Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Brian! (A friend of mine.)
Next Generation Evangelistic Network: College Students Changing the World One Project at...: Not to sound arrogant, but I am very proud of myself and my friends. Though we are all 22 years old or less, we have bucked the "live...
Fear Is A Strange Thing.
Fear.
I don't know why I get so afraid all the time. God is with me always. And He promises that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
This post is short, and not very meaty. But it's something.
Remember, God gives us a command to follow Jesus Christ and die. To make disciples of all nations and do whatever He commands us to do. And if we are executed for doing so--he who loses his life here on Earth will gain it eternally in Heaven.
I don't know if that means anything to any of you, or if it just sounds like a big jumbled up mess. But I felt the need to say that.
Thanks again for reading.
-Cheyenne
I don't know why I get so afraid all the time. God is with me always. And He promises that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
This post is short, and not very meaty. But it's something.
Remember, God gives us a command to follow Jesus Christ and die. To make disciples of all nations and do whatever He commands us to do. And if we are executed for doing so--he who loses his life here on Earth will gain it eternally in Heaven.
I don't know if that means anything to any of you, or if it just sounds like a big jumbled up mess. But I felt the need to say that.
Thanks again for reading.
-Cheyenne
How Great Thou Art
*disclaimer* yes, the title of this post, is the title of a song. It's a hymn covered by Ascend the Hill. I do not own the song, any words or phrases in the song, I do not own the title, the cover song by Ascend the Hill, or the original hymn. If I offend you, I'm sorry in advance, and I don't mean to. *disclaimer (end)*
Okay...so, I don't write on this blog as much as I do my other one, but that's okay. This one has a purpose, where as the other one is really just venting about all my problems. Which.....leads me to to-days post.
So, I still haven't finished Follow Me yet, but I am working on it. I have to read two other books, and do a whole bunch of literary analysis and what not on them both and compare/contrast the books before school starts in August. And (if you haven't noticed by the consistency of my blog postings) I procrastinate...a lot. But, I have learned a lot from the little bit that I have read so far. And looking back, God has a funny was of doing things. I am positive He has stopped my reading of Follow Me for a specific reason.
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine was teaching the youth group lesson. He recently graduated college and is preparing to go to seminary to become a youth minister. He's a pretty cool dude. But anyways, his message was powerful, and it moved everyone in the audience (all 70 of the youth). And several people were brought to tears. It was about giving God your sins and letting Him take care of them. Letting go of the pain and suffering that comes with sin. The lesson was great, and it was eye opening. My very close friend (we'll call her C), was crying her heart out. Her and I have struggled with self-harm for a very long time, what feels like an eternity. Unlike me, her self-harm was solely cutting. And we have had a very difficult time letting go of the way it makes us feel. For her, it was control. For me, it was a high. We struggle through this on a daily basis. She was crying and crying and crying...and I didn't know what to say to help her feel better.
Then something weird happened (get this)...I started praying out loud for her. If you know me personally, you know I have a phobia of speaking and/or performing in front of other people (even if it is just one person). But, in spite of that, I began praying, out loud, for C. And then, our friend (let's name her B) came over and started praying, too. Then another girl on our mission team came over, and in less than a minute, all of the girls on our mission team were in a giant group hug (that's basically what it looked liked) and we laid hands on each other and were praying with each other for not just C, but for each other as well, and every one else who was/is hurting. It was the coolest thing in the world to be apart of, yet at the same time, for someone so introverted, it was the strangest thing (the good kind of strange).
In the book, David talks about prayer. And Terry (my old pastor that moved away to plant a new church) talked (and still does talk) about prayer. It's so weird to me still. Not the kind of weird the makes people think 'oh wow, this is weird. I'm not gonna do this anymore.' kind of weird. But the kind of weird that catches your attention; the kind that makes you want to try again, keep going until you figure out the whole puzzle. Like a riddle. Most people don't stop thinking about a riddle until they've found the solution. I had seen the way that prayer was and should be applied in my life. Not just when things are bad, or when it's convenient, and most certainly not just because it's what "Christians do". We should pray daily, hourly, every second should be a second spent in God's presence, talking WITH Him (not to Him).
I remember maybe a year or two ago, Terry was teaching the youth group lesson (mind you, I was a naive little 14 year old girl then), and he asked us "What is prayer?". A few hands shot up with answers like 'the way we talk to God', 'our way to God'--stuff like that. So, when I was called upon to give my answer, I said it was our way of talking with God. We ask Him questions, and we listen and get answers. And that began the lesson. Prayer is not just our way of talking to God, it's our way of listening to what God is saying to us.
