I'm Still Alive!

I thought I'd post something since I haven't posted in awhile. Ah, school! And work (thank God)! I got out of that pit with the help of my good friend (atleast I like to think so) Beth Moore. I am excited about writing the book that I feel commissioned to write. God has been encouraging me along the way and teaching me how to do this. Take that, Satan! I am also loving the teaching gift that I once thought I absolutely did not want. They say that someone who has the gift of worship will get fired up after seeing great worship. That's how it was for me at the Stockton LPL. Beth got me fired up about teaching. I am using this gift now as a high school youth group leader, and LOVING it! I am growing so much before embracing it, and Scott (my awesome pastor) has noticed a big change in my confidence level. I love that teaching brings me closer to God by forcing me to dig down deeper and to more actively engage in conversation with God!

I am happy to also say that Covenant Grove Church launched almost a month ago! Please keep our church in your prayers. We can't wait to see what God will do through the Grove!

God's been doing huge things in my life lately, and I am so incredibly grateful to Him! I would not trade walking with my Almighty Bridegroom for anything in the world! I pray that you also will feel His loving arms around you, no matter what season your life is in! God bless!

Book Update And A Prayer Request

Hey, everyone. As of now, the book officially has a beginning. God provided an awesome introduction (at least I think so) to help get me started. I'm still in the beginning process of taking notes, but for someone like me who is afraid of having absolutely no idea how to put a book together, having a beginning to the actual book gives me hope. So far God has been guiding me through this and providing resources, so I'm pretty sure this is something He wants me to do. Also, I as I read about videos being made by people who think that Prop 8 was all about hate, I feel that it is important to get this book about why marriage is sacred and how it represents our relationship to God done and out on shelves as soon as possible. One thing that frustrates me in the argument for gay marriage is the main argument: "Love is love." I want to provide a detailed description about the love in marriage and where it comes from, because "love is love," just doesn't satisfy my philosophical mind.

Please pray for me as Satan is attacking me throughout this process and I know he will continue to so even after the book is published. Currently, I am struggling with fears of incompetence. I have no idea how to write a book and I am afraid it won't turn out very well. I'm so afraid of failing. Please keep me in your prayers and pray that I will faithfully follow God through this and trust Him to guide me through it. My world the past year has been one where I have experienced so much hate from people because I believe marriage is sacred and is meant to be between one man and one woman. Sometimes I feel like the book will have no impact other than to make a target for a larger group of people looking for someone to take their anger out on. But then I remember Jesus on the cross. Satan came at Him with a large crowd of mockers, but He trusted in the power of God and the victory went to the ONE backed by the power of God, not to the many who mocked God. I'm going to trust that God will do the same with this book. Please, if you are reading this blog, I ask that you would stop by every once in awhile and leave a comment of encouragement to help me along. You have no idea how much I would appreciate it along this difficult journey! Thank you and God bless! I'll give you another update soon!

Prayer Request

Hi, everyone. I just talked to a young woman that Brad Wiiliams, Nicole Naravage, and I served with at an aborigine church in the southern part of Taiwan last year. The church was very small and within walking distance from a river in Pingtung County, which was hit hard by the typhoon. Fortunately, the person I talked to was not in the area and is fine, but she said that the village is full of water and someone is still missing in the river. Roads and bridges were also damaged, and the road to Pingtung is closed, so family members are unable to get down there. Please pray for that the person who is still missing will be found safe, as well as for all the others who are still missing. Please also pray that God will provide the much needed help and funds to repair the damage. Last but not least, please pray that God will bring good from this disaster by using it to bring people to Him. Thank you. Your prayers are much appreciated!

Don't Take The Girl

Hello peoples! I was driving home from my grandma's house tonight and Tim McGraw's song "Don't Take the Girl" came on the radio. The part where the wife is dying after having their baby and he pleads with God to let him take her place totally reminded me of Jesus on the cross. He came down to plead for God to take Him instead. Here's the verse of the song:

"Take the very breath You gave me.
Take the heart from my chest.
I'll gladly take her place if You'll let me.
Make this my last request.
Take me out of this world.
God, please don't take the girl."

Just like the song Jesus sang for us, His Bride, up there on the cross. Jesus showed us that GOD IS WILLING TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING EXCEPT US!!! Granted, He'll let us go if we choose to walk away, but He gave up EVERYTHING to hold on to those that choose Him. This song reminds me so much of God's love for His Bride. He gave His riches, and ultimately His life so that we might be spared. Take a few moments to reflect on this. God loves YOU more than ANYTHING! Out of every wonderful thing that God created, WE are His most treasured possession! I don't have the words to express how this makes me feel as I soak it in!

