encountering Jesus is something I hope to never recover from...

This past week has been an incredibaly rediculous week. I started Cascade Life Commission! It felt nothing like I thought it would. I have been waiting for it for a little more than three years, and now it is finally here. It's exciting, fun, new, scary a little, and God has already changed my life so much because of it. Every single person who is doing the program this year is so incredable: Taryn, Andrea, Sabrina, Brittany, Candice, Lisa, Amber, Stacia, Brad, Tim, Damon, Thomas, Dustin, Seth, and me. We have had such a great time getting to know each other and have already formed a strong bond. On Tuesday we headed of to good 'ol Wild Horse Canyon, one of my favorite places in the world, for Encounter. GOD DID SO MUCH AMAZING STUFF IN MY LIFE! I have been running after Jesus for about three years now and I can most honestly tell you that He has never been so real to me before. That is a big deal to me. There are so many different aspects of God and I had felt like I had tapped them all dry. Can I say that I was awefully wrong! His mercy and grace and love overwhelmed me in such a powerfull way that I am truly ruined for good. He spoke more clearly than ever, ripped out tons of strongholds from my life, and set me FREE! It's really hard for me to put my experience in words because there are no human words that can really do it for me, they can't explain it good enough, or right enough, or to depth I want them to.

So with that... I am now going to run off into whatever God has for me at full speed and I am not going to look back!

rain.

I love the rain. There is just something about it that makes me joyous. I love the smell of rain, you know, that fresh, wet, cool smell. I love the feeling of rain, how it seems to wash my cares away. I really love the sound of rain, because it always cools my jets. It does not make me depressed, as it does some. Others might say that the clouds and thunder make them feel sad, but not me... I feel exhilarated. I love how rain looks as it hits water. The rain falls into the water and it sends back up another little droplet. I just love it!
The best part of rain, for me at least, is that it reminds me of the timely presence of God. He is fresh, and he refreshes me. He makes me forget about circumstances, even when they seem impossible. He always cools my jets... because yes, I do get frustrated with life. He exhilarates me. When His presence falls into me, another little droplet of me is forced out. Rain usually doesn't come without a strom though...
I don't know about you, but I find that it is when times are the hardest that I feel God the nearest. God is always with me, I know that, but there is something about storms that make me long for rain, and more of it. I want the rain. Rainy seasons are the ones I long for, the ones I wait for.
Rain doesnt only effect the place it lands. Whether it's in soil, where seed is watered, or whether it's in water, where ripples go out and stir the water, rain brings change... I love the rain.

Praise the Lord!

I finally got a job! This summer has really been a test of my faith that God is in control. Time and time again this summer God has proved Himself faithful to me, which has been awesome. It's like with everything that I have done or have tried to do, it gets down to crunch time and then God is like "BAM!, here ya go." Hopefuly now we (and by we, I mean God and I) can get my car fixed too :)
yep.
In the mean time, here are some pictures! Sorry, our camera sucks, so most of the pictures are blurry or bad quality...
WARNING:THESE IMAGES ARE RANDOM AND MAY RESULT IN CONFUSION AND LAUGHTER. STEP 1: TAKE A DEEP BREATH, STEP 2: LOOK AT PICTURES, STEP 3: PHONE A FRIEND FOR MORAL SUPPORT!

















i told you they were random :)

Forgetfulness

Today God showed me something. It is very important to me.

"The mountains tremble and quake before Him and the hills melt away, and the earth is upheaved at His presence - yes, the world and all that dwell in it." -nahum1:5

I'm just gonna get real raw and honest here: I have been making it about me, and by it, I mean life. I had forgotten that it is all about God. I know this is a simple and almost cliche thing that we all hear all the time. "It's all about God" I hear it 3 gazillion times a day. Today as I sat reading my bible in between services God spoke to me, He showed me something, He told me something...

"I love you, but what about Me? Do you love me? Have you forgotten who I Am? I miss the times with you where you trembled and quaked and melted before My Presence. The mountains and hills fear me, that's nothing... I want you to fear me."

