I have been learning a lot lately about letting go of your fears. Trusting that God has your back.
I recently went back to school. After eight years of being out of high school. I was really afraid of going back to school. I had a fear that what happened in high school would happen again. When I was in high school I would get up for school and be all set for the day. When I would get to the door I would Freeze up . I would start shaking and crying and didn’t know what was going on with me. This kept happing through out my high school years. In my senior year of high school I went to a physiologist. He diagnosed me with Anxiety/Depression symptoms. I was able to get on medication that would help me handle the Anxiety symptoms. I went on to graduate high school.
Eight years later after deciding to open my heart to Jesus. I decided I would like to get back to school and become a nurse. I been thinking about it for a long time. I would always get this horrible fear that my anxiety would get the best of me. So I never went through with going back. I started praying that God would help me find the strength inside me to over come my fear of anxiety. I would pray about it just about every night.
Couple months ago I decided to go ahead and steep out of my comfortable zone. I decided to fill out a application for college. when I got accepted I started getting nervous about going back.
I have to take a pre Math class that started about three weeks ago. when I went to class the first day I was a lil nervous. I said Lord please help me find the strength to over come my fear. When I got to the class the teacher was so nice and down to earth. All my fears went away. I truly believe that was Gods way of helping me get through the first big steep. I still have a ways to go before i’m all the way over my fear . But i’m defantley on my way.
If anyone has questions about Anxiety or Depression. you can reach us at 7ishprayerforce@gmail.com
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Integrating The Vinners and The 7ish Project
Some of you aren't sure what The Vinners means or what it is exactly. I started The Vinners back in 2007 for the band Family Force 5. It was just a fan site back than and only a few people were a part of it. I wanted to support the guys of FF5 because the three brothers in the band are a huge part of the reason I'm alive today. Back in 1994 They were in a little boy group called "The Brothers" and a song that they did back than saved my life in 1995. I was on the verge of committing suicide at 15 and when I played and listened to "Hide Me Away" by them it brought me to tears and I realized that God was there with arms open. It was powerful for me.
I'm a firm believer that Music helps save lives. That music can change a mind and that it can embrace someone in a magical hug and comfort people. This site has grown since than and I'm very appreciative of the support I get from a bunch of you!
I also have a heart to be there for you guys. I don't want "The Vinners" to be just about FF5. I'm here for you guys too. I know some of us go through things that we don't feel we can talk to people about. I went through it growing up. I did not have anyone to talk to when I was growing up about what I was going through. My dad molested me for 8 years and no one that I did tell believed me. Finally in 1997 I got the courage up to tell a teacher (after my mother died) and since than I have been on the road to becoming the woman that God wants me to be. Even if you need to vent about something. I'm here. Please check out my project. www.the7ishproject.blogspot.com
I want to let you guys know that The Vinners is about showing people what FF5 is up to but it's also about showing Gods' love in a way that Jesus taught us to show His love. By being a friend to people and being there for each other. In the Bible it tells us in Romans 8:37 that we are more than Conquerers through Him. We are WINNERS!! And to tie in my project with that.... 7 is said to be the number of Completeness or Wholeness and 8 is said to be the number of New Beginnings. I believe that some of our situations are keeping us back from being complete or whole and therefore keeping us from starting new and fresh. Sometimes we need to Overcome some situations until we can start a new. I pray that with my vision we can help others to see a situation in a "simpler" way and try to solve it. Not all of our problems are as big as we see them in the natural and I hope to help people break down things so we can all be VINNERS and turn that 7 into an 8in our lives! :)
Love you all!Chris
Here is the really real show I got the Vinners from:
I'm a firm believer that Music helps save lives. That music can change a mind and that it can embrace someone in a magical hug and comfort people. This site has grown since than and I'm very appreciative of the support I get from a bunch of you!