I pray for you to experience life in full knowledge of the fact that YOU are His Beloved! May He be with you on your journey. God bless!

Hesed

I AM IN TOTAL AWE OF GOD RIGHT NOW!!! The focus in youth group this summer has been examining the ways certain words are defined by our culture and how they are defined by God in the Bible. Tonight's word? LOVE!!! Scott spent a lot of time explaining the Hebrew word "hesed" to us. Hesed translates to steadfast, unchangeable covenant love. I looked it up on Yahoo a little while ago, and found a wonderful article about it and how it relates to Christ as the Bridegroom loving the church as His Bride! God has been doing such awesome things in my life this summer! I am so grateful to have been given 2 dramatically life changing summers in a row! He has been answering so many prayers this summer, especially since LPL. He's even starting to open up financial doors. I'm seeing the doors to the ministry He's been working in my heart to pursue open up, and cannot express the joy in my heart! Psalm 37:4 says, " Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." How wonderfully true! I'm loving the path He has placed me on! He has such an amazing plan for me, and I intend to follow Him and experience His love to the fullest.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in the last post that on the day I ended up going to see Julie & Julia, there happened to be a quote from Beth Moore in my inspirational daily planner. Not intentional (at least by me ;) ). My life's been kinda weird since God introduced that woman into my life, and not just because she's weird (which I LOVE!). I'm glad God tricked me into doing a Beth Moore Bible study. :) It's strange how someone I've never actually met in person has had such a big impact on my life.

As promised, here are a couple pictures of my precious kitty. :)

So angelic!


This was when she was sick a couple of weeks ago. Poor kitty.

And here's a picture of Stefano taking a nap.

May God bless you as you walk with Him and may you feel the love that he lavishes upon you! Trust in Him and the plans He has for you. They are MARVELOUS! Gros bisous! XOXO

The Beth/Elizabeth Project

Dear Whoever May Happen To Read This Blog,
I decided to go see the new movie Julie & Julia today (technically yesterday). Why? Because I feel like I can almost totally relate to it at this point in my life. A few months ago, I posted that I was pretty sure of what God wanted me to do in Paris ministry-wise, but wasn't ready to tell everyone yet (or no one, since I'm not sure if anyone actually reads this). Well, now I am. It's changed a little since then, but, hey, is it my fault if God doesn't choose to make every little detail perfectly clear at once? No, I'm pretty sure it isn't. So anyways, here's what's up.

It was a dark and dreary night...ok, actually it was 2 uncomfortably hot, sunny California days. Those days were June 26 and 27, and I had the pleasure of going to see Beth Moore ate her Living Proof Live conference in Stockton! SOOOOO AMAZING!!! And obviously life changing, if you hadn't figured that out by now. Beth taught from Revelation 19 and the title of her lesson was "From Bridezilla to Bride of Christ". I was pretty darn excited because Revelation just so happens to be one of my favorite books of the Bible and I rarely get to hear it discussed, and because I've been planning my entire future wedding around the Bride of Christ theme. No, I'm not engaged, nor do I have a boyfriend (I have a tendency to only attract creepy stalker types, for the most part.). I am a conservative Christian living in California during the time of Prop 8 (which it seems God placed me here for such a time as this *yay Esther*) and I want to be absolutely clear about what God has to say about marriage. I believe that God causing Adam to fall into a deep sleep while He took one of his ribs and created the woman is a parable for the death of Christ and Christians, the Bride of Christ, being made as a suitable helper. I believe a man leaves his parents and takes a wife because Christ left His Father in Heaven to take us as His Holy Bride. I believe marriage is sacred because it is a representation of the relationship we were meant to have with God, the relationship He still offers us. As I thought about this, I decided that when I get married, I want my wedding to reflect this. I even want a dress with red trim to represent the Blood that makes the Bride pure.

