Curses from Satan?

Hey friends of the internet...

Last class we read this article about Satan..EW. It was a really good article and I really enjoyed reading it! The title was God at war and it was basically about spiritual warfare. There is no set questions and stuff that I need to answer so I am just going to say what I found interesting and confusing etc.

First, I wanted to address the question that we talked a lot about in class..are sicknesses, deaths, diseases etc from Satan or God. I really have no idea. I have gone back and forth about what my answer was. I think that God puts these situations in our lives to test our faith and to help us grow stronger. I do believe that with every bad situation you grow so much and learn so much about your faith and yourself. But, I also think that they are from Satan. Satan is PURE evil and these things are evil too. I really have to set answer that I can say because I just honestly do not know.

I was also confused about a few things. First I remember reading and someone saying how Satan was once in control or partly in control of the world and God beat him? I do believe that God has overcome Satan but I also think that it is still a battle because so many people are still falling for Satan's trickery. Another question that we talked about in class was why we don't see demons in people anymore? I think that the reason I'm not like she is totally demon possessed is because there are so many different things that could be going on behind the scenes. I also think that the picture that was placed in my mind of possessed people is the picture of these people screaming and yelling and rolling on the floor and just going crazy. I have never seen that before so I think that is why I don't quickly say that they are possessed. Although in the Bible, the towns people and everyone else automatically knew that they were possessed. Its interesting to think about..

I think that God can overcome ALL of Satan's tricks of sickness, possessed people etc. IF you have full faith in God and you trust him completely with your life than I think that there is no way that Satan can even touch you. You might be tempted, but you won't cave in. With that note...

Until next time...
Alexa :)

Kingdom of God

After reading chapter 4, the biggest thing that I got out of it was that the kingdom is here. The Kingdom is not just "in the sky" like everyone assumes. We are currently part of his kingdom on earth. It is confusing as to what our part in the kingdom but I think part of it is to expand his kingdom. We are to tell EVERYONE about his kingdom and make it grow. When we accept Jesus into our lives, we enter the gates of his kingdom. Most people think that when you die you enter the kingdom but that is definitely not true because we enter his kingdom when we accept him into our hearts as our Lord and Savior.
until next time....

Alexa.

Reflection of the 1st quarter

Hello peeps from the internet,
This blog I will be reflecting on the first quarter of practical missions. This quarter has been really great so far. I really love how laid back this class is and takes the stress away from the other classes. This class is truly my favorite. One of my favorite parts about this class is the book that we study from. Every chapter is so practical and its not textbook boring. They are really fun to read and I really learn something each time. On the negative side, some of the speakers that we watch can be boring so that is a negative thing. But, I really do enjoy mostly all of the sermons that we watch. All I can really say is that I can not wait for the rest of the year to progress. It has great so far and is really helping me grow in my faith as a christian and become a servant leader.

until next time....<3
-Alexa-

LUKE WARM.EW.

Firstly, before I start blogging, I would like to state that the term "luke warm" is simply DISGUSTING. eww its one of those words that grosses you out by saying it. Like...meatloaf and moist. EW. okay now im going off topic...

SO last class we watched a sermon by a man named Francis Chan. I really love him. I am reading his book crazy love and it is crazy good :) It is an easy read so I enjoy reading it! He is a great speaker and I really want to hear more sermons from him! He talked about what it means to be on FIRE for the Lord and what it means to be luke warm. So there are some questions that I will be answering now...

1. Does Jesus expect us to be radical or is there a middle road? Follow the leader or …?

I got really confused when he was talking about this middle of the road story. I guess I kind of blanked out because I was thinking so I sort of missed what the point he was trying to get at was. Although I think Jesus wants us to be radical for him.

