This is my dance that i created for my 4th movement study in my dance composition 1 class. My piece is entitled: Extended to Crinkled. I hope you like it---and maybe you can guess what it is based on....i'll give u two hints.
1)My object is something you see during 3 out of 4 seasons.
2)Most of the time i'm green, but i can also come in red, yellow, orange, and brown.

Tomorrow? / Ugh....

Interesting title no? Well let me explain.
Lately i've been thinking a lot about how humans plan their activities and what is to happen each and every day. I'm just thinking, ya, well you can plan what you wanna plan, but we are NOT guaranteed tomorrow. Each day that i'm still alive, i'm thankful to God that HE GIVES me another chance to live. Today I was thinking about how each day is like a clean slate. We can start over again with God, ask forgiveness for our sins, and each day HE GIVES us another chance to live for Him. In some ways, I could just say "I'm gonna do this tomorrow" then it happens, but who am i to take that for granted? I should be ALWAYS thanking God for giving me another chance to live, another chance to start over with a clean slate, another chance for God's grace and forgiveness to come through to me, another chance_________ (fill in the blank). It's so easy for me to get caught up in my own plans, that sometimes i really miss WHO GIVES ME day after day after day after day.

On another note, ever have that feeling when you know you could be doing more with your life? I have. In fact, i've had this feeling for quite some time. There's tons of people/artists/christian actors/christian singers/ ie anyone else who really lives out the great commission everywhere they go- and I want sooo bad to be doing what they are doing- not literally the same thing, but ideally the same thing- preaching the gospel, praying for strength for the weary, freeing the captives, seeing people healed, bringing people to an understanding and TRUTH of who God is. I SO WANT to do this. But I feel that only wanting this, and not doing it is not ALL what God has for me. It is one thing to want to do something, it's another thing when I act on my thoughts and desires. Right now, I'm still in college; and i get jealous of others who are out there serving God with everything they have and completely being unashamed to share His word with others. I get jealous because I would love to be doing the same thing. But where am I? I'm still in college....UGH. It's not that i don't like college- i do- i even like my major (dance). But sometimes it's so hard for me to see that God actually has a plan for my life after college. Sure i can serve Him in college, sure i can be a light for Him on my college campus, sure i can do/be a lot of things, but that doesn't make college life go faster. It's possible that i can graduate in Fall 2011. It's possible that i can graduate in Spring of 2012. The sooner the better, right?

In light of all this, keep me in your prayers. Pray that God would begin to show me step-by-step of His master plan for my life. Pray that I will not lose the thought/truth that God really does have a plan for me. Why does he have a plan for me? Because He said so- and i really don't think that God is in the business of giving people pointless lives. Quite the opposite- he gives LIFE ABUNDANTLY. He is why my life is worth living.

Whoa....

So this mornin' as i was walkin' to the student center at my college, i decided to get out my scripture memory cards for crosswave and review my verse for October. I also decided to read all the verses on my key ring just because i wanted to. The last verse really spoke to me: Eph. 1:3-7.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." AMAZING as it is....but it gets better.

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."
Wait a second, reread that now. Seriously, before God even created the whole world HE CHOSE ME to be holy and blameless? Before he even created the world or spoke it into existence, HE CHOSE ME...and thought of me to be holy AND blameless in his sight. think about that. it blows my mind too. (it gets better from here too)

"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
IN LOVE...GOD.......had already had it in mind for us to be adopted sons and daughters to Him. whoa...

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."
IN GOD....all these things that we don't deserve, yet because of his grace and mercy, we are given the wonderful gifts of being redeemed through his blood, forgiveness of sins, God's grace that he LAVISHED on us with ALL WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING.

I really wanna let the people know...You God, are the only way to go.

I know I'm called to this world for a reason. God has a unique plan for me being here; Jeremiah 29:11 says so. I know there are sooo many people out there who need to hear the voice of God callin' them to repentance. But the question is, why don't i go? Why not go out and make disciples among all nations? Isn't that what the bible says is the Great Commission? How awesome it is for God to choose us, mere grasshoppers (Is. 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.) to go out and share the gospel message with everyone. BUT, we don't have to be afraid to do this- we don't need to be scared of what others are gonna think about us. Guess who already goes before us? Guess who will be preparing the hearts of the people we talk to? Guess who does all the heavy lifting? Guess whose thoughts are more valuable to us than anyone elses? Guess who always keeps His promises? Guess who is always with us and NEVER FORSAKES us? If you answered God/Jesus/Bible/ Holy Spirit to any of these questions you are truthfully right.

basic encouragement to all the believers and basic encouragement to myself to go out and do the same thing. Let's fight this war together as an Army of God's people- we've got the best Captain!!

