JESUS.
MUSIC.
FASHION.
ANGELIC A P R I L
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ANGELICAPRIL 2첫16 JESUS. MUSIC. FASHION.
CONTENT 20 30 31 34 44 45 47 53 64 65 66 80
MUSIC: IRENE-VICTORIA MOSIER JESUS: SKIPPING OVER ANGER JESUS: CHOOSING TO LOVER HER EVERY DAY FASHION: HEATHER BURRIS PHOTO-SHOOT JESUS: NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT JESUS JESUS: FULLY KNOWN JESUS: LEGALLY INTEGRATED. EMOTIONALLY SEGREGRATED. FASHION: COVER PHOTO-SHOOT JESUS: HEALTHY GOALS JESUS: GOD PICKS THE UNLIKELIEST OF PEOPLE FASHION: THE DESERT PHOTO-SHOOT FASHION: BRIANNA FAITH
OUR STORY MAGAZINE IS A MONTHLY PRINT AND DIGITAL PUBLICATION THAT BLENDS MUSIC, FASHION AND THE REAL STORIES OF PEOPLE SEEKING TO LIVE FOR JESUS. WE BEGAN IN SEPTEMBER OF 2013 FEATURING CONTENT SOLEY FROM THE SOUTHWEST OF THE UNITED STATES AND SINCE OUR BEGINNING, WE'VE SPREAD TO NOW FEATURE EDITORIAL CONTENT FROM THE PACIFIC TO THE ATLANTIC, AND BEYOND. WE HAVE READERS ABROAD COMING FROM PARTS OF EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA, ASIA AND AUSTRALIA. ANGELIC HAS A MAGAZINE NAME BUT WE ARE A MINISTRY FOCUSED ON FEARLESSLY PROCLAIMING JESUS. WE SPOTLIGHT MUSICIANS AND BANDS WHO HEARTS STRIVE TO BEAT WITH HIS. WE FEATURE FASHION PHOTO-SHOOTS WITH PHOTOGRAPHER'S, STYLISTS AND MODELS WHO DESIRE TO PROFRESS THEIR FAITH IN HIM. OUR ARTICLES ARE GUIDED BY THE BIBLE. WE HIGHLIGHT ORGANIZATIONS AND MINISTRIES WHO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. THE TESTIMONIES WRITTEN ARE FILLED WITH WORDS OF REDEMPTION AND GRACE. WE DESIRE TO STEP INTO THE WORLD AND BRING THE WORLD BACK TO JESUS. WE ARE NOT A RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE. WE STAND FOR JESUS.
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WE CAN GO AS FAR
he last 8 months of my life have been sli change is on the horizon. I feel God telling m pray bolder. Maybe you feel like packing it in and surren remind you, just surrender to Him. Dream big Where we are today isn't where we'll be 8 m want to go with God beside us. I'm not certain what God has planned for m excitement waiting to go further with God, fu Will you join me in going further with God? Will you promise to get your hopes up for t surrender a little more and all of it to Jesus? I am praying for you.
You're Invited
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Jesse Anaya
WWW.THECHURCHLEXINGTON.ORG F I N D
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LETTER AS WE WANT TO GO.
ightly different than I anticipated, but I feel a me to dream bigger. I feel God telling me to
ndering to life, but I feel God telling me to gger. Pray bolder. Believe more. months from now and we can go as far as we
me, but my spirit has a buzz within, an urther than I ever have before in my life.
