Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas time is here!

ok ok, so Christmas time has been here for a while, but seriously people, can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve?!?!?! Seriously, this holiday season has gone by much faster than any other year for me. I have no idea why, maybe it's cause I'm getting older. Anyway.....

I'm super excited that I get to have brunch with the majority of my immediate family tomorrow (sadly the Davis' will not be able to attend)! I was suppose to be working an opening shift, but one of my coworkers switched shifts with me! I'm still working 12 to 4 tomorrow, but I'm fine with seeing my lovely afternoon regulars on Christmas Eve.


        Wordle: O come O come, Emmanuel 

I loved the 2 Part sermon Pastor Bryan preached the last two weeks in preparation for Christmas time. It was called "O come, O come Emmanuel". It got back to the main point of Christmas: Christ's birth. It's so easy to get caught up in the gifts, family time, and decorations for me. I'm so glad that this year, I'm taking a lot more time to remember the amazing gift that God gave us. I want to make this Christmas more Christ-centered (the way it should always be) so I've decided to be intentional with conversations at work with my regulars and coworkers. I'm hoping and praying for deeper conversations with them.

So as I spend time with my family and coworkers over the next few days, I'm looking forward to meditation and conversation about the central point of this holiday: Christ!

Thats all for now! I'm sure I'll post some pictures within the next couple days from the lovely fam time! Peace out!


Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Swing of Things.....

So I'm extremely happy to announce that next month, I will be starting my LAST semester of school! The exciting thing about it is I'm ACTUALLY going to FINISH!!!!! This past year has been somewhat of a rollercoaster for me in regards to school. God had other plans, but he has now blessed me with the ability to go back and finish what I started ummmm.........5 years ago :P

I'm taking 4 law enforcement classes, and then at the end of the semester I will be applying to skills (the hands on "catch the bad guys" type stuff) to start in August. Skills is very difficult to get into, so I'm praying that the Lord will bless me in a huge way by getting accepted the first time around.

I'm starting January 10th, and I will actually be taking a couple city buses to school because right now I don't have a car. I still have mixed feelings about that, but we'll see haha Anyway thats all for now. PEACE OUT!

Saturday, December 11, 2010


A section from chapter one of "The cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer writing about cheap grace:

"...The Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world, in fact, in being prohibited from being different from the world for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is that my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that my sins are all forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loath and detest, has freed me from that....."

I know, it's a long quote, but WOAH. Super blunt, but soooooo true at times. Can't wait to see what else this book has to offer.

I really can't follow that up with anything brilliant. So that is all. :P

Thursday, December 9, 2010


Oh the joys of organizing your army gear and forgetting about one of the million things they give you......I forgot about the ninja mask!!! hahaha

Thats all for today folks!


Thursday, December 2, 2010


So once again it's been awhile. I've decided to not say that I'm going to try blogging more often, simple because I never live up to it. Life has been interesting to say the least. I've been trying to find the positive thing in every situation lately as I've been struggling with finances and vehicle issues.

Well, last night I had worship practice for Sunday morning. Pastor Jeff does a little devotional at the end of practice for all of the band members. I was very tired (I had been up at 4:30 for an opening shift at work) and wasn't very focused. I can't tell you were he was reading in the OT, but his ending statement was, "So really, with the Lord it's all or nothing. We can either choose to completely live for Him, or not. There is no middle life. We need to be aware of the things in life that are pulling us away from the Lord, and pray that He would rid all of those things."

Needless to say, It didn't hit me until today. I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating lunch and listening to the worship set for Sunday morning. I had an AH HA moment! I realized how many things in my life I've been allowing to swallow up my time with the Lord. This causes a domino effect.......Not spending time in the Word and prayer, causes me to go through my days as busy as can be worrying about myself. Worrying about MYSELF, and what I want to do or need to do. Wait. Isn't my life the Lords? Isn't He in complete control? YES! HE IS! And I've been living blind to that. What works for the Lord have I missed? What situations have a passed up where I could have shared His love to someone that didn't have a clue about it? This was a VERY sobering moment for me today. So I quickly ran downstairs and grabbed my journal and wrote:

"Take it all. Take everything. I don't want to live this life coasting anymore. I need you to be the only focus of my life Lord God. I need to stop being so absorbed in myself and I need to just live for You. It's that simple. I've been so half hearted with You Lord. I've been loving and following You only when it's convenient for me. Well, I'm sick of being like that. I'm done. Here You go, I'm giving everything to do. Everything that is already Yours Lord."

My day hasn't been great, but this moment was wonderful. I'm so overjoyed that I'm figuring out that this life is not my own. Thats all for now. :)

(The photo is from my trip to Azerbaijan last fall. Capturing the great book of James)



Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone."
- Audrey Hepburn

This short sentence speaks volumes to me right now.

Monday, January 4, 2010

New Year. New Life.


As I sit at a Kitchen table this morning, I'm reminded of the new year and the excitement of seeing what God has in store for me. to the left of my laptop I have several books that I'm reading right now (crazy love, all things for good, living the cross centered life, and unveil) and on the right side I have Bible Doctrine (the book were in currently for Expo). all of these books have been wonderful so far and I know that God has been teaching me many things from the people that have written them. However, right in front of me is the most important book of all: The Bible. I have it opened up to Colossians right now for my Expo Bible reading. Something that my mom just introduced me to has made my Bible reading great for three days now. I had NO idea that you can listen to the Bible online! It has made the Word come to life as I follow the narrator through the Word of God. I love this. Other than my resolutions that I posted a couple weeks ago, I think I have added one more to the list: being more serious about Scripture memorization. I would really like to memorize more passages through this year. The Bible is such an important piece of my Faith. I listen to new music all the time and memorize the words to songs instantly. Memorizing the Words of God is WAAAY more important than what men and women have written to a simple melody. So here is goes..... these are the first two verses I'm starting out with this year:


"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, the Christ died for no purpose."

Galatians 2:20,21


I read this on January 2nd. It just really struck me and I find it to be extremely powerful. I'm going to get back to my reading so until next time!


If your interested in listen to the ESV online, it's as simple as going to: http://www.esv.org/ !


Ash