Passion 2017

Day 2

I don’t remember much from that morning before we reached the dome. Probably because I had over slept and forgotten breakfast. But none the less I eventually made it. I had missed small groups that morning due to my oversleeping, which made me a little upset, but I was mostly grateful to have made it to the dome on time.

Session 2

We began the first session of the day with some more worship and a message from John Piper. A few verses that stood out to me from his teachings were Jeremiah 2:10-13

“Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar[a] and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
This whole passage is titled Israel forsakes God. This is where the ultimate essences of Evil comes in. We as humans lose our taste for God, we find things of this earth and prefer them over Him. A great example he made of this is Genesis 3: 1-6.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Eating the fruit was not the Essence of evil, this was brought in when they began desiring the fruit over God.

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Story Time: After the second session we had a little lunch break. All of us were super excited to have a “free” lunch – aka we paid for it with our tickets. They gave us these super cool boxes with food from a local deli, and you know what that means. SANDWICHES! So everything is great as I am eating my sandwich and all of a sudden I hear a loud CRACK. Little did I know I had just Cracked the crown on my tooth in half. Long story short I ended up having half a tooth by the end of passion. My mom said shed come get me and take to me a dentist but I told her I wasn’t leaving and trust me it was worth it.

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I’m probably going to go session by session with these to make it easier to keep up with! Also remember I am barley scratching the surface with these summaries and left out a lot so if you were at passion, you understand what I mean by it was truly to much to write. And if you were not able to go, you should totally look up the messages because they were AMAZING!

Passion 2017

Recently I embarked on a journey that took me 5 hours away from my small town to a place called Atlanta. This journey didn’t just involve myself though, it involved 65,000 other individuals my age and thousands of bright lights.  
Day 1
On arrive in Atlanta, we noticed a few rain drops falling from the sky. No big deal right? The walk from the parking lot to the stadium won’t be to bad in the rain right? If only that were the case and we were not walking all the way from our hotel. But once we entered and took our seats we realized the walk was well worth it. From the moment the band began I was turely breathless, as the room lit up in worship. 65,000 people praising our God which hearts open and hands high! (I can’t contain myself just thinking about it) not only did we have an Amazing worship session but heard preaching from none other than Christine Cain. As she spoke words of how we must have endurance if we are to live out Gods will for us. How we always want the easy way out of a situation but to live for God, we must build endurance, we must build patience. And in building those we will be stronger to live out Gods will for us.  
“The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us”
Another great point she made and stuck out to me a lot was how when we do go through times of struggles and hardships, where do we look? We look to friends, alcohol, sex, drugs, etc. but you know where we don’t look? Up. 
“Stop looking at everything else and look at Jesus”
If that doesn’t hit you hard I don’t know what will. But through all of it, the point was clear. Christ endured. And without Faith, Endurance, and Patience, it would be impossible to live for him.
After hearing such a powerful lesson and a little more worship, we headed out to these things called community groups. This was where I felt uneasy because I knew I’d be taken out of my comfort zone. This is where you are randomly placed in a group of strangers to whom you will spend the next few days discussing and devotioning with. That night I met 9 strangers, and though most of them left I made three new friends I will never forget. This being said by this point in the night, it was pouring rain, we had just walked in the rain for 45 minutes to get to our small group and we had to walk back to our hotel room… in the rain. This may sound a little testy but I would do it all over again to experience the amazment and wonder I did that night!  

I decided to split my passion post up. So there will be more to come on the other days and sessions. Just stay tuned! 

Courage

When troubles come and your courage is wavering, just look up at the sky. No matter the weather and time; rain or shine, day or night, the sky is always one of the most marvelous and incredible sights. Now it is easy to doubt ourselves, but how can you look at something like that knowing the same God who has the power to create all of that and so many other wonderful things has your back and still feel scared? 

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Prayer for Worries

So I was scrolling through the My Pinterest earlier and found this! Defintely needed to share. Hope you have a blessed day!

