New Years!!

So here I am...21 minutes until 2011....and I am blogging. Yeah I am cool! Haha. So since I am not doing anything special to bring in the new year I figured one last blog (that I will probably not finish writing and post until 2011...crazy!!). So I have a blog that I have been wanting to write but I might just save it for another day. Why? I don't know. So I am sitting here thinking about what I should write about and the only thing that comes to mind is New Years Resolutions. But that is weird because I don't really have one. I could try for the healthy resolution and drink only one caffeine drink a day(you must think I am crazy if you think I can cut them out). But that just seems like such a worldly resolution. That is kind of why I started this blog...because I need a way to write my thoughts that aren't worldly but of Christ....see first blog. So now what should my new years resolution be? Or should I even have one? I could try to be more like Christ....but don't I do that every day? (HAPPY NEW YEARS btw) I could serve Christ in more ways in my life...but once again shouldn't I be giving my whole life to Chist anyways. But then again I think about new years resolutions in general and I guess most of them we should be doing anyways right? Losing weight and being healthier, spend more time with the people we love, do great things, help other people. These are all things that should be a part of our everyday life. Hmm....so I guess new years resolutions are more like goals. I don't know about you but I feel like sometimes when I have a goal, it is sometimes harder to reach. Like if I say I am not going to do something for a certain reason, it is way harder than if I just do it. So I guess my new years resolution is to not make new years resolutions....or any resolutions at all for that matter. To just live life and make these things that already should be a part of my life more of a lifestyle than a resolution. To live a life more like Christ and serve Him and give Him all the glory daily. What is your New Years Resolution going to be? (Feel free to comment on this one....I am kind of curious.)

Selfless Love

The thought of selfless love blows my mind. Have you ever thought about it? It is definitely something I cannot grasp. But this is exactly what God calls for us to do. Crazy right? There is so much that can go along with this post so we will see where it goes. I have been thinking about writing this post for a few days. I was talking to a great friend the other day and I was telling her about an experience in which I got to take part in selfless love which was amazing. This description may be a bit vague for confidentiality purposes but I will try to paint this amazing picture for you.

So this experience was at camp, go figure. One week I had this girl. She was so different and unique and I still can't put my finger on why. God had such a big plan for our meeting that week though. Not only in her life but in mine. At the beginning of that week of camp I had prayed that this week that God would show me how to love in a different way....and did He!! This camper just didn't think or understand like I did. And I wanted her to so desperately. There was nothing wrong with her. We were just different people that thought differently. But all week I prayed so hard for this girl to "get it." I talked to her on numerous occasions and I just didn't understand why she couldn't "get it." I honestly wept over this girl. I was angry and frustrated. I felt like God had put up a stand still barrier and for some reason we weren't on the same communication link at all. Little did I know God was doing bigger things. Not until the last night during worship when I was rocking this girl back and forth as she was cradled in my arms sobbing did I realize what God was teaching me. Selfless love. All this girl needed was some love. God had put this girl in my cabin and told me to love her and it took me until my last night with her until I realized that is all that God had called for me to do. He didn't tell me to beat her over the head with a bible or to beg her to understand. He said "She is my child and I am giving her to you this week so that she can see my love." Wow! Also he called me to do it selflessly. Meaning to put myself aside. I wasn't able to see what God had in store until I put myself aside. I wanted her to get it so bad but that isn't what God wanted. This was such a humbling experience for me. Selfless Love!

So when I was telling my friend about this story the other day, it just really got me thinking about the term selfless love. I have used it a lot to describe this story to many people. If I have talked to any of you about camp at all I am sure you have heard the story before. But although I talked about selfless love, I have never really sat down and contemplated it. It is so crazy and beyond my comprehension.

So I just typed and then erased a really long paragraph trying to explain selfless love. But then I quickly realized that I really don't have a definition or a full comprehension of it so therefore I don't want to confuse you with my jumbled thoughts. But basically, in short, to love selflessly is to put yourself aside and let God's love shine.

Just think about it. Think about each word. How selfless are you? Do you let God's love shine in your life? Do you show selfless love?

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8

"Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails....And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. "
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

Encouragement!!

God is so faithful!! I know this....He reminds me daily!! But for some reason it amazes me every time.

Yes, I know this is my second blog of the day but I have had a lot of time to think today. And it has been so good. This blog will be a be a little lighter of a subject....encouragement.

So as you can probably tell from all of my blogs, God has been doing amazing things in my life. Some are so amazing and some are not necessarily things that I would have chosen but are directly from God so therefore I have followed...vague, I know. Anyways, through all of this God is my ultimate encourager. One of the many wonderful qualities of our awesome God. But at the same time that God has been encouraging me through life, the world has been completely discouraging. All of the people and events and crazy things of life...worldly life are so discouraging. So it is nice to get a little encouragement on earth, but at the same time know it is not worldly encouragement, but straight from God. This may not make sense but maybe it will make more sense the more you read. If not...come talk to me about it.

