November 2017 Update

The last few weeks have been insane. I guess the best place to start is by saying that yes, my college is closing in May of 2018 but that's ok.

It wasn't easy when we first heard the news but it has been a little over three weeks. The reason I say it is ok is because I know that God will continue to work in us no matter where we are.

 

It wasn't until our schools announcement was made, that I actually started to confess to God a lot of things that I don't think I would have confessed as quickly otherwise. I need to make it clear that through His goodness, God slowly began to pry out of my soul things that I never wanted to confess verbally to Him or to myself. I had a lot of lies that I was believing deep down inside of my soul.

 

It is true that only God can gently pull our deepest darkest secrets out of inside of us. He is so good.

 

I am so sorry I have not been as dedicated to this blog as I want to be. I did get an instagram recently though so if you want to follow me there, you can. (Username: ashleysrocha98)

 

In many ways, it took my school closing to allow me to get real with God, because now I am faced with the decision of choosing where I should go for college all over again. That decision is part of what triggered the multiple following conversations I had with God. I've been praying a lot and I'm not really sure what I will do for my junior year but God showed me I could trust him when he brought me to a college 2000 miles away from home, so I guess I should probably trust him again hu? Just for clarification, I will be in Spokane next semester (January 2018- May 2018) to finish out my sophomore year but after that, the Moody Spokane campus is closed. The Aviation branch will remain open thankfully! 

 

Thank you for reading this! I really appreciate it! Love you guys!

 

Love, Ash

Spiritual Battle

     Because I'm graduating, there are a lot of things I'm finding that I'm going to have to give up in life because I'm moving forward.

    We have to leave the past behind us. We have to press on as warriors into the unknown life ahead. at times in life. We must leave beloved relationships and people behind. At times, we even have to leave material objects but we don't have to be afraid because we know God is walking with us into this new section of life. God knows the right way.  

   Many times, as we grow up, we must stand up silently in our minds in a crowd and we will make choices that the world will hate. This is not where we belong and planet earth is not our home. We must learn to move on, and lay things down in this life and sacrifice things for one another. This world is fading quickly and it is temporary and it is not our home. 

     The Lord can hold everything we care about. We can let it go and put it in His hands. He loves the things that we love even more than we do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step out and don't be afraid because God will not fail you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lay down your life at his feet.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

We can only defend our faith while we are still living on the earth.

 

 

That means we act now. Grab on to the Lord and we will walk into the storm together.

 

 

Peter could never walk on the water if he was never on the ocean.

 

 

We don't understand victory if we don't understand failure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grab onto Him. He won't fail you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hold up the light of Christ and let the world see Him burn and shine with His glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hold it up and run with joy because He' not going to fail you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus raided our tomb, the tomb in which we were laying dead.

 

 

We have to raid other peoples tomb with the light of Christ because so many people still lay dead in their tomb.

 

 Submit to God and run with Him!

 

He won't fail.

Being Willing to Sacrifice Things

So have you ever had to get rid of something in your life because you know its right or because you know God has called you to love him first? I have. No body like sacrificing things. When I sacrifice certain things because of what I believe, in a way, I feel like I'm putting it to death. Its so hard especially when you love that thing and you wonder how you will manage to forget it if it is around you all the time.

 

Its easy to say we can let things go and move on because we know its right, but honesty, its the mental part that is the battle for the next few months not the sadness in letting that thing( whatever it is) go. So much of these battle are mental and if we continue to dwell on what ever it is we lost, we will never move on.

 

Now there s a difference between losing some one or something because of death or losing someone or some thing because you knew it wasn't helping you in life. When its something we cant control, like a death or some one rejecting us, then of course there is room for taking time to be sad. But if we continue to dwell and be sad about things for too long, it will destroy us and others around us because we will never strive to do whatever it is God has called us to. And it would also make God sad because we are basically telling him that he isn't enough for us and that we need something or someone else back to keep us truly happy. If others or things are what truly kept us happy, then we would never be happy because things and people would and will always never be perfect and will fail us.

 

Laying down and sacrificing the things that are keeping us from loving and obeying God first can be a very hard thing to sacrifice. The harder it is to let it go, then the more we must have loved it.. and love isn't a bad thing, its just bad if what ever it is that we love, we love more than God. Jesus calls us to follow him completely! We must be willing to leave every thing else behind. We are human and its going to be hard but we must be willing to go with Jesus and believe that he will provide us with the  strength that we will need to follow his commands. That also includes that he will provide us with the strength to let things go for the sake of following after him first if we ask.   

