Kelsey comes to Texas!

last week i had the privilege of having a dear friend of mine visit for a few days. the funny thing is we actually met in uganda this past september. i have to say, our God sure knows what He is doing when he connects people around the world. He knew 4 short months later, Kelsey would be in texas standing in front of 200 youth sharing about God's goodness, faithfulness, and restoration process happening in the mawanga village of uganda. HE made Himself known through every word and every story shared. God is on the move and i believe He desires for this generation to rise up and step out in faith.  (below is a picture of us)

kelsey lives in kampala, uganda and we met one sunday after church. we only had one day that our schedules coordinated and allowed us to visit. (click here to read more on how we met). we sat at dinner sunday evening and shared with each other where God has brought us and what we are learning in our current season of life. i can't tell you how encouraging this woman was and still is to me. she has walked a similar road as i am now on. she has spoken words over me that i know the Lord wanted me to hear. i am so thankful to God for her and the friendship we have developed. through the world of social networking and emails, we stayed up-to-date (well as much as we could). and when i picked her up at the airport last tuesday, it was as though we had not missed a day in-between. those friendships are rare and a true gift the Lord gives! 

meeting in africa and communicating through internet or skype, our conversations were filled with more of ministry conversations. God was working through her ministry (ROWAN) and of course i wanted to here all about it. with that, we didn't know much about the "other parts" of our lives...such as family life, friendships, etc....so we filled in the gaps...it sure was fun living life together for a few days. again, a huge blessing and gift! 

wednesday was filled with speaking at Cleburne Christian Academy, coffee at mill street cafe, lunch with the youth pastor and others, and then speaking to the youth group at Cleburne Bible Church. it surely was a day of making much of Jesus! and i believe He is stirring the hearts of those who were there at church.

Kelsey speaking at youth wednesday night...

thursday we had an unexpected lunch with the principle of Cleburne Christian Academy. he was touched by what kelsey shared wednesday and wanted to know more. we are excited to see all what God does through this! praying for big things! after lunch we spent several hours at starbucks visiting with some of the youth. that evening kelsey shared the story of ROWAN to the missions board and ultimately the story of God working in the mawanga village. we praise God in advance for what He will do!! as they say in uganda: Mukama Yebizibwe "Praise God"

friday we drove up to dallas in time to eat lunch with some of her family before her flight. i loved getting to meet them....

 Friday lunch with her cousin and aunt

our last picture together in texas...until we meet again...

maybe in the states or back in uganda :)

with great expectations from the Lord & His faithfulness in connecting us, we give our praise and all the glory to Him!

the next few days

i am putting pause on my reflections from passion 2011 and will pick back up in a few days. i am heading out to a volleyball tournament in san antonio and then will hit the ground running next week with hosting a missionary and my good friend kelsey young. also, my family was informed that the doctors found a spot on my dad's left adrenal gland. he went down to MDA for a normal 6 month check up and got the results of his scan today. they are planning on doing a biopsy to determine if it cancerous or not. that is scheduled for sometime next week. we are all in good spirits and trusting the Lord with every step. you can read more on our families blog by clicking here.

my prayer in all of this is that God would make much of Himself. that He would be exalted. that He would be glorified. and that He would draw us closer to Him.

thanks for standing in the gap.

joy

be thou exalted

the Lord has been faithful in the littleness of my prayers. He has blown me away by accomplishing only what He can accomplish. and i am overwhelmed with thankfulness. may He be exalted in all things. 

"All YOUR works shall praise YOU, O LORD, 

and YOUR saints shall bless YOU. 

They shall speak of the glory of YOUR kingdom, 

and talk of YOUR power, 

to make known to the sons of men HIS mighty acts, 

and the glorious majesty of HIS kingdom, 

and YOUR dominion endures throughout all generations

...my mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD." 

Psalms 145:10-13,21

"Be exalted, O GOD, above the heavens; 

let YOUR glory be over all the earth."

Psalm 57:3; Psalm 108:5

"Be exalted, O LORD, in YOUR strength, 

we will sing and praise YOUR might."

Psalm 21:13

"YOU have set YOUR glory above the heavens."

Psalm 8:1

"The LORD is exalted over all the nations, 

HIS glory above the heavens."

Psalm 113:4

a quick story...

over the weekend i lead a small group of girls at a disciple now. to be quite honest, i wasn't ready or prepared at all. i mean i did my homework and read over what we would be teaching, but i didn't feel ready to teach. i didn't have my notes together. i didn't feel confident in my spirit with how the small group discussions sessions would go. but o what little faith i had in what my God can do. 

