It's a roller coaster, baby!

It is 3am and I am sitting at work thinking....

I have never really thought of myself as a judgemental person. What other people do is really not my business and I have always taken the "walk in their shoes" approach. However, recently I have went through some things in my life that really make me appreciate other people more-most importantly the differences of others. I consider myself even less judgmental now. Over the past couple months I have saw first hand just how easily "stuff happens". We are all riding along on this roller coaster of life and we think we have the ride pretty planned out. We are aware of some of the hills we'll be climbing up and the ones we'll be sliding down. My question for you is-what if the roller coaster doesn't stay on its designed course? Maybe it goes a little faster than normal....or maybe even slower? Maybe it completely stops and breaks down? Maybe we're riding along enjoying the fun and we completely fall off? Or maybe it veers off course into the unknown? All of us KNOW these things can happen but what do we do when they ACTUALLY do? We know family members will let us down-but how do we handle it when they aren't loving and supportive like you expected? We know friendships will crumble and people will change-but until you try to contact that friend multiple times with no response do you really KNOW how it'll affect you? We have heard the horror stories of divorce and know it potentially COULD happen to us-but are we ready to deal with the fact that YOUR husband or wife could come at you tomorrow with the papers in their hand asking you to sign? We know infidelity in a marriage is possible-but how would you take the news if YOUR spouse was sleeping around? We know we can't succeed at everything we try to accomplish in our lives-but are you ready to feel failure after working so hard to make a dream into a reality and not quite getting there? We know people die, lose jobs, get sick, have money problems..etc. But are we prepared to stand in front of our roller coaster and direct which way we want it to go?

We have to know ourselves and love ourselves. No one can do it better than us. Those support systems are crucial in everyday life and in times of struggle...but what happens when people are too busy with their own lives to worry about yours? I have realized that being able to stand is of vital importance because there will be times where you need to lean...and there will be nothing there to lean on. Don't burn your bridges because one day you may need to cross them again. The old saying, "You gotta be able to pull yourself up by your boot straps" comes to mind while wriitng this...but wouldn't it be so much easier if we just held them up before they fall? Our roller coaster wasn't built very well...and the chances of their being a mechanical problem is almost certain. Are you prepared?

When We Fall...

I am writing this blog to hopefully lift a fellow Christian who might feel inferior or lacking in their faith. There is a common misconception that in order to be a Christian you have to live perfectly and make the right decisions. Although we should try to live like Jesus lived-obviously we all know that is impossible. Even the best Christians are faced with sins, mistakes, and bad decisions. As my Pastor says, every time you fall and get back you get a little more qualified to preach the gospel and minister to others. We learn the most when we fall flat on our face. We gather more experience and compassion for others when have to press reverse on a certain part of our life due to a wrong decision. There is nothing wrong with falling....multiple times.
Recently I thought God was telling me to leave my church and go somewhere else. I talked to my Pastor and other people in leadership and regardless of their advice I still decided to leave. Only a few weeks out of my church I realized that was my home. Maybe God wasn't telling me to LEAVE the church, but to do MORE in the church. I was saying over and over again "use me, God. I want to be used!"...but I was missing church services, my Bible was getting dusty, and spent less and less time with Him. How can He use me when I am not available? So, now I believe God was telling me make myself available..change it up a little. So, you see..I did make a wrong decision but the most important thing is I followed what I THOUGHT God was saying. I followed my heart. God quickly corrected me and let me know in His own way that leaving the church is not what He wanted for me at all.
The point of me telling you this story is to let you know that God doesn't expect you to live a cookie cutter life. He loves you the same right now as if you went out tomorrow and won 1,000 souls to Christ. HE loves you...He loves me. Listen to God and follow the life the Bible tells us to live. Throw yourself into church and spend quality time praising and worshiping who He is. Christianity is not about religion. It's a relationship with God. Get to know Him as well as He knows you. It is possible! It just takes a little effort on our part. And when these things don't happen like they should-wake up the next morning as a new beginning and strive to do it right. Even if EVERY morning has to be a new beginning :)

My New Journey :)

A lot has happened in my life since the last post. When I found Jesus two years ago (or when He found me) I got saved and born again at the same time. People may think both of these mean the same thing, but they don't at all-at least not to me. Being saved in my eyes means knowing who Jesus is and understanding that there is a place for me in eternity. Being born again means from that moment on my life will be radically changed. Everything I do will be because of and for God. With every path I take I will (hopefully) be walking in His Will for me. Being born again doesn't mean life will be a breeze or without it's challenges..it just means I am living for something more than just myself. I am living to advance the Kingdom of God. Two years ago when I came to Encounter Christ Church I fell in love with the church, the Pastor, and the amazing people who attended. That church was and IS full of the Holy Ghost, God, and most importantly love fills the church and the people. I learned so much about myself, my relationships, and most importantly I learned about my King. I watched myself grow in the Lord and saw times where I stood at a stand-still awaiting the next level and wondering how to get there. I felt like the people there were my family and for the first time in my life I felt accepted for who I was AND who I wasn't. I saw myself growing closer to God and building that relationship that I had so desperately wanted for 20yrs. ECC was my home and my "safe haven" for being the ON FIRE Christian that I wanted to be. I never wanted to leave. I never wanted to be a part of another church.

