[	Current Mood	|	exhausted yet wired	]
[	Current Music	|	Sugar Rush by Joy Electric	]

So, a friend of mine invited me to this college group she's been going to.  Went for the first time last night and DUDE.  I didn't realize how much I missed hanging out with Christians my age.  It was great.  We played pool, pingpong, and gutterball for a while, then sat around and talked about this video clip we watched about love and Song of Solomon.  And if Emily hadn't had a test today, we would have gone to Denny's afterwards.  It was so rad.

Good concert weekend again.  Saw good worship-centered bands on Saturday and got really sore from moshing, and saw New American Standard with their new kids on Sunday.  And now Torie is madly in love with Nate, the new lead singer.  More on that later.  They still sound good, but I liked Gabe's vocals better with thier songs.  And I think he has better stage presence than Nate.  And, though the kid can scream okay, it should be left to Ryan.  He has better pitch, control, and stamina.

I have the sermon notes from last week, just haven't gotten around to putting them in yet.  I'm kind of scatterbrained right now.  Have to write a research paper for the crimescene class I'm taking.  Due Tuesday.  And I haven't started on my correspondence course.....yeah.  Typical me.

More later.  I'm tired.

Mariah the pirate girl

P.S. I'm on Myspace now!  Like everyone and their mother.

[	Current Mood	|	smug, really	]
[	Current Music	|	...And We Drive by Side Walk Slam	]

So, today Mark preached one of the best sermons I've ever heard.  We're starting a new series on faith, so today was the overview.  There was just a lot of good stuff.  The outline totally nailed the subject of faith.

The excellent series continues.  I'll update this post each week with tidbits from the sermons.  I'm anticipating being able to put recordings of the messages up on my blog.  We'll see, I suppose.  If nothing else, if someone wants to hear the whole thing, I can e-mail it to you.  Just let me know.

Faith is:

1. Believing when I don't see it.
2. Obeying when I don't understand it.
3. Persisting when I don't feel like it.
4. Thanking before I receive it.
5. Trusting if I don't get it.
6. Giving when I don't have it.

Most of the scriptures were from the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11.  One that he used was the one about Abel: "...by faith Abel was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offering...." Heb 11:4b.  Mark said that God was so impressed by Abel's sacrifice because he brought, without really thinking about it, the firstborn of his flock.  The very best he had.

Aside from scripture, Mark had several bits of wisdom, gleaned from various sources.  One was something like "relying on feelings leads to a life of immaturity".  Which makes sense.  If we all relied on our feelings, nobody would work or go to school, or do anything worth while.
Another one was "When you give your life to Christ, your problems don't change at all." People seem to think that all life's problems will simply melt away.  They don't, but it's a little easier to deal with them.  In my opinion, at least.
One that I can identify with is "life is found on the other side of the deepest valleys".  Or, "You don't know God is all you need until God is all you got."  Direct.
One that nails our culture, much like the 'feelings' one, is "God is more concerned with your character than your comfort." So different from the culture that preaches pure selfishness and self-indulgence.
And the last one; "Part-time faith isn't enough to deal with full-time problems." Ain't that the truth.

Then this week was an interesting analogy about buckets and thimbles.  It goes something like this:  We can bring our thimble to God and say "Here's my thimble, God.  Please fill it."  And He will.  Or, we can bring our bucket and say "Here's my bucket, God.  Please fill it."  And He will.  The thimble is faith.  The bucket is radical faith.  Rather like the difference between stepping off a stair and stepping off a cliff.

The only prayer that can never be answered is the one that's never asked.

God is at His strongest when He's saving.

We want to believe in You for great things.

In our bulletin, little stories are oft included.  I liked this one.  It's from Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul.

The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst.  People were anxious and irritable as they searched the sky for any sign of relief.  Days turned into arid weeks.  No rain came.

The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer in the town square the following Saturday.  They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.

At high noon on the appointed Saturday the townspeople turned out en masse, filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts.  The ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands- holy books, crosses, rosaries.

When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall.  Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise.  From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others:

A small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella.

I've taken more notes for the past two sermons then I think I ever have period.

Mark, you rock.

