{ Perfect love casts out all fear }

A song fitting for this weekend (and our lives)

 

I had a realization tonight. Like literally 10 minutes ago.  I was journaling to God and just pouring out what was on my heart. Recently, I came across some real spiritual warfare from the enemy. I was surrounded by talks of how God isn’t real, how Christianity is stupid, ect… and it was like a cloud of lies and negativity just sat above me. It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. And even though I still believe in God and his almighty love and power, It was scary to go through that warfare. (Still is scary) but this is where my realization cuts in. I always ask God to show me more of his love, to reveal how much he loves me, to open my eyes to receive his love more. And in the midst of talking to God about this- I stopped.

Tomorrows Good Friday. Tomorrow is a day where God literally poured out every inch of his love onto all of us by letting his ONLY son die on the cross for our sins, only so God could have us. (Hard to grasp, huh?) All of a sudden I just felt God telling me “Christina, I did this for YOU, I  sacrificed my son on the cross so you could be mine.” And waterworks came shortly after that, haha.  The realization that I had tonight, friends, is that perfect love casts out ALL fear.  Gods perfect love that broke all of our sins away. God’s perfect love casts out all doubts, fears, anxiety, sadness, depression, and everything we’ve ever struggled with and everything we ever will struggle with.

I will leave you with this verse: “God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17

 

 

Stillness

Psalms 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” 

I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. This verse is thrown onto pictures of sunsets and mountains and daisies and t-shirts, but when was the last time you sat and really became still?

Being “still” is sometimes difficult- I’ll be the one to admit it.  My mind’s telling me that to encounter God you have to have this radical experience where chains are being broken and tears are coming down like a waterfall and your on your knees with your face on the ground. Now don’t get me wrong, meeting God in these moments are some of the most amazing, powerful, life changing experiences, but God also created us so we could see him move in the midst of our stillness.

For a while I’ve been praying on how to just be still in the Fathers arms. No expectations, no waiting for something “big” to happen, just falling into his arms. Being the person that I am though, I thought that it has to be more than me just being still. It has to be me going all out, it has to be this big thing.  (As always God has plans to alter my thinking- and thank the Lord he does). Here comes Wednesday night. Your typical youth group worship setting is presented, with the lights slightly dimmed- and my heart kinda feeling a little dim itself. I was preparing my heart for coming into worship. I was telling God that I would push away all the distractions and just worship Him with my whole heart. So I’m worshiping and just stretching my heart as much as I could. I know that I don’t have to try so hard to achieve Gods attention and his love- I know that,  but sometimes the things that I tell my self I know I slowly forget the real truth that hides behind it. In midst of thinking this, a worship song that is very near and dear to my heart is being sung. The John Mark Mcmillan classic, How he loves.  And as the words “How he loves us” hit me, I just stopped. And when I mean I stopped I mean I stopped strenuously trying so hard. I let it sink into my heart. I let his Love become still in my heart. I became still in his arms.

The next morning I woke up to a post on my Youth Groups page from one of the youth leaders.  “God is with you every step of the way sometimes we need to rest in him sit at his feet and breathe. God has you.”  My heart was so so full at this simple little message.   So friends,  I encourage you to just be still in the pressence of our loving Father. To forget about expectations and everything else your mind may throw at you. To just rejoice in the truth that God has us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Do You Believe In God?

On Wednesday night a speaker at youth group spoke about our mission as Christians.

He made an analogy that struck me.

If you are a Christian, and you know others who are not Christians but you don’t share the Gospel with them, it’s like watching outside while they’re trapped inside a burning building and you know the way out and you just don’t tell them.

Wow.

 

Once you get to know me, I am not a shy person. I enjoy talking to people and there’s nothing I love more than good conversation.  I have recently found myself in a lot more situations where the people I am around are not Christians. This is because of my job as well as school. So here I am, a generally chatty person who loves God, around all these people who have never heard of Him. Isn’t this the perfect combination for me to share the Gospel? And if it is why don’t I?

These were questions that kept circling inside of my head last night. I eventually thought about a specific friend of mine who I’ve never talked to about God, but he has made it pretty evident in his life that he doesn’t believe in Him. I imagined a conversation in which I finally decided to bring up God and it went something like this:

Me: So do you believe in God?

Him: No, I don’t. Do you?

Me: Yeah, I do.

Him: *makes weird facial expression*

Me: Do you think I’m crazy?

