Today has been an extremely stressful day for me for some reason. Not totally sure why, but a lot of stuff has just hit me today I guess. Things with school has been hitting me a lot and overwhelming me with how much work I am going to have to do in the next few weeks before spring break gets here, which I cannot wait for....I need a break really badly. But what has stressed me out even more is where I need to transfer to next year. I thought I had it all figured out about a week ago to go to USC aiken and I was just gonna go there because it was the most "comfortable" thing for me to do, but the past few days I have had an uneasy feeling inside that I need to go pursue music at Liberty University in VA. That's so far away from everything, my girlfriend, family, and all my friends.
I have been trying to just kind of make the decision and get it over with and hope that the feeling of uneasiness would just go away but that was a total lie. I wanted to go where I felt like it fit better for me; even though I have always wanted to do music. I wanted it to all be about me, when it's never about me, or us. It's always about what God wants us to do and he's going to let us know that some way or another. Just like when I talked about Direction Determines Destination in an older blog, if we don't go where we feel God calling us then we won't be able to be in the position that God has set for us in the future. So I need to take my own advice haha.
I still have a huge uneasiness right now, but it's more just being scared about what to do. I'm not making a final decision right now because I definitely want to spend time in prayer about it and make sure this is what I need to do. It's just been stressing me out to the max. Luckily I have an awesome girlfriend who supports me in whatever and told me that if I feel like i need to go that far away then that's ok and that's what I should do. She's awesome.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding and He will make your path straight"
-Proverbs 3:5-6
Those are my favorite verses and I really need to focus on them more right now. Please be praying for clarity for me. Thank you.
"It's your love that we adore
It's like a sea without a shore,
Don't be afraid, Don't be afraid
Just set your sail and risk the ocean,
show me grace,
let's risk the ocean,
show me your grace,
let's risk the ocean,
show me your grace,
let's risk the ocean."
-David Crowder Band
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Friends
A few years ago I made some big changes in my life dealing with who I was and who I surrounded myself with. I was into drinking and partying and doing things that I really shouldn't have been doing. I started drinking a lot too, and it ended up really badly on a Halloween night.
I went to a party dressed as captain morgan, with a handle of captain morgan. Let's just say that it ended very badly when I drank almost the whole handle of capt. on my own...... I was way out of it and didn't have a clue what was going on. To make matters worse I am diabetic. Being blackout drunk and diabetic is not something that goes very well together.
Luckily I had an awesome friend who was with me and who didn't drink. He is a very strong Christian and just an awesome guy. My buddy went to the party with me to just hangout and mingle with people there but was drinking a monster energy drink instead of alcohol (and a lot of people there respected him for doing that btw, even though they were all drinking). My friend checked my bloodsugar to see what it was that night and it ended up being low enough to where I needed to eat something or I would go into diabetic shock and eventually die from being too drunk to function and save myself before shock set in. He stayed up for hours, and this was at around 4am, to try and feed me even though I kept throwing stuff up. He feed me until I finally ate something and kept it down.
Can I just tell you how thankful I am for this guy. I would honestly be dead if he wouldn't have been there with me to save me.
As Christian's this is how we are supposed to be this way to our unsaved friends. They are going to die without us staying with them and trying to keep feed them the Gospel until they get it. I don't mean feed it to them forcefully or anything either, be loving and caring with them. But we have to stay with them before it's to late, we have to care about them the way my friend cared about me and saved my life.
Someone didn't give up on each of us, so we can't give up on anyone else.
I'm thankful for my friend who saved me. So very thankful.
I went to a party dressed as captain morgan, with a handle of captain morgan. Let's just say that it ended very badly when I drank almost the whole handle of capt. on my own...... I was way out of it and didn't have a clue what was going on. To make matters worse I am diabetic. Being blackout drunk and diabetic is not something that goes very well together.
Luckily I had an awesome friend who was with me and who didn't drink. He is a very strong Christian and just an awesome guy. My buddy went to the party with me to just hangout and mingle with people there but was drinking a monster energy drink instead of alcohol (and a lot of people there respected him for doing that btw, even though they were all drinking). My friend checked my bloodsugar to see what it was that night and it ended up being low enough to where I needed to eat something or I would go into diabetic shock and eventually die from being too drunk to function and save myself before shock set in. He stayed up for hours, and this was at around 4am, to try and feed me even though I kept throwing stuff up. He feed me until I finally ate something and kept it down.
Can I just tell you how thankful I am for this guy. I would honestly be dead if he wouldn't have been there with me to save me.
As Christian's this is how we are supposed to be this way to our unsaved friends. They are going to die without us staying with them and trying to keep feed them the Gospel until they get it. I don't mean feed it to them forcefully or anything either, be loving and caring with them. But we have to stay with them before it's to late, we have to care about them the way my friend cared about me and saved my life.
Someone didn't give up on each of us, so we can't give up on anyone else.
I'm thankful for my friend who saved me. So very thankful.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
ipod and patience
Today I have been going through a struggle......with my ipod. All I have wanted to do was play the drums with some new music I bought but my ipod doesn't agree with that and won't let me put the music on there. All I can say is that I am about ready to throw my ipod through a wall.
