GREEN-LIGHT revolution

I apologize for not posting earlier this week. As some of you know, I work for Newfrontiers USA and we've been very busy this week getting ready for our Equipped for Mission conference!

This conference is my favorite of all the ones we have each year and I'll tell you why....

This is our annual leadership conference, which means 95% of the people attending the conference are leaders in their local church in some capacity or another. This gives everything a different feel and a different perspective that I love seeing. There's something about seeing a room of 300 leaders worshiping God together that gives me goosebumps. I feel my gaze being lifted off of my own circumstances and issues when I hear the testimonies and hopes of what God is doing in our family of churches all over the country. I feel challenged and, oftentimes convicted of petty navel-gazing, or prideful withholding of the gifts God has put in me as I watch leaders ministering to other leaders and hear their passionate vision of the Kingdom of God being established in their home towns and around the world.

I've been in the church all my life. I've been a Christian for 28 years (holy moly!). I've been entrusted with various responsibilities - many times in leadership capacities of some kind - throughout the past 20-ish years. I never want to get to a point in my life where I think I've learned it all, or know everything that God is doing in and around me. I want to continue to run hard after God and everything that He has for me. These leaders that I'm about to spend the next 3 days with are a very real inspiration to me. I feel myself beginning to tear up as I think about how grateful I am to have such amazing and godly men & women to follow.

How can we ever think we can successfully walk this life alone? Thank you, God, for these leaders you've put into place (Romans 13:1)!

(I'm hoping to get to post more during the conference this week - if I have time and internet connection.)

Going Green,
Samantha

I have a confession... I’m obsessed with the full moon. Every time I see it, I’m overwhelmed by it’s quiet and magnificent beauty. Before you start becoming concerned, don’t worry...I will not be blogging about werewolves in this post, despite their immense popularity in pop culture. ;) Instead I wanted to share a story about how this obsession started.

A few years ago, I was hanging out with some friends and I felt God prompting me to leave the group and go outside. So, I quietly slipped out onto a balcony where I was alone. For a while I was wondering why God had led me away from my friends to this empty balcony, and then I looked up and saw the fullest moon I have ever laid eyes on! I was overwhelmed. Immediately, Psalm 8:3-5 came to my mind...

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

While staring up at that magnificent full moon, I prayed this Psalm back to God and He simply whispered to me, “I love you more.” I couldn’t help but gaze up at that moon in awe. I was left speechless thinking about how amazing it is that God who created the glorious moon in such a special and marvelous way loves ME! He loves me enough to send His ONLY son to die on that cross and bear the weight of all of my sins, so I can live a guilt-free and purposeful life here on this earth. He even loves me more than His glorious creations like the sun, moon and stars! What?! That was just too much for me to handle.

It’s been 2 years since I had this experience with my Father. Yes! I have forgotten about this awesome experience since then and I have even had some discouraging times. Still, God is so gracious to give me a reminder like the moon because every time I see it, I am overwhelmed. Each time, I remember just how much He loves me and just how undeserving I am of that love. Wow God, you’re so good!

I hope that you’re encouraged dear sisters and that you remember and are overwhelmed daily with just how much our Father loves us! Maybe you’ll even remember the depth of His love the next time you’re looking at a full moon. Who knows! :)

Going green,

Abby

Happy Monday!

Can’t believe it’s my turn to post again! It’s amazing how much has changed in such a small timespan. Guess what ladies?! I’ve moved back to Missouri and actually, I’ve been back for a month now! I guess you could say God has been doing some major prompting in the past few months. A long story short, I was here in Joplin for the tornado and realized that I really wanted to be here again, so I asked God to either give me a reason to stay in NH, or a reason to go back to Joplin. A few days later, I was given a reason to go, so here I am. Needless to say... I'm pretty excited! :D

Since moving back to Joplin, I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of “home”. For the majority of my life, I've lived in the same house in NH, so is that my home? Or is Joplin my home now? Does your home have to do with a location? People? Feelings? Where is my home? Maybe you’ve also pondered the same type of stuff before. I know that every time I start getting caught up with these thoughts, one word of encouragement always comes to mind. Just before I left NH for the first time, a friend of mine had a word for me saying, “As you leave your family, the places you’ve always known, maybe feel out of place or lonely remember to ABIDE IN JESUS. He is your home. He will always be you home.” Ok, maybe this doesn’t sound like such a revolutionary idea, but for me it was and continues to be.

