LIVING FREE by Beth Moore

Okay I FINALLY finished my Bible study on Living Free by Beth Moore today, so I am going to blog on it (and hopefully Sex God and Darkest England by the end of the month... I am trying REALLY hard to catch up... It almost feels like I'm doing coursework from school because I am SO FAR behind!!) This book... Well I can easily tell you I do NOT reccommend it... It was supposed to take me about 5 weeks (5 lessons a week for 6 weeks). I Started it on Valentines day and finished it, well... TODAY!!! And I only finished it this soon cos I sat down and forced my way through several lessons in a row because it was just boring as ever. This is a good study for a new believer perhaps... Or for someone who has a hard time praying to God... I personally had to PUSH myself to relate to it right now & if anything it distanced me from Godd in that I just did not want to study the Bible AT ALL with it. As the study progressed it got worse... I'm telling you... This was like a really BAD and BORING book for me and I am SO glad its over. I was starting to wonder if I would EVER Finish it!! ... ANYWAYYYY I Wrote down some points that stuck out to me most in each of the six weeks I will post on here... But even still the MOST significant point on here was not even as significant to me as the LEAST significant one in Stepping Up!! So if you are looking for a study, I reccommend my last one instead...

These are my notes:

Week One:

• Take every Thought Captive to break strongholds


• Do this by focusing on Christ & Using God's word to rebuke Satan

Week Two:

• There are five spiritual retinas: 1) Believe him 2) Glorify Him 3) Find Satisfaction in Him 4) Expirence his peace 5) Enjoy his presence.


• We can believe IN God but still not believe him


• Getting in the Word provides spiritual nourishment

Week Three:

• We can have low self-esteem but still loads of Pride


• Encountering God's Glory in any real way brings humility


• Pride is a destroyer of ministries, marriges, friendships, jobs, and charecter


• Humility is not something we have until humbiling ourselves is something we do


• A life that glorifies Christ is a process that comes with maturity, but none of us do it perfectly all the time.

Week Four:

• Why persue something that can't satisfy us?


• Without spiritual food and drink, we will be hungry & yearning for something


• Dissatisfaction is only terrible if we don't let it lead us to Christ.


• We must correct our perception of God to free from strongholds.

Week Five:

• Searching for unfailing love in anyone but God is fruitless, dissappointing, & destructive


• Avoiding prayer is perscription for anxiety


• Prayerful lives are powerful lives

Week Six:

• Its not that we have nothing to fear, but his presence is the basis of our courage


• Concentrating on sin can cheat a Christian out of fully enjoying the presence of God.

Well... Thats all I got on it for ya... and after ALL that waiting!! Honnestly it was not very good!! I hope the next one I choose (I have 3 books on my bookshelf to choose from) will be a LOT better :) Keep on a lookout for my April & May Book Blogs...

RAYE

The American Dream!!

I know that people do not even really READ this blog much since few exciting things ever happen to me. So I just decided to write this for fun... Just a few thoughts I have.

I have often said the American Dream does not exist, which for the most part, it doesn't! People never reach their dreams. But maybe its nothing more than a dream because people are too afraid if they persue it, the dream will die if they fail... But what is life to constantly yearn... GO FOR IT!!!

I came up with my own "American Dream" to share if I decide to stay in the USA! I want to go to dental school to study to be a dentist/orthodontist. I want to get a house in the mountains (I really like Estes Park, CO... the town I have spent most of my time in Colorado at- also the town pictured- in a photo I took when I was there in 2005). I want a large home (but not too large cos I don't want to spend ALL my money on a house...) I wpould hope to commute to Boulder or Denver to work (long commute, but for the wages I can expect, Its WORTH IT!!! And not uncommon to travel that far to work... :) I would like to have a family and send my kids to really good private Catholic schools in the city. I want to take regualar holidays with my kids and family as well to Europe & on cruises etc... At my house I want a hot tub and tanning bed (not as expensive as some thing) and other "expensive" toys... and by expensive I don't mean TOO expensive... maybe a billiards table?! haha. If I'm with Chad he'd like that! I even want a nice auto (mostly for looks haha) maybe a Corvette or something... those are dropping drastically in price. My dream car is actually a Mercedes Benz SL600 but I REFUSE to spend 127K on an automobile no matter WHAT I make haha. I also think a beach house in Malibu or something would be nice... or in Florida... that I can go to a few times a year & the rest of the time rent out to tourists :). I would like to write books and publish them for fun (which I hope to start on as soon as I get a new computer)... and sell music I write as just hobbies :) But I also want to donate to charities... like Compassion International, Cancer Research/St. Judes Hospital, Animal Enviornmental programmes etc... & missions projects with a church... I still think regardless of ANYTHING we have we need to give back to others regardless of how much we have. My lifelong goal is to be an orthodontist and do general dental work. :) Life is an adventure That I hope to live out fully & this is just a picture of my bigger dream... Eh, I can dream can't I?!

