Romans 13:5 “So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience,” this is such a hard verse to follow, but God will reward you for it. Some times you have to swallow your own pride, and just bite the bullet.  Even if other people are in the wrong, you have to forgive and obey those who are placed in authority over you.  I had been doing that all my life, and God has blessed me with so much that I can’t ever thank Him enough(But I will run the race and give my best effort).  Even though, you might find no escape, God has you in the palm of His hands.  I was reminded by one of my lifting buddies to fall back, and push with your heels when you squat.  I know how to fall back really well, but I was doing an old habit and pushing with my toes instead of my heels.  I was trying to make excuses and ways to get out of squatting, because I was performing poorly.  But I listened to him, and then it became second nature again to me thanks to my lifting partner giving me some helpful pointers. I just needed to have that reminder.  I don’t like being corrected with weights, but since I have been out of the game for awhile; I accepted my friend’s wisdom.  So, submit when people who know what they are talking about want to help you.  They aren’t trying to manipulate your life, but help you become more successful in life, and your own walk with God.He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (Proverbs 29:1 NKJV)  Do you have a hardened neck when someone tries to bring correction in your life, or do you accept it even when the truth strikes deep in your heart?

Camp Courage is the children’s program we have at our afternoon service. I am fortunate to be a counselors! I love what I do in Camp Courage. We can range anywhere from 6 to 30 kids! We have a “campfire” that we sit around when we learn the lesson or when we are praying for each other. I get to take the attendance at the “ranger station” at the bottom of the stairs that the kids come down. This really helps me learn the kids’ names and greet them when the come down.

There are many things about the kids that I love, but I really like how excited they get when we have a character or a puppet come for the lesson. I play a character named Gina. She is a girls scout who loves to come and tell about times where God has helped her and relates the stories to the Bible story. Even though the kids know that I am Gina, they still get excited about it. One girl once told me that Gina was her favorite part of Camp Courage because she could relate to her. I thought that was cool! I didn’t realize that the kids got that from her.

There is a girl that is a faithful camper, she comes every Sunday and Wednesday, that needs special attention. She is pretty much my best friend. She and I dance to the songs together, sit by each other, and play the games pretty much attached at the hip. She is a gorgeous little lady, and I will miss her and all the kids when I head back to Minnesota for the summer.

Being in Camp Courage has really changed the way I view kid’s ministry. I used to think that it was pretty much baby sitting the kids. Its is so much more. I get to help teach the children about Jesus and what he has done for them. Seeing a child get excited about know the story or answering a question right about the story it awesome. I also love have relationships with all the kids, know their likes and dislikes and who they are. These children will always have a special place in my heart and I look forward to each day I get to be with them.

Running with endurance, running for a greater cause, running for something beyond yourself. Running towards excellence is the challenge we’ve all, as Christians, signed on for. And although we can be great at putting up a fight and pushing through the physical exhaustion, it can be easy to let ourselves become spiritually weary. But God has called us to run the race in our hearts too. And every day, we have to choose to commit all of our efforts, whether through pain or with great stamina, to following Jesus.

By our faith being strong footed, we are able to take on any hurdle and are willing to go to greater lengths in order to fall more in love with Jesus. We will never really reach an ending point of following after our Savior, and we can’t treat ourselves like we’ve achieved all there is to reach. We have to stay focused on the prize, because an eternity with Jesus IS worth it! And when we’re approaching that finish line, nothing is better than having more people join you in passing the mark.

Thank you, Bonnie Dyer, for so many great points on running with passion, and never letting up!

It can be easy to put more emphasis on being an example in the things we do, the way we pray, and even how big our faith is. But what about being an example in our purity? First Timothy 4:12 says, “Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.”

I was given the opportunity to read a topical sermon about purity that was written by Ross. He talks about four things that we need to keep pure: our speech, mind, body, and heart. Something I’ve been thinking about since reading Ross’s sermon is how each of these areas needs to be pure.

It reminds me of a quote that one of my favorite English teachers in high school would share: “Your thoughts become your words, your words will become your actions, and your actions become your character.” Which means that if any area of us is unclean, it will eventually come out in our character!

Thinking about how my speech, mind, body, and especially my heart all work together to be an example of purity has been wrecking me. I can’t only rely on the exterior to be an example of purity, just like I can’t just have pure thoughts and do nothing about them. All areas of my life need to be rooted in Jesus, the one who is truly pure, because then I can live as a pure example to others!

