"Mary."

Wow, yeah, it's been a while.

Sorry about that.

But here I am again, and I have something AMAZING to say! Well, it is amazing to me. I hope someone else is amazed as well.

I have always known this, it's one of those things that Christians grow up hearing all of their lives, and then one day you are just like, "WOW! Seriously?!?! YEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!"

This thought came from our Easter Sunday service at church, in which our pastor was talking about Mary Magdalene.

In case anybody doesn't know who she is, you can read about her in Matthew 27:56, 61; 28:1; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1-19; Luke 8:2; 24:10; John 19:25; 20:1-18. Although if you are going to read these, I suggest reading before and after these verses, because these don't tell you the story, they just tell you where she is mentioned.

Mary Magdalene has been one of my favorite women bible characters ever since I first read Luke 8:2,
And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,...

I've always felt like I can relate to her, because when I became a Christian, I was lifted out of TONS of bondage. It was like a million pound weight had been lifted off of my back, and I know that the more God brought me out of, the greater reason I have to be thankful.

I didn't have seven demons. Mary was under that much more bondage, she had that much more weight on her back, and Jesus lifted it off for her just as He lifted mine off for me.

So although I know I did not come from nearly the same place that she did, I have always felt like, We both have so much to be thankful for.

Before I go on to my awesome moment, I want to tell you another thing which made it even better. I am not a very quick learner. When it comes to bible stuff I feel a little bit helpless, and like I want to know these things, I want to know about Jesus, but I can't, because I don't know how to teach myself, I don't know how to study. So for years I have been asking God, "Teach me, because I can't do it on my own. I don't know how to study, so show me. I don't know how to understand, so open my eyes and teach me."

And He answers prayer! He has been teaching me all the way, and I know that He will continue to teach me. He is my Teacher.

So when our pastor was reading the story, and he came to John 20:16, (read before this before reading on, if you have not before. It makes it all that much better.) Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

That is about enough to make my heart stop.

All He said was her name, but she knew it was Him. That...I can't even...just WOW. Hearing that was like hearing Jesus saying, "Keturah." It was Him talking to His friend, He didn't just say her name, He said it in a personal way because He knew her personally. He knows me! He knew her! And He knows me! He knows my name. This is so amazing.

And then, in response, she turned and said to Him, "Teacher!" Another personal thing, because He taught her. Not just as a face in the crowd, but He taught her. And He teaches me. 

I'm sorry if I am really repetitive, I am never sure if I made the point clear enough.

Have a great day, and know that you are not just a face in the crowd, but Jesus knows you, and He knows your name. Listen for it, He's calling it.

I Can Never Seem to Be Thankful Enough

Today I am thankful for SO many things!

I just came home from ten days spent at my cousins' house in Lansing, Michigan. The week was super fun, I got new books, (most people who know me would know that that alone excites me like crazy) I got to spend time with my awesome uncle and aunt and cousins, and go to a bunch more places...you don't need all of the details. Let's just say it was a lot of fun.

Anyways, when I returned home and looked back on the week I was just amazed at how God has blessed me!

Not only has He blessed me like crazy with the things that I have and the country that I live in, but He has blessed me with the family that I have and the friends that I have.

I want to tell you a little bit about my cousins.

A few years ago they took a HUGE step of faith towards Europe. They traveled, (the whole family, three kids and two parents) to Ukraine to adopt a little girl named Kataryna.

Kataryna is severely disabled and (was) extremely malnourished. Her body was completely straight, this is what she looked like.

 

They went through a long adoption process with lots of difficulties and nearly lost her many times, but they have trusted God to pull them through every situation, and He has.

They are still looking to move forward, they have done work on her knees so that they can bend, and I believe are now looking into surgery so that her hips can bend and she can sit.

Through their faith and faithfulness, this is what she looks like now.

 

(If you would like to read about her and their family's story you can HERE.)

When we arrived home after this trip, we came home to a loving family, and then we went to our church's nightly prayer meeting, where we have close friends who are all bound together with one purpose, to build the kingdom of God and to seek His face.

I love the legacy that I live in.

I am surrounded by godly people who love me! It is AMAZING!

I am just so encouraged by this, I can't express it.

I don't deserve the circumstances that God has put me in. I don't deserve the amount of love with which He loves me.

Miracles

Good morning! :)

I don't know how many of you have looked at the Senn Twins Facebook page since I posted about them, (read my earlier post, So Strong) but one of their recent updates was about Ellanie, saying that they were heading to the hospital, most likely to say goodbye. She was on life support and was not seeming to turn the corner, so they expected she would not make it.

