Thinking of Europe...

Today has been another day where I really want to go to Europe! Lucky for me, such a blessing from God, I have the potential of being in Europe for a couple of months this summer with Camp Adventure! I am really excited about it! Today I was thinking about how awesome it would be to go to Europe during Christmas time! I bet it is positively magical! :) I mean... I suppose it really could be just like any other place during the winter. It could be rainy and gloomy just like Oregon. But it could also be cold and snowy and amazing.

I was looking at pictures of Europe in winter and I wanted to post them on here because they are so nice! :)

Paris

Ever since I watched "The Devil Wears Prada" and there was a scene in Paris at Christmas time I have always wanted to go!

Italy

I love the pictures with the fog. It's kind of mysterious. It also looks like it would be a perfect moment to drink soup and sip hot cocoa and bundle up and be happy! :)

England

Germany

Switzerland

Norway

I really want to go to Norway because not only can you see the Northern lights there but it's also part of my heritage! So that would be awesome if I could ever go there!! :)

Ah yes this makes me happy! It also makes me want to have a white Christmas... but something tells me the only way I will ever have a white Christmas is if I go somewhere where it snows at Christmas time because I dont think I'll get any here at home!

I also thought that this song was a nice Christmas song that seemed to fit the mood of all of my pictures because they are snowy! :)



All photos were taken from google images. None of them are my own.

Study the Bible...?

So true confession: I have been having a really hard time with my quiet times recently. Pretty much ever since the end of summer my quiet times have either been non-existent or have been very dry. I feel like I have been trying to get something out of it but I've been trying too hard. I have been forcing myself to make up epiphanies so that I could feel like my times in the word were successful. The thing is I completely shut the Holy Spirit out of my quiet times and was really working in my own strength to get something out of my "times with God". I mean the Lord definitely used those times, don't get me wrong, but I feel like a lot of it was my own effort to make it something without giving the Lord any room to speak.

Today I listened to a podcast by Matt Chandler on how to study the Bible. I was searching itunes for sermons and I came across this one so I thought it was worth a shot. The teaching was incredibly helpful for me. I just got done with my quiet time and it was fantastic! One of the things that really struck me from the teaching was when Matt Chandler said that when we study the Bible we shouldn't be looking for anything but God. That our time was to get to know God more. Our time was to meet God and fellowship with Him.

Because it was so great for me to hear, I thought that I would share what I got out of the teaching with you guys! First off Matt Chandler listed 6 things that you'll need when you study the Bible:

1. Consistent time and place
2. Bible
3. Pen and a highlighter
4. Reading plan
5. Journal
6. Planner

Then he expanded on each of the six things.

A Consistent time and place was important because he said otherwise you will not be motivated to study the Word. You need to go out of your way to plan out when you are going to study the Word and you need to make it a priority not to cut it out of your day. He also suggested that you have an accountability partner who will mark out that same time and place each day where you can study the word together. If you have a friend who also wants to make a habit of studying the word daily then you can encourage one another by studying with one another so that you actually do it. It was also encouraging to hear him say that it's going to be hard for a while, maybe even the first year but then it will start to become habit.

A Bible seems self explanatory because you can't study the Bible without the Bible.

A Pen and Highlighter was suggested as a way to highlight different things that the Lord points out to you like a specific verse in the text that you read.

A Reading Plan so that you know what you are going to be reading in the Bible. He said that if you don't know what you're going to read when you sit down to study the Bible then you will be less likely to actually study. Having a plan will make it easier for you to want to study because you wont have to decide each time what you are going to read. Each day will already be planned out for you. This is also helpful because then you will be reading passages in context and will get the whole picture of each book in the Bible.

A Journal so that you can write down things that the Lord reveals to you during your time of study.

A Planner so that you can keep your mind from wandering while you are studying. He said that the planner would be helping you fight spiritual warfare because each time you sit down to study the enemy wants to keep you from doing so. Thus he will try and distract you with other thngs that you need to do. By having the planner you can write down things that you need to do after you're done studying. By writing it down you wont have to constantly be reminding yourself to not forget it while you are studying so you can focus 100% on what you are studying.

Matt Chandler then talked about what he does when he studys the Word. He said that he reads about 3-4 chapters from his reading plan for about 20 minutes. As he is reading he will highlight or underline a verse or verses that stick out to him from the Holy Spirit. Then when he's done reading he takes the verse that stuck out to him (If there are multiple verses he says through prayer narrow it down to one verse that the Lord wants you to dwell on) and writes it down in his journal. Then he writes down observations he makes about that verse. After he makes observations he writes down applications to his life. Not general applications but specific applications that he can make for himself and his life. and then after that He spends time in prayer over the things that the Lord revealed to him during his time of study.