The answer to my previous questions about home find their answer in Jesus. My home is with Him. In His presence. What a great reminder! Our home is with Jesus and it will be with Jesus for eternity! It doesn’t matter if I’m feeling lonely, or if I don’t know where exactly I belong, I’m ALWAYS home. I’ve probably quoted this Psalm before but I just can’t help but type it again...

You make known to me that path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasure forevermore.- Psalm 16:11.

My goal is to rest in this encouragement! No one knows what journey is set before us. Maybe some of us will live in the same town for the rest of our lives, and maybe others will travel the globe... Either way it doesn’t matter because if we have Jesus, we have our ETERNAL home that will NEVER change...experiencing fullness of joy in His presence and pleasures forevermore. Amen to that!

Going green,

Abby

Oh and PS...Congratulations to our very own Rebekah Kruvand who got engaged last week! We are all so thrilled for you Bek! God is good! :D

How many have I crushed on? Let me count the names.

Who here knows what I’m talking about? Sometimes I think I’m the only one, but I know I’m not. I’ve talked to too many of you and know I’m not alone. I know how us girls think.

It’s a common thing for girls to ask each other “what’s going on with that one guy?” or “what are you thinking as far as guys right now?” It’s an answer that I am always all the more ready and eager to give, to talk about, to giggle about.

But it profits me nothing! There are so many good guys in my life. I know we’re all in different stations and seasons, at different ages, in different parts of the country (or world!) but this applies, so stay with me! : ) Maybe there aren’t the awesome guys that I’m about to describe in your peripherals right now, but hang on, because they’re out there and they’re worth waiting for!

So I was saying: There are so many good guys around me. There are friends I’ve stayed in touch with from college, guys I go to church with, guys friends introduce me too – they are good! They are impressive. They are responsible and kind and courteous and helpful. I thank God for brothers like this!

With so many of them out there and polygamy not being an option, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t get to marry them all. So, instead of crushing on every single nice guy, I’m trying out some advice I received at a time I wasn’t willing to receive it…but it stuck in the back of my mind and now I’m sharing it with you. A wise friend told me to, “treat every guy you meet as your brother.” What good advice! I experience less anxiety and less self consciousness when I think of guys this way. I’m also less apt to have flirty, regret-it-later interactions with them if I treat them like a brother. In place of awkwardness is natural get-to-know-you interaction…which is good since I don’t want to marry a stranger anyway!

I used to look around and say, “Well, this is the best guy I’ve ever met. I guess I should go for this one?” No way! I’m confident that whether I’ve met this guy yet or not, everything will fall into place in perfect time. And he’ll be the one after me, not the other way around.

Going green!

-Andrea

So, I’ve never really been a huge Taylor Swift fanatic… but as I was driving home late Friday night, I was skipping through radio stations, and heard these few lines:

“Brace myself for a goodbye
Cause it's all I've ever known
When you took me by surprise
You said 'I'll never leave you alone”

I felt a familiar twinge when hearing those lyrics. I’m sure we’ve all had past crushes, relationships, friendships, or hopeful crushes that never ended the way we would have liked them to. “Goodbye” has been a really familiar vocabulary word for me. After a while, my heart began to expect an “ending” to always happen. When I think of past relationships that God’s saved me from, and who I could have been if left in sin, I can completely see God’s rescue. When it came to my relationship with my heavenly Lover, I carried that same expectation for a “goodbye” with me. There’s always been an ending to every other relationship, so surely this one is too good to be true….

But that’s what’s amazing to me, there never has to be any “goodbyes” with my King! I am His, and He is mine. Forever. We never have to end things, say goodbye, or leave each other. He has said to me, “I’ll never leave you alone”. I don’t have to brace myself to be hurt by Him. I don’t have to wall up my heart. There is freedom in His love for me. Pain, disappointment, regret don’t have to be “all I’ve ever known” anymore.

Here are some verses that God has really used in my life when I was broken, disappointed, deserted, and rejected:

“They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.” – Isaiah 61:12

“Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy…” – Isaiah 60:5

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” – Isaiah 58:8-9

“Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.” – Isaiah 52:2

The last verse God sent to me as my anthem when I was in bondage to a sinful relationship. He freed me from that relationship, thank you Lord(!), and rescued me from captivity. I love Him for freeing me and saving me from myself.

Rise up beautiful Daughters of Zion! He is our Lord. We are called Sought After.

Going green,
Miss.