But yesterday, they posted, "We are so thankful as this evening ends that both of the babies are currently stable." 

PRAISE THE LORD!!! He is GOOD!!

Please continue to pray for them as they are both still very sick, but it has been over a week and both of them are stable.

What I loved the most about the post they put out yesterday was this, they said, "We also received great news from her brain scan that her bleeding has disappeared! The Dr thought it was a mistake at first because she said that its nearly impossible. We just smile because it is impossible...which reminds us that only God can receive the credit for it."

God is faithful, and He is working wonders in this family's lives!

My dad sometimes reminds people, and I love the way he says this, that, "God is still in the miracle business." He didn't just work miracles in the "Bible times," but He is the same God with the same kind of power that He had back then.

Please keep praying for them and keep passing the word around, your prayers are working.

If you want to know more about Malachi and Ellanie Senn or would like to receive their updates, click on this - Senn Twins, to get to their Facebook page.

So Strong

Hallo again!

I have been meaning to make blogging a weekly thing, but I don't want to blog if I have nothing special to blog about, so I have not done it for the past...about 13 days. I apologize.

BUT.

I believe that there was a reason I felt no strong urge to post earlier, and the reason has just revealed itself now.

Please, anyone who reads this, share it on Facebook, tell your friends about, get the word around.

We have just been made aware that one of our family's friends from a long time ago just gave birth to twins at 24 WEEK AND 4 DAYS.

They weigh only about 1 pound each, (a little over a pound I think, I don't know the exact weight) and have only 20% chance of survival.

The mother's name is Naomi Senn and the babies are Malachi and Ellanie. The Senns also have a little boy.


Naomi has left the hospital for the night leaving the babies in the care of the doctors and nurses, and will be going back tomorrow, please pray that these twins will be alive and breathing when she gets back!

Also that there will be complete healing and normal development in their bodies, as, were they to survive, this situation could cause damage in a number of ways physically.

If you want to find out more about them, look at their Facebook page Here.


As I heard about this I was just in awe at how these babies are so strong. They are so tiny, and can barely breath, yet, without any real reason in their minds, they struggle and are still alive.

Praise God for these tiny lives! Praise God for His ability to make something SO small be SO strong! They are so precious to Him, and I don't think He would ever want them to suffer. Your prayers are really appreciated.

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

A few days ago I attended an amazing funeral.

I haven't been to many funerals, and all of the ones I have been to were Christian funerals, so I can't say much about the comparison, but I can tell you what I found outstanding about it.

I didn't know the man very well, I had only met him in person once I think, maybe twice, but I knew just from the brief moments that I talked with him that he was a very godly man.

When I had just become a Christian I decided that I didn't want to call myself a Christian. I didn't want to tell anyone, I wanted them to figure it out for themselves. I wanted the way I acted, the way I spoke, even just the general way I portrayed myself to be all about Jesus. I thought that if I was a Christian, then I had Jesus in me, right? People say that the eyes are the windows to your soul, so if Jesus is in me, they should be able to see Jesus in my eyes.

This man had Jesus in his eyes. :)

The thing that amazed me about his funeral was that he planned it, and it portrayed what he loved most.

Jesus Christ.

And it was evident.

Right on the front of the program, (picked by himself) was 1 Samuel 2:30, Those who honor Me I will honor.

The verse was proven correct. There were tons of people there, all of them there because in some way or other, he had affected their lives and they wanted to honor him. He was honored by the number of people that were there, by the things that were said about him, by the tears shed for him, and by being taken to a place reserved for the people that Jesus loves. More than we can imagine God has honored him. All because he honored God in his life, and that was what he wanted to show. He wanted to tell people that if you honor God, God will honor you.

I love how even though the event was about him, he still pointed everything back to Christ.

Even though I knew him but for a short time, and I don't know that he even knew my name, I count in as a blessing to have met him. He was a great man, and a great example.

I realized as I stood and sang one of the hymns that this is what I wanted my funeral to be like. I don't want it to be about me. I want people to see that I loved God, and I want people to see how great He is.

I want my funeral to be celebration, because God has at last taken me to a place that I don't deserve to go to, because He loved me.

I want to leave behind the kind of legacy that this man left behind, and inspire other people, like he inspired me, to live so much for Christ that even their death can bring Him glory.

Reading Genesis Again

Hello! I'm back! I'm super super excited!! You'll never guess why. (No, this post has nothing to do with Valentines Day ;) ) I don't want to wait for an answer so I will just tell you, I am reading Genesis again!! :D

Usually I am not so excited to read Genesis, or at least the first few chapters, because since I have gone to Sunday School for many years and have always been in a Christian environment, I know the story. I know what happens, it doesn't seem that exciting to read it.
So usually when I read it I try to imagine all of the intricacy of the things being created in the first chapter, and how vast the universe is, and how God just came up with it all off the top of His head and spoke it into existence, but for some reason, even when I do this, it has little meaning to me.

