The Power of God

Lately I have been amazed with how God is moving through people. My church just go through doing a series called Winsome, where we are not of this world but we are in it. God created us to be people in this world, but we are not people of this world. We do not follow the things this world has to offer but we follow God and his instruct is to make his name known and bring glory to him.

This week at school I heard multiple testimonies from different students at my school. I would have never guessed anything that they have gone through and I was amazed at the struggles they had faced. Through the power of God, they were able to over come their hard situations and get closer to God in order to winsome.

Today at church a girl in my small group and I sat out on a bench before church started and she told me her story. At age five she was sexually abused and then again at age 12 or 13. Hearing her story, made my story and my problems seem like nothing. I can't even comprehend what life is like for her. She has been through so much, and yet is filled with Joy. But this Joy can only be given to her through the love God has shown her and the compassion he has towards her. I'm still amazed with how powerful God is. How he can take someone broken, someone at the end of the line, and reel them back into him and make all things new and glorious. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!

Through hearing these testimonies I have come to realize that testimonies are important to our faith. They allow us to winsome over and they allow us to grow closer to God. By sharing our testimony we grow closer to those who we share it with, and we release everything that was built up inside. Testimonies are so important to our faith an our relationship with God. Our testimonies bring glory to God, they are a part of God's story whether we have a huge testimony or a small testimony, we all have something someone can learn about. In Mark 5 verse 19 it says "And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."" In Mark, this is a testimony. Testimonies are found through out the bible, where the power of God can be seen, in Paul, Daniel, and many more. I never realized the importance of our story until now. But our story is a part of God's story and it brings GLORY to him.

To Blossom, you must grow

Dear Father,

       Lately I have been convicted on knowing you. A couple of weeks ago I went to Ethos in Nashville and the preacher gave a sermon on John 3. In John 3 it is the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a jewish religious leader. He was the smartest person who knew information about the bible, but yet he humbles himself before God to accept that he does not KNOW Jesus, meaning he has no relationship with Jesus.

     The story of Nicodemus really relates to me. I grew up in a Christian home and a Christian school. I knew all the sunday school stories like the back of my hand, I could tell them to you before I learned to write about them. In sunday school, I was the person who "knew" all the bible school answers but did I really KNOW Jesus or did I just know about him?

     Our school theme for this year is get low. Humble yourself, let go of your pride to allow the work of God to be done. I think my problem is that I won't humble myself to let others know I haven't had a true relationship with Christ and honestly I do not know what one looks like. I read my bible, I make connections, I feel the Holy Spirit, and I pray to God daily; but what does a relationship look like?

     Back to Ethos, the preacher said you always need the power of God. In John 3:3 it says, "I tell you the truth, unless you are BORN AGAIN, you cannot see the Kingdom of God". That really hit home for me. My knowledge of Jesus is exceeding my obedience and experience with him. Nicodemus asks multiple times how is this possible? how can we be born again? Our knowledge and performance do not get us into the Kingdom. It is possible to get into the Kingdom through Jesus. Love came down so we can perform, not we perform to gain love. Love came first. Nicodemus humbled himself. He hadn't received God's love but yet was performing. I need to humble myself so God can write my story.

    Tonight I went to Passion and they talked about being rooted in Jesus. Being rooted in the word of God. One quote that stuck out to me is when we know who He is we know who we are. There are two types of knows. One is knowledge- learning, understood fact and then there is the other one know- to be acquainted with, to have a relationship with. When people talk about me I want them to say she knew Jesus, Jesus was her acquaintance. When I think about these two times of knowledge I think about the verbs saber and conocer. Saber is to know knowledge facts, conocer is to know people, to have a relationship with them. These two types of knowledge are important. To know facts about Jesus is important because you can tell others the story of Jesus and tell them what the word of God says, but first you must be acquainted with Jesus and have a relationship with him.

    These two talks really hit me hard, it made me reevaluate my relationship with Christ. Yes, I am a sinner and I know Christ died to save me from my sin so I can live with him eternally in heaven, but know I have to do the will God has called me to do. To share his story, but let him be the writer. I need to humble myself. I do not know it all and I have a ton of room to grow in faith. Yes, I might know all the bible school answers or all the stories; but there is information or connections I do not know. I learn something new each day and through gaining this knowledge from mentors and leaders I will be able to share this knowledge with other people.

Thanks your daughter and princess,
Heather

Encouragement

My encouragement chapel could not come at a better time. Tonight, I just received the news that a mother in my parent's sunday school class was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. The doctors said that the cancer would never go into remission, but through treatments she could hold off the cancer for a little bit longer. The church family was there at the hospital giving support to her when she heard the news. This strengthened my faith. In my talk, I say that when we encourage others it strengthens our faith, but I never knew this is what God had in store for me. When I heard that story it strengthened my faith. Seeing my church constantly support families that are going through a rough time encourages me. I know that if I ever go through something the church is behind me and will support me constantly. Going through my talk tonight really gave me encouragement and power. I cannot wait to talk in share and share this wonderful news with everyone else at school! God is go great! and I am blessed to be a messenger because I am not worthy enough to be called a daughter of the king, but because of God's great love he believed in me and thinks I am worthy enough to die for and wants to spend entrenal life with me! I am so grateful to know God and share he love and encouragement with others.

My Prayer:
Lord please be with the Aker family. I know what it is like to receive that news. I received that news the winter break of my 7th grade year, and it is not easy. But god has a plan and in Isaiah 41:10 it says God up holds you with a mighty and righteous right hand. Do not be afraid of discouraged. My prayer is also to let your will be done as I talk to the student body next monday. I pray everything goes will and that your words will come out of my mouth. Let you light shine. and be with our chapel and let it go your way, all I pray is that it touches one person, if more than one person is touched than we have exceeded our job, but I want one life to be changed!!

