Do You Feel?

Hiya!

Are you sitting at your computer on this great Saturday night eating gluten free cookies and drinking a "Frostie" root beer? Well you're really missing out if you're not! I didn't really come here to diss your Saturday night escapades, believe it or not. I came here to blog about this song that has really been pressing on my heart lately.
Here's the music video for it.
"Do You Feel" by The Rocket Summer.

If you're not in the mood to listen to this song, just pay close attention to the lyrics posted below:

I'm thinking 'bout other things I heard about today

All this week and tomorrow

And how these hands can create some better things, for bettering

But you see for now I got my own things

I can't help it, I got too many issues I own

So I cannot help I'm afraid, yeah

But keep on preachin', preachin' and heal the world

Lip service makes us look great

Do you feel the weight of the world singin' sorrow

Or to you, is it just not real

'Cause you got your own things

Yeah, we all have our things I guess

I guess my mind wanders off from time to time

Sometimes I convince myself that all is fine

In the world it's not mine why should I have to try

To fix things I didn't create or contrive

Do you feel the weight of the world singin' sorrow

Or to you, is it just not real

'Cause you got your own things

Yeah, we all have so many things

Have the habits had you

Has it been for long

Can you feel the souls behind

What's going on

Personally, I think these are some pretty powerful lyrics. Why? They're true! This song literally talks about seeing people in need and ignoring it because we have our own problems. I mean, why try to help someone else when we can't help ourselves, right?

Wrong.

The beginning of Luke 12:33  gives us an exact example of why that is false.

"Sell your possessions and give to the poor."

This verse obviously says that what we have - if anything - should be given to someone more needy. A perfect example as to why we should help one another is clear in John 15:12

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus didn't walk past someone in need. Jesus didn't ignore the starving, restless, or hurt person.

James 2:14-17

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

Get the point yet?

Lip service means nothing in the eyes of God.
It's not too hard to grasp, really. Faith + works = saved
Faith - works = dead.
Harsh? Not even close.

I didn't make this blog post to slap a Christian in the face with their own selfishness, I wrote this because I'm sick and tired of listening to the promises of God's people that aren't backed by their actions. Are we really so self centered to ignore the sorrowful cries of the world? Do you convince yourself that all is fine? Do you not think that it's your responsibility to fix things you didn't contrive or create?

Yes, those were quotes from the song. Let me tell you something: as Christians, we were called to hear those cries, to recognize that everything isn't fine, and to fix things we didn't create. As humans we are bound to have our own "things" but that doesn't give us an excuse to ignore everyone else's "things."

I'm targeting Christians with this message, but that doesn't mean non-Christians cannot have a hint of decency and help someone in need. We shouldn't have to be told by God to help others, that selflessness is something every human should possess, Christian or not. But what is especially disgusting is the hypocrisy found in Christianity today. God actually tells us to go out and help one another. By doing that we shine the light of God in a godless person's life. That is why it is so important. 
Preaching about something isn't going to do anything if you don't have the actions to back it.

If we don't live a Christian lifestyle but call ourselves Christian, are we really? The Bible clearly says no. God didn't let His son die on the cross so that we may take that sacrifice for granted. Something I often stress is that your prayer for forgiveness needs to be proceeded by change. That may sound judgmental but it's something Christ has put on my heart because there is so much truth in it. Here's an example:

If we lie once, ask for forgiveness with a good, willing heart and try to change, God is more than happy to give forgiveness. A little while later we decide to lie again, this time caring less about the change we need in our lives because we know that God will forgive us, God will always forgive us, yes, but that doesn't mean you aren't taking advantage of Jesus dying on the cross. Jesus died to give us forgiveness, so that we may live godly lives and be able to know we are still saved whenever we make mistakes. 

Jesus did not die on the cross so that we can continually sin and act like we have "sin insurance."
I may have gotten off track from the point, but that came over my heart just as I was writing, and I think it can be tied into this message.

Christians help, Christians that do not help are being a hypocrite, hypocrisy is a sin, the cross isn't our sin insurance. 
Got it now? I sure hope so. I really pray that someone reads this blog posts and feels just as convicted as I do. God never puts things on our hearts for absolutely no reason. Goodnight!

Tears, Cheers, and Fears

Good evening! 

Welcome to my blog! Recognize it? I didn't think so. You also may have had a hard time finding me..

