Faithful in the Rain

Last night was GREAT!  Pastor Andy preached a great sermon which I shall delve into after I get a few rants and raves out the way!

1) I signed up for a showcase! whaaaaaat! Yea so those who know me know I have absolutely no talent other than *drum roll please* being completely awesome #LookAtMeNow!  Anywho I signed up for the showcase at church b/c I found this AWESOME spoken word video on DD's blog and I LOVED it so much that I decided to perform it!  Go me woop woop!...Only thing is auditions are Sat morning at 8am so I only have 2 days to learn and master this thing!  Decided I would try new things this year so yea.  Anywho I shall keep you guys posted..trust me if I make it into finals you'll know.  Yea so auditions are too legit...videotaped and all...if you even make it to the final round (can't believe they even have rounds!)...at least you know that you won't have to sit through people who think they can sing but really can't! This should be entertaining...

2) I have submitted my application to the PhD program in Biomedical Science at Meharry Medical College!  Keep me in your prayers guys!  I'm EXCITED about this...I've been praying about it for a while now and I'm done praying about it...I believe it I receive and that settles it so I'm letting go and I'm watching God! siiiiiiiiiiggghhhhh ....that just felt good to say! 

3)Me and D-Money (self proclaimed nickname of my best friend...lame but you've gotta love this guy) started our Bedside Bible Study Prayer Group last night (yea I made that name up..cool huh?)! woohoo!  It was great we went over Tim 4-6...good stuff.  I LOVE discussing the Word.  I learned so much from what he thought about it and he from what I thought about it.  Amazing how God surely sends you confirmation to assure you that you're on the right track! yasssss!

Okay so service last night was great.  The sermon was titled "Faithful in the Rain!"  Pastor Andy preached from the book of Job and I Corinthians 6.  We talked about how people always say they want the wisdom of Solomon, the heart of David, the faith of Abraham etc etc but no one ever asks for the spirit of Job.  The truth is that we NEED the spirit of Job.  ALL things come from God, both good and bad.  Who are we as Christians to only accept the good?  It's easy to love and praise God when He is blessing you with someTHING but what about when He is still?  "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them" Luke 6:32  Surely I praise Him when he is moving in my life but when He is still I continue to do so because I am REMINDED of what He has already done.  We praise Him when the sun is shining but what do you do when the rain comes?  "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God." Psalm 20:7  
Think about this scripture for a second.  During a time of war imagine being surrounded by opposing forces and weapons of all types.  Instead of fleeing and instead of surrendering or thinking that their own chariots or horses would save them, these people REMEMBERED what God had already done for them and KNEW that he would NEVER leave them nor forsake them.  Even while you are going through God is with you.
"³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. " ~Luke 6:35-39

Faith is so much MORE than believing God for someTHING.  We need to be able to worship and praise Him despite our circumstances or situations.  Weeping may endure for the night or maybe a couple of nights but rest assured that joy cometh in the morning.  I praise God because he LOVED me so...He DIED for me, He comforts me and consoles me, He protects and shields me, He saved me...even from myself..  If He NEVER does another thing for me I promise you I will STILL praise Him because He's already done more than enough for me.  I REMEMBER what He did for me.  Also know that there is ALWAYS a reason for things happening in your life....even when you can't recognize what that reason is.  I've wondered about this several times in life and from my own personal experiences it just so happens that maybe years later I'm ministering to someone else about what I've been through.  Often times your ministry is developed through your testimony.  Someone else finds motivation and help in your testimony and becomes delivered.  If God did it for me He will surely do it for you....I truly believe that.  So if you haven't already today take a moment out to tell God THANK YOU for all the things that He has already done for you.  REMEMBER those things.  Show a little love to someone and have a blessed day!  Glad I had the opportunity to share this with you guys!  Peace Out!

-Graham

***O and PS I sent up the most beautiful prayer for my unborn Goddaughter and her parents last night! :)

Hope you guys are ready!