Mariah the pirate girl

[	Current Mood	|	morose	]
[	Current Music	|	Sad Clown by Jars of Clay	]

  And so we enter the seemingly-endless winter. I'm to the point where I'm living weekend to weekend. This weekend is the Christian Musician Summit in Tacoma. Aw, it's gonna be fun. I won't get there until the afternoon because I have school/work until noon, but that still leaves most of the day and all day Saturday.  The next weekend, nothing.  The following is a four-day that coincides with my birthday this year.  Yea.  Another year older.

  I must be entering the final ditch of my post-hormonal depression.  I can't think of any real reason to get up tomorrow.  And, when I'm not paying attention, I sometimes catch myself thinking about a certain person.  Nothing is interesting.  I just want to sleep.  I'm stressing about choosing a college.  And mom's been laying in lately about getting another job.  It's not helping any that Torie has an interview at the Bon-Macy's next week.  Inadequacy.

[	Current Mood	|	giddy	]
[	Current Music	|	The Crucial Conspiracy by The Dingees	]

  Okay, I had the best weekend ever.  On Friday, I hooked up with eight other people (Crystal, Melissa, Jessica, Micheal, Darien, Andrew, Torie and me) and headed up to Mars Hill Chruch in Seattle.  It was a free concert with Seventh Day Slumber and Kutless, so we didn't know if there would be any sort of line or not.  We decided not to chance it.  We got there at a quarter to three, and the doors opened at 6.  No biggie, we just played poker for two hours or so. 

  We had a good time.  SoulDeep guys were there again.  The drummer dude, Josh, was standing in front of me in the mosh pit, so I poked him in the shoulder.  He turned around and I said "Hi.  You guys are all over the place."  He just kinda looked at me, "Yeah, we play a lot of shows."  I shook my head, "No, like this.  Just around.  At other concerts.  All the time."  I think he thought I was exaggerating.  Oh well.  It was a good concert.  I didn't know any of the songs, so I found it to be very relaxing.  If I'd've been in the mood, I might have curled up against the wall and taken a nap.

  Afterwards, we took Crystal and Heather back to SPU, got lost getting back to the freeway, and went to Denny's until 2am.

  The next day, Torie, Melissa, Darien and me went back up to Seattle to the Graceland for the concert I'd been awaiting eagerly for over a month.  Strange Occurence, Post Stardom Depression and New American Standard.  We got there a little early (I gave us time, just in case we got lost), and, get this, found stall parking for a dollar.  Within a five minute walk of the club.  How cool is that.  So, we get there about 20 minutes before the doors opened.  We're standing outside and who should walk up but Josiah and the older brother we didn't know he had, Jose.

  So we kill time hanging out.  At least it wasn't raining.  So we get in (they patted Darien down, looked through Torie and Melissa's purses and made me dump out my water bottle) and, since we're the first people in, we get to put our stuff somewhere!  The back of the club has this long, cushioned bench with tables every few feet.  We put our stuff on the last table in the corner. 

  Strange Occurence was good.  They have punky songs, so Torie, Darien and I were punkdancing for a while.  Melissa wouldn't dance with us.  We talked Darien into showing off a few of his breakdancing moves.  Very cool.  After their set was done, we all went back to the bench to wait out the instrument changes and get our first hearing of PSD.

  They sucked.  I like it when bands interact with the audience and they didn't.  The music was okay, but we were pretty sure the lead singer was at least high at the time.  So, to put it nicely, we had a good long breather between SO and NAS.

  Now on to the meat of the evening.  New American Standard is one of the best live bands I've ever seen.  They get on stage and the lead singer, Gabe, starts the usual final-band-preamble about the bands that played before them and some such stuff.  They started by playing some new songs (squee!!).  Very good.  Then, about two songs in, decided to tell us that one thing they'd learned on tour is that spaghetti is pretty much Top Ramen with Ketchup.  Funky.  All in all, a very excellent show.  I'll be riding this concert high for a long time.  I bought their second album (finally) and a shirt.  They had free stickers!! 

  Funny thing, though.  For the set-up, let me say that I was wearing this black Fender guitar shirt (if you want a pic, go to hottopic.com).  So, after the concert, I was waiting for the rest of my group to grab their stuff.  I spy Gabe, from NAS sitting on this step.  So, I go over, extend my hand and say : "Hey, you rock."  He shakes my hand and says : "Thanks.  I really like your shirt.  I kept getting drawn by it."  And I, not thinking of anything else to say, reply with this witty rejoinder, "Thanks."

  All in all, a good weekend.  Yea.