Joey and Lena

I love little kids.

They're so stinkin' hilarious! :)

I was at church today, and I was helping this grandma babysit her two granddaughters (aka my two favorite little girls in the whole world!), so when there was the children's story in my church (kinda like a children's sermon, ish), I helped take Laney and Kylee up to the front. Laney's Sabbath School teacher was telling the story, so she especially wanted to be there. :) So I stayed while he told the story.

And this story was basically about John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life..."

Anyway, so instead of writing "For God..." he wrote "For Good..." He did this on purpose, btw. Anyway, so by the time I got there, the kids were all shouting at him that he had spelled God wrong, and everything.

So then, this little boy--he's probably in about 5th grade--I'll call him Joey. Anyway, after they were all exasperated at trying to convince him that he was wrong, Joey shouted out, "Mr. Ellis, you need to go back to school!"

haha! I love kids. They're so funny!

Then, "Mr. Ellis" tried to put his hand over "Good" to see if they would just ignore it (which, of course, they didn't... silly little kids!). And he tried to get them to read the Bible verse again. After they tried to do what he asked a couple times, this other little girl (who I'll call Lena), probably in fourth or fifth grade, said SOOO drolly and hilariously: "Mr. Ellis, I don't think God is very happy with you right now..."

HA! The things that come out of kids' mouths. It cracks me up! haha.

I just figured you would enjoy that bit of childish adorableness from my life. haha.

Maybe this is why we need to become like children to enter the kingdom of God. Being a kid is so simple and easy. :)

Till next time,
Ash the (Amused) Dreamer

Stained Glass Masquerade

Till next time,
Ash the (Thinking) Dreamer

Hello, Love. &hearts

Hello. :]

I feel like I'm in a very musical mood today. I always love music, but I've been practicing piano A LOT lately (well, the past 48 hours...), because I have been invited to be one of the pianists for the little kid division of my church's Sabbath School class. And tomorrow's my big premiere! :) I'm pretty excited, because the songs are so cute and fun, and I adore those little kids in that class! I know at least three little girls there, and two little boys, and I just can't wait to meet all the others. I LOVE toddlers so much. :]

Anyway, so since I'm in such a musical mood, I figured I would share my self-proclaimed "Song of 2010". :] It's by Britt Nicole, and it's called "The Lost Get Found. I love it so much, and the moment this year started, I knew it would be the theme of my life. :) So I hope you like it.



That's the main exciting thing happening to me.

It feels like my life is starting to come together--I feel like I know what I want to study in school; I'm trying to find a new job and leave the plagues of last year behind (depression and OCD); I know I REALLY want to be a missionary after I graduate... I just feel like I can see God's plan, and I am really excited about that.

Other than that... I've been kinda sick today. :*( I think I might have ate something bad... :*(

Haha, I think this is it this time... no deep thoughts. Just happy Ashley saying hello.

So hello.

Happy day, friend.

Till next time,
Ash the (Musical) Dreamer

hello.

hello, blog-dom.

it's been a long week. i'll spare you the details, but i feel wasted. probably because i never go to bed in time to get 8 hours of sleep anymore. which stinks, because i'm not-so-nice to be around when i'm running on anything less than 8 hours of sleep. but i got 9 hours of sleep last night, so you would think that i'd be good to go. :/

tonight, for the first time in weeks, i don't feel like the world will come crashing down if God's church doesn't take it up a notch. i don't know if that's a good thing, but there it is.

i don't really get the hype of halloween. i mean, for the kiddy part, yeah, i totally get it. what girl doesn't want to dress up like a princess and go get some yummy candy? but the thing is, halloween is about so much more, and i don't understand in the slightest why people condone it.

i was talking to my grandmother today, and she was talking about how halloween was the time where all the repressed demonism, anti-God, pure, undefiled, complete EVIL comes out of hiding, and people disguise it by saying, "oh, it's a harmless time when kids can get candy!"

no it's not! you're sending your kids into the pure, unadulterated evil of one single night! gah, the idea of halloween just gives me the creaps. i don't even know how to battle it, and it's like america is unabashedly the friend of the devil for one night, and then it all goes back into hiding and everybody says it's all good and we're a Christian nation and nothing's wrong.

wrong-o!

i try to avoid halloween at ALL COSTS--well, if people came to my house for candy, i would do some progressive evangelism, and make little candy bags with little Bible verses on them or something--but even i've heard of some really creapy things that make me want to either run for the hills or run away from america. i dunno which! gah, it scares me so much.

i mean, open, unabashed devil worship? and that's all i can think of. it's like america doesn't realize the devil is real, and he's all ready to take over their hearts, and then they go out and celebrate halloween.

goodness, i wish that "holiday" would be banned.

now that all this creapy-ness woke me up again, man, i'm going to be praying for our country this weekend....

until next time (since i don't know what else to say...)
ash the (terrified) dreamer

The Things That Keep Me Awake at Night...

Hello, Blog World.

I haven't written in a while, so I figured it was time. So hello, old faithful friend.

