Deity, not diety (unless you're on the Taco Bell menu)

Well, it's a new Sunday morning, and I'm loving it this morning because a cold front it officially on it's little way to College Station, Texas! Although Texas is my favorite place in the whole wide world, it is stinkin' hot here! '

This morning I've been thinking about the divine nature of God, his deity: love and righteousness. He is so good. Without the cross, we would have a much different concept of God's love because of His wrath, which is actually really sad. Sad in that I don't get the severe punishment that I deserve when I sin against an infinitely Holy God, because Jesus did it for me. How could a man allow every bit of sin to enter himself, for my sake? And for yours? I think for a really long time I viewed the cross as a really physically painful situation: the whips, the thorny crown, the heavy wooden cross He had to carry, the nails that struck each wrist, the bloody sweat that seeped from His pores because he was undergoing so much physical pain... etc. What about the fact that our Jesus endured the divine wrath for all that His people ought to have suffered, and He had to be seen before the Creator of the Universe, HIS DAD, with this dirty, ugly, nasty, grotesque FILTH, that was caused not by He, but by me. My Jesus cared enough about me, and you and everyone, that He not only died for us, because that would be empty. People die for people all the time. He didn't just die.. he endured divine wrath. We nailed Him to that cross. That is love. Even worship isn't enough for what He endured on the cross. Worship is honestly the least we can do. The very least!

So at some point in time, we have all been on some type of diet, correct? For me as a runner, I had certain foods I could eat, some that I couldn't but did anyway. Starting a diet is when we make the decision to restrict certain foods from entering our mouth. It's essential eating less for the sake of health. Taco Bell. Taco Bell claims that they have a diet menu. That is about as bogus as a doctor prescribing cotton candy to a diabetic. The point I'm trying to make here is that our relationship with the Lord should never be a diet. We should never limit His presence in our lives. We should be so overly-morbidly-ridiculously obese when is comes to our relationship with the Lord! He should fill us and consume us until we can't fit any more of Him in! His divine nature should have us absorbing every bit of Him that we can. He is so worthy of all of our everything. There is nothing of ours that He is not worthy of.

Galaxies to Microbes (part 2)

So in this past year I have taken Chemistry, Microbiology and Anatomy and Physiology (science, science, science!). These classes focus more on what's happening on a microscopic level, which is a little harder to grasp. I am a visual learner so when someone's talking to me about something I can't see/touch I have a really hard time. I'm going to do my best to convey this material in a very simple manner. Bare with me. Also, this is not supposed to seem like a science lesson. I just want to show how amazing our bodies are.

First I'll start with the basic structural and functional unit of all living organisms: cells. A human cell contains organelles that allow our bodies to "work". The cell contains the nucleus (which holds all genetic material), mitochondria (energy storehouse), cilia/flagella (movement), and lots of other structures but one more that I'd like to touch on are lysosomes. These structures are absolutely amazing because without them, all of the other organelles would be completely useless. Lysosomes digest foreign bodies, so when things that shouldn't be in the cell are in the cell, shazaam!

There are several systems in the body which all work together, including digestive, nervous, reproductive...etc. We don't realize that our bodies are doing all sorts of crazy things right now. If you have eaten today, our body is breaking every bit of that down (unless you ate lettuce, hah), and separating what needs to be used and what needs to leave the body. Our nervous system allows us to move. You're probably thinking "um no, actually skeletal muscles are what allow us to move.." That's what I thought too, but without the nervous system, we couldn't tell our skeletal muscles to work. The nervous system allows us to receive and perceive information.

My favorite is the endocrine system. Our body secretes so many hormones that regulate homeostasis in the body. We have adrenal glands, which produce hormones regulating stress. We have a pineal gland which secretes melatonin, which allows us to sleep at night. It is automatically, automatically!, secreted when it starts getting dark outside. How crazy is that? We don't even control these things! We also have a pancreas. This is organ is so important for maintaining the blood's sugar level. When we consume too much sugar, the body secretes insulin to bring the glucose levels back to normal, (this is how people are diagnosed with diabetes), and when the body's glucose levels are too low, the pancreas secretes glucagon, which builds on glycagon to produce glucose. Most of us probably didn't even know all of this was going on in our bodies because we aren't the ones controlling it. Let's just think for a second here.. There is so much more going on in our bodies than this, but I don't want to fill you with all kinds of facts. The bottom line is that the way our bodies work is amazing. This is not something that was just coincidence. Think about it: We don't have to tell our heart when to beat, nervous system when to store material, senses when to smell, ears when to hear, eyes when to see, bodies when to produce more white blood cells to fight infections, platelets to coagulate and clog leaks in vessels..etc, etc, etc, etc.

