"Christ"mas?

This is the time of year when everyone gets just a little bit more excited, often times for no apparent reason other than the fact that Christmas is just around the corner. Unless you're an Ebenezer Scrooge, you can't deny that opening a gift on Christmas morning next to a brightly colored tree, surrounded by the people you love makes you at least a little tingly inside.

If you want to be nit-picky about it Christmas did in fact have pagan origins. If you google "The origin of Christmas," you won't find anything that tells us that it began with a celebration of the birth of Christ. But in my opinion, every day should be a holiday celebrating the Savior who died to forgive our sins. Why not take a day that is supposed to be the happiest day of the year and give it back to Christ? One of the things that Jesus does best is take things that are sinful and turn them into things that proclaim his glory. That's what he did with us. It seems quite appropriate to take a holiday that was originally sinful and turn it around in celebration of his name.

In the days leading up Christmas, read scriptures foretelling the birth of Christ. When you're opening gifts on Christmas morning and giving presents to loved ones, use it as a time to remember the gift we have in Christ. Read the story of his birth for devotions that day or even with your family before you open presents. If you have children (or just a sweet tooth), bake a birthday cake for Jesus! I encourage you to find small ways through out the day to give glory to God for the grace that he has given to us.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

We are so undeserving of his grace and mercy! But what an amazing God we serve. These are words from the original hymn Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson. They truly convey the richness of God's grace.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Another Puzzle Analogy

God: Do you want to work a puzzle with me?
Me: Sure!
God: Here, start out with this piece.
Me: What... you're only giving me one piece?
God: Well... my puzzle, my rules.
Me: Fine... okay. So it's blue... okay that means it's the sky, right?
God: Nope.
Me: Okay blue things... water?
God: Try again.
Me: blueberries...?
God: Not even close.
Me: Really. Really God? You've got the box! I just have one piece! How do you expect me to try and figure it out?
God: Exactly.
Me: Oh.

We try to come up with all these different scenarios for our lives but we really don't know anything about them other than what God has given us! It's his puzzle and his box. He doesn't expect us to try to figure it out, he just expects us to trust him to give us the right pieces when we need them. Instead of worrying about our lives, surrender them to the One with the box and let him piece them together.

Defined by Love

"I am redemption I am whole. I am a tragic wreck made perfect by a love I can’t control. I am determined to be defined by my hits not just my misses. Stand up tall and say that this is who I am. " - I am by Philmont from their album The Transition EP

We all make mistakes. But life is not just about making mistakes - it's about what you learn from them. I am not my mistakes - I am a child of God, made in his image and saved by his grace. I make mistakes. He does not. HE is who I am, and I will chose to be defined by his love.

Download Song: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-transition-ep/id399079001

Philmont's Blog: http://philmont.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/the-transition-ep-lyrics/

Hold on Tight

My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. (Exodus 33:14)

All we have to do is hold on tight. God's got us, we just have to trust in him. Waves might seem really big to us, but to him they're nothing. Let him pick you up and lift you over them.

Much Ado About Nothing

It's not about us - it's about God, it's about Jesus. And nothing else matters but him.



In the quiet, in the stillness
I know that You are God
In the secret of Your presence
I know there I am restored

When You call I won't refuse
Each new day again I'll choose

There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise

In the chaos, in confusion
I know You're Sovereign still
In the moment of my weakness
You give me grace to do Your will

When You call I won't delay
This my song through all my days

All my delight is in You Lord
All of my hope, all of my strength
All my delight is in You Lord Forevermore

- Hillsong United, None But Jesus

All or Nothing

If we aren't giving God everything that we are, we might as well not be giving him anything at all. He says in Revelation to the church at Laodicea that he was about to spit them out of his mouth because the were neither hot nor cold. Just luke warm. They weren't totally on fire for Jesus but they didn't hate him either, they were just kind of chillin' like a villain with Jesus. He's NOT okay with that. He wants us to pursue him passionately with everything that we are, not just give him a little bit here, a little bit there but EVERYTHING. Easier said than done sometimes when it comes to things like finances, relationships and anxiety. But a good friend of mine put it like this: "Not having a good relationship with God is like trying to live in a messy room. You can do it, but it affects every aspect of your life. You can't do your homework as well, you get frustrated when you can't find things, and you trip over things." If we aren't giving our lives completely to God, it affects every aspect of our lives and our "messy room" makes it impossible to function. We may as well have not given him our lives at all if we aren't willing to keep the floor clean and follow after him passionately.

Fun Times with God

With classes starting just around the corner I'm starting to get a little worried. About my art class, none the less! What I have planned on majoring in for almost a year and I feel like I stink at it.
So here follows the conversation that I had with God...
Me: God, I feel like I stink at art.
God: So?
Me: Uhhhh, so my major is art and that's sort of important for me to be good at it?
God: So?
Me: I really feel like we're not connecting here. ME MAJOR IN ART. MUST BE TALENTED. Savy?
God: So.... you're point?
Me: Okay wait. So I don't have to be good at art?
God: Think, dearest: What did I ask you to do?
Me: *sigh* ... Be an art teacher.
God: SO remind me again(not that I forgot) why you're worried?
Me: Ahhhhh.
So as it turns out, God gets the final say in these things not me. All I have to do is trust him to take me wherever he leads. Whether that means changing my major later on or pursuing art education even if I have to stay up all night to get a piece done. In my weakness, he is strong. He is my fortress and my shield. He is the one who gives me victory. No matter what my worries or insecurities are, he is bigger than all of them!!!
Even if I'm not able to go on because I'm not qualified enough, it will not be because I haven't done my best or because God suddenly forgot about me - on the contrary, it will be because he HASN'T forgotten about me, because he has a great plan for my life that may involve a couple of challenges.
Give me faith to trust what you say, that you're good and your love is great. I'm broken inside, I give you my life!!!!

