My Life Verse

Alexis is here :)

Ephesians 6: 11-17:
¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For our struggle is not against ^[e]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist inthe evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the helmet of salvation, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ^16 [f]in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.


This past year I've had many opportunities where I have need to put on this armor. This armor will help us in every aspect of our lives consuming us in peace and joy. I want to break each piece of the armor down in the way that I see it so people can see why I use it as my life verse.

~Belt of Truth: That thing that keeps your pants up? Really? To explain Truth? Yet don't think of it in a physical sense, think of it in a sence of a invisible clothing that goes over your day-to-day clothing. Truth is what I feel everyone needs. When you continually lie to someone their understanding of what kind of person you are slowly fades. They don't see you as someone who walks in the light and in truth because they simply don't believe you can. I picture the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" story popping into mind right here.

~Breastplate of Righteousness: The breastplate was the piece of armor that covered your chest. The part that guarded your heart. I know my heart can be just as confused as my mind can be sometimes. Righteousness should be the thing guarding our hearts and luckily it is. We are called to be righteous people. Righteousness is defined as: "characterized by, proceeding from, or in accordance with accepted standards of morality, justice, or uprightness".

~Shoes of Readiness: I'm a runner. So this part of the Armor stands out the most to me. I picture myself right before my race is about to run. My feet are in the blocks, my mind is on the path before me, and all I'm waiting for is that gunshot to sound. That thing to make me jump and focus on running my race to the best of my ability. I feel those jitters. Most girls see it when they see a guy they like... Oh no. I have those butterflies right before the gun fires. Picture that with your day each day. Those butterflies to do God's will. Ready to run to the best of your ability and all He has to do is say the word. He opens that door to expanding His kingdom unexpectedly sometimes and this is one of those cases when you have to "Expect the Unexpected."

~Shield of Faith: Our main defence. A shield. Our beliefs and faith are what protect us from the "fiery arrows". What else do we have to defend what we believe? We have that question thrown into our face a lot, don't we? "Why do you believe in something you can't even see or touch? How can you be wasting your life trying to be perfect when you already know you aren't?" Yeah. I hate those questions too. Though this is where our shield comes in. "My faith." Is the simplest answer to keep them studdering. Your faith. The confidence in knowing that God is there even though there is nothing your eyes can see.

~Helmet of Salvation: I know with this piece of Armor I instantly feel comfort in the fact that I know I am going to Heaven someday because of Christ's sacrifice to allow me to be there. The knowing of my Salvation is the most calming thing to believe. Salvation must be known and represented through our actions everyday. Show people why we are different. I remember God gave me a clearing of mind one day. I keep telling people that I don't want to be an average person. Have I ever said I don't want to be an average Christian? I want to be different from everyone else and I want it to show so much that when someone tries to find out who I am all they can see is Christ.

~Sword of the Spirit: Oh, the most brilliant and valiant of all the pieces. I see this piece of Armor instantly as an attack. As a way that I can show people that they are living in sin. It's my powerful piece. My strong piece, but have you ever thought of it as a defence? Swords weren't just used to slice people in half they were also used to defend the soilder. The Spirit does the same for us. He protects us and gives us the choice of right and wrong. We just have to follow His voice because that is the biggest part of God in our bodies. I think that is worth protecting. 

My Life Verse

Hannah here :)

Okay, so, since this is a new blog and you all don't know much about me yet, I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about my life verse for this first post.

My life verse is Isaiah 43:1-2: "But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walked through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you."

God showed me this verse during a time in my life when I was alone with Him. I didn't have a whole lot of friends, but I was focused on walking with God more than my brothers and sisters in Christ. He had me in a sort of tunnel-vision, and for those few months I was fully and completely dedicated to Him in what may be called my newborn faith. It was the beginning of my personal walk with God, when I was so on fire for Him that nothing else mattered. Often, it fades, unfortunately, but for me back then, this verse only affirmed what God had already shown me in my life- that I was His and no one else's.

