on friday a thief, on sunday a King

tuesdays tune

john mark mcmillan - death in His grave

on friday a thief
on sunday a King
laid down in grief
but awoke with keys
of hell on that day
the first born of the slain
the Man Jesus Christ
laid death in his grave

a lesson in obedience.

recipe:

- 24 giant hockey bags
- 4 people courageous parents
- 12 carry-on bags
- heaps of faith and obedience to the Lord
- 8 young children
- a lot of unknowns
- 12 airline tickets

- piles of excitement

- a huge language barrier

- a pinch of nervousness

last weekend my dear friends trent and kerrie berstad (and their 4 kids), and stuart and carie mcallister (and their 4 kids) left on an adventure of a life time. They packed up everything, sold their cars and said goodbye to the comfy life they knew in north america and moved to el salvador for a year.

both families have had a heart for el salvador for some time now. i remember hearing trent say this is what God has shown them is the next chapter for their families, that's why they are going. It might seem crazy to pull 8 small children out of school and to uproot their whole lives, but in reality it is just an act of obedience.

while in el salvador they will be working with the locals to develop their community in ways that are long lasting. both families want to educate the people of the town so that when they leave they can continue the work that they start.

when the Lord calls and we listen and act, crazy things will happen.

please keep both the berstad's and mcallister's in your prayers. if you wish to follow/financially support them in their adventure they have a blog that they update with lots of pictures!
http://www.elsalvador1.blogspot.com/

heaven song.

You wrote a letter and You signed Your name

i read every word of it page by page

You said that You'd be coming, coming for me soon

oh my God i'll be ready for You

i want to run on greener pastures

i want to dance on higher hills

i want to drink from sweeter waters

in the misty morning chill

and my soul is getting restless

for the place where i belong

i can't wait to join the angels and sing my heaven song

i hear Your voice and i catch my breath

'well done my child, enter in and rest'

tears of joy roll down my cheek

it's beautiful beyond my wildest dreams

i want to run on greener pastures

i want to dance on higher hills

i want to drink from sweeter waters

in the misty morning chill

and my soul is getting restless

for the place where i belong

i can't wait to join the angels and sing...

i want to run on greener pastures

i want to dance on higher hills

i want to drink from sweeter waters

in the misty morning chill

and my soul is getting restless

for the place where i belong

i can't wait to join the angels and sing

no, i can't wait to join the angels and sing my heaven song

ella ella, ay, ay, ay

tuesdays tune
glee cast - singing in the rain/umbrella

i'm a huge fan of mashing-up songs. When the hit tv show did this catchy one i had it on repeat for weeks afterwards. be sure that you watch the video too, it's the best part!

ps- who knew that gwyneth paltrow could sing?!

sabbath. revisited.

earlier on this week i had posted about how i am currently studying and trying to understand the meaning of the sabbath and what God's intent is for this day. i have learned a lot in the lat couple of days. though my understanding of everything wasn't completely right in my previous post, i wasn't completely wrong either.

i had lunch yesterday with a friend, who also is a pastor at our church, to see what information he could give me and to ask for some guidance as to where to find more scriptures on the sabbath. check out what we came up with...

the sabbath is something that God gave to us. it is not a day that we are to take specifically to give back to the Lord. if we are truly living a Godly life we shouldn't need a specific day to honor and worship the Lord, we should be doing this on a daily basis. the day of rest was more of an act of obedience to God by the israelites. back in the day people worked 7 days a week to make ends meet. by God saying to only work 6 days a week and rest one day this could possibly leave the israelites out one whole days wages. not only are they out a days wage but everyone else around them is busy doing things to further themselves like working and getting other tasks done. taking a day to rest took a great deal of courage and faith from the israelites to believe that God was going to provide for them.

a lot of text that is written around the sabbath may seem outdated when it talks about things such as plowing the fields and working servants. however, the more i read about God's objective for the day, the more i truly believe that it is a message that people of today desperately need to hear. it's a scary concept for some that work like mad all the time.

in leviticus 25 it talks all about how every seven years was to be a year of the sabbath rest. people would rest for a whole year, that's crazy! you were not to work at all and if you did, you could be killed. you were to to live off what your land had provided you from the year before. of course there was always worry from the people that there may not be enough crops produced to sustain them but in leviticus 25:21 it says 'I will send you much blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years'.

our society is so money and success driven that sometimes i think we forget to rest, to really live. we are all about 'one upping' the guy next to us that the things that are most important like taking time to spend with your family gets pushed aside.

i encourage you to take a day to rest, slow down. don't do anything on your 'to do' list, get that stuff done another day. don't do anything that will further yourself, you can do it tomorrow. take a day to just spend with people you love and to do things that will allow you to rest and honor the true meaning of the sabbath.

lift my heart and my hands to show my love.

tuesdays tune

phil wickham - divine romance

this song is so simple but still so elegant. take a listen...

