So...it's been awhile...

The summer got really busy for us. After we went to visit my parents in South Carolina the rest of our summer was pretty much filled up with youth events and work. But now, I'm on a five day break between the ending of our school's summer session and the beginning of our academic school year.

Oh, and today's my birthday, so "Happy Birthday to me!" And Joe is taking me out for a surprise evening tonight. It should be fun.

I do have pictures to upload from Joe's birthday (which was on the 20th). My hubby is now an old man at 25! ;)

Well...not much more to report now. Maybe later.

Have you heard about the pope's been up to lately?

Read these:

Pope: Other denominations not true churches

Now, I'm not Catholic, so I don't know much about Vatician I or Vatician II other than that Vatician II brought good reform (so I hear from Catholics) to the church. But, it's interesting...this new pope is beginning to make changes and it makes me wonder how it will affect Catholism and Protestantism. In other words, Pope Benedict is seriously confused if he truly thinks that Catholism is the only means of salvation. I mean, has he read the Gospels?

And what about this statement,
"“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles."

Is he serious? I don't mean to be disrespectful, and I apologize if I come across so, however, the pope is seriously in trouble with his interpretation of the Bible. The only TRUE church is the body of Jesus Christ, those who are TRUE followers by faith through grace--and nothing else.


Here's another article: Pope OKs Latin mass, sparks Jewish concern

Meal Plan Monday: Week of July 2nd - 6th

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Hummus Pizza

Wednesday - Texas BBQ at the Bailey's

Thursday - Turkey & Pasta with Peanut Sauce

Friday - (I don't know, we'll be back east at my parent's house.)

More from Acts...

Again, where there is unity there is power. The church in Jerusalem began to pray in "one accord" to God after Peter and John had been arrested and released, and when they had finished praying (see Acts 4:24-30):

And when they had prayed, the place where they had

gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with

the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:31

Today from Acts...

"But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death,
since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power."
Acts 2:24

As I finished reading chapter 2 today, this verse stuck out to me. It reminds me of a sermon I heard once by John Piper (at least I'm pretty sure it was Piper) where he said the best two words (or phrase) in the Bible are "but God."

• "But God remembered Noah..." Genesis 8:1

• "Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God..." Genesis 45:8

• "...but God will be with you..." Genesis 48:21

• "...but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." Genesis 50:20
• "...but God will surely take care of you." Genesis 50:24
• "And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand." 1 Samuel 23:13
• "But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me." Psalm 49:15
• "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26
• "But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another." Psalm 75:7
• "And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God." Luke 16:15
• "But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power." Acts 2:24
• "But God raised Him from the dead..." Acts 13:30
• "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
• "...but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong..." 1 Corinthians 1:27
• "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us..." Ephesians 2:4

Book Sale! All John Piper books are $5 today and tomorrow!

Yep! It's true...all John Piper books--that includes books, Bibles, and study guides--are on sale today and tomorrow only for the price of $5 each! So visit http://www.desiringgod.org/ today!

Here's the list that we're getting:

Joe's Picks:

• Contending For Our All
• The Hidden Smile of God
• The Legacy of Sovereign Joy
• The Roots of Endurance
• Battling Unbelief

Jess' Picks:

• A Baptist Catechism
• God is the Gospel
• Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God
• Treasuring God in our Traditions

The website is moving very slowly because of all the traffic today. Supposedly, it'll be better in the afternoon, then I'll update you on the rest of my picks.

Reading in Acts

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Acts 1:8a

"...all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer..." Acts 1:14a

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Acts 2:1

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Acts 2:4

And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" Acts 2:12

It seems to me that these "devout men from every nation under heaven" (2:5) were awakened and realized that something significant was happening. Each heard, in their own language, this gathering of believers "speaking of the mighty deeds of God" (2:11).

It raised two things in me. One a truth, the other a question:

1. Where people pray and gather together in true unity stuff happens, as in the Holy Spirit shows up in power!
2. It raises the question: Is the "gift of tongues" simply the Spirit enabling you to speak another language, not some "special" language? Definitely something I'll be looking into.

Here's the "Good quotes and stuff..."

At church our pastor has been preaching from Romans and lately we've been in Romans 13, which talks about authority and submission. So, here's some "good stuff" from the sermon on Sunday...

