September 27, 2012

Living Proof

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

 

 

            Identity. Dictionary.com describesIdentity as “the state or fact of being the same one as described.” Think for a minute.How do you think people describe you; the popular one with all the greatestclothes, the one that never talks, the one with the greatest shoes, the loudone? How did you earn that specific identity for yourself? Are you satisfied withthat? Are you constantly finding yourself wanting to get more? Ever thought, itwasn’t enough? It’s not. In Luke 18: 18-22, Luke talks about when a rich rulercomes to Jesus and asks, “Good teacher,what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18). “Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. “No one is good-except Godalone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, donot steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother’” (verse19). “All these I have kept since I was aboy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack onething. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasurein heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, becausehe was a man of great wealth (verses 20-22). This rich ruler was searchingfor more and went straight to Jesus and asked where he could find it. And Jesussaid the answer was Him. The rich ruler thought he could do it alone, hefigured he didn’t need Jesus in his life and wanted to keep living the way hehad been. This man found his identity in material things and his money. We needto be opposite from this man, we need to find our identity in Christ. Whyshould we find identity in Christ? Finding out identity in worldly things areonly temporarily, they’ll eventually let you down, or even go away. While if wefind our identity in Christ, he is always there, He’s not going anywhere andwill be with us wherever we go. Having your identity in Christ, is what God intendedus to have. When people describe you, do you want them to see your great faithand notice how set apart you are from the world? That’s having your identity inChrist. Not conforming to this world, just living in it.     

Set yourminds on things above, not on earthly things.

–Colossians3:2

 

September 26, 2012

Living Proof

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

 

 

             Thissummer I was a part of an amazing team that endured ten days at a leadershipdevelopment camp through my favorite place on earth, Lake Lundgren Bible Camp.During those ten days there our team worked through a book called, “ImprovingYour Serve” by Charles R. Swindoll. While reading this book it was neveranswered to why we have to serve. Of course it was to ultimately serve God butwhy? Two months later, I finally received the answer. At youth group tonight Iwas blessed to have a one-on-one with our new assistant leader, Andrea. It wastruly a blessing from God to have had this time with her. From hearing herstory, it seems like we’ve been through pretty much the same things. I couldeasily relate. One question was, “What is Christ to you?” She replied herSavior. My answer to this question that had been swirling in my head wasanswered when she replied with, “Jesus has done so much for me, he saved my life,the least I could do for him, was to give him everything that I am and servehim.”It wasn’t because of it was the right thing to do or because it’s in thebible, it’s deeper than that. It was that simple. Look at what Jesus did forus. Yes he died for us, but the pain he endured before the cross is unbearablefor us today. He took himself to the cross, when he didn’t even deserve it anddied so that one day we can be reconnected with him for eternity. So why shouldwe serve God, He has done the unimaginable for us, He deserves it.   

 

 

September 23, 2012

Living Proof

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

 

           For my church I every week with first graders, and let metell you, it’s not easy with a group of twenty of them at eight o’clock in themorning, but I know that God is at work within those kids. It was so cool todaythough, during “Discover Time” (a time when kids have an upbeat and funactivity as an icebreaker into the lesson of the week) which is what I run, Iasked the kids to create a poster of something that they have learned on Sunday’sin the past weeks and I was so amazed at what they actually knew. Theyremembered what they had talked about and even the specifics on the differentplagues that were sent in the Old Testament. I remember starting at my churchin first grade and not even knowing a thing about the bible, and the kids thatI have a part in teaching know about the plagues, how the Israelites complainedabout not having water and how Moses separated the Red Sea. It’s truly ablessing having these kids open to learn so much. For our lesson today, we werein Exodus 17. This chapter is all about trust, trusting in God to provide,always. Proverbs 3:5-6 is a verse the first graders probably have instilledinto their brains. It tells us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, andlean not on our own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and hewill make your path straight.” God knows so much more than we do, we have totrust in the fact that he knows what he is doing.

            Just today,I found myself trusting God for a big thing in my eyes. Since I’ve starteddriving, I’ve had to come up with ways to save gas in any way I can. I drove tochurch today with less than an eighth of a tank of gas and was freaked out thatI would be that person on the side of the road without gas. Once I got home safely,I knew that the next thing I would have to do would be to visit the gasstation. But my sister needed a ride to her soccer game, I freaked. Even thoughthe soccer fields are less than five miles from my house doubt started settingin, so instead of taking the highway we took the back roads, little did I know,it would end up being a God thing that we did, my sister forgot her cleats athome and we had to drive back. We decided to take the highway over and I waspraying the whole time that we would make it safely to the fields and withoutthe car dying on the side of the highway. I made it there, and back. I had totrust that God would provide for me. He did. And even if I was stuck on theside of the road without gas, I know that God would still provide a way for me.Trust in God always, he knows what he’s doing.     

