Part #2 Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!

Hello,
Happy end to the weekend. Or sadly the end to the weekend ;) however you want to look at it lol
This past Friday night and Saturday I was at Women of Faith conference.

One of the speakers this weekend actually talked about the passage my 2 part post is about! Mark 4:35-41
So reminder, we are in a boat, being close to Jesus. While we are in this boat a big storm comes, we are filled with fear and see Jesus calmly sleeping. We wake him up in a panic and he calms the storm, the sea, the wind, the crazy, listens to our teacher Jesus. Then, we are even more afraid, taken aback, "Who is this man?"

By being in this close boat with him we see our teacher in a whole new way, we saw that even the winds and waves obey him.
Last post we learned that the closer we follow the more clearly we see HIM! If we are close enough to him we will see him for more and more, in this example, not just a teacher but a savior! A savior that saves us from storms, that has control over nature!

So tonight I want to talk about point two from church last week, Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!


Do you think that the decipels trusted Jesus more after the storm than before?
Do you think they followed him with a new mind set and heart set?
Do you think they longed for him more now then before?

They saw a bigger picture of who Jesus was in such a dark time.  God used that storm to grow their vision which then grew their trust!
Have I ever been in a "storm" and I allowed Jesus to be the one in charge of it? Constantly going to him with it, saying "Jesus do you see I am in a storm?" During that storm was I in the boat with Jesus, close enought to see Jesus clearly work and move? Or was I on the shore wondering what was going on?
Once the storm stopped did my vision of the Lord grow?

What is my life like now that I have been in the boat with the Lord during a storm, not just a sunny fishing day?

Do you have an example of when: because your vision of who Jesus is, grew, your Trust in Jesus grew?



Much love,

Erika

1. Jesus reveals himself most clearly to those who follow most closely!

Hello All,

Like I said in the last post I am going to go over somethings that my pastor said on this past Sunday and also write through my thoughts on it too.

Jesus reveals himself most clearly to those who follow most closely!
In Mark 4:35-41 Jesus was in the midst of a storm with the disciples.  He was calm and resting. The disciples were thinking we are going to die, this is the worst storm, we are in the middle of it, and Jesus is doing nothing about it. THEN they saw a miracle, they saw that this man, Jesus, could even control creation!

"Teacher don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quite! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

They saw a great move of God, a clearer picture of this teacher, of this prophet they have been learning from, they saw more of JESUS, and saw him clearly, vs. 41 "They were terrified and asked each other, "who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

At one moment they are getting in the boat with their friend and teacher Jesus, like any other normal time. He had finished speaking to a big crowd and they went with Jesus. The next moment they see Jesus like never before, they learn that even the wind and waves obey him.

Now, the crowed was left behind.  They may have seen that there was a storm out on the water, they my have noticed that it abruptly stopped, but they were not "in the boat" knowing that it was the power of Gods son Jesus doing this work!

There are a million on there things that I could type out in thoughts to this. But what a reminder to us that even if storms come, even when hard times are all around, when we are "in the boat" with Jesus we are with the best storm chaser, the one who is in charge of all things. And the closer we are to our Lord the more clearly we see him. We can TRUST our Lord. Amen!

much love,
Erika


part #2 coming soon: Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!

Here I Am

Hello readers,

This weekend FLEW by! I am currently listening to Elizabeth Hunnicutt, song playing right now is 'Here I Am' so of course the title of this blog :)
http://www.elizabethhunnicutt.com/mediaplayer/index.html 
Here is the media player on her cute web site :) take a listen to #5 and you will be on the same page and "song" as me. lol

This weekend my husband Dan had a lot of fire watch. While they do get weekends "off" This means time that he needs to take watch over things, walk around and watch the base, so no phone. We got little conversations in here and there but not lots of time in our weekends that matched up for a good long talk.  This is a very important week coming up. This Friday he finds out his infantry MOS, this means his specific job in the Marines. If you think of it please lift this up with us and for us. Both Dan and I are thankful that this choice, while not up to us, it is up to our Father who wants good for His children! Being part of the military really makes me chose to trust the Lord! There are so many little things that we have no control over, but we can and DO trust the Lord with those things. It is a choice you have to make for each little thing. What are the little things you need to chose to trust the Lord with each day (sometimes many times a day)?

OK so after that little update I want to give you a sneak peek at the next 2 things I want to write through on this blog this week. Today at church our pastor brought up 2 big points that really hit home for me:

READY...
SET...
GO...

#1 Jesus reveals himself most clearly to those who follow most closely!

#2 Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!

I need some good writing on these 2 things to help me process what they really mean, and what actions I need to take to be living them out. So visit back this week and lets talk through them together.

much love,
Erika hallbeck <3  

look at this beautiful (inside and out) wedding party! what a blessing to Dan and I :)

A day with the Hubby

This past weekend I got to go see my wonderful husband in Oceanside CA! What a great time we had. Our wedding was 7 weeks ago! Seeing each other was a great 7 week present I guess. :)  The pictures below is our day together that we fully enjoyed each minute of. We did walks at the beach, target trip (felt like a normal married couple) Dan's laundry, subway for lunch, went and saw the great movie Courageous! (see it if you haven't) Then sunset walk on the beach! then some pizza :) we filled our day with fun fun, even normal things are a BLAST with my man. We sure were blessed by our great Lord this weekend.

 We hung out with this pelican for a while

 kids tried to feed it marshmallows

 Sunshine, ocean breeze, cooler weather than back in MN

 Dan by our bird friend

 Laundry time! Smelly yucky cloths from Dans hard week, ready to be Clean!

take pens out of your pockets, get lots of change, pour in the soap, and wait :)  

 Waiting for laundry on a bench in a random parking lot, enjoying our fun day :)

 <3 

the sunset was so peaceful

Thank you Jesus for such a blessing! Thank you that you show your children favor. Father, you are a giver of GOOD gifts :) Dan and I are very thankful!

Much love everyone,

Mrs. Erika Hallbeck :)

Welcome to the Weekend

Helllooo blog readers! So I have felt a challenge in deciding what to write about on my blog, so each time I have come to write I have left posting nothing haha.  But God is showing and teaching me big things. You know how sometimes it is hard to put what you are learning in words until you finally sit down and put it into words! Funny how that goes.  Last night at our last The Truth Project bible study we sat around and just chatted and let our thoughts out. It was needed. To speak out what you havent put to words. To remind yourself what you really belive. What you are really living for.  Quality conversations are so important!

Then I got to hear from Dan last night, late after he got liberty from his week in training. So besides the fact that it is LATE at night and we both had big weeks we know that we need to have that quality for a little while before bed.  I am so THANKFUL for my husband and how he does quality conversations. If you read this babe, thank you so much! When I say quality I mean getting down to the heart of matters, getting to truth, loving and caring, listening and making God the center, even if he is not the "topic" of the talk.

After a week with not talking or writing or anything Dan and I are gifted freedom to call and talk on the weekends, with this gift we need to be good "stewards" of our talks.  I guess this little post is a reminder to myself of that exact thing.

Have a wonderful Saturday friends,
erika hallbeck <3