My Story

My Story…

I grew up in a very loving Christian family and had a pretty easy life compared to many. God has shown me so much along the way and I want to share my story with you; my story of how God has radically changed my life and given me a purpose to live out each and every day.

My dad baptized me on Easter Sunday when I was 6 years old. I wasn’t sure what God was all about, but I had this overwhelming feeling that He wanted my attention. After church that day I came home and told my mom that I felt light as air and was extremely happy. Even though I didn’t know what was to come next I knew one thing - I had made the right decision.

God and the role He would play in my life made more sense when I was in 7th grade and attended our annual summer church camp. We were at worship the last night of camp (designated “cry” night at all camps J) and I went up to the front to join the other youth in worship. It was there that I had another encounter with God. I knew He wanted more from me, He wanted ALL of me. It was there I rededicated my life to Him and began to understand what it meant to ask for forgiveness and be forgiven. But still had so much to learn…

High School…

The years went by and I was in high school. I was a fairly moral kid – I didn’t drink, cuss, stay out late and went to church every week. While I was a good kid my heart wasn’t in the right place. I had morals without grace. I had in my head what was right and wrong and if someone didn’t live up to those expectations I would tend to look down on them. During this time my fear is I pushed people away from Christ by being “religious” rather than loving them unconditionally. A hard lesson that I pray God helps me redeem one day

College...

College was an amazing time in my life. I made a lot of new friends, loved my classes, joined a sorority and loved being involved. I went to church most weekends, mainly because as a Christian that is what you are supposed to do. During my second semester of my junior year I had a startling realization that I hadn’t prayed to God during that entire semester. On the outside I was playing the part of a good Christian, but on the inside my heart was far from being focused on God. I felt a void and knew it needed to be fixed, but couldn’t fathom how to figure out a way to make God the center of my life.

Being Called…

That same year I got plugged into LifeChurch.tv in Stillwater and there God started changing me. I began serving, plugged into a LifeGroup and even went on a mission trip to Honduras. I began to refocus my life in God’s direction and began a crazy journey of learning what it truly meant to be a fully devoted follower of Christ. One day, during my first semester of Grad school, I was leaving the business building after class and was stopped dead in my tracks when God clearly told me “You are going into ministry”. While I love God I had never thought I would be on staff at a church! But His calling to me that day was undeniable – He had a plan. That day I un-enrolled from my upcoming semester of grad school and started looking for a job at a church.

LifeChurch.tv…

The next couple months was filled with a lot of prayer and seeking God for an opened a door. He answered with an incredible opportunity for me to come on staff at LifeChurch.tv. I spent an amazing 3 ½ years at the LifeChurch.tv Central Offices on the LifeGroups/Missions team. God currently has sent me in a new direction and I’m now working on the LifeChurch.tv South Tulsa Campus team. I am in love with my job and the people I get to come in contact with on a weekly basis. I cannot get over that God is allowing me to do what I do for a living!

My Purpose…

Through it all, God has shown me one thing very clearly – “Jessica - give me all you’ve got.” I’m at a place in my life where I want nothing more than to be sold out for Christ. He has put me where I am at this moment in time for a purpose – my prayer is that I am diligent in seeking Him daily and live out my life according to His purpose.

Worship

There are times in church when I'm singing a worship song and I want to be completely focused on God, but instead I am distracted by those around me. Then there are other amazing times when a song brings me to my knees and I can do nothing but praise God and give Him all my focus.

"From the Inside Out" by Hillsong United is one of the most powerful worship songs I've ever experienced. It's my prayer for my own life. The lyrics are below, but I highly suggest downloading it, getting by yourself and having an amazing worship time with the Maker of the Universe.

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out Lord, my soul cries out

sub - merg [suhb-murj]

Submerg: To be covered or lost from site.

I have a crazy-insane desire to be fully submerged in God day and night. To wake up with Him on my mind, to go through my day chatting with Him and ending my nights with a "I love you God- talk to you in the morning."

Unfortunately, that's not the way many of my days turn out. I wake up late for work and am in a hurry. I go through my workday tasks never stopping to tell Him a simple "I love you, what do you want me to do for you today?" By bedtime I'm so exhausted I can hardly comprehend the Bible verse I just read.

In my "performance driven" mind I have to realize that I'm not perfect and my relationship with Christ isn't where it should be. There is always more to learn and ways to grow spiritually. So how do I work daily towards being "submerged" in God? First, I believe it's important to have that as a focus in front of me daily. Each morning that is where I can start.