Alien in the land and a thoughful verse from Romans

Lately, it seems like God has been showing me more about being an alien in my own country, state, city, etc. I've been hearing about the oil spill, the economy, school decisions, and other news from the media- and i think, "man, with all this hard stuff going on, i'm glad that this earth is not my final destination. My true home is in heaven with God my Father." In this world, many people have troubles, including myself. What is our escape? Why were we put on this earth if there's so much turmoil and hardships? Didn't God say go and make disciples? The reason why we're on this earth is to serve God and make Him known. (I'm sure there are other reasons as well, those were just the 1st 2 reasons to pop in my head.) Sometimes when I'm worshiping God, I'll think "Ya know, I was made for something better. I was made to worship God and be with Him."

My thoughtful verse comes from Romans 5:20-21
²⁰The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When I first read these verses, my first thought was this:
1) Sin increased? uh oh. that doesn't sound good. I don't want sin to increase.

BUT....i had to go on to read the rest of the verse.
Where sin increased, GRACE increased ALL THE MORE. Wow...what an encouraging thought.
When sin increased, grace for us increased.
Also, my other thought about this verse was this:
2) because sin increased, no one can say that they are perfect. If there were only one law- people
could become perfect and do their best to not break that rule. Where sin increased, grace increased. No one is perfect, only God is perfect.

The next few verses in Romans 6 help us with this also. Where sin increased, grace increased.
Just because grace is increasing, doesn't mean we can keep on sinning.

Romans 6:1-4
¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

A persistent prayer: someone who prays continually

A while back i wanted to share something about Luke 18. Now that i have the time-i shall share.

There are times in everyone's life when you pray about something/someone for days, weeks, months and years. I'm certainly part of that crew. But for this scripture to have a personal meaning for me/you, you'll have to understand what happened to me a few months ago. There was a time in my life when i literally stopped praying. Why? you may ask; I honestly stopped praying because i thought God was tired of hearing my same prayer over and over and over again. To me, it seemed like He had heard it enough times and why was i asking for the same thing again anyway. God obviously heard me, i didn't need to repeat my prayer again. i think another reason why i stopped was because i felt like i was always asking this for myself or that for someone else. I knew that i needed this or that, and i knew that God could supply it to me- but every time i prayed- it seemed like i was always asking for stuff. I got tired of this and eventually stopped praying.

A smaller while ago, i read Luke 18. I went back to read the first couple of verses.
^"1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' ⁴"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' " ⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

The part that stood out to me was this:
And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

I thought about this and how the widow finally got what she was asking for because of her persistence. She kept coming to the judge day in and day out asking for the same thing over and over and over again. She had the faith that she would eventually get what she wanted even though it probably took a lot longer than she expected. These verses encouraged me to NOT STOP PRAYING. Even though i may not see the results right away (when i want to), i know God's timing is perfect. My prayer was not for justice to be brought on someone or on my enemy- but the principle still remains. Persistent prayer increases faith.

comments?

What he didn't say, but maybe implied

This morning 11am something, i read Luke 17. In the second section of this chapter, it talks about the 10 lepers who were healed.

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^a]">[a]met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" ¹⁴When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ¹⁹Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."When i read this, something popped out at me. After the 10 lepers called out to Jesus, notice what He actually sais. No, it's not "Be clean", nor is it any other sort of phrase including the words you are healed. What does He say? "Go, show yourselves to the priests".

To me, this implies that Jesus' intent was to heal them, but the lepers had to have faith that even though Jesus did not say, "Be clean" they would in fact become clean. This is proven in the last verse where Jesus tells the 1 returning leper, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well". I thought about these verses. I think sometimes we/I want Jesus to say the magic words and make everything well. We/I want Him to say "Be clean, be healed, your troubles are now gone forever", and make everything so much better. If Jesus were, in fact, to say this- then i would not need Him because everything would be okay and i wouldn't need to trust Him...or have faith for that matter. But because we are not perfect people, we need Jesus, faith, and to trust in Him. He asks us to step out in faith. That one leper stepped out in faith- believing that Jesus would heal him as he went on his way to the priest. Maybe even step out in faith even when the lepers didn't see immediate healing.

as always, i'm open to any comments.