So I'm sure you've all heard the quote that says something like, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." I used to think this was a pretty great idea. I may or may not have written it across a couple of notebooks back in the day just to serve as inspiration. And then I realized...the stars are great and all. But God has huge moon-sized dreams for me. Why would I want to stop short when He's brought me so far? God likes to do BIG moon-sized things. Like use a kid to end slavery. And bring justice to those who've been treated unfairly. And end poverty by helping kids. And cure diseases like AIDS and cancer. And rescue young girls from lives in the sex trade. And bring peace to war-torn countries. And He likes to use His people to get stuff done. So dream big moon-dreams. And when you end up with a handful of stars, keep going because you're not there yet. Even when it gets hard and it hurts. Even when you fail a couple (or a couple hundred) times. Even when you really question why in the world God gave you your particular moon-dream because it may as well be impossible. Even when people say that you should maybe think about finding a new dream that isn't quite so hard to reach. Keep going.

Lately, I feel like all I have been doing is waiting. And guess what? I hate it! I didn't realize how hard it is to wait. We are so used to living a society where we get everything as soon as we want. The IPhone is the perfect example. We can have internet at any time we want, our pictures, our music, etc, etc. we have e-mail that sends messages in a matter of second. Snail mail is only for bills. Just last week, we were sending letters to each other. There were people who didn't know how to correctly put their address on the envelope, and I don't blame them. Snail mail is becoming an obsolete means of communication because people hate waiting. My pastor said this week that he thinks that Patience is one the most difficult Fruit of the Spirit because it is something you have to learn. I agree with him. The other Fruit of the Spirit come more naturally than Patience. Patience is something we have to learn and learning usually involves being challenged. Some people just have patience. Others like me must learn it. And it can be hard.

But at the same time, waiting can be good. It gives us time to think. Is what we are waiting for, really worth waiting for? After we get what we are waiting for, what's next? What if what we were waiting for wasn't exactly what we expected? or what if it is everything we expected and more? Then what?

I think a good story about waiting is Abraham's story. Abraham and Sarah wanted children. God promised them children but they had to wait a really long time. At one point, they get desperate. They get tired of waiting. So Sarah tells Abraham to sleep with Hagar, their servant. This was actually a common practice back in the day, since women were looked down upon when they had no children. Abraham slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. She had Ishmael, who wasn't necessarily part of God's original plan. Ishmael reprensents Sarah and Abraham's mistake and impatience. They had to wait some more and trust God's promise and they did finally get their own son, Isaac.

The problem with waiting is that once we become impatient and we get tired of waiting. We forget to trust God. We rather get our answer NOW! So, as human beings, we decide to take things in our hands and then we screw things up. I think maybe one of the reasons we don't like waiting is that waiting requires us trusting God to take care of things. It requires us to take leaps of faith. I know that leaps of faith are hard to take, when God isn't somebody we can see physically.

There is a beauty in waiting. When we can calmly and patiently wait, we trust God to handle whatever is going on. If its college applications, relationships, job interviews, tests, problems, worries, doubts. I know that I am not done waiting, nowhere near done, and I am still going to get impatient. I am going to want to take things in my own hands. I know that waiting isn't going to get any easier. But I also know that I have a loving, caring God that is going to help me wait and challenge me so that I may learn patience. I guess it all comes down to waiting for that too.

Have you ever wondered how life would be different if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? If the first thing that comes to your mind is There’d be no spring break or chocolate bunnies, think again.

The Bible actually talks about the what if’s regarding the Resurrection. First Corinthians 15:13-19 tells us that if Christ wasn’t resurrected, everything we do is in vain.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we’d have no hope of eternal life with Him. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, our faith would be useless, and there would be no forgiveness for our sins. Just think: We’d have no reason to keep going to church or reading the Bible. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then all the Christian martyrs over the last 2,000 years died for a lie.

If Jesus hasn’t conquered death, we’re all in big trouble. This means we’re all destined for an eternity in hell. Think about the millions of believers who have died trusting Jesus as their Savior. If Jesus hasn’t risen, every single one of them has perished. If in fact Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead, we’re a miserable people, because we have no promise of being raised from the dead ourselves.

The resurrection of Jesus means that God the Father gave His approval to the claims and the works of Jesus. These claims would have been blasphemous if Jesus weren’t truly the Son of God. But the Resurrection authenticates Jesus and His teaching. The empty tomb should assure us forever that all the things Jesus taught were true. If Christ hasn’t risen from the dead, He wouldn’t be alive now, and we’d have no one to represent us before God.

Ultimately, there would be no living person to live within us and give us power. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees both His promise to us and His authority to make that promise when He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26).

Your life can have meaning, your sins can be forgiven and you can live forever with Christ, because He’s alive! Have you accepted His resurrection as fact? Is He your Savior? He wants to be! In fact, you can seek forgiveness for your sins right now.

Dear Jesus:
I admit I’m a sinner. Will You forgive me for my sins? I want to place my trust in You. I believe You died for me, and I also believe You conquered death and are alive right now. I want to live for You, Jesus. Thank You for Your gift of eternal life. In Your name I pray, Amen

If you prayed that prayer, you’ll want to talk with your pastor about being baptized and becoming discipled so you can grow deeper in your faith. Tell another Christian that you’re part of God’s family now, and ask him or her to pray for you.

Hello-

Thanks for stopping by! If you aren't seeing any of my entries right now that is because only people who have an account with HSB may view my blog & comment. Sorry if this causes any problem! I look foward to heairng from you!

God Bless!

-Miss Elizabeth