However there is one thing that ECC couldn't have taught me and that was change and I never quite imagined what that "change" would be. About 5 months ago that change started to take affect in my spirit. I tried to run from it, ignore it, and anything else in order for it to not be true. The urge in my spirit was that I was supposed to be at another church. What?? Another church? How could that be? ECC has done so much for me, the people have done so much for me, I can't LEAVE them?
Before I continue let me explain something-Being an atheist all my life I had never really had a CHURCH. I had never had a place that just felt right. I had never connected with another Pastor and never even liked church..until I stepped into those doors. So to some people changing churches is just like changing underwear. It's easy. To me it has been one of the most confusing and difficult choices I had to make. That was MY church, my one and only church. I was horrified to think God wanted to me to leave. It's different when you aren't brought up around church.
So, here I am...stuck with this spiritual urge to leave. I started by praying but I soon learned that I wasn't praying right. I was asking God where He wanted me to be. Later, I would soon learn that wasn't what I needed to be asking. I had conversations with leadership at the church and I felt like no one understood me. No one understand the "urge" I had. (The UNWANTED urge that I constantly felt.) After all of these things I finally decided to get in the Word and talk to God. Just talk to Him and tell Him all of my frustrations and concerns. I went into prayer with one question-it wasn't WHERE should I be, but WHY should I be at this new church? I needed reasons..Godly reasons. I needed to know why He was sending me there and what I was going to gain. I hope you don't think I actually got these answers..HAHA. I wish! I only heard two things from God himself. #1: I was born at Encounter Christ Church, but my purpose (at least for this season) isn't there. #2: (The most profound explanation He gave me) Was that I was called to be to this church because I was going to give them something they need in their season, while they allow me to do what I need to do in MY season. Now, I had no idea what that statement REALLY ment and I still don't to tell you the truth. All I know is after months of praying and praying and praying and PRAYING, and after talking to the Pastors and leadership, and anyone else of significance it is time for me to go. God has plans for my life bigger than what I can see. I am still a baby when it comes to being an on-fire Christian, but i've came a long way. I have a powerful testimony behind me and a love for God that is never failing. I am the one who preaches up & down about having faith now it is my time to show a little faith in my Savior.

So, to my ECC peeps-I love you guys! Thank you for 2yrs. of amazing fellowship AND friendship. I know ECC is about to go to another level and I can't wait to see what the new Pastors do! I will be back to visit very often! :)

To my new church family-I am excited to see where we are going!! Whoo hoo!!

Now i'm living by the fact that God blesses obedience and trusting Him more everyday.

This little light of mine...

I'd like to start this blog out with the Bible school song of
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
Let it SHINE, Let it SHINE, Let it SHINE"

When I think of this song I think about faith. I think about how often Christians let their FAITH shine? How often do we let our faith in Jesus be known to the world? I'm not talking about to your Christians friends-I mean OUT THERE. How many times do you profess your FAITH to the world of unbelievers? It can be quite challenging to open up and witness to people who will laugh at you or who'll think you are crazy. We are worried about what people will think and say. Shouldn't we worry more about the One who holds the key to life? What does He think when we shy away from telling others about His Glory?

Psalm 34:1-3Psalm 34:1-8
1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

I want to live a life that pleases God. I want people to see God over flowing out of me. I want them to know i'm a Christian and a fervent woman of prayer without me having to tell them. People are going to think i'm crazy, but THEY are not my healer. THEY are not my provider, or my savior, or my King.

Some people only verbalize their faith when the bottom falls out. They can be cruising along in La-La Land, and BAM! Their whole world collapses. What do they do? They start calling on God, and telling everyone how much they put their trust in Him. Have you ever wondered how God must feel toward those who become evangelists only when they start to fall apart? If you have been a Christian for a year then you have 365 different reasons to boast about your relationship with God. If you're 75, and you've known Him since you were a child, we shouldn't be able to shut you up, not in here, and not OUT THERE! Why do we feel as though we have to be closet Christians? You know, in many foreign countries people are KILLED for witnessing their faith. People come storming into churches with guns pointed at the heads of Christians. Would you be strong enough to stand for Him then? If you can't stand for Him now, without any guns..what makes you think you can stand before someone who can and WILL take your life? The Christians over there must think we are wimps. We are in a free country and we are afraid to speak up. Brothers and Sisters, this has to change. God is ALIVE and is working new miracles every day.

