Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Update Letters
You can now view update letters on the Right Column of this site ----->
If you would like to receive update letters to your e-mail when they come out, please visit the "Support" page and scroll to the bottom.
Thanks!!!
If you would like to receive update letters to your e-mail when they come out, please visit the "Support" page and scroll to the bottom.
Thanks!!!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
He Fights For Us
We often think we have to do, do, do. Work to achieve. Labor to get farther.
While this is usually the case, there is a point that we often come to where we can't do much else. We have hit the end of the road...the end to what is possible. Our resources are scattered and we are lost not knowing where to step next.
This is that moment that we lay aside our weapons and tools and turn to God. However, it doesn't always have to come to those "end of the road" moments. In my life it has definitely been those times coming to the end of what I can do and then realizing what God can do. Over and over. You would think we would learn that anything is possible with Him, but he still uses our limitations to grow us closer to Him.
Sometimes we feel as if we are going to miss something. We know what God has said to us but we have this subconscious thought that we are the ones who have to make it happen. We gotta cover all our ground and do everything we can so that His words become true. I've been noticing this in my life recently. Always thinking a few steps ahead in what "could" happen if I do this and what "may not" happen if I don't do this. I think sometimes we are afraid of whether we hear God's voice or not, so we go after every path instead of one. In my mind, it's me being practical. In God's mind, it's probably watching me take on more than I need to.
God's grace is sufficient for all. I once heard an analogy about God's grace and guidance. The person connected God's guidance to a GPS system in a car. It tells the driver the directions and everything. But once the driver makes a wrong turn, he isn't lost forever...the GPS system redirects from the place that driver now is. It still brings him to the final destination.
All theology and petty discussions about details aside, God fights for us. Meaning, we don't have to fight. We can lay down all those tools and weapons that are unnecessary and weighing us down so that we can relax into a God who is alive. He is moving. He is constantly changing our hearts whether we realize it or not.
When he says he will do something, he will do it. Let's take hold of those promises. All we need to do is step out in simple obedience in the moment. Stop trying to put action to your "guesses" of where God will move or how he will provide. We don't need to worry about whether we will miss something and be lost forever. Trust in him and his sovereignty.
He fights for you so that you don't have to. He has already done that by paying the price for our sins.
His grace is the largest umbrella we have ever seen! ;)
How amazing. Jesus, we trust you. We trust your word and everything you have promised. Help us to lay down those things we burden ourselves with and help us to pick up your peace and grace.
"The gospel declared that no matter how dutiful and prayerful we are, we can't save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient." -B. Manning
While this is usually the case, there is a point that we often come to where we can't do much else. We have hit the end of the road...the end to what is possible. Our resources are scattered and we are lost not knowing where to step next.
This is that moment that we lay aside our weapons and tools and turn to God. However, it doesn't always have to come to those "end of the road" moments. In my life it has definitely been those times coming to the end of what I can do and then realizing what God can do. Over and over. You would think we would learn that anything is possible with Him, but he still uses our limitations to grow us closer to Him.
Sometimes we feel as if we are going to miss something. We know what God has said to us but we have this subconscious thought that we are the ones who have to make it happen. We gotta cover all our ground and do everything we can so that His words become true. I've been noticing this in my life recently. Always thinking a few steps ahead in what "could" happen if I do this and what "may not" happen if I don't do this. I think sometimes we are afraid of whether we hear God's voice or not, so we go after every path instead of one. In my mind, it's me being practical. In God's mind, it's probably watching me take on more than I need to.
God's grace is sufficient for all. I once heard an analogy about God's grace and guidance. The person connected God's guidance to a GPS system in a car. It tells the driver the directions and everything. But once the driver makes a wrong turn, he isn't lost forever...the GPS system redirects from the place that driver now is. It still brings him to the final destination.
All theology and petty discussions about details aside, God fights for us. Meaning, we don't have to fight. We can lay down all those tools and weapons that are unnecessary and weighing us down so that we can relax into a God who is alive. He is moving. He is constantly changing our hearts whether we realize it or not.
