Your Love, Oh Lord

Every day I realize how indescribable God's love for us. I've been sitting here thinking of what to say but it's so hard to put into words.

People fail us. I've learned that sometimes friends became distant to you, there will be times when no one can help you because they're too busy,  and nothing on this world will never satisfy you. but don't worry my friend, I have good news. Jesus. He's always there for you. He's never too busy. He never doesn't care. He will NEVER fail you. He will never leave you hungry for more. He's satisfying. Loving. Caring. Forgiving.

Sunday, as I sat on my hammock watching my bro and dad play outside and my sis and mom sit out in the sun I was once again reminded how blessed I am. I have two godly parents who give all their energy for us kids. I have two siblings who've always erased my stress by making me laugh. I have a house. And food. A car (oh man that's very useful). Selections and selections of clothes and shoes. I'm so selfish to want more. To be disappointed and unsatisfied for more than what I have. I deserve none of what I have.

But he's loved me. He's poured out his love to me. He's forgiven me. He's cared for me. He's always there for me. He never fails me.

This song perfectly describes Jesus' character and of how we should respond to his love for us.

Your love, oh Lord
Reaches to the heavens
Your faithfulness stretches to the sky
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains
Your justice flows like the ocean's tide


I will lift my voice
To worship You, my King
I will find my strength
In the shadow of your wings

always remember that you are blessed in whatever situation you are in. i know sometimes life treats you wrong but you are alive. you have clothing to cover you. a house to keep you safe. family and friends. you are forgiven and loved by God. you're blessed.

bouncing in to say bye, 
                                    bernie

What I like about the song At the Cross

Welcome to Good Apples Friday

Today I wanted to share this song called "At the Cross" by Chris Tomlin.

There's a place where mercy reigns and never dies

There's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide
Where all the love I've ever found
Comes like a flood
Comes flowing down

[Chorus:]
At the cross
At the cross
I surrender my life
I'm in awe of You
I'm in awe of You
Where Your love ran red
And my sin washed white
I owe all to You
I owe all to You Jesus

There's a place where sin and shame are powerless
Where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness
Where all the love I've ever found
Comes like a flood
Comes flowing down

[Chorus]

Here my hope is found
Here on holy ground
Here I bow down
Here I bow down
Here arms open wide
Here You save my life
Here I bow down
Here I bow

I love this song so much. It's so peaceful.

I love the line "I'm in awe of you."

Whenever I think about Jesus dyeing on the cross I think about the sacrifice he gave up.  

How he died for the ones who were beating him to death.

He gave his life for us; the ones who constantly disobey and hate him.

"I'm in awe of you"

You are awesome God.

To die for us.

To die for them.

To love us so much that you would die for us.

And how do we apply to this message?

To this loving God who died for us.

How do we apply to this?

We bow down to him.

We follow him.

And we tell others about this amazing God.

Isn't God amazing?

Every single Good Apples Friday post I write I always leave saying,

"WOW. WOW. My God is so awesome. So amazing. So powerful. So loving. So caring. So forgiving."

I hope you feel this way to when you read about God.

Have a lovely week.

A great Reformation Day!

And that you may be reminded of how amazing God is every single day.

bouncing in to say bye,

                               bernie

Good Apples Friday // My God is Amazing and Here's Why.

Seriously everybody my God is amazing!

 

Welcome to Good Apples Friday

 

I am here today to remind you of how great your God is. And how loving he is towards you.

 

 

Today for my bible study I had the joy of reading the last to chapter sadly of Live Smart. I recently posted about this book and how we should love the church a couple weeks ago and I'm here again with some other awesomeness from this book.

 

Know the Gospel

 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2nd Corinthians 5:21

 

At first I didn't really get this verse, but now after hearing this chapter it really comes clear.

 

What do you feel like most of the time when you get very bad score on a test? I feel very discouraged. But what about this kind of score? What if I told you that every single day I pray to God saying, "God please let me obey you today. Please let me love others. Please let me have a good attitude and obey my parents." And after that I hate on others. I don't obey my parents and if I do I whine horribly about it. And that makes me feel so discouraged. So mad. That I can't go one hour without sinning against God. Without just saying two words after my mom tells me to do something. Yes mom. Why? And it makes me feel so sorry to God. I failed. I totally failed. That test was to see if I could obey my mom with a good attitude and I failed.

