Obama '08?

i had also had this belief that Mr. Obama, democratic candidate running for president in 2008, was a Muslim. This was one of the main reasons that i did not want to vote for him. this is not to say that i have anything against Muslims, rather in a time when there is so much hostility between our nation and the Muslim nations, especially those in the middle east, i feel as if that would not have been the most wise decision. i also have other reasons considering mr. obama, but we can discuss those another time. i was talking with a friend and she mentioned that besides the abortion "issue" she was considering voting for obama. i was shocked! somehow i brought up the Muslim thing and she piped up and said, "but that's the thing, he isn't a Muslim. He proclaims Christ as most than a prophet which no Muslim would do." please believe i had to do a double take. i had also learned that he was a Muslim. she recommended that a read a q&a done by christianity today. here's the link after reading it, i think obama just went to the top of my list.

and i NEVER thought i would say that, but i guess that's what this election has been about.

goodbye

this week i've said goodbye to a few things. i got rid of my facebook. i feel relieved, but also feel unsure about what to do when i go online-weird. but honestly, i say good riddens-too much wasted time. next to go will hopefully be the tv.

the next farewell was more of a collective bidding on the part of the republican party as mr. giuliani step out of the GOP presidential running. once again, good riddens. the party needs less candidates running so that the party has a better idea of who to choose from. i know i know. i is not part of our political system you say. let's get real people. our political system is not all flowers and butterflies like we thought. i mean, have you seen mr. smith goes to washington? corruption rules our fallen government and that means that the idealism is completely gone. the point, give us two or three GOP front runners in the primaries and let the party choose between them instead of trying to divi up votes between five or six candidates.

my last goodbye is really a say you later. that's right-see y'all later!

Passion 08::LA

i signed up for this conference and i had no idea what to expect. i was tired and stressed with school and was trying to prep for a long week, but i had paid $50 to go to this conference in la. i packed my stuff and got on a bus headed to la with the rest of the cbu passion bound. amanda and i started the trip out right-listening to paul washer. it was great. i feel as if she gained some understanding into my crazy head over the past few months, and it was one i hadn't heard yet, so i got to learn some new stuff too. we get to our hotel and we are staying at the willshire grand-yeah, nice for sure. we were on the 14th floor and had to use our cards in the elevator in order to ouch the button! the room was nice and the view was better. it was crazy to look out over a city so void of Christ. we spent a bit of time exploring between the conference center and the hotel, but were just excited for the conference to get started. i really didn't have high expectations. i mean, it's called passion-it has got to be lib. the legistics: there were four main sessions, one friday night and three on saturday with random breaks in between. louie g. and francis c. rotated speaking and chris tomlin, matt redman, and (my personal fav), david crowder lead us in some pretty fab corporate worship. passion is going worldwide so they encouraged us to give money for their stop in Jakarta. they are also a part of a building water wells in africa so people can have clean water and maintain life, since so much death happens because of unclean water. they also asked us to bring socks and towels to give to the surrounding shelters. wow. this is a organizations i can get behind. but there's more. God's name was boldly proclaimed. God was spoken about in truth, as a God of love AND justice; a God that loves His people-all people, but doesn't beg; a God so wanting His own glory.

it was great fun, but also convicting and heart wrenching. there are more details below.

chains

so much i feel like i have been shackled by stuff, but it was powerful to be reminded that God has taken away His wrath because of the mighty work of His Son on the cross.

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, Who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine

Holy Spirit

francis chan spoke one night and talked about about the Holy Spirit. it was basically the same talk he gave when he was at cbu, but i thought, how has this impacted my life? have i changed? "no," i thought. in fact, i think i have veered farther from the truth of the Spirit since listening to paul washer so much. i pray that my life would be consumed by the Holy Spirit and that i would allow Him to work instead of myself.

at the last session, joelle and i heard these guys talking behind us. apparently they had heard some guys talking at dinner and one of them had never heard about the Holy Spirit before. did you catch that? NEVER heard about the Holy Spirit and he considered himself a follower of Christ Jesus. whoa; hold the phone. something is wrong with the "evangelical movement" if the Spirit of our Lord is cut out of its teachings. francis is right. if we are truly living by the Spirit, how radically different should our lives be?

in the name

i think i heard this phrase used more than any other this weekend. "in the name of Jesus..." "heal them in the name of Jesus" "change them in the name of Jesus"

i dunno. we are to ask things in the name of Christ, but i also felt that they people were using the name of our Lord so flippantly. people misuse His name so much i mean, it's used to swear all the time. what about us in the church? we don't even know the magnitude of what we are saying when we use His name. do we truly realize what power His name holds? merely speaking His name casts out demons! powerful!
i once heard a speaker say that he doesn't say "Jesus" or "Christ" by themselves because the names have lost their majesty in our culture. he always referred to the Savior as "our Lord Jesus Christ" or "our Lord." i think he's right in a lot of ways. we say "Jesus" so much, but don't even know what it means. i hope my heart is convicted.

