Sunset. Sunrise

Sunset

Oh how I fear you.
You are tricky. Deceptive.
Beautiful colors. A covering.
Disguising the coming darkness.

Just before you disappear i understand.
Your light spreads across the ocean floor
Like a blanket. A blanket of death.
Putting me to sleep with your lullaby.

A brilliant flash of light.

Dear You

Dear You,

i think i saw you today, but i can't be sure.
Your eyes were closed, but your lips were moving.
Whispers of prayer floating upward like a balloon.
Well let me tell you darling that i hope the day is coming soon

i will wait because i am willing, not because i am patient.
Your absence is like hole in my glass
i try to fill my my heart but everything just falls through
And to say my glass is half empty is only half true

Why is it that the wind is so romantic?
i swear it causes the world to spin in slow motion
Your hair tossed about like a flag at the end of a pier
Beautiful as the sunset, more graceful than the deer

And you did not see me, though i did naught but stare
And you did not hear, though my heart screamed hello
For now, our worlds are separate, a wall between each heart
But hold on. It won't be long. We're almost at the start.

A Message From James

Hey....so I couldn't get the link to work here...but if you wanna see a very inspirational video (not really) click here. Okay..it's actually of me rocking out to Hannah Montana....but still!!!
CLICK HERE

Sin, Love, Boys, Girls, Parents, and Kids All Summed Up In One Poem

Sin is like a Dinosaur

It looks cool

But really

It eats you.

Kids are like puppies

They poop and smell

And make loud noises

But parents still keep them

Parents are like wax

When it's hot it hurts

But that's okay because

It keeps the fire going

Boys are like bugs

They buzz around

And are really annoying

And then girls hit them

Girls are like cell phones

They cost lots of money

Take up most your time

But are still totally worth it

True love is like a mouse

At first you are scared

But once you hold it

You want to keep it forever

Finding James in "The Scar"

So I just wanted to write a quick tid bit on the meaning of "the scar"...in case you missed it. The first thing

my sister told me after reading it was "I don't get it" so maybe no one did. If you haven't read the story yet, read that first. 

So here we go:

The Scar

The Scar

-CHAPTER ONE-

Once upon a time there was an island. This island was divided into two equal sections.
One section was made up entirely of sand, and the other of solid rock. Long ago, a ship of
people landed on this island, though, none remembered where he or she had come from. They
simply lived on this island, unaware of any other lands. Now as they people entered the island, they chose places to dwell. Some chose the sandy land, some chose the rocky, and some lived so close to the line between the two that one could not pinpoint exactly which side they lived on.

So I wrote this entire story over texting! So you better read it!....and comment

The King’s Knife

Once upon a time there was a great and vast kingdom reaching from the great mountains of the far east to the sea of the distant west. No man dared make war with this kingdom. For some had tried, and their Kingdoms are all but forgotten. This kingdom ruled the world with a rod of iron, Conquering every nation that it entered. All that is....save one. Shechem, the northernmost kingdom of the world.  And so the king of the great kingdom gathered all armies of all nations which he had conquered unto himself that he might destroy this last standing kingdom. Now when the king of Shechem heard the news that the armies of all the nations were upon him, he fled to the mountains of the west. Shechem fell in one night, ad the king was never heard from again. Years passed, and the king of the world grew old. The day came when he was to appoint an heir to his kingdom.

A Very Thoughtful Tuesday Indeed

Okay, thoughtful tuesday....here we go.

First I'll start out with the basics of what today is supposed to be about...provoking thoughts of things we haven't thought about before. I had in mind what I was going to write about, but I changed my mind after a theology class I had tonight. By the way, this is the best class ever. Anyway, the pastor was talking about evangelizing. Something I don't even come close to doing enough of. In fact, I probably haven't done true evangelism since 2nd grade.

Anyhow, you know how sometimes when you evangelize people ask questions like,
"Why would a loving God send people to Hell."

