~Repentance: In the Old Testament, part 2, section FOUR: Religious Leaders and Preacher/

  Again, I apologize again for late blogging. I've never been a perfect blogger and it just shows TODAY! Haha, for some reason I find it amusing that I haven't posted in awhile, but thanks for waiting. {Here} is the SECOND part. Can we say, finally?? {And to mention this again: BLUE is quotes! I take no credit at all for any quotes, and in this case they're all from Mr. Roberts. And RED is scripture :}
   SO, REPENTANCE: In the Old Testament:
  So on page 53 there is a 'focus number 4'. One, two, and three were all melded into the last post...sort of :D SO, focus four: Repentance and Religious Leaders.
  While most of my readers are probably not prophets or preachers { xD } it's important to hear this part of Repentance too. Because being a part of the church is part of our role as Christians. We have to submit, respect, and pray for our elders, pastors, etc. And so, I believe it is important to know about this part of Repentance. The section begins like this: All sin is an abomination in God's sight, but the sins of prophets and priests are singled out for particular denouncing, especially the sins of false prophets. So first of all, preachers of God have a great responsibility. THEY ARE SINGLED out he said.

 ³⁰ “An appalling and horrible thing
Has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule ^[a]on their own authority;
And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?----Jeremiah 5: 30-31 

 This verse caught my attention immediately. In his book, Mr. Roberts gives a longer version of this, starting at verse 26, but notice here these last TWO verses. THIS must be noted. While Jeremiah was talking about preachers of his day, I believe he was also talking about the FUTURE preachers. The verse begins with two big words: APPALLING and HORRIBLE. These are serious words, and we have to take them seriously. I'm not going to give the definitions, because I'm sure you can imagine them. Prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so! I believe he is talking about today, guys. And THAT is a scary thought. I have heard many holy men say that there are more preachers not saved, then SAVED! Is that true? Do you believe it? Unfortunately that issue is for you to find out. Think about it though. In the book God said, 'And My people LOVE it so! This also means that MANY of us are blinded! WE LOVE that our preachers aren't preaching God's messages, we don't even realize it!!!!!! WE BEGAN LOVING IT. You know why? Because we were born IN sin. But can we unlove this? Can we LEARN to love the TRUE word of God? The last part just gives me chills because it's BEAUTIFUL. But what will you do at the end of it? BUT WHAT will YOU do at the end of it? And notice: at the end. I believe these are end times. Whether they are the end times in Revelation, or whether they are just END TIMES. God said he was coming soon. "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" If the kingdom of God was at hand 2000 years ago, what is it now? ITS SOON. AND we must BE READY FOR IT. So I ask, what are we going to do at the end? Are we going to listen to what we want to hear, or what God's telling us? Are our preachers doing their job? WHAT CAN WE DO? REPENT, and BE FORGIVEN. Repent! REPENT. Listen to GOD. We're not preachers, no, but we can PLEAD with GOD that He will listen to our prayers. THAT OUR PREACHERS will Repent. Preachers take on the burden of preaching God's word, and they need our prayers. ALL PREACHERS have to Repent. Are our preachers REPENTING? Any prophet, priest, or preacher who claims to speak for God and says little of nothing about repentance in these DESPERATELY WICKED DAYS is certainly no spokesmen for God, nor ought he to be trusted in other matters. This just reveals urgency. URGENCY. That's what I love about this Book. It captures the urgency. And so the last part is this. The book says: Consider how extensively these ancient problem are found in today's church: 

  1. Men and women who claim to be servants of the Lord knowingly live in iniquity themselves. Some pretend Repentance, but many are indifferent to their own sins. 

   2. Hypocrites in religious robes watch like the fowlers to catch others in their nets of iniquity in order that they may grow richer and richer at the expense of God's people. 

    3. Prophets claim to speak for God and yet He has not sent them nor given them anything to say. Many of them are so spiritually ignorant that they believe their own lies. 

   4. False prophets give messages that are exactly opposite of the truth: they cry "peace, peace," but sudden destruction comes; they marshal their followers and rush ahead where angels fear to tread when it is time to be still and known that God is the Lord. 

  5. Wicked leaders in churches regularly strengthen the hands of evildoers and discourage the righteous.

    This post took me longer than I expected, so we'll continue in chapter two at the next post. BUT REALLY, this matter is SO URGENT. We need to hear GOD'S WORD today. The world NEEDS to hear GOD'S WORD today. And if we aren't hearing it in Church, how can others hear it? HOW can WE reach OUT TO THE WORLD, if we don't even have it right in the CHURCH?? The CHURCH is crucial. MORE CRUCIAL than we understand. BUT IT IS FALLEN. Today, the church is fallen. SO, we must rebuild the CHURCH. BUT WHAT is the first step? REPENTANCE. Repent personally, Repent for the preachers, Repent for the Church, Repent for the NATION. We're all apart of the fallen Church. WE ALL have to repent. We must lift our preachers up through prayer and lay them at God's FEET. We must PRAY, until GOD hears, or until we DIE in the pursuit. PRAY the rest of your lives that the WORLD will hear REPENTANCE.  It starts with God. It starts with you. It starts with the Church. Then it goes to the WORLD. 

   SO we must not only Repent of our sins, but PRAY for Repentance. Let God hear us today. Let him hear our desperate cries and pleas for him to give Repentance. Yes. We must be given Repentance. So PRAY. Praying is heard more than you think. 

   Repent, PRAY, and BE FORGIVEN. 

  {Hope your day is awesome} 

 And may everything you do be for His Glory} 

  ~Hannah  

~Repentance: In the Old Testament/ part 1~

  First of all, I sincerely apologize for not posting yesterday. It was on my 'to do list' but it seems that Wednesdays are insanely busy {previous posts have said so}. And so from now on you can expect that Wednesday is a day of rest. Maybe you'll get lucky every once in awhile. But anyways, now we get to go back to the Repentance series. So exciting!
   This Next chapter, chapter two, is a bit longer. It may be three posts. But the longer the more beautiful correct? :)
   So, on we go! Repentance in the OLD testament. It seems fitting to have these back to back. And really I was thinking 'I ALREADY KNOW ITS IMPORTANT!'. But God has put it there MULTIPLE times for us to discover. We can never get to much of Repentance. We should be weeping day and night for the rest of our lives in ashes for our sins. Yet we don't. So we might as well think about it every day and hopefully do it everyday. For the Lord declares that we shall not be hearers of the word, but doers. There is never a point where we can't improve our lives for God. So, let us improve our lives for God!
   The chapter begins on page 43 of the book. And it's entitled what my post is, if your wondering. It begins with a bible verse, as everything should.
    "Yet even now," declares the Lord, "return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart not your garments." Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil. ---Joel 2:12-13
       Amen? AMEN! What a wonderful verse. On page 45 the book says: God himself is grieved over the failure of His own people to repent, and He has issued many passionate calls for them to repent and turn back to him. Mr. Roberts says that Repentance is God's heart cry. His HEART CRY. And then he goes on to say: Oh, the tragedy of those so blind and ignorant that they cannot cry and groan over their own abominations, to say nothing of the terrible abominations of others in the land. Do we realize the truth in this? Do we cry over the tragedy of our sin and our nations sin?

