Make Your Mark

You don't need to strive to make your mark on the world; to try and leave footsteps on the sands of time for others to follow. Live your life after God and you'll make your mark. You never know how much of an effect you can have on other people with a kind word or even if they just see the way you live. Sometimes people are so impressed with your life, that it impacts them, even inspires them to do great things. So, you never know. Just live your life after God.

~ CARMEN

Switchboard: A New Perspective on Life

I'm wanting to say and think something deep, but  every time I get going, someone calls and it ruins my  train of thought. It seems like switchboard is like life in that it's super distracting from something you're trying to achieve...I guess it's bad for focus.

In life, you're just sitting around and doing your own thing, but somehow almost constantly waiting expectantly for something. In switchboard, you're expectantly waiting for someone to call and in between calls you're trying to fill in  the time by thinking, or writing...
But this sense of expectancy is so distracting to any amount of productivity.

It seems like it's the very same way in life. Sometimes, we're trying to to accomplish something, but it's an upward climb because of this sense of "on edge-ness" that bothers us and makes us lose our focus. So, basically, if you want to move past all of this, take things as they come, one call at a time. Go with God's flow. Don't worry about the things that are sure to come. Go to God and get His direction for each day. You will be ready for what happens, when it happens. So, not to worry! It will happen when, and only when, you're ready and not a moment sooner.

~Carmen

What's the Deal?

This is something I wrote out last month. It's a little late, but it's what was going on none-the-less. :)

With Easter going on, there were a lot of thoughts going through my mind.  Especially because we had a Girls Journey in and I was really praying that they would have an Easter that they'd never forget.

As thoughts were crashing and swirling through my mind I hit on one and stopped, saddened and grieved. It was the thought of all the Easters past that had meant almost nothing to me. Easters where I just sat and listened to the recounting of a story that I'd known forever.  It's funny, it was on an Easter Sunday that I gave myself to Jesus, but so often after that when His sacrifice came up in song or sermon, it was just a sad thing that had happened a long time ago but hearing it and thinking about it  didn't stir my heart at all. The people around me who were freaking out about it all were just really strange.  

But as the years have passed, something has radically changed. That thing is my faith in the love of my God and my Saviour.

Before, the Easter story was that of a distant God who could do anything, and because He was really judgmental, He had to do something to make us tolerable enough to be around, so He sent His Son, who was perfect and could handle it, to die for us; and as a result we can go to heaven. But, we'd still better do everything right or we are in big trouble.

Those beliefs didn't make for a very full or joyful Christian walk.  But as God has taken the time to break down my wall of doubt and unbelief in His unconditional love, the cross has become one of the most heartrending and beautiful things in my life.

What I was thinking about this past Easter, was what the cross of my Lord has actually given me.  

For so long I lived, saved, but totally defeated by sin and discouragement. I knew I wouldn't have to go to hell, I knew that I would go to heaven, but life here was a joke!

But there has been a crazy revelation that God has been showing me little by little in the past few years, and this Easter I was really pretty much freaking out about it.

So, when I had the chance to spend some time with the girls who were going on the Journey, there was one thing I wanted them to see; the deal God made when He let Christ die!

He totally outwitted the devil, He CRUSHED him with Christ's victory over death!!!  Being such a victor, God had won the right to choose the terms of surrender.  

So what are they?  Well, according to how most of us Christians live they must have been along these lines:  "Satan, I have conquered and vanquished you, and I have overcome your only weapon which is death! My power is undeniable, my victory is complete and unquestionable! So, here are the terms of surrender that I demand!  You will not have anyone who accepts what My Son has done! They will be mine for eternity! Forever and ever, and EVER they will dwell with me and you will NOT be able to TOUCH them! 

But............you may still keep them bound here on earth.  They may still remain under your whip and continue to be a slave to sin and discouragement. They may live in fear, and doubt, uncertain of my love, and unsure of my will.  You may torment them with lies, and lead them into misery, guilt and condemnation, they may still live in sin, and they can strive to do everything right without the strength to actually accomplish it, and you may use that to make them despair. BUT... I get them in the end! "

Sigh.... I lived that way for SO long.  But the thought, that God would win such a victory, at SUCH a cost, and then settle with those kind of terms, it's awful, it's horrible, and it doesn't make any sense!