 

But God sees this and he is sorry for us. He loves us and he doesn't want us to go to hell. He wants us to be with him forever. So he looks at his son and his perfect score. Jesus, lived a perfect life. Absolutely no sins. And what reward does Jesus get for that perfect score. Would you take the blame for all of Ellie's sins and every ones sins and die for them. I get so mad when sometimes my dad said I meant to spill the water on the table when really it was just an accident. Imagine people hating on Jesus and making him die for something he never even did. But he loved us enough that he did that for us. He died for us. He took my blame. Okay thank you Jesus!

 

And it gets better too! Not only did Jesus take my blame, but he gave me his perfect score. I'm clean. You are clean guys! Jesus gave you his perfect score. His 100% on one of the hardest I mean hardest tests of your life. He gave it to you. oh boy girls you are loved. you are loved!

 

Martin Luther called this the "great exchange." You know what I deserve? Eternal death. You know what Jesus deserves? Eternal life with Jesus Christ. And you know what I received instead of what I deserve. Eternal life with Jesus Christ. And you know what Jesus received instead of what he deserved. death. And he did die. But he rose from the dead. And now we will have eternal life with him in heaven. Oh thank you Jesus. I do not deserve ANYTHING. But you gave me eternal life.

 

 

This is why my God is amazing.

And I hope you think that too.

 

Now spread this to everyone you see.

And let them see the joy that you have too.

 

That Jesus died for you and he is risen!

 

 

bouncing in to say bye,

                                bernie

 

 

P.S. I'm on vacation right now and I'm having a great time!

Is there a Serjio in your life?

Hello everyone!

So today I'm going to talk about something that I thought about sharing to you today.

I hope all of you have read my blog post about the summer camp I went to.

It was my first time and it was absolutely so awesome!

Nothings better than getting to talk about Jesus ALL day WITH  your friends ALL week.

God definitely touched me that week.

To see the blog posts click here and here.

Anywho, you might catch in those posts I might've talked about a boy named Serjio.

The pastor that night told us about him.

One night Serjio was sitting down and he probably looked a little sad.

Some collage students came up to him and preached the gospel to him.

That night he received Christ as his Savior.

A couple months later he died on a four wheeler with his uncle.

His testimony tells everyone that they shouldn't even think about feeling embarrassed about sharing Christ to other.

There could be a Serjio in your life.

Any day you cousin, best friend, grandma, grandpa, teacher, or anyone could die without even knowing Christ.

So we need to step up as Christians and proclaim his gospel.

We don't know what could happen tomorrow.

But we need to live life like we got no tomorrow.

Or that person has no tomorrow.

I've been reading Acts in the bible.

I love it a lot because it really shows bravery to share the gospel.

To not be ashamed of the gospel.

Because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

Your friends could be just like Serjio who might die in a couple days or months.

And we lay down hoping they will come to Christ.

I encourage you and me too!

To share the gospel.

 

Is there a Serjio in your life?

What are you going to do about it?

 

 

 

                                           



Super Summer Part 2!

BEFORE SUPER SUMMER

One thing that was really awesome was God speaking to me that week. The Sunday before the camp my leaders asked us to write down on a paper something you wanted God to make you more like. I wrote down to be more brave and share his gospel. That week I heard him speaking to me so much to be brave and share his gospel. When I had to be brave and invited someone to the block party I had to be brave. I had to be brave when I was asking people if they'd like to pray with them. But who should I be afraid of for God is with me always.

ELECTIVES!

Ok guys! The elective was awesome! The elective was a class with a topic of your choice you wanted to go to. I went to Meeting Needs outside of Super Summer. AWESOME! What I really learned there was to be brave. To not be ashamed of God's word, but to share his gospel. Don't make excuses. DO IT! I'm shy. Very. I always have an excuse. What if they privately talk to someone about me and this conversation we had. What if they think I'm weird? What if they're not even listening? Surely they'll be alive next time I see them to talk to them. You really don't know. Most of the times you die you are not expecting it. Sometimes. Anyway, you don't know what will happen next to them. So stand up! Don't be afraid! Speak loudly with no regret or fear of being laughed at. And share the most greatest thing to talk about! JESUS! I really had to get brave and raise my hand. Sometimes you know the answer but you don't raise your hand. That's okay if you don't want to, but I had this beating heart wanting me to. Finally, I raised my hand and answered. Maybe it wasn't right, but I learned something. I don't think people don't ask questions because they know that person is going to raise it's hand and know the answer. He asks the question so we can learn. We'll never know until we learn it. So, I'm going to say it again. Don't be afraid! Stick out of the crowd! Meet Needs and Share Christ. I also have a bible verse that related to what I'm talking about so here you go:
My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
Philippians 1:20  

 

