My ALTAR'D COURSE

The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham." So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well. - Genesis 26:24-25

So here we go. The write31days challenge accepted. Just the act of sitting here and getting this far has been a feat within itself. Some of you reading may know me, I'm assuming that most of you don't. Either way what most people don't know about me is that I've felt the call of the Lord to write for over a year and a half now. But something, everything, has stopped me. Today that ends. The excuses stop. The disobedience on my end stops. It stops now.

My name is Cristina. I am a child of God.

That is my identity and in case you don't know it...it's your identity too. Now that we have that out of the way, we can get to the rest. I'm a wife, daughter, mother, stepmother, friend, periscoper, and now blogger (eek!!!). I love to cook, eat, entertain, serve, read, travel, and spend time with my family. I'm passionate about prayer and showing people (especially women) the power of prayer. From that passion and a couple very important women in my life, @WNOPtribe was born. WNOPtribe is our periscope/twitter/Facebook community. WNOP stand's for Women's Night of Prayer (more info on that in my about section)and the "tribe" is well, you...and me...and everyone that joins us on this journey to pursue or God more fervently, passionately, and fearlessly through prayer.

I'd love for you to join us on this journey, but I know that before you join anyone on a trip it's good to know a little bit about them. You want to know their background, if they travel well, their quirks, habits, and strengths. But most importantly you want to know where they are going. So let me tell you a little bit about me and my ALTAR'D COURSE.

A little over two years ago the course of my life was forever altered. After 32 years of searching, seeking, living anxious and depressed, I came to the most amazing encounter of my life. I encountered the LOVE of my Heavenly Father and the redemption and freedom through His Son Jesus Christ. Once I encountered His perfect love, there was no going back. I decided then and there not only to surrender my life completely to Him but that I would live my faith in Him and love for Him boldly and  wholeheartedly. With reckless abandon.

It's been an amazing journey. It is an amazing journey. And the further I grow the more I learn, the deeper I love, the bigger my faith, the stronger my determination to see more people come to know His love and the freedom it brings. So why did I name this blog "ALTAR'D COURSE"? Simple. From that moment on the Lord has taught me to build altars along the journey. Markers of faith to go back to when I need them, sweet moments where the incense of prayer has gone up to Heaven and returned in answered prayer, and places of rest where I stop to praise and acknowledge everything the Lord has done for me. So when of thinking and praying of a title for this blog my friend said, "make sure it's something you can live for forever". (No pressure at all!) I thought what would be the one takeaway I would want people to have if they took the time to read, no matter what the topic I was writing about would be. And it was this: I want people to walk their walk and travel their journey building altars along the way. You know why? Because your gonna need them. There will be days that are tough, where everything looks bleak, you're discouraged, sick, broke, hopeless, anxious, or depressed. And those are the days you will go back to those altars built before and draw on that faith already set in stone and established. So that's the vision for this space, I pray you join me as we build altars of faith together.

This month I will be writing for 31 days consecutively. And the challenge asked us to pick a theme or topic to carry through the month. So if you wish to join me on this journey during the month of October we will be "Stitching Worship into the Fabric of Our Lives". There's no better way to build altars than through worship. We will explore what worship is and isn't, who and what we are to worship, and how to go from just worshipping on Sundays to it being a way of life.

Yay! I just finished my Day 1 blog post ...see ya tomorrow!!!

Cristina

xoxo

  WRITE 31 DAYS SERIES

Day 1: My ALTAR'D COURSE
Day 2: What do they mean by worship?
Day 3: Why do we worship? - Part 1
Day 4: Worship Wednesday - Praise Break
Day 5: Why do we worship? - Part 2

Day 6: People Worship - What it is and how the Lord is stripping me of it