Walls

THIS WEEK I don't have just one thing to talk about, but more of a collage. It's interesting.
I was not happy with myself this week - I didn't feel right. I felt distracted, and like I was letting my thoughts wander much too much from the LORD. My heart desires for Him to be at the center, and it bothers me to become distracted. I know my state of ming must change, but I hope it's in going closer to Jesus.
I think about how I'm walking on water, like Simon, and trying to get to Jesus. This week I feel like a wave just came up and made me lose sight for just a moment, or at least made things a bit misty. But I'm not done. My wonderful friend Jenny White texted me Friday morning, and I read it in the afternoon. She told me that she had been praying for me that morning, and reminded me that GOD desires to have my whole heart submitted to His will, and for me to trust Him fully. I can only explain the fact that she was thinking of me that morning with the reasoning that GOD must have been too. Woah.

So after I read that things lightened up. All life's issues did not evaporate, but I was feeling glad my sister Jenny was caring about me, and I turned some music (from Rina) on from my computer, and rocked out while I worked on this painting, which I'm really excited about. Now I forget quite the chronology around this detail, but at some point I flipped open my copy of the Word and I was in Jeremiah. Huh, Jeremiah, I recognize that one. One of my favorite verses is there, maybe I could find it while I'm here. No, I'm already there!! Jeremiah 29:11.
This is not one I'd ever visited before. It is one I have on my wall, to look at every day. My frame says "All my plans, all my dreams, I lay before the LORD. "For I know the plans I have for you, to give you a future and a hope." THIS is what I needed this week. I was struggling to figure myself out. I was thinking about my future, and whether I was trying too hard to decide it for myself. And here come the LORD telling me that He knows what's going on, and that He's going to work it all out, and He knows I'm probably going to make a mess, and He's going to help me figure this out. I'm not done.
Yeah, so that's awesome.
My family had a party yesterday for my sister's 15th birthday. It's called a "quiencenero" (sp?) which is a girl's Mexican Sweet Fifteen in a sense. Ours was a knockoff because we're not Mexican. I had a very wonderful time with my family, and the babies who like to dance, and my friends from school Sarah, Will, and Debowrah. Yeah, that was alot of fun. My brother is a wonderful DJ.
I wanted to share with you a bit of my Uncle Danny's sermon at Neptune Baptist Church, but I think the part I wrote down might be better saved for another week. Maybe next week. Here it is if you want to listen to it, it's 20 minutes long and worth it.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fneptunebaptist.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2F2010-02-19T12_50_55-08_00%2520&h=481bde73d3b51456187481198bb8cf69
My friend Sarah showed me a song a while ago which I really like, and which suits me right now. It's by Jimmy Needham. See if you recognize it while I type-sing it: "I need you like a HURRICANE, thunder crashing wind and rain, to TEAR THESE WALLS DOWN, I'm only YOURS now." It applies to me. Before I stop blogging I wanted to tell you something about walls. At Southpoint today Partor Russ was not there, but this really knnowledgable fellow spoke to us after we took the Communion. (Communion is awesome) The sermon today was about Jesus tearing down ethnic walls, gender walls, social walls, to show that GOD loves us. Now that's awesome. Jesus also calls it "great faith" at times when we pass over those walls in faith, especially for another person's sake. I hope I can learn how to do that.
I do not know whether you have heard about Anthony Flew, a famous atheist, but the speaker today told us that he now believes in GOD. That. blew. my. mind. Flew realized that "matter cannot produce intelligence," so there must be intelligence put into DNA and everything. So GOD is everywhere and everything wonderful, and remembering this I feel He is very near.
Back to walls. So I got this image about the world. Each person is trapped in a cube, and because we are bound to sin we do not notice that the box is not the whole world. A cube is made of walls, you see. But because Jesus freed us from our sins, and empowers us with the Spirit, we find that we are suddenly able to put up our foot and kick down some walls. It is not an easy thing to live this way, but it's worth doing. I just mean that we can, and we should, and the world would benefit if we did. Strangers need Jesus as much as we do, and Jesus makes a point of welcoming strangers.
So I pray for all you guys and I hope you'll post some miracles and some thigns you're learning. GOD's really awesome, and He's strong, and He makes us strong enough to face a world like this. Remember how Simon got to walk on the water. That's a special thing to get to do, and we're all doing it. At the end, Jesus is there catching us, and He'll lead us to the safety of the boat.
Amen.