This is hilarious and sobering and crazy and I just couldn’t resist re-posting this. The author of this blog’s name is Mac and he went on the World Race. I just so happened to have subscribed to his World Race blog at some point and today came across this (his newest blog, One Crazy Bible) and I thought you’d really enjoy reading it. Or maybe “enjoy” isn’t the right word, since the Bible is downright crazy in Genesis…but it’s worth the read, let me tell you!
Let the craziness commence…
I just changed up the look of my blog to something with a tiny bit more depth and personality. Hopefully I’ll be able to personalize it more as I spend more time on here, but it’s good for right now. I like the parchment paper look, like you could reach out and grab it right off of the screen.
Now I have a question for you. It seems random but just go with me on this. This blog has been full of random, and it’s yet to be seen if I’ll be able to keep up with it the way I’d like to. Oh well…but it’s how life is for me at the moment 🙂
If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
For me, the answer has always been Thailand. 
The place where my heart is, even though I’ve only set foot in the country for no more than 3 days. There’s something about it that grabs me, that keeps me thinking of it day after day after day. The people, the experiences, the yearning to go back and the desire to reach this sweet nation with the love of Jesus.
Perhaps your place is also a place of the heart, or very simply someplace you long to see and experience, a place where you have family and friends, a vacation spot, a place with a specific need that’s within your skill set, etc.
But what is it? Maybe my question is more along the lines of, Where is your heart calling you? I think deep down inside of each of us is a longing for more. We all have a hole in the depths of our being that is only filled with the forgiveness and love of Jesus, who died on the cross for us, taking away our sins, and then rose again from the dead so we can live in heaven with Him forever. Once that hole is filled, you find peace. Contentment that can only be found in Jesus. But there comes a time when He will remove that contentment and fill you with restlessness…a yearning for more of Him, a desire to move mountains for Him, to shine the love of Christ to others, but you’re not sure exactly what that means or how to get there. And slowly, ever so slowly (He’s really good at helping me build up my patience, haha!) He’ll start to reveal what His plan is for you, but only so far as the next step. He may give you a brief glimpse farther into the future, but it stays hazy until He’s prepared you and prompts you to move toward that.
It’s an interesting, scary, exciting, wondering place to be. It’s weird. The sensation of knowing God is calling you to bigger, to more than yourself, to something only He can do through you and that you can’t ever imagine doing on your own, but only with Him working in you and through you–it’s crazy and goes against every human instinct. The instinct to be safe and secure. To prosper in this world. To make money, have a close-knit community of friends, a nice house and nice car. To fit in and not draw attention to yourself by being “too” different. When you follow Jesus, He begins to push you out of the world and into His. He loves us so much that He wants more than anything to use us for His glory. Whoa. Think about that. God is SO big. He made the universe and the millions of galaxies with just a few words. Yet He loves us. And wants to be with us and wants us to be His hands and feet. Just wow.
So where is He taking your heart? What has He placed in your heart that burns within you? That little flickering flame of an idea or dream that is too big to even put into words. For me, it’s just an image, compiled of a bunch of different dreams and ideas and places and people, that I can’t even begin to put into words yet. But maybe it’s good to try. Write it down, tell it to God, speak the desires of your heart to Him. You might not feel that He hears you, but He does.
Blogging has been a struggle for me lately, not gonna lie. I’m pretty sure it’s just one part of a multi-faceted attack by the devil on me. It’s been a struggle to write, a struggle to blog, a struggle to process things, a struggle to feel emotion and excitement, a struggle to remain confident that this is where God has me. And I believe it’s because I am on the brink of moving, of changing, of actually beginning to put action behind words and dreams. It’s because I’m taking steps toward something huge, totally bigger than myself. There’s a lot that’s going to go into it and it’s scary and crazy and sometimes, actually all the time lately, I find myself thinking “who am I to even think that I can do this?” It’s going to take a lot out of me. But…dun dun dun…I think that’s the point. A lot needs to be taken out and removed so that God can pour into me what He wants to be used for His glory.
My dad has been an extreme encourager for me during this time. He’s constantly reaffirming me and he’s really good at reminding me about my passion and who I am in Christ and who he and my family and friends see me as and capable of. To have him and my mom and family and friends behind me in this is extremely amazing.