God did not settle with Satan on those terms!!! NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!!!!  So for the girls I was talking with, I challenged them to find out what we got when Jesus died. Not what we got later after we die, but what we can have RIGHT NOW!!!!!
I had them read chapters like I John 4 and 5, Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, Romans 8, and John 14 and 15.

And here are just a few of the things they found. Things that God says we get NOW because Jesus was willing to die.

• Christ becomes our Brother.

• We are completely sanctified.

• There is no more Condemnation

• The power of God that took Jesus from the very grasp of death is the power God will use to change us within if we let it.

• As we learn to know the love of Jesus we are filled with all and everything that God has and is! "Filled with all the Fullness of God"

• We are given a Comforter!  The Holy Spirit to teach us what we need to do.
• We have victory over the world and it's temptations.

These things seem like old news, but guess what?  Even though we've all heard them, most of us have NO IDEA what it looks, means, or feels like to live these out in their reality. We try and try and try and try and fail just as many times, because we don't know what it means to let GOD complete the work that He has started in our lives!  I think that's the main difference between all those "Amazing Spiritual Giants" and us.  They believed that all the things in God's word were true, and they let Him do it in their lives. We think we believe it, but we really don't, and we leave the miraculous power of God behind as we try to gain the abundant Christian life on our own.

But if we can start stepping out in faith, and just getting to know Jesus, the abundant life He talked about will become more and more of a reality. 

That is why He died, and it's the deal that He made when He gave up His life!  He gave up everything so He could give us everything.

On Good Friday this year, we heard a song that's been running through my mind ever since, and it's really simple, but it's just a reminder of my Saviour's total victory, and His love for me. 

Here's the Chorus:

"This is how Love wins, every single time,

Climbing high upon a tree where someone else should die.

This is how Love heals, the deepest part of you,

Letting Himself bleed into the middle of your wounds,

And this is what Love says standing at the door,

You don't have to be who you've been before,

Silenced by His voice, death can't speak again,

This is how love wins.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood,

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood,

Cause' this is what love says, standing at the door, you don't have to be who you've been before!

Silenced by His voice, death can't speak again!

This is how Love wins!"

Fan, or Follower: That is the Question

We as a team have been reading a book that recently came out. You may have heard of it. It's called Not a Fan, by Kyle Idleman.
Sometimes there are books that are simply a fad, the thing to buy to be a 'cool' Christian. But my friend's mother recommended this book to me, telling me she had just finished using it as the base for their small group Bible study. This intrigued me, since I'm used to Bible study that includes thick doctrinal books with study guides and deadlines. As far as I knew, this was a streamlined softcover book barely the thickness of a stick of gum. So why so much enthusiasm?

I'm also a bit of a critic when it comes to content, so when I finally got my copy (a gift from my sister) and cracked the first few pages, I was prepared for anything...Almost. The one thing I wasn't expecting was to be shaken by what I read. Deeply shaken. And it's not only because the author is a dynamic writer, which he is. Not because it keeps our interest, which it does. But because what he presents in this book challenges the core of American Christendom.

Not A Fan chronicles the life of two types of Christians: Fans, and Followers of Jesus Christ. It quickly becomes clear what the author's driving point is: Which one are you? Sounds like an easy choice. A follower, I automatically replied, and kept reading...but the twist of the story is what makes the book so startlingly convicting. Most Christians fall into one of the categories... and it may not be the one you expect.


 I've almost finished with the last chapter... I'll let you know how it turns out.

~Emily

Drake and Picture Update

Hey everyone. My family and I are up in Chicago, helping at Head Quarters. Mr. Gothard asked us to help with a new hotel that he is purchasing. So, we've been up here since the end of Sept or the beginning of Oct (can't remember!) working. They were planning on having the Christmas Conference here, but the Lord had other plans. There are a lot of legal things that they are working through to completely own the building. Praise the Lord that He's opening the doors in His timing. Nearly every day, we've been cleaning and organizing the Drake. I don't have time to say much more, but I can post a few pics of the crazy times we've had!

