Long time, no...type

It's been a while since I have posted anything on here. It's not because nothing is happening. Actually, it's just the opposite! I have been doing so much lately that I am exhausted, and sorry, but blogging is not a priority right now :)

Let's see, stuff with the neighbors is going well. Emily is teaching swimming lessons to a bunch of the kids, so while she is getting splashed in the face, I get to sit next to the moms and hang out.

Oooh, yesterday we made sugar cookies with some of the kids, that was fun...and we strategically gave them our plates so that they would have to bring them back. Mwaahaha! Tricky for the Kingdom!

Oh, and let me just say that God has been encouraging my socks off the past two weeks!

Sunday I got to see two friends of mine from Cumberland. I was planning on going to visit one of my besties, Ashley who was visiting a family about an hour south of me. While we were planning, she asked if I could pick up our other friend, Michelle (who I ran track with my freshman year) on the way down. It turned out that Michelle was directly

on the way! What a blessing(She was actually staying on the same campus that I am going to be doing my internship at this fall...I know, small world.)!

So I went and picked up Michelle and it was so good to just have time in the car to talk to her. I have not seen her since she graduated after my freshman year, and let me tell you, God really encouraged me through her. She has been a missionary in Asia for the past three years, and is here on furlough.

In this picture we are pretending to be with one of our friends, Jessica (long story for some other time).

Other encouraging things are happening at work and stuff. Except for the sad fact that Ben and Natalie are moving to Hawaii :(

Last cool thing before I have to run. The other night we went to get frozen yogurt for my friend's birthday. Some of us did not want any, so we were waiting on the benches outside. My school president and another professor walked up and they each introduced me to their wives. It was just cool cause I was not so sure that they knew me, but I guess they do (I hope that is a good thing, haha).

Maybe more later, but I have to go! Hasta!

Oh dear

I am watching my roommate Sarah talk on the phone and pace across our apartment. For some reason it is cracking me up. She walks to the sliding glass door and back to the kitchen and turns around again. And again. And again. Hahaha. Is she going to stop? No! She just started another round!

Why is this amusing? Maybe because I have been quarantined all day with pink eye. Bleh. 

Haha. Ok, well nothing super spiritual or cool here. Just a little glimpse of my life. 

Hasta!

Fun day!

     Today was a fun day...so far. But I'm not done yet :)

     I had an interview for an internship today, so I woke up early and stopped by my friend Charity's house. She lives about 20 minutes away, so I do not get to see her very often, but when I do, it is always a treat. We went to a little hippy coffee shop and we both ordered chai and went out back to the garden to drink it. I have had a really sore throat the past two days, so the warm chai tea felt so good on it.

     Then I drove to Pasadena for my interview at the US Center for World Missions. I was not even nervous a little bit....that is, until I took a few wrong turns on the way there and was really close to being late. But as far as being interviewed, I was not really nervous because I love missions and I don't know why I was not nervous, but I just wasn't. I guess for once in my life I just trusted that it was in God's hands. The interview went well and yipee skippe I am officially going to be an intern there in the fall!  

     Then I went to my sister's house on the way home and said hi, and then went jeans shopping (because I lost mine :( somehow). I decided that I was not in the mood, so I left without trying on any jeans. But here is where it gets good. I had a hard-boiled egg in my car cause I am eating healthier and I brought it along for a snack, but I did not want to leave it in my hot car, so I carried it around the mall in my hands. Haha. I guess I looked funny carrying a hard-boiled egg around the mall with me, but whatever. I am really starting to not care at all what people think about me. It's kinda nice. And then, on my way back to my car, I heard a song on the loudspeakers that I wanted to hear so I stood on the sidewalk and just listened. It was quite nice. 

I don't know why I felt like sharing the egg and song stuff, but it was just fun to do whatever and not care who was watching. Like, I was just talking with Jesus all day and enjoying His company and knowing that I am loved by God makes every other thing on the planet seem really insignificant. 

Ok, now I am going to start translating 1 Peter! Yay for Greek III. 

Where Simi meets India.

Near the corner of Cochran and Erringer is a nice little apartment complex. So many different types of people live in the complex. And among all of the nations represented there, the strongest community is the Indian community. They all come because they know that there are like-minded people for them to be friends with. This is one chapter of a story of how two american girls started becoming a part of the Indian community in Simi Valley. 

 This is a picture of me, Lavenya, and Emily (Left to right) at Lavenya's baby shower. She is going to have a new baby boy soon! We are all kind-of making wierd faces in this picture.All of the women at the baby shower. Men and kids came too, but they are not in this picture. See if you can pick out the two americans!

This is us all laughing at our lack of knowledge about the Indian culture. 

We went up to bless Lavenya and the baby. The only difference between us and them is that we prayed to our God to bless them, rather than praying to one of the many Indian gods. 

