BE THE MESSAGE

What a week this has been! You have no idea! But let me catch you up on last week though. Our speaker last week was Bruce Stefanik & he is the associate pastor at the church I go to here called Church on the Hill (of the Assemblies of God). He was absolutely amazing. His key points were:

• What people hear first is our lives.
• If someone can talk you into it, someone can talk you out of it.
• The hope is, we do what we do because Jesus Christ is worthy!
• If you try to change your behavior without changing your mindset first, you're setting yourself up for failure.
• Christian is a word...Follower is an action!
• We don't need to preach the message, we need to BE the message.
• "There is a god we want & there is a god who is & they are not the same god. The real change happens when we stop seeking the god we want & begin to seek the God who is." -Patrick Morely.
• You cannot become what you are destined to be if you remain who you are!
• Truth hurts, but deception hurts more.
• If comfort is the governing value in your life, than discipleship is over.
• You sow a thought, you reap an action. You sow an action on a regular basis, you reap a habit. You sow a habit long enough, you reap a lifetyle.
• To be able to say yes to the important things, you have to be able to say no to the other things.
• You have to go through conflict in a realtionship to go deeper.
• We don't tend to grow during easy times, but more so when the storm comes & you're stretched to the limit.
• What's the point in giving the answer if no one has asked the question??
• "God has not called me to a ministry of success, God has called me to a ministry of mercy." -Mother Theresa
• The grace of God always looks the best against a dark backdrop.
• There's TOO much at stake to waste any time.
• Everybody lives by faith...the question is in what???

Sorry if it's annoying when I put the teaching in. Let me know if it bothers anybody. I had a pretty fun weekend. Friday night I got to hang out with the Olivers & Rob & play the wii. I'm getting really good. I got to play with little Noah too of course. I love him! Saturday, a bunch of us (Me, Dusty, Bethany, Tina, & Hali) went to downtown Salem to this awesome coffee shop to do homework. We were having a blast but then we were in a hurry to get to a movie, & we get back to my car & it won't even start. OH MAN!! So these 2 guys on base, Rob & Phil, had to come rescue us. They jumped my car & than left. Well I turned it off to see if it would start again but no luck. It had died again. So they had to come back & jump it AGAIN! Then I had to drop everyone off at the base & got to Les Schwab. Turns out my battery was shot & I had to get a new one. $82 later!!! :( No bueno!

This week has been SUPER intense. We are going through this thing called "plumb line" where we really get in touch with God & speak out in front of our group anybody we need to forgive in our lives & then any sins we need to confess. You don't have to share or anything, but it's biblically based & gives you an opportunity to share in front of people & than declare the Lord's power over the situation. It's actually been absolutely amazing. Probably one of the best weeks of my life. It was really hard for me to share, but I feel so FREE! There were some very deep hurts I had to forgive & some sins I came to terms with. I gave everything up to God & have been walking in freedom! I can't even describe how awesome it is! It's brought us A LOT closer as a school because some huge walls came down.

Anyways, I'm super excited about this weekend because Damian & Mindy are coming up! YAYAYAY!!! I can't wait to see my friends. I'm definitely going to try & get some more pictures up, but be patient with me. I love you all & thank you so much again for all your prayers & support. GOD BLESS!