Yay! Birthday!!

Today/Yesterday was my birthday!

Monday night Alex took me out to the mall, then Falsettas Casa Nova (an Italian Resteraunt in Lansing), Coldstone, then back to his house to hang out with A.jay and play games etc. My best friend is the best of the best. :)

Today for my actual birthday I got to go to class! :-p

I GOT JOHN G. LAKE!!! His complete life teachings!!! Oh man! This guy is incredible. I was reading some earlier.

I also got a new wide margin NIV bible, some money, and a gas gift card. Mom says there's another gift in the mail that should be here Thursday. :-)

Tonight a bunch of kids met together at Beaners to celebrate. It was David, Erin, Alex, A.jay, Jake and Spring! It was awesome to hang out/see everyone. David let me borrow the first season of 24 so I've been watching that.

Good Birthday! <3

Goal

I really would love to read through the entire bible before starting FMA next fall. The reason I only calculated 6 months is because I tend to meditate on certain things for extended periods of time. I techniqually have 10 months before starting school. I gave myself extra time for going through Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, The Gospels, Revelation, Timothy etc. Just because I know myself and the themes I get caught in.

Here's the plan.

is 1,189 chapters in the bible.
1,189/6 (months from January to June) = approximately 200
200/30 (days in a month) = approximately 6-7 chapters a day. To read and meditate upon.

So here's the deal. I'm working a part time job. Going to school, studying, doing homework, maintaing close friendships, teaching/planning Sunday School, going to church and participating in 3 worship teams.

So in order to succeed in this I plan on not really doing anything else other then the things listed above. I will not be talking on aim, blogging more than once a week on my blog spot. I know I keep in contact with some people through myspace so I will probably schedule in time once a month for an hour or so to get on there and comment back people. Same with livejournal because I like praying for the needs of others and people write about their needs on livejournal. As for posting, or continuously being on these sites that is going to be very rapidly different.

I still will use my email. So if you ever need anything my email is abbysec@yahoo.com, I use my email a lot for receiving church information/prayer requests/keeping in contact with good friends/getting information from Shawn about financial aid. So I'll be checking it on a daily basis. Basically what I'm getting at is that I won't be hard to contact, but I may be hard to stay connected to.
I will not answer my phone if I'm doing something else. If you happen to call me when I'm driving or when I'm having some down time I'll answer. But if I'm doing something else I will not pick up. There are exceptions of course such as emergencies, family members etc.
This does not apply to my Sunday School class because I feel it is my job to remain available to them.
Also there are there are a few friendships I truely care about (i.e. Alex, Sherri, Jake and A.jay + Sunday School members) that I feel I should keep in close contact with for social purposes and the whole issue of these are my best friends and I would rather continuously build my friendship with them before saying goodbye rather than avoid all contact with them what so ever.

There's bunches I want to get done and I'm just not finding the time with my current life of being on the computer a majority of the time. I need to buckle down more on school and my studies. I want to read a bunch of books. (See list at bottom). I want to be journaling everyday again, I want to practice flute, piano, and voice more. It's not that people or these things are distractions. There is just little time to accomplish the things I want while focusing on aim and internet fun a majority of the time.

So here's Abby. Signing off. At least for now.

Book List.
1. Rewards of Fasting
2. End Times Simplified
3. Passion for Jesus
4. The Book of God
5. Paul
6. Captivating
7. Shine
8. Jesus Freaks
9. Eragon
10. 7 Longings of the Human heart.
11. The 5 love languages.
12. Xenocide
13. John G. Lake Anthology
Then of course the Bible.

My quest for a cheese burger is becoming futile.

My birthday is right around the corner so tonight Jake, Kristina and I went to best buy to scope out potential birthday/christmas presents.

Mostly all I want is money for school next year. But I did happen to find a few items that would be nice to have.

I am a music major. And what music major doesn't need a good keyboard. I do happen to own a keyboard currently, but it is broken and not very good. :) So a new keyboard to have for next semester and the next 3 years in Kansas City would be wonderful.

<- This is Kristina showing off one that I had a lot of fun playing in the store. Haha she is hilarious.






I have a lap top so I am set computer wise. But I am lacking in the printer/scanner department. This covers both of those. I need to be able to print off papers for school next year so this would be an essential thing to have.


