LAMP.

So guys I'm totally loving 2 Peter, especially chapter 1.

Today 2 Peter 1:19 lifted me up; it has everything to do with the purpose of this revolution!

"We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." (TNIV)

At first this verse threw me for a loop. It is beautiful and passionate imagery but what does it MEAN? I did a little research in my NIV Study Bible and I found that CHRIST is the morning star. The word, the prophetic message, is to light our paths until Jesus rises like the morning star to guide us. The word is our source of light that shines BRIGHTLY in a DARK place. We are instructed to PAY ATTENTION to it.

I'm reminded of Psalms 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." (NIV)

Until Jesus comes back to take us by the hand and lead us, the word of God should be made our director.

DIG DEEP!! You hold all the answers in your hands!

Love,

Kaity

KNOWLEDGE.

So obviously I haven't kept up with my blog at much as one would hope. I want to fix that!

Today I've been all throughout 2 Peter. The whole book is fabulous but I'd like to stick within the first chapter. Check out 2 Peter 1: 5-8.

Now I'm NOT about the "check it off" kind of faith. The feeling that you must execute 1, 2 and 3 to feel Jesus. But I am about instruction and structure. I'm okay with a plan on how to get where I want to be. Verses 5 and 6 say make EVERY effort to add to you faith these things: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love. But then look at verse 8 that ties it all together:

"For if you possess these qualities in INCREASING measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (TNIV)

So what you're telling me here is that I have a plan on how to keep myself from becoming ineffective and unproductive?! SWEET!

**The key word is increasing.

The amount of these characteristics that you're adding to your faith need to be consistently on the rise! Just as you can't drink one bottle of water and expect it to last you a year, you can't put forth one act of goodness and expect to be effective and productive in your knowledge of Christ. This is a positive correlation (don't diss the math :)). You add or increase these characteristics to your faith and your knowledge of Christ will increase as well!

Now here's the cool part:

Backtrack to verse 3:

"His divine power has given us everything we need to for a godly life through our KNOWLEDGE OF HIM who called us by his own glory and goodness."(TNIV)

Because of this new knowledge of Him that we've gained, we can now receive EVERYTHING we need to live a godly life! Knowledge = Provision.

Add to your faith increasingly. Gain knowledge of our beautiful God. Receive provision.

Sounds like a good deal to me :)

Love,

Kaity

Striving.

Wait

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said,
" Child, you must wait."
" Wait? You say, wait!" my indignant reply.
" Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is Your hand shortened? Or have You not heard?
By faith, I have asked, and am claiming Your Word.

My future hangs and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and You tell me to WAIT?
I'm needing a 'Yes,' a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'No' to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And, Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
'I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!"

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again," You must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God,"So, I'm waiting...for what?"

He seemed,then, to kneel
And His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said," I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want--
But, you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You'd not know the power I give to the faint;

You'd not learn to see the clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me;
When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You'd never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.

You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that, 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you!

So, be silent, My child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft' may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, 'Wait.'"

- Russell Kelfer

Ya'll my friend tagged me in a note on FB with this poem in it. When I read it, I teared up. This is me being transparent: I have been so beat down recently. Upset and frustrated with who I am, feeling like a failure. And you know what's worse? I KNOW the cure for my oppression. I KNOW that Jesus can fix ALL of this, fix me. I KNOW there is a better life to be had, more abundant living. But what do I do? NOTHING. I don't seek harder, pray harder, or retreat to my bible. I get stubborn and I let myself struggle with the hurt because I'm too PROUD to turn to my Provider. I'm too afraid to give up complete control. I'm terrified to "rest in Him". I'm holding on to my wants and fears and desires so tightly that I can't even raise my hands to worship Him. I'm lost and dazed and confused. I'm burnt out. There's this person that I WANT to be that God DESIRES me to be and I'm so far away from that image. Even the thought of attempting to get there is exhausting. And then, I take out my anger with myself with people I love and care about, that don't deserve it.

Today at the end of Leadership Retreat each person in our small groups wrote something nice about all of us. I can not tell you how many people wrote that I was patient. PATIENT? ME?! No way. God tells me to wait and I scream back NO! My mind is constantly racing, figuring out the next problem I'll come in contact with. I SO EASILY get anxious and curious. Waiting? That's not me. But for whatever reason, these people saw that in me. So if I can be patient with them, why can't I be patient with God? He deserves my complete and utter trust; isn't impatience one form of distrust?

I want to make the commitment to know Him better and wait for what He has to tell me. But to be honest, I can hear the devil whispering, "It's going to be too much effort, too much work. You're exhausted and don't have time for this. It's okay to have such an angry heart in turmoil."

Pray that I tell the devil to shut up.

KNOWING.

So I wish I had more time but it seems that I do not. Thankfully the Lord has provided this time to be able to post on here!

This morning I read through Psalms 139. Yesterday in church we focused in on verses 13-18. They describe how AMAZING our Creator is that He KNIT us together. We are intricate, delicate beings. We are complex and hand made! But as I continued to read all of the chapter this morning, I realized a common thread. He KNOWS us. Inside and out. Backwards and forwards. He has SEARCHED us and knows all our ways, and even our thoughts before they turn into words.