trag·e·dy/ˈtrajidē/

Noun:

An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.  THIS is the definition of tragedy. So I ask again, Do we cry over the TRAGEDY of our sin? We have to! This is so crucial! And here he says: While returning to God is both an urgent necessity and a duty, we must not overlook the tragic fact that sometimes the level of straying from God is so great that the will and ability to return is severely hampered. Thus the cry of the human heart must become, You, LORD, showed favor to your land;    you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people    and covered all their sins.[b] 3 You set aside all your wrath    and turned from your fierce anger.  4 Restore us again, God our Savior,    and put away your displeasure toward us. 5 Will you be angry with us forever?    Will you prolong your anger through all generations? 6 Will you not revive us again,    that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your unfailing love, LORD,    and grant us your salvation.---Psalm 85:1-7    We must have this be our heart cry. OUR HEART CRY. We are so hopeless as people, church, and nation. We have to be REVIVED. We MUST have a holy ghost revival! We must REPENT.     Think about it.   So let us Repent and be forgiven.      {Will continue tomorrow}  Hope your day is awesome!!  {And may everything you do be for His Glory} ---Hannah

~God is Spirit~

  My family and I are walking through this wonderful bible study called The One True God and I thought that I would share a little bit with you for today's small break in the Repentance series. What I love about this bible study is that it's simple truth. Deep simple truth. A kind of contradicting statement, huh? Well I don't know exactly how else to say it.
   Anyways, this post is named God is Spirit as is the second chapter of bible study is. It seems simple enough to understand, but it's very deep.
   God is not material or corporeal (i.e He does not possess a physical body). Two of the greatest implications of this truth are: (1) God is not confined to any of the physical restraints so common to humanity, and (2) God is not visible and therefore should never be degraded with images made by men. 
   I thought that was an interesting statement really. True and interesting at the same time. Here's why, because normally when we think of God, we don't think of him as a Spirit. He is a spirit. Be we don't think about him as a Spirit. In Heaven he is a spirit. He does not have any form, he doesn't have anything resembling humanity, he just IS. And that's just frighteningly beautiful at the same time. Because HE JUST IS. He Exists. He loves. But he's not physical. You can't touch him. NO one has EVER seen God. If someone claims that have, their foolish. You can HEAR God, you can see him working through your LIFE, but you cannot actually see God. Even the angels can't, heavenly beings can't. NO ONE CAN. He DOESN'T PHYSICALLY EXIST!! Really take a moment to examine that part. He doesn't physically exist. Have you ever pictured yourself in heaven? When your there worshiping God? Well for some reason I always thought that God would be there. Like there would be one throne room or something and at the very end this beautiful light. The light so bright that it would hurt to look at it but that we'd bow down before him and worship him knowing that he was somewhere behind that light. Well that was thrown out the door when I read this chapter. Because really, in heaven we won't be able to walk somewhere to find God, God is everywhere, he's the air we breathe. HE JUST IS. So think about it. One of the greatest names that God ever called himself was the I AM. Jesus was arrested when he claimed to be I AM. I AM the Son of God, he would preach. I AM the bread of life. I AM man's savior, etc.  HE IS the I AM.

   Hope your day is awesome!
{And may everything you do be for His Glory}


   {exclusive!}
  [Well well it's been a while since I was able to talk of my life, and that's not intended to be a bad thing. I love talking about the word of the Lord, and honestly it's been a huge part of my life recently, but I would still like to be able to update people on our recent activities. 
   So what's been happening? A lot has happened in this past...week or so? First of all, about a week ago, Sam, our dear Sam, fell and had to get stitches on the back of his head. It was a scary experience, as any back of the head injuries are, but it turned out to be fine, and he just had to get stitches. This past Saturday, he got them out. 
    I want to give God praise personally, because this week my Grandfather accepted Christ, the day we went to his Church!! It was unexpected, but wonderful! We've been praying for this a long time, and the Lord has graciously answered our prayers. And really it SHOWS the power of prayers. People don't believe anymore these days in miracle, but every prayer answered is a miracle <3
   Basketball has been !Nutty!, in a good way. I love being on the team. We've recently had three games cancelled because of the weather, and I missed practice the other day because I mixed up the time. I'm anxious to play a game, which is Thursday, and another Tourney which is Saturday. I love basketball! 
   School is School. But i will say it's gone very well this year. Writing and Spanish are wonderful. I'm doing history at home (hallelujah!!) and that's going really well. And science is interesting. 
   And so that's a short summary of what's been happening. And hopefully I'll have something to share in the next {exclusive!} 
  
    And I'll close with this question and answer, from the West Minister Catechism :) 
   Who is God? God is a Spirit who's being is Wisdom, Power, Holiness, Justice, and Truth, are infinite, eternal, and Unchangeable. 

-----Hannah   
  

Repentance: throughout the New Testement -part 2

  Today we get to study further into chapter one! Whew! These chapters are nice and long. Beautiful and long :) Now, I decided that every chapter I'm going to take a 'break' and do another spiritual related post. While I believe in Repentance as one of the most urgent and wonderful things, I am passionate about so many other topics! I'll also be adding a small {exclusive!} to those posts about what I'm doing. My life has been quite interesting, and I love to share stories.
  But let's start the important part. Repentance. I haven't mentioned it, but 'by the way' BLUE is quotes from a book and RED is scripture. Just in case you didn't notice xD
  So, let's remember yesterday when I was talking about Repentance being the first message of the John the Baptist, and the first and last command of Jesus Christ. On page 32, it continues.