2. Why is it that so many people in church think that our life is ideal?
Everyone wants to live the "American Dream." Well, noo why would anyone want to live that? People from the church think that our life is so ideal because we have a house to live in, we are FILTHY RICH compared to the rest of the world, and we are blessed beyond needs. I want to hit on the rich part because I couldn't even believe that people live on 2 dollars. Chan's example about the 2 dollars was spot on. It is just so hard to believe. When we go to the movies and we pay 10 dollars for a ticket, that is like HUGE to someone who is poorer than us. Its just insane. If we are not really surrendering our lives to God and not on fire for him then our life is not ideal at all. We are going to hell. Hell. If we continue to live luke warm lives.


3. Do you agree that being filthy rich is a spiritual disadvantage?

Im so off and on about this..so I dont really have a set answer. I think yes it is a major disadvantage in some circumstances. Actually, now that I think about it, it pretty much always it except when you are using your money to solely help others. But the main way that I think it is a disadvantage is because we don't rely on God for everything. When I say everything, I mean literally EVERYTHING. They don't know if they will see the sunset tomorrow, or if they will eat, or have clean water, or have ANY water, or be safe, or anything like that. We don't have to worry about any of that! I know that when I come home, I can eat anything I want. Imagine this, the TOILET water is 100% times cleaner than the water that they have. The water that they have is nasty swampy water. This may sound gross but the toilet water is water that unfortunate people would walk miles for! So, yes I do think that being rich is a spiritual curse.


4. Are you luke warm and loving it? Or are you trying to do something about it?
I am definitely NOT loving it. Why would someone love it? I am putting an effort in my relationship with the Lord and I can really see the change. I write in my prayer journal and read my devo book every night and sometimes under my bed. That sounds weird but there are no distractions under there except maybe spiders...haha just kidding! But for real, I am luke warm and hating it. I want to say ohh no I am not luke warm, Im perfect! But in reality, I am luke warm and I strive to be ON FIRE FOR GOD!


5. Is my life making God vomit? Would the way you live your life make the poor vomit?
The first part of the question could go either wat, but yeah I do think that my life is making him vomit. I am not living the way that I should be but I am trying to cut back and change the way that I do things so that I will not make him vomit. And I definitely think that the way I live my life makes the poor vomit. I bet they would be disgusted. I spend 10 dollars on a meal and 10 dollars would go a lot further than just a meal. I just think that the way that I spend my money could not be so selfish.

Rob bell :)

Blog for Sermon of Rob Bell:


So I thought this sermon was interesting…The first 45 minutes was really boring to be completely honest. All he did was state facts that wasted time. I mean it is great to see how complex everything is to prove that there is a God who is amazing and powerful and there is no other way that everything could have been created but I think he went on with it for too long. He talked a lot about the 7 days of creation and how God rested on the 7th day. God isn’t a machine that uses fuel and runs all day; he is like us and needed to rest after he made something so amazing. I know on Sundays is my rest day, probably like everyone else, but I have this prayer journal and on Sundays I just reflect on the past week and think about how blessed I am. Rob really all he talked about was how amazing and beautiful his creation is. My favorite fact that he told us was the one where he was talking about space and how if the sun was one centimeter up then we would freeze and if it was one centimeter down then we would burn to death. How crazy right?? I really don’t understand how anyone could not believe that God made all this and that is just happened like spoof, the earth is made. No, that is IMPOSSIBLE. It just fazes how people can be evolutionist and all into the science things.

So that is pretty much all I have to say…


Until next time……..
Alexa (:

blessing to others!