On of the best things that he said also was that if you're just starting to study the word in this way you may have to start with a smaller time frame of study. Rather than studying for an hour you may only be able to do about 15 minutes. 5 minutes of reading 5 minutes of journaling and 5 minutes of prayer. This is okay. As you continue to make studying the Word a habit in your daily life it will become easier and easier for you to study for longer periods of time.

This was an amazing example for me to follow for studying the Word so I thought I would share it with you all! I hope that if you are searching for a good way to study the Bible you would try this out! Maybe it will help you to grow deeper in your relationship with God!

Learning how to feed yourself daily with the Word of God is really important. We are not called only to have pastors "feeding" us on Sundays. If we only delve into the Word on Sunday's then we will not be able to have the Spiritual growth that the Lord wants us to have. Thus it is so important for us to be "feeding" ourselves with the Word of God. The Lord will meet us and teach us and grow us as we make the effort to study His Word on a daily basis.

You're Here -- Francesca Battistelli

I really like this song! I heard it on the radio a while back and I really, really liked it! :)

It's a good Christmas song! It's always good to remember that this season isn't about material things but about remembering the gift that God gave us by coming to earth as a man to live a perfect life for us and die for us so that we could have life abundant in Him! :)

My Sister is Now a Sass

A lot has been going on in my life since my last blog post and I have been REALLY bad about posting on here regularly... I don't know if this is the start of me regularly posting again but I guess we shall see right? Can't hurt to start again and see where it goes!!

I have been busy getting things done for my sister's wedding and now it is done and over with! My sister is married!! How exciting is that?! Nick and Emily Sass! Congratulations you guys! I love it! It was a great wedding!

Natural born gangsta's right?!

I have many fun memories with Emily and Nick and Im so excited for more and more great and beautiful times!

I remember when I first heard about Nick Sass it was waaaayyy back when I was in Middle School and Emily was "friends" (?) with him on AOL Instant Messenger. I would always pester her about who she was talking to and she would never tell me who it was. Then one summer day her friend Kayla was spending the night and we were all three camping out in a tent in our front yard and I was trying to figure out who she had a crush on and Kayla made her tell me that it was Nick Sass.

Then a year or two later (I don't know for sure) they made their relationship legitimate. Oh yes we've had so good times...

I got to give a little speech at their wedding and I talked about some fun things that we've done together! Like:

Nick went to a Jesse McCartney concert with my sister, my friend Tasha, and I. It was pretty interesting haha... definitely eye opening to how Jesse McCartney was NOT the disney singer I thought he was an how he did some rather inappropriate things on stage... interesting.

Nick and Emily and Tasha and I also made a music video one random winter day when I was in High School. It was pretty epic. We went to random places in Corvallis including Jamie's Restaurant, Home Depot, K-Mart, and Zion Lutheran school and we filmed ourselves doing ridiculous things... the best part? We put the film footage together and made a music video to Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" hahaha

And then there is always the notorious bike gang that I was in with Emily and Nick and Tasha. We wanted to go to 7-Eleven to get slurpies but they only had three bikes at their apartment so I needed to use a scooter. Because I couldn't go very fast Emily and Nick and Tasha had to ride in first gear. So naturally we called ourselves "The First Gear Riders". Nick even made up a rap to go with our gangsta look:

First gear riders ridin' real slow. Pedaling real fast so our bikes will roll. Ridin' down to the corner street 7-Eleven. Tryin' to get a piece of that slurpie heaven.

The best part of this story? Once we got our slurpies Nick was so excited that, as he was mounting back onto his bicycle, he squeezed his slurpie cup and the lid popped off and it fell out of his hand and it spilled ALL OVER the ground! Hahahaha you can't get any better than that!! :)

So Needless to say Im super excited for another brother! And I cannot wait to see the awesome life that they're going to have together. I say they need to have a baby but they gawk at that idea at the moment... maybe some day soon! hahaha :)

They're on their honeymoon right now which Im quite jealous about because they're going to be in the happiest place on earth in the sunshine so that's awesome! :) I can't wait to hear about the fun that they are going to have!

Congratulations you two! Love ya!! :)

Try It!

