Thousand Foot Krutch

Thousand Foot Krutch
I love this band. I listen to them daily. Even though we are looking at another camera, we all look like we're alert for it being a fan signing and it's 11:30 p.m. on a Friday.

13 December 2011

Finals

Finals are this week, or at least this month, for a lot of people. It's a stressful time, even if a student is not attending an Ivy League school. All schools hold finals in high regard.

Why? I don't know. I guess because they are the end of the semester test, the ability for teachers to know if you have learned something from their class.

I like the non-comprehensive finals, ones that serve as a third or fourth test that students get to spend two hours dawdling over (although few, but not all, only take half that time -- still, it's the IDEA that students have two hours that people like).

The comprehensive finals add more stress to an already stressful week. Better yet, professors should just give final projects and let that serve as the culmination of a student's knowledge. After all, how many of us are really going to remember the square root of 95 in our lives, no matter how useful that might be?

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

12 December 2011

My Phone

Three days after my phone battery dropped down an elevator shaft and remained there, I finally got it back. I had almost 100 text messages that I missed over those three days.

WOW!

After whining to my RA and everyone else and spending too much time on Facebook and email, it returned.

I do, however, see the good in the situation. I was able to study for my finals, since I was not distracted by texting...and yes, texting IS a distraction. Of course, I was also thinking about my poor phone battery the whole time.

How did such a weird thing happen?

I really don't know. I was walking - really, Saturday was a horrible day, remedied only by dinner with Laura and Mike at McDonalds - to the elevator for something, I think laundry, and my phone dropped and broke open...and the battery went down the crack in the elevator. How the battery went down that crack I will never know because I wasn't watching it ... I just heard it hit the bottom. I'm pretty sure my finger got cut off (just teasing - I'm saying my phone is like a body part). And stayed there (because who can get to a battery in a crack in an elevator floor?) for three days - and a weekend, and everyone knows that weekends are a busy time for hotels.

Ugh! I worried about it, I checked on it (meaning I looked down the crack in the elevator when I went down the elevator), and I talked about it. I am sure that everyone is super annoyed about it now and happy that I got it back so that I will shut up about it.

And now Justice [the name of my phone] works again and we are back together and happier than ever.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

11 December 2011

Gossip

My favorite topic, probably because girls are so bad about knowing what is gossip and what is not gossip.

I do believe that gossips stems from insecurity. After all, if you're saying something about someone's clothes or body, things that cannot be changed and reflect who a person is, then you have deep issues that you need to confront and work through.

So, let's look at gossip from the Bible's standpoint.

1.) Gossip can stem from a lack of self-confidence that other people pick up on. After picking up on the lack of self-confidence of someone, others then discuss it in circles. God, however, punishes people who do humiliate and pick on other people who are already down, if you examine the rest of Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36:3

English Standard Version -- "Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people..." And so on.

MSG 1-7 -- "And now, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, 'Mountains of Israel, listen to God's Message. God, the Master, says, Because the enemy crowed over you, "Good! Those old hills are now ours!" now here is a prophecy in the name of God, the Master: Because nations came at you from all sides, ripping and plundering, hauling pieces of you off every which way, and you've become the butt of cheap gossip and jokes, therefore, Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. My Message to mountains and hills, to ditches and valleys, to the heaps of rubble and the emptied towns that are looted for plunder and turned into jokes by all the surrounding nations: Therefore, says God, the Master, now I'm speaking in a fiery rage against the rest of the nations, but especially against Edom, who in an orgy of violence and shameless insolence robbed me of my land, grabbed it for themselves. "Therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, preach to the mountains and hills, to every ditch and valley: 'The Message of God, the Master: Look! Listen! I'm angry—and I care. I'm speaking to you because you've been humiliated among the nations. Therefore I, God, the Master, am telling you that I've solemnly sworn that the nations around you are next. It's their turn to be humiliated."

Evil gossip. Here gossip gets an adjective - evil, as in, malicious, awful, horrible. Cheap is also used in some translations. So this is gossip at one of its worst points, where people are trying to humiliate someone else. As you can see, the object of the gossip then falls under God's protection.

2.) Gossip can stem just from evil hearts living in a fallen world. They are making it worse for others, but that is our world, sometimes.
Romans 1:29
English Standard Version -- "They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips..."
Romans 1:28-32
MSG: Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

3) Gossip can stem from lacking discipline, guidance and respect. A gossip may refuse to turn from their old way of life into the new way of life. Jealousy, quarreling, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder are all grouped together.

2 Corinthians 12:20
English Standard Version (ESV)
20For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

The Message (MSG)
12: 20-21 I do admit that I have fears that when I come you'll disappoint me and I'll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces—quarrels, jealousy, flaring tempers, taking sides, angry words, vicious rumors, swelled heads, and general bedlam. I don't look forward to a second humiliation by God among you, compounded by hot tears over that crowd that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways, who refuse to turn away from the pigsty of evil, sexual disorder, and indecency in which they wallow.

