Daddy's Girl

Fathers in the lives of children represent our relationship to God the Father, yet in a natural, earthly sense. A quote by G. Craige Lewis that I'll probably never forget, paraphrased: "The way we relate to our earthly father is an example of how we relate to our Heavenly Father."

Was never a daddy's girl. I wish I had been. Perhaps if I had related to my Dad the way I now relate to my Father God, I would have been kept from a lot of life-altering experiences I had growing up... or better yet, if my Dad had related to me, his daughter, the way God relates to His children, perhaps I would have been kept from a lot of life-altering experiences I had growing up.

I mean, nothing detrimental happened, technically... praise God. But, if I had been raised in a Christian-grounded home...

I think about it at times, yet I thank God for the parents I do have and that they are still married. There are so many types of broken homes. Homes broken by divorce, separation, the spiritually dead... the list goes on. I try to stay encouraged by encouraging myself in the Lord just as David did in the book of Samuel:

1 Samuel 30:6
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

It's just more fuel to the fire that I have within my heart to raise my children in a spiritually on-fire for Christ home. To give them the life I'd hoped for. I thank God for that peace... the peace of knowing that the generation to come, Lord willing, will be trained up in the ways of Jesus Christ:

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I'm glad that I was able to find Christ in 2006; the best decision I've made in my entire life. I thank God for the blood of Jesus, for the redemption of sins, and the desire to sincerely know Christ for my own self. Glory to Your name O God, thank You Holy Spirit-- who draws all men.

Glory.

Amen,
Whitney

Just Jesus

Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, great service, savory food, fun fellowship and a good God. How was your Sunday? Thank God for He has risen. Pastor preached on the importance of sacrifice and the blood of the Lamb. I'm glad that Christ died for me and for you. Let's celebrate Jesus every day.

Luke 24:5-6

⁵And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

⁶He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

Thank You Jesus,
Whitney



Pictures from @breannamreina on Twitter.

Status Update #3

Gardening. New Hobby!

So, my mom and I began our greatly anticipated garden last week! It's so quaint and cute. I'm loving it. From recollection, we have beets, onions, peas, beans, squash, cabbage, lettuce and a few others. We're waiting until around Mother's Day to plant the tomatoes, since that's the presumed best climate for them to grow successfully in.


We went to Lowe's for supplies and here's
one of the pretty pink and green potted plants
I saw! had to snap a picture :)


Looks delightful, but we skipped out on these
and got the Iceberg lettuce.


Recent photo of me at Lowe's. Haha, couldn't
resist. Getting my hair done today too! Can't
wait, I'll try to post a picture under this one
tonight possibly.

Heart Matters/"A Thousand Words Thursday"

There have been several things on my heart lately. Of course number one would be the friendship ordeal, as I blogged about this the other day. Scroll down and you'll see the post.

There are so many things that God has revealed unto me since I got saved (praise God, glory) that are not of Him, NOT of His Spirit-- meaning, you cannot put God in it nor can you conform it to fit into a godly mold-- yet, I don't blog about them all.

I reflect more than anything. For one, Yoga is not of God. The word means "to yoke" --it's a form of worship. God forbid. Hip Hop/Rap & R&B are not of God; no explanation needed. Gossip is ultimately dangerous as are the previous other awful mentions. And don't forget about Easter. What a false holiday. Eggs and bunnies have nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. The word "Easter" is only mentioned in the Bible once and scholars proclaim that it's a mistranslation. The traditions of men are vain. Religion in the sense of "the customs of man" is pompous. Just celebrate Jesus. What's with the bunny?? I live the life I blog about because it's important to avoid coming across as a hypocrite and even more importantly to walk the talk. GOD have mercy on your people. It just disgusts me to even think about it all, let alone spend time writing about it... bleh.

God bless you and I pray that your eyes are awakened to truth or will soon be, in Jesus' name. Mark 1:14-15.

I'm hungry, how's about some messy cherry pie?


Mark 1:14-15,
Whitney

P.S. I don't typically blow hot air-- read about some of the things I talked about in this post by going to the Word:

Jeremiah 10:1-5
[Christmas is not of God/Traditions of man]

Matthew 6:4, Luke 16:13
[Can't serve two masters. Yoga or Jesus Christ?]