~Kim

When I was a teen girl, I would look up the church women around me, and most of the young ones a few years older than me who I looked up to as an example, seemed…not very concerned about being attractive, not very fashionable, not bubbly or enthusiastic, their hair unkept,  not exciting in conversation, kind of blah-type of girls. This has nothing to do with modesty and has nothing to do with going to a conservative church or being around conservative people because they weren't. It was just an overall sloppy, unkept appearance that generalized the girls around me. I started thinking...if that’s what being a young Christian girl is, no thanks! I’ll pass. Hand me a Cosmo magazine and I'll follow after these little hotties until I am old and fat and actually can’t do anything about it! haha (Just kidding. Not really. Ok, you know what I mean!)

This false mentality led me to make many choices that were unwise and downright wrong, but I felt like I had to make a choice between looking like those beautiful women or these frumpy ones.  

THEN I met some girls who were SO beautiful (like real-life Barbies) and more beautiful in fact than the girls I loved in the magazines. They had a glow about them, they we're so sweet and nice, and so enthusiastic and just fun! And guess what, they had a love for God that completely inspired me!! In my mind they sure one-upped those magazine girls (who were beautiful but probably and mean snobby in real life). Girls like THEM are what has kept me loving Jesus and more excited about living for Him because I realize He loves making things beautiful! He doesn't ask me to give that up to follow Him. If He is the author of beauty, and we're supposed to be reflectors of that, then Christian girls should be the most beautiful ones out there!! 

Lately I have been reading about amazing, world-changing, out-of-the-box, beautiful, and gorgeous, Christ-honoring women of days gone by.  I came to realize that great women who excluded enchanting beauty can be found all throughout the pages of history. And should be found. As girls we need role models and after hours of pouring over magazines, its scary how quickly those girls become our role models as we unconsciously take on their attitudes and perspectives about womanhood and life and our role in it.

There’s a common thread here I noticed in that these great women I’ve been reading about were women who rejected the empty feminine charm of the world and embraced an altogether different kind of beauty–the way-more-exciting and amazing beauty of Jesus Christ. They showcased femininity as God intended it to be in all its elegance, grace, nobility, and lasting loveliness (tons better than what we got today, think Kate Middleton vs. Lady Gaga).

Here are just a handful of my favorite examples. Notice that the following phrases are what people, fellow contemporaries, said of such women (which makes this even cooler):

Said of Lottie Moon (young, single missionary girl to China):

“A pretty woman, with lovely soft features, kind eyes and dark hair, she was never angry, never impatient, never resentful, she patiently wore away prejudices and hatred by her gentle, gracious presence and her blameless life.”

And here’s my favorite last line about her… “She had all the firmness of a man, and yet a more gentle and womanly woman it would be hard to find.”  That’s what I’m talking about! 

Said of Narcissa Whitman (young, married missionary girl to the Native American Indians):

“She seemed endowed with a peculiar magnetism when you were in her presence so that you could not help thinking yourself in the presence of a being much higher than the ordinary run of humanity…” (Precisely how I feel about Christianna Reed  “She was always gentle and kind to the Indians, as she was to everyone else. She took an interest in every one at the mission, especially the children. Everyone loved her, because to see her was to love her.”

And one similar to what I would like said about me…was what Jonathan Edwards said of his wife Sara Edwards before he was even married to her. His observation of her yet while she was still single:

“They say there is a a young lady in new Haven who is beloved of that great Being who made and rules the world. They say that He fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight. They say that she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on Him. If you present all the world to her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it. She is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has singular purity in her affections. You could not persuade her to compromise her true Love even if you were to give her all the world. She possesses a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and kindness to those around her. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly. She seems to be always full of joy and pleasure, and no one knows exactly why. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have Someone invisible always conversing with her. “

A Grand New Adventure

Welcome to our blog! We're looking forward to having you along on our journey to a better walk with our Savior, Jesus Christ. I've been thinking about starting a blog for a long time, but never actually went so far as to dedicate my time and energy to one. To be in a ten girl team however, is a great chance to take that desire and run with it! We'll keep you updated on what God is working on in each of our lives. We welcome you to seek the face of God with us...because each of our personal great adventures truly begins with Him.

~Emily