A Fire Within Me

Jeremiah 20 verse 9 says:

But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!

Man, this verse struck me to the core. In modern day terms, what this verse is saying is, “If I decided to never speak of God again, it would burn me up inside, I couldn’t not tell people about Him and what He has done for me.” If I don’t go one day without sharing the name of Jesus, that is not a super uncommon day, in fact, as much as I hate to admit it, that is actually a pretty common day.

As I read this verse, I was struck not only by the power of this verse, but also by the passion that Jeremiah possesses. He is so passionate about God and what He has done in Jeremiah’s life, that he simply cannot stop speaking it, without risking the very words burning up him on the inside.

If I am being truly honest with myself, I am not sure that I am that passionate about ANYTHING in my life. I am not even that passionate about the things I genuinely love and enjoy doing. If I don’t tell someone about how much I love to bake or read, it’s not a big deal. Even when people ask about what I like to do, I am not passionately sharing what I enjoy.

Reading this convicted me really deeply. As I read it, I prayed that God would make me passionate about Him and His word, if nothing else. Because what better a thing to begin being passionate about? If I can be passionate about nothing else, but Jesus, I will be in a pretty good place. As I have continued to pray about this, God has begun to stir passion in me, not only a passion for His Word, but also for the things I used to love, writing, creating, and spending time with friends.

I am still a work in progress, but I am so thankful that God has begun to reinvigorate me, after this rough patch I have been through and am currently in.

LC

Image originally from here

Hosea – The Prophet Who Married A Prostitute.

Hey! 

It’s been a while.

I was watching a sermon by Judah Smith, one of my favorite pastors, and I was prompted to write a post on here about what he spoke about. 

 

He was speaking about the story of Hosea. 

 

Hosea was a prophet of God, he was to deliver the word of the Lord to the people. One day, God spoke to Hosea and told him to do something unbelievable. God told him to marry a prostitute. Yes, to go find a prostitute named Gomer and marry her and love her and have children with her. That is what he was called to do in his life. I want to stop right there and point out something. This right here and a picture of God’s love for us. God, who is our Hosea, chose to love us, a prostitute of sorts. He has chosen us, a people who sell themselves to every sort of other god imaginable. We sell ourselves to our jobs, school, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, technology, the internet, friends, money, and countless other things. We sell our souls to these things, putting them far above God on our list of things that are important. And in doing that, we turn our backs on God, but God, being far greater than any of those things, still chose to love us. 

 

The story continues… Hosea marries Gomer and they have a life together, they have three kids and things seem to be going reasonably well. Then one day Hosea wakes up to find Gomer gone. She has returned to her old ways and left Hosea with the three kids. And you know what God tells Hosea to do? In Hosea 3:1, “And the Lord said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love of cakes of raisins.” God tell Hosea to go get his wife…and he does it. He goes and finds his wife. AND HE BUYS HER BACK. In Hosea 3:2 it says, “So I bought her for fifteen sheckels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.” Hosea goes and buys his wife back. She is being sold for sex and he pays the ransom for her. Not only does he do that, but he redeems her, he renews their vows right there. Hosea 3:3 says, “And I said to her, ‘ You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” Hosea redeems Gomer. 

This is such a beautiful picture of God’s love for Israel and by extension, us. He made man in the Garden of Eden, he loved man and for love to be true there must be choice, so God gave man the free will to decide to love him back, but man chose not to. Humankind chose to go after the things of the world, the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Man ran after the things of the world, choosing them over God. God, in His infinite grace and love, redeemed us. He sent His Son to pay the ransom. Jesus was our fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And He continues His promise to love us. He redeemed us when we were naked and broken and ugly and gross. 

And then, because of His great love for us, we are to go out and be  Hoseas. God took us, when we were Gomers, and made us into Hoseas so that we could go out and pull others out of their prostitution. We are Hosea for other people, we show them God and God redeems them. This is so beautiful! 

I hope this spurs you to want to be Hosea for someone as much as it does for me. 

LC

I keep on falling I keep on falling short. This world keeps bringing me down. You keep on calling.

Hi hey hello,

So, as you may have noticed, I have released myself from the need to post everyday. I am officially stopping that, and I will only be posting a few times a week, maybe like every other day. Really it is going to be whenever I have something I want to write about!

Anyway, as I write this, I am watching the playback of session 1, and man is it amazing. GOD IS DOING SUCH AMAZING THINGS IN MY GENERATION AND IT IS SO EXCITING! It is so cool.