the next 8 months of your life? Will you
Prayer P H O T O G R A P H Y M A K E U P M O D E L
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IRENE-VICTORIA MOSIER
ANGELICMUSIC ‐ Worship Leader - Santa Cruz, CA
I
’m a missionary and a worship leader. But up until eight years ago I hated the church and didn’t know Jesus. I gave my life to The Lord in the summer of 2008. I was 18 years old and terrified of what life had in store for me. I had an eating disorder, I was depressed and mentally very fragile; in my darkest moments I considered suicide. I felt deeply alone and didn’t have hope for my future. It was the summer before I was to start college at UCSC. My best friend (the marvelous photographer, Carly Jean) was going to an art college in Oakland and I didn’t know anyone in Santa Cruz. I was terrified to be alone. I honestly didn’t know what would happen to me; I was barely hanging on as it was. Carly and I happened upon a teen internship that summer at the International House of Prayer East Bay. IHOPEB was an open prayer room with live worship and prayer twelve hours a day. A component of the internship was sitting in the prayer room for hours. It sounded awful but I was desperate enough to try anything in order to find direction, meaning, or hope in life. The first two days of the internship were like slow internal torture. I deeply disliked these people. They were like no other Christians I had seen before. They were radical about prayer and seemed to genuinely love Jesus. They were passionate about justice and adamant about spending time in the presence of the Holy Spirit. They spoke/prayed in tongues and that intrigued me. It seemed like they really knew God, yet it offended me how they wasted their life talking to an invisible being. I was curious and resistant at the same time. Being around them and in the prayer room was agony. I didn’t know how to pray. And even if I did pray I didn’t know if God was listening. The third day of the internship I made a deal with myself; if nothing significant happened that day it would be my last of the internship. The morning started as all the
"I DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO PRAY. A ND EVEN IF I DID PRAY I DIDN’T KNOW IF GOD WAS LISTENING. " rest had; me in the prayer room, not praying. But at some point I’d just had enough. I finally prayed. I said, “God, if you really are there and if you really do love me as much as these people say that you do, I want to know it and feel you for myself. I want to speak in tongues and talk to you directly from my spirit. This is it, if you don’t answer me I’m going to walk away and I’m not going to come back.” For the first time in my life I felt the manifest presence of God. I was overwhelmed with His love and His kindness. I felt the weight of my darkness lift off of me. I could feel His words washing over me: I love you and I have never left you. And I spoke in tongues. He filled me with His Holy Spirit right there in that church pew, and no one laid a hand on me to pray for me. It was everything that I needed, right when I needed it. That was the turning point in my life and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been a painful journey since then, but He has pulled me from the despair and crippling fear that I had been living in. Today I’m on staff in the same prayer room I was saved in, now called East Bay Prayer Furnace. Never having played music or sung before, I’m now a worship leader in the prayer room and for our weekend services. I even helped start our Music Academy. Thanks to Him I’ve had the honor to go to China, DPRK (North Korea) and Israel to worship, pray and love orphans. This summer I’m spending two months abroad in Ireland, Russia, and Israel and will be adding a film/documentary component to the trip so I can better share what the Lord does with others. This is just a tiny piece of my story. It’s a glimpse of His faithfulness and redemption. And there is so much more to come.
Skipping Over Anger G
WITH YOUR RIGHT TO BE ANGRY ALSO COMES YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DEAL WITH IT APPROPRIATELY. B Y PAIGE FERRARI - @RAGGAMUFFINWRITER
rief is defined as sorrow or anguish or pain. Mostly looked at inside the medical community, grief usually goes hand in hand with someone passing away. But this pain of detachment can come in the form of relationships, familial, friendships, life stages, or even moving to a new city. This is a state of pain that happens, grief. This is a very psychological series of concepts, but stick with me because it will follow through. Rewind back three years. I put myself into Christian counseling to deal with a lot of things that happened in my past that was coming up into my present. I recall sitting on that couch saying things to the effect of, “I can’t be mad at my family!” and my counselor would retort, “Why not?” “Just because….uhmm….I’m not supposed to be angry,” I would reply and this conversation would recur more than once….more than twice. In my mind I ended up justifying the things people did wrong to me….the things that hurt me so deeply, because I wasn’t supposed to be mad at them. But let me say that after years of people telling you to ignore an emotion that is necessary to healing processes, it does damage. That’s what put me in counseling in the first place. Instead of the people around me helping me cope with my feelings of frustration in a healthy way, they told me not to have them. To shove them down. Fast forward to now. What does this have to do with today? Well, when some deep family pain and hurt came up again, and I sought counsel from the people around me, their response was the same. “Paige, you can’t be angry at this” and finally I had the gumption to stand up for myself and say “I have every right to be angry.” Let me pause and be clear about one thing. With your right to be angry also comes your responsibility to deal with it appropriately.
I don’t plan on staying in this anger or living an angry, “YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!” life. But to properly grieve, to properly feel pain, anger is considered to be a necessary stage of the healing process. As a culture we don’t like this conflict and tension. We want it to be sunshine and butterflies. But after years of suppressed negative feelings it took someone else to tell me that it’s okay to be angry in a healthy way. There are times throughout scripture where God’s messengers are angry over the state of sin that is taking place. When someone does wrong to you in a deep way, I think it hurts God’s heart too. He is a fiercely loving father who fights for the protection of his children, and when we get hurt by this world, I know the compassion that he has for us.
