Faithful Fridays ~ Boldly I Approach.

Hi, everyone, and Happy Friday!  :)  What are you guys up to this week?  My little cousin is on spring break, so she's visiting with us.  :)




Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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He struggled under the pain that threatened to make his knees buckle under.  But he couldn't fall under the weight; no, he had something to fight for.  His love was too much, too important, to give up and give in.  He would fight for her. 
He looked up, sweat rolling down his forehead and stinging his eyes, to see a whole mass crowd of people jeering at him, calling out his name, mocking him in every way they knew how.  They had stripped him of everything; dignity, self-defense, pride, even most of the clothes on his back.  A little voice inside him whispered, "Give up.  It's not worth it."  He was human, after all.  But a greater will within him cried out, "No!  She is worth it!"  
His love was unbreakable.  
Then the remainder of those clothes were ripped to shreds as they led him off and began to beat him.  Mercilessly.  He stood the pain as long as he could, until he collapsed on the ground, but they didn't stop there.  He could barely see anything, barely make anything out.  There was just the pain, on the outside and the inside.  Part of him felt as if God Himself had forsaken him.  He had never before in his life felt so lonely and abandoned into darkness.  But the blows kept coming, and he didn't feel like they'd ever stop.
But she's worth it, he still knew inside.  So he didn't completely give up.  
A rough voice ordered him up, and somehow, his love in mind, he did it.  It was the power of that love for her, the intensity of it, that drove him on.  
She had never done anything to earn or deserve his love.  She had, in fact, hurt him countless times.  She wasn't there for him now.  But he was still going to fight for her.  He would take all this pain for her, gladly, if it meant she would have life.  If she would be saved.  
He was driven out again from the dank, sullen darkness into the blindingly bright sunshine, into the crowd again.  They were yelling louder now, cursing his name and the things he had stood for.  It hurt.  But he kept on.  His mother's face flashed in and out of the crowd, pain carved deep into her eyes.  His friends were nowhere to be found.  Alone.  
Those who had him imprisoned pushed him through the crowd, letting him be spat on, kicked, hit, and abused in every way.  Things were thrown at him.  People trampled him.  He was shoved roughly past the crowd, their taunts roaring painfully in his ears, on and on down a rough path.  He didn't think he could make it; he wanted to keep pushing for his love, but so often he stumbled.  Still, they kept pushing him down the path, lonely now.  He could feel the end coming.  He was all the way outside the city now, all on his own, completely forsaken.  They cast him down on the ground, and as the last blow came to fall, his only thought was: 

She was worth it.      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That wasn't a he.  That was Him.  Jesus.  And that wasn't just a her.  That was us.  You.  Me.  That was what He took on for us--willingly, freely.  His love is unique because it isn't just like the most beautiful, deep, intense kind of love we can imagine between two lovers (although the Bible does compare it to that)--it's also the love of a mighty, majestic God, who is so over us, but who chooses to reach down to our level, scoop us up in the big arms of His tender, but strong, love, and cover us in mercy and forgiveness.  It's a sovereign King who chooses to humble Himself, even to disgrace, to love a bunch of people who didn't want Him at all at first, and who certainly don't deserve Him.   

He could've called down His angel armies to strike His oppressors and been taken off that cross.  He could've never let Himself be arrested.  He could have resisted.  He could've lived His life on earth in peaceful seclusion, never bothering to teach any of the people or heal them or call them out to life.  He could have never come at all--He could have never left His perfect joy and peace with the Father in Heaven.
But He did.  He took on the lowest form; He underwent brutality and torture and humiliation, and literally, being forsaken by God, and then death.  Simply because He loved us.  He wanted to set us free, to save us.  He wanted to give us life.  He wanted to give us power over all that ugly stuff in us and in the world. 
But don't you dare think for a moment that that was where He stopped, because it wasn't.  He not only took on death and sin and rebellion against God, past, present, and future, but He conquered it.  And because of that, we also are conquerors.  