So you may ask, what encouragement are you talking about, Ellen? Well I will tell you!! This weekend was such an encouragement. God answered so many prayers.

First, we had a retreat at church. We studied through the book of 1st John. It rocked my world. I can tell you how many ways and different scenarios in my life that God spoke to me through this book of the bible. I would strongly encourage everyone to do a deep study of it. We stayed up studying it from 8pm until 2:40am. You may say crazy, I say awesome!! It was based off of David Platt's Secret Church. Basically, people all over the world meet in secret to worship and study God's Word because they could be persecuted and killed for doing it in their nation. Sounds crazy to us Americans. I can say that I have at least 3 bibles in my apartment bedroom and way more at home. So the thought of not being able to read my bible is hard to wrap my mind around. Anyways, so these people will meet together in secret and study the Word all night long and go about their days normally after a night of no sleep. Sometimes they do it night after night. This is how desperate these people are. So we did a little bit of that this weekend. When we got tired, we just thought of these people. And it really got me thinking; am I that desperate for God's Word? These people who only get to read the bible in this way probably know His Word better than me and I have bible's coming out of my ears(not literally of course). So in a weird way, this was encouragement. God encouraging me to become desperate for His Word. It made me realize how much I truly need the Truth. Wow!

I would love to stop there and say that was my encouraging weekend, but nope. God blessed me more. Not only did God encourage me through his Word, but also through HIS people. I put his in caps because that is how important the emphasis I needed to be that these people who were in my life this weekend are Godly people and it is so evident that God put them there at this time in my life for a reason. The night after the retreat, Saturday, I hung out with some amazing people. The girls had all gone to the retreat and just continuing being in their presence was a breath of fresh air. The five of us also went to lunch the next day. Growing new relationships with Godly people is so overwhelming and happy to me. It makes my heart smile. I also hung out with one of my great guy friends who is such an encouraging friend to me consistently. And the blessings kept coming. Last night after church, we had a potluck dinner with some friends from bible study from church. It was awesome!! I think the thing that has been so encouraging about each of these situations and people was the conversations. Intentional conversations. Conversations where it didn't matter what we were talking about, but it always went back to Christ in some form or fashion. This summer while working at camp, I got to experience some true Christian community. I had kind of given up that maybe the that community wasn't quite possible outside of Pine Cove. What a silly thought considering God's people are scattered all over the earth and anything with Him is possible. But I can say I truly experienced some amazing Christian community this weekend.

And it just keeps coming! Tonight I talked to two special people in my life on the phone. The first was one of my very best friends from camp. We have kept up better than I could have ever wished. She is amazing! I would never think that I would have a such a bond with someone who lives hundreds of miles away but she has truly been a blessing in my life this past six months. We talk about life and are just real with each other. We give each other advice, keep each other accountable, and aren't afraid to get in each others face about stuff. It is amazing considering we are so far away from each other. So we talked tonight and once again just hearing the great things that God is doing not only in my life but in her's as well, even though she is so far away, is so encouraging. I love it!! I may or may not have fell asleep in this conversation due to lack of sleep this weekend,  but I know she will forgive me!! :) Love ya!! And the other person I talked to was my mom. Our relationship is amazing. I can talk to her about literally anything. Talking to her tonight was just amazing! I love when I call and the next thing I know it has been an hour and we have been lost in "real talk" and what is really going on in our lives. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Godly woman as my role model in life. And to think that she is proud of me and my walk with the Lord is so humbling. It is just so amazing!! It is so good to have that encouragement from home. I know that wherever the Lord leads me, my family will support me 110%.

So I don't really know now why I wrote this blog. I feel like it may come across as bragging about how blessed I am. I did not intend this at all! I just wanted to share about how important encouragement is. I know that God is good, but He continually confirms that through His encouragement for me down here on earth. When I am feeling the most discouraged about the world I live in I know that I can set my sights on heavenly things and God will be the ultimate encourager. But it is also so wonderful to get some encouragement down here on earth from God's people.


Philippians 4:6 -"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."


Psalm 9:1 - "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds."

Honesty....

Honesty...something that has been on my mind a lot lately. The lack of honesty in people bothers me...a lot. It always has, but even more recently with recent events with some people in my life. By no means am I saying that I am not guilty of this. I am not trying to point out specks on others eyes. I am aware I always have a plank in my own eye. I am writing this just as much for myself as for anyone who has the curiosity to read this.