Choosing to love her. A GUY'S OPINION
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B Y JESSE ANAYA close my eyes and can feel her near. It’s dusk all around us and off in the far distance the sun is falling into the white-cap waves. She’s wearing a sweater, blue jeans and flip-flops. And she looks beautiful to me. We sit there in our car, parked just beyond the pier and watch the sun set over the Pacific, and if time could stop, I would gently tuck it away in a bottle. We ordered Mexican food to-go and the radio is quietly playing in the background. This moment might seem ordinary to some, but it’s special and extraordinary to me. If I could be anywhere in the world, I would want to be with her. If I could eat my favorite food with anyone in the world, I would want to eat it with her. If I was to take someone to my favorite spot to watch the sun set over the sea, I would want to take her. I would choose her. She tells me about her day and leans back into her seat. She feels safe with me. She trusts me. She trusts me to do life with her. She trusts me to protect her. She could be anywhere in the world, but she chooses to be there with me. She could eat with any guy in the world, but she chooses to eat with me. She could tell someone else about her day but she chooses to tell me. She chooses me. Every day is a choice to be faithful to her. Every day is a choice to appreciate her. Every day is a choice to be kind to her. To love her. To pray for her. To not take her for granted. To choose her. Someone once prayed over me and the future wife I would marry. The words that were prayed were simple but spoken from experience. “Choose to love her each day and don’t try to change her. Accept her for who she is.” To truly love is to love someone for better or worse. The sun sank into the ocean and I’m reminded of that prayer once prayed over me. I look over at her and realize how God has blessed me with her. All of her. She looks at me with a smile and asks me what I’m thinking. I tell her I love you and thank you for having dinner with me. She laughs and thinks I’m being weird but I can tell beneath her surface she felt the heart of my words. The key turns and I start the car to drive home on what might seem like an ordinary evening to some, but there’s nothing ordinary about experiencing life with the woman you love. Choose to love her every day.
He works all things together for me.
The LORD is fighting for me.
Happy By Heather Burris
HEATHER BURRIS Photographer Interview - Apex, NC
1. When did you know you were loved by Jesus?
I was raised in a Christian home and it's so easy for kids, I think, to know that they are loved by Jesus, so I would say I've always known. It's much harder as an adult to accept all the unconditional love and grace we know we don't deserve, but Jesus daily reveals His love to me, so often in the form of other people. 2. Why do you do photography?
Photography is a wonderful excuse to try new things and meet awesome people. I've always been a bit of a wallflower, and photography lends itself so well to quiet people who are constantly observing. 3. Best part of living in North Carolina?
That winter hats and mittens are more of a cute accessory than a necessity. 4. What would you like for people reading this to know about you?
That I'm just as insecure about my art as the next person. But at the end of the day, I do what I do because it brings me joy, and that's enough to keep me going. 5. If you could describe your faith to someone who's never heard of Jesus, how would you describe it?
That He makes us into the person we always hoped we could become, and gives us a freedom we never thought possible.
NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT JESUS B C T -@ I was telling God earlier how I am most afraid to be met Y LARE UCKER
CTUCKY
with resistance when sharing the gospel and my story of grace. In a room full of Jesus loving individuals my story is awe inspiring, received with love and excitement. However that same story told in a secular realm is received with a staleness that makes me confused and uncomfortable. Do I rave on about my beautiful Savior like I would back in that room full of Jesus lovers where it's comfortable and desirable? Or do I tread lighter because everyone is offended by everything these days and God forbid that happen, so to speak. Do I back off so I don't seem like the typical, religious Christian that only gives Christianity a bitter and ugly name to those who don’t subscribe to our crazy, antiquated way of life? What do I do? Didn't I promise to sing of Your love forever? Opposition doesn't scare me... I actually like confrontation and can hold my own in an argument until we respectfully agree to disagree. But when they mock my Jesus, I don't know what to do. It makes me sad. It breaks my heart. How far do I go with someone who is so lost? So, I’m telling God all of this. He answers, “And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.” Luke 12:11-12. If He is asking me to share Him with others, then He will bring an army of support around me, sprinkling people into my life through a small group, phone call, text or social media comment who encourage and support my mission of sharing this grace story. And just as well, He will close doors on relationships that do not accomplish this for me. He removes people from my life that don’t belong and was it my job to bring them to Him? If they were ready for that and it was what He wanted in the time we were in each other’s lives, believe me full
well it would’ve happened. That’s not something to put on myself, so I move on and thank Him for His merciful provision. I am safe when sharing His name, because those who aren’t ready to hear it will let me know that and there’s nothing lost… I have done my job. I’m only a messenger. I’m not designed to be anything more, and I barely deserve this much considering what He did for me already. There is no amount of popularity or souls I can win to make sharing Jesus easier. He is the only one who gets credit when a soul is won to the Kingdom and He is the only one who takes the weight of being rejected when a soul is invited in but says no. He bears the weight of it all leaving us free of any responsibility whatever the outcome. All we have to do is agree to what He is leading us to do, and we have made Him happy. All we should ever be seeking is to hear Him say, “well done good and faithful servant” one day when we meet Him face to face. Place no obligation or responsibility on sharing Him with others. He doesn’t want it this way. We were purposed to be a reflection of Him by living a life that’s always looking up. The gospel doesn’t need to be defended, it needs to be shared and lived. We are walking in His direction, living life His way. Knowing there will be slip ups and that we are not immune to sin while here, we still look to Him for everything and thus know we can go at it confidently regardless of the nature of the reception we receive. I’m a messenger of good news and a planter of small seeds, sometimes if God thinks I am ready and willing, I can also sprinkle a little water on those seeds. But only God can finish the rest. “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? And if I perish, I perish." Esther 4:14,16. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, rejection, where is your sting? My approval lies with Jesus. And my life, it belongs to Heaven.
FULLY KNOWN “LOVE PROSPERS WHEN A FAULT IS FORGIVEN, BUT DWELLING ON IT SEPARATES CLOSE FRIENDS .” PROVERBS 17:9
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B Y KAYTIE GAUS - @KAYTIEMAY_ e all long for love. Love from our spouse, love from our family, and love from our friends. But, no matter how much love we are receiving, it never feels like enough. If what you are longing for what is a deep and intimate type of love, you need to examine your heart and how much you are giving of your own soul to those who you want to be loved by. I was recently sitting in on a sermon about marriage and the pastor said “to be fully loved, you must be fully known” and it struck a chord with me. That phrase has been repeated in my head daily, and it gets me thinking, how many people “fully know” me? Could I say my spouse knows every single longing of my heart and every battle I am facing? Most likely not, and I am sure it is a similar situation for the person reading this. Think about it this way- there is one person in this universe who loves you to their full extent. In fact, it’s a love that’s larger than ever imaginable. This person knows you inside and out. And this person is our Holy God. God is all knowing, all powerful and yet He loves us more than we deserve. He knows all our impurities, He knows all our inner demons, and yet He loves us. He loves us with everything He is, because he knows everything that makes us who we are and He has instructed us to love in the same way. Confess your sins to your spouse. Be honest with your friends. Seek out forgiveness when needed. And even more so, when others reveal their hearts to you, love them in a Christ like way.
LEGALLY INTEGRATED.EM
B Y EMILY
I
grew up in a place a lot like the places you’d go to “get away to the mountains.” I grew up where people wear Chacos because they actually need them, and people hang in Enos because there is no mall. I grew up where you could catch peeks at the Blue Ridge through the trees, where the sun sets low and sits for a while to light up the land, and where I swear the sky is bigger than anywhere I’ve ever been. I also grew up in a town where I could name the black people I knew on one hand and where I had little true understanding of racism or what it meant to me as a follower of Jesus. And then I moved to Atlanta. While Atlanta contrasts the state of Georgia as a whole in just about every way, at 18years-old I started a love affair with this city. I wanted to know about it, and the more I learned the more I loved. The more I loved the more I sought to find the best city views, city spots…and the more I broke for the heartache that lives on these streets. I also learned when you fall in love with a city it’s the people of that city that you’re actually falling for. And that’s exactly what I did. I treaded onto Georgia State’s Campus where according to university enrollment demographics, nearly 42% of the 25,000 undergrads identify as black or AfricanAmerican and 26% as white. I was in a different sphere than I had ever known before, and along with this came experiences I had never known, many pertaining to race. I remember my best friend’s heart breaking when he tried to express the pain he felt as he watched news coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown, only to be returned with comments of indifference and misunderstanding from one of his closest friends. I remember meeting my black roommate (and best friend) of now two years, not knowing that living with her might teach me more about the culture I live in than any class on campus. I remember being afraid to post a picture of my black boyfriend and myself for fear of pushback from my hometown. I remember wondering why there were so many black people around me, but very few at my church or in the Christian media I was reading or watching… and then wondering why I as a Christian never heard anything about race to begin with. I don’t know where you’re reading from, but I know that race is a story being told all over the country in some fashion, by media, by violence, by misunderstanding-and I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve got a much better ending to this story than we realize.