More On Purity

Hey everyone,
So how's your weekend. Mine has been very relaxing. After this post I am going to take a walk to town in the pouring rain. I can't wait. I love walking in the rain. Especially since it's snow and ice back home. ;)

Anyways, with this being February, there is lots of Purity stuff going on. Um...because of Valentine's Day if you didn't catch that connection. Anyway, there is this one blog on this topic that I've been following lately. You should definitely check it out. I hope you don't mind Lexi. :) This is something we cannot neglect. Yes, I realize many teens are probably sick of hearing about purity all the time. But the fact remains that the reason it keeps getting preached over and over and over is because we aren't listening.

So, right on this topic here is the link the the short dating book I wrote a while back. I realize most of you already read it. But maybe some haven't or you just want a refresher. I read it today and corrected a lot of grammatical errors, so maybe it's easier to read now too. :)

Hope you are having a splendid February. Don't be eating too much chocolate. Oh, and a little hint from a shopping savvy college kid. Candy is on sale AFTER Valentine's Day. Sh....keep it on the DL.

Saturday's Poem

Good morning everyone!
It's Saturday and you are not allowed to be crabby or sad. It's the weekend. The time in California is 11:39, and I've been up a whopping 5 minutes. :) Anyways...hope you have a great break from school this weekend. Here's a thoughtful poem I wrote to get you thinking.

By the way...I don't have a title. I'm horrible with titles. When you leave a comment (notice I said when...and not if) tell me what you think i should call it. :) Thanks. Here goes.

~
I wonder if water can ever be completely still
I see hurricanes and tidal wives
Monsoons and just plain ol' regular waves.
Even small ripples. The smallest. But never still.

I suppose the only one we can blame is the wind.
Then again, should we not also blame man?
Perhaps the waters would be still if not the indulgences of man.
But man does not always interfere. He is not constant. Constant like the wind.

I do not believe the water can be still like glass.
Glass is either still, or it is shattered.
This begs the question. Better bent or shattered?
Is it worth being shattered, just to mirror glass?

Is it so bad that water is always in motion?
Perhaps if it were motionless, water would not longer be water.
Reflected trees would turn to real trees. No more reflection. No more water.
Tell me then, are you reconsidering, that water should not be in motion?

You see, when water is in motion, the reflection is not perfect.
But maybe, just maybe, that is the only way it was meant to be.
A tree in the water is not a real tree. Never was. Never will be.
The fake tree proves the water is real. The imperfect proves the perfect.

"The imperfect proves the perfect." I will leave you with this thought.
For now we know that perfect water is not like glass. It's never still at all.
So let these imperfect reflections prove to all,
That we can rejoice in imperfections, and that's a comforting thought.

Frying Friday

Hey folks. So I'm really sorry that i keep writing these the morning of the next day. It's a visit weekend for my college, and since I'm an ambassador I haven't had a ton of time. Okay, i lied. I took a nap today, played madden, and watched you tube videos. I have no excuse. But it's here all the same. 


So in case you forgot, Friday is "recipe day". Today i bestow a recipe for you. Today's recipe is a MUST for that special holiday coming up in 8 days. You know what I'm talking about men. That's right. Valentines Day. Time to impress that significant other of yours in a way she did NOT expect. You guessed it. Cooking for her. 


Now now...before you freak out, let you put your mind to ease. This is a very simple recipe. However, if done right, will blow her taste buds away. Next thing you know...she's yours forever. Or...at least until next friday. But fret not...i'll have another recipe then. But for now, let's get to today's recipe.


"Chocolate turtle cheesecake". Not to brag or anything, but I am a master at this dish, and it has proved to bring the house down come dessert time. I've never had a girlfriend try it though because well...never had one but...you know that. Anyways...here are the steps to the best cheesecake your taste buds will ever....well....taste.