The Lord has taken care of all of these things for us :) I am so, so thankful for that because I am very forgetful and would probably forget to tell my heart to beat 60 times a minute.

So I realize that this blog has nothing to do with microbes. That's okay. I still like the title and I think you understand the overall message I'm trying to convey.. I started this blog originally by telling about the structure of bacteria, protozoa and viruses but I realized that I was sitting in class when I was reading it so I started over.

God is creative, and perfect, and I just think He's so awesome for the way He made us. Everything about our bodies point to a Creator! That's excluding the fact that morality is innate (another blog). This has nothing to do with our thought process or anything that sociologists try to trip us up on. Sidenote: I once had a sociology professor tell me that she let her little boy wear pink dresses because he liked them. um, I'm sorry.. WHAT???

The Lord is good and gracious, and again, so creative! If you think I'm a nerd after this blog, well I am. This stuff fascinates me, and I hope you find it just as fascinating. Have a happy day :)

Galaxies to Microbes (part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TaLD6nwKGg

This song describes how creative our God is. Please, please listen to the words of this song because they are so true. The more science classes I take, the more I appreciate the beauty of our Creator. In astronomy we talked about the size of the universe, which astronomers estimated to be about 156 billion, yes billion, lightyears wide. Just to put that into perspective, one light year is
9.4605284 × 10¹² kilometers, and for those of you like me who are bad with conversions, the sun is 150 million kilometers away from the earth (which we all know is a really huge distance). Wow.

Now let's talk about our galaxy. Because we live in the interstellar clouds of the Milky Way galaxy (our galaxy), we don't know any exact details about the number of stars, size, etc.. however, since our galaxy is said to look similar to the Andromeda galaxy, we use that as our standard, which we estimate to contain about 200 million stars. Let me remind you that God "calls each of them by name" (Psalm 147:4). Wow... WOW! This gives me goosemountains.

Let's take it to an even smaller scale, our solar system. Everything about our solar system points to a creator and designer, which is why it is absolutely appalling to hear scientists say "we have no idea why this is, but it is!". In a loving kind of way, I want to shake them a little.. sometimes a lot. Anyhow, I'm getting off subject here.. Okay so our planet is perfect in its sustainability for life. Perfect. We are close enough to the sun that we can keep heated, but far enough so we don't burn up. The temperature on mars (our neighboring planet further from the sun) is about -225 degrees Fahrenheit (during the night). The temperature on Venus (our neighboring planet closer to the sun) is about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. We are right in the middle, and although this Texas heat is killing me, life is suitable here. Wow.

So looking at things on an even smaller scale, earth has both day and night. The earth is spinning at a tilt of 23.45 degrees which allows us to have seasons. We all know about the significance of the sun (essential for our survival on so many levels..) but what would happen if we didn't have a moon (probably something we've never really thought about). Gravitational force is the universal attraction between all matter. It is what holds everything together (including astronomical bodies). The moon "tugs" on all nearby things, contributing to this gravitational force. The oceans that the moon is closest to tug in such a way that there is a balanced upward force from the earth and downward force from the moon. Wow.

If all of these things aren't pointing to a Creator, then I'm not real sure we can be friends because it is only realistic to agree that all of this was created by a Designer. This is only on a macroscopic level, and I haven't even hit the surface with these facts. There is so so so so so much more that would just completely blow us away about the creativity in our Designer! Just these few points that I have made show how everything about our solar system is amazing, and perfectly sustainable for life. Everything about our existence was intentional and set into motion by a Creator, and the coolest thing ever (seriously) is that we get to have a relationship with Him. Wow.

I am going to talk about the earth on a microscopic level in the next blog, but would like to forewarn you that I tend to be a huge nerdo when talking about microbial species and how they point to a Creator.

Praise the Lord today for giving us such a beautiful place to live, although this is only temporary. I can't even imagine what heaven is going to be like.. WHOOOOOOP! Lets give God praise today for all that he created!

