Please, I want to be Peculiar

pe·cu·liar   [pi-kyool-yer]
–adjective
1. uncommon; unusual; strange; odd
2. distinctive in nature or character from others.
3. belonging characteristically (usually fol. by to )
4. belonging exclusively to some person, group, or thing

I have been thinking a lot about 1 Peter 2:9 and I wanted to blog about it for a while. I went on to Google and tried to find an image that I could pull to use for a blog post. THIS image came up from WhatisPeculiar.com. I LOVE this message!! The site doesn't seem to be active, but I love the message, I love the desire to reach a generation that does not look boring. JESUS IS NOT BORING. I love that it embraces culture and works in it and not away from it.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a CHOSEN RACE, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR GOD'S OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light

I have this vision and this passion for this "new" Christianity. This new generation of Christians who are going to love Jesus and show Jesus in a way that we haven't seen in a while. I feel like there needs to be a revival in the Church across the board. There shouldn't be a battle between denominations--Christians need to portray God's love and His image in all circumstances to all people. We should WANT to be different and WANT to stand out.

I WANT TO BE PECULIAR. I don't want to make sense to people. I want them to ask me, "What the heck is wrong with you?!" Haha!! Because I am NOT just like you. I am NOT your Average Jane. I am part of something so much better than I am alone. I am a part of a people who are called to be set apart. I am so much more because of Jesus' love for me.

However, I digress. Haha. The reason I wanted to focus on 1 Peter 2:9 is because of what I have realized about myself in recent weeks and I love it.

I am hungry for a sense of community in Christianity. When you look at the church and see bickering, boredom, mundane routine, etc. I have mentioned it a lot in conversations with Laura in the past few weeks about how I want to focus on bringing a community of Christians together to work together in changing Vicenza. I want everyone to come together as a Christian community to get people to ask, "What? What just happened?"

How do we make Christianity look appealing!?
We live VICTORIOUSLY in LOVE!!

WE are a chosen race, a royal priesthod, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that we can proclaim His excellencies. I want people to want to be part of the team. So we live together and work together in peace and love towards spiritual maturity and we show them that it's not about what service you go to. It's not about how many good deeds you can do. It's not based on how many services you've gone to. Or how many verses you've memorized. It is about loving your neighbor as GOD HAS LOVED US.

It is understanding God's will for His people. We are here to proclaim His excellencies, to show the line between darkness and light and we need to do it together. (Because it's plural, hahah, Tom Job said, "All y'all.")

So I am challenging you all to look at how you live together. How do you interact? Does that reflect what God will have us do? Or are we giving people a reason not to want to be a part of the team? Do we make Christianity look appealing? Or do we make it look boring? Do we make it look ordinary? What does the Church look like to you? How should it look to you? What do you want from your peers? What do you want from your elders? Pastors?

We have to STOP giving people a reason to reject Jesus.
If we acted the way we are supposed to--people would not use us as an excuse not to follow Him. If we acted the way we were supposed to people who reject Christianity are rejecting God--and cannot hide behind any excuse, but that they just don't believe.


(&& after I wrote all of this, I went to YouTube and searched 1 Peter 2:9, and look who came up?? FRANCIS CHAN!)

HAHAH, that is a hilarious moment to freeze.

In the Mood for Christmas

Christmas?
This week I have been so encouraged. I all the sudden felt the need to celebrate Christmas. Haha. I want mas ('more' in Espanol) of Christ. ;) Por favor. I just want the world to look around today and think about how awesome God is. How good Jesus is. I had a student ask today, "So... Jesus' only purpose was to come here and die for us?" --Yep. "That sucks." --Not for us!

Yes. Jesus, from before the foundation of the Earth was always intended to come and die for our sins and take our place on the Cross. Why??

Because we suck. We sin. We are selfish. We do our thing without any regard to what it means. But God is merciful, patient, loving, and kind and is waiting for us to come to our senses. Haha!! I just want more and more of Christ. I want the world to pay more attention.

BREAK IT DOWN.
This week I got to talk about why/how we are the salt and light of the world. Something happened in today's Christianity that we throw out all these 'Christian terms' that don't have that much weight anymore. People either assume they know what it means, or they don't care to know what we are talking about.

This is why I love working in youth ministry.

