On My Mind This Week - September 14th-20th
Another, short, installment of my series of what went down this past week during my last semester at LU.
Showing posts with label LU. Show all posts
Another, short, installment of my series of what went down this past week during my last semester at LU.
On My Mind This Week - September 7th - 13th
Another installment of my series of what went down this past week during my last semester at LU.
On My Mind This Week - August 31st - September 6th
I know what you're thinking, "Wow another post? This hasn't happened in months!"
I hear you and I agree. It's odd for me to use this platform of blogging for anything other than the random post once in a blue moon.
So I thought this would be a good way to share what's on my mind over the course of every week. Short little thoughts I've had about different things. Not always a list of favourites, but just things that have been on my mind over the past week.
We Are Clean!
On this Easter weekend I am reminded of many things. The sacrifice my Savior made so that I may be wiped clean from all my guilt and shame. The excruciating pain that my Creator placed upon His Son that was mine to endure. The fact that I may now freely approach the throne of an Almighty God and be embraced by Him and to be called His daughter.
A lot of things have been going through my mind this Easter Weekend.
It might seem odd, but I get it now. I get Easter. It took me almost 22 years of being in the church to actually understand it. Easter is not an excuse for me to eat those delicious peanut butter and chocolate Reese eggs or Cadbury Mini Eggs. Easter is about something much, much bigger.
A few days ago I was looking through an old journal from my time in the Middle East three years ago and found the words of 1 Corinthians 5:54-55 messily written across the page
"Death is swallowed up in victory.
Oh Death where is your victory?
Oh Death, where is your sting?"
(I've written an entire blog post on the song inspired by those verses last year which you can read here if you're so inclined)Those verses have always been quite powerful to me. Christ's work on the cross has removed all the power that death had over us. Because of His death we no longer die. Yes we die to sin, and yes are to die to our old habits and sinful ways but we no longer have to fear death. Because of His death and because of His resurrection three days later and because He is alive and sitting at the right hand of the Father we are no longer dead but alive and we can face tomorrow with that assurance.
Because of Christ's work on the cross our sins are no longer remembered by the Father. They are blotted out from God's mind. Our slate is wiped clean. We are no longer seen as worthless, filthy rags but as beautiful garments worthy of the King.
We are clean!
Take a minute and rest on that truth. We are clean.
Think of all the horrible things you've done in your life. I know for myself I don't have to think that hard. We all have those horrible things that we regret. Those things that if we had the power we would not hesitate to undo. But we no longer need to be ashamed of what we've done and how we've failed. The Father no longer sees us like that. We are as clean as Christ when He walked this earth two thousand years ago.
We know how the story ends. Christ has won! We know that He is not in the tomb as the angel told the women who went there, "He is not here, for he has risen!"
He has risen indeed!
He is alive!
Death has no sting. Death has no victory.
We are no longer bound our sin. We are clean.
The First Name That I Call
*Written January 16th 2015. Posted January 28th 2015*
This is my final Spring semester at Liberty University. That's really weird to think about. I feel super old yet that I'll be done so soon and entering the real world outside the Liberty bubble. But I also feel really young. Didn't I just have my ballet birthday party a few years ago?
Last semester stretched me in ways that in all honesty I didn’t want to be stretched. I failed greatly at things I didn’t think I would ever fail at. I lost people I didn’t think I would lose for a long time. I relied on my own strength to deal with things that I could not deal with alone. In short, it was not the greatest year.
Don’t get me wrong - a lot of wonderful things happened last year but when you look at it on a scale of the good and the bad, the bad kinda out weighed the good.
However today, January 16 2015, at Convocation we sang the song Let It Be Jesus by Christy Nockels & Passion Band which is one of my new favourite worship songs. The last time we sang this song as a school was during Jon Gregoire’s memorial service.
Let it be Jesus
The first name that I call
Let it be Jesus
My song inside the storm
I'll never need another
For me, to live is Christ
For me, to live is Christ
God I breathe Your name above everything
Let it be, Let it be Jesus
Should I ever be abandoned
Should I ever be acclaimed
Should I ever be surrounded by the fire and the flame
There's a name I will remember
There's a name I will proclaim
Let it be, Let it be Jesus
This song reminded me of what I am striving to be. A women who calls, not on her mother, sister, roommate or friend when I'm going through struggles (though those people are important and I should be in communication with them when I'm struggling) but calls on Jesus.