Phase 1: Gather all of your ingredients. Being:

2 c. ultimately smashed oreos
6 tbsp. butter, melted
1 (14 oz.) bag caramels
1 (5 oz.) can evaporated milk 

(Guys, this does NOT mean that you try to make the milk evaporate!!! You'll find this in the cupboard next to the soups).
1 c. chopped pecans
2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese 

(Make sure they are 8 oz. I added 4X too much cream cheese once. NOT a happy ending.
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (for you guys who don't know...this is a liquid...NOT an icecream. It's the bottle in the fridge that you've never noticed before and smells awful).
2 eggs 

(The part INSIDE the shell).
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate pieces, melted

(This means you have to melt the chocolate chips yourself. Don't go searching the isles for melted chocolate chips. You won't find any).

Phase 2:

Congratulations, you got all your ingredients. Now comes the fun stuff. The actual cooking part. Follow these steps IN ORDER.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt the butter in the microwave until it is utterly melted.

3. Combine ultimately smashed oreos and utterly melted butter.

4. Bake this combination for 10 minutes and 12 seconds. 

5. In a 2 qt. sauce pan, melt caramels with milk over low heat. (on the stove...not in the oven). Stir frequently until its as smooth as a bald man's head. 

6. Pour this smooth concoction over the crust you previously made. 

7. Add pecans to smooth concoction.

8. Combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Mix them with an electric mixer and medium speed until well blended. If you don't have an electric mixer, buy one. If you don't have the money use a spoon and stir as fast as you can.

9. Add eggs (without shells) one at a time while mixing. 

10. Then blend in the melted chocolate chips.

11. Pour this entire bowl of deliciousness over the crust.

12. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

13. Loosen cake from rim of pan; and let it cool down for a while before removing it from the pan.

14. Chill (this means putting the cake in the fridge...not you going downstairs and watching tv).

15. Add any additional toppings your little heart desires (more oreos, pecans, whipped topping, etc). 

16. Cut two pieces.

17. Sit down with your special someone.

18. Give her a piece of cake WITH A CARD.

19. Wink.

20. Eat.

PS. Be sure to leave comments on how this works out for ya. ;)

The Thursday Blog

• So hello everyone!!! How was your thursday so far? Hope it was amazing. Well, here we are in our 6th straight day of my daily blog. Today is a very chill day cuz you don't have to read much at all...and what you do read is not substantial. If steak is wholesome food, this is like a marshmallow. As you know (hopefully)...thursday is random facts day. So...I have gathered 6 of the most random facts in the world. :) Hope you enjoy...
  
  1. Butterflies taste with their feet
  2. The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it
  3. Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been struck by lightening
  4. Dogs and cats consume over $11 billion of pet food each year.
  5. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.
  and finally...my ultimate favorite............
  6. Coca-Cola translated to Chinese means, "To make mouth happy".
  PS. I just found this one....
  7. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

Dear Wife

So earlier this week I was on a blog I follow. It's all about the 2010 Purity Challenge right now.
Well, I was reading, and on there she had a guy who had written a letter to his future wife. I thought that was pretty cool. Hence, I am stealing the idea and writing my own. If you are a guy you uh...don't have to read this. Haha just kidding. Maybe you'll get something out of it.

Here goes: (this is straight off the cuff by the way)

Dear Future Wife,
Two things right off the bat.
1. Can I please call you lots of annoying names when we get married...like honney pot, and tea cup, and sugar muffins, and momma, and sweetheart, and my ultimate favorite....doll?
2. I really hope "Far Away" by Nickleback is "our song" because if it's not we probably won't have one, cuz this is the only one I will accept. :)
Now...moving on. So...you didn't exactly show up on my 16th birthday like you were supposed to. What's up with that! :) Na...it's okay. I'm glad you didn't. I was really stupid at 16. A girlfriend would have been a bad idea. Oh, wanna hear something impressive? I've never dated. Yeah, you're only impressed until you find out that I couldn't have gotten one to date me even if I'd wanted. :)
So anyway...a lot of guys want to tell their future wives that they saved their purity for them. Well, I'm a little different. I'm saving mine because I want to. It's not something I have to keep just for you. I'm saving it cuz God told me to. So...you kinda get number 3 on that list. Um...what else. Your pretty? haha. Yeah, so basically I hope you are okay with my humor, cuz if you're not we are gonna go through some serious amounts of counseling. Which could be fun i guess...but expensive, and I don't plan on making loads of money so just laugh at me, and we can skip the counseling. Okay, I need to go to bed to get up for college tomorrow, but here's four things I'm begging from  you.
1. Love Jesus more than you love me.
2. Save your purity.
3. Don't EVER buy a dog that fits in your purse.
4. Let me eat pizza even when the doctor says I can't.
Love you honey pot! :)
jAmes