MOTIONALLY SEGRATED.
Y THOMAS
"I REMEMBER WONDERING WHY THERE WERE SO MANY BLACK PEOPLE AROUND ME, BUT VERY FEW AT MY CHURCH OR IN THE C HRISTIAN MEDIA I WAS READING OR WATCHING… AND THEN WONDERING WHY I AS A C HRISTIAN NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT RACE TO BEGIN WITH." According to the Pew Research Center, “the five least (racially) diverse groups” within religion in America are Protestant denominations-but I know the gospel is the most inclusive story out there…so what’s going on? This ending of this story is so much bigger than just being “colorblind” or loving people regardless of what color they are. And while I may not know exactly what that looks like I know it can’t end far from the cross. It also can’t start far from reconciliation within the family of Christ. Because honestly, if I haven’t taken the time to know, understand and celebrate the heart my so called “brother in Christ” who is black then how will I be able to love someone who hasn’t found this family yet? It starts with being intentional, just like we must be with any relationship. That looks like fighting the urge to run when things get a little sticky and a willingness to at times forgo the sake of your own opinion to learn the heart of another person. That also means persistent grace from both sides of any discussion, and embracing tension with strength not our own but from Jesus. This will probably be uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. J.D. Greear, pastor ofThe Summit Church said in a Catalyst podcast that “we know we have multicultural churches when at some point we feel uncomfortable.” This is because Jesus saved us from a place of ultimate discomfort-it held Him on the cross. There has been no greater tension than that between God and man, so let’s stop being scared of tension between black and white. The bottom line is, we’ve got to walk into this thing believing reconciliation is not only possible, but essential. We’ve got to lay down our pride, stop hiding behind our phones and our activists tweets and actually have real conversations about what comes next; followed by taking those steps. Why? Because the world is watching, and how we as believers respond will be a means of showing maturity in a world of immaturity, peace in a world of chaos, and a gospel that is alive.
God's timing is never late.
My heart trusts in Him.
LIGHT OF THE WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY BILBRO MODEL: MADDYE HAHN LOCATION: LEXINGTON, KY
My future is in God's hands.
I will walk by faith.
HEALTHY GOALS. HEALTHY EATING. WE WANT TO LIVE A SUSTAINABLE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE. S TART SMALL IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME.
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B Y KAREN HIGUERA - @HIGUERAHEALTHANDHAPPINESS
ealthy goals, healthy eating, healthy living! We’re all interested in being healthy and sometimes it is hard to know where to even start. It can even be overwhelming at times to try and sort through what is actually healthy. So let’s start at the beginning. Baby steps. What do you eat? How often do you exercise? What type of exercise are you doing? Food is SO important! That one little word that can betray us or bless us. For one week in either a journal or on your phone track what you eat. There are tons of apps that help with tracking if you prefer to do it that way. Track everything. Every meal, every handful of pretzels, every M&M from the candy bowl at work. Every. Little. Thing. If it goes in your mouth, you write it down. After one week check out your food journal. Review the calories you ate each day but dig deeper than that. Look into your protein, sugars, carbohydrates, veggies, and fruits. How did you do? Maybe not as good as you thought you would? This gives you a great base and jumping off point to review your daily food intake and take note where you need to make adjustments in your eating habits. Next, record your exercise. Same thing. For one week, every time you exercise, write down exactly what you did and for how long. If you do not exercise and you would like to start, there’s no need to jump into two hour gym sessions seven days a week. You’ll likely hit the gym hard for a week or two and then get burned out! We want to live a sustainable healthy lifestyle. Start small if this is your first time. Walk a lap around your block three times a week. This can also be a great time to incorporate in more family time. Wouldn’t the kids and dogs love to go for a quick walk as well? Track your progress and increase to a regimented program that fits your goals and desires! Those are my tips for a jumping off point if you’re ready to make that change to a healthy and happy lifestyle. For daily motivation, tips on working out from home, and great clean eating ideas, like my page on Facebook or shoot me a message. I’m always here to chat and help in any way I can!