Me and Roshni playing a game. Fun!

Tonight before church I was telling Emily what I learned about letting the Holy Spirit control my life instead of having myself. I told her how I am scared stiff of messing up. Like, in life, I am so scared to mess up sometimes, that I do nothing at all. 

I guess it is a good thing that I realize the severity of sin, but sometimes sinning is not even a factor, and I am just so scared that I get paralyzed in thought (urg. I hate overthinking things!)

For example, inviting my co-workers to church. It is certainly not a sin to invite one of my co-workers to come to church with me! And while I am not really that afraid of being rejected by them, I am afraid of asking them when they are not ready and messing up and making them hate church and God forever. 

And that is baloney ( I know, bologna. But I like baloney better).

It is baloney to think that my asking a co-worker to go to church could mess up God's plan to save that person. Haha. Bethany, you are not powerful enough to mess up God's plan. Ahhh, what a sweet reality that is. 

Tonight when we got to church, the second song we sang was the following song. The first two lines were up on the screen for about 30 seconds. After about 5 seconds of looking at the words, they hit me. Hard.

I looked over at Emily who was a few people down, and I started cracking up laughing. People were turning around to look at me. But I just kept laughing. I could feel the Holy Spirit in me, giving me joy and telling me that this is what His love is like. I am falling so in love with God and I just want to know how to give up all control to Him. 

Here's that song:

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains 
And If I stumble again
I'm caught in our grace
Everlasting, Your light will shine 
When all else fails 
Neverending, your glory goes 
Beyond all fame 

In my heart and my soul
I give You control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Everlasting, Your light will shine 
When all else fails
Neverending, Your glory goes
Beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart 
Is to bring You praise 
From the inside out 
Lord my soul cries out

Your will above all else 
My purpose remains 
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting, Your light will shine 
When all else fails 
Neverending, your glory goes 
Beyond all fame

This is real.

Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

When we were sinners, we were enemies of God. But Jesus fought the war on our behalf through his life, death, and resurrection. God is the Holy King, and we who were once enemies are now on peaceful terms with God because of what Jesus has done. But it is not just like we signed a peace treaty and went back to our homeland. No, our God is greater than that. “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,” WOW! Through Jesus we have also obtained access (some translations say "introduction") to God. (Think Esther here). It is dangerous to approach a King without introduction, like, people have been killed for going before a King without proper introduction. But through Jesus, we have gained access to God, our King. We do not have to fear going before his throne because the one at his right hand is interceding for us! (but that is later in Romans). 

But wait, there is more. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. WHAT? Ok, so lets back up a bit...First we were enemies of God, but Jesus faught the war on our behalf. Then he justified us by faith so that we would have peace with God, and not only peace, but access to God! Ok, so now we can go into the throne room of God and bow before Him and worship his majesty. But Paul says that we have access into this grace in which we stand. When we enter the throne room of God and kneel before HIm, He looks down at us and lifts up our chin and says, “Stand up. You are my child. I sacrificed everything so that you could stand justified before me.”

The first time I heard that, I cried. I had been imagining a God so big and so Holy and now the Bible is telling me that I am standing in His grace? That blows my mind.

 and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More on that when I understand it fully. 

 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,

You are saying that we rejoice in sufferings more than we rejoice in hope? Is Paul crazy? Not at all. Paul realizes that we rejoice in our sufferings because that is what produces endurance, which produces character. The greek word for character here is dokime. A more specific translation would be “proven character” (the same word that is used in James 1). It is describing someone who has been tested and his faith is proven true. You might have heard the gold analogy: When gold is tested in the fire it comes out as more pure gold. But here’s the thing: it comes out of the fire, and everyone knows that it really is gold. It does not just look like gold. It does not just say that it is gold. It is proven to be gold. That is what sufferings produce in Christians. When a Christian suffers and comes out confessing Christ, everyone will know that he truly is a follower of Jesus, and not just in talk.

 That is how character produces hope. If our dokime (proven character) shows that we really are a Christian, then we have confidence (hope) that we will inherit the Kingdom of God.

 knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

This last part I am still not grasping, but I think that it is saying that one of the ways that God pours His love out on us is that He has given us the Holy Spirit. 

Quicky update

Jesus was radical. Im reading John right now, and sheesh, Jesus said some off the wall stuff. Check out chapter 6! (and remember, the people that He is talking to have never been to Sunday school!)

Lavenya's baby shower is this Friday!!!

Emily is in the USA!

God has me in a blender right now. I keep trying to figure things out, but bleh, I can't. But yah, I am not going to let my confusion and feelings of failure determine my joy. So many times I let my circumstances affect my joy.   But not this time. Nope. I have been chosen by God. That is more than enough for me. 

It's waaay past my bedtime, so goodnight! I know, Mom, but I finished another English essay!