Distractions & Tattoos

Things that distract me from living a life truly and only focused on Christ:  laziness, worldly music, thoughts, convincing lies of the world, my future. ("If you are depressed, you're living in the past. If you are anxious, you're living in the future. If you're at peace, you're living for the right now" -Pintrest ;) )


I have to DESTROY distractions to receive full blessings on a life that is COMPLETELY focused on God. Getting rid of the distractions and pursuing Him will lead me to His Word. And His Word will lead to be to yearn for deeper insights. The stronger I lean into Him, the stronger He leans into me. (Kurt Parker) So how much do I give our relationship? Is it 50 50? or is it more like 25 75?


Tonight, Tom-E spoke about teaching THE Scriptures not from the Scriptures. We don't teach Christ and then apply His Word to what we're trying to teach, but rather read His word and let the Spirit move through the Scripture. The Holy Spirit makes the Truth of God relevant to those who are listening. Acts 2:13 shows us that the Gospel can seem foolish to those who aren't understanding.


We're not here to earn, but rather honor others. It's a privilege to serve others, even in the smallest of ways. We're here to be a representative of Jesus Christ. We can't let Satan distract us! When we're distracted, we lose the worth we have in representing the God who created us. "We traded our wretchedness for His righteousness." We were made RIGHT. So let's rightly represent.


So let's live by the Spirit, shall we? He knows what we need, so why can't we just surrender it all? ..Suppose he asks you to surrender the closest person to your heart? What about the drinking and partying? What if he asks you to give up clubs?   He knows what we need. Hanging on to these distractions isn't worth it.  "Surrender to who God is and what He accomplished."


What are your distractions?




I've had a lot of time this week to think about my commitment to God. How committed am I really...and to be honest, self evaluation sucks sometimes. But we're to hold ourselves accountable. I believe I got so caught up in finding answers that I wasn't waiting for God to help me. I was doing it by myself, and this was a burden. He has all the answers. His love sets us free. His guidance sets us free. Psalm 119:45 "I will walk in freedom for I have devoted myself to your commandments." As long as I keep myself in His Word and learning His commands, my feet are free to walk anywhere they please. When the Lord changes the route of the path, my freedom feet follow. When the Lord closes a door, my freedom feet wait patiently for the next move. But until then, they remain still in Him...growing and learning from the spot that I'm in.


The Lord is amazing.
Don't let the world dissolve any thoughts or love for him.
In Christ,
Me :)

Crazy & Confused

The Word says that the Spirit leads us. Where the Spirit is there's freedom but lately, I've been finding myself a prisoner of confusion. Did I make that right choice? Am I supposed to be going to UCF? How am I supposed to fix this or that?  Nothing seems sure to me. I know I write a lot of about feeding the Spirit, because obviously this is going to strengthen you and give you confidence in the right steps. 

But I believe that sometimes there are more than just that 1 open door. That's where free will kicks in. You choose which door you feel is best. And no matter where that door leads you, you stay committed to Christ. Well, what happens when it seems all the doors in every direction are half open..where do you walk then?  My mom always told me that God doesn't give us a Spirit of confusion, but a Spirit of peace and confidence. I believe this too. 

The confusion that takes place so much in us...ranging from confusion of doubt in Christ to confusion of life..is one of Satan's biggest battle tactics. We're in a war, granted God's got the victory, but the spiritual warfare continues on this earth. Satan is going to play our weaknesses. He's going to try his hardest to get us on his side. 

I'm finding out that you really can't defeat those thoughts, doubts & confusions on your own. I thought I was the strongest ever and a few days without my Bible reading was fine...but that turned into weeks and weeks into months and now trying to get the ball rolling is so difficult. Tom-E taught us how to pray to want to want God. Get it? To want to want him...it's so true.   

And not just the parts that we pick and choose we want of Him, but all of Him. "You cannot take out the parts of the Bible you do not like. You either love Jesus and everything he says or don't love him at all." -Mark Driscoll.  If we're going to accept that He loves us, we also have to accept that He's going to  protect and discipline us to stay away from the worldly things...which we don't necessarily want to do sometimes. But when we constantly and genuinely fill our Spirit, He's all we want.

