LOVE YOU

Hey everyone!

I know that we have all become really busy and this blog is kinda reflecting that. I am sure that you are all continuing with the I am's and learning new and amazing things about your identity in Christ. I just wanted to let you all know that I love you a ton! I miss you all more and more each day. This summer and the days in training you all became my family and words cannot describe how encouraged and loved you have all made me feel. I just wanted to take some time and let you all know that I am actively praying for you. If there is anything specifically that I can be lifting up for you, please give me a call.

I love you guys!

-Haley

So probably a lot of you won't see this because you are busy studying for finals, but I just wanted to say that my version of the bible says "casting all my anxieties on Jesus" which I think was a perfect statement to have the week before finals. Trust in God and give him all your fears and anxieties about finals and school.

I love you all and will be praying for each of you as you start finals!

overwhelming reminder

As I have been going through these statements, i am just continual reminded of what being in God and being a new person means. I apologize in advanced because this is somewhat general and not focusing in one particular statement. Recently God through other Sonshine-ers has been reminding me of the importance of those around me. He has really brought me back into the "everyone is a camper" reality and that these statements don't just work for Sonshine staff but for everyone we encounter. He has really just been convicting me with the reminder that I need to be reminding people daily of Christ's commitment to them as His children. I recently moved out of my old room and into a new one because of some really interesting situations with my old roomates. The new room I am in I share with two sophomores and it is such a cool opportunity! I daily get to see their walks with Christ and serve them loving through these statements. I don't know if my tangent makes any sense but I just wanted to share a brief look into my current journey with these. I love you all and I am always here if you need anything. Please call with prayer requests or just to catch up! I miss you guys.

Love,

Haley

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!