Scripture

Good evening!! I hope everybody's weekends were great! Not only have I been super busy, but I have also been at a loss of what to post about this past week. But I finally decided to share with you what I've learned recently about the importance of scripture.

I've always read my bible and memorized verses I liked, but more out of routine than out of a desire to. Recently I've realized how powerful the bible really is. It's not just a book on "what a Christian should do if.." Or "how to act like a Christian" or a bunch of stories that don't really apply to the present time. It's God-breathed and it is still to be applied to every aspect of our lives today.

God-breathed...what does the even mean? Sure it was humans who physically wrote the bible, but God himself put the words into them when they wrote it. The bible is made up entirely of God's own words. One of the most beautiful things about the bible to me is that it is something that I can hold in my hand today that was created by God.

While I know that God is real and have faith in Him without having to see, hear, or touch Him, I love tangible proof of God. I love the embrace of a loved one and the sound of thunder and the smell of rain, but I REALLY love being able to read the words of the Creator of all that in a book. Unlike the bible stories where God would actually physically speak to people, He often uses the bible to speak to us. I tend to get frustrated when people talk about how they're always "hearing" things from God. I have a hard time "hearing" what God wants to tell me when I'm spending time with Him. I have "heard" from Him before in prayer, but I've learned that instead of stressing over trying to listen to God, all I need to do is pop open my bible. Almost very time I read it God speaks to me through certain verses that go exactly with my current situation.

Although the bible is much more powerful and beautiful than a rule book or a how-to guide, it is loaded with verses about how Christians are to deal with certain situations, how to act, how not to act, and loads of crazy stories that can teach us so much about life. Just from reading a page, one can gain so much knowledge. I am by no means a book person, but I'm so in love and intrigued with the beauty of the bible, not just because I'm a Christian and it's my duty to love the bible, but because it truly is amazing how much reading just one verse in it can affect me.

I'm sure you've all seen the "emergency numbers" thing on some social network with all the verses and when to read them. But I thought I'd share some of my favorite verses that give me encouragement in certain situations:

•Stress
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

•Heartache/Loss
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort 2 Corinthians 1:3

•Hardship
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. Romans 8:18

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 9:9

•Worry
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

•Vanity
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

•Guilt
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Those are just some of the few wonderful verses that can change one's day and one's life. The bible is an amazing thing that I take for granted way to often. My challenge for myself this week is to dive into His word more often and apply it to every part of my life. I hope that you will do the same. Have a blessed week!:)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

 

 

Sin

Happy Sunday! I am overwhelmed with homework that I probably shouldn't have put off until today and probably should be doing right now but I'd much rather share with you. :)

What a great week this was! The passionate fire I've had for Christ continued to grow and He blessed me with great times with old friends along with fun times with new friends. But even when I'm at one of the highest, happiest points in my life, I still slip and fall constantly.

So here's what I have to say about sin.
Every human does it, no matter how perfect or right with God they seem. But everyone knows that. Everyone also is (hopefully) aware that because Jesus died on the cross for us, our sins are forgiven by our merciful Creator so that we may spend eternity in Heaven. That's the plain black and white truth. But there are some grey areas...

Many believers, including myself, often get thoughts in their head like "well if my sins are all already forgiven, then why not just sin all I want?" Or "If Jesus is going to love me no matter what, why make the effort to do the right thing?" The most often-occurring thought that slips into my head about sin is "Look at that person; he/she sins way worse and more often than I do so I'm really not that bad."

These thoughts are put in our heads by the enemy so we will refrain from submitting our life completely to God and doing good works in His name. But here's the truth and some scripture to prove it:

Yes, God did send Jesus to pay the price for our wickedness which means that when we die we are ensured a room in His House, no matter what we do. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
And yes, God does love us regardless of the good or bad works we do. "But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." Psalm 86:15

These two facts mean that we don't have to go through life worrying whether we're going to make it to heaven or not. We are free from the constant stress of trying to do enough good works so we can make it to Heaven and trying to refrain from doing bad works so we can avoid Hell. Some may interpret this freedom as being able to do whatever they want without punishment. But what an insult that is! God gave us the greatest gift of all time, eternal life with Him and we did NOTHING to deserve it. It's like being on the "naughty list" and getting everything you could ever want from Santa. To go out and sin againt the Lord just because you know you're unpunished is to take the most precious gift you could ever imagine for granted. To sin just because you can is to insult the cross. Don't get me wrong, it is human nature to sin and my point isn't that you've insulted the cross if you have ever sinned. My point is that if we repetitively commit the same sin and don't attempt to refrain from it just because we know that we will go to Heaven no matter what, we are taking God's grace for granted. The fact is that every follower of God is going to sin and struggle and give into temptation, but the more we fall in love with God the bigger our desire grows to be more like Him and to turn away from sin.

