Author's "Flame of Resistance" debut novel excellent

Flame of Resistance by Tracy Groot centers on the French Resistance during World War II. The Resistance goes against the Germans in order to return France to the French and rid the country of the Germans.

When a downed American pilot becomes pivotal in a plot against the Germans, a prostitute forced into her profession by circumstance who's a patriot will also become a key part of the plan.

This is a modern retelling of the biblical story of Rahab.

The book is compelling, moving, and interestingly written. Readers will sympathize and emphasize with Brigitte and root for both. The leaders of the French Resistance are just as memorable. There a lot of plot twists as well. An excellent read and a different look at the second world war and the effects German occupation had on Europeans and the little flame of hope for freedom that burns inside all of humanity, seeking God and longing to be free of oppression.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Scripture studying method - S.M.A.L.L.

Just came up with a new Scripture studying methods for those who want to be students of the Bible.

Big things have small beginnings.

Scripture.
Write down the Scripture God lays on your heart.


Meditate.
Spend a few minutes thinking about the Scripture. What sticks out to you from the passage? Does a certain word or phrase remind you of something? What is God saying?
  
Absorb.
Absorption is a fastest way to get healthy. Absorb Scripture. Memorize the verse. If you chose multiple verses, try to memorize the entire passage you selected or just one verse.

Live.
Think of practical ways you can apply the Scripture in your everyday life. This could be as simple as smiling at someone (kindness), or holding the door for someone (service). This could be anything; don't hold back! If God reveals something to you, embrace it!

Link. 
The last and most important part of Scripture studying is prayer. Linking to the Father, Son, and Spirit will do more to help you to complete the letters S, M, A, and L than anything else. Put God in remembrance of His promise. He will make your path straight.

Learning the Scriptures and applying them are not easy. Continuing to do it day after day is even harder. But the more you do it, the easier it is and the more fulfilling your life is. 

Good luck on diving into the Scriptures. My prayers are with you as you learn more about and explore the best relationship - the one that will never fail - you will ever experience. Get ready to meet or re-meet, and then embrace, the God of Heaven, the Comforter, and the Savior of the World.

To help you, my next post will be an example of Scripture studying using the S.M.A.L.L method.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

I'M BACK!!!!!!

I can't believe that I haven't blogged in such a long time. Well, break was, well, break. It was a normal break, and a good one at that. School has been, well, school. There isn't much to say about either of them after five semesters, and beginning my sixth, and facing two more (although one significantly shorter than the other). One goal I have for this semester: straight A's. I haven't achieved this yet, and I WILL.

Also, I am pondering my future (which gives me a headache, really). I know that no one feels like it is their right to interfere with my life (I'm not likely to show much appreciation if they do, no matter how much I need the advice, unfortunately). I just want to say that I am in my Mass Media Law class (finally, after everyone with as many credits as I have have already taken it), and I must say that perhaps I have found a niche. I feel really passionately about a federal shield law for journalists, and I want to be involved in that creation (IT WILL COME) either as the fighter for it or the politician who advocates it (the former, I would prefer). I just don't know how. Well, I could be involved in media law. Still, the thought of all those years of law school makes me cringe inside (the costs of law school hardly help alleviate it). Plus, my undergraduate degree(s) hardly provide much in the way of getting into law school (although English IS on the right track but it is not THE track). AND I want to make sure this is not just me trying to make up for something else (I don't know what). But law school for a woman is hardly a dream. And I'm old - 21 is old, trust me - but not only that I'm about to graduate college in a year with TWO degrees, which do not involve the law anymore than Small Press Publishing (contracts) and Media Law (introductory) are prepatory classes which practically don't even count! Why would this be growing in my heart the past two years? (Unfortunately, the years are right, even though I haven't admitted it to anyone until, um, today. Yea...).

Basically - I'm too scared to go to law school, too scared of failing. And I do not want to fail. What if this is God's plan for me? Why wasn't it more obvious...or, why didn't I listen?

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Well, I haven't had any problems with planes or trains. Big shock, as I have nothing to do with any of them.

It all started with an automobile.

Something messed up over the summer - it literally stranded my sister on the highway to St. Charles, needed a new engine and oil - and since then it's been monthly disasters.

Well, we couldn't get a good car fast enough, so we replaced the engine. Then there were oil problems, problems with keeping oil in it - a leak, plus it needed to be changed (it was long overdue). And now the power steering fluid is leaking, which is probably being chalked up to the new engine, since it wasn't doing it before the new engine.

Now I'm going home. Again. I mean, I may live in Cape Girardeau, but I'm pretty sure I reside in St. Louis, very much so. Then again, I've always mailed packages back to St. Louis because I don't "trust" the school system down here. I am finally sending something to myself down here. (Cape is south of St. Louis, pretty much south of any big city. I love Cape.)