"Wisdom Wednesday"

Hey. What's going on folks?
Welcome to wednesday. Actually i'm writing this at 12:53 Thursday morning. Forgive me.
Anyway, here is my first wednesday of my daily blog. Wednesdays are going to be like a mini Bible Study. So here we go...

So basically I'm just using one verse mainly, but I might throw a couple others out there for good measure...we'll see.
Turn your Bible's to James. Ah! What a coincidence. Great name. Now. Turn to Chapter 1 (that's at the beginning). Verse 22 (comes after 21). It's pretty short and to the point so I won't be keeping you long.
AHEM. Let's read:
"But..." Let's stop right there. Now, you may not be an English major like me, but the fact that this verse starts with a "but" means that James is contrasting this verse with the previous one. So....
you guessed it! Let's read verse 21 first.
"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. "

Okie smokey. Let's put that verse in a nut shell. James is telling these people to
1. Stop sinning
2. Read and accept the "word" aka Scripture.

So let's keep that in mind when we read verse 22 now. Your Bible better be open by the way reading right along with me. Have it? Okay. Let's continue. Verse 22:
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."
Great verse, right? Right. Also a very over-looked verse. Here's why.
There seems to only be 2 things that pastors and speakers are teaching our generation.
1. STOP SINNING. We have purity after purity conference until purity is coming out of our ears. Is purity a good thing? The best. But keep listening.
2. BELIEVE! After the speakers have us on our knees weeping for our sins they tell, "all you have to do is believe."

Now, before you start throwing tomatoes at me, let me assure you that these speakers are right. I am saying nothing bad about them. After all. Read the verses for yourselves. John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, and the biggy...Ephesians 2:8-9.

Now, with that said, I believe that there is a most CRITICAL area #3 that is not being spoken. Our generation is trying to sin less, they are trying to believe more, but they are DOING nothing (i speak as always for myself). What did James 1:22 say. Be DOERS...not just hearers. Why? James uses the example of the mirror. If you stand in front of a mirror right before a date and you have a pile of dandruff on your black shirt, paint on your face, and snot coming out of your nose....you can SEE that you need to do some major work before you meet your significant other. But what good is it if you look in that mirror and think "wow! I look pathetic." but then you do nothing about it! That's the same when we read the Bible, know what we are supposed to do, and do nothing."

Sermons today preach grace and mercy and faith all the time. What they fail to preach is works.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" you think. "Did he just say the W word? But James, you just quoted Ephesians  2:9 which says "not of works!"

If you couldn't catch by the slight sarcasm, I get sick of how scared we are of good works. We preach "not of works" so much that we forget the word in front of works. "GOOD". Now, is salvation of works? No. But did you forget to read the VERY NEXT VERSE? Shall we?
Ephesians 2:10:
"For we are His (God's) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Whoa! Wait a second. The W word was just used in a positive sense right after a verse which used it in a bad way. Which verse is right? They both are.

We were CREATED for good works! God made Adam to DO things. He didn't create Adam to believe. Adam couldn't NOT believe. He talked with God all the time. God didn't create Adam to stop sinning. Adam hadn't ever sinned. God created Adam to work. He created mankind to work. He didn't create us to be saved. We didn't need saving when we were made.

Now...here comes the part that I don't know if you'll agree with or not but here goes.
In this "Christian world" that is so obsessed with teaching others how to stop sinning, I would argue that sinning isn't our problem. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that even if a person never sinned, he still wouldn't go to Heaven apart from being made alive by Christ. Sinning isn't our problem. Our problem is that we are doing nothing, and that includes falling in love with God.

