Open The Eyes of My Heart Lord

This is my favorite worship song that we sing with the kids and the feeding center during Club de Niños. It's really pretty in Spanish. The little show offs belt it out. Its so cool. Just 20 kids, three adults, and a dirty run down classroom in the middle of the ghetto holding hands and singing really loud.


Abre mis ojos o Christo
Abre mis ojos te pido
Yo queiro verte
Yo quiero verte

Yo quiero ver te majesta
Briando a la luz de tu gloria
Danos poder y amor
Cantamos, Santo, Santo, Santo
Santo Santo Santo
Yo quiero verte


On a not so cool note, two of the little boys from my class showed up today with their heads shaved. I asked the mom why they did that and she said "Oh you know because of the lice."

Ok please pray that I don't get lice, holy crap. Seriously. Latin culture is super affectionate and the little kids are constantly hugging me and kissing me on the cheek. AHHHH. They greet here with one kiss on the cheek for craps sake. My boss and I are both going to get lice shampoo just in case.

The Key to the Missionaries Work

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ’All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .’ —Matthew 28:18-19

The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . ." He says, "Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me."

"Then the eleven disciples went . . . to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them" ( Matthew 28:16 ). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him myself. I must take time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, "Come to Me . . ."— that is the place to meet Jesus— "all you who labor and are heavy laden . . ." ( Matthew 11:28 )— and how many missionaries are! We completely dismiss these wonderful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

"Go therefore . . . ." To "go" simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say in this verse, "Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria," but, ". . . you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places]." He takes upon Himself the work of sending us.

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . ." ( John 15:7 )— that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

"None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus . . ." ( Acts 20:24 ). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life.

--Oswald Chambers

My 7 year old best friend teaching me about the Bible

Last night Carlitos asked me if he could tell me the Bible verse that he learned at school. It was awesome. "God is love."

1 John 4:8-21

God's Love and Ours
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Acts

I just got done reading Acts last night. It was kind of like a good book that I didn't want to end. Now I dont know what to do. When I was done I set my bible down and looked around kind of lost. To be honest, the Bible has never been that way for me. I would read maybe 2 or 3 times a week when I was home in my little comfort zone. Here, reading is just a part of my day as eating. I never used to understand people who just couldnt wait to read their Bible, I would have moments where it really stuck a nerve, but in general it was kind of a chore. Acts was seriously amazing. Reading this stuff and then thinking, wow, that actually happend. Paul was actually in jail for years for spreading the truth. He actually got flogged like 4 times in the same chapter. Woah...

Tonight at Bible study we had a pretty cool discussion on what we like about Jesus, how we see him, and how we have trouble seeing him. I said I have a hard time trusting and relying on him as my father. I like to take hold of some issues and try to fix things myself, which only ends up in a mess. It is pretty cool to trust in God through a time of trial and have it all make perfect sense later.

Justin said one time "God is going to go there no matter what and if I don't let him it's just going to be harder and take longer."

Happiness in Ignorance

I have a lot of friends who are not Christians. I have been asking myself the question lately: Why did I ever become a Christian? I had found some sort of happiness in my ignorance before I ever came to know Jesus, why was I seeking anything more?

I remember talking to Renee Mosely, wondering why she cared so much that I come to realize what Jesus did for me. I saw this thing that the Riverview community shared, and I wanted to be a part of it. I saw people trying to please God, instead of the world, and it made me wonder if there was more to life than my social ranking at Holt High School or how many goals I could score at my soccer games. I remember when I finally realized that I wasn't in control of my own life, that my life wasn't even my own. The main thing that lead me to realize that I needed to put my faith in Jesus Christ was one person really caring about my salvation.

But I am still struggling with this like crazy every single day.