   Jesus summoned twelve men to follow Him as disciples. After carefully training He sent them out in pairs. "And they went out and preached that men should repent." {Mark 6:12}

   So we must note that it was the first command for the twelve disciples. And they did as they were commanded, they PREACHED Repentance. Another, "As you go, preach, saying 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand'." (Matthew 10:15.) So we see clearly that this was of importance to Jesus. It was the first thing he wanted the world to know through his disciples. Their message, [the disciples], "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," was certainly not novel, for it was the message of both the Baptist and Christ. If there is anything remarkable about the message, it is simply that the first word of the gospel is so little heard today. 
   Now moving on, guess what? It was it was the Focus of Peters Preaching. And Peter did very little preaching, if any at all, BEFORE he Repented. Peter was proud in the beginning. Remember he was the one who said to the Lord, 'I will not fail you.' And the Lord responded, 'Before the rooster crows the third time, you will deny me.' Peter did deny him. What did Peter do next? He Repented. And because of his miraculous Change of Heart, he was able to give a wonderful testimony of Repentance. ³⁸ Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. --Acts 2:38
 That was one of Peters messages. It's just beautiful. He's urgent and passionate about all of this! The last half is wonderful. 'and you WILL receive' He was very confident there. He says 'You Will' from experience. He's knows that because God did it for him, he WILL do it for us.

²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, ^[a]whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a ^[b]cross. ³¹ He is the one whom God exalted ^[c]to His right hand as a ^[d]Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are witnesses ^[e]of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”--Acts 5:29-32  This passage also talks about Repentance, but I wanted you to take note of this in passage. Peter had just spent the night in Prison for preaching the word of God-Repentance. Here he was, in front of the Jewish council, and THIS was his message. That HE would believe in GOD and preach REPENTANCE and the FORGIVENESS of sins. 

  I don't have time to go into it, but also the Church's in Revelation were called to Repentance. It was THE way to find Jesus. 

  Lastly, I want to mention this last part that's SO BEAUTIFUL. Imagine this incredibly beautiful truth: the conduct of people on earth impacts the joy of angels in heaven. Jesus said that the angels of heaven rejoice over every single person on earth who comes to true repentance {Luke 15:10} I will briefly mention for you to notice when he said 'TRUE repentance' That was an example of when I was talking about the dangers of Repentance. That pride can really mess up your repentant life, and that there is a TRUE repentance. Anyways, here's a quote worth thinking about: For multitudes of professed Christians, their only relationship with Christ is intellectual. There is no evidence that they have repented or believed but only that they accept as true certain facts concerning Christ. The devil accepts as true certain things about Christ, but no angel ever rejoiced over his repentance. 

  

  I'll end here with a verse from Luke 15:3-7 ³ So He told them this parable, saying, ⁴ “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the ^[a]open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 

   Let Christ rejoice over your repentance. Notice that he'd rather have one real repentant sinner, than ninety-nine people who needed no repentance. Let your voice be heard in the heavens. Oh that many millions might provide glorious occasions for rejoicing in heaven by their thorough repentance on earth!

  

   Hope your day is awesome! 

 {And may everything you do be for His glory}

---Hannah  

Repentance: throughout the New Testement -part 1

  The first chapter in the book is called, Repentance: The first word of the Gospel. It's a wonderful chapter because it really shows how repentance is incorporated into what Jesus and the disciples said. It should also be noticed that, of course, Repentance is a huge part of the old testament {Because all they could do was repent} but this chapter focuses on the New Testament! So let's get started!
 
    {From the book, copyrighted-Richard Owen Roberts}

  From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." -Matthew 4:17

  The first word of the gospel is not "love." It is not even "grace." The first word of the gospel is "repent." From Matthew through Revelation, repentance is an urgent and indispensable theme that is kept at the very forefront of the gospel message. 

  Very nicely said, I think. It just shows the importance of Repentance. To continue, I'll talk about Mr. Roberts points on John the Baptist. He dedicates a whole section to John the Baptist, and rightly so. John the Baptist is a man who needs to be respect, and often times we don't think much about him. Nor would he have us think TO much about him, because Jesus was and is the only spotlight. But I do want to point out that Christ said this about John (from the book) "I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."....Luke 7:28. I think that it's a great honor to have the son of God say 'there is no one greater than he'. I mean, John didn't take that and brag about it, no, he wept for his unworthiness to tie Christ's shoes. Also in the book it said, "He was appointed to make a straight way in the wilderness for the Lord." And so we can clearly see that John is well respected in the bible. 
  NOW THAT isn't the point. The point is about REPENTANCE. And this all ties together, if you keep John back round in mind. DO you know what John's first message was? Take a wild GUESS? His first message was Repentance. This respected man's first message, was REPENTANCE. And we ought to take notice of that. In Matthew 3:13, "Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight" ' ".  That is the point. 
    BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY we must realize this point. It was Jesus' first message to!!! "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'" {Mark 1:14-15} Is this not wonderful! It's both of their messages. The first message in the New testament, and Jesus' first message! And that is so wonderful. 
    Now why did they both tie their first message to repentance? Mr. Roberts said in his book that it's because there are two kingdoms in the world. The kingdom of Satan {earth} and the kingdom of God {heaven}. And we are born in to the kingdom of Satan, and the only way out is by grace, and being born again. It starts with Repentance. AND not only was Repentance Jesus' first command, IT WAS ALSO HIS LAST. In his book Mr. Roberts said, "Multitudes, including religious leaders, never hear the call to repentance because they have never realized they are sick. Sin-sick sinners are in a much more hopeful situation than those who are sure they are healthy."  And this ties because of this next quote I found on page 31: "Anyone called by God as a follower of Jesus Christ who fails to stress this message of repentance does so in express violation of a final command that Christ gave you." No wonder our Church's don't look any different to the world. You know why? Because we are unrepentant and our preachers have failed that last statement. ANYONE, called by God, WHO FAILS to stress the message of Repentance DOES SO IN EXPRESS violation to the last command that Christ gave you. How many of you have heard the message of Repentance at Church? That is why we have fallen. That is why people fall, because of their failure to REPENT. The Last command of Christ: 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that Repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in HIS name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending forth the promise of the Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high' (Luke 24:45-49) We must strive to proclaim this message for the world, because rarely does it make it to our pulpits, yet it is the most vital thing in our spiritual life. There are THREE details that must be noted {taken from the book} 1. First, this preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is to be done in Christ's name....All repentance and forgiveness of sins must be in his name. 2. Second, the message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning first in Jerusalem, and then Judea, and then to the very ends of the earth. All outreach, each evangelical ministry, every missionary endeavor, must have repentance at the very heart of the message. To fail in this is to violate the Savior Himself and his final command. 3. Third, all messengers of repentance ned to be clothed with power from on high. When power is lacking, it is to be sought as earnestly and faithfully as it was sought by first-century Christians. 