OK so!  In all seriousness I am probably the world's most sporadic blogger but that is allll about to change!  I used to enjoy writing a lot so I'm going to attempt to get back into it.  Anywho as far as this blog is concerned I will certainly be blogging a lot more.  I've decided that for the next month or so I'm going to get back into vigorously reading the Word.  I'm really excited about this because I feel like I'm on the verge of something...not sure what but I trust God.  I just feel like He's moving in my life and is developing me and I'm excited about it...I'm open.  I'm even more excited because my best friend has decided to join me in doing this and so we've agreed that every night we're going to have our bedside Bible study sessions and go over the Word together!  I think it will bless us both and he's been meaning to do this for a while so yea!  Anywho I'm going to post a few times each week the things that are heavy on my heart and the things I learn along the way as well as the things that he and I read each day.  I'll also be sharing some testimonies with you all and of course I'll include some of my #random rants and raves that have absolutely nothing to do with ...well anything but that's just me...you'll start to notice my randomness if you follow the blog.  As of right now I'm almost certain I'm the only person following this blog but that's cool because truthfully I think I will more so be ministering to myself which is ayyyyyy ok with me in my book.  So yea that's all hope u guys are ready!

Love,
Jess

New Year Fasting Updates

So 2011 is here and I must say that life has been moving pretty fast.  Celebrated my 25th birthday Saturday woop woop!  Almost done with my fast (Feb 6th)!  Can I just say that dieting will certainly do the trick with weight loss better than exercise!  Calm down calm down I'm only saying that b/c for years I've always exercised but diets...yeaaa just not my thing.  It helped me to maintain but I still had splurges or whatever but anywho I digress.  Since Jan 3rd I've been fasting from breads, potatoes, pastas, corn, milk, rice, desserts, and any beverage except for water and I feel sooo refreshed!  I have certainly dropped weight and I admit...I haven't worked out since 2010.  The fast helped me to realize that I clearly don't eat enough veggies so after the fast is done I'm going to adopt some of the things from the fast and incorporate them into my everyday lifestyle.

Did a scavenger hunt for my birthday which was HEE-LARRY-US!  Had all of my friends running around looking crazy but we had so many good laughs and stuff from it...def one for the memory books!

A couple months from now I have a testimony that I would like to share with you all but it's still unfolding at the moment so I'm still working through it.  Hopefully it will save someone else's life or prevent it from happening in the lives of others.  This entry is a bit all over the place and truthfully that's because I wanted to share what was going on but I changed my mind....not ready for that yet...but I didn't want to waste the few minutes that I used to log on by not writing an entry lol. 

Almost done with my grad school essays/applications.  My #1 choice for grad school is the PhD program at Meharry and then it's Georgia State...lastly is Clark Atlanta.  Keeping the faith!  I'm excited about what the future holds.  Ready for the challenge and new experiences.  I'm gonna do better with my blogging but for now with my fasting and recent events it's hard to squeeze the time in for it but have no fear I'll be back before you know it!

My very first POST!

Hello blog world!  This is in fact my VERY first post ever and I'm actually REALLY excited about it!  This blog will more so be for myself bt I dunno maybe someone out there can benefit from it.  I'm actually going to start this blog off with a post about the day I was baptized (10/2/2010) at World Overcomers Christian Church in Durham,NC (woot woot go Durham! lol).  I actually had an old online journal that I updated sporadically but since there's a "new" me guess it was time 4 a new blog!  Here's my post (I lowkey already wrote this the day I was baptized but thought I'd share)  Hope u likey!

So I was baptized on Saturday Oct 2, 2010 :)  I'm so HAPPY.  This happiness I have is joy.  It's unlike any other feeling that I've had.  My friends say I have a "glow" about myself.  I have a genuine joy that no matter what circumstances may arise I serve a living God and I find joy in that.  God loves me...lowly me :).  So before the baptism we had to attend a mandatory class...the class in and of itself was a #blessing.  They went over what baptism is, what it symbolizes and questioned everyone on why they want to be baptized because so many people get baptized because they are told that that's the thing they should do or they are simply made to do it...they don't realize the importance of it.  It's like people who say "I love you" to everyone or call everyone a "friend"...after a while it loses it's meaning, the sincerity of the word is lost. 

