Rest

That is what I have needed most these last couple of days. I think ever ything has begun to catch up with me. We finished up with the Father Heart of God on Thursday. We learned about coming into obedience while under authority. Some things he said where, to get wisdom you have to learn to process your emotions. How often do we let our emotions be the deciding factor? Too often. Wisdom+Power=Authority. We have 7 spheres of society that has been taken over by the government, home,church,education,Gov't,arts/entertainment,media,and business. It was never intended to be this way. The purpose of gov't is to punish evil, promote community and balance out community and protect the individual. We as christians have failed to stand for Christ and what is morally right. It's time. Submit and display the attitude of Christ. If for some reason you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, now is a good time. No matter what you have done, it will not stop Him from loving you. Just invite Him into your heart and confess your sins to Him, trust me He knows them already, ask for forgiveness, and allow Jesus to rule in your life. You will never be the same. God has definetely been working on my heart while I have been here. Let Him work on yours.
I will be going to a juvenile prison for girls, ages 14-19, Sunday afternoon, for my outreach. So please pray that God would give me the right words to speak. It will be hard because we will not be allowed to touch them.
God gave me the most amazing day of rest today. It was 61 outside, yes I said it correctly, 61. I went to Garden of the Gods and sat at the visitors center outside and enjoyed the view. It felt so good to be out. I really needed it.
I will leave you with a devotional. God is always on duty in the temple of your heart, His home. It is the place where Someone takes your trouble and changes it into His treasure. Here is another one. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. GOD

Father's love for a hurting generation

That is our message for this week. The speaker starts out with asking us to become as little children. Have you noticed that kids have a sense of fairness and justice, they have a conscience,are transparent,are,honest,trusting,resilient,creative.They are also tranquil, affectionate,they are learners,givers,are humble,and love to laugh. If you read over all of these again you will realize that I just listed the characteristics of a Father's love. Awesome!
Then we went into past hindrances and how to get to the road to freedom.
Later that afternoon he had us bow our heads and ask God to show us if we had any past hindrances. Before you know it many people were crying and some of us began to pray out loud. Then he and the staff came over and prayed for us. It was a very exhausting and great day!
I learned about what my favorite word means. WAIT! It means Worship,Attitude,Intercede,and Teachable. Puts a whole new perspective on WAIT doesn't it? Everything in His time.
It just seems that the weeks go by so fast. It won't be long and we will be overseas. Crazy thought!

Fear of the Lord

This is the subject we learned about this week. Our teacher was originally from Australia, so he was great to listen to. There was so much I learned thru this week. What exactly is the fear of the Lord? It is having reverance, awe, worship, respect for Him. Also it means to hate evil. We learned about conviction and condemnation. Conviction comes from God and condemnation comes either from Satan or our own mind. We also talked about our conscience. Some of us have a strong conscience where nothing bothers them and some of us have a weak conscience where we are very strict with ourselves. One thing that he said that really made me think was, Sow a thought- reap an action. Sow an action-reap a habit. Sow a habit-reap a character. Sow a character-reap a destiny. Really makes you think doesn't it? On Fri. we had a lady come in and she is going to teach us how to study the bible. I am really looking forward to that. Also another lady will be coming in each week and help us to debrief, we had to explain what we learned to a people group and ours was to non-christians. It was a very good exercise and she said it would help us on our outreach.
I can't begin to tell you the change that took place this last week among my roomates. I had a great week. I think it just takes a little adjusting. We also began getting together one night a week and praying for one another. I think this will really draw us together. I still have been praying that God would continue to love them through me, and that He would give me words to say to relate to them.
I found this saying in my journal that I really liked. Love comes while we rest against our Father's chest. Joy comes when we catch the rhythms of His heart. Peace comes when we live in harmony with those rhythms.
It says in Ephesians 1:11-12, It's in Christ that we find out who we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. How great it is to know He has His eye on us isn't it?
I can't begin to tell how much your prayers have meant to me. Thank you and please continue.
I should know next week where we are going for outreach. I will keep everybody posted.

Kari Jobe - The More I Seek You w/lyrics

Wasn't sure if this came thru the last time!

Kari Jobe - The More I Seek You w/lyrics

I came across this song the other day at church and I have been in love with it ever since. Just listen to the words and get lost in His presence. Enjoy!

Had a very hard night on Sunday. I felt totally left out again. I didn't know what to do or how to respond. So of course when in doubt cry. I finally had to leave and drive around for a bit,crying out to God. Why in the world do I have to go through this again.
The next day my one on one came up to me and asked me how I was doing and I started to cry. She said were going for lunch. So we got off base for 2 hours and visited, she is a Godsend. Monday night I got a package from mom and dad and a card from Kerry and Carole and got to talk to Kelly and Carole, so God really supplied me with amazing support. I've also gotten encouraging e-mails and texts. So Please keep it up because it makes such a huge difference.
There always seems to be devotional that hits home when I need it the most. Mondays was:Sometimes when it seems our whole world is crumbling, it is difficult to believe that God is at work on our behalf. God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are unlike our thoughts, His plans are much bigger than we could ever imagine or dream. Let Him work in His unique way and watch as His beautiful plan is revealed in your life. Good huh!
Tuesday went alot better. We have a new speaker this week. He is speaking on the Fear of the Lord. Really good! So much info. but so interesting.
Thanks to all who haved prayed and continue to pray!

