Hershey Kisses and Priceless Thoughts

     Priceless thoughts are the thoughts we think, that are only meaningful to to who us.  This Christmas season I have decided to take time to really appreciate the things that God has done for us. He came to earth, leaving all of His power and deity to come dwell among men who didn't love Him. Most of the time I don't take the time to realize what God really did for me.  He came to this world to die on the cross.  Not as a King to rule the earth, but to live a lowly life to die on the cross and save me! What an amazing gift.
     So what are you thinking about this season? How important is it to you? I have been thinking of how busy I've been and how inconvenient it is.  But is that honestly something I should be thinking about? No it's not! The things that I need to be thinking about need to be the priceless gift that God has given to me and all the small and big things that God has blessed me with.  These need to be my priceless thoughts this season.
     Every year I get Hershey Kisses in my stocking, this year I have decided that while I eat them I will think of one thing that God has blessed me with, and then I am going to share that thought with someone in my life! I encourage anyone to join me in this endeavor.  God Bless and never forget the real gift of this season, Jesus Christ His Son, who saves us from our sins.

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I Am......

     I am faithful.  There are many people in this world and each person has something that they claim to believe in.  Just because they claim to believe in a faith does not make them faithful.  I know that I am faithful.  I believe in the God of the Bible and His Son Jesus Christ.  The thing that makes my faithfulness different then the average faith, is that my faith is based upon a true and intimate relationship with God.  Having a relationship rather then a religion, has given me the opportunity to personally know my Lord and Savior, therefore my faith is not just traditions and laws.  Rather it is intimate and real.  I have a God who is actively working in me, changing me to be more like Him and continually proving Himself to me.  I realize that as a person I must be reassured of who I trust and of who I put my faith in.  Faithfulness to me isn’t just having a faith, so that I can tell people what my view of life is.  When I tell people I am faithful, I literally mean I am defined by my personal relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ.

     My faith in God, has brought me to a realization that I am not perfect.  I struggle with the concept of not being perfect, everything in me wants to be perfect so that I don’t have to look  down on myself,  judge myself, or fall into the category of  imperfect.  But I ultimately know that I am not perfect.  I am a sinner and I cannot be perfect enough to achieve salvation or heaven by  myself.  Overcoming the fact that I am not perfect has been a great challenge because it means admitting to myself that I need help.  God provides that help and all I have to do is grasp that free gift of salvation.  God has graciously give me this opportunity.  Faith is believing in something that is not seen and is the realization of things hoped for.  Hope literally means knowing what’s going to happen and placing all your trust into that coming hope. I am only defined as faithful because of the grace of God and the gift He has given to me through salvation.

     I am faithful, but my faithfulness is not defined by traditions.  My faithfulness is defined by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who enables me to live out my faithfulness everyday.  In God’s mercy and love He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within those who truly believe in Him.  My faithfulness is directly derived from God, who has blessed me with faith.  I cannot achieve faith by myself.  It’s impossible, for I am too basic and simple to have this kind of strong faith in my life, if I didn’t have the true living God, indwelling in my heart.  

    Faithfulness is a blessing, I am convinced of my faith in God.  A few of the reasons that I am convinced that my God is the God of the universe who came down and died for me so that I might have a restored relationship with Him, are that He actively speaks to me, He gave me His Word (the Bible), and that God proves Himself through answered prayer and prophecy.  My faith is established when I spend time with the Lord and He speaks to me the things I need to do or truths from His Word.  Many times I think that God is silent but, but rather that I’m the one that’s not silent.  When I don’t hear from God is when I am too busy to want to hear Him.  When I take the time to listen and seek the Lord, He speaks!  When God speaks to me it is very precious and it strengthen my faith in Him and instills a greater love for Him in my heart.

    Without God my heart has a hole in it.  People say there heart has a hole in it quite often and I know that that hole in their heart just needs to be filled by God.  God made me in His image which I find profound.  He made us to be able to love and to ultimately be His bride.  Every time I realize this I am awe struck!  How could such an glorious God chose to love me so much!  I was made for God’s pleasure (Psalm 147:11, Psalm 149:4) and this I cannot comprehend.  I am not even worthy or close to being worthy of this blessing.  It makes me so joyful that I have been blessed with His favor that I just want to glorify the God who lovingly made me.

