I {Heart} Windows Live Writer

So for a few weeks now, I’ve seen these apps on the WordPress site that you can download to your iPhone (which I don’t have) or your BlackBerry (which I used to have but it became to expense) so that you can post to your blog from your phone. It’s great, especially for someone like me, who will get an idea for a post while I’m out and I need to write it down somewhere but I have no paper with me.

Well, I also noticed that there were apps you could download for your computer where you could post to your blog without having to go on the website. The only one that looked promising for me, since I am a PC, was the Windows Live Writer.

It’s great. I can just open it up and start to type. If, for whatever reason, I need to walk away, I can still save it as a draft – either locally to my computer or to WordPress so I can edit it on the website. It also gives me all of the same formatting options that WordPress does.

I think this will change the way I blog. 🙂

Now I am off to eat some breakfast and read more of The Hole in Our Gospel for my BookSneeze review. I’m almost halfway through the book so I should be posting my review of the book soon.

I’ll be posting again later tonight or tomorrow about our Bible Study. We have been studying the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation and tonight is our final night on this study. Next week we will be returning to God’s Man in the Son’s of God by Edwin E. Sexton. (Brother Sexton was my pastor’s pastor and he wrote this back in the 1960’s but it is still very relevant today.)

Blessings to you all and I hope you have a great weekend.

Holy Discontentment

Lately I have been feeling experiencing a holy discontentment with my spiritual walk but I can’t seem to figure out how I am going to change that.

I’m still trying to figure out where I’m at. I’ve been what seems like a bombarding (is that a word?) of stuff, worldly stuff, that causes my heart to ache. I’ve tried desperately to write a post about it TWICE with no luck. Because each time, it comes across all… WRONG.

This isn’t the first time I have felt this way. This is just the first time I’ve felt this way for this long. I’ve pretty much felt like this since I came home from China last April. I’ve just felt like there has to be more to my life and my walk with God than just what I’ve been doing.

Of course, that is when the thoughts come.

“What can you do?" You don’t have any money to go anywhere. What about your family? Your friends? You can’t leave these people because you won’t be able to survive on your own somewhere.”

Yeah… when the enemy wants to make me doubt myself, he certainly isn’t worried about hitting below the belt. Because I am concerned about the money I have and am able to use to help others with. To be completely transparent, at a young age, I got in over my head with credit card debt, always wanted a nicer car, etc. and ended up with a bunch of debt I’m still paying off.

I’ve been reading The Hole in Our Gospel and I know exactly how Richard Stearns felt when he was asked (and this is a paraphrase), “Don’t you want to be obedient to the will of God for your life?”

“Sure, God, but can’t it be in Chicopee, MA? It’s where I’m most comfortable.”

Yeah…

I mean, come on, let’s face it. No one really likes what makes us uncomfortable. Even in Christianity we only want to do God’s will in our lives only if we can do it in the comfort of our own home, church, job, school.

But I still did it. I felt God call me to go to China last year and I had never – and I mean, NEVER – traveled outside of the country before. So what did God decide to do, send me clear across the world to a country where people are put in jail or worse for proclaiming the Gospel.

Where do you go from here?

Swimming Thoughts…

I have much going on in my head. There is much going on in my ‘real’ life. I will try to write more tonight. I have a blog post waiting but needing refining before I can post so I pray you are patient as I try to make my thoughts more cohesive.

Blessings!

Jen

God Ideas Part 2

A few days ago I wrote a post called “God Ideas.” Now that we have had our meeting and we have spoken to our church leadership, I am going to tell you what is going on.

First, a little background:

I attend a small church and by small, I mean that there is roughly 100 members who regularly attend (including children).

We are more family in some respects that just a congregation.

So, in the past 2-3 years our youth ministry has lost its original leaders, Sister Irene and Brother Danny. They are elders in the church and took the helm of our youth ministry for many years. However, what has happened is there was a big gap in the age of those of us who are now in our mid- to late-twenties and those who are now high school age and who would be in our youth ‘group.’ Also, Sister Irene and Brother Danny no longer felt called to youth ministry. And that it was just for a season.

So, last year, in the interim – until someone felt the calling to take it up because we don’t have a large enough congregation to hire a youth pastor, although as I say that, I don’t believe my pastor would hire someone from outside our church anyway, but I could be wrong – our pastor’s son, Tim, and his wife, Sandra, took the helm of the high school age youth group. So, needless to say, we have had some youth ministry in our church but you can tell the kids aren’t getting anything out of it except a good time.