• "God has built submission into every area of our life such that it exposes the pride, independence, self-reliance, and stubbornness in our heart."
• "The measure of my submission to people in authority over me is the measure of my submission to God."
• "Show me a person who is submissive to people in authority over them, and that person is pliable and soft-hearted. Show me a person who is not submissive to people in authority over them, and that person fights God." (I think I kind of messed up the wording on this one, but it's the same point/idea still.)
• God has higher purposes in mind than our comfort or safety, namely His glory.

I'm back!

There seems too many good things to say and post that I don't know where to start! Well, I'm on vacation now. WooHoo! I've got three weeks until I start teaching again. Two of those weeks will be spent at home working on my writing projects, sewing, scrapbooking, and youth ministry. The third week I'll spend in South Carolina visiting my family. The next three weeks are going to be great!

My mornings are going to be focused on writing, editing a book on Grace as a study of 1 Peter. Title? The first one was What does Grace Mean?, but I'm not so sure. If I get that finished I'll go onto the final chapter of The Heart of a Princess and editing that project. We'll see. And my afternoons will be filled with sewing and scrapbooking. I think I have like 7+ shirts to work on 2 dresses and some stuff that just needs little alterations. As for scrapbooking, my plan is to finish my wedding album by the time we go to South Carolina (there's going to be a party/wedding reception) and work on a project for my sister's birthday. I'm also testing out different scrapbooking software. I'm pretty sure I want to go digital. So, if you have any or know of any that's good (ie, like the embellishments, fonts, and etc. look realistic) let me know!

Well, I'm off to do more editing...Later I'll post more. I've got a lot of good quotes and stuff from sermons (wasn't that eloquent?) to share. It's really good. Oh, and I have been taken more pictures in the last month that need to be uploaded. Maybe I'll get to that a little later. Well, have a blessed day!

Father's Day

Frugal Fridays: Scrapbooking!

I've been scrapbooking since I was about 12 or 13 (I'm going on 11 years of scrapbooking--aren't I getting old?). I really enjoy it, but sometimes it just gets so expensive! Especially with all the cute paper and embellishments! And I have a wedding album to do (and a courtship album to finish...among others)!

But one thing I did from my bridal showers was save the gift bags, cards, and some tissue paper. Some will be reused for other gifts, but you know how there's always certain gift bags you get and the paper is just so cute and you don't want to give it away just yet, but when are you really ever going to use it? Scrapbooking!

I'm finding this very useful for my wedding album, especially with some many cards having embellishments these days. And the gift bags I love (I'm drawn to those with vintage designs) will become scrapbook paper for other albums. It's useful and it's fun! So what do you think?

YouTube

Well, it's obvious YouTube is not the most virtuous of sites. But now, when you post a video to say you're blog or elsewhere you will also have other "related" videos scrolling at the bottom...that is, unless you turn if off. Here's on to do it:

If you'd like to turn off the option to see related videos through your embedded player, simply add "&rel=0" after the video ID number in the embed code. Here's an example of what your embed code should look like if you'd like to turn off this feature:


See the answer in its entirety here: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=69781&topic=10836

This is absolutely hilarious...

It's sad to say that there's a string of these on YouTube. People need to be educated.

So, I finally finished one of the books on my reading list. Yeah! One down, five to go. Let's just say I have a bad habit of trying to read too many books at once. This last book was Discipline: The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot.

It was really good and I especially liked the chapters on specific types of discipline (ie, discipline of time or discipline of feelings). I definitely underlined a lot. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some good quotes up soon. But for now I'll just leave this,

When discipline becomes a glad surrender, "Every day we experience something of the death of Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in those bodies of ours."

Made to Worship

You and I were made to worship
You and I were called to love
You and I are forgiven and free

You and I embrace surrender
You and I choose to believe
You and I will see what we were meant to be

- Chris Tomlin, Meant to Worship


What I love about this song is that it's so basic...it's the fundamentals of our walking in freedom, faith, and fullness in Christ. We were created to worship God the Most High. We were called to love the Lord and others--the believing, unbelieving, enemies, etc. We are forgiven and free. We are now able to embrace surrender. Surrendering our all to the Lord...giving our whole being to Someone much great and more worthy than ourself. In these things we see what we are meant to be.

It's so simple, but I love the proclamation.

Frugal Fridays: Free Movie Rentals

This one's pretty simple, but easy, free, and convenient. We "rent" movies from our library. It definitely helps our entertainment budget. And the library is such a great place to find stuff--new or old movies, kids movies, documentaries, and some of my favorites A&E and PBS miniseries! Usually, at most libraries the movies are free. If there is a fee it's usually small (like $3). You just have to watch out for the late fee, usually $2 a movie!