Life is tough but God is FAITHFUL

Man, what a rush. I’m a tad bit out of breath and my heart is about to beat out of my chest! No, not because I’m ‘that’ out of shape but because of the excitement and encouragement God, just moments ago, placed within my spirit. (I was all of a sudden overwhelmed with the desire to write down the thoughts and feelings God has placed in my heart. And for those of you who know me well will understand as to why I just sprinted down the hall, up the stairs to grab my Bible and computer so that I could jot down my thoughts.) I’m in the lobby of my dorm where at this very moment a group pf people are gathered watching ‘Charlie St. Cloud.’ (Great movie, by the way.) I’m seated in the back of the room, attempting to study for my Old Testament final I have Monday morning. I just finished trying to help my dear Wynn study for his math final – but as my mother so delicately put it, ‘Em, that’s like the blind leading the blind.’ It’s the thought that counts me suppose. One of the concepts I was studying on my review sheet was the prophetic actions of Jeremiah. The one particular action I was committing to memory was the Almond tree – its significance was that God would fulfill His word. This past week has been absolutely a whirlwind! God has tested my faith in His faithfulness and at times I didn’t even recognize that that’s what He was doing. My dad has been in and out of Doctors offices with an unusual back pain, finals started this week, and those everyday, nagging circumstances and problems have been hitching a ride on the ‘Emily train,’- and life is just tough. (This all ties together, I promise.) As I was trying to remember Jeremiahs prophesy of the Almond Tree and God’s faithfulness, the visual learner inside of me took a glance outside in search of a tree to associate with this certain prophetic question. As I looked at the tree outside my dorm I was thinking, “There ya’ go Em, God is faithful to fulfill His promises. Look, he takes care of the trees.” And it was at this moment that I decided to race up the stairs in search of my Bible and computer. This past week God has tested my trust in Him. It’s just been one of those weeks; nothing horrible happened but it’s just been a struggle to get through. I’ve poured out my heart to God and searched His word for verses on faith and hope. I was blessed beyond belief with the verses He brought to my attention. This is one of the reasons His word is so important and dear to my heart – it is my hope. I’m so thankful that the Lord is sure to fulfill His promises. He is always faithful whether we deserve it or not. I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and a wonderful family to love and encourage me. I’m also very thankful for the wonderful young man God has placed in my life. Wynn reminded me the other day that life is tough. But the reason we have joy and hope is because of Jesus Christ. We get in these dark spots in life and sometimes forget that the Light of the World is living inside of us. When we are overwhelmed by our struggles and by life itself, we need to remember who are hope is in – the faithful Father. Don’t be troubled by your troubles. We are not promised tomorrow so we need to live our lives in the HOPE and faithfulness of the Lord today. Love, laugh, live, cry, sing, dance, eat :] , hope, run, play, conquer, and don’t get tangled up in what could have been; take what the Lord has given you and USE it for His glory. 3 days till Christmas break! Luke 1:37, “For NOTHING will be impossible with God.”

Loving one another...it's tough.

