POW.

I am sanctified.

I am a new creature.

I am a partaker of His divine nature.

No matter how many times we mess, no matter how many quiet times we skip, or how many times we sin, God makes us sanctified.

Sanctified: to be made holy.

Idk about you guys but I know that I'm not holy, nor do I deserve to be holy. But God tells me "Micaela, I make you blameless in my eye, and I have made you holy, not once but every single day.

"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God."

1 Corinthians 6:11

God doesn't make it comlpicated He just says...you were sanctified. You are holy in my eyes. POW. WHAT?! This is such a struggle for me to wrap my mind around. That no matter how many times I do something silly God just tells me to learn from it and that I'm forgiven.

jeez, God is good.

Oh and random verse but not really: Romans 3:26 "This not nonly clear, but it's now-this is current history! God sets things right. he also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness."

This just reemphasized it for me. This is current history! God does this daily for us! Which brings me to "I am a new creature."

God makes us a new creature every day renewing our faith, our mind, and our soul. He forgives us daily because we sin daily. 

You and I are saved from the prison that Paul describes in Romans? I think. If we are prisoners than that means that we were caught for something bad that we were chained to sin. So if we are freed from the darkness and we can finally let our wrists breathe after years of the chains cutting off the circulation, then we should do everything in our power to not go back to that prison. God frees us from the opression of sin and tells us that we have a new life.

I choose to run out of the prison as a new girl, a new person, a new soul; no longer slave to sin but a humble servant to righteousness and God. POW. I am new and I don't even have to think about my old sin because it doesn't exist anymore. Sanctified and a new creature. Wow, God is good.

Finally Partaker of His divine nature.

He tells us that we are prince and princesses in His kingdom which therefore means that we get to take part in this divinity. We get tou have a divine romance with him that is not like any other parent-child bond. He loves us so mcuh that he allows us to sin, repent, be forgiven, AND STILL BE ROYALTY. say what!?

That is sick. end of story.

Alright I feel like I have rambled a little but that's okay.

I love you all and am praying for your years =]

Micaela

Lost moments

I feel a little ashamed coming into it this late, and cannot believe that it's been 7 weeks since i've started college. But im here now, and though I most likely won't be that consistant, I wanted to be a part of this, to stay connected with people that played huge parts in shaping who i am.

week 7- I am a new creature (I think thats the one, lemme know if it's not)

When reading 2 cor 5, and mulling it over, my mind almost read over v17. When it comes to being a new creature the concept almost goes in one ear and out the other i've heard it so many times. Hardly ever do i actually think about it. This time though i stopped myself and forced myself to think, to chew, to listen. I realized that being a new creature forces us to act differently than everyone else. We cannot act like them any longer, we still live with them, walk around and communicate with them, but we're different, set apart. But with that comes the problem, we stand out. When we properly renew our minds and bodies, we become a startling anomaly. Not only do we stand out, but we have the responsibility of acting in Christ's stead to reach the world. Basically every moment in our new lives is an opportunity to walk as Christ, the more exactly we follow His steps, the better chance we have of making an impact even greater than the one He had. The best part? We aren't called to do it perfect, God knows we can't, we're still attempting to figure out how our new bodies work, how they move, how they react, and it's the lifelong process of discovering God's plan for this new life, a plan we won't ever know in this life on earth.

Now I know i've jumped around all over the place, and parts of this won't make sense, but this is my brain process written down.

Anywho, I miss you all, and love you dearly

Jonathan Hale

So this is a week early but today God just yelled at me and I had to share. Next weeks I am statement is A new creature. Yes I have changed since I accepted Jesus, yes I am a new person, but he is also continuosly making me a new creature. This morning I was reading the utmost for his highest and it talked about being on the mount and being in the valley. This summer on houseboats I was on the mount, everything I heard and saw was a miracle, a gift, God was there no questions asked. Sometimes I look back and wish I could just live on houseboats my entire life and be constantly filled. But we can't stay on the mount, God wants us in the valley, he wants us with the sinners and and the broken so that we can advance his kingdom. On the mount (houseboats) God did not only teach me but he changed me, he made me a knew creature. And now that I am back at college living with non-christians distracted by the things of life I have to remind myself of who I became this summer, and who I am now. I want people to not only know what I learned this summer but see the change in me and the work God did in my life.

This blog has gotten me through a lot, when I begin to focus on myself and rely on me I come here and you all bring me back to God. Thank you so much for being a loving and encouraging community. I miss you guys a lot.

