just know the fight's on...

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

2 corinthians 2:11-14

the things God speaks don't make sense to our flesh. the world, our human minds CANNOT comprehend God's ways.

so by all means, friends - lets pray together that we may receive and be filled with the Spirit that will help us to understand what it is God has placed before us. Lets not miss it just because we are trying to look at it through our own understanding.

a line from a song i was listening to tonight that really hit me is almost a challenge to satan - it says:

"just know the fight's on, and its a life-long. One day they'll write it on my tombstone - yeah, man - that one never quit it."

love it. you are welcome to try to hold me back satan - just know that i never intend to stop fighting. and i will NOT quit. so lets go...

thats power, baby! embrace it and run with it. LIVE with it...

and start to discern and see all that God is doing all around you, what only the Holy Spirit can even begin to comprehend...He has given us an open door into His heart...what are we waiting for?

TRUST

When I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You. By the help of God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. What can the flesh do to me? Psalm 56:3-4

all we have to do is say no to satan, to the flesh. that's it. cant think about it, cant debate with it, cant even consider it. because in a matter of seconds what seems so obviously and clearly wrong will become justified and make perfect sense.

God has overcome and He has given us a way out. so take it.

if God is sharing something with you, if God is calling you to something that seems impossible to believe - believe it. and dont for a second let satan tell you otherwise. as soon as the doubts come - stop them.

and just trust that God is so incredibly in love with you and He has an incredible plan that we just cant understand. and even when its hard and it seems crazy - trust Him. just do. dont question it, dont rationalize it. just trust.

something i just really recently learned - is that taking the step, looking the seemingly impossible right in the face and saying "i trust that God knows and i trust that what He says is true." - is like stomping on satan, getting him out of your way so that God can just pour down and fill all the places that before were filled with doubts and worry and anxiety. which enables you to feel so sure of the seemingly impossible - for the sole reason that God said so.

not easy...but keep fighting. its so worth it.

have a blessed day!

Dear Fear...Pt.2

so last night we performed the Fear drama we have been working on, and the team did a great job. and Joe did an awesome job of explaining it afterwards. so good. God does amazing things...:) so thank you to the team for so much hard work and for letting God use you!

one thing i was thinking about...i know i have been writing on here about fear having the gun pointed at our faces, just keeping us from moving or stepping forward and living out the life God calls us to...and how fear only has power over us if we give it that power.

and think about this for a second...so say someone is standing in front of you - someone real intimidating...like you know they want nothing good for your life. and they have a gun..pointed at you. what is your heart doing at this point? what is running through your head? i have never actually experienced this but i have felt fear...so that is what i picture - x like a thousand. haha but i imagine i would be freaking out a little bit...?
anyways...thinking about that moment. and then imagine that that person goes to pull the trigger to that gun. (freaking out more...) but then nothing happens. and instead of just being relieved and running the opposite direction...you reach into your pocket and take out some bullets and hand them over.
he then proceeds to load the gun and point it back at your face.

that sounds so crazy!
but its what we do!!! fear has no power. God conquered it. He took it away. He said i wont kill it for good just yet, but i will hold it back. its up to you to run as fast as you possibly can to get out of his reach...

so why do we still fear? why do we hold back? because we GIVE fear what it needs to kill us. We just hand it over and wait patiently while it prepares to take us down!
Jesus DIED so we could be free of that! and its just hitting me anew how much we need to make that worth it. yes, we get tired. yes, its hard. yes, its even scary or painful or crazy...

but its not like Jesus sat in a pile of pillows to save our lives, either. He suffered. He asked for another way - but there wasnt one. so He accepted that cup from His father and He went to the cross. and i have known this, obviously - but while im learning self-discipline and faithfulness...im realizing that me giving into "what i want", the things that keep me from saying yes to GOD...is so much bigger than me just not doing what i should.
so much else is at stake.
my prayer now for my life and for you who are reading this is that we will realize that what we do either moves us toward God or toward Satan. Jesus died so we could have that moment to get away...i pray that we can make what Jesus went through worth it and not just stand there, hand over the bullets and wait for the attack. FIGHT BACK.

ask God how to get rid of the bullets youre hanging onto so that you CANT give fear that power again, even in our weakest moments.
but stop giving in to the one that lives to hurt you, and start putting ALL your energy into running towards the one who died to save you.

theres a line in a song im listening to now. not sure who its by but im going to write the line here...

“Write it on my tombstone – yeah, man
“that one never quit it”.
And since I don’t lack anything at all- everything I do,
I be givin it my all –
so when I say im on fire for you,
I mean it, my love – im blazin hot for you!”

love it. in James 1 - God says that we need to have our faith tested so that we can be refined and get to a point where we "are not lacking in anything". amazing. and if we are not lacking in anything...then we have more for God to use in us to further His kingdom.
and if we never quit...if we never give up on Him - there is no telling what He will do.

so fight. stand for what you know. and do NOT let fear hold you back from what God is calling you to.

