Upon Return

Luke 15:11-32 is a story that most of us are very familiar with. We've heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son preached along with many messages about returning to Christ. But like I've said before, The Lord grants me a new understanding of the particular passage every time I look at it.. I think it's quite remarkable  that the story of the Prodigal Son  so closely parallels to my life. In the story a  father gives his  two sons their share of inheritance. One son immediately leaves and begins to waste all that his father has given to him. The father becomes concerned for the son, who has hit rock bottom. The son is left with nothing, so he decides to go back to his father. He expects his father to be furious and disappointed. As soon as he returns home, however, he finds his  father waiting anxiously for his return. In the end of the story his father celebrates his son'a return. Jesus used this story to demonstrate the Lord's love and grace to the Pharisees.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is an excellent example of our heavenly Father's love and grace for us. You see, in my own life, I am the prodigal child. He gave me the most gracious, undeserved gift, and I accepted it. Over time, I began to take that gift of salvation for granted. While I should have been sharing the love of The Lord with others, I was wasting that time by blending in to the rest of the world. I struggle greatly with blending in. Standing out in faith takes a tremendous amount of courage, especially while surrounded by all the wrong things. I am grateful however for the grace The Lord has shown me through these trials. I've slipped up here and there, but my roots remain in Him. He has kept me from a lot of bad places. But as I read this story of the Prodigal Son, I realized that I need to return to the Father, and continue on with HIS plan for me. I've realized that I am placed in the circumstances that I am in to show love and light to the people around me. It is so incredibly hard to show love and light when worldly temptations are pulling at you constantly. But The Lord put me where I am because he knows that I can be strong. I have to be. I want to be.

So in closing, I ask you, how does the story of the Prodigal Son relate to you and your walk?  Have you ever received the gift of salvation from the Father? Did you accept the gift , but now you've taken it for granted? Or have you been lost and empty for a long time, feeling like the Father has forgotten about you?  The Lord is anxiously waiting for you to run to him. He  hasn't forgotten about you, he isn't ashamed of you, he is ready for you to surrender yourself to him so that he can pour his love out on you.  Run from the worldly desires, and run to The Lord. He will wreck you, rebuild you,  and fill you with an indescribable love that can't be found anywhere else.

What A Love

What a love he has for me, for us, for you. I used to think that God was a "one time" kind of guy. One time to show love, one time to rescue, one time to forgive, one time to reveal, and so on. I was so completely wrong. The Lord has continued to speak and reveal himself to me since the day in January of 2013 when I accepted his gift of Salvation. It's been over a year now, and what a year it has been. The cliche thing to say is that Christianity is a hard walk filled with ups and downs. But it's not exactly cliche when you're living in it. I was obviously naive to think that walking with God was going to be a breeze. I wish I could write every single thing God has done this past year, but to catch up to present times, I would already have an entire novel-- A novel in one year, imagine how much God has left for me? This past year, the most significant attribute to my walk, I would think, is influence. God has taken and given to me many times. The people he has put in my life this year have been an absolute blessing, and even the people he has chosen to take away from me have turned into blessings. Through people alone I have been able to gain resources necessary to grow my faith. No matter the person, each one radiates Christ's love. They inspire me daily to better myself in Christ. This alone is a huge challenge. Everyone always has room to grow. My growth is dependent on my pursuit of Christ, and efforts to stand firm in Faith rather than fall into sin. Lately, God has been teaching me that not only does he love me for who I am and not my actions, but my sinful nature will never leave me. As a human, sin is a natural part of me. When I accepted Christ, however, I declared war within my soul. I thank God for making me strong, but no matter my strength, I am still human. I will never be perfect. Romans 7 tells me that whenever I want to do good, evil is right there with me. I know that I have to constantly fight to overcome this evil. My evil may be different than your evil, but the same God is in control. The greatest part of this war is that God is on my side, and with Him, there will be victory. And though I still struggle, victory is coming, and evil will be defeated. This battle will be won, and this evil will no longer have a hold on me. I see this hope, I feel his love lavished upon me, and it gives me all the more reason to continue fighting. Not only will I no longer be a prisoner to my evil, but I am a light to the world, and I will shine this light in darkness. I am beyond ready for Jesus to use me in huge ways, and I know he is using me now. I desire to be a better example for the people around me however. I've also learned that giving my problems completely to God is the most affective solution. So, with this as well as with many other things, I am trusting that God will continue to grow me and use me for his glory.

Thanksgiving This Year

Thanksgiving has a whole new meaning for me this year. 2013 has been full of many new experiences, adventures, and certainly a seemingly unfair amount of loss. This year, I'm genuinely thankful that God has blessed me with not only my immediate family, but my extended family. My family is very special because all my grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, and my immediate family are all very close knit. This year as I have watched families mourn over loved ones that passed,  I have realized how blessed I am to still have all of my family with me this holiday season. I can not imagine the pain that the Mctier and Henson family has felt. I realize that one day, hopefully not soon, I will experience the same tragic loss. But today, I got to sit at the table with all of my family.  I am most thankful for family because I believe without them I would be nothing. My parents have provided shelter and food for me, an amazing school,  and most importantly an opportunity to grow in Christ. I also had the privilege and opportunity to go on a mission trip to Honduras this past March. The people that I met in Honduras truly  have nothing. My eyes were opened to the many blessings I have, that I often take for granted. Today as we sat at the table, we shared what were thankful for. For me, my list was tremendously different this year.