It’s funny what God will use to teach you things. A couple weeks ago, I went with my good friend, and a handful of other people, on a ‘mini road trip’ for the weekend. It was a lot of fun and definitely a different experience than I expected it to be. I was a bit nervous about the ‘big adventure’ – solely because some of the people that had decided to tag along weren’t exactly the people I ‘chummed’ around with all the time. My heart had become haughty and these were the ones I often found myself wondering why they were even attending TMC. Nevertheless, 2 of my very best friends were in the group and it was destined to be a fun time filled with memories! (I am going to try and not drag this story out – I tend to do that; but I will give it my best to get to the point.) That night, a certain group of people decided to involve themselves in things that did not represent Christ, the school they attend, or themselves. This saddened my heart and really angered my spirit. I was disappointed in a few, angry at some others, and relieved when my best friend decided not to partake in the folly of ‘temporary fun’ – whatever his reasons. That night, some sleeping arrangements were rearranged and our wonderful host found it within her heart to put up the ‘disadvantaged’ boy on her couch. I know he was relieved; but I can guarantee you, I was more so. As we ventured off to bed and goodnights were being exchanged, my best friend hollered at me and said, “Hey, you wanna’ say prayers with me?” I was a little surprised at his request, nonetheless joyful and excited that he desired to join in prayer together; I suppose I will give credit to the ‘wee’ hours of the morning as to why I was a bit taken back – I shouldn’t have been, but I was. Of course, I agreed. I knelt down by the once, shaggy headed boy who was curled up on a couch too small for his long core, who had rumpled up the sheets trying to get comfortable. As he prayed, my spirit was convicted and touched. He prayed for his friends. He acknowledged that God, the same God who loves him and me, loves them just as much despite their bad judgment. Now, I’ve been raised with the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together” as a mission statement in choosing my friends and those who I hang around with. I am beyond blessed that I have been so privileged to have such godly influences and friendships in my life – not everyone gets to experience that and I am ever so thankful for the Lords provision. To sum up the story – There is a particular individual in this group of people who I have become not so fond of. The Lord convicted me that instead of judging him on the mistakes he has made, I should be loving Him with the Love I have experienced in Christ Jesus. I struggle with application…I really struggle with it. I’m praying for this guy, that he would wake up and get real in his faith. The Lord brings him across my mind quite often and I always say a prayer within my heart for him. I’m praying that God will use me, and that he will use one of my friends to be an example of REAL Christians: the ones who show love, have fun, but honor the Lord in everything that we do. I had this “revelation” that God could use us, somehow, someway, to show these kids that what they are living is not a Christ-filled life. And if they already know that, and simply don’t care, God can use us to show them that the Christian walk is worth it. That’s my prayer. It sounds kind of crazy and unusual. But why would I limit my God to the ways He can use me? The ways He can use us? Get the focus off of yourself – if there are people you have a hard time loving, PRAY for them and go out of YOUR way to prove God’s love for them. John 13:34 says, “I give you a NEW command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Today is IT!

Today…is it. It’s all we have. In America, we are taught that there is always a tomorrow; but this isn’t true. Now, I am in no way condoning the ‘live for today, do what feels good’ mentality. But as Christians, I really do believe that we should be living to give God all that we have today, not plan on giving Him half today and the other half next week. This entire ‘idea’ is really something that God has been placing on my mind and my heart for the past week or two. A good friend brought it to my attention that we get so caught up in trying to figure out God and what He wants that if we’re not careful we will miss the opportunity to receive the blessings that He has for us, and miss the chance to bring Him honor and glory through our IMPERFECT and BROKEN lives. This hit home for me – we try to over think things and out think God. When we do this, where is our faith? What are we saying to God? Do we trust Him? No. Our view of God is often distorted, even as Christians. We tend proclaim His as Supreme Being over our lives but in our hearts we diminish his power and His providential care over our lives. He deserves all that we are. He deserves 100% of who we are, today. I struggle with this and God is working with me. (Thank goodness!) Matthew 6:34, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

A TRUE Father

Wow. It has been way too long since I have taken the time to sit down and capture all that God has been doing in my life and put it into words. In no way will my senseless words do any justice for what God has been doing within my life and my heart. Apparently my world is one crazy whirlwind. Every single time I actually do sit down to write about it I babble on and on about how crazy my past weeks have been. It’s starting to become a trend and I guess I’m just going to have to accept it for what it is! In a nutshell, God has been teaching me about His love and provision in my life. He has reinforced over and over again that He is God and that He is in control. (Thank goodness He is. My life would be a WRECK if He allowed me to live it the way I think it needs to be done.) I have actually been struggling with something recently and it baffles me that I was actually having this battle in my mind. It wasn’t until I began to pour out my heart and ‘recent life story’ to my best friend that I began to understand that the very answer to my struggle was in my heart and mind the entire time. God has a plan for our lives. Isn’t that awesome? But you know what is even more mind-boggling? His plans for us are good! They are good. He doesn’t wish us to struggle. He has no intentions to harm us or to leave us. In every struggle He is there with us, fighting for us, believing in us and encouraging us to the finish line. This truth was made so real to me this past week in chapel at TMC. I love chapel by the way. It’s just about the only good thing that happens on Thursday’s…. the rest of my day is filled with the history of Ancient Greece and biology. Anyway, Dr. Brad Reynolds spoke and talked about running the race of life. He talked about God being our father, up in the stands, cheering us on to the finish line. He is up in the stands grabbing others who are around Him and saying, “That’s my girl!” “That’s my boy!” This is such an easy concept. Duh, God is our heavenly father. I knew that but it wasn’t until this chapel service that I actually understood it. I hate running. If someone told me I had a choice to either run 16 miles or die I would probably choose the death route…no joke. And I suppose that in this position as father, I had pictured God running beside me playing the role of coach. “Run harder, make your strides longer, pace yourself Em, keep going, almost there, DON’T stop.” To a point this is who He is. But even deeper, He isn’t that coach that is yelling at us out of love and commitment to finish the race, but He is our LOVING father whose heart is hurting as He watches us run in pain. He sweats with our sweat and He feels the pain that we feel. That’s our father; the same father that has GOOD and perfect plans for our lives. This doesn’t even skim the surface of what God has been doing in my life. But i have been absolutely dying to get someting out into words. So there you go.Be encuraged that He is YOUR loving Father who is FOR you.

