God is...

Hey ladies! :) I hope you all are having a great week! So I'm posting the list on here that I read at group Tuesday night, but I also wanted to tell you all just how thankful and grateful I am for our homegroup! Every Tuesday night I leave humbled, encouraged, and in awe of God's goodness. I really look forward to seeing what all God has in store for us over the next year! :)

• God is…
  □ Our savior
  □ Worthy of worship
  □ Our judge
  □ An all-consuming fire
  □ Delighting in us
  □ Always present
  □ Our healer
  □ Our teacher
  □ Our source of satisfaction
  □ Our light
  □ Our fulfillment
  □ Perfect
  □ Our provider
  □ forgiving
  □ Our leader
  □ Our deliverer
  □ Our treasure
  □ In control
  □ Faithful
  □ Knowing of our needs
  □ Our giver
  □ The road less traveled
  □ Just
  □ Our rock
  □ Author and creator
  □ Source of our purity
  □ Powerful
  □ True to His word
  □ Our cleanser
  □ The One who keeps us from perishing
  □ The One to whom creation is obedient
  □ The forgiver of our sins
  □ Our physician
  □ Desiring mercy and steadfast love
  □ Our eyes
  □ Our sight
  □ Lord of the harvest
  □ Lord of heaven and earth
  □ The giver of authority
  □ The healer of our afflictions
  □ Our shepherd
  □ Mindful of us
  □ Desiring us to trust Him
  □ Our light in the darkness
  □ All-knowing
  □ Our source of light
  □ After our hearts, our minds, and our repentance
  □ A jealous God
  □ Gentle
  □ Gracious
  □ Our resting place
  □ Finding value in us
  □ Where our value is found
  □ Seeing past our pretences
  □ Knowing of where our heart is
  □ Sanctifying us
  □ The source of our wisdom and knowledge
  □ The giver and provider of our growth
  □ The One who give and takes away
  □ The One who gives us sight and open ears
  □ The One who gives us knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven
  □ Our root and our joy
  □ the One who receives the praise and glory for the fruit bore in our lives
  □ the sower of the good seed
  □ worth more than anything of this world
  □ our one pearl of great value
  □ the doer of mighty deeds
  □ compassionate
  □ the source of our nourishment
  □ sought through prayer
  □ the source of our peace
  □ the planter and the weeder
  □ the healer of our broken, evil, sinful hearts
  □ the one who gives the mute speech, the crippled health, the lame the ability to walk, and the blind sight
  □ worthy of faith and trust
  □ guarding our hearts and protecting our minds
  □ the satisfaction of our hunger
  □ our revelation
  □ after our souls
  □ what and who our minds should be set on
  □ eternal in a temporary world
  □ seeking us
  □ pursuing us
  □ chasing after us
  □ searching for us when we go astray
  □ our pursuer
  □ our rescuer
  □ rejoicing over us
  □ relenting and relentless
  □ the joiner of flesh
  □ the One to whom all things are possible
  □ generous
  □ good
  □ humble
  □ our King
  □ merciful
  □ hearing our cries and answering our prayers
  □ persistent
  □ not swayed by appearances
  □ powerful
  □ loving
  □ everlasting
  □ the One who bestows talents and gifts
  □ our everything
  □ the account settler
  □ full of life
  □ giver of eternal life and eternal punishment
  □ worshiped
  □ doubted
  □ always with us

Mirror of Thy Grace

Ever felt the stirring of the Holy Spirit? Not in a feel good way...rather a ugh, I suck and am so unworthy way? That was me today.

I've been struggling with major selfishness this week. I could blame it on Spring Break, but honestly, it's just who I am. I want things a certain way. If I want something, I don't stop it till I get it. Or the times when I don't get something I desire, I pout. I am a major pouter.

This is the natural Lindsay, gross, gritty, and wicked.

And then there's Grace.

"I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." ~ Hebrews 10:17

I was studying for group this week, and I should have seen this coming. Sitting outside in the morning sunrise, I opened my Bible to Psalm 23- "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." And there it was. The Spirit stirring. My haughty, know-it-all attitude deflated quick.

The LORD rapidly revealed how selfishness had crept into my world and dominated my thoughts, words, and actions. It was amazing that I did not recognize Satan's bold disguise sooner. Though looking back, my break from normalcy morphed into a break from my discipline of studying God's Word this week as well. I easily saw how my absence from His scripture had decreased my awareness of Satan prowling and my own sin reeling back into my life.

David's words in Psalm 23 called out my sin and easily displayed my grotesque, dark, earthly thoughts and actions.
The reminder of how horrible my life is on it's own immediately sought me chasing the cross.
There, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wondered how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful! Is my Savior’s love for me! He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own; He bore the burden to Calv’ry, And suffered and died alone.

Now, having received the gift of grace from the blood of the Lamb of God, I praise Him who saves! I adore my Father who met me this morning on my deck as the sun rose in the sky. I love that He cares too much for me to continue to live in my sin.

So, now I long that His Spirit work in me that I may be a mirror of His grace, to show others the joy of being His daughter. The delight that He has taken me as I am, and redeemed me.



Another tool that He used to remind me of my obedience to His love was reviewing our Covenant at the Village church. Reading through it was convicting and a wonderful measure of how faithfully I am living my life for the LORD and not myself.

The Village Church Covenant

The Lord is WHO defines me :)

Hello ladies!! Melissa is finally POSTING!!

