Hope for Him

Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15  If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. As Christians we all work together to further the kingdom of God. We all have different jobs that edify and uplift everyone. We can’t have a hand without an arm so someone needs to be an arm. It is cool to see the body all work together and see how it actually correlates to the scripture. When serving in outreaches I can definitely see this being practically applied. Everyone has different gifts and abilities and all together we glorify the Lord. That is why unify is so important. We all need to work together so that conflict does not arise. Unity is fundamental in Christianity. God calls us to act in unity. This is so appropriate for this week because lately our team has not been unified. Working on our skit has been difficult and we have accomplished nothing because of the lack of unity. But with

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. So many times in our walks we become weak. We can feel like our lives are stagnant. Times like these can feel like valleys juxtaposed with mountain top experiences. When our brothers and sisters in Christ are failing in their walk or struggling we are to come along side them and help lift them off their feet. This is such an encouraging thing to do because at some point in my life when I was failing, I had someone come and help me get off the ground. I can remember getting council from a friend of mine and it honestly changed my life. She was so wise and gave me the right words and the right encouragement. We should not be prideful and puffed up when helping others but serve others in humility. That is what God calls us to be. We are to be humble first and then comes the honor. I need to pray more to be humble because I can come across as prideful when I talk about past experienc

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. God has allowed us to walk in freedom. We are not to take advantage of that freedom and be in the flesh and satisfy our sinful nature. I think sometimes we can walk in the flesh with freedom by being prideful and boasting. I can say that I walk in victory from past addictions in my life but I know that I am to walk in humility. In that freedom, I am not weighed down my heavy chains. I can now lovingly serve others being freed from that bondage. I know God can use the bad for good because from that rough time in my life Christ has used now as good. I can now help others with the same issues and come alongside them. Only Christ allowed me to do that. I could not have become free without the work of the Spirit. The Spirit was living in me which brought freedom. I am so thankful that the Lord has even brought friends in my life with the same past

Submitting yourselves to one to another in the fear of God What is the fear of God? To fear God is to have reverence and respect towards him. By submitting to our authority we are having reverence towards the Lord. it pleases him when we submit unto others. For me it is hard submitting to people close in age to me. When I was studying in Israel I had a dorm steward who was a control freak and it was extremely hard to submit unto her. She was very strict with rules and almost twisted them to her standards. The Lord taught me to submit unto her because she was in authority and i sought the Lord in this time. I was going to Matthew 18 her for stuff that happened but the Lord ended up switching the dorm steward in perfect timing. God was sovereign in the situation. It taught me to rely on the Lord and seek Him in prayer. God always hears our prayers but sometimes I forget and lack in faith. But God is sovereign and will work out all things. He uses every situation to stretch us and to

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. This verse shows are we are to be empathetic with others. What we go through such as weakness can help others that have the same weakness. Doing this helps others so that they are encouraged in their walks. This has happened to me a couple times. One of my friends was going through a hard time and GYGI was able to encourage her because I had the same struggle. I was able to help her and give her verses that got me through tough times. I have also gone through times where I had a friend and she found out something about her fiancé. This was so hard on her and I was able to help her by being by her side and be vulnerable with her. Being vulnerable is necessary to either empathize or sympathize with others. Being open shows the other person that you trust and care for them. I have become to close to my friends with opening up to them about struggles and har

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. When people tell us to do something, it shouldn't be with grumbling but with joy. I need to remember this. So often I can see that it is servant time and complain but I know it is beneficial to me and to the body. God gives us authority for a reason. When we submit to authority it teaches us obedience which is pleasing to the Lord. God places certain people in our lives to be authority over us. We can learn from these people because one day we will be authority over others. We could be teachers, parents, or leaders in the church. Submission is the first step to obedience. The picture of submission in the Bible is marriage. Wives are to submit to their husbands and husbands to the Lord. This picture refers to Christ and the church. The husband is the head of the wif

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ This verse helped me at a pivotal time in my walk with Christ back when I was living in Jerusalem. I was going through a time of fear and doubt in the promises the Lord gave to me. It was making me depressed and feel empty and dark inside.Walking around and going to class I felt this oppression fall over me as if I was the only one in the room. I was having a deep conversation with my friends and my close friend Liel told me that I need to take the words of the Lord captive in obedience to Him. She told me to write His truths down on index cards to remind me of His faithfulness. If there were any questions or doubts that came into my mind I knew they were not from God so I held on to his truth. I am so thankful that my friend explained this to me so I was not struggling in this battle of fear and peace. The thoughts that come into our heads can destroy us.

