The Nets That Hold Me Down...

Last night I was reading in Psalms chapter twenty-five and as I read I realized something about myself. A lot of scripture has promises for certain types of people. For example, "He leads the humble in what is right..." or "Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit"

Usually whenever I read a verse like that I subconsciously think, "Well, I'm not humble enough yet to apply that to my life" or "One day when I'm finally righteous enough I'll receive that blessing" 

All those thoughts are entirely huge lies. Satan's convinced me that I'm not good enough to receive blessings from God's Word.

As I continued to read I came across verse fifteen. 

"My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the net." 

That last part about God plucking me out of the net just stuck in my head so well, a light had come on for me.

I asked myself, "What are the nets in my life, that I need God to pluck me out of?"

So I wrote them down. 

1. The net of: Image

This is a huge battle for me as it is for a lot of people. Satan easily tempts me with the thoughts of, "you don't look bad but you definitely have some fat that you could get rid of. I mean look at her she looks good, you should probably try harder." thoughts like that, where I don't fully believe I look bad but thoughts that certainly don't make me feel great about myself.

Then i wrote down

2. The net of: minimum

I'm captured by the net of minimization. 

Minimizing what God is capable of as well as minimizing how much time I spend daily with God. 

and lastly I came to the third net in my life that often holds me down.

3. The net of: I'm not good enough. 

I can't accomplish any far fetched dream because I'm not good enough. Someone is always going to be better than me so I might as well give up. 

or

I'm not good enough for God's promises and will never be good enough of a person to receive those blessings. 

After I wrote down all those nets that have held me back for so long I went through Psalms twenty-five again. I read it out loud, and spoke all the truths, blessings, and promises over my life. What a huge difference it has made in my life. Knowing that I can apply ALL scripture to myself and believe what it says. 

So I challenge you, give it a try. Look up a passage, read it out loud, and put your name in the verses. You might be surprised by what comes out of your mouth and think, "Wow, that's true of me?" Then write down the nets that Satan has thrown at you. What are the nets he deceives you with and have been holding you down? Let me know how it goes! 

Staff Training, Changes, and Celebrations!

First and foremost I would like to acknowledge the one year anniversary of

The Not-So-Secret-Life

Its officially been a year of sharing stories of my travels, where God has taken me personally in my walk with Him as well as seeing others lives changed! The date the not-so-secret-life blog launched was on July 27th, 2012. I was preparing for my first year in Life Action and wanted a way I could connect with my supporters, friends, and family while I was gone. Thank you all so much for your support through prayers, donations, and encouragement! Anytime I'm back home and someone tells me they read my blog it means so much to hear. Knowing people are taking the time to read it as well as informing me that they enjoy it, has been incredible. So thank you readers, here comes another year!

While we were at camp several team members realized they were baptized before they were even actual children of God or some not at all. So it was a very cool experience to see so many people proclaim their love for Jesus in a great way together. 

This is my friend Kendra. She is my fearless leader in Happy Heart City! 

Had a great time catching up with my good friend Donna!

Blue Team girls movie night!

Blue Team newbie, Christy. 

My friend Ryan (on the White Team) and I pretending to be bad helpers as an example of what NOT to do in kids clubs. So much fun!

My B E A UTIFUL new closet on our new truck! I have one less suitcase this year thanks to my closet! 

A view of Life Action's Camp property.

As you can see training camp was a blast and "short" five weeks in Buchanan, Michigan. When I arrived at the camp I literally felt like I was home! The relationships God has given me in this ministry are incredible. Choosing to obey God by joining this ministry has never been so rewarding. During the first week of training we had our annual, “Revival Week” now known as, “Seek Week”. As we train to bring revival into the churches, Seek Week is a great time for us to experience personal revival. This year God brought to my attention how my personal quiet time had been gradually declining in intimacy. Slowly it had grown into just a few minutes before I went to bed. I would read a verse or two, sometimes without even knowing what they meant. Sometimes I would not even crack open my bible, because I knew I wouldn't take the time to understand it.

At the end of Seek Week, where everyone from Life Action headquarters is present, all three road teams etc. a lot of other important people and a full room with a live stream on the internet for other people to watch the service... They set aside a time at the end for testimonies of what God has done in your life during the past week. After watching several people go up to the stage and share what God had done in them...God was continually poking my heart, and making it beat so fast I couldn't ignore Him. He wanted me to get up in front of everyone and tell them all how I had been investing little to no time in the God at all. To the point of not even caring enough to want to change my current circumstance. BUT He is good and won't let me live like that forever. So, after getting continually poked... literally my friend was physically poking me to get out of my seat and get up to the stage. Well it worked and I confessed that I was where I was and didn't care until a few days prior.

That being said, I'm very grateful for God pulling me out of my lazy stage of life, that's so easy to get stuck in. I'm happy to say, my personal time with Jesus has grown since then. And if you are where I was, God wants to spend time with you. He's more sad that you aren't spending time with Him than He is mad. God is a jealous God, that made you fearfully and wonderfully. I will admit that after I got in front of everyone I still struggled for awhile and still am trying to get back into a healthy habit. If you think of it, I would appreciate your prayers as I ask God to give me a heavy thirst for His Word, and that when I read it He will speak to me. 

Tonight I'm praising God for a great service. We are in our first church of the year in Dexter, Missouri and tonight I taught the kids what sin is. Sin is anything I think, I say, or I do, that displeases God. I give God the praise for making the words come out of my mouth with clarity in a way that I could not have done on my own. I'm very grateful anytime He gives me grace for a lesson... which is most of the time. I also praise Him for giving me the feeling of inadequacy to teach. It keeps my eyes on Jesus and reminds me that not only can I not teach on my own and that I need Him for everything.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:13