go and send.

this week has been absolutely crazy.

highlights:

1. started sending out summer missionaries today…woot woot for Big Sky, Montana!! & South Asia Friday!

2. Birthday week = over. Which is pretty sad. I’m 23 now, which seems much older than 22. I don’t know why, but it’s true.

3. little old ladies sleeping in recliners in the break room at work is pretty awesome. it seriously makes my day.

4. my lifegroup sews together; it’s true. and we love it. and they made me a birthday cake and donated money to Hearts for the Children in my name. that’s the place I love in Guatemala. that was the best birthday present ever. Shout out to my lifegroupies. aaand shout out to Maria for forever being the best dog sitter Pace Face will ever have.

5. Brandon and I are going to the beach in t-minus one day. Praise Jesus for a break.

6. We sent out the coolest poster ever (in my opinion) for summer missions. check it out here.

7. Francis Chan continues to make me smile with his talks on the Holy Spirit.

Lowlights:

1. I miss my puppy, Pacey.

2. I don’t know how to use the carpet cleaner and pretty much our entire apartment smells like STRONG cleaner and it’s kind of too much. But, thankfully, Brandon is the best husband in the world and he’ll do it for me tonight since he knows how! (Hint, Hint…B!)

3. My best friend, Beth, is leaving to go to Alaska tomorrow on a cruise. She’ll be gone for a week!

& something I’ve learned this week to end it all:

“If you’re finding Jesus easy to follow, you might examine whether or not it’s really Him you’re following, because he was a difficult guy to follow. Especially when he starts talking about loving your neighbor, loving your enemy, taking care of the poor-these are hard things.”

-Derek Webb 

 

 ps: Derek Webb is always making me feel like I should love Jesus more. Go purchase all of his songs.

clearing some things up.

1. today is my birthday. I woke up to showers of presents from Brandon…an awesome sewing book, my chaco’s re-wrapped because I had already opened them (and yes, wore them!) and some beautiful flowers at work. I love my hubby. & he’s taking me to lunch and we are also going on a special dinner date. I really just wanted Chic-fil-A but he’s talked me into Outback. I’m on a “why spend so much money on food?” kick. And last but not least, I saw on a commercial yesterday that McDonald’s is giving away some chicken biscuit away for free today, on May 15th. Probably to give a birthday present to the whole world in honor of me. That’s so awesome.

2. Yesterday’s post had really been on my heart all week. And then I realized that I may have not came off very clear because I just typed away and never stopped to think much. I want to emphasize that my heart is still in discipleship, spiritual growth, counseling, serving, and all the disciplines more than it ever was. But, I feel like our primary goal (notice primary…the one we always fall back on) is loving Jesus and He calls us to tell the world about Him. That’s one of the greatest ways we can show our love: expounding and shouting about His love for all of us. Through this, we should see salvations. I think what kills me about this is that so many times, we as churches want to see salvations so badly that we “get somebody saved” and then move on to the next person. That’s why my face scrunches up and makes me feel sick. I didn’t like the college kid’s response because it made me think of “number of converts vs. God’s children accepting Him and living for Him.” Big difference. Also, I think when we have the mindset of salvation and that’s that, we lose sight of what salvation means. We tell people, Jesus will love you, you will be happy, you will be saved from hell. And we leave out that being a Christ-follower is pretty hard. We may not have to worry about being persecuted in the sense of being stoned for believing in Christ. But, He does tell us to take up our cross, love Him more than our parents, etc. It’s not so easy and it’s a huge life, mind, and self-change. His Gospel is offensive and He begs that we won’t be offended by it.

I pray that God teaches me how to do all these “things” of service, love, discipleship, etc. and still realize that salvation is at the heart of it all. I pray our lifegroups in Columbia love and disciple each other, but we create people who love Jesus and pour out their lives for him as our primary goal. And I pray that through that, many people are touched and see the beauty of the Kingdom of God. And I pray that through those people, we see salvation.

3. happy birthday to me.

4. peace out.

good ol’ francis.

My lifegroup is pretty stinking awesome. It has nothing to do with me–I’m actually not the best at leading things like that. It definitely has to do with Jesus and the awesome people that are in my lifegroup. We’ve been doing the Chaotic Joy Blog-shout out to Luda. We also started listening to the Holy Spirit series from Francis Chan–my new favorite pastor aside from Dustin. It’s so awesome. He said the first few sentences in Holy Spirit part one and I had to stop the sermon and think for a second. It was so simple, but so inspiring. Here’s what he had to say (paraphrased big time):

Are you comforted by the fact that I am praying for you? Do you understand that this is me talking to God on your behalf? You should be more comforted by me saying, ‘I am praying for you’ than by any sermon I give.

What, Francis? … Oh yeah, prayer is pretty powerful. It’s talking and listening to our Father. Our Father.. the One that created me…knows every hair on my head…the One that sent His Son to be a sacrifice for my life. Oh, yeah. Pretty great. Thanks for reminding me.

& J Piper had this to say.

“Merciful Father, thank you for being a prayer-hearing God. Oh, that we would cherish this gift. It is an overwhelming thought that the creator and sustainer of all things gives heed to our prayers and meets our needs. Make us persistent and watchful and thankful and ready for every open door. Fill our mouths with prayer to you and Gospel to others. Increase our faith in the truth that by prayer we have influence in the world, all out of proportion with how small we are. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Read this one more time: “Fill our mouths with prayer to you and Gospel to others.”