Him: Maybe a little bit. But can I ask, Why do you believe in God?

And that’s as far as the conversation went in my mind. Every time I would go over it, it ended in this ominous question that I struggled to answer. Thinking about this question gripped me with fear. It wasn’t that I didn’t have reasons. I just had reasons that I didn’t think others would understand. I thought, if someone is already doubting the existence of God and I say I believe in God because I know Him, I’ve experienced Him, I’ve felt His presence and I’ve seen His work in my life, they will think, “well that is a load of crap” or “how does that prove anything?”

I wrestled over this for hours. I had to be honest with myself. I was afraid. I am afraid. But why was I afraid? (obviously I was in a very inquisitive mood where I wouldn’t stop asking questions until I figured this thing out haha)

So, when considering the fear that gripped my heart when thinking about telling others about my relationship with God, I came to the conclusion that I feared two things:

 

1. Rejection. Honestly rejection in any situation stings. But when I think about sharing the heart of who I am, the love of Jesus, and someone rejecting it, I am terrified. When I realized I was afraid of rejection when sharing the Gospel, I prayed. I prayed fervently. I asked God to not only free me from this fear but to show me exactly why I shouldn’t be afraid. I’m a logical person, so if possible I like to be able to understand things fully. So this is something I ask of God a lot, the ability to understand. Sometimes He decides it’s best that I don’t fully understand and that I just trust Him. Luckily this time after praying, searching scripture and reading different messages, He gave me what I feel like is a good understanding of why I shouldn’t be afraid of rejection when spreading the gospel. Even Jesus was rejected. You would think that when the Son of God himself shared the love of His Father, it would have been a sure-fire conversion. But that wasn’t always the case. We should be encouraged greatly by this because it shows that the purpose of sharing the gospel is not being accepted. “Success in evangelism is measured not in the outcome, but in your obedience to following the command of Christ.”
2. Not knowing what to say. After dwelling on the fact that rejection doesn’t matter, I still did not feel all my fear was absolved. I rehearsed the conversation again, this time not caring how my friend reacted to my answers and I realized that I was afraid of saying the wrong thing or not knowing how to word what I wanted to say. When thinking about this, I found peace in a scripture, “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:12  Really, its not on us and its not about us. If we are obedient and share the Gospel like God commands us to do, the Holy Spirit will work through us, telling us exactly what to say.

There truly is no such thing as a bad outcome when it comes to evangelism.

Evangelist Mark Cahill calls all three potential witnessing outcomes a “win”:

1. If the person comes to Christ, that is an obvious win.
2. If they seem interested but don’t come to Christ, you plant seeds that God could water and grow in the future, another win.
3. And if they reject you, you get heavenly rewards, which is definitely a win!

It took a long time but I finally felt like I was at a place where I understood why I shouldn’t be afraid to share the Gospel. I figured that there are probably a lot of other people out there who are afraid of the same things that I am and I wanted to share this process with them in how I found this peace with sharing the love of God.

Don’t let fear stop you from taking up your cross and following Jesus.

Kristina

 

 

Top 30 Hits

So It’s been a while! Basically in the mess of our lives and the plethora of other passwords to other websites we lost the precious password to this blog. Which we still do not know, we just happened to come across the log in for this and was already signed in (weird). And we’re pretty much taking  this as a sign from God that we should post something right at this very moment. So without further ado these are our top 30 favorite worship songs! (in no particular order)

