sounding board...

Alright my dear friends...I have a confession.

I am using you right now. :)

This blog is going to totally be a trial-run of my sermon this weekend. Both our jr & sr high pastors are out of town this weekend, so they have asked me to speak in their places this weekend...that means I have to preach FOUR times in 16 hours to around 400 students.

So this week has been riddled with efforts to come up with a sermon that would be a representation of my heart all while inspiring these students to love Jesus and not go over their heads...

but this week has been like mental-block-central.

I mean it. I have sat down to study, pray, write, etc. on three separate occasions and have come up completely empty-handed.

I know my topic but there are literally one thousand directions I could go and I have been trying to depend on God for the correct option for this weekend. I have so much passion for this topic because it would have been something that, if I grasped in 7-10th grade, would have changed my life dramatically. what's my topic, you might ask?

Jesus.

:)

Told you there were a million ways I could approach this.

Ok let me be a little more clear on my exact angle.

I want to convey just how crucial this man was/is in history. I want to explain why he had to come and what his life achieved on our behalf. So let me talk to you about it...


In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And it was good. And then He created man and saw that it was very good. Man lived in the garden with God in this beautiful picture of community. He was naked and felt no shame...but three tiny chapters in to this beautiful scene and what happens? We see man eat of the apple and that portrayal of unity is broken forever.

The Old Testament is littered with God's continual pursuit of his people and their constant rebellion. So God gave them the law in order that they may understand what upright living was and the standard for righteousness. But we see these people continually fail, rebel, repent and return to God. again. and again. and again.

The Old Testament points time and again to the life of one man. One man who would live the perfect life that no one before or since has been capable of living. That man is Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Gospels, we see the life, death and most importantly, resurrection of Jesus. But that was thousands of years ago. So what does that mean to me, today?

In short, it means everything.

This man separated history. He has been on more magazine articles than anyone in history. More than Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, any president, etc. And he was one man. One carpenter living in one tiny town. Who claimed to be God.


Acts 4:12 says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Through Christ, we have the invitation to live a new life, apart from the Law. The whole book of Romans speaks to this claim but I want to rest in Romans 7-8.

In Romans 7:4, we see Paul the Apostle state that we died to the law through Jesus Christ in order that we might bear fruit. Verse 6 goes on to say that we have been released from the law. And, while this seems like great news, we still have to remember that we all live under the fall of man. Paul understands this and continues in chapter 7 to confess that he lives in a constant state of doing what he does not want to do, because of his sinful human nature.

He says in verses 15-20, "...(18) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, my sinful nature. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing."

In light of this, we continue on to Romans 8 where Paul proclaims, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

Did you get that? there is NO condemnation because of Christ Jesus. We have been set free. We are no longer under the law! and that is the gospel.

But that's the weird irony. We continue to live as if we are under the law.

We live as if our own right living can earn us our spot in heaven. We try to tip the scales in our direction in an effort to earn our salvation, which is the same thing as living under the law all over again.

but if we were able to achieve this than Christ's sacrifice was unnecessary.

think about that. If we had a possible way to earn God's favor through our actions: church attendance, good deeds, walking old ladies across the street, then why would God have sent Christ to live a sinless life to die as our sacrifice? If I can achieve it all on my own, why would there have been a need for Christ? Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." catch that? all. have sinned. We all fall short. but...

Because of Christ, God sees me as pure. Not because of anything good I have done or you have done. Romans 6:23 goes on to say, "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." If you are a believer in Christ, you are seen as spotless. There is a really big seminary term for this, do you want to know what it is?

It is called double imputation. This means that our sins, every single one of them, was given to Christ and, in return, Christ's perfect, sinless life was given to us. So when God looks upon us, through Christ, he sees beauty. perfection. and THAT is good news.

My prayer for all of you is that you would get this. You would catch on to this sooner rather than later. Because the implications of this are life-changing.

If I no longer live my Christian life trying to earn my salvation, than I am freed up to simply love God and read my bible, attend church, pray, etc. out of an overflow of my heart rather than an attempt to earn acceptance. My favorite speaker said this in one of his sermons, "So many of us are religiously exhausted and gospel ignorant." The last thing I want for us is to become religiously exhausted.

But I get it.

I get why we are religiously exhausted because we are trying to do with Jesus what we do with the rest of our lives. We work to get good grades. We practice to get better at sports or musical instruments. We live in a society that values effort and hard work so this understanding of simply receiving something so huge is mind-numbing.

I want us to have lives that are full of love because we realize how much love God had for us in sending his son to die for us!


Ok so that's it. what do you think? please let me know and give me feedback here or email or text or call or anything! you have 23 hours to reply!

Lately...

