hahaha I just had to post this picture up... I found it just after writing that post on singleness below. I like it:

From Car-O-Line

Gift of Singleness? You're not Serious?

"Jesus has risen, and we are called upon to live for Him in a difficult and fallen world. This does not mean that we must be single, or must get married. It does mean that we must make our decisions carefully, based on what we know to be true, not on what we are deceived into believing. Any life will have trials, but let's be realistic; is being single really that much more difficult than being married? Our work is the same: to serve God, to glorify Him and make Him known to others. The great gift of singleness is being given so many more opportunities to carry out our common goal." - Kirsten Birkett and Lois Hagger for "the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" (2000)


I'm feeling good now after reading that. But I think I still need encouragement in being single, rather than always being asked "who do you like" etc.

From Car-O-Line

It's Time...

I have substantial time to blog now so I'm going to put up my reflections on WKC and what I learned.

The topic of Women's Katoomba Convention for this year was "Jesus Uncut." We learned that for ages we've been looking at a 'cut' view of Jesus and was missing out on who the real Jesus is. About 35 women went from my church and we stayed in three houses. My house was quite nice and had all the younger women in it. On the Saturday night, we all had dinner in one of the houses together and played Celebrity Heads. It was so funny because some of the women had no idea what Celebrity Heads was and they had so much fun playing it. There was this whole girly-sleepover vibe going around and all the mothers were acting crazy. It was so funny. The weather was pretty bad... we were all freezing and it was raining but the tin shed was quite warm will all the bodies in it. It was also really good that the floor has been covered now... otherwise it would have been a huge mud pit. We heard 2 big talks from Jenny Salt, 2 big talks from Greta Gaut, a small talk from Susan Thorp and a small talk from Maxine Cook. Here's what I learned:

Jenny Salt - Talks on Matthew 8 & 9
-We can trust in God because he is in full control
-we don't have security on earth, but we have security in Jesus
-Jesus deals with our most pressing needs

Greta Gaut - Talks on Hebrews 4 & 12
-Because God sees all our sin, God is able to forgive all our sin.
-we can let go of guilt and forgive ourselves, because God has forgiven us
-we will stand before God in the last days, we need to draw near and hold fast to God now
-Jesus is the author, perfector and High Priest of our faith
-Submission and obedience to God's will is what is best for us. God does not make mistakes

Susan Thorp - Talk on Matthew 16:13-28
-We are saved in Christ, we can't bargain with our soul. nothing we do saves us
-Jesus offers the only true way to the only true life
-we need to give up our expectations of who we want Jesus to be

Maxine Cook - Talk on Matthew 6:1-18
-God looks at the heart, don't pray to be seen, it's ok to have 'ducky and horse-y' prayers
-what a friend we have in Jesus
-don't just hear the word, but be doers

A lot of the stuff wasn't new to me... but the biggest point I found to be so exciting was that because God sees all our sin, he is able to forgive it all, so Jesus' death is sufficient and just.

Over the whole weekend I don't think I slept much because me and Cler were in a room together and we always end up chatting till late. But it was a very good time. I think I want to listen to the talks again. I think I also got to know some of the other ladies better. We also sang some new songs. 'All of Creation' and 'Beautiful Saviour' were good ones. Also, 'Before the Throne of God Above' was given a whole new meaning after hearing the talks on Hebrews. I love it!

Now for some photos:

Me, Cler and Tanya Having a killer time


Geez... check out Cler's cheezy!


Tanya was having a great time!


I'm baffled by the awesomeness of the talks


Me and Cler being idiots with the blinding flash on my camera

From Car-O-Line

Baby Got Book

this is kinda scary, kinda weird, and kinda funny. Take a look:

I didn't cheat at all so some of the answers are pretty obscure...