I really loved the topic in chapter 3 about blessing others. It is so true! We are here on earth not because we are blessed, but to pass the blessing to others. We are blessed in order to be a blessing onto others. You really have to not be selfish to live out your life like this. One bible verse that I like that explains this is Matthew 5:16 "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." When it says let our light shine before others, I think of it like let our actions and good hearts be used to bless others and when we do that, we glorify God. In my life I have been very blessed. I am very blessed to be living where I do, to be going to Houston Christian and to wear the clothes I have and etc. With all that I have that I was blessed with, it seems wrong to me if I dont bless others with what I have. I have food on the table when I get home because I am blessed to be able to afford it, so I like to serve homeless people who are not as fortunate. I am also fortunate to have blankets to keep me warm at night in the winter, so I like to go out and hand out blankets around Christmas time and tell people that Jesus loves you. When I bless other people, I really hope that they bless others, and then those people bless other people. I just cant help but feel selfish if I do not help other people. I have way too many resources to just let them go to waste. There have also been times where God has blessed me and I'm sitting here thinking Why in the world did you let this happen? this is not a blessing! But when I think about it, maybe its not a blessing in my life, but to other people it is. And most likely it will turn out to be. God does reveal his plan through blessings. So with this, I really hope that you use your gifts to bless others! Maybe your gift is singing, go sing holiday songs to the elderly! Or maybe your gift is giving, go give to an organization that needs it. Whatever your gift is or what you have been blessed with is, because everyones is different, go bless others :)

Until next time....
Alexa <3

Spiritual Emphasis Week!

Ahhh last week was absolutely AMAZING. The band was great, the speaker was great, and the sermon was great. I remember last year's sew (spiritual emphasis week) didn't have an impact on me at all. I know that sounds bad,but it really didn't. I didn't go into the next week thinking wow i have SO much to do with my faith. This year's was perfect. The "theme" of the week was exactly 100% what i needed to hear; without a doubt. I was going to write about each day, but I'm just going to write about certain things that happened or I liked or didn't like.

1. What bothered me so incredibly much is how people take chapel as a joke. I look around and people are laughing and they are like woohooo chapel! but being very sarcastic. I guess it bothers me because I take it really seriously, i have my little chapel notebook I take and when I write in my prayer notebook each week or reflect on the week, I turn to that too.

2. I really loved the speaker! At first I was like oh great, hopefully this speaker isn't boring. But when I heard it was Greg, I got so excited! Every message that he gave us was soo practical. I could relate to every single one. He lightened the mood with his voices and noises, but when he needed too, he got very serious.

3. My favorite day was Thursday. If I remember correctly (I don't have my notebook near me): ) the talk about saying sorry to people and being sarcastic was on Thursday. This day was my favorite for many reasons. I know that a lot of people are really fake when they tell their friends like ohh i love you and you will always be my best friend. Then, behind their back, they are like omg did you see her today? Wow! And she is SO annoying. I know so many girls that are like that. Another favorite part of mine is when he started talking about the dad hugs. Immediately I started bawling crying. I just couldn't hold it in. Ahh, I'm crying just writing this because it was so emotional for me. My dad is not present in my life for many reasons. He decided to get involved in unhealthy "activities" and so therefore he is not allowed to see me. I have all these memories from when I was 6, but I never remember him telling me he is proud of me and stuff like that. He would write letters to me but I never thought they were genuine and he meant it all. So when Greg was talking about the dad hugs and he would give us one, I went up to him after chapel and I got my first real dad hug. It was the biggest relief and it felt so good for someone to tell me they loved me and were proud of me.

4. One day Greg talked about being rude to people and negative towards them (probably thursday). So far, if anyone says a bad word or something negative, I tap them and ask them if that was really necessary. I also tell them that I am becoming a better person and their actions are not really helping me or others, I know its not all about me so I also say this so they will be a better person too. I did the challenge and tried my hardest to not say anything negative to anyone. I know that I did not succeed but I am working hard and trying my best.

5. The last thing I will talk about is one thing that Greg briefed on. He said that no Christian is better than the rest. I know that I have ALWAYS struggled with this. I would look at some people and be like wow they are so much better Christians than I am because they have never missed Church and I missed last Sunday. I used to feel like there was a level of Christianity. For example like some people could be in a low category but some were in the highest because they were "perfect Christians." I know now that we all worship in different ways and we love the Lord differently but we all have one thing in common which is the Lord.

The last thing that I want to say quickly is that I had previously accepted Jesus in my heart but I don't feel like I was living for him, so now I have in a way reclaimed my faith and recommitted myself to him. Im super excited for this so please pray for me as I start a new life :)

peace & blessings
Alexa <3