Graduation

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‬

So a few weeks ago ( yes, I know I’m late ) I along with many of my classmates made our way across the football field. Now many of us have done this before, but this time was different. This was the last time for us, no more Friday night lights, no more game day, no more band competitions, it’s all over. Though it’s an end of one era, it’s only the beginning on another. We’re graduating from Friday nights to Saturday game days, from being big fishes in a small pond to being the small fish in a much bigger pond, and we can never forget the weeks we spend up at the school during summer for our extra curriculars. So much is leaving but there is so much more to come. God’s got so much in store for every single one of us on that field and ever single one of us graduating from schools all over. It’s hard to see now but there is a much bigger plan in store. Oddly enough this reminds me of our saying for the VBS I am working this week!

“Jesus sees, Jesus knows, and Jesus Saves”

Stress and Anxiety

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:28-30

Oh goodness, is it that time of the year again?  School is almost out and Summer’s just around the corner.  Now remember I did say “almost”.  This meaning that thought it may be ending soon, there are still a few weeks of exams, finals, and if you’re a senior there is much much more.  Like graduation, preparing for the world, getting your college stuff in order, and all the other “wonderful” things that go along with that.  With all these responsibilities it’s very easy to let stress engulf you. I know it has me this past week.  With that being said we have to remember that God is always there for us, through the most stressful times of our lives.  And believe me there are far more to come than your common high school worries.  Just always remember to turn to God first for he is a God who loves you and wants what’s best for you.  He will take care of all of your anxieties if you just trust him to do so. 

MSPA

Here’s another fun fact about me.  I am a member of my schools yearbook staff, and joining it was one of the best decision I made in all of high school! So once a semester we get to take a break from our hectic duties and visit one of my favorite places, Ole Miss University!  But we don’t just stop in, we get to spend a whole day going to different classes to improve our skills! Sadly this was my last MSPA but that didn’t make it any less fun.  Here’s another fun fact, I am the photograph and design coordinator for MSPA so that always makes it slightly more interesting.  Last MSPA I got to go on stage I front of a TON of people and give an unprepared speech.  This time was a lot more relaxing from the audience.  The classes I attended this go around were Is a journalism major right for me?, some grammar session, and Story telling through Video.  The first and last were so interesting to me. I have explored the idea of journalism as a major, but to be honest I still have know idea.  I’m letting God handle that one!  I also loved learning about video, it was a new experience from my usual page layouts!  There were so many details of that day but for now here’s a few pictures

  
  

Happy Easter

Okay, so I’m a little late on this post.  But it’s never to late to celebrate what Jesus did for us! 

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?””

‭‭John‬ ‭11:25-26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So I know we often hear “oh it’s not about the bunny” or “remember the reason for the season” and these are absolutely true! But sometimes, even when we look past these things we still don’t fully understand what we are celebrating.  We just know it means a free meal with family and a dozen colorful eggs.  Even knowing the story of Jesus’s crusixion, we still don’t get what it’s truly about.  

Here’s the point I’m trying to make.  Just because we know the story doesn’t mean we are celebrating it for it’s true meaning.  Our God sent his son,  his one and only son who knew no sin, to take all of our sins.  And not only that but the sins of EVERYONE.  He soiled his purity for those of us who sin everyday.  (it’s like getting in trouble for something someone else did, but on a MUCH larger scale) Sin is something we are born into, and live daily, he took its burden from us.  And through that we can spend eternity in heaven!  And not only in heaven but with a God who loves us more than we could ever imagine!  How wonderful is that!  

 
Here’s a random Easter picture of me and my cat! 

Worship

Tonight is a night I’ll never forget; I have accomplished something I’ve always dreamed of doing since the first day I took piano lessons in second grade.  Tonight I was given the opportunity to play in a new forming worship band at my church!  This is something like I said, I’ve wanted to do forever.  Speaking of Forever, it was also one of the songs we played tonight.  I can’t wait to see where this door in life takes me but I know it’ll be amazing. Let me start off a couple of months, we had DNow like most churches.  Something tugged on my heart about the music, I loved it and that’s all I wanted to do at the time so I talked to the lady who lead the music.  She has gone so many places and lead such a cool group.  She just told me it all starts with playing for your church, and now a couple of months later here I am!  If you can’t tell from my previous post, I am a HUGE Bethal and Hillsong United fan, and this just seems amazing to me.  I also found out we will be playing again soon, so who knows?  This could be the start of something new!

” I will sing of your love and justice; to you LORD, I will praise ”  – Psalms 101:1