GOD HAND PICKS THE UNLIKELIEST OF PEOPLE TO DO GREAT THINGS . GOD EQUIPS THE WILLING AND WHEN YOU ARE EQUIPPED BY OUR MAKER NOTHING IS OUT OF YOUR REALM OF POSSIBILITIES. B Y LAUREN PRATHER - @THESTYLISTLAUREN
Springtime in the world of hairdressers means one prominent thing…highlights. Everyone is looking to
freshen up their look and prepare for warmer weather and all that it entails. I enjoy the days behind the chair that leave me so frazzled looking and worn out most people would never guess my profession. It took me quite a while after high school to decide on a career. I started and stopped on many different paths. Realtor, Event Management, Nursing. Although there were aspects about each position that I liked, I knew it wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing the rest of my life. I wanted a job where I could help people. I felt restless with each career choice, until my first day of hair school. The second I walked in the door I knew I was finally where I was supposed to be. I struggled with this decision for years before I actually made it. Going to cosmetology school was always in the back of my mind, but several things stopped me. Is fixing people’s hair really considered helping people? Isn’t that vain? It doesn’t require a college degree, so is it really a respectable position? What really helped me finalize my decision to go was thinking back on my own hairdresser. My mom and I had gone to the same person from the time I was in kindergarten until well into college. I always looked forward to going to see her and felt amazing after doing so. She gave me confidence in myself when I felt like I had none. I could talk to her about anything, and she was one of the least judgmental people I knew. She cut my mom’s hair even when she lost most of her own hair due to cancer. She laughed with us, cried with us, and was always there when we needed her. I figured if I could do for others what she had done for me, then there was no questioning whether I had a meaningful career. It doesn’t matter what career you choose; God will use you if you are willing. Looking back now, it doesn’t surprise me that I was saved while I was in hair school. And I can see the people He put in my chair to help me along my journey. I meet new people all the time and have the perfect opportunity to share who Jesus is with them. Now I can laugh at how many different positions I have held. While I was making my mind up about what to do with my life there were several waitressing positions, a collections agency that paid tuition as well as a shipping company, nurse assistant, anything that would work with my school schedule. One thing I can say for any job/career/lifestyle is people still need Jesus. They need to be reached, loved, and shown who He is. No matter what position you hold there will be opportunity to sow truth into people’s lives. You never know what small gesture might make a huge impact on someone. God hand picks the unlikeliest of people to do great things. It doesn’t matter if you have a degree from a prominent school, or if you never finished high school. God equips the willing and when you are equipped by our maker nothing is out of your realm of possibilities.
THE DESERT PHOTOGRAPHY B Y EMILY MAGERS MODEL: S ARA DE
EMILY MAGERS. PHOTOGRAPHER. TESTIMONY.
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"THE DESERT"
he Desert. A dry, lonely, isolated dark place where the horizon seems infinite miles away. I think back to the times in the bible where the desert was a reoccurring place. Jesus was baptized and then sent into the desert for 40 days and was tempted. Then, there is the Israelites who walked through the parted seas, watched the enemy be swallowed up, standing victorious, and was then sent into the desert for 3 days without water. But during this season, miracles happen. Jesus was surrounded by angels and never sinned against Satan’s temptations and the Israelites were led to Elim that turned out to be an oasis of sort. I have been in many seasons of wilderness and what felt like walking through the neverending desert, but there I am constantly reminded that God is in the crisis. He leads us through so we can see how he loves us and provides. Lately God has been teaching me an abundance of trust, patience, and stillness. "He has made everything beautiful in it's time. He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." Ecc. 3:11
What a gift that our Lord has it all mapped out for us already, that we don't have to plan or get let down or have too high of expectations! He wants us to surrender all 'trying' and planning at his feet. He doesn't want us to see the final product, or the end of the valley we are in, so that we learn to trust in Him that whatever He has mapped out is better than what we had planned. As hard as that may be for us planners and list makers, He's right. Every time. The past few months have been a non-stop face-to-face discussion with The Lord on waiting. I have been walking through this wilderness of singleness, uncertainty, and breaking free of my old self. When I feel uncertain about what direction to take I could become bombarded with stress, I could turn back to old ways of doing things on my own, I could even, scary enough, rush ahead of what God is trying to do. But what He is teaching me is by far the most precious lesson: to simply wait. To wait in constant prayer. To wait in faith knowing that even if it is months from now, He will come to me at His perfect timing to fulfill His plan to me. (continued on pg. 69)