     I'll continue in the next post and finish chapter one, but we must really reflect on what has been said. Have we ever considered the importance of Repentance? Have we ever heard the message of repentance? If you haven't, that's the failings of the pulpit these days. IT IS SO URGENT, and I cannot express the importance and the sorrow that will come if we don't preach REPENTANCE. 
     Repentance makes the path straight between the Lord and the repenting person. Repentance is like clearing the a highway of holiness to and from God. Apart from Repentance, the Lord will not make His way to us. One follows the other: repentance must precede forgiveness; forgiveness does follow repentance. There is something grossly unwise in supposing that a person can enjoy the forgiveness of sin while resisting or merely remaining ignorant or repentance. 
   And so you see, Repentance is such an important thing. So I urge you to tell the message of Repentance to all you meet. It is the most vital thing you can do in your Christian faith. Believing, grace, love, repentance. 
    Repent and be forgiven. 

   ~Hope your day is awesome. 
 {And may everything you do be for His glory} 

---hannah

~Repentance: can be used wrongly?~

   As I keep studying this book, I find I'm still only at the introduction. Funny, how the introduction and the 'to the reader' can be so long. But it's good doctrine :D
   Anyways, many parts of this book stuck to me. There would be thousands of posts on repentance if I talked about every single powerful sentence. That is why I encourage you to order the book, and read it. Then we can study together, by blogs, and can enjoy the full power of God in this book.
    The first thing I learned, was that Repentance isn't any type of joke. It's not something to play with. And while we'd never actually play with it, we may misuse it. Repentance is SO deep. And to get a glimpse of it's true meaning would be amazing. I wanted to state that it can be misused before I went any further. How? Well here's one way.

   "Be warned, however, against taking pride in your repentance. Some have unwisely set themselves up as the standard of repentance and have looked with disdain on others whose repentance did not match their own. Such foolishness! Christ alone is the standard. Still others have attached merit to their repentance as if in repenting they gained some favor with God. How absurd! Repentance is a grace Christ gives that can only result in His glory, not ours." 

   One of our greatest sins is pride. We take pride in EVERYTHING. We take pride in our knowledge of God, we take pride in our discipline, we take pride in our gifts, and we take pride in anything else you might think of. And it's a great curse. Pride is one of the most hated sins. When we think we are better than God. And SO Mr. Roberts says that we can even take pride in our REPENTANCE! It sounds funny but it is all the more true. My repentant life isn't half of what it should be, is yours? Remember God is our standard! HE IS OUR ONLY STANDARD. And with great sadness, we must realize that we can never be his standard, because we weren't made for that. So we must REPENT. We must weep in sorrow at our sins, and never compare. And we must remember that we cannot merit our way into heaven. While Repentance may be an act we do in private,  it can still boost our pride into thinking we're better because we Repent and that we're God's favorites. That mindset will send us the exact opposite way we want to go. 
  And so with great care, we must consider our Repentant life. Repentance is a cry out to God. It's realizing that every single day, every single our, up to every single minute that you are lost, and in need of a savior. There are people in the world who have spent days and nights on their knees weeping because of their sins. Sin is a direct affront against God. To keep up our relationship with God, we need to keep repenting. Because I know for a fact that if I went to my sister every day and slapped her in the face, no matter how many times I said sorry, she wouldn't forgive me; I'd go on and on and on, slapping her, soon it would come naturally. But every night I'd go to her and say Sorry; would you forgive someone who did that to you? Probably not. But that's why we must realize that we have such a wonderful and powerful God. HE IS MORE THAN CAPABLE OF FORGIVING YOU. Every sinful act we do, down to the last tiny thought, is a slap in the face to God. But he has the power to forgive. TO FORGIVE. He promised he will forgive you.
   So, we must not use our Repentance wrongly, by foolishly thinking it's merit to God or that we are better than anyone else. We're all in the same boat, but some of us CAN have a keener appetite for God, and he will reward those who do. Never give up hope in God, because as Isaiah says "The hand of the Lord has not grown so short that it cannot save; nor his ear so dull that it cannot hear."{favorite verse, can you tell?:}
   Tonight, I urge you to Repent. Repent the way God wants you to repent. And if you don't know how, ask him. He'll reveal himself, but sometimes you have to seek him first.
    Have a blessed night.

  ~Hope your day was awesome.
{And may everything you do be for His glory.}

----Hannah

~Repentance: Isaiah 30~

   Yes, I am posting right now, and no I haven't read the chapter yet :) Well last night I had an inspirational moment, when I was doing my bible reading. Since we're going to start walking through the book Repentance I wanted to point out some verses that really spoke to me about Repentance. And what better book to find Repentance in, then in the bible? I will post again tonight, most likely, when I read my chapter. But here is what I discovered last night.

   "Woe to the rebellious children," declares the Lord, "Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin." --Isaiah 30:1  

   I thought this was a really interesting verse because it has it's own definition of Rebellion. According to this verse Rebellion is --those who execute a plan but not mine, and make an alliance, but not of my Spirit--. But if we think about it, most of the world, and a lot of the times we ourselves choose what we want our life to be. We try to dictate what we do in the future, what we will be, etc. And this verse just proves that God has a plan, it says it directly. It also proves that we fail him, and want our plan. And then we are rebellious children.

      "Who say to the seers, "You must not see visions"; And to the prophets, "You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us in pleasant words, Prophesy illusions." --Isaiah 30:10

    Sound familiar? It does to me, but its not overly popular. And we probably have never met a 'seer', and I hope I never do. But this sounds like the Church, and America today! We want to here what is pleasant. And note, that the fallen people here, don't want to hear what is right. The Church doesn't want to hear what is right anymore. Words  hear are described as pleasant. In this instant I think that can imply that doctrine is hard to hear, and that sometimes it may not be pleasant. How many of us would choose a friend that gave us nice compliments, than a friend who corrected us? I would probably choose the compliments. Who doesn't want to hear something good about themselves? WELL ITS WRONG. We don't HEAR what is pleasant. If we heard only what was pleasant we'd GO TO HELL. We should settle for nothing less than the doctrine of God. And I'll tell you this, the the first doctrine of God is this: We are sinners, and we NEED to be corrected. We deserved hell, and don't deserve anything. WE began, and still could be, rebellious children. THAT is where we all need to start. Because we were born into Satans Kingdom, and we were born to hear what's pleasant. That is why we need to be BORN AGAIN. 