That is why 6 of us ‘young adults’ (to be honest, I’m not sure how much long we can call ourselves ‘young adults’ save for a few of us since most of us are hovering around 30) met on Friday night to discuss taking on the youth group permanently. (There is another young married couple that I believe will be joining us but they were unable to meet on Friday night.)

Of the 8 total that would be involved with the youth at my church, there are 3 married couples – 1 that has 2 young children and the other 2 are both pregnant with their first child – and two singles – myself and my friend, Damien (just a friend people. He’s dating our mutual friend, Amanda). We all have a heart for youth. I especially have a heart for the young girls. We are all committed.

Yet only two of the eight have any experience in youth ministry.

None of us have graduated from Bible school or Bible college.

I’ve been approached by someone we are affiliated with from Blue Ridge Bible College to consider attending their school. However, I’m not 100% sure that is the direction God wants me to go in. To be honest, I think I am getting a pretty good education in the ‘School of Life.’ Not to say that going to Bible college is bad or wrong, just not right for me.

Now for my prayer request…

I would ask that you would pray for us. First, that as we pray for God’s direction that we would hear Him clearly. Second, that when we come together to meet again that we can come to an agreement on where to go from here.

If any of you have any experience with youth ministry, any advice you can give would be most appreciated.

Blessings,

Jen

God Ideas

If you haven’t read my story, go here. If you have, then you know that at a young age, I gave what I didn’t have the right to give.

However, because of that, God has given me such a heart for young girls. I want to see them shine with His light. I want them to know that it is OK to not want to live a life like everyone else. To not want the status quo. It’s OK to say, “No, I don’t believe that every girl is going to give themselves to boy at a young age just because everyone else is doing it.”

I want them to see the road I went down and learn from my mistakes. To see where I am and say, “If God can come to her in her greatest hour of need, then He can certainly do the same for me.”

I want them to know they are not alone.

I desire for them to seek God for their life choices. To ask Him what His purpose is for their life.

That is why I am so so excited for what I am about to embark on. I don’t have all the details yet but when I do, I will certainly seek all of you for your prayers. All I know is that God truly does want to use us all for His purpose.

I pray that God will use me in ways I can’t even imagine yet. I pray that people will see Him in me.

I will leave you with this – my memory verse:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. {Philippians 4:6-7}

BookSneeze!

photo by photobucket

I know that is a strange title for a post but I’m actually really excited about this… I was reading Lindsey Noble’s blog today (go here for the post) and she was discussing some of the new things going on at Thomas Nelson, where she works. One of them is BookSneeze! It is a blogger book review site. (It’s really simple to sign up too.) Once you have an account with them you can request that the publisher send you one of the books available for review. Then they mail you the book – for free! Yep. FREE. And the best part… the book is yours to keep (or do whatever you wish). All you have to do is review the book on your blog and on a retailer’s website (Amazon, B&N, CBD, etc.). Then, post your review to the BookSneeze website and you can request another book.

I love to read so this is really going to be fun for me.

I can just see it now, too. I’ll be that woman when I’m really old who has a huge library of books! 😀 That, my friends, is sort of exciting to me. (Hey, I warned you I’m a little strange.)

Anyway, if you like to read and you like to review books and you have a blog, go check out the BookSneeze website.

Once I get going on these reviews, I will link them all under the BookSneeze page here on the blog. You will also be able to find my reviews under the BookSneeze category too! Well, I better get back to work. 🙂

Be Blessed today.

Praying for My Husband

Yes, you are reading that correctly.

No, I did not elope. I’m still single.

I think I might have said this before but it’s true. Although I haven’t met him yet (or have I?), I pray for him. I was reading A Life in Need of Change earlier today and her post today was on how she was going to pray a specific prayer for her husband every day for the rest of the year and that got me to thinking about praying for my husband.

photo from photobucket

I’ve come to realize that most people either think I’m crazy (which is true) or agree that it is a good idea. Here’s my thinking behind it: Although I don’t know 100% that I will ever get married, it is a desire of my heart to one day be married to the Godly man God has chosen for me (others include children, going on more mission trips, etc). As such a desire, I feel that it is necessary for me to start to pray for him BEFORE we meet (or, if he is someone I already know, before we start dating/courting) so that I am already in the habit/routine of praying for him.

I pray that he is a Godly man, that he seeks after the heart of the Father for his life, that he prays for me, that he is patient and that he can handle my craziness. I pray that he is kind and loving. That he would like to have children (biological and adopted) someday. I pray that if he doesn’t know Jesus that someone will come across his path and lead him to the Father before we meet but if they don’t, that he is at a point in his life when we do meet to come to know Jesus. If not, I pray that I am patient with him.