Colossians 2:8
[Vain philosophy of men not after the ways of Christ]

2 Corinthians 5:17
[New creature in Christ, can't mix light with darkness/good with evil-- Hip Hop, Rap, R&B]

Matthew 10: 26
[All darkness will be made known]

Listening to on iTunes:
I Know I've Been Changed"
"God of Wonders" by WCC

Dearly Beloved

I'd like to personally welcome Aristiono, Tyrone and Shridhar. I'm humbled that you have joined me and the other Dearly Beloved's, and most importantly our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. May our precious Lord look upon your journey through this place we call life on planet earth. May your days be long and fulfilled with overwhelming love from our Lord Jesus. God bless you and keep seeking, pursuing and enjoying righteous and abundant truth. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

I love you with the love of Christ.

Mark 1:14:15,
Whitney

Listening to on iTunes:
"More Than Anything" by Smokie Norful

New Look!

New look for April!

I love changing my blog background, if you cannot tell by now :]
It keeps things exciting. Extremely nice one this time.



Who can't love this one?
Reminds me of a warm day at the beach... on a yacht!! LOL.

Enjoy.

Past Looks:

March 2009

God bless you and see you soon!,
Whitney

Love you, Miss you, Praying for you

Friendships.
So, I'm over here contemplating.

Listening to music on Blip.fm [http://blip.fm/Child0fGod] and browsing through some old pictures on my parents' desktop computer. I don't normally get too personal here on my blog... which is strange, yet not-so much...

But, while browsing the pictures I'm seeing those of old friends... friendships I made before Christ saved me in 2006. I broke a lot of friendships after I got saved. I Corinthians 15:33 says "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." I took this scripture to its extreme, far beyond what it's probably intended to mean; God have mercy. I completely stopped talking to these persons, instead of loving them where they were, yet not conforming to their habits.

I was never hateful to anyone [praise God], but I began to drift from a lot of the people in my life that I once called "friends." I think about it now, and I'm thinking in my heart "I didn't have to stop talking to those people entirely..." ...they were good friends who at one time we shared the same interests-- but once I gave my life to Christ, I felt as though I needed to break those friendships.

It's almost as though these people have been removed from my life completely [which they have because we no longer communicate]... as if they died. But, praise God they haven't literally died. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

This is for me, not necessarily for "my blog" or anyone else. This is my blog and it's an account of my life-- dedicated to my Father in Heaven. The pictures below are those of old friends who I miss and who I'm going to begin praying for... I love them and miss them as friends in the sense of people I'd hang out with for fun, not in the sense of brothers and sisters/friends in Christ. I don't miss the old habits or the flawed nature, because I'm a new creature in Christ, but I do miss them as people.


Cherie, Gabrielle & Me, 2005.
Best friend Gab gave her life back
to Christ again this past week.
Glory. We still talk.


Sade & Me, 2005. Talked to Sade in February
of this year after scrounging up her phone
number from friends.


Shana & Me, 2006. Me & Shana met with
Bre [below] and another friend sometime
last year and had a "reunion" at Chili's. It
was really fun.


Me & Bre, 2006. This was at a football game.
We had crazy-fun together.


Bre, Me & Shana, 2006. My old friends. I do miss 'em.
Shana actually ended up transferring to another school.

God forgive me for any wrong I've done in thy sight. Have mercy upon my soul O God, according to thy lovingkindness. Wondering what the success of/key to friendships is. Praying for authentic godly love friendships in my life and in the lives of God's people. I thank You Jesus for the godly friendships that you have blessed me with thus far and help me to continue to pray for those who are still lost. Thank You, Jesus.

Luke 9:25
For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

1 John 2:15
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 4:4
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Lord I love You,

Whitney

Happy Is He

Hey You!!

I hope everyone is having a blessed Friday. God has been so miraculous. I was reflecting on His graciousness just last evening and couldn't fall asleep as quickly. Man, the Lord has brought me through so much. I haven't even talked about even the likes of it here on this blog. Phenomenal is our God, He is leading me to write a book... wow, Lord. Just went through this trial and test two months ago and I already feel the Holy Spirit tugging on me to write a testimonial. Glory. So, be on the lookout... you'll be one of the first to hear about it.

Bible Study this Week

Earlier this week Pastor Nichols' message was "I refuse to kill myself and I will not lay down and die."

Mark 4:19 says "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful."

He used this scripture to let us know that the devil desires to wear us out naturally, physically and spiritually so that we become unfruitful in the Lord and discontinue doing His will. Pastor Nichols spoke about the wayside hearers [of the Word], the stonyground hearers and the thornyground hearers...

• Don't allow thorns to influence you.
• Be in a position to develop deep roots, meaning-- stay in God's will. Don't do anything to purposely get out of God's line of vision. Stay focused, keep your eye on the prize.
• Don't allow thorns to choke the life out of you, the Word that God has placed within you.

