15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.[a] And by him we cry, "Abba,[b] Father."

Romans 8:15

18There 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.

1 John 4:18

On that day they will say to Jerusalem, "Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp.

Zephaniah 3:16

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

JOSHUA1:9

I have been given a spirit of Freedom and not of Fear. I will proclaim that and live it. I need not fear.

HALLELUJAH!

Soldier's Covenant

Having accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord, and desiring to fulfil my membership of His Church on earth as a soldier of The Salvation Army, I now by God's grace enter into a sacred covenant.I believe and will live by the truths of the word of God expressed in The Salvation Army's eleven articles of faith:

-We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God; and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

-We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

-We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost - undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.

-We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.

-We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness; and that in consequence of their fall all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

-We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by His suffering and death, made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

-We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.

-We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.

-We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

-We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

-I will be responsive to the Holy Spirit's work and obedient to His leading in my life, growing in grace through worship, prayer, service and the reading of the Bible.

-I will make the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life.

-I will uphold Christian integrity in every area of my life, allowing nothing in thought, word or deed that is unworthy, unclean, untrue, profane, dishonest or immoral.I will maintain Christian ideals in all my relationships with others; my family and neighbours, my colleagues and fellow salvationists, those to whom and for whom I am responsible, and the wider community.

-I will uphold the sanctity of marriage and of family life. I will be a faithful steward of my time and gifts, my money and possessions, my body, my mind and my spirit, knowing that I am accountable to God.

-I will abstain from alcoholic drink, tobacco, the non-medical use of addictive drugs, gambling, pornography, the occult and all else that could enslave the body or spirit.

-I will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up The Salvation Army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged.

-I will be actively involved, as I am able, in the life, work, worship and witness of the corps, giving as large a proportion of my income as possible to support its ministries and the worldwide work of the Army.

-I will be true to the principles and practices of The Salvation Army, loyal to its leaders, and I will show the spirit of salvationism whether in times of popularity or persecution.

I now call upon all present to witness that I enter into this covenant and sign these articles of war of my own free will, convinced that the love of Christ, who died and now lives to save me, requires from me this devotion of my life to His service for the salvation of the whole world; and therefore do here declare my full determination, by God's help, to be a true soldier of The Salvation Army.


"I don't understand why anyone can believe all these things and agree to live their life in this manor and not become a soldier."

I understand why. Fear of commitment, fear of failure, fear of being inadequate. Thats whats holding me back anyways. I want to be a good soldier, and I want Jesus to be proud of me. I don't want to make a covenant that I know I'm going to break. It's scary letting someone else have complete control. I don't know whats making me so afraid. I've been in a place where I surrendered all of my self doubt, all of my worries, and all of my fears and the freedom I felt was indescribable but then I picked them all back up again. I cart them around wherever I go, desiring to let them go yet I never drop them, not even for a moment. I hold on to them as if they were treasure. I don't understand myself. Its wierd.

Intimacy with the Almighty

I got the new book for XLR8 today:) I'm excited to read it, I've only just looked through it and read one line but I'm pretty sure its going to be full of things I need to hear.

The back of the book says:

Noise and woreds and frenzied, hectic schedules dull our senses, closing out ears to His still, small voice and making us numb to His touch.

Thats definetly how I'm feeling right now so I think digging into this book is going to be pretty sweet. I don't want to read this book and have it be just a nice book though. I want some life flipping stuff.. I need to allow my life to be flipped first though. I need to open myself up and really allow this to happen. I need to surrender to God but its so hard. I'm holding tightly to my life even though I know that inorder to live I must give my life away. God, help me with this, I can't do it on my own. I'm stuck and you are my way out and yet I keep turning to others hoping that they'll be able to help. I realize that you are the way but I'm afraid of trusting you completely. I know I shouldn't be but I am. I really am. You are faithful and you are true, I have no reason to be afraid. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not.

I need to surrender.