    I adore my God, I love who He is.  He is a God who is personal, that speaks, and that cares.  I am faithful, but I am still a sinner and fool.  Without God I am nothing, but another lost person with no meaning in life or purpose, because of the mercy of God I have faith.  Faith in the one true God is not disappointing to me, it is rather exhilarating and consuming.  When I take the time to sit before the Lord and have Him speak to me I learn directly from Him and His Word.  Scripture speaks of the greatness, compassion, and of how wonderful the God I put my faith in is.  Through the Scriptures, I came to a true understanding of my relationship with God (my faith).  I know that God wants to spend time with me and when I do spend time with Him I become aware of the fact that God has good plans for me.  God loves me so much, that I cannot comprehend it.  This is the reason why I am a faithful, the God of the universe sent His Son to die for me, before I loved Him or even desired to have a relationship with Him and once I understood this, there in no way that I could not love a God so loving, merciful, and compassionate to me.  Once I understood this, the Lord instilled faithfulness into my heart and that is why I am a faithful person.  God is my victory, He defeated death and sin for me.  Faithfulness defines me because it declares God’s love and victory in my life.  He is near to me and I know this because of His promises that I will never be left alone or abandoned.  Honestly, if I decided to abandon my faithfulness I would have nothing to hope in or have a purpose for my life.  Faith gives my life purpose and that purpose is to serve my God where ever I am and to share the amazing grace, love, and victory that I have found in Him.  

     Finally the only thing left to say is that I am faithful by the grace and mercy of my Savior Jesus Christ and that in Him I have found meaning and purpose for my life and He defines everything about me.

Hebrews 11:1, 6

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him

Rain for Rent

     It's been such a long time since I've written. A lot has changed as well. I am now going to community college and have been swamped with papers and quizzes. My life lately feels like I'm on borrowed time. My time has been given to many people who don't really care because all I am to them is a pay check, they mount on the homework and papers. I'm expected to enjoy every single minute of it because after all I'm paying for it.  I know it's a necessary step in my life so that I can become someone in this world. But at the moment it seems that my time is lent and I'm spent.
     Ultimately I know my time belongs to God, so I try to share His gospel to everyone I meet. I rely on Him for my borrowed time and I seek Him to sustain me.  I can hand Him my small heart, and He holds it in His hands.... I know that I can trust Him not to drop or crush my heart.  But rather make my ugly heart into something beautiful through His free gift of sanctification and love.
     I chose to call this section Rain for Rent because every part of me, is only for rent.  I belong to God and He will have His way in my life.  Although its crazy and I seem to be one everyone else's time, I still borrow God's time!

                                                       Jeremiah 29:11-13

¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

¹² Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

¹³ And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.” 
― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

This quote describes my life in so many ways. To realize God has a plan and never hurry's, gives me peace.  It is my goal to seek to find stillness and rest in who He is, and now what I'm trying to do or accomplish.  My heart is in His hands and thing gives me peace.

Being Healthy!

This week has again been full of excitement! Work like always as well as starting up Pilates with my aunt and trying to become more aware of what I have been putting in my mouth! Its actually been quite fun! I learned that fructose is a poison to your body! Isn't that crazy! And it is literally in everything! So my goal is to avoid it as much as possible! This of course might be somewhat challenging because I am also gluten and dairy free! Lol oh this will be fun! So here is and a little look into my cooking life lately! Hope you enjoy it!



Doesn't this look amazing! I didn't even have to edit the color on this at all! I've been trying to use only organic fruits and veggies as well!



This is the toppings for the pizza that I'm making tonight! I'm really excited to see how it turns out! I have also been experimenting with making salad dressings, as well as with fructose free desserts! If you guys are bored at all or just excited to start eating healthier I'd love to help you guys! And finally guys don't let eating healthy keep you from living your life! Simply make it part of your life! Even though I've been eating better I still had time to go to the beach and have a couple Pilates lessons! Have fun with it!

Home, work, and fun?

Its been a while since I wrote last but I'm back! I think I can get about one or two posts up a week! Not too bad although I wish I had time for every other day!
While I've been home again I have started to work for my church! It's been quite fun! I work in the bookstore and the coffee shop! Yay coffee!!! I've also been hiking and hanging out with my family! Pilates starts next week and I have also been working on cutting sugar from my diet! (YES, REALLY HARD!!) I have been trying to take more pictures so I can work on my photography! Haha although I have realized that I'm not good at all! So here are some of my pictures!

I got to see my horses! They are super cute and I missed them so much when I was gone! 

I know this is all totality random stuff about my life but I hope it blessed you guys!

One thing that I have learned being home is that we need to seek the Lord with all our hearts! Look up Jeremiah 29:11-13 its pretty amazing!

