When We Die

The enemy has been defeated

Death couldn't hold you down

We're gonna lift our voice in victory

We're gonna make your praises loud

We lift your name up!

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What happens when we die? We go to heaven.

As Christians, we think we know what happens when we die. We get to go to heaven and have eternal life. Shouldn't this excite us, and let us be unafraid of death?

Today, I read in 1 Corinthians 15. This chapter is a heavy chapter for me. Paul writes about Jesus' resurrection. Paul writes about who buried Him, and who saw Him rise. Paul explains that Jesus proved to every person that there is life after death, that resurrection can happen. Paul went on sharing about death, and what happens when we die.

Why do we die?

V22-23 We die because we belong to Adam. Because Adam sinned, we sin, and the punishment for sin is death. BUT because we belong to Christ, we will be given new life.

So when we die, there is hope, not sadness. V42-44 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. ⁴³ Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. ⁴⁴ They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

When we die we live again! We are being transformed into our heavenly bodies. Here is the rest of chapter 15 that I couldn't break into parts because the WHOLE thing is worth reading.

⁵⁰ What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.

⁵¹ But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! ⁵² It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. ⁵³ For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

⁵⁴ Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

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Satan thinks that death is his victory. But oh is he wrong! Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, death is now means Satan has been defeated. Death does not mean the end of life. It means the beginning of eternal life. A life better than earthly life. A life you get to live next to our Lord. A life of all knowing. A life of no school, work, stress, emotion, money, dos and donts. A life you can ONLY achieve if you live your earthly life the way God wants you to.

Will you achieve eternal life? Will you defeat Satan?

An Audience of One

Lately I have been struggling with being a more "God like person" if you will. When put in certain situations, I act like someone who is not following this great and mighty person. God calls us to not judge. To love your enemy. To love everyone because we are all children of Him. I find myself day to day getting those automatic thoughts when I see certain people. If I see a car with huge rims, I think mexican and ghetto. When I see funny clothes that aren't "in style" I laugh. I see a guy thats older with a creeper mustache I think he is going to hurt me. When I see smoking I think rude. It goes on and on and needless to say, I want that to change. I have been praying lately about my actions and help with looking at people the way Jesus sees them. They are no different than I, because we were all put here with one power, God. Other than judging, I also seem to say the wrong things, or act the wrong way in situations. I am almost afraid to be embarrassed or not be "cool" because of they way I live my life. I do not have this problem with my friends and community that also love and know Jesus Christ. However, when I am at work or in public and something will come up, I will almost conform to that crown to "fit in." I'm not saying if they smoke, I start smoking. But just the little things, like certain remarks on people, etc.

Saturday night I went to this conference for the Garden where Darren, our pastor, explained our view or mission of the church. There was one section Darren touched on which stuck. Darren said he wants us all to be disciples, he wants us all to know how to pray, how to pray for healing, how to talk to people and invite them in to this wonderful life. He left us on this note: Do you live a life work following?

Do I live a life worth following? I say no. Yes, I love and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, yes I do my best to serve Him, yes I go to church and life groups, Yes I have SOME things right. BUT there are things I need work on, things Jesus would never do, things I wouldn't want others to do in the name of Jesus Christ. I need to drive better, slower, less angry. I need to have more patience with "dumb people." <--I need to not think people are dumb, they just think differently than me. I need to stop caring what people think of me and start showing I love Jesus and they should too. I need to stop avoiding conversations that could turn into sharing of the Good News. I need to see the world Jesus sees it. I want God to brake my heart for what breaks His. I want God to open my eyes to the things unseen. I WANT TO LIVE A LIFE WORTH FOLLOWING!

Last night at church I asked Hartley to pray for these things I've been struggling with, and during the prayer she said "let us be an audience on one" I want to start living for an audience of one. and that one is God. He is the only one that matters in the end. He is the one that will judge me when time comes to. He is the one that can say "well done good and faithful servant" Let people think I'm crazy. Let people think I'm weird. Let them see I am different. I will be crazy, weird, and different to live this life worth following.

Today is the day to change. And people reading this; be my accountability.

Creative?

Sometimes, no always, I wish I was creative. For some reason or other God did not give me the gift of having a creative eye. I cannot paint. I cannot draw. I get too distracted and bored when I attempt any art project. I have to see other peoples work to get ideas for my own. I am NOT creative.