Oh, Your resurrection power Burns like fire in my heart When waters rise, I lift my eyes unto Your throne We are more than conquerors through Christ You have overcome this world, this life We will not bow to sin or to shame We are defiant in Your name You are the fire that cannot be tamed You are the power in our veins Our Lord, our God, our Conqueror!   -More than Conquerors, Rend Collective
   Never underestimate Jesus' love for you and what it means to you.  Ever.  Because if it was strong enough to take on the worst kind of pain, inside and out, and being forsaken by God--and not only that, but to conquer sin and death and pain, then it's strong enough to get you through anything.  Because we didn't do a single thing to deserve that kind of love, or earn it.  That wouldn't even be possible, no matter how hard we tried.  His love is amazing because we didn't deserve it, and yet it's so great and intensive and passionate for us.  

"This is the kind of love we are talking about--not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God." -1 John 4:10

"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!"

-Romans 5:6-11

Because of this, we can come to God with anything--our anger toward others and even toward Him, our deepest disappointments, our hardest failures, our heaviest and darkest doubts, our sins, our wrestling, our questions--and He won't hold any of it against us.  

"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.  There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

-Hebrews 4:16

We can boldly approach the throne of God with anything and everything, at any time in our lives, no matter what condition we're in, because He already paid the price.  We can come broken, with doubts, and failures, and wrestling.  We can receive mercy, and grace, to help us when we need it the most.  Thank you, Jesus.  
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God bless you guys and have a great weekend!  :) Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Selah.

Hi, everyone!  :)  Sorry I'm a day late this week--we went out to see the movie God's Not Dead yesterday evening (which was really great--can't wait to share more about it with you guys).  :)



Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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I've been reading through a lot of the Psalms lately, and the other day I opened up my Amy Carmichael devotional, I Come Quietly to Meet You, and it was talking about selahs in the Psalms.
Have you ever been reading in Psalms, and you come across this point where David's working himself up, doubting God, questioning Him, complaining, and crying out from the depths of despair....and then he stops and you see the word Selah?  
Selah means pause.  It's like a breath in between something, a simple pause where you stop and think for just a second, and it would also stress the importance of what was just said.  It was like a, "Okay, read that again.  Then think about it."

"O Lord, I have so many enemies; so many are against me.  So many are saying, 'God will never rescue him!'"   -Psalm 3:1-2

It's when the darkest times of doubt and fear and trouble came down on David, when everything came crashing in at once and he was completely overwhelmed and without hope that he cried out in raw, sometimes painful, honesty.  And then, there was that Selah.  That psalm continues:
"But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.  I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain." -Psalm 3:3-4
David turned his mind away from the darkness, from the sorrows, from the fears, from the doubts, and he paused.  Then he looked up, and he said, "But you, Lord.  You are a shield around me."  Other translations say, "You are my helper."   

Do you remember that account in the Bible of how Jesus walked on water, and then how Peter wanted to come out and walk with Him?  

"Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. 'It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.'  'Lord, if it’s you,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to you on the water.'  'Come,' he said."

-Matthew 14:22-29a

Peter was taking a big step of faith right there.  He was being bold in Jesus.  He wanted to step out in faith and really experience Jesus, without holding back.  And that's just the right attitude to have.  It's awesome.  

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!'

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'"

-Matthew 14:29b-33

But then he got out in those waves, and he became afraid.  He started sinking, because he put his mind on the difficulties, on the storm around him, instead of keeping it on the power, strength, and love of Jesus in front of him.  That love of Jesus, that power and strength that we find in His love, is enough.  It's more than enough.  The God of the universe, the mighty Creator of all things, who sustains all things, loves us with a mighty, fearsome, powerful love that takes action, and yet we still let ourselves worry and get tied up in anxiety--we still take our eyes off His love for us and put them on our troubles and our battles and on the lies the enemy is feeding to us, that we're lost and hopeless and this darkness is too much.  And that's when we start sinking.  