When we are to obey our parents because it is pleasing to the Lord. Growing up, I did not obey my parents. I disrespected them on a daily basis and took them for granted. They supported me in everything I did and I never showed them reciprocal love. Looking back I regret a lot of what I did and said to them. I am still trying to pick up the pieces and put them back together. Things did not start getting better until a couple years ago. I never even had conversations with my father. He would drive me to school everyday and I would say no words to him. This probably broke the Lord’s heart. I wish I could talk to my parents more being here. It probably kills them to only get to talk to them for once week. I hope that one day when I have kids, they have respect for me. I hope that I can parent as good has my parents did to me. Looking back now they supported me in anything even though they knew I would not pursue culinary. To the Lord it makes him happy when we honor our parents so I ne

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  When we are obedient it leads to righteousness. When we are obedient to the things which God calls us to He will set us apart and sanctify is in righteousness. The previous verse talks how we are under grace. That doesn’t mean we should sin repeatedly on purpose because we know God is going to give us grace. Being a slave to sin leads to death. I was a slave to sin for over 7 years and it was killing me inside. It brought bitterness, depression, insecurities, and hate into my heart. I thought I could keep sinning because I was not under the law but under grace. But I had no excuse to keep sinning. I was digging myself a deeper and deeper whole. One of my friends told me that our lives are like a fire and every time we sin and pour a bucket of water over that flame. A couple of years

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. I was such a naughty and rebellious child growing up. I was manipulative and an instigator to my older siblings to get attention. Because of that I got every form of punishment. I got the wooden spoon, spatula, soap, tabasco sauce, time out and everything else you can think of. And let me tell you it made be obedient. I did not want to suffer the consequences of misbehaving. It took me awhile to figure that out but I soon learned. God disciplines us and it can seem like suffering. He can take people and things out of our life but it brings forth obedience. When we are putting God in that leadership over our lives we should submit to him with obedience. Even if it does mean suffering. Suffering could be persecution. But even in those situations we are to be obedient. We are to be as obedient as a dog with his master. I think of my dog who is so obedient. He knows when he does something naughty because my mom discip

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;  when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.  Ps 17:15. When I wake am I satisfied in the face of the Lord’s righteousness? Not all the time. Not before I have coffee or dive into the word. I never really had the thirst to read the Bible until being in Israel. The Lord has given me this desire to wake up and draw closer to Him. I am also blessed by the fact that I’ve been waking up early. I have never been a morning person and I still don't think I am but by the grace of God I am able to wake up and start my day bright and early. The morning before Agua I did not have time to read the Bible. People could tell something was different. I was getting ticked off by people touching me and talking to me. I just wanted to sleep. And this is all because I did not read the Bible to start off the day. Thankfully the bus driver was late so we had time to read the Bible. If I had not read the Bible that morning the day w

Philippians 4:11   Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. We are to be content “in” every situation. Not “for” every situation. This is important because while we are in the situation we need to be okay with it. We are to be content in the waiting process, in the valleys, and in the mountain tops. Contentment brings joy. I believe that if we have contentment in the hard situations we can overcome them. God will give us grace in those hard situations to overcome. Contentment can also bring peace. I remember when I was studying in California I was worried about what was next. My flesh was telling me England but God was telling me Israel. God spoke to me through others the confirmation of going to Israel. Since I was being lead by the Holy Spirit, I had containment in the waiting process. The time being home in between both semesters was the hardest time spiritually I had to go through. But I had peace. I was content wher

hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. Being content with what we have can be a struggle. We can often look to the right or to the left to what others have. We only need so much in the world to live a happy life. Riches will not satisfy the heart because we are always going to want more. The beginning of this chapter talks about hospitality. I believe that the gift of hospitality is one of the less used gifts. But it is so necessary. This gift requires sacrifice and dying to self. I want to strive for this gift. I would love to have a house where people can come from all over and I can bless them with hospitality. One family in my life is a real example of using the gift of hospitality. They moved to Israel with nothing. They were living in an apartment with black mold for a while. The parents and the children were getting sick while balancing running a Bible college. They

