M.O.H.

Towdah

2010-02-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I was trying to figure out how to have the most effective Intercessory Prayers for the people I'm praying for.

When I'm at church I like to watch others worship God. Because, I'm not very good at not feeling completely awkward and physically showing submission or praise to Him like I should. Honestly, I thought you were supposed to raise or hold out your arms when you felt 'moved' or passionate physically about worship. Well, I've learned that this is not true.

The Old Testament talks about 'Towdah' which the first step in giving praise. Now unlike what most people believe, this is the kind of praise given when you don't feel like praising God. It's done out of obedience.

This is simply done by extending the right hand. God extends His right hand to us all throughout the Bible and God is saying -"All that I am is yours." And when we extend our right hand we are saying "All that I am is Yours and I agree with what You're saying." It's us literally getting into agreement with God's truth.

Honestly, this makes me feel so much better. Because I kept praying that God would move me to want to worship Him this way. Well I just found out, that I won't necessarily feel this way until I step out of my comfort zone and worship Him because it is an act of obedience and sacrifice to Him! He's worthy of this Praise regardless of how I feel.

I'm not very religious, but I'm a Christian!

2009-10-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: I'm probably about to offend a few/a lot of people...so if this ticks you off...feel free to let me know :-)

Ok, I'll just say it. I have heard many many many times people say two key phrases, "I'm a Christian but I'm not very/not religious." or "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual."

I have to ask those of you when you've said this, what does that mean? Or rather, what do You mean when you say it?What I'm hearing is. I'm a Christian, but I don't go to church on a regular basis, pray regularly, practice communion, etc (i.e. you are not on a set schedule). Is that what you mean?
Because if so, that's awesome that you consider yourself to be a Christian. But, do you understand why God urges us to attend Church (to have fellowship with other people who believe the same thing as we do, do that we may lift each other up?), pray regularly about anything and everything! (Because if we can't talk to the Guy that created us and that promises to ALWAYS be there for us NO MATTER WHAT..who the heck can we talk to?!), practice communion if we do in fact believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins just by acknowledging that He is the Messiah (Son of God, God Himself) and there is no other way to the Father except through Him, so we eat (bread) and drink (wine/juice) of His body to wash away our sins (either symbollically or literally..depending on how you believe), etc...God put these things in place to strengthen our faith in Him, our relationship with Him, or connection to others, and help us witness.

For the spiritual, but not religious people, what do you do to be spiritual? Like I honestly have no idea what that means (e.g. believe in a higher being..maybe God, believe that there is another plain of existence, mediate..but to who/what?) Please enlighten me, I'm curious.That's all...any thoughts?

He amazed me YET again!

2009-10-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

Honestly, He did it again. Ok, so I got to know a really great girl today. But she has a past, that I'm in awe of who she is today! It could only be because of Him. Honestly, the things she's gone through, not at all her fault (I don't know that this was gramatically correct, but I think you get what I'm saying). To say the least it led me to be curious and do something research, then to begin to doubt some things. I'm so glad I'm in the company that I'm in because I knew that Satan was getting my head. He was making me doubt things and it really brought me down for the rest of the day. And I knew that I had to take a proactive step to get him to leave. And I kept telling God that I 'give all my worries to him.' Finally on my way to my boyfriends apartment last night. And I felt the need to pray. It wasn't another feeling that I get sometimes where I feel that I 'should' be praying because someone else needs help (aka..prayer requests). I've heard about putting on your armour of God or Jesus so that's the thought I had in my head. And I felt like I needed to 'cry out' that I needed His help. So I started talking out loud telling Him that I could see how amazing He was by bringing my friend through all the stuff she had gone through, that I believed only He could have done that, but that emotionally I was down, like really really down. I asked Him for help that I give everything to Him. And this feeling of absolute peace came over me!!!! I was in such awe that I started to cry! I could not believe it (no honestly I could). He had answered my prayer! (Not that He hadn't done so before this, but it was just so cool how it happened!) I just didn't expect a feeling like that. Which brings me to a quote from Beth Moore. "God reserves the right to supernaturally respond most readily to our faith. God is not offended by our requests for supernatural intervention. On the contrary, God is pleased when we exercise faith... Much of the body of Christ is paralyzed by unbelief... our unbelief has ushered us into a frustrating, disabling cycle: we believe little, so we see little, so we continue to believe little and see little." I believed HE was going to something. Since that's what I asked for, and He delivered!

