Hear me oh God!

Listen, GOD, I’m calling at the top of my lungs: “Be good to me! Answer me!” When my heart whispered, “Seek God,” my whole being replied, “I’m seeking him!” Don’t hide from me now! You’ve always been right there for me; don’t turn your back on me now. Don’t throw me out, don’t abandon me; you’ve always kept the door open. My father and mother walked out and left me, but GOD took me in. (Psalm 27:7-9 MSG). 

Oh Lord my God! In your deepest and darkest moments, God is saying Erika I am here I love you I forgive you. And even at times all I can I think are God there is no way you can love me or care about me look at what I have done. But that is the reason Jesus went through all the pain He did, so that we don't have to bear our guilt anymore or feel the pain of our sin. The sin is forgiven and our job is to be dependent on God and not sin anymore. 

When we overcome sin and go let's say six months and then we start to struggle again and be tempted by satan, and give into that sin what did we overcome. Maybe we weren't being tempted for those 6 months. When you ask God for forgiveness you have to be at a point of humility and hatred for that sin. We will fall at points and we will sin, we are not perfect. But as we love God more it should become easier everyday not to sin. But when we do fall can you really ask for forgiveness and not hate your sin. Hate your flesh? You have to hate it with all you have! God passionately hate sin and even though we are sinners He still loves us! How amazing is that! Turn from your sin and knock on His door and physically cry out to Him and tell Him how much you need Him!!!! We all need Him deeply! 

Happy birthday Brevin and Drew!

Yesterday was 2 of my favorite 9 year olds birthdays! My Brevin that I have known since he was a baby turned 9! And Drew my recent neighbor who just moved away turned 9 also! Saturday night I got to go see both boys and give them lots of birthday hugs and a present for each of them! It was fun to surprise the kids when I hadn't seen them for a little and to just walk in, and their reaction Erika, what are you doing here?! It made my day to get to see some of my favorite kids in the world! 

The best part? Brevin and drew live just a couple neighborhoods away from each other and are best friends now! They hung out all day Saturday and are on the same football team. I thank God for both boys and am praying for the next year that God has for them. I want them to encourage each other and be close friends! I love you Brevin and Drew! Can't wait for the next year of your life, next year it is double digits! 

Church

This summer I have been thinking about churches a lot and what the church means. The church is not God but God is the church. The church represents God and should be a light shinning in the darkness of the streets welcoming people in and leading them to Jesus. But again the church is not the reason people are saved. God uses the church and the people of the church, but He also can use murderers and thiefs to lead people to a saving faith. 

My background with churches is that I grew up going to the Catholic Church and was confirmed into the Catholic Church. I still attend it at various times of the year with my family. But for me it is not the church for me. That is not to say no christians should go there. God designed us each uniquely with different needs and wants from a church. One thing I do affirm the Catholic Church for is it's service. They are amazing at going out and doing deeds and going where there is a need. Unfortunately sometimes that's what Catholics think get them to have. Again not all Catholics. Beyond that I have visited and attended several other nondenominational and evangelical churches. I have seen lots of things to super small to huge. The problem as you get bigger can be there are just "church attenders" but there can be that problem in small churches too. Finances can always be a problem as well. My point being EVERY CHURCH has it's problems. Just like us churches are not perfect. Even today my church, Valley church, was calling it generosity weekend as their fiscal year ends this coming week. It can just be awkward with churches asking for money or trying to come up with a cool way to do it; but that does not define that church. If they are asking you for this much money EVERY week or not letting you come if you don't then yes it's most likely a problem. 

One characteristic does not define your church. The pastor is not all that the church is although it's a big part, worship isn't all, the building isn't everything. I think the real question to ask does your church draw you closer to God or block you from Him and even cause stumbling? If you come home every week not feeling like you connected to God at all, or like it is all about money and fashion there, or the pastor is teaching falsely you eked to pray about it and possibly let God lead you to a new church. It is so important to keep in mind though that no church is perfect and it will do no good to jump from church to church. If your church is too focused on just church and churchy things and not expanding into the world and city you live in and loving others from other churches it might not be a healthy environment for you. 

I feel like a church should allow you to meet God in your needs. You shouldn't need the church but the church needs God and the church is a place for you to have fellowship and companionship with Him. The church is a safe place for believers to come and confess, worship, not be judged, and to become one foot closer to God every week. It should never take you a step back! It shouldn't cause you to gossip, have doubts, be self concious, feel judged, and you especially shouldn't feel like you are too christian! God wants you to be crazier about Him than we even can imagine! 