So, compounded with fifteen credit hours, increased responsibility at the Arrow where I work, driving home in October and September to work over 20 hours a weekend, increased responsibility within every student organization I'm involved in, and inter-relational conflict, among other things, it's been stressful.

I love it. I swear I do. (The busyness, not the car trouble.) But man I don't know what else I can handle. At least death isn't being thrown in the mix. Actually, scratch that, a relative did die recently (I'm telling you, it's yearly), but I didn't personally know him - my parents did, though.

My help comes from the Lord, whom I can trust.

Cast all your burdens onto the Lord. Christ shares our yoke, and makes it light and easy. I'm worrying/stressing myself out needlessly. Christ provides, comfort, nurturing, and meeting our basic needs. He always has, always will. I'm going into His strong arms right now.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

Other 10/30 s in the Bible

Deuteronomy 10:30
But Hobab replied, “No, I will not go. I must return to my own land and family.”

Joshua 10:30
There, too, the Lord gave them the town and its king. He killed everyone in it, leaving no survivors. Then Joshua killed the king of Libnah as he had killed the king of Jericho.

2 Kings 10:30
Nonetheless the Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well in following my instructions to destroy the family of Ahab. Therefore, your descendants will be kings of Israel down to the fourth generation.”

Ezra 10:30
From the family of Pahath-moab: Adna, Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.

Nehemiah 10:30
“We promise not to let our daughters marry the pagan people of the land, and not to let our sons marry their daughters.

Proverbs 10:30
The godly will never be disturbed, but the wicked will be removed from the land.

Isaiah 10:30
Scream in terror,
you people of Gallim!
Shout out a warning to Laishah.
Oh, poor Anathoth!

Matthew 10:30
And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. [Nothing is too hard for God to keep track of, and He loves His children. This means that God is counting daily, he knows how many hairs are on your head currently, how many were in the past, and how many there will be in the future (because math can tell you that number, and God is the King and Lord of Math). God is amazing.]

Mark 10:30
"...that person will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life."

Luke 10:30
Jesus repliedwith a story: “A Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

John 10:30
"The Father and I are one.”

Acts 10:30
Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me.

1 Corinthians 10:30
If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it?

Hebrews 10:30
For we know the one who said,

“I will take revenge.
I will pay them back.”[h]

He also said,

“The Lord will judge his own people.” (References to the Old Testament.)

Every single one of these verses spoke to me. They made me wonder...and think! God is good.

There a lot of references to land and property. Is God trying to say something...take back the Land the Lord has given you, so you may have eternal life? It's yours in which to spread the Gospel in your sphere of influence.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

What if God wrote every name in the Book of Life at the creation of the world, as Revelation states?

What if our names get erased as soon as we are born, for we are born with a sinful nature and therefore cannot enter heaven?

And then, when we accept Christ, our names go into the Lamb's Book of Life, which is the Book that will save us or condemn us?

OMG. This is a revelation that I think just might explain some of the contradictions that Revelation seems to present (for the Word is completely true). It is the single most terrifying, interesting, fascinating book in the entire Word of God. I think, though, that it must be taken with a grain of salt. I believe that the end of the world will be completely supernatural, when the supernatural is released on the earth and people do see supernatural things they cannot believe or accept. I don't understand why they won't believe, but I can only guess that their eyes are blind and hearts are hard because of previous influences. More on Revelation musings later!

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Lots of Love,

Rachel

Babies, babies, babies!

The adorable precious little angels God gives are everywhere, it seems. I am not pregnant myself; I am still a happy virgin and proud of it. I will be waiting until my wedding night, thank you very much.

I do however know many, many pregnant people. It's strange how excited women get - despite the sickness, they never seem to blame their baby, never once. That's because as women we have a special relationship with children - we carry them inside of us for months, and they live on 3% of what we intake during that time, according to my friend's baby book. They need their mother; without the mother they would die.

It's an amazing gift God has given to us women in spite of the problems we possess. It shows that He does NOT blame us for eating the fruit. It is not, I want to add, women's faults. ADAM, the man who was in charge of the woman, was ALSO there. He was standing right there listening to the snake and did not stop his wife from listening at all. And that is why, really, he got the worst end of the deal.

Anyway, we are blessed. Sure, it's annoying, it's hard, it's tiring, and once the baby comes it's a lifelong commitment (trust me, few kids leave at 18 and never return - my family is the prime example of that).