The fullness of Your grace is here with me
The richness of Your beauty’s all I see
the brightness of Your glory has arrived
in Your presence God, i’m completely satisfied

for You i sing i dance
rejoice in this divine romance
lift my heart and my hands
lo show my love, to show my love

a deep deep flood, an ocean flows from You
of deep deep love, yeah it’s filling up the room
Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life

late night chats.

my all time favorite thing about living with my best friends is;

when they come wake me up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed to chat. even if i'm dead asleep, i'm always happy to listen when that door creeks open at the wee hours of the morning. whether it's to tell me something super exciting, to ask my advice on a situation, ask me for pray for them, or even to ask my opinion on an outfit for an upcoming event. it is sweet bliss knowing that a few of your closest friends are just a few steps away and that you have access to them even at 12:08 in the morning.

that is my favorite thing about living with my best friends.

sabbath.

sabbath is a day of rest that is set aside specifically to only worship and honor God. in the ten commandments the fourth on the list is to 'honor the sabbath day, keep it holy. work six days and do everything you need to do. but the seventh day is a sabbath to God, your God...' (exodus 20:8). do you celebrate sabbath? do you set aside one day of the week to do nothing but honor God?

i was speaking with my friend about what it really means to honor the sabbath and asked her what it would look like to her if she were to take a day to do nothing but honor and worship the Lord. she told me that she would probably go snowshoeing, i love her response. it wasn't the response i was expecting to hear. for my friend, being out in nature, by herself, having time to reflect is her act of worship, her way of spending time with the Lord.

i think that typically when we think about practicing the day of sabbath we picture being in church worshiping and fasting all day. for some this certainly could be a way to honor sabbath, but it's not how everyone does.

to be totally honest, i don't really practice sabbath. i don't really even know much about what it means to honor the day of sabbath. but as i continue to study what the meaning of sabbath is in my personal devotion time, the more eager i become to actively start practicing sabbath.

some of the things that i might do on the day of sabbath…
- go for a hike in banff
- go for a drive in the country
- go for a swim (if you know me, you know i’m a fish. i can just swim for hours and it clears my head, allows me to think and pray, sort of like people that like to go for a run).
- play my guitar

if you practice sabbath what does that look like in your life? what are your thoughts on what it should look like?

First Fab Five Fridays For 2011.

i'm not a huge fan of making new years resolutions. actually, come to think of it that's a lie, i really am a fan of the 'new beginnings', i just tend to keep them to myself. maybe i'm scared to voice them in case i fail?

i'm so sick of the 'i'm going to go to the gym 4 times a week for the entire year' answers that everyone always gives. lame, lame, lame!!! those high expectations often leave you feeling like a failure when the first week of the new year passes and you haven't stepped out of your house. by week 2 of the new year you are feeling discouraged and defeated, what a fantastic way to start off the new year, not. again, i repeat, lame lame lame!

this year i am going to set some 2011 goals. i am going to give myself a whole 365 days to fulfill them and this way i will hopefully skip the defeated stage. here are my fab five goals for 2011....

1. read more. i always hear about these amazing books that my friends are reading and i feel like i'm missing out. that needs to stop. my goal is to read 6 books this year. i know what you are thinking, 6 books isn't very many. 6 books is a lot when you have a hard time making time to read even one. this means that perhaps some book reviews will be coming your way.

2. become a certified scuba diver. being able to breathe underwater, what's more cool then that? i think i have convinced my father that he too should become a certified scuba diver so it will be a fun father-daughter activity. to complete your certification you have to do 5 open water dives, which means maybe there will be a nice little scuba diving vacation down south in the near future??

3. take surf lessons. i took a lesson when i was in costa rica years ago and loved it. i am going to become a pro surfer this year.