4) Gossip can stem from not having enough to do, and having a "we're just hanging out" mentality. It can stem from restlessness.

1 Timothy 5:13
English Standard Version (ESV)
13Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

The Message (MSG)
5: 11-15 Don't put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they'll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way. By breaking their word, they're liable to go from bad to worse, frittering away their days on empty talk, gossip, and trivialities. No, I'd rather the young widows go ahead and get married in the first place, have children, manage their homes, and not give critics any foothold for finding fault. Some of them have already left and gone after Satan.

A clarification. Slander is malicious lies that people tell about others, with the intent of destroying another's reputation or life. Gossip may or may not be lies, but it is idle talk, may or may not be malicious, and is about people's personal lives. Some people don't realize that gossip most closely resembles "just talking about others," and mistake it for slander. Some gossip is stronger and comes extremely close to slander.

So we need to avoid it, watch what we say, and who we hang with. Sometimes we need to directly confront the person partcipating or pertuating gossip.

And remember.

If you wouldn't say it to the person you're talking about, don't say it to anyone else.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Blessed are you who mourn...

This is for everyone out there who's had a rough week/month/year. "Blessed are those who mourn [weep, wail, moan in deep sadness], for they shall be comforted." Prayer for you: "The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, be with them in their time of mourning. Bring them Your joy and your peace, which passes all understanding. For the Lord says, "Weeping may last for a night, but the joy of the Lord comes in the morning." Love you all!" :)

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

05 December 2011

Comments

FINALLY! Comments work on my blog. They will show up now!

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Lessons from Jacob

Genesis 25-Genesis 33 - Jacob lost his whole family, way of life, his material possessions, and his land. He was fleeing for his life, despite having God's blessing and being the son who would inherit from his father. Even if we lose our whole family and way of life, God is still with us. We never lose God!

Eventually, Jacob received more than he could ever dream of (all twelve of his children were born before he ever got back to the "Promised Land") despite having lost everything. And God prepared the way Jacob and Esau eventually reconciled. God is a god of RECONCILIATION, of mending broken relationships! Amen.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

04 December 2011

The Redemption (Legacy of the King's Pirates #1)The Redemption by M.L. Tyndall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a fantastic, must read book. It was my first introduction to MaryLu Tyndall. I bought the book with a gift card to Borders (now out of business, unfortunately). It was at the very top of the shelf, but somehow (divinely inspired), it found its way into my hands.



Charlisse is now my favorite heroine (my other favorite being Hadassah in Francine Rivers' "The Mark of the Lion" trilogy).



Charlisse is abused and neglected by her uncle in London. She flees him in search of the father she never knew, a pirate. She becomes shipwrecked and is found by Captain Merrick, a man filled with Christian compassion who desperately wants to stop Edward the Terror, one of the most vicious pirates on the sea and his former captain.



With pose, passion, and dignity, Tyndall weaves the story of Charlisse and Merrick on the tapestry of the Caribbean with God and Christ at the helm.



Merrick is noble, brave, and charismatic, but harbors deep pain.



Charlisee, too, is brave, fiery, and cautious, but hides dark secrets.



She keeps readers guessing and wondering - just what is Charlisse hiding, what happened to Merrick, who's Edward the Terror, and how does Charlisse factor in to this cylce?



There is no sexual content other than kissing, although some of the minor men (sailors, Charlisse's uncle) are licentious.



There are battle scenes, but these are well-done, and not presented as gory messes.



Drugs and drinking are frowned upon as bad habits and something people shouldn't do.



The language is appropriate with nothing foul.



A must read book, fantastic, entertaining, spiritually uplifting book!



View all my reviews



Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Discipling: Psalm 91 Five-to-ten-minute Bible study

Here is a brand new Bible study to enhance your knowledge of the Bible.

A pretty common Psalm, but it needs to be looked at deeply. Stay tuned for more Bible studies!

Read Psalm 91 out loud. There is a link below.
Psalm 91

Questions:

Who does God honor?
Where should we strive to be?
When we are under the shelter of God, who do we fear?
Does God keep us safe in any situation? How?
Does God want us to be afraid?

1.) Pick out one, two, or three verses that leave an impression or say something to you.

2.) Search through those Scriptures. Answer the following questions, if possible.

What promises from God are there?

What warnings from God are there?

How do the characters mentioned in the Scriptures (players, i.e., angels, demons, other people, God) relate to our lives?

What does this say about our culture or society?


3.) Paraphrase the Scriptures in your own words.

4.) Pray the Scripture over a family member, a friend, or someone you know who needs to be saved. Ask God how you can outreach to them and be His hands and feet to them.

4.) Make up a short song, story, drawing, or poem that relates to the Scripture (if you wish). Or think of some creative way to express the Scriptures you chose.

Thanks! Love you all with Christ's love.


Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel