intentionality.

zdravo!


(that's hello in serbian, just for those of you who didn't know. cool! ;) )


life here continues at its crazy-awesome-wicked-sweet, rocket pace, which is invigorating and wonderful!
this week is a big week on trek, because we receive our teams and also discuss the week's theme - personal holiness - which is serious in and of itself; forget teams!
our speakers have been so real, so intentional about life and love and faith. it is inspiring ot see people so in love with Jesus and so ... genuine! i know i've said it before, but it strikes me every time we hear someone talk!


one of our speakers particularly struck me this week. i will keep his name to myself, because he talked about some pretty personal struggles in a pretty raw way.
he talked about personal holiness as a whole, and how important it is in our lives and walks with God. he talked about his struggles with pornography and sexual sin - it was very, very thought-provoking to hear a married, grown man talk about something he struggles with to this day. he is a father and a husband, as well as a believer and an employee of a missions organization. i have never experienced someone being so real about problems like these and be so.. i don't even know. not accepting, but aware of their presence and ACTIVELY fighting against them.
this led me to think about our own lives and struggles with sin - just because we lie instead of look at porn or think inappropriately about our friends or family in our minds instead of murder, how does that make us "better"? isn't all sin equal in God's eyes? what can we do to eliminate this sin? it's a sobering thought, thinking that the sins we all commit are just as heinous to God as adultery.
our speaker talked about this too - we looked at ephesians 4:17-24 fairly extensively. eph 4:17-19 talks about how we are without God's grace, while eph 4:20-24 talks about the solution that we have access to by God's grace and mercy. look at them, and think about the "pits of deception" (the areas of our lives the devil deceives us in - the parts we believe are okay but really hurt God every time we do them because they are against every part of who He is) in your own life, and see how God wants those to change.
i know i will be.


evy klassen also talked to us and she had some GREAT quotes that also made me think about living life intentionally. here are a few that really struck me. they're really simple, but they're powerful if you think about them for a bit:
"i believe that God wants to tangibly come ... to our problems and invade [them]."
"we don't need to hate ourselves because we aren't like another person. God made you and He LIKES who you are!"
"today is the day that God is calling you to embrace. ... you're not called to 3 more months. you're called to today."


remember micah? the baby that was the cutest little child i have ever held? well my friend took a picture of me holding him that i totally forgot about, so here it is! he's just adorable. 

babylovin

i will try to put more pictures up here so my blog isn't so wordy and boring. sorry about that thus far :( i'm kind of technologically impaired sometimes, seriously. i just figured out how to upload this picture after... well, a while. let's say that. haha ;)


well, i'm tired, and you're bored of me by now probably.
missing you all!


lots of love,
tejal :)