Jake is one of my all time favorite people. :) I love this boy to death!!! After shopping and going to Taco Bell I went over to his house, we watched Everwood and drank rootbeer. Then just hung out. I have so much fun with him. He's a great guy and super funny!







Looking at digital cameras was quite the task, because none of us really know what we're doing in that department.


Here's Kristina showing off what I thought was the best one one for its price.

A digital camera would be awesome because I want to get some good shots of friends and I before I leave next year. Then Christmas is coming up and there's always things to take pictures of at Christmas. Also I need to get a few shots of myself for my brochure. Then of course OneThing. It would just be handy and awesome to have.

crazy day.

Sunday School and Church were coolio. Will and I had so much fun this morning dancing and watching the prayer room! Awesome sauce stuff. He's a good kid. After church I rescheduled plans with Miranda to go out to lunch because Sherri has to work all week and she leaves Friday for a 2 week visit in New Jersey. Sherri's my best friend so I wanted to spend time with her before she left. We went to Old Country Buffet. It was mega-expensive so I was annoyed with that a bit. Good times though! I love our talks. She kept making jokes about my life events which were absolutely hilarious. I couldn't breathe so many times. It was great. I love her too death.

On the way home I got stopped by a police man for failing to stop at a stop sign. I actually failed to stop at the sign because I was distracted by the police car across from the intersection. It was just plain stupidity. I was watching the police car wondering what he was doing there. Then drove right by, looked to Sherri and said... "I just passed a stop sign didn't I?" Oh man. I got a ticket and a valuable lesson/story I believe God will use a countless number of times.

Went home in tears and calmed my parents down. I'm not in trouble. They were more upset that my registration had been missing, which turned out to be my Dad's mistake which is equal to my Mom getting very angry. I think over all they forgot that I had ran a stop sign. My parents are crazy but I love them.

I got ready for work then went to work. It wasn't too bad tonight because it was associates night. Basically the store was open from 6-9 pm tonight when we usually close Sundays at 7pm. Friends, Family and people who just happened to see we were still working got to have the prices of all items lowered to "Day after thanksgiving" prices and then 10% taken off. Suffice to say, tonight I got a $200 coat for $70. :) I really needed a new coat for the up coming Michigan weather. So this was very good. Low point of my shift would be that I had a pen in my pocket after writing price tags. The pen exploded in my pocket. It happened to be the pocket my cell phone was in. :) It was a pretty awesome design of blue. Fortunately I was able to get most of it off with nail polish remover once I got home.

P.S. I love Jesus.

Notes from Tonight! :)

“A man after God's own heart” 1 Samuel 13:14
(prophet says, God is looking after men seeking after His heart).

2 Principles to being a person after God's own heart.
-commitment to obey the commands of the Lord. Dedication of the will of God.
-Cultivating insight into the emotion of God's heart. (often neglected).
(This was very important to David).

Revelations of the passion of God's heart.
You're never going to obey more than you have revelation of the passion of Gods heart.
We'll never be a people after God's own heart if we don't have insight into the emotion of God's heart. Revelation of His passions and His pleasures. What burns and delights in his heart.

Why? 1 John 4:19. The beholding and becoming principle of heart transformation. Whatever you behold in God has a corresponding dimension of becoming it in our character/behavior.
We love Him. Because we first had revelation of a lover. If you want to love him more, experience Him. Behold the lover and become a lover. We love by looking at the one who loves.
How do you have passion for Jesus? Study His passion for you.

We need experiential understanding of this doctrine. It will awake unquenchable thirst.

Knowledge on God emotionally...
We have to have a little bit of insight on what God looks like emotionally to know what we look like when He looks at us.

Common views of the church on God:
not a God of pleasure or burning desires, filled with transcendent beauty.
Has a benevolent toleration of people.
Distant.
Over does it.
Demands more of us than is realistic.
Has a high standard that crushes anyone that endeavors to do it.
Stands in a distance in a cold analytical way and evaluates us.
This idea of God will lead us to a locked heart and infects a responding to the great lover of all the ages. The image of what God looks like is so off that the image of what we look like to God is off.

You could never know your true self by gazing into the eyes of the creator. It's the only way we can ever understand who we are and what we really look like in truth. You can't find that in yourself.

7 Dimensions of progressing in the love of God.

1. The adoring gaze of Mary of Bethany. Gazing heart is where it begins. Responding to the wooing's of graze. Luke 10:42. “one thing” is needed. We can't do life right without the events that begin with the adoring gaze. Jesus says its necessary.

