Second Week at Yale: God is Good

And Jesus said, “So do not worry, […] your heavenly Father knows that you need [these things]. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew6:31-34

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 God is good 😀

I was experiencing a bit of “blogger’s block” today and wondered why. Haha, but when I got home this afternoon, the Lord showed me it was because He was purposely not giving me any new material (in terms of being inspired to blog) until I wrote the blog I have been saying I would write. That blog was going to be about the recent transition the Lord and I have made together. For many of you who may chance upon my blog as God leads (hehe), it might be interesting for you to note that I’m presently (as of August 2014) a student in Yale’s School of Public Health, focusing on the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. I don’t necessarily have an express interest in writing about myself too much, but I did feel like the Father specifically wanted me to write about my time here. In doing so, I hope to magnify Him 🙂 As for family and friends who do know I’m here, I hope you enjoy the update!

As of this Friday, I’ve been in New Haven, CT at Yale for two whole weeks, and all I can say is that the Lord God, Christ Jesus, has been keeping me in absolute AWE everyday 🙂 Haha, the fact that I’m even here is a testimony in and of itself, and on full scholarship. That was a prayer of mine if going back to school was His will, and clearly it was His will 🙂 I have numerous, numerous stories, but I’d simply like to highlight these:

• When I first was looking to move to New Haven, I got very excited about a BEAUTIFUL apartment that was close to the school of public health. At the time, I hadn’t gone through my financial budgeting as fine-toothed-ly as perhaps I should have, but I went ahead and put the deposit down on the apartment, despite some feelings of reservation. After I did put the deposit down, however, I really felt uneasy. In prayer, I emailed the leasing agent and asked what would be the repercussions for needing to step out of the lease, and she explained that I would forfeit my deposit. That wasn’t a good option for me, considering my deposit was $1,000+. Therefore I thought that was the end of it, and I trusted the Lord to provide (He will cover over your mistakes 🙂 ). Later on, I got an email from the leasing agent asking me what my assets would be each month. I explained, and didn’t hear back that day. The next day though, she called and said my situation had “been in her mind”, and she hadn’t been able to shake it (ha! Jesus :D). Having seen my available assets, she not only was willing to let me out of the lease, but also return my deposit in full!! Hallelujah! I accepted immediately! Once I got off the phone, however, all the sudden, I realized: I don’t have another apartment! Yikes! Haha, so the search began. Fast forward, and basically, the Lord provided a new apartment on the same street (yes! still close to the school of public health) with a variable leasing option (much better for me to rent 10 mnths vs 12), on-site laundry (the other place didn’t have that), and off-the street parking included in the rent (awesome, and perhaps rare here in New Haven!). So when my dad and I get here to New Haven, I was SO surprised to see that the place I originally was going to rent is literally RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from my new home-apartment! HA! God is so good. When I stepped into my apartment, I had such peace. It was tremendous, as He is. Here are some pics!

