"Hosanna" by Hillsong

Ihave pretty much become a great fan of Hillsong's song "Hosanna." You should go purchase it on itunes now. It's only $.99. Now who can't spare that? :) Check out these lyrics:

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause

What powerful lyrics!

I really do (like everyone else) love hearing feedback for anyone and everyone that reads my blogs so comment away!

So go now and buy the song!

Disturbing thought

Here's a little fact that I'm chewing on today:

There are 1,000,000,000 people in the world that have not heard the gospel.

How does that affect me?

How does that affect you?

It's long, just try to stick with it...

A pharisee asked Jesus "'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" -Matthew 22:36-39

David (Platt) has just started a new series called "Radical" at church. I'm not going to summarize the series so far b/c that'd be one long post but I do want to share some of my confessions and struggles with this scripture. It's clear that Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with ALL our heart, soul and mind; however, I have never thought of what that actually means. I've always heard "put God first" then family, friends, job, school, etc. NO. That's loving God with some of your heart, soul, mind. What does loving God with all of my heart, soul and mind look like? I've been guilty far too many times of fluffing up this verse to mean "ok, let's just love God," but no. Truly loving God with ALL of myself? How in the world do I do that? I know the answer is only through Christ because I alone have nothing, no love at all to offer God. I wonder what this looks like in my life everyday?

Well, even if I'm not sure what this tangibly looks like each day I do know that loving God means following him. Ok, well...still not any easier. Check out Luke 14: 25-33:

"Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, wil not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

Talk about some harsh words! Hate my father, mother, husband, children, brother and even myself?! These are Jesus' words in an evangelistic message, not some exclusive, only-for-the-educated theological discussion. That even more says that this needs to be taught as the basis of Christianity in how we are to follow Christ. That last verse scares me most I think: 'cannot' be my disciple. It doesn't say "it will be more difficult to be my disciple if you don't hate all else except me" or "I won't put you on the super Christian list if you don't hate all else." It says "any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Now if there has been no verse to contradict American consumer-driven Christianity, now there it is. Luke 14:33. Right there and it's sooo hard to swallow.

What does this mean for me? Do I sell everything and buy a one-way ticket to a third-world country to do missions for the rest of my life? Maybe, but also maybe not. I see a trend of "living simply" developing in modern Christianity and I believe it is biblical to live simply and even to sell all and buy a 1-way ticket. Who knows? Dane and I may do that one day. I do know that this, just as everything, requires much prayer. We have to be careful once again to not get caught up in our actions, because our works get us nowhere. God doesn't approve anymore if we store up all our wealth and become greedy or if we sell all and move to Nigeria if we only do it for ourselves, for show, without pure hearts and the desire to see Christ glorified.

So my question is, how have I missed this for so long? People have been asking can you be a believer of Christ and not a disciple because there aren't many American christians who are disciples according to the passage in Luke. Does this mean there aren't many believers too? It's something that I wrestle with and only God will reveal. I pray that you stuck with this post and that God's word radically shakes you like it is doing me right now.

SPA 416

What a busy week. It seems as if the homework and studying will never end, although I know that all too soon December will be here and I will be graduating. So far today has consisted of working out at the rec center, SI staff meeting at 9 and now I'm home watching the movie "Ay, Carmela" for class tomorrow. I much prefer listening to texts, watching movies and listening to music to prepare for a class instead of reading 3 chapters. This is all for my History of Spain in the 20th Century through Film & Cinema class (SPA 416)...what a title for a class. Last week we watched "La lengua de las mariposas" and I HIGHLY recommend it, It is such a great movie and shows the effects of the nationalists when they began to take over Spain. I know, I sound real cool but it is interesting to me. :)

The wedding is now officially in March and I wish I had 2 hours a day to devote to planning! I continue to think of ideas but just have to add them to a list instead of tackling them head on. But, I have my dress and I'm super excited about that!

As for now, I'm off to finish this movie then hopefully begin my research for my term paper for the same class. We'll see if a nap gets thrown into the mix as well. Who knows? I'm sad to see this lovely "college student schedule" go away in a few months. It really is quite nice!

Haiti

Check out these missionaries' blog about the storm in Haiti:

godsplumblineministries.blogspot.com

haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com

Pepper Place

Last Saturday, Dane and I went to this outdoor market downtown at the old Dr. Pepper bottling factory. It's mostly made up of local farmers and their produce, homemade jellies and relishes and fresh flowers. There are some baked goods, t-shirts, purses and jewelry tables scattered throughout too. On the old porch of the factory was live jazz music while chefs demonstrated new recipes and gave out samples galore nearby. It's every Saturday from 7am-noon and I highly recommend it! It's great fun and not expensive! Here's a photo of Dane and I after we got back to my place. In case you can't tell by the expression on his face, he wasn't too excited about holding the fruits and veggies just so I can take a picture...

Hoy (Today)

I realize I go about 2 weeks without posting then will post several days in a row, but hey...that's just how I work sometimes.

It has definitely hit me that I have LOTS of wedding planning to do and want to finish all of the big things before January b/c the spring is "super wedding craziness" time for every bride-to-be. I have no class tomorrow so hopefully I can get a lot of things done then.

Several events that shook my outlook on the day yesterday: my car windshield is cracked, my car battery was dead and I seriously stubbed my toes on the concrete curb in the parking lot (complete with bruise and scratched off nail polish and everything). God showed me though that those are soooo not major events and I really should be grateful that I have a car and that I have money to buy nail polish with...and for that matter, that I can even walk. So, I am very grateful for God allowing what can seem like "mishaps" in our mind to happen because he teaches through them as well.

I'm out for the night. Buenas noches!

Preach it sista!

As I sit here on my bed and watch Sarah Palin's acceptance speech, I cannot help but regain the hope that I had lost in our political candidates. I will admit that I have not been the biggest McCain fan, but am DEFINITELY more of a fan for him than I will ever be for Obama. I would vote for McCain any day over Obama...o, I won't go on about that. Sarah Palin is the conservative, down to earth candidate that McCain needs. I'll just sum it up with go McCain/Palin!!

Sorry it's been so long...

but classes are now underway and that has taken precedence over blogging.

So there is a full-time missionary in Capetown, South Africa that traveled with us to Zambia and her name is Anna. Here she is in the middle (Meghan is on the left and Lacey on the right).


This girl has one amazing testimony of God bringing her to South Africa and God has truly used her to draw my heart closer to his global mission. Right now she has been visiting family and friends in various countries and is waiting sponsor money to come in for her plane ticket back to South Africa. I want to encourage everyone to pray for her as she serves in South Africa. I also pray that God draws each person's heart who reads this blog to become 100% in sink with his global purpose: to make his name known to ALL nations in a way that only He gets the glory!

I cannot wait to return to the foreign mission field for a longer period of time! Until then, I pray that God continues to unite my heart daily with his. How can you not love these people?