When he says he will do something, he will do it. Let's take hold of those promises. All we need to do is step out in simple obedience in the moment. Stop trying to put action to your "guesses" of where God will move or how he will provide. We don't need to worry about whether we will miss something and be lost forever. Trust in him and his sovereignty.
He fights for you so that you don't have to. He has already done that by paying the price for our sins.
His grace is the largest umbrella we have ever seen! ;)
"The gospel declared that no matter how dutiful and prayerful we are, we can't save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient." -B. Manning
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Hope on the River
Hey everyone, I recently wrote an article for Awaken Magazine about the kids in Brazil! There's also a few photos in it that I haven't posted anywhere yet. Check it out by clicking on the photo below!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Jesus Brought Me Near
"I was far away from you; Jesus brought me near.
And I was broken off from you; Jesus brought me near.
My hope, my song, my sacrifice of praise
is Christ crucified for me.
My strength, my boast, my sacrifice of praise
is the mention of your name."
The most life-giving feeling in the world is the constant revelation of our mended relationship with God through Jesus Christ. For most it's not something that comes just once, but it constantly rolls over you like waves on the ocean. Those lyrics, that spoken word, the type on a page, the sight of something created, the still small voice, a thought that encompasses...all things that the Lord uses to place moments like this in our path. It's those times that keep my hope alive. Because ultimately, my hope is Jesus. He is our only hope. When you seek him, you will find him. Without him, we are lost! But because of him, he has brought us the gift of life.
I can attest to this. Life. "The quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body." How do I know what life is? Because I have experienced being dead...spiritually. Looking for hope when deep down you don't know the end to your "hope". It was just a guess of what you want to happen. How do I know our new hope is the only of it's kind? Because it has an end. It's there waiting for us! We have the expectation of eternal life with our creator because Jesus died for our sins and broke that barrier that had been built up so long. Because of this, we can now can have a relationship with our Father in heaven. We can look toward the future and see Him. We can see all the promises he has given me in his Word. We see what he is planning for all of us in the end...a life so perfect with Him that we can't even wrap our minds around it now.
It's all there. He continues to remind us of what he intends for our relationship with Him. The hope God offers us is paid for, written down, and continues to be fulfilled daily. Not only that, but he loves to remind us of the precious gift of true life that we get to walk in.
When we ask him for a reminder of that hope, he is so willing to show us. When we feel discouraged or sad, we can place our hope in him even when we don't "feel" it because we know it's true! It's our solid rock. We can hold on to us and it will never leave us. It's not an emotion that will come and go, but a promise.
"Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!" Psalm 42:5
Be encouraged. Our hope is everlasting!
Be encouraged. Our hope is everlasting!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Wake Up, Breathe, Step Out
Coming home from serving in missions is different every time. I see the contrast of the things I've learned in my heart before and after I go. Being "home" is never different in the amount that God teaches me.
This time, before I got back home, I asked God to teach me about the "secret place" with Him and a life of prayer. How to be consistent in spending time with him and living my day from that. I noticed how stressed and anxious I was getting to be home. Having to find jobs, raise support, do all these things with the magazine, see family and friends, etc. It was weighing on me and I wasn't excited. Mexico is only 2.5 months away.
So I told the Lord that I wouldn't worry. I am the type of person that looks to the past and future a lot. This affects the way I think and I am so sick of living in the future. Because I have seen the power of spending time with God, I decided that I would simply wake up every morning and spend time with Him. That's all I would plan. In this time I would also just ask Him what he wants me to do for this day and listen to what he wants to say.
I'm seeing that when I carry out the things God speaks to me each morning, He will make them so easy and for my benefit or the benefit of others. He is using everything to draw me closer to him.
God wants to speak to us each day. It's not that he only guides us in the "big decisions" or that we have to look for signs. No, he wants to walk alongside us in everything.
