He and I Alone

You look in the mirror. "Gross," you think to yourself, "He is going to think I am such a slob, when He sees me like this." You grab your keys; you grab your things. With your shoes in one hand and car keys in the other, you dash into your car in a frenzy. You're late. As you drive your mind starts to wonder. You picture what His loving embrace will feel like. You picture His soft cloudy eyes and warm gently smile. Despite the fact that you are wearing a big t-shirt  and no trace of makeup, you know he will embrace you just the same as if you were wearing diamonds and rubies. His love is unconditional. You cannot contain the joy within you. You cannot wait to tell him about the day you had. Your exciting news, mixed with the smell of his shirt, and the taste of the coffee shop make you leap with glee. You are utterly sold on His love. Imagining a life without His love is void.

You are ardently in love with Him.

If this were you in the story wouldn't you be so happy to be loved by this man?

Personally, I know the desire to be loved far too well. Even yet, I have so much love inside of me that I just want to love something. Give me a puppy because I need to hold something and unleash my love upon. I have moments, where I feel the love swell inside my body so violently, that I dream of loving someone for the rest of my life.  Loving people is one of the things I enjoy most.

When I get married, I know I will have moments where I will just stand openly staring at him. Amazed that I get to love him for the rest of my own eternity on earth. 

[Here comes the Christian life application....ready?]

Girls, You are that frantic, frazzled, messy, dreaming, and lovely girl in the story. The man is? Your own Jesus. We know that Jesus does not look on the outward appearance, but to the heart. When the women in the story looks at herself in the mirror she is not looking at her outward appearance. She is looking at her heart, at her sin. She knows when she goes to meet Jesus at the coffee shop, all her ugly and black sin will be exposed. 

||Accepted despite the sin||

When given a letter, I find that my mind memorizes it automatically. The sweet words, their personality showing in the print, and the way their sweet words uplift me. Getting letters and notes are, in fact, apart of my love language. We have already been given a letter of undying affection and delight. The bible. It should be wrinkled from reading. I find that my heart automatically memorized it because of my eyes gazing upon it time and time again. He delights in me and I in Him. When I unleash my love upon His people I find ultimate satisfaction. 

He loves us more than human flesh could ever desire. Rush to Him more than you would any human being, that would only bring you temporary satisfaction and security.

Coffee with the King. This is what I desire. He ardently loves me and I Him.

Sunset Sky

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's photo shoot. Some are waiting to be edited and others are being saved for special posts. Only the first two pictures have been only slightly photoshopped, showing how amazing the lighting was yesterday. Cloudy days are my favorite days to take pictures. The light is maximized by the clouds and they also lend themselves to amazing sunsets as the clouds often break. The place where I was shooting yesterday was on top of a hill. [I highly recommend viewing sunsets from hills.] I was able to watch the sun set over the bustling town. Even though I could not see the sun, the outline of the sun could be seen through the clouds. It was breathtaking. Purple, blue, pink, grey, yellow, orange, pink surrounded me. 

God is such an artist.

Not for Show

What is Humility?

Humility is not actively being humble or wearing extremely modest clothes. If you are trying to be humble, you are in fact being prideful. Actions with the intent of being humble are in fact prideful because they are self focused. Humility is having a correct view in who you are in relation to God. Having a correct ideal on who you are and how every single one of your actions bring honor to God. Actions with the intent on bringing glory to God are humble. Therefore, without intentionally trying to become humble, you begin to truly exhibit humility in it's truest form.

Pride is something I struggle with. I am selfish and prideful. Everyone is to some extent, but it is something that I have to work on daily.


Now for the story.

I got selected to be the Junior representative for the homecoming court. Great right? I was excited that I got to dress up with some friends, who were also on the court. We were going to look super pretty and have a great time. The attention was going to be on us. I got so excited for the homecoming football game.

It was about one week away from homecoming. I had gone dress shopping with my friend and was ready for the big night. My dress was hanging in the hallway and I was ready to go. Then one night I sat down to watch a movie. It was one of those movie nights that you don't exactly know what the movie is about, but it has great reviews. The movie was Not For Sale. This movie was about sex trafficking in India and Africa. No movie has made me more emotional or more angry. Especially in India, the people over there are under the Cast System. I do not know much about this system, but I know that you cannot move up a class. You are stuck in the class in which you are born in. The lowest class has the nickname of "The Untouchables." They are completely rejected from society.
  The Dalits.

Often times, the Dalit parents and their children go days without food and water. They are beyond poor. They become desperate for food for their children. They cannot get a job and they are living in the streets. 

Do you know anything more hopeless?

Men come up to these Dalit parents telling them they want to buy their children from them. They decieve these parents in telling them that this will give their children a better life. They will have food and good education. They will live in comfort.  These parents sell their children to these men offering to buy them. They are under the impression that they are giving their children a better life.

What they do not know is that they just sold their child into Sex Trafficking. 

The Sex trafficking industry is straight from the devil. It is an evil that cannot even be described. Millions of children are sold into Sex Trafficking a year. It is slavery. We as americans are under the impression that slavery ended.

We are entirely wrong.

As I was watching this movie, ready to go to India and fight, I looked over into the hallway. There hung my homecoming dress and it looked faded in the dark light. I was disgusted at the fact that I was so focused on a homecoming dress and myself, when things like that are going on in the world. We are so focused on the comfort of our little world. New Cars, new clothes, homecoming, prom, dates, boyfriends, vacations, beach trips, outward appearances, and momentary pleasures. All along, sex trafficking (among other things) are happening around the world.