When I was a teenager, I as overly opinionated. I asked a lot of questions, most of the time just to stump people and prove that I was right. Haha!! Working with my students now, I get to be on the opposite end. I get to answer questions and I have to do it in a way that leaves no question unanswered, no stone unturned and do it in a way that they understand fully--who Jesus is. No big words. No overused Christian vocabulary. Just real, true, love.

For me there is a big contrast in the way other Christians talk and the way I talk. (Haha!) I hope that my audience can take me seriously when I say, "Jesus has my back" Sometimes I wonder if I am taking myself seriously enough. Or if my students take me seriously. I hope so. Because I don't want to prove anything other than God's love and Jesus' sacrifice and our role in the grand scheme of things. I just say what I know.

CLAYTON'S STORY.
Last year, I watched this video. I learned about Clayton McDonald and what he did for a generation. It gets me every time I push play. His example--a type of Timothy, someone that wasn't scared to stand up and talk. To stand up and tell it how it is, and just love.

I've learned to never shut up. Clayton taught me that I may know where I am going when I die, but there are lots and lots of people who haven't given it a thought, who don't know. Or even think they know.

I would not want to live through my life and let the opportunity to talk about Jesus and the beauty of hope. (I can't wait to meet him in heaven and tell him, 'You rock. &&Thanks.')

Just watch it.
Pray about it.
And let's revolutionize the way we love. The way we walk. The way we talk. The way we preach. Just... the way we live.

Clayton McDonald | Highlife | Nov. 5, 2008 from Atascadero Bible Church on Vimeo.

Clayton's Story from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.

I see a Generation

Last night at the Hospitality House, we sang Hosanna for worship. Then I remembered that two weeks ago we sang the same song and it really hit me in the heart.

"I see a generation, rising up to take their place, with selfless faith. I see a near revivial, stirring as we pray and seek, we're on our knees."

I love these lines. I am not sure what makes them so special to me. It could be the 'teacher' in me that wants to foster the next generation to take its place. I also feel this stirring in our community. I am really looking forward to this summer, setting down foundations and just waiting to see what the Spirit does at the school next year.

And then I look at my peeps. The Twenty-Somethings of the Kingdom and where we are headed and what we are called to do, or be. I love it. I use to sit around and just think about when I could step up and do more, be more, serve more. And yesterday, I realized that serving God is a 24/7 thing. Someone said, "When God opens the door, I will walk through them and serve wherever he allows." And I got it. I've heard it before, but this time hearing it irked me.

Yes, I believe the opportunities we are given are doors that God opens to walk through one or another, but service to God, to me should be, and is a round-the-clock thing. There isn't a door that we have to wait to open to just live, breathe, talk, act, all to show the world that I love Jesus. I just am. I just do. And it is all in preparation for the time that it is time for me to take my place.

My prayer is that the entire kingdom of God is praying for a revival.

New Steam

So. Failure on my part to blog.
When I got my new brick-of-a-camera. I wanted to blog more. I guess showcase my photography by posting more up. And I have failed. A friend told me today that sometimes we think that events in our lives are not blog-worthy because it's just everyday life for us. True. Story. But I want to write more, post more, shoot more. So this is my declaration. We are moving forward with this blog and I will try my best to keep it posted. :)

A few new adventures...

A new camera. With the extra money we got for my sponsoring the cheer team, DJ told me to buy the Canon 5DMKII. I hate to spend that much money on anything, but I got it for a really good deal, from a [b] Schooler who was switing to Nikon. Haha!! When I got the camera I carried it everywhere and I wanted to shoot more so I could post more, but I didn't find that anything I was doing was worth taking pictures of to post. I would shoot just to shoot, but I really felt like, I needed to do MORE. (Hence this declaration for more steam.) I will wrap my head around a new creative eye in which I see my world, so wish me luck in sticking to it.

I love my new camera. Love it. And I love that my husband told me to buy it. Hahah.
I was a bit irked when people started to say, "You're pictures are so good, that's a great camera." I would smile and think, "Uh, so all my past work hasn't been good!? Yeah right! I rocked that xTi!!" Haha, but really, I think that talent comes from the shooter, not the camera, software, or anything other than vision. Trust me, I've taken some terrible pictures with this 'good' camera.

(Although, I'd have to admit that post-production goes by a lot faster now.)