 I've made it to that point in my life and unfortunately fell from it, but am begging Him just to help me back up..as if He hasn't already done enough for me.   But things like this remind me that He's closer to me than ever: Yesterday morning I was laying in bed  again just battling my confusion. And because I'm a girl, I cry  because I get so frustrated sometimes..any who, my mom comes in to check on me and talk. She gets up to walk out and just read me a random verse off my encouragement board that said " The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:14. God just used her and he's been showing me in different ways how close to me He truly is...even though I can't seem to grasp it during this dry season.  

People, we're all in a battle. Whether you struggle with doubt, confusion, disbelief, purity...anything, we're all in this battle together. But to choose the victorious team is a decision thats backed up by confidence, strength and freedom.  That definitely, has no confusion or doubt about it.

In Him,
Me!

Burn Baby, Burn

So, all day long, I literally sat on my bed and found "important things" to do on the computer...facebook, pintrest, yahoo and some school. Mucho importante. Throughout the day, I was thinking, wow I need my God time. But I kept putting it off. Why is it so hard to just feed the spirit and get into the Word?! It's not hard to be on fire when you're at church, or when you're at a Passion conference or a youth group event.  So I compared the difference between a normal day here and a normal day at a Jesus conference & came to this...


    at a conference: ...no phone, no worldy interruptions...
breakfast, sermon & worship, quiet time,
lunch, something exciting, sermon
dinner, sermon & worship, fellowship & meditating time 


Compared to a normal day...I can see why we lose our fire so easily. This is my goal: none of the world (music wise, movie wise); prayer time when I wake up; 3 sermons/Bible devo's everyday; talk to someone about what they learned in their devo and quiet prayer time & worship before bed.  I just want to try it for a week and see what happens. Would this really re motivate me to be in the Word more and more?


Not only will the fire start burnin, but it'll be a fire of freedom. A good ole' pal sent me Galatians 5 tonight: Freedom in Christ. Allow me...


"So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law...


But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us...what is important is faith expressing itself in love.


You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn't God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough. I'm trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person...


For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy yourselves. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love...


So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil...And the Spirit gives us the desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. The two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions...


When you follow the desires of your sinful nature: impurity, lust, sorcery, hostility, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, drunkenness, wild parties..that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.


The Holy Spirit produces LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS & SELF CONTROL...


Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 


Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives "






One more time- Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives...Where's the Holy Spirit that's been inside of you since baptism leading you??  A life of freedom. I need to feed my Spirit...
Can you imagine if you weren't ever fed...you'd have ZERO energy to talk..hm.


In Christ,
Mads :)

plans, doubts & a red velvet cupcake

Christian(n): someone who believes in Christ
Disciple(n): someone who acts on their belief and is all in


As disciples, we're baptized into a life centered around Jesus Christ. We accept Him as our Savior and our Lord. We're given the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ when He was walking around here performing his miracles and preaching his Father's Word. What was the last miracle that the Spirit performed through me? Umm...anyways, all that being said to bring my thoughts to this: the world is starting to gain the idea of church but not the Spirit. The Spirit is what guides us and uses us and keeps us going! The Spirit brings us that genuine joy and confidence. It tells us when to go and where to go, who to talk to and what to do. Sadly, a lot of times God doesn't get the credit for this direction, but the conscience does. This is where doubt kicks in.

Doubt: to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely;hesitate to believe.   Living in this fallen world, sometimes it's a whole heck of a lot easier to believe that we're just here for the sake of being here, that the being in the sky is just an invisible man that our imagination says loves us and created us. And that things happen only on coincidence. But, readers, I don't necessarily believe in coincidence. I truly know that everything happens for a reason. God has  never once done anything without reason. Sure, we don't know every single reason for every single thing, but if we knew all of it, we might as well be God. I struggle with whispers of doubt here and there but growing confidence from Bible reading is a BIG deal. Especially, if we want the confidence of knowing we're taking the right steps and making the right plans.

Plan (n): a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc.,  developed in advance.    Proverbs 4:23-27 "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life...Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Dont' get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." I like to translate evil to mean distraction.   Anyways, how epic is that? Your heart determines the course of your life. That's a big deal. If we put so much of the world into our hearts, how are we to hear the Spirit lead us? God just answered another struggle of mine. Jeremiah 17 says that the heart can be the most deceitful of all things, so let the Spirit fill your heart. Readers, we're going to come to forks in the road during our lifetime...a lot of them.

