Friday, January 27, 2012

Once Upon A Time

Ok my husband and I are a little obsessed with this new show 'Once Upon A Time' and we are just not tv people but ever since we saw ads for this we had to check it out. Anyway-we caught up on all the episodes this week on HULU plus (Yep. We dumped Netflix. A long awaited decision but we had to do it.)  and well...our dialogues can get interesting late hours of the night....


Me: Babe, how come you never take me to a random log cabin in the forest whilst getting caught in a rainstorm? WITH a fire ready and warm quilt blankets???

Gary: *..stares..*
I'm sorry that I would rather just take you to the car and bring you safely home...why don't we try this scenario but also go fall down a cliff so I can save you!....




Gary: I think it's time to go to bed.


Monday, January 23, 2012

Blimey Cow!


So Gary and I have talked about the possibility of home schooling our children and we stumbled across this hilarious video by Blimey Cow!



We both went to public school and honestly: don't miss a minute of it. Gary probably had a worse experience with the whole thing. Raising our kids in a Christian home is important to us and home schooling or sending them to a Christian based school are the options we're looking at now. And in my opinion-home schooling weighs out everything else. Thanks Blimey Cow-you made some good points! ^.^

Friday, January 20, 2012

2 year update!

I really didn't realize how long it had been since I last blogged. I mean the last time I blogged before yesterday's post I wasn't even engaged yet! Well Gary *my husband* and I have had A LOT that's gone on since then ^.^

Firstly, we are one month and 11 days married today-(together for over 6 1/2 years).  December 10th, 2011 was the happiest day of our lives (so far).  Gary told me yesterday how much he misses that day as he was standing next to my wedding dress. (I really have to let go and get that preserved already)  It was such a beautiful, God-filled day.  That day we felt God the most, like He was standing right next to us.  And all of our family and friends enjoyed it just as much, we had so much love and support on that awesome day....we're now even more excited about the adventure that lies ahead of us in married life!

Gary's already planning our vow renewals....25 years down the road of course ^.^


We went on our honeymoon the day after and spent a week in Los Angeles, CA.  And this was the best week of our lives! I think our favorite spot out there was the Griffith Observatory.  We're kind of nature/hiking freaks and this place had an awesome view of the city as well as hiking trails. Oh and the famous Hollywood sign was very close by too. 

During this week we were able to meet with the very talented Chad Ahrendt, director of Reconciliation. A great great great christian movie that, in our opinion, blew FireProof out of the water! It's available for Video-On-Demand and Streaming. You can rent it from Amazon too and all Life Way bookstores should have them in stock. The story was gracefully written and the Gospel speaks louder than ever in this movie. If you loved the big name Christian films FireProof or Courageous you definitely need to check this out.Reconciliation the movie

Also, the short film that I've been working on for 5 years (I'm starting to understand the meaning "in God's time") has had some door openings within the past week. Continuing to pray though that this project finally gets lifted off the ground!
*Maybe this summer Lord???* :o)

A lot of exciting projects in the making but Gary and I know our first priority on the list is our marriage. We've grown so much together in Christ and are so blessed to have the friends we do who support us along the way. Our pre-marital (now just "marital"?) counselors lead a Bible study in their home that we attend weekly.  In this group we truly feel like a family and the fellowship just continues to grow! 

Our goals are to reach out more as much as we can, however the Lord wills us. So I'll be sure to update more along the way of our ups and downs and in betweens ^.^

Thanks for reading!

*and God Bless!!!*




Thursday, January 19, 2012

On poet Jefferson Bethke

SO I've decided it's been way too long since I've blogged and it's about time I clear out the cob webbs here-and I figured,why not blog about the video that is blowing up in the world: 'Why I hate religion, but love Jesus'...

Now my husband and I watched this video when it only had about...300 views. It's currently over 15 million views (just on youtube)!

Ok so my opinion, ya know, for what it's worth.

From a performers view this video was extremely well done (filming, editing, etc) and it had a respectable, genuine expression of his heart for Jesus and religion... (specifically religion today).

As a Christian:

Honestly, when I first watched it I had tears in my eyes and I was shouting 'Amen' and 'Hallelujah' every other sentence (and I'm pretty sure I heard grumbles coming from my downstairs neighbor). Ok, my first reaction.

Second reaction came the next day after seeing the hundreds of comments other Christians left. There were some positive but many I saw were mostly negative. And that's not to say that I didn't agree with some things I read but I was very surprised at the Christians who actually insulted this man and his video. I can agree though that the message he was trying to convey could have been clearer. I absolutely agree that we are called to fellowship and to be the body of Christ (to nonbelievers AND our Christian brothers and sisters). I can see how that issue could upset believers because a non believer watching this can think "ok-soooo I don't need to go to church or follow God's commands???" But that's just one of the things that someone can mistakenly take away from this. I can understand where he was coming from though and Christians need to know that his intentions were not bad. And he is not perfect. No one is. Not on this earth at least.

I think I'm really passionate about his poem because I understand and have experienced what he's talking about. I have had harsh judgement not from members in a church, but from pastors and priests. I'd rather not go to in depth but basically I've been told that because of my former background as a Catholic I could not be trusted and leader of the church needed to protect his sheep.... (even after I explained that I am a saved Christian through Jesus Christ *for 8 years now* in search for the "right" church). So I guess that's why I had my first reaction to his video. I think that there are definitely churches out there that need to be more of an image of Christ to everyone, especially to people seeking shelter in their church. This whole seperation that Christians have going on now is definitely not what God called us to do. None of this "My denomination is the true religion or my church is better than yours!"-Christians have to realize that this chases others away. And the point he made about reaching out more to serve and love others is our purpose in this life, right?

Here's an exerpt I read from Max Lucado's 'A Gentle Thunder':


"God has only one flock. Somehow, we missed that. Religious division is not his idea. Franchises and sectarianism are not if God's plan. God has one flock. The flock has one shepherd. And though we may think there are many, we are wrong. There is only one.
Never in the Bible are we told to create unity. We are simply told to maintain the unity that exists. Paul exhorts us to preserve "the unity which the Spirit gives" (Ephesians. 4:3, NEB). Our task is not to invent unity, but to acknowledge it....When I see someone calling God Father and Jesus Savior, I meet a brother or a sister -- regardless of the name of their church or denomination.
By the way, the church names we banter about? They do not exist in heaven. The Book of Life does not list your denomination next to your name. Why? Because it is not the denomination that saves you. And I wonder, if there are no denominations in heaven, why do we have denominations on earth?
What would happen (I know this is a crazy thought), but what would happen if all churches agreed, on a given day, to change their names to simply "church"? What if any reference to any denomination were removed and we were all just Christians? And then when people chose which church to attend, they wouldn't do so by the sign outside ... they'd do so by the hearts of the people inside. And then when people were asked what church they attended their answer wouldn't be a label but just a location. And then we Christians wouldn't be known for what divides us; instead we'd be known for what unites us -- our common Father.


Crazy idea? Perhaps.

But I think God would like it. It was his to begin with." Max Lucado

The judgement I've received are still painful and make it all the more harder in our search but God is good. Always. And He'll bring us through this.

Anyway, there was my opinion on the whole matter. I still love the video even with it's flaws. It's his heart and his feelings about the church today. Who am I to have pass any kind of judgement on that?

Thanks for reading and if you can, keep my husband and I in your prayers in our search for the "right" church. ^.^