Purity

Throughout my life, something that has been a difficult obstacle with my walk with Christ has been trying to be pure. According to dictionary.com, pure means free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminatingkind; free from extraneous matter. I have struggled throughout my whole life to live for God with a pure heart. I won't go into details but there have been a number of things during my life that have caused me to not be pure. As I look back though, I have learned a lot and I am trying to live a more Godly life in my actions. 
I want to now share a couple verses that have been applicable and helpful through my walk to a more pure lifestyle and also some verses that challenge me as a Christian.


Philippians 1:9-11
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.

Matthew 5:8
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Proverbs 16:2
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the LORD weighs the spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Lord, help me to become pure. 

Love

I heard a quote once that went something along the lines of, "So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day…" and I believe that it came from the Notebook and oddly enough I remember it so well because this has been something that I am trying to work on every single day. If you want someone bad, which I have someone in mind, then it is something that you truly are going to have to work at. It is something that is not going to be perfect and you can't expect it to be. Something I often lean on as encouragement comes from the Bible. It is the passage of Corinthians 13:4 which says,"⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." This verse is so encouraging because it give you an idea of what Love is supposed to look like. It gives you an idea of how we are supposed to be living out love. Although it may seem unachievable, I want to remind you that everything is possible through Christ. 

Spain brings new challenges

If you didn't already know or you couldn't tell by the title... I'm in Spain. Just a little bit of background before I really get into things... I am here in Spain (Madrid to be more specific) to learn Spanish! I am here through Taylor University and I am taking classes during the day and relaxing on the weekends. I was presented the opportunity to come over here in late spring and I figured there could be no possible better way to learn Spanish, than to be in Spain! Anyways, this blog entry is going to focus more on the difficulties and joys that I have endured while being in Spain.
First, I want to talk about how difficult it was for me to leave me girlfriend and my friends and my family from back home. It was so difficult... and believe it or not, I cried as I was walking to the gates for my departure flight. It was difficult time for me because I was so comfortable working, hanging out with my girlfriend, seeing friends occasionally and hanging out with my family. But during this difficult time of not wanting to leave the country, I was presented with the passage of Isaiah 41:10, which says," Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Talk about an overwhelming feeling when I arrived in Barcelona the first day and not a single person I came into contact with spoke english. I was a nervous wreck but what this verse taught me was that I do not need to be anxious because the Lord is right there beside me in every single thing that I do and every interaction I have with someone that is probably not going to understand me. When I read this verse I became more confident in the plans that the Lord had in store for me. (For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29: 11-13)

Second, I want to talk about the communication and the worry that took over me that I was not going to be able to interact with my loved ones from back home. I was slightly a mess because I didn't want to go to a foreign county and not be able to interact with my girlfriend or my family for a whole month! This scared me so much because I rely on them so much but the God reminded me once again that he is in control. Matthew 6:25-27  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" This verse hit me really hard and taught me some serious lessons. I need to give 100% of my trust to the Lord and I need to be able to become completely obedient to him. This life isn't worth spending worried about what is to come next. I soon realized on my trip that it wasn't worth it to become worried about if I was going to be able to text or to Skype or to blog! I should be confident that the Lord will provide for me and he has done way more than that on this trip! 

I am so blessed to be able to be spending my time overseas and I can promise you that if anything comes up that I will be seeking the Bible and I will be seeking the Lord for guidance. 

JAB 


wanted to add this too: http://thesavoia.com/2011/11/10/the-greatest-speech-ever-made/

Inspiration Kid

I saw a video the other day and lets just put it this way. . . it inspired me. It took my heart and just twisted it in all different directions. The story is about a little boy by the name of Josiah Viera. Josiah is not your average kid though, he is unique in more way than one. He was born with a genetic disease called Progeria. This disease makes you "prematurely old". The story of his life is so incredible and it just really got me thinking. 
I was trying to figure out how this little kid is going through so much and yet has such an awesome attitude. He does what he loves and he always gives such a great attitude. (Phil. 2:14) Something that I took from Josiah's life is that there is more to life than just the outside things going on with us. This life is for God. Life is a gift and if you are reading this then you were given the gift of life through God. Sometimes we might look at our outward appearance and think that we aren't good enough but in reality we are here for a larger reason. This seems like a very elementary concept but I think it is something that is often over looked. We need to be able to take what we are given and rejoice in the Lord through it. 
Recently I ad to undergo surgery and I kept asking myself "why is this happening to me?" "what does my future look like after this?" but you know what? Life is more than that. I realized that I need to be able to be content with the plans that God has for me. I need to realize that this is just making for my story. No matter what I think is going wrong in my life, I need to remind myself that I can get through it all with the faith in God. I am able to do all things through Christ who gives me strength. (Phil. 4:13) 
I am very confident that Josiah's story has impacted many different people in many different ways but I know for a fact that it has all been for positive. It makes me a laugh a little bit how I can let something so little ruin my hour or my day but it is noting in comparison to what Josiah is going through and look at how he lives out his day. I need to humble myself into the person that God wants to mold me. 


Alright, I admit... this blog wasn't very organized at all and honestly didn't take much effort but I feel as though this is something to learn from. Something that might not be from a Christian perspective but something that is inspiring. Take it how you want it, and watch the video below. 










http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/news/story?id=5781989

Start of Something New

I just thought that I would start off with a little intro blog about what is going on in my life and also what I am going to be blogging about. So here goes nothing.... Life right now is awesome. I am in college at Taylor University and I have an awesome family, gf, friends and just environment to be around. Although life is so great there is something that I've been longing for and striving for these past couple of years and especially this last summer and this current school year and that is a more in depth with Jesus Christ. I am trying harder and harder every single day to attempt at improving my relationship with Him while handling everything else that is going on. So I guess what I am trying to say is that this blog is mainly going to be about the relationship I am trying to improve on with Jesus and also the people around me that are helping through this time. Ah! My thoughts are all over the place right now but I also wanted to say that I will also be blogging my thoughts about random TU chapels. I think that the chapels that I attend will be a great chance to get insight about the Lord and to also just hear something new. I'm excited to get to blog about those chapels and to really just use those as a tool to furthering and strengthening my faith. Well, I've about run out of things to mention right now but I think that this will be a good opener for my blog. Excited for chapel tomorrow. Hope to learn something new!