Marinate on this.

A word of caution: this is fairly deep stuff (which is why I love this woman), I thoroughly enjoy reading and figuring out really deep thoughts (for ex-C.S. Lewis), this is probably the reason that I love to read and write-if you don't, this post won't be interesting, but if you'll take the time to "read b/w these lines" it will be worth it:

There's a war in the mind over territory for the dominion/Who will dominate the opinion, schisms and -isms/Keeping us in forms of religion, conforming our vision to the world church's decision/Trapped in a section, submitted to committee election/Moral infection, epidemic lies and deception/Insurrection of the highest possible order/Distorting our tape recorders from hearing like under water/Beyond the borders fond of sin and disorder, bound by the strategy of systemic depravity/Heavy as gravity, head-first in the cavity without a bottom/A fate worse than Sodom/What's got 'em drunk off the spirits, truth comes we can't hear it 'when you've been programmed to fear it/I had a vision I was falling in indecision, appalling, calling religion some program on television/How could dominant wisdom be recognized in a system of antichrists and majority rules/Intelligent fools/PhDs in illusion, masters of mass confusion, bachelors of past delusion/Now who you choosin, the head or the tail/The bloodshed of the male, or confidence in the veil/Conferences at Yale discussing doctrines of Baal, causing people to fail, keeping the third in jail/His word has nailed everything to the tree, severing all of me from all that I used to be/Formless and void, totally paranoid, enjoyed darkness as/Lord keeping me from the sword, I was blocked from mercy, bitter than cerasee/hungry and thirsty for good meat we would eat and still dine at the table of deceit/How incomplete/From confrontation to retreat, we prolonged the true enemies' defeat/Destitute of necessity /Causing desperation to get the best of me/Punishment till there was nothing left of me, realizing the unescapable death of me/No options in the valley of decision/The only doctrine supernatural circumcision/Inwardly only water can purge the heart from words/The fiery darts thrown by the workers of the arts/Iniquity, shapen in, there's no escaping when your whole philosophy is paper thin/In vanity, the wide road is insanity/Could it be all of humanity? Picture that/Scripture that! The origin of man's heart is black/How can we show up for an invisible war/Preoccupied with a shadow, making love with a whore, aching in sores/Babylon the great mystery, mother of human history, system of social sorcery/Our present condition needs serious recognition/Where there's no repentance there can be no remission, and that sentence more serious than Vietnam, the atom bomb, and Saddam, and Minister Farrakhan/What's going on? What's a priority to you? By what authority do we do/The majority hasn't a clue/We've majored in curses, search the chapters, check the verses, recapture the land, remove the mark from off our hands, so we can stand in agreement with His command/Everything else is damned, let them with ears understand. Everything else is damned, let them with ears understand…

"Freedom Time" Taken from Lauryn Hill's CD-"MTV-Unplugged"(an awesome CD!)

PS: When I say that I like really deep thoughts-I am usually referring to thoughts that generally revolve around God, there are others though, such as certain quotes and theories that I like, but a lot of that stuff is garbage, there needs to be some "meat" in how you think. I'm just saying...

Perspective.

This is a random pic I found on the internet that I thought was cool, maybe you will too.

The Waiting

Trembling (at times) I wait

Pent up passion

behind a golden gate

The sifter begins its' dissection

through the use of a mirror-named Truth

The revelations are the pathway to perfection



An accustomed sting

paired with pieces of hope

They sing, dance, and prance

unaware of their joke

All the while refinement rants

Aching (at times) I wait



Rippling emotions yield maladaptive ponder

Glimpses of false beauty-introduced

Unguarded desires-beware-the heart will grow fonder!

But...this magnet is rare!

Reality settles...unrefused

Content (for now) I wait



~Rachel L. Ritsema

Got you where I want you...

Recently I have “auditioned” for two things at church (see link in top right-hand corner and COME VISIT), but…have “made” neither. The first was worship team and the second-drama team. On a scale of 1-10 on being disappointed (10 being overcome w/grief), I am a proud 1, this is the God’s (literally and figuratively) honest truth. The reason I was indifferent to either outcome is that I truly WANT to be where GOD WANTS me to be, and nowhere else. I want to serve God in every single way that I possibly can, I never had a “calling” to audition for either of these teams, I just “did it”, and for the record-it was NOT easy. Worship team was like singing karaoke (for me) times ten, and drama team allowed me to regress to about age 10 and pretend I was everything from a person w/giant feet, a 2 foot nose, and a head full of helium, to someone riding on the back of a dolphin being chased by a shark, so no regrets there-good “memorable” experiences.

All of this leads me to the reason behind the title of this blog. I was so worried that I wasn’t doing enough for God, that I needed to be doing more…well, currently, I’m right where God wants me. Let me elaborate: about one year ago, I realized that I had a slight anxiety when it came to children, so I decided to attend a kidcity (our children’s ministry at church) orientation. I was sitting in orientation, thinking to myself that I definitely didn’t want to be any kind of large group leader or work w/very small children, and then I read about a “buddy system” the church was starting, this system was for children who had special needs (although I dislike this term), you get to work one on one w/the kids and communicate w/their parents, and I thought-PERFECT! So, I went home and prayed…and a few days later someone called to inform me that they had a little 3 year old boy named Logan who was autistic-I was so excited :o). I believe the following week I met him and his amazing parents and the rest is history, Logan is truly a blessing in my life. These recent “turn-downs” are all a part of God letting me know where I need to be, I was happy “watching over” Logan before, but now I’m thrilled- it just feels different having that assurance. Now, I wait on God for the next thing, and the next and the next, what more can I do?