As much as my parents, siblings, or friends might want to save me from things in my life - they really can't. Only Christ can completely save me. Only Christ can save me from my stupidity, from my sin, from my hateful actions. Only Christ can save me from me. Which is something I will never be able to fathom cause I do a lot of stupid things. A. Lot.
But as the song says:
“Should I ever be abandoned or acclaimed.
Surrounded by the fire and the flame.There’s a name I will remember, there's a name I will proclaim.
Let it be Jesus."
Even when I don’t deserve it - which lets face it, is all the time - Christ looks at this messed up person and says “I want her." Even when I don't want Him - which is crazy because I should only want Him - He still wants me.
And the love Christ has for me is not dependent of anything I do (thank goodness!). So when I choose not to call on Christ and rely on my own strength, he will still love and embrace me.
It reminds me of a J. D. Greear quote someone posted on Facebook recently which I will end with.
"God, I thank You that I'm not saved by the warmth of my love for You." - J. D. Greear
Authors Note: I understand that this post is very discombobulated however I have left it as I found it in my draft folder.
For Me To Live Is Christ
This past weekend a Liberty student passed away in a tragic accident. And while I did not have the pleasure of knowing Jon Gregoire personally, I have learned a few things from this young man of God.
I have been reminded that our lives are so short. We don't know what tomorrow will hold. We don't know what 10 years down the road will look like, let alone 10 days from now, or 10 hours from now. We have no clue when our days on this earth will be over.
We just know that we have this moment - this exact moment which God has given us - to do something to further His kingdom.
With Jon Gregoire's passing I feel compelled to make every day, every moment count. I can't help but think of a song I used to hear on my way to school as a child by Nichole Nordeman called Legacy. The lyrics of the chorus go:
"I want to leave a legacy, how will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to you enough to make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering..."
I was not blessed to know Jon personally, but I have been touched by his unapologetic love of his Savior. He has touched so many lives and he is continuing to touch lives and point them to Christ.
You will be missed Jon. Thank you for continually pointing us to Christ.
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. - Philippians 1:21
(Originally posted on my Instagram)
Don’t Idolize Your Leaders
First, let me take a moment to thank you all for reading my previous post on the changes at Liberty. The fact that 600+ people have taken the time to read my words means so much to me. Thank you!
Don’t idolize people.
Ever.
People mess up. People will fail you.
Don’t idolize Billy Graham. Don’t idolize Tim Tebow. Don’t idolize the Republican nominee. Don’t idolize Obama. Don’t idolize Stephen Harper. Don’t idolize John Piper, Francis Chan, Alistair Begg, Joel Osteen, or any notable pastor.
Don’t idolize Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, Emma Stone, or any other movie/music stars.
Don’t idolize your favourite sports team or athletes.
Don’t idolize your significant other.
Don’t idolize your pastor.
Don’t idolize Johnnie Moore, Justin Kintzel, or President Jerry Falwell.
Also, don't idolize dead humans like Ronald Reagan, C.S. Lewis, or A.W. Tozer, either.
Don’t idolize people.
They're sinners. They've messed up. They've done things they aren't proud of. Things, that to this day, they are ashamed and embarrassed about.
Your idolatry will destroy them and limit their impact for the Kingdom of God.
Remember that the goal of every Christian leader should be to point others towards Christ.
As Christians, when we reduce Christianity to our favorite speakers or worship leaders we’ve missed the whole point. Those gifted leaders are not in their position for their own benefit. They have felt called by God to do what they're doing. They should not want us to be their biggest fans - they want you to be pointed to Christ. They want you to be Christ’s biggest fan. They should never be focused on being well known. They want to make Jesus known!
When you idolize your leaders and say things like this,
"Justin Kintzel was the only person who could lead me to worship Christ."
"Justin Kintzel/Johnnie Moore were the only people who can lead Convo. I don't want to go anymore now that they're gone."
When you say those things you are placing those people above the One who created them and blessed them with the talents they possess.
One thing that I know is that no matter how talented or smart a person is - they are absolutely nothing but instruments of the Almighty and should not be placed above Him. He has blessed them with their gifts and talents. God can take those gifts and talents away at any moment.
By idolizing someone, you are placing a TON of pressure on them. I would hate to have that kind of pressure to maintain a certain level of perfection in order to please everyone else. I place too much pressure on myself as it is. Would you want that added pressure on yourself? I think it’s safe to assume you would not.
Please, by all means keep honouring, loving, respecting, and learning from your leaders, but don’t idolize them. Doing so keeps you from seeing the reason for their existence - to bring Glory and Honour to our heavenly Father.
