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Name: Rachelle
Birthday: 4/12/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: I love to sing--all the time! I am an avid reader--Christian Fiction is my favorite. My main interest is my God!! Oh, to be defined by my relationship with HIM!
Expertise: I am a voice teacher--my mission is to teach people to worship through their song and their lives and enable and equip them to sing the song God sings over their lives.
Message: message me
Member Since:
9/8/2005
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| Wonderful GodBeautiful is Your Creation; Glorious in every way;
You surround us with Your faithful Love;
And we can Trust in ALL You say!
Wonderful God, Wonderful, O God
You are Worthy of all Glory, all honour and all praise;
All to You O God, forever and always;
You are worthy of our worship, and worthy of our love
We stand in awe of all You are;
You are Love
You are Life
You are all Glorious.
I love this song. It so puts me in this place of remembering WHO my God is. As I sing I am reminding myself and bringing out the feelings deep in the core of my being.
My God is worthy of ALL I have to give. No matter what is going on in my life, good or bad, He is worthy of all glory, honour, and praise. Just because my circumstances seem to be leading me places I don't want to go (or just not going where I want fast enough!), just because God doesn't SEEM to be doing what I think He should be...HE is still worthy of all my worship and every ounce of love I have to give. Because:
He is love---I can deal with any unrequited love because God fills me up with His all-consuming love. He lavishes His love on me so that I can love others without fear.
He is life--I can handle any change in my life, any disappointment, any death of a dream, job change, move, loss, because HE is my life. Even when everything in my whole world falls...He never changes, and He sustains me. He is my life, and I know that He is good, so no matter what...Life is always good!!
He is All Glorious--Everything Good thing comes down from the Father in Heaven. He is the Alpha and Omega of all things. One of my favorite things about Phoenix, AZ is the sky. When I think of Glorious, I think of the beauty of AZ skies...gorgeous clouds, colors, and light. He is more beautiful than anything in the world. He is everything Good about our world and our lives. He is the all-encompassing GLORIOUS King!!
No matter what happens in my life....I will always sing praises to my God, the Love of my Life, the Life that I live, the Glorious End All Be ALL!! | | |
| SurrenderSo this is what I'm learning about right now: Surrender. Coming face to face with the reality of the question, "Do I want what God wants for my life more than I want what I want for my life?" Am I willing to allow Him to do something that is outside of realm of my ideas for my life? (even my ideas of what He wants for my life.) Our Pastor has been preaching on this the last couple weeks. Last Sunday he talked about how one of the main hindrances to us fulfilling God's purpose for our lives...is our plans. Then last night he talked about how the way to live a life of ecstasy is to allow God to choose our life for us. See, that's the real kicker to me. God allows us to choose. He has a plan, an ultimate, wonderful plan for our lives...but He allows us to choose things that are not necessarily a part of it. He will work with our choices and still accomplish His plan...sometimes it is simply the difference between the good and the best. The question is will we choose for ourselves (good choices though they may be) or will we trust God to choose for us? (since He can choose what is best...) Will we trust His choice even when it seems to not be what we want, or what we thought He wanted for us? This question of whether or not I want God's plan for my life above anything else I may want is one that I think must be answered before God will tell us what that plan is. Because it's about trust...trusting Him. Trusting that He knows what He is doing, trusting that He loves me and is going to do what is best for me, even if right now it hurts. But to live a life that is totally surrendered to God....that is the only way to truly live a life of ecstasy. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. | | |
| A few months ago we had a guest speaker who preached on "Gaurding the Faith...Can your faith take a no?" It was a great message and extremely timely at that point in my life. I can think of many such messages that I have heard, and even words that I have said through the years that have come to fruition in this last year, and last month. I have heard a lot of teachings on Abraham sacrificing Isaac...one of my old worship pastors, Angie, used to make a big point of the fact that Isaac was not just his son...Isaac was the son of Promise. When I was given the opportunity to preach my senior year of college, I studied the life of Abraham...and discovered some things that have profoundly impacted my life...and I keep discovering new layers to them. I noticed when I was studying that the first thing God says in Genesis 15 is "I am your very great reward..." But Abraham asks what God can give him since he doesn't have a son. So God promises him a son. Abraham was called a friend of God...how I want that to be true of me, so what did Abraham do? He believed God...and He sacrificed. Abraham believed God's promise, but he was willing to sacrfice that promise in order to be close to God. He came to the place where He realized that without God, the promise was worthless. The promise of God as his reward was more important than any other promise God had given him.
