3:13

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Philippians 3:12-16

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:12-17

I think it's fun when the Holy Spirit leads you to a passage of scripture that somewhat "slaps you in the face." I have a hard time forgetting. Actually, I'm awesome at forgetting things in general. I have a hard time forgetting sin. I have a hard time forgiving myself...and it's not because I don't have complete confidence that Jesus has taken away every single sin that I've ever committed and ever will commit. I think it's more of an embarrassment thing...when my words or actions don't glorify Christ and the Holy Spirit convicts me of it, I think about it for days. I'm thankful that it doesn't just roll off my shoulder, It makes me learn to never say those same words or do the same things I did. Rarely do I have a hard time forgiving someone else. This is really the only circumstance I can think of, right now, that I've struggled with forgiveness. I'm sure others will come. I pray that they don't, but I live here on earth, so i'm sure it will. I'm thankful to be taught by the Word of God. So many times we seek counsel from pastors, family, friends, but that's not what I've needed. I've needed the word of God. I need HIM to tell me to forget it. It's blocking my vision of the goal, so forget it. So many times we hang on to things that are of the past. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Jessica, LEARN, forgive, and move on. that's what i love about the word of God. It's completely applicable in my life. 

I'm so thankful to Christ for taking away all of my sin. It really overwhelms me, and the closer I grow to Christ it actually brings me to tears. 

We could not serve a more perfect God. cliche? i know. 

I'm a big believer in the whole "put off/put on" thing. 

Love binds everything together in perfect harmony. Put it all off, and put love on. 

I could summarize the Colossians passage, but the ESV translation says it well. I pray that passage is true in my life. As i grow closer to Christ, I pray that I allow the peace of Christ to RULE my heart. 

Romans #6

Short Week. 

April 18-23, 2011

Romans 3:21-31

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—

·       Now: the time of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb AND from there on out.  

·       Righteousness of God speaks of God’s character that is morally right…that He provided a way for sinners to be in communion with Him.

·       Apart from the law means that it is apart from human obedience. It was all God who allowed for this communion.

·       OT prophesied this way of Salvation. The gospel is not contrary to the law.  Both were a fulfillment of the Old Testament.

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

·       Because of this righteousness, all who believe on Christ can have this right standing with Christ.

·       He can give salvation to whomever He wants because no one deserves it more than anyone else.

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

·       No one can take credit for his or her salvation. We have all fallen short and deserve wrath.

·       ALL have exchanged God’s glory for idolatry.

24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

·       Justified: declared not guilty, but righteous by the divine judge.

·       Grace: merited favor. *the source of justification.

·       Jesus Christ is the gift, his blood on the cross redeemed us from our sin.

·       Redemption brings freedom.

·       Redemption: apolyrosis. Used in the Old Testament to reference a slave who was being bought OUT of slavery. So we have been set free of the slavery OF SIN.

·       Justification is the opposite of condemnation. Both are pronouncements from the judge.

25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

·       Propitiation: God sacrificed his perfect and Holy son, for His wrath to be taken out on His Son instead of us. …hilasterion: for someone to placate his or her anger.

·       God’s righteous anger needed to be appeased before He could dismiss sin.

·       His righteousness refers to His justice here.

·       Former Sins: in the old testament, propitiation is discussed.

·       Whom God put forward: public display on Clavary

·       Christ on the cross: *the ground of our justification.

26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

·       At the cross, God’s love and justice meet.

·       The cross showed God’s present and forever existing justice for those who have Christ. 

·       Faith: *the means of justification

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

·       We can’t brag.

·       We can’t save ourselves.

·       God gets ALL of the glory and honor for saving us from our sin. We are not able to seek Him in sin.

·       1 Cor 2:26-29

28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

·       Nothing that we DO can earn us salvation.

·       Works, in faith, bring God glory.

·       FAITH alone brings salvation and total dependency on Christ.

29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

·       Through Christ, Jews AND Gentiles are able to be saved. He is God of All.

·       Faith alone brings salvation.

31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

·       With this faith, we are able to carry out the law. Although it can not save, it serves as guidance in our journey in Christ.

