Happy Thanksgiving!

Music Video: "America"

I love this song! It has a beautiful melody and great lyrics with a desperately needed message. Hope you enjoy! (“America” is sung by Rebecca St. James.)






America

This land is built on freedom
Life and liberty for all
We've declared our independence
So we will depend on the One who made it all

(chorus)
Honor God, America
The land of the free
Honor God, America
O land of liberty
Honor God

So let justice flow like water
And let mercy fall like rain
Those who honor Him, He'll honor
Together let's raise up the One who has made us

(chorus)
Honor God, America
The land of the free
Honor God, America
O land of liberty
Honor God

(bridge)
From the mountains to the prairies
From the desert to the cities
From the heartland to the coastland
Let our hearts turn to the Lord's hand
From the mountains to the prairies
From the desert to the cities
From the heartland to the coastland
Let our hearts turn to the Lord

(chorus)
Honor God, America
The land of the free
Honor God, America
O land of liberty
Honor God

(repeat bridge)

Words and Music by Phil Laeger, Rebecca St. James and Tedd T.
Copyright 2006 Doxology Music. All rights reserved.

Poetry: Letting You Take Command

My poem was featured on Real Teen Faith two different times (The last time was a mistake though. She forgot that she had already posted it.). And I've decided to finally post it over here. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Letting You Take Command

Sometimes, Lord, in You it seems
Hard to put my trust,
But to my heart You whisper that
I must.
You tell me that my life I have to
Place in Your hands,
To step down from the rank of captain
And let You take command.

For me to move over to the passenger
Seat and let You steer,
But for some reason I can't seem to
Trust, for some reason I fear.
I seem to have forgotten all You've done
For me in the past,
You've helped me before when I put
My trust in You at last.

So why is it so hard for me to have
Faith in You now?
I want to trust You but I need You to
Help me remember how.
In You, God, help me to place my
Trust and hope,
Trusting You'll help me with the problems
That I can't cope.

Help me to trust You as captain
Over me,
Help me to trust You to guide me
Through the stormy seas.
And I pray that next time my trust
Won't begin to fade,
But that I'll trust You that You'll
Come to my aid.

By Hannah-Liz

Bible Verse: Philippians 4:19

Prayer: Why's it necessary?

Little children do not need any particular reason to talk. They just talk (and talk and talk) even to the point of driving you crazy. They question this and question that. At first a child’s favorite word seems to be no. Then the favor tends to shift to the word why. So parents of a young child never seem to have trouble conversing with their child. It just comes naturally and easily.

Then comes adolescence. And for some (notice I said some. . .not all) kids the chitter chatter and questions end here. Then it is all parents can do to squeeze just a little bit of conversation out of their once so talkative kid. He/she no longer shares things with them—fears, dreams, activities they’re involved in, etc. And the relationship begins to fail. Why? Communication—a vital part of a good, strong relationship—has been cut off.

When we don’t communicate with God (who is our Heavenly Father) our relationship will grow weak. Yes, our walk with God is a relationship. Not a religion. And in order for that relationship to be strengthened, we have to communicate with Him. He is willing to talk with us. He is willing to share what’s on His heart with us. . .but we have to be willing to listen to what He says and then in turn talk and share with Him too.

Prayer is a great privilege that we’ve been given. It is a gift. And God doesn’t want us to just set it on the shelf to look pretty. He wants us to use this gift He’s given us! He wants us to talk with Him and pour out our hearts! All those frustrations that we lock inside He wants us to unlock for Him. And those times when we are so happy we can barely stand it, He wants us to open up and allow Him to share in our happiness!

God is there through good times and bad. He’s committed to us. . .but are we committed to Him. Do we show that we are serious about our relationship with Him by spending time with Him? Or do we ignore Him and talk to anyone and everyone but Him?

The times we spend with God should be one of the things we most look forward to because it truly is a privilege. I think if we would just view prayer this way it would take on a whole new light. A whole new meaning. Instead of something that just “has to be gotten through” it would become a treasured part of our lives.