Another thing I've learned from this book is death. Not just...spiritual death, but dying to myself.
I am one of 'those' people who like to fix everything for everyone. Make everything better, put band-aids on all the boo-boo's. When I was reading Follow Me, David points out that we need to die to ourselves in order to let God do what He is going to do. I talked to so many people about this. My mom, my friend T (we won't name her), some of the other mission team members; everyone who came to me asking what they should do, I told them they needed to die to themselves and just STOP messing around and trying to fix everything. Because as humans, and because we are NOT God, we CANNOT fix anything. The more we try to fix it, the more it's going to fail. I told so many people this, and I thought I was applying it in my own life, until about a week ago when my friend from Georgia (a youth pastor intern for our sister church in a neighboring town) started talking to me about everything that had happened in my life since we had been out of touch. He told me "this too shall pass". I had heard this phrase over a million times, over and over, and I NEVER thought anything about it until then. When he said it, he had tears in his eyes. He told me what David Platt had explained in his book. My friend (lets call him D) had turned everything I had soaked up from the book (intended to use during the mission trip as discipleship tools and sharing the Good News), he took all of that, and turned into something that made sense.
I don't want to say that D turned me into a disciple, but more he was used by God to turn me into a disciple. He just...I don't even kn ow how to explain it. It was one of those INCREDIBLE God moments where everything just falls into place. And that was the first example I was given.
I was having a conversation with T a few weeks ago (after the powerful youth group lesson), and she started crying. Her mother had made her tell the guy she likes that she was not aloud to talk to him anymore, and T was very upset because she knew that the guy she liked was mad at her. It wasn't T's fault, but he didn't know what had happened. And T couldn't talk to him and explain what had happened and why she had to send that message. The same thing happened. I prayed out loud. Spontaneously. It was a great feeling. Letting God work through me, and bring together all the pieces that had just been laying around in my head. We talked for a good 20-30 minutes, and at the end, we prayed again. We prayed and asked God to guide her. We prayed and talked with God about how frustrating it is not being able to know why or how the bad things that happen to us are going to be used for the better. But we know God has promised that He has a perfect plan for us, and that it's not always going to be pretty and fun and easy, but it will be worth it, and it is, in fact, beyond our comprehension. We prayed. We talked with God. And after, you could see the difference. You could see a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and it brought tears to my eyes.
God showed me things in the book Follow Me by David Platt that I was/am to use on the mission trip to share His love, and the Good News, and my testimony and the things I have witnessed God do. And then, instead of leaving me to my own devices, He used myself as an example to what these things will look like. He showed me what they meant, and how He uses them. He did a miracle in me, and then a miracle in others using me.
The greatest thing the book has taught me, is that dying isn't something followers of Jesus Christ should be afraid of, or take lightly, or sugar coat because we are going to Heaven. It's something we should embrace daily. We should die to ourselves daily so that we can let God do works in us, as well as through us in others.
God works in mysterious ways.
Thanks for reading, guys (general audience).
-Cheyenne
Okay...so, I don't write on this blog as much as I do my other one, but that's okay. This one has a purpose, where as the other one is really just venting about all my problems. Which.....leads me to to-days post.
So, I still haven't finished Follow Me yet, but I am working on it. I have to read two other books, and do a whole bunch of literary analysis and what not on them both and compare/contrast the books before school starts in August. And (if you haven't noticed by the consistency of my blog postings) I procrastinate...a lot. But, I have learned a lot from the little bit that I have read so far. And looking back, God has a funny was of doing things. I am positive He has stopped my reading of Follow Me for a specific reason.
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine was teaching the youth group lesson. He recently graduated college and is preparing to go to seminary to become a youth minister. He's a pretty cool dude. But anyways, his message was powerful, and it moved everyone in the audience (all 70 of the youth). And several people were brought to tears. It was about giving God your sins and letting Him take care of them. Letting go of the pain and suffering that comes with sin. The lesson was great, and it was eye opening. My very close friend (we'll call her C), was crying her heart out. Her and I have struggled with self-harm for a very long time, what feels like an eternity. Unlike me, her self-harm was solely cutting. And we have had a very difficult time letting go of the way it makes us feel. For her, it was control. For me, it was a high. We struggle through this on a daily basis. She was crying and crying and crying...and I didn't know what to say to help her feel better.
