Set Apart

Today I went to visit a new church in Starkville. I had been very hesitant about this particular church because of the set up however, I was pleasantly surprised by a message preached straight from the Word of God about the Gospel.

My attention was sparked as soon as the beautiful story of redeeming love and grace and forgiveness began to unfold. One thing that the pastor said was, "we will never be completely and totally fulfilled until we align ourselves with the assigned role the Lord has for us in His plan." We are the mirrors that reflect Christ's light....not the light bulbs that provide the light. I have spent the rest of the afternoon chewing on this idea...Christ's plan is not about me getting what I want. His plan is not about my desires, or my wants, or my hopes, or my dreams. His plan is about HIM. and I am not the lead role in this story...I am only a small supporting part in this story of my life. Christ alone is to be my motivation for living, for growth, for everything.

This is a truth I have ultimately known but thinking through it this afternoon and what that actually means in my life right now has made the truth become so relevant. I will never be completely fulfilled in the way that the Lord desires for me to be until I place myself behind the CROSS and allow Him to lead me fully. I will not be completely in the Lord's will until HE IS THE GOAL. the end. He has to be what I am working towards...nothing else. He must be what we live our short lives for. CHRIST. not for friends. or relationships. or success. or fun. or money. or anything. HIM. and until we, until I, am able to get to the place where, "...earth has nothing I desire besides thee." Psalm 73:25 we will not be able to be the effective agents of change that Christ desires us to be.

Wow. overwhelming right? and so easy to say these things. but living them out is entirely a different story. and a struggle. I am the first to admit that I fail miserably on a daily basis in making my life about the Lord and not myself. BUT without CHRIST and His help, strength and support none of us can do anything for Him. It is only through Christ that we are effective.

With that being said, another thing that I did today was watch a movie. Big deal right...just a movie. OH NO. Everyone needs to get this movie and experience it for yourself. It is called Beware of Christians. This was a movie about 4 college guys from Texas who were tired of living a Christian life about themselves and wanted to get back to the basics of the Gospel and what it means to be a Christian according to the Word of God. PRAISE THE LORD. I seriously encourage each of you to check it out... They begin the movie about a quote talking about how so many people are led astray from Christianity because of other Christians who do not live out their faith according to scripture.

I think this is a struggle for everyone. We desire to fit and look like everyone else. Yet we are called, to be different, set apart, to not love the things of this world. I really have struggled with this...being a college sorority girl. I desire to look pretty so I wear make up and nice clothes, yet scripture says..."your beauty should not come from outward adornment...but from your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.." 1 peter 3:3-4 I desire to be well liked so I go out to parties and while I don't participate in anything necessarily bad, I am by no means being different...I am participating in darkness and confusing people in their faith when scripture says to..."put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." Romans 13:12

We have bought into the lies of Satan that being a Christian means being comfortable and that it is ok to look like everyone else. NO. we are to be light in the darkness. the opposite of the world. Does that mean we are judgmental or condemning of those in the world? NOOOO!! we are called to LOVE like Christ loves the church with an unconditional and patient love.

Until we grasp these things the Lord cannot use us to the full extent that He desires...I want my life to count for the Lord. I want my focus to be latched onto Him and nothing else of this world. Let's do it.

BLESSINGS.

Reach out for HIM

Sweet "Sisters" (Kirby and Nicole)

So I will start by saying how sorry I am for taking so long to write...with that being said...

It is my spring break, and while it looks much differently than I thought it would I am enjoying being at home with my family. The Lord wastes nothing and even things like the way we spend our spring break He has His hand in on.

So I was reading this verse that a friend sent to me in Acts 17:25-28...and it says in verse 27, "God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, for in Him we live and move and have our being."

I was blown away by this. and literally in the past hour the Lord has shown me so much. Christ desires us to surrender fully of all fears, doubts, hopes, dreams, and expectations we may have. He desires that we surrender and then reach out and feel for him in our vulnerability until we have our full grasp clasped onto Him and nothing else in this world.

I have been so convicted of this. In Psalm 73:25 it says..."And earth has nothing that I desire besides you..." I realized that I was unable to say that which broke my heart. I have been clinging desperately to things and people of this world. And in just the last few moments the Lord has made it so clear that without complete surrender I will be unable to live in the fullness of His perfect will for my life.

I do not want it to be said of me that I am a person of little faith and the desire for much control. I want to have such confidence in my Creator that I worry about nothing. I want my life to be about pleasing Him even if that means not having everything that I want. I want my desire to mirror the Lord's desires....and up until now I am not sure that they have in certain areas of my life.

Ladies, each of us as Godly women seeking after Christ look to Proverbs 31...I have been studying it in detail lately and what I have found is that I have a long road ahead of me that can only be accomplished through the power and grace of Jesus Christ. I am lacking. He is full of everything I need. In my flesh I will fail miserably and be the most weak, impatient, and mess of a woman. However, with Christ... We can be women that are gentle and quiet in spirit and patient in all circumstances and confident of our futures in Christ.