"If your eyes are on the storm, you'll wonder if I love you still.  If your eyes are on the cross, you'll know I always have and I always will." -"Just be Held" by Casting Crowns

That's where I think we can learn a lot from David.  Because sometimes, we will take our eyes off His love for us.  David did that, too, and that's when he would belt out a verse that was something to the effect of, "Look at all this stuff!  I can't do this!  I'm dead!  I'm a goner!  There's no point!  I'm all alone!  It's hopeless!"  Emotions run wild sometimes, and we do that.  But then he would stop a moment and take that Selah.  
Did you know that Selah is also considered by some to signify a sudden outburst of instruments?  So it was like David would find himself in that pit of darkness, and then he would pause, look up, remind himself of Who was protecting him, and burst into songs of praise.  It was like he was slapping the devil in the face while he was in the middle of yelling at David.  David was choosing joy right smack dab in the middle of his deepest, darkest moments, because He turned his mind away from the darkness, away from the emotions, away from the sorrows and the shadows and the doubts, and he reminded himself of the truth of who God is and how He loves us, and what that means for us. It means we don't need to fear anything.  It's a choice David continually made--he reminded himself that GOD was his helper.  
May we do the same.  
"Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.  If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love." -1 John 4:18
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God bless you guys and have a great weekend!  :) Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ We are Free to Struggle.

How are you all this fine Friday?  :)  I hope you've had a great week!  :)




Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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I was able to volunteer at Winter Jam last week with my family, working as a rep for Holt International and their child sponsorship program.  I was an "aisle runner" and it was a really great experience--I loved it!  :)  I also got to sit in on the concert, and one group that was there was Tenth Avenue North.  I've always loved these guys, but that night, they were just amazing.
You might have heard their song "The Struggle."  They performed it at Winter Jam, and it really just hit me in the head (in a good way :)).  
We all struggle.  Sometimes no struggles seem to be apparent in our lives, and sometimes the struggle that's going on seems like all we can see.   Sometimes it seems like we're doing just fine and we don't really need God's help with much of anything, and sometimes His shield of protection around us is the only thread that's keeping us hanging on.
Whatever place you're in right now as far as struggles, I think we can all agree that struggles tend to stink.  They produce fear, worry, shame, anxiety, guilt, sorrow, and all the other things that come with having something come between us and God.  Struggles make me feel like there's a big wedge between the two of us, and like He's not with me anymore--or maybe it's that I'm not with Him.  
But here's the deal:  The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (or, "God's glorious standard).  God is perfect.  He is love.  He is good.  He is truth.  There is no sin in Him, no room for mistakes, no lies.  That's who He IS.  
And because of our sin, we're not perfect.  Far from it.  We sin against and hurt God all the time, and He knows that.  He knows we aren't perfect.  And that's the whole reason why He sent His Son to take on our sin and imperfection, to break down that wall that separated us from God's love and forgiveness and presence.  When that veil in the temple, which signified the veil between us and God, split open, we were no longer held to our sin.  

"Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit.  At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.  The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened.  The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead." -Matthew 27:50-51


We were reconciled to God, redeemed and set free, at the moment that Jesus took on that sin, and when He rose again, alive and victorious over sin and death.  But we still struggle, don't we?  Of course.  We still have sin in us, it's just that each time we bring ourselves to God and ask Him to forgive us and cleanse us, He takes all that sin away and we're made blameless, spotless, pure, and clean.  And that's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
But sometimes I feel like my struggles are just too much.  Time after time, I have to keep coming back to God with them, asking Him for help and forgiveness and strength, and I start feeling like I'm just a total failure.  Why do I keep struggling with this?  Why can't I just drop it?  Why isn't God setting me free?  Why can't I do better?  

