Portions

Update:
-Official Financial count: $800.00
-Mental Prep: Nervous but it's good & getting prepared
-Prayer Requests: Finances from all angles keep coming in, My nerves climax soon and I use the adrenaline to serve God and students. Pray for their awesome hearts. If we are praying in God's will, it will be done for us. John 15:7

I hate disappointing people. Especially people I love. It seems as though I always fail. The truth is, there is always room for it. Not matter what I do, I am a sinner...therefore I always have room in my actions and in my being to disappoint somebody, or more importantly...

God.

"When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in the heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to
glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?
Any there is nothing on earth that I
desire besides you.

My flesh and heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever"

Psalm 73:21-26

a. This is some sweet poetry!
b. God is faithful and good. Nothing can separate us. Not height and not depth. Disappointing Him sucks, but we have a God who refines us through our mistakes and grows us closer to Him.

He is it.

Que: Music

Czech Update:
-Support Letters are being sent out this week, they rock
-I can physically and emotionally feel God revving me up to go. It's almost like an out of body experience. Rad.

No, I'm not putting songs from 1985 on here. My bangs would start to tease themselves with aquanet if I did that. You know when songs remind you of certain memories? This could be the worst thing or the best thing, obviously depending on what memory the song creates. If you had a soundtrack for ____ 's life (fill in your name) what would you have on it? Well here is the challenge:

1. scan through your itunes or cd library. refamiliarize yourself with the nooks and crannies of your musical options. 2. identify five categories — genres, if you will — of music. these should be as obscure and finely-articulated as you’d like. feel free to use modifiers liberally. 3. nominate — select, really — a “perfect song” for each category. include a link for each song to something (the amazon page for the CD, or the artist’s website, or whatever). you may find it easier, as i did, to find “perfect songs”, and craft categories or genres around them. 4. ideally, some of the songs will be nominally obscure, or, at least, not completely mainstream and overplayed. no need to tell us all about songs we all know!

These are mine:
"Driving home on late night and feeling particularly intense for some reason"... The Dumbing Down of Love by Frou Frou

"Laying by the pool, almost asleep, so very content, in love with life"...Fade Into You by Mazzy Star

"The love of your life just walked in the room (you haven't seen them in awhile) and it's smooch time"...Brightest by Copeland

"This is the most captivating image I have ever seen and I want to stare at it for a very long time"...Clair De Lune by Philippe Entremont

"Walking into a church by yourself. All you want to do is surrender"... I Will Wait for You There by Phil Wickham

Tell me what you think....

I've been sitting here too long (not metaphorically speaking...like my tush hurts right now)

UPDATE:
I have all of my support letters ready to go. All I need is the address to send support to. Check your mail soon...(Can I mention that I LOVE every one of you reading this?) :)

Ever since I got that rockin' phone call from Josiah Venture, I have had a major feeling. This feeling consists of excitement, fear and nervousness all in one. Surprisingly it creates a calm in me.

God is preparing me in a major way.

I want to disclose something to my favorites (that's you). I write these things not for the sole purpose of telling you how I am feeling about this mission, but I tell you these things because I want God to be visual. I want Him to get the credit for these thoughts of encouragement because He is the one who motivates me. If you look from the first day that I started blogging, until now, you can already see the beginning of something He is doing. How sovereign He is. How good He is. This is vulnerable for me (which I do not love, and I'm not good at) , yet God humbles me so that He is glorified.

"...that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of ful assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ" *Colossians 2:2

Preparing for what? Showing a love as authentically as I know how. Why?

"So we do not lost heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. Fir the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
*2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (emphasis mine)

Did you hear that? What did it say? Personally.

Lord- May I not lose heart.
i love you

PTL

Apparently PTL means Praise the Lord, text talk. Thanks for telling me EShoe

I appreciate the constant prayer support from you all

Josiah Venture called today. They are having me come out as a summer intern this summer for 3 months. I can't wait....

Knowledge of Fragrance

Why is smelling good so important?

What is it about a familiar scent that reminds us of people or childhood memories? Every time I smell Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker, I think about a classic childhood- unlike one I could ever forget.

Let's admit it, smelling good rocks.

Almost every person I know chooses a scent, or a few, of their own. One of my faves is "Woman in Yellow" by Oiseau. I feel so fresh in its fragrance.

This is what Webster tells us about the word fragrance.
1. The quality of being fragrant; a sweet or pleasing scent.
2. The state or quality of having a pleasant scent.

Notice how both of the definitions say something about a fragrance being pleasant, or a quality. A state even.

We're talking much deeper than a smell here.

There is nothing undesirable about a fragrance.

God gives me pages of His fragrance. His pleasant, perfect, intoxicating aroma. He even lets me wear some of it.

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere" ~2 Corinthians 2:14

Triumphal means:
1. Of, pertaining to or commemorating a triumph or victory

Procession means:
1. The line or body of persons or things moving along in such a manner
2. Act of coming forth from a source

What source are you coming from? What scent do you smell like?

Is your scent a fragrance or an odor?

This is my realization. It's as if God were speaking to me directly saying, "Emily, I'm going to give you a fragrance of my knowledge. I'm going to honor Jesus and have a huge party. I want you to be there, so bad."

And He does. He wants us to show up for the commemoration of Jesus. Every day.

He always leads us. His word says so. All that is required of us is following. He'll glaze us in His perfect fragrance so we can be like Him.

My perfume always fades during the day, and eventually my bottle runs out.

Not God's. When I'm wearing His fragrance, all I have to do...



is ask for more.

This picture is how I feel.

I sent my application lastnight.

Yesss

Sting Rays

Update for Czech missions trip:
I finished my application and it's being sent out tonight. If my prayer and this organization's prayer for internships is aligned with the Lord's, this is going to be a beautiful thing!

The zoo has to be one of the most awesome places to go to. Talk about viewing God's creation...wow.

It was beautiful.

I went Monday with some close friends, and we pet some sting rays. They're definitely unlike anything I've ever touched before. I picked up on something about them when I came home and checked out my pictures.

They are usually traveling all together.

They seemed to be facing the same way, most of the time. All different looking, with different personalities, but in the same ocean... traveling together.

I have to share something beautiful that I thought went along great with the way I felt about sting rays. Topic of conversation at home group last night was unity. After awhile of silence, a friend spoke up with a comment that ended our night at the perfect spot. That comment was this.

RF's comment: God wants us to be unified, but we all have different gifts, and share His gospel in so many unique ways. How can we be unified?

One person says, "We'll sing soprano." Another says, "No no we'll sing alto." The third says, "No way, we're singing tenor." So they sing together.

They sing the same song with the same lyrics.

It ends up being one of the most beautiful songs you've ever heard.

Thank You God, for giving us different tones, so we can create Your song.

Psalm 27:6
"And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in His tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord."