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watchatalkinboutwillis
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Name: sarah
Birthday: 7/29/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: photography,reading,running, totally awesome road trips, old movies, great songs that u can listen to in the car, almost any sport, art, singing really loud and off key (a talent i was born with), talking on the phone, spending a full day at the beach, traveling, going mullet hunting, finding people who look like their dogs
Expertise: pretty much everything
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/14/2004
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| The Battle of Secrets vs. Intimacy
"And yet it is through this system of defense Christ walks with ease, never seeming to fear that He would do damage by rummaging around in the tender complexity of a persons identity. Instead, He goes nearly immediately to our greatest fears, our most injured spaces, and speaks to those places with AUTHORITY." -Donald Miller
Shhh.....
When people keep secrets from God. When we do not reveal to him our inner most beings. we are defining ourselves by those secrets. I have been listening to the Mill online (the college group from New Life Church) and they have been doing a series on secrets. We often define secrets as sin that we are in that we don't want any one to know about, usually pertaining to sexual sin. But secrets can also be about things that have happened to us in the past, people we hate, things that we have done in the past, and of course the places we struggle in during this present time. How then do we trust God and how do we walk out the process of freedom so that we may become more intimate with God? This requires a level of trust in God that is well, honestly quite terrifying. (*side note: as well as trusting in people God has placed in our lives the scripture says to confess one to another... He uses people to bring healing, but ultimately He is the one who truly heals). We have to trust that God is who His word says He is, and that we will not be rejected by Him due to things that we have allowed to trap us. God's word commands that we do not hide in the darkness but that we reveal all to Him who is Light, who is truth, who is Redemption, who is Love, who is God.
** Rom.6:11-23,Rom.8:1-17, 1 Cor.13:4-12, 1Cor
5:17-21, Gal 2:20-21, Gal 5:1, Eph.4:17-32, Eph.5:1-21, Eph.6:10-20,
1Thess 2:2-6, Titus 3:5-11**
Life:
This week my co-leader to KENYA and I challenged our team our team to pursuit God like never before. To seek true intimacey with the father with the desire to know Him. To shift their perspectives off of the craziness of life, and to desire first only Him. So, in light of this team challenge I have spent most of this break alone in my room seeking after God. Psalms 139:23 says "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting." As I read this scripture at the begining of the break I was all fired up saying "Yes Lord! remove what you do not find as sweet fragrence to you! Make what is in the dark become light!" and then He answered. And he began to dig. and I began to hurt. What happened to fluffy encounters with God? (that was sarcasm.) At first I pulled back, last year was a pain in the ... and I did not want to revisit the pain. I felt I had already learned what I needed to. But God kept bringing me back to those places of pain and confusion and frustration until I would talk it out with Him.you see, I have secrets from God. rather, I have secrets that I don't share with Him he already knows them...anyways.
Example you ask?
Adam and Eve. God knew when Adam and Eve tried to keep a secret from Him. They were defined by their secret sin. They ran from God when ever they felt him drawing near, only creating further distance, rather than that place of intimacy that occured when walking with their Father in the Garden. This was a moment of great tragedy. At that moment Adam and Eve forgot that God was good, they forgot their place as children of God, everything they did was to protect, their secret (even wearing clothes!) Of course, God as the loving father, sent His only Son to reconcile us to Him that we may once again walk in intimacy with Him.
So, Secrets versus Intimacy? There are no secrets in intimacy.
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| I have been told numerous times that girls don't laugh at funny jokes, girls laugh at funny noises. I argued it. But then, after some personal soul searching I found it to be true. While searching youtube, my source for all credible research, I came upon this video. I laughed through the entire video. That's when I knew I could argue no more. So be encouraged all those horrible joke tellers out in the world. If your joke is bad, just add a noise to it-and I will laugh. http://youtube.com/watch?v=_Z0DaDzyaBE | | |
|  "Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night His song is with me-a prayer to the God of my Life...Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." psalms 42:7-8,11 Overdressed. We live in a society of overdressed people. I am such a person. I dress myself in layers of self-validating, self protecting labels. I have this picture in my head of Ralphy's younger brother Randy in the movie "A christmas story" when he was layerd in winter clothing and shouted that famous line: "I can't put my arms down!" An example of such a layer you ask? Ok. I really like the outdoors! My favorite outdoors activity is to run. I enjoy running, I crave running. My all time favorite way to run is barefoot. I like the squishy feel of mud or the coolness of the grass between my toes. I always talk about running and it was something I placed my identity in. I was athletic, I was a runner. I took pride in being a fast, amazingly GIFTED runner in a world of walkers. dang those walkers... When I got sick and could no longer run, or do wild crazy outdoor things I kept pretending that I could that everything was normal even though it was something that was STRIPPED from me. I would tire myself out and as a result my body would get sick. For me being athletic had become part of my identity. Now if being athletic could be a piece of clothing it would be...jeans. Running was like my favorite pair of jeans, the kind that you wear for four months straight without washing, so your mom sneaks into your room to wash them while you sleep . When I could no longer wear my favorite jeans I felt naked. What will people think if I put on something else? Everyone is going to know that I'm...a walker. I searched for something to replace the jeans, things that I thought others would consider valuable. I was always in the market for something better. 