I have also found lately that there is power in testimonies.  You never know who may find strength, courage, and comfort in the telling of your story.  I dunno about everyone else's story in that room but here is mine:

So we went over how water baptism is you rinsing away the old you and meeting Christ at the water, casting away your sins and your vices and proclaiming that you are dedicating yourself to Christ.  I am already saved but water baptism is a packaged deal with salvation.  I prayed and I was ready.  I was always ready.  Not sure why it took me so long to get baptized.  Not all churches practice it saying that it's "old testament" or whatever but it's not.  In the Bible as God created disciples by saving them, He then baptized them.  They also went over how you need to be baptized with a spirit of expectancy.  When you go down in the water expect something from God.  Have high expectations; He will meet you.  For me, I had expectations.  I expected Him to meet me there.  I was laying down my all and surrendering in faith.  All the things I was battling with all the things I was searching for all those things...I let them go...I cast them into the waters and I EXPECTED God to meet ALL my needs.  I expected for him to give me a peace past understanding, an unshakable faith and a joy that the world can't take away.  I EXPECTED Him to comfort me.  I EXPECTED him to be strong for me when I am weak.  I EXPECTED Him to supply all my needs.  With all these things I expected of Him I also went in with expectations of myself.  I expect myself to walk in faith and to stop tip-toeing (sp) around issues that I was on the fence about.  I expected that things won't be so hard for me to give up now.  I expected so much more from myself...more loving...I want to reflect the love of Christ so that when people see me/talk with me it will manifest.  I want to be overflowing with God's love from my heart so that it's aundance has no choice but to pour out from my mouth and my actions.  ...the list goes on.

So as my turn neared my eyes began to water...the music was playing "I will never be the same, not after being with you, I'm changing" tears began to flow.  I prayed.  I worshipped Him.  I went down in the water and I felt so many things cast off of me.  A weight lifted off my shoulders and an unexplainable joy came over me.  God met me just where He said he would :).  The same God that I prayed to as a little girl met me.  The same God that I was angry with met me.  The same God that comforted me when no one else was around met me.  The SAME God.  He is God...the word is true that God doesn't change, He is not a man that he should lie...it's us who change.  God never left me...even when I turned my back on Him.  He met me.  I LOVE HIM.  He'll never leave me or forsake me despite myself.  I love Him.  I came out of that water with a transformed and renewed heart and mind.  I asked for Him to fill me.  He met me.  He died for ME.  I've neglected Him but He ALWAYS loved me...he never turned His back on me.  Every time I came crawling back He welcomed me with open arms.  I thank Him :)  I am changed and I will never be the same.  He changed the desires of my heart.  I no longer desire the things that I thought I so BADLY wanted/needed.  Even my taste for things has changed.  I will make mistakes but I will never be the same.  I have a relationship with God and I know Him for myself so nothing can shake what we've got going on.  I pray more.  I worship more.  I read more.  I'm dedicated.  He will provide all the desires of my heart if I continue to seek Him with all my heart. 

I hope that anyone else out there who is going through will look to Him.  He will NEVER leave you or forsake you.  When you feel like all is lost and there is no hope you will find comfort in Him.  I only say these things because I've been there...TRUST ME.  I have been in some MESS...a couple of times....but He was there. 

All that to say that I've found TRUE happiness.  And watch how God works...I invited my friends to my baptism and I'll b darned if they haven't decided to join my church too.  God loves YOU. 

Woo!  A mouthful but honestly I swear those words STILL aren't enough to explain how I feel or all the thoughts running through my mind at the time.  I can't even begin to put into words what came over me or what I prayed about because I prayed in the spirit so only God knows that.

Ok I guess that's enough for a first post but I look forward to sharing my journey with you guys as I make my mark on the world and hopefully leave it in a better state than how I found it.