I think I'll get back to the conference now. Feel free to thank God for that. Anyways, towards the end of the conference, Beth mentioned that she was studying how adolescents in our culture exhibit signs of trauma as if from sexual abuse thanks to our over-sexualized culture ( I witnessed Exhibits A-D 1 month later in the same building she spoke at. My Holy land was desecrated .). I thought, if that's true for here, then how much more so in France?! Of course, this thought didn't occur to me until the next evening. I spent the conference thinking of myself as an epic failure 'cause here I was at this incredibly awesome, powerful Beth Moore conference and I had absolutely no idea what commitment I was going to make to make the conference a step up in my relationship with Christ, but I knew I needed to make one. It was so frustrating! :/ God's revelation was such a relief to me! I may be an epic failure, but He's an epic savior who loves me enough to let me share in some of His victory.

As you probably don't know, God had put a strong desire in my heart to work with prostitutes in Paris. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a group of people to do so with, and it would be a little unwise to do so alone. But what Beth said reminded me of Hosea, which I had to read for the NorCal mission I went on with my youth group. We have all been spiritual prostitutes. How many people in Paris have been sexually and spiritually traumatized by their culture? What if someone told them that there is fulfillment in Christ who shed His blood on the cross to purify us and make us His immaculate Bride? Beth listed 7 steps to becoming the Bride of Christ. The 5th was the priority of purity. What if purity became a priority among the people of Paris, France, a place notorious for selling sex? Can you imagine what happen?! What if God wants to start a new sexual revolution in France? Although it would probably be more of a sexual restoration. I know I'm pretty excited!!!!!!!

So what now? Well, as the title suggests. I'm going to go though all of Beth's books in one year and blog about them. No, I'm not. I may write a book and a Bible study, though. Seriously. Even though I'm laughing with you right now. LOL! I'm pretty sure God's certifiably insane. Or our definition of sanity is incorrect. I vote for the latter. But what, I'm sure you're dying to know, shall I write about? It looks like I'm going to write about the intimate relationship that God created us to have with Him and died on the cross to restore, about how we were once prostitutes, but He chose to forgive us and transform us with His love so that we could once again be His beloved Bride. Being in a romantic relationship with Christ is something I've had the pleasure of enjoying, never really having a boyfriend and all. People pity me for that, but I pity the people that haven't experienced the joy of Brideship like I have. I love singing love songs to Jesus and hearing Him sing them back. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Not to say that I don't ever want to get married, but I definitely want to marry a man who is also married to Christ. This is becoming a huge part of my testimony, and God used Beth to light the fire to share this with anyone who will listen. So thank you, Beth, if you ever happen to read this and make it this far!

So what does this all have to do with the movie Julie & Julia. Well, for starters, I'm a young woman named Elizabeth inspired to teach something by a teacher named Beth, which is why I thought it would be interesting to see the movie. Like Julie, the person who inspired me is in my head cheering me on. Unlike Julie, I hope Beth does not read this and decide she hates me. I'd me a bit devastated. :'( Also unlike the movie, about 2 people who love cooking, Beth and I loathe cooking. Oh, did I mention part of the movie takes place in Paris?! Sorry, it's after 1:00am and I'm a little scatter-brained at the moment. And if you're actually reading this, I'm sorry it's so long. I'll wrap it up in the next paragraph.

So to sum it up, I'm going to be reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation looking for every reference to marriage, divorce, prostitution, etc. I will also be reading some books already written about the subject and taking a class about marriage and the family this semester. I would also like to dive into the philosophy of love. On top of that, I will be reading though Beth's books, since I will probably be using those to help people Break Free. I'm pretty sure this is what God wants me to be doing right now. He's been opening doors for it and Satan's been throwing me some of he worst attacks he's ever thrown at me. He seems desperate. One encouraging note was from a woman at my church who was telling me about some former missionaries to France who worked with the growing Muslim population. Based on what she told me, it sounds like a message that might have the power to bring many Muslim women to Christ. Reaching the Muslim population of France was something discussed among myself and the ladies from my grandma's church during the break at the conference, btw. It constantly amazes me how much God reveals to me about a place I've never even been to and preparing me for ministry there. Please be in prayer for me and the people and Paris and how God will use me for ministry. Please pray that He will anoint me with His Spirit as I embark on this strangely wonderful, challenging journey. I can't wait to see what he will do and to see TRUE LOVE brought to the City of Love. Thanks for listening as I poured my heart out. I'll keep you updated. If you're reading this still, I love you, and to show that love, I'll save the cat pictures for tomorrow. God bless!

Oh, and here's a Youtube video that goes with this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CUGTIWCFyo

Psalms 96:13

"Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness."