Let your church be a place of love, belief, and community. Allow God to dwell there and work. 

Positivity

I have recently been thinking a lot about happiness and just the psychology behind it. We are in an amazing world right now, it is full of sin, but there is just soooo many oppurtunities and so much technology and wonderful things. But we have the most ungrateful and selfish generation. We have these amazing phones that are sending a signal to space and back and yet if it doesn't load within 1 second we are screaming at our phone. We are constantly trying to win the negativity fight, I only got 6 hours of sleep oh really well I only got 4! It's just back and forth not trying to find the good things but instead trying to see who has the worse life. But instead if we put more time into being positive and happy we will become more successful instead of putting a ton of time into working hard and trying to be successful and never actually finding success or happiness, if we put a little work into being happy and positive we will find happiness in Christ! An interesting fact is that your environment only influences 10% of what makes you happy. Instead of thinking what am ugly person and stuff like that think wow God made that person and wants to love them and them to grow in Him!! 

Drop it!!

I personally would love to meet Jennifer Lawrence from Hunger Games. I don't know what she is actually like in real life but I love her in movies! If she emailed me or called me and said do you want to come to my house this Tuesday? Even though I have to work till 5:30 and have a freedom for youth event at 6 and school that day I would probably make arrangements to drop everything and go see her! Or if the queen of England or the prince invited me I would definitely drop everything to go over there! Everyone has one person or several that they would just love to meet that have so much power and awe that you would make arrangements to see. But if there is an even more powerful person and more amazing one out there named God why don't we drop everything for Him? He has more power than any of the people I listed or anybody else. He decides our eternity. He cares about and loves us more than anyone else possibly is capable of. When God calls on our name and sends us an invitation we should be ready to accept it and reaccept it! Don't forget about that beautifully crafted and perfect invitiatation He sent us! When we get called upon for a Godly activity versus sleeping or like a movie or something of the world we should be able to drop it and say Yes of course God I will do it for you! And in the opposite way if satan calls on us to lust, swear, drink, have idols of this world or focus too much on looks it is time to deny it and say God what so you want me to do instead? 

Whatever we are called to do or whatever we want rather it be money, a really cool job, clothes, a nice house or a sport does it find you the happiness or place in eternity that God does? 

My new blog about clothes:)

I am very excited to be sharing especially with a lot of young women and church girls my new blog about how I dress and why I think it's important and just what God has convicted me of. I will be sharing my outfits and hopefully showing other girls in middle school and high school how to love God with the way I dress! If anything people will get to see my outfits or outfits to wear for different occasions! Here is the link! 

http://erikadressingforgod.blogspot.com/?m=1

School starts!

I have had several people ask me oh are you ready to start school? Is it going to be a hard year? Or you are going to be busy! And yes I am ready I am excited to be in a routine and get back to reality but it may be hard but I want to challenge myself and get ahead in college classes. And yes things with friends may be difficult and not always easy and I may feel stressed and tired but there is a great man I love and He is my Father and has an eternal perspective in mind and is faithful to me! 

I am very excited about what God is doing at my church and what He is going to do in the next year and where He will take me. Even though I didn't really want to add another event in my high school group at Valley has a leadership meeting every other Sunday now. We had the first meeting last week and it was so fruitful. Sometimes I don't want to jump into things because most of them have parents that either make them go or are christians and most of the students have been going to valley for a while. But I realized God called me to go to Valley for a reason and He has a huge purpose for me and wants me to be involved! I ask for prayers about if I should join a pledge/student life group thing on Wednesdays nights and/or possibly lead an awanas group. God has such amazing plans and those plans don't involve getting to do whatever I want or sleep all the time but instead being ready to meet wjth people when they want to and loving others! He has such great plans. 

I pray that this school God would not only keep me from being stressed and help me learn what I need to but also leading me to leading others to Christ and loving them with a whole heart!! God is going to make big changes at Waukee! I love you Lord! Thanks for all the prayers support. I love all the people God has put in my life. God bless you!

Bridges and fun of Madison county!

Holliwell bridge!! I have awesome friends:). 

Faith alive!

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how people just tell you to pray a prayer and you will be saved or say these words and you are automatically and forever saved. This is not true and is worse than the people who outwardly are not living for God. You are confessing to believe in God but not actually living it out. You are saying the words and not doing the works. You have faith with no deeds. It is just like when someone says they deeply care about you and then when you are in need of help they do nothing to help you. I believe demons know there is a God they just don't worship Him or believe that He is the holy creator. 