• Here’s a funny one: Once my neighbor moved in next door, I noticed I could hear him playing guitar and singing. He seemed nice, and so on. So one day, I’m sitting on my couch, and I get this idea that I could take a copy of some sheet music of a worship song and write on it, “Can you play this? :)”. Now, my intention was simply to say hello and potentially see where the situation could lead. So I did it! Stuck it in the door crack and everything. (Mind you, I did ask the Lord what He thought about it beforehand, and I didn’t get a no.) I heard him come out and get it and be on his way. Suddenly, the anxiety kicked in. OH NO! What had I done?! He could have TOTALLY misunderstood me – especially if he wasn’t a believer! So basically, I lived in constant prayer over the issue for some days. Finally, having decided that I had just definitely messed up and now definitely needed God’s intervention to redeem the matter, I simply asked that the Lord would arrange an opportunity for us to connect and me to explain myself. So low and behold, one day after shopping, I come home and am getting out of my car when my neighbor is simultaneously walking to the dumpster! This was it! So I said hello and asked if he got my note? Yes. Then I went into apology mode: “I realized that could have been really misunderstood! I’m sorry if that was confusing…” and then I noticed he was saying, “No, no. It’s okay!” Then he asked, “Are you a Christian?” and I was like, “Yes!” and he said, “Yeah! Me TOO!” GASP! Can you imagine my relief? HAHA! God is so good. The Lord is kind.
• My God supplies all my needs according to His Riches and Glory in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is a very rich king. All things are accessible to Him when He needs them/wants them. So that means I too have all that I need in Him. Before I came to Yale, I knew there were still a few costs that would need to be met monthly. All the big stuff was taken care of, but a few necessary things were still required. So I began believing the Lord for a job months ago, and just knew He would take care of it. So around August, I signed up to get job emails and when I got to New Haven, I started to pay more attention. However, I felt like the Lord kept telling me to wait and not apply to any of the jobs I was seeing. So I waited. I have learned, by God’s kindness and love, that if He says wait, just wait. Whatever He has for you is perfect and that’s what you want/is worth waiting for. So I waited. And…I waited. And then once classes started, I started to sort of… wait with some questions 🙂 So finally one day I came home and sat down at my computer and began to speak with the Lord about my concerns. Surely He knew what I needed, but was I missing something? The Lord told me to pray, and so I did, with thanksgiving. Then I asked if I was missing something, and He said, “No, you’ll see it.” A little vague on the surface, but the Lord is super literal. I mean really literal. I.E. He is the Word? Makes sense to me. So anyway, I decided to check the student employment website again, from whence I was getting all the previous emails that He told me not to apply for. Nothing stood out. Then I went back to this link for “Community Service Positions”. These positions would be paid through work-study, which I have. When I had checked that link earlier in the summer, there was virtually nothing there. But I went and looked at it and scrolled down. Suddenly, my heart exploded!! A non-profit called New Haven Reads Book Bank was hiring READING TUTORS! Now here’s a quick aside about me: Literacy is very important to me, and I had the blessed experience to be a reading tutor in high school. In coming to New Haven and seeing the disparities here in the community, it was already in my heart to get involved in an after-school program in the community as a tutor, particularly for reading. So imagine my thrill when I see not only that opportunity, but that I could get PAID to do so! And mind you, the pay is good ($13/hr) – Praise the Lord! I knew that was what the Lord had me waiting for. So again, fast forward: I applied, had my interview today, and was hired (which the Lord had been assuring me would happen). But look at this special treat: During my interview, I mentioned that the job was really an answer to prayer, and the woman interviewing me stopped me and said, “I knew it! I thought you might have been a believer because you put ‘blessings’ in your email! WE ARE TOO!” HA! Haha!! 🙂 So imagine my joy 🙂 I got to tell them the ‘real’ story of how I was lead to the position, and we all praised God together. I’m so excited to start. God is good 🙂
• Two more amazing things God has done, and then I’m almost finished: the first is that on my first Sunday here, the Lord led me to a church called City Church here in New Haven (the fact that they had a website was very helpful, lol). But the first service really blessed me tremendously, and I felt the Lord say He had brought me here for a special purpose and this is where He wanted me to stay. So I knew to come back the next Sunday 🙂 During my personal quiet time that week after, I was really looking at Abraham’s life and relationship with the Lord. Although I wanted to see Abraham’s faith, I was more interested in seeing the Lord – seeing Jesus and the Father and Holy Spirit and their response, words, and actions. Love them. At some point during the week though, I came across a question I had inside about the sacrifice Abraham was asked to make. Although I kept pressing into God’s heart about it, I didn’t seem to find my answer. So the next Sunday came, and I went to church. What was the sermon about? Abraham’s sacrifice and God’s grace 🙂 Oh yeah – confirmation. The following week, in my personal time with the Lord, He drew me to Jacob wrestling with Him; it was very quick how He led me to focus in on that particular part of Jacob’s journey, but He and I spent some time looking into it a bit deeper. So the next Sunday comes, and I go to church. What was the sermon about? Jacob wrestling with the Lord and God’s grace. HA! God is so fun 🙂 He’s beautiful. I’ll be joining soon, having worship auditions on the 14th, and starting small group to be apprenticed as a leader-in-training around the same time 😀 The Lord is worthy.
• Lastly, community. God has categorically wowed me in this area of community. He actually led me to see that I have a friend from high school here that I hadn’t seen in a very long time 🙂 It was beautiful to see her again. In the school of public health, from day one of meeting with students at a pre-orientation event until today, He has been gathering people to me and around me constantly. I really love my fellow classmates and friends at church, and the Lord has quickly introduced me to fellow believers here on campus! The people are all very interesting, and it has just been thrilling to share and get to know others, including my teachers and advisers. To go into some of the amazing details, consider this very unique story: I have a friend who is getting married soon, and she’s in Maryland. I met her at a summer internship while I was at Iowa State in 2010. She and I stayed in touch and reconnected once my relationship with the Lord really began to grow and blossom. We were talking this past Sunday evening, sharing and catching up, and she asked me if I had met a young man she knew from Maryland. They had gone to church together, and the name sounded familiar. Turns out, I had JUST met him that same evening at a student organization event (that the Lord wanted me to go to, so I went, haha)!! Thrilling! Not only this, but just before this happened, I had been praying about going to her wedding by myself. I wanted to go with someone, preferably male all things considered, lol. I had thought of one person, but I could feel Holy Spirit saying that wasn’t His preference. Haha. So I decided I would wait, and I trusted He would prepare me to go with someone of His choosing. Who do I get to go with do you think? Her friend! How awesome is the Lord Jesus Christ? How amazing is He? Am I orchestrating these awesome events? Clearly not. Please see that these things are not coincidences! The Lord is good, and He’s amazing 🙂

