He Can't Get Over You

Romans 8:37  
    

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psalms 34:17-18

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Can't you see it?  He can't get over you!  You are His and He will never let you go.  When you cry, He holds every tear.  He is torn every time you are hurt.  He casts his robes upon your shoulders when you are naked.  Like I have said, H.E. C.A.N.N.O.T. (A.N.D. W.I.L.L. N.O.T.) G.E.T. O.V.E.R. Y.O.U. Ever.

Really? Is it a hill to die on?

I am sure you have heard this said before.  You know, when two people are fighting, you say, "Is it a hill to die on?" meaning, Really, you would fight about this?

I say that we should not die on every hill that we pass over.  We will fight, and disagree as humans, but we can still work on this.

The only hill you should die on is a hill that has seen the blood of a pure man die, the hill that bore three crosses and the son of man, the hill that was called death.  That is the only hill that you should die on.

~Rachel

The Circle Maker

     Are you a circle maker?

     You are thinking, What the heck is a circle maker!?
Right?

     Some of you may have read Mark Batterson's book The Circle Maker.

     Well, a 'circle maker' is a person that prays with faith.

     No, not just faith.  But FAITH.  Authority is a key as well.  Praying big, wait, let me re-iterate that for you, PRAYING BIG PRAYERS. 

     You honor God when you have the faith to pray for something that you can't in any way shape or form complete on your own.  Say, I am praying for a job so that I can help out with car insurance and a missions trip to Alaska (some callings won't go until they are fulfilled).  I know that the job in itself isn't a huge deal...yeah, but the funding for Alaska, that is huge!  I am praying circles around the trip that I know that I will take.  I am praying for the people that I will see in future missions trips, that God would prepare their hearts.  I am praying that God would prepare my heart.  I am praying for flights and travel that I will need on those trips...

...See what I mean?  Look ahead and pray over God's plan for your life.  Pray over your future family, marriage, and courage. 

     If your will lines up with God's will.  You will find an abundance of answered prayers.

     Be a circle maker...ask Big things of a God that is Big enough to accomplish them.

Love all you guys!  Thanks for reading!

~Rachel

Polluted

                                                                            
          Last night I was blessed to be able to go to a Christian youth movement thing called Come Alive.  At first I felt extremely oppressed.  To this moment I can't pinpoint what it was exactly.  but I felt kind of run down and saddened by the looks of our generation.  It is watered down and polluted.  Watered down by what?  Complacency.  Polluted by whom? The Devil of course!

          The pollution is caused by the Devil and our own sinful desires.  Relationships can poison our love for God.  They can cause us to be consumed by a fire that can not only burn us but consume us.  Relationships are  not a bad thing within themselves.  It is how the relationship is handled, conducted and controlled.  Every relationship must be guarded carefully. When you find yourself alone with that person, what are you going to do?  Will you step into the trap?  Will you flee from temptation? Will you walk the line?

           Married people have a different kind of control to their relationship, that we unmarried people don't understand.  So....I won't be getting into that.

           When you form an attachment to someone by becoming close physically, it will hurt the both of you in later years if it turns out that you don't end up 'together'.  Every small step takes you closer to the line. It starts ripping down your convictions and your morals.  When you think, I'm not sleeping around.  I'm not a bad kid.  Just think, if you take a white piece of paper and a paint brush with brown paint.  And you think, Ok, we can hold hands, I only ever said I wouldn't kiss a girl/guy before I was married. Now dip that paint brush and paint a 'TS' on the paper.  TS stands for tiny step.  Now you go out to a movie, Well, there's only one scene that's bad.  We can watch this as long as we close our eyes for the bad parts.  You don't end up closing your eyes for the part, and the picture is stuck in your brain causing lustful thoughts to multiply. Now you may paint, L for lust.  Well, I guess I can kiss her...I really, really, really,want to!!! But...never mind.  That was the past.  I've made new convictions.  Paint a C for compromise.  We love each other so much that we couldn't keep away!  It's no big deal, right?  I mean, you have to do it some day. You can go ahead and paint your whole paper brown.  Your purity, your convictions, and your innocence have now left you. That FIRST step was what started it all. That tiny little "innocent" step really snowballed didn't it? Please don't take that first step.  Once you do, the next thing you know, you'll have lost a gift that was given you to keep for marriage.