Nakedness. Ok. that was a lame example, but anyways- I have been learning about what it means to be stripped before God. Naked before him. Nakedness means vulnerability. It's scary. There's the fear that when God searches the depths of your heart that he is not going to like what He sees. That He will reject it. (wrong! Romans 8:38-39) There is also the fear that we will disapoint ourselves. That we are not as cool as we thought we were. haha. (you were just introduced to my pride.) I just thought of another example. Donald Miller talks about his fear of marraige in the book "Blue like Jazz" he said that he has the fear that when he gets married his wife is going to see him naked and laugh. That is totally the same fear of intimacy with God that many struggle with. hhmm...perhaps it is no coincidence that God refers to the church as the "bride of Christ." Because a bride is intimate with her husband. thoughts to ponder... Are you overdressed? There is so much to be said. but this is all i share today. end quote: "And yet it is through this system of defense Christ walks with ease, never seeming to fear that He would do damage by rumaging around in the tender complexity of a person's identity. Instead, He goes nearly immediatly to our greatest fears, our most injured spaces, and speak into those places with authority." Donald Miller "search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in my, and lead me in the way of the everlasting." Psalms 139:23 "To see him as he is, with out a veil between, face to face again for all eternity." -Ten Shekle Shirt Hosea 2:19-20 "I will betroth you to me forever, I will betroth you in rightousness, and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord." | | |
| | ...intro: My journal is m.i.a. at first i thought I could do without. That I could just keep all the words God gave me quietly written on my heart. But. I must write them down!!! So, I am xangaing so when my journal is safely returned I can just print my xanga entries and shove them between the starving pages of my journal. The Call. "Intercession is impossible until we allow the things that break God's heart to break ours as well."-Red Moon Rising pg.51 God has been repeating the same message to me in my dreams: "Can you hear it? Can you see it? "Who will go?" "Can you hear the cries of my children?" "Who will answer their cries?" God has been giving me a vision for America. To teach the young people to hear the voice of God and respond. to start the revolution of a church, zealous for the things of God. [The book "Revolution" is a great book on social issues in America and the World and it challenges the church to be a source for change. I agree.] The American church must have a heart for the people. No man. No woman. Nor youth or child who live and breath will deny the power of God. Fire will burn in America. He is calling: Remember your first Love. ME. He is calling up a generation whose eyes are locked on His. Whose feet will walk his path. Whose hearts beat with His. Walking in boldness with hearts of a servant. May our hearts break for what His heart breaks for. Obedience. God has given me a heart for the church in America and for the people of the World. I don't know what He has in store for me but I am learning to obey. One thing I have learned is that Obedience is scary. it's quite a wild ride. As followers of Christ we are to be lead by His still small voice, by the Holy Spirit. In the ancient Celtic church the Holy Spirit was not symbolized by a dove, but by a wild goose [Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams]. I am not writing this to discount the symbol of the dove, but rather to create a picture of what Life following after God is like- it is wild. I personally like the wild goose image because I usually associate obedience with something boring. Not that obedience is always fun, it takes perseverance, but it should NEVER be considered as settling or wasting time. God's ways are not ours, they are wild, they are mysterious. Dr. Shelton says that God is a mystery to be revealed, not solved. hhmmm... Dive in. "breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet- a vast army." Ezekial 37:10 the valley of dry bones. the place where Ezekial proclaimed the truth, the word of the Lord, and those bones-which appeared as dead, rose up and stood on their feet. God gave me a place where He wants me to go (yay for direction!) and join with the body of Christ to awaken the "dry bones" of the city. Where has God called you? I know for me, right now it is at ORU. I must take this seriously. I must join with the body of Christ in prayer and in action bringing the Life of God to the community of people around us. ***
"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people." MLK Jr.
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"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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"Greater Love has no man than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13 |
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