I Pitched the Ball. You Missed the Catch.

As I was sitting here I was thinking about all the opportunities to share the Gospel with someone that I have missed out on.

1. When I'm in a restaurant and see the sad faced woman who's pregnant and alone. I make an excuse: "Well, here comes my food, I'll talk to her later." (ha, lame) She leaves and I don't even notice. Opportunity missed.
2. I'm in Wal Mart's parking lot. There's a homeless guy asking for money. I drop a dollar in his tin can and keep walking. I tell myself that I'm on a time crunch and I have to hurry. "I don't have time to talk to him." Opportunity missed.
3. As I'm walking through the mall I see a group of teens standing around. I feel the tug, but resist. "They'll think I'm a freak! What would I say, anyways?" Opportunity missed.

Sometimes I'm alone and I feel like I need to have a grown up with me, which is smart since I'm a teenage girl and (duh!) I'm all alone. :) Ha! But what about the times that I do have a grown up with me and I make another excuse? 

"Well, how do I start off the conversation?" 
"How do I respond to their seemingly impossible-to-answer questions?" 
"What if they reject me?" 

The hardest thing for me to do is set aside my pride, stop thinking about how they'll react or treat me, and just witness to them anyways. Why is it so hard? Why am I so afraid? 

What if God specifically placed that young woman in that booth at the restaurant, on that exact hour that I'm there, so that I'll witness to her. What if God would have saved her, through me. There I go again, making another excuse, and there she goes, heading for the door. Yep, opportunity missed.

I can only imagine what God is thinking. "I pitched the ball. You missed the catch." My, how disappointed He must be.

These are things I can't stop thinking about. What if I would have witnessed to that homeless guy? So what if he rejects me! Maybe I would have planted a seed that would later be watered by another Christian. At the moment, I tell myself he won't be willing to listen to me. He won't care. So I give him a dollar. What good is a dollar compared to salvation? It's nothing. Would I rather give the man worldly pleasure, or would I rather be used to help save his eternal life?

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"God! It's so hard! I just can't do it!"

"Why?"

"Because... what if they reject me?"

"Reject you? They won't be rejecting you, my dear. They'll be rejecting the Truth. They'll be rejecting Me. It's not about you."

"Well... what if they don't like what I have to say? What if I don't tell them what they want?"

"*chuckles* What they want? My child, it's not about telling them what they want to hear. Don't make up a false religion, or a false Me just to 'win them over'."

"But... what do I say? I don't know what to say!"

"Listen.... *pause*"

"... to what?"

"Listen. Pray. Seek Me. Ask Me what to say. Read My Word!"

"Well, I do, but when I get nervous my brain goes haywire! I can't remember a thing!"

"What is there to be nervous about, sweet one? Just pray. Ask Me for help and guidance. Call on Me and I will answer you."

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If we're unsure of what to say, or how to witness to someone, all we have to do is read the Bible! It has many "recipes" for witnessing. Do we really expect it to just come to us all of a sudden, without us having to labor over it? Maybe. Maybe God would suddenly give you wisdom in a moment when you need it, but maybe not. 

As Christians, we have to be prepared to share God's Word with anyone we come in contact with! Even with a stranger! We have to be ready! We need to put on the full armor of God and go out into the battlefield, with God as our guide, and our leader! 

I've got to stop making excuses. 
I have to stop worrying about myself.
I have to let go of all my fears.

God pitched the ball. Did you miss the catch? 

Who Am I?

"When I'm with my friends, everything is fine. I smile, I laugh, we have a great time. What no one knows is, my life is a wreck. I cry myself to sleep, wishing I had someone to talk to. I feel so alone. No one understands. No one listens. I wake up every morning, put on a fake smile, and run through my day, like my life is perfect. I look like the picture of happiness, but on the inside, I'm a mess. I look in the mirror and say, 'This isn't me.' Is there anyone out there who can help me? Am I the only one who feels this way?"

Have you been that person before? I have.
Have you ever had those days when it seems like everything goes wrong and you can't do anything right? I have.
Have you ever cried yourself to sleep, worrying about tomorrow? I have.

There was a time in my life when everything seemed wrong. I was the girl looking in the mirror saying, "This isn't me."
There was a time when I thought I could fix everything. "If I could just do *this* then things would get better." "If I could just act *this* way, my life would turn around." I didn't want to ask for help, I wanted to fix things on my own. I thought I could do it, but I was wrong.

Then one night I was lying in bed, feeling so down, so hurt, I started crying. There was no stopping it. All the pain, all the hurt, just poured out right there. I told God that I was sorry. I was sorry for the way I had acted. I was sorry for deserting Him. For thinking I could go it alone. That I could fix everything. I asked Him to forgive me for not trusting Him. Then, it happened...