Right now I'm listening to Jars of Clay's song, "Two Hands". I'm usually not a big fan of Jars of Clay, but I really like this song. It's hopeful, I think. Especially the bridge. Anyway, so I'm listening to this song and trying to figure out what I want to say to you.

It seems like I always say, "Oh, I have dreams of changing the world" but I never have anything to report, nothing exciting to say. Maybe that's just me, though.

I've been talking to a lot of people about ministry and church and Jesus lately. It seems like my church is dying, and that really makes me sick on the inside. Have you ever felt that way? It really makes me sick inside, because I have loved these people for so long, but it seems like our church is dying. It makes me cry. Not just on the inside, too.

I talked to my nana last week (she goes to my church, too), and she thinks it's my pastor. She thinks he's changed. I don't know if that's true. Lots of people would say that my church is just not open to evolving to meet the current needs the world has right now. I don't know if that's true, either. I used to think I had all the answers, but now I know I don't.

I listen to this morning radio show called "Mornings with Brant". You can listen online at www.morningswithbrant.com. It's awesome. They talk about Jesus, about life, about laughter, and just things you wouldn't even imagine, and there's great music in there, too. I just love it. Anyway, besides my shameless plug that you should soooooooo check it out (it's on from 6 to 10 every weekday morning), they are really making me think.

Today, they brought up this question: If your church decided to sell its property and its building, how would you feel about it? And just FYI, this is not disbanding the congregation and saying, "This church family doesn't exist anymore..." This is saying that those that are less well off than we are deserve to have food today and a Bible to heal their hearts. And clothes on their backs. And we're finally deciding to step up and be the hands and feet and words of Jesus.

Oh, the state of the Christian church in modern America makes me both sick and seething mad, and on top of it all, I just want to crawl up into a little ball and cry my heart out until the power of Satan goes away.

I LOVED that question that Brant asked today. He posted it on their facebook page, too, and I replied there, but apparently halfway through all the responses, someone had the guts to say, "Well, y'all are so gun-ho about doing it, so who's gonna be FIRST?!" And it makes me so incredibly sad that I CAN'T be first! If I brought this idea to my church board the next time they met, I would be laughed out of the room.

I can already hear what they'd say.

Are you serious, Ashley? Are you crazy? Look at where we are! We've made something out of our church. This is comfortable. This is beautiful, and this is finally OURS. Why should we give it up? Why do we need to give up what God has blessed us with?

And I know right now what I would say to them, and it certainly wouldn't be politically correct or even spiritually correct!

With tears in my eyes and a tremor in my voice, I would shout:

This is YOURS?! Are you KIDDING me? You guys don't even know Jesus anymore! You go through the motions, and you act all holier-than-thou, but you are WEAK! You are worse than they are! You are why they don't want to be here! They see right through to your lies, and they know that you are just like them, sinners in need of the Redeemer, and yet you act like you don't need Him!

They are POOR! They're DESTITUTE! They're STARVING, and SICK, and THIRSTY, and ALONE and NEEDY and THEY ARE EXACTLY WHY JESUS CAME HERE!!! And you all forgot that! How in the world could you forget? How STUPID can you be?!

And I don't know what else I would do then. I think I would curl up in a ball and cry. Because I love them to death. They're like family to me. But they are dead. They're starving themselves and they don't even know how much they're hurting themselves! And they're keeping the people out of heaven that need it the most!

I have a feeling, if I didn't get so angry that I forgot, I would tell them that I didn't understand how Jesus stand them anymore, because they were the Laodicean church, not hot but not cold, and Jesus was about to spit them out of His mouth.

But I don't want to tell them ANY of that! I love them. And I love Jesus' people that aren't quite His yet! And I love them all, and I want to show them all Jesus' hope, and I want to fly to heaven's gates with EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM--both the ones in the church already, and the ones who see through to the hypocrisy and are scared away by it.

This is something that's just been bothering me so much. And I'm sick of not saying ANYTHING. I don't even know how to speak, outside of blogging like this. Jesus' church is ignorant, and I don't even know how to wake them up.

I know Jesus has called me to speak out for Him, but I don't even know what to say.

It makes me sick and sad and paralyzed all at the same time.

What do you think? I know not too many people really follow my blog, but if you do happen to read this one blog, can you please reply? Christian, Atheist, agnostic, teen, grandparent, I don't care. I just am no longer content to let the church stay this way. But I don't know where to go from here!

Thanks for reading... this one was a longer one. But Jesus truly wants each and every one of us, and I want to make it easier for us all to be with Him.

Until next time,
Ash the (frantic) Dreamer

:)

Today has been the best day of my life since I left to go to Union last semester. Just figured I would say that.

I ADORE these two little girls at my church (their names are Laney and Kylie...), and I got to hang out with them and play with them and help feed one of them (lol), and it was just SOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing. I love little kids, especially those two girls. :) I hope when I have little kids, they're as good as Laney and Kylie. :)

Okay. That's all. For now. I think. I got 2 books this week, and so far, the one I'm reading is MAGNIFICENT. :) I hope the rest of today is as good as lunch was!!! :)

Till later,
Ash the (Ecstatic) Dreamer :)