- We are no longer pursuing our home on Travis :( We received some insider information on the neighborhood that was less-than-glamorous and find ourselves, once again, waiting on the Lord

- My boss decided that she could no longer fight Christianity any longer and decided to believe in Christ yesterday :) :) :) :) 

- I got Matt 3 Christmas presents already! :) I love getting some shopping out of the way early so the checking account doesn't get hit quite so hard in December

- I have lost 6 pounds since I have been running and haven't changed my eating habits one bit (well I am juicing on occasion 

- I shaved 4 minutes off of my 3 mile time :)

- Our small group engaged in a "biblethon" where we read the book of Job out loud in 2 sittings. It was a really cool experience and I would really encourage you to get a group together and try it out. We are going to keep doing it with different books of the Bible in the future and hope to make it a regular thing...if you want more info on how to do it, let me know! 

- I burnt my lip on homemade pizza the other night and have a huge blister now :( 

- Made this pasta the other night and it was SO good! 

- Watched my Vikings go 0-3 this weekend...breakin' my heart

- Got hooked on Mary Kay face wash...the 2 women I know with the best skin in my life both sell Mary Kay so the stuff really sold itself...

- Spoke in a Q&A series at church last Sunday and next week I speak 4 times in both junior high and senior high services

- New Lady A cd? AMAZING. oh man. 

- Just got my new book, The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text & Canon, in the mail...woo hoo! so excited for this read, y'all...

update...

So apparently when you set out to do something to better your life all of the evil forces in the world attack. Let me tell you....this week was way more difficult than I anticipated!

I have a few happy things to report, however:

• I washed my face every night! woohoo! 
• I cooked a few more times but not every night, as I had planned
• I floss every day now. <3 it. 
• I have gone running several times this week and today, for the first time, I really saw progress! I am proud of myself and I am not afraid to say so.
• I am still cooking up ways to serve Matt more intentionally but I definitely said one spiteful comment this weekend that had me quickly apologizing/shocked that I could bite back at a man I love so dearly. 
• Our house is definitely more tidy these days but not spotless

Anyways here are my continued areas of opportunity:

• Make Matt more lunches
• Up the between the sheets time (yes, people this is something married couples have to intentionally think about...it's not just sex-time-all-the-time)
• personal learning time...however, I have a feeling I will be hitting Phoenix seminary's library up pretty hard core in the next few weeks as I preach the next 2 weekends! 
• zero starbucks pastries - I have recently discovered the glory that is the multigrain bagel (new recipe!) but this also means I have included the reduced-fat cream cheese (7 g's of fat in that silly little tiny thing still!) 

Anyhow much more to say but I will save it for another post.

ps my devil wart is back...ugh...

It's a new day...a brand new day...

um so picture this with me...

the sky is spitting down snowflakes, your sequence dress is sparkling, the sparklers are being lit and...3....2....1.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

and what always follows (besides the kiss, obviously!?!?!)

new year's resolutions.


I have made several resolutions over the years. little, if any, have stuck with me. but there's always next year, right?

Well, Monday was a sort of new year's day for me. as I have been seeking the Lord more and more several areas of opportunity in my character have been made very clear to me. So, monday morning I woke up and declared it a new year.

Here is my list:

• hygiene (so embarrassing to admit)
• wash my face before bed every night
• to aid in this resolution, I purchased a new skin care system from Mary Kay that I am already loving! It makes washing my face fun! 
• floss more regularly

• health
• work out 3-5 times per week (yes, I'm still planning on running the half marathon!)
• wear sunscreen
• eat well 
• luckily, i scored my mom's juicer and i have been juicing away...and i love it! 
• cook more frequently (i.e. every night!) 
• eat zero starbucks pastries. ugh. 

• husband
• make matt lunch every day
• up the between the sheets time...wink wink
• never mock or disrespect matt in public. ever.
• serve intentionally

• home
• less clutter
• make the bed every day
• walk through every room in the house (ok it's a 1000 sq foot apt...this shouldn't be difficult) before bed and tidy up. love waking up to a spotless home

• me
• spend less money
• laziness
• keep up on personal learning...just because i graduated seminary should not mean i stop studying, learning, and loving God with my mind

I realize this list seems a bit extreme. However, I have come to the conclusion that each of these has the ability to happen or not happen each and every day. Each morning, I wake up and choose to make decisions. Whether or not I make these decisions is up to me but here's the beauty...one day at a time. If I look ahead 30 days from now and imagine all of the lunches, face washings, miles spent running, purchases I want to make, etc. I get overwhelmed and feel as if this mountain is too big. But when it is boiled in to daily activities, it becomes much more manageable.

It all dwindles down to discipline. I am, by nature, a lazy person. I love sitting on the couch and flipping through channels while I pin things on pinterest or search apartmenttherapy. But when I lay my head down at night (with my make-up still on) I feel guilty and purposeless. 

yesterday was day #1 of this new me. I worked. worked out. spent time with Jesus. grocery shopped. laundry. made a salad for a dinner party. made an extra for matt's lunch. washed my face. and I lay in bed last night feeling so satisfied with my day. 

So here's to tomorrow... 

travis...