----------
1) Put your music player on shuffle

2) Press forward for each question

3) Use the song title as the answer to the question

4) NO CHEATING!!!
______________________________

1.) How am I feeling today?
So Sweet - Jonothan Rice

2.) Where will I get married?
Kissing a Fool - Michael Buble

3.) What is my best friend's theme song?
Symphony No. 4 in G major 3rd movement - Gustav Mahler

4.) What is/was highschool like?
Who Painted the Moon Black? - Hayley Westenra

5.) What is the best thing about me?
I could be the one - Stacie Orrico

6.) How is today going to be?
Rollover D.J. - Jet

7.) What is in store for this weekend?
Last Chance - Jet

8.) What song describes my parents?
Sonata K378 Allegro for violin - Mozart

9.) How is my life going?
Can’t Buy Me Love - Michael Buble

10.) What song will they play at my funeral?
Clarinet Quintet in B minor op115 Allegro - Brahms

11.) How does the world see me?
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings - Britten

12.) What do my friends really think of me?
Finish Line - Paul Colman

13.) Do people secretly lust after me?
Something Beautiful - Robbie Williams

14.) How can I make myself happy?
A Lack of Color - Death Cab for Cutie

15.) What should I do with my life?
Honey and the Moon - Joseph Arthur

16.) Will I ever have children?
Stuck - Stacie Orrico

17.) What is some good advice?
Pokarekare Ana - Hayley Westenra

18.) What do I think my current theme song is?
River of Dreams - Hayley Westenra

19.) What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Run - Paul Colman

20.) What type of men/women do you like?
Paint the Silence - South

21.) Will you get married?:
Moondance - Michael Buble

22.) What should I do with my love life?
Put your head on my Shoulder - Michael Buble

24.) Where will you live?
Fantaisie De Carmen 1st Movement - Sarasate

25.) What will your dying words be?
Megalomania - Muse

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

this clip is just so funny. i so wanna try it out! does anyone have 8 treadmills and a huge silver tarpoline handy???

From Car-O-Line

Here is a picture of me and my model friend Gemma Ward... well actually it's Jen... but I reckon she really looks like Gemma Ward in this picture.




actually... Jen looks much better :)

From Car-O-Line

challenges of life

Recently I've found it so amazing and so challenging and so comforting that God has a plan for my life and that he leads me in different directions.

All the talks I've been to this year and all the bible studies I've done just seem to be so relavant to me. At first I thought it was pure coincidence, but now I realise that God really has been speaking to me and trying to challenge me. I guess it also just goes to show that the Bible is living and active.

I think after high school... I was in this real crucial point in my life where I was thinking really deeply about all the relationships that I'm in. At the beginning of the year... I heard talks on matthew which made me rethink how I was going to relate to God this year. I also had talks from matthew at ISCF conference and apparently the talks for women's convention will be from matthew too. Then at MYC I was challenged about the purpose of marriage and contentment in being single (which has come up a lot for me this year).

For basically my whole high school years... I think I was very unhappy about being single and I think this is a problem with our adolescent (sp?) culture today that so much importance is placed on 'who you go out with.' Here were my mood changes:

- singleness is crap
- you can serve God better being single... so deal with it
- you can serve God better in a relationship
- singleness is mad... you get to hang out with your girl friends and chat more
- singleness sucks when you're the only one single

There is a really challenging passage in 1 Corinthians 7:25ff which basically says, if you're single... stay single because it's good and you can serve God better, and if you are married... keep at it and serve God in that way. I'm still not sure what I think about this passage... I think it's something I have to mull over for a bit.
So at the moment... I am quite happy with being single, and I'm trying to work out how I can be serving God in my singleness... because it's such a blessing that I don't have to worry about a guy and that I have so much time to do things that people in relationships probably would have less time to do.

One thing that confuses me are single Christians who say "I plan to get married and have kids etc" but they don't consider the fact that God may want them to be unmarried and that they may be able to glorify God better while being single. Like who are we to say "God... please get me into a relationship."

I dunno... thats my confusing (and slightly controversial) spiel. This basically came up because my bible study group seems to be overly preoccupied with relationships. I don't know if it's helpful.

but in all this... Yay for God! Because he loves me.

From Car-O-Line

p.s: I remember being given an article to read on the 'joys of being single' which said stuff like... "when you are single, you have more time to serve God" and "you wont get as tempted" and other random stuff which made me feel really angry because it said something that I didn't want to hear. The great faults in humans... is that they want to live their own way and not just follow God's perfect plan for them.

Threadless!

You may have noticed me wearing some cool shirts all the time. Just click on the link to see the site... sign up and buy shirts... then you can be as groovy as me!

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few!!!

I checked the apple website and my laptop battery doesn't need to be replaced. What a relief...

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