Then something weird happened (get this)...I started praying out loud for her. If you know me personally, you know I have a phobia of speaking and/or performing in front of other people (even if it is just one person). But, in spite of that, I began praying, out loud, for C. And then, our friend (let's name her B) came over and started praying, too. Then another girl on our mission team came over, and in less than a minute, all of the girls on our mission team were in a giant group hug (that's basically what it looked liked) and we laid hands on each other and were praying with each other for not just C, but for each other as well, and every one else who was/is hurting. It was the coolest thing in the world to be apart of, yet at the same time, for someone so introverted, it was the strangest thing (the good kind of strange).
In the book, David talks about prayer. And Terry (my old pastor that moved away to plant a new church) talked (and still does talk) about prayer. It's so weird to me still. Not the kind of weird the makes people think 'oh wow, this is weird. I'm not gonna do this anymore.' kind of weird. But the kind of weird that catches your attention; the kind that makes you want to try again, keep going until you figure out the whole puzzle. Like a riddle. Most people don't stop thinking about a riddle until they've found the solution. I had seen the way that prayer was and should be applied in my life. Not just when things are bad, or when it's convenient, and most certainly not just because it's what "Christians do". We should pray daily, hourly, every second should be a second spent in God's presence, talking WITH Him (not to Him).
I remember maybe a year or two ago, Terry was teaching the youth group lesson (mind you, I was a naive little 14 year old girl then), and he asked us "What is prayer?". A few hands shot up with answers like 'the way we talk to God', 'our way to God'--stuff like that. So, when I was called upon to give my answer, I said it was our way of talking with God. We ask Him questions, and we listen and get answers. And that began the lesson. Prayer is not just our way of talking to God, it's our way of listening to what God is saying to us.
Another thing I've learned from this book is death. Not just...spiritual death, but dying to myself.
I am one of 'those' people who like to fix everything for everyone. Make everything better, put band-aids on all the boo-boo's. When I was reading Follow Me, David points out that we need to die to ourselves in order to let God do what He is going to do. I talked to so many people about this. My mom, my friend T (we won't name her), some of the other mission team members; everyone who came to me asking what they should do, I told them they needed to die to themselves and just STOP messing around and trying to fix everything. Because as humans, and because we are NOT God, we CANNOT fix anything. The more we try to fix it, the more it's going to fail. I told so many people this, and I thought I was applying it in my own life, until about a week ago when my friend from Georgia (a youth pastor intern for our sister church in a neighboring town) started talking to me about everything that had happened in my life since we had been out of touch. He told me "this too shall pass". I had heard this phrase over a million times, over and over, and I NEVER thought anything about it until then. When he said it, he had tears in his eyes. He told me what David Platt had explained in his book. My friend (lets call him D) had turned everything I had soaked up from the book (intended to use during the mission trip as discipleship tools and sharing the Good News), he took all of that, and turned into something that made sense.
I don't want to say that D turned me into a disciple, but more he was used by God to turn me into a disciple. He just...I don't even kn ow how to explain it. It was one of those INCREDIBLE God moments where everything just falls into place. And that was the first example I was given.
I was having a conversation with T a few weeks ago (after the powerful youth group lesson), and she started crying. Her mother had made her tell the guy she likes that she was not aloud to talk to him anymore, and T was very upset because she knew that the guy she liked was mad at her. It wasn't T's fault, but he didn't know what had happened. And T couldn't talk to him and explain what had happened and why she had to send that message. The same thing happened. I prayed out loud. Spontaneously. It was a great feeling. Letting God work through me, and bring together all the pieces that had just been laying around in my head. We talked for a good 20-30 minutes, and at the end, we prayed again. We prayed and asked God to guide her. We prayed and talked with God about how frustrating it is not being able to know why or how the bad things that happen to us are going to be used for the better. But we know God has promised that He has a perfect plan for us, and that it's not always going to be pretty and fun and easy, but it will be worth it, and it is, in fact, beyond our comprehension. We prayed. We talked with God. And after, you could see the difference. You could see a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and it brought tears to my eyes.
God showed me things in the book Follow Me by David Platt that I was/am to use on the mission trip to share His love, and the Good News, and my testimony and the things I have witnessed God do. And then, instead of leaving me to my own devices, He used myself as an example to what these things will look like. He showed me what they meant, and how He uses them. He did a miracle in me, and then a miracle in others using me.
The greatest thing the book has taught me, is that dying isn't something followers of Jesus Christ should be afraid of, or take lightly, or sugar coat because we are going to Heaven. It's something we should embrace daily. We should die to ourselves daily so that we can let God do works in us, as well as through us in others.
God works in mysterious ways.
Thanks for reading, guys (general audience).
-Cheyenne
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)