I also have a heart to be there for you guys. I don't want "The Vinners" to be just about FF5. I'm here for you guys too. I know some of us go through things that we don't feel we can talk to people about. I went through it growing up. I did not have anyone to talk to when I was growing up about what I was going through. My dad molested me for 8 years and no one that I did tell believed me. Finally in 1997 I got the courage up to tell a teacher (after my mother died) and since than I have been on the road to becoming the woman that God wants me to be. Even if you need to vent about something. I'm here. Please check out my project. www.the7ishproject.blogspot.com
I want to let you guys know that The Vinners is about showing people what FF5 is up to but it's also about showing Gods' love in a way that Jesus taught us to show His love. By being a friend to people and being there for each other. In the Bible it tells us in Romans 8:37 that we are more than Conquerers through Him. We are WINNERS!! And to tie in my project with that.... 7 is said to be the number of Completeness or Wholeness and 8 is said to be the number of New Beginnings. I believe that some of our situations are keeping us back from being complete or whole and therefore keeping us from starting new and fresh. Sometimes we need to Overcome some situations until we can start a new. I pray that with my vision we can help others to see a situation in a "simpler" way and try to solve it. Not all of our problems are as big as we see them in the natural and I hope to help people break down things so we can all be VINNERS and turn that 7 into an 8in our lives! :)
Love you all!Chris
Here is the really real show I got the Vinners from:
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Michael Jackson..Where is he now?
just so everyone knows....Michael Accepted Christ(with a pastor that is friends with the gospel group Mary Mary) as his Lord and Saviour 3 weeks before he died. :) But the things Ray talks about in this video.. ARE still truth!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Self Esteem and Gods' Love
(From Isaac Deitz)
Chris asked me to write a blog about the question, "what should we base our self-esteem on?".
It has been two months since she has asked me and I will be honest I wasn't entirely thrilled on the subject, maybe because I thought the answer would be to basic and simple or whatever else. Maybe it's the kind of subject in Christianity that doesn't interest me as much as God's love, human interaction, our calling and many others. Because I am more interested in other things I don't seem to know much about this question. But I thought it would be fun to write about because I feel that God teaches me most when I write.
So I guess the short cliche answer would be "Jesus". Which sounds so 'bumper sticker', serviced answer, an answer that wouldn't seem to come out of theologians and philosophers mouths. But what I have been learning most recently is that a true philosopher and theologian would answer this exact way, even if it's the sunday school answer.
"Christians find it easier to believe that God exist than that God loves them" -Basil Hume
That quote needs to be read again. This has been changing my thinking. Though I truly believe that God loves me, I really haven't let it hit me. It's so much deeper than the bumper sticker or bracelet that says "God loves you". I think where we have a hard time believing this is, that God still loves us even in our worst state. When we sin, we think God hates us, then we start to hate ourselves, then we fall into the trap of just not trying anymore.
There are two different little league coaches, the ones that scream at you, threaten you and insult you and there are the ones that watch you mess up and teach you. God is the second one.
Here is what happens when we sin. Any and every sin is just a failure to Love God or Love people. Just as it's impossible to love your brother and steal from him at the same time. You may love him, but when you steal from him, that is when you loved yourself more. Now God is Love, so anytime we step away from love, we are stepping away from God and towards selfishness/pride. This is why the Bible says that Sin separates us from God. But no matter how much sin or hate we had or have in our lives, we need to realize that God loves us, and longs to be with us. But we cannot be with Him and still have hate. That is why we need to repent. We need to believe that God loves us and that belief makes us repent and want to change.
I had a best friend that I worked with, went to church with and went on road trips with. We hung out every waking day, just laughing and talking and joking and whatever else. He grew up in a notoriously judging church, that actually kicked him out of the church and made it against the law for him and half of the youth group to enter church grounds. This church kicked out parents and kids for the smallest things. My friend got detention three times for saying "wiz" as referring to peeing. Anyway, my friend joined the Army and we said goodbye but looked forward to hanging out more in the future. In his service he got his girlfriend pregnant and they both moved in the same house in New Orleans. I haven't talked to him sense. He won't return my phone calls, my messages, my emails or anything else. I got ahold of him once and put him on the guest list for a Family Force 5 show and he said he was going to come, and I kept asking the ticket booth if anyone claimed his tickets. Now his past upbringing gave him this mentality that everyone is judging him and if he does or did something wrong that he could never get out of that. He thinks that if I hang out with him I am going to preach to him, judge him, or even just look down on him. He's forgotten all the secrets he has told me of things he was ashamed of that didn't even make me flinch or change my love towards him. If I was to tell him one thing, or show him one thing is that I love him, I truly miss his friendship, I would love to hang out again and meet his kid and girlfriend. The fact that the baby is out of wedlock doesn't even faze me. I think if we could be friends again, my love for him would be a good influence on him, but it cannot do anything until he realizes that I truly care for him.