Tonight I was at the Stanislaus County Fair for a Newsboys concert. It was amazing! I especially loved that we had the opportunity to worship outside in great weather. Have you ever had one of those Spirit-filled moments when you just know hat all of creation is praising God with you? I had one of those moments tonight (watching The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe last night may have helped bring it about, too). As we were worshipping the King of kings to a song about dancing like no one was watching, I watched the wind blow through the trees; it looked like the trees were dancing right along with us. Maybe they were. Maybe the wind is like the breath of God, and the movement we see in the trees when it hits them is a rejoiceful dance. Maybe when a tree falls over in a powerful storm, it's bowing down before the King, and maybe we should follow their example and praise Him in the storm.

I miss the childhood days of believing that raindrops were God's tears. I think I'll try to become more childlike as Jesus said and go back to those days. I don't want to miss the wonder of ALL creation praising God. Who knows? Maybe the rain could remind us that God's heart still hurts for this world, and that "Jesus wept." Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to see shapes in the clouds again; maybe God made those specific shapes in the clouds to show His love for us. And maybe, just maybe, the trees really were dancing with us in worship of a worthy King. I'm tired of boring scientific answers for everything; I want Narnia. I want to see God's love for us in creation and I want to see creation praising Him as the Bible says it does. A huge part of me thinks that our human science has so much of it wrong, and that the world through the eyes Love, looks a lot more like Narnia than we could possibly imagine.

God's Refrigerator

Do you think God has our pictures of our far from pefect attempts at following Him on His refigerator? I think He does. I think He keeps them all up there and treasures them just like a parent treasures their children's drawings. Even if they are some of the worst drawings in the world, parents treasure them as if they are a masterpiece. Although our efforts may sometimes seem small and invaluable to us, I think God treasures them more than we can possibly imagine. Each step we take towards Him is a huge accomplishment, and I think He claps insanely for us like we do for every step a baby takes when he/she is learning to walk. What a joy to have a God that delights in us so!!!

A Game of Mini Golf With God and Loree

So my friend Loree and I were at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on Monday playing a round of mini golf. A couple of the holes have a spinner and you do what ever the triangle you it lands on says to do. Well Loree landed on Cursed Ball, which meant that after I hit my ball the first time, she could move it wherever she wanted. She decided, as usual, that she didn't feel like being nice, and proceeded to move my ball just a few inches from the beginning. So I turned to Daddy! Knowing that our God is a just God, I asked Him if He was going to let that go unpunished. I prayed that He would show us that He truly is a just God by allowing me to get my ball in the hole before she did. Hallelujah to our just God! He rewards the kind and punishes evil! I got my ball in 2 more shots later, and it took her, I think, 6 more shots, the longest it took her on any hole! yes, God is just and has a sense of humor, one that allows Him to use a game of mini golf to prove His justice. I've got to say, God and I make a good team; God and anyone make a great team! ;)

I've also got to add that Loree and I made the top 10 scores for the new attraction, The Vault, which is a laser maze. And it was set to medium! Practice makes perfect, right?!

Oh, and, Loree, if you're reading this, I love you! Please don't smack me!

P.S. The Snuggie hog has been attacking my feet to get more of the Snuggie for herself.

No Longer MY Snuggie

Magenta has taken a liking to my Snuggie, thus making it OUR Snuggie. Here's a picture of the Snuggie cat.

Thought It Might Be Time For A New Post

Considering it's almost been a year since my last post, I thought I'd update my blog. A lot has changed in the past year. Fall semester left me feeling like I was at the wrong school and pursuing the wrong major. After praying for God to lead me to a major that would incorporate my spiritual gifts, God revealed that He wants me to teach philosophy in Paris, which is where I have felt Him calling me to serve Him for over a year now. As of now, I am a philosophy major (considering double majoring in religion) at the American Public University, or APU for short. It is an online university, which will allow me to go to Paris whenever God puts everything together and easily continue my education. I don't know when God will send me to Paris yet. For the most part, I am waiting on God to open the door financially. I am pretty sure I now know what God wants me to be doing there ministry wise (He revealed it to me a little over a week ago), but I am not ready to tell everyone yet until I know more details. I am really excited about it, though, and can't wait to see what God is going to do! Right now I am just trying to memorize Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." I have no idea how God is going to open the door for me to go over there, especially financially, but I do know that I need to stop leaning on my own understanding and fully trust Him to provide.

I don't know if anyone ever reads this, but I will try to update it more often. God bless!