Our struggles result from sin, guys.  Sometimes struggles are things like addictions to alcohol or drugs.  Sometimes our struggles are caring too much about what others think of us, trying to conform to their standards.  Sometimes our struggles are temptations to sin, like lying or stealing.  Sometimes our struggles have to do with relationships, like obeying our parents, listening to them, and having a good attitude with them, or problems with holding up a friendship.  And sometimes our struggles have to do with deeper spiritual issues--thoughts, doubts, pride.  And I guess where things like temptation to sin and addictions are easy to identify as sin, things like impure thoughts, doubting who God is and if you really want to follow Jesus, or if you can trust Him, and having a prideful and vain attitude toward God are not always easy to see or call sin.  I've found myself in the place before where I'm asking God why He "gave me this."  "I can't deal with this.  I know you can take it away!  Just do it!"  
But sin is simply rebellion against God, saying that you're not going to follow His way.  He made the laws of the universe, and yet we dare to disobey Him.  We turn our backs to Him in pride and doubt toward Him.  These thoughts and doubts and deeper issues are just as much temptation to sin as the urge to lie or steal or be deceitful.  
God doesn't give us sin.  It's against His nature.  It's in us--God didn't put it there, and He didn't give us these struggles.  
"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.'  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." -James 1:14-17

"So," you say.  "It's just that I'm messed up."  Well, yeah.  I mean, we all are!  I'm just as messed up as the next person, no matter how apparent or unapparent, "big" or "small" his or her struggles may be.  We all struggle with different things, and that's the whole reason why we need grace, and why God is so amazing to offer it.  Sin personally hurts Him and goes against His mighty word, and yet, when we come to Him and ask forgiveness, He gives it.  When we ask Him to take away our sin, He does, and He casts it as far as the east is from the west.  It's no longer in His mind.  And when we ask Him for strength, He gives it to us. 

Hebrews 4:16

"For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" -Romans 10:13
  God never said that we wouldn't struggle after we were forgiven.  It's not that He can't take away our struggles.  He can.  It's that sin still exists, and it's part of our human nature.  That's the way it is.  Sin still exists, but He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.  God said His grace would be sufficient for us.  Tenth Avenue North's song "The Struggle" says,
Hallelujah, we are free to struggle! We're not struggling to be free! Your blood bought and makes us children. Children, drop your chains and sing!
So why, Lord, do I still fail,  Do I wear thin? Why do I still give in to temptation? On my own, I am bankrupt, I don't trust You or take You at Your word, What You've promised.
Hallelujah, we are free to struggle!  We're not struggling to be free! Your blood bought and makes us children. Children, drop your chains and sing!


We will still struggle with sin.  But Jesus has already set us free.  We're already covered by His love, and He's fighting for us.  We don't have to feel guilty or be afraid that we'll give in to our struggles.  All we have to do is trustingly ask for His help and His strength, and He's eager to give it.  
"If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father.  He loves to help.  You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it.  Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.  People who 'worry their prayers' are like wind-whipped waves.  Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open." -James 1:5-8


That night at Winter Jam, Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North said, "We are free to struggle, because when we fall, we fall into an ocean of grace and His love."  He also said, "The only thing that keeps you from Jesus is thinking you don't need Him.  You're never to weak to be redeemed." 
  It's kind of like when you have a moment of panic and start worrying about something, and then another switch flicks on in your brain and reminds you of some reason why you don't have to worry about it--maybe you thought you left some chores undone at your house and you're going to get into trouble for it, but then you remember that your mom said she'd do it for you.  Or you wake up thinking you're late and you've overslept, and then remember that whatever you had to get up early for was cancelled, and you can lay back and be at rest.  

God's love for us is a safety net.  He's the one who does for us what we can't do on our own.  He's the one who gives us rest.  He's the one who sets us free and fights for us, on our behalf.  He's the one who makes us more than conquerors through Him.  He was the only one that could conquer sin, and He conquered it so that His strength could be given to us in our struggles.

We're already covered by His love.  He's fighting for us.  He's just waiting for us to call on Him for strength, even if we have to keep coming back to Him for more when the struggles with sin get harder.  He's there, and He'll never leave.  We're free to struggle, because He's already won the battle Himself, and He'll never let the struggles overcome us when we depend on Him and His strength.
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God bless you guys and have a great weekend!  :) Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Fighting for Joy.