         Not every relationship ends this way.  I see people that court their partners and don't get intimate till marriage.  That is amazing and they have the best marriages today.

          Look at your paper.  It is soppy, ugly and wet.  Just like us, we are sinners, wallowing in our filth.  But listen, listen, you don't have to.  You don't have to stare at your own ruins!

          Christ Died that you may become clean and new.  He took himself and laid it over everything that you have ever thought or done wrong.  He placed his crimson, blood stained letter and laid it over your muddied life.  He can make you whole again and restore your purity.  He loves you so much that He died that you might not perish.

          Don't throw what Christ did for you in the trash.  Show him that you respect him enough to save yourself for him, and your intended.  There are so many times that I have spat in His face, and I am sorry for it.  I am broken over it.  I pray that you would be as well.  I pray that you would embrace Christ, because he has been with you through it all, now it is your turn to stay close by his side.

I may sound crazy, but not normal, is cool.  Right?

Prayers,

~Rachel

Let us talk of Submission...

Submission??!!  Why?  You might say.

Well my dearest, it seems to be lacking in the era.  Would you not agree?

So, to begin, I might add: Submission is not being a doormat.  Note the word NOT.

Submissions is a state of respect, honor and grace.  It is not what this world would like to make it out to be.

If you think about it, it is a strength.  So many people look at submission as a weakness, or an act of helplessness. NO, no, no!  Hear me out.  Submissions is strength!

If you have the self control to lay down your selfish desires and cater to another's needs, then you are stronger than the one who server his (or her) own needs.

Don't look upon submission as weakness.  Stand tall and know that it is character. 

What then is life?

What Then Is Life?

Rachel L. Stickler

8/5/2012

The outsiders speech. A talk of the world in the eyes of the one who has yet to see the Light.

Trapped, forever trapped in this cursed tower.  There is no hope for me, I will never see the light of dawn from within these stone walls.  Never shall a breath of freedom be sung from the belly of this iron dragon.  All is old, lost, never to be made new.  All will pass, yet I will live on in my misery.  The towers will seemingly crumble, though their power keep its hold.  My hair will become like snow and my back will bend with the age of many years. 

It was once said, “Those who hope, are shattered.” I wouldn’t dare to see if it is true.  Though I doubt there would be much of me left to break in pieces. 

No prince in golden armor, no magnificent white horse.  Nothing to stay my sorrows.

What then is life?  Is it not the slavery that they call freedom?  Or the hatred they call love?  Cannot a single man find his peace?

Everyone goes his way.  Never looking up, or in the waters of their own reflection.  What beasts they cannot see, for they have become blind.  What falsehood that is called one’s heart, for all veins flow with the blood of deception.

Hah, they call it joy, but a substance from a bottle is nothing more than a masquerade or a blotting out of one’s memories.

Shall I even mention happiness?  That is grasping all that one can carry and more.  Even if it breaks a family to shards.  Greed is made to be a thing of common smiles and a mask of laughter.

Like the stones that are newly laid, wagons will still roll over, and the horses will still trample them.  Not one sees that they too are wearing away.

Not even the mountains can keep from crumbling into the sea, how can we keep on this crooked rode and still live?

Where then is the hope?

A beating within me throbs its new arrival.  A vision of a blood spattered man with a crown of thorns, a crimson stained cross.  A sinless one who died for all.  True sacrifice, and mercy, love and redemption.  Can it be that he died for me?  That he can break these chains?  Yes!  Yes, my weary soul! It is He.  He who has now given hope to the hopeless, rest to the weary, and salvation to the lost.