 

So have you ever d to sacrifice anything? Something that ripped your heart out but you knew was right? Yeah I know. It makes you feel weak. You walk with a heavy heart but that's when God reminds us of things. He reminds us that our life here is nothing but a single breath. This isn't our home. There is some place greater that we belong and what happens here is only the smallest of little things compared to who God is.  And yes its hard, but once you realize how much time you have here and that you only get to make a difference in the world here once, just once, then you strive to become something much greater and better because you know that you are the last generation and you know why you are here! Yes we will break and we will bend and we will be ripped apart and we will hurt and cry and scream but  if there is any, any time to be ok with that, its now! Because God is with us we are the last generation and our world is crashing down and we may be killed one day for what we believe but if we know why we are here and for how long compared to eternity and if we find our strength only, only in Gods power . . .  he will help us survive.

 

 

We will question why, and it will make us angry and sad that those things must change . . .

 

 

We wont be sure we wanted to give it up . . .

Our hearts will be heavy, and it will be rough. We will want it to stop. All of it to end  . . .

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 And it will hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, the things that we agree to lay down here, are the things that will keep us and bring us closer to God and that is a relationship that is absolutely necessary, for humans to survive . . . Without him, we are nothing  . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

We will watch our beloved things burn, and our hearts shall ache but in the end, on the day that Jesus returns, we will be glad that we laid down the extremely short term things here on earth to help us establish a relationship that will last for all eternity with our great and extremely powerful God! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what about you? Is there anything you need to lay down that stands in-between you and your heart loving God first? Remember, Jesus already sacrificed so much for you to be able to have that relationship with God! He died so that you could have that so since you can connect with God now through Jesus, don't waste it! He was god and his type of laying things down and sacrifice is a type we will never have to go through because we aren't God. He already faced the worst type of sacrifice ever so whatever we have to get rid of in this life all piled all together will still never compare to what he gave. He understands sacrifice so when we have trouble, we should go to him because he will provide us with that strength and power to give things up for his sake and to follow him and his will, if we ask him! When we give things up we draw closer to him because we have a better understanding of who he is and what exactly he  really gave and how much love there really was when he came to die for us. 

 

A Life of Sacrifice

So my family and I were watching Captain America, The Winter Soldier, this weekend. It's a great movie! I love the superhero movies because of may reasons! Oddly enough though, lately, I've been challenging myself to remember who I am as a daughter of God. I mean in the sense of remembering that when we decided to surrender and give our lives to God, that there are actually a lot of things we will have to give up. Because we are Christians, there are may things that we will have to sacrifice because of our walk with God. There are things that we will have to lay down and simply say no to because of what we believe. So while watching Captain America, some how I noticed this type of sacrifice in Black Widow. Maybe just because she is one of the only girls in that movie. See Black Widow joined the S.H.I.E.L.D Agency and in doing that, she surrender herself to her Boss, I guess, Nick Fury and she must follow his orders. She cannot go live any way she wants to. She can't be in relationships. She can't go roam around the pubic without being smothered in a crowd of people. She can't be a normal human being. That's not who she is. She has given herself to the Agency and although she loves it, it causes her to be no longer normal or at lease not accepted as normal. This Agency and this team of others like her, is who she is now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a Christian girl, there are a lot of things that I have to sacrifice because of what I believe. There are a lot of things in this world that encourage me in that walk though! The walk of the commitment I made to God, that I will chase after him and will not put up with other things that he doesn't want his daughter to do.

 

Black Widow reminds me that we are in a war. For me as a girl, Black Widow is a model of a girl who may not be exactly where she wants to be and may not have the best of everything but will always commit to doing every part of her job well and to the best of her ability. I mean look at her! She's awesome!

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's easy to get carried away in everything that goes around you. It is easy to slack and not stick to your convictions, especially when no one else around you agrees. As Christians we will sacrifice everything for Christ. We will be out of place. IT will not be easy but we must be willing to sacrifice everything for God. Unlike in Black Widows case, we have someone that we serve that already gave everything he had for us. Now let's give it back. We know what he has called us to. This calling is not easy. It's a narrow gate and only few will enter. We stay with it no matter what. In fact we cant stay on that path without God's help. It's impossible without him. That's how extremely intense this Christian walk and path is!! I want to be like Black widow and stick with my job no matter how much I sacrifice or lose or lay down. You give it all up for the cause. And you lay everything you do down before Jesus. And you strive to do the one thing he sent you here for. To love and glorify him. You may be just a normal person but if you are following Jesus, you are a part of the biggest war that was ever or ever be fought until the final war. You surrender yourself to God and follow him with everything you are. With every part of your life. This is your run of life with God. Run it in joy, trust, and total surrender to his will until the end! 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give God everything you are and you stay on your path because he promises to keep us strong always until the end. The end of everything.