1.  I Will Exalt You – Hillsong. This song is all about worshiping God and just saying the words “I will exalt you” cause our hearts to be humbled and focus on the reason we’re singing.
2.   Like Incense (Step by step)-Hillsong Live. Prayer is important. This song is about praying and trusting God.
3.  You Won’t Relent – Jesus Culture. This song can be passed over quickly because it’s not very straightforward. It’s hard to understand. It talks about how God will never stop seeking you, loving you, wanting your heart.
4. Multiply – Desperation Band. This song talks about taking up your cross and following God in the adventure of giving Him the glory. It highlights the fact that even if you have nothing to give, God multiplies his gifts and blessings in you.
5. Good Good Father – House Fires. Not enough songs focus on our identity in God. This song confirms that we are loved by Him and that is in fact our true identity.
6. You Revive Me  – Christy Nockels. This song is a good listen for the weary and people who want to be refreshed in all a that God is.
7. Come to the River – House Fires. This song is all about God’s goodness.
8. I Surrender  – Hillsong Live. A humbling song that causes you to be in a position of surrender and in following God.
9. I Will Rise – Hillsong. This song is about God and all his glory defeating sin, and how we too can overcome sin because of Jesus.
10. Closer – Bethel. I love this song because it’s about desiring a more close and intimate relationship with God.
11. How He Loves – Kim Walker. This song is beautifully written and speaks about God’s great love for us. It’s something you can never tired of being reminded.
12. You Hold Me Now – Hillsong. Sometimes you just need a hug and it feels like nothing is going right. This song is a huge comfort in rough times.
13. Called Me Higher  – All Sons & Daughters. This song is about God’s call in all of our lives to be bold and live a life worthy of following Him.  
14. You Know Me – Steffany Gretzinger. This song puts God in perspective. He made the stars and the sea and yet he still knows us better than anybody else.
15. Mercy– Amanda Cook. We all fall short of the glory of God but His endless amount of mercy will always be given to us.
16.  Pieces  – Amanda Cook. God doesn’t hide his presence in our lives to tease us or to torture us. He loves us with all of His heart and nothing less.
17. Set a Fire– Jesus Culture. This song is all about the yearning in our hearts to be passionate about God and to feel a burning in our hearts for Him.
18. The Wick– House Fires. Our hearts are the wick and His love is the flame. We want to burn for His name.
19.  Oh You Bring– Hillsong United.  Oh YOU bring. The lyrics of this song gives me peace and reminds me of all the beautiful gifts God presents us every day!
20. Yahweh  – Kari Jobe. This song just exemplifies how much we adore God and how everlasting his love his! Although a lot of these song give out that message this song in particular always reminds me of how glorious and good He always is. “Always the same, you never change, your love remains.
21. My Soul Sings– Cory Asbury  This song talks about how souls are yearning for the Lord! We proclaim our unending love for God in this song.
22. The Lost Are Found– Hillsong  The title of this song says it all. The lost are found and we are the ones that are lost. This song proclaims that our God is in control of everything and anything! We are safe in his hands.
23. Strong God– Desperation Band  Father to the fatherless, defender of the weak. How awesome is our strong, strong God? His strength is unfathomable.
24. Love So High– Hillsong Live God’s love for us is stronger than the mountains and deeper than the deepest sea. This song puts in perspective how great and unending God’s love is for us!
25. All the Poor and Powerless  – All sons & daughters  This song is us shouting out to the world that God is glorious and amazing!  Go tell the world of his glory!
26. Stronger – Hillsong Worship For the days where you feel like you can’t handle what life’s throwing at you, this song is a PERFECT reminder that Jesus made the loving sacrifice for us just so we wouldn’t have to carry burdens on our backs.
27. Desert Song– Hillsong.  This song is a lovely reminder that in ANY season we are in, God remains the same and we always have a reason to shout for joy and worship him in all his goodness!
28. I Stand Amazed – Chris Tomlin  A song to appreciate the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us.
29. This is Our God – Hillsong   Another song that puts in perspective what Jesus did for us on the cross. Sing out praises to our God!
30.  Pursue/All I Need Is You– Hillsong Young & Free   A song about giving our full selves to Jesus and pursuing him. In the simplest of terms, all we need is Jesus. Nothing more.

 

Kristina & Christina 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey twelve year old Christina, It’s me.

I think it’s safe to say that middle school was probably the most awkward, uncomfortable,  and weirdest time for (most) of our lives. During those two short years an emerging pre-teen was entering into the world. Bright eyed and bushy tailed,  wondering around trying to figure out what to do with our new found personalities. Now that I’ll be graduating high school in a few months I’ve been thinking a lot of what I would say to my twelve year old self. So here’s to the shy, awkward, conformist, twelve year old girl. It gets better.