    9 months ago I hit a fork in the road. Over those months, I was in a fog while walking the path that I chose. I had a spirit of confusion and uncertainty. I didn't feel in my Spirit that I chose the right timing. But, I ignored my Spirit's prompt and continued. I "listened to my heart"..the most deceptive thing of all things..Now, out of this fog, I learned an EXTREMELY huge amount of things about myself and God still used me throughout this time. The past few weeks, I couldn't just push down the Spirit's prompts anymore. While I've had the opportunity to date my best friend, someone so amazing and so wonderful, the timing just wasn't right. I praise God for the time we had and continue to pray for whoever my future husband is..whether God brings the 2 of us back together later or not. God's plans are always so much better than ours and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that I know this is the path I was supposed to take. My Spirit has such a free feeling, the feeling we we're given when we first accept Christ into our lives. Its also reminded me numerous times already that it knows better than I do. Jeremiah 17:7-8, "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into he water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit." So I'm not worried about all this. I had an amazing opportunity with my best friend and I learned TONS and I still have my best friend, but simply as a best friend. Maybe 'til the I Do's. Only God knows that, but I do know this: The next boyfriend I have is going to be the one I marry.  AND! my mom bought me this really amazing red velvet cupcake. :) credit given to publix.

Apologies for the novel but I hope you come out with this:

We must be able to overcome our doubts with confidence in Christ to determine which path we are to take. 

Praise the Lord.

In Him,

Me :)

More power to ya...

After a bunch of errands and a deep car cleaning, I got a few minutes to rest before Jaden's game. In that 10 minutes, I thought about reading the Word. Then I was like ...nah, I'll just wait until I get the Daily Bible Verse e-mail. Then it hit me...Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit...It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires." This verse says that THE WORD is alive and powerful. Not just parts of the Word, but the entire Word.  Now, before I go on, I'm not bashing ipads, cell phones, computers, but how often do we rely on technology to provide us with our Bible teachings/verses. There's nothing wrong with a verse being on the computer screen, but I was completely missing the point of learning verses!! It's SO extremely powerful to be reading straight out of the Book..probably because it's the only Book that's alive and God breathed. I'm learning and I'm begging you...please don't let yourself miss out on the power that flows from that Book. All of the miracles and stories that are in there are POSSIBLE to do today. We have the same spirit that Jesus Christ did so let's put some power into it!!!    God seems to be giving me a theme throughout this week of being in the Word, the entire Word.  It's so amazing how there's always something new to learn in that Book no matter how many times you open it. What an amazing God! how crucial it is to know Him and grow in ourselves through that knowledge.

You are a whole person when you are in Christ. Colossians 2:10 "and in Him you have been made complete..." In His Word, in prayer, in His presence..

Daily Update: To-Do List accomplished! Jaden's baseball game got called due to lightning. Trent and I watched Contagion. I'm tired. My car is sparkling and brand new looking :)

Please pray...Colin Adams, he's a 12 year old boy who just lost his dad and for Rachel Jones' baby that's comin' tomorrow!

In Christ,
Me

Motivation for the Word of God..the man who saved YOUR soul

Today was a 10am to 8pm shift day. I kept hearing Colossians 3:23 run throughout my thoughts all day, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.." So, I changed my mindset. Think of a lord. Lord Farquad from Far Far Away in Shreck. He had servants..everyone obeyed him and what he says goes. Our Lord is WAY better than that dude. So I thought...the Lord is my manager, my boss, my owner. And what a joy it suddenly became to work for the one who saved my soul. Our souls were originally on their way to hell and Jesus Christ rescued us! I think I forget that sometimes. But what more of a love story could we ask for? You got the fire, the enemy and the attack. Except our knight in shining armor knows us and loves us more than any rescuer ever could!
     So anywho...shift ends and I shoot home to relax and watch Holes (on Disney). The mountain that Zero and Shia climb is called God's thumb. Once they get to the top Zero says something about how cool it feels and how peaceful it is to be up there. It reminded me of how we..as followers of Christ..rest securely in the palm of our Father's hand. And when we allow Him to put us there, it's so exciting and peaceful and...cool. 
    And as my eyes are closing...my Daily Bible verse pops on my e mail...Titus 1:15 "To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted." and I thought...well duh. But the commentary by Dave Whitehead taught me a lot. He says that this passage is crucial to how we perceive the world. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Does everything around you seem corrupt? Maybe the surroundings are not the issue. According to this Scripture we view things according to the condition of our heart. Wow. One more time...we view things according to the condition of our heart.       So, in order to keep our hearts pure, we have to keep it fed. We have to constantly be in the Word to know what's pure and what's not..what will help our Spirit and what will starve it. 