Beards

yes. its true. while this may be the most ridiculous blog i post about the last forty eight hours, i do feel that it is has some importance. i love beards. i'm not talking about a nasty beard or an overgrown beard, but a good beard. beards are hott, no lie. i mean, common, a guy with a beard is a true man.

i also have this thing for jewish guys. ok, not practicing jews, but those who are either jewish by heritage or now jews for Jesus. maybe it's a stereotype that i love, but whatever. it's kind of a weird thing, but it's what it is.

so i went to passion excited to worship God with worship leaders whose music had really touched my life over the past few months. the first leader and his band were on stage and i had no idea who it was because i had never seen pictures of any of the leaders before. it turned out to be chris tomlin. it was cool. we worshiped and it was quite amazing and then louie came out and spoke, also surprisingly nice. then, someone walked out on stage with this amazing beard and semi-affro, looking very much like a nerd. he grabbed a guitar and the band started playing a familiar song of david crowder. could this be? could this actually be? we the guitar playing, beard wearing, jewish-looking man, david crowder???? well, in the spirit of honesty, i had to check myself who i was worshiping during a lot of that set. i felt like i was in jr. high all over again-gross.

while most of the jr. high crush on david crowder has diminished, i think i have fallen more in love with the words of his music and with Jesus because of it.

ignorance

ignorance: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness

i hear this word so often used as a thrown insult or to describe the today's youth or as a synonym to bliss. while i highly disagree with the latter, i had always hoped that today's youth had moved far away from this state as we fully submersed ourselves into the technological age. how sad i was to find how wrong i was.

through conversations, i came to meet people who did even know who was running for president, and while it is hard to keep track of these days, it is truly sad to think that persons on their way to achieve higher education don't spend time somewhat familiarizing themselves with fairly pertinent current events. please don't misunderstand me-i by no means read the paper daily or watch the news nightly, in fact i hate doing these slightly, shall we say, boring tasks.

another point i'd like to make is that when we as followers of Christ go to talk with people about our God, we should be informed about the world and its events. the church looks ignorant enough to the rest of the world and we have the responsibility as the next generation to change that status as we engage our culture in simply conversation. i'm not saying we have to talk about Jesus and stem-cell research in one conversation, but as we build relationships, maybe it will start with "surface" things, like football. to be honest, i have paid little attention to what is going on in NFL lately, but it matters to a who lot of Americans.

ok. now what? do something! let's all actively engage our culture by throwing ignorance aside and spending five minutes of our self-soaked days to learn about what's going on around us. maybe read the headlines of the paper or the front page. go to msn.com and read the headlines and, if you really want a challenge, one of the articles. plug in fives minutes of news; news is on 24/7 and most of watch a minimum of an hour of tv a day-i'm sure five minutes of the news could fit in somewhere.

antonyms for ignorance include cultivation, experience, intelligence, literacy, and wisdom. i'd rather identify with literacy and wisdom than ignorance and inexperience.

Foreign Husband

"In 2003, 58% of the population was female."

great. my odds of finding a man in this country have decreased once again, (statistically this time). my solution: go to another country and see what awaits me there in terms of the male-species.

Paul

no, not paul the apostle, paul washer. although i would draw a similar comparison, (unless that is heresy). this man's teaching has rocked my world because it is not his teaching, it is Biblical teaching. in order to understand where i'm coming from you have to listen. he's on youtube, so check it out at the link below.

Not Ashamed of the Gospel (this had some trouble loading, but uh, is probably amazing)

The True Meaning of the Cross(don't mind the graphics and poor sound quality)

i made a friend listen to him the other day and she asked me "oyu like him? he's really monotone." really? i honestly had never noticed. i was too drawn in by the powerful and truthful message that he shared. this is the kind of preaching that i long for. i long for teachers that will stop trying to entertain us or apologize for the Biblical truth they will share, (especially when it isn't even that Biblical). oh how i long for teachers of God's holy Word to teach it with truth and power so that we as the rest of the church may know the truth.

mr. washer speaks to the magic prayer issue in some of his sermons. man, that's how i accepted Christ and that's how i was taught to lead people to Christ. in reality, it is about repentance, no matter how long it takes! oh that i may understand repentance more and more!

i

i want to know
i want to understand
i want to see
God why can't i understand what's going on?

i want to see past this
i want to be better than this
i want to rise above this
but God, why can't i get past it?

i want to be humble
i want to scream
i want to fall on my face and cry
oh God, why is my heart so selfish?

i want them to love me
i want to just to get me
i want them to know i how much i care
but God, i thought i had?