One step at a time.
**Disclaimer. I apologize for being so mysterious. Some of you are just plain confused right now, others will know what I’m talking about immediately. All will be revealed in due time 😉 Love you all!
Wow. There is something about these lyrics that leaves me breathless, wanting more and more and more of the Holy Spirit. Just had to share this song by Jeremy Riddle with you, because it has been soaking into me like crazy these past couple days, and I can’t get enough of it!
Awaken my soul, come awake
To hunger, to seek, to thirst
Awaken first love, come awake
And do as You did at first
Spirit of the Living God come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow, to overflow
Spirit come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade
Spirit come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade
I just got home this morning from a mother-daughter trip to O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Amazing. We looooooved it! First, we really just needed to get away and indulge in a vacation. I felt guilty about it for a while, since it wasn’t a mission trip, but I also felt God speak to me that I was in need of some rest, as well. Okay, I knew He was right, because the past couple months have been incredibly busy, incredibly stressful, incredibly awesome, so I simply just needed a break, and I needed to get away from everything familiar. Well…Hawai‘i is definitely the place to do it! I didn’t do a whole lot of thinking about anything except just enjoying God’s creation, exploring, spending good quality time with my awesome Mom…it was so well needed.
I also learned some more about God and how He speaks to me. He was teaching me to trust Him. You see, I get some pretty cool travel perks through my current job, so I get to fly standby (which means seat availability: if there’s an open seat on the plane, I might be able to get on, depending on how many other people are “standing by” for the flight (thus the term standby) and there are different priorities that people have to beat others onto the plane). It’s very competitive, and the flights are fuller than ever this year, so I knew we could be in for a bit of an adventure. Through it all, I felt very strongly that we were going to get onto our flights, and not to worry about it. I know, I know, it’s just a small thing, and there are so many variables, but to be honest, I don’t need to know the why or the how behind it all…because at the end of the day, God has my back and already knows everything and has it all planned out. Even though I was taking a vacation, He approved of it, chose to bless it, and I believe He made a way for us, since for each flight it always looked impossible to get on, yet somehow we made it. There’s more to the story, and it’s full of time in airports, but it was one of those things where I wasn’t worried about it, because I knew I was in God’s hands. That even though we were taking personal time and I felt slightly guilty about it and “leaving behind” the rest of my friends and family to go to Hawaii, that it really was okay. 🙂
Needless to say, I will write more later to recap our trip, but it was super fun, nice and relaxing yet full of exploring O‘ahu and finally experiencing what Hawai‘i is all about. It’s a totally different change of pace, which was refreshing!
Coming home was a little bit more adventurous, involving a red eye flight and us arriving home an hour before I needed to be at work again…but it was so worth it. God is good, and He has GOOD things in store for us! Believe in that today!
More later. 🙂
You know those days when it’s just a peaceful, quiet day? You have time to just sit and soak in God’s presence…to blog and journal and spend time with Him…and enjoy some alone time? This time is so sweet for me. I need it. It’s been a long week. A good, fun-filled week. But very full and I can definitely say I’m in need of some rest. This week has been filled with fun family time, little-league football games, girls nights, birthday celebrations, and lots and lots of church and some serious seeking God time. But it is at the same time stressful and draining. Trying to make it all, enjoy it all, and be myself and find time for myself in the middle of it all. I really enjoy my friends and family…they rejuvenate me…but I think I tend to run myself dry and I don’t just let myself relax and take it easy. I usually end up needing some alone time to truly recharge my battery 🙂 I am constantly distracted and while I want to rest, it’s almost like I can’t, because I keep wanting to do things. I need to learn how to sit. JUST sit. And let God COME. I want it desperately. I yearn to be filled with more and more of Him, His Holy Spirit, His love, His peace, His joy so I can spread it to everyone I’m around. It’s a constant work-in-progress, I suppose!
