Love

Yesterday at church the man speaking told a story of when he was in Africa. While in Africa he ministered to a leprosy clinic in a refuge camp. At the leprosy clinic he didn't want to touch anyone because he was afraid of getting "dirty" and getting leprosy. After talking to the Lord about if for a long time... the Lord told him to go and give one particular man a hug. This particular man at the leprosy clinic had no hands, or feet, no ears and no nose. He was shunned by everybody as He hobbled around with stinks.

The man speaking said the next day when he went to the camp... he quickly went over to the man without hands or feet and gave him a giant big bear hug as tears rolled down his face. He said that was all he could do and after giving the man with leprosy a hug he left. The next day when he returned though... the same man came over as quickly as he could hobble and following behind him was a whole line-up of people just wanting a human to hold them and to give them a loving touch.

Since church yesterday... I have been thinking about that. There are so many people out there who are considered "dirty" and detestable by the world. Those are the kinds of people I want to embrace. I want to love them and give them a glimpse of the love of GOD. Not only has God commanded us to keep His commands, but in John it says that people will know that we are His disciples by our love. I want people to see Jesus Christ in me through love.

Jesus Christ came to the earth to love the unlovely, the heal the sick, to give sight to the blind to redeem the broken, to release those bound by bondage and to set the captives free. Not only did He reached out to people that others rejected... but it was the very people that He ministered to that sought to destroy His very life.

How I desire to be molded and made more like my Saviour!

~jessica

"Mystery"

As I sit here eating ice cream pie -- before I eat supper of course (laughing)... I am thinking about how God gives us mysteries to draw us to Himself as we look to Him for answers.

On Friday last week, God gave me a mystery. At first it was like "I don't understand, this is really weird"... but as I was talking to the Creator God about it, He showed me something that I not only needed to hear, but also something that was life changing and gave me a new perspective on the season of life I am going through right now.

It started when I went to a coffee shop with a bunch of friends from my Bible study group. As soon as we walked into the coffee shop and proceeded to sit downn, a random person came up to us and told us that he wanted to buy us what ever we wanted to drink. First he asked the other people what they wanted to drink and then he asked me what I wanted. I said "I will just have a plain coffee". (Thinking "...that's what I always get because it is the cheapest thing on the menue.") The only problem was when I said "Oh, I will just have a plain coffee"... the man looked at me with this dazed and shocked look on his face and told me to go look at the menue and find something a little more exciting. So... to obey these weird orders... I got up and looked at the menue. To make a long story short I ended up with the best iced coffee ever... Caremel Mountain Expresso.

Seriously, I felt very odd letting another random stranger buy me a expensive drink. (A side note is that I wouldn't have allowed him to do that if I was alone.) The rest of the night I kept on thinking about the mystery of it all. I knew that the Lord was trying to tell me something... I just didn't understand what it was fully.

In the morning, when I got into the shower I started talking to the Lord about it. I asked Him to show me and to make clear to me what He was trying to tell me through what happened at the coffee shop the night before. It was then that He started to open up my heart and eyes to several different truths that my heart needed to hear and compherend. He told me, that just like the man offered to get me anything I wanted on the menue -- He is offering salvation, fullness of joy, freedom, peace, hope, healing and life. It is a absolutly FREE gift that is available to anyone with no strings attacthed. I don't have to do anything... except accept the free gift.

I have had to make a descion this weekened. Will I accept God's gift of life, healing and freedom that He wants to give me? I have choosen yes. I am not going to give up. I am going to keep on going. His strength is sufficant for me!

prayer request

Hey guys!
I don't have time for a real update right now... but could you join me in prayer. God gave me my cello a few weeks ago. I have been advertising for students and gigs. Could you pray that God would bless me students and gigs? Thank you so much!!!!
~jessica

"To grant those who mourn in Zion -- to give them a beautful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness,

the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." Isaiah 61:3

Jeremiah 17:7

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord."

who is your coach?

Who is your coach? This is something I have I have been thinking about over the past couple of weeks. About a month ago, I had the amazing oppertunity to go to my first american baseball game. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was pretty exciting!

Oh the thrill and excitement that I experienced as I joined the hundreds of other fans as we cheered the "Sky Soxs" on. (That game we won 8 to 6 - yayness!!!) The thing that made the biggest impact on me though... was not the smell of the hotdogs floating through the air or the andreniline pumping through my veins as we got a home run. Instead it was seeing the coaches standing behind the white line helping and encouraging each member of their team to keep on going.

Through this... the Lord has showen me a few simularities between the baseball coach and Himself. Not only is He my Heavenly Father, but He is my "coach" as well. He is training me. Ultimately, preparing me for great works. Its a process... that includes stretching, as I am taken out of my comfort zone; pruning, so that I can bare fruit in aboundance; suffering, so that the power of Christ can be seen in and through me; endurance, to keep on going until the race is done (to name just a few). How I anticipate and desire to hear my Saviour saying to me "well, done my good and faithful servant.

Will you join me in learning to keep my eyes focused and centered on Him?

~jessica

learning to trust!

The other day I decided to bike to the post office which is a mile away. All was going fine. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing my hair in millions of different directions.

By the time I got to the post office... my muscles were burning from going uphill the whole way. I locked up my bike and went in to mail some letters.

Once my post office mission was done. I set off to my next mission... biking to the dollar store which was another 1.5 miles away. As I biked... I found myself in a really sweet and precious time of communication with my Heavenly Father.

When I got to the Dollar Store, I got off my bike and started to lock it up. It was then that it suddenly hit me that my bike lock was gone. I was dumb stuck and pretty upset. At first I was like... oh well, I could just go in and forget about it and get another lock whenever. Then it was like, I can't go in because somebody might take my bike and this isn't really MY bike because somebody is letting me use their bike and I really do NOT want their bike stolen. So then it was like... I don't have any other choice then to bike back uphill to the post office to see if I could find my bicycle lock.

It was as I started to bike back that I became VERY angry with God. Here I had been having such sweet fellowship with Him and then He lets this happen to me (although I can laugh about it now... I was pretty disturbed by it then ). I began to talk to Him and tell my Father just the way I felt and what was going on inside. He began to tell me that He did this to teach me to trust Him. He said that everything was going to be ok... that I could rest in the fact that He had EVERYTHING under control. I bicycled back to the Post Office and when I got there... guess what I found? My lock! I then went back to the dollar store to finish my mission.

I am still learning to trust God. It is getting easier to give Him full reign and access to my heart.... but it is still a daily, moment by moment descion. I pray that nothing will hold me back... that I will be able to trust God with my all.