I have an awful time with patience. With just about anything. Whether it be ignorant people that don't have a clue what they're talking about, my ipod, or people driving around me.
I need to work on this. The basic message of the bible and what it means to be a Christian is to live as Christ did. If i'm going to do this then I have to work on my patience because by myself not being patient I can get mad and upset at people a lot faster.
Jesus was a very patient man while on earth with everyone He came into contact with and with all of the disciples. If He wanted to Jesus could have easily just been like, "yea i'm getting tired of this and I wanna go to heaven now." But instead He stayed on earth and endured all that we do on a daily basis, and was patient and eventually took our place on the cross and took our sins and died for them.
I need to make sure to be patient in all aspects of my life to make sure I stay calm when working around people because people looking at me and seeing that I get mad over something stupid, like my ipod, could completely kill any chance I had at witnessing to them.
We need to make sure we always are lights on earth for God, and that we shine for Him by what we do with our actions.
Pray my ipod starts working please :)
I have an awful time with patience. With just about anything. Whether it be ignorant people that don't have a clue what they're talking about, my ipod, or people driving around me.
I need to work on this. The basic message of the bible and what it means to be a Christian is to live as Christ did. If i'm going to do this then I have to work on my patience because by myself not being patient I can get mad and upset at people a lot faster.
Jesus was a very patient man while on earth with everyone He came into contact with and with all of the disciples. If He wanted to Jesus could have easily just been like, "yea i'm getting tired of this and I wanna go to heaven now." But instead He stayed on earth and endured all that we do on a daily basis, and was patient and eventually took our place on the cross and took our sins and died for them.
I need to make sure to be patient in all aspects of my life to make sure I stay calm when working around people because people looking at me and seeing that I get mad over something stupid, like my ipod, could completely kill any chance I had at witnessing to them.
We need to make sure we always are lights on earth for God, and that we shine for Him by what we do with our actions.
Pray my ipod starts working please :)
Monday, February 6, 2012
Philipians 4:13
Philippians 4:13 is probably one of the most known bible verses and most quoted verses (John 3:16 is the most known and quoted), but I feel like it is used very out of context usually. Let me explain...
Philippians 4:13
"I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me."
The way most people quote and mention this verse is by saying that I can do anything because Christ will give me the strength to, which isn't wrong to think at all honestly, I do believe God can give us the power and strength to do anything that He wants us to, but when looking at Philippians 4:13 Paul wasn't writing saying that if I want to run through a brick wall God will give me the strength to do that. We have to look at the verses right before verse 13 to really grasp what Paul was writing about.
Philippians 4:11-13
"I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me."
The way I look at these verses is that we need to learn how to be content in all season's of our life and that we need to know that when we have low times in our life we must stay faithful to the Lord because He will give us the strength to get out of those times, and that in the high and awesome times of our lives we must give Him praise and know that He gave us the strength to get through because we couldn't do it on our own.
We have to know that in the low times of our life that we must rely on the Lord for us to get strength from Him to make it through and that He will most definitely give us the strength we need.
This was my little insight of what I view Philippians 4:11-13, hopefully it was good and didn't offend anyone by what they think about the verses, just wanted to give my opinion. :)
God Bless and good night.
Philippians 4:13
"I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me."
The way most people quote and mention this verse is by saying that I can do anything because Christ will give me the strength to, which isn't wrong to think at all honestly, I do believe God can give us the power and strength to do anything that He wants us to, but when looking at Philippians 4:13 Paul wasn't writing saying that if I want to run through a brick wall God will give me the strength to do that. We have to look at the verses right before verse 13 to really grasp what Paul was writing about.
Philippians 4:11-13
"I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me."
The way I look at these verses is that we need to learn how to be content in all season's of our life and that we need to know that when we have low times in our life we must stay faithful to the Lord because He will give us the strength to get out of those times, and that in the high and awesome times of our lives we must give Him praise and know that He gave us the strength to get through because we couldn't do it on our own.
We have to know that in the low times of our life that we must rely on the Lord for us to get strength from Him to make it through and that He will most definitely give us the strength we need.
This was my little insight of what I view Philippians 4:11-13, hopefully it was good and didn't offend anyone by what they think about the verses, just wanted to give my opinion. :)
God Bless and good night.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Music.
Music is the best therapy for me. If there's ever anything going on in my life that gets me down or gets me stressed out there's always some song that just makes me feel better or has lyrics about what I'm going through, and it just makes me feel better. It makes me feel like someone else has obviously been through the same thing and made it through ok, and then the lyrics really start to sink in and help me out in what I'm going through. But then there's sometimes that listening to music can do the exact opposite and you hear a song that could just bring you down so much more than you already were.....like if you are going through a break up and hear a song that makes you think of the person that broke your heart, it can just make you feel so much more down about everything.
You could look at the same thing with the people around you giving you advice and all in your life. There's sometimes that when you are going through something in your life and friend's try to give you advice to help you out and it really helps, and then there's other times that it can just be the wrong thing for you to hear and make you feel so much worse. And sometimes when someone tells you something that makes you feel worse, it may not even be true.
