Moving forward, new great things!!!

Here is a copy of an email I sent 3 wonderful girls today.
We decided last Wednesday that God was really calling us to come together to form a real Christian sisterhood.

We all go to the same church and stand for the same things, and all wanted and needed a close knit group of Godly girls to fellowship with!

So... bam! Friday bible-study came about. And woah did God blow the roof off!! :)

Here it is: filled with wonderful scripture and revelation of stuff that all 4 of us were going through! :)

October 19, 2012

Hey beautifuls!!!

SO, I just wanted to kinda recap all that we talked about today so we don't forget the important points!!! :)

We talked about kinda what we're each going through, and each helped give input as to how we CAN FIGHT BACK POWERFULLY with the Mighty Word of God!!! :)

We talked about how WORDS mean SO much more than we could ever imagine!

Life and death are in the power of our tongue! Prov 18:21
Whosoever keeps guard over his mouth keeps himself from troubles Proverbs 21:23

God SPOKE the earth into motion.
Whenever the devil tries to get into our HEAD by speaking to our MIND, WILL, or EMOTIONS, WE OURSELVES have to take those thoughts captive, no one else can do it for us!

How do we do that?
Well, in order to stop one thought, (thoughts turn into words which turn into actions) we have to START thinking of another one!!!
So! We speak out loud, literally, saying whatever you need to do to stop that thought.
It's okay to tell the devil NO! We are MORE than conquerors in Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:37).
The devil ONLY has as much power as WE GIVE HIM. Remember! Thoughts fester if you don't stop them! Do you want them to become what you're speaking over yourself or what become your actions?

So SPEAK LIFE! Over your health, prosperity.
FAITH is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED FOR, the things UN-seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
- we can't SEE our healing, but God said that he has already given us "all things that pertain to life and Godliness" (2 Peter 1:3) and that he has already sent Jesus who "bore ALL sickness, ALL Disease, EVERY curse of the law" (Deuteronomy 28).

So if you ever have a symptom of illness, you have the legal right to say that you are HEALED and WHOLE in Jesus name!!! You have the power to believe the things unseen! That's faith!

This can apply also to prosperity, believing God for college tuition, grocery money, haha.. anything!

We limit ourselves to what we can believe and have faith for!!

We also talked about anxiety, and worry!

Matthew 6:25-32 BEAUTIFULLY states that we shouldn't worry or have any cares about today, tomorrow, or ever, because they have enough worries of their own!
We "shouldn't worry about what we eat, drink, or wear," because "isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?" (<-- woah, I'm convicted. I love food yuuummmm) (and clothes.)
BUT SEEK YE FIRST the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and ALL these things shall be added unto you!

YAY FOR GODLY THINGS!!! :)

Lastly, we talked about the walls that we put up sometimes, along with our identity.

Remember! If you were the only person EVER to exist, Jesus still would have had to die because he LOVES YOU THAT MUCH!

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), so if you ever feel condemned, afraid, scared, (or remember, John 10:10, anything that's stealing, killing, or destroying in your life) it's NOT FROM YO DADDY!!!

We choose life, joy, righteousness, self control, peace, and all the fruits of the spirit because God's given us those too! YAY! (Galations 5:22-23) So we have the right to claim these and speak these out over our lives! We tell our emotions how to act, they don't tell us!

Sometimes we build walls up because we're scared of the unknown.
the good news is, Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that He knows our plans that He's specifically designed and crafted for us. They're plans NOT to harm us, but to give us a HOPE AND a FUTURE! Isn't that powerful? I know I'm holding on to that!

God is the God of the HOW. He'll figure out HOW it's gonna work out, what we're supposed to do, where we're supposed to go, and we can just rest in his beautiful peace and trust Him! Of course we do our part by going to school, getting a degree, writing hit songs, doing awesome radio tours (JORDAN) etc... but God does the heavy lifting... our burdens are on Him!!! :)

So whenever we feel uneasy about others opinions of us, it's so cool because... it doesn't matter.
We think it does, or we let those thoughts come about that ONE person that we've let bother us for what seems like forever... but guess what? That doesn't matter either.

Why? Because other people's thoughts toward you don't change God's thoughts toward you. Ever. At all.
He loves you, and wants to wrap you in His big ole' arms and comfort you until you're the most COMFY PERSON EVER. :D like this cute lil' kitty.

We also talked about pride, but it's so funny because people who talk about how they "have a pride issue" are generally way LESS prideful than they think they are. Because prideful puffed up people are too prideful to KNOW IT OR ADMIT IT!! hahaha, the devil is so stupid he tries to put that on us TELLING us we're prideful. Good thing you can crush him under your feet and tell him he's the dumbest, stupidest (is that a word) thing ever. You're victorious and humility is something God's given you, so name it claim it blab it grab it homegirl, it's yours!

Remember, in this world, there is sin, and this world functions under the laws of sin which produces death.
But as children of God, his laws SUPERSEDE and OUT-RULE the laws of sin and death, because the spirit of LIFE in Christ JEsus has made us FREE from the laws of sin and death, hallelujah!