I read somewhere once that the only way that you'll truly love someone or if you desire to have a heart for someone like for poor people or for someone who really rubs you the wrong way, or for... well anyone then the only way to do that would be to just do it. If you want to have a heart for poor people then go serve them. Be around them. Love on them. Get to know them. only then you'll really start to love them and have a heart for them. You can't love that which you don't know so go get to know them!

The Lord has definitely confirmed that in my heart and in my life. Once you start to selflessly love someone or some people group then you'll start to truly love them and that love will grow stronger and stronger as you love them more and more and put yourself around them more and more!

so if you feel like you don't love people enough or tha you could walk through life not caring about the poor or the elderly or the (insert name here) then you wanna know what you should do?! You should go and serve them! Because that's where love for them grows! Ask God for a heart to love them and the strength to serve them and then go and do it!

Recent Pondering

At work I get to spend a lot of time by myself doing relatively simple tasks that allow my mind to wander and ponder certain things. What has been on my mind lately?

Salvation. And the fact that it is all about the heart. I've been thinking about the verse in Matthew 7:21-23 when Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers!' ". It's crazy to think that this is true. That there will be people that say they knew Jesus but He will tell them He never knew them. That's further proof that God judges the heart of a man and not the outward appearance or declaration of being a Christian.

Love. God's love for us! I love that the Lord describes His love for us in ways that we can understand. We'll not fully know just how much He loves us or what that kind of love would be like but He tells us what it's like in ways that we can experience which helps us better understand His love. He says that He loves us like a friend, a lover, and a father. When we have friends in this life we can understand what loving a person like a friend is. Jesus is the friend who lays down his life for those he loves. God loves us like a lover. He is the groom and we are the bride of Christ. Anyone who is preparing to be married or is married knows what this love is like. They can better understand the Lords love for us by comparing it to their love for one another. Of course Gods love for us trumps any love that we could have for one another. And God loves us like a father. Anyone who has children knows what this type of love is. A special type of love. I've never experienced the love of a bride/groom or the love of a parent but I do know the love of a friend. I think it's wonderful to know that in the future when God brings me to the point in life where I do get to be a wife and a mother I will be able to understand in a new way His love for me. It's excites me!

The fairness of life. This week I have been thinking a lot about circumstances in life and the fairness or unfairness of it. I ask the age old question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" It frustrates me sometimes that bad things so often happen to good people why the bad person gets off scott-free without punishment. The injustice just angers me. I guess this is where faith comes in. In the present time we live in a fallen world where life isn't fair. bad things do happen to good people and sometimes they never get any vindication. During those times you have to hold tight to the truths of God and remember that God is a just God and that in the end the bad people who "get away with their evil" will have to stand before His judgement seat and give account for everything that they did in life. During those times you simply have to trust God. 

Im Only Jesus

I heard this song on one of my CD's and I really liked it... I was actually really glad to hear such lyrics because it wasn't a "Christian artist" it's Tim McGraw and he sings country and so Im pretty sure a lot of non-believers listen to his music and here it is the gospel message on their radio! It's wonderful!



Lyrics:

Bobby's got a duster '79
Bottle of Jack and a 45
Points it at his head
And he starts to cry,
Too proud to ask me to save his life

Billy's in a limo
On the upper east side
Playing Russian Roulette
With the long white line
His wife gets a call at 3 am
Saying Billy ain't never coming home again

She asks me why?

And I said,
I sure wish you'd believe
That everybody's free
And I'll help you if you ask me to,
I gave every star a name
The sunshine and the rain
Bu I can't decide the road you choose
That's up to you
I'm only Jesus

Johnny had a good job
Rakin' it in
Caviar parties
With his well-to-do friends
Something was missing
From his perfect little life
He threw in the towel
And he called me one night

Betty was an orphan
Like so many kids
They taught her in school
That I didn't exist
She had every reason not to talk to me
But every night before bed
She got down on her knees
Just to tell me hi

And I said,
I'm sure glad you believe
'Cause everybody's free
And I'll help you if you ask me to,
I gave every star a name
The sunshine and the rain
But I can't decide the road you choose
That's up to you
I'm only Jesus

Hey you're all the same to me
Everybody's free
And I'll help you if you ask me to,
I gave every star a name
The sunshine and the rain
But I can't decide the road you choose
That's up to you
I'm only Jesus

I'm only Jesus
I'm Only Jesus

Gotta have Jesus to see the light
Gotta have Jesus to hold you tight
Gotta have Jesus to talk to me
I gotta have Jesus to set me free