Sometimes I can feel discouraged like no one knows exactly who I am; sometimes I don't even understand myself for that matter! haha :) But God, He KNOWS me. He GETS me. All there is to me, He understands. And yet, He STILL loves me :)

I am an imperfect, flawed, worn out finite being that is loved and understood by the King of Kings. I'd say there's no reason that I shouldn't live in joy today. :)

Love,

Kaity

BEAUTY.

I am still currently in 1 Peter but this morning I really focused in on chapters 2 & 3. Ya'll I found SO much that I want to share! But I want to keep it focused so I'm going fill you in on what God taught me about TRUE BEAUTY. This is more geared towards ladies but you gentleman can take note of what is true beauty in a woman in God's eyes.

1 Peter 3:3,4 "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." (TNIV)

Since I was a little girl my mom has always taught me how being beautiful on the inside is much more important than appearance. And this verse clearly states that God feels the same way.

I know this is cliche and has been talked about a multitude of times, especially with our generation. But ladies we need to be modest with our outward selves as to not make our brothers in Christ stumble. REAL beauty is God's grace, love, compassion, gentleness, understanding and forgiveness SHINING through us as the beautiful light of Christ. TRUE beauty is an attitude of humility, humbleness and submission to God.

I know we've all see the Facebook bumpersticker, but the quote is legitimate. A truly gorgeous woman is one that is so WRAPPED up in God that a boy interested must bow to her Heavenly Father first to get to her.

Now I'm not saying to not take care of your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19 states that your body is TEMPLE; Christ resides in you, so take care of yourself. But realize that God finds you beautiful on the outside not matter how the world tells you differently (HE CREATED YOU!), but remember that your inner self is of much greater worth to Him.

Ladies, I think this revolution is not only going to strengthen our relationship with Christ and other believers, but it's going to make us more beautiful as we begin to take every thought captive and transform our inner selves into gorgeous woman of God!

You are His beautiful baby girl; be His daughter, his child.

Love,

Kaity

MUSTARD SEED.

Matthew 17:14-20

This is what I'm wrestling through this morning. Any thoughts?

LOVE.

Our verses for the week are :

Romans 8:6 and 2 Corinthians 10:5

And our extended passage for the month is:

2 Corinthians 4

I feel like a lot of ETC TLs are in 1 Peter which is exciting! This morning I wanted to head back to 1 Peter 1 because last week it completely changed my life. Remembering the word of God and how is says prepare for action in 1 Peter 1:13, I spontaneously drove to the metroplex with Matt. You must understand that I would never just DO that. But God blessed me beautifully through that.

This morning verse 22 particularly stuck out to me. Ironically, my youth pastor talked about this verse this past sunday but it didn't HIT me until this morning. It states: "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart." TNIV

Goodness, OBEYING the truth is hard enough but how much more difficult does it become if you don't even know WHAT the truth says?! Over and over again God continues to prove to me that KNOWING scripture and truly studying it and understanding it is HUGE. Now to be completely honest, in the past reading my Bible was just going through the motions, reading a chapter just so I could check it off. Now I'm BEGGING God to captivate me with His word and hold me accountable to it! I want to CRAVE to know more!! Isn't it exciting and fascinating to learn more about Him? Isn't reading our Bible one of the best ways to do that? An opportunity to MEET with Him and further my relationship with Him, daily sits on my night stand. All I have to DO is pick it up and delve deep!

Last summer, I realized that my purpose in life has NOTHING to do with what college I attended, what my major was or what my career will be. My purpose is not who I marry, how many kids I have or what church I attend. Last summer (actually at Super Summer in Khaki school) God revealed to me that my purpose is so incredibly simple: love Him and love people. How quickly I get wrapped up in myself, and I forget to love people with a SINCERE love, deep from the heart.

Ya'll with all my heart I pray that we SEE Him today and FEEL Him. I want nothing more than that!

Love,

Kaity

SHINE.

So, honestly I didn't get much time to be in my bible this morning but it's funny how God can teach you a HUGE lesson in a SHORT time.

This morning my dad work me up early to go wash cars. I was so frustrated and put up a huge fight. I called Matt upset and venting, complaining about the whole situation. I had a long day yesterday, I work today, I leave next week for school. WHY did we have to be up at 7:30 to go wash cars when I had to be at work at 9? What about showering, eating and having my quiet time and then being able to post on here? There wasn't enough to for all of it. I had an attitude with my Dad and I literally thought about crying. Sure enough by the time I came inside, I had twenty minutes until I needed to leave for work. So I prioritized, instead of showering or eating or yelling some more at my Dad, I got into a couple of my favorite verses: Philippians 2:14-16. It might have only been a short amount but it was all I needed to hear. I love these verses because it talks about how to SHINE like stars; I WANT to shine for Jesus. However, what's the first thing it says to do to shine? "Do everything without grumbling or arguing." (TNIV)

EVERYTHING. NO COMPLAINING. Wow, punch in the gut much? What little time I've been awake this morning, I've spent it "grumbling", frustrated, and upset AND I've taken it out on 3 things I care about most: my Dad, Matt and Ears (my dog haha) I can sit here arguing and complaining (and trust me, that's what my flesh SO BADLY wants me to do as I have 7 minutes until I need to leave for work and I'm hungry and soapy and wet) OR I can take a deep breath, ask Jesus for forgiveness, go downstairs and hug my Dad and say thank you and leave for work.