Getting Uncomfortable

Tonight in Student Leadership, (a small group of leaders at Fusion) we talked about what it means to truly follow Jesus. There are many factors in fully following Christ, but the one that stuck out to me was the need to step out of our comfort zone. God calls us as Christians to be fishers of men. A lot of times, however, we are ministering to people, but not the people that need it the most. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but what about the people that really need Jesus? For example,In my own life, I love on and share Jesus with people that I'm close too, and most of the time, they already have atleast a little faith in God. Meanwhile, I'm aware of people around me that most likely really need a friend, and for someone to tell them about Jesus. This poses a challenge for me. I personally am not very comfortable with talking to people that I'm not close too. And to be honest, I have a hard time talking to people that aren't like me or that don't seem to fit in to the social category of 'normal'. Tonight, God revealed this to me. One girl in the group talked about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, and picking up our cross. You see, when Jesus carried the cross on his back, he was not comfortable. But he kept going because he loves us that much. Every day, we need to pick up our cross, and seek those who need Jesus. It's uncomfortable, yes. But it's part of truly following Jesus, and it's what he calls us to do. So, God has challenged me to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to reach out.

[Enter Creative Blog Post Title Here]

        As you can see, my creativity is at a new low. I almost don't even know what to write about in this post, but for some reason I still want to write. I haven't blogged in a while, partly because my time has been consumed in softball and, well mostly softball. This post is about to just be a huge mess of me ranting, so if you aren't interested in what I have to say about my life thus far, then I recommend you stop reading now. I'll just start with softball because it happens to be what my life revolves around. I was playing for Ga Academy Power but for personal reasons, in June I decided to step away. You'd think that I'd have more down time after that.. Ha jokes. Not having a travel ball team meant I needed to work extra hard. I found other travel teams to pick up with, and in between that I've had Landmark softball all summer. My goals for softball have drastically shifted since this time last year. I still pitch, but for now my primary position in travel ball is 1st base. I am now certain that I want to play softball in college, so I am currently trying to find the path that will get me there. On another note, I am very excited for this season with Landmark. Its gonna be a great one. I struggle with putting my softball career in God's hands, probably more than anything else, because I love it so much, but it also causes a lot of stress. So here goes, a new year of softball, I hope its a good one all around, but who knows. Oh wait, God does. Above all I pray that he will use me to further His kingdom no matter what I'm doing.

         Enough about softball. What else am I spending my time on? Well, a few things actually. I still play guitar, and I am hoping to lead worship someday. This summer I've kind of been working on rebuilding a few relationships. My best friend Gaby and I are back to how we used to be. I can't explain how happy that makes me. I've found friends at Church, and I really love them because they seem to help keep me in line. Aside from that, I have been elected president of the Youth Advisory Board for Family Patterns Matter, Inc.. That alone comes with many responsibilities. I've officially let go of all of the brokenness that I was involved in. Not that I have forgotten, just that I've come to terms with myself and God that I have done what I can. Now its all in God's hands. I find so much peace in that. Well, I guess thats all I have to write about for now. If you read it all, and find it pointless, just know it wasn't pointless to me. Writing helps me get my thoughts together. Just by writing this, I feel a lot better.

My Refuge

"Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He makes the nations submit to me." (Psalms 144:1, 2 NLT) It doesn't matter where you are in life, or which battle you're fighting, Gods always right there with you. He has been preparing you to stand firm in him since the day you accepted his gift of Salvation. The Lord is with us in every storm or battle. You may be struck down, but he will never let you be destroyed. He's always fighting in our battles, so we should fight for Him to. Fulfilling the plan he has for you may have some bumps in the road, but in the end it's going to be so rewarding.

Honduras Mission Trip 2013

I just got back from a mission trip with Landmark and Frontline Missions to Honduras. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I feel to have been given an opportunity like this. People have asked me what my favorite part is, but I didn't have a favorite part. I can't pin point just one moment that I enjoyed the most. God gave me so many amazing experiences and opportunities while I was there. I can tell you the biggest take away I had though. The Tolepan and Honduran people have close to nothing. They are lucky if they have shoes on their feet and more than 1 pair of clothes. These people are really the least of them. “And the King will say, "‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’" (Matthew 25:40 NLT) Before I went to Honduras I struggled with the idea of loving on people who are so dirty and unclean. But as soon as I got there, The Lord lifted that burden from me. Christ's love for me put a love in me for the unclean and helpless. Seeing their precious smiles as we embraced them was priceless. It's amazing to me how the Tolepan people have nothing, but are still so grateful and happy. I realized while I was there that we don't need all the extra stuff. Why waste our time with things we don't need, when we could be using that time and money to help people who have nothing? It's what we were called to do anyways. Before the trip, I knew about the poverty and suffering, but it was a distant knowledge. It became real to me as soon as we arrived in La Ceibeta. Being surrounded by starving people while you eat dinner is so disturbing. You hurt for them, and it is hard to eat. Every night we have our left overs to them. They were so grateful for anything they got. My eyes were opened in so many ways. I really feel like God is calling me to mission work. I also got play guitar and teach songs while I was there. I loved gearing the children's voices singing together. I miss it so much already. Going on this trip greatly strengthened my trust in God. So many things could have gone wrong, but because everyone on the team really depended on God, he delivered us from everything that could have gone wrong. Honduras is home to me. I can't wait to go back. I am determined to do everything I can to help the people while I'm not there too. If you would like to donate money, we are trying to get money to buy shoes and tooth brushes for the people. Also, please keep the Tolepan people in your prayers!