This Moved Me

When you have realized that our position is nearly desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about. They offer explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it. they offer an explanation of how God can be this impersonal mind at the back of the Moral Law and yet also a Person. They tell you how the demands of this law, which you and I cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how God himself becomes a man to save man from the disapproval of God. It is an old story and if you want to go into it you will no doubt consult people who have more authority to talk about it than I have. All I am doing is to ask people to face the facts--to understand the questions which Christianity claims to answer. And they are very terrifying facts. I wish it was possible to say something more agreeable. But I must say what I think true. Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth--only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair. Most of us have got over the pre-war wishful thinking about international politics. It is time we did the same about religion.

Mere Christianity--C.S. Lewis

Romance at its best

I was reading through Ecclesiastes today while the little guy I babysit was taking a nap and I kept reading into Song of Songs. Wow.

Want to read something romantic?

3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
is my lover among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4 He has taken me to the banquet hall,
and his banner over me is love.

5 Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.

6 His left arm is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.

7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.

I found this carved into a rock near our cabin



My parents in Kentucky


I hate when I sit down to pray and I pray for everything I want. I often catch myself praying a wish list and I feel like a brat. The truth is though, God has answered so many of my prayers it's seriously ridiculous. I am so selfish, I am so undeserving. Whenever I truly hand something over to God and quit trying to make something happen myself, everything works out. Three of my friends and I have been reading this book called "When God Writes Your Love Story." It is really cheesy, but so encouraging. I think about it a lot. There is a part that talks about how even if you are dating a guy for 4 years, see desirable qualities in a guy, whatever, you still never know if he is going to be your husband until he IS your husband. Therefore, you should treat him like any other brother in Christ. You should think of him just like any other brother in Christ. That is one of the coolest mind sets about dating I have every heard... They are just like any other guy until they are your husband.

"Have you ever thought about that? Just ponder it for a moment. If God's plan and purpose for you is marriage, then that person you will one day marry is alive and wandering the earth. If that's true, if they are really out there somewhere, don't you wonder what they are doing?"

Yeah, and I sure as hell don't want to be with some other guy when my future husband is thinking this thought. It is hard to love someone you might not even know yet, but I would hope that they would do the same. Hmmm... My tangent is over. And I REALLY should be doing homework right now. Arg.

-Franny

Bible Study

This fall, God lead me to a bible study that is friggin sweet. I love it, and I can't imagine my life without this group of people in it.

Worst Blogger EVER (and ok with it)

I have not updated since October of 2005. Wow. I have Concluded that I am a horrible blogger. Oh well, I like to blog and I will keep this blog even if its just collecting dust. I don't know who will read this because I'm assuming that no one regularly checks a blog that hasn't been updated in over a year, and if you do that that's kind of creepy, but oh well we'll see.

I am now helping out with Riverview's High shcool ministry, formally know as BOB. I'm so excited that J.R. and the other leaders have given me the opportunity to work with these high schoolers. I know what its like to be a Christian in high school, and its not very fun. I look back on the way I behaved during my early years of high school (I became a Christian late junior year) and I can see that I totally lived my life for the world. I see my little sister who is now a sophomore and she is starting to make the same mistakes that I once made. It is hard, I just want to grab her face and scream "Learn from my mistakes! Don't make them yourself!" Not to say that I don't make mistakes anymore...

Some small thoughts on BIG lessons God has taught me:

*God has a plan.
About a year ago a series of events lead to the loss of a relationship and some very cherished friendships for me. At the time, I refused to trust that God had a reason for what happened to me. Now that everything is said and done, I can look back and see how much that relationship was bringing me down, and the people God has placed in my life as a result are absolutely amazing. I have grown so much through this whole experience and have learned to trust in God. I was an idiot for not trusting him in the first place.


*We are on this earth to spread God's word, NOT to party.

"I urge you, as ALIENS and STRANGERS in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." -1 Peter 2:11

There is so much more in store for us than this world. If I can't drink alcohol until I'm 21 (or when I'm in Paris for spring break muwahaha) or have sex until I'm married... THEN THAT'S OK! Although these things are gifts in their Godly context, there is so much more to our existence than this worldly stuff... We have HEAVEN ahead of us! What can beat that?