 

So just to wrap up, I want to let everyone know that things are going well – haha 🙂 I love my classes, I love the life God is giving me here. I love how every moment of everyday, I feel Him, I sense Him, I know Him. My time here has been marked by His incredible presence, and I am so pleased. The Word is true: Take your delight in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). These are only glimpses of all He’s been doing, and all He will do. I cherish the Lord. All He does is amazing; all He gives are good and perfect gifts. Father, Christ Jesus and Holy Spirit are amazing. Also, please note, that all of these things were bathed in prayer. I so appreciate the Lord’s faithfulness to hear our prayers and answer in abundance beyond all we could ever ask, think, or image 😀 Haha, and He has been rapidly expanding my imagination, so there’s surely no ceiling in what He can do 🙂 Faith believes in the Lord’s goodness and trusts Him. He’s doing amazing things. May He be praised 🙂 May you delight yourself in the Lord, and may you know that it is He who provides for you and works in you to will and do unto His good pleasure ❤ More pics below! Love ❤

Pics from the pre-orientation hike in this fort-thing:

Around Yale:

 very interesting building designs this building that looks like a beehive? The panes are made out of very thin marble that still lets light in, but protects the special collections inside 🙂 Neat!

Praise

I will sing to the Lord, and give Him praise. His love is greater than we know.

With every day, I see His face. More and more it shows.

His love is beauty; it’s grace and truth. It’s more precious than gold.

The Lord is Good; He is Just; His Love endures, forevermore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fruit

“Even if I don’t feel anything, one day I will live in the friut of this moment.”

Kim Walker on the fruit of Worshipping the Lord, even if you don’t ‘feel anything’ ❤

God doesn’t hate people, Chick-Fil-A

Did the title draw you here? Great 🙂 I hoped it would.

With the recent Chick-Fil-A drama, attitudes, opinions, picket signs and waffle fries have been flying in and out of people’s hands and mouths. And in the midst of mayors wanting to ban the food franchise from their state to lines wrapped around Chick-Fil-As across the U.S. on August 1st, God’s personality again becomes ensconced in confusion and chaos.