Let's let each day bring glory to God. How can we love him more today? What is on his heart for today? I'm finding this is the best way to live because I can shake off everything else that holds me down.
LIKE MY NEW FACEBOOK PAGE ---> Alongside Alyssa
So I told the Lord that I wouldn't worry. I am the type of person that looks to the past and future a lot. This affects the way I think and I am so sick of living in the future. Because I have seen the power of spending time with God, I decided that I would simply wake up every morning and spend time with Him. That's all I would plan. In this time I would also just ask Him what he wants me to do for this day and listen to what he wants to say.
We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9It is good to plan. But I'm learning not to hold so tightly to plans. We only have today, this moment. So Jesus, what do you want to use me for today? Being open to the Lord and what He has only brings good.
I'm seeing that when I carry out the things God speaks to me each morning, He will make them so easy and for my benefit or the benefit of others. He is using everything to draw me closer to him.
God wants to speak to us each day. It's not that he only guides us in the "big decisions" or that we have to look for signs. No, he wants to walk alongside us in everything.
Let's let each day bring glory to God. How can we love him more today? What is on his heart for today? I'm finding this is the best way to live because I can shake off everything else that holds me down.
Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.In a culture where everything is quickly wanted and quickly given, let's be people who will wait for God to speak to us in his timing. Every good and perfect thing comes from him. He is so deserving of living our day to bring him glory!
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. Psalm 62:5-6
LIKE MY NEW FACEBOOK PAGE ---> Alongside Alyssa
Friday, December 28, 2012
Brazil in a Nutshell
"How was Brazil?"
The question everyone asks when you get back from a foreign trip.
And probably the hardest question to answer. My answer probably changes every time, but there is always the word "amazing" in there. Brazil was amazing. It wasn't like anything I expected, but then again I didn't really have any expectations...we just went.
I learned more about myself and about God in these last 6 months (especially the 3 months in Brazil) than I have at any other point in my life. Lots of good things and some convicting things, but God was always ripping out the bad and replacing it with himself. What a great promise to rely on.
All 11 of us learned different things on this trip. I saw that the growth was more personal than as a whole. We went into Brazil as a joyful, united team and we left Brazil with even more love for each other than when we started. How amazing! Each of us was stretched in what it means to have a personal relationship with God. As I looked back on Brazil, there are a few themes that stood out to me that I'll share:
1. Simple Gospel
It was in the first river community that my heart started struggling. It wasn't necessarily that we were in an impoverished place, but rather a simpler place. All the fluff from the city was stripped away in these river communities. We were doing house visits and I started to realize that I didn't know what to say to these people. In my mind, I only knew what choosing to follow Jesus looked like in America. I knew powerful times of corporate worship, the value of a prayer room, trusting God to provide finances while working as a missionary, and intercession times with the Holy Spirit showing up in a room filled with people. I didn't realize until now that I held those on the same level as my quiet times with Jesus.
You see, these things are not bad, they are just how followers of Jesus live out their relationship to God in this culture. We are simply called to do 3 things: Love God, love each other, and reach the lost. I started to realize that that is literally all our lives are to consist of. Within these 3 things, we all uniquely live them out. So as a shared the gospel with these Brazilians, I started to learn to accept that the way they will live out their relationships with Christ isn't going to look like how I am used to. What they need to know is that God is inviting them into a personal relationship with each other them through Jesus dying for their sins.
So I started to ask God, "What does it look like for people here to love you, love each other, and reach the lost?" He started showing me how he changes the hearts of people when they simply open the Bible to read His word, how a girl named Leidiane wanted to "reach the lost" by getting the youth in her community to be more unified through a youth group, and how home fellowship over some weak coffee is strong enough to bring love amongst a neighborhood.
Bringing the gospel to a new country involves us remembering what God simply calls us to do. This is what unifies the church world-wide. This is what strengthens us. It gave me a better perspective on discipleship and God is still giving me so much revelation about this.