RAYE

Cheeseburger!!

I really want an IN AND OUT BURGER!! Unfortunatly the closest one to where I live is just under 8 hours away!! I actually thought about driving there though as insane as that sounds, but realised if I left right after I got off work, it would be 11PM by the time I got there, And they close at what 10:30 PM?! LAMESAUCE!! I can hardly wait to move further west!! And when Chad and I take our road trip out west I already warned him we will need to stop A LOT at IN & OUT!!Mimi even said when I come to California (God knows when I'll do that) We will go too!! Yay! Til thin, I went to Sonic... Its the closest thing to IN & OUT where I live... & its just not the same!! :(

Oh Well...

RAYE

Shit Hits The Fan

Things appear to be going well, but then as always, the shit hits the fan! I seam to have forgotten to calculate import taxes on items now & I owe a LOT of money I need to pay- Thus, unless I get a new job soon, I can not buy my new computer, iPod, OR go on holiday--- POOP! I got transfered to a different Taco Shop too where my hpours were cut by ten a week!! They are supposed to go up though soon!! I really hope I can pay bills this month, but I think my tax return will help a lot! I have a few leads on jobs that pay a LOT more than what I get now, so hoping and praying for one. In other news I finished my May book so I gotta try to blog on it AND Sex God (my book from April) coming up SOON!! At least I have the extra time from lack of work... :/

I have been spending that time off work working out like crazy though because the weather has been SO LUSH! The picture on this blog is from after a workout like 10 days ago or something... I Started to tan some and people are actually noticing my workout efforts: Walk a few miles a day, 150 crunches, protien shakes, I feel GREAT! I will hopefully update soon on my books & hopefully the sun stays so my tan does not die!! :)

Keep it Real, =P

RAYE

Apartment

This is just a short blog mostly to show the picture of the bedroom of my apartment after cleaning it. I cleaned most of my apartment, but the living room is still a disaster! I need to clean it and go to the recycle centre and may have more pictures to follow... Thats all...

RAYE

My Dental School Choices

I know its like a kabillion years away that I would actually apply to dental schools but I already know the fourteen schools I want to apply to and in what order are my prefrences... I chose 14 cos its INSANELY hard to get in. For example the school on the top of my list gets 1,500 to 1,600 applicants each year but last year only accepted 52!! Also 14 in my lucky number and has always brought me good things... so maybe a little lucky?! *crosses fingers*

These are my choices in order:

1) University of Colorado School of Dentistry- Denver, CO

2) University of Southern California School of Dentistry- Los Angeles, CA

3) University of California Los Angeles School of Dentistry- Los Angeles, CA

4) Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine- Fort Lauderdale, FL

5) University of Florida College of Dentistry- Gainesville, FL

6) University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry- San Francisco, CA

7) University of The Pacific School of Dentistry- San Francisco, CA

8) Boston University School of Dental Medicine- Boston, MA

9) New York University College of Dentistry- New York, NY

10) University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine- Las Vegas, NV

11) Louisiana State University School of Dentistry- New Orleans, LA

12) Tufts University School of Dental Medicine- Boston, MA

13) University of Mississippi School of Dentistry- Jackson, MS

14) The University of Conneticut School of Dental Medicine- Farmington, CT

Hopefully I survive undergrad and SOMEBODY decides it is worth giving me a shot... I want this more than ANYTHING!!!!!! Hoping and praying for the future :)

RAYE

Tornado- DEUXXXX

Just Got back from the dentist! I seriously can't even say how much I want to be a dentist someday... I reallllyyyyy want to! I think I would be good at it!

Yesterday there was another tornado right outside my work! We were not allowed to take shelter though cos the maneger would fire us! I did not see the funnel, but I heard it pass! It got very dark and rained insanely hard, golf ball sized hail fell, and the wind was going so fast the door to the building was almost torn off! It rained so much that we nearly had a flood! I tried taking pictures of what the tornado did since I couldn't go to a shelter, and one of the pix is in this blog! Its the one of the door almost being torn off. The picture does not really depict the expirence though!

I am going to try to catch up this month on my blogs and get the April AND May book blogs posted on time AND my Living Free study if I can finally finish it! I am off work today, so hopefully I can accomplish some things... And cleaning... UGG... SO MUCH TO DO!! Ready to just finish it all so I can move on to June!! Seriously!!

RAYE