So how does or would the Lord God feel about all of this? I desire to share His heart.

The simple truth is: God does not hate anybody. No one. No matter what. He doesn’t hate the person living a heterosexual lifestyle who has an addiction to cigarettes and falls asleep in church or the person living a homosexual lifestyle who quit smoking cigarettes years ago and attends a small unitarian universalist fellowship each week. What do these two people have in common, however? Whether they are saved or unsaved, they are not operating in the mind of Christ Jesus – and God does have a problem with that.

The Word says, before we’re truly saved, we are all objects of God’s wrath. Yikes! But there’s a reason for that:

It’s not because God hates you; that He walks around in Heaven stewing over our faults; that He’s ready to strike someone dead for cursing or not using proper table manners. The Word says that God so LOVED (and still does LOVE) the world, that He sent Jesus Christ to be the exchange for our faults, sins – issues – that would have permanently prevented us from having a true relationship with God, our Heavenly Father.

It’s because the mind that does not have Christ by the Holy Spirit actually, naturally, (unfortunately) makes God its enemy – whether you, in your spirit, want to or not! Before you let Christ into your heart (which goes against our mind’s natural thinking), all you’re running off is your mind, and sadly  our minds are flawed, in more ways than one.

If you’ve ever wanted a snack from the kitchen, and by the time you got there, had totally forgot your purpose for being in there – then you know what I’m talking about.

However, once you have Christ Jesus living in your heart, you have access to His thoughts as given in the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God, who helps you live them out. Then you must be willing to operate in His ways – in the very mind of Christ.

A mind that makes God it’s enemy can’t accept the things of God and cannot understand who He is. Jesus Christ is the key – and He came and died for all people, regardless their lifestyle, because He loves us – all of us.

As far as Chick-Fil-A president, Dan Cathy, and founder, S Truett Cathy, are concerned, they actually agree that God loves you! That’s apart of why S Truett Cathy always wanted Sundays off for his employees, so they could have a day of rest (Biblical) and spend it with the Lord, if they chose. That is an act of love, not hate, and certainly not prejudice. They both believe in the Lord of the Bible and have faith based on what the Word of God says.

The Bible, as the divinely inspired Word of God, is not “just a book” to pick and choose from to form or not form your own personal theology. We either accept all of God’s testimony in the Bible, or not. To do so means salvation and eternal life in Christ Jesus. To not do so will lead to permanent separation from God after death. But even now, God certainly does love you, and it’s ultimately your choice to receive His love, or not. I pray and hope you will in Jesus’ Name ❤

(References: Dan Cathy’s Interview, John 3:16, Romans 1:28, Luke 24:45, Romans 2:4)

From the Outside

So often, we’re trying to define ourselves from the outside-in. We’re trying to make…a statement… about who we are. And how often, because of that, do we do just that, and try to interpret someone from the outside-in?

But that’s not God’s way at all 🙂 He says,

“I’m not like a man in looking on the outer things. I look at the heart. I want to see what’s there because from the heart, all life issues flow; all decisions are judged; and from the overflow of what’s in there, that’s what comes out of your mouth and is displayed in your actions.”

So the next time you want to make a statement about who you are by what you wear or how you adorn yourself outwardly, think on this: God asks us to literally “clothe” ourselves with humility, love, grace, truth, righteousness, and best of all, Jesus Christ. As a believer, that’s Who I want people to see anyway ❤

(Scriptural references: 1 Samuel 16:7, Colossians 3:12, Romans 13:14)

 

Joy and Peace

Confess over yourself, “I will go forth in joy, and be led by peace”. God leads by peace; His joy is our strength.

Julie Mann, Culture Shock

 

Endure

It takes the power and fruit of patience to possess your soul. It takes faith to be patient.

David Huskey, teaching on “The Anointing God Puts IN You”