Each of us is charged to spread the good news everywhere we go. Don't use the excuse that you're not a missionary, or an evangelist or a preacher, or that you don't get out much or meet many people. Just bloom where you're planted! You are annointed, you are covered by the Holy Spirit, and armed by the strength of Jesus. If He is with you who could possibly be against you? There are opportunities to spread his love and give Him glory in every area of your life. While your shopping, working, eating, running. Whatever you are doing-there is someone who is lost. Looking for that truth. What if you pass them by? What consequences are you placing on THEIR life because of your disobedience?

We can't keep scaring people into Christianity. Using the "Turn or Burn" method doesn't work. Let' GOD worry about if they'll burn or not-you just worry about getting the Word implanted in them.

We have to be dispicles of God. The Bible tells us to go out into the world and share the Gospel. Why are we ignoring that instruction? People are dying from health issues because YOU were too afraid to take them by the hand and prayer for healing. Couples are getting divorced because you didn't take the time to teach them and pray with them about marraige restoration. We have people dying from poverty because they didn't have a clue about prosperity. Last but not least, we have people dying as unbelievers because we didn't give them a chance to be SAVED. WE didn't offer them eternal life. We always so "Oh, someone else will come along and help them" NO! NO! NO! Someone else doesn't always come along. YOU could very well be that someone else.

Unlimited and Complete

For many people who aren't practicing Christianity the hypocrisy of the church and of Christians is the biggest turn off from the religion. Christians are some of the most judgemental people you will ever meet. How many homeless people have ever been invited to your church-and actually truly been WELCOMED? How many pregnant teens have been made to feel like family in your church? How many drug addicted, sex obsessed people do you call friends in your church? What if they were there? Would you befriend them? I mean, REALLY be their friend. Love them and support them. Or would you shoot them the fake smile and talk about them to other members? If you see someone bashing Christianity, do you cuss them? Do you write them off? Come on, Christians. Come on, church. We are people who are striving to be Christ-like. Let me break it down for you, we-live-to-be-like-Jesus. If there were one description for Him it would be unconditional love. He loves you despite your flaws. Despite your dirty secrets and all of your past mistakes. Jesus loves YOU.

...He also loves the child molester and cheater just as much. There is nothing you could do right now to make him love you more. If you go out and win 1 million souls to Christianity tomorrow he doesn't love you any more than the girl sitting in her apartment shooting drugs into her arm. Or the 15yr. old girl having sex. He loves them too. His love is free and without limitations. God doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you; " nor does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." In fact, in Romans 5:8, we find just the opposite. God wants us to know that His love is unconditional, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us while we were still unlovable sinners. We didn't have to get clean, and we didn't have to make any promises to God before we could experience His love. His love for us has always existed, and because of that, He did all the giving and sacrificing long before we were even aware that we needed His love.

John 15:13-Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

If God loves us THAT much-why can't we love each other with the same unconditional-limitless love? We love based on our emotions and feelings. We have to "feel" something for someone to love them. I believe Christian love is about getting to a place where you have a burning, passionate love for every human being that was put on this planet. After all, no one was put here by accident. We have to be able to look past differences, races, religions, sexes, beliefs, opinions, education, finances..etc. With that being said, we need to open our church doors to those who may seem the least deserving. The church should be the most welcoming place for a pregnant teen. We are all sinners-some sins are just not as obvious as others. We can't get on a high horse because once you do God will quickly let you know that you aren't where you think you are in your walk. He'll put circumstances in your life that will humble you. Instead of criticizing or condemning those who don't fall under our category of worthy-let's link arms with our neighbors and lift each other up..In JESUS NAME!

ANYTHING doesn't mean SOME things.

As Christians we all like to think that we would do anything for God. We would do anything to excel His Kingdom and anything to win souls. If God wants us to do it-we're there! Are you really there? Do you understand what you are saying if you say, "Yes, God. I will!" Unfortunatly I don't believe that we know what ANYTHING in God's eyes mean. God wants you to live a happy fullfulled life while you are here on earth, BUT He wants you to live it the way He designed it to be lived. When you are born again and become a true disciple of God-He is going to ask you to do things. MOST of the time those things are going to be difficult for you. It's going to involve mental and physical work on your part. It's going to be something that you dread and you might even hate it, however, if you listen to Him and follow through..you'll see immediate changes in your life. (I didn't get that from some man-I formed that conclusion from my OWN experience.)

That is where most people stop. They don't want to give up their "wordly goods" in order to gain spiritual growth. But what we don't understand is that when we take the steps that are needed to get that spiritual growth-we will see wordly blessings as well.

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

If you follow Him, no matter how hard it seems to be at the time-You will see light. You will live in abundance and everything in your life will prosper. (The opposite will happen if you choose to go your own way-but that topic is for another day-haha!)

Luke 9:23-26 "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. [24] For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. [25] What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? [26] If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."