Last night, I was reading in my Bible and I began reading Revelation 2. Verse 4 says, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”  It struck me hard. I have been in a real dry spell recently, not reading my Bible regularly, not praying without ceasing, generally going in the opposite direction of God. I was wholly dependent upon myself for everything, my own willpower to stop doing something, my own strength to deal with problems. I had forgotten my first love. Jesus is my first love… and I FORGOT HIM. I not only forgot Him, I forsook Him. To forsake means: to renounce or turn away from entirely. I had turned away from God.

At that moment I stopped and prayed that I would fall back in love with God, fall so desperately in love with Him that I could never again forsake Him. God, the creator of the universe, who has the power to stop my breath without uttering a word, and I stop caring about Him. WHAT???? That does not even make sense. Me and my puny self thought that I could make it without Him. It is impossible. In that moment I prayed that God would take over my life and I gave everything over to Him, and you know what, instantaneously, everything seemed to slow down. Those silly, frivolous things that I had been so worried about seemed distant and small. God works in such amazing ways.

Praise Jesus that He doesn’t have mood-swings and isn’t forgetful like I am!

Title Lyrics: Call Me Out – Gungor 

I’m just the same as I was. Now don’t you understand that I’m never changing who I am?

Hi hey hello,

I’m back! After that nice long break, I am finally back. I meant for that to be one week, then it turned to two, then it turned to after finals, then it turned to after Christmas, then it turned to New Years! So here I am. Before I started writing this post, I thought of all kinds of ways to apologize for not being on here… but as I thought about it, I am not sorry. For real, #sorrynotsorry . I desperately needed that break from the demands of writing everyday. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am glad to be back, but it is nice every now and then to take a nice break, especially while I can do things like that.

Now that that awkwardness is out of the way, onto summarizing what has happened in the last month or so.

 

1. Thanksgiving.

Maddy

Luke

Hannah

Vlad

Diana

2. Pre-Christmas December

Maddy + Christmas Tree = Cute

Gingerbread Chai ❤

Maddy + Frog = Cute

3. WUMC Christmas Party

❤ these kids

My girls + Josh and Myself

4. Christmas

Not as many pictures for that one. We woke up early, opened gifts, then had family over, then chilled, then I went to Cassidy’s!

5. Day after Christmas… saw Les Mis!!! and went to work…!

Title Lyrics: It’s Time – Imagine Dragons 

-LC

PS. Happy New Year!

Friday Favorites!

Hi hey hello,

I hope you all have had a great week! Mine has been good, it’s been long.. once again, but it’s been a good week. I am pretty pumped because I get to help out with the middle school retreat out at Crawfordville UMC, and I am super pumped.

Also, starting Monday, I am taking a break from all forms of social media, facebook, email, fashion blogs, twitter, and the blog. So, the blog is going to be a little quiet for about a week. I will be back the week after that, but I just want some time to disconnect and focus on my studies, life, friends, and myself. Anyway…

This Week I’m Loving: 

This Scripture: 

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.  — James 1: 19-21

This Quote: 

Source: observando.net via Hallie on Pinterest

This Album: 

Taylor Swift – Red (every one is entitled to their guilty pleasure!)

Oh! And This Too: 

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

 

Have a great weekend! See you in a week!

-LC

If you’re wondering if I want you to, I want you to. So make a move, ‘cos I ain’t got all night. The rest of the summer was the best we ever had. We watched Titanic, and it didn’t make us sad.

Hi hey hello,

I hope you all have had a good week so far!

Last night we had Bible Study out at Wakulla and we talked about something interesting. Instead of having a regular lesson and discussion type deal like normal, Josh just opened up the floor for questions… and when none came in, he began asking questions. One he asked was, “What is a spiritual life?” It is a valid question, especially for these middle schoolers. The general answer had things to do with what WE do. Read your Bible, don’t cuss, go to church. It was all around ME, what I do to get to God. Josh corrected them and really drove home the point that it isn’t US, it’s God. It’s a relationship with God. It’s an intimate relationship with our Father and out of that flows those other things.

I love that. It’s so simple. I feel like I need to be brought back to the simple way too often. I get so focused on the crazy problems and little minuscule things that really aren’t that important and forget that I am talking to my Father, not some genie or problem solver. It’s a relationship, and though it’s give and take, God does most of the giving. If I focus on my relationship with my Father over what my issues are, those issues will work themselves out. Ah wonderful simplicity, how I love thee.