I started off as abbisbookblog.blogspot.com
That eventually changed to abbisbooknook.blogspot.com

But once again it has changed - I think for good - to becomingbrave.blogspot.com

What inspired this name? Well my blog of course. I've noticed that the direction I've taken with this blog hasn't been going the route that I've intended: a book blog.
So I decided to change it up a little. I'll share a great book that I may encounter, but for the most part this blog is all about my life. The people I meet, the lessons I learn, the businesses I discover, the music that moves me, and the God that guides me.

To start off this new blog I'm going to introduce you to my boyfriend, Connor.

That picture was taken just days before he left for bootcamp. We were eating dinner over at my house and goofing around, so my dad decided to take a picture of us. Obviously I didn't post the silly picture, that wasn't flattering to either of us. ;)

The reason I want to introduce this guy is because he is such a huge part of my life, and today (September 17th) is actually our 7 month anniversary, also the 1 month anniversary of him being away at bootcamp. This past month has been incredibly difficult for me for many reasons.
The main reason is the obvious one: he's becoming a Marine and this world is decaying quickly. So naturally I fear for his life. I've been with this amazing guy for only seven months but I mean it when I say these months have changed my life. I've never been able to experience such a loving, caring, ambitious, respectful, and godly person in my whole life. I've been so blessed to know him and for us to have such a strong relationship.

 I can't say we've been through the "up's and down's" because we haven't. Our relationship is so healthy, we don't have any down's. What a blessing that is. Whenever Connor left for boot camp, I could have easily decided that it was a "down" but it wasn't. The more I look into it I find that it's just another "up." We are going through something that two kids our age usually never go through. And the end result? A stronger relationship with God and each other.

I was terrified of being away from him, especially because of the lack of communication we would experience for the next three months; however, I learned to grow out of that. I learned that this was only the beginning, and although it was hard, we both were not alone in our fear. God will always be with us in our relationship so long as we are together. I handed my fear over to God when Connor left and that was the wisest decision I could ever make. I do have my bad days, but God has exchanged my fear for faith.

I have this peace about Connor's safety, our relationship, and peace that everything will be okay. That was something I never had until now. I never needed peace before now, and God gave it to me. It really is an incredible thing. I've never been able to have an experience with such a supernatural thing before. Whenever I say that I have peace I mean that I do not worry; God has taken away my worry and replaced it with peace. It's as simple as that. It really isn't something that you can easily explain. You just have to experience it.

The hardest part about being away from my boyfriend is that I know that his training is not easy. I know that it's going to exhaust him and hurt him and he will not feel well. Being a natural caregiver this is a huge struggle for me because I want him to feel better and I want to be the one to make him feel better, even though that's impossible. My entire relationship with Connor is truly a lesson for me, I believe. It's a lesson of faith, patience, and love. 

I think every person that is brought into our lives is put there for a reason. There is a reason behind every person's existence and it's up to us to help discover why they're on this earth. A lot of people roam around for so long without knowing why they are here and whether or not it's worth it to stay. But if you haven't experienced something to urge you to stay on earth a little while longer, that just means that good is still to come. But let's save that subject for another post. I hope you enjoyed meeting my boyfriend, I sure did!

September 11th, 2015

Hi everyone! 

I hope you're having a good day. I know that today is not a good day for many Americans. There is no way I would be so ignorant as to not acknowledge the lives lost fourteen years ago today. No one should ignore this day, not even those who weren't born until after this attack on the United State's own soil. Today will always be a day that we remember.

However I am not here to talk about 9/11. I am not here to talk about terrorists. I am not here to talk about death. I am here to talk about our living, loving God. Let me share with you a few bible verses. from Lamentations 3:

"Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth."

Now let's take a little bit of a deeper look into these verses to understand what they're saying.
Starting with verse 22, we see that because of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed.

Mercies: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm

We are not consumed because God shows us compassion, forgiveness even though He has the power to punish and harm us. Now we see that mercy is compassion.

Compassion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

God's compassions - His sympathetic pity - prevents us from facing his wrath, because His compassion for us never fails. God never fails, His compassion for us never fails, and His mercies never fail. This verse alone literally tell us that even though God has the power to punish us, He will not because His compassion (sympathetic pity, concern) for us will never fail. God's concern for us will never die.