District 9

2009-08-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

I saw District 9 last night. I first have to start off by saying, there are most definitely some parents out there that need to exercise better judgement. I saw standing in line at the ticket counter and there was a Dad and Mom there with probably 4 kids all trying to see the movie and the kids could not have been any older than 11. Now I understand some kids are more mature than other kids and so you have to use your own judgement and there are some movies that are very educational. This was NOT one of those movies. The guy selling the tickets even tried to warn the parents against seeing this movie (respectfully might I add), they didn't get it or they just did not care. I was disturbed by the movie and I'm a "mature audience member". The first 30 minutes of the movie left you wanting to know what was going to happen next, the next 30 minutes of the movie left you thinking, oh my gosh should I just walk out of the movie right now?!!!, what the heck?! Some parts of it could be compared to the hollocaust. Then they had pornographic references (which just left me in shock at how the parents could let the kids continue watching this movie). The language, well that wasn't the shocking part anymore after everything you've seen at that point. Then there were just some gross points that I refrained from watching because my imagination gets the best of me when I sleep at night. The movie did lead you to want to root for the aliens, which I think if a movie can do that especially when they look like what they do, that's pretty good. All in all, I would never recommend this movie to anyone, except those that want a movie that will shock the heck out of them and just want something to talk about.

ABC's of ME :-)

2009-08-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

A-Age: 23
B-Birth date: November 21st
C-Chore you hate: Doing the dishes
D-Dog's name: Ellie and Lulu
E-Enter or Exit: Well it's usually more fun to go somewhere than to leave somewhere (I guess unless you're having an awful time)
F-Favorite color: Black or Purple
G-Gold or silver: They're both nice!
H-Hair color: It's usually dark brown, but right now it's a soft black with my roots starting to show through :-p
I-Instrument: I used to play the cello...not my favorite instrument though
J-Job Title: Independent Mary Kay Beauty Consultant
K-Kids: I'm open to having 1 or 2...haven't decided if I will though..
L-Living arrangements: Live with my mom and dad and dogs
M-Monkey or Moose: Oh Moose totally! They are so much cooler...all the cool kids will have them at school this fall
N-Nicknames: M squared, Mol, Moh, Mo, Boo boo, etc.
O-Odd thing about you: I do not like butter cream icing :-p',',',',', (that was me spitting)
P-Pet Peeve: Constant negativity
Q-Quote from a movie: "You better hang out spider-monkey." -Edward from Twilight (ok it's not the most awesome quote..but it's the only one I could think of off the top of my head)
R-Right/Left Handed: Right
S-Siblings: 1 older brother
T-Time you wake up? 7:15 on Monday's and Wednesday's, 8 on Tuesday's and Thursday's, Between 8-9 Friday through Sunday (there now you know my schedule)
U-Underwear: I like them
V-Veggie you dislike: peas aren't really that great
W-What makes you run late: Constantly forgetting something I need
X-X-Rays: My teeth
Y-Yummy food you make: Steak!!!
Z-Zoo Animal: Going back to the zoo to see any of the animals woul be cool!