What's New at LU - A LOT of Things
This year has been one of change for the student body at Liberty University. Elmer Towns, co-founder of the school, retired. Johnnie Moore, Former Vice President for Executive Projects and Media Relations and Campus Pastor of Liberty University, has moved to Hollywood to work with producer Mark Burnett, and today Justin Kintzel, Worship Pastor and Campus Band Hero has stepped down from his position at the school.
Amidst the change of key figures of the University stepping down and moving forward in their careers as they feel God is directing them, we have been blessed with a new Campus Pastor and Senior Vice President for Spiritual Development, David Nasser.
With all this change, many people within the school have voiced their opinion about the situations taking place at Liberty.
Here are just a few comments that I have personally seen on various forms of social media about these changes.
Written while David Nasser was on his 20th anniversary vacation with his wife:
"Sure, he said the same thing for every convo introduction. But at least Johnnie Moore showed up for work. #Comeback"
Written in the comments of the previous post:
"I couldn't say that I respect him as my leader..."
Written after David Nasser spoke asking students to wait till they are dismissed before leaving Convocation:
"If Nasser wants me to stay and listen to him, he should say something worth listening too. #BringJohnnieBack"
Written about Justin Kintzel after he posted his goodbye letter to Liberty:
"He didn't really quit. Nasser pushed him out the door. Sad to see."
Now I can totally understand people being upset that Johnnie Moore has left Liberty University to pursue other things. Every once and awhile I miss His "two things” rant in Convo, but I do not wish that he had stayed nor do I wish his successor any less success then what Johnnie had. God is in control and God has a plan for our school.
The same thing is to be said about Justin Kintzel and his successor. I want him or her to be welcomed into the Liberty community with open arms and flooded with encouragement - not the way that we have publicly shunned and put down David Nasser.
We are Liberty University: the Largest Evangelical University in the world. We are supposed to be Champions for Christ - We have the opportunity to build each other up or put each other down and at this point in time we are putting our leaders down because we don’t like change.
This reminds me of my church a few years ago. We were making a transition from having two different services with the same message but two different styles of music. One strictly hymns, choir, and the organ - maybe the piano. The second, more contemporary with drums and electric guitar. God then blessed us with a new Pastor who felt that we should be one body, not two separate churches sharing a building. We merged the two worship styles and at one point we had only one service then due to the growth of the church we had to move back to two services but with the same mixed worship style in both. We did have many people complaining about the changes taking place and how it was not “good” and that "we have always had it one way so we should keep it that way."
However my pastor reminded us that when we take our eyes off the big picture of where we are going as a church we miss what God is doing in the little things.
When we focus on the small things we forget that Gods glory is the ultimate priority of the church and in our case Liberty University.
We, as a school, should be continually lifting up our leaders in prayer and encouragement. We should not openly attack the leaders God has placed over us. We can disagree with them, but when we do we need to be respectful of how we go about doing it (John Wesley Reid has an excellent blog post on that subject on his blog which is worth the read)
One thing that rings true over all the change that has taken place over this past year is a biblical truth we sing in Convo a lot.
"After all You are constant, After all You are only good, After all You are sovereign & not for a moment will You forsake me."
After all this change, God is still in control. After all this change, God is still being glorified. After all this time, God is still working in the lives of Liberty students.
After all this change, God will not forsake Liberty. God has not forsaken Liberty University. He never has - and if we focus our hearts and minds on Him - He never will.
Senior Year
It's hard to believe that I'm a 1/4 of the way through the fall semester of my last year at Liberty. It seems like I just came here yesterday as a little freshman. Everything's been moving so fast.This is basically an update on how I've been for the past 5 weeks at Liberty. (Follow me on Instagram if you want to see more pictures)
1) I'm living on East campus now. So I have my own kitchen and common area. I have the most incredible view out my window ever. And I am also on an amazing leadership team. I am so blessed to have these women in my life this year. I wish I could put into words how much I love these young women of God.
My New Home
The View
My Lovely Leadership Team
2) I looked into joining Liberty's Crew team.
This was a spur of the moment thing and I kinda knew I wasn't going to make it on the team considering the last time I exercised consistently was back in 2007/2008 when I did 8+ hours a week of ballet. But I still really enjoyed going to the gym and working out for a long period of time with the team. I learned that if I push myself I can be surprised with the results. I've discovered that I can complete 5,000 meters of rowing straight in under 27 minutes and complete 2,500 meters in just over 10 minutes. Legs of Steel are coming!