I have realized that often times the areas I feel the most confident I have under control are the areas that Christ wants to me to re evaluate the most. One thing is for sure...I have come to the place in the last hour that I no longer want to live a life about my desires and a life where I try to figure everything out that the Lord has not revealed to me. I have laid EVERYTHING at His feet, and at the foot of the Cross there is healing. and freedom. what a sweet and beautiful thing. Freedom in surrender.

Only when we are able to lay our fears at the Lord's feet will we then open ourselves up to His movement in our lives...He cannot move when we do not give him everything. I want my heart to be a reflection of Christ's heart. I want Him to be my JOY and my PORTION.

Without Christ I am absolutely nothing but wicked and a miserable failure. BUT with Him. praise the LORD, He is able to make me into a beautiful daughter. only HE is able to do this.

I hope this is an encouragement and challenge to each of you who read this.

Blessings!

Carry The Name

Athens, Greece

"To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need." - J.I Packer

The more the Lord teaches me and shows me in His Word the more I am finding this quote to be so true. Our generation has adopted this idea of the gospel and the cross that is almost fluffy and comfortable in its foundation. We avoid discussion of boldness in sharing and radical giving because they do not fit into our "american dream" idea of Christianity. We have to bring the gospel back to truth. We are failing miserably if we keep this incredible good news to ourselves because we are fearful of rejection.

WE ARE IN A WAR. I have been reading through Revelation and to think about anyone who does not know Christ experiencing the wrath discussed in this book should bring us to tears and should give us a motivation to live our lives with urgency. Our hearts should break for the lost, we should be looking and eagerly seeking opportunities to share Christ's love with anyone who has not experienced it.

I want to be known as someone who has spent her life bringing glory to the name of JESUS. not my name. my name means nothing apart from Christ, I am wicked and sinful and in dire need of a Savior's grace every moment. Our leader at Campus Crusade here at MSU said, "The extent to which we accept our own wickedness is the extent to which we recognize our greater need for Christ."

When we see this need in our own lives it should motivate us to action in the lives of others. We are called to plant seeds. Our goal in this life should be to make an impact for the Kingdom of Christ. I dont know about you, but I want to leave this life and face my Savior with a life behind me that gives testimony to a heart completely dedicated to Him and His gospel.

CARRY THE NAME OF CHRIST TODAY.

Blessings.

-Rachel

Who Is God?

So many of my friends have started blogging and it seems like such a great outlet that I have decided to give it a shot...

I feel like a lot of times I understand things more after writing them out so many of my blogs will have to do with what the Lord is teaching me. I hope that something will be of an encouragement to you in some way and spur you on in your faith.

Today I began my day by meeting with one of my favorite freshman girls at the Bakery to get into the Word. We are looking at Who is God, and studying the Names of God, as well as His attributes. It is a very powerful study and I just wanted to share this with you.

"This is what the Lord says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this; that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth for in these I delight," declares the Lord." Jeremiah 9:23-24

This verse is so powerful...and while in the last six months to a year my walk with Christ has been revolutionized I continue to learn more about who my saviour is. I am amazed that while Christ promises we have the power to know him truly, we can never exhaust our knowledge of Him. There is always more to be learned and understood, and when we feel that we know our God fully we find we can dig even deeper.

Our purpose in this life is to know God's glory. To learn God's Word. To advance God's kingdom. This is our mission in life. It is not something we have to pray about or negotiate with God about. Our mission in this life is to do this things and to do them well. We should never be known as the Christian who was "too scared" to share their special gift of Christ's love with someone and therefore take the gospel to the grave with them. In order to effectively share this gospel of good news we must know the Creator who wrote this story.

A.W. Tozer, says "We have but to want Him badly enough, and He will come and manifest Himself to us." We just have to want Him. That is where so many of us misunderstand. Our faith and Christianity is not about doing things. It is not a to do list of good things and a list of things to avoid. Our relationship with Jesus is about coming to JESUS to get JESUS! It is about desiring to know Him more and more in a deeper and deeper way. It is about hungering for His Word, and loving the unlovable. Being a Jesus follower is about Jesus not the do's and dont's...when we are desperate for Jesus...all the do's and dont's take care of themselves. Someone desperate for Jesus is desperate to obey Him and desperate to share His love.

The last thing...when we truly know the Lord then routine religion is no longer tolerable. We are not okay with the checking off of boxes for the sake of checking them off. Casual worship is no longer possible. Total surrender is no longer optional. We desire to surrender totally because we become desperate to live a life chasing radically after Jesus. and lastly, Global mission is no longer negotiable. We do not have to be "called to the mission field"....WE ARE COMMANDED to GO and make disciples in Matthew 28. It is not recommended, suggested or mentioned...it is a command straight from Jesus himself to GO! When we know who God is we desire to stop making excuses on why to stay comfortable but we desire to do whatever it takes to be UNcomfortable for His Name, and whatever that means we desire to do it.

So may we all hunger to know the Lord deeper on a daily basis in order that we may go out and be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus!!

Peace and Blessings