Alright. So here we are. We love God, we want to do what He asks us all the time, we want to be a follower of God. Thats where the ANYTHING comes into place. Well, What if what He asks to do involves leaving your job, family, friends, things I enjoy doing..etc? Would you still do it? Thats when most people say, "Well if God really loved me and wanted the best for me, then He wouldn't make me leave what and who I love." THAT, my friend, is where you are wrong. Sometimes there are negative people in your life or negative things you are doing that are binding you up and keeping you from the blessings God has for you. We don't notice it because we are thinking in the wordly sense. We are feeding off the flesh and our spirit is hungry. Or maybe what He asks you to give up isn't negative at all. Maybe He just needs you to stop paying that thing so much attention for awhile so that you can really grasp what He has in store for you. Our God is a loving God. He would never do anything just to hurt you. He has a plan and reason for every direction he sends you into, and for every order you get. Think about that, what does your anything mean? Are you really willing to follow Him? Do you love Him enough to give up those wordly things if need be? We don't need more Christians in this world that just believe in God so they can see what they can get out of Him. I'm not talking about adding God to your life. I'm saying God IS your life...and the other things are an added bonus. We have to be strong warriors fighting this battle to win a fallen world to Jesus. We have to be strong, confident, excited, and CONTAGIOUS!

Might be a little controversial. Be prepared :)

I really don't feel like writing a blog right now, but I was sitting here and started to feel the Holy Ghost speak to me. I tried to sum it up in a Facebook status but it wouldn't let me enter all of the words I needed.

What Is Christianity? That question has been asked for years. People have fought over it, lives have been taken because of it, and hearts have went saved AND unsaved for it. I would like to share with you what was just put into my spirit. Many people label themselves into the Christian catagory because they believe in God. They know he exsist and they believe in the whole "dieing on the cross and resurected" story. The problem is..that is where most people stop. They learn that much about God and they thihnk they are going to Heaven. YES, you have to believe in God to go to Heaven. But you have to do more than that. You can't profess Him as your Lord and Savior at the alter of a church one evening and then never go to another service, never get out your Bible, or never learn about how a Christian is supposed to live their life.

In today's society if you go into a pentacostal or "Spirt Filled" church you get laughed at, called crazy, and many other WRONG assumptions are made about you. Is it okay to be a Christian and only believe in SOME of the Bible? How can you believe in ONE part of God's word but not the rest of it? Don't give me that mess about how the Bible has been re-wrote, changed, and messed with over time. My question is, if you are a Christian and you believe in His Word who are YOU to say that one part of it isn't true? I'll tell you why people do this. Because there are many Pastors out there who like to preach "feel good" messages. They like to have their numbers go up every Sunday and they like for people to return. In fact, they want people to return SO badly that they will skip over or almost "delete" any scripture that is not easily accepted, hard to understand, or that is not always preached about. So over time when people hear about cancer being healed off someone, broken bones being mended, devils being casted out, the dead being brought to life, or the Holy Ghost working in someones life they want to get all religous and political. "Oh, that doesn't apply in today's world." "God doesn't perform miracles TODAY He only did that in Biblicial times." "How can YOU lay hands on someone and heal them? You aren't Jesus" The only thing I can say to people like this is that you are wrong. I don't like to tell other people that what they think is wrong. But in this case if you believe that you are wrong. It's really just that simple. All of that stuff can happen and DOES happen all around the world. But if you don't get yourself into places that are Bible-Believing you will never see it.

You can't proclaim yourself to be a saved, born again, Christian without living your life like the Bible says to live. Christ-like. Of course we are going to mess up. God expects us to mess up more than we expect ourself to. He knows we are going to make that mistake way before we do it. He loves us anyway. He loves us for who we are RIGHT NOW..not for who we should be. If you think about everything you have been given in your life..how lucky you are. It all came from him. Every bit of it was because of your Father in Heaven.

Another question I get a lot is, "I WANT to live a Christian life but there is so much sin in my life that I am not ready to give up." Don't worry about that! Even the best Christians have sin in their life. We will never walk around the earth sin-less. God realizes that. He expects you to mess up. After you are really born again things will change automatically. It will take some time, but after while you won't want to watch that t.v show, do those drugs, have unmarried sex, or drink the booze. It won't be a conscious decision that you have to make..it will come naturally. It took me about 3 or 4 months after I was born agaian. God changes the desire of your heart, so you don't even miss those things. I know, you think I am crazy. I didn't believe it either, but it happened to me.

I know I probably stepped on some toes with this blog, but thats alright. I just like to share everything I know-with everyone. Whether they accept me for it or not! You have to understand that I didn't come to all of these conclusions because of a man or a church. I had an intimate Encounter with God that changed my life, my mind, and my heart.

It does not take a majority to prevail-but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
-Samuel Adams