worldwithinthewords:

You found me when “save me” were the only words I could speak. 
You loved me when “hallelujah” was the only word I dared to sing. 
When I said “I can’t do this alone,” You said that I don’t have to.

You taught me to stand, You taught me who I am. 
You wrote Love upon my heart and placed a crown on my head.
You called me Daughter and you called me Yours. 
Now I free to be the greatest thing, I am free to be who you called me to be.

My friend Dara is awesome! You should go check out her blog!

I’ve been introducing more fruits and vegetables in my diet. Now I just have to decrease my sugar intake :p

So the other day I was thinking about the whole Miley Cyrus deal, and the whole thing grieves my heart. Then I started to wonder how does God see the situation, so I asked Him. He reminded me of the the story of the prodigal son. 

Now the father had been waiting for his son to return, and when he did, the father ran to meet him. But then I started thinking, what if that wasn’t the first time the father ran out because he thought he saw his son? What if every time he saw a figure in the distance that fit his sons profile, he ran out to see if it was him? What if he had run out to the road every day until his son came home?

What if that’s what the Father does for us, every time there’s an opportunity, He shows His love. What if He is sitting on the edge of His throne just waiting for those moments? And I think that the Father wants us to stand with Him in these moments, whether it’s for Miley, a friend, or the homeless guy on the corner. 

First off let me just say that I’ve been following Jeff since I saw the video “Sexual Healing” was all over Facebook, and when I found out that he was writing a book, I was super excited about it. Needless to say, it’s a huge honor to review this book. One of the reasons I’ve always liked Jeff is that he’s not afraid to talk about the things the church doesn’t talk about because they’re uncomfortable

While reading this book, I realized that I had already heard a lot of the concepts that Jeff discussed. Since I grew up in church it would have been really easy to me to say, “I already know that,” or “I can skip this section.” But I didn’t. Some of it I didn’t want to read, because, Jeff was calling out my crap. I was pushed me to see the religion in my life, and to actually do something about it.

There are a couple things that Jeff talks about that really hit home for me. The first thing that really stood out to me is how Jeff challenges Christians (specifically artists) to use their creative ability, instead of copying the secular industry and calling it art. That’s something that’s been bothering me for years, and I’m so glad that some else finally said it. Christians are so much more than cheap imitations, so why is that what the world sees?

“Church isn’t a place to act good, but a place to drop the act.” This statement just hit me in the gut. I’ve been guilty of that so many times it’s not even funny. Thankfully I have friends who don’t like to let me get away with doing that, but I don’t want them to have to call me out on it. Just a side note, since the church is really just followers of Christ, every time I’m with believers I shouldn’t have to act. How’s that for busting some religion?

My heart is to be real with others, whether they are a Christian or not, because too many times I walk my door with a different side of me showing. At work I act one way, at church I act another, and at youth group I act another. There’s only one person for me to impress, and He’s the same no matter where I’m at. 

If I could summarize “Jesus > Religion” to two words, I would say that it’s about being real. Period. Sometimes we don’t know how to be real, well this book is a great tool to help with that. Strangely enough, the journey to being real, starts when you begin to be real with yourself, and as you walk with Jeff you’ll see that. “Jesus > Religion” doesn’t have all the “Christianese” the church uses today, and I think that’s what makes it a great read. Please don’t pass up the chance to read this book because you think it doesn’t apply to you, it does.

Today at work, I was talking to Jesus about how I couldn’t wait to get home, so sit down (I stand all day at work). And He was like, “Yeah. And when you get home, I have a surprise for you.” I love surprises, especially when they’re from Jesus, so I was kind of excited about this. My plan was to simply hang out with Jesus as soon as I got home, and I wasn’t going to be distracted by the tv, my computer or my phone. But when I got home that didn’t happen, so I figured that I missed it. 

Now some of you may know by now that I like to write (I just don’t do it nearly as often as I would like). Well I about two months ago I signed up to review a book called “Jesus>Religion,” and I didn’t hear anything back from them. I figured I didn’t have enough followers on twitter or on my blog, so I moved on. Writing a review would be a great experience in writing, but hey, there are other ways too.

Anyway, back to today. While I was fiddling around with my budget (or something like that), I realized that I had an email from Nelson Books. Not really a big deal because I’ve been getting emails from them since I signed up write the book review. But it was a big deal! It turns out that I get to write a review after all! I was speechless, I couldn’t believe it. If my roommate had been home…well…who knows what she would have thought. While I was still trying to make sense of it all, I heard the Father say, “Surprise.” I didn’t miss it, even though He probably wanted to spend time with me first, I still got my surprise. Once again, I’m so thankful for the existence of the grace of God!

The review will be up the week of 10/7. My post may be scarce until then, not that there has been an abundance of them anyway. :)