What an awesome thing it is to be able to have a relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords! To be able to know Him and talk with Him! Prayer is a wonderful gift that God has given to each of us. How are you using yours? Is it getting dusty on the shelf? Or is it getting worn with use? Something to think about. . .

Few Laughs!

Would you like a laugh? Who wouldn't!

GirlTalk has had some very funny "Friday Funnies" for the last couple of weeks. Be sure to check them out!

(Click here and here to view them!)

Joshua Harris was described as "slight and short" in a article. . .and he wrote a pretty funny post about it!

Still not enough laughs for you? Try this video! (First I suggest you stop the music. . . :-)

Bible Verse: 1John 4:19

Cockatiel Pics!

Here are some pics (finally!) of the baby Cockatiels.

(Charming is the oldest, Lizzy is the next oldest, and Missy (I think it's a girl) is the baby)

Introducing. . . Charming!

Charming in the brooder

Introducing Lizzy!

And here's the baby. . .Missy!

Feeding time!

Awwwww! Siblings showing affection! (Charming is on the left and Lizzy is on the right)

l-r: Charming, Lizzy, and Missy. *Sigh* Brother picking on sister. . .it happens in the animal world too!

Unusual Idea: Actually downright weird idea!

Selling air? The kind of air that we breath? Come on! You've got to be kidding! But it's no joke...someone really wants to sell air.

A Chinese entrepreneur is suing a Beijing trade bureau for denying him a permit to sell bags of "World Cup air" and for scotching his plans to bottle and sell "2008 Olympic air," a newspaper said on Thursday.

from: CNN.com

Click here to read the rest of the story. Then come back and tell me what you think!

Bible Verse: 1 John 5:11

Neat!!

This is my 200th post!!! (Maybe I talk too much *wink*!)

Just a quick question: How many of you have read I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris? I read the book and loved it! What are your thoughts about it?

Right now at my church we are using IKDG along with the study guide and videos for the teen's class. It's been great! If you haven't seen the IKDG video series yet I highly recommend it to you!

Random Thoughts

Posting Trouble Update:

Well, the posting problem seems to be cleared up now! I can post, hyperlink, and upload pics once again.(YAY!) Thanks for your patience! I know my patience was wearing thin…*smile*

Happy Birthday!!!!:

Who’s the birthday boy/girl you might ask? Well it’s not actually a person’s birthday I’m referring to….It’s was All For Him’s 1st birthday on Sunday! (I started the blog last year on October 8).

Switzerland:

This morning my parents left for a retreat that is being held in Switzerland for missionaries. My brother and I stayed here (Belgium) and someone from our church is staying with us. Please be praying for a safe trip for my parents.

School:

I'm taking physic (Dr. Jay Wile's course) this year. So far I’ve gotten through 2 of the 16 modules/lessons and right now I’m studying to take the test for the 3rd. So after I take this test I’ll have 3 out of 16 modules/lessons done! I know, I’ve still got a long (long) way to go….Just trying to raise my hopes a little *wink*.

Update on the Cockatiels:

They are all flying now! Charming (the oldest) is the best flyer. Lizzy (the next oldest) flies too fast but has really improved on her landing. And the littlest baby (don’t know if it’s a girl or boy so I’m stuck on what to name it) is not good at this flying thing yet but hopefully it’ll get the hang of it soon. And the really good thing now is that they only have to be fed once a day (just before their bedtime) because they are eating seed now.

BTW:

I’ve been playing around with Adobe Photoshop (as you can see by the pic above and the one in the post below). It’s really neat!

Where's Your Focus Point?

"We Fall Down" by Chris Tomlin is a simple song. It is not one of those songs that takes a long time to memorize. Sing it a few times and you’ve got it. It may be simple but the meaning of the song, the message, is anything but simple.

It is a song that gives Christ the glory. A song that sings praise to Him and only Him. It doesn’t dwell on our problems; it dwells on His greatness and mercy. It gets your mind off yourself and instead gets you thinking upon Jesus.