2. Grace & Forgiveness
A lesson we will always be learning. God brought me through a lot about having grace for others and grace for myself. I once heard a quote that says "You only have as much grace for others as you do for yourself." I understand this now.
It was a new season...leading an outreach team for the first time. You definitely find out your strengths and weaknesses. We must remember that God is strong when we are weak. In those times we make mistakes, we need to remember that we are not perfect, which is why we need to come to Jesus.
I have always dwelt on those imperfections I see in myself. The mistakes crowded my mind with solutions and stress of having to remember how to fix myself. I didn't allow myself any grace.
But when we look forward to Jesus and don't look back, he takes care of everything!!! He is our teacher and knows how to change our hearts through what is best for us. Through the revealtion of this, I was taught to give myself grace.
And this tied in with giving others grace. Jesus is the only perfect one, and I am so thankful that we have him to guide us. Those around us do stumble and fall, no matter how perfect we think they may be. What they need to be met with is people who will teach them from a heart of forgiveness. We can't correct our friends when our heart is still bitter toward their mistake. If we want to speak into each other's lives, we need to pardon each other's faults beforehand. Otherwise we will hurt each other because "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks".
I had to learn to ask myself "where is my heart?" when talking to people. We don't want to let the actions of others change the way we act toward them. Love conquers all. And choosing to love when your flesh doesn't want to is powerful. We are all sons & daughters of the same King...let's treat each other as such! Give grace.
Grace and forgiveness is something God is still heavily teaching me right now.
3. Go out!
The command from Jesus to go out and make disciples is weighing on me right now. More than any other time in my life. There are so many people in this world that don't know who their Father is. They don't know the depths of his love for them and how he wants to mend their broken hearts. We constantly asked God to break our hearts for what breaks His heart in order to feel what he feels.
I realize even more now that this prayer comes with a cost because he delivers. What I didn't expect was the amount of kids we got to hang out with wherever we went. They loved us. And we were able to show love to them. Some have never been hugged. Some come from abusive families. Many love to just have fun with us in any way possible. I think back to the faces and names and my heart breaks, even as I am writing this. I didn't realize their impact on me until I got home.
My heart breaks because I don't know who will tell them about Jesus' love for them. These kids in the middle of the jungle, who have never seen Americans, let alone foreigners. They are so joyful and free, yet without knowing their Creator they will fall farther as they get older.
My hope is in the Lord. In the Holy Spirit working in these communities even when we aren't there. My hope is that the few followers in these towns will fall more in love with Jesus and spread the good news to their neighbors. My hope is that there will be whole communities in love with the Lord and living out the gospel. And I trust that God can do this.
All of this pushes me to tell people about Jesus. He is worth every second of my life speaking his name. He is worth following to whatever country, whatever state, whatever person. His love is better than life and it's worth everything for people to know that.
The question everyone asks when you get back from a foreign trip.
And probably the hardest question to answer. My answer probably changes every time, but there is always the word "amazing" in there. Brazil was amazing. It wasn't like anything I expected, but then again I didn't really have any expectations...we just went.
I learned more about myself and about God in these last 6 months (especially the 3 months in Brazil) than I have at any other point in my life. Lots of good things and some convicting things, but God was always ripping out the bad and replacing it with himself. What a great promise to rely on.
All 11 of us learned different things on this trip. I saw that the growth was more personal than as a whole. We went into Brazil as a joyful, united team and we left Brazil with even more love for each other than when we started. How amazing! Each of us was stretched in what it means to have a personal relationship with God. As I looked back on Brazil, there are a few themes that stood out to me that I'll share:
1. Simple Gospel
It was in the first river community that my heart started struggling. It wasn't necessarily that we were in an impoverished place, but rather a simpler place. All the fluff from the city was stripped away in these river communities. We were doing house visits and I started to realize that I didn't know what to say to these people. In my mind, I only knew what choosing to follow Jesus looked like in America. I knew powerful times of corporate worship, the value of a prayer room, trusting God to provide finances while working as a missionary, and intercession times with the Holy Spirit showing up in a room filled with people. I didn't realize until now that I held those on the same level as my quiet times with Jesus.