Bragging about my Boy :-)

2009-08-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I just can't help myself. I'm not sure if this is tacky or not but I have to brag about my boyfriend. We went on a walk last night and just talked about different things and it just once again reminded me of how happy I am to be with him! I don't know how many people get to say that they are "in love with their best friend!" (..and with might I add..no hestitation). Gosh, he's like a God send. Now he might be reading this thinking, "OH MY GOSH THIS IS EMBARRESSING! SHE WROTE A FREAKING BLOG ABOUT HOW 'GREAT I AM'?!..but I'm hoping it's more like this..he's thinking 'Man she's so happy she wants to tell the whole world (at the same time he's puffing out his chest with pride)!' But man it's so true. He lets me be my complete self and at the same time challenges me and encourages me to better. I've never once questioned if he thought I was attractive. He lets me know just about everyday that he thinks I'm gorgeous and I have to say, he is most definitely exceeding a 10! He is a hard worker and never likes to settle, he loves to have fun and try new an exciting things. When we go out shopping I've found that our tastes is extremely similar to the point that we usually like same 2 or 3 items. He compromises for me on little things easily which is great because it's usually the smaller things in my life that just make me exstatic. And when he tells me he's pride of me and that he loves me, that just does it for me. Period. I'm smiling for the rest of the day! Point being I feel completely spoiled by him and I just had to share it with the (well if I'm lucky..maybe the 5? people that actually read this blog...but probably more realisticly the whole 1 person) people who might read this :-D

Julie/Julia

2009-08-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so I loved the movie Julie & Julia. Such a cute movie! Both characters were played great (not that I have anything to compare them to :-) I decided to look up what kind of martini Julie and her husband kept drinking throughout the movie and discovered her actual blogs.....I have to say I prefer the character. The actual person is much more sarcastic and cusses more than I care. My mom tells me that she remembers watching Julia Child on TV and that movie portrayed her very well. The character Julia totally reminded me of my mom. Especially when she spits her tongue out at the lady administering the test so she may be granted a certificate for becoming an acquired cook. My mom likes to say things such as "na-na-na-na-na" and does a little jig and point her index fingers out in somewhat opposite directions. It makes me laugh :-) All in all the movie did it's job with inspiring me to want to go to the grocery store and by a bunch of fresh produce, veggies, olive oil, cheeses, butter, etc. and some wine and cook up a great ol' big dinner. And it was definitely a feel good movie!

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/08/25.html <---Julie Powell's blog

I don’t have “proof”, I just know how I “feel”.

2009-05-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm going to give my "testimony". Because I've been asked by a few people or the topic itself has come up, "how do you know God exists or Jesus is who he claimed to be". I do not have any factual evidence to give anyone to support what I "feel" and what I "know". Now when I say, what I "know" it's a mixture of how I feel with what I've discussed with other fellow believers in Christ with how I know. Now to some people who do not believe, of course you can right it off as a "mind-trip". Go right ahead, because of course you can. However the experiences I've had, I know that this is not so. I can't explain it to anybody else. I can only share it to the best of my abilities through words.

I grew up with a "child-like-faith". Now when I say this, I mean my dad instilled in me a basic knowledge that I'm so grateful for. He assured me that God loves us, and God is ultimately more powerful than Satan and will not let Satan hurt us. Now for a number of years, that's all I needed. I believed that God was God, Jesus was the son of God, and that there was a third person/thing/"ghost" involved in the trinity. But, I could not tell you what the other part of God did. Just that Catholics used to refer to him during some part of their praying. And I remember thinking, why can't I do that too?!

Now I can even tell you that I knew that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that, according to my dad, as long as we asked for forgiveness for our sins and meant it, we would go to heaven. Now in the sense, I would have told you I was a Christian.

(I've been doing a lot of thinking though).

I was not a Christian. Simple as that. I am a born again Christian. I either through an internet site or through a newspaper (I can't remember which one or the date..a year or two ago) saved myself.
Yet, not to jump ahead of myself. Even before that I remember having various conversations with the guy I've been dating, about what we considered important to us. And I remember saying something like this was important to me or that I was ok with it. That's how I knew I was "religious" (I hate that word now) yet I was not relying on any faith in God. I had not received the Holy Spirit. I still have yet to be baptized, but I most definitely want to! I remember telling my mom that I'm not a "religious person" and I'm ok with it. I do cuss on occasion, etc, etc. I was WAY of the mark.

