Life Abundant

John 10:10-"...I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Today is one of those days where I am just so excited to be alive. God has poured out His blessings on me again and again. As the verse in John says, Christ came to give us abundant life. Today has reminded me of this. It's like at every possible turn, there have been blessings.

Church this morning was amazing. Pastor Scott preached out of Romans 12:1 (which is, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God. which is your spiritual service of worship.") , and one of the things he talked about was the phrase "Therefore I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God..." Then he asked us a question to get us thinking-what are the mercies of God? He answered his question by saying, "The mercies of God are the blessings of salvation that are ours because of Christ." These blessings of salvation that we have received bring a response of gratitude that enables us to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice. Some examples of the mercies of God are:

-The righteousness of God

-Justification by faith

-Favor/grace of God

-Redemption

-Reconciliation to God

-God's forgiveness.

There are many more, but I just thought that this would give you an idea of what they are. God really used this part of the sermon to change my thinking already.

Then I had my membership class where we talked about some things that also really encouraged me and provoked my thinking. Lunch, though, was another huge blessing. I ate with my friend Abby, and we talked a lot about what we are learning and struggling with, and it is such a blessing to have someone who seems to go through similar things as I do. Abby is such a sweet girl who loves the Lord passionately, and is such an encouragement to me.

Lately I have been really convicted about not serving in my church as I had been planning to all summer. I prayed this morning that somehow today I would find a place to serve, thinking that maybe it would be in youth ministry. Well, this morning went by and I did not pursue anything and no one came to me either(this is not me blaming anyone-I did not expect this to happen, and I realize it is my responsibility to ask about it, and I failed), so in my flesh, I forgot about it. Then tonight, after another great sermon, we had our normal Body Life time (in case you do not know what this is, it is about twenty or so minutes where people share prayer requests or answers to prayer, and others in the congregation pray for them. We also have a handout given before the service with other prayer requests printed on it, and we pray for some of those as well). Pastor Steve talked about how Awana had a need in the Sparks ministry, and said to talk to the lady in charge after the service if we were willing to help. Of course, I did! I am so excited to be working in a ministry with 80 K-2nd graders, as well as many leaders. It was then that I remembered the prayer I had prayed this morning about finding somewhere to serve. God answered a prayer that I forgot about! I am so forgetful, even about things that I am passionate about. I have no explanation for this except that I am a wicked sinner who needs the grace of God each day. 

Hopefully you can tell, but in case you can't: my life is just so full right now! God has blessed me again and again, and I am so grateful to be His child. He really is so good to me, even though sometimes I forget this. He reminded me that life without Him is so empty and discouraging, but life in Him is life abundant. 

In closing, I would like to quote a song that is brought to mind as I think about this. 

"My heart is filled with a thousand songs proclaiming the glories of Calvary. With every breath, Lord, how I long to be like Jesus who died for me. Lord take me deeper into the glories of Calvary."

Have a great day :)

Whew! Today ends the third week of school. This past week has flown by! It was a great one! Here are some of the blessings I've had so far:
- My roomie, Sarah. We've had some fun conversations. It's nice to be able to have serious conversations and still be able to make each other laugh. One thing that's been hard is that we don't see each other as much this semester as we did last year, especially last semester. But looking back, we still make the most of the time we do have.
- My math test on Monday was really easy and I did well.
- Wednesday night dinner with my new friend Abby. We talked for hours and she is such an encouragement.
- Membership class at PBC started on Sunday and I know that I will get to know some awesome people.
- Signed up for Outreach Week and it sounds like it will be a great time serving the Lord...I'm so excited!
- Against my wishes, my friends are in the midst of planning a birthday celebration of some sort for me for tonight (I turn twenty on Sunday). Though I did not really want to celebrate, I am so grateful for my friends who care enough to ignore me :)
- This morning my department chapel was cancelled. Lindsay and I went to Starbucks during that time with the goal of doing homework. Two other girls in my dorm were also there, and for a while the four of us talked. It was nice to just sit and chat, even though we didn't get much work done.
- Despite my lack of studying (like I was planning to do at Starbucks), I got 100 on my biology quiz (which was super easy).
- My biology class is turning out to be way better than I hoped. I've mostly always had science from a Christian worldview, so that isn't new. But it is still really nice and I really appreciate it. My professor is really interested in the subject and it gets us all interested. We study different animals each day and they are all so unique. Through the animals we study each day and the videos we sometimes watch, I have seen so much of God's creativity in this world, and it is awe-inspiring. 
- Though I was sick this week, I felt so taken care of! So many people blessed me with their kindness, and it was nice to see how much people care even about the little things like colds.
- My devotions  have been in Psalm and I am studying the character of God. There are things that are mentioned repeatedly. It is really enforcing the ideas into my head. It's nice to read over and over again that God loves righteous men and that He is a refuge, and other things like that.
- My RA from last year, Lynsi, who graduated in May, came to visit last night. It was so exciting to see her again. She is continually an encouragement to me. It was so good to just see her and hug her and laugh with her again. I never realized how much I would miss her this year, so it was good to see her.

