1 year?!?!?

Well folks, we've made it to our first real anniversary (no more "monthiversaries") - here are some pictures from the evening. We went out to dinner, then walked around the battery for a bit, before going to the grocery store and buying some of the most amazing dessert things ever and making our creation and watching part of Shrek 2. Good times....great company....cheers for a year!

John Reeves is the man.

Here is a small (and by small, I mean kinda long) paraphrase from John Reeves sermon he gave at Radius Church last week (www.radiuschurch.org - go to downloads and "where we're going in 2007") - along with some of my thoughts, some paraphrased scripture, etc....I was just typing some things as I listened online...so excuse the jumping around. I just thought it was some good stuff, and wanted to actively listen, so wrote out some of his points.

"people have to die for things to change..."

Think about it:
Jesus
Gandhi
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We need to have something to die for.

God wants us to stir up a revolution. We need to rebel. The gospels are revolutionary. Jesus changes the entire world.

The closure of the last speech MLK gives in Memphis:

"Like anybody, I'd like to live a long life. Longevity has its place but I'm not concerned about that now, I just want to do God's will. He allowed me to go up to the mountain and I looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people WILL get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man, my eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord."

He was assassinated the next night. He predicts in some senses his own death, but he's saying to everybody, if you have a cause, if you're in the middle of a revolution, 'my death may be necessary, and I'm good with that.'

Here in the US we have no idea anymore what it means to die for anything. As followers of Jesus, we are confused. Rarely does it feel like we're on a mission that would be worth our life.

Jesus died for His cause. Rose from the dead and went to Heaven. When the leader (Jesus) disappears though, will the followers fully embrace Christ?? In Acts we see a group of young revolutionaries live it out and pay with their blood. In Acts 4 we see Peter 'get it.' Peter, FULL of the holy spirit let loose. Peter and John are standing there in front of all of the big-wigs confident and so sure of themselves that the onlookers just stare at them and have nothing to say against it.

What in churches in America would cause a revolution?? That people would look at us and say that we are companions of Jesus - that we are awkwardly in love with God - that we've got some kind of life within us that they cannot define. Not that we're "christians" or part of the "christian community" but that we are companions with Jesus and that we really seem to know God.

Further along in Acts chapter 4....

As soon as Peter and John were let go (after they were jailed for their comments) they went to their friends and told them what the High Priests and religious leaders had said, and hearing the report they lifted their voices in harmony in prayer. They immediately worship God in the middle of suffering because there is a revolution at hand. They celebrate revolution.
Their prayer:

"Strong God, you made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. By the holy spirit you spoke through the mouth of your servant David...........give your servants fearless confidence....give us courage...."

Real people were in love with God and executed this love in the world. Others embraced it, and the whole world began to change.

The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and YIELDED to God. In reality, very few Christians in this country YIELD to the Holy Spirit, or give themselves over. A fisherman yielded to the spirit of God and became a REVOLUTIONARY. St. Peter is known by everybody around the world - 10 years after this scripture, he was hung upside down, and glad to do it - because he yielded. Let the Spirit transform you.

The people of Acts - the early church - are overwhelmed with the responsibility to "go." To be outside of themselves, to the point where when they pray they are asking the soveriegn God to give them courage. They were regular people that thought their needed to be a revolution for God.

Let God permeate who you are. Yield to the Holy Spirit and beg Him to give you courage.

beautiful.

Mindy Smith:

Los Angeles Bound...

I will be spending a week in sunny California in March for my spring break, visiting my best friend Erin. You could say I'm a just little bit excited. :-D

just ask.

something to chew on:

"Autonomous individualism has divorced sin from the caring community. Absolute relativism has regarded moral values as so ambiguous that there is no measuring rod against which to assess anything as sin. Thus modernity...has presumed to do away with confession, and has in fact made confession an embarassment to the accomodating church of modernity."
-A. Mohler

So, God is awesome. Seriously. I got into church yesterday morning, and really prayed that God would do something deep. That I wouldn't just sit there and listen to the sermon and think it was good, sing a little more and leave. When I walked in, I wasn't really in the mood to be in church for some reason, so when I prayed this, I really was praying for open ears and even more so, a heart that would be open enough to be stirred.

I had no idea what the sermon was going to be about - but God did just what I asked. I wept inside during parts of his sermon, and tried to hold back the tears from falling down my cheeks. I was able to keep them in for a little while, but then the flood gates seemed to open. My insides were so broken that I was crumbling inside, and the tears began to fall without cease. God was shaking my core with just a few sentences that Buster was saying.

He spoke on two things that distinguishes believers, from a passage in Colossians (chapter 1): having faith in the person and work of Christ; and love for all the saints.

He mentioned some things that ripped me apart inside because of the overwhelming amount of love for a friend that He has put in my heart. The tears began to fall and wouldn't stop. Have you ever loved someone so much that you have been that broken for them? It is sincere. It hurts. It makes your soul ache and long for healing. Tears fall as an overflow of what you are experiencing on the inside that is unexplainable. It longs for truth to be revealed, it knocks the breath out of your lungs, it is humbling to think that you could ever love someone so much that you could feel so much hurt inside for them. It feels desperate.

Jesus Christ can shake your soul. He can give you more love in your heart than you ever imagined your heart could hold - He is grace - He is depth.

God certainly answered my prayer and unquestionably went deeper than simple words from an ordinary man (my preacher) could have ever gone. He penetrated the deepest of deep and for that I am thankful. Prayer is powerful. I don't seem to do enough of it though, for some reason.

Get on your knees. Christ will show Himself to you if you honestly and desperately seek. All you have to do is ask.

So, if you saw me at the end of church and it looked like I had just cried my eyes out...it's because I had. Thank you Jesus for love so deep it hurts.

oh the alma mater....

Clemson University: college life at its finest.

a few things

Ellen Degeneres makes me smile. Seriously - I have a hard time watching her without just smiling from ear to ear several times throughout the duration of her show. Gotta love it. In fact, I'm watching it as I type and she just made me chuckle out loud. (OK - that's twice I've laughed out loud in my room alone).

Something I've learned this week: dry cleaning a comforter is kinda expensive, well, for a girl who has no income.

It should be a fabulous weekend - got lots of things to do including but not limited to: ice skating, shopping, bocci ball and horseshoes at the beach, going to a bar to watch the clemson basketball game, church, spoogy's for lunch, watching da' bears game at nate's with my buddies, and so on and so forth. Not to mention it's supposed to be in the 70's and 80's this weekend, there is no school on Monday, and Mark is coming.

I'm training for a half-marathon, and I've got a pretty painful left tibialis anterior - not conducive for running...or walking for that matter. Let's hope that it starts feeling better in the next few days so I can resume my training.

Ellen just made me laugh again.

Here are 2 studs in my life on top of the roof fixin' things like guys do:

I'm bringin' sexy back.

Hey guys, I got a new tatoo. Whatcha think??? Pretty hot, huh? haha.

love at first sound.

I am pretty much in love with this man.

Amos Lee

tonight

life....it's so hard to understand and even harder to explain sometimes. my heart is going nuts...

reality hits hard sometimes. and sometimes even makes you cry.