Your way or Yahweh?

Whew! I woke up with so much joy today! I absolutely love sweet mornings like these.

This morning I have been thinking about God's character and attributes. God is so good to us. He is the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is our Healer and Restorer. He is our Defender. He is our Savior. He is our BFF4L (seriously though). He is our Rock and our Foundation. He is our Advocate. He is our Daddy (not just dad, but daddy). He is our Comforter in troubled times. How can we, after knowing all of this, continue to live like He is not any of these?

Romans 12: 2 says: "Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds"
Um, you mean to tell me that I shouldn't look like the world? YEP! You mean to tell me I'll stick out like a sore thumb? YEP!

Friends, when we left our old life (Christ-less life), we were given a new body, a new heart, a new mind, and a new freedom. We were also commanded to live a life different from what our culture tells us. We left all addiction (whether it be intoxication, illegal drugs, premarital sex, gossip, lust, money... etc.) behind. Society feeds these things, the world feeds these things, but we have been SET FREE FROM ALL ADDICTION! When Christ transformed our lives, he set us free from these things, and now we live in such a way that brings His name honor! We are without excuse now when we live this lifestyle. It is not God-honoring to live this way, but it is so much easier, right?

Yahweh is another way of saying LORD. This is a personal way of referring to God. For instance, if someone were to say "Courtney is a daughter" , then that would be impersonal. But if someone were to say "Courtney Ann is my daughter", this would be personal. I am being claimed by someone. Yahweh is our way of claiming the Lord as ours. He is my God, not just a God, but The God of my life.

We are given a choice. Are we going to conform to the world, or are we going to follow Yahweh? It is not easy. The biggest misconception is that when we follow Christ, everything is perfect.. the opposite is true in fact. When we follow Christ, we will be persecuted, ridiculed and made fun of by pretty much everyone. But living a life this way is better than living without Christ in our lives. He will fill every void in our lives when we choose to follow him, even if we stick out like sore thumbs (I love that phrase-ha!).

Let's remember his attributes today. There is no temptation that is too strong and there is no addiction that is too great. Yahweh is so much better than your (and my) way.

Humble Humblers

This year our college class at H(umble)AFBC went to Glorieta, NM for collegiate week (a huge conference with awesome worship leaders and speakers). During free time in Glorieta we play, (and dominate) the sports at Glorieta. Well, the people from last year apparently knew and remembered our matching shirts from last year, or maybe they just remembered that we destroyed them in football, or maybe this was totally unintentional and I'd like to think that people were jealous of our mad skills, but a team from Arkansas made shirts that said "Humble Humblers".

This is how we should be. Humble. When I was reading from Matthew this morning, I started thinking about this concept. The main focus of the scripture I read this morning was on humility.

1. Matthew 6:1-4
Jesus is telling us that we need to give to the needy, but that when we give to do it in secret. As the end of verse 4 says, "then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you". Jesus is saying that public acts are great, in fact he commands us to give and to do good deeds. Remember, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead" James 2:26

2. Matthew 6:5-13
Jesus is saying that we should pray in our room with the door closed rather than standing openly in the church or on the street corner. The reason that Jesus is saying this is not to condemn public prayer, for He Himself prayed publicly, but back in the day Jews would stop everything they were doing to pray and He was concerned that one's internal motivation would be the central concern. By shutting the door, the person (or group) would be more focused exclusively on God.

3. Matthew 6: 16-18
Jesus is talking about how important it is to fast, but to do it with the right motives. He says that Christians need to wash the ashes off of our faces when we are fasting so our intentions aren't to publicize our physical hardships. Rather, we are to wash our faces so our motives are not corrupt.

These three chunks of scripture are scary to me. I had to really think about these and make sure my intentions are none other than to please and praise the Lord through my actions. I think we all struggle with humility, and will continue to struggle with it for the rest of our lives. This is why the Lords advice is to almost hide our actions so we aren't tempted to boast, or perform these acts for selfish reasons. Let's be the Humble Humblers (or College Stationers or wherever-you-are'rs)!