This Sunday listening to JR Vassar really did wonders for my soul. I don't know if all of you have talked with me but I have just been struggling with being sensitive to sin and truly feeling the grace of God, I have been wiped clean and it would be prideful of me to not accept the Lord's beautiful grace. Recently, also, I have decided not to go to Spain and instead, as a work of God, have decided to apply for the Guatemala III mission trip. The application was full of deep, life enriching, faith provoking questions. I spent 10 hours on the application, writing my testimony and so on. One of the questions asked to explain some of the defining moments in your life. It wasn't until I had written the answer and reread it that all of the defining moments in my life all revolved around the Lord and Him graciously pursuing me and transforming my heart. I think this is beautiful - life really is empty without the Lord. I just wanted to share what I had written about my "life defining moments", keep in mind it was written for someone who doesn't know me, and share with you a slight glimpse at how God has been working in my life and truly changing me. I am living for Him and Him alone, He is my rock, He is my life, He is salvation and He alone is our one true love.

I believe that all of the defining moments in my life truly are examples of the Lord wooing me to Him and continue with spiritual growth. As previously explained, I am extremely new to faith. However, my newness to faith does not negate the Holy Spirit and how on-fire for the Lord I feel. I have lived a very blessed life free of any serious hardships or traumatic experiences. Before my faith, I used to think that I didn’t have any defining moments in my life; however, ever since my life began with the Lord a new light has been shed and the blinds over my eyes have been opened.

When considering this question, three specific life events come to mind, which have all occurred during the last year and a half. First, I have to say that one of the defining moments in my life involved my move to Texas and finding the Lord. I was 19 at the time and drove 19 hours straight across the country leaving everything I have ever known behind. I have my reasons for why I thought I moved but the Lord is showing me daily that they truly are His reasons and for His glory. I came to Texas after living in a small town in Wisconsin for my entire life not knowing my father, step mother and grandmother, which whom I’d be living, I came without friends, without a support group, without the boyfriend I was with for four years, without a major or any knowledge of my new school, without a mental map of the roads, without a job, without the support of my mother back home, without much money, without any sense of myself. A move across the country may not seem like a big deal considering the fact that I left one rural area only to come to another where I knew that money, healthcare and a home would always be attainable however, I was devoid of any feelings for or knowledge of the Lord, I was scared and felt alone. Being young and selfish, I didn’t really think of the repercussions of my move until two weeks after my arrival and things began settling in; this new life was hard. I was living with the standards that “nothing is ever enough”. I couldn’t find a job and when I did, it didn’t pay enough. I went to school and felt like a 90% could have been a 95%, the people I met in classes drank and experimented with drugs, something I never did. My parents didn’t know me nor did they strive to create a relationship with the daughter that had been almost forgotten for 19 years. I struggled with friendships and wrestled with meaningless, empty relationships. I called my mother crying pleading to come back home and almost did. It was at almost breaking point that the Lord revealed Himself to me and my life began, all new, better than ever and more fulfilling than the life I had back home. I can now see that the struggles and tribulations were all part of His plan to woo me to Him and accept Him as my savior.

Another defining moment in my life began with a “neat Christian guy” and ended with a broken heart. From the outside, it sounds like the average young break-up story but those three months will always be written upon my heart. To make a three-month long journal into a brief paragraph, that relationship was one of the most empty yet satisfying relationships I have ever had. The relationship as a whole was empty. First, full of butterflies and countless hours spent together only to find out it was all a lie and left me full of guilt and bitterness due to my sexual sin. It is pretty easy to fill in the gaps but the hurt and bitterness on my end is not my focus. I strive, to this day to focus on the joy it has brought to my life – contradictory, right? In essence, this is a small example of how I can see the joy and the sorrow in the cross of our savior. My sorrow comes from my sin, guilt, bitterness, suffering and anger but my joy comes from that fact that I have been forgiven, still have the one true love in my life and have a hope in the one true God which is eternal. One of the hardest things I had to do was thank the Lord for providing me a time of such trial but I praise Him for allowing me to grow into a deeper dependency on Him. How gracious He was in providing me the opportunity to truly feel the weight of my sin leading to an understanding of my need for a savior and the cross that He has graciously and mercifully provided me and my wicked heart.

Thirdly, another defining moment in my life just occurred recently. Again, impossible to completely explain on an application but involves the complete change and renewing of my heart. Before knowing the Lord I wasn’t exactly what you would call a “child person”. I didn’t necessarily dislike children, I just didn’t have the passion to hold babies and name my future children, if I was having any, as most young women do. Babysitting wasn’t high on my priority list and as far as I was concerned neither was being a mom. I slowly could feel the Lord working in my heart changing my view on children and started not only accepting but joyously embracing my role as a woman, including future motherhood. Through a series of radical God-driven events, I was led to the Little Village ministry and could not describe my experiences there in less than 100 adjectives. The preschool ministry has become one of the biggest joys in my life, continually renewing me. Each day being able to impact children, encourage them, present them with a Godly foundation and love and nurture them has done more for my heart than words can explain. So much so, I recently changed my major from business to ESL elementary education. For once in my life I feel like I am answering my calling. I have a peace in my heart knowing that I have found my niche, I can make a difference, one that starts with one child but will eventually lead to another child, to a family, to a community, to a city with no ending point in sight. Praise, praise, praise the Lord! J