I pray for myself a lot during this time. Although my pastor warns against it, I pray for patience. (The reason why my pastor warns you about praying for patience or discernment is because God isn’t just going to give you patience or discernment but He will put you in a position and a situation where you are going to have to be patient or be discerning.) I pray that while I am waiting on God’s timing, I will still seek His face, that I will find how He judges the situation. I pray that I will grow in the fruits of the Spirit.

Will you also pray for me? I find it difficult some days to be willing to wait. (I can be quite impatient.) I have found that the enemy likes to use my singleness against me quite often, especially with all of these weddings and new babies just around the corner! So please pray that I continue to find my strength in Him for I know He is faithful.

My current memory verse is Philippians 4:6&7

Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

and it is very appropriate for where I am in God….

Thank you (in 300 words or less)

Yesterday, Sarah over at the best days of my life challenged us to write 300 words. To someone. For someone. Whatever the case may be to just write. Here are my 300 words:

************************************

From http://www.make-your-own-invitations.com

An open letter to Christian women (and men) bloggers:

Thank you. Thank you for your encouragement, sharing your lives and just being who God created you to be. I have been so moved by many of your posts. You have challenged me to change, to seek God more.

There have been many times in the last 1 1/2 years since I have found many of your blogs that have been exactly what I need at that moment. And you don’t even know me, really. We are not around each other on a day to day basis and yet, somehow, God knows exactly what we need. And how we are going to get it.

Many of you might not even know I read your posts because I don’t always comment but I enjoy them all the same.

Some of you have also stopped by my home here and left  your footprints. For that, I also thank you. It helps me to feel like I’m not just writing for myself. Although, that would be ok, too. I don’t feel as crazy as I normally do.

My prayer for all of you is that you continue to write. To be an expression of God. To love your husbands (and wives) and children. To want more for them. For us. To share your revelation of the Gospel because it may be a revelation to me too! I pray that we all continue to seek God’s purpose for our lives. Continue to pray for your loved ones.

We are all running the race and we are running it together. Some are farther along than others, but we continue on. Thank you again for reaching out and saying, “Don’t give up. Continue on.”

Blessings upon all of you!

Jen

Have a Little Faith

Cover of Have a Little Faith. Found via Google Images.

**Disclaimer: In no way am I being paid or compensated for the following post. This is just my personal opinion of a book (other than the Bible) that has challenged me to be better.**

I just finished reading Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom. I think once I got through Happiness, I needed to read the rest of the story. (The basic premise of the story goes like this: Mitch is asked by Reb, his childhood rabbi, to give the eulogy at his funeral. Mitch says yes but that he would need to get to know the Reb better as a person and not just a clergyman. Thus, for the next eight, yes, eight, years, Mitch and the Reb spend time together getting to know each other. Also interwoven is the story of Pastor Henry and how he came through addiction and a life of crime to become the pastor of I Am My Brother’s Keeper Ministries. Through his meetings with the Reb, Mitch starts a foundation that helps organizations that help the homeless and through that, Mitch comes to know Pastor Henry and so all three men are interwoven together.) As soon as I completed the book, I felt/heard three little words: measure of faith. So I grabbed my NIV Concordance and looked it up and it brought me to Romans 12:3 –

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

My pastor once spoke about the measure of faith during one of his sermons and it basically went something like this:

God gives us a certain amount of faith to believe once we come to Him, but we need to build on that faith to continue to walk with Him. The faith we have today should be greater than the measure of faith we had yesterday but less than tomorrow for tomorrow we should have built upon today’s faith.

Pretty simple concept right?

Not so fast.

How is one to build on their faith?

Prayer. Reading the Word. Believing that even when we can’t see God, He is always there. Praising Him in the good and the not so good. Truly believing that everything He does and allows us to do in this life are for our good.

After reading this boo,k though, I felt more like Mitch Albom than the Reb or Pastor Henry. And I’m still active in my church! Here is a passage from Have a Little Faith. Mitch had just met with Pastor Henry who for the last 16 years of his life ministered to a small congregation in a dilapidated church and prior to that was an addict drug dealer who had also served some time in prison. This is what Mitch thought after he left Pastor Henry’s house:

I used to think I knew everything. I was a “smart person” who “got things done,” and because of that, the higher I climbed, the more I could look down and scoff at what seemed silly or simple, even religion.