I took a class at RCC my senior year in high school. It was photo 8. Intro to Photography. I learned how to use film cameras, how to develop film, what an aperture is, how to meter, etc. The main thing I remember about that class is how impatient I am. To develop film you first have to use a black bag made for NO light to leak in, to take the film out of the canister and put it on a film real and into a different canister. Then you go into the dark room and put this canister that has my film reel into some liquid stuff and wait about 15 minutes. (I forgot a lot so bare with me) Then there are like two other liquids that it has to sit in from 5-15 minutes each. Now the film is ready to not get ruined by light. So then you cut the film into strips and put it in this oven to let it dry. So this is now about 30-45 minutes just to process the film into strips. Not even getting prints yet. Now we look at the film and choose what we want to develop and go to an enlarger. Then you play with how much exposure (light passed onto the photo paper) you need, how big you want it, make sure its in focus, and most importantly is that it is dust free.

After you expose light onto the photo paper you develop it. Again with the different liquids where you have to time it, and make sure its in the right temperature etc. Finally you see a picture and then you put it in an over to dry it. At the end you may look at it and realize there are dust spots, or its under/over exposed, its out of focus etc. Wow 45 minutes to get something that looks like crap. I am not patient enough to try again, so that sucked.

So I found DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras. I'm in love. I also learned more about photoshop. Even more in love.

So now I have a camera, I am getting photoshop. The only thing missing is the artistic eye. How can I find or see something that will become a cool picture? Can you learn to be creative. Is there a class. Or is it something your born with? I can try and try and try to get creative with my camera or photoshop but I never seem satisfied. (another problem is the technical side. This new camera has a lot more setting than I know so its hard to get more than just point and shoot shots)

There is a point to all this information about my thoughts. I wish I was more creative so I can use it for the glory of God. (after time in the word the other day the one verse that stuck was to do all things for the glory of God) I want to express my love for Christ through photos. but I don't know how. I want to be on the "look out" for ways to express my love for Christ and His love for us through photographs. I HAVE NO CLUE how that will work or what I will find, but its time to start thinking CREATIVE thoughts. and to just go out and shoot :)

Photoshop

So I was bored at work:

Growing?

Last night at church was amazing! Darren decided to have community time. Which I absolutely adore! He invited people to come up front and share with the church their story. He also had a time of prayer. Where complete strangers felt comfortable to stand up and ask other strangers to pray for them. How wonderful is our community that we can feel comfortable to ask for prayer when needed, to share stories with our neighbors and to have fellowship. When Darren asked for people to come share their stories I thought to myself what mine would be if I went up.

Four months ago I moved to Long Beach. I grew up in Riverside, I loved Riverside, my family was in Riverside, my friends were all in Riverside. No complaints at all about being in Riverside. But I had to opportunity to move out with friends. I like to be independent and always wanted to move out, just for the adventure of it. So when people asked me why I moved my answer was just cause there was an excuse to move out. There was absolutely no other reason to move to Long Beach, except for adventure.

So when I was thinking about my story I realized, God doesn't open doors for us for the heck of it. Theres a reason behind everything that happens. I know that I moved to Long Beach because God had a plan for me. He got me going to the Garden. He stirred my heart for serving. He placed me in an area to serve. He opened doors for me, and for a reason, not just for an excuse. He brought me here so I can grow.

Growing:

-I have the amazing community that helps my heart to stay on fire for Christ. I see things they do, or their actions and it is a fuel to my fire. I needed the family to "keep me in check"

-I have started making decisions based on Gods will and not mine. I felt the call to serve, I prayed about it. I was given the chance to help set up and tear down the church. 2 months ago I would have told God no and would have went on to seek something more "glamorous" but now I love it, I know that serving God can happen in so many different ways. I gave it all to God and am now being patient and whether God has something else for me or not I feel content with the service opportunity I have.

-I had the chance to get a job doing event ems. This is something I have always showed interest in because you pretty much go to these cool event and get paid for it while responding to injuries when needed. It sounded awesome! This job paid more than I get now, I make my own schedule and it seemed very laid back. There was nothing wrong with it. However I already work 4 days a week and so with this job I would have added at least one day a week of work. I ended up saying no to this job and realizing life is not about working so I can have extra spending money. I need more community time. More God time. More time to serve.

Thank You God for loving me so much

Thank You God for being so forgiving

Thank You God for the friends and family I have been blessed with

Thank You God for giving me a church to call home

Thank You God for life!