After Matt & I said "I do" we moved in to a teeny tiny one-bedroom apartment (actually, upon looking through home tours on apartmenttherapy, I have come to the conclusion that square footage can go a LOT smaller than our humble dwelling) 

We painted the wall behind our bed the color we created at our wedding ceremony 

During the past year-and-some-odd-months, we have done what we could to make our apartment home. 

And in May we decided it was time to bid farewell to our apartment and take steps toward purchasing our first home. Through a series of twists and turns and disappointments, the Lord made it clear to me that I had zero trust in Him in this department of my life. I had not taken in to consideration that He would want to reign sovereign even in the purchase of our home. But, alas, after several offers offered and all (each thousands over asking price) denied,  we decided to take a month off. 

I needed to clear my head and take time to pray and reset my heart so that our next round of looking could be a bit more Christ-centered and a bit less pain-staking.

two weeks ago we all re-convened at Starbucks to discuss our new plan of attack. Armed with listings, we set out for our first property. This property turned out to be a new home sales office. We decided it couldn't hurt to take a peek.

What we didn't realize at the time was this would be our last home-searching outing.

We walked in to the office and met Kelly, the sales agent. We continued to the second model home and fell in love. perfect floor plan. two stories. quaint. small back yard (bonus). three bathrooms. two and a half bathrooms. great pantry. I could go on and on.

Saturday, September 10, Matt & I signed papers to begin building our first home.

It still has yet to fully sink in for me. But I can tell you that God is good. He had his best in mind for us. He did not have it in his plan for us to buy a house that needed 10-15k worth of repairs to make it just right.

In 90 days, 249 S. Travis, will be ready for us to call home. Until then, I will stare at this picture of the model...

the G.C.

When I hit my one year anniversary at Starbucks, I was super proud of myself (*ok i admit it, I was downright prideful) 
At two years, forget about it. I was so vocal about the fact that I had been there for two years. 

Fast forward seven years.

I am still a barista.

what once was pride and arrogance over a long tenure serving coffee has now turned in to somewhat of an embarrassment for me. I mean, on the surface it looks like a 28-year-old married woman with her master's degree still slinging java. I feel so much pressure to "make something" of myself. Make something of my degrees. Show the people who funded my scholarship that their money was not wasted on a barista lifer.




A few days ago, i got to thinking/remembering a sermon I heard by a man named Louie Giglio at a Passion conference in Nashville. During this particular sermon, he asked those of us who were committed to full-time Christian ministry to stand up. Again, feeling this sense of pride swell in my heart, I stood to my feet (along with about 1500 or so of my fellow like-mindeds). He then asked if we would be seated. Next was when my blinders were removed. He asked those who were not being called to or heading in to "full-time ministry" to stand to their feet. He stated that this sermon was for them. The title of this sermon? "Passion. Purpose. And designer jeans." (you can find it for free on iTunes just type in the title) 

For the next forty-or-so minutes, he explained how invaluable people are who have dreams of working in fashion and engineering and real estate and insurance and every other job that does not have anything to do with ministry on a surface level. And he challenged them to do their job with integrity because at some point someone would ask them why they do what they do and their life would serve as their testimony and platform from which to make Christ known. I was so inspired by this but, again, I knew my life would involve full-time ministry.

Fast forward years and years to my employment with Starbucks Coffee Company. And I have had a crisis of belief. Because, for all of these years, I have been waiting for my ministry to start. I have been waiting and so sad that I still....still....serve coffee frappuccinos.

But then the giglio sermon comes back to my mind. and then I heard another sermon Tuesday that just blew my mind and left me with the biggest smile on my face. I listened to a sermon on the Great Commission that changed everything for me.

The classic understanding of the GC is an understanding to go and make disciples. Which is a perfectly fine interpretation. If you grew up in church you probably heard this all over the place or even donned it on a mission trip t-shirt as you headed down to build houses in Mexico (and there is nothing wrong with that!). But what I heard on Tuesday was this tiny little two-letter-word, go can also be translated "as you go". WHAT?!?! That is a HUGE difference! Because, to me, "go" can mean depart the place where you are and go elsewhere. But "as you go" means "as you go" about your day in your work, hobbies, home, grocery shopping, working out, etc. etc. etc. make disciples! This causes me to second-guess how I treat my customers, fellow partners, employees at clothing stores, cashiers, waitresses, and so on.

When I apply this to Starbucks, it can completely shift my mentality of thinking and approach to my current job. I do not need to wait for my ministry career to begin. In fact, I have a huge mission field right where I am. And I truly believe I am using my degree right now. At Starbucks. I am using my counseling classes, bible class, preaching class, and several of my ministry classes. Now, my heart is still stirred up and passionate about full-time Christian ministry in a church setting but, for now, I can rejoice that God has given me a store of people who have never heard about God or have a very bad taste in their mouths about Christianity. In this sense, as I go in Starbucks, I hope to create disciples. Not converts. Committed disciples.