True service flows from love

I have really been struggling on the whole issue of my church. The thing is that I have not loved my church and since I was not really loving my brothers and sisters I was really not loving God and therefore I was attending church more as an obligation. Well as a result I have become more cynical about my church and acting more like a little kid by whining about how horrible it is there. I think until I learn to love my church as God does I will not be able to do anything in it.

Once again on serving

Matthew 25:37-40 says, "Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." You get what that is saying? Basically even when you do different things to others, maybe as small as a cup of water, you are giving it to Jesus. That is pretty flippin awesome!!!

Ok I think I am starting to get it

Back in September God called me back to my parents church (I have to start calling it MY church) and I had no idea why. Well thanks to a few people God chose to speak through I think I might understand now. I went with my old church to the rescue mission to serve for a little more than an hour. It was an awesome reminder of what serving God is like (since it has been more than two years since the last time I went). However as I was fighting traffic to get to choir relatively close to on time I started thinking why doesn't my church have as many opportunities to serve as this church. Ok first of all incredibly stupid thing to think because isn't that like judging my church. If a person cannot another person then surely a person cannot judge a church. I asked one of my friends (also in my prayer group there) what her take on it was. She reminded me that our church is still recovering after losing our senior pastor and they are in the process of rebuilding. Well that is true, but I thought about it a little more and realized that long before we started having all these issues with pastors and such when our church was large and had a strong foundation there was still little in the means of outreach, it seemed (and seems) like the church has been focusing a lot on making itself bigger and better. Now don't take any of this wrong and think that I hate my church because I assure you I do not. However after thinking it through and listening, it started to click.... I have a heart for missions and outreach (even if I forget it from time to time) and I am not satisfied with my church or rather their opinion of it. What is the best way to change something? The answer is simple, get involved. That is exactly what I intend to do. After choir is finished at the end of December I will take the membership class and officially become a member of that church. Then I will find some way of getting involved in the outreach department or the missions department, whichever.

A few of my favorite things

I absolutely LOVE walking down to the Las Vegas Wash it is a little more than a mile but so worth it when you get there. I went down there after school today. Kind of tired but desperately in need of the sound of rushing water. by the time I got down there I was just ready to see it. The wash is one of my favorites because it is quite beautiful and exceedingly relaxing. When I got there I noticed something, the water that rushes over the rocks has an awfully strong current. I sat down and just stared at it. Suddenly the thought occurred to me that I serve the God who made that. "You may be thinking wow.... really you just figured that out" but you have to understand... I'm blonde. I have tried to take pictures and videos to capture it, and every single one does not actually represent it well. It is cool to see that I serve an artistic God

I am in the process of working on a Bible study of sorts to post on here