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME

Meggie. :)



*(Pictures from google images, I am not claiming I took them, you are more than welcome to click on them and see the sites they come from!)

Back on Track

This weekend I had the honor and privilege of going back home!

What a blessing it is to be in the most comfortable environment you know.

It had been a solid 10 weeks since I'd gotten to sleep in my own bed, and gaze upon the beautiful city of Omaha. It's so funny, so many students in high school are SO ready to "get out of Omaha" when they graduate, only to find that they didn't realize how incredibly blessed they were at home.

It's been a few weeks since I last posted, so I'll try and catch y'all up quickly!

1. I was so honored to have my family come here to visit me about 3 weeks ago for Belmont's Christian Showcase! Jay came too, which was also fun!

• -We had a blast despite them literally being here for less than 48 hours total, with a 13 hour drive here and back starting around 10am Friday and leaving Sunday after church! 
• -I'm so thankful and grateful that my family and boyfriend love me that much to sacrifice a weekend, and a whole DAY in the car for me! 
• -I really needed it, it was kinda during that "mid-semester slump" time where you just want to cry and talk to your mom all day. (Ok, that's a bit dramatic, but you can get the picture!)

2. 2 weeks later, Jay came for a solo visit, YAY!!!!! :) 

• - I cannot even describe how much fun we had, and how much I missed him! 
• - I won't be too sappy I promise, but seeing my family and him for a mere 24 hours, you see them but you don't really "see them" if that makes sense. It's a bit of a tease, so needless to say I was pumped.
• He arrived Thursday night and left Sunday after church and lunch and we did so many different things!
• Of course, me being the planner, had a bunch of fun things for us to do planned out like the day he booked his flight.
• We ended up going to a bunch of East-Nashville restaurants, including Silly Goose, and Jeni's Ice Cream, and some West Nashville favorites too, like Amerigo's. And of course, I took Jay to Pancake Pantry, a Nashville STAPLE. He loved all of them, and we had so much fun going all around the city! (One tank of gas later by the end of the weekend.)
• It was also a blessing having someone to go for walks with, as we did one of the days.  Haha, we ended up counting Land Rovers... as I described to him how Nashville is a "big city" with lots of people with money but looks like home.  We counted literally 20 in about 5 minutes.
• Jay also got to see Session perform, the singing group I'm in at school, which was an interesting experience! :)

3. Fall Break

• Now we arrive at pretty near the present. Last weekend was fall break, which was a 4 day weekend that was the first time I got to go HOME!!!!!!!!!!!
• Despite being only 5 days after Jay left Nashville, it was the longest 5 days of my life. AHHHHHHH teachers felt the need to have a million homework assignments, and midterms. YAY. Not.
• Fall break was wonderful, getting to see the lovely Newstrom's for the first time in 10 weeks!!!! I'm so blessed to be as close to them as anyone. They're as loud and weird as my family. Wow, that could be a whole blog post.
• I was also blessed to get to lead worship again!! wooooo! It's hard here where your gift seems to lie dormant just BUILDING UP inside of you ready to be let out!!! So worship was AWESOME Sunday at FFC! God is REALLY moving and working in our midst! SO EXCITED for what's to come!
• I also got to lead worship with momma Swan at the A.M. Women's Bible Study Monday, and lead for the P.M. Ladies as well! Both were incredible, as always. I cannot even describe how much I'm blessed by these Godly women. It's like having 25 mothers! How incredible!!! :)
• Sadly, I had a TON of homework over break, (THANK YOU MUSIC HISTORY AHHHH :( ) so I didn't really FULLY get to relax, at all. But, I slept kind of more than usual... for maybe a day or two so I'm thankful for that! 
• Lastly, seeing and spending time with my family is the greatest blessing I could ever, ever, did I say EVER ask for.  I would not trade them for ANYTHING or ANYONE in the world. 
• Whether it was running with my dad, reading my sisters mind (and visa versa), chatting with Mom, or telling Ian to stop cracking his ear, I love all the isms each of us have and how we all, despite our strong Swanson Type-A personalities, still love each other and get along so well. We are all growing and learning in our times apart, and it's so cool to see the power of "The Swanson 5" together each time we get to be one unit. LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

Finally.

Since being back from break, I am feeling more empowered than ever.

I realized that during the past 10 weeks I haven't spent AS much time with God as I should have, and I've neglected my spirit being fed in place of things like... MUSIC HISTORY HOMEWORK CONSTANTLY. But anyways, I've been really placing the MOST emphasis on God first, trusting that He'll amplify and lengthen my time when I'm bombarded with tests, projects, and homework, and it's been working!

I've heard all that before, but it's really clicking now, and I'm happier than ever.

It's not worth it to be stressed, lonely, or sad. So I'm choosing to be empowered by His grace to walk Holy (and wholly), before Him!!!!

THANK YOU JESUS!!!

Megan :)

10/18/12

p.s. I got my sorority Lil. SO EXCITED SHES PRECIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL AND YAY!