NEXT thought of the day.

"Grace is not a thing, there is only Jesus himself that was crucified that he might give us more of himself."
-Sinclair Ferguson

Prodigal

They sang this song at the NEXT Conference.
Gone are vague lyrics about God being good; this worship song is a beautiful portrait of our hearts toward God, and how He pursues and loves us.
Amazing.

NEXT, Here We Come

A few months ago after having breakfast with some friends I had a heart-sinking revelation: I've spent most of my life trying to honor the Lord and please Him based on how I viewed Him only to realize I didn't really know much about Him. I'd grown up in church just assuming what I was taught from people was true.

But what if it wasn't?

Literally a few days later I received a flier from a friend saying,

"We all base our lives on what we believe God is like, but is what we believe actually true?"

Wow. I was intrigued as I opened the flier and read more about the NEXT Conference. (Was the play on words intended? I have no idea... haha) It's a conference that will allow young believers like me to explore essential doctrines of the Christian faith, consider who God really is, what He accomplished through Jesus, and how the Bible should guide us in our lives.

So tomorrow we leave for NEXT. I can't wait to post about what God teaches me and how He speaks to my soul on the trip. My hope is that He would stir my affections for Him in a violent way, so I might seek Him in His Word in a passionate way. I'm looking forward to just enjoying the fellowship of other believers (those I'm going with and those I meet along the way) and growing from our conversations like I did while at Passion 2010. I'm excited for the ROAD TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP! Did I mention it was in Baltimore, Maryland?

According to Google Maps, the trip is going to take 1 full day. Hahahahaha I'm laughing at our insanity... I mean, look at this map! That's a lot of driving, I've never gone this far north on the globe before. We're only young for a short time, so why not drive it, right?

We all went grocery shopping today for the drive and were like little kids in a candy shop when we saw the "make your own trail mix" aisle at HEB. (I'm getting an early start on documenting!) Oh how I'm looking forward to this trip!

Jeremy, Cale, Rachel, and Eric

It's been one of those days...

...where you just have to sing the gospel to yourself.

Feels like I've been singing this song to myself all morning.

Especially the part that says:

We are pressed but not crushed

Perplexed but don't despair

We are persecuted but never abandoned

We are no longer slaves

We are daughters and sons

And when we are week we are very strong.

And neither death

nor life

nor present

nor future

nor depth

nor height

can keep us from the love of Christ

And the Word I need is the Word that was

Who put on flesh to dwell with us

In the beginning...

And the Word was,

And the Word is,

And the Word will be.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Foxtrot Fun

I don't usually watch Prime Time television.
But I was hanging out with my friend Anna and we started watching Dancing with the Stars.
Everyone raved about Nicole and Derek's paso doble, but this one was my favorite. Like one of the judges said, it was "one and half minutes of pure dancing joy!" Hope it makes you happy today :)

Sister

Jillian Reed.

Isn't she lovely?

From Unveiled to the Jean Pool

I used to hate my middle name.
Jean.
I was jealous of all my friends that had the middle name Elizabeth.
I also used to hate Toby Mac.
And onions.
And wearing glasses.

Clearly things change and usually we acquire tastes for things we used to find disgusting.
I now love my middle name.
I share it with my precious grandmother.

I also used to call ice cream, hice cream
Back packs, pack packs
Vanilla, banilla
and cantaloupe, hand lotion. (no joke.)


So what is the point of this post?
I'm changing the title of this blog and calling it (more accurately) what it actually is.

The Jean Pool. (Gotta love puns)

Unveiled was me trying to overspiritualize my blog; you know, slap a bible verse theme on it and call it a day. It would be one thing if I always talked about the Gospel on here, but I don't. Sometimes I talk about my faith, but it is so much more than that.
This blog is really a collection, a pool if you will, of thoughts, pictures, videos, etc... that are either created by me or others who inspire me.

So here's to change and calling things what they are.