Making a Difference

I've been thinking a lot about college lately being that it's only a scant 3 weeks away. Less, actually. Questions like what am I most afraid of, what do I want to accomplish, and what do I want to avoid have crossed my mind.
The thing that has been going over and over again in my mind is how am I going to minister to the people around me. I don’t want to just be The Smart One or The Girl Who Smiles anymore. I am going into this with a new mindset and I want to proclaim the name of Jesus with everything that I am. He is the reason I chose Anderson, the reason that I chose Art Ed, the reason that I want to be a missionary, the reason that I stinkin’ wake up in the morning with breath left in my body. He is everything.
I’m not so concerned about making awesome grades (although I do want to do that) or having a good room or being able to not look stupid (bahaha…. Well, that will probably happen some) as I am making sure that my heart is in the right place. I don’t want others to know Jesus so that they will know me. I want others to know Jesus because he changed my life and because there is absolutely no reason for me to keep on living if he doesn’t exist.
I want to be able to show others how important Jesus is to me. I feel like towards the end of senior year I was able to do that more at school but still not to the level that I wanted. I don’t want it to seem like I’m ashamed of him, I want to proclaim his name from the rooftops.
I want them to know WHY I’m the Girl Who Smiles. I smile because I have the living, active, Holy Presence of God living inside of me!
ALSO…
I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am going to serve at New Spring and how I can get involved there. I am really excited about it but I just have no idea what I will like or where God will want me. I feel like I want to do something that does not involve children… sometimes I feel bad about saying that – you’re supposed to love them, right? And I do love them with the love of Christ but I don’t feel like I’m good at working with them. It makes me feel inadequate. So anyway, I want to figure out what I am supposed to do in that area as well.
So that's what Bethany's Brain has looked like for the past couple of weeks...

Be Still

I recently received a scholarship that I really needed to go to college. That's pretty cool in and of itself, but the even cooler thing are the events that led up to it. Two days before I got the scholarship(June 2nd), I read the wrong devotion. Oooooooooh. scary. Instead of reading June 2nd from the devotion book, I skipped it and read June 3rd. It wasn't a big deal at all and I figured I would just read the 2nd on the 3rd and go on. It got to the 3rd and the whole day I kept worrying and worrying about whether or not I got the scholarship and worrying about what I would do if I didn't. For some reason the verse "Be still and know that I am God," kept going through my head. I didn't know why at the time but I just kept saying it over and over to myself. That night, I opened up the devotional and read June 2nd and guess what the verse was for that night?
Psalm 46:10 - " Be still and know that I am God."
I realized that the entire day I had been worrying for nothing! It didn't matter if I got the scholarship or not because God was still in control and was taking care of me no matter what happened. His plans aren't necessarilly mine and just because something doesn't go according to my plans doesn't mean that he's dropped the ball.
I also realized that if I hadn't read the wrong devotion the day before, I never would have read that verse that night. God planned it out so that I would get the encouragement I needed just when I needed it!
Anyway, all that to say that I serve an awesome God who has got me in the palm of his hand. I am so thankful that he provided the money for me to go to college and that he gave me a sign that I am doing the right thing and am on the right track.

All You Need Is Love

No... seriously. What is the most important commandment Jesus gives? Love God first, and then others(Mark 12:30). There are so many people that I come in contact with everyday who God has laid on my heart to witness to. But what better way to witness to them than to show them LOVE? What better way to show them that Jesus loves them than to show them that no matter what they've done, where they've come from - I genuinely care for them and love them. No, I obviously can never love them as much as Jesus can. My love is imperfect. But with Jesus, I can show them the kind of love that really makes a difference.
There are so many people who need Jesus. If I'm completly realistic, I can't reach all of them! There is no way I can share Jesus with the entire world. But I can show LOVE to everyone that I come in contact with so that they know without a shadow of a doubt that there is something different about me, something alive within me.
It's not about telling people that they can do whatever they want because no matter what they do God still loves them. It's about showing them that IN SPITE of what they do, and what I do, Jesus loved us enough to die for us(Romans 5:8)!

To be or not to be?

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."
- e.e. cummings

Why are we constantly trying to be someone else? We look at people around us and say, "If only I had as much money as them," or, "If only I were as pretty as her," or, "If only I could do (fill in the blank) like her". But the truth is that God has created us to be who we are! To try and be someone that we're not tells God that we don't like the way he has created us. We are made in HIS image(Gen 1), and not in the image of anyone else.
God is the only one we should emulate!!!

Egg the City on Easter!

I am incredibly excited about my church's Easter service this Sunday. We're calling it "Egg the City" and we're bringing in the big guns. We're trying to get everyone that comes to bring a donated item so that we can flood our city with the love of Christ by meeting their physical needs.
PLUS... we're having it at TIME WARNER CABLE ARENA!!! Yeah, I said it. Time Warner, baby! We believe that since we're celebrating the greatest event that ever occurred in all of human history, we should at least try to do it right! We've rented out the Arena and are going to have AT LEAST 10,000 people if not more there to praise Jesus and lift him up.
It's going to be an amazing time of worship and celebration. Lives change when Jesus shows up!
My church's website: www.elevationchurch.org
To get a ticket for the event go to: www.eggthecity.com
Service starts at 10:00 AM but you'll want to get there early to get a good seat! Seating starts at 9:15. Bring a little cash for parking.