We need to sing more songs like this. We need to listen to more songs like this. More importantly we need to live more like this. What do I mean?

Well, if we think upon God and His greatness instead of the problems in our lives, He becomes greater and our problems become less. He is our focus. Not us. When the apostle Peter took His eyes off of Jesus and started focusing on the waves around him, he began to sink. What would have happened if Peter had kept his eyes on Jesus? He wouldn’t have sunk. Simple as that. He would have reached Jesus without any difficulty.

The same truth applies to us today. Right now.

If we keep Jesus as our focus point, we will not fall. But the minute we take our eyes off of Him and glance around us, then we begin to fall.

We need to constantly look to Him. And to thank Him and praise Him for being who He is. We need to get our minds off of ourselves…and instead get our hearts and minds on Jesus. And to praise and worship Him with all that we have. We need to just “fall down and lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus.” He deserves nothing less.

We Fall Down

Verse:

We fall down
We lay our crowns
at the feet of Jesus

The greatness of
mercy and love
at the feet of Jesus

Chorus:

And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy is the Lamb

By Chris Tomlin

Posting Trouble

Well, I'm not the only one having problems posting. On the Blogger Group Support (or somthing like that anyway!) there are plenty of people complaining about not being able to post...So it is Blogger or Google's problem. Thankfully it's not something wrong with my computer! Hopefully they'll have all this straightened out soon! Oh, and a little note about my blog over at WordPress--it's not letting me post either. But this time it is my computer's fault. For some reason an error message comes up whenever I try to write a post. With Blogger, the window goes blank after I press the "Publish Post" button. So they are completely different problems. Computers, computers, computers--Gotta love 'em, but they sure are a lot of trouble! :-)

WordPress

I decided to set up a blog over at WordPress until Blogger is up and running right again. So for now my new address is http://all4him.wordpress.com

*Sigh*. . .

Still can't publish my post. . .

Help

I have a post that I've been trying to publish since Wednesday--For some reason, it's not letting me publish long posts--I'm only able to post short ones like this. I don't know if it's Blogger's fault or my computer's fault. Anyone else having trouble?

Bible Verse (1 John 4:16)

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16

Been A While. . .

Good grief, Charlie Brown! It's been a while since I've blogged. . .I have some really good excuses. . .though. . .if you care. . .to hear them. . .

Excuse #1: You remember how our cockatiels had babies before we went to the US this summer? Well, while we were gone they laid more eggs (5 to be exact although only 3 of them hatched) and when we got back two of them were hatched and another one hatched that night after we arrived. And with these babies I really wanted to try handfeeding 1 or 2 of them since I'd be here to do it. (They are extremely tame when handfed!) So I ended up taking in one of them (the oldest) and then about a week later I decided to bring the other 2 in. . .so now I'm handfeeding all 3 of them!

As you can imagine it is quite a responsibility! Right now the oldest 2 have to be fed 3 times a day and the youngest is still being fed 4 times a day.

Here are their names:

• 1st: Prince Charming (from Shrek 2) nick-named Charming
• 2nd: Mr. Darcy (from the book Pride and Prejudice) nick-named Darcy
• 3rd: Missy (She is albino. She has such beautiful white feathers!)

I'll have to post some pics later.

Excuse #2: My dad has been working on the computers and I've not been able to access Blogger. Also I've not been able to access GMail so I apologize if I've not responded to your email quickly or it's possible I didn't receive your email at all. So please resend any email you've may have sent me just incase.

Excuse #3: I started school. Physic, algebra 2. . .need I say more?! LOL!

Well, that concludes my excuses. . .hope you'll forgive me. . .*down on knees pleading*

Hmmmm. . .

On the sidebar I have added a link to my book list and I was wondering. . .where can I find pics of books that I'm allowed to use? On other blogs I've seen them use pics of books and I would love to be able to do the same. . .but I'm not sure where I'm allowed (legally) to get them. I would really appreciate your help!