Mustard Seeds

In prayer, we want a lot of things. James 4 tells us that there are two reasons why we don't always get what we want. 1. We do not ask God, therefore we do not receive those things that we want. (verse 2) 2. We ask for the wrong reasons. We ask God for things that we want, but we do not want these things for the right reasons. We want things for our own pleasure, not to bring honor and glory to God. (verse 3) This shows that God keeps His promises that He will hear and answer our prayers. There are many places in Scripture where God tells us that He hears and answers our prayers. 1 John 5:14 - "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us." Matthew 7:7,11 - "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you... If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to thos...

"And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward." 2 Kings 19:30 We are called to take root downward. This is making sure that we are grounded in Christ Jesus.  Also, we are called to bear fruit upwards. This is showing the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of righteousness.  The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We are called to practice these every day of our lives. We are to show these to the people around us, to be an example to the people around us that do not know Christ's love and God's grace. Just something to think about. And I have to throw this in for a friend...Jesus is awesome! And so true it is. Thanks for reading. In God, Emily

Last Saturday I became a graduate of McMinn County High School.  I was blessed enough to have much of my family attend the ceremony. My grandmother and grandfather, my other grandfather, my uncle, and two of my cousins  were able to attend. We took some picture that afternoon after my party. These are just a few of the pictures that were taken. I haven't gotten all of them yet. Thanks for reading. In God, Emily

It's been a little while, but I got the idea to go through chapter 11 of Hebrews and go a bit in depth on each verse and person mentioned in the chapter. And so because I have some free time for summer I thought I would start. I'm not sure how long it will take or how in depth I may go on different days but I'm going to start.  So here we go... Chapter 11 verse 1 says, "Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen." (HCSB).  Another translation says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (ESV). The King James Version says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Each of these versions uses different words. The English Standard Version uses a word that I wasn't quite sure of the definition so I decided to look it up. Conviction is a sense of guilt and shame leading to repentance. The Hebrew word yakah  ex...

Ezekiel 14:3-8 3  "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and have put sinful stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I be consulted by them at all?      4  "Therefore, speak to them and tell them: This is what the Lord G OD  says: When anyone from the house of Israel sets up idols in his heart, puts a sinful stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I, the L ORD , will answer him appropriately. [I will answer him] according to his many idols,  5  so that I may take hold of the house of Israel by their hearts, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.      6  "Therefore, say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord G OD  says: Repent and turn away from your idols; turn your faces away from all your abominations.  7  For when anyone from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside in Israel separates himself from Me...

Two weeks from today I will be graduating  from high school. That is crazy! But at the same time, I am ready for this step. I cannot wait to see what God has planned for me. I just hope I have the patience to wait on HIS timing . In God, Emily

The last couple of weeks I have been reading a book called Made to Crave  by Lysa Terkeurst . It is about craving God, not craving food. It is really good. It has good points and is very true. In the book, Lysa says, "I'm not on a diet. I'm on a journey with Jesus to learn the fine art of self-discipline for the purpose of holiness." (page 158) Yesterday morning, I prayed to God that He would help to change how I look at myself. Because of this book, I have been realizing that I need to change how I view myself. My devotion for the day was this: " So be content with who you are and don't put on airs.  1 Peter 5:6 MSG      Janette glanced around the gym, noticing the women around her. Several of them were chatting with friends as they ran on treadmills. They haven't even broken a sweat, Janette thought, and I'm drenched like I got caught in a rainstorm.  A few other ladies came out of an aerobics class, and Janette realized with dismay th...

Prayer is such an awesome avenue that God gave us to communicate with Him. It is such a powerful way for Christ followers to show God's love to the people around them.  God has really been laying prayer on my heart these last couple of weeks. Even before a wonderful lady from church gave me a tea light holder that reminds me to pray without ceasing, God had been working on my heart, telling me to pray more, to lift people up to Him on a more regular and deeper basis. These last couple of day especially God has been calling me to pray. He has been laying people on my heart throughout each day for me to pray for. I am so glad that He is working in me this way. I just pray He will continue. I thought because of how God has been working in my heart that I would post some scripture about prayer. I hope God speaks to you. :) And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath...

This past weekend I took part my youth group's 2011 Disciple Now. The theme this year was Sequence.  At the Thursday night kick-off, we ate some yummy pizza, listened and sang along to some awesome worship music, and met with our hosts and our leaders. I found out that there were going to be four other girls staying in the home that I was in.  My youth group divides up the people buy age group, so we were the high school girls. There was two freshman, one sophomore, one junior, and one senior, plus our host and our leader.  Friday night we went to the hosts homes and had two of the four/five sessions. The first was about learning who Jesus is to you. The first that we focused on this year was Matthew 16:24, which says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.'" The second session we talked about denying yourself, and that even though it can be tough, you must do this ...