God doesn't hate us after we sin, he just says, "you just left me, but come back to me", then we sin again and he says, "you just left me, but come back to me" and again and again.
To believe in Jesus for me means to believe that God loves us. That God loved us enough when we were still sinners and even when we still sin, to send his son to show his love. Think about who Jesus hung out with, it was the people that didn't believe they earned God's love, but the people that just believed God loved them. The pharisees and self-righteous are the ones that believe they earned God's love at one point or are still earning it.
Jesus came for the sinners, not the self-righteous.
I didn't realize what it meant to be self-righteous until recently. I always thought it meant that you believe you are doing everything right. Which is kind of true, but it's believing that you earned God's love. Which would include believing that we have to earn God's love. Which both aren't true at all.
The sinners are the ones that believe and know God loves them, regardless of what they did, and they realize they are sinners, which allows us to understand grace.
If someone told a pharisee that Jesus loved them, they would think "well of course he does, why shouldn't he, I do great things". But it's when we believe that we are sinners, that we haven't done a thing to earn God's love, then learn that God loves us. It's when we learn and believe both is when we experience a life-changing grace that makes us want to serve Him and play in His baseball team.
It's then, when we want to truly make Him proud.
your friend,
-Isaac
Chris asked me to write a blog about the question, "what should we base our self-esteem on?".
It has been two months since she has asked me and I will be honest I wasn't entirely thrilled on the subject, maybe because I thought the answer would be to basic and simple or whatever else. Maybe it's the kind of subject in Christianity that doesn't interest me as much as God's love, human interaction, our calling and many others. Because I am more interested in other things I don't seem to know much about this question. But I thought it would be fun to write about because I feel that God teaches me most when I write.
So I guess the short cliche answer would be "Jesus". Which sounds so 'bumper sticker', serviced answer, an answer that wouldn't seem to come out of theologians and philosophers mouths. But what I have been learning most recently is that a true philosopher and theologian would answer this exact way, even if it's the sunday school answer.
"Christians find it easier to believe that God exist than that God loves them" -Basil Hume
That quote needs to be read again. This has been changing my thinking. Though I truly believe that God loves me, I really haven't let it hit me. It's so much deeper than the bumper sticker or bracelet that says "God loves you". I think where we have a hard time believing this is, that God still loves us even in our worst state. When we sin, we think God hates us, then we start to hate ourselves, then we fall into the trap of just not trying anymore.
There are two different little league coaches, the ones that scream at you, threaten you and insult you and there are the ones that watch you mess up and teach you. God is the second one.
Here is what happens when we sin. Any and every sin is just a failure to Love God or Love people. Just as it's impossible to love your brother and steal from him at the same time. You may love him, but when you steal from him, that is when you loved yourself more. Now God is Love, so anytime we step away from love, we are stepping away from God and towards selfishness/pride. This is why the Bible says that Sin separates us from God. But no matter how much sin or hate we had or have in our lives, we need to realize that God loves us, and longs to be with us. But we cannot be with Him and still have hate. That is why we need to repent. We need to believe that God loves us and that belief makes us repent and want to change.