Dear Fear...

hello! i havent written anything on here for awhile! but its not because we havent been busy...haha

last thursday we had a planning session - after we found out that we had to have a drama ready for the 22nd - on fear - for the See You At the Pole Rally that will be held at Edinbrook on wednesday.

so we spent some time on that,got a plan down...and then changed it all.

not a surprise...

and along with the standard changed plans at the last second, comes God with a new, different, and way better idea that we had originally come up with.

so this past thursday we had our first practice on this new idea and got a lot of it figured out, but this morning...at 7am...the first few got to church to finish up the choreography to the dance part - thank you SO much to ashley and austin, they and their gifts are SUCH a huge blessing to this team...

and by the grace of God it was all choreographed in about a half hour! and i think its one of my favorite dances so far. crazy stuff.

and after another 4 hrs, a few minor injuries, some caribou coffee, a few wakeup calls and a lot of work...we finished it all and it is looking really cool (if i do say so myself...;) )
its a picture of how we go about our daily life, seeing the opportunities all around us to share Gods love...but fear holds us back. not because it is bigger or stronger than God - but because we allow it to cover us and overwhelm us and keep us from reaching out.
its a human video with some dance to the song "Dear X" by Disciple.
the lyric i love is the chorus when they say...
"You can fire, but you got no bullets. I was yours, I'm not yours anymore, cuz you dont own me"
and in this case, with this drama - applying that line to fear.
we can so easily convince ourselves that that voice, that that fear that makes us hesitate, that makes us doubt what we thought we knew we had to do -
while it seems so huge and so strong...God is bigger. we dont have to give in to that fear. it cant control us. the only hold it has over us is what we give it permission to hold over us.
one of my favorite verses is John 16:33..."i tell you this because in this world you will have trouble. but take heart...i have overcome the world"
amen! the God we have given our lives over to has overcome it all! nothing can touch us, nothing is more important that that. so we just need to look that fear in the eye - because even though it seems like its got a pistol pointed at our faces ready to take us down - its not loaded.
fear has no power unless you let it. but if God is in control - we'll have to strength to stand there and tell that fear that it can point that gun all it wants...but it wont stop us.
i had so much fun this morning working with everyone, and although it was early - it just is such a cool message, and definitely one i still need to learn.
so if you can, stop by on wed and check it out! it'll be in the middle of some pretty epic worship music, so how can you miss that??? ;)
pray that it goes well and that the message comes across CLEARLY and that people are impacted to get rid of the FEAR in their lives and just live lives for God of utter abandon.
love it.

some more arting from the team...facepaint style.

ok, as promised - here are some shots from our makeup night...

haha...so fun to see what people come up with.

love it.

after starting the night going through part of Psalm 81 (see the post below)...we went a little more in depth into that passage...i just love it so so much. :) so after that and some prayer time, we headed down to the dungeion and basically just gave them the tools and let them go.

and this is just some of what they came up with...

so enjoy!

some of the girls...so cute :)

austin's work...love it! and yes - those are her real eyelashes. ;)

this is my work. :) not sure what it is...but she looks pretty epic...

and joe...we ended up liking the eyebrows by the end of the evening...i mean - they do look nice.

chelsea wanted to turn me into envy green...selling herbal essence shampoo. :) not sure who she is haha - but the makeup looks pretty sweet.

and here is rachel sporting the "fireworks at night". thanks to joe for the name.

and here is one of the artists at work. he's got his glasses on and everything. after everyone was all painted and make-up'd...what else would we do but play with henna a little bit? :)

hope you enjoyed the pictures :) and if you ever need your makeup done for a special event - a wedding or something fancy...definitely let us know. ;)

have a happy, blessed, and relaxing long labor day weekend friends!

when indignant leads to fervent...

i am just taking a second to post a quote from a sermon i was listening to from the pastor of Hillsong Church in Australia. if you get a chance - go to itunes, its free to download and listen to. the one this is from is "When Ordinary People Pray...Part 2" loved it.
i hope you are blessed by it too! :)


"when did you last get indignant about the devil trying to steal your joy? about the plight of people who are suffering? when did you last get indignant about the devil trying to rob you of the purpose God has for your life? when people get indignant they pray fervently-passionately...God answers the fervent, real, authentic, desperate prayers of the righteous...who are the righteous? you are. you are made righteous by Christ - therefore your prayers are valuable, your prayers are answered, your prayers are effective and powerful. you have been given the gift, the miracle of righteousness - anyone who comes before Him humbly, opening their lives to Christ...they are made righteous which means our prayers are no longer based on us - but His will and His ability. so pray. and expect big things. "


amen, huh???
have a happy and beautifully blessed friday!
and make sure to come back later on tonight...we had a working meeting on monday, haha, so for last night's meeting - after a time of devos and diving into more psalms - we had a play time with some stage makeup...which can only mean that somehow we went really late, i have henna on my arm covered by a sweater that keeps pulling at it haha, drinking some pretty great office coffee cuz i forgot mine at home, and some pretty epic pics are to come.

:)