Home and Graduated, ahhhh what now!

So I'm finally home! After a missed flight because the airport changed the time of our flight. It's been a crazy run but this Thursday I walked across the stage and received my diploma! Yay finally. It has really been a happy sad graduation experience! I loved Bible College and I'm honestly not quite ready to leave! But Hey God knows what He has for me next! Here are some of my grad pictures!
I am also happy because many of my good friends graduated with me as well and CJ! lol I met him fist semester and he is like my brother! I also was able to see Hayley and Tori! I had tons of my best friends there that totally stood by me and have been a total blessing to me!



These are my amazing friends! I love them all so much. I have been so blessed to see them all grow in the Lord and am also extremely blessed to have had them all in my life.


Of course my amazing family came and they all really have encouraged me to pursue the Lord without them I would not be where I am without them! Thank you all! 




Above is CJ and my sissy Jenny! They are amazing! Haha siblings all the way! And Hayley! You all know her! She is amazing and I just want everyone to know! God has really blessed me with her! I love her tons! Such a great friend!

Missing New Zealand

You know your missing New Zealand when you start to want to cry over leaving when you see the sun set! I have had an absolutely wonderful time here! I want to show you some of my favorite pictures that  I took during my time here! And don't worry I'll explain them!

Yes guys a double rainbow.  Believe it or not theses aren't rare here! But beautiful still! New Zealand reminds me of what the end of a rainbow would look be like! Super green and beautiful!


Reading under a tree! A nice typical Sunday afternoon! Photo props to Hayley!


The Mount! This is the beautiful beach that I had a chance to spend every Sunday at! Lets just say it never gets old!

So these are just some of the amazing pictures that I have! I hope they have blessed you! I have officially graduated! Ahhh scary! But at the end of this week I'll be back in Cali! I know I'm going to miss it. I suggest that if anyone wants to come visit New Zealand they defiantly should!! I specifically came to New Zealand to grow deeper in my relationship with Christ. Being here I have been blessed to learn how faithful my God is and how much He loves me.  New Zealand provided the perfect place for me to sit still and wait on God! I'm now of course, excited to go home! Although I figure I will have to stop saying "sweet as." Hahaha yes I know that this sounds like a bad word but here in NZ everyone says it to emphasize a point. It is defiantly not a bad word here but it will defiantly be taken that way back in Cali! Lol I guess I'll just have to let you guys know how it goes!

It Never Hurts to Pretend to Be Five!

Yes I'm going to write about Hayley, Heidi, and I jumping on our school's trampolines! I haven't jumped on a trampoline since I was seven! So needless to say this is quite an exciting outing!!! As you can tell Hayley used to be in dance so she can do some crazy things on the trampoline! Jumping on the trampoline was really fun and reminded me that sometimes I need to just let go of every care and worry and just embrace having fun! Not going to lie, I felt like I was five again!

Pretending to be five again!!! Oh Yes! There can never be enough laughs!

Rainy Days

It's been raining like crazy here in New Zealand! In Cali we get some rain but nothing like this rain.  It rains all the time! And they say its a dry season!!!!  With lots of rain comes time to read, drink lots of coffee, and play lots of games.  The end of our semester is coming up and I'll be graduating (yay), that's a scary thought! I love all the people here and I am really sad to be leaving.  Although I know that God has plans for me when I get home! So with needless to say I have enjoyed the rain lately because it gives us all lots of time to hang.

Classic, reading and coffee! (Victorious Christian Living! By Allen Redpath)

   
         Of course game spoons never gets old! (Lets just say we are a little bit too competitive!!)

Catch Up With Me

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So far I have seen some beautiful places and things in New Zealand.  Along with studying (like crazy) we get to do amazing things! For one of my classes we had to go into the town and street witness, which of course I am terrible at! (Hayley and I street witnessing top picture.)
You should also know about Selina she is a great friend! I met her a little over a year ago! Oh and did I mention she has an amazing voice!
And finally on outreach to Russel we had some spare time to walk along the beach.  This of course started our frantic journey of saving all the star fish from the seagulls!
Needless to say my life lately has been full of fantastic friends, random adventures, and lots of studying!

Here and There... and Everywhere in Between

Hi! My name is Christina and this is my first blog! I decided to start a blog because I realized I'm literally the only person who... doesn't blog.  (I figured I should fix that!)  Thanks to my amazing friend Hayley I now hope to bless all of you with a part of my life.
I am from lovely California but I am currently studying the Bible in New Zealand! So here are my adventures the beautiful country of New Zealand.