I’m so challenged to be an example in these areas because I have so many opportunities around women of all ages. Purity isn’t the first noun that society encourages women to be identified by. That’s why I pray that I can be a role model of purity to those in my life.

Something Ross says when closing his sermon is, “All of these things, when put together and focused on one person, Jesus Christ, are the most powerful influence a Christian can have on someone.” Wow. We have such great opportunity to have influence that will lead people back to Jesus!

I’m so thankful that we have such an immaculate example to look up to, who never fails to cleanse us from the gross stuff we let build up in any of the four areas mentioned earlier. Jesus is perfect in every way, and that’s not only who I want to strive to be, but who I want to point others back to, always! So I’ll be asking myself, and maybe you should too, if my example is pointing back to the one who made me pure.

Everyone pretty much knows that our culture and world puts a lot of pressure on the way we look and dress, in other words, our appearance. Especially girls (at least I think so) we get it stuck in our heads that we have to look a certain way and be a certain size to be beautiful. And I think most people would agree that this is not true, that beauty is not defined by appearance….

And now I wonder, why? Why are pressured into believing it, if we know it’s not true?

And God is showing me that I am choosing to be. It’s a choice to give into what people think or say. He reminded me of the verse in 1 Samuel 16:7 -when Samuel is comissioned  to appoint David as king-

“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”

If this is what Gods standards are, then why don’t we put more pressure on each other  to make sure that our heart is beautiful and clean in the eyes of God, to ensure that each of us are living a holy life? Now I am not saying that is a sin to wear makeup and look nice, but it should never  consume us, become our focus, and what pressures our appearance.

Rather I want to be so consumed with Christ inside and out that causes me to beam with beauty!

My good friend and fellow classmate, Alex Chowdury, recently shared with me a topical sermon she had written discussing the topic of purity. The way that she presented it took time to focus on how purity is seen in our actions, thoughts, and most importantly in our heart. The order she gave her sermon really took me deeper with each point, reminding me of how internal the problem with purity can be. Sometimes it is easy to think of purity as just a surface thing. I know for me personally at least, I catch myself sometimes thinking of purity in the sense of how I act–what I do and say. I forget occasionally how deep an issue purity really is. It’s not just something we do or don’t do, and you certainly can’t define it by a set of rules or a standard of living. No, purity is a state of the heart. It’s a change that has to be made internally. You can’t do it on our own though. Sure, you can be a “good person” on your own, and you can even live a considerably clean life without help, but you can’t have a pure heart without God’s grace. Purity is a choice. it’s a choice to believe that God has made you a new person, by His grace, not your actions. God makes purity possible!

This blog is about my friend Jake.

Jake is in xmin and he is the building and maintenance director for the Real Church campus in Hamtramck. Throughout the last month all the 2nd year students had the chance to write a topical sermon and I got the privilege to read my friend Jake’s.

His sermon was simply titled: “Christ is enough”. The goal or aim of this sermon was to show and tell that Christ IS enough for anything we could need and HE is the ONLY way to receive our salvation.

Breaking it down…

There are only two quick points to this sermon and the first one is “Through Faith…”

This first point states that there is only one possible way to gain your salvation. It is impossible to gain salvation through the law or our actions. Although the law shows us our sins, obeying it cannot bring salvation to us. The law can’t, and neither will our good deeds. This doesn’t mean that we should disregard obeying the law and doing good things, it simply means that we cannot be saved because of them.

“So how can we be saved?”, you might ask… Which brings us to our second point in his sermon, “…in Christ”.

The second point, which is in Christ states that we can only be saved through Christ. The reason why HE is the only way to salvation is because HE was perfect, and HE is God’s son, and HE payed the price for our sins by dying on the cross. Sin separated us from life and brought death into play, but when we really get it and figure out that just obeying the law or relying on how awesome we are and how many good things we have done, and we put our faith in Christ alone, we receive salvation.

This was his sermon and I thought he did an awesome job. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something from it.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

This verse is an excellent description of what a Christian’s life should be like. Check out the way the Message puts it: “…start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.” In the race of life, we can move along so much better when we aren’t weighed down by sin or “spiritual fat”- areas in our life that aren’t in the best shape because we haven’t worked them out with God. So we’ve got to get rid of these things to excel at the race we were created for!