   For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength..." ---Isaiah 30:15a 

   Soak that in for a moment. For it's beauty is unmatched. God's grace IS SO FULL in this verse. Why? Because he says In Repentance and Rest you shall be saved. YES....so wonderful. The first step in Salvation is Repentance and Rest. That means, we don't have to do anything! We don't have to do 30 good deeds to be saved, we don't have to mourn in sadness not being able to fulfill the ten commandments, we don't have to be something that we can't. We weren't made to fulfill the ten commandments. God knew when he made them that it would only be by grace that we could have been saved. "For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and this is not of yourselves-it is a gift from God, not by works so that no one can boast." --Romans. It is by Grace that we have been saved. And in REPENTANCE, we shall be saved. And when he says, In quietness and trust is your strength.. you know what he means? I think what he means is in our quiet walk with God, in our Quiet bible studies, where we completely trust in him, is when we have his strength. Is that not wonderful?

    Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for him.--Isaiah 30:18

    I think that is one of the most beautiful verses I've ever heard. Wonder why God hasn't come yet? I'm sure the world is corrupt enough. Why then? 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." Here that? He is waiting for us. The God of Heaven and Earth, The Heavenly Host, The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, The Alpha and the Omega, The beginning and the Last, The prince of peace, HE is waiting for you. Isaiah 30:18 says he wants to be gracious to you. He waits on High to have compassion for you. He loves you. He's waiting for you. 
    So Repent. Be forgiven. Love him. 

~Hope your day is awesome!
{And may everything you do be for His glory} 

~Repentance: to the reader~

  I think I might start a series on Repentance. It's a very urgent calling. Pastor Richard Owen Roberts has this book on Repentance, and I think that it would do everyone well to read it. As I read this book, I'll probably put the quotes of what convicted me, or what I thought was wonderful, or what the Lord called me to share, up. To be honest, I've tried this book before, but I was spiritually dead then. I want to try it now, and I'll read a chapter a day, praying to keep up. This book really stands out because of his doctrine. He makes it so TRUE and so UNDENIABLE.
  This section is "to the reader". And while most sections like this don't have much to offer this one does. And sadly, I don't even have time to even go through have of it! It's already late, and so I'm just going to quote the last paragraph of that section. To help you understand what he's talking about, I'll just give  you a tiny back round. Remember the verse, "Many are called, but few are chosen?" in this regard, that's what he's talking about.
   Here is the last paragraph. This is copyrighted by Richard Owen Roberts, and I take NO credit for it.

   The man who inquired about the number of those being saved was urged to concern himself with the vital issue of his own spiritual welfare. Interest in theological questions does not constitute salvation Not even the power to perform amazing miracles will guarantee eternal safety. One can enthusiastically praise the Lord and be lost. When the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, no amount of knocking and clamoring from the outside is going to force it open. Insisting that we ate and drank in His presence and heard Him teaching in our streets will only result in a repitition of those awful words, "I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers" (Luke 13:17) The time to strive to enter the kingdom of God is not after the door is shut, but now. "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out. And they will come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last" (vv. 28-30.) What could be more pathetic than arousing yourself to repentance, to seeking God, and trying to gain entrance into the kingdom of God after it is already to late? 
  Dear reader, do not let this happen to you!
   
   --Richard Owen Roberts. 

  That is just the beginning. Please think about it. This is an urgent matter.
  I'll continue through the book tomorrow.

 ~Hope your day is awesome
 {And may everything you do be for His glory}

---Hannah

Idolatry-common sin?

  Exodus 20:4  "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below."
  
  Have you ever thought about Idolatry as being one of your more prominent sins? Do you ever think about this second commandment in Exodus? Define Idolatry.....

  Idolatry is the universal human tendency to value something or someone in a way that hinders the love and trust we owe to God.
  
  I got that off the internet. Can you believe that? That is from an unbelievers perspective. It's funny, really, how they say a universal human tendency. Do you know what that means? It means that EVERYBODY does it. Everyone. Now, we can say, "But wait! I don't worship anything! I don't have idols! And most of all, it's NOT my most prominent sin!" Here's a quote by Mr. Ravenhill:

 "The thing that you love more than you love Jesus Christ,  I would suggest the one you talk about more than you talk about Jesus Christ has become an idol."

  Really take a moment to think about this.

 First of all, lets ask this question: Do you ever talk about God to anyone? Do you? Honestly, if someone was to talk to your friends, family, or co-workers and ask what you talk about most of the time what would they say? Well maybe if your lucky they'll say, "OH, she talks about Jesus and stuff." What percentage of how much she talks about Jesus? What have you learned from her talking about Jesus? Most likely, they won't hear much. Definitely not as much as they should. I've really been struggling with this too, and I believe that if you asked my family and friends they wouldn't be able to say anything about that. Do I talk about Jesus? No, and I say that will full regret, and I repent of it. Only now recently, in these last four blog posts have I ever talked about God this deeply. I have been terrible about this. Have YOU? Do you talk about God? Do you think about God every single day, every single minute? No, nobody does. BUT you can start. There is always a start.
  In Jude our calling is to: Building up yourself on your most holy faith. That is your calling, and how can you do that with idolatry holding you down? You must search for God. And have this hunger for God. God will recognize your keen appetite for His word. Alright? He WILL. Now I found it really interesting that when Mr. Ravenhill was talking about Building yourself up on your most Holy faith, the first thing he said was 1. LOVE GOD. That includes searching for him, loving him. 2. SECOND! Is NO IDOLS. Idols is the biggest thing that will hinder you! IT WILL.
  Now you may say WHAT ON EARTH IS AN IDOL??? EVERYTHING IS AN IDOL!! Everything you believe in that's not holy. Now of course you don't bow down and worship it, but your heart values it, thinks about it, wants it. So what is an Idol? Here's to name a few. See they don't have to be things. As in the first definition, you can see it can be someone. Preachers have become idols before. Mr. Ravenhill said that he met people who would go 1000 miles to see their preacher but wouldn't go to the preacher who is only 100 yards away. Obviously, that's wrong. Another example, of course, would be things. Things like movies, or media*internet. Also, people. It doesn't have to be actors or anything like that, although they are idols, it can be someone you see. It could be your parents or you siblings. Idols can be your life, just life can be your idol. You can be your idol. Your beliefs can be your idols: Your belief in certain commands can be your idol.  Even good, biblical things can become idols if we aren't careful.  Do we elevate anything up on a pedestal, instead of God? 
   So what have we summarized? Everything is an idol. Pretty much. I like Leonard Ravenhill's definition the best, but both are good. 
   And so, some questions for us to ask ourselves. Is Idolatry our sin? Do we talk about Jesus more than anything else? Is Idolatry more common than you expected? Are you surprised? Well, anyone can be surprised by the truth. I'm still surprised even now, even though I learned the truth hours ago. I still ask myself those questions, and I can't think what my answer would be if the the Most Holy God, came down and asked me if He was my idol; the thing I value most?  IS HE YOUR IDOL?
  
