HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

SO this weekend we are putting on a dinner theater thing! it really is the game of clue. ME and some of my friends are dressed up as the characters from the game and then resonate people come in in costume and interact with us. we drop hints, eat dinner and some dies...well not really but then before desert they must find out who did the killing and why and with what!! It is a fundraiser for missions and it was alot of fun! it is a three night thing that involves alot of people! here are some pic from night one and i will most more as the weekend goes on!

Can you guess who i am in the game of clue!! dont worry it is paper rolled up in my holder thing!

Joshua 2

You see for me Joshua 2 has a few things worth highlighting.

1. I love that that Joshua knows which men to send in a head to check out the land. Joshua knowing what happen the last time men were sent in to look around, I am sure he did not take this role lightly when picking the two men to go into the city gates! But he makes this decision in what feels like no time at all. His walk with the Lord is so close that in a time for making a decision he knows who to send with no questions asked.

Is your walk so close to the Lord that making decision come easy? Decision making is from time to time one of those thing that we “Give to God” but in reality we keep praying till we get the answer we need or we finally find peace with Gods answer in our time. The hard thing about this is that we miss out on so much of God plans for our lives. Listening to God over a period of time is a good thing but sometimes listening to Gods will means dealing with it when it is not our will for ourselves!! It also means living in God’s time and not our own.

2. Rahab!!! I love that in Joshua one God paints this picture of being STRONG AND COURAGEOUS and then follows that up with Rahab. Rahab was willing to risk her life and the life of her family for doing what God called her to do. She took in two men that could have gotten her killed for being in her home, she lied to the soldiers to protect these men and then she hides in her house with her family while thousands are being killed outside her door. What a great example of a women to look up to. She was willing to risk everything for the glory of God.
I have struggled with the fact that she lied to the soldiers about the where abouts of these two men and the other day God laid this peace in my heart over the fact that in that moment that was what she needed to do to be in the will of God. While no I do not get that all the way I am willing to place trust in the Lord and take it has that Gods will for Rahab.
Because of Rehab’s willingness to take these men in and house then for one night she lived! How AWESOME is that God is great and mighty and if we do the same as she, take time to listen to what God is saying and act on it glorious things will happen in our heart.

3. I just recently learned that when you see LORD in all caps in the bible it is referring to Sheppard
Well you see this in verse 11, Rahab referring to Lord as Sheppard, and then later on she ask for kindness to be shown on her and her family. How cool is it take we can call on God by a specific attribute. We need to take the take to get know our God more personally and on a first name bases.
While giving out granola bars on the U of I campus I meet a ton of people, some I may never see again but some that I saw in the days to come! Knowing that at some point I knew their names and talked with them but not remember who they were the next time really was upsetting to me. So I gave myself a two time limit. If after meeting and having two contestations with them I should know their name! No questions and if I didn’t it was because I did not give the conversation all of my attention. How many conversations have you had with the Lord? Can you call him by name? Maybe we should have a two conversation limit with God as well. We need to be actively involved in getting to know our God and that means taking the time to listen to what he is saying and becoming familiar with who He is.

4. I am such a visual learner and terms that paint pictures in my mind mean more to me then most others. And in verse 18 Rahab is told to put a scarlet cord around her door as a visual meaning to leave her door alone! For me the first thing that comes to mind is a book called the scarlet letter. And while I wish I could say I read this, I wont lie…I did not…I probably spark noted the book or cliff notes. There are many options and I chose one and now don’t really remember that much HOWEVER!!! I do know that the lady was force to wear a scarlet letter that represented who she was and what she had done. In the book it is a negative, but here in Joshua it is a positive. To think this one color and one item defined Rahab for years to come.
Is there one thing right now that defines you?
Is there something from your pass that you feel people see when they look at you?
At first glance I don’t know if I would ever want one thing to depict me for the remaining time I am alive, but after thinking about it there is nothing I would want more then to be know as a daughter of the King. Someone who loved God with all her heart and that over followed to loving people in every situation. If that can be seen in one object and one color I will take it!!!

Water everywhere?!?!

SO, I thought I wpuld tell you a little funny story really fast!!

Yesterday i walked into my house to find towels all in my bathroom and laundry room. yes the bathroom above me in the house i am staying in over followed and then leaked into my apartment downstairs!! haha

Dont worry the family cleaned it all up and it is fine but it was really funny at the moment and still is the only sad part is part of my clothes in my closest got wet as well and will have to go to the cleaners bc they were all of my dresses i brought with me!

See and Wash

So over the past month resonate has done a series of sermons about the postures of Christ. While some were good (there were four) two really stood out to me.

See and Wash! How simple can two words be. But in the place I am at right now both of these words resound in my heart.

To be seen and to see others. For the first time in about three years i am making new friends, and meeting alot of new people. Nac. Is only so big and when you find a good group of friends, you keep them. I was that lucky i had four or five really close friends in college, girls that let me into their hearts and knew mine as well. I move to this city about the same size as nac. at least in my mind and find that my friend making skills are there but lacking. Letting people see you for value is hard, letting people see you with faults is hard. but then I realize this is where God wants me so be really Liz!! come on! So i grow up and be the girl, women God created me to be.

In the process of growing up i realize that if i want others to look at me and really SEE who i am SEE the value God has given me, SEE the art I create in my daily life, SEE faults that make me human, SEE my scares that show growth in God. I must first be willing to see them for all of these things as well. To look at people on the street and give their words value, to meet students and give their passions worth, to talk to people before resonate starts and give their hearts and their lives the time and energy to really care about what is being said. Not just the casual nod or the ever so meaningful "I'm good" but truth and that means sometimes it is messy and sometimes it is neat with a bow on top but it is who i am and it is who they are!

To see past the casualness of the everyday and into the heart of the matters. To see where they are coming from and why they came that route. To see the longing in their eyes and the worth that is to be had.

A week later Keith talked on wash, some might think wash the feet got it serve. But do you serve to glorify your self or God. Do you serve to show you are humble or because you truly are, do you serve to boost your pride or because serving allows the focus to be shifted from you to God.

PRIDE - man hit me in the gut, pride gets in the way of so many daily trails of my life. Simple task become complex because of pride, Pride hinders God from getting the glory and makes me the center of attention. LAME!

I desire to not be seen or heard for the words i say and the actions i complete but for the God who gives me the strength and the life to complete each of the tasks from day to day. How do you serve someone when it is all about ones self? can you? or is that even serving? I dont think it is i think it is serving when the other is placed before me. When I am no longer searching my own heart for areas where i need satisfaction and worth but realizing that my worth is guaranteed from God and that my serving is a way to put others first to SEE their hearts and meet their needs.

They go so hand in hand, I choose to see you and to wash (serve) you. I daily give up all the right i think i have and place God as number one, giving him all the glory and honor. Because i in and of myself can do neither serve or wash on my own. Through Christ I can bring God glory in both!

Wow, these two topics have been rocking my world. I mean how do you do this what does this mean. I want to live in a way that daily i am seeing the value in people not their dots and starts, and to (i would say wash people but that sounds weird) serve people. and doing all of this with no selfish ambition, with no personal guarantee of satisfaction. To live the life of the postures of Christ.