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Sat, 06 Oct 2012 04:13:58 -0400

I have officially been in Sevilla for one week from Thursday....

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 10:05:45 -0400

I have officially been in Sevilla for one week from Thursday. Now, it’s like a week and 2 days. To be honest it has been a week of up and downs. Host Home = Awesome. I love my family. Sevilla = cool town. Can’t wait to explore it more and know all the ins and outs. Food = I’ve liked basically everything I have eaten. I haven’t even gone to an American restaurant! Spanish = my down fall. This is where everything goes wrong. My Spanish sucks and I just want to talk and to get to know my host family and locals, but I lack the knowledge to carry on those conversations that I’d like to have. Granted, I am able to talk, get around to places, and am able to find out some things about my host family, but this is so hard. We also started class this week, and it’s been rough. I am in 3 advanced Spanish classes and it’s gonna be tough to keep up and all. I should be at that level, but my listening skills are the worst. I just can’t keep make sense of anything. Others can just tell what people are saying and all. Please pray for my Spanish! It is so frustrating!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea!

The Language of Rain As I sit here becoming super frustrated...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:53:00 -0400

The Language of Rain

As I sit here becoming super frustrated with all my advanced Spanish classes and with learning Spanish, the pitter patter of the rain calms my soul. It is so tranquil, so soothing. Rain signifies life. It means hope to a Sevillian, because there hasn’t been rain in 4 months. They have been in such a drought and dry time for so long, but not today. Today is the day that life falls from the heavens, literally. Even though I hated walking in the cold rain to get to school today, I am reminded that rain, no matter where I am, sounds the same. It speaks the same language across the world. It is one of the musical instruments of nature and it doesn’t change. It’s the same with the other instruments of nature: like the chirping of birds, the rustling of trees in the wind, and the barking of dog. Music, especially the music in nature, can be heard and understood in any language. While some countries have different instruments, there is still music, and we all understand it. It is universal. It is known to us. How soothing is that to know? For me to not become so frustrated in living in Spain and having to learn a new language, because I will get there. There as in, soon Spanish will seem like the rain. It will become something familiar, something beautiful, and something I come to recognize and know more intimately. I have Hope.

What are these locks? What do they signify? As I walk across the...

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 10:05:00 -0400

What are these locks? What do they signify? As I walk across the bridge from my neighborhood into the middle of town, I walk pass by these locks. Most of them have two names on them or two different people’s initials. Why? Two people who are in love buy a lock together, come to the bridge, write their names on the lock, lock it on the bridge and throw the key in the river never to be found again. It signifies that their love will never be unlocked or broken. Being a totally girl who fancies romance and love stories this is just another thing that warms my heart!

Now, I think this is a thing young kids in high school who are in love do. I love the concept of this whole lock and key thing. Wow, that is some serious love right or at least should be right? Because that lock you bought can not be unlocked because the key to unlock it is thrown down into the river. This is a sign of commitment, a big commitment in my mind. I think if you do something like, it should really mean something. Just like when accepting Christ into your heart and to be your personal Lord and Savior. The lock is our heart, the names are Jesus and us, and the key means we are one together, for eternity. When we throw the key into the river that is like our sins being forever forgotten. Almost like that one Ocean Deep song. (I hope you guys know it because I can’t remember it at this moment) This bond is never broken; the commitment we make is a special one. We are adopted into the family of God and we are no longer orphans. We, as the church, become the bridegroom of Christ. There is strong love that is not easily broken. When we become a Christian believer by confessing our sins, believing in Christ as God’s son and our Savior and committing our lives to God we are suppose to be making this same type of bond.

I kind of want to do this on the bridge I walk by everyday but write Jesus loves you on my lock or Jesus and my name or something like that, maybe put a verse on it as well. I just might do this, but the locks on this bridge are cut from time to time. Sad day, I know. I could just put one on there every Sunday with a different verse right?? hahah What do ya’ll think??

New Home. New Life.