   Many of these subjects, "Do you love God?", "Prayer Warrior", and "Idolatry", they are all convicting subjects. They're challenges. I am not even good at any of these, but I can spread the truth. Listen to the truth. And search out these subjects in your own walk with God. Because HE SPEAKS.  "God came for the sick and needy not those who thought they had it all. God didn't come for bad people. God didn't come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live. EVERYBODYS dead."--Ravenhill.
 
  
 I'll close with this quote:
"Our fellowship is with the father, son, and one another. We turn it around and put our fellowship with one another before our fellowship with Christ. God is a jealous God, you will have no other God's before me. If you want to change it, you will have no other friends before your my friend, you will love no one more than you love me. Because he says you are to love him with HEART, SOUL, AND MIGHT. Nothing left for anybody else." --Ravenhill




 ~hope your day is awesome
 {And may everything you do be for His Glory}


--Hannah

~A prayer warrior~

 The subject of a prayer warrior is something that continually impresses me. Has anyone ever heard of the term 'prayer warrior'? Well maybe you have maybe you haven't. It's not SO common. The question really is this: do you know the importance of a prayer warrior? Do you? I thought I did, but as I explore the world of message I find that it is INCREDIBLY important. So important that you wouldn't even know. Here's a quote:

  A mans spiritual life is only as good as his prayer life. -Leonard Ravenhill. 
  

 Really think about the quote just for a moment. There. It hits you. Is this really true? You can bet it is. First of all let's recall something. What did Jesus do when he was dying on the cross? PRAY. What did he do when he was with his disciples at the last supper? PRAY. When Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane with his disciples what did he do? PRAY. And when he went on the mountain, where the sermon of the mount' was written what was he doing? PRAYING. Obviously, prayer is much more important then we think. If Jesus prayed so many times, we ought to do the same. And those weren't the only times he prayed. He prayed A LOT more. And I'm sure, had he stayed on Earth longer than he did, he would PRAY. PRAY. 
  But then we say, "Prayer is important, yes, but is it the definition of my spiritual life? Is my spiritual life only as good as my prayer life?" Yes, it is. Well let's say this. "What is the definition of a spiritual life?" I'll answer that, A relationship with God. A RELATIONSHIP. How many or your relationships are kept up without talking to one another? HUH? And God is God. He is a FULL bucket and doesn't NEED anyone. So you better talk to him, if you want to keep your relationship going with him. It's vital and it's urgent. We don't realize anymore the importance and urgency of things. YOUR PRAYER LIFE IS URGENT.

  Definition of urgent: a : calling for immediate attention : pressing <urgent appeals> <an urgent need> b : conveying a sense of urgency

   I cannot convey the urgency of prayer lives. IT IS SO URGENT. And DON'T EVER underestimate the GREAT and DIVINE POWER or prayer. NEVER underestimate it. Another quote:

 

  The devil keeps you satisfied with prideful things because he doesn't want you to discover the glory of God. He won't run away because you said a five minute prayer -Leonard Ravenhill. 

 

 Do you hear that? You can first of all discover the GLORY of God, through prayer and meditation in his word. Notice prayer and meditation are EQUAL. That means if you read the bible everyday of your life it won't amount to anything without prayer and grace. You can know the bible like the back of your hand, and it will NOT help if you don't have an ONGOING relationship with God. And having a relationship with God isn't by being silent. AND.. FIVE MINUTES WON'T SCARE THE DEVIL AWAY. It won't. I love that quote because it's scary but its the TRUTH. And isn't that just terrible that the Devil keeps us satisfied with prideful things. Do you hear that? YOU ARE BEING SATISFIED WITH PRIDEFUL THINGS!!!! WE ALL ARE! I AM, YOU ARE, AND THE WORLD IS! 

 And that is NO understatement. The devil has taken more control of the world now than he has ever in all of history. Here's a question: Do YOU believe that WE can stop him through prayer? Do you? We CAN. If the church would step up and be the bride God intended, even through prayer, we could achieve SO much. But we have all, all fallen away. The devil turned us the moment we thought that praying was no longer important. TODAY is the DAY that we most need PRAYER. The most unholy, terrible times will need prayer. And DON'T PRAY the worthless prayer, "I pray for the nation that you will make it better." NO "I PRAY HOLY FATHER THAT YOU WILL GIVE YOUR MIGHTY GRACE IN THIS TERRIBLE DAY. I PRAY FOR ALL THE SOULS THAT ARE LOST THAT YOU WILL REVEAL YOUR MIGHTY HAND IN THEIR LIVES. And Father, I PRAY that you will bring a HOLY GHOST Revival." Don't talk to God is texts: short and unemotional. Talk to him like he's your God. Its just like the saying 'if you pray while your angry, you might as well not. If you give an offering with a grudging heart, you might as well not.' Don't PRAY because you have to! PRAY BECAUSE YOU WANT TO. BECAUSE YOU LOVE GOD. BECAUSE YOU LOVE GOD. because you love God. Because YOU as his child LOVE him. Do you love God? 

  And again, for hope remember this verse,  Isaiah 59:1, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not so short that it cannot save; Neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear." 

  He will hear you. He promised you that he WILL hear you. Now let him hear you. And when you pray, pray for the LOST souls. The SOULS that adamantly ignore God, the SOULS that don't know him, and the SOULS that think they know him. PRAY. PRAY. PRAY. Because these days are URGENT DAYS. You can do so much with prayer. I will tell you this, it is your greatest weapon against the devil.