Why do people view lying as ok? Is it ever ok? Maybe you can think of a scenario that it is but I can't. Is it ok to lie when you are protecting someone that you really care about? Not in my opinion. That could hurt the person. Especially if they find out that you lied for them. Some people might find that as flattery, but it could really hurt others. Maybe a person lies because they don't want someone to know about something in their life. Once again I don't think this is ok. If you feel like you have to hide a part of your life from anyone then there is something wrong and you need to deal with it.


Leviticus 19:11 - "Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another."

Honesty reflects your character, as do many other qualities. I want people to view me as an honest person, in every aspect of my life. Something that goes along with honesty is trust. If someone knows you are being completely honest with them, they feel they can trust you. On the flip side of that, if someone knows you are not completely honest with them, how are they supposed to trust you. No where in the bible, does Jesus compromise the truth for anything. Actually since Christ is the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life,  then I know for a fact that honesty is high on a proirity list of what we, as His followers that strive to be like Him, should be striving for in our character.

Luke 16:10 - "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."


Honesty is a great way to show your faith. This made me think a little bit, but it is so true. When we are completely honest, even when the world wouldn't be, our witness of Christ shines through. This really hits home with me. Lately it has been on my heart about why I do what I do. Why do I make the choices I make? I know why. I know that a lot of my life choices are to glorify God, but does the world know that? Do I just do what I do and go on with life or do I explain that to the world? This made me re-evaluate why I do some of the things that I do. What an open door to share my faith if I would just be totally honest in all of my decisions. Woah...crazy!

Titus 1:7 - "Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless--not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain."

Proverbs 14:5 - "A truthful witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies. "

So is it possible to be too honest? I don't think you can be too honest, but you can have a loose tongue. What am I refering to? Gossiping. How often do you and I catch ourselves telling people things that they have no business knowing? Way too much most likely. I know for me it is. Gossiping is so harmful. So many times I don't even realize that I am until after the fact. It frustrates me. Once the sin is committed, you can't get it back. Unfortunately we can't wipe someone's memory clean once we realize that we didn't want to tell them something. But the great thing about God's grace is that we can be forgiven for this, thankfully so.

Proverbs 11:13 "A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret."

Matthew 12:36 - "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of
judgment for every careless word they have spoken."


So wow! This blog has been so convicting even of myself. Maybe a bit harsh, but I think harsh is good sometimes...actually probably most of the time. So my thought to you and myself is think before you speak and act. If your words and actions are not truth and glorifying to God and necessary then stop.

1 John 2:20-21 - "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth."

Psalm 34:13 - "keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies."
Ephesians 4:29 - "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Attitude

So this random thought has been floating around in my head for a while and honestly has really made me think a lot.

Attitude! We as individuals and human beings have the choice and decision of what our attitude is going to be, right? We choose positive or negative, optimistic or pessimistic, encouraging or hateful, selfish or selfless(this is the one that really got me). Then why do we choose negative ones so often? I think that when we have a bad attitude it reflects our true heart and what we really feel about the situation or person. Since this has been in my head and on my heart a lot lately I have realized it in myself quite a bit. Well just something to think about.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." -Philippians 2:5

Title?

So I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now and I finally got up the nerve and time to do it. I just have a lot of random thoughts floating around in my head that I felt should be shared with the world. So I guess I should start with the name of my blog. It is really isn't that complex but totally relevent to my life right now. I feel completely "out of place" right now...and I don't mean in Ruston, La at Louisiana Tech University. I mean in this world. God has been doing amazing things in my life in the past year or so and specifically in the past couple of months. God has transformed my heart. God has taken so many worldly desires out of my life and given me a passion for Him. I want to further His kingdom and give God glory for all He deserves so badly. My life goal is to glorify God in all that I do. I strive to do this daily. The past several months I have kept the thought in my mind with every thought and decision....is this glorifying to God? Has this rocked my world? Totally! God has a way of doing that!! Anyways, so since God is transforming me in this way, I am slowly becoming more and more disgusted with the world. I just don't understand why people would choose such temporary desires of the world rather than a life with such a righteous God. I just don't get it! And I see it more and more each day. It breaks my heart. The hardest thing is to see it in the people closest to me. So all of a sudden(but not really) I am out of place. I am in this world that is not meant for me and surrounded by people who don't have the same mindsets, lifestyles, or passions as me. This has been a very hard realization. As thankful as I am that I am where I am, it is so not easy. But I am so thankful to have God walking with me in this journey in this strange place. He is my best friend through this journey and there is no way I could do anything without his power. It absolutely overwhelms me.

"Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then, you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing, and perfect will." -Romans 12:2

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earhtly things." -Colossians 3:1-2

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." -Romans 12:12