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:50:02 -0400

Life. As most of you know, I have never moved, never gone off for college and never lived anywhere but at home with my family. Traveling and being in different cultures isn’t new to me, butttttt living in a different place that isn’t my home is quite different. Spain is also different. So here are some differences that you will notice right off the bat (or at least I have). Spaniards eat their meals at different times. Breakfast at 9-11am, lunch at 2-3ish pm, and dinner 8pm-12am. (<—- SERIOUSLY). Isn’t that wild?!?! I had dinner at 9:30pm today. (It was very delicious and my host mom is a pretty good cook.) They don’t say excuse me or sorry when trying to pass each other. They personal space bubble is quite smaller than ours in the US so they don’t have to say sorry or opps excuse me. They just go and walk and live life. Life in Spain is slow which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, unless you are a 30 yr old still in college living at home. Don’t get me wrong now. I not saying this is wrong. It is just different from the way people live in the States. Some people take10 years to finish college here. I just have to be honest and say heck no. That is not for me. What I do like is that people take their time. They will sit and have long conversations at a cafe/bar and there is no rush to move on to the next thing. They live in the present and notice what happens in the now. I feel like they really get to know people here because of this. Lastly, life does not happen in the home like in America. Life happens outside the house. People go outside, walk for miles a day (most people don’t drive and we walked about 8 miles yesterday), hang out with friends, visit places, play soccer in the plazas, talk on the phone on a bench, and just life. Many of them don’t invite friends over, but invite friends out. It’s a different concept of life I think. Very cool nonetheless.

Now, I bet you are all wondering what adventures Cathy is having. OK, some might not care or even read this which is okay. ANYWAYYYY

Home. On Thursday, we went on a long journey from Toledo to Sevilla, our new home. We met our host families and went to our new homes for the next 3 months. I’m living in a house with a mom, who hasn’t been around much because she works in a pueblo (another little town/village/city) and her daughter, who is about 30. Elena, the sister, is so nice and considerate and her boyfriend, Juan comes to visit almost everyday. He is super talkative and speaks English which actually helps a lot with my roommate and I learning Spanish. WAITTT I don’t think I’ve talked about my room mate yet! Her name is Dara, and she is such an awesome roommate because I’ve never really had one before. I am so blessed. Please pray for the family. I found out they are Catholic, but they don’t attend Mass that often.

Yesterday, we took our placement test for the Spanish classes. I was so nervous because my Spanish is completely terrible and I had to text in the advance classes in order to get the classes I needed for credit. It is so difficult to listen to what people are trying to say here. The accent is different and it all sounds like one huge long sentence. We got our results and class schedules back and I was so excited to see that I got all the classes I wanted and I tested into the advance classes. This coming up Monday will be the hard part of actually taking those 3 upper level classes. God, seriously, I need Your help on this one.

We also met our mission mentor, who has been a missionary for about 20 years. They planted a baptist church in Sevilla and are about plant another one. Her and her husband are church planters in Europe. Super cool and super awesome! I cant’ wait to see where God is going to put me here and how He is going to use me. I talked to one of my friends who was so encouraging by letting me know how God is already using me, because I was a little discouraged this week. God is so good all the time, and we will never really know exactly what He has planned for us, but I am starting to see it unfold.:)

Since, school hasn’t started yet, I have had a lot of free time to explore and to get to know people in my study abroad group. Everyone is so nice and friendly! I was so worried about that and God has already answered that pray and concern of mine. :) Today some friends and I went to Plaza de Espana. We decided to be super touristy and American, by being a little louder than normal (which was normal to us) being amazing by everything we see and taking silly pictures everywhere. OH MY GOODNESS! This place is so gorgeous! There is a mini lake, moat thing where you can row a boat around in and a giant fountain in the middle of everything. Some Spaniards will take you on a horse and carriage around as well. Then some bridges will take you across and into the palace (of course in front of the place we had to take a jumping picture, which none of them turned out super good, but it was very funny). We walked to one of the levels and it just had a super gorgeous view! You just gotta see this! Also all of us bought some fans for the bull fight we are going to see tomorrow. (or well today depending on when I post this blog) These Spaniard boys are super crazy too! So one came up to us selling post cards at any price we wanted to pay because the money went towards little kids playing soccer or something like that and then he looked at me and asked if I had a boyfriend. Stupid me said no. So then asked me if I’d like to meet with him in the garden across the street in 10 mins. OH MY! I just said I had to go and walked away with everyone else. I could explain the story better in person, but this is just the short version.

I felt like a totally Spaniard today because my friend Mirium and I went shopping at the local store because I needed some shampoo and all that good stuff. Their baskets for shopping are just too cute. They roll on the ground kinda like a suitcase! It made shopping so much easier, but you have to pay for a plastic bag. Being cheap, I did not like that.