Hi, there!  :)  Friday has rolled back around again!  I'm really starting to wonder if Disney jinxed America when it put out the movie Frozen.  It was in the 60's last Saturday, and the very next day, Sunday, we had a big ice and snow storm and our power went out for a couple of days!  And in the south, too!  Craziness.  I'm ready for spring!  :)


Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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Joy.  It's a funny thing.  I don't think it's the same thing as happiness.  No, joy is more of the kind of thing that's deep, the thing that you have even when times are tough.
But here's the thing:  I used to think that joy just kind of came naturally when you had Jesus, even during hard times and struggles.  But I've discovered that it's something that you sometimes have to fight for.
It doesn't always come easy.  Because obviously, when something hard hits and my emotions are running wild, my first instinct is not to have joy, is it?  It doesn't just happen.  We have to choose it. 

"A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones." -Proverbs 14:30 

And I know you've probably heard that quite a bit before--that happiness is a choice.  But it's not just that.  Joy is something that you choose to seek out and fight for.  You do that by seeking Jesus, by going through His word and His promises to you and realizing that you have reason to have joy!   

You find joy by stepping outside of yourself, even in your hard times, and loving others. 
Have you ever spent time at a nursing home, or maybe with some little kids, or really just helping out anyone that can't repay you?  It tends to bring joy.  There's just something about not putting yourself first that makes you realize that it's not all about you!  And that really puts things into perspective. 

 
One time I met this lady who worked at Walmart and whose name was Joy.  I said hi and told her my name was also Joy, and she told me what "joy" really is:
J - esus first O - thers second Y - ourself last.  
And that is SO true!  When we start putting things in the right order and fighting for our joy, we start finding it--first by seeking Jesus and His love and what it means for us; bringing it all to Him and laying it down at His feet, and letting our minds rest in Him, letting His peace come cover us.

"So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.  But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." -Romans 8:6

 And then by taking a step forward, putting ourselves aside, and extending that love to others without expecting anything in return.  
 The Bible has a lot to say about joy.  The big things that stick out to me are that one, the Bible acknowledges in so many ways that joy is something that you usually have to choose, and often have to fight for.  

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." -James 1:2-4

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." -Proverbs 17:22

The way the Bible talks about joy shows us that it's a choice--because it tells us that yes, when we follow Jesus, and when we simply live life, we will face troubles and trials and hardships.  But it's up to US to make the best out of them and to choose to fight for joy and a cheerful heart in the middle of that!  And maybe that sounds a little cliche, but if you want to have joy, it's the truth.  Proverbs is filled with words of wisdom and advice from one of the wisest men ever--because God gave him that wisdom.  And it tells us that a cheerful heart is good medicine.  I don't know about you, but that sounds an awful lot to me like it's something we choose to do or not do, to have or not to have.  You can choose to let your default feelings rule you, or fight for joy despite your feelings.  And choosing to seek out joy seems to be the better option--it draws us closer to Jesus, makes us and those around us happier, and is good for our bodies--a crushed spirit dries up the bones and runaway emotions corrode the bones.  

The Bible also gives us tons of verses of hope, verses of reasons for us to have that joy in Jesus.  

"The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time." -Psalms 34:19
"Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy." -Psalm 126:5 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." -Romans 8:37
"Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.'  So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corintians 12:8-10
"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?  If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?  Who then will condemn us?  No one--for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.  Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:31-32, 34-35, 38-39

"You love him even though you have never seen him.  Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.  The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." -1 Peter 1:8-9 There it is.  When we trust Jesus and stop worrying, when we give it up to Him and lay it all out before Him, we can get that joy.  We can find it and fight for it, because we have this assurance.  I love it.  
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." -Hebrews 12:1-2 ************************************************************************* God bless you guys and have a fantastic weekend!  :)

We Are the Church. {Rend Collective Campfire Concert}

So, February 2nd was my birthday.  And I got one of the best birthday presents.  I got to go see Rend Collective on their Campfire tour.  :D

Now, if you've been around me much in the last month or two, you probably know that I absolutely love, love, love this band.  They're a Christian worship band from Northern Ireland, and they're really amazing people.  They're so much more than a band.  Everything that they do centers around Jesus.  You can see so plainly that they really, truly love Jesus, and they live out that love.  It's not just something they sing about.  They have a vision for what the church can really look like--the way Jesus meant it to be, and they're sharing that everywhere they go.

