You are free to be YOU.

Lately, in life... I've been experiencing some funkiness. Yes, I've been in a FUNK. It comes and it goes... and it sucks.

Well last night I was cleaning my room... I saw one of my favorite pens and got the urge to start writing. Immediately I knew... I felt it in my spirit to write to Poppa :). My thoughts and emotions started flowing... I just wanted to thank Him and express to Him all of the love that I felt. It was almost as if my heart was really gonna burst from so much joy and love!

I have a tiny journal.

Well its not tiny... but, I like to write big... so to me... it's tiny. Anyway! As I was writing... I could hardly contain my speediness! lol I was trying so hard to stay in between the lines and still freely express myself on paper. It wasn't working... either I wrote neatly and sacrificed some of that raw emotion... or it got really raw and the writing was out of place. hahaha That's when I felt the Lord speak to me in the softest, purest, most tender way.

I don't want you to stay inside of the lines.

I want you to FREELY be yourself.

Freedom from the thoughts of others & be unapologetic about it.

 Freedom from their perceptions.

Be whole in Me & do not be phased by anything else. 

Oh boy! God is great. Amen?! Amen. The freedom that I felt after this! This funk is gone. My "ugh." is replaced with "woooo" We have a Father that turns mourning into dancing, y'all. I will never cease to be amazed at how much Abba loves His children. 

I started to reminisce (as I tend to do every year on my birthday ;D) and I can't help but to be humbled in COMPLETE REVERENCE. I have been taken out of so much junk, removed from toxic relationships, and protected so much by God. Even when it's hard for me to identify what it is that is going wrong inside of me... He knows... and if we listen closely enough, we can hear Him speaking to our spirit.

O Lord, You have searched me. 

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 

You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. 

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, Even the night shall be light about me; 

Indeed, the darkness and the light are both alike to You. 

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.

Psalm 139:1-18 NKJV

Your Heavenly Father knows every single aspect about your life... the good, the bad, the ugly, and all of the potential that you carry inside of you. I pray that you are able to accept this freedom of being YOU that God has blessed us with. 

LORD, I pray that the person reading this right now can receive the freedom to him/her self. Break the chains of other people's thoughts, opinions, or perceptions of them. I pray that they are able to see themselves as You see them, not as the people that surround them do. In Jesus' name, amen. 

I love you all soooo much! God bless and have an incredible day... every day ;D

-Alyssa

Is loving worth the risk? Heart vs Brain

For so many years 'I've heard that, your heart can decieve you!' 'Don't follow your emotions!'
'Your heart can get broken so BE CAREFUL!' I mean these are all things that l've heard in the process of growing up. But I wonder what would happen if we stop letting our brain do ALL the work and start to actually listen to our hearts? Hmmmm....

As I'm writing this, even prior to writing this I notice that in previous situations in my life when things get too deep, or in other words "dangerously deep" I tend to let my brain takeover and start to do all the talkin' and Actin' I don't know exactly why, but what i do know is that its a defensive mechinism that I have. Maybe its because I'm afraid of the emotional breakthrough, or the emotional attachment, or maybe even the emotional hurt that I'm gonna feel. So immediately my brain, as the analyzer and protector of my body, including all major organs, does its job! It sends out a signal that builds a wall so that the most important organ, muscle, whatever its called, lol,in my body doesn't get scared or wounded. So then, with many years of this process going on, I start to become a person that thinks more than she feels. And for someone who, first of all loves Christ, and second is a woman, thinking just tends to get in the way. Not all the time, but sometimes.

Now I'm not saying that thinking is bad, or is the devil. After all in Romans 12:2 it says to let your mind get renewed,so that you will be transformed (just paraphrasing). There are certain, if not many situations that we encounter that our brain aka mind comes in handy. But what I am saying is that sometimes letting our hearts take the lead may ultimately be the right thing to do. Wouldn't that lead us to be more Christ like?

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul! What if our hearts are a window to heaven?
Wouldn't our hearts have more to say about compassion? Or what about just plain love? Doesn't our heart love harder then our brain? I think so!
 
I think maybe we have to stop worrying about our hearts being hurt in the process of loving and just love. Lets stop thinking about loving and just love. Doesn't the Bible also say 'if God for us who can be against us?' No one! Maybe ourselves?

So my recommendation to myself is to first, let myself become more full of the spirit. And second, let myself love more and love harder,  'cause if God is for me then I don't want to be against myself!

Hey, freely loving someone is one of the highest sacrifices, your heart is in danger, therefore so is your mind and even body. But isn't the sacrifice worthy of the glory of God? I'd rather God be glorified through my suffering, then myself be glorified through my knowledge ( or lack there of)!

Romans 12: 1-2 ' I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, whichis your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.'