Healing.

I felt all the worry, all the sadness, all the hurt just wash away. Instead of crying, I was now smiling. I started singing. Yeah, even with Narthea, out like a light in her bed, next to mine. In fact, Narthea being asleep didn't even cross my mind (haha, no, she didn't wake up:). I can even tell you the exact songs that I sang: As the Deer, Worry Is the Lamb and Mighty, Mighty Savior. I was so happy because I knew that I was forgiven, and I didn't have to bear the weight of my sin anymore.

I'm crying, even now, as I type this. Partly because I am so grateful that He showed me what I was doing wrong, and partly because this is hard. It's hard to admit that I'm not... perfect. Even though I'm sure you all know this, it's just hard to admit it. To say that I was broken once. I wasn't living my life the way I should have, and that hurts. But my joy overwhelms my sorrow. I'm so thankful that I was raised up in the knowledge of the Lord, and that my God saved my mom and dad, many years ago, before I was born. I'm so glad that He saved me.

Who am I? I'm a sinner, saved by the grace of my truly amazing Heavenly Father. I'm a girl who didn't deserve what my Savior did for me, but He did it anyways. He loved me, even when I didn't deserve it. And when I was broken, He put me back together, and He keeps putting me back together.

Who am I? I'm a mended heart.

So if you're reading this and you too have a broken heart, I hope that my small testimony will help you in some way. God can do anything. He can take a broken, shattered heart, and put it back together again. He did it for me and He'll do it for you. :)

Don't Forget

I was thinking the other day, can we even imagine what Jesus went through when he was crucified? Can we comprehend the pain? The suffering? The courage it took to go through with it? 

Death by crucifixion was, perhaps, the most horrible, painful death ever conceived by man. Spikes were nailed between the bones in the wrist, not in the hands as we would normally suspect, because if they were nailed through their hands, the weight of the hanging body would cause the spikes to tear the flesh, thus freeing the victim. Spikes were also nailed through their feet, or their heels. Death did not occur through loss of blood, but by suffocation. In order to breath, the victim had to push up on the nails in the feet, releasing the pressure on his diaphragm. This caused terrible pain in their feet. Fatigue would eventually cause the victim to slump back down. The nails in the wrists tear into a concentrated section of nerves, causing severe pain, once more. As the victim sags back down, he can't breathe, until finally again, he pushes up on his feet. Eventually fatigue will take its toll again, the victim will sag back down once more, suffocate, because of the pressure put on his diaphram, and die. If a victim survived several days, the Roman soldiers would sometimes break their legs to hasten death.

Can you picture your Savior suffering? Crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus may have been the Son of God, but he was a man, too. He felt the pain. The agony. It scared him. He begged God in the garden: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” But Jesus knew what he had to do and he did it. I am eternally grateful. 

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"As they nail me to this tree
Just know the Father waits for me."
"God how can this be your will?
To have your son and my son killed?"
--New Again by Brad Paisley & Sara Evans
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Let's not forget what Jesus did for us that day.

one man and one woman

Let me just say ahead of time that this is my blog and even though you may disagree, I have the right to say whatever I feel led to say about the following subject, because it's my blog, so it's my right. :)

Some of you may or may not have noticed, but I have recently added a new picture to my right sidebar. It is an anti-homosexuality button made by my lovely, dear friend Bleah. I thought that I would share with you why I am strongly against homosexuality.

God does not agree with it.

I am a Christian and I strive to please God, and learn more about Him every day. This is one of the many things I've learned: God does not agree with homosexuality. So, being a Christian, I don't either. To tell you the truth, even if I wasn't a Christian, I would still be against this.

God clearly says in Leviticus 18:22, "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." So there ya have it. Plain and simple. Homosexuality is wrong.

One argument concerning this subject is: "You can be a Christian and still believe that homosexuality is okay."

Uh, no. If this is what you believe, you are wrong. If God CLEARLY says not to do this, then how can you support it if you're a Christian? Some people say, "Well, as long as they're happy and they love each other, it's okay," but this doesn't even make sense.

Okay, so if I think murdering someone is fun and I find great pleasure in it, does that make it okay? Absolutely not! So why should homosexuality be any different? (Some people on other blogs said that it wasn't fair to compare homosexuality to murder, but John 3:4-5 says, "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness." Homosexuality and murder are both sins, so there. Sin is sin, peeps.)