*Honesty wins.
I have friends that tell me "It doesn't matter how bad you mess up, you can ALWAYS come to me with anything." I have learned so much, especially this summer, that if you are honest about your sins, they are so much easier to get a hold of. Be transparent.

Ok cool. Here are some pics:

I miss Minneapolis



I love Devon and my little sister Liz (Who is bigger than me)



And my dog is cute.



Bye Bye.

LT

We just got home from LT and I definetly got what I prayed for. It was an amazing experience. I was almost disappointed to come home because I loved how intense the worship was and how easy it was to believe and worship when everyone around you feels the same way you do. It is hard to come home but then this is where God is needed the most. I met so many amazing people and made some really great friends. I can't wait to go back to BOB wednesday and see them all. Oh yeah If you are reading this and you don't already, you should go to BOB, it's gonna be awesome. I will write more later.

More excited than electricity!

LT is in 3 days and I am soo excited. I'm really looking to find God in a way I have not yet. Please pray for me and everyone going that we will have a fufilling experience. Thanks!

Thank you God

Audrey and I drove up to her cottage in pentwater Tuesday night just to get away for the day. We left after I got done babysitting at like 5ish, and we got there at like 8:00. There was some construction so it took a little longer. We went to bed all cozy, woke up the next morning at like 10:00 and spent the day swimming and laying in the sun on her private Lake Michigan beach. It was so relaxing.. I have been working way too much.

On the way home however, it was less relaxing. We were on 96 just short of Portland and we were in the left lane approaching this green ultima which was in the right lane. We were about to speed up and pass him but he swayed over to our lane, cutting us off and then swayed back over in the right lane. "What is this Ultima doing? Get away from this guy" I said to Audrey. So she passed him and got about 30 feet ahead of him. She had still left about 20 feet between her and the car in front of us. We entered a construction zone where all the cars in front of us were at a dead stop, lined up, we breaked to stop, slowing down to about 30mph and next thing we knew it the green ultima slammed into our back end going about 65. He bounced off of us twice because audrey had to break in order to not cause a pile up by hitting the bumper-to-bumper traffic ahead of us. I started screaming for her to get off the road and drive into the shoulder and so she did. The driver of the Ulitma followed us and instead of breaking to stop his car, he decided to use our car as a little stopping wall and hit our car AGAIN. It was not a fun experience
At least we know that the ford focus can take a hard hit and you will only get whiplash from it. Seriously though, Pay attention when you friggin drive otherwise you are not smart person and I don't like you.

Conversations with God

I recently started reading "Conversations with God- An uncommon dialouge" by Neale Donald Walsch. It is a big conversation between Neale Donald Walsch and God-- what God would say according to Neale. I'm not sure about it. Some of the answers do not go along with the Bible. I definitely think that it is cool to read things like this but I also think it is very good to hold the Bible above any other book and if they dont match, then to take what the Bible says because that is the word of God. Conversations with God more refers to a universal God, and he refers to Jesus as a saint, and also Budah as a saint. As a christian I believe that Jesus was the son of God sent by him to wash us of our sins and now there is the trinity God Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that there is no other God above him so that is why I dont agree with Neale refering to Budahh as a saint. The book has some really cool ideas, but some of them that I think are wrong. I definitely suggest this book to anyone though, if you are the kind of person who likes to think.

Neale Donald Walsch: How do you talk, and to whom?

GOD: I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, But who listens?

Neale Donald Walsch: Expand on that subject.

GOD: First let's exchange the word talk with the word communicate. It's a much better word, a much fuller, more accurate one. When we try to speak to each other Me to you, you to Me, we are immediately constricted by the unbelievable limitation of words. For this reason, I do not communicate by words alone. In face, rarely do I do so. My most common form of communication is through feeling.

Feeling is the language of the soul.

If you want to know what's true for you about somthing, look to how you're feeling about it.

Feelings are somtimes diffucult to discover--and often even more diffucult to acknowledge. Yet hidden in your deepest feelings is your highest truth.