A Different Direction

God has been doing a lot in my life these past few days. I think I say that just about every time I sit down and write – but hey, I’m certainly not complaining! Obedience has seemed to be ‘the’ beat to my drum lately. God has called each of us to be obedient at all times but lately He has really required me to die to my self and my fleshly wants all for the sake of obedience. It is never an easy task, obedience. In all reality it is probably one of the hardest tests to pass because our flesh desires to please self. It knows nothing but selfishness. I know the Lord is preparing me for something because this is the second ‘call to obedience’ He has beckoned me to that has had a major impact on my life. When I came to Truett I had purposed within my heart to play basketball. I have been raised an athlete. I love it. I played sports all throughout high school; it seemed as if I was at school and practices more than I ever was at home. So of course, given the opportunity to play sports in college was what I had convinced myself was next on my bucket list. As I began to allow myself to sink into the fact that I was now on my own, away from my family, at school, God began to press on my heart that basketball wasn’t on His list for me. I wrestled with this decision because, as some of you may know, I am a very ‘planned’ person. I like to know what’s going on. It’s a major struggle of mine because God doesn’t let you know what’s going on. He requires your faith. Anyway, I don’t mean to ramble. I began to pray and seek the Lords will for me in this aspect of my life. I was concerned with my choices because in my decision I was making a commitment; a commitment to be committed to one thing or to another. Athletics is something that I love and to ‘go a different route’ was something that I had never seriously considered. Lying before me was an option to get involved and to grow in Christ and ministry through a means that I have not had. I sought council from people I trusted and of course poured my heart out to Christ. The votes were tallied, the results are in – Emily Grooms is taking a different road. I so desire for Christ to be glorified in my life and I desire to serve Him with all of who I am, every single part of me. God has made Himself clear as clear can be that I am exactly where He wants me to be right now. I’m so excited to see where He will lead me because I know that He indeed has a plan for me while I am here. A plan to grow me and conform me more into the likeness of His Son.

Worshipping

It has been a CRAZY few days, and that’s putting it nicely! I’m adapting to life without my mom and dad, my sisters, my bed, my dogs… what a rough life.  I am so thankful for this school. Truett-McConnell College has already blessed my heart and I attribute every ounce of that blessing to the fact that God has willed and allowed me to be here. Today was our first chapel day. Dr. Canter spoke and it was definitely a word from the Lord; convicting and inspiring. He spoke of the Prodigal son in a way I had never heard it told before. He focused on the father and used his actions as a picture of the gospel and evangelism. We have an amazing ‘chapel’ band who aided us in some extraordinary worship – it was divine, that’s the only word I can think of to accurately describe what it was. Throughout the past few days of orientation we have been privileged, as a school, to worship together at various times and places. I felt so at home when I looked around me and saw all the students, about my age…some older and some younger, worshiping and praising our Farther in Heaven for His work in each of our individual lives. I literally thought to myself, ‘Where have all of you been?’ It has been an answer to prayer to be around people who truly love the Lord. (Not that any of you back in J-vile aren’t…it’s been a burden on my heart for quite some time and God really blessed me when He placed me here at TMC.) Today at chapel God really burdened my heart during our worship time. Those of you who know me know that I am not a publicly emotional person. Well, as we began to sing songs of praise to our God, who sits on the throne, perfect in power, holy, and full of grace, and my heart simply broke. The wall of ‘toughness’ came down and tears began to roll down my face as I sang. It was one of those moments that I think I will remember for the rest of my life. God burdened and broke my heart as I worshiped and I was in complete awe of Him; His very name. I was overwhelmed by His grace and faithfulness in my life. I was taken back by His divine providence and protection He has placed on me for the past 19 years. My birthday is today – the big 19! Whoop whoop!  My cousin texted me this morning right before we stood up to sing to wish me a happy birthday and he told me he hoped I was having a lot of fun and a great time. That meant so much to me. I don’t know why it did – but God used it to absolutely bless my heart. As I was singing I was again overwhelmed at how blessed I was to have such a wonderful family. Throughout the entire service, even during the invitation, I experienced worship. I thought the tears had stopped rolling but the waterworks just kept on leaking. God’s grace and mercy…there are no words to accurately describe the two. And if there are words I certainly could not give them proper credit. Even this very moment I am captivated by God’s love for me. Sometimes we forget how much of nothing we are without Him. We forget that our sin separates us completely from Him and that without His grace and mercy in our lives we would be dead, without Him. Remember that and remember to worship Him. Don’t ever take the opportunity to worship for granted.