Romans 8:31-39 ' what then shall we say to these things? If God is for who can be against us? ..... who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or nakedness,or peril, or sword? As it is written: for your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life. Nor angels nor principalities,nor powers, nor things present nor things to come. Nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!'

Galatians 5:25 ' if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.'

So friends let us LOVE WITH ALL OUR HEARTS! knowing that not even a broken heart will ever separate us from the Love of our creator! As a matter of fact it will bring us closer to Him.

Psalm 34:18 NKJV
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

With as much Love as I can give,

Ruthie

Nod your head if you ever question your direction in life.

God, what am I doing here and where the heck am I going?

Nod your head if you ever question your direction in life.  Nod your head twice if you ever feel like you aren’t where Jesus wants you to be, doing what He wants you to. Keep reading if you’d like to read some good news about your life, where it’s headed and what God’s up to in all of it.

When I was in college I studied Sociology in the hopes to either go abroad or to the inner city to make an impact for Jesus.  I had this idea that I would influence the world by being an advocate for the less fortunate or being a mentor to inner city kids.  I left the college bubble excited and full of my romantic notions but it wasn’t long before the real world slapped me a good one.  No one was hiring in my field of interest.  I had to broaden my search and after months I had to take anything that came my way.

   

So, I became a Realtor’s assistant.  It was far from my dream job but it paid the bills.  I ended up staying in the field for 7 years.  As God led me on a completely different path than I had envisioned for myself I questioned if I was really where I was supposed to be.  My dreams of impacting people young and old for the Kingdom were still in my heart but far out of reach. Or so I thought at the time. 

 

After college I fell in love and got married.  My husband and I attended a church and were asked to get involved.  You name a church ministry and we were asked to help in it, from door greeters to Sunday school teachers to small group leaders.  To be honest we didn’t necessarily want to participate in some of these things.  We wanted to say no but somehow our mouths would always say yes!

These opportunities were huge spiritual growth opportunities.  Although I felt stuck in my “job” in Real Estate, God had us in training in that season and we didn’t even realize it. Our yes to the little things gave way to greater opportunities.  God began to entrust us with more and we were doing exactly what He had planned for that time in our lives.

Fast forward to 2012, my husband is now a worship leader and we are serving as youth pastors.  I see God unraveling my dreams before my eyes but even though we are serving in these different capacities I have learned an important lesson.  My idea of serving Jesus and living out His plans for my life have completely changed.   

Firstly, serving Jesus does not have to be your “career” as in being a missionary, working for a Christian organization or even just serving at Church.  While all of these things are good and awesome, limiting ourselves to grand exploits is a huge deception.  Jesus asks us to serve Him daily with our devotion, our love for Him as well as our love for others.   Mark 12:30-31 says, 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these.” 

 

If we aren’t in love with Jesus, or even trying to get to know Him, the loving others part won’t just come naturally.  Time with Jesus naturally means hearing from Him and catching the sound of His heartbeat.  He begins to put things in our hearts that are beyond ourselves like compassion for others that causes us to step out and actually do something to lift someone else up. 

Now I understand that serving Jesus can be as simple and beautiful as giving a homeless person the last five dollars in my wallet or visiting someone in the hospital.  It can be listening to a co-worker or fellow student as they pour out their life situation and praying with faith that Jesus would turn their situation around.  Serving Jesus can also be saying yes to an opportunity in church, at school, even at home in something where we can bless someone else.  Doing what Jesus asks is as easy as taking assessment of where He’s placed us today and making it count by lifting someone up and pointing them in God’s direction. It’s the little things we do out of obedience that propel us into the greater things God has for us. 

 

Now, about those big dreams and desires God puts in our hearts.  God deposits those things in our hearts for a reason to be lived out during a certain time.  I may not live these dreams or desires out in MY due time.  But I can always trust that He will not leave me hanging since He’s the one that put them there. And the kicker is that His timing for things almost never lines up with my timing.  BUT I’ve learned that His ways are ALWAYS better than my ways. Whenever I hear this verse, hope always rises in me that God’s not finished working out all He’s put in my heart.  Philippians 1:6 says,

 “I’m convinced that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Your time will come and when it comes you will look back at the little opportunities you said yes to and laugh.  Your creator knows exactly what He’s doing in your life and has you exactly where He wants you, doing what He wants you to do.  Make today count by listening to His heart and doing that little thing He’s asking you to for that person or in that situation.  Know that He cares for you, has not forgotten you and wants nothing more than for you to be close to His heart.  Smile because you are on your way to fulfilling all that God has for you by seizing today’s opportunities.  Laugh at any obstacles you see in your way because your future is going to be AWESOME and full of God’s power as you watch your natural collide with His supernatural ways to make things happen in your life!

Proverbs 3:5-6: “ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.”

~ Ammie Avolio