Can I just say..in these blogs are my struggles. But it almost seems to me like God types through my fingers the motivation I've been lacking. Praise be to Him! What an awesome God! :) So there it is..working for the Lord, letting Him secure us in who He is and the lifestyle of the pure heart.  Whaaaat a lesson today, God.


Daily Update: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cliff bar for breakfast. Work for 10 hours. Maddie Hart is a GRANDE blessing in the work place. Best shower ever. Hurting feet. Sunshine all day tomorrow! :)


Praying for God to use this blog if it be His will.
In Him,
Maddie :)

His love never fails, it overwhelms my soul

When we actually let our Spirit be focused on and filled with the love that our God in heaven pours out on us, it's the HAPPIEST feeling in this entire world. Then how come we can't be constantly feeding our Spirit?  I was in the airport a few months ago and I saw these people praying over each other. I ran up to them and said, "Wait, are you part of my family in Christ?!" and they said yeah and asked me what they could pray over me for. how.amazing. People that are THAT active about their faith..who knew. (They've become mentors of mine) Anywho, the woman prayed over me, "God, let Madison realize that spiritual food is even more important than the physical food she feeds herself everyday" Those words have never left my thoughts. Think...in comparison to how much we feed our earthly bodies, how much do we feed our spirits? Today, I had a blood test at 12 so I couldn't eat anything for 12 hours prior..I felt like I was dying. Ha... Then I think...my spirit has so much more purpose and yet we tend to forget to feed it. I go well over 12 hours without feeding it and think nothing of it. Church is starting to become a big thing in the world but it's the Spirit that makes up the family of Christ.
     This world is temporary. That's been a life theme for the past couple months. I want to name my future event planning business "Simply Temporal" and the moto is...this life is temporary, so keep it eventful. Like?  :)  I'm excited for it! I had a dream last night that I worked my way up to planning the Believe conference. It was so cool!

Daily Update: Trent and I went to the causeway to lay out. God taught us a lot about not listening to the world's newest concepts of the Bible...false "truth" speakers...in Hebrews and the Corinthians. My manager ordered my new assistant manager shirt today..promotion! I didn't see Jaden at all today:/. This Saturday is mission Saturday. And tomorrow is another 10 hour shift..rakin' in the Belize money. Praise the Lord!

Our God is so faithful and so great. He tells us where to go and He provides throughout His direction. Praise Him!

In the Beginning...

Readers, followers, strangers...I'm a writer. I've always been better with writing out my thoughts rather than actually speaking them. Deep See is our title because you'll find a deeper view of the woman God created me to be throughout all my posts.  I'm new to this blog thing, but I think I'll be ok :) These are going to be posts of God stories, and new life thoughts based on Biblical truth learned from my daily devo. They're going to be posts on struggles and heart aches, strengths and exciting-ness! This blog will be my own personal roller coaster ride of life with our Lord and Savior. This is my way of holding myself accountable.

Once upon a time, I had the PERFECT accountability partner. The Mad-I they called us! God used her a lot to teach me how to be in the Word everyday. I have yet to find an accountability partner that was as strong as her. We didn't miss a day when we weren't in our Bibles together. Well, I got older. The older you get, the more you're led to believe that your life has to be busy and constantly moving. This, my friends, is of the world. Our God calls us to be still and just sit in His presence. What does that mean? Simply sitting outside in His creation. My favorite place of still time and beauty is the causeway. How highly can we think of an artist if we don't take the time to admire his work? ... However, I've learned that not only do we have to take ourselves away from the busy world, but also out of the busy mindset. This is my biggest struggle. I find it hard to just focus on the God who loves me and made me and uses me and blesses me and.... How sad is that. I just wish He were physically right next to me all the time. However, that's why we're baptized and we accept His spirit! Romans 8:9 says, "But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)"  


We need to be led by the Spirit, not our sinful nature. Praying for discernment at this time. And for Guatemala. I think God is sending a few of us there...


Daily Update: Jaden lost his baseball game, but is an amazing pitcher. I worked a 10 hour shift today. My mom ate my chocolate covered peanuts...again. Trent took me to the strawberry festival yesterday. And I challenged myself to start inviting people to church...at least 2 a week. And I miss my baby brother..


In Christ,
Me