FAMILY GROUPS!
Family groups was basically a couple other girls in your school and a team leader gathering together and talking about what we learned. Most of the time it was after a sermon or a school session. I loved our team leader because she asked us a lot of questions. It was great to just tell stories about whatever we were talking about which was usually how we can help people. We were all totally chill. Some would be laying down on the grass. One time we sat by these benches and we could see the pretty clouds and the moon. It was dark, but very pretty. That was the moment I wanted my iPod. To take a picture! Anyway, sometimes we'd pray for the person on the left of us or something. Even though we barely knew these people. We only met them like two days ago. But God knew them! After praying we sometimes got extra time to make funny faces and tell REALLY REALLY random stories. REALLY I'm telling you! It was fun! Just typing that made me smile.
WORSHIP!
Ok everyone! Worship is like the best part of the WHOLE camp! What I loved about it was when you entered you heard the music and when you left you heard music. It's awesome to really focus on the words. We sang new songs and old songs! It was awesome to see people just raising their hands and singing to God. Sometimes I would smile when I looked around and I'd see everyone. I bet you almost every person in there was singing. One of my friends who was in my school suddenly appeared on the stage and sang as a back up singer on the song, "Oceans." I LOVE THAT SONG! It was SO SO SO awesome to focus on those words, raise my hands, and tell Jesus the words. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wonder. And my faith will become stronger in the presence of my Savior. Let me walk upon the water wherever you will call me.
Some songs you listen on the radio ALL THE TIME and you don't like it as much. Not anymore. You love it! Because the music there just made you love it! It was literally like a concert. It was loud! So awesome! WOW!
SERMONS
In the sermons we were talking about Acts 3. Now, I was a little scared the sermons would be boring. I wouldn't understand it. But I totally did! All my focus was on him! He was a really fun and understandable preacher. I had some notes on my notebook, but sadly I think it's in my car which is in the car shop. SHUCKS! I really want to share some notes so I will make another post more on the sermon. Anyway the sermons were very good and understandable. In one of the sermons they brought up to people who shared they were giving our fliers in a group to people around the neighborhood. One girl was doing gardening work. They gave her the flier thinking she was the owner of the house. It turned out she wasn't. She was actually a very poor lady who had been laid off a job and ever since then couldn't buy important things like toilet paper etc. They prayed for her and invited her to the block party. She accepted Jesus in her heart that day. We MET NEEDS for her by getting some food and supplies she needed for her and also finding job applications for her. And most importantly we SHARED CHRIST! That encouraged me to be like the two people who talked to her. I wanted to do something like that!
BLOCK PARTY
For the first time Super Summer did a block party for the community. I hope they do it next year, but it really related to our theme. Meeting Needs Share Christ. We had popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy, face painting, games, twist balloons, and prizes. ALL FOR FREE! Some campers were evangelizing and some were helping with games. Everyone was helping. Though the first time it was hard for me. I had nothing to do, but float around. I wanted to talk to people, but I wanted a partner. Finally, I found my friend Moriah and we started talking to people. It was a little hard, but we did it. We started off my saying Hi How are you? We'd ask them how did they like the party and what they were doing. Then we asked if we could pray for them about something. Some said no. Some said yes. One girl let us pray for her daughter and then for her and finally we said she would like to pray for us. That helped me and I know Moriah too! It encouraged us a lot! That was getting me started to talk to people more. It was awesome to see people who maybe didn't get food like that everyday. When you saw the smile on they're face when someone gave them a balloon or when they won the game or when they saw the cat that someone painted on their face for them. It was amazing how God worked in not only those guests that day, but those campers!
MEETING NEEDS AND SHARING CHRIST OUR OF SUPER SUMMER
A lot of times my TL would ask us to write down someone we were praying for or someone we wanted to share Jesus with. I always would think about my two cousins. We used to be great friends and we still are, but I know they are lost. They do not know Jesus. After Super Summer I really wanted to talk to them. It wasn't that hard other than I didn't have all the answers. I began asking them did they ever ask themselves who made this world? Did we just appear? They answered saying, "Ellie, don't take this offensive but we don't believe in your God." I answered back by saying, "Ok that's fine. I was just wondering who do you think created the world." We all were confused in the idea if something has to be created then if God was the creator he had to be created to. In Genesis 1:1 is says, "In the beginning WAS God. He wasn't created. He was there! I told my family and my parents gave me a couple of books that gave me some answers. My real big question is how is the bible real? It's hard. I was glad I could at least get them thinking.

Finally, I pretty much got this whole Super Summer posts done. Just one little one about the sermons. Thank you for reading!
In Christ,
                        ~Ellie;P