Those are just some of the things that have gone on in the last week to really encourage me.
 

Last weekend some of my friends and I went camping in Carpenteria. My friend Courtney's family and some of their other family friends went camping all last week, and they invited some of us to go with them for the weekend. The families had been staying in their trailers for the week, and had a couple tents to spare. It was a great time, even though it was kind of short. Some of us (including myself) left Friday in the early afternoon. We got there and set up the tents and went swimming in the ocean. It was beautiful and so nice!! Not too cold at all! Then a little bit later the rest of the friends came up and soon after we ate dinner. It was so exciting to sit on the beach with some people you really love and eat dinner while watching a gorgeous sunset.

That night, we sat around the campfire and talked for a while. It included my friends from school, several of Courtney's brothers and sisters, and some of their other friends who had been their for the week. It was a really fun time and there was lots of laughing. That night we slept in tents on the beach right by Courtney's family's campsite. In case you were wondering, that was a lifelong dream fulfilled. I've always wanted to camp on the beach. It was great!

The next morning when Lindsay and I woke up to an empty tent, we went outside to see where everyone was. We found them closer to the water, and grabbed some blankets and our Bibles and headed out there. Let me tell you, there is nothing like reading your Bible on the beach in the midst of some of your closest friends. Later that day we went into the little town-Carpenteria is so quaint and so interesting! I picked up something for Holly's birthday in a few weeks. But one of the coolest parts was the antique shops. I fell in love! There is just so much history in those places. It was so cool to see what people used to have.

I liked looking at the clothes, home decorations, and dishes. There were some cool signs and books and...well I could go on. But it was pretty much all cool! I never knew that I would like looking through those shops! That was a cool thing to learn. These are two of the pictures I took. The quality may not be best because I took them with my phone, but they still capture the really cool items we found. The whole town was cool, but this was the day I started feeling sick so I went back to the campsite with some of the girls. That night we at dinner and talked with everyone for a while and then just came back. It was a great way to spend the weekend! Well that's about it for now :) Have a great day!

Well, today is the last day of my second week of my second year of college. Wow! It's already been pretty busy. This semester is going to be tough but so far it's still been really good. I officially changed to a Liberal Studies major with a Teacher Education emphasis. I had to do that when I first came to the LA area (a weekish before school started) and as a result, all of my classes but one changed. I am learning so much already that I can't believe it's only been two weeks. Many of my classes are related to each other, and it is interesting to see all the theories and studies there are about the way children develop. So far I think that my favorite class will be Child and Adolescent Development. It has already taught me sooo much! It requires a lot of work, but there is so much to learn and it's very insightful so I have enjoyed doing the homework (so far, at least).

It's been great being back on campus again, in the best dorm Cdub! I am rooming with the same awesome girl, Sarah. We are on the second floor this year, so we are adjusting to having people above us. It's been really good so far! Also, I'm really enjoying meeting all the girls on my wing. I didn't know most of them last year, and many of them I did not even know who they were. It will be fun to get to know them all better! I am also loving meeting all the freshman/transfers. They are so awesome and it has been awesome meeting so many people and seeing their love for the Lord.

God is already stretching me and teaching me things. There are things that I'm learning right now that I was not really planning on learning, because they are some hard lessons. I really have to learn to obey Him and walk by faith. Learning patience is going to be really hard, but I know that it will be really worth the hard parts, because I will come out of it more like Christ. It's not necessarily comfortable but I can finally say that I'm learning to trust His will. Even though it may be hard right now I know He is refining me and really has my best interest in mind, when I really don't. I know what I want, and He knows what I need. I'm so very thankful that I have God, who knows me so well, in control of my life and always doing what is best for me!
Right now I am going through Psalms again and studying the character of God-it is so good to look see this! Knowing His character and how He acts toward the righteous have been really helpful in my walk with Him. I am looking forward to whatever else he will teach me this year. I know how much I changed last year, and I hope that this year will be much like that!