Emma was born in Racine, WI, where she grew up with her older brother and younger sister. In the fall of 2007 she began attending UW-Madison. After attending the London College of Fashion for a semester abroad, Emma made the decision to pursue full time ministry instead. She graduated in Spring 2011 with a degree in Retailing, and is now very excited to be interning with CAM for the year. Emma loves music, laughing with her friends, coffee, reading, and way too many television shows.

Kayla Dunnum talked us through an awesome talk about the Holy Spirit last night at CAM, and it really hit home for me just how much we fight His guidance. As Kayla said, it isn’t exactly natural for us to want to submit to the Spirit even if He is technically acting within us and through us at all times.

I’ve found a few resources for us as we all continue to try and learn more about the Spirit! First, Francis Chan has written a book called “Forgotten God” where he discusses more about the Spirit than he covered in the BASIC video we saw last night. The book covers a lot of basic info about the Holy Spirit, as well as the main idea that the Church has largely forgotten Him.

Second, I’d recommend a Rob Bell video called “Breathe.” It’s part of the Nooma series, which was actually done by the same people who created the BASIC series we’ve been watching at CAM. In “Breathe,” Rob touches on a lot of scriptures about the Spirit, and he has a really different style than Francis so I think it’s worth checking out both! (Pssst…technically you have to pay to watch the Nooma videos, but you may or may not be able to find them on Youtube if you do a little searching.)

Lastly, below is a devotion by one of my all time favorite authors name Henri Nouwen on the Holy Spirit.

“When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we speak about the breath of God, breathing in us. The Greek word for “spirit” is pneuma, which means “breath.” We are seldom aware of our breathing. It is so essential for life that we only think about it when something is wrong with it.

The Spirit of God is like our breath. God’s spirit is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. We might not often be aware of it, but without it we cannot live a “spiritual life.” It is the Holy Spirit of God who prays in us, who offers us the gifts of love, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, peace, and joy. It is the Holy Spirit who offers us the life that death cannot destroy. Let us always pray: “Come, Holy Spirit, come.””

I’m praying that after looking at these resources and reading God’s Word, we’ll all be more mindful of His Spirit working in our daily lives. I definitely know that I ignore Him way more than I should.

Love!