The End of the Beginning

So, I am just sitting in my living room right now realizing that I am going through my series of "lasts" here in Wilmington. Sunday was my last Young Life Leadership, Wednesday was my last Young Life team meeting as a leader at New Hanover, Thursday was my last Young Life Club, today was my last Team Leader Meeting, Sunday will be the last Young Life event I go to as a leader in Wilmington when I go to the end of the year party. The reality that I won't be a Young Life leader at New Hanover High School come next August has not at all sunk in yet and when it does I will no longer be able to hold back my tears.

I am so excited for this summer and the opportunity that I will have to work as a Ropes Intern at Malibu Club in British Columbia. But I am fearful of what the Lord has in store for me after I'm done in September. I know that His plan is perfect and good, but I still I don't like the feeling of uncertainty. I can't believe that I am about to be done with this phase in my life.

I have been truly blessed to be in Wilmington the past 4 years. I can't imagine spending a better 4 years anywhere else. To all of my friends that made this time in my life the best time, I love you deeply and I want you to know that I will always be here for you no matter what.

In Christ,
Pip

The lyrics below are from "You're Beautiful" by Phil Wickham. This song is my prayer to the Lord. That I will be able to look at everything and see His beauty.

You're Beautiful - Phil Wickham
I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you're beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful

I see Your face, You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful
I see Your face, You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful
I see Your face, I see Your face
I see Your face, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

Christ is REAL!!!!

I am so happy to be a Christian. There is no way that I would be as happy in my life if I didn't know that I am a beloved child of God. I was just randomly on Google searching for quotes not to long ago and I stumbled on this one from an Unknown source.

Buddha never claimed to be God. Moses never claimed to be Jehovah. Mohammed never claimed to be Allah. Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God. Buddha simply said, "I am a teacher in search of the truth." Jesus said, "I am the Truth." Confucius said, "I never claimed to be holy." Jesus said, "Who convicts me of sin?" Mohammed said, "Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope." Jesus said, "Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins."

What a great point that is made by this quote. Why follow someone just as lost and sinful as you are? None of these other guys lived a perfect and sinless life and then paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of everybody!!! To this day you can go visit the burial site of Buddha and Mohammed and their bodies are still there in the grave. Where is the burial site of Jesus Christ? Where is His body? It's not there!!! That's because He has risen into Heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father!!! Not only is Jesus' spirit risen, but also His human body is risen!!! When Jesus appeared for the forty days after His death, He didn't appear as a ghost or a spirit of some sort; He appeared in His human body. He ate with people, Thomas and the other Disciples touched the wounds on His body, He gave His mom a hug!!! This is the God I want to follow. This God gave up EVERYTHING and expects NOTHING so that a filthy sinner like me can have eternal life and become a coheir with Christ in Heaven!!!

In Christ,
Pip

First Blog Ever!!!

Soo... this is the first of what I hope to be many blogs about, well anything I so wish to write about. So, without further ado, my first blog!!!

This past semester has definitely been a one-of-a-kind type of semester. I only have 4 credit hours and that only consists of going to class one day a week for one hour. I know what you're thinking, "what a slack semester of doing nothing." If I would have done this semester as late as last semester you would have been right; I wouldn't have done anything at all for the whole semester. I would have laid around my house and watched ESPN all day and would have slept until about 12 or 1 pm everyday. However, doing it this semester has been great for my walk with Christ.

I have spent the majority of the semester on Student Staff for Young Life here in Wilmington and continued my role as Team Leader for the YL team at New Hanover High School. These two responsibilities I have taken on with great importance and have dedicated my time to doing the best job that I can do. Since I only have one class a week I don't have many other things that are scheduled for me to do weekly other than work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Having my schedule so open sounds great, but it is actually one of the biggest obstacles that I deal with in my Christian walk. With an open schedule like the one I have, my natural tendency is to become very lazy and apathetic about everything. However, this semester the Lord has taught me how to be more self disciplined and intentional with my time. For the most part I have been waking up at 9 am every morning and starting my day off with solid time in The Word and in prayer. Starting the day off right has changed how I approach everything during my day. I have been able to keep myself busy and productive during this semester even without a full schedule because the Lord's pursuit of me during this year.

This semester is proof to me of the Lord's faithfulness and grace towards me during any season of my life!! Thank you for reading this, my first blog! I hope and pray that you can gain at least a little bit of truth from this post.

In Christ,
Pip