Wow, so, so much is going on right now. I don't even understand it all. I'm trying to seek out God and come closer to Him right now but theres so much going on here right in front of my face that my thoughts get distracted and then I start focusing on all of that instead of seeking out who God is and what he wants from my life. The major thing thats getting me right now is all of these boy troubles I'm having. You'd think that being single would be easier.. It feels like I can't escape them right now, I just want to be single and focus on more important things. I want to have friends, not boyfriends. Its hard. I'm pretty sure dating ruins a lot of things anyways. At this point in my life I believe that dating is going to do much more harm than good. I just don't need it right now, you know?

So my head hurts right now from thinking so much, and my tummy hurts from twisting so much. Everything is so stressful sometimes, right now would be one of those times.

Gosh. What I'm trying to figure out right now is what I'm supposed to be doing. Like, where does my ministry lye, what should I do on an everyday basis, What does being a woman of God look like in my everyday life? I'm having so much trouble with this, everything keeps getting in the way. I'm not making it a priority even though I know that I really want it to be. Could you guys pray for me, I just want a clearhead so bad. I want to know what God wants from me. I want to know how to find a balance. I don't want to play church.

L.O.V.E.

I'm not sure why I don't read these devotionals more often but I did today and was very glad I did. Read it yourself and you'll see why.

Living By Your New Nature
This devotional was written by Jim Liebelt

But I tell you, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.".— Matthew 5:44-45 (NIV)



The story has been told of a man who while hiking in a desert, stumbled upon a rattlesnake that had become hopelessly wedged between a boulder and some limbs from a fallen tree. The man decided to save the rattlesnake, but in the process the snake tried to bite him. The man tried to free the snake a second time. Again, the snake tried to bite the man. Finally, on the third attempt the man succeeded in freeing the snake. And still, the snake coiled and attempted to strike its liberator. The man’s companion, who had observed from a safe distance, asked the man why he continued to risk himself to free the snake. The man responded, “The snake was attempting to strike because that is its nature. My nature is to love. Should I cease to love because the snake attempts to strike?”

Jesus demonstrated this same concept – a commitment to living by his own nature regardless of another’s nature - when he gave his life to die on our behalf. Hebrews 12:3 instructs us to “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” The call of the Christ-follower is the call to live our lives following Jesus’ example and based on our new nature as God’s children. We are called to love and serve, regardless of the opposition or persecution we face from others.


Today, will you love even when others attempt to strike?


It definetly gives you something to think about. I know I was thinking.

What am I doing?

I'm nervous about going out into our school praying for people. I wasn't at first but I keep thinking aobut it and I don't know if I"m capable of it. I think I might freeze and maybe end up barfing on someone.

It'd be pretty darn cool if you guys could pray for me...

Freak Test

Some Random for your Day.

Wow, I haven't done much blogging in the last little while so I might hit you hard with a lot of my thoughts from the last little while.

Well its February. I must say that I love february. It might even be my favourite month. Why?
Well its full of birthdays, 5 in my family alone, it holds the wondrous day of love that I like to call
Valentines day, and... its the month before my month. All of which make me smile from ear to ear.

I'm really excited about Valentines Day this year. Its a day of love and thats what I'm going to spend it
doing, just loving on everyone. Often if you're not in a relationship with anybody then Valentines Day
turns into a depressing day and I just think that contradicts the whole point of the day. Everyone in this
world is loved and I think Valentines Day is a wonderful day to celebrate that love. So I'm going to be a Valentines
Day Fairy and remind our school of this love that is reaching out to them.




AND>..
Now that I'm done talking aobut VD I can start talking and ranting about other things. Like, the last week has been a week of refocusing and switching around my priority list. My list isn't where it should be still but its something that I've been working on. Each day God is getting closer to the center of my life, He's taking away all that holds me back from him and that holds him back from me.
I went to this prayer meeting on Tuesday at lunch and I could feel the passion for God when I walked in and I didn't want to leave when lunch was over. God was in that place and it was so nice being able to pray with other believers from my school and to have the fire once again rekindled. I was reminded of Gods power on Tuesday, I was reminded that he is everywhere. It was pretty amazing.

Anyways, I've got so many things that I really want to get out and not enough time at the moment but I'm goign to attempt to blog more regularily.

<3

<<<<3333

Ahh, the power of God through the wonders of the Ipod.

