Isaiah 54:10

"'Though the mountains be shaken 
and the hills be removed, 
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken 
nor my covenant of peace be removed,' 
says the Lord, who has compassion on you."  

Isaiah 54:10 

"By Your spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected king
Is resurrecting me
In your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected king
Is resurrecting me" 

(Parts of the song Resurrecting by Elevation Worship)

Tonight, there are some heavy things on my heart as I watch the news and my Twitter feed explode with posts about hate being spread across the nation. I am saddened by the state of our country, and the hearts of some of those who are inside it. When Isaiah was writing the book of Isaiah, there was a similar situation occurring in Judah where Assyrians were becoming a dangerous hazard for the people of Judah. The book of Isaiah is a testimony of God's work and his majesty in the midst of the terror, and a reminder that God will provide during the hardest of times. 

I love chapter 54 verse 10 because it compares our struggles of this world to MOUNTAINS. If a mountain was shaking, I would be pretty terrified. I recently climbed a mountain this week, and being at the top was scary enough. God says that even THOUGH the mountains are shaking  and the hills are being removed, his UNFAILING LOVE will not be shaken like the mountains. Picture everything around you shaking, including the tall tall tall mountains and everything around you, and then imagine a larger (even bigger than the mountains) cross standing firm in the ground. That's like God's love. It's unfailing and unmoving. The second part talks about his covenant of peace. Y'all know what a covenant is? There have been many covenants in the Bible for us to reflect on, if the word is struggling to make sense. 

The first example is in Genesis 9:11 where the Lord says to Noah, "I establish my COVENANT with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." 

The second example is when God is speaking to Abraham (who had many sons) and says, in Genesis 17:19 "...Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my COVENANT with him as an everlasting COVENANT for his descendants after him" 

A third example comes from Exodus 24:8 right after Moses has received the Ten Commandments and says to the people,  "This is the blood of the COVENANT that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." 

So... the Lord has been making covenants with many important people in the Bible, so what's he doing making them with us? It explains in the last line of Isaiah 54:10 that the Lord has compassion on us! How cool is that? I've determined the word "covenant" to mean "promise", and we're promised this peace that cannot be removed. Our God is SO COOL. 

Isaiah 54:10 teaches us that even though bad things happen, that God has got our back because he will never stop loving us and he will promise us peace during our struggles. 

That is why I have attached some song lyrics to go along with this amazing news! Because of his overwhelming peace and love, He is our resurrected Savior. So what else can we do other than declare victory for the One who gives us victory over the cross? Also, I may or may not have had to jump through some creative hoops to make those two passages that I love work together, but it's all good because our God is so so so good! You know the song Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin? Well if you don't, here's the link (Click Here). That song would also work really well with this post, because God is so good, even when the mountains are shaking. 

Until next time,

which probably won't be too long,

Emma Jane

Fish Camp

Alright, so for those of you who didn't know... I'll be attending the greatest University in the world next year called Texas A&M University :) So, that's gonna be an adventure that I'll make sure to write all about. However, before an Aggie becomes a freshman officially, an Aggie must go to Fish Camp.

Because my entire family basically graduated from Austin, I didn't know anything about being an Aggie. I didn't grow up listening to the War Hymn or knowing anything about Yell Leaders, and I especially didn't know how amazing the Aggie family truly is.

You could say that I was going into fish camp completely blind, and that's alright. For some reason I thought the entire time we would learn to dance like country people and be forced to bond. I was forced into doing the latter. I say "forced" in a light manner though, because it was more of an opportunity than an obligation, you get me? When we all arrived  originally, we were seated in the gym and I met a few girls who were pretty cool. In the gym was also an opportunity to see some of the counselors. Then we were moved on the bus to be taken to fish camp and we immediately started to "speed date". This is where the people on the aisles would sit and chat with you for 2 minutes and then switch. I'm not sure how many people I talked to, but it was quite a lot. After a while I started to feel as if I was on a loop saying "Hi my name is Emma and I'm a Middle Grades Education major. What about you?" and then continuing from there. Also, being from a town that hardly anyone knows about is so difficult. People ask where you're from and then it turns into a long explanation. However, as broken record sounding as it was, I had a lot of fun getting over the fact that I'm awkward and meeting new people was also tons of fun.

Anyways, after arriving at the camp, we had to search for our luggage. You know that scene in Parent Trap where Lindsay Lohan has to dig for her luggage at Camp Walden? Well, that's what I felt like. Getting to our cabins was also stressful because I wasn't quite sure which specific cabin was mine. I walked passed it and had to go back to find it.

One of my major weaknesses is the fact that learning names is extremely difficult for me. I had just come off of a bus from talking to tons of people, and then I was placed in a cabin with a bunch of new ones. We all got along all week, but to be honest I never learned everyone's names. I had like half of them down.

After getting settled, I'm pretty sure we all went to sit in a session or something and learn more about A&M. We had a lot of those, but they were informative and helpful. However, I felt bad because I had so much trouble paying attention when the sessions were in the mornings. My eyelids were way too heavy to have a focused attention span.

I wish I had started with the best part first, but I've heard it's better to save the best for last. One of the best parts of fish camp was my DG group, Fully Clothed and Unafraid International. Cool name, right? Right. In these groups, there were about 12 of us and we had 2 "parents". The "parents" were two college students that were our mentors (mom & dad). We met with these groups a ton and got to talk about stuff and ask questions about what the upcoming year might look like. We also all got to know one another pretty well and attempt* to eat meals together. The DG group is full of people that I couldn't be more thankful for. Because of these people and our "parents", my nerves about coming to A&M were easily thrown away. I feel as though I have a solid group of people to hang out with when I finally move into Aggieland. Plus, they make me laugh.

Thank you Fish Camp for reassuring me that I'm able to make friends despite being afraid to talk to people. Thank you for giving me some solid new friends for the future. Most of all, thank you for showing me the Aggie network and the true meaning of what it is to be an Aggie in the Aggie family. I couldn't be more thankful.

Emma Jane

P.S. Stay tuned to hear about my college adventures!! It should be a rollercoaster :)

*attempt: where's Patrick???