·       Paul here does not say that the law is irrelevant, but speaks that it is not a means of salvation. 

no bueno.

because i'm not feelin' the studying right now...
LOTS of chapters come to a close in the next two weeks. I'll give you the run-down. 

• Today: last day at Second. I was in the nursery with some sweet babies. I didn't really think about it being my last sunday. It doesn't feel like home anymore, and for that, I am thankful. It's a little bittersweet, but it makes me excited for what the future holds. I'm thankful for all of the people there that have led me closer to my Savior. It will always be what I consider my "church nest." They've kicked me out to fly on now. <--How corny is that?! 
• Tomorrow or the the 2nd: last day keeping Gracie. I'll be gone all summer, and then I'm not sure their plans for next semester. I've enjoyed this sweet 3 year old. She's given me plenty of good belly laughs. I'm going to miss her every monday. But when I get back, I am SURE to have some Gracie Lou Girl Time. 
• Wednesday: last Main Event. This is a bigger deal for those who have been there for the last 10 years. But still, it's a "last." Also, my last regular nursing test of my first semester is this day, too. I'm happy about that one. Hoping for a 100 :)
• Friday: last clinical of first semester. Goodbye Macon Coliseum Northside Hospital. 
• Saturday: last day at Truett's until the fall. 
• May 5th and 6th: finals for this semester.

Oh goodness, that is so much. I'm telling you, year 19 of my life has brought change. Obama had nothing to do with it. 

Friday's clinical was absolutely the best one yet. I fell in love with my patient, and I fell in love with her family. She got to go home in the afternoon. She was so happy. She kissed me goodbye. Her daughters gave me a hug and some VERY encouraging words. They were so sweet. I loved being in her room. She loved me being there. She was so excited to go home and eat some collard greens. When I got there on Thursday her entire family was in the room. I mean, they even had the room with the spare room off to the side. It was so sweet. And, she loved Jesus, and I loved talking about Jesus with her. It was one of my favorite days ever. 

I've been meaning to call Brody this week. Maybe I'll do that Wednesday or Thursday. Every week at SWO, i will be assigned a church. I have to be up early anyway, so i would love to offer a bible study time with my assigned church's girls. I just wanted to ask him how realistic that would be. But at this point, if i leave these girls with nothing besides an understanding of how to study God's word and the importance of it, I would be happy. Or maybe just even encourage those who do have a daily study time to persevere and encourage others. I think it has the potential of being a really sweet time. But if i map out something for us to study together, and then the campers totally are never into that, i would be sad. So i think i will call him and ask him the possibilities of such. I never have asked Lauren about it, maybe I'll do that too. 

My parents just brought me home a coke ICEE. who loves them!?! I LOVE THEM!

Laying my life down for the gospel has been on my brain for the past year. Different than it was before. I've always been very "future minded." And i know future minded doesn't sound right, but i can't think of another way to say that at the moment. I've been very focused on my mission in the future, i always felt like the mission field oversees was calling my name. It was pretty attractive to me...still is. But the Holy Spirit is constantly teaching me that He has me here, now, on purpose. I'm in a nursing class with 70ish other people. I want to share Christ with them. I want to be bold. Court has had some really good conversations with one of the girls we have gotten close to. and we don't hold back in our clinical group....and i'm totally thankful for the holy spirit giving us the courage to talk about God. It's easy in our clinical group...and maybe it's because no one has protested yet. But it's good.

Although now, with all of the stress, I've been losing sight of my mission. Of course my goal is to pass nursing school, but i want all of these people to pass through the gates of heaven with me one day to glorify our king together, forever, more than a passing grade. I want to be intentional on building a relationship with these people because I've got a year and a half left with them and I'll probably never see them again. So I want to be a good manager of my time with them, and I pray that the Holy Spirit even prepares them now for the conversations that we are going to have. I just want to be intentional. 

Courtlynd made me a tumblr this morning. yep, that's all. 

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

Today is Easter. My king is not in the grave. My Savior reigns high. My Jesus defeated death. He rose from the grave, and one day when He comes back, I'll get to, too. I'm excited for that day. 

