Month: November 2011

" Who is Jesus? "

Published on by Sarah E. CooleyLeave a comment

Tonight at youth group, Brandon started off the night doing a very interesting activity. He passed around a stack of papers that said on the top, “Who is Jesus?” with the rest of the page blank. He gave us all the opportunity to write on the page everything we knew about Jesus. The only kicker is that we couldn’t use our Bibles.

This activity proved to be a very awesome and eye-opening opportunity for me.

I have grown up going to church literally before I was even born. After I was born, my mom worked in a church office and would put me in my car seat, and I would sit on her desk while she worked. Church was a common thing. When I got to be old enough to go to school, my parents made the huge sacrifice of putting me through private, christian school my whole life. Christianity was and is something I understand. Knowing who Jesus is/was is not a hard thing for me. I was able to write out the list pretty easily. But, putting thought into the truth of who he was and what that meant for my heart proved to be difficult. While the answers come easy, sometimes believing what he does and making that a reality in my life is hard.

On that list, I included things such as:

  • Jesus is God
  • Jesus defeated death and sin on the cross through the resurrection.
  • Jesus broke down the wall of hostility so that now Jews, gentiles, male, female, etc. can be saved and redeemed and have salvation. 
  • Jesus was the Lamb of God whose blood was shed so that we can have life. 
  • Jesus brings the person who was dead in their sin to life, able now to be counted as righteousness and able to now sit with him as heirs to the kingdom at his right hand on high.  (Ephesians 2)
  • Jesus is so faithful and perfect
  • Jesus did miracles and has all the power of the Father because he is 100% God. He willingly chose to humble himself as a human so that he could be an acceptable sacrifice for our sin. 

As I sat there thinking through all of those things, I looked at that list and realized what a HUGE gift I have in Jesus. Not only did he do those things to save humanity from their eternal destination because of all the sins they have committed, but he died and rose again and defeated death and sin so that I could defeat the sin in my life now. He did those things so that I could live a life of freedom. He did those things so that I could share the wonderful love and grace that he lavished on me with other people. He did those things so that I could help others defeat that sin and the power it has over them. He did those things so that I could become one with Him and love Him with everything I have.

“Who Jesus is” is not a light thing. He is God. He is omnipotent…ALL-POWERFUL!

If I am a believer in Him and say that I am living my life modeled after Him, I need to start believing and living out the truth of the list that I had written on that sheet of paper. Those truths better become evident in my life because if His grace has been lavished upon me, the least I could do would be to live those things out for His glory.



To Be Continued… =)

My Grown-Up Christmas List.

Published on by Sarah E. CooleyLeave a comment
As I was sitting at my desk checking things off my TODO list Saturday afternoon, the song “My Grown-up Christmas List” came on. I was thinking through some of the different things the singer [who happened to be Michael Bublé ;)] was saying…
“Not for myself, but for a world in need:

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
That right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas list

This is my grown-up Christmas list”
This is such an interesting song with powerful lyrics for someone to sing who does not have a belief in Christ to be singing. Not that people outside of knowing Christ can’t desire good for people, but they have no real reason to or push convincing them that it is right.
When encountering people outside of believing in Christ, especially in the US, people usually are pushed to think about what they can do to benefit themselves. They are trying to fulfill/answer these questions: “What kind of job can I get to get the most money…and who can I walk on/climb over to get there?” Instead of thinking how I can benefit that person as Christ tells us to do, they ask, “What can that person do for me so that I can move up on the ladder?” “What kind of things will I be willing to do/sacrifice (marriage, family, friends, things of great importance, etc) to get to the top?”
I think one of the main things I see in our current culture is how marriages are no longer able to sustain the lifetime of the couple. They end short after they begin. These marriages do not even begin until the pair is over the age of 25. If you asked anyone in our culture why this is, I don’t believe they could give you a solid, concise answer. Instead, they might just say, “that is what you are supposed to do.” “That is the norm.” “It’s what everyone else is doing.” You have to love a person and be intimate with them before you can know if they are marriage material.” Etc. Etc. Etc.
I could name reason after reason why this is. Though, I would relate it back current day culture’s push. They are pushing for career. They are pushing for happiness. They are pushing for all these other things that aren’t guaranteed in this lifetime.
Followers of Christ are not promised happiness, but joy through painful circumstances. Followers of Christ are not promised a career, but a lifetime service to Christ.
They are not promised a perfect, happy marriage, but one that will sanctify them and glorify the Lord if they are obedient to Christ and keep their covenant with Him. 
They are not promised anything in this world, and anything they do have is a gift from above. (“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17)

Going back to the song, followers of Christ are told to love everyone and not to hate anyone. They are called to be selfless. They are called to be gracious to everyone. They are told to do all of these things and to love Christ first of all before anything else. That list screams what Jesus preached (some more than others). As believers we need to be fighting for love to always win. We need to be that friend for a person who has no friend. We need to bring Christ and the good news of the Gospel to people so that they can have hearts healed by the perfect Physician. We need to be doing these things so that Christ may be glorified. It is so important.