Not saying that you shouldn't listen to your friends, because we totally should! There are people that have experience in different parts of life than me and if I'm going through something I totally want to hear what they have to say, I just have to be careful and see if it is really something that is going to help my life or not.
The best advice I get is from my bible. It never fails that I can find something in there that completely helps me with situation's I am going through at times and honestly the internet helps out a lot because you can go type in keywords in Biblegateway.com and it will bring up verses to help encourage you and bring you up.
I haven't been to good at reading my bible as of late and I need to work on that a lot. I need to make my bible more of one of my best friends and be in it every day. Going into God's word can help me understand situation's better and get ton's of encouragement that is much needed. Again not saying I don't need to go talk to my friends and get feedback from them, because going to friends is very important to get through tough situations, but we should make our bible and Jesus a best friend of ours to go to in tough times in our lives.
Getting in God's word makes us closer to Him and it also gives us encouragement to help us in tough situations.
Music was a pretty random title for this blog......haha.
You could look at the same thing with the people around you giving you advice and all in your life. There's sometimes that when you are going through something in your life and friend's try to give you advice to help you out and it really helps, and then there's other times that it can just be the wrong thing for you to hear and make you feel so much worse. And sometimes when someone tells you something that makes you feel worse, it may not even be true.
Not saying that you shouldn't listen to your friends, because we totally should! There are people that have experience in different parts of life than me and if I'm going through something I totally want to hear what they have to say, I just have to be careful and see if it is really something that is going to help my life or not.
The best advice I get is from my bible. It never fails that I can find something in there that completely helps me with situation's I am going through at times and honestly the internet helps out a lot because you can go type in keywords in Biblegateway.com and it will bring up verses to help encourage you and bring you up.
I haven't been to good at reading my bible as of late and I need to work on that a lot. I need to make my bible more of one of my best friends and be in it every day. Going into God's word can help me understand situation's better and get ton's of encouragement that is much needed. Again not saying I don't need to go talk to my friends and get feedback from them, because going to friends is very important to get through tough situations, but we should make our bible and Jesus a best friend of ours to go to in tough times in our lives.
Getting in God's word makes us closer to Him and it also gives us encouragement to help us in tough situations.
Music was a pretty random title for this blog......haha.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Easier to see from the outside looking in?
Tonight, February 1st, I had a realization about something. I have to worry about fixing myself sometimes before I can worry about helping someone else first. Even when we try to help someone by what our observations are from the outside, it seems like it's never good enough. And I know this is completely judgmental and the wrong thing to think of, but it makes me feel like what I say isn't good enough because it's not what whoever I am talking to is good enough. So I try to not think that because when it sets in it's just totally wrong of me to think.
While we do need to help influence other's, sometimes we have to work on ourselves first to make sure we are living what we are speaking. And i'm not talking about influencing people who do not believe in Christ necessarily, it goes for when we are trying to influence other believers also. We just always need to remember that we are not perfect, so when we are talking to someone and giving them advice that we are not any better than them, we may just have more experience in what they are going through at that time in their life.
If someone doesn't really want to pay attention to the advice we are trying to give them then don't worry about it, unless it is crucial to their life then totally do something, but if you're just giving them daily advice on situation's then don't let it get to you if someone isn't listening to your input. All we can do is be there to help the people around us and give our advice when they need it.
Personally I usually get frustrated with someone when I am trying to help them and they don't listen, sometimes it really makes me mad and makes me wonder why I even try. At those times it always hits me that it's not about me, and that as long as I am trying my best to give Godly and scripturally sound advice that is all I can do, someone can take it or leave it, whichever they choose. And that's when I need to notice how much it bothers me and start to work on that myself.
Sometimes it easier to see from the outside looking in on someone's life or situation so we should definitely try to help that person, in a loving and Godly way, but we can't worry if someone takes our advice or not. Just always be there for our friends and be there to help them when they need you.
As always, Goodnight and God bless!
While we do need to help influence other's, sometimes we have to work on ourselves first to make sure we are living what we are speaking. And i'm not talking about influencing people who do not believe in Christ necessarily, it goes for when we are trying to influence other believers also. We just always need to remember that we are not perfect, so when we are talking to someone and giving them advice that we are not any better than them, we may just have more experience in what they are going through at that time in their life.
If someone doesn't really want to pay attention to the advice we are trying to give them then don't worry about it, unless it is crucial to their life then totally do something, but if you're just giving them daily advice on situation's then don't let it get to you if someone isn't listening to your input. All we can do is be there to help the people around us and give our advice when they need it.
Personally I usually get frustrated with someone when I am trying to help them and they don't listen, sometimes it really makes me mad and makes me wonder why I even try. At those times it always hits me that it's not about me, and that as long as I am trying my best to give Godly and scripturally sound advice that is all I can do, someone can take it or leave it, whichever they choose. And that's when I need to notice how much it bothers me and start to work on that myself.
Sometimes it easier to see from the outside looking in on someone's life or situation so we should definitely try to help that person, in a loving and Godly way, but we can't worry if someone takes our advice or not. Just always be there for our friends and be there to help them when they need you.
As always, Goodnight and God bless!
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