crying together and praying over each other made us so much more close! I think the speaker made some really awesome points and I think it for sure can be a good thing to just cry with people! The stories he told where awesome! I really enjoyed hearing this sermon and it totally opened my eyes to new things!! :)

I love this video!! Its so awesome knowing that no matter how unqualified I am, God can work through me!! "Get in line!!"

"Father break my heart for what breaks yours. Give me open hands and open doors. Put your light in my eyes and let me see, that my own little world is not about me."