To wait in quiet patience by accepting my situation where it is and placing it fully into His hands to wait for Him to do wi is best. Removing our self-will from our lives is not easy, but by waiting for Him to divide the flood before us or drive ba will fulfill our confidence that He will be our joy, refuge, and salvation. So for the past few months I've been talking a lot about this season of wilderness and the last two weeks I've been reading again about the Israelites journey of traveling through the desert. Insert Gods humor, I ended up in the literal Arizona two weeks ago. Just like He provided protection for the Israelites against pharaoh, He provides protection for us throughout our battles to not come in the form of a traveling cloud or via an angel, but He still provides. A few days before I left on my road trip, I received some tough closure regarding the past three months, closure I'v praying for. I used it as a gift, an armor of protection from Jesus. I ended this season of wilderness in the actual wildern never felt His arms wrapped around me so tightly. Psalm 27:13 constantly replaying in my head, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodne land of the living. Wait for the lord be strong and let your heart take courage yes, wait for the lord." I'm writing this today with the biggest smile wrapped around my face from the goodness of His grace and love. I'm rem not only circumstances we cannot anticipate, but also the condition of our hearts. Trusting, patience, contentment, and praise. Friends, He leads us into the desert because He is not finished yet. I wonder so kind as to invite us into the story with Him. I wonder if the desert is actually one of the best places to be‌ it’s the ro Land. It’s the place where He refines us to His image and meets us where no one else ever could. And with new eyes the inviting, the horizon ever so close.
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BRIANNA FAITH HOW DOES JESUS INFLUENCE YOU AS AN ARTIST? SA N D IE G O , CA
choose Jesus because apart from Him, I am nothing. Over the last 2 years, my love for photography has grown and turned into a lifestyle, just like my relationship with Jesus. For as far back as I can remember, I have always loved the ocean. There has never been a defining factor in my admiration for it, I just have always loved it. When I first got my hands on my camera, the first thing I can remember doing was taking it to the beach with me whenever I went and that’s when the obsession got worse. Photography itself can act like a time machine, taking you back to times that have passed yet still engulfing you in every emotion attached to each photograph. Photography accompanied by my obsession with the sea, you can imagine that I spent a lot of time taking pictures at the beach. I began to notice that with each picture I took there was no similarity in the photographs. Immediately, I started to piece together my admiration for the ocean. Not a single shot was the same, which may not mean much to you, but if you I
think about it, God made no mistake when He created the sea to be such a mystery. Not a wave break, white wash, barrel, or current was ever the same, it’s all different and so unique. When God began to show me how intricate he made the sea, He ever so gently said, “What makes you think I made you any different?” And that is when my passion for photography kick started. To me, Photography never looked like an opportunity to make money. Whenever I was asked to take a picture or pictures of someone, I looked at it as an opportunity to have fun. Money was never a problem in the matter because it wasn’t the reason I did what I did. I grew up with a self-employed contractor for a Father, so you can imagine that when multiple people began to show interest in my ability to take pictures, He was the first to step up and say, “Do you have a business plan, missy?” Because I hadn’t yet looked at this as a money making opportunity, I hadn’t thought that far. With his help, I set up some simple rates. I never once advertised nor did I know a lot of people in the
photography industry, I just knew that with any job that would come, it would be because God brought it to me. Keeping Jesus at the center of what I do keeps my human nature in check, meaning that without Jesus I would not have the gift that I have. I believe that when we seek God first, asking Him what our purpose is, we can fulfill the call that He has placed on our lives with absolute clarity. Sometimes the answer He gives won’t be what we were expecting, but it is important to obey and to be willing to obey because it is the heart of obedience that He will bless. A relationship with Jesus is by no means boring, stale, or dull. If it is one thing that I tried to convey through this photo-shoot for Angelic Magazine, it is that the world we live in is unique as are the souls that occupy it. As each photograph is different, so are we. To be someone other than who God made you to be is a life lived empty. Jesus came to break the power of religion and restore what was lost in garden, relationship. He made us to want relationships, so don’t you think that more than anything, He wants one with you? To have a relationship with Him is to live a full and satisfied life.