One of my new favourite places now
3) I'm continuing to learn that I'm held and known by a God who cares for me deeper then I could ever know.
I'm always in His hands and that I can never, ever do any thing to change the love He has for me. In the valleys and in the mountains I am held by Him and he will NEVER let me fall from His hands. I am His. He has rid me of the shackles of my sins and I am now clean in His eyes. He tore the veil for me to come close.
4) I've been listening to this song on repeat a lot the past few days. If you read number 3 you'll know why I love the song so much.
So far this semester has been going really well and I'm learning so much but I also know that it's only going to get more difficult. So please keep me in your prayers as I continue to complete my studies this year.
A (School) Year in Review
How do you continue a blog when your previous (and only) blog post was used as a sermon illustration? I'm not entirely sure, but I felt it's time to get back into the swing of this thing called blogging...
I've been really busy since I last posted (well who hasn't) but now exams over and I'm back home in Toronto! I am SO happy to be home and have a chance to relax. (Although not really, since I'm taking 16 credits over the summer)
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"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1
This semester marked the end of many seasons for me. The end of living on Main Campus (Yay!), the end of rooming with my best friend Amy (Boo!), the end of undergraduate Music Theory and Conducting classes (Amen!), & the end of some friendships (Hey, it happens) just to name a few of the things that happened in my life this past semester.
So lets start with the end of living on Main Campus:
This past fall I applied to be a Resident Assistant (RA) and was made it through the second round of cuts. This was a great learning experience and I really do appreciate being able to go through that process. However, I was not accepted to the position and though I was upset at the time, it was part of God's plan. Now I am going to be a Prayer and Life Group Leader on East Campus and I'm super excited for what He has in store for me next year.
Photo: My new home next semester! (photo taken by Johanna Hatt)
The end of living with my best friend. No, we didn't "break up" or have a horrible experience being roommates (at least I didn't). We just reached the end of our time being roommates. Things change, life goes on and I have no regrets rooming with Amy at all. We just felt it was time to not room together. No fights, no weirdness, we parted ways well. We'll always be best friends. It was just time to not room together.
BFFS (photo taken by Johanna Hatt)
The end of my undergraduate* Music Theory and Conducting experience. This is one of the biggest accomplishments to completing my degree. 2 years of music theory and 1 year of conducting. The music theory was actually entertaining and I learned a lot from Dr. Wellman AKA Captain Counterpoint. From graphic notation to twelve-tone music, Dr. Wellman has taught it all and his way of bringing music theory to life was amazing and I'm going to miss having him as a professor.
*I say undergraduate because I'll most likely pursue a masters degree in music and will then have to take more music theory classes.
Photo: Last day of Music Theory, Spring 2014 (photo taken by selfie master Okawa Tan)
Photo: From when I conducted the LU Wind Ensemble (photo taken by Johanna Hatt)
The end of some friendships. This one is harder to talk about because the people I was friends with I considered them to be my closest friends at Liberty. But things change, and people change. These people for whatever reason felt that we should no longer be friends. I may disagree with these reasons but it is all for the best. But I know God is good, I know He is in control and I know He has better things in store for me and for those people. Sometimes you just have to pack your bags and move on.
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But with ends come beginnings and nice things so here is one of the nice things that happened this year/semester.
"The Sassy Corner." These four ladies, Amber, Leah, and Dara (who also has a blog and you should probably go follow it) helped get me through Music Theory, Elementary Music Methods, & Instrumental Conducting. They were all there when my grandmother passed away suddenly. They helped keep me sane while studying for music theory and conducting exams. I'm truly thankful for the friendship I have with these three lovely ladies and that God has placed them in my life.
Anywho, this post is already long enough, but that's the kind of year it's been.
(I am going to try to blog at least once a week over the summer. I want to make it a habit of writing more.)
But with ends come beginnings and nice things so here is one of the nice things that happened this year/semester.
"The Sassy Corner." These four ladies, Amber, Leah, and Dara (who also has a blog and you should probably go follow it) helped get me through Music Theory, Elementary Music Methods, & Instrumental Conducting. They were all there when my grandmother passed away suddenly. They helped keep me sane while studying for music theory and conducting exams. I'm truly thankful for the friendship I have with these three lovely ladies and that God has placed them in my life.
Photo: Sassy Corner at La Carreta (photo taken by Leah)
(I am going to try to blog at least once a week over the summer. I want to make it a habit of writing more.)
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