So I just have so many adventures and stories to tell, but I wish I could tell all my stories and tell them better!

Keep Praying and God Bless.

:) :)

Toledo. So far I love Toledo much more than Madrid. It was like...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:37:03 -0400

Toledo.

So far I love Toledo much more than Madrid. It was like a small town with alright let me just stop right here and give this place some justice with pictures! Beautiful city! I would love to have stayed there for 2 days instead of Madrid. Did you know that all of the Lord of the Rings weapons were made in this city?? They city is the city of weapons, swords, knives, etc. And no I did not buy a sword there, though I would have loved it.

Now, esoty lista a encontrar mi familia nueva!

Adios!

:) :)

Ahora estoy aquí en el autobus ir a la Sevilla. Es toy muy feliz...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:25:31 -0400

Ahora estoy aquí en el autobus ir a la Sevilla. Es toy muy feliz que estoy encontrando mi familia nueva para tres meses hoy. Alrighty, so I just said that I am the bus on my way to Sevilla. I am so excited to meet my new host family for 3 months. But I have some catching up to do on tell you all what has happened the past 2 days. It feels like a whole week has gone by because we have done so much.

So our 2nd day in Madrid: My roommate and I went down to breakfast in the hotel and got all ready to go on a museum and a walking tour of Madrid. We went to museuo del prado and saw paintings from the 16th-18th centuries. Goya (the statue picture), one of the artists, really stretched the boundaries by painting a picture of a naked woman who wasn’t a god or angelic creature which was unheard of during that time period. When he died, they found that he painted on the walls of his house, but they were very dark paintings, literally. He painted a picture of Jupiter eating his son, people being horrified and dying and just stuff like that. Crazy stuff right?!? He was seriously being tormented by something or another. Who knows… We saw paintings from the Italians. There was a really cool one of the disciples and Jesus right before the Lord’s supper and depending on where you stood, you saw a different perspective of the painting. It’s hard to explain, you just gotta check it out! El greko’s paintings were in there and others. BUT what I noticed the most about the paintings were the religious ones, the ones of Jesus, and the ones they’d put in churches. They just didn’t seem to do justice to what I think should have been. Granted it is art and a painter can paint whatever he wants to and convey. Seeing these really gave me some insight to how the Spaniards though and lived. There was one painting where these people were letting Jesus down from the cross after he died and Mary was in the picture bowing down, crying over the Savior. There were 7 other people in the picture (I think) and I just couldn’t tell who they were suppose to be. :/ Jesus only had the crown of thorns on him and one pierced wound from that last stab after he died. Everyone was wearing 16th century European clothes too. The people back then liked to incorporate parts of Jesus life and put new stuff into. It’s very interesting that they would have that in a church. It seemed to me like the Spaniards and the Catholic really like to incorporate Christian beliefs and rituals into their own way of life. I hope that makes sense. Like they made their own Christianity, because that what the pictures conveyed to me. All the pictures of Jesus had the pierced wound and crown but not much else. OHHHHHHHHH this one painting was a tri fold. On the first panel it was a picture of Adam and Eve living harmoniously with God. The middle showed the world with a lot more people, but living sensually and doing evil deeds. The last panel showed a dark world representing hell and everyone was being tortured, killed and suffering according to certain sins. For example for gluttony a monster was eating people, for music and dancing there was a metronome torturing people and stuff like that. SO interesting right???

After the tour Angela, Warren and I walked to the Royal Palace and went inside and looked around. This thing was HUGE! I thought we’d never make it out. There were so many rooms chlordane with gold, elaborate paintings on the ceilings, and fancy furniture. They even had a room called the yellow room that was specifically for people that had yellow skin! Weird right?? haah JK JK They did have a yellow room but that wasn’t the purpose of it! :P We ran into some Manchester fans pregaming at Plaza Mayor. They were crazy! Yelling and singing at the top of their lungs. Angela and I had a very awkward encounter. If you remember to ask me when I get back, I have a video and I can tell you about it. lol

Then we walked around Madrid and noticed the roman influence because in the round about there were statues of Greek gods. Madrid reminded me of a normal city in America, like Atlanta or New York, but with more culture and history involved, Also it was much safer to walk around, because everyone walks in Spain.

