Ephesians

Ephesians 1:9-10: "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."

A good friend suggested to me to go through Ephesians and re-write it as if it were written specifically to you, as opposed to the body of Christ. Replace the "us"'s and "we"'s with "you"'s and "me"'s. Especially God does think these things and say these things to each of us individually. He knows our names and everything about us and does intend for us to know these things personally.

Ephesians 1:9-10 stood out to me while I was reading because the promise about salvation that God made known to us is there, all that we need to do is accept that promise. He has a plan and it is good. I encourage you to try going through Ephesians and making it personal, I found it really helpful.

As always, have a fantastic day!

It's beginning to look a lot like Winter!

I love WINTER!! 

^

That's me ice fishing!!  Exciting (I know right?)

And it is more than just the Christmas-y aspect of Winter. Everything about winter makes me happy. Snow-covered everything most of all! Snow covered trees. Snow covered branches. Snow covered streets. Snow! Okay so you get the point. 

But honestly, is there really anything better than curling up in a blanket and watching a movie while drinking a nice and delicious cup of hot cocoa while the snow is falling outside? Or ice skating? 

The other night it snowed and in my excitement I decided to take a stroll outside for about 45 minutes. The whole time I walked around and thought about a lot. Sure, I had homework that I could have been working on, but what is 45 minutes really. What started off as simple enjoyment of the nice cold weather, became a really refreshing walk with God. 

The light and fluffy flakes were falling around me and I felt as though it was God's way of giving me a little early Christmas present among all of the stress and worries of school and decision making that I had to do this week. So if you are getting busy thinking of all that you have to do this week, think about it for a little bit...is God giving you an early Christmas present? :) I sure hope so. 

Happy December! 

Jealousy

Definition of Jealousy:

–noun, plural -ous·ies for 4.

1.

jealous resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another's success or advantage itself.

2.

mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc., as in love or aims.

3.

vigilance in maintaining or guarding something.

4.

a jealous feeling, disposition, state, or mood.

I was reading through Deuteronomy today and do you know how many times it states that our God is a jealous God...I didn't count, but it says it quite a few times.

I mean think about it...what do you feel like when you get jealous? Mad, frustrated, and just plain upset. And why do you feel like that? Because people aren't paying attention to you. Maybe you did your hair a certain way and someone isn't noticing. You answer a question and you are really happy, but your teacher doesn't give you any acknowledgement, but the second Susie what's her face answers your teacher praises her non-stop. So you get jealous right?

Can you imagine that God gets jealous everytime you worship something else? I mean He clearly says that He is a jealous God and therefore we should not have any other gods before Him.

Deuteronomy 32: 16 says, "Their idolatry made the LORD jealous; the evil they did made him angry."

Think about for a second. What do you put ahead of God in your life? Now think about how you feel when you get jealous and imagine that that is what you are doing to God every time you put something else in your life above Him.

It is by NO means easy to put God above everything. I feel like in today's society it is all about what's next. You graduate from high school and you are immediately thinking about what is next. Then you start college, so what are you going to do with the rest of your life? You need to figure it out quickly to graduate in four years. EVERYTHING seems to be about planning for something down the road. And when that stuff all seems so important it is easy to put God aside because we know that he will ALWAYS be there.

I know that I have a tendency to put off reading my Bible or put off praying because I know that God already knows what my thoughts are and I have a lot of homework, but that isn't what it should be like. I think remembering how I feel when I get jealous and knowing that when I put something above God causes him to feel like that will help me to try and turn towards him more and more.

It won't always be easy, and I am probably going to slip more than a few times, but I think that it will be worth it.

Hawk Nelson wrote a song called Crazy Love.
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jFlW_j4G1A

Following the Path

It seems fitting that I put a picture of a path in this post. What is a path?
Something that leads you to where you want to go. Right? I mean, if you follow it, it will lead you to exactly where you want to go. I think that is a tendency in life. Following
the path. A path that you chose for yourself; maybe a path that
someone else chose for you. Maybe it is a path that you
chose with someone.

A lot of the time it can be really hard to step off of the path. I think that

sometimes we just have this picture of where we are trying to get to and we think

that the only way to get there is to stay on the path. We can't explore or take any chances

because we might end up lost. We might not be able to find our way back to

that path.

What is so wrong with not finding that path again? I think

that we are under the impression that once we get off the path it

means that we will never find our way to where the path is supposed to get us. What if we

don't reach where we were trying to go? What if we can't get there? What if taking

a step off the path, one that we know will take us there, means that we will

NEVER get to where we want to go?

Something that I am learning is that we will get to where we want to go

no matter what, as long as we trust in God that he will get

us to where we want to go. Sometimes you have to have enough

 faith to get off the path. Getting off that path could be a way of

showing faith in God. A way of showing that we have enough faith

 to leave our way and take the way that God wants us to go.

Deuteronomy 1:29-31

"Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who

is going before you will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before

your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried

you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went

until you reached this place.'"

Isn't that so amazing? I just picture this father carrying his son to bed after he fell asleep watching Veggie Tales on the couch. And once the son is in bed he can just sleep comfortably and peacefully. That is what God does for us. He will take us to somewhere where we can be comfortable and at peace.

I am not saying that it is always going to be as easy as being carried to bed like a little boy, but we can be sure that God will be with us every step of the way. He will go before us and make sure that we are safe. So don't worry if you need to take a couple of steps off the path to get around something, or maybe you need to make a completely new path. God is with you...ALL the time. :) He is guiding us in every step that we take.

Trust in Him.

Click on the Link Below to Listen to a song that goes along perfectly with the way God holds us.

:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QcdLPwaSAQ&feature=related