I remember driving the next day (I'm pretty sure it was Monday) and decided, I had nothing left to rely on (my relationship with my boyfriend seemed to be suffering greatly, my grades were completely suffering, things just were not going well) but God. And I can tell you this is a mental thing and a feeling thing. Because I remember knowing that you have to rely on God completely have total faith and be willing to give yourself up to him completely. And in the moment, Monday morning, driving in my jeep, on 75th street heading towards Shadeland Avenue is when I gave myself to Him completely. I prayed that I was willing to give myself to Him completely.
Side note: There are a few key people in my life that have helped me build up my faith even when I didn't necessarily want their help. My dad, Mike, Jessie, Erin, Amy, Josh, Lee, Allison.
-My dad gave me the basic "child-like-faith" on knowing and not doubting that God was the most powerful thing and He loved us. Satan is bad, but God won't let him hurt us. We confess our sins to God and because His Son died on the cross for us, if we truly are repentitive we will be forgiven and that's how we go to heaven.
-Mike was ok with me asking him questions. And it wasn't even the questions I was asking, but the idea that I was very curious, that I needed someone to answer those questions.
-Erin invited me to church and I that's where I really realized that I wanted church to become a big part of my life.
-Jessie went even deeper than Mike and helped put huge ideas in laymen terms for me. It was so HUGE!
-Amy wanted me to get saved and tried countless time to witness to me (now I say witness because I was not a Christian even though I considered myself one) no matter how hard it may have been. And I recently, found out a few weeks ago that she prayed for 5 years for me to become a Christian, a believer, a follow of Jesus Christ..whatever you want to call it. I was no longer "religious".
-Josh is who I love right after God. That I strive everyday to build our relationship focused on God (sometimes I fall short). I believe Josh is the person God wanted me to marry :-) He is the reason I commited myself to become a Christian.
-Lee with Amy's help has answered so many "grey area" questions for me that I am now starting to able to make my own decisions about certain things based on scripture and my personal faith.
-Allison through Mary Kay and by herself has been extremely instrumental helping me to bring my faith into every aspect of my life. And helping me to realize and understand that God comes first, family comes second, career comes third. And this is the ONLY way my life will work out for His purpose.
Back to Lee. He introduced an idea to me the other week. That God seeks you out. I believe this. There are so many Christians that I've talked to that walked away from God only to feel like they've been led back and needed to come back because they don't have purpose without Him. God sought me out and I believe he has been waiting especially since my senior year.

Feelings....I know how I feel. It has been a fast change. My initial thought was to say slow, but I don't think it has been slow. I feel it's been fast, and I'm totally ok with that. I don't know how to describe how I feel inside except to say that the Holy Spirit is in me and I praise God for it all the time!!!! It sounds EXTREMELY cheesy even to me right now, but it is so completely true and I feel blessed to be a Christian. My thought process has completely changed. I have a legitimate relationship with God. I don't think about anyone else more than I think about Him. Sometimes I forget to pray because I'm always thinking about what I want to pray about in the future when I have time to completely focus on, that I feel like I've already said it.

Proof that you can undoubtedly gives facts to "prove" than I am wrong.
I went to church with Josh. His roommate and best friend's (Brandon) brother Issac rode with him and sat with us. Josh and Issac both seemed less than thrilled to be in church that evening. However I can tell you, just when it seemed like Josh would have been close to leaving and after the pastor of the church asked if we could feel the Holy Spirit with us tonight. I did not. We were an apostolic/pentecostal church and I was so immersed in all the new things I was seeing, I didn't have time to feel God's presence. I didn't think Josh was going to feel it either. This just goes to show you, God is in charge, not us. He doesn't need our "feelings" to show us his presence. Josh went from sitting down to, standing up and holding out his hands. (Let me tell you, as Amy, Jessie, Lee, and Josh already know) I love outward honest expressions of worship. Josh then proceeded to walk to the front, got down on his hands and knees, maybe his face to the floor( I'm not sure about that) and started to pray. As he was walking out of our aisle, I started to bawl. No joke. I wasn't just teary eyed, I didn't just weep. I was bawling and let me tell you I had no idea why. I was not "excited" "sad" "upset". I don't think I've ever feel more neutral than that. And I tried to stop crying....several times. I couldn't. It got to the point where I couldn't even breathe normally. I don't have asthma, any breathing conditions, and I'm not that badly out of shape. I cried for several minutes, enough time to realize, this is what I had been praying for. I have been so embarrassed and afraid to raise my hands (I want to badly) to God and just surrender everything to Him and feel unfathomable passion for Him. And it's like once I got to a point where I thought, I'm not going to cry anymore, it happened again. That showed me, the Holy Spirit was in me and He wasn't dependent on my feelings, but my faith. I pray that I have numerous more experiences like that in the future. It was awesome and what I loved, was that Josh and I were there together, but we still put God first.