Hero

Every now and then I will find myself lying on the couch, engrossed in some new movie or driving around Jacksonville, intently listening to some new music that’s playing on Air 1 Radio. As many of you already know, I am guilty of singing while I’m driving…more than guilty. If there was such a thing as double guilty – that’d be me. It must have been about a month ago that I hopped in my car to drive somewhere, who knows where… because I sure can’t remember. It was hot; my air was on full blast blowing my 09’ tassel around like it was in the middle of a Tornado. (Which I just recently took down by the way. I figured it was time to move on from good ole’ high school… ;) As I was focused on why my air was not cooling fast enough to meet my immediate concern of heat exhaustion, suddenly, I heard something that made all the little and insignificant thoughts I was having cease. These were the words that immediately drowned out my own voice:

“There He goes – a hero
A Savior to the world.
Here he stands with Scars in His hands.
With love He gave His life
So we could be free.
The Savior of the world.”

For some reason the past few weeks I have become very sensitive and somewhat emotional when it comes to, for lack of better words, ‘moments of the heart.’ I am not a crier when it comes to heart throbbing movies or your usual tear jerker. I’m just not. But when I heard this song my heart immediately broke. Here were these words being sung that spoke of my Savior as He truly deserves to be spoken of: a Hero. I don’t know the history of this song or even who wrote it. My personal applaud to whoever did. It’s sung by a Christian band called Abandon and the song’s name is Hero. As I continued on my way I poured out my heart to God, my Hero, and begged of His forgiveness for not viewing Him as a Hero. I mean, come on, take a look at these words. If this story wouldn’t top the box offices – I give up on movies in general. This man who was famous for nothing. He was poor, dirty…normal. He had a face like all the rest yet when He told people to follow Him, they came. I won’t spoil the rest of the song for you. I hope you will scroll down to read the rest of it. I am guilty of viewing my Savior as Lord, as God, even as my Father. But I am also ‘double guilty’ of not viewing Him as a true Hero, which is what He is. Please read this song…go to youtube and listen to it. As you read and as you listen, think of the words and how powerful they are. Think of how simple the very moments the song speaks of are. This is our Savior – our Hero.

He walked the dirty streets
Famous for nothing.
He said “come follow me” and they came.
A face like all the rest.
But something was different.
The Son of God would lead the way.
And soon they all would say.

There He goes - a hero
A savior to the world.
Here He stands with scars in His hands.
With love He gave His life
so we could be free.
The Savior of the world.

He spoke with clarity
Walked across the sea.
A single word would calm the storm.
His touch could heal the sick
but He was called a hypocrite.
Laid behind the stone
His death was shortly mourned
He left the curtain torn.
He walked the dirty streets
Famous for nothing.
He said “come follow me” and they came.
A face like all the rest.
But something was different.
The Son of God would lead the way.
And soon they all would say.

There He goes a hero
A savior to the world.
Here He stands with scars in His hands.
With love He gave His life so we could be free.
The Savior of the world.

He spoke with clarity
Walked across the sea.
A single word would calm the storm.
His touch could heal the sick
but He was called a hypocrite.
Laid behind the stone
His death was shortly mourned
He left the curtain torn.