God is speaking!

This weekend was so filled with God's grace and answered prayers that I can't even take it. But first, I will give you a health update:

I sat in the specialist's waiting room for about an hour and a half. Then I sat in his exam room for about twenty minutes. Then the specialist came in and told me that because the mass in my lungs hasn't changed from Sept to Jan they are going to assume that nothing is wrong until it changes. Apparently there are different harmless fungi in different parts of the country, especially in Iowa, Wisconsin and Arizona that could be causing this. Since I've been in all of these areas in the past year, I'm not too worried. Now the DR wants me to get a CT scan every 6 months for the next 2 years but after talking to my parents I don't think we will be doing that because they are expensive (about $3000) and put your body through a lot of radiation and kill women's eggs. Mainly, it's too risky for me to be told that there is nothing wrong with me. So praise God for not bad news!

This weekend I went home to Clintonville (WI) and in the past this has been pretty difficult for me because there aren't many strong believers there and I frequently feel temptation to revert back to the person I was a couple of years ago and drink, gossip and just not be a good person or reflection of Jesus. Also, I've sort of given up hope on Clintonville in thinking that they could thrive as believers and be a forward moving community, rather than drinking and having sex pretty consistently. About a month ago I was praying for Jesus to show me at least in what part of the country I should pursue a career and He simply told me to go back home. After praying about it and knowing that I didn't want to go because it was uncomfortable there and it's comfortable in Ames, I told God that I will obey Him in this, but I needed help in changing my heart towards all of it. Here's the answered prayer part!: I was driving home and all of a sudden realized that I am tired of being distant, emotionally, spiritually and physically, from my family and I'm ready to be more near than I ever have been. Then, I reconnected with a friend from elementary school on Saturday and was able to talk to her about God, heaven and Jesus and bounce some questions off of her and answer questions she's had for a very long time. She hasn't really committed her life yet- she's still very chained to her sins but I'm glad to know that God is using me to answer her questions. On Sunday, I decided to go to a church that I haven't been to since 8th grade, assuming that it was going to be a church that follows tradition and rituals and assuming that I wouldn't get much out of it. (This is where God gets really crafty) The message was titled: Evangelizing to Clintonville. Granted the service was a little hokey but God was really speaking there, the pastor was speaking from the Bible and really convicted my heart that I can share at Clintonville and it is my duty to do so.

A couple of other things happened that weekend that have really gotten me excited about what's to come post graduation. Please pray that I prepare myself, emotionally and spiritually and gain the knowledge that God has given me through His word so that I can be confident in Him and myself.

Today, I was talking church to Steve (my boss at CASA) and he is a pastor and goes to Collegiate Presbyterian (the one that kicked me out) and we got into a pretty big argument. He was saying that Cstone isn't good because they tell people 'it's our way or you go to hell' and I asked him what that meant? I continued to say do you mean it's you believe in Jesus as your Lord and savior or you go to hell? Because that IS biblically true. Then he started saying that that is a heavily loaded theology question and we weren't going to discuss it and walked out of the room......now it's just awkward. And I don't know if this is a positive or negative, but Cassi was present for that entire conversation. I wasn't angry or confrontational but he was...he got very flushed/agitated. B- thanks for the book excerpt, this seems pretty relevant right here to.

Sorry it's so long, I just have so many good God things to say!