When people say they're Christians and also say that being gay is okay, it's like they're saying you only have to obey some of God's commandments, and you can ignore the rest if you please. As I said in a comment on someone's blog, about this same subject, you cannot be a half-way Christian, because there is no such thing as a half-way Christian. You're either a Christian-all-the-way, or you're not a Christian. If you look up what the definition of a Christian is, you will most likely find something said similar to this: "One who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ." Jesus does not teach that homosexuality is okay, neither does God, so if you're a true Christian, you will disagree with it.

Here, again, in Leviticus 20:13 God says, "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

Now another argument is, "God loves homosexuals, because if He didn't, then why would He create them and make them that way?"

First off, God does not make someone homosexual. They choose to be that way, whether you choose to believe that or not. God hates sin, so why would he create a homosexual person, considering that He says in His Written Word that it is a sin? Sin is of the devil (hence: the devil is the prince of thieves and God is the Prince of Peace). God did not create sin, He allowed sin to enter this world 

And it's not like God allowed sin to enter the world and couldn't care less about our eternal souls. Hello! He gave us Jesus for cryin out loud! He also gave us the Bible which is full of commandments that make us aware of our sin. You have a choice: sin, or Jesus. God loves homosexuals, but that does not mean he loves their homosexuality. He loves the person, but despises their sin.

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." ~Romans 1:21-27~

I'm a Christian, and I am against homosexuality....

I'm prepared to loose followers over this, even all of them, because as my friend Elizabeth @ Living On Literary Lane stated on her blog, "For what am I if I prize followers over His Word and His will?"

{If you agree, you may take anti-homosexuality button, as well.} :)

LPW & Worship Wednesday

Today I'm participating in Hannah's Lovely Photo Wednesday for the first time. I meant to do it last Wednesday, but *hangs head in shame* I forgot. So, here's my photo. :)  

Bleah is starting a thing called Worship Wednesday at her blog.

Worship Wednesday

I am going to post a Worship song for you to listen to and you can sing along, pray, be quiet before the Lord, just do whatever you feel led to do. But please take the time to listen and Worship God. :)

{Don't forget about my giveaway!}

"What Is Your Favorite Book?"....

....Have you ever been asked that question? What was your answer?

The other day I was thinking about all the books I've read, and trying to pick a certain one that was my favorite. I couldn't choose between them all. I've read a lot of really good books. And then, it hit me. What about my Bible? I started thinking to myself,  "Why wasn't the Bible the first one that popped into my head?" I felt really ashamed and embarrassed.

Have you ever gone to bed at night and realized you hadn't read your Bible that day? You contemplate on this for a while. Then you think, "Oh, but my Bible is in the other room." You start coming up with excuses why it can wait until morning. Then you get up the next day, and you forget. You run right through another day without reading God's word. I am absolutely guilty of this. So many times I forget about my Bible. When I feel sad, or upset, I pick up a "good book" off my shelf and read it. Why don't I pick up my Bible? Why don't I try to find comfort in it, instead of some random book on a shelf?

If you think about it, the Bible is full of all kinds of wonderful, thrilling, beautiful stories. Mystery, action, romance, healing, friendship, trials, endurance. The list is endless! Now, when I say stories, I'm not referring to the Bible as "just a bunch of stories". No, these are God's stories. These are love letters from our Heavenly Father. These are life long teachings. When you're sad, there's several verses in the Bible that will lift you up. When you're struggling, there are several verses to help get you through whatever you're dealing with! You don't have to run to Mardel's and buy a book on parenting to learn how to be a good parent. It's in your Bible! All you have to do is open it up and read it. But why don't we do that? Why would we rather run out and spend twenty dollars [that we don't have] on a book that might not even give us what we were looking for?

I am guilty of this ten times over. I've let myself down. I've let God down. I wonder what He thinks every time I start to pick up my Bible, then reach for another book instead. I mean, if I had children and I wrote a love letter for them, and they hardly ever read it, how would I feel? I'd feel crushed that my kids didn't love me enough to at least pick it up and read even one page of it each day.

It makes me cry just thinking about how I've put other books before the most important one of all. The one that will encourage me, make me smile, benefit me the most, help me through the tough times, teach me things I strive to know. No mystery book is going to teach me a life long lesson that benefits my soul. All it will do is give me enjoyment at the moment. The Bible has teachings that help you all through life. Through any scenario!

As of now I am asking God to help me turn around and put Him and His Word first. I want to read my Bible and enjoy it! I want to run to it, instead of Mardel's! I want to have the joy that comes from God and learning more about Him!

I want to read my Bible!! And not just once or twice a week. Not just on Sunday and/or Wednesday. No! I want to read my Bible daily. I want to grow spiritually, everyday!

