A Touch of Whimsy

I'm really sorry for not writing. I will try to better. My summer is busier than planned but that's no excuse. I'm posting a picture that I'm entering for iheartfaces.com, a photo site that I've been keeping up with.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy. The theme is A Touch of Whimsy so I tried to take pictures that seemed whimsical to me, along with my friend and fellow photographer Bryce. :)
If you have a Facebook, check out A Twin for God Photography!

God bless,
Maiden of Emmanuel

Christ is alive.

Today is Resurrection Day and we celebrate that Jesus Christ rose from the grave.
Jesus Christ is the one you saves us, who gives us eternal life, and the wonderful feeling of love and joy. He gives us a reason to live for today and all the tomorrows. To live for His glory.
He is great.

Jesus Christ died on the cross, accused for nothing, and tore the temple- then after the third day He was to be dead, He arose.
No one else has risen from the dead by themselves, and when someone did come back from the dead (like Lazarus) it was because Jesus Christ commanded him to. No one else has given life.

He is salvation :).

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Resurrection Day :).

Blessings,
MOE

The Skin Map

My title is now working :D.

A promising tale of interdimensional voyaging disintegrates rapidly into a clunky and incoherent mess. Londoner Kit Livingstone and his unpleasant girlfriend, Wilhelmina, are separated and sent back to an alternate 17th-century England. There Kit's great-grandfather Cosimo reveals secretive time travelers are racing the evil Lord Archelaeus Burleigh to locate a map holding an earthshaking secret. Stranded when Cosimo vanishes into a portal, Kit falls in with the beautiful Lady Fayth while Wilhelmina struggles to survive on her own in Prague.

It has taken me forever to write this review, hasn't it? Well, I have to say, this book sounded quite intriguing. The plot sounded interesting, and I think there are different summaries so if it didn't sound interesting there, then maybe somewhere else you'll like it.
The book was interesting, and I got very far in it, but it's been a challenge to read. And I haven't even fully finished it. See Lawhead has a good idea in his head, but he can only get you so far into the book. There are about five different characters and each of them are in different places. There's a plot within a plot, and it's quite confusing, but still intriguing. It's what got me that far in the book.
The way Lawhead writes is different. He likes to be poetic, as well as tell an intense story, and also leave you to wonder more about a character until later.
Overall the book has a good storyline and the characters were interesting, but the whole book didn't capture my attention long enough.

This book was 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

I received this book for free by Thomas Nelson.

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (August 31, 2010)

Have a wonderful day!

God bless,
Maiden of Emmanuel

वही इस माय तितले इन अ दिफ्फेरेंत लन्गुअगे?

Every time I've pulled up a post to write, my title keeps turning to a language that I don't recognize, does anyone know what I did or how to fix it?

God bless,
Maiden of Emmanuel

Phil Wickham - Jesus Lord of Heaven (with lyrics)

I love this song! You don't have to look at the pictures in order to listen to the music and understand it, proclaiming His love.

In God,
Maiden of Emmanuel

Doxology, Praise God

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

This song and verse came into mind :).

Blessings,
MaidenOfEmmanuel

Who wants to help Dad get in shape?

EDIT: I'm making a list of those who plan on joining on my sidebar :).
I aplogize, first, for not posting often. School started, essays and exams were due, my birthday came and went, and missionaries are now visiting for my church's annual conference. But I've been meaning to post about this for a while now.
My dad, as most of yours are, is completely out of shape, and one of my new year's resolutions was for me to be able to touch my toes at some point (yes, I am inflexible for my age, or for any age), but then I thought, "Why not help Dad lose some?" I hate seeing the fact that he might become an old man sitting around. I got him interested and by mid-January we started exercising. Walking for now is fine, later we might jog, but it's all just the start and staying with it.
So why not you guys get out there too? We don't exercise for long. Our schedule isn't typical, but we fit in the three days by exercising every morning on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays.
Yes, we have missed some days. In fact, because of my birthday and just a busy week, we have missed all of last week, but we're trying not to.
Forty-five minutes to an hour every morning, so by the end of every month we have tried to exercise for twelve hours.

Starting March, would you like to join us for a whole year? You can exercise by yourself, or you can exercise with your dad or mom or any family member!
For those of you who think you don't have the means to exercise but want to, realize that it's not hard to walk around your neighborhood, or in your house, or on a track for a little while :).

So you may comment and tell me you're joining me or you can join from afar, but it's way more fun to communicate and encourage each other. Remember that we can and do use this for God's glory. We keep our bodies healthy, and who knows if we can witness while out there with other fellow exercisers :)?

You can appoint any time.
You can appoint how.
You can appoint any where :).

Blessings,
MOE

VW Commercial: The Force

This video is one of the cutest commercials I have ever seen, you must watch.

Secondly, I'm sorry that I promised better of my posting and my blog has almost been nonexistant with the first month of the year, but it will get better.

Blessings,
MaidenOfEmmanuel

Who are You to Tell Me I'm Beautiful?

I apologize for not posting in so long. I've been really packed with school and also I spiritually I need prayer.

This was written by someone I know, and they were fine with their name being placed for credit, so if you'd like to every repost this, please give credit :).


Who are You to Tell Me I’m Beautiful?


By: Carolyn Diez




A few years ago before I really committed my life to Jesus, I was a jerk. Honestly, God has been very merciful and gracious to help turn my life around. I was rude, I lived on gossip, and I focused on what other people thought I should be. I was very insecure, so I tried to make other people insecure about themselves too, so I could feel better about myself. I knew people who were real about themselves, but I only strived for superficial.