I choose the latter.

Love,

Kaity

SEEK.

So, if you've read the Homepage of ETC Revolution (found in a link to the right) you know that Matt and I spontaneously made our way to the metroplex. Tuesday night we were just hanging out at Barnes and Noble; on the way home (it was MIDNIGHT) he excitedly suggested we go to Arlington, TOMORROW. As in leave in SEVEN hours. Of course, I told him he was crazy and impractical. Did this deter him? No. I'll admit to fighting the idea at first because I'm not a very "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of person, but eventually God softened my heart to the idea through what I had read that morning in 1 Peter, which just so happens to be my last post. I stressed the importance of preparing for ACTION. To GO! So I went, not knowing what was in store and begging for patience. Of course, God provided generously. The crazy trip was more worth than what I can explain in words. It's amazing how He has perfect timing for EVERYTHING. It felt RIGHT to be where we were and with the people we were with. It was refreshing to trust in something I was nervous about and then to see myself and Matt prosper. Ultimately, God is good.

An extra tid bit: God has told me to read only my bible for the next six months (unless it is related to school). You see, I'm a big reader. I enjoy it; it's my way of escape. However, if I have extra time on my hands to be pleasure reading, God wants me to DEVOTE myself to reading HIS word, HIS truth. If I have an ounce of extra time, I want to STUDY my bible, know it back and front. I want to SEEK Him with everything in me! Knowing that I'm not to touch anything but my bible and material that will help my understand my bible, Matt and I went to Mardels to bible shop. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of bibles; there was no NEED for one. But Matt is ecstatic about his new journaling bible and how it's changing his life. I wanted a part in that too. So I picked up a new TNIV wide margin bible, ready to dig deep.

And thus, we have arrived at my discoveries in the word this morning. Since it is a new bible, I wanted to start off in Jeremiah 29 because my life verse is Jeremiah 29:11. As I'm reading the letter to the exiles, I get to verse 11 and smile.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (TNIV)

Isn't that encouraging?! He has PLANS for us; we are here on Earth for a PURPOSE. He wants to grow us and give us HOPE. I have a BRIGHT FUTURE ahead of me because God has determined it.

However, somehow I always manage to forget how impacting the two follow verses are:

"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (TNIV)

Ya'll, if you CALL on Him, He's LISTENING. He is always listening! Our powerful, almighty, HUGE God is RIGHT there. If you SEEK Him with all your heart, He's RIGHT THERE! How WONDERFUL is it to be reminded that the God we serve is not some distant God that doesn't have time or love or energy for us?! He's holding your hand through the struggles and celebrating with you in your joys.

Proverbs 3:5&6 states: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight."

Today, I am going to strive to remember to TRUST in Him, to LEAN on Him and not myself. Today I want to seek Him with my heart and submit to Him with my thoughts and actions so that I can take joy in the wonderful plans He has for me.

This is what the ETC Revolution is all about: knowing the word of God so that it might change your thoughts, thoughts to actions and actions to lives. Interested in becoming part of the movement? Email me at kaitywilson.etcrevolution@yahoo.com .

LOVE,

Kaity

ACTION.

This morning 1 Peter 1:13 immediately caught my attention. It says:

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you wen Jesus Christ is revealed."

One word in particular sticks out: ACTION.

DO SOMETHING. TAKE a STAND! GO out and BE PROACTIVE!

Prepare yourselves to take action because that is what you've been called to do! How do you prepare? Take disciplined, purposed steps in reverent fear while constantly having pure joy and hope because of the grace and LOVE of Jesus Christ.

DON'T BE IDLE ON THE SIDELINES.

So I challenge you with what I've challenged myself today, don't be lazy. Today I am going to make the EFFORT to love all those around me, to search for Jesus in everything, to have hope and joy so that others may see Christ shining through me. Today I am preparing myself for the revolution of a lifetime. TAKE ACTION.

And so it begins.

If there's one thing I've learned post Super Summer, it's that I'm ready to be an unstoppable, unshakable GODLY force. As I pondered how to be that while listening to Matt excitedly explain to me an idea God gave him, I realize quickly that the two coincide. I want to be ready to explain the hope that I have, just as 1 Peter 3:15 states we should do! I want to be able to explain with the TRUTH, God's truth. The ETC Revolution (Every Thought Captive) is a network of people joining together and committing to memorizing scripture. Email me at: kaitywilson.etcrevolution@yahoo.com for more exciting details!

Love,
Kaity