I try everyday to strengthen my faith. I do not try to do what is right just because it's right, but because I feel convicted if I do it and it hurts my faith. I'd rather strengthen my faith than do what's right. Because by strengthening my faith I feel led and convicted to do what's right (by no means am I ANY NEAR close to being PERFECT..thank the Lord for His Son). A.K.A. 'Fruit of the Spirit"

PICTURE OF MYSELF

2009-05-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

WOW! I didn't realize how big that picture would be. I'm really not as full of myself as I look. I apologize for the "in your face" picture. Hope you like it though, lol!

It may not be important to you

2009-05-06T06:19:00.001-07:00

Ok so if you have this view I apologize in advance and hope that I don't offend you too much, however you may need to recognize that you may have offended other people if you said this phrase. "It's just religion, I don't understand why they are acting this way." Now to a good amount of people, religion does not play a major role in their lives. They deem it "unnecessary", "fairy tales", or "unimportant". And that's just fine. That is their perogitive. However, there are still a good amount of people that consider "religion"(I personally don't like that phrasing, but just to generalize it for a second I'll go with it) a huge if not the most important aspect in their life. Aka, they put their Faith first, their family second, and their career and other responsibilites last. I personally agree with this because I am a Christian. I know others do not. I do wish however, that those who do not hold religion to the same level would at least respect others decisions that do. For example, when someone says, "I can't date this person because they are not a Christian, they are not Catholic, they are not Jewish, not Muslim, etc. There's a reason! That means that the deciding person holds their faith so high on their bracket, that if the other person was not of the same "faith" or "religion" they wouldn't necessarily have the same views on life. It therefore would not work. It's almost the same as not having the same hobbies, likes and dislikes, and asperations in life. So when you if you catch yourself saying, "So what if one person doesn't share the same religion/faith as the other person. That's just ridiculous! That doesn't matter. They just have to love and respect each other and it will work." Be careful, you may just have offended someone. Because that's almost like saying, their faith/religion isn't important. And that's not good, because it is EXTREMELY important to them. Hope that little rant made sense. And if you don't agree, please comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts :-)

2009-03-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

"Paul said we need to be more careful about Christians living immoral lives. That's who he tells us not to hang out with. People that claim to be believers that are greedy and got all this junk. Those are the ones we've got to be careful of. Not the one's that say they are sinners." -Joyce Meyers
I think her quote speaks for itself. Now understand I'm not saying that I don't sin. Definitely do, definitely have lots of things that I need to work on. Just think that this is a great message for me to remember.

And I just have to say I absolutely love this CD! Check it out if you care :-) http://www.tyetribbettandga.com/

1st Day

2009-03-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

So I just created this blog spot. I got this idea from Micaela Lees (not that she necessarily knows it, hehe. But thanks anyways!). I don't actually have a lot of time to type, but I just have to comment on something. I'm watching Joyce Meyers on TV (love it!) and she's talking about spiritual people doing spiritual thing. And I don't want to take an easy shot at Britney Spears, because that would just be mean. She has enough drama in her life. However, because I'm addicted to TV, I was watching her work on a new (probably not new anymore) dance for a music video. And she said the dancing was very much of a spiritual experience for her. And I could think was, "Is she really serious?" Her dance moves are as close close as someone can get to sex in a vertical position (without the actual act itself). And it's spiritual? Poor girl, I don't think she knows what she's talking about. But correct me if I am wrong!