I think what encouraged this horrible me, was the people I hung around. They weren’t awful, but they certainly brought me down spiritually. Everything they looked for was image. I grew up being mostly a tomboy, and with a lot of siblings, and with my dad being a pastor we’ve never had a lot of extra money to spend on trendy clothes or hair.



Well that’s what these kids were about. They were all about how you looked, how you dressed and who you hung out with. They were like the queen bees, and they would cast you out of their group if you did NOT fit in. Well no one was really sure that I fit in. I was good friends with a couple of them, I was nice to them, and I trash talked the people who weren’t a part of them, but did I really fit in?



The obvious answer (mostly to anyone who knew me from back then) is that I didn’t. At all. I was desperate for attention and admiration… and I wanted to feel good about myself. It didn’t click that God was the only One who could fill me up with joy and self-worth. These kids made me feel left out when I couldn’t shop at the same stores or wear the trendy clothes… They trash talked with me behind other peoples’ backs, and trash talked me with other people behind MY back. I never had the same bag as them, or my hair was never styled (--in fact, it was in a pony-tail most of the time), they told me I would be prettier with this and with that. I never wore makeup and my clothes were “too modest” at times. They indirectly stated that they were “beautiful” and I was not.



So a year later, after always coming home crying and never feeling pretty, God gave me a lot of amazing experiences; things and people who never judged me on how I looked. They took everything from my personality and faith and assumed it was who I was/am. That year I really started to commit my life to Jesus and I knew I need new friends. So I prayed to God that He would give me new friends that were striving to grow spiritually and wouldn’t be into all the junk the other ones were into…



But, of course, the newly Christ-committed person I was, wandered around looking for these friends on my own, instead of giving the search completely to God. The new friends I found were “nice”. They told me I was “SO PRETTY” and that I fit in with them. They made me feel good about how I looked and how I acted, but the gossip I had been a part of was even worse, and the trash talk seemed to be non-stop. But I seemed to be okay… No one really said anything bad about me… They had actually praised me and treated me like one of them. They had invited me to their parties and welcomed my participation. But only because it made THEM feel good about THEMselves, I realized. I looked just like them, and I acted just like them. Together we were ‘one’ for ourselves, and even though we spoke of Him, we were not FOR Him. As soon as I realized I didn’t want to be a part of something that was not FOR God, it was easy for them not to accept me, not to talk well of me, and to make me feel like a traitor.



Well that’s too bad for them, I told myself. While this process had been going on, God had started placing life-changing, life-valuable, and life-long friendships in my way. They weren’t strong at first… In fact, they were undesirable. But when I completely gave my friendships to God and He gave me noticeable changes of friends, you could tell their “worth.” You could see their love and their own starting passion for God.



They didn’t pull me down spiritually, and in their own ways supported me and helped me to become stronger in the Lord. They weren’t perfect, but neither was I. The only thing that mattered to them was your heart. How we lived our lives out for God and for each other was what mattered. These people were truly beautiful. In fact, I had never seen people as beautiful as the newly found friends I had. They seemed to glow for God and for each other. Weight wasn’t counted, specific eye/hair/skin color wasn’t specifically desired, and in fact, none of the closest of us looked the same. Our hearts matched though, and that’s what brought us together, and hopefully forever.

I was once of the world, and that’s where I found my only temporary happiness. Now, being completely of and FOR God, (of course still a sinful being), my happiness only resides in the continuing joy of the Lord, through friends and family.



The changes/differences are this:



In the dictionary, made by a worldly man, ‘beautiful’ is defined as –

— ‘having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind.’

— ‘excellent of its kind’

‘Beauty’ is defined as –

– ‘the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest)’



Other than that TINY, little, bitty ending, how horrible are these definitions of beauty and being beautiful???



THIS is how GOD defines beautiful:



“Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,

But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”—Proverbs 31:30.



This passage should be clear enough… But it’s not just for women, I see it in men too… Men who are looked up to for their looks and charm, who don’t seem to fear or display God in their lives are totally unattractive. I know that when I see a man, (young or old), that display God’s love, no matter what background or situation they’re in, I can’t HELP but look up to them and admire them. I know I’m not the only one.



”Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;

And confirm for us the work of our hands;

Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”—Psalm 90:17



God doesn’t favor our outward beauty, but we want Him to be rejoiced with our actions. Actions that come from love, His love, which is the most pure and beautiful thing in the entire world.



”Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able

to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”—Romans 12:2.



Once again, such a clear and commanding passage…



Our world seems to be living in this contest. Every person we meet has a ranking, and one of you is going to be higher than the other or just about the same. The rankings are categorized spiritually, mentally, popularity, kindness, etc; anything that makes you a somebody. The world always has a new trend and look, and every time we reach that lifestyle and/or look, no matter how we get there, the world throws a new look or lifestyle at us. This world is sin, and sin has standards, and every time we meet those standards, they rise higher. We’re expected to follow the expectations from sin, and LIVE it out.



People we’re intimidated by seem far higher than we are, but in reality, God’s just waiting for us to live our lives not for people but for Him. I know that this past year I’ve been intimidated by a few people because they seem SO much more prettier and stronger and everything to the more extreme than I am, and they’ve looked down on me as if it were true. Looks and lifestyles are HIS because He made US to worship Him.



I wish kids these days realized that as long as they live their lives out for God, they’ll have so much more admiration and encouragement. But it’s not to take away the fact that we are persecuted for our faith and how we walk in our faith.



“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to

the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” – John 15:19.



“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

—Matthew 5:11.



But we have encouragement…



"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord

Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”—Acts 20:24.



“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is

undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be

the power forever and ever. Amen. “—1 Peter 5:8-11.

I hope you enjoyed :).
Posting soon.
Blessings,
MaidenOfEmmanuel