Moving on to verse 23, we have an explanation of God's mercy and compassion. His compassion and mercy are new every morning. Even that morning you wake up and life seems to continually pinch a nerve. Even that morning that you skip church. Even that morning that you curse God for whatever reason. God's mercy and compassion never fail because they are constantly being renewed every day. Great is His faithfulness to us, though we are nowhere near deserving.

Now verse 24. This verse tells us that our souls tell us that the Lord is our portion.

Portion: a part of a whole; an amount, section, or piece of something.

Oh, I love this. The Lord is a part of our souls. Yes, just let that soak in. Our souls are what

we take to Heaven. The Lord is a living, breathing part of us, so therefore we shall put our hope in Him. We should put our hope in Him; not in our pastor, not in our President, not in ourselves. God is the only one that gives us a good enough reason to hope in Him. He is the one and only giver of peace and hope.

Verse 25 says that the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, and for the soul that seeks Him. Obviously something that comes along with Christanity is patience. And human nature? Not the biggest fan of patience. Of course human nature is something that Christians need to grow out of. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him - We shouldn't be impulsive and self-serving. We need to wait for the Lord to direct us and respond to us. When it says the Lord is good to the soul that seeks Him, it means that whenever we attemp to find the Lord, He is good to us. As long as we are always willing to try, God is good to us.

Now we move on to verse 26. This one is a little tricky to disect. There isn't much said here, other than that it is a good thing whenever we hope and wait quietly for God's salvation. 

Salvation: deliverance from sin and its consequences.
Hoping and waiting quietly for something like deliverance from sin just sounds like it would be a difficult task to conquer. But the Bible says that it's a good thing whenever we hope and wait quietly. This means that we have to hope for this salvation, and our hope needs to be in God, like we saw earlier. We can't hope that our good deeds might earn us salvation from our sins - that is something many Christians get confused about. We must put our hope in the Lord.

And finally we have verse 27. This says that it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. What is the "yoke"? Well we see that in Matthew 11:30 it says that," My yoke is easy and my burden is light." So it is safe to assume that in Lamentations, it is talking about the Yoke of the Lord. Now let's understand why is is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. To me it makes sense that it is better to bear the yoke while we are young so that we develope with Christ already in our souls. Developing Christ in older years seems to be much more difficult; you don't grow up witht the Word of God in your life and therefore do not mature with the same morals.


I hope that you all got something out of this post. These verses are quite possibly my favorite verses of all time. They help me understand that God is a loving God. He has compassion and sympathy for every sinner. These verses show us who God is and what He wants for us. It guides us, just like the Lord intended the Bible to do.

Goodnight.

Faith Vs. Fear

Hey everyone!

I hope you're having a great Labor Day weekend.
I've had a long day, so I've got a little message for everyone who may need it. 

As the post says, this discussion will be about Faith Vs. Fear. Everyone in this world is going to go through hard times - that's obvious. What's also obvious is that life is full of choices. Whenever you put together hard times + choices we make, often times these things are very tied to one another. What I mean is that often our choices affect our hard times and the choices we make through hard times often affect our other times. Comprende? It's like a circle.

Choices lead to good or hard times and the choices we make in the midst of those  good or hard times lead to more good or hard times. It's pretty simple, actually. One of the most difficult decisions we will have to make is to decide whether we will trust God or trust the devil. Typically this decision is made without us realizing it, but it is still a decision made.

Abraham is a good example. He was a great man of faith but he made a silly mistake by doing things his way rather than God's way (Gen. 20). Although Abraham was great with following God's will, he made the mistake of thinking like a human before consulting God. This is never a good decision. Abraham thought he was doing the right thing whenever he was really just lacking faith in God and putting faith into himself because he believed he knew what was right. Everyone makes this mistake.

We need to trust God, not ourselves. We will always think we know what's good for ourselves, but we always find out that God knows what's best for us. A lot of times we get in a rut and because we don't feel like we are going anywhere, we take action. Is God inspiring you to take action? Do it.
Are you inspiring yourself to take action? Consult God.
 We are only human, we do not know what's good for us. We know what may benefit us, not what's good for us.

I promise there's a difference. God doesn't serve those who serve themselves. We were not put on this earth to live our own lives for ourselves, our lives are devoted to our Creator. Instead  of choosing fear and looking at the negatives of a situation, let's choose faith and look at how God can work through it.

August 30th, 2015

Music

Google defines music as, "Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and an expression of emotion."