Thanks,
your faithful servant
Heather

There is something bigger

As I heard the song my own little world today by Matthew West I am reminded that the story is not about me. My own little world is not about me. "What if there's a bigger picture? What if I'm missing out? What if there's a greater purpose? I could be living right now Outside my own little world" There is something bigger outside my world. It is easy for me to live in my own little world but I don't want to be missing out anymore, I want to be reaching out. Lord lead me deeper than my feet could ever wander. Show me a greater purpose than living in my own little world. If I continue to only think and live for myself I will miss out on so much!

So much of my life is consumed with what I want to do, but there has got to be more to life than me? I am tired of living for myself I need to start living for God and the plan God has for me.

we were resting when God was working

"He was pierced for our transgressions 
He was crushed for our sins The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed...What can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus"Isaiah 53

Sabbath started in the garden. When God created man and women the day after was a day of rest. Our first day on this planet was Sabbath! When God made woman, man was asleep. God is working when we are sleeping. When Jesus was in the garden before he died, we were sleeping. At dinner we said we would be there for Jesus but yet we could not stay awake for that hour. God was still working while we were sleeping. He had a plan to save us and that plan was Jesus. The story started in the garden and Jesus' story ended in the garden. Jesus paid the price for all we have done, we are sinners, but God carried away our sins through the blood of Jesus. In Leviticus 16 it talks about how on the day of atonement (the passover) the people of God offered a living sacrifice for their sins, this goat was then lead into the wilderness away from society to die. This goat carried their sins away. When it died, it died with the sins of Israel. But Christ is the new law and covenant. Christ is now the goat. He died, and carried our sins away. His body was broken and his blood was shed for us. #sabbath #sacrifice


WiSdOm:

Do not ever forget the sacrifice God made, I do not want to betray Jesus

God does not need us

We were asleep when Jesus was being crushed by the weight and the sins of the world

There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend

So with in the past couple weeks encouragement has just been a huge thing that God has been showing me. We were assigned our chapel groups for school and my group decided we would have a chapel to encourage the student body. I am speaking in the chapel and I could not be more excited. In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13 it says "But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness". Multiple things have shown up in my week that shows this is what God wants. The first sign I saw was some of my friends received anonymous encouragement letters. So I decided I would write encouragement letters to all my friends along with a little goodie bag, something sweet to make them smile :)  Another encouraging thing that happened was one of the administrators in the high school decided to put a basket in the high school filled with encouraging scriptures to encourage people who come into the office. Those are just a few of the mighty things God has done through out my life to encourage and be encouraged.

Recently we just came back from our spiritual retreat and over 40 people were baptized!!! How amazing is that!! One of the main things on my heart when I heard that was all those people need encouragement to continue living a life for God, because school is very different than being on the retreat. Everyone needs encouragement but especially people in new life, they need encouragement to continue with their faith and grow and support.

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to encourage a girl on my team. In my talk for our chapel I talk a lot about soccer and how coaches have encouraged me, how my pride gets in the way of encouraging others, and how the support from my parents give me encouragement. The girl, Rachael, on my team was gone for one of our big tournaments and so another girl on the team played in her position, and soon took over that starting spot. Rachael was disappointed, this was a huge change. She has played in the position since she was little and not being able to play there is hitting her hard. She opened up to me and just told me everything that was going on with soccer and positions and how disappointed she was and I was able to encourage her! Once I got home I sent her a text that said I know you are disappointed, but it will be okay. I have been in that position and I just had to work hard and become better and you can't let is consume you and mess with your head, you have to look at the other side of things and maybe see what good things can come out of it and just remember it is only one more year till we get to go to college and live out our dreams! She responded with that was the nicest thing someone has done for me in a while and she really appreciated it.

Through encouraging people I myself was encouraged. This week has been really stressful and by writing encouraging letters to my friends my stress has been relieved. Encouraging other can be hard, but when you encourage others it lifts you up.


WiSdOm fOr ThE DaY:

Inspire and bring joy to all those you touch

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless

This is Good

This week is the week where I have to get all my college application stuff together because I send in my college application next week! Which is quite scary thinking I will be semi- on my own in less than a year, not quite sure how I feel about that yet. A couple weeks ago we got our chapel group assignments and my group decided to plan our chapel on encouragement. Since this week will be quite stressful for me and some of my friends I am determined to write a note of encouragement to my friends! Even though I may not get encouragement back that is not the point. Jesus called us to be a friend not to have friends, I am being called to encourage not to be encouraged and maybe through the process of encouragement I can be encouraged! Through every situation I need to be reminded that this is good! Even though it might not be good or it might be hard or something I do not want to be doing, if I constantly tell myself this is good I will begin to have to mentality of everything being good! And it will encourage me to achieve and do more than when I am discouraged and down on myself!

Romans 12:8
If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showering kindness to others, do it gladly.

Romans 12:4-5
Such things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises. May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other-- each with the attitude Christ Jesus toward the other.

Hebrews 3:13
But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness

You are valuable because you exist. Not because of what you do or what you have done, but simply because you are

My PrAyEr:

Lord this week I hope your spirit just breathes peace into my life and that your words will be spoken out of my mouth. I also pray for my chapel class group. I pray you give us wisdom and guidance into what you want you to tell the student body. Let your will be done because it is not about us. I may know the I am but I am for sure the I am not!! Lord thank you for blessing me with the wonderful people I have in my life I do not think I could be alive right now if it was not for the encouragement from the people that surround me. Thank you so much. You are good!