The reason I started to read it again was because of two things, both of which were said in the same night. One evening my sister mentioned that in the bible there are lots of comparisons with us and God and plants. ("I am the vine and you are the branches," "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water.." etc.) And in the same night a friend of ours said something along the lines of, "The old testament is full of prophecies and stories about Jesus."

Those two things just clicked for me and I decided to start over at the beginning and search for God's character and His story in the stories in the old testament.

Even looking at Genesis 1 in this new light was AMAZING. What used to be a simple chapter full of things I already know, was now an amazing...I don't know what to call it. It's like God wrote His story into all of the things He made, but you can't see it unless you look.


Since I am so excited about it, I will write about a few of the things I found in Genesis 1 and 3, and the rest you will have to find for yourself. :)

Okay, so the first thing I will write about, since I already mentioned plants, is plants. In verses 11-12 it says, Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
 
This is the coolest thing. Picture that the fruit tree represents God. The fruit tree (God) yields fruit, (us) according to its kind. (Made in His image) Whose seed is in itself, (you can look at this more than one way, physically, God made us to reproduce, and spiritually, when you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, and He is the one who can bear fruit (John 15:5) through us) and lastly, On the earth. (That one is pretty easy to figure out)

Okay, and then another really cool one I found was in verses 16-18, Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

In this part I saw the two great lights as God and Satan. The greater light (sun) is God, and the lesser light (moon) is Satan. They are both greater in power than us, hence why they are the two 'great lights,' but God is by far greater than Satan. Then, they are the rulers of the day and of the night. Day is light, and the greater light rules the day, Night is dark, and the lesser light rules the night.

I thought that was really cool, but then it got even cooler when I told my dad about it and he simply said, "You know what is even cooler? Think about what the nature of the moon is. It has no light of its own, it can only reflect the sun's light." Think on that.

And I was going to stop there...so you can stop there if you are bored and don't want to read any more, but I have one more cool thing to say, this occurred to me in Chapter 3.

In verse 16 it says, To the woman he said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

I have never ever seen this analogy, or one close to it, so it was amazing that I saw this, but here it is. Because of sin, women have to go through pain for their children to be born. Because of sin, Jesus had to go through pain for us to be born again.

Isn't that awesome?! :)

Sorry this post was really long, but I hope you all liked it as much as I did. :)

And if you have never seen the creation story in this light before, I strongly recommend you go and read through it! There is so much more that I said nothing about.

I just think it is so cool how when you look at the creation story like this, it is so evident that God knew exactly what He was doing the whole time. He knew His whole plan right from the start, and showed it even from the start!

NOTE: If you liked this post, please click here to read a short expansion on the Sun and Moon parallel.

Where Two or Three Are Gathered

This will be a really short post, I just wanted to share something that has been making me happy. :)

Do you have trouble sleeping at night? It might be because you're a deadbeat. Pay those annoying TV bills, and get a good night's sleep.

Just kidding. ;)

(For anyone who didn't get that reference, it is from The Flintstones, Barney speaking. If you have never seen it, you missed out. Look it up on Youtube if you have free time, I am sure it is on there.)

Anyways, off of my little rabbit trail, I go to an awesome church, it is just a small church in West Windsor called Ambassador Baptist, and we have a prayer meeting every night.

For the past few days God has REALLY used this prayer meeting to reach my heart. It is amazing how a person can listen to God, just listen. Seek, and want God's presence, and then pray a prayer that they have no idea what God is using it for. Through going to this gathering every night, even though I can barely bring myself to pray aloud some days, and other days I just don't, God has spoken to me and taught me things I never expected.

I am not you. I don't know what you need. YOU don't even know what you need, I know this because I definitely didn't know my own needs.

But what I do know, is that prayer is powerful.

I really strongly encourage you to, even if you don't have a prayer meeting every night at your church, even if you don't even have a prayer meeting at church, I encourage you to find someone, maybe a few people, and start praying with and for each other.

Yes, the 'with' part is necessary.

When I started going to this I literally felt sick because of how nervous I was, I did NOT want to pray out loud, and I even told you that most days I don't. So don't be afraid, if you are nervous or you feel insecure about it just ask God to help you be an overcomer and take a step of faith. Believe me, praying with other people is so so so so helpful.

I hope this meant something to someone reading this.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them. 
(Matthew 18:20)