AND, I’m working on not worrying about being perfect. Especially when it comes to my writing and blogging and just doing life…I am a perfectionist in many ways. It’s just normal for a first born 🙂 God’s helped me along my life journey to become much more easy-going and uber-flexible with most things, but I think when it comes to my writing it is much harder for me, since I want everything to be perfect right away. That will flow into my words and thoughts, too. And so…I think in some ways that hinders my communication with the Holy Spirit, because I over-think and second-guess a ton of things that I shouldn’t. Hearing God’s voice, following His leading, trusting Him right away and not after a long time of testing Him, etc etc. I hope that makes sense. These are just some of my musings…I really process things so much better when I write them down.
Lucky you, you get to read these rambling thoughts. I bet you’re SO unbelievably excited, huh? Haha! I DO appreciate you reading this though. I appreciate ALL of you…you make my life amazing!
Look for my next blog in a couple weeks…after I get back from my trip to Hawaii! 🙂
Have you ever thought about it? I mean, REALLY thought about it? Try to envision all the layers. Start with yourself here on earth, then look at the sky, then envision the atmosphere, the stars, the galaxies, the space that goes on and on and on and on…then look back and see if you can still see the Earth. Yeah, it’s pretty big, our world, but it sure is small in comparison to the scope of grandeur that is the universe God created. I mean, think about it…we’re really pretty teeny-weentsy-tiny. And then THINK. GOD…who created ALL of that…LOVES you and me. I mean, WHOA, right? If I’m so tiny and He created me and EVERYTHING around me, then who am I? How can I begin to even comprehend Him? And then it all zooms back into focus. This God loves me so much that He sent his SON to DIE for ME. Oh my goodness. I can’t even comprehend it. It’s too much for me.
I’m going to share with you the message from Louie Giglio at the Desiring God conference I attended last month. It rocked my world majorly. I had heard him do things like this before, giving us the magnitude and scope of our universe and how big it is, how small we are, and how huge God is…but THIS…what’s in this video is something I had never even THOUGHT of before. It is unbelievably awesome. I had to pick my jaw up and off the floor quite a few times. And you know that feeling when your soul just wells up inside of you in response to something that’s too much for it to bear? Yeah…that was me. Jaw-dropped…soul lept…hands raised in response to a King and a Creator who is so incredible, so huge, so magnificent, that no words or description or act of worship seems close to anything He deserves.
Just watch. Please watch the whole thing. And don’t stop until the end. It just gets better and better and better.
You’ll have to click the link below…it won’t let me embed it on my blog 😦 but it’s soooo worth it. Thanks for watching!
…life sure has gotten the best of my blogging lately. I’m guessing you want to know all about the Desiring God conference! In fact, I think I’ll be posting a few of the sessions on my blog for you to enjoy through the next couple weeks when I can find the time. There were some that I couldn’t get enough of — especially Louie Giglio. If you’ve ever heard him speak, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Seriously amazing! What He shows us about God and who He really is is absolutely staggering!
There’s been a lot going on in the life of Jess lately. The weekend of the conference was also the same weekend we said goodbye to one of my brothers who is off to Air Force basic training. Pretty cool, as he’s been working toward this for a long time and is super dedicated to it — we know this is God’s call on his life — but it is still weird to have him gone!
Oh, and we had our first Mission Talk lifegroup last night. The one where we bring in missionaries to tell us their stories, their calling, how they got on the mission field, what it has been like, what their vision is for the future, etc. It’s amazing. This is something I feel is 100% necessary for followers of Jesus to do. To gather around our missionaries to support them and listen to them and be inspired by them to go (or at least to send!) as well — and especially to pray for them! It’s such a GOOD time. God’s doing amazing things around the world, and I don’t know about you, but I definitely want to be a part of it!
So anyway, definitely processing things from the conference and seeking God. It’s hard for me to gather my thoughts on it, because there are so many. But I will try. Later, though! 🙂
Where to begin? There’s so much to write about. First things first–I am VERY excited for THIS this weekend–the Desiring God conference!!! This is an annual event put on by Pastor John Piper, and as far as I can tell or know about it, it is phenomenal (I’ve never attended before now…so I’ll let you know how it goes :)). This year’s theme is “Finish the Mission.” So naturally me, my rockstar parents, and awesome lil bro are in attendance. Did I say I was excited yet? Well…I am.