I had a best friend that I worked with, went to church with and went on road trips with. We hung out every waking day, just laughing and talking and joking and whatever else. He grew up in a notoriously judging church, that actually kicked him out of the church and made it against the law for him and half of the youth group to enter church grounds. This church kicked out parents and kids for the smallest things. My friend got detention three times for saying "wiz" as referring to peeing. Anyway, my friend joined the Army and we said goodbye but looked forward to hanging out more in the future. In his service he got his girlfriend pregnant and they both moved in the same house in New Orleans. I haven't talked to him sense. He won't return my phone calls, my messages, my emails or anything else. I got ahold of him once and put him on the guest list for a Family Force 5 show and he said he was going to come, and I kept asking the ticket booth if anyone claimed his tickets. Now his past upbringing gave him this mentality that everyone is judging him and if he does or did something wrong that he could never get out of that. He thinks that if I hang out with him I am going to preach to him, judge him, or even just look down on him. He's forgotten all the secrets he has told me of things he was ashamed of that didn't even make me flinch or change my love towards him. If I was to tell him one thing, or show him one thing is that I love him, I truly miss his friendship, I would love to hang out again and meet his kid and girlfriend. The fact that the baby is out of wedlock doesn't even faze me. I think if we could be friends again, my love for him would be a good influence on him, but it cannot do anything until he realizes that I truly care for him.
God doesn't hate us after we sin, he just says, "you just left me, but come back to me", then we sin again and he says, "you just left me, but come back to me" and again and again.
To believe in Jesus for me means to believe that God loves us. That God loved us enough when we were still sinners and even when we still sin, to send his son to show his love. Think about who Jesus hung out with, it was the people that didn't believe they earned God's love, but the people that just believed God loved them. The pharisees and self-righteous are the ones that believe they earned God's love at one point or are still earning it.
Jesus came for the sinners, not the self-righteous.
I didn't realize what it meant to be self-righteous until recently. I always thought it meant that you believe you are doing everything right. Which is kind of true, but it's believing that you earned God's love. Which would include believing that we have to earn God's love. Which both aren't true at all.
The sinners are the ones that believe and know God loves them, regardless of what they did, and they realize they are sinners, which allows us to understand grace.
If someone told a pharisee that Jesus loved them, they would think "well of course he does, why shouldn't he, I do great things". But it's when we believe that we are sinners, that we haven't done a thing to earn God's love, then learn that God loves us. It's when we learn and believe both is when we experience a life-changing grace that makes us want to serve Him and play in His baseball team.
It's then, when we want to truly make Him proud.
your friend,
-Isaac
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Refocusing
So Hi I'm Koli this is my first blog for the 7ish and I hope it ministers to you...I right my blogs straight out of the pages of my life so if God's showing me something I want to share it with you incase your going through something similar so enjoy!Jeremiah 29:11-13For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.It never ceases to amaze me how caught up in life I can get even though I've given my life to the one who gave his for me. I still at times manage to push God into the corner because I think I can figure out his will for me on my own...dumb I know...I can't even get up on time without the help of my alarm. Yet I think I can figure out God and his will for me? I get so invested in things that I forget who's really in the captians chair and I get myself over concerned with situations that are out of my control. I'll spend my time thinking of what MY next logical step should be. Even if it's something that's in God's will it has to be his steps not ours, his timing not ours. It's like I'm trying to do for God, for my furture, my friends, my family, and when we think like that we can over look the open doors right in front of us...I know for me I get so consumed with the epic end result that I over look the steps to get there. I seemed to forget that God has a perfect way for me to get there from right here! When God showed me that I realized that difficult is not impossible and took a big sigh if relief. I can do this...You can do this...WE can fulfill God's will for our lives. We just need to move our attention from the chaos around us and just focus on God...He has a plan he promised!
Be Blessed,
Koli
Be Blessed,
Koli
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Prayer
Lord-
I pray that the 7ish project continues to grow and reach people that are going through a hard time that need someone to talk to and pray with them Lord I pray that people are comfortable to open up to us I pray that the 7ish project helps people open there heart to Jesus and know Christ in Jesus name
Amen
I pray that the 7ish project continues to grow and reach people that are going through a hard time that need someone to talk to and pray with them Lord I pray that people are comfortable to open up to us I pray that the 7ish project helps people open there heart to Jesus and know Christ in Jesus name
Amen
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