That night we walked to the park near our hotel and found the man made lake. The park seemed so lively and large. People were rollerblading everywhere, running around, kayaking, feeding the ducks, paddleling in the paddle boats, chilling and enjoying life. People really take it slow here and enjoy their time. They aren’t in a rush or try to rush you. I did notice also people in love, love love and aren’t afraid to show it. VERY different than the US. That night was the night of the big Real Madrid vs. Manchester City futbol game. We weren’t able to get tickets to the game but we went to a cafe bar to watch it. Spain won in the last 30 seconds. Very cool! The bartender was so happy that Spain won. I think Spain partied the whole night long celebrating. Where as I just went to sleep.

So this is day one in Spain! The flights were a little scary,...

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:13:45 -0400

So this is day one in Spain! The flights were a little scary, but made it here in one piece. The airport in New York is very confusing, but I made it through! (The TSA people are very helpful.) There were a few hiccups such as one of my carry-ons had to be checked in and it got left in NY, but i’ll get it back soon. Also my bags weigh too much, as in 18 lbs too much. I will def learn how to pack better after this experience!

On my flight to Spain I met a very next Mexican man who spoke with me for a bit. He was very considerate and nice. We chatted for a bit (IN SPANISH—BIG DEAL) and I found out him and his wife live in Spain. His wife is from the US and him Mexico BUT they live in Spain and they are about to have a child in December who will be born in Spain, possibly named Amalla (sp). Isn’t that crazy?! I think so!

When I got here, I met part of the group and everyone is very nice and friendly. We are all kind of in the same boat of being in a new country with people we do not know. After we got settled in we went to this sandwich shop (I CAN”T BELIEVE I FORGOT THE NAME OF IT!) and ordered some sandwiches for ONLY 1 euro each. The big disappointment: they were the size of a dill pickle. I am not even joking. I guess only a picture could tell you that! NO wonder everyone is so tiny here! :P haha Nonetheless, it tasted very delicious! My first Spanish meal in Spain. Did I forget to mention that I ordered IN SPANISH, yet when he asked me for my name, I totally blanked… Yeah I know go ahead and laugh at me now! The waiter already did! :P

New Goal: Brush up on my Spanish (because I FREAKIN suck!)

Am I Really Going to Spain?

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:09:00 -0400

Well in 2 days I will be leaving for the beautiful country of Spain and live there for the next 3 months. I honestly can not believe God has lead me to go here. I am very excited for this opportunity, and yet terrified. Literally. I have never lived anywhere but home, and I’ve never moved. I have traveled to other countries in the world, but never livedin another country. God is so crazy! He has some mighty big plans for me for the next 3 months because the past few months have been pretty crazy! God works in such mysterious and amazing ways!

For now here is a small bucket list for my trip! If anyone has any good ideas of what I should do there feel free to comment, fb me or let me know!

-Learn to cook a traditional Spanish dish
-Scrapbook a photo album for the host home family
-Watch a futbol game
-Go to a bullfight
-Get a haircut in Spain
-Learn to flamenco dance
-Ride a roller coaster in Isla Magica
-Eat churros
-Play in a fountain
-Find 2 parts of the old Roman aqueduct
-Go to a cave concert
-Ride a camel

Keep praying for the Spaniards and for me!

God Bless You All!
:) :)

Day 7: That Should Be Me

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:29:08 -0500

Isaiah 53

While I was reading Isaiah 53, I was thinking that we should have been on that cross, not Jesus. He was righteous, blameless and perfect. But like it says in verse 5, “He was pierced for our transgressions.” Even in verse 7-9 it predicts Jesus’ behavior while he was being slaughtered. He was silent and accepted His death. Jesus didn’t whine or walk away. He took is like a true redeemer, lover and Savior. This made me think of how many times do I whine when God is punishing me or well disciplining me (as it says in Hebrews). After reading this prediction of Christ’s death, it just made me so grateful and thankful for my Savior. I wish I could explain it better.

“He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:5

Also because God has given me such an interest in the human body check this out. Did you know there are 5 different types of wounds? On that one day of Jesus’s crucifixion, Jesus experienced all of them.