2. Discoveries of the knowledge of God. Little ones, little portions of revelation. Bride Groom and King and Judge.

3. God of transcendent beauty. God smiles and has a happy heart. The assurance of being enjoyed by God even in our weakness.

4. Ability to enjoy God. Love God (1st Commandment).

5. You begin to enjoy and love yourself with God's love.

6. The ability to enjoy and love others (2nd Commandment).

7. Faith and Power are activated by love. Galatians 5:6

Faith is activated by love. You can't have love until you love your neighbor. You're not gonna love your neighbor anymore than you enjoy yourself. You're not going to enjoy yourself until you enjoy God. You're not going to enjoy God until you know God enjoys you. You're not going to know God enjoys you until you gaze on His heart.

Genesis

Genesis 1

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Okay so why was it necessary for there to be a tree of good and evil? If it were never created, that sin would not have happened. I think sin would have still become existent in some other way I suppose and I understand the whole reasoning. Sin allows us free choice/will. Without sin we are just puppets who are doing the bidding of God right? But then again, it's different. How come we're not all like Jesus from the dawn of creation? I know Jesus and God are 2 in the same so it is different in the terms of we are not God's. But couldn't we exist and have free will like Jesus had but have sin not be a striding factor. I think I just turned in circles and confused myself.

So this current theme is existence without sin and why God created the option to sin when we could live in free choice like Jesus had. But then, now that I think of it, not chosing Jesus is a sin, right? That's essentially what blasphamy is. So automatically not having the option to sin eliminates free choice because you immediately have no other option but to turn to Jesus or sin.

Okay then theres the whole: Would it compromise our free will to have known the knowledge about what is right and what is wrong before sin entered the world? Why didn't God create man already having this knowledge? The vast knowledge He has far surpasses that even miniscule idea. So why were we not created with that wisdom. I suppose in a sense we were because Adam and Eve knew it was in their best interest to serve their creator. However they failed to do so.

Let me know your thoughts. Anonymous people who leave me comments now. :)

word one

admire.

Creativity

"I have been blessed by God. And if I'm blessed, there is one reason and one reason only, and that is to help others."
~Akiane

This little girls art work is absolutely incredible. I first heard about her from Kevin Wells last summer. He was speaking on the importance of creativity.

The other day, while you-tubing African mission videos I came across commercials for anti-tobacco companies/cigerettes. I had seen a few on tv and thought they were good so I watched a couple of the ads. They're really mind grasping. For instance in one commercial they have 2-3 people with mega-phones walking around outside a large tobacco company doing generous things for others. (i.e. one man helps and elderly woman out of a taxi cab typical good deed for the day type things) After doing a good deed the person then proceeds to announce into the mega-phone what he had just graciously done.

Then the commercial says "A tobacco company once gave $125,000 worth of food to a charity, according to an estimate by The Wall Street Journal. Then, they spent well over $21 million dollars telling people about it. I guess, when you sell a deadly, addictive product, you need all the good PR you can get."

This commercial caught my attention because it was a creative way of informing people. They weren't just saying the information, they were showing you. It reminded me of the Sermon on the Mount being humble lifestyles Jesus talked about.

Today was election day and I know many peoples' hearts were contending for the abortion issue in South Dakota. I have not heard the latest update with news on that. If this is to be passed it will essentially cause 13 other states to consider passing the laws. This is very good news!! Lately I am awe-struck especially after my Writing 121 class last week where we debated the issue of abortion. There is such a grey area in our American culture. No, absolute truth but a democratic command issuing punishment. I could go on for days writing about my opinions on absolute truth and how our culture does or does not abide by right and wrong values set by God. For absolute truth is true for all people, in all places, at all times.

Anyway, my point being is I wish there was a way to be creative in the ways of acknowledging people on abortion. There are several I can think of. God willing I would love to be able to do the kinds of things they do in the tabacco commercials. Such as purchusing 753 thousand baby dolls and laying them in front of the largest abortion clinic in america. So they can see the amount of life killed. They see what that number really looks like. And that's only the number of abortions had in the gestational age of less than 9 weeks. I'm full of these ideas. Some may be pretty gruesome... But like the truth commercials say "knowledge is contagious."

Okay there's my rantings for tonight. I'm homesick for Kansas City! And Very excited for OneThing! :)