"I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore."

help me to know You

help me to live in Your understanding

help me to see You because my eyes are fixed on You.

question!

ok, when someone comments my blog post and i want to comment back where do i do that? on there blog, on my blog under there comment? i know "blogger" says to email the comment-er, but common, that's ridiculous...right??? HELP!

they're frosted! they're mini!

that's right! they world's greatest cereal: frosted mini wheats. common where else can you get 24% of your daily fiber in one delicious serving. so you think to yourself, "oh yeah, a serving of what? two delectable miniature bits?" HECK NO TECHNO! you get a who "24 biscuits" as they say on the box. what a deal!

i just did some homework for what feels like the first time this semester and i needed a break, so i thought i'd right about this amazing snack and traditionally breakfast food.

now i'm listening to the beatles and telling myself i need to do more homework so i can go to bed early feeling accomplished and justified for the gym tomorrow morning...



word.

friendship

i had a wonderful visit with some "old" friends today. it seems like forever since we saw each other and while 2 years is quite a long time, we have only been friends for three. it is amazing that friendships can grow so deep in such a sort amount of time and that God has allowed us continue in this friendship despite life and circumstances; for this i am truly blessed.

friendship. while the context of this word has been used in a cheesy and flippant way in my life over the past year and a half, i think that the meaning of this word is becoming every more important and vivid in my mind. Merium-Webster online defines friendship as "the quality or state of being friends." at first i was quite upset by this definition. i mean common, can we get over defining words with the route word! but then i thought about it a bit longer and began to realize that i do like the definition. friendship is about a quality and about being. so often i have made friendship about other verbs like give, love, play, write, call, etc. when in reality it is simply about being. now, being can lead produce these other actions and hopefully it will, but ultimately it starts with just being. the definition also talks about quality. when my friends came to visit today i didn't just want to sit and watch a movie with them, rather i wanted to spend glrious moments of conversation with them. in fact, i could have been content just to sit and be with them. i think that's what friendship is all about.

i think this is, or at least should be, a reflection of our relationship with Christ. While He is the Lord and God Almighty, He has also called us to dwell in His presence and simply be. then, through all of the be-ing, (the quality be-ing of course), we can then learn to bring other things as offerings and sacrifices.

now, if only i could get this through my thick skull!

psychology

in psychology class i learned that an aspect of having friends is how available they are. if someone is around a lot, then the more likely you are to be friends with them. sadly, as i look back on the past few years, i have seen some AMAZING friendships dwindle because we just aren't close.
now, not that i don't agree with the liberal psychological scholars of our day, but is availability just an excuse to not keep tabs on old friends? shouldn't we desire greatly to keep in touch with loved ones no matter where they are? or, do we really need friends physically present in order to maintain good, lasting friendships? or am i just a bitter person needing a place to vent her thoughts?


the latter is probably the answer.

mauren soup

Have you ever had mauren soup or cup of noodle soup? it is truly amazing despite the incredible amounts of sodium and MSG. today and i ventured to Ikea and Winco foods with some friends and it was quite amazing. we definitely got lost going to ikea, but it turned into a happy accident because we landed at barnes and noble and i was able to get the calendar i had been wanting for quite some time as well as directions to ikea. we hopped back in the car and headed to ikea. If i could describe the next hour and a half in one word it would be OVERWHELMING. it was amazing, though, because i got some nice hand towels for a good price-a much needed purchase! once we were finished there, courtney got us some frozen yogurt and we peaced out to WinCo, just a few minutes back towards school. once again, we got lost, but once again, it turned into a happy accident. we found a drive through starbucks and got some refreshments, (yum!). we finally arrived at WinCo and wonders of low-priced foods awaited! we walked around and had a marvelous time. we got to the ile of that had "ethnic" food. it was quite fun. as we walked down the the row of foods from all over the world, i stopped dead in my tracks. "what is this?" i thought. it was mauren wanton soup!!! and only 32 cents. courtney had to talk me into purchasing this culinary wonder, but i did.

we returned to cbu and my tummy was grumbling. i thought "heck, why not try this mauren wanton soup?" so i did. it was quite delicious! but i seemed to have boiled the water a bit too much. i sadly burned my tongue on this instant wonder of the world. will i venture into the land of instant wanton again? i dunno. what i do know is that my tongue hurts real bad.

unexpected

i love when God brings joy and love in unexpected things and through unexpected people. i love the people i live with and i definitely appreciate them, but i don't think i truly loved them until recently. you know how the old saying goes "absence makes the heart grow fonder," well, that truly has made itself manifest today.
is this true with God? pastors always say to spend daily time with God and in His Word and i don't doubt this as a necessity as a follower of Christ, however, as a mere academic exercise, as we become distant from God, does one's soul thirst for God even more? is there a longing to be in the presence of God as there is an increased time without Him? did the disciples ever spend time away from Jesus Christ, so long to return to His company, and then, when they were with Him again, draw closer to Him?
i dunno. just questions. how it all ties together, i don't really know, but welcome to a slice of my complicated brain.

starting

i never thought i would have a blog, but journaling seems to be so hard some days. this will have to do for now.