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angles descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blessed; Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

Or, in my case, my blessed RE-assurance, thanks God.

One of the current lights in my life-Logan.

So long sweet summer...

Some highlights of this summer:

1.) Got to spend 4 beautiful days at a resort in North Myrtle beach, now you may be thinking, hey myrtle beach is not that special, well the reason this trip was special is that the 4 other people I went with (2 being my bro and sis) were all really chill people, if you know what I mean. I mean that there was no drama (that often arises in groups), I was able to spend time in the morning w/God (awesome) and just relax! The dining out was a different experience, but I refuse to get into that right now.
Me and my sister Natasha and soon to be roomie Lauren ;o)
My sister's roomie Sara and my brother Zach (we were all playing putt-putt)

One of the roughest rides I've been on, I fell off about 6 times :o(

2.) I attended my first “Harvest Crusade”, Greg Laurie was the speaker, thousands of people came out, it was amazing. At first I was disappointed because I didn’t like how Greg was “preaching”, but after some consideration, I realized that it wasn’t about or for me in particular (thus the word “harvest”), it was for new Christians to accept Christ, and accept Him they did, I don’t know the exact number, but I think it was like over 600! Anyway, the crusade was three days long, and I went all three days (although I hate to admit it-mainly for the bands).But, the bands were awesome-David Crowder, Leeland, Tobymac, and Third Day. It was just great to be in a huge arena worshiping God w/tons of other people. I won’t soon forget that.

3.) Went on my first (and definitely not last) missions trip to Trinidad! This was by far the best thing that I got to do this summer. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome the people we worked with in Trinidad are and how much they love and want to serve God. We mainly worked w/the kids-we hosted a VBS (vacation bible school) for them, we also went “door to door” visiting widows and we gave them each a bag filled w/hygiene stuff (which is pretty expensive down there). A big part of the trip was fellowship w/the locals and getting to know them on more personal levels, I think it’s neat that I have friends in Trinidad :o). The island was beautiful and the food was great, I think the “craziest” thing I ate was shark and it was actually really good, although I am usually not a picky eater-I was offered fried chicken feet to snack on, of which I politely declined. I want to go to South America next year, I'm brushing up on my spanish now :o).

My favorite little boy down there-Daniel.

My favorite girls-Janelle, Marissa, and Barbara (Daniel's sis) and the bunny ears is Nikoli. Some of the widows-Stephanie, Evelyn, and Roseanna (keep them in your prayers!).

So, thanks God for blessing me with all of these great opportunites, they have each taught me a lot!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever."

~1 Chron 16:34

Thanks for tuning in, bye now.

Not so Plain Jane...

So… I’ve decided to officially start “blogging”, I was planning to start this on my Myspace account, but for various reasons, decided against it. You guys should feel honored :o), hopefully the “life” of my mind will be interesting.

The title of this blog describes me in a nutshell. I have never considered myself ordinary by any means, in fact I’ve often thought of myself as weird (if you know me you won’t disagree). You see, I feel as if I don’t think like many other people, I often feel as if I’m looking at the world from someone else’s eyes, hard to explain. The basis for this view is largely due to the fact that (quite recently) I’ve fallen in love. Oh yes it’s very true, and for me, hard to believe since that has never happened to me before. Yes, I have loved and love many, but this is different. The fact is, I’ve had this all along and never realized that it was mine, not just to experience, but to live. I feel like I’ve always been wise beyond my years (although I'm sure a few would say otherwise). I have experienced a lot, not only in relationships, but just by living. I can honestly say that, real living has just started for me and it’s a direct result of this love. You may be wondering Who this Mystery is……..well He happens to be my Jesus. :o) As many of you know I gave my life to Christ around age 10. That was a very serious profession of my faith, but unfortunately I never took Him seriously……..until now. I don’t know how or even when, but He came and moved in my life about a year and a half ago, and I’ve never been the same. This change, for me, was significant, up to that point I was working in a place and participating in things and with people that were bringing me down, way down. He was speaking to me-very clearly about some things in my life, and was literally removing people from my close circle of friends, He was also letting me know that my sweet boyfriend of 2 years had to go. The thing with God (that is a routine challenge for me) is that you have to OBEY Him when He asks you to do something, and this boyfriend thing was really HARD, but I did it. I cannot begin to describe the instant PEACE I felt afterward, it was tough for the following year, but God was healing me all along. I started a new job, and honestly, christians seemed to "flock" to me! I also started getting more involved in my (awesome) church and God has been working through me ever since, I am open to wherever He leads :o) Gracious! I feel odd writing all this, but oh well. I guess I just wanted my first entry to be about my “new” found Love and the constant and transforming growth I am just starting to experience. I love Jesus with my entire heart and soul, He is my first love and always will be, He daily leaves me speechless.

My favorite scripture verse changes quite often, this was it for awhile:
“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ, … He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone.” ~Ephesians 1:11

My current favorite:
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
~Proverbs 19:21