SovHope & SWO

• Adam's teaching
• I'm really excited about being a member of Sovereign Hope. I used to think that I would never find a pastor that I would enjoy learning from as much as Pastor David. He's just such a good teacher and so easy to listen too. For that reason, I was pretty scared about ever moving away, being called to go something else, etc. Although, I started listening to Adam's sermons a little over a year ago on my way to and from school. It's really encouraging. I'm still a little sad to be moving on from Second. But i'm so excited about the leadership (and everyone else) at sovhope. It is just so great! But to the real point...Adam is so challenging. It's really annoying. This semester He has been preaching on the Trinity and then Heaven/Hell/Evil/Sin. He wants us to get it and expects us to study it. I'm one of those people that just has faith. I don't really question things in the Bible. I just kinda go with it if it's over my head. I've always been okay with this part of me. For one thing, I love the trinity. I love God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I understand their roles to an extent, but I really don't want to dig into it. I don't truly understand how something can be 3 in 1. Yet, God calls me to try to understand it. And i'm aggravated that someone is holding me accountable to that. And don't even get me started on Hell and Sin and God's perfection/justice/love. I probably can't explain it well. I know that He is all of them. But don't throw me a "hard" question.....right now. Because you know....I'm having to learn all of this stuff that just flies over my head. It's just exciting. I love being a part of the church that challenges me. I love being a part of a group that is concerned with my relationship with Christ. I love that I never have to be careful of what I might hear from people around me, because we are all pursuing holiness and that's just cool. I've finally found a group of friends that i absolutely CHERISH. 
• I'll cover the rest of those things in the list at a later date.

SWO STAFF ORIENTATION

The weather was awful driving up. My parents decided to make a vacay out of the trip so they drove me up. It was pretty nice considering it was dark, the roads were a little tricky, and it was raining. I got there about 10 minutes late, and cars were everywhere. I got all of my stuff out of the car, dried off a little under the porch, waved goodbye to the parents, and walked in! I stood in the back for a little bit because everything was already going on. Sarah had told me where she was sitting, but I couldn't seem to find her. Eventually, someone came over and pointed her out to me :) Sarah said she was wearing a blue shirt. I was looking for bright or navy blue....it was baby blue. haha. So I sat and listened.

The first night was by far the most overwhelming night i've ever had. It was ridiculous. The room was FULL of people, I only knew 3 of them...through facebook (which, it was FABULOUS to finally meet them, they were PRECIOUS). I'm usually a pretty outgoing person, but this was just overwhelming. I found myself just following some people around that first night. I really wanted to be intentional in my "meeting" people. I mean, what do you say when you first meet someone that you DON'T KNOW. There was a whole lot of "What's your name, where do you go to school, what's your major?" It's good small talk, and was really all the night allowed for, but i'm really excited to get to "know know" people. The conversations that encouraged me the most were "what is your testimony? or what is God doing in your life right now?" and I KNOW that those will come more. :)) 

Saturday was good! There was a whole lot of free time where I was able to get to know more people. and then i got to "know know" some girls. It really encouraged me. It was still overwhelming, but was nice to have real conversations with people. I signed up for canoeing, creek tubing, or hiking for off-campus recs, and then goliath swing, zipline, and three man swing for on-campus recs. I'm not sure which one they will assign me to. The weekend really didn't inform me with all i thought it was going to, but that's what two weeks of staff training is for! It's SO PRETTY at the camp!! All of the full time staff is great. It was everything AND nothing like I expected. 

Mostly, the whole weekend calmed some fear. I'm not afraid of going back now. The Holy Spirit continues to prepare me for being away this summer. While I don't know who my close friends are going to be, or who my campers are, they are constantly in my mind. I pray that I am always available for them to come to, and I pray that the Holy Spirit speaks through me. I pray that I am an encouragement to my fellow staffers and that I represent Christ well this summer. I pray that I learn a lot. Adam continues to tell me that I will not be the same person after this summer. I wish i understood what He meant. But I am excited about it!!