Relationship's

It's funny how my time in the Word always seems to reflect conversations or events that have happened recently. Last night Sara, Emma, Billy and I sat in the living room and a conversation started about relationships. It was really Billy and Sara talking about it as I listened in and Emma half slept on the couch. None the less there were some interesting things stated that I enjoyed hearing. I have started to read through 1 Corinthians. Today I am on chapter 7 and this is a whole chapter of Paul expressing opinions on marriage and relationships. One main thing he said that caught my attention was the God gave some of us the gift of marriage and some the gift of singleness. Paul has quite strong feelings about singleness as he states that being single makes it so much easier to focus on God, because marriage is a strong commitment and there is just that much to be a part of taking away from God time. As I wrote down in my notebook/journal thing about what I just read and learned I decided I would also write down how I feel about it. Half way through writing I came to a realization. As much as I would love to meet some "perfect" guy that is all I want in a relationship and is a complete possibility for marriage I have to wait. I am such an impatient person and waiting is not what I want to do. But I have realized that I need to put my trust in God and know that He knows best. I now know that the reason I am single, the reason there are no potential "guys" is because I am not ready. God knows how immature and young I am in OUR relationship. God knows how much more learning I have to do and how much closer I can be to Him with out the distraction of an earthly relationship. I do not and will not know if it is Gods will to let me be a married person when I am older but I know for now, I am not ready to have a relationship. 1 Corinthians 7: 34 says "...in the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband." I am not married AND I am not completely devoted to the Lord. I need to first be completely devoted to the Lord BEFORE he can put me into a relationship. I know for sure a relationship would be way to much of a distraction for me and so I will now work on committing myself to God. Not for the reason of reaching the goal to be ready for an earthly relationship, but for the goal to be satisfied that I have an excellent, everlasting relationship with Jesus Christ.

PS. Paul gives me assurance when he writes, "I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible." 1 Cor 7:35

Realization

The other day at work I had a depressed psych patient ask me "Are you happy?" I responded saying yes. He then asked why. I simply said because I love Jesus. And then it was quiet for like 5 mins, then he said "Was that a serious answer?" I told him yes, I am in love with Jesus Christ and He loves me. He said oh.

That made me realize, I love life. I have nothing to complain about, I have been given so much and forgiven so much. There is a great and mighty God out there and I am so lucky to know Him. :)

Wowzers- Its been a long time

So I have been lazy. Heres a recap.

-The Garden. I am in love. I only had to attend this church one time to know this is where I should be. I love the raw, new church atmosphere, but not only that the COMMUNITY that comes with it. I have learned that community is huge. I'm sick of shaking someones hand, asking about their morning, and their name, then I never see them again. At this church I get to met someone new every week. I don't remember a Sunday I have attended that I have not met a new person that is now my friend. I also have been struggling all summer long to figure out where God wants me to serve, when I moved and stopped doing jr. high at the Grove I felt an emptiness in myself that needed to be fulfilled. That emptiness was service. Well God has put me where he wants me, and its at the Garden!

-Career?School? Well I'm not doing school this semester. I had been going back and forth in my mind about what career path I wanted. (In the past two years I have gone from coast guard, to firefighting, to elementary teacher, to possibly nurse or maybe pa or maybe paramedic or just flat out being confused) I attended community college for two years, all I have to show for it is my EMT cert. I HATE school, like literally, do what I can to avoid it hate. After my first day of class, attempting to add classes, and failing I gave up. I am going to work this semester.Sweet! but not I'm even more behind on finishing school. But its okay because I have decided and am positive I want to stay in the medical field. Most likely I will go the RN route, work in ER or trauma for a bit and slowly work on my BA and eventually do my DREAM DREAM job flight nursing (trauma nurse/transport nurse in a helicopter) woot woot!!! OR another route might possibly be PA, but Im leaning towards RN right now :)

-The Fun Stuff. I got to see Paramore this last Tuesday!!!!!! thank you REL!!! they rocked. Also I will be seeing Family Force 5 this upcoming Tuesday!!!! (By far the best/most entertaining band I have seen live) Its going to be a dance party and I'm really excited. I get to go snowboarding in 1 1/2 months!!!! Mammoth opening day is November 12th :) and I have a new board and binding to ride on :))))) In less than a month I get to go riding (my dirt bike) and Im totally stoked!!! Today I bought new gear and am totally excited to use it :D AANDD: I finally am getting another dslr (camera)!!! My last one got stolen :( and I miss taking pictures so roomates beware, In two weeks there will be an immense amount of pictures being taken :p

-I Miss My People. CORRRR come back!!!!!!! Less than two months, omgosh yay! I love you and miss you. ALISHA I get to see you for 5 whole days in Washington in January. Soooo excited!!!! JANE READ come visit I miss you! and to my SPIKEY STICK (aka Alex) you have let us down a few times, you say your coming and then you don't :( please do come soon.