Pastor also spoke that the pursuit of happiness is vain. "Happiness is not something you pursue, but something we receive." The Book of Ecclesiastes is a great reference book in terms of vanity and futility.

• Proverbs 29:18 says "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
• Psalm 146:5 says "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:"
  

"Happy" in the Old Testament translates to the Hebrew word "esher" which means blessed. In the New Testament, the word "happy" translates to the Greek word "makarios" which also means blessed, supremely blest, fortunate, well-off... blessed, HAPPY. This is what the joy of the Lord is. When we are content in the Lord, we are happy.

I thank God for showing me this. Because, we do have a tendency to not be happy until our circumstances permit or until God does something for us, but God forgive our ungratefulness. We are already blessed... we should already be happy in the Lord! If you have salvation, blessed and Happy is He. If you've got your health and you're breathing, praise God, shout unto the Lord you're blessed! I thank God for His mercy. What are you thankful for today? How has God blessed you-- How happy, blessed and content in the Lord are you?

Glory.
Bask in the Lord!,
Whitney

P.S.

Call my Pastor with your relationship (marital/spouse, etc) questions. God blessed them to produce a phenomenal book recently on relationship issues titled "No More Drama," the flier is below as well. They've just began their radio talk show. Glory to God. So, call in with your questions sometime soon. It's automated so your question will be recorded, stored in the database and answered on the talk show! :)

The Radio Show




The Book



www.victoriouspraise.org


Listening to on Blip.fm:
"Holy is the Lord" by Chris Tomlin
"Hanging By a Moment" by Lifehouse

[http://blip.fm/profile/Child0fGod/playlist]

Word-Filled Wednesday #2

The purpose of Word filled Wednesday is to share God’s word through photos and a verse!

Matthew 5:8 says "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

The sermon on the mount, the Beatitudes. Those children of God, the people of God-- even those who do not know God... if their heart is clean, pure and sincere toward the Lord, those are the persons who God will reveal Himself to. They will "see" God.

Amen,
Whitney

Women of the Bible: Eve

The first chapter of the book focuses on the first woman mentioned in the Bible: Eve herself. This was a fun, thought-provoking read. Sometimes we need to recap, relive and reevaluate scriptures that we may have read in past days. It helps us to remember, reflect and appreciate scripture more. This is was happened when I read about Eve and The Garden of Eden.

It was so refreshing, and looking at all of the pictures I found online that reflected depiction of The Garden of Eden was refreshing and reassuring as well. Just to think, that The Garden of Eden was Paradise. No picture by man can do it any justice. I can only imagine. We can only imagine. Just think about when we leave this earth [the saints of God] and when Christ returns... we'll be going home to be with our Saviour in Paradise. God said there will be a new earth. A world without famine, drought, pain, suffering and disease. How mighty is our God? Glorious is He.

Here is an excerpt from the book "Women of the Bible" concerning the woman Eve and the Book of Genesis:

Lift Your Heart
"Find a peaceful setting, surrounded by the beauty of creation, to meditate on what life must have been like if you experienced peace in all your relationships, if you never suffered physical or emotional pain, if you were never confused or ashamed or guilty, if you always experienced God's love and friendship. Let your imagination run riot as it fills in the details of God's original intention for your life and for those you love.

"Then consider this: You were made for paradise. The joys you taste now are infinitesimal compared to those that await you in heaven, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (I Corinthians 2:9).

Praise Jesus.





Prayer
"Father, give me a greater understanding of your original plan for our world. Help me to envision its beauty so I might live with a constant awareness that you intend to restore paradise to all who belong to you. May I surrender every sin and every sorrow to you, trusting that you will fulfill your purpose for my life. In Jesus' name I pay, Amen."

Glory, Glory!
Rejoice!!,
Whitney

[P.S. Actually CLICK on the pictures above for a larger view. Simply beautiful!]

Dearly Beloved

Good evening to Karen, Crystal and Katie. God bless you ladies! I'm happy you have joined the blog. May our God look upon you with mercy, grace and love. I love you with the love of Christ. Trust in the Lord and He will provide for you.

May God bless all of our international readers as well! I see you popping in every now and then. I cannot forget my RSS Feed subscribers!! May God bless you as well! :)

Amen,
Whitney

Graduation?

My Dad finally went to go get one of our cameras developed from after my graduation in December 2008. Here is one of my favorite pictures from that camera:

Haha, I was uber happy :]

Toodles,
Whitney