You see, these things are not bad, they are just how followers of Jesus live out their relationship to God in this culture. We are simply called to do 3 things: Love God, love each other, and reach the lost. I started to realize that that is literally all our lives are to consist of. Within these 3 things, we all uniquely live them out. So as a shared the gospel with these Brazilians, I started to learn to accept that the way they will live out their relationships with Christ isn't going to look like how I am used to. What they need to know is that God is inviting them into a personal relationship with each other them through Jesus dying for their sins.So I started to ask God, "What does it look like for people here to love you, love each other, and reach the lost?" He started showing me how he changes the hearts of people when they simply open the Bible to read His word, how a girl named Leidiane wanted to "reach the lost" by getting the youth in her community to be more unified through a youth group, and how home fellowship over some weak coffee is strong enough to bring love amongst a neighborhood.
Bringing the gospel to a new country involves us remembering what God simply calls us to do. This is what unifies the church world-wide. This is what strengthens us. It gave me a better perspective on discipleship and God is still giving me so much revelation about this.
2. Grace & Forgiveness
A lesson we will always be learning. God brought me through a lot about having grace for others and grace for myself. I once heard a quote that says "You only have as much grace for others as you do for yourself." I understand this now.
It was a new season...leading an outreach team for the first time. You definitely find out your strengths and weaknesses. We must remember that God is strong when we are weak. In those times we make mistakes, we need to remember that we are not perfect, which is why we need to come to Jesus.
I have always dwelt on those imperfections I see in myself. The mistakes crowded my mind with solutions and stress of having to remember how to fix myself. I didn't allow myself any grace. But when we look forward to Jesus and don't look back, he takes care of everything!!! He is our teacher and knows how to change our hearts through what is best for us. Through the revealtion of this, I was taught to give myself grace.
And this tied in with giving others grace. Jesus is the only perfect one, and I am so thankful that we have him to guide us. Those around us do stumble and fall, no matter how perfect we think they may be. What they need to be met with is people who will teach them from a heart of forgiveness. We can't correct our friends when our heart is still bitter toward their mistake. If we want to speak into each other's lives, we need to pardon each other's faults beforehand. Otherwise we will hurt each other because "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks".
I had to learn to ask myself "where is my heart?" when talking to people. We don't want to let the actions of others change the way we act toward them. Love conquers all. And choosing to love when your flesh doesn't want to is powerful. We are all sons & daughters of the same King...let's treat each other as such! Give grace.
Grace and forgiveness is something God is still heavily teaching me right now.
3. Go out!
The command from Jesus to go out and make disciples is weighing on me right now. More than any other time in my life. There are so many people in this world that don't know who their Father is. They don't know the depths of his love for them and how he wants to mend their broken hearts. We constantly asked God to break our hearts for what breaks His heart in order to feel what he feels. I realize even more now that this prayer comes with a cost because he delivers. What I didn't expect was the amount of kids we got to hang out with wherever we went. They loved us. And we were able to show love to them. Some have never been hugged. Some come from abusive families. Many love to just have fun with us in any way possible. I think back to the faces and names and my heart breaks, even as I am writing this. I didn't realize their impact on me until I got home.
My heart breaks because I don't know who will tell them about Jesus' love for them. These kids in the middle of the jungle, who have never seen Americans, let alone foreigners. They are so joyful and free, yet without knowing their Creator they will fall farther as they get older.
My hope is in the Lord. In the Holy Spirit working in these communities even when we aren't there. My hope is that the few followers in these towns will fall more in love with Jesus and spread the good news to their neighbors. My hope is that there will be whole communities in love with the Lord and living out the gospel. And I trust that God can do this.
All of this pushes me to tell people about Jesus. He is worth every second of my life speaking his name. He is worth following to whatever country, whatever state, whatever person. His love is better than life and it's worth everything for people to know that.
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