"Lord, help me be submerged in you. I not only want to be fully submerged in You but I want to be "lost from site". I don't want my life here to be about me or my accomplishments or how I was perceived by others. Please use me to make a difference for you. I'm only on this earth for a short time, but desperately want to make an eternal impact for your Kingdom. Challenge me and help me to walk in faith even when I don't understand. Love you- talk to you in the morning."

Encourage Someone

It's amazing how God will use other people to help us through our spiritual journey. I was struggling with some stuff tonight and recieved an IM from a college classmate I haven't talked to in ages. He was extremely encouraging and told me to "Keep on serving the Lord." That turned my whole thought process around and brought perspective to what God has called me to do.

I'm not anywhere close to perfect, but I know God has a plan for me- that I want to fulfill. A nice word from an old acquaintance has me back on the road again. Amazing.

Who do you need to encourage today? You may never know the impact your words may have...

Change

Change happens.

Some times it's like walking into a pitch black room with no direction.

Other times it's like discovering a clear path that has been put right in front of your face.

Most times it's exciting sometimes it's scary.

Change is inevitable.

It's what challenges us to grow.

It's an inviation from God to draw closer to Him and walk in faith.

We can embrace change or we can run from it.

We can choose to hear God's prompting or ignore it.

What change is God asking you to walk into?

Do you trust Him?

Francis Chan- Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California

"The Holy Spirit"

• Speak everything God tells you to say. Be bold not a people pleaser.
  
• We’re done playing games; we’re here for the real thing.
  
• You will never be as joyful as when you are following the Holy Spirit, but this takes letting go. Let go.
  
• You will not be loved by everyone, be willing to take some hits.
  
• James 5:17- “Elijah was as human as we are…” Big thought! Elijah was used by God to a huge impact on the world and he was just as normal as you or I.

Cool Francis stories/illustrations:

• Two years ago Francis was burned out by church. He told his elders he was going away for a while and didn’t know if he was coming back. He was gone for a few months and started listening only to the Holy Spirit and not people. His church had a $20 million building fund set up that they were about to reach. He asked, “Do you know how many orphans and widows we could take care of with $20 million?” They scraped the building project and now meet outside in an amphitheater!
  

• He raised a really hard question: If you had never heard about God and were on a desert island with nothing but a Bible where you studied about the church. Could you come to America and find the church the bible talks about? Does it exist as the Word says it should?

• He talked about how he was an effective communicator, could draw a crowd and pull together an amazing band. He's gifted in that way. He could probably do it all w/o consulting God. The he posed the question: "If Jesus had a church down the street from mine, would mine be bigger? Would people be more comfortable here? Would it be easier to come because we didn't ask too much of them?" Interesting...

Thoughts?

Marcus Buckingham- Author of “Now Discover Your Strengths”

Definition of a weakness = any activity that weakens you.

• Just because you are good at something doesn’t make it a strength. If you dislike it and it deflates you than it is a weakness.
• Build on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.

Identifying strengths:

1. Success – when you perform your strength you feel effective.
2. Instinct – You look forward to it.
3. Growth – While doing your strength you feel inquisitive and focused.
4. Needs – After you feel fulfilled and authentic.

4 ways to manage your weaknesses:

1. Stop – If you stop would anyone care or notice?
2. Team up – partner with someone strengthened by what weakens you.
3. Offer up – Offer to help using your strengths not weaknesses.
4. Perspective – Look at your weaknesses from a different angle. Can you turn it into one of your strengths?

• Example: Rudy Giuliani is terrible at addressing a crowd from behind a podium but really good at debating and arguing a point. He’s turned all his speeches into question and answers to dialog with his crowd. When there isn’t an opportunity to dialog he poses questions in his speech and then argues with himself! He turned a weakness into a strength.

Concentrating on your weaknesses is a “wasted strength” like a sundial in the shade. - Marcus Buckingham

My takeaways:

I found Marcus’ ideas on weaknesses very interesting. Working at LC.tv you find your strengths and learn to build on them. I never thought of the fact that things I am good at could actually be a weakness!

For example- I’m good at pulling a project off, for some reason I can piece together all the right pieces to make it happen. With that I’m usually given whole projects to coordinate from beginning to end. I suck at the “beginning” stage. I’ve realized I’m not good at coming up with the original idea – but I am good at implementing and improving an existing idea. So for my next project I’m going to use someone who has the strength/creativity of coming up with the idea and then I’ll work on making that concept happen.

Do you have something you thought was a strength but is actually a weakness that depletes you?