Book #2-Heavenly Man

A few months ago I was re-listening to one of my favorite speakers, Kerry Sheer, who taught at a church woman's retreat a couple years ago. Every time I listen to her talks I get reminded of the disciplines that come with pursuing the Lord and what a joy they are!! One thing Kerry encourages women to do is to read books! That books are away of sitting a learning from others and gleaning from their wisdom of what the Lord has taught them. And in her words "Some of ya'll may say that you don't really like to read, my one advice for you about that is, get over it!" I am one of those who fall into the category of not being a big reader.

So I grabbed my precious friend, Katie, who loves to read and asked if she would be up for reading one book a month with me. So we started off with "1,000 gifts" and now I just finished my second book "The Heavenly Man".

OH my goodness talk about rocking your world. This book is so inspiring and challenging. Brother Yun is a committed warrior for Christ and it is truly amazing to hear what all the Lord has done in his life. Brother Yun has been through physical persecution like you wouldn't believe, there was one point I had to put the book down because I was completely horrified by the things that were happening to him. By reading through it though it gave me a clearer picture of how horrific Christ's sacrifice must have been. I also loved that you get to hear from his Yun's wife as well in some of the chapters. What an amazing women she is!

This is a book I couldn't put down and I am so thankful for this challenge this year to read one book a month!! Next book: Bruchko, its about a 19 yr old who heads into the jungles to evangelize a murderious tribe of South American Indians and he gets kidnapped.

"Too good to be true!"

This is the phrase I kept repeating these past 8 weeks or so. I have learned over time with my walk with the Lord that as we are being sanctified some how life just continues to get sweeter. The Lord has been shepherding, teaching, and loving me through learning about the discipline of Fasting. I have to say this has been hands down the most sweetest, intimate, peaceful and joyful time I have ever had with my Heavenly Father. By His grace, deep rooted chains have been broken, my confidence/beauty is in Him- not anything I have done, not in how much I weigh, not because a man has told me and hard sin has been revealed.

Next discipline I want to learn more about is Simplicity....

"Too good to be true"

August has been filled with lots of first in my life.  So many exciting things happening I just keep thinking "This is too good to be true"... His grace is "too good to be true"!!  

For about 6 weeks the Lord has been patiently shepherding and teaching me about the discipline of Fasting and Prayer.  This has been hands down the most sweetest and intimate time with my Father.  To truly live day to day not satisfied by bread but by the words that come from His mouth (Matthew 4).  By His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit through these weeks He has broken many deep rooted chains that have kept me from walking in freedom for many years.  Ahh joy and peace just well up inside of me just thinking about it all.  To truly be walking as a new creation and to not be falling back into the sin I was so tangled up in is nothing less than pure joy and peace!!

These are two books I highly recommend in learning more about the discipline.  The book on Key Principles, is a great study that walks you through the Bible- what Jesus says about fasting and different passages of scripture that give different situations on why we are called to fast.  The book by John Piper, stirs your heart and asks deep questions on where our true satisfaction comes from.  

"Therefore, when I say that the root of Christian fasting is the hunger of homesickness for God, I mean that we will do anything and go without anything if, by any means, we might protect ourselves from the deadening effects of innocent delights and preserve the sweet longings of our homesickness for God."

-Piper

   

Ha, I just realized over the past few months for whatever reason my posts have not published and have gone to drafts.  So that is why I have 4 updates in one day.... thats a record for me!

Strengths Finder

Totally recommend everyone taking this test!  Great resources and opens your eyes to so much about yourself you may have never known.

The Lord used this tool in my life to change the way I see myself.  To finally learn and know my strengths and not always wish I had somebody else's.

Training...

So the past month or so I started training for my first 1/2 marathon!  I am super excited about this adventure and let me tell ya its been a hard one but with my friend Sally(who is doing it with me) cheering me on its been really life changing.

It's hard for me to believe that this is actually my life.  To think back to the beginning of this year and it was like the beginning of every year I would say "This is the year, this is it, I'm going to change".  For years I've been wanting to change, wanting to be healthy, wanting to be disciplined and control what goes into my mouth instead of it controlling me.  I've tried everything except complete surrender and confession to the Lord.  OH what a merciful God he is! He is changing me and I don't know how to put into words the joy I have in the freedom my Father has given me!  What a gift He has given all of us, to know we all can experience this because of His love for us and his sacrifice on the cross!

There is true joy and freedom in discipline!!

UPDATE

As you can probably tell I'm not much of a Blogger. As the time goes on I tend to stray farther away from technology. I rarely check facebook or twitter and when I can leave my cell phone at home I do. I just always forget about them and think why in the world would someone care where I'm at or what I'm doing at the moment. I am thankful though for all this technology, it has made keeping in touch with family around the world much easier.

Doing this blog I have had the same attitude, why in the world would someone read this and who really cares about the "adventures" in my life. But I coming to find out that this is a great way for me to process and to share the testimonies of what God is doing in my life, hoping that it may be a bit of an encouragement to those reading too. So here is a bit of a recap of what's happened the past couple months that I haven't recorded:

May's adventure: going to see Bon Jovi in concert! This was hysterical, we were one of the youngest groups of girls there. The biggest fans were all at least 40(which they should be) and were so funny to watch. Lets just say concert entertainment has changed so much... spirit fingers were used often

June's adventure: going to San Pedro Sula, Honduras! OH what an amazing experience this was. It was so great to see the people, see how God's gospel is being spread through out the city, to see how God is using Brother Moaricio to love on high school students and run the Youth for Christ ministry at a camp, Rancho Viva, about two hours away from the city. Its absolutely beautiful (pictures to come)! I loved this city, I'm obsessed with all the different colors of the houses and buildings, the details in the gates around the house, the style of decoration, the language (I'm determined to learn spanish this year), the food, the people, the children and would be totally fine if the Lord told me to move there.

It was an honor to be on a trip with Soup and Linda Campbell. Just sitting and eating with them was refreshing, so much wisdom and love in their lives. I learned so much from just watching how Soup leads and was so encouraged by the long talks I had with Mrs. Linda. I pray that when I'm their age I will still be up for adventures and be ready to go teach Gods truth whenever asked.

*Please Pray: one of our translators from the trip is actually coming to the states in about a week and is getting to go on the Fellowship Student Ministries camp trip! Pray that a deep relationship with the Lord would be cultivated and the Holy Spirit would ignite a fire in him that would not dwindle.

July's adventure: I know a couple months ago I talked a little bit about fasting during Lent and how I was terrified about going with out a meal. Though I have fasted before in the past and have truly enjoyed it, it's not my first thought or a real desire. Well the Lord is having me face my idols and enemies head on so this month I am studying and learning all I can about Biblical Fasting. I'm almost done with a study by Kay Arthur and Pete De Lacy called "Key Principles of Biblical Fasting". This is unbelievably eye opening! I knew I didn't know much about fasting but come to find out I knew zip about Biblical Fasting. I can't wait to share more about what the Lord is teaching me through this!

God is doing great things, He is so gracious and loving!!

Trust Him. Ask Him. Wait on Him!