Desert Song

Desert Song by Hillsong from the This Is Our God cd
Verse 1:
This is my prayer in the desert
When all that’s within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

Verse 2:
This is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame

Chorus:
I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

Verse 3:
This is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I’ll stand

Bridge:
All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

Verse 4:
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favour and providence flow
I know I’m filled to be emptied again
The seed I’ve received I will sow


This is what I'm singing right now. Anybody else singing along with me?

Happy New Year

This year is going to be great. I can just feel it. There is so much hope for the future.
Can you feel it?

Smiles

The Greatest Place To Pray?

Last night at small group there was a bit of a discussion about prayer and the greatest place to do it. The boys all said the bathroom. We, girls, thought that was a bit not right, but unfortunately for me I have to agree with the boys on this one... let me explain....

2 years ago I did a semester abroad in Costa Rica as a fulfillment of my Spanish major. Our home base was Costa Rica, but we also got to travel to Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala. I loved my entire time there and I wish I could've stayed there forever.

Now in Panama we visited an indigenous people group called the Kuna Yala. They live on a bunch of islands off the coasts of Panama and Colombia. We lived on an island that was maybe 4 square blocks in size. The left stick hut in the picture is the bathroom that I used for 5 days. The other stick hut is the lobster/crab cage. There was a two-by-four that you had to walk to get to the "bathroom." There was a hollowed out stump that you sat on to do your business and it was usually moist(and you hoped that was just from it being over the ocean). I prayed like Jesus was coming back tomorrow on that thing. It was scary and you could feel the current. It wasn't the most stable structure ever.

Here is a view from... well I was standing on the two-by-four that led to the "bathroom" to take this picture of my host siblings. We slept in hammocks. We ate fish. We lived in solidarity. And in poverty. Of course, they saw themselves as rich because they had a fishing business and they had 30 coconuts. It was a crazy 5 days, but well worth it. My eyes were opened to so many things.

My high school youth pastor had this saying. "God is known, love is felt, lives are changed." Well that saying explained my entire trip.

Maybe I'll blog more about my semester abroad and use my pictures. This is just a small taste of it all. :-)

Track

Yesterday at work, I was ringing up a man's Bible purchase and he said to me, "Do you know Jesus?" And then proceeded to hand me a track. I said, "Yes I do," and tried to give him his track back. I then said something to the effect of you can give this to someone who doesn't. He then said, "Well maybe you should double check and read this." Where he then handed the track back to me. I bit my tongue and smiled and got a real sick feeling in my stomach. He left and my coworkers and I couldn't believe that had just happened.
Now I did read the track. I didn't disagree with it other than it used a lot of words with ith and eth at the end of them(I'm pretty sure this guy was from a KJV or else denomination--not that its a bad thing, but I'm a little more open to other translations). Maybe if I hadn't been on the clock, I would have told this man how inappropriate it was for him to ask me to double check if I know Jesus.
I'm pretty sure it says somewhere to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Then there's this idea that I agree with where yes you make that big first time decision to follow Jesus, but its a daily decision too. I mean I work to be a excellent as I can be, but I do fail sometimes so I do need to make a concious decision. Keep myself in check.
I do find it funny that the guy felt the need to ask me that. But what erks me the most is that he didn't even believe me. The entire transaction took like 3 minutes. How could he come to the conclusion that I'm a dishonest person in that amount of time?
We(all of us up front at the time it happened) did get a pretty good laugh out of it. At least I did hold my tongue with him and not lash out. I mean it could have gotten ugly.

Randomness inspired by Jenn

So this really cool person I know named Jenn posted 10 random facts/thoughts about herself a few days ago and I decided to do the same. You can read it or not.

1. I love building/making/creating things. Currently, I am building a little shelf organizer thing that my mom got me at IKEA(!!!) and when it is done I plan to paint it a beautiful shade of yellow(they're all beautiful). And Wednesday I'm going to start designing my next purse project. I also need to finish embroidering on my Bible cover. It has a lot of empty spaces that need a personal touch to them.

2. I was born in Defiance. No really. Its a town in Ohio. Check my birth certificate.

3. Me encanta hablar en español. Ojalá que haya tenido alguien a hablar conmigo en mi lengua favorita.

4. (side note: wow, this is hard to come up with these facts/thoughts all at once) My favorite movie is (of all time) 2001: Space Odyssey, with the close second being Cars.

5. My favorite color is yellow. It is such a happy color. But definitely needed in moderation. It can be overwhelming if improperly used.

6. Knowing that God has something for me to do in the future makes doing my retail job a whole lot easier sometimes, but knowing that God has put me in my current position for a reason also helps me to get up in the morning and return to my not-so ideal job.

7. I'm fickle about the whole falling in love thing. Somedays it sounds great and then other days it sounds awful. I guess half of me is an adult and the other half an elementry age girl who thinks that boys have cooties. I also think that love looks different that what it is portrayed in Hollywood.

8. I'm a big journaler... journal writer? Well needless to say, that's the reason I don't blog much. My thoughts are too... private... maybe offensive... blunt? I don't know, but I just would rather keep them to myself, but for the most part my journal entries are pretty dull. Also, I think that if you really want to know what's happening inside my head, you should just ask. I'll probably tell you.

9. I'm a poser. I try to make it seem like I have half a clue when it comes to musical things, but I really don't. It takes me hours to transpose. I have trouble finding other notes(well other than the root) that work in a chord(which seems to be a pretty important skill for bass players). I don't have an internal rhythm, which is why its really hard for me to keep a beat. There's just a lot of things I don't understand and the only reason I get a few things is because my really cool colllege roommate Becca has given me cheat sheets. I am trying to get better. I'm a pretty linear person. Music is like an emotion to me so my linear brain has trouble grasping what is happening. I do believe that some songs are just made for a person. Like they tug at your heart strings. Like you can just feel the song around you. (and now you know why I journal... its thoughts like these)

10. Ok the last one. I will always love the Newsboys. I know they're taking a turn for the even worse and yes, I do wish they would retire so that we could just remember their Not Ashamed through Thrive years. But they're not going to so I'm going to continue to buy their over priced cds of stuff I already have. Thanks to GO coming out for the 3rd full time(its live this time), but seriously I'm a loyal person. They could pull a Ray B and I'd still love them. (That would explain the eyeliner that they wear almost all of the time). Ok yes that was wrong, but admit it... you laughed.

That was fun. I'd do more, but I should end it here. You should do it too. :-)

New Rob Bell book

Sometimes I wonder why I bother reading the new stuff. Especially from him.
I enjoyed Velvet Elvis and didn't like Sex God, so I knew this book could be either. Well it was both.
He does a comparison between Israel and Christians. He makes some good points, but they're all destroyed by repetion and awful writing. Did anybody proof this book? Now I know he writes like he talks(which work in VE), but this was just bad. Everything was hard to follow because of the way it was written. Now maybe he wanted you to have to reread every paragraph or mini sentence. But seriously.
Also he wasted so much paper with that book. There is so much blank space in it. That's probably so I can make my own remarks next to his words, but when I don't own the book then that's pretty pointless space there.
I like the explanation of the 4 periods of Israel and his comparison to other things that have those same 4 periods. But I don't know about him.
Well I actually wanted to stop reading after the 3rd chapter, but knew that people would ask me about so I decided to finish it.
But really... I don't think reading it is necessary.
If you want to read a good book... then try Jesus for President by Shane Claibourne(sp?). But that is just my opinion.