More about that later.  :)  We found out that Rend's Campfire tour was going to be starting up again in February, so we started looking at the locations.  I'm one of those people that's really dedicated to whatever I love, and my parents are great about appreciating that, so they decided that they would drive me almost 8 hours to a concert in Georgia, close to Atlanta.  :D  Let it be said that I have the best parents ever.  ;)


So, we got up early Thursday morning and headed out for Georgia.  We had VIP tickets, which meant we got to go to a meet-and-greet/Q and A thing with the band before the concert, and we got first- or second-row seats.

Excuse the somewhat blurry picture, please.  :)

The Q and A was super fun--we got to know more about Gareth, Ali, Patrick, Chris, and Bobby.  Their favorites superheroes are the Incredibles, Ironman, and Batman (and Thor, because apparently Bobby IS Thor :) ).  They all love Chick-Fil-A (like seriously, they have a passion for it), and we talked about their standard Chick-Fil-A order.  They talked about Northern Ireland and the U.S., and the differences between the two.  Then I got to meet them and give them a couple of gifts I had brought with me--a baby gift for Arthur, Gareth and Ali's baby (who Gareth is wearing in that picture up there), a wedding gift for Chris and his new wife Gabriella, and some homemade fudge for the rest of the guys.  :)  

Gabriella is a writer, and I love reading her blog.  She has such an awesome writing style--she can take everyday happenings and roll them out into a story.  I really admire that.  I told her that I love to write, and she really encouraged my love for writing.  :)

Gabby (AKA one of the sweetest people ever), Arthur, and I.  :)

What's cool is that some friends of mine have a fan page on Instagram for Rend Collective (@thehandmadepeople), and they're awesome people who take time to talk to us and interact with us, so they were super nice and knew me by name.  One thing I love about these guys is that they are so not celebrities.  They emphasize that they don't want anyone putting them on a pedestal, because Jesus is their center, and it's always about Him and never about them.  And you can see that so clearly.  It's inspiring to me to see them living out the love of Jesus by loving Him back and loving other people because He loves them.  It really just wows me.  I think that's why their music draws me closer to Him unlike any other music does.  

I got to say hi to Stephen before the concert itself started--Stephen usually plays bass for Rend, but on the Campfire tour he was their all-around awesome person who kept the show going, bringing out instruments and helping set things up.  :)  Gareth said Stephen is their resident hobbit (and that it's all in the feet).  :)

And then it was time for Bellarive, the band that was playing with Rend, to come on!  :)  I was able to get a front row seat, too, and Mom, Dad, and Luke sat right behind me on the second row, so that was really neat.  :)

I hadn't heard much of Bellarive's music before that night, but they were great--I really, really loved several of their songs, and I loved getting to meet them later!  :)

And then Patrick came up during the intermission to share with us a little about Compassion, who Rend partners with.  Compassion is a child sponsorship program that not only cares for the kids' material and physical needs, but also builds them up in Jesus.  It's a wonderful thing to be a part of.  I loved seeing how Patrick had such a big place in his heart for this.  He, Gareth, and Ali got to go to Kenya recently and he got to meet his sponsored child, Dickson.  I think I know a little of what that's like from when we went to China to adopt Luke.  Once you go somewhere and experience it--experience the needs and the culture and the people, you can't go back to not caring.  It just opens your eyes up to it in a whole new way, it makes it real, where you can't just walk away.  And what Patrick said made me realize that the Bible is not putting it lightly when it wants us to love others deeply and radically.  I love these verseshe shared:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down out lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but as no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

-1 John 3:16-18

And then the Irish shindiggery began!  :)

Ali is just ridiculously awesome--she plays the accordion and mandolin, along with several other instruments, and she's just one of the sweetest people I've ever seen.  :)

And then they brought out the banjo, and I just got really, really happy.  :D  I'm not sure if I've told you guys this yet, but I got a banjo for Christmas!  I'm in love with the sound of the banjo.  It's so happy and twangy, and I just love it!  :)

And a Rend concert wouldn't be a Rend concert without the Jingling Johnny, right?  :)

I loove it!  I'm really hoping to save up and get one for myself at some point.  