My Ipod is talking to me. My tummy is turning and gosh, this is definetly the wake up call that was needed. I've had so many struggles in my head lately and I just needed to tune in. Which, oh my gosh, definetly happened.

So heres the story. I was making a playlist, may I add a very good playlist, mainly because I was bored and it was the thing to do. I wasn't even thinking really about what I was putting on it, just a mix of random, random of which i really like. So I was listening to this and God was speaking through the words of the songs so clearly. It was kind of creepy in a way. But it wasn't only exactly what I needed to hear it was also a feeling that I needed to feel. I've been struggling with my faith in the last week or so and I've been praying for the fire inside me to be rekindled and it is now flaming all the way to my nose. tres wow.

christmas.

This Christmas was full of firsts for me. It was my first time ever leaving my house on Christmas. I kid you not, I have never even played outside in my backyard on Christmas. I've never had to, Christmas was always celebrated at our house, everything always came to me so I've never had to leave the comfort of my home. This year wasn't going to be any different, I thought that my mommy would make my sister and I stay home. I was actually very surprised when she allowed us to go, it was pretty amazing.

At the church, we sang of love. we sang of joy, and of hope. I got stopped on the way home by a couple of men who were at the dinner and they thanked us and passed back some of the joy that christ through us had placed in them. It was really neat.

This year was a big eye opener. I've never grown so much in my life. I've changed, even though sometimes it doesn't seem like it. I'm on a journey and this year I definetly took the scenic route.

There was so many firsts this year, like it was the first christmas I've ever wore jeans, the first christmas I've ever had a boyfriend, the first Christmas where I actually had seconds of turkey, the first christmas I've ever eaten dinner in the living room, the first christmas that I didn't get changed into my pajamas before everyone had gone home. It was really the greatest christmas ever. It was the first Christmas I've spent in love with Jesus.

important

This poem is a good reminder of what's really important in life.

I had always been taughtto ask God for what I needed
and that he would give me
whatever I ask for in his name.
So, I asked God forprosperity, power, popularity,
good grades, safety, success,
good friends, health, and wealth.
In all these things,I asked God for more of what I wanted,
but he gave me more of what I needed:
Himself.

mediocre

I've been praying a lot lately about settling for mediocre work. I've been in this area where I will be okay with something as long as it is better than most other people. Like, in my biology class, I'm getting 79%, which is absolutely horrible compared to what my science marks are usually like, yet because it is the highest mark in the class, i'm content with it. Now, I know I can do better, I know I should be doing better, yet the extra time and effort that I'd be putting into it just doesn't seem very appealing. I often feel like that in my christian walk as well. I often want to step out of my comfort zone and do something but a lot of the time I find myself talking myself out of it before I even try. I get telling myself that nothings going to work, that it wouldn't make any difference, and other words of destruction. I've been praying a lot for help sticking with things. For help to continue doing what I know I should be doing even when things get the way, help getting through these obstacles that I usually trip and fall over. Help getting up even if I do fall. Help to continue, to perservere.

reverendfun.com

Weekly Wisdom - Christ Notes

I got my weekly wisdom for this week and I thought I would share part of it:)

The same way you're saved is how you ought to live.

Colossians 2:6 says, So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.

This is such an awesome scripture for it says that the way we were saved is the way we must live. You didn't get saved by trying and struggling; likewise, you can't live your life on your own strength.

Every believer is saved simply by believing (and receiving) God's love, grace, and mercy. Therefore, live each day of your life by receiving God's strength and walking in His grace and mercy. Remember, the same way you're saved is how you ought to live.

Funny stuff.

A Sunday school teacher was giving her class the assignment for the next week.

"Next Sunday," she said, "we are going to talk about liars, and in preparation for our lesson I want you all to read the Seventeenth Chapter of Mark."

The following week, at the beginning of the class meeting, the teacher said, "Now then, all of you who have prepared for the lesson by reading the Seventeenth Chapter of Mark, please step to the front of the room."

About half the class rose and came forward.

"The rest of you may leave," said the teacher, "these students are the ones I want to talk to. There is no Seventeenth Chapter in the Book of Mark."



I thought it was pretty entertaining:)