I want to start posting pictures on this. I've totally slacked on that since I've redone my blog. I had a test today in Pharmacology. I really hope I made a B on it. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It stinks that we do so much at school, but the only thing that matters is our test grades. kinda sad. but oh well. I won't know the grade until Monday or later. Aggravating...

Romans #5

April 11-16, 2011

Romans 3:1-20

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

·       The Jews were not instantly saved because they were God’s chosen people. They still had to put their trust in their creator, center their lives around Him, and proclaim Him as Lord, just as the gentiles.

·       Although, the Jews had a ridiculous advantage in the oracles of God. Not that He showed favoritism, but they were given an advantage.

·       The oracles refers to the Old Testament.

·       It translate logion...similar to logos...which means “word.”

·       The Jews received the very words of God. They received the truth of salvation first. Unreal.

·       This reminds me of how many resources the US has that we don’t utilize well. There are people groups without THE BIBLE. Yet, we have at least 10 in our home, and don’t read them everyday. We don’t seek out what God has given us. I suppose we’ve followed right in the Jews’ footsteps. We are entrusted with the gospel, just as the Jews were the oracles. 

3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

“That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

·       We have nothing to do with God’s perfection. NOTHING we do can change who He is. He is the one who is able to change us.

·       God will do the justifying. He has kept his promises to them, even through their unfaithfulness.

·       If my unfaithfulness affected God’s faithfulness to me, I would be a looooooser! I’m pretty sure my punch card would have run out a long time before now.

·       There is so much hope in our unwavering King.

5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

·       God is righteous and just. He can’t be one without the other. He judges the world because we deserve to be judged. He is our master and we are His subjects.

·       Our sin does not bring God glory. Although, He works it out for our good, our sin never becomes righteous. It is never cancelled out.

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,

·       Jews and Gentiles both struggle with sin. We are all dominated by it without Christ.

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

·       Psalm 14:1-3 and 53:1-3

·       No one, without Christ, does good. No one can seek Christ. The good things that unbelievers do are because we were made my God, but does not credit God. We do not acknowledge God without Christ.

·       We are naturally selfish. We only seek the things that we want. Christ must seek man and work in his heart.

·       We are all equal without Christ. We worked together to turn and reject Christ. No one is able to save themselves.

13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”

14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

·       Psalm 5:9 and 10:7

·       The sins of the tongue. The grave could refer to the deadly effects of sin. Also, I think an open grave would STINK. And that’s exactly what our mouth is like when we talk garbage. A person’s speech is a very easy way to tell if they have Christ.

·       We are FULL of evil speech, so it’s not just a rare occurrence. It’s the norm for someone without Christ. They curse people, which speaks of HATE… publically wanting the WORST for someone.

·       When people hear me talk, do they hear words that glorify God?

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 in their paths are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

·       Isaiah 59:7-8

·       This world is CRAZY. The world doesn’t know how to walk in peace and harmony. Sin affects society big time. People lash out their anger physically with murder and warfare.

·       We damage and destroy…and leave a nasty trail.

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

·       Psalm 36:1

·       Root cause of sin.

·       The world does not stand in awe of the glory of God or dread the wrath that will be poured out on those who do not submit to his holiness.

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

·       No one has an excuse. We are all held accountable to God. There will be no chance to change your mind before you meet with the sovereign Lord of the universe. Jews and Gentiles alike will be judged. All are guilty; all need Christ to live. Even that “innocent” man on the island that has never seen a bible or heard the word gospel. He’s not innocent and He needs to follow Christ.

20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

·       The law alone will not save. The law only helps us to see our sin and run to Christ for salvation.

·       The deeds the law requires will not save you or keep you on judgment day.

·       LawàKnowledgeàPlea for forgiveness. 

no way.

GUESS WHAT! 

I'm about to leave to go meet my patient, take care of them, and then go to SWO! I'll be sure to blog about that when i get back. 

I've also wanted to blog about some more things, I just haven't had time. So I'm just going to make a checklist and I'll get back to it. 

• Adam's teaching
• Discipleship last monday
• my daddy
• Salamander Huntin'
• my testimony

There were probably some more. but oh well :)

I'M SWO EXCITED/NERVOUS.