4. travel. i have been itching to get the heck outta dodge for far to long, it's time to scratch the itch. it has been a dream of mine since i was a fetus in my mothers womb to go to africa. i need to go there. now. i hope to get away for 9ish weeks. i would like to spend 4 or weeks in africa volunteering with an organization that i am yet to find. 2 weeks touring around africa seeing the sights and possibly visiting a friend in madagascar. then on my way home i want to stop in England/Ireland to visit some friends and do a bit of touring there. if i am unable to gather the money in time to go before the end of 2011, my goal is to have my flight booked to go in early 2012.

5. become debt free so that i can do all off the above. this takes some financial planning and dedication to staying as far away from the mall as possible. so far i am off to a good start. Lord, please keep me on track!

as i read through my goals and ambitions for the year i'm realization it may be and expensive year, yikes. but if, or should i say when, all things go as planned it will be a good year full of adventure!

what are some of the things on your 'to do' list this year?

a blast from the past. 2010.

here's a little look back some of the exciting things happened in my life and the lives of the ones around me from 2010....

in january i took a big step in 'growing up'. i packed everything up and moved ship to a new city for no reason in particular other then to live somewhere new. though it was an interesting transition, coming from a city that i was born and raised in to a city were i only knew a few people, it was an experience i would never trade. although i would never be caught dead cheering for the edmonton oilers, the city itself was great, i loved it. when i moved back home to calgary later in the year i think i left a piece of my heart in edmonton.

february was a month full of cheering, tears of happiness, and a much needed vacation! the vancouver 2010 winter olymips took place this month. canada took home 26 medals in total, 14 of those being gold (which was the most gold for any country!).

my family friend amy gough competed in the womens skelton for canada which made it extra exciting to watch. and who would forget the amazing gold medal win by the mens hockey team. i think that most canadians had tears in their eyes when sydney scored the winning goal in overtime against the united states. such a proud moment.

i was also privileged enough to get the chance to take a little vacation

down to phoenix to visit my aunt and uncle. when we weren't laying by the pool with strong margaritas in our hands we could be found doing our thing at the mall. a blissful, relaxing time away.

yeehaw cowboy. july, as it always is for a calgarian (even when they live in edmonton) is the cowboy month. i am a huge fan of the calgary stampede and make it a priority to get down to the stampede grounds at

least once a year. this year my family (minus the youngest member of our clan as he was gallivanting in europe for the summer) got tickets to the rodeo! it was a great afternoon with lots of horse poop and mini doughnuts, yummmmm!!

fast forward a few months to august. i took a trip that every girl must take at some point in their 20's... a girls vegas trip!! myself

and 3 of my closes girlfriends ventured south for 4 nights to the city of sin. it was some of the

most fun i have had in a long time. all night dance parties, laying by the pool in the blistering heat and lots of shopping. we stayed on the strip at the flamingo hotel (which by the way has the best pool ever, i would highly recommend it). i checked off an item from my 'to do before i die' list and went to a cirque de soleil show. we saw 'zumanity' which was a bit scandalous to say the least.

34 x 5 + 52 - 198 = 24. that's the magic number that i turned in the month of november. it was low key which was such a blessing! i celebrated the magic number by spending my time with my close friends and family. i was spoiled beyond belief, and it was great!

december was a month of crazy busyness! i moved (for the 4th time in a year) into a

townhouse with 2 of my best friends. we are still getting settled in, collecting all the little household items that are needed. it has always has been a dream that one day the three of us would have a place together, now it's coming true, crazy!

well there you have it folks, the low down of some of the exciting things that 2010 held. what were some of your highlights?

i hope that you had a wonderful year in 2010.
i look forward to the adventures that 2011 is sure to hold. all the best this year!

cant you see me here on overload, and this time i blame you.

tuesdays tune
pixie lott - when love takes over

this song reminds me of my best friend. she has changed since the last time i saw her (which was only a few months ago). she's in love. not just infatuation, but the real kind of love. the kind that we all look long and hard for. the kind of love that's is forever and ever, amen. everything seems to be a bit brighter in her world now that she has found 'the one'.

every time i hear this little ditty i think about her and how when 'love takes over, you can't deny' how happy you are.

take a listen...

the bachelor - a second chance.

tonight is the night i have been waiting for for months. as cheesy as it is, i can't help but have my eyes glued to the tv as brad womack makes his second appearance on the bachelor. although i never watched his past season apparently brad left 2 girls standing at the alter in his previous season. he's back after a lot of 'soul searching' and is ready to find love.

bring on the cheesy lines, mad ab shots, and the catty girls.... the bachelor season 15 has began.