1. Lacerated Wound: produced by a tearing instrument (Matt 27:26- cat of nine tails)
2.Penetrating Wound: produced by a sharpened insturment (Matt 27:29-crown of thorns)
3.Contused Wound: produced by blunt instrument causing severe bruising (Matt 27:30-beaten on face by rods)
4. Incised Wound: cut produced by a sharp edge (John 19:34-spear)
5. Perforating Wound: pierced (John 20:24-29- spikes/nails hammered into Him)

Jesus went through all of that pain, for a group of people who are ungrateful and who take advantage of His death. At least I do and I am so sorry Jesus for forgetting the great magnitude of what you have done for me! You have saved me from God’s wrath and helped bridge the gap between God and I. I am now able to spend eternity in Heaven with my Father and to have a personal relationship with Him, all thanks to Your sacrifice. :)

Day 6: Passover

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:28:31 -0500

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.”

Exodus 3:12

Day 5: Slave to Whom?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:27:45 -0500

Passage-Romans 6: 15-23

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

Romans 6:15

Sin means to miss the mark and our mark to follow is God’s perfection and we all know we can never reach that and that we are born sinners. In verse 23 it says “for the wages of sin is death” and our sin can’t go unpunished therefore we deserve death as a result of our sin. Also, God can’t ignore sin because then His righteousness would only be compromised and we all know that God does know compromise. He is perfect.

“But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin.”

1 John 3:5

**I have alot more to say but I’ll just keep that in my journal. Maybe i’ll go back and add more to this later. :)

Day 4: Connections

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:26:14 -0500

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:15

I’m not totally sure if this is a correct interpretation or if this verse is suppose to be foreshadowing but this is what I got out of it this week. I’m still meditating on this scripture.

Satan’s offspring/seed (depending on translation): demonic forces
Woman’s offspring/seed: Jesus (because everyone is a descendant of Eve)

New Testament Verses to back it up:
Hebrews 2:14
1 John 3:8
Luke 10:18
1 Corinthians 15:24

Day 3: Seperation

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:13:27 -0500

Can one single moment effect the lives of the whole human race for years to come? Can just one choice determine the fate of not just one man but of all men? Can someone influence someone to make a choice that ruins the lives of every generation? This moment happened and we question it. Some people even joke around about how we should always blame the woman for eating the fruit. Yeah, I’m talking about in the very very beginning when God created the world and everything was good.

“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.”

Genesis 1:31

When God created the world, everything was good and everyone in the world was good. It was prefect. Man’s relationship with God was as close as it could have ever been. Perfection. Just the way God had intended us to live. But from one act of disobedience everything changed.

“but you must no eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:17

Death just didn’t mean physical death, but a spiritual death because after eating the from the tree of knowledge of good and evil man was separated from God. The knowledge of evil had then entered the world which our thoughts bring about our actions, therefore evil had entered the world. Our hearts became tainted and corrupted. This one single act effects us still today, because it is on that day that sin had consumed our lives. Sin has consequences that not only effects the sinner but the people around just like this one act effected us and kept us away from our perfect relationship with God.

Can one man fix it all?

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:6

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the rightfulness God.

1 Corinthians 5:21

It’s so funny how God works. The passage and topic I am reading today is something that we have been talking about in my college ministry for the past couple of weeks.

Day 2: Never Changing

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:12:34 -0500

“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

Malachi 3:16

God who is full of wrath is still a God full of wrath, but is and always will be filled with compassion and grace.

Just read the whole chapter of Malachi 3. It’s pretty awesome (like the whole Bible). :)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from teh Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

James 1:17

Day 1: Wrath

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:10:50 -0500

Wrath: intense anger, rage and furry towards something.

God hates sin, wickedness and godlessness.

The wrath of God is being revealed form heaven againist all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Romans 1:18

God is a God of justice and truth. He can not let any sin go unpunished. We would be worshiping a false God if we ignored or even denied God’s wrath again ungodliness and unrighteousness (which is also called sin). But God’s wrath towards our sin was satisfied with the sacrifice of the fully righteousness Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb sacrifice. The wrath and punishment that should have been for us, was passed down on to Jesus Christ, a blameless man.

After reading this part in Romans 1, it made clear to me what justification was and what Romans 3:21-31 was trying to say.

“God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. he did this to demonstrate His justice because in his forbearance he had left sins committed before hand unpunished— He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Romans 3:25-26

Justification: Christ’s righteousness took over our unrighteousness; faith brings about justification

Atonement (sacrifice): one who would turn aside God’s wrath and taking away our sin

It is at the cross where justice and love meet together.