Wowzers. this is long. sorry if you read it all...you must be bored :)

Its only MAY!?!?

So snowboard season ends in about April. Its May and I can't wait until it starts again. Thats not til the end of November. Oh crud! So instead I am going to try and learn how to surf (since snowboarding originated on the concepts of snowboarding) so I have a fun activity to do near my new future home. Which by the way...is coming up very quickly and I am soooo stoked!!!! I just got back from Long Beach looking for places with Jenny. There is a definate possiblity Jenny and Sara are looking at tomorrow. Fingers Crossed :DDD

It Has Been A While Blog

Part 1: "My Venting Blog"

All the people who eat at my work (Original Roadhouse Grill) are PILTS (person i'd like to slap) Honestly, tonight I made $80. First off, I'm not complaining because in 5 hours thats about 12 dolalrs and hour plus my $8/hours already. BUT my sales were $700. Which means if everyone tiped the couredous and typical 15% I would h ave made about $110.  All week has been like this and I try so hard to tolerate it but its just putting a wear on me. But what can I do except be happy I have a job...

Part 2: "My YAY Blog"

6 weeks of school left. That means summer time. Wooooo Hooooo!!!!!

I am also moving out, and if your reading this you most likley already know this, but I am so ecstatic! I will be living with two of my best friends Emma and Arielle and two other friends who shall become great great friends Sara Vanni and Jenny Holderman.  God has blessed us so much with getting roomates now I pray we find a great place to live for the next year or so.  

Part 3: "My I miss you blog"

Cor! I miss you. I can't wait for you to come home. I know God is working through you there, but I cannot wait for you to come back and hang out with us. We are going to have so much fun in our new place when we are all together again.

and 1 week till Alisha is home for summer. YAY!

I can't wait until Jane, REL, Emma, Cor, Alisha,  and I are all together again hanging out haveing a blast like old times.

Part 4: "My (somewhat) Worried Blog"

In one week from tomorrow I am gettin the horendous softball size bump removed off my leg. YAY! It's been there for a year and 5 months now and im so over it. I will no longer have a "3rd butt" However, I am an active person, who gets bored easily and has a job who requires walking, all shift long at a fast pace, and I am worried about the recovery and how long I will be in pain. I hate the after affect of these type of thing and it will probably suck. I have to wear some thing that goes to the top of my knees that i would explain as "sliding shorts" for 3 weeks. So all of May I cannot go to the beach and layout...that sucks! but at least i wont have a bump on my leg anymore...

So True

I was just reading the Sunday Secrets on the Post Secret Blog and I found this.

I 100% agree with this. Sad. But True.

Awwww

Enough Said

Again With The Timing

So I am broke. Like legitimatly. I have my charge card all the way charged, I owe money on my stereo bill still and I have to pay my mom 270/month. Well this moring I realize I have $35 to my name. Threshhold I going to charge me for my monthly bill ($55) and I have an empty tank in my car. Perfect. So I have my mom transfer money so i dont get an overdraft fee and I leave to go snowboarding with some friends. Right as we were leaving Roadhouse calls and says they may need me to work today. So I bail on snowboarding to get shoes and stuff for work. So im sitting here waiting for them to call me back and tell me when to work...but seriously how awesome is that timing on God? I was jsut stressing about money and a job and then a path of income calls me out of the blue. YAY

Also yesterday was amazing. Emma, REL and myself all went to Long Beach to check out the area and the apartments. We pretty much found the place we might be living for the next couple years. It is a little more money than expected but we are all very excited. I just pray that the CARE ambulance job I am relying on getting goes through...and soon.

ANNNNDDDD: Alishas visit last week was sooooo much fun. I loved the feeling of us all being back together and being able to just be ourselves and have a great time.Singing in the car, lip sync contest, beach bon fire, oc swapmeet, coffee, church, spa, movies, cookies, everything was jsut awesome!  Cannot wait for 8 weeks for her to be back. ps alsiha: dont shoot your roomate :p

I love life, I love God, I love my friends, I love how everything is going together :D

Another one of Gods great things

So I went snowboarding today, look at what I saw. This is one of the craziest, most cool things I have ever seen. A complete circle rainbow around the sun. :)

Oh How I Cannot Wait

I cannot wait until the day I can go talk to my boss and say I QUIT! or until the day my boss tells me there no more room on the schedule. Honestly I cannot stand working there, driving there, being with the people that work there, I just do not like it. But for now I will stick it out because Im poor and do not have the choice. Please oh please roadhouse please get me on your schedule so I can quit at the mountain!!!!

On a happy note: my parents are leaving this weekend, Alisha comes home friday, beach saturday, church threshhold and sandals sunday, lip sync contest wed, and 3oh!3 family force 5 and the maine ap tour march 28th. YAY :)

GodsPerfectTiming

Well first off I must see this has been one eventfull week for sure! After praying about it and putting all my thoughts into it I found the courage to call Tim and tell him how I felt. I told him it jst cannot work out and I need to move on. It was one of the hardest things I have had to do so far in this short life I have lived.  I honestly cried for about 3 days straight and thought I may have made the wrong choice. I still had feelings for him but I knew he was just not the man God had picked out for me.  BUT through patience and trust I have come to learn how much I really do need to put all my trust into the Lord.  A series of events has taken place in the past two days.

1- I met REL and Emma at Chipotle to get my mind of Tim. that was soo fun and I learned how great it is to have such awesome friends.

2- I decided firefighting just may not be the career I need and decided to resign from being a volunteer ff. (I honestly hated going to the fire station)

3- Resigning gave me the oppertunity to start going to Wed nights again.

4- It just so happened that this Wed night the Mohns spoke about relationships and what types of things you need and cannot have in relationships. This 100% perfectly cleared up all my doubts about ending my relationship with Tim. 

5- I got to go to lunch today with my mom at roadhouse grill. Turns out they are going to give me my job back. I now can stop worrying so much about money!!! YAY!!!

Just in these psat two days I have learned SOOOOO much about trusting and listening to God. I am in such awe right now how Gods timing is so perfect and how he knew this week would happen in my life way back before I was even created. He knew I would end things with Tim not sure if it was right and perfectly placed it in my heart to resign from the fire station, attend wed night and hear the Mohns speak. He also perfectly timed my getting my job back to perfectly fit in with all of this. So the stress of wondering if I was in the wrong relationship, the stress about a job and the stress about money problems can now all be relieved. and best of all I get to start helping with the jr. high more often and do more trips because im not tied down to training every wed night.

THANK YOU JESUS FOR EVERYTHING.

and thanks you friends for being so awesome.

FIRSTS

So I am currently in my first real relationship with a man.  It started out amazing, I thought he could be the perfect person. We both rode dirt bikes, loved to snowboard,, went to the lake to wakeboard, were both trying to be emts, met at church, etc. I honestly want to say I fell in love with him quite quickly. He was completly awesome and I couldnt ask for more. Then...he moved away to Fresno.  Long story short, the move is the main reason things have changed, and have changed for the worse. I know by the way he treats me (or lack thereof) and his carelessness to the relationship are only more clues to this not working out. I know I need to end this and I know thats probably whats the right thing to do. But theres something thats holding me back. This being my first relationship/love I am being very hesitant. I honestly think I am afraid of being single. Why? I have nooo idea. I have great friends and family who love me and why should I need a man in my life to make me happy? I couldnt answer that, all I know is I'm super afraid to lose him even though I know its not meant to be. I hope and pray to gain a life lesson and have a great learning experience after this, but for now....I need to find the courage to end things....Firsts are always the hardest.

Desert and Snow

Who would have thought snow would mix with desert. well in southern cali it does! I just got back from an awesome weekend riding with my family. It was snowing on the way there. But the next two days were absolutly amazing and clear.  Then this morning is started raining/snowing again. Just our luck to have perfect weather the two main days we were there! I went climbing tonight with Emma and Kevin. It was quite fun, we did belay the who time, perrrrty fun. 

Refreshing

After an awsesome night of climbing, I get jsut about 12 hours of full sleep. I have no idea how, my mom came in and woke me up at 10:45. Im so happy its a sun shiny day today, makes me happy. I finished one wall in my room and three walls left to finish on the paint. 

V2 Baby!

Today was a nice day. I went to Victoria Gardens with REL in the rain today. Her iPod is seriously a genius. I put it on all song shuffle, but 90% of the songs played were Anberlin. How awesome is that?!  I got two new shirts yay. We started small groups tonight. Theres two leaders...and 3 students. haha. After I went to threshhold to climb for a bit. I finally completed the v2 i have been working on. YAY I feel super acomplished.

The Cool Thing in Town

I have caved. I decided to make a blogspot. So, this is my blogspot. Yes my title is the name of a song by Underoath. Btw underoath is the definition of amazingness. Stay tuned and you just might read some life changing views....or not idk.