Our faith should be a trust in God that results in good holy works that strengthen Gods kingdom. It's so important and vitale to not have a dead faith that was a prayer one time but that is repeated every minute of every day. I want to be craving literally to read His word and be hungry for God and be ready to speak to Him with my joys and sorrows. I want Him to be the one I run to all the time! 

Are your long term needs being fulfilled by God or by idols and other people? Do you truly believe that if you go out and share your faith in the dangers of a country God will save you and bring you out of the fire without burns? If we have this strong faith that is real and true we are also called to share with others this deep and amazing passion we have! 

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:5-6 NIV). 

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:23-27 NIV). 

Take a look at this awesome passage of James and fulfill in your life the need for belief and for deeds. It is not one or the other. Just like if you are trying to find the notes on your iPad from your laptop and you can't because you don't have a connection to the cloud, you can't connect to God without the connection to the Holy Spirit and living how Jesus did. How selfless He was, how persistent He was! 

 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:14-26 NIV). 

You aren't alive if you aren't born again in Christ and your faith isn't alive without you living that out!!

There is Joy every day:)

Last night my sister and I went to Taco Bell, our favorite spot this summer:). And it was my turn to drive and so routine in our family is the person in the passenger seat checks the bag to make sure we have everything. Well Clarissa never does that and I wouldn't even expect it and we were like half way home and she checked it and we realized oh dads food isn't in here. Uh oh I decided we should probably go back. She kept asking me if I was mad and I really wasn't just because I don't expect everyone else to act and think the exact same way as me or do things the way I would. I just said well more quality time together now and really just laughed it off. I have just realized it is so much more fun for you and others that if you are bitter or upset or cranky it sucks! It is so much more enjoyable to find the joy and the positive! Ugh I don't want to wake up early but then I get to do this and go to bed sooner, hopefully:). Why is the car going so slow?!?! Well it slows down up ahead anyways so now I am slowed down ahead of time! Obviously these are all small things I have pointed out but I have found in life it's the little things that cause people to have a lot of anger and bitterness build up and make bigger things happen. Jesus found joy in the hard and easy things. Well I just wanted some alone time but all these people followed me up here and now I get to bless them. And in those things God will bless you. 

Working at day camp there are so many times I feel like it would be easier to just sit there and let the kids do whatever they want and not care what they feel like or want or anything! But instead to pour into then and love them when they are hurting or having issues at home or anything like that. It isn't always the easy things but it is the things that will bless you the most. Have an eternal perspective to how it will benefit the kingdom and bless others and fill Gods mission. If you claim to know and believe in God but aren't loving others what is it? It isn't the proof of how God has changed us or how we love Him! Find the joy not the pain. Look to the light and let it speak into you and not just others. You are not a complete book yet not will you ever be we are all still in need of God and His strength and power and ability to change us!

College Visits!

I had a wonderful little vacation to Omaha these last couple days and to top it off a wonderful church service at Valley this morning! God is really blessing me with lots of oppurtunities and as stressful and busy as it may seem I feel like God will make time for me to serve families still and meet with friends. I had a situation with friends today and got really overly upset and I texted my other friend right away and realized I need to turn to God first and talk to Him. And God is providing me with sooo many other things and people that He has for me to serve right now and put others first. He wants me to focus on school and stay on His path and plan! 

I really enjoyed my visit to Creighton and even though it was only my 2nd college visit I loved it! It was a really beautiful campus and has the perfect business program for me and just is a wonderful city! I really enjoyed it but it's super expensive and I will wait and see what God has for me! 

And I had fun at the botanical center and Nebraska Midland! 

If I CAN?

A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” (Mark 9:17-25 NIV). 

I have been hearing a lot lately pray BIG. If you want the world to change and you want big things to happen pray big. God can move mountains so why don't we ask for bigger things to happen? Yes sometimes it's good to start small and work your way to big things but if we truly want to teach the ends of the earth we have to ask God! We can't do it on our own. 

I love this passage that the father says if you can then do this and Jesus is shocked "If I can?!?!" That is ridiculous! Jesus knows He can do it and He wants us to believe we can do it and we have to know we can. Don't pray small, every prayer is big and important. God can do it if is according to His will, we have to trust Him with that. Have an obedient and willing heart. Be ready to do and say whatever God commands you to. Don't stand there with your arms crossed saying no I don't want to. Jesus can!! Are you ready? Pray to become ready.