Not only are we supposed to run, we’re supposed to run with the intention of winning. These are a few essentials I’ve found to win…

- Kill the Parasites “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up”

We’ve got to get rid of sin, there is no “small thing” that is okay to keep around. As God shows us what needs to change, we must to do it right away!

Keep in mind that getting rid of sin isn’t a one time thing, nor can it be taken care of by a prayer of forgiveness. We are human, so sin is going to happen, but it should be our goal to keep it from happening. And when it does, we should quickly seek forgiveness and then change.

- Shape Up “strip off every weight that slows us down/no extra spiritual fat”

We must spiritually exercise through prayer, time with our Trainer (Jesus), and being around other Christians who challenge us.

We must be in shape to run to the best of our ability, but don’t wait to participate in the run until you’re in shape! Running will help you get in shape, just like living the life God called you to will help get you in shape and keep you that way!

- Set a Pace “And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us”

Winning doesn’t happen by sprinting through, it happens by running at GOD’S pace. The goal isn’t to run until we reach exhaustion, it’s to run and never quit until we reach the end!

I know I can get excited and start sprinting, but I can’t keep that up forever- eventually I will grow tired. We’ve got to trust God for the right pace, He knows what we can handle.

Running to win takes continual work, I never ever want to get out of shape or get tired!

I’m running to win, who’s with me?!

Committed to Christ. Think about those words… Pretty crazy huh? This is what one of the awesome girls in Xmin wrote her sermon on; Commitment To The Greater Purpose. Now rather then just take her word for what committed means I looked up the meaning for fun, this has actually become one of my favorite things to do with words, so I looked up the word at here is the definition…

Committed: bound or obligated, as under a pledge to a particular cause, action, or attitude;

Woof right?!?!

Woof: an adjective describing the state of your mind being blown. (That definition is according to me, but not the first one.)

It is so crazy to think about the word commitment and how fearful the world can be of it, and worse yet, the lack of commitment in the world and church today, but while reading April’s sermon she hit on some awesome points. The most thought provoking was her first one, which I already mentioned; Committed To Christ. Before you go any further look up this verse in Matthew 10:32-33, then keep reading.

In April’s sermon she defines commitment to Christ as “To acknowledge.” I love that! To acknowledge something is to a give notice to ones presence in your life. So if we are going to be committed to Christ we need to verbally and daily acknowledge Christ in our lives. It means that everything we do points back to the one person, and if we do not direct attention to Him then we are stealing it from Him.

Yes, it is really easy to keep quiet about Christ, but if we say we are committed to Christ then we cannot keep our relationship with Christ quiet. Something else April said on this point was that rather then trying to vocally convince or try to get people to see the way you do, live your life in obedience to Christ and let your actions do the talking.

Now this blog may be hard to understand, and for that I am sorry, but remember this. Be Committed To Christ, acknowledge His presence in your daily life, and Live In Obedience To Christ.

My good friend Kaitlin Smith wrote a sermon titled, Ditch the Old Clothes. I just got finished reading through it and I must say that it is going to require change on my part.

The new clothes that Jesus has set apart for us are His! It is the righteous character of Jesus! Philippians 1:11 says, “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation. The righteous character produced in your life by Christ Jesus. For this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

Kaitlin gives an analogy about getting new things, and how we want to know everything about it. So we probably take every opportunity, with excitement, to use it. Then she brought it all together and pointed out that even the things we buy get old and ruined and asked, “How we can settle for the same old person we’ve always been because it still looks good to us? Well, what if I told you that Jesus has something better, something new and GREAT for us?” Which is such a good point. We have these new clothes available to us, new life, and we tend to pick it up whenever we want it, if ever. The thing is, the new nature that comes into our lives when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts is a nature that shouldn’t be forgotten. When we compromise with our attitudes, or thought life, or our character, we are saying, “I am prideful, and I will not change”. We’re rejecting not just the righteous character of Jesus but what He did on the cross for us! When we reject becoming like Jesus, it’s like we have dropped food on our shirt, and our jeans over and over again.

Are you ready for this?! –Jesus still loves us no matter what! And there is always repentance! He is always ready to take our nasty laundry and make it brand new.

How crazy is that?!

Thanks, Kaitlin. <3

(Photo credit: Zachary Gross)