The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and I told her:" When I don't know what to do, I do what I am best at and that is running away from God". But what I really need to do in those situations is the basics and not walk away from God. Sometimes we have to get back to basics.

What I am about to say are the key elements to being a successful christian. Anybody who want to get back on the right track need to get back to basics. Anybody who is on the right track need to continue doing these basics. The basics are easy things to do and therefore there shouldn't be an excuse why you aren't doing these three things:

1. Pray
2. Read God's Word
3. Based on 1 and 2 do what is right and don't do what is wrong.

Having said that I am not perfect. But I do have a choice every day to either make these basics a part of my life or occupy my mind with everything but these essential basics. So next time I don't know what to do and want to give up I just got to go back to basics. Just like you should go back to basics when you feel your life is out of control and off track!

Tagz: Bible, God, Prayer

I am reading in Isaiah and I wanted to share this with you since this is exactly how I feel. Isaiah is having a vision and this is what he says in Isaiah 6:

v.5 Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

This is exactly how I feel. The more I look at God by reading my Bible and listening to Sermons I see how sinful I am. But it doesn't stop there with me or Isaiah:

v.7 And he [the seraphim] touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

God forgave Isaiah's sins. Just like God forgives my sins. But there is more and this is what God asks:

v.8 Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I! Send me. 9 And He said, Go...

God uses sinners showered by his grace to serve him.

I noticed that giving everything to God reveals a lot of weakness in my life that I need to work on but at the same time the more faults I see in my life the bigger the shower of grace is in my life.

Tagz: Grace, God, isaiah

And so I’ll leave you with some thoughts for the weekend. I am learning a lot lately about God, His mercy, His sufficiency and contentment! There are so many things that I want in my life. None of them are necessarily sinful but Satan can still use those desires and turn them into a stumbling block. So if I don’t focus on God, I will slowly go down a road of bitterness, discontentment and fear.

So what do I need to do if I just don’t know what to do with all these desires in my life? Get back to the basics: Do what I know is right and don’t do what I know is wrong.

Some of the daily basics that I easily forget:
1. Pray
2. Read God’s word
3. Meditate on God throughout the day (for example: scripture memory)

So what is going to happen with some of my desires after I get back to the basics? They will still be there but I no longer have to worry/be anxious about it since all I need is God. God will bless me as long as I wait on Him!

Tagz: Prayer, God, faith

Here I am laying on the ground: hurt, wounded, bleeding and eating dust. I wish I could say that this is the first time that I am in this position but it’s not. Not even the second or third time…to be honest with you I lost count. I wish I could get up and go on in my life-long journey in this wilderness but I am scared. “Scared of what?” you might ask. Well hanging over me at this moment is a big giant who has been chasing and beating me down for the past I don’t know how many years. His name is Sinful Habit, Sin for short. I don’t have the strength or courage to get up from my humiliation and face this giant again. Sometimes I get a few punches in and then I run away and hide from the giant but he always seems to find me and beats me down to the ground again.

But wait! There is more to my story. I didn’t mention this before but in the same scene of me lying on the ground and the giant hanging over me is another man. This man always follows me and helps me get up from the ground every time the giant defeats me. This man, Jesus Christ, not only helps me get up but He also restores my health, treats my wounds and gives me strength again. He also gives me a way to defeat the giant. He provides me armor to defend myself and a sword to kill giants. “Why don’t you use the sword to kill the giant Philip”? good question! I haven’t figured that one out myself. But meanwhile I am thankful that Jesus is there every time I lay defeated on the floor.

Tagz: sin, God, faith

28. … The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29. He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30. Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Scott did a message on these verses Sunday morning. I hope they will be a blessing to you this week.

Tagz: God, Encouragement

Not sure where I want to go with this thought. But I was just thinking today about how happy I am. Not exactly sure if I can blame my happiness on my circumstances and that is why I give God the credit for my joy. Now what does waiting have to do with all of this?? Now don’t get me wrong waiting on the Lord is a good thing but waiting anxiously on something is a bad thing and that is the kind of waiting I am going to talk about.

It seems like we are always waiting on something. Waiting to get a driver’s license, waiting to graduate from high school, waiting to get a car, waiting to get done with college, waiting to get married. I can list a lot of “I can’t wait for….” phrases. But why do we always want to go to that next step?? Maybe it is because we are discontent…. maybe we should stop waiting and look at what we have now for we don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. So lets focus on the Lord today and wait for Him to bring tomorrow :)

I think that’s why I am happy because even though I can’t wait on a lot of things to happen I can however meanwhile learn to know my God better! And guess what? We don’t have to wait on anything to take that important step of walking with the Lord.

Tagz: God, Content

So here is just a small summer update and just a general note on life. I’m still working at CVS and iPlace and will continue doing so. I am not ready to go back to school financially so pray for me. I’m not in a rush…so whatever the Lord has for me this fall is fine with me.

This summer has been such a long summer. I’ve only been here in G-vegas doing the same old thing every week but still it feels like I have done so much. Where do I start? Well for one my dad, step-mom and step-brother (Harmen) came and visit me from holland. My sister also came seperately with one of her kids (Bryony) from Holland to visit us. I haven’t been in Holland for 4 years now and so I got homesick big time when I had to say goodbye to my family when they had to return back to Holland. It was hard but then I remembered all the good friends from school and church I have here.

Anyway now here comes the hard part. I have a lot of mixed feelings between being homesick, finishing school, friends and the future. It seems at times I understand where I am coming from and where I am going to….but then something comes along the way and trips me up!?! I just don’t get it at times.I felt like everything was going my way and then BOOM it’s gone. I sometimes question why I came here to the States just to see my life being screwed up! But then again going back to my past isn’t the solution either, it feels like I’m stuck between a rock and hard place. But why would I question God? He brought me here for a reason and then I think about all the good things He brought in my life while being here :).
So I leave my current circumstances in God’s hands but what about the future? I got pretty much nothing planned which really scares me. I have these “what if” questions in my head. But then again why should I worry about things that hasn’t even happened yet? I guess letting go of the past, present and future and let God is the only conclusion I can come to when looking at my life =).

Tagz: CVS, iPlace, God