What little things do you get caught up on?

Title Lyrics: (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To – Weezer

-LC

Love came down and hope was found. Life began again. A brand new start. Yeah, a brand new start. The promise of a brighter day.

Hi hey hello,

I hope you all had a not so horrible Monday! Mine wasn’t too terrible, I went to class, work, home, homework, blog, bed. That is essentially my life for the most part, you can sometimes take out the work and add Wakulla, but for the most part, this is it.
Anyway, this past week or so I have been learning a lesson that has really been coming for a while now. I know that to some people this may seem so unbelievably obvious that it is dumb that I am just now figuring this out, but it’s true. God is really teaching me that each day is a new day. Yesterday’s mess ups happened, and now I need to move on. Tomorrow is going to have its own problems, and I do not need to worry about them right now. I need to remember that each day is a new day and that I need to focus on the moment, what I am doing right now. I am really bad about dwelling on how badly the previous days have been, how I skimped out on my homework, or didn’t study, or stayed up too late, or missed a quiet time. I get bogged down by that and beat myself up over it.

God is teaching me that, was it smart to do all those things, no, but I need to move on and learn from my mistakes instead of dwelling on them and letting them ruin my other days.

What you are learning right now?

Title Lyrics: Brighter Day – Gungor

-LC

 

Your love and mercy build and shape us. Break us and recreate us now. Lord have mercy.

Hi hey hello,

I hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was alright, nothing too spectacular, except getting to go to WUMC. I seriously look forward to it all week. It’s great. Anyway..

So, last night at WUMC Youth, Nick Reed taught instead of Josh Hawkins. Nick is an absolutely fantastic guy and he is an amazing teacher. He talked about God breathing life into you. He talked about how, without God, people are like zombies. It was really cool. One of my favorite things he said was an analogy that really stuck with me. He said, we tell God we are going to give Him everything, but we hold back one thing. It’s like we throw our keys to God, and tell Him to take the wheel and be the driver, but we keep the car key. We hold back what we need to give God so that He can really take control and work. It was such an amazing message.

Fo realz though, if you get an opportunity to see him speak, go. God is just working so powerfully in his life.

What do you think of that analogy?

Title Lyrics: We Will Run – Gungor 

-LC

Friday Favorites!

Hi hey hello,

I hope you have all had a fantastic week! Mine has been long, well, for most of the week, suddenly like, yesterday, it sped up, and now I am heading full speed into the weekend, which I am pumped for, because a. I get paid today. b. I make my first payment toward my Dominican trip!!! c. I am babysitting tonight. d. I am gonna get caught up on all my work. e. I GET TO SLEEP!

Of course, the sleeping problem is my own fault, it’s “Oh, I’ll just check Facebook for one second…” an hour later… “Just one more thing!” an hour later… “AHHH! I haven’t written a blog post or done my quiet time!” Yep, that has been how this week has gone. All while not doing my homework. So, this weekend will be spent getting caught up on sleep and on homework! Yay!

This Week I’m Loving: 

This Verse: 

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening-it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. So take a new grip with your tired hards and strengthen your weak knees. Hebrews 12:11-12

This Picture: 

Source: qoutz.com via Jordan on Pinterest

This Lesson: 

Everyday is a new day. The worries of tomorrow are their own, don’t focus on them. Do what you can today, and if you mess up, there is always tomorrow to try again. 

This Blog Post: 

You Don’t Have to Date

Oh! And This Too: 

Source: sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net via Nicole on Pinterest

 

Have a great weekend!

-LC

And I love the way the way you say you love me so and how you won’t let go.

Hi hey hello,

So, as I mentioned yesterday, Josh gave an amazing sermon Sunday night. So, due to that, I got a bunch of inspiration for the blog! Yay Josh!

So, another thing he talked about was how we are so dependent on God, not just in the, “we need to give it all to God and be dependent on Him,” but in the literal, like we are dependent on God for EVERYTHING. Like, He lets us breathe. He lets us sing to Him. He lets us wake up in the morning. He LETS us do all of this. He is the one that lets us praise Him. It is crazy! Just think about that.

That is really all I have for today, that right there just blew my mind to think about.

Title Lyrics: Tidal Waves and Hurricanes – The Icarus Account

-LC