I sat there thinking, "Why am I so... ahhhh!" I was dissapointed in myself. I had to face myself, my hearts' condition. Time and time again I have said, "God, take all of me... take my heart, my mind, will and emotions..." I have said it all, but have I done it all?

God reminded me of my forgetfulness. My failure to remember who my God Is. He can freaking make the earth upheave because of His presence! I had become numb to His presence. Weariness can take a tole on a person... I know that first hand. But God reminded me that HE does not become weary, and that He is always right beside me. I can lean on Him, in fact, I'm supposed to.

God is good. Even though today I was dissapointed in myself, God wasn't. He loves me. It's hard for me to comprehend that my failures and weaknesses open the door for God to be strong and victorious and loving towards me. It's a humbling path to run.

Today I remembered. I sacrificed my forgetfulness at His feet. It felt really good, but more than that, I know that God was singing over me the whole way, He was dancing all around me. I felt Him. It was more important to me than anyone could probably ever know.



Thanks for letting me be very honest with you. Sometimes God lets us bite the dust so that we can remember. All I know is that the dust is sweet to taste when I am with my God. Thank you God...

S.O.S. !!!

If anyone knows of someone who wants to sell their car for cheep, or if they even want to give it away please let me know !!! we currently have no working cars... it kinda sucks. I know that God will provide though, so I'm not stressing :) Thanks friends, be praying!

Finally, some pictures !

As I promised, here are some pictures from my vacation... enjoy them! (also check out Caleb and Ashley's blog for other pictures that they should be posting)

These first pictures are from the Tea House that we went to... they had some pretty cool hats :)











These pictures are from when we went shopping in Boise- WE HAD A BLAST!











There were these walls of shoes.... I Know.




We had so much fun... thank you Caleb, Ashley, and Ky for your hospitality and for blessing us! We love you guys :)

Mystery vacation!

Well, it's been over a month since my last post... sadly its not because of busy-ness or crazy schedules, but because I have had nothing much to post.
But, I am now in Idaho visiting some pretty cool people! We left Thursday morning to go on our "mystery" vacation, ( i actually knew where we were going ) and arrived Thursday at 1pm. It was a good drive, besides the boringness. :) We have spent the first couple of days at the Roaring Springs Water Park in Meridian with Ky... and can I just say that we had a blast. The first day at the water park was amazing! There were tons of really cool slides and it felt nice in the heat to get to go into the water. I think my favorite part was the wave pool... it was kinda like the ocean but in a pool :) The next day at the water park was just me and my sisters. Sadly this day wasnt as good because I scalded my feet on the pavement in this first 10 minutes so it kinda hurt to walk. Then we came back to Caleb and Ashley's house. My family and Ky went to the bike races and I had some amazing Jesus time while I had the time to myself. Lately, God has been giving me some very significant words about this next season of my life. Here are a few that he has spoken to me right out of my daily devotions:

Hosea 2:14-15, 19-20 (all amplified version)
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart. There I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Achor (troubling) to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt... And i will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will even betroth you to me in stability and in faithfulness, and you shall know (recognize, be acquainted with, appreciate, give heed to and cherish) the Lord."

Hosea 6:3
"Yes, let us know (recognize, be acquainted with, and understand) Him; let us be zealous to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared and certain as the dawn, and He will come to us as the heavy rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth."

Hosea 10:12
"Sow for yourselves according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, til He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you."

Isaiah 30:21-23a
"And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the Way; walk in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left hand. Then you will defile your carved images overlaid with silver and your molten images plated with gold; your will cast them away as a filthy blood-stained cloth, and you will say to them, Be gone! Then He will give you rain for the seed with which you sow the soil..."

Isaiah 33:5-6
"The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation). And there shall be stability in your times, an abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; the reverent fear and worship of the Lord is your treasure and His."