But I realized something as I drove home that night: that I am neither better nor smarter, only luckier. And I should be ashamed of thinking I knew everything, because you can know the whole world and still feel lost in it. So many people are in pain — no matter how smart or accomplished — they cry, they yearn, they hurt. But instead of looking down on things, they look up, which is where I should have been looking, too. Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love, and a peaceful heart.

I’m not lucky. I am blessed. I have a biological family that loves me. A church family that loves me too. I have a roof over my head. I have employment. Food in my belly. Clothes on my back. I live in a country where I can attend church services and read my Bible (although I’m starting to wonder how much longer that will continue). I have the freedom to write this blog without being concerned that it may be taken down because of its content.

And yet…

I still have an attitude that makes me cringe. I doubt God and what He has planned to do with my life (Are you sure you want to use me, God?). I don’t take my own spiritual temperature as often as I should.

I know I can’t change it all over night but may be a small step each day. One thing that I am doing is spending the next 21 days fasting from television. I spend so much time in front of the boob tube that it has stripped precious time away that I could have been in the Word or praying (and I need the practice because I’m not the most eloquent pray-er). I can not get that time back but I can start to choose to change how I spend my time from today forward.

One more passage from the book, again from Happiness. Mitch and the Reb were discussing the secret of happiness while the Reb was in the hospital:

So, have we solved the secret of happiness?

“I believe so,” he said.

Are you going to tell me?

“Yes. Ready?”

Ready.

“Be satisfied.”

That’s it?

“Be grateful.”

That’s it?

“For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you.”

That’s it?

He looked me in the eye. Then he sighed deeply.

“That’s it.”

Here’s what the apostle Paul says further in Romans 12:14-21 –

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry; feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

And with that, I will say good night. May God bless you.

Happiness in a Tablet

found using Google Images

I am currently reading more than one book. I am reading Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom for my own enjoyment, Same Kind of Different as Me for the Bloom Book Club, Hebrews by Bill Britton for adult Sunday School. And, of course, there are other books that I am constantly reading, always picking up where I left off (Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is one of those).

Yesterday I was reading Have a Little Faith and I’m about halfway through the book. I’m in part titled “Happiness” and this passage really struck me:

Happiness in a tablet. This is our world. Prozac. Paxil. Xanax. Billions are spent to advertise such drugs. And billions more are spent purchasing them. You don’t even need a specific trauma; just “general depression” or “anxiety,” as if sadness were as treatable as the common cold.

I knew depression was real, and in many cases required medical attention. I also knew we overused the word. Much of what we called “depression” was really dissatisfaction, a result of setting a bar impossibly high or expecting treasures that we weren’t willing to work for. I knew people whose unbearable source of misery was their weight, their baldness, their lack of advancement in a workplace, or their inability to find the perfect mate, even if they themselves did not behave like one. To these people, unhappiness was a condition, an intolerable state of affairs. If pills could help, pills were taken.

But pills were not going to change the fundamental problem in the construction. Wanting what you can’t have. Looking for self-worth in the mirror. Layering work on top of work and still wondering why you weren’t satisfied — before working some more.

While reading this, I thought to myself, “I do that.” I get frustrated with my job (even though I really do like it) because I haven’t been promoted yet or because I’ve been there almost 2 years without a raise. I sometimes feel like I don’t do enough works for God as if my works alone will bring me closer to Him. I sometimes expect God to be on my time table, not His. I want it when I want it and get frustrated when God says, “No, Jennifer Lynn, not yet” or just plain, “No.” James wrote,

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith by no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. {2:14-17}

Now, at first glance I suppose that this passage could back up the idea that we should all be constantly doing something for God. Yes and no. Your deeds shouldn’t be more than your faith. Your deeds should be a reflection of your faith. This also brings to mind the parable of the wise and foolish builders {Matthew 7:24-27}.

The wise builder built his house upon a rock (the Word) and when a storm came, the house stood because it was on firm foundation. The foolish builder built his home on sand and when the same storm came, it was washed away because it was on shaky foundation. The wise man listened to the Word and did as it said. He had faith enough to say, “This is how God says I am to live my life and I will heed the Word.” The foolish builder, on the other hand, is like the one in James 2:18 who says, “You have faith; I have deeds.” He did the work but not the faith behind it. I can imagine he might have said, “This looks like a pretty place to build my home. It’s right by the water. The ground isn’t very firm, but that’s ok as long as it looks nice.”

Father God, I ask you humbly now to help me to see when I do works just to do works not as an offering of my faith. Lord God, open my eyes to see the difference between what is of you and what is of me. Amen.