But still. Holding the baby, feeling its warm body sitting on your lap, holding it while its sleeping, have it smiling at you, kissing you, hugging you, wanting to be near you...it's euphoric and addicting. I can see why mothers become incredibly attached to their children - they were once inside of your body, and now are outside of it, but still want to be part of it. As they grow older they don't want it, but still. At one time they were completely in love with you, and they still are.

So it's that time of the year...babies! I wish I was married so I could have a baby! I'm enjoying my free time, and of course I want a whole flock of children, 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or a dozen or two dozen. Eventually they just walk right out! lol. I want a lot of arrows in my quiver for the Lord, and I want to bring about new life. I am also fine adopting children, and will probably foster or adopt many, many children. Maybe I can't run an orphanage, but I can adopt one.

Earthquakes!

I actually submitted this as an Op Ed for my college newspaper The Arrow.

Earthquakes, earthquakes everywhere! And they are not going to be going away. What is going on?

In Chile, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake there has only killed 700 people, unlike the Haiti earthquake where the death toll is increasing to almost 200 thousand. Yet the earthquake in Chile threw the Earth off its axis and changed the way the Earth rotates around the sun, perhaps permanently. It made shorter days.

There’s no need to get excited and think that we suddenly get more sleep time. The shift was 1.26 microseconds, barely noticeable, but a bigger earthquake - or a series of earthquakes - could completely alter the landscape of the world. The reason why the Chile earthquake affected the Earth more deeply was because the Chilean fault runs deeper than other faults.

Recently there has been an earthquake felt in Southeast Missouri. One person supposedly felt it here in Cape. Some people are more sensitive to these things than others, such as that mini-earthquake a year ago that was felt almost all the way to Ohio along our own infamous active faultline, the New Madrid faultline, billed as the second most dangerous fault in the United States. Some people woke up at 5 a.m. in the morning to feel it, and some did not. Some noted the 10 a.m. aftershock and some did not.

Apparently, in 2012 there might be a major earthquake along the New Madrid faultline. We are certainly overdue for one, even though no one should wish for an earthquake. We probably won’t experience one as devastating as the one in 1812 (which was worse than the one in San Fransisco in 1905) but a damaging one probably resembling the Haitian earthquake from New Orleans all the way north, maybe a little better or worse.

Right now, our economy cannot afford a major earthquake and displaced people. Just look at Katrina. No one was prepared for that.

So what is causing these earthquakes? There are differing opinions. Some say its natural, that earthquakes happen all the time. That’s true, they do, and perhaps the only reason they are so damaging is because our population grew from the millions into the billions seemingly over only a few decades. Of course 50 people in 1890 isn’t as devestating as 3,000 people in 1990, for example. So population growth and nature might not be getting along.

Another reason is global warming. Global warming is watery and gives us a feel good answer and a reason to feel guilty. Most of the world probably disagrees, but in the Post-Dispatch a few months ago there was an article that said that German scientists have begun to investigate the validity of it and aren’t finding any proof for it. Nature is tough and survives anything. It isn’t trying to get revenge on us. After all, nature is still around from the supposed accident that wiped out dinosaurs, which destroyed all the plants and animals - yet here we are. There’s not too much to worry about.

Another reason reflects the religious side. Now everyone is pretty leery of any talk of the end of the world from the religious perspective (as long as John Cusack is saving the world and makes it out alive we feel good). But no one - even non-Christian history records aspects- can deny that 2000 years ago Jesus said that before the last days there would be ‘earthquakes and rumors of earthquakes’ in the world. Well, we’ve certainly seen earthquakes, and we’ve heard rumors of earthquakes, on a large-scale magnitude. And those earthquakes are pretty damaging. Can anyone say freaky? So maybe we’re seeing biblical history clash with recent world history. Maybe it’s so we can get our lives right with God. It’s certainly an explanation, and not too bad of one, either. End of the world, here we come!

Lots of Love,

Rachel

Freedom from Debt

Deuteronomy 28 lists curses that happen if you do not obey the commands of God (basically the 10 Commandments) and blessings if you do. Remember how Jesus said, "The commandments can be summed up in 2 commands: Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor." Jesus revolutionized us. That is why we are under a curse in America. We aren't loving God or our neighbors. If we do, we will be free! We need to start loving people again. I for one am planning on doing that. He does not want us to live in poverty - God wants to bless us but cannot.

Lots of Love,

Rachel

Ram's Game

Today, even though I live in St. Louis, I went to my very first Rams game - and I am almost 20 years old! They lost 13-16 against the Houston Texans in the last quarter, but that does not matter. What matters is that I discovered a team - the Rams. They may not be the best, they may not have won the Superbowl this century, but at least they do not cheat. They played well today, and I wish God had rewarded them - and the audience - with a win. But it isn't about winning. It's how you play the game. And they played well.

Really, though,

Lots of Love,

Rachel