It's interesting how music and worship are related. Often times when you hear the word "worship" you immediately think of music. But music isn't the definition of worship.
 Well, worship is defined by Google as, "The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity."

Now let's take a look at the word reverence as defined by Google, " A deep respect for someone or something."
And adoration," A deep love and respect."

Now that we have our definitions out of the way we can piece together what exactly worship is. Putting these two definitions together,

Worship
 "The feeling or expression of deep respect and love for a deity."

So with this thought, we can obviously see that when we worship God, we are expressing our respect and love for Him. We are doing more than just mumbling a song in church. I'm sure you've heard people say that everything we do, as long as it's for the Lord, is worship. Now this may be accurate but our intentions play a huge role in this situation. Just because I am a Christian does not mean that I am worshiping Christ whenever I babysit, write, sing, etc.

For us to honestly worship God through our actions, we must change who we are, and not just for a specific action. If we plan to worship God in everything we do, we cannot stay the same. We must change our intentions, they must be for God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come."

This verse means that if we are in Christ, we are no longer the same; therefore we must not act like our old selves because we are changed - we represent God now, unlike who we were before. Yes I realize this seems dramatic, and for some people it is dramatic.

Now let's go back to the topic of worship. How does worship relate to the renewing of ourselves? Well whenever we are worshipping we are showing God deep respect and love, which means that we are performing our action for the glory of God in everything that we do.
Yeah, everything we do. Lounging on the couch, binge watching Dr.Who isn't really glorifying God, is it (I'm talking to myself here)? Now that you understand that we cannot simply stop doing things for the Lord whenever we change ourselves, because as 2 Corinthians 5;17 said, the old has passed away. It no longer exists.

We simply cannot go back to being our old selves because it is gone. Poof. No longer there. In order for us to fall back into our old ways, we must create something new. There's no such thing as a revival of the dead, Jesus being the only exception. We cannot revive our old selves, we must create a new self.

 We need to reach out to those who need the help. We need to show them that the renewing of their mind is magnificent, and that it is a lifestyle change. It isn't a "spiritual high," it is forever. So let's worship God with everything we do - not just whenever we are in church listening to music, not just whenever we are witnessing, not just whenever we are with our Bible study.

With everything we say, everything we do, let's glorify our creator. Let's do what we claim to do, and show Him we respect and love Him. 

August 29th, 2015

Buenas noches!

Goodnight everyone! Wait - not like that!
Well this late night post was inspired by my current feels. Y'know those feelings you get over something. Yeah I guess they're considered feelings, but I'm referring to them as feels, ok?
Very well.
Well in these past few days I've realized that I need to reevaluate a friendship that I've had over the past two years. We met in a play, immediately kicked things off and became wonderful best friends, there for each other through whatever either of us needed.

In the past few months a lot has surfaced in our friendship - something that I truly thought would make it stronger than it was before. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Instead I believe it ruined our friendship because we only talked on and off for these past months. What I got out of this friendship drama is that I have been blaming myself for these issues as long as I can remember.

I've been holding on to something that she's let go of.

As hard as it is for anyone to realize that a friendship is dying, it is truly necessary. I believe that God places people in our lives for certain jobs and once they finish the job they graduate to someone else's life. Maybe that's just my own way of shining a light in the darkness. Either way I'm pretty sure that this friendship is over, which I'm okay with. I was tired of feeling unwanted, hurt, alone, and more.

I still love this girl with all my heart and would love to be there for her when she needs me, but that's just it - she doesn't really want  me right now. Or so it seems. I've been praying hard about this subject lately and it's been on my mind all week, which is why I feel so confident about this decision. I've been reaching out to her for a long time and have received nothing in return. I'm okay with that, though, because I think my best friend needed me to reach out to her because she refused to reach for me.

The Bible lists many verses about friendship and how important it is. Here is a good example:

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

I love this verse because it proves that friendship is deep and that we were meant to never be alone because with one another we are stronger.Letting go of a friendship, whether a good one or a bad one, is something that we will all face in our life. Sometimes we are in a relationship that causes so much heartache and pain that we are blinded by the manipulation of our friend to ever imagine doing what's best for ourselves. What's best for ourselves is letting go of those people who drag us down, even if they need us. It's never a bad thing to tell someone that you need to take a step away from them - even if they need you. If that person is causing you pain than you have every right to rid them from your life. However most Christians don't rid themselves of the bad seeds so smoothly. Typically we like to break things off with harsh and hurtful words, which doesn't help fix anything.