1. The friends you have right now won’t be your friends in a few years. Although they are cool and great now, you’re gonna change soon, and so will your friends. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t cherish the time you have with them, just remember you can survive with out them.
2.  Again with friends, don’t place your worth in their opinions of you. I know life kinda sucks sometimes, but remember that you can always pray about it. Talking to friends about your troubles are good, but talking to God is way better.
3.  About that math test you failed… IT’S OKAY. It’s literally one test. Or maybe it was two, whatever. It’s not going to ruin your life, I promise. If you don’t understand something go get help! Don’t be ashamed for doing your best to succeed.
4. I know it’s great to have someone like you and call you pretty and stuff, but it doesn’t measure your worth. Right now, boys are like the last thing that should be on your mind. (sorry) Focus on who will ALWAYS find you beautiful and worthy, not just some boy you wont  even talk to /care about in a few years. Have fun with your friends and don’t worry about stupid boys.
5.  Just because your friends are wearing something that’s cool, doesn’t mean you have to wear that too. Or if they talk about something that makes you slightly uncomfortable or you know its wrong, you are allowed to leave the conversation. You are your own person, embrace it.
6.  So what if someone called you annoying? You weren’t placed on this earth to prove yourself to all the people that can’t handle how cool you are.
7.  It’s okay to emerge out of your friend group. If you say that you’re being awkward, you probably are. Stop worrying about that and enjoy yourself! You’re actually cooler than you think you are (But it gets better in high school).
8. You are beautiful!! It’s okay to put your hair up in a pony tail sometimes. Don’t use your hair to cover your face- it’s not cute.
9.   Stop spending all your free time on the internet. Facebook is not that important, I promise. There’s a whole word outside of the the computer room.
10. God. Talk to him. All relationships take time to develop. You should know, you’ve gone through that development with your friends. Don’t hold back telling him whats going on in your life. Granted, he already knows, but he is yearning to hear YOU tell him. You have the greatest father in heaven. One that is caring and loving and always forgiving.  This relationship with him will be the most important one you will ever make in your life.

Beautifully in over my head

We have this natural longing in our souls that hungers for the presence of God.

It’s what we were born with. It’s why we were put on this earth. We were put on this world to spread the light of Jesus!  As cliche as that sounds it’s true. We are here to show people his great love. Something that has been so terribly corrupted from the world we live in.  We are here for one reason and one reason only; to spread the love Jesus to others. It’s kinda that simple. Of course we’re also here to accomplish things and do school and stuff, but none of that will matter when we are standing face to face with the one that put us here in the first place! Lets live out our purpose. Let’s live out his love.

 

-Christina 🙂

His Glory

Hey, people! My name is Joy Perona. I am Kristina Perona’s sister and I might blog occasionally if I feel like God has put something on my heart to share. 🙂

I want to try and provide an answer for a question that has been lingering in my mind for quite some time.

Why is God’s glory so important to Him?

We are always saying, “It’s all for your glory God” and “God will be glorified in the end.” and “God deserves to be glorified.” but what exactly does this mean? Why is God all about being glorified? For one, He definitely deserves it. I mean, come on, He’s our maker, the creator of the entire universe. Bigger than any of us can ever imagine. Compare a flat piece of paper to a human being and the amount of differences between the two are just a small fraction of the differences between humans and God. He lives in a whole other dimension. So a definite adjective you could use for our God is “glorious”. But I believe God has a deeper purpose to His name being lifted high. He wants more than praise, glory, and admiration.

He wants us.

How does glory give him us, you may ask?

In a book called It’s Not About me by Max Lucado, I stumbled across the answer. You are drowning in a dark, cold, thrashing sea without a life jacket, exhausted and discouraged. You are left with no hope until suddenly, you hear a voice that says “Life boat over here!” But you can’t see a single thing. So what’s needed to save you? Of course you need the captain to yell louder, maybe turn on some bright lights so you can see where he is and swim towards Him.

God is that captain. We are drowning in seas of sin, guilt, depression, and anxiety. God wants to be glorified because He wants to save us! He loves us so much and that’s why people pointing to Him and giving God all the glory is so important to Him. He wants to use the ones He has saved to shine His light, so the people who are still drowning can see Him. So they can see the life boat that graciously rescues. God wants to pull more and more people into the safety of His arms.

God doesn’t want glory because He’s selfish, He wants glory because He is selfLESS.

God sent His innocent son, Jesus Christ to die on a cross for all of OUR sins. Do we deserve the gracious, strong, helping hand outstretched from the life boat to us? No. We never have. God loves us enough to send His son to die for us and God loves us enough to shine brightly in glory to save us from the thrashing seas around us and pull us into the eye of the hurricane.

Broken Vessels

“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” (‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭20-21‬ ESV)

We often emphasize that God is always working in us, which is true, He is constantly loving us, healing us and redeeming us – but something we don’t always think about is this:

He is constantly working around us. 

Everywhere you go there’s a story. 