Jesus was the voice to the girls this weekend. He was the words they heard. He moved in their hearts and stirred their spirits. that was my prayer. that He would somehow be my voice and challenge these girls with what He wanted them to know and hear. He came through. He is adequate and more than prepared to do a mighty work in the heart of His children.

since then, God has been highlighting some words through His scripture that have seemingly been recurring. i don't believe this is ironic or a coincidence, but only the Lord bringing recognition to Himself. we are to bring praise to the Lord because of His mighty acts, His glorious kingdom, and His power. He is to be exalted above ALL things. above our desires. above our possessions. above our reputations. above our family. above our dreams. above our friendships. above our comforts. above my ambitions. above my likes & dislikes. above my health. and above my life. (Tozer, Pursuit of God, pg 102, paraphrased)

for the Glory of His name,

joy

Passion 2011: part 3

the heart.

we can easily water down the greatest commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, & strength..." and we can also skim over the fact of "delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Matt 22:37; Ps 37: 4). beth moore merged these two verses together during her breakout session at passion. it was a convicting message of knowing the desires of our hearts, but also the heart of that very desire.

psalm 37 was where we would spent most of our time studying what our desire, delight, and heart is. to give a little structure, beth broke it down as follows:

1. nothing dictacts our lives like our desires
2. beneath the desire of our heart is the heart of our desire
3. delighting in God makes our truest desires inevitable
4. nothing external can steal our right to delight
5. to make room for delight, we have to commit
6. patiently waiting for desire to turn into delight is not passive

she elaborated on each one which gave greater depth to knowing the desire deep within. she defined desire as "sustained longing unaffected by mood or circumstances". God knows the depth of who we are and what we really want. it's not just the desire of wanting something, but it's the heart and sole purpose that really matters. and at times we believe that the circumstances around us can take away our joy for things, but it's actually what is going on inside of us that can steal it.

i have realized that the relationship between the mind and heart are vitally important. we can know something, but the question is...are you letting yourself believe that very thing you know?

Passion 2011: part 2

the power of the mind

beth moore begin our first morning session at passion with tackling one of the most critical areas...our minds. she embarked on a challenging subject, but one that is relative to all. one issue that we all, if we were honest, deal with in one way or another. i have been in a rut lately on "wondering what i am supposed to do with my life right now" and i have allowed myself to settle for the answer of "i don't know. i am just waiting on God to tell me". that may be true in some ways to wait, but honestly for me, it was a cop-out because i was spiritualizing my excuse for not going after something.

beth took us through Romans 12:1-8 and focused on verse 2 which says,

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you be able to test and approve what God's will -- his good, pleasing and perfect will." (v2)

she pointed out to us that it takes the renewing of your mind to know God's will. and whatever He calls us to do, we are never fully capable to do it. that's why we need Him. He is the one who will accomplish all things. we are just the vessel He will use to do that. we have to believe that. it's not about us. but ALL about HIM!

the mind is full of brilliance and of darkness...we can know what we are doing and why we are doing it. whether it's honoring God, or not at all. that's why we must take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:3-5). there is a reason why we do certain things and we make excuses for "not knowing why", but we can know the thoughts we think. and we should be fixated on HIM...not on the world. we must get to a point in our day. in our lives. to think beyond the obvious. to ponder upon. to treasure Christ. (Luke 2:18-19) 

and as paul was in his chains for the sake of Christ, he continued to have a renewed mind as he said, "..i consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake i have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him...I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings..." (phil 3:8-10)

that is where i am today. i desire to know Christ more. to fixate my mind on Him and Him alone. it's a daily choice to make, but in the end only He will remain. everything else will fade. 

beth left us with this..

you wont impact your generation unless you have a renewed mind and are focused.

 God will blow our mind if we just give it to Him!

Passion 2011: part 1

"YES, LORD, 

walking in the way of your laws - 

WE WAIT FOR YOU; 

YOUR NAME and RENOWN are 

the DESIRES of OUR HEARTS." isaiah 26:8

"may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight O LORD,

MY ROCK and MY REDEEMER"...."may my prayer be set before you like incense; 

may the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice"..."my eyes are fixed on YOU, 

O SOVEREIGN LORD." psalm 19:14; 141:2,8

as i sat in barnes & noble in tennessee. i began preparing my heart for the passion conference in atlanta. you don't quite know what to expect when you enter a 4 day conference like passion. but in that you go with high expectations of God meeting us there. and he did. 

this was what i wrote in my journal...

"Holy God, i ask that you come pour yourself over us this weekend at Passion. it is not the event that will change us, but YOU, O Lord! you are the reason we gather. you are the reason we live and breath. you alone are the common thread among us. Lord, fall afresh on us. let your word speak. let the spirit move..."

God took this prayer and fulfilled it. in every song given in worship. in every word spoken by those that spoke. our hearts were stirred for Him!

because of Jesus...

Road Trip to Passion 2011

1 week ago i left texas and headed to the east coast. my ultimate destination was atlanta, georgia. i went to johnson city, tennessee to pick up my friend whitney and then drove to asheville, north carolina to pick up my friend bekah as we all 3 ventured down to the passion conference.

we spent 4 days in ATL with 22,000 other people as we gathered as one church body to worship Jesus. it was a weekend that we all were challenged by and still are in the midst of processing because of all that Jesus did. He used each person who spoke. each person who lead worship. it was moving. powerful. and beyond words to describe. my hope is that over the next few days i can unpack what i learned and have it take root in my life.

the Lord is sweet and tender in how he continues to reveal more of himself to us and draw us closer to him. i feel privileged to be able to be a part of his story. it is much bigger than i can even fathom.

Jesus is my desire. my source of joy. my reward. he is enough for me.