September 22, 2012

Living Proof

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012

Wow,God is so cool. He can work in ways that I can’t even understand. Today Itraveled up to Green Bay and was reunited with my camp friends and had a biblestudy and worked through the next chapter of the book, Improving Your Serve,the book that we were required to read a camp. It was so amazing to have the opportunityto be with them again and dig into God’s word and that book and open up to eachother about what is happening in our lives and to be able to pray with eachother physically, felt like I was back at camp. I loved it. Once we were donetogether two of the other girls and I decided that we needed girl time and wentout for coffee, except it wasn’t easy to get to coffee. My friend said she knewexactly where we needed to go, but she didn’t know where it was. As I wasfollowing behind her in my car all I could think was, this is what life is like.I had absolutely no idea where she was going but I trusted in her to get usthere. We don’t know where God is taking us in life but we know we can trust heknows what he is doing. After many turns and minutes of driving around wefinally landed upon a Starbucks. Having coffee with these two beautiful youngwomen in Christ couldn’t of been more of a blessing. We talked about our livesand how God is working in each of our lives. We praised Him and prayed together.God puts people in our lives so specific reasons. And today I knew that God hadplaced my camp friends in my life for people I can turn to and to encourage meto keep fighting the good fight and to live for Christ every day.  

September 20, 2012

Living Proof

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to wrap my headaround just how amazing God is. Every day I find myself praising Him for allthe countless blessings that he’s given me. This year I decided to take on anAP Psychology class. Knowing that this class would be difficult and for collegecredit I knew that I would find myself challenged everyday in that class. Wereceived a study guide for our first quiz we would be having, but the day thatwe were going through the questions and working on them with others I was sick.So, I just finished the study guide at the best of my ability for the due date.When we were correcting the study guide I was getting over half of the answerswrong. When it was time to tally up all our wrong answers, my teacher had us readoff our grades in front of the class so they would easily be put into thecomputer, looking down at my 21/43 score my heart started to race. When my namewas called and I read off my score my teacher said, “Carrie, did you get allthe problems?” Truthfully there were quite a few that I skipped. He said hewould give me another day to work on it. The rest of the class I couldn’tfocus, my grade was going to be starting off with an F for the year. Doubt andworry started to creep in. So I prayed. Slowly I started to calm down because Iknew that God would use this situation for good, weather now or within fiveyears, I knew God would prevail. Once the bell rang for the end of class, Iwent and talked to my teacher to see what my options would be for the studyguide, he said he would give me another one to do, he didn’t have one. So hesaid he would give me the average score for everyone in the class which was a40/43. I didn’t deserve that. How could he just do that for me? Grace. It wasthat day that I finally knew the concept of grace. God did the same thing. Hesent his only perfect Son to die on the cross for all of our sins, we didn’tdeserve that. It should’ve been us on the cross. But no, it wasn’t us. I’mtruly thanking God for the should’ve been.

            Yesterdaywas the first true Quest night for the junior high students within our church.Man, I am so blessed where God has placed me. I have two moms and myselfleading the group with thirteen seventh grade girls. What a bunch we have. I’mso excited to see where God leads our group. Along with working with juniorhigh, I am still going to my high school youth group on the same night.Yesterday we did something completely different than usual, we had a scavengerhunt around the neighborhood, it was going great except for the fact that itwas thundering and lightning outside, but hey, we’re all still alive. One ofthe tasks was to do a random act of kindness for someone. There’s a yacht clubnot too far from the house so we went there. The bar area was filled elderlycoming for late night drinks. My leader suggested, I help walk a couple totheir car. It ended up only being the wife but I was more than happy to do so.I carried her purse and leftovers from dinner because she could barely walksince she needed new knees. She began to ask me what organization I wasassociated with and I explained that I was with my church. She continued to saythat her old neighbor went to our church and brought her on a retreat and allthe kids were very well behaved and never had to be scolded or disciplined. Shewas so proud of the fact that we were living kind and helpful lives andteaching others to live in that way. I explained it’s because we have the lightof Jesus shinning through us. Just this little old lady wanting to know moreabout God, and noticing the work that he can do through a person’s life isincredible.

 

September 17, 2012

Living Proof

Monday, September 17th, 2012

 

 

I had a friend ask me today, “Whatwas one thing that God has reveled to me within the past month?” Man, just onething? That question really got me thinking about what he really has been doingin my life. After coming off one of the best summers He has ever blessed mewith, it was truly a difficult task to pick one thing. Finally, I answer backwith God opening my eyes that I must serve Him and to not be ashamed of whathe’s done for us and telling others about what He’s doing in my life.

            Starting offmy junior year of high school I knew that my lifestyle was going to bedifferent. I knew that God has worked so much in my life throughout the pastthree months and I was ready to put all my training this summer and walk intothe battlefield of high school. Its only week three of this important year andGod is working wonders.

            A few weeksago I had a friend ask me if I was going to be a leader for the junior highstudents within the church. Little did she know, working with junior highstudents has always been a dream of mine and where I see my spiritual giftsshine. She brought me to the youth pastor in charge and I was given theposition on the spot. God was so faithful! I couldn’t praise him enough. TodayI received an email from the pastor; it was a list of all the girls that wouldbe in my small group, along with the two adult women leaders that I would beworking with throughout this year. I couldn’t be more excited and blessed aboutthis group and I know that God will do wonders through this group. Wow. God isso good.

            Of course asbeing a high school girl, there’s a boy.  I decided to tell one ofmy friends about him. She flipped. She happened to be really good friends with him and was already planning a time when her, him, my friends boyfriend and I could all get together. I was so not ready for that. The next night I texted her and asked she not plan anything, I simply told her that God is in charge of my love story, not her or me. God has a plan for my life, and I need to trust in that and know that at the correct time he will place that special someone in my life. Needless to say, my focus is on God this year and not on boys.