<3 Sammi

Hello everyone! This doesn't really go along with the I Am statement of the week but the pastor at church talked about something today that I thought was awesome and want to share it with you.

"As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" Romans 10:15

I love this verse for so many reasons. One of them is that I have a phobia of feet. I really don't like them. I think they're disgusting and freak out if anyone's feet touch me. So I think it's so amazing that God finds my feet beautiful. One of the things that I hate most in the world, he finds beauty in them. And what's even more cool is the reason why. He loves them because they "preach the good news." God loves my feet when I use them to faithfully deliver his message. Another cool point that the pastor pointed out was that it's not only God that loves our feet when we preach the good news, but those who we deliver the news to. The people who are receiving his message love my feet too! And thinking about it, it makes complete sense. Even I, who strongly dislike feet, am so grateful for the people who have delivered God's message to me in different ways that I am thankful for every single thing about them, even their feet. I am so thankful that God put it in their plan to walk to wherever I was at the time to preach the good news to me so that I could learn something new and fall deeper in love with Jesus.

One other thing that the pastor pointed out that really hit me was the fact that it's called "good news." I've heard this term countless times, but never really thought twice about it until today. When I have good news, I want to share it with everyone I know! For example, I play on the club team at USD. We had our first game yesterday and I scored a goal, and I was so happy! I considered this great news and as soon as I got back to my room I told my roommates, called my family and friends... I wanted the people I cared about to know. Today I started thinking, why don't I have the same attitude with the good news of Jesus Christ? Why don't I have the same courage and desire to tell my roommates, who don't know Jesus, the good news that Jesus brings? I am so willing to share other good news with them and my other friends who aren't Christian, and I want to have the same attitude with sharing my faith with them.

That has been one of my main struggles and prayers of this semester, and the message of beautiful feet was exactly the encouragement and reality check that I needed. I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all!

Clean Counters

This week, I've been meditating on what exactly it means to be sanctified by Christ. What stuck out to me is an image from the lyrics of Jesus Paid It All: SIN HAD LEFT A CRIMSON STAIN, HE WASHED ME WHITE AS SNOW.

I feel like I've sung this a thousand times before this summer and just accepted it, like it was no big deal. But as I thought about this image, it made me think back to the service we did this summer and the love that we are called to live out here at home. For my Barneys, do you remember how often we had to clean? After every meal, every night, and as needed. We cleaned those boats so they could be a welcoming and inviting place for all. We worked hard, long hours not just so campers could hang out but so the Spirit could dwell. But, time and time again, those boats got wrecked, even and especially when we didn't expect it- usually right after we finished cleaning them. Those counters that we cleaned spotless, those floors we swept and mopped, found a way to dirty themselves up again seconds after we looked away.
When a camper stepped forward and apologized, I would say, "hey man, don't worry about it! I'll take care of it" but on the inside frustration began to build as more things like that happened.

This week, I've been checking myself a lot in those moments and fixing my eyes on Christ's example. I think of His relationship with Peter and how Peter denied Him three times. When Christ looked across that courtyard and locked eyes with Peter as the rooster crowed, shame and guilt formed in Peter's heart... but I don't think Jesus looked at him in condemnation. I think when they locked eyes, Jesus thought," Hey man, don't worry about. I'll take care of it." And as he thought that, he followed up by dying on the cross even while Peter was still dwelling in his self-inflected condemnation.
Like Peter, like those houseboats, we find a way to dirty ourselves up, even and almost especially right after we've already been sanctified. If it was up to us, we would clean the messes but roll our eyes as we did because the "as needed" cleaning can be so tedious.
I can't even imagine how much more of a mess I am for Christ to clean, and yet, I know when I am washed as white as snow, He does it willingly and He does it lovingly. Despite how often I make a mess of myself [which, to be honest, is like a thousand times a day], He doesn't get frustrated or angry with me. He doesn't roll His eyes like I would. He just says, "Hey man, don't worry about. I've taken care of it."

Philippians 2:6 says "Your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus".

"Where you feel you have stooped low to serve others, remember that Christ has stooped lower."
For as long as I've been home, the feeling of being a new creature in an old, familiar place hasn't left and I really hope it won't because although His Kingdom is not from this world(meaning we aren't of this world), it is FOR this world and so we should be too. Allow yourself to be broken and vulnerable, so you maybe wiped clean and sanctified as needed. In doing this you make yourself an inviting and welcoming person for all. In doing this we attract people to Christ and allow the Spirit dwell in us.

I love you and miss you all! You are prayed for and thought of daily. If you have any prayer requests, send 'em over :) I hope all is well