This brings me to my second point: Comparing sin. I am going to be vulnerable here and admit that this is one of my biggest struggles as a Christian. When I feel guilty about my sin, I attempt to make myself feel better by looking at the people around me who sin more often or worse than I do. I read recently in a devotional that "We judge ourselves from a horizontal stance when we should be judging ourselves from a vertical one." Sin is a personal thing. When we stand at the gates of Heaven, our Father is not going to compare us to those who were around us. He's going to look at the way we lived our own lives. If God has that mindset then we should too. Some people will sin more than us and some will sin less, but we ALL fall short of the glory of God. When we stop judging ourselves from this horizontal stance and judge from a vertical one instead, we realize that we could never be as perfect as Jesus, but that's who we should strive to be like.

My challenges for myself this week are:
to rejoice in God's grace, but never take it for granted.
to be free from worry and guilt when I do sin, but constantly try to turn away from it.
to not  be content with myself when I look at the way people around me sin, but to look at the way Jesus acts and try to harder and harder to be more like Him.

Please join me and challenge yourself too. Have a blessed week! :)

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24

Forgiveness

Sounds like an easy concept, right? When someone does you wrong, they apologize and you forgive them. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way.

I'm the kind of person that hates conflict. I don't like to be on bad terms with anybody and am ready to forgive somebody the moment they apologize for something they did to me. But I'm also a person who hold grudges when people don't apologize or don't even realize that they've hurt me. I don't understand how some people can be so blind to the way they treat me or people I love and often find myself talking bad about them and judging them.

I was recently treated so poorly by someone who I thought cared deeply about me. I discovered that this person that I put so much trust in had been lying to me about many things. My initial reaction was to go and talk trash about this person to my friends, which I'm not gonna lie made me feel better at the moment, but I was still extremely upset about the situation. Later during my quiet time with God I realized something. Being hurtful and judgmental brought me to the same level as the person I considered to be so mean and that was not where I wanted to be. Despite the fact that this person treated me so poorly, God still loves that person just as much as He loves me and my duty as a follower of God is to show that same love.

Once I learned to accept the apology I never got and forgive the person, I was so much happier. Letting all that hurt and anger swell up in my heart was not healthy and being furious was exhausting. The way I was treated showed me that I deserve much better, that the plans God has for me are so much greater than that one person, and that I didn't need that person to be happy. More importantly, I realized that God planned for that pain in my life so I could grow from it and learn how to love uncomfortably.

I discussed this concept of loving uncomfortably with a friend last night. Something she mentioned that really stuck with me was that our sole purpose on earth is to love others. My first thought when I heard this was "surely that's not true; God has many other purposes for His followers, like ministry, mission work, etc." But if you break them down, the root of all of those purposes is love. We minister and share the word to help others be saved and grow closer to God, which is a huge display of love. We do mission and volunteer work to help others who are struggling, which also is an act of love.

But what about every day life? How can we love in the way God wants us to on a day-to-day basis? This is the part that can be uncomfortable. Of course it's easy to love the people who love us and show us affection. But the people who put us down and make it so hard to love are the ones who need love the most. In this broken world, chances are those people have been dealt some tough stuff. Although there is no excuse to treat anyone poorly, people are often made hard and mean by the tough situations they've had to face. The best, and probably hardest, thing to do when someone has hurt you is to pray for them. They probably haven't had it so easy and the fact that they're being so hurtful to people shows that they're most likely not turning to God in their pain. Pray that those people can find peace in God so they don't have to take it out on others. Pray that you can have the strength and patience to be as loving to them as Christ was to you. Keep in mind how undeserving we were of Christ's forgiveness and love and how he didn't hesitate to pay the full price for us on the cross. Show this same grace to those who put you down and you will find joy and inner peace.

I thought these lyrics from Tenth Avenue North's song, "Losing" we're very fitting:
"Lord it doesn't feel right
For me to turn a blind eye
Though I guess it's not that much
When I think of what You've done."