As I grew up, I made more friendships in school, and became busier with homework and running. My quiet times have been few and far between lately, but that's not the point. The point is that, the things I do or don't do- whatever distractions cause me to sin by putting Christ on the back burner instead of allowing Him to sit on the throne of my life and be my Lord, as I promised when I accepted Him- don't change the fact that He loves me and that I am His. My performance doesn't determine His level of faithfulness; God is constant, even when we are inconsistent, when we commit adultery against him with the things of this world, and when we put him in second place, instead of purposing in our hearts to serve Him no matter what. God does not change; he is the rock in our lives, where everything else is "like shifting shadows." And it's this truth, along with His word that says He will NEVER break his promises, that enables us to trust Him with everything.

Once we become part of God's kingdom, we belong to Him. We receive His Spirit, Who gives us strength and wisdom, and allows us to understand the things of God. He gives his unbreakable word that whatever we face in life, He will give us the ability to get through. Trials by the fire, battles with the enemy may come, but he cannot destroy us; neither will we be drowned by the waters of this life- stress, circumstances, tragedies, hard times, that can take our focus off of God. His love isn't dependent on our feelings or how often we acknowledge His presence and work in our lives. No, He loves us all equally- the lifelong believer who accomplishes great things for Him, and the born again man on his deathbed who accepted Christ moments before his death. In fact, he loves those who will never accept Him, though He knew before time began that they would turn away from Him...He offers everyone the same promise: that if we accept His love, He will give us a NEW identity- we aren't defined by the world, because they don't have that authority. He defines us, because He CREATED us, and nothing can separate us from our Maker or take us out of his hand.

I discovered during that time in my life that when everyone else in life will eventually fail you, God will never leave. He will never leave you wanting, or provide love that has shortcomings. Instead, he gives us life, reminds us who we are and the sacrifice He made, the sin He carried, so that the new promise between Him and His people will never be broken. These verses are uplifting to read whenever I'm faced with struggles, hard runs, even situations with fellow believers, because they reassure me of who I REALLY am- the bride of Christ- which I discovered when God took me to a place where I was away from the crowd and alone with Him. Everyone needs those moments, when you realize that everything else pales in comparison to the importance of being in communion with Him, serving Him, and worshipping God with your life.

And what's incomprehensible about Him is that He is the husband who is perfectly faithful; He'll never, ever leave your side. Through everything, He will be right next to you as you carry your cross for Him, encouraging you, strengthening you, coaching you...

Loving you. Perfectly.

How We Escaped from a Well with only a goat and a slinky.

In relation to our profile question, this is how we answered :)

So here's how it all went down...

Okay, so, ya see, I'mma (Hannah) call my husband, Jesus, on his cell phone. He's never too busy for me... so He'll be like, "What's up, sweetheart?" And I'll be like, "Well, honey, me and mah bestie Alexis are trapped in this here well with a goat and a slinky." Then Alexis goes "Well looky here, You can kinda see that we are having some troubles. Could you help us out? It'd be like legit."
 Jesus starts to laugh and replies "I already knew you were trapped in a well. And that goat is actually a llama."
Then Hannah screamed, "OH MY GOSH, EMPEROR KUSCO!" The llama and her started doing an epic battle with lightsabers, while Alexis continued to talk to the Lord on the phone. Alexis was chattin it up good on the phone with Jesus and started to say "So Lord, the man you created to create this slinky was probably an absolute brilliant idea." She started to play with it in her hands when finally Hannah walked over without a big toe. "Ooo looks painful."
Hannah smiled. "Eh, I'll be aight."
"Ummm, if you two aren't too busy," came Jesus' voice from the other end of the line. "I kinda have a blog for you to write... sooooo I don't know about you, but I'm thinking we should get you outta that well..."
*dead llama (a.k.a CUSCO!) twitches on the ground...*
"...Sounds like a pretty good deal," Hannah said slowly.
"So are we gonna do something with this slinky?" Alexis asked.
"No. Something way more parkore." Jesus replied. A loud snap came from the other end of the line and the two of them appeared at the top of the well. Alexis cried out "I left the slinky down in the well with that dead llama!!! It must be so frightened."
"GET OVER THE SLINKY, ALEXIS!" Jesus shouted.
"...Sorry."
"By the way, that's how ya do PARKORE JESUS style!" Hannah shouted to the universe.

...and that's how we escaped from the well. And our blog was born...