God wants you to be a part of it. Maybe you already are and you don’t even realize it! But God is always at work & if you ask Him, He will reveal to you where He’s longing for you to work alongside Him.

God wants to use us.

All of us.



I love the picture because it is all so true! 

Here is the verse that is pictured:

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolishthings of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

If you’re not qualified? He qualifies you.

You can’t do what needs to be done? He can.

You don’t know how? He does. 

There’s no need to be afraid of letting God use you! It is not about our qualifications. It is not about our capabilities. It’s about bringing Glory to God and He will certainly allow us to do that! 

God has called us all to participate in His story. If we are willing to then He will show us where he’s working, but we have to trust him. It’s like one of my favorite worship songs says, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me.” 

We have to ask God to open our eyes to see where He is working. It helps to dedicate each day to seeing where God is moving in the people and places around you!  God called us to be vessels of His love. We just have to be willing, trust Him, and let Him work. 

Broken Vessels

Kristina Perona🌟

A little reminder

Hey guys,

 So this is just a little spontaneous post that I decided is something that I felt in my heart to put on here. I just want to remind anyone who’s reading this that if you’re going through a rough time it’s going to be okay. I know, easier said than done, but i can personally say I went through plenty of rough patches in my life so far (still go through some) and I know that it eventually does get better. The pain that’s in your heart right now will not be there forever. The fight that you just got with your parents won’t ruin your life. That bad grade on a test won’t define who you are as a person. Let God carry the burdens that you have weighing on your heart. Let him love on you in the midst of your pain and remember that God is walking with you right now. (Even though you may not feel it)

I’m gonna leave this post with a verse that I really love, it brings me so much peace, so I hope it can do the same for someone else😊 

Acts 2:25-28

“I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and my tounge shouts his praises! My body rests in hope. For you will not leave my sol among the dead or allow your Holy One rot in the grave. You have shown me the way of life, and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.”

-Christina Thomas 💕💕 

P.s Ive attached a song that helps me through sucky days. Hillsong- You hold me now

He Makes a Way

Today, I’m going to share a personal story of mine that displays how anything is possible with God and how in the depths of all despair He is still working. It was summer of 2013.  This was the year before I attended Desperation. Desperation is a youth conference that my youth group attends in July and it is held in Colorado Springs.

I had attended the conference for the first time the summer before, and I fell in love. I fell in love with the way people yearned for Jesus and dedicated their lives to Him. I fell in love with how freely I could worship. I fell in love with Jesus. So, fast forward to my freshman year. I had definitely been touched since the summer, but I was also not completely sure what it was or what really having a relationship with God was about. Despite me not really sure what that was about, there was nothing I wanted more than to just go back, the following summer. I mostly just assumed I could go, I didn’t think there would be any reason why i shouldn’t or couldn’t go.

“You can’t go.” My mom broke the news to me only a few months before. The words hit me hard in the chest. I started spitting out promises of cleaning my room everyday and getting my grades up the next year, but as of that moment I couldn’t go. Needless to say, I was kind of devastated. Every other day I would ask “are you sure I can’t go?” just to see if there was a possibility. Some days there was, and others there weren’t.

About a month or two before July, I had it set in my heart that I wasn’t going. I didn’t exactly have any close friends at the time to be there with or talk to, so I decided it wasn’t a big deal. It was just a conference. I could go next year. Little did I know, God had other plans – plans that I definitely didn’t see coming. I had met a friend the year before. I was a freshman and she was a junior, so of course I felt like the tiniest person on the planet compared to her. We didn’t really talk much until a few months before the conference in 2013. I got a text from her asking if I was going to go, and I said probably not.  Text after text after text went on with me saying, I cant go, I can’t do it, to her saying, “shut up you’re going” and to trust God. Trusting God was difficult. I’ll admit it. And it still is sometimes, but when I do it’s the most amazing thing. Weeks passed by and my attitude became less despondent and more willing to believe in the positive. There were anxious hours of waiting to see if I could go, constant writing in my journal to God, crying out for Him to answer my prayers. Long story short, (although this is already a pretty long story) God provided the chance for me to go. He is so faithful and so caring and loving and attentive to every single one of our worries and fears. This conference isn’t just some fun concert to go to in summer. It serves as so much more in my heart. It’s a place where I dedicated my life to the one who makes it all worth living: Jesus. Guys, God hears all of your prayers, all of them. Don’t ever feel like your worries don’t matter. He makes a way and he has a plan.

-Christina Thomas