2011

God's been showing me some great things this month. I'm really excited to share them with the BLOOM girls, but I felt like sharing them on here too.

1. Flee Immorality

Psalm 104:34

"May my meditation be pleasing to Him;
I will rejoice in the LORD."

Psalm 19:14

"May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to You,
LORD, my rock and my Redeemer."

We want to please God with all that we do. That includes what we watch, what we listen to, and who and what we talk about.

Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

Take a look at all the things you do, the things you listen to, the things you watch, the things you say. Now ask yourself if those things are pure. If they are right. If they are admirable. If they are praiseworthy.

James 1:27

"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."

Daniel 1:7

"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way."

Don't be polluted. Make a commitment with Godto stay away from things that aren't edifying.

Ed Cole said "Basura que entra, basura que sale."

If you're exposing yourself to things that go against God's will for you, it's going to come out of you whether you want it to or not.

Luke 1:37

"For nothing is impossible with God."

If you ask God to help you take care of these things that aren't pleasing to him, he will. B transformed by the renewing of your mind. He'll do it. He doesn't want you to stay in that sin. But you have to make a commitment to do it. And you'll probably want to have something as a replacement. If it's a tv show that you always watch, determine to read the Bible during that time. If it's a song that's not pleasing to God, find praise music and put that on when you want to listen to the other music.

2. Finding Faults in Others

Matthew 7:3-5

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Luke 6:41-42

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Sometimes we don't realize it. We think that everyone else needs help but we don't stop to think about whether we do or not. And maybe we don't think we need what's being said at the moment, but if it's standing out there's a reason so we need to pay attention.

I've been doing this a lot recently. I'll be at church, or youth group, or Bible study and I'll think, "I hope so-and-so is listening to this. It's just what they need to hear to get their life back on track." Or I'll be thinking that it's a shame that that person isn't hearing the message. That thinking is so hypocritical! Yeah, maybe that other person is showing signs of not following God completely, but we can't put ourselves above them and say that we are.

And sometimes it's the other way around. We're the ones with the speck and they're the ones with the plank. But that doesn't mean we can ignore our sin and try to fix their's. Any sin separates us from God, no matter how small. We need to take care of ourselves first so we won't be hypocrites.

3. My Dear Brothers

I've been thinking about this for a while and it's something I shared with my Bible class, but I think it goes along with the other things.

We are still called to approach a brother or sister in Christ when they are doing something that goes against God.

The phrase "my dear brothers" shows up a couple of times in the New Testament. It's an example of how we should approach our brothers and sisters in Christ.

"My" shows belonging. It says, "I'm telling you this because I love you."

"Dear" says, "You are close to my heart. I don't want bad things to happen to you."

"Brothers" shows equality. It says, "I'm not above you. I am not judging you."

James 1:16 and 19

"Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers."

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,"

In this passage James is giving directions. Warn people about the traps of this world. Don't let them find out the hard way.

1 Corinthians 15:57-58

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

In this passage, Paul is encouraging the church in Corinth. Don't just help others in where they're failing, encourage them in the work that they are doing.

I realize this post is kinda long, but I'm excited about these things. I've always known them, but it's like they're just now becoming a reality for me and I felt like sharing them.

Ventanilla

Ventanilla.

I spent five days in Ventanilla with a group from a church in Texas. Every day I would leave my house at around six to get to the hotel at seven. We’d get back to the hotel at around six and I’d get home a little after 7:30. It’s hot in Ventanilla and the orphanage was sandy. I’d come home every day very dirty and very tired.

But it was all worth it.

I was put in a group with two girls and a different medical student every day. We’d start with the three to six year old boys, spend an hour with them and then spend an hour with the three to six year old girls. We definitely got more done with the girls. Those little boys were all wild and there were sixty of them. I ended the week with a deep respect for the house mom who has to spend all her time with them. The first two days it was a relief to finish with the boys and go to the quiet, obedient girls. But on Wednesday and Thursday, I spent the afternoon time with those boys, just playing with them. There were six or seven of them who would spend the whole two hours with me and some who would come and go. The rest all played by themselves, with someone else, or with Hannah, the other girl who went with me in the afternoons. They didn’t all flock to me and listen to me, but that was ok. I loved being with those boys. They would sit with me when I got tired and fight over my lap. When I proposed a game they would jump in whole-heartedly. I got there one afternoon to find that the makers Hannah had taken were all over the place. Most of them didn’t care, but the boys who were with me did their best to find all the markers when I asked them too.

I took lots of pictures that week, but very few of them are of the boys. I was too busy playing with them.

On Friday we had a big celebration at in the Chapel. As we were leaving, I felt like crying. Those boys made me yell to get their attention, run after them when they ran away, and go home every day ready for bed. But I love them. It breaks my heart to think that some of those sweet little boys are unwanted by their parents. And it made me sad that some of them had to be far away from their families because their parents need to work.

God did amazing things that week. So many kids from different age groups gave their lives to Christ. Every day that we went, there were just enough people to do everything that needed to be done. The team left Texas with less people than they wanted to and some of the translators went sporadically but every day God brought in people to fill for the ones who weren’t there.

Being the translator, I had to speak the loudest. Thursday night my throat was sore and Friday morning I couldn’t talk. I made a declaration that it was not from God, that the devil was trying to take away what I needed to reach those kids. By the time we got to the orphanage, my throat and my voice were fine.

I will never forget this week in Ventanilla. It was further confirmation from God that I should study Secondary Education instead of Elementary Education, but it was still amazing and I will carry those boys with me in my heart forever. I can't wait until I get a chance to go back.

New Year's Resolution

So, the writing every month thing kinda didn't work out. I said this before and, unfortunately, I have to say it again. I forgot I had a blog. If it wasn't for a friend asking me to update it, I probably wouldn't have remembered. But I think I will be writing more. It's vacation time now and we're not going anywhere so I'll have a lot of time at home and I am going to be doing things that might be worthy of a blog post.

So, I guess my New Year's resolution is to write on my blog more consistently. :)