Jesus is truly amazing, He is always there for me, and His words are so timely... I LOVE IT! These words are really reassuring to me. Its kinda not the most easiest thing to trust that God will provide over and abundantly for you not only in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm too. I know that God has some really amazing things in store for me if I will be faithful to search them out... I love that my fear and worship of the Lord will be my treasure and His :)

So back to the whole vacation thing, today we went to Family Life Church with Caleb and Ashley. It was pretty cool :) Worship was amazing! It was like an hour and half long, or something like that... Jesus was for sure there. Now I am sitting here blogging to all you all. I might be coming home this tuesday, but if not, i might be staying for the NXT's summer camp- and thats what i really want to do. If i do that, then i wont be home for another two weeks. Sorry to all of you who arent having as much fun as me :) pictures to come soon, hopefully!

GRADUATION!

So, after much anticipation and many stressed out months, I am finally a high school Graduate! PRAISE THE LORD! I will be posting pictures soon... Thanks to all of you guys who have supported me through high shcool :) All that is left to say is, "hello Freedom!"

My life is CRAZY!!!

oh my Goodness! Time has flown! I am graduating in like a month and 14 days... Right now, my life is filled with tons of stress in that I have all of that senior stuff to do, they probably couldnt make it any harder to graduate...gosh! Though my life is crazy right now, God has a change in season for me and I am very excited. As stated above, I will soon be graduating (praise the Lord!)and then right after that I will be leaving for mexico for 2 weeks for our missions trip. God is going to move big down there and I am sooooo excited. In the meantime I will need to get a job so that i can save up as much money as possable, because so far my savings account is $0 and i need over 2000 dollars by september. Yes, it is true. I am going to do CLC next year! I cant wait for God to move mightly in my life. He is speaking to me so much, but i know that next year will be a huge and essential part to me growing in Jesus. I will have my last summer camp this year as a student :( sad i know but i know so much is going to happen and it will be like summer camp everyday... which is really great! I will be moving out at the end of August into a host home (with, who? idk) but i think i am ready to be independant, my mom has raised me well! AAHHHH!!! so much! God is so good! there, that is my current life update, without overwhelming you :) pictures of fun stuff to come later. love you guys!

The "I missed GU" blessing...

So I have no cool pictures to go with this post but I figured that I would tell you about what God did in my life on the weekend I missed GU...

I woke up thursday morning to my mom saying that school had been cancelled due to the weather... YAH! that was my first reaction. But then i realized that it was probably a bad thing... "wasnt i supposed to be going to GU today?" OH CRAP! Soon there after i learned that the church decided that it was too dangerous for us to travel the pass (and that the passes were closed, anyways...). My weekend had been ruined. or so i thought.

To make a long chain of events short, we sent out a ton of texts and soon, about 8 girls were over at our house. We decided to make the best of our worst situation.

We ended up having an amazing worship time, followed by an amazing word from Cassie (by the way, to whoever this might concern, she needs to speak in 180 sometime...), and then we prayed it up until 1 in the morning. Jesus totally showed up!

Then we had a sleepover...that was fun :)

Then the next evening, i joined a group of kids at Jordan Wolfes Dad's shop (yah) and we worshiped God... I think my face fell off... it was that indescribable.

And then, to top it off, Student Leadership was really good...

GOD SPOKE SO MUCH TO ME:

"Get out of your box and wake up to the people who are dying around you"
"Your relationship with me has been hitting a wall because you havent been honest wiht me"
"Worship what you feel, instead of what you think i want to hear..."
"I love you so much"
"My presence is all that you need"
"You are anointed to lead worhsip" (I know, I nearly peed my pants.)
"It is ok to cry"
"You are a prophetess in training"
"I will and can use you"

I cant really list everything because it would take forever... but because I decided to make something of my time, instead of moping around, God totally showed up. Through others, and his still small voice, God told me thing i had been waiting for years to hear.

So here is the practical point of this... What made that weekend different than any other. If i commit to seek God in that same desperation, all the time, what would happent to my life? God is who he is, no matter where I am geographically, emotionally, spiritually, physically, or mentally. HE IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL TO DO WHAT HE SAID HE WILL DO!

To wrap it up, Jesus Rocks my socks off!