   Your greatest weapon, your greatest hope is prayer. Repent and Pray. Let the devil know that you are a prayer warrior. Let the WORLD know that YOU are a prayer warrior. 

   So repent and be forgiven......and pray.

 

~Hope your day is awesome. 

 {And may everything you do be for His Glory}

 

-hannah 

~Do we love God enough?~

  I was going to wait to share this post, you know. Because, last nights post was just hours ago and most likely wasn't even discovered. Well I'll encourage you if you haven't read it, to read it, because it will give an understanding about future post. 
  So, this post is entitled, "do we love God enough?" . Again, finding post names is almost harder than posting.  Anyways, I am going to tell a story. A story about a man who loved God.  A story taken from Leonard Ravenhill's message that he heard when he was preaching throughout his life. And unfortunately I'm recalling this from memory, so there are bound to be mistakes here and there, but you'll get the general idea. Also, I don't really remember then name of the man in the story. It was something exotic almost, and started with a T. But since I can't remember I'm going to call him John. ok? Well here's a story that so greatly inspired me.

   Once there was a man, John, who had great faith. And he preached the word of God day and night. The king didn't like this at all, so he sent a soldiers and a noble to find him to kill him. The soldier and noble went to the area where John lived and came to his house. They didn't know that he was the John they were looking for, they thought he was just a normal man in his estate. And so they asked, "We are looking for a man named John who lives around here. Do you know where he is?" John knew why they wanted him, but he just said this, "If you allow me to serve you tonight, and if you will stay in my estate, then in the morning I'll take you to John." At first, the Soldiers refused, because they had work to do. But then they decided to take up this strangers offer. After all, it was free lodging, it was company, why wouldn't they take it? Well, the Soldier and Noble stayed the night at John's estate. John washed their feet, fed them, he even preached the word of God. The soldier and Noble found is company pleasant. And then they went to sleep, after John made sure they had every comfort that they needed. And in the middle of the night, John got up and started digging a hole in the ground. He was praying to God all night while digging the hole he'd probably die in. And the next morning when the Soldier and Noble woke up they asked him to lead them to this John. John took them downstairs into his yard where he had dug the hole and he said, "Friends, there is no need to look any further, for I am John." The soldier and Noble were shocked. But the Noble said, "Kill him." The soldier gave his sword to the Noble and said, "I won't kill him." The noble took the sword and raised it above his head, and the last thing John said was, "I love you Lord Jesus." before they lobbed off his head. And he was buried in the grave he dug for himself in the night. And the soldier and noble left. 

  Not very uplifting, huh? Well, unfortunately, the stories of Martyrs lives aren't uplifting. I so wanted the Noble and the soldier to just leave John. And I thought they would. But they didn't, and John died in the grave he dug for himself. And the story really just touches me. Because I ask myself so many times, would I have that kind of faith and love for God? Would you? John knew what these men were going to do. He could have killed them, or ran away in the middle of the night, or pleaded for them to just spare him. He didn't have to invite them into his house. BUT HE DID. And that's the real point. He did it, for God's glory. He did it because he loved God, because he was willing to die for God. And really, do we love God that much? It's harsh to ask such a thing, but do we? Do I love God more than that man loved God? DO I? Well we can say, "Of course we love God! We do everything God asks us to do?" Well in Matthew 7:22-23 it says, "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?' And the I will declare to them, 'I never knew you, DEPART FROM ME ALL YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS." Those verses are scary. No wonder I couldn't find them marked in my bible. I usually underline things that are convicting or scary, but I didn't underline those. You know why? Because I wanted to reject them. But If you read it carefully notice two things. 1: He's not talking to unbelievers only! Yes, he's talking to US! Notice this, that the pleading people say, "did we not prophesy in YOUR NAME, and in YOUR NAME did we cast out demons, and in YOUR NAME perform miracles?" Yes I'm sure we all get it. These people did things in God's name. They knew perfectly well who God was, they were perfectly sure they were going to heaven. But God says DEPART FROM ME. Depart from me. Do we love God enough? And trust me, this is something that I've been struggling with. DO I LOVE GOD ENOUGH? It's either a YES or a NO. There's no maybe, there's no kind of, there's know 'well I did this..'. No, there is just you and God. DO WE LOVE GOD ENOUGH? DO WE? DO WE? Another thing I learned in that message {By Leonard Ravenhill} was this. From Scripture Acts 19:15, "But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And this ties together, because when Satan is before God on the judgement day, is he going to say before God, "Jesus I know, Paul I know, Hannah I know...." Is he going to say your name to? And I think that's one way to understand loving God. Do you love God so much, that the devil will say your name to God? That the devil will fear your name? That the devil will hate you and say, 'that's the one I couldn't get.' And that's why I quoted the other day, 'does the devil push you around or do you push the devil around?' If you love God, the devil can't push you around.
   If you were to stand before the almighty God today and he asked you DO YOU LOVE ME? What would your answer be? God knows the heart. There is nothing hidden from him. What would the true answer be? Think about it.
   And lastly, the solution for all this, is how can we love God? Well, start simple. REPENT. It was Jesus' and John the Baptists first command. "Repent and be forgiven for the Kingdom of God is near." and if you feel that you are lost, sometimes, as I have, I would encourage you by this verse.

     From Isaiah 59:1, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not so short that it cannot save; Neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear." 
  
    That is our only hope. That the Lord will hear us. Let him hear you. Show him you love him by saying your sorry. Because honestly, most of us, I would think, wouldn't have an answer for God if he asked us that today. I know I wouldn't. I want to though. And if you have to repent and pray every night for the rest of your life just for God to consider hearing you, it's worth it. Because he WILL hear you. It says in his word. He will hear you. 
    So repent, and be forgiven. 