New CDs and packaging. Thank you to the talented and beautiful Promise Tangeman for her DIY post for CD packaging. I love the organic look and feel of my new CD packaging. I am working on some labels soon for the CDs, but you get the point. I am not deviating from the feathers and Arial. Haha. I love it and I can't wait to start passing them out!!


New outlook on God's word. This is a picture of Tom Job. He was our guest speaker for the Club Beyoyond conference I attended this month. Amazing man of God. When they introduced him they said, "When this man opens his mouth, joy just oozes out." I was sitting there thinking, "What does that sound like." And when he got up there and put his hands on his hips like Superman and smiled... and told us how excited he was to be in Germany with us... I understood completely.

He recommended a book by Mike Mason, Champange for the Soul, and I ordered it on Amazon that night, and I recieved it this week, so far I am LOVING it. It's supposed to be a 90 day experience, but I've tried to sneak a few in a day, but I just have to stop and put it down because it forces me to look and evaluate my life and where I place importance. So I am totally falling in love with the fact that God gives me JOY. :)

His tip: Every morning, open up the Word and when you read find 5 things to be thankful for in what you read. Keep reading till you find 5. Love it! Must try. Must do.

Here am I. Send me.

A few weeks ago, during a Club Talk with the kids. We were talking about Jesus as a servant. Isaiah came up and I asked the question, "What kind of faith does it take to say, "Here am I, send me?" No questions asked. Not knowing what it was. You just knew that God called you and told you to go somewhere, do something, anything...

A lot of them admitted that they didn't know that kind of faith. (They also shared that they don't volunteer without knowing what the action is in Club, because... we often make them get their faces dirty--with chocolate, whipped cream, etc. Haha!)

Do I have that kind of faith!? Or do I asked God questions first?? Do I set expectations and stipulations on God to meet before I serve? What hesitations do I have in serving God WHOLEHEARTEDLY?? Whole-bodily? With everything? In everything?

Being here at a conference with all of these missionaries has really shown me that kind of faith. It's amazing. I am in a different boat. I am working with Club Beyond, and I never had to raise support, I didn't have to prayerfully wait for the finances to get to Italy... I am just here. I just happen to be in a place where they were looking for someone to step in to help out for a short while. I am so grateful for it! I love learning.

Lord, I LOVE to learn more about your character. Thank you for showing me your truth. Revealing your face. Allowing me to hear your voice. Opening my heart to your love. Thank you for the reality of your presence.

A Purpose Driven Life

I read The Purpose Driven life back in 2005, when I first acknowledged the need for Jesus in my life. My favorite part of the entire thing was in the end, you got to write a "Life Purpose Statement." You get to 'declare your major' in life. (Haha!) I was going to reread the entire book, but I started flipping through it and decided to just skim through it.

Rick Warren suggests that most people struggle with three basic issues: identity, importance, and impact. Who am I? Do I matter? What is my place in life?

Of the three, I think I've struggled with the third most of all. I am pretty sure I've always had a strong sense of self, I know that my life and what I do is important, to someone, somewhere, but the... impact. The impact is where I always question myself. What is my place in life?

I am dealing with the question now.

I am at a place where I am deciding what to do in the future. Where to finish college, what major, what career to pursue, etc. It's very strange, that there is such a debate going on in my mind.

On the one hand, all I want to do is teach God's word. I want to raise babies and teach God's word to women. How do I do that!? Just do it, right Nike? Haha.

Then there is what I've been trained for, what I've been conditioned for, I need to get a degree in something that will lead to a lucrative career, and I should work, make money and save money, be financially secure, etc.

Is it wrong for me to simply say, "I don't care?"

Matthew 6:33 says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

I truly believe that DJ and I can be blessed either way, whether I become a teacher, join the Air Force, just just sit at home--if we seek His will and prioritize His purpose first, we will be blessed. So what do I do? I want to just trust God.

It's just a very entertaining debate between what the world has told me to hold in high regard, and what I feel like the Word of God has told me to hold in high regard.

Interesting.

What are your struggles with what the world has told you to believe?

&& Because a post is always better with something to look at. This is the sky in Germany. I love sights like this because--how can you deny that God exists!? Beautiful.

Pictures like this make really... renew my sense of hope and enjoyment in the security of my future. ;)