Inspiration

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:08:42 -0500

Monday, I didn’t have to work and I just couldn’t figure out what to do with myself. Okayy so I needed to study hardcore and clean my room, but besides that, I actually had some time to sit down and spend good quality time with my Lord and Savior with no distractions. And let me tell you, I was so filled with The Spirit, knowledge and joy. This happens every time I dig into the Word of God an d spend some quality time with Him. God is so good and His word has life and meaning. This made me think of how I was just telling someone the other day that I am trying to become a living sacrifice everyday for the Lord and just to sacrifice more of my life for my personal Savior, Jesus Christ. (trying is the key word) But I’m not really sacrificing my time for God. I’m just giving Him some small moments and pockets of time here and there. Which brings me to my challenge for myself, and that is to spend consistently 365 days with God in the Word and to record what God is teaching me here on my blog. I got this idea from a blog of a Christian band I really like and they have consistently for 365 days put a blog post of what God is teaching them in the word. That inspired me as well. I have a small confession to make on here but I won’t put it up yet (not that anyone cares or reads this. lol)

Not only that but I am physically trying to become active and fit. I want to be able to do the warrior dash this year and run a 10K next year. I have created a small schedule to follow in order to get the results I want and to stay active and fit. God has given me this body to take care of and to use to glorify Him and I intend to keep the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in shape spiritually and physically!

Day 1 and 2: (I will post what God has taught me tomorrow! )
Day 1 Scripture: Romans 1:18, Romans 3:21-31
Day 2 Scripture: Malachi 3:16 (more like the whole chapter)

:) :)

Thoughts:
-God is so inspiring.
-I’m running on 4 hours of sleep. It’s time for bed!

Quenching the Spirit

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:53:18 -0500

Do we ever consider if our actions or lifestyle are grievous (causing pain or sorrow) to the Spirit of the living God?

“Do not quench the Spirit.”

-Thessalonians 5:19

I’ve been digging into God’s word and reading the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan. And this is one verse I had never really given much thought to honestly. I hardly think of myself quenching the Holy Spirit which dwells in me. The word quench gets to me, because it makes me feel guilty for not daily actively pursuing the righteousness of the Holy Spirit and Christ. Another thing is that this is a command. Not a lightly taken suggestion or concern in the Bible. God wanted this statement written as a command.

Quench: to put out, to extinguish, to put out the light or fire, to eliminate
(Thanks to Webster’s dictionary online, here’s the definition)

We can quench the Spirit by ignoring Him working in us or ignoring Him telling us what do to. But also we can go too far and put our own desires or thoughts in the way of the Spirit and the Word of God. Have you ever prayed for something, like for God to give you the money to go this college, but you didn’t even pray for the peace of God to let you know that you should even be going to this college? Sometimes (I know I do this) I make my will, God’s will in my life and then ask God to bless what I want. I ignore what the Bible says and what the Holy Spirit is guiding me to do. When I do this, I am quenching the Holy Spirit. I am sinning. I am not following the commandments of our Holy God. I am subduing the light and fire inside of me and it makes it harder for me to hear the real voice of God to guide me through my decisions in life. I don’t welcome the Holy Spirit into my life as well as I should. And this takes a daily surrender to God. And I struggle with this all the time. I am sorry, God.

Christ Lives!: Day 228 – Something Had to Be Done

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:40:34 -0400

Christ Lives!: Day 228 – Something Had to Be Done :

forgivenmuzic:

Isaiah 53:5 – “Upon him was the punishment that made us whole.” (NRSV)

Couldn’t God simply pronounce forgiveness? Was it necessary for Christ to go through the painful process of dying?

If God simply pronounced forgiveness, that would make forgiveness cheap. Our sin is too serious for…

Don't settle for less :)

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:10:36 -0400

littlethingsaboutgod:

As today’s generation of young women, we have not been given much hope for the future. When it comes to singleness, marriage, femininity, or even a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we are often told, “This is all you can expect, so get used to it.” But we do not have to live according to the mediocre standards of the world around us. Singleness, marriage, and womanhood do not have to be a dull, depressing drudgery. Those areas can be a little taste of heaven on earth, if only we will pursue the very best God has for us and never settle for less.

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