Sunday

I went to Springs church today. The pastor is David Wilkerson's son, Gary. I didn't get to hear him preach because he had a guest preacher, who was Tim Dilena. Amazing! I enjoyed the music and the people.
I finally finished my journal today, it needs to be handed in tomorrow morning so our one on one can read it. She determines if we are understanding all that the speakers are speaking on.
Tomorrow is another full week.

Hearing the voice of God

That was our subject for this week. All I can say is WOW! After having such a hard weekend, I awoke on Tues. morning singing I Have Decided to Follow Jesus! I realized it was my choice to how I see the day. That is also what the speaker spoke on. Every day is a brand new day, we haven't lived this one before and its our choice on how we do. I always marvel how God works these teachings into my life. One of the statements that our teacher said that really struck me, was "It's our lack of faith that causes us not to hear God's voice." Hearing is the most important thing, then it is to obey! How often do we choose not to do that part? We had to do an exercise and ask God: 1)Who are you to me? 2)Who am I to you? We had to be still and ask God this and then write down what He says. I had really struggled with this, because what I felt God was to me, I had to ask myself if I truly believed it. This is a great exercise for anybody. Try it! We also learned that God asks 2 things of us: 1)to love Him 2)to love others. Should be easy right! The key is to put Him first. One thing that was a comfort to me was that when He calls you He will equip you! The speaker had us sit on the floor where she had a tablecloth down and a glass with liguid and she said that we are going to have a picnic with God. She said we needed to bring God down to our level and talk to Him as we would our friends. It was such a good picture. We later had to break up into teams and ask God these questions? 1)Who is it you want us to pray for? 2)What is it that you want us to pray? 3)How do you want us to pray? 4)How do we involve the other teams? That was quite the exercise. We asked God to empty out our minds and speak to us. We were to write down whatever came to us, no matter how silly it sounded. After that we were to ask God to confirm all of it, and then start tieing all the pieces together. That was so amazing! That afternoon we had to present it to the class. This is called creative intercession. I have experienced intercession before but not like this. I will not look at intercession the same again! On our last day of class, our teacher then spoke to us what God had placed in her heart. Mine fit me to a tee! I am finally enjoying a day off! Trying to catch up on everything. We have journals we have to keep up on and bible verses that we have to go over and write our thoughts on. Lots of thinking and pondering. I haven't done that for so long, so its taking awhile. But I'm definetely enjoying what I'm learning. Tomorrow is a brand new day!

God is funny!

This is how funny God is. Today when we had class they said that they pray about what the theme, yes Tiff there is a theme, should be for this year and they came up with REST. Here in your presence Lord, I find my rest. It seems that God continues to say this to me over and over. He not only says Be still and know that I am God, but my title for my blog is Being Still. How much more clearer can He be.

Alot has happened over the weekend. I constantly wonder how am I going to relate to these kids? Friday night I got back to the room and nobody was here so I did some more unpacking, and then one of the girls came in, so I strike up a conversation with her and she is also wondering how to relate to these girls, she is only 21 and feels the same way. How can that be? In alot of ways we are the same. We had an amazing talk. I thought how great it was to be able to relate to somebody.
The other roommate is very selected on who she talks with, and I am definetly not it. It brings me back to high school again. It brings back all the old insecurities again. It's like not fitting in all over again.
Sat. Cyndi came down so all of us went for supper and then I stayed at the room with them that night.

Sunday was a very hard day. Got ready and had to say goodbye to mom and dad. Now I know it's for real. I went to church with an amazing couple, Dusty and Heather @ family. Was really glad I had something to do otherwise it would have been a very long, hard day. Came back to the room and got into sweats and was ready for a nap and the roommates came in and also the next door girls. I think our room is the hangout. So hopefully I will get to know them better. Sunday night was testimony night. I can't believe some of the stuff these kids have been through already at such an young age. I pray that I will be able to help in some way.

Yet I still deal with why I'm here. As I was reading the devotional this morning this really hit me. If you've entrusted God with your eternal soul, don't you think you should trust Him with your daily needs @ burdens? Enough to claim the daily strength He offers? Sounds simple right? Also in another devotional God says I AM WHO I SAY I AM! John the baptist said he was "the voice". John was a satisfied man, confident and content in his knowledge of himself. Can you say that about yourself? I am_________! I still haven't been able to fill in that line. Maybe thats why I'm here, to find out who I am.

Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.(A.W. Tozer)

I finally made it here! I wasn't expecting this day to be so hard, but it was. I had quite a few cries througout the day! Everything just seemed to hit me all at once. I thought how am I going to be able to handle this. I didn't realize what a huge step this was. Yet I know I'm supposed to be here and I know that God's hand is all over this. I'm praying my outlook will be better in the morning. In all things give thanks! I'm writing this to reassure myself.
On a positive note the Air Force Academy is not to far from here, anybody that knows me well enough knows how much I love planes and not to far from where YWAM is there is a veterinary clinic,(animals, another one of my loves). When I need a lift I can go to either place.

Well tomorrow is the big day! I will be making it to Colorado Springs tomorrow. Hard to believe that this day has finally arrived. Can't wait to see @ feel what's in store for me.

Well finally made it on the road after a day delay. We made it to Watertown. It's been a tough couple of days. Lots of emotions, saying good-bye to some amazing friends and family. I feel so blessed to have such great people in my life. My journey finally begins!

This is a song that has constantly been going through my mind. It has really been ministering to me. I feel that with my adventure around the corner, and not knowing what is ahead of me, I can honestly say I WILL FOLLOW. Enjoy!

I Will Follow- Chris Tomlin (With Lyrics)