Happy day :)

Mourning to Morning

Psalm 30:5 "...weeping may last through the night but rejoice comes in the morning"

There is something about the morning that is just so peachy! I don't know if it's the fresh feeling after the exhaustion I was experiencing the night before when I plopped my head on my "squishy" (my pillow); or if it's the fresh hazelnut coffee aroma that tickles my nose; or if it's the fact that I have so much to be thankful for and this is the time that the Lord brings all of it to mind- when I have a clear mind; or maybe it's that the Lord gives me a peace and joy that surpasses all understanding; or maybe it's the combination of all four.

Everyone has sad days. Some people might have sad moments every day. Some people might be so broken that all day every day is a sad day. The lie from the enemy is that we have to sulk in our sorrows because we are doomed. That's a bunch of hogwash..

Just like Psalm 30:5 says: our mourning lasts through the night. The night is always the worst for hurting people. I relate this to when I am sick with strep throat. For some reason, my body is more susceptible than most to this infection. Since I've had it so many times, I am very good at detecting the onset of the infection, and by very good, I mean that I have mastered this skill. When I'm sick, nights are awful. Right before I go to bed, I'll have the worst body aches, the sorest throat, and the highest temperature. There is just something about the night that stinks.

We might be emotionally ill. Or maybe physically ill. But GOD IS GREATER! Morning is so much greater than mourning. We should be overflowing with joy this morning, and immersing ourselves in scripture about God's love and His nearness to us when we are burdened or heavy laden. He is our defender when we are weak. His love surpasses all understanding, and he wants his children to be well! He doesn't like to see us sad. When we abide in him, he will abide in us (John 15:7). When this is done, he will give us 24 hour mornings (don't confuse this with me saying that he won't allow suffering and pain-- I am simply just saying that he will fill that void in our lives, whatever that may be).

The truth is that God is our Comforter and it is only lies from the enemy that we should mope and sulk. Let's let him fill our heart and lives with him so we can have abundant and overflowing joy! This is so much more fulfilling and long-lasting (unlike Dentyne)! This is a HAPPY day! :)

Our eyes are fixed, but are they focused?

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Today I woke up a little discouraged. I called a dear friend of mine to ask for some uplifting, and she reminded me that we shouldn't worry, and we should not be dismayed... EVER! If God is the Ruler, Controller and Sustainer of my life, then whom shall I fear, and what shall burden me or leave me feeling dismayed (Isaiah 41:10)? I think the real issue is lack of trust. Is God's plan for me really better, or can I do a better job controlling my life? Some key issues that have caused me to feel this way is not being able to see the "big picture" for my life. I am graduating in December, with a degree in something I don't even want to use, and do not know where the Lord is directing me. I have applied to nursing school, but the chances of me actually getting in are so slim! What in the world am I going to do if I don't get in? Is God calling me to go overseas for a semester and share the gospel with an unreached people group? Or maybe He just wants me to stay here and share for now.

That's the beauty of our Lord. He knows what's best for us, so as long as we are praying in total abandonment to self and complete surrender to Him, He will guide our every step! How comforting is that? That the Creator of Life would not just point in the direction that we need to go, but actually carry us and place us exactly where we need to be.

After spending the summer working in an eyecare clinic, I learned a lot about the human eye. The first thing we'd ask the patient was if it'd be okay for us to dilate their pupils. The reason for this procedure is so the doctor can thoroughly examine the retina (to rule out glaucoma, cataracts.. etc) because when the radial muscle contracts, the pupil dilates and the posterior portion of the eye is more easily seen and examined (nerd alert). After dilation, everything up-close that the patient fixes their eyes on is blurry, even when they squint in attempt to focus on the object. This procedure reminds me of my relationship with the Lord. I am fixing my eyes on Him, but am I fully focused on Him? Or am I just looking in His general direction, but controlling other parts of my life? Friends, He is WORTHY of both our fixation and focus!

It is not easy to let the Lord fully control our lives; not for me at least. But how much more fulfilling life is when He is directing us and molding us into who He desires for us to be. It makes things much more complicating when two people are driving the same car. It's like driver's ed. Every stinkin' time I'd stop at the red light, I waited until the last minute to brake, so what did this mean for me? My little co-captain would SLAM on the breaks, because ultimately he is a much more experienced professional at what he does and knows how to judge the situation better than I. If I had just listened to him in the first place, it would have saved me from embarrassment and having to repeat the course.

The Lord is so, SO good and so worthy of every bit of our attention. He is the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow, so instead of sulking in our sorrows let's focus our attention on The One and Only.