So as the Christmas season is approaching, it is “My Grown-Up Christmas…” PRAYER that I would begin to implement these things better than I have in the past 21 years of my life. 
Lord, give me grace to be able to do this.



To Be Continued… =)

Here’s a Map and Here’s a Bible if You Ever Lose Your Way…

Published on by Sarah E. CooleyLeave a comment
This song  hits WAY too close to home for me. 
It is so weird how close I am to graduation. 
It is crazy to me that I am pursuing being on my own with no support from anyone (and out of state at that). 
Have I gone crazy?!
I think so.
Some days nothing could stop me from being “on my own” and “grown up” and other days I wanna go curl up in a ball in the corner and have my mommy come find me and comfort me.
It’s a curl up in a ball in the corner kind of night. 
Watch this video:
Life is crazy how just a year ago my plans were completely different. Literally, my life has taken a 180 degree turn. And now I am no longer doing grad school. I am single. I have my own car that I paid for on my own. I am an RA to freshman woman not in apartments. I have only 9 units left to graduate. I am wanting to pursue something that has no for sure, final destination at the end of the road. It almost feels as if I am getting in my car, packing up all my stuff, turning out of my drive way, and going until I reach some destination that feels “right”, but what is right?! AHHH. So not a comforting or safe feeling.
I have to remind myself that life doesn’t work that way. And life with Christ MOST DEFINITELY doesn’t work that way. The Lord has an extremely safe plan for me, but that word safe has a totally different definition in His vocabulary. His definition for safe includes me completely wrapped up in His grace where nothing on this world can harm me because my eternal destination is eternity with Him. My definition for safe has me staying at my parents home until I’m old and wrinkly. Ay yi yi.
Anyways, enough of my ranting. 
I do truly and completely trust the Lord and His perfect plan for my life. The process to getting to what lies ahead in 6 months is a little scary, but I know he has it all completely under control! One of the perfect lines in that song is “here’s a map and here’s a Bible if you ever lose your way…” That hits the nail on the head…
Lord, you are good.

To Be Continued… =)

Film festivals – Oak Glen and apple cider – cars and adulthood

Published on by Sarah E. CooleyLeave a comment

I feel like I get so much less time these days to write out and record my weeks and days. I only really get to do that on seldom occasions. I am also procrastinating on writing a paper, so this is what I do to avoid it! 😉

So Friday, went to the Smith Hall Fall Film Festival. It was great! The boys did a great job and it was enjoyable. We got to dress up and eat popcorn and watch really funny short films.

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Saturday I woke up and spent the day in Oak Glen with my residents. It was honestly such a great time and so refreshing. We got apple cider, took pictures, ate yummy food, and just enjoyed each other’s presence. Here are some, well a lot of, pictures:

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Then, Sunday I went to church which was so good. I love my church family and am always so blessed by them. One of the handful of things that scare me about leaving Riverside in the future is that I will not be with my church family and my actual, blood family. Anyways, after church, I went home and spent time with my family. My brother Marty and his wife Sandie came over to drop of my new car and then eat dinner with the family. It was so nice to have all of us together. I can’t help but think that after May I might be somewhere other than in Riverside and times like these may not happen as often. It was a sweet time.

Here’s a picture of me and my new car:

 Out of all the things that have made me “feel” like an adult, a new car has definitely given me that feeling. Being able to go where I want and go when I want to go has been freeing and definitely has make me feel 10 years older and more responsible. I can’t explain it, but it was almost like a rite of passage for me. I am thankful for it.

Hopefully I will get to blog again soon…sooner rather than later. ❤

To Be Continued… =)
On a side note: It is November and that blows me away. In just 6 months I will be a college graduate (specifically 185 days…WHOA!). Where did the time go!? Just a couple years ago I was a timid, scared freshman unsure of everything that was put in front of me and now I am getting ready to take on the world.