  ~I hope your day is awesome!
{And may everything you do, be for His glory.}

-Hannah  

~The Lord Speaks~

    I didn't know what to call this post. First of all, I feel bad about not keeping up my monthly virtues posts. I should have, but I got side tracked. Now, I want to come back to it, but I plan to do this more often. While I love posting about what I'm doing, I have to post the most important part of what I'm doing. I'm glad that I can finally share the real part of my life: my walk with God. And so I'll be doing posts that are on my message notes, and they may come once a week, 3 times a week, or whenever but I am determined to keep them coming. :) And so where to start?
    Well recently, I've been listening to messages by Richard Owen Roberts, and Leonard Ravenhill. These men are GREAT men of God. And I'm not just saying that. If there are 'modern' prophets I believe these guys would be in that category. What I love about their messages, is that they preach TRUTH and DOCTRINE. I think one of their most admirable qualities are {Besides that their true men of God} is that they DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT ANYONE BUT GOD THINKS. It sounds like an understatement, but its not. They constantly say, "you can think I'm the best preacher, or the worst preacher, I don't care."
    And so I wanted to share with you, more often then not, about how the holy spirit has impacted me through them. Because these men, I'll tell you what they do. They really challenge your faith. Seriously, I've been convicted over and over and over and over again, just by listening to them. It never stops, and it never will stop. God just speaks SO MIGHTILY through them. I would recommend their teachings to anyone.
    The way I'm going to do this, is I'm just going to state a few quotes or points from their messages. Quotes that really got my attention, that convicted me, and that challenged me. Sometimes I'll probably comment on them, but really their statements for you to ponder, because I often ponder them myself.


     "So there is an additional truth laid out here, if today you are walking as the world walks, no matter what religion you claim, you still are walking dead. Those who are walking in God, don't belong in this world." -Richard Owen Roberts

      "WE WERE BORN IN SIN. WE WERE BORN PHYSICALLY ALIVE AND SPIRITUALLY DEAD." -Richard Owen Roberts.
    
      "do you push the devil around, or does he push you around?" -Leonard Ravenhill


    

    These quotes really got my attention. And I hope they get yours to, because they are so true. I'm just beginning to realize what it really means to be a follower of Christ. I haven't even touched the surface yet. By I'm praying I will and that you will to, because it's your most important calling.
  If you want any sermons by these guys or by anyone else, I'll be glad to get them for you. They are SO good and filled with incredible truth. 
  ~I hope your day is awesome. 
     {and may everything you do be for HIS glory}
-hannah  
      

~A tourney to be remembered~

    Heyya!
  As you know I went to a tourney this past Saturday! I was so excited. And guess what? I took more than one picture. Even then I didn't take as many as I would like. I'll tell my story with my pictures.

  This is my literal 3am picture. Yes. Believe it. I took a picture at 3am. More like 330am, but still you get the point xD And so to take this picture, I had to shine my phone on my face while taking the picture, haha. But with editing you can actually see my face. I went to bed at 930 the previous time (actually didn't fall asleep till ten) and I set my alarm for three. And so I can tell you really, that I don't have a problem waking up at three if I need to and have something that day. My problem was getting back to bed. You'd think that if you wake up at three, you can go back to sleep so easily, but it's quite the contrary. xD I dozed for an hour, but never actually slept to the point where I wouldn't wake up if you talked to me. And so we ate Mcdonalds at 530am. we arrived at about 700am.

   
    I actually took this picture later in the afternoon, but I thought it would be okay to put it now because it's a picture of the tourney place. Truthfully, I liked the fortwayne place better, but this place was cool. Upon arriving at 7am, our game was at 8am. We don't keep our Jerseys, so we had to get dressed, hair, etc. I love traveling. :)
   Anywhoo, first game was good. We lost, sadly but it was really good. The team had two 6'5 girls, and I kid you not, they were 6'5. They were registered that way, and so I'm not exaggerating. Our 6'0 girl had to jump to try to reach it over their heads. And they had a really good guard, good in play-not in attitude :P It was a close game, we lost by six points. But we came back from 18 points down and were missing our best player. We did extremely well under the circumstances :) I was very proud of us!
      Because we lost our first game, our second one wasn't till 2pm. So we had down time. :D In which we watched our Jr. High Girls play. {we're in the black in the pic.}

      After their game, we got to go eat at Subway. I was happy, because I haven't eaten there at all lately. The only down part was no pop (not that I would be aloud, since I'm playing B.ball xD) Subway I got to knit a little bit, and I talked to people. We played dutch blitz in Subway and imagine it. it was. LOUD. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. just kidding, we weren't that loud, but above average. We probably scared half the people in there, lol. We taught two new people which was SO fun. I love teaching people games, haha, but two knew how to play so I did have competition. It was PATHETIC when they wouldn't allow me to stack! AHHHh! Stacking, I could have won more, but I lived, I lived.
   During the afternoon, we watched more games. There was always another game to watch. But for a time, I went out with Nicole's family {who I drove with} and we all had a picnik in their car. {Just the two parents, me, Nicole, and Brianna.} Yeah, Brianna came. We knew she would. HA! If you knew Brianna, you'd know why I laughed. Anyway, we had a great time in their car. It was like an Avalon car, so we all squished in the back. Man, that was one of my favorite moments. 

   We went back got all dressed again, and played our second game. It was more fun, cuz I got to play more xD xD And so because we won that one, we got to play ANothER game. Guess what kind of rotten luck we got again? We had to play the same team that beat us first. Bleh...we could have won both games, but we didn't. This time we came back from 11 points down, and the score ended up that we were 6 down. It was a fun game.
      And SO, we got 4th place! I was proud of us, and coach was to...but we should have won the other games. xD but yay FOURTH!

{Yes, some of us look um--creepy eyed, but this was taken on a iphone camera, really good for that kind of camera, but still left a little creepiness lol, we have a real picture, but that would have to be emailed to me, etc.}

{Blurry, but Classic }

     
    And one of my personal favorites,

{can you read it? hahahahahahahahaha}

       I am so thankful for the opportunity to play on this team. Everything has been fun, even the practices. Yes, the practices. Even though, at the time, they seem murderous, but they are making me better. I've learned over this Christmas that if you put time into anything, you'll be way better at it. Practice makes perfect. A popular statement, but it's very true. I've been improving in basketball so much, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for me in the sport. I'm am eagerly awaiting more tourney's and games. But right now, it's thankfulness <3

{Actually taken at the beginning of the day} 

    And so, the day ended. I was exhausted at the end of the day, and barely stayed awake on the ride home. I was OUT. More out then I've ever been. I missed the alarm I set to wake me up from my thirty minute sleep. I have NEVER slept through an alarm. I learned that to xD
    Well Summit is vastly approaching and I can't wait for that. Preparations are being made as we speak. Regionals is also coming in March, along with another State tourney. So hopefully our schedules will coordinate and I can make all of those. :)
     So far so great <3

Hope your day is awesome~
!Hannah!

 p.s. if you read that all, you are awesome and I thoroughly appreciate your taking the time xD lol.