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike." Matthew 5:43-45

 

Some cute pictures from this weekend:

My lovely friend Hannah

My friends at the Homecoming game

My precious grandparents :)

No Exceptions

Good morning brothers and sisters! I have once again woken up earlier than planned so why not post? My week was definitely a roller coaster of ups and downs but in the end, I praise The Lord for every little thing that happened because it was all part of his greater plan. At the beginning of the week, I was really hurting from this breakup that I'm going through and no matter how hard I tried to release all my worries to God and rejoice in Him, all I could do was cry and feel sorry for myself.
"If he already likes another girl, did he ever love me?"
"Was I not good enough? Am I not as pretty as her?"
"Will any guy ever think I'm good enough?"
"Am I not special? Am I replaceable?"
These thoughts just kept running through my head and I couldn't push them out. On Tuesday, I cried myself to sleep without spending any time with God.
But on Wednesday night, it all turned around. I went to Fields of Faith which is an FCA event that is held on football fields all over the country where believers come together to hear powerful testimonies and worship The Lord. I learned three things that night that I will never forget:

As I watched hundreds of people get saved and see hundreds of other people worshipping and encouraging their new brothers and sisters in Christ, I realized that I'm not alone. On Tuesday night when I was crying in my room I felt so alone and unwanted. But on Wednesday I realized I'm never alone and never will be. God is ALWAYS ready to listen and to comfort me, all I have to do is take the time to talk to him. And since my Creator knows my heart and knows that I often desire someone tangible to talk to, he blessed me with an amazing family and group of friends. I am so blessed to have my loved ones to encourage me and lift me up, but more importantly, I will ALWAYS have God to talk to and to shower me in affection and give me the strength I need to push through anything.

Listening to the speakers, I realized the we all hurt and experience trials, (most people's are a lot worse than a breakup) but the trials are what makes us who we are by allowing us to grow and learn. God doesn't throw hardships at us because he feels like it, He planned for those hardships to make a change in our lives that is necessary for us to complete his purpose for us. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." It's so easy to thank God for all the joyful times in life. I often thank God for the "gifts" he's blessed me with-such as friends, family, the ability to dance, my home, etc. But I realized this week that the trials he puts in my life are gifts too, giving me knowledge and allowing better things to happen. None of the speakers at Fields of Faith would be the amazing people they are without the trials they had to face. Every time they experienced a hardship, the outcome was either finding Christ, growing closer to Him, discovering more of Him plan for them, or something else along those lines. The times when we hurt are when we grow the most, and although it is natural and okay to cry and feel pain, we should never get so caught up in feeling sorry for ourselves that we turn away from God.

The last thing I learned was more of just a reminder or just an amazing feeling, but it definitely needs to be shared. As I stood in the bleachers looking around at the passion so many Christians, middle school to middle-aged, had for Christ as they worshipped Him I was overwhelmed with the beauty of God. I imagined our Creator hovering over that stadium overjoyed with his sons and daughters praising Him, finding Him, and leading others to Him. I imagined Him embracing each one of us and at other times embracing all of us as a whole. I was overcome with joy and forgot all my worries in that beautiful moment. Since then, I'll admit I have still gotten upset and have worried but I am so much happier because I know that God is bigger than all the hurt in this world.

My prayer is that whoever reads this can take with them the lessons I learned this week. Know that no matter how big or hard your problems are, the outcome will be great because your God loves you more than you could ever imagine and has spectacular plans for you. Praise and thank Him in all situations with the knowledge that everything he puts you through is to teach you and strengthen you. There are absolute NO EXCEPTIONS when it comes to giving God the glory; this world can be pretty harsh and sometimes it may feel impossible that any good could come out of a situation but it always will.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28

Fields of Faith

 

 

 An excerpt from Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love, that I thought was fitting.

God is Love.

Good evening! This is blog post number 2 and I thought I'd go more into detail about what is currently going on in my life and what I'm learning from it...
I recently ended a relationship that I was in for about 2 years. Being only 16 years old, it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. I didn't realize how much it was distracting me from God, but once I did I made the tough decision to call it off. I'd often cut my God time short to talk on the phone with him, I thought about him way more than I did God, and I cared more about his opinion of me than the Lord's. It's been a hard couple of weeks considering we spent so much time together and he really was one of my best friends, but I've already grown so much in my relationship with Jesus and have found a new, deep love for Him. He has reminded me of how great His love is for me and that He is all that I need.

