From One Thing to the Next

I returned home late last night from the worship conference. Our time there was amazing! I don’t have time to share details right now but I do have some pictures!

Early tomorrow morning my family is heading out west for four weeks. Check back daily for updates! I’ve been given the roles of photographer and blogger :). Please pray for safety!

Also, my little brother Joshua was rushed to the hospital yesterday with appendicitis and got emergency surgery last night. They did it laparocopically so his recovery will be fairly quick. Please pray for strength and a quick recovery as we travel. He’s been such a trooper! Thank you!

Maryland/NEXT 09'

I’m back home! NEXT was incredible! I will post more on our time there later on. For now, here are pictures. Some of them you’ve already seen, but there are lots of new one’s too!

NEXT Day #2

Today, during the first session we heard a message from D.A. Carson. He spoke out of John 1. It was incredible, but I will say a lot of what he said flew over my head, so I’m going to have to go back and listen to that one again.

Tonight we heard Kevin DeYoung speak an excellent message on the life of Jesus. He spoke out of Luke 8 and expounded on three different miracles Jesus performed in that text (Calming the sea, healing a demon possessed man, and healing a woman). He challenged all of us to ask the question, do we have faith that Jesus can heal us or rescue us from the battle of certain sin issues? The main thoughts that keep coming back to my mind are “draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” “The gospel is not what I have done for God, but what He has done for me,” and “The problem isn’t that we don’t feel bad about our sin, it’s that we don’t feel bad enough.” Such a wonderful message!

Everything else has been going great! I’m loving this time away of being in the Lord’s presence though worship and prayer, and being able to catch up with the wonderful friends that the Lord has been so gracious to bless me with! He is good and faithful!

NEXT Day #1

We are at NEXT and so far everything has been amazing! Last night Josh Harris spoke a message on the preeminence of Christ. One of his questions was, when was the last time the words of Jesus changed your plans? For me, it was a fresh reminder of God’s sovereignty in my life over the past couple years. So many times when I expected plans to be different, God changed everything, and though it’s been difficult at times, I can truly say it’s been for my good and His glory.

I won’t be able to update too much while I’m here because there isn’t much down time and the internet isn’t free at the hotel. Please be praying that God would continue to meet us, pour out His Spirit upon us, and for rest :). Thank you!

Here are some more pictures taken during the evening session last night.

Celebration North 2008

This past weekend was exactly what I needed! God spoke to me in many different ways. He spoke to me through numerous friends, through the prophecy meetings before all the sessions, through the speakers, and most of all, through the times of worship.

Through Celebration God reminded me of His love and care for my soul. His love is NEVER changing; He is always faithful, and steadfast. He is ALWAYS there, even when I don’t see it, He is there when I’m sinning and He’s there when I’m not, I am FREE from sin and am ALIVE in Christ!!!

Through the times of worship I got an extra excitement of what it will be like in Heaven. I didn’t want worship to end! Oh what a glorious day it will be when joining in with the angles singing praises to our wonderful and merciful Savior! I want this to be the desire of my heart ALWAYS! Not just at Celebration, a Sunday morning, or at home group, but when I’m driving to and from work, when I’m at work, when I’m faced with trials, when things don’t go as planned, when someone sins against me, etc. I want to have that passion always and bless the Lord at all times. He is great and always worthy of our praise! “I will bless the Lord at ALL times; his praise shall CONTINUALLY be in my mouth. (Psalm 34:1)” Every day and in every situation!

Romans 6:11- "So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." In Wayne Brooks message he said, “Our practice should be rooted in our position with Christ” We are no longer servants of sin, but servants of the Savior and this should be our practice each and EVERY day!

Like I said, God was so kind to meet me in numerous ways. Thank you so much to all of you who stepped out and let me know, what you believed, God had laid on your heart to share with me! God used each and every one of you to remind me of His love for my soul! It is a Blessing and a JOY to know all of you! I deeply appreciate your friendships and care for me!

As always, Celebration was a great time of fun and fellowship with friends from the church in Jacksonville and other churches. I had a blast with you all!

Praise God for all that He did! I would love to hear what God did in your life! Feel free to e-mail me whenever =)!

Delighting In God's Word

Throughout the New Attitude conference the Lord convicted me of my lacking in studying His word. I might have been reading the Bible daily but I was viewing my time with the Lord as a duty, not a delight. In our community groups on the first morning we meditated on Psalm 119. Here are a few verses that stuck out to me while reading:

V. 2-“Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.

Vs. 10-11-“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Vs. 15-16-“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in you statutes; I will not forget your word.”

Going into the conference I was definitely not someone that was seeking the Lord with my whole heart! In doing so, I was sinning against God and ultimately not honoring Him! My prayer since I returned home from New Attitude is that I would be one that “stores Gods word up in my heart”
With that said… I will share more tomorrow about the plan I have created to help me accomplish “storing God’s word up in my heart.”

My Top 15 Memories from New Attitude 2008

1. Being filled with the joy of the Lord!
2. Worship 4 times a day!
3. My awesome family group.
4. Fellowship in the lobby.
5. Fighting for a t-shirt before they all sold out.
6. Late night conversations with the girls.
7. Hanging out in our hotel rooms.
8. Ryan and Kaleb fighting to catch cheeze its.
9. Leaving a day late!
10. The biblical fellowship with Caleb, Ryan, and Amber on the way home.
11. Steeling Amber’s shoes so she couldn’t get out of bed.
12. Walking the tunnel the last night to stay dry
13. Being convicted to be in the word more then I have been.
14. Dodge ball and pop the balloon game in my community group. (I’m going to be honest, I didn’t play but… I did get lots of good pictures)
15. Fantastic speakers!

These are all just a few things that made New Attitude 2008 a memory for me. In all seriousness though God really did do a work in my heart! I went into the conference praying and fighting for joy in this season that God has ordained for me and left feeling the deep, deep love of my Savior pouring upon my life. Many of you know this but, I had decided to fly (rather then driving with the rest of the Jacksonville group) to NA because of an event that came up at work well…. It turned out that we canceled that event. At first my attitude wasn’t a very good one! I basically had to pray and say to myself, “God must have a reason for me staying back a day later then everyone else” it turned out that, that night the Lord spoke to me in numerous ways. He was preparing my heart for the conference in ways I wasn’t even aware of! After getting to the conference it all became very evident to me! I will share more in the next few days about what God did in my life through the conference. For now here are a few pictures!

Preparing for New Attitude ‘08

I don’t know about you but, I’m pretty excited about New Attitude ’08! As I reflect back to Na ’07 I’m reminded of all the memories that were made and how faithful God was to convict me of sin and show me areas in my life that I needed to grow in. I’m amazed at the sustaining grace God in His mercy has poured upon my life since last May as we traveled to Na ’07. God has already begun to do a work in my heart this week in my quiet times as I’ve been preparing myself for the conference. This week is going to be pretty crazy for me with big events both nights before I leave. I will be going into the conference without much sleep, so please pray that God would give me a burst of energy as I arrive in Louisville.