There’s a lot of back-story with this. Perhaps the best way to start is to simply tell you that I have a HUGE heart for missions, if you hadn’t already figured that out. What I mean by that is for as long as I can remember, I’ve always just simply wanted to shine God’s love to the whole world. And I’m a huge helper. Helping is actually one of my spiritual gifts and I love to do it, to get behind people and help them lift off into something greater. And I love to write–but now we’re getting off topic. *rewind* Let’s try this again :-P.
One of my hugest life desires is to show others God’s love. Whether that is simply holding a child and loving on them, or serving in some capacity, that’s how I see it. Just loving. And that has segued into hard-core missions heart syndrome. I will try and post more about that later, so you get to know me a little better.
Over the past year, my parents re-received the call to missions that they’ve had and known of for the past 25 years. They’ve spent all of those years raising me and my siblings, which is definitely a missions call in itself. They have always known they had a call to missions. They thought that that would be what they did once they were married. But then kids happened, and they knew they were called for that season to raise Godly kids. I am so thankful for my parents, they are no less than absolutely amazing. So…back to re-receiving their call.
Let’s just say some hard things happened, and God really got a hold of my family in an awesome, incredible, real and tangible way. It’s been unbelievably awesome and I can’t even begin to tell you how blessed I am to be a part of this family. Anyway. This all brought about an idea for a lifegroup (what my church calls small groups/Bible studies). My good friend Hillary was talking to my mom one day at church, and they just happened to brainstorm an idea for a missions lifegroup, right there in the church lobby. At first Hillary’s husband Bob thought it was a silly idea, “who would want to come to a missions lifegroup?” he asked…but very soon afterward God told him that it really was a good idea…and my dad was also all for it, so the 4 of them set off to start it. Since then, over the past year, it’s been so far beyond amazing that I can’t even put it into words and do it justice. I told my dad about a month ago that “I wish I could just put this lifegroup into a box and package up all of the goodness so others would understand how incredible and lifechanging and inspiring it is and want to come.” That pretty much sums it up.
We’ve been going through quite a few awesome books. (The Missionary Call, Spiritual Warfare & Missions, etc) and we’ve been having real-life missionaries come and speak to us and tell us about their experiences. The Holy Spirit is so present and real that it blows me away every time. Every time the lifegroup meets, there is always crying involved because the Holy Spirit is there. It is AWESOME. Things have moved along and more people have joined the group, and long story short, we now have the missions lifegroup at 2 of our church campuses (can you say sa-weet!) and we have split it up into 2 different groups, as well. We found that we were trying to do too much with the group, that we couldn’t read an awesome book and have a discussion about it AND have missionaries come and speak at the same time, because it ALWAYS ended up with the missionaries talking the whole time, which is absolutely incredible and life-changing.
So we now have 2 groups going over the books, and 1 open to the entire church to come hear our missionaries speak and give them a platform to share more deeply their ministry, their passion, their heart for the world, and give our church the chance to know more about them (more than you normally find out in a 5-spot).
So anyway, all that to say that it is completely normal and probably almost expected that we would attend this conference this weekend 😛 I am really excited for it. I am excited for our missions lifegroups. I am soooo pumped to see what God is going to do in us and in our church. Missions is already a huge part of our DNA, but I know it’s about to become an even bigger part of it.
So there. I’ve blabbed on for 772 words and counting. That’s a lot for a blog. I apologize. I think I like this topic just a little bit. 🙂 Would you keep us in your prayers? There’s a missions movement going on here, and it is SO exciting!
And while you’re at it, check out the conference and take a look at these awesome speakers! Also…another thing I can’t get enough of: World Race blogs. If you don’t know about the World Race…better check it out ASAP. It’ll rock your world.
More later. Peace!
This is absolutely awesome. Have you ever wanted to find an easy way to help women who are victims of sex trafficking, but never known how? Well…through Sevenly and the Not For Sale campaign, you can purchase a t-shirt for $22–it’s made by trafficking survivors–and when you purchase it, you’ll provide protection for 1 woman in Cambodia for a whole month! Now I think that’s pretty sweet and definitely worth every penny! 
writtenforapurpose 