Teenage girls often desire a boyfriend because they make them feel secure and loved and special and confident. Most girls, including me, don't realize how badly they try to find their self worth in boys. Now that I don't have him there anymore to tell me how beautiful and amazing I am and to do sweet gestures for me, I have really had to look to God to fill the emptiness in me. Although we are still good friends and I want him to be happy, it's sometimes hard watching him go after other girls without wanting to find another guy.

But let me tell you, knowing that the Creator of this whole world is crazy about ME is a much greater joy than the so called "love" of a teenage boy. No high school boy, or anyone for that matter, is near as compassionate and loving as Christ.

We are to date with the intention of marriage, which means if you plan on dating, first make a (realistic) list of all the things you want in a spouse. Mine includes someone who's loving, understanding, encouraging, and caring. I am aware that I most likely wont find my match at 16 but I know that God exemplifies all of these characteristics beyond my comprehension. He loves me so much he sent his only son so that I could have the chance at spending eternity with him. He understands me more than anybody. Hebrews 2:18 says "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" Jesus feels our pains ten times over and understands more than anyone exactly what we're going through. With that comes encouragement. Deuteronomy 31:8 says "It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” We are strong enough to do or get through anything with The Lord on our side. The last thing is that Lord cares deeply about us. Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." He wants us to cast all our worries on Him so that we can live life to the fullest and be happy.

One of my favorite quotes about dating is "A girl should be so lost in God, a guy must seek Him to find her." So ladies (and guys) don't settle for someone just because you're lonely or feel an emptiness, but instead devote your whole heart to The Lord who loves you so so deeply. I sometimes find that hard because I want something tangible and audible. I desire to feel somebody embrace me and hear them tell me how much they love me. Although God can't physically do those things, he sent his only son to die for us in the ultimate display of a love that is greater and sweeter than anything of this world. Every time I think of that, I imagine him embracing me and saying, "Mary Catherine I love you like crazy and I have had amazing plans for your life since before you were even born. I have the perfect guy set aside for you and until I decide to put him in your life, trust in my plan for you and let me be your everything."

Whether you're a girl or guy, please take this lesson with you. High school can be hard and we often desire to date so we won't feel alone. But before you tweet "forever alone" or "single for life", know that you are never alone and that the Creator of the heavens, the mountains, the beaches, the stars, and all things beautiful is crazy about YOU and is jealous for you.

First Post (eep!)

Good morning! I woke up much earlier than I planned today considering its 7 am and church doesn't start until 10:30 but I started thinking of what I could write in my first post as a blogger and couldn't go back to sleep. I thought I'd tell you a little bit about myself and where I am in my walk with God. I'm 16 years old and a junior in high school. I'm busy constantly with dance, academics, church, YoungLife, spending time with friends and family, and many other things so keeping this blog going will be a challenge but I will try my hardest to post at least once a week. Being born into a Christian family, I've always considered myself a Christian but I truly committed my life to the Lord three summers ago at a church camp. To be completely honest, for the past few months I have been rather lazy in my relationship with God and haven't been putting my whole heart and mind into it. A few weeks ago I had a wake up call and decided to take action and change what was holding me back (I will share more about this in a later post). I have found a new passion for Christ and have recommitted my life to Him. One day while asking God what my next step was I felt the calling to write a blog. I've always been a journaler but now I will get to share my expiriences and thoughts with others and hopefully make a change in somebody's life. Anyways, I won't tell you too much about myself because my life isn't crazy exciting and if somebody happens to actually read this blog I don't want them to be driven away by boredom, but I will tell you this...

God loves you. He loves you so much that He sacrificed His one and only son to make your sins unpunished and give you the chance to have eternal life. He didn't send Jesus to die because we deserved it, He sent him simply because He loves us so much He wants to spend eternity with us. He continues to show his love for us by never failing to love us no matter how much we go against Him and sin, no matter how distant we get from Him, no matter how many times we slip away. His love has no conditions, no exceptions, and no expiration date; no matter what good or bad works you do, He always loves you and always will.

 

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. Ephesians 3:17-18

 

My siblings, Bob and Anna Beth

My five best friends(from left to right)-Madison, Hannah, Mary, Halston, (Me), Kelly

My precious family

The Pom Squad (my school dance team)

My sweet cousins, Ally and Kelly