1 Timothy 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7  for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8  But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. When I learned that this weeks theme was contentment I laughed. God has been teaching me contentment big time in this week. From Pastor Mike telling me to be content, to other people conforming it through conversation I have been learning to be content where the Lord has me in this time. I am to be content right were I am with what God has blessed me with. God has placed me in Guatemala with all I need including peanut butter and my slippers. I am in God’s will so I am in peace. Sometimes we can be so materialistic with the things of this world. Like a car, a house, and money. This is convicting because the desire for marriage and a family can also encompass this. I need to be thankful for what I have and what is to come. I have faith that if God has brought me here

Luke 21:19 By your endurance gain your lives. Our Christian life is a race. We are to run the race with endurance and with patience looking unto Jesus.  In a race only one runner receives a prize. I have had the privilege to see my dad train for marathons. He is disciplined with what he eats and how he trains his body for the race. He faithfully wakes up every morning preparing to run those 26.2 miles. Watching him train for this life time achievement is filled with hardships like injuries or time management but it is worth it in the end to cross that finish line. But in a marathon there is only one winner. And my dad has not won the marathon (he is 56 years old). But I have also had the privilege to work a water stop at mile 20 which is the home stretch. I have handed water to the elite runners and one of them received that prize of being the first one to cross the finish line. And as Christians, we are to run the race to win. We are to go all out for Christ Jesus. Paul likes to

Luke 8:11-15 11  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13  And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14  And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15  As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.  When I read this verse it reminds me of my friends that have grown up in the church with me. The amount of people I went to church, youth group, and Christian school that are walking with the Lord are slim. When these kids grow up in the truth, they

Colossians 1:11 11  being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; In the beginning of the chapter in Colossians it talks about being filled with the knowledge of his will so that we may walk worthy of the Lord. This speaks directly to what I was praying about today. I prayed for the Lord to make known his way to me and for the Lord to teach me his will. I go on to read Psalm 143 which in verse 8 says, “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, or to you I lift up my soul. And in verse 10 which says Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” In this verse is patience. Patience is key to a life devoted to Christ. We do not get things according to our timing but to the Lord’s timing. God’s timing is perfect and I have been shown that in the past few months. God is sovereign and his ways are not our ways. I am

Hebrews 6:12 So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.  Who are we to imitate? Right away two people come to mind when I think of people who inherited promised. I think of Abraham and Sarah.  Abraham is mentioned in the beginning of this passage being given the promise of being able to multiply. This encourages me because with this promise Abraham and Sarah needed to have faith in patience. Faith and patience are necessary when waiting on the promises of God. God has given me a promise and every day I patiently wait for the Lord to give me this promise. I am waiting with this promise right in front of my face but I need faith and patience for the Lord’s timing. I am to dwell and not tell. It is impossible for God to lie. When He speaks into our hearts He will accomplish the things that He has set before us. I am not to be sluggish in this time but be ready and draw closer to the Lord every day. God will allow me to

Revelation 1:9   I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. We are to endure through all things. That might look like getting sent to an island like John. But we are to have endurance through those times because God can use it just like he used John. The Lord will use situations like trials and tribulations to speak to us and to show us more of himself. We are to cling to him in times like those. I can remember a time when I was at Bible college. My roommate and I were going through a trial smack dab at the beginning of the semester. Bethwyn and I were going through a difficult time and we only had each other. But God grew Bethwyn (my best friend) and I very close in that time as we prayed in the midst of this trial and sought the Lord in the situation. In the end God was sovereign and dealt with the situation. God heard o