Bobby was being awesome back there, too.  :)

Chris: "This is my ukulele.  I like to call it one of the few things that Taylor Swift and I have in common.  That and good looks.  Don't laugh, that's mean!"

I love, love, love the energy these folks bring to worship.  Maybe it's partly because they're Northern Irish and being lively is in their DNA.  :)  But I think the biggest chunk of it is that they understand how much Jesus loves them, and just how important that is.  And they have that crazy awesome joy of the Lord.  And it inspires me so, so much.  Seeing that in action in them makes me want it more.  Because yeah, it was a concert.  And it was super fun and amazing and everything.  But it was oh so much more than that.  It was worship.  Deep, but simple.  Refreshing.  Joyful.  Fun.  Worship.  I love it.  

I got to meet up with part of Rend afterward--Gareth, Chris, Bobby, and Patrick.  I didn't get to see Ali again, unfortunately.  :/

When I met Rend last October, I brought a journal with me, explained how I love to write and I journal all the time, and asked them to write a favorite Bible verse inside.  This time, I asked them all to write a favorite quote.  I love going back and reading these so much!  :)  

I loved the quote Chris wrote:

"Joy is the serious business of heaven."

-C.S. Lewis

I have no idea what was going on in this picture, but it cracks me up--I love it.  Haha, caption contest, anyone?  

Patrick is really sweet, and he was really cool to meet--I loved the quote he wrote, too:

"Let no man imagine they have no influence.  Whoever he may be and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks, becomes a light."

-Henry George

Mom snapped this picture (she was an absolutely amazing photographer), and I love it.  Everybody gave me big hugs.  They just love people because Jesus loved them first--it's that simple.  They leak Jesus, and it's a beautiful thing to see.  I want to live like that.  

Gareth is quite possibly the happiest person I've ever met.  He really gets what it means to have the joy of the Lord, and I love that.  :)  

I also got to meet Bellarive, which was really cool!  They're a great bunch of people.  :)  

Sean, their main singer, wrote in my journal to just read the whole of Romans 8.  For Christmas, my parents gave me a Bible that has the NIV and Message translations side-by-side (which I absolutely love), so I decided to read Romans 8 in the Message when I got home.  It brought such a new perspective and understanding to it for me--I love it!  

I also got to meet the lovely Melissa from Bellarive--she is so super sweet!  I love the verse she wrote in my journal:

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

-Romans 12:1-2

**************************************************************************

It was an amazing, super fun, super joyful, super refreshing night.  Definitely one of the best nights ever for me.  :)  And I'm beyond excited, because I'm blessed to be able to see Rend twice this month!  I'm really, really looking forward to that.  :D

Dad asked Patrick and Chris at the concert back in October what adults could be doing for the younger generations, and Patrick said to just invest in them.  And that's what they all do, and I'm really thankful for that.  They want the church to be more like an intimate gathering around the campfire--Jesus--than a club.  

"The campfire is not a place of social posturing or trying to be something you are not.  It's a dressed down gathering of peers who pay little attention to outward appearance.  It's all about the fire at the center."

-Rend Collective

I love being around them because they're just people, but they're people that have grasped how much Jesus loves them, and how important that is, and they've started living that out, and that's reflected in their music, in the way they talk and act, in the vibrant, infectious joy that they have, and in the way they treat people.  I want to live like that.  

God bless you guys and have a really great week!  :)

Joy :)