I also have a pen pal in Uganda. Through her and her letters, God has shown me who He is and that life is not about myself. I have discovered that I find true and pure joy in reaching out to other people and loving on them.

All of a sudden homecoming became non-important to me. I was no longer wrapped up in myself and prideful about the fact that I was on the homecoming court. 

I was humbled like never before.

Friday night, as I walked onto the field, I was joyful that I had the opportunity to shine my light before others, but I will never forget what I said to my dad on that field as we were standing before the crowd.

"Dad, I am so glad this not  the stuff I live for."

Dad "What do you mean, Avery?"

"It's already over, Daddy.""

Dad, "I love you."

I never would have guessed that Jesus would teach me humility by placing me before a crowd of cheering people. However, He humbled me more than I ever would have imagined. Why do we as a society get wrapped up in all these fleeting things? Girls are being sex trafficked and sold into slavery everyday as we lay on our couches consumed with our flesh. The things we usually pour our lives into, do NOT matter.

What is worth living for? 

Light III

"Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness." Psalm 26:2-3

[I am taking this school year to read throughout the entire book of Psalms]

Dry Bones on Display

If I were to ask you a simple question- I would already have a good idea of what your response would be. To give you an idea of how I already know the context of your response and my credibility in asking you this question, I will tell you a fact. I have gone throughout downtown asking this question, sparking discussions that have often been above my level of intelligence. As I look back upon these conversations I realize that often times my words were not my own. They were in fact, Christ's.

What is wrong with the world.


My reasoning for dismissing the rules of grammar? I am not looking for your response, I am asking you to quietly hold your worldview in your mind as your read my next few words to you.



Adultery
Divorce
Sexual Promiscuity
Idolatry
Greed
Anger
Ignorance
Death
Lies
Hate
War
Pain
Suffering
Cancer
Suicide
Depression
Poverty
Corruption
Porn Addiction
Drug Addiction
Lust
Emptiness

The list literally goes on forever. We as a people often group together to try and fix these things. Drug Addiction? We will send you to rehab. Porn Addiction? We go set up accountability groups within the Church. Depression? We have pills that can fix you. We come up with all these treatments for all these life symptoms. They work, but how well do they really work? They need something beyond themselves.

We as a people treat the symptoms, yet ignore the cause.


What is causing all of these symptoms?

sin.

Our failure in addressing, the root cause of our symptoms only dig us deeper.We believe that we know what can fix what is wrong with the world, yet we fail to see the lack of completion in our treatment of them. We are called to go to the Lord in times of trial. Rehab, accountability partners, and sometimes medication are wonderful things that Jesus uses to help us. However, we must use them without a foundation built upon Christ. Often times things are going on in our lives that we try to hide. We put on this mask of imagination; a mask that we conjure up for ourselves. We create our own identity, instead of God being our identity. When Adam and Eve came to the realization that they were in sin and naked, they covered themselves with Fig Leaves, desperately trying to cover themselves and be something they simple were not [sinless]. Now apply this to your life. We all have a fig leaf. There is not one human on the face of the earth who does not have a "Fig Leaf" that they are desperately trying to hide behind.

What is your fig leaf?

[Picture this]You lay your head down upon your pillow one night and go to sleep. You slip into a dream. You are in the middle of a desert, but yet there is a crowd of people surrounding you. You are in the middle of a people creating a circle of people looking down upon you. You are standing there. What are the people staring and pointing at? You look to the ground before you. A skeleton is laid out before you. It is your skeleton. Panic sets inside of you. You look for something around you, dirt, grass, stones, ANYTHING. You one desire at this moment is to cover your skeleton. You have to cover your bones. People are seeing inside of you and your deepest darkest struggles are exposed to the people you most want to hide them from. What will the people thing of you? You grab a fist full of dirt, throwing them upon your skeleton, but to no avail. Now the people are staring at you. You Stand up and look hold up your hands. You skin is slowly fading away. You are sinking. You are becoming the skeleton that you once hid from the world. What will you hide behind now? The people are staring, pointing, whispering, talking, gazing, taunting, and screaming. You are screaming, yet no one hears you. You have become the dry bones that you spent your entire existence trying to dispose. You wake up in a desperate sweat and breathing heavily. You realize, that your largest fear is your Dry Bones being exposed.

"All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me." Psalm 22:17

When you look at the mirror what do you see? How do you see yourself? Everyone is hiding behind something. We all have this preconceived notion that other people are constantly looking and evaluating our every move. In reality, everyone is only worried about what others thing. Their only worry is to hide their Dry Bones.  In Ezekiel 37 we see The Valley of Dry Bones. Such as the Dry Bones in Chapter 37, we must be set alive by the breath of our Lord. "Like unburied skeletons, the people were in a state of living death, pining away with no end to their judgment in sight."
                          (Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/valley-dry-bones.html#ixzz2gtwbZc00)

He  alone can make our Dry Bones lovely and pure. Why should we hide our lives away and pretend to put of an illusion of contentment? Why so many fig leaves? God is calling us out, like He did Adam and Eve. We as a people of Christ should cease to hide behind earthly things and proudly proclaim who Christ has made us (even our Dry bones and every dirty human thing about us). 

Just as my picture above describes, our fig leaves will not last forever; they fade. We cannot hide forever. Even more important, when we look at ourselves in the mirror we do not see our fig leaf. We see our true raw Dry Bones. Jesus does not see our fig leaves. He knows our true hearts.

Our private lives bleed through into our public lives (fig leaves).

What is wrong with the world?

Lifted Towards Him

"And I, when I am lifted up[a] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 
John 12:32
Jesus, lift my face towards yours so that I might bask in your glorious light.

Light