I have recently started a big challenge. I am reading my Bible in a year. And let me tell you, I just completed my first week last Sunday, and I can already feel a difference in my everyday life! I don't feel as sluggish, or tired as I used to! I have joy in my heart! I get excited about waking up every morning and reading God's word! I really do! I am so glad that God put this upon my heart. I cannot wait to see what God is going to teach me through this whole process! :D

I thought that I would share the reading plan that I'm doing with all of you, in case you were interested in doing the challenge, too.

{If you click on the picture you can enlarge it.}

God's Will

Many times in my life I get in a situation where I need to make an important decision. I think I can handle it myself, so I make my choice, and hope for the best. Most of the time when I do that, my choice ends up not being a very wise one. Why is that? I stop and think, "Okay, this seemed so right. What went wrong?" I didn't ask God what He wanted me to do, that's what. I thought I could take care of myself and I should be able to make a decision on my own. The truth is, I do have a decision to make: Whether to consult God and do His will, or consult myself and do my will.

You know, sometimes you're in a situation where you have to think fast and you say to yourself, "Hey, I don't have time to ask God," but that's not true. You can just stop and say, "God, whatever your will is, let me do it," and He will make sure His will is carried out.

See, what happens when we don't consult God is we start to lean away from Him. We may not realize it, but we start to think we can handle things ourselves, we can take care of ourselves and we're mature enough to make our own decisions, when in reality it doesn't matter how mature, or how old you are, you should always seek God's will. His will is perfect.

~Romans 12:2~ "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Even though it might not seem like it at the moment, in the end, God's will is really what's best for you. He doesn't want to put you in harms way, and He only wants what's best for you, so why not ask Him, and do His will?

~Jeremiah 29:11~ " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' "

 

So if you're in a situation where you don't know what to do, I want to encourage you to take a moment and ask God what He wants you to do. No more thinking you can go it alone. And if God doesn't answer you right away, that's okay. Just wait. Be patient. He will be faithful.

Girl Talk Blog Hop: July

First of all, if you would like to participate, link up here. This is supposed to be like a "good-bye Summer" post. :)
Here are some ideas that Emily gave us to talk about: 
1. Post a descriptive about your idea of the 'perfect summer'.

2. Write a memoir of your summer.

 3. Tell us what God has taught you over the summer.

4. Share with us your summer pictures; all those fun memories of Summer 2010! 

 

I thought I'd just do them all.
 
(1) My description of the perfect Summer? Hmm. I've never really thought about it. When most people think of Summer they think of the beach, going out with friends, the mall, and relaxing. When I think of Summer I think of green grass, the hot sun, swimming with my sisters, and growing closer to God. Sure, it sounds nice to be able to go to the beach, or hang out with friends, but in reality, my Summer is not like that. And to be honest, I don't really care....
(2).... In early June my dad went into the Hospital for 7 days, then a few weeks later he went back into the Hospital for an additional 19 days. My momma stayed with him, both times, like a good and faithful helper, therefore, leaving me and my three sisters (Narthea[17], Esara[13] and Caldirwen[11]) home alone. Sure, some of it was pure torture. Sure, at times I wanted to pull my hair out. Of course, I lost my temper a couple [dozen] times, but I believe that God uses our time together, without parents, to pull us closer to each other, and closer to Him. If you ask me, that's exactly what He did....
(3) ...Each time momma and dad are at the Hospital for any number of days my sisters and I have to pull together and make things work around here. Yeah, sometimes we don't do it perfectly, and sometimes it doesn't quite work out how we planned, but, hey, we're still alive. :P One thing that we did this last time, that we've never done before, was have a Bible study together every night. A time to come together and pray, read God's word and sing praises to Him. There were times when it was difficult. I would have rather be on the Internet checking my e-mail than sitting in the living room singing, but that's the whole point. If it was so easy that I could just pop up out of my seat and say, "Sisters, let's do our Bible study!!" (Uh, no, that never happened), then would it really have been a trial? A test of my faith? Not really.
(4) This leaves me to share some pictures from my Summer with you....
 
{This Summer I got to meet my awesome friend, Taylor for the first time, and spend a day at Six Flags with her and her family.}

{My family and I hatched some chicks.}

{I've been playing a lot of Yahtzee.}

{This Summer I have grown....}

{....Not only physically....}

{....But spiritually.}

{Good-bye Summer. We'll all miss you and your green, soft grass....}

....But You'll come again, and I'll have grown more. I'll be 16 years old next time you come around. And who knows?.... I might even have my drivers license. ;)

God has a plan for me. I'm not sure what that plan is right now, but someday I'm gonna find out, and boy am I itching to know! :)