Example: You are in a relationship. Which option do you like better?
A. Your significant other loves you deeply, but has a problem with flirting with others.
B. Your significant other NEVER flirts with anyone, but also never wants to be with you.

Does God want you to stop sinning? Yes. But that's not the most important thing. Let's get away from my own opinion, and get to some of Jesus' words. At one point, Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was. Now, in case you don't know, the laws back then were all about rules rules rules. Here is what Jesus said (Matthew 22:37-40)
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
So basically, when Jesus was asked what rule was the most importance, He answered, "Love."

When we think of rules, we tend to think of "Do nots". Not Jesus. Why? Because ITS NOT ABOUT RULES ANYMORE. It's not about the 10 Commandments. It's not about don't do this and that. It's about love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love.
And you wanna know what happens when you fall utterly and completely in love with Jesus?

I don't know. I'm not there yet. But how about I speculate.

I would say once someone falls madly in love with Jesus, sinning is the last thing on their minds. They don't need conferences on purity. Becoming impure is simply an idiotic idea. They don't need to be told to believe. When you are engaged, you don't need to be reminded that your future spouse is real. When you fall in love with Jesus, you are so overflowed with love that it naturally spills onto others. It pours on them. A ginormous flood of love comes crashing down like an avalanche, crushing despair and pain and loss until they are no more.

Let me end with this. The last verse of James 1.
"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

Thoughtful Tuesday 1st Ed.

Happy Tuesday Folks,
Well, just in case you forgot...you made it through Monday!!! Unless you died, and you can still read my blogs in Heaven which would be pretty tight.
But anyways, today is Thoughtful Tuesday (in case you didn't read the Title). Just so you know I won't always title my blogs after the day...just the first week or two to get you in the swing of things. So let's dig into some thoughtful thinking.
I'm going to title today's thoughts as "What if God was Bad?"
It's something I've thought about a decent amount lately. Not that I think He is bad. I know He isn't. In fact, it's impossible for God to be bad. But that's the climax of my thought so I won't give that away yet.
What if God was bad? Think about that for a moment? Well, what exactly is "bad". Here are some decent examples.
1. Killing people.
2. Adultery
3. Lying
4. Stealing
5. Cheering for the Yankees.
Stuff like that. So, think about that for a moment. What if God was these things?
1. What if God killed people just for fun. "Muahaha!" *Lightening bolt* "You're Dead!"
2. What if God told us to commit adultery, and staying with one spouse was a sin?
3. What if God lied to us, and we never knew when He was telling the truth?
4. What if God commended us for stealing?
5. And dare I say, What if God was a Yankees fan?!
~
Let's take this another step. What if God condemned "good things"?
What if God hated love, loathed peace, destroyed honest people, laughed at the poor, homeless, and orphan? Don't just read this. Actually think about that. Think about a world like that.
~
Bad, right? Yeah its bad. At least "bad" as we know it. But let's not jump on this too fast. Let's take a step back, remove our regular thinking caps, erase the memory from them, and look at this in a completely new way. Why are "bad things" bad? Because what God created was Good and these things came AFTER the fall. Think about it. No one died before the fall. There was no adultery. No lying. No thievery. No Yankees. These things came AFTER the good God created. So this begs the question. If God had created all the "bad" things and not the good things...would bad things be good, and the good bad? After all, who decides what is "bad"? God. So really, if we didn't know better, and we grew up with bad as good, would we even notice? Perhaps I would be writing this same blog saying outrageous things like, "What if love was a good thing?" And you would be thinking..."that's outrageous!"
~
I get so sick of people saying "that's not fair" in reference to God. "Why would God allow this?"
"Why?" I get sick of myself asking this. God can do whatever He wants. He is God. If God suddenly decided to send everyone to Hell would that be "bad"? I won't answer that for you. This is just thoughtful tuesday. A day to get your mind working in ways maybe it hasn't before.
Praise God He IS good.
~
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!!! Leave comments please.