As Christian people we are to show each other love and help one another. This usually gets us taken advantage of. But we should continue to love and pray for those people that don't understand the seriousness of their actions. Often times people unknowingly hurt us, too. That's where we should take a step back, evaluate the situation and not immediately start pointing fingers. We need to talk.

I cannot emphasis how important communication is in any relationship.

Matthew 12:37 "... For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

I really enjoy that verses because to me it explains that communicating can go both ways, but it's still something we need to do.
 We will never know the outcome of  our communication unless we communicate!Pretty obvious, right? Well to a lot of people not so much. I really hope that you got something out of this blog post and that you'll communicate about it in the comments.
See what I did there? ;-)

Buenas noches - and this time I mean it.

August 27th, 2015

What a time for an update! It's almost been an entire year since I last posted. My promises to keep up this blog tend to fall short, I've noticed. Let's go over some things that have happened in my life!

• February 17th, 2015 - I got my very first boyfriend, Connor. He's 18, graduated, and currently at bootcamp for the Marines until November 13th.
• I was diagnosed with Hashimoto Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease that I have agreed to go the natural way with, and try to bring back the function in my thyroid through diet.
• I went on my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic over spring break.
• Three more of my poems were published.
  
  It's so cool how things have been turning out in life. Of course this year has had it's bad days as well as its good, but I'm not writing a depressing blog post today. I mean, who really wants to read that kind of stuff, right? You're not here to read about my personal problems - that's for my diary. ;-)
  
  Besides, it seems like all you ever hear about are sad, scary, and depressing things that people of all around the world are facing. I've really noticed that lately. I can't even open my Facebook account without hearing about a murder, a kidnapping, persecution, death. We live in a world where evil is more popular than good.
  
  Why is it that this is? Some may say it's because "the end is near" or that we just live in a cruel world. I think it's crazy how drawn to bad stories this world is. And perhaps, if these stories didn't overtake our televisions, phones, radios, etc., they wouldn't be so popular.
  
  I'm sure you've heard the term "fifteen minutes of fame."
  Just in case you're unfamiliar with the term it basically means that people do stupid, evil things just for those fifteen minutes of fame that they receive on the television. They do disgusting things for that news article written about them, or that investigation that they want. People today are full fledged attention seekers.
  
  They will literally do anything for attention, which is atrocious. I'm not talking about that vain girl in class who hooks up with boys, I'm talking about that man who shoots up a movie theatre, school, or church. Our own selfishness and need for everyone's undivided attention is why these things happen. Meanwhile all of the good in the world is being sucked away because no one ever hears about it.
  
  No wonder everyone is so depressed; they see the population going to crap and when people try to help, it just makes things worse. There is unnecessary attention aimed towards subjects that were completely calm beforehand and in return create more drama and heartache. No one is okay just letting things be - there always has to be a new issue or a new scandal. In case you haven't caught along yet, I'm referring to the race issues that have been brought upon this world and the homosexuality issues that today's society is so obsessive over.
  
  Discrimination didn't exist until we make it exist.
  
  All of these problems we tag as racial- or sexuality-related issues aren't those half of the time. I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist in America, or that homophobia isn't a real thing. I am saying that if someone's sexuality or race is different than someone else's, and that person doesn't get their way, they will always try to find a way to get their way.
  
  It's usually through pleading the discrimination card. People will never be content with what they have until they realize that what they claim to be theirs is truly God's. Everything we experience on earth does not belong to us. Everything we do should be for the glory of God. Everything we own is His. When did this country every forget that? Or did they ever know?
  
  Do we really think that God just "forgot" about us. No, no. God sees us, alright; He sees our continuous sins and wrongs and our prayers and our love and our hate. He acknowledges us always, but why should a God that loves His creation remember it whenever it doesn't even remember Him?
  
  Honestly, He shouldn't remember us, yet He does.
  
  He hurts because of what He sees, yet He disperses blessings upon us day after day, even after already paying the debt of the all of us undeserving sinners.
  
  Well this post became more emotional than I ever intended it to be, but I hope it convicted one passerby. Maybe not. Either way it was enjoyable to write.
  
  Here are some happy news articles for a change:
  Happy Facebook News
  
  Gap Features Models With Disabilities
  
  Dog Saves Owners Life
  
  4 Year Old Cancer Patient Marries Favorite Nurse