I've come to that place again and again it seems...where I feel I am laying my Isaac on the altar. Now I realize I was only going up the mountain. We always seem to think that the place we are is the hardest thing we will ever face...this is THE moment. Only to often find that there is more. I thought I knew what sacrifice was. I thought I was willing to give up everything for God...I thought what I had already given up was so hard it would be enough. And you know what's weird...because I had made the decision in my heart a long time ago, that I wanted God more than anything, that I wanted what HE wanted for me not what I wanted...I barely realized I was plunging the knife in until it was already done.
Now before you start to feel sorry for me..."Oh poor Rachelle who isn't getting what she wants.." Let me just tell you...I am getting what I really want. years ago I made a decsion that i wanted what God wanted for me. That I wanted to be the best i could be for Him...whatever it took. That i wanted Hiim to be the Love of my lfe. Now, when I made the committment..I didn't know what I would have to gve up, true...and if I had..I may not have made it. But I did make that committment, and I asked God to keep me to it, and not make what I wanted work into His plan but give me the strength to to do whatevr HE asked of me. and let me tell you...there is an increidible intimacy that comes when you find throgh expereince that God is all you need. That He is enough...when everything else is taken away. I am amazed that He has actally brought me to a place where I can watch Him give MY dreams to other people...and still say"God is good, God is just, God loves me." Life is hard, and it isn't fair sometimes...but I feel like I've finally crested the mountain of trusting God....that i now know He loves me, and that I love Him....even when He kills the promise HE made. Right now I know nothing...nothing but that God is good, God is just, God reigns, and He LOVES me!
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| Alright friends...the sickness and tiredness has made me susceptible to some attacks. Isn't it amazing how being tired can just send your emotions all out of whack?! And isn't it amazing how Satan will always take those times when your defenses are down to attack you...often in the very area we have made such strides in. I always find it interesting that when I feel I've discovered some great new Truth in an area, or I've talked with someone about what I've learned...I will struggle with that same issue. I've really been focused on teaching about fear and insecurity lately...I even started to write a blog about the difference between insecurity and humility (I just didn't finish it yet cause it's a huge subject...) and I've really been thinking alot about it.... Then once again, one of those lessons I was so sure I had learned...comes back to haunt to me. I'm amazed at how I can even fall away from things that I know. I know a lot of it is just being tired...sleep is a weapon!! But still, it makes me angry that I can fall prey to those same insecurities I was so sure I had conquered. I guess it just goes to show that having the knowledge really isn't everything...I know a ton of stuff that I don't live all the time. Oh to get to the place where that knowledge truly gets from my head to my heart and changes the very pulse of my life.... So now ya'll know, just like Joyce says...all the stuff that I teach, I know because I lived it. I've dealt with it, am dealing with it, am learning it and how to walk it out. Keep me in your prayers, and I'll share with you what I'm learning. Especially because I feel very strongly that this fear and insecurity thing is absolutely essential to combat and conquer in order for us to be all that God wants us to be. So we will continue to grow and learn together!! | | |
| Ok people. I hate being sick! I'm tired of being tired!! That's all I seem to be lately. I finally went to the doctor (I hate going to the doctor...how can they tell what's wrong with me in the five minutes they spend with me...) Anyway, she said I have a sinus infection compounded by allergies. So now I'm on this antibiotic that makes me feel just as bad as no medicine at all. Ah, well, hopefully it will be worth it in the long run...if it doesn't make me get well I'm going to be mad though! I suppose it would probably help if I actually took more than one day off at a time. I have such a bad habit of thinking I'm well so I go out and do stuff like I normally would, and then I send myself into relapse...ie..softball games this weekend! (But they were sooo fun! And Barb wasn't there, so I had to keep score...it was very important that I be there...hehehe!)
Anyway, I learn alot when I'm sick, cause I have more time to think...sometimes I think God does it on purpose to slow me down. I've also had a lot more fun this time around! I've read a couple of books that are super cool!! Anyone who likes to read, let me know...I've got some great books for ya! | | |
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