daaaarling!!

this is just for charlotte, i dunno how i could have written so much with out a single daaaaaaaarling yet!!!!! lol, bonjour daaaarling!!! zere's chandler bing!!!!! it's sprinklering!!!!! lol, us? strange? never!!

country girl

*contented sigh* So i just got back from a few days at a (family friends') holiday house in Inman Valley (near Vic. Harbour... yeah, i hadn't heard of it either!) with the family- a nice comfy house with a few acres of property around it, a couple of pool tables and stream at the bottom of the property. It was cool- got some homework done, played pool (mostly by myself, how sad!! but strangely relaxing...), read, chilled, etc etc. But I guess what really struck me on the way home was how i just love the country (don't worry, i don't see any huge country changes in the near future!)- just seeing how God's creation is made up of so many different scenes, which look so different at different times of the day (as we were leaving all the hills were catching the gold/orange setting sun- so beautiful!). I dunno, just seeing it made me happy, and want to praise God! Oh and also, i think there was a harvest moon last night- just as it was beginning to come up it was HUGE and all orange- so cool!! Oh man, i could stare at the sky all day and just be in a contant state of awe... lol.

Last night we watched this movies called 'The House of Sand and Fog'... an intriguing movie, with really interesting characters and themes- no specific message, in fact the entire movie was incredibly depressing, but in a strange way that makes you appreciate your own life in comparison! I think it was a good break for Mum and Dad too (even tho it was like 2 nights!)- hope it was, they deserve it; both for how hard they've been working, and a pretty full on few months ahead! Jonnie relaxed up a bit as well- he's always a bit on edge at the beginning of a holiday (out of routine) but seemed a lot more happy and relaxed today which is cool. Took the dogs down as well, they were so gorgeous! Ah to be a dog- rolling in cow pats, galloping thru paddocks, running over and thru rivers with wild abandon! Anyway, good to be home (i say again, it was only like 2 nights! but i missed my friends... awww ;o) I'm getting a bit hungry, so might go get myself some dinner...

Alright, as promised in my previous post, here's the Two Ways to Live outline. For anyone who's interested, this is very basically what i believe!:

1) God is the loving ruler of the world. He made the world, and he made us rulers of the world under him. (see Revelation 4:11- too long to type out!) But is that the way it is now?

2) We all reject the ruler-God- by trying to run life our own way without him. But we fail to rule ourselves or society or the world. (Romans 3:10-12- what the hec I'll write it out: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away".) What will God do about this rebellion?

3) God won't let us rebel forever. God's punishment for rebellion is death and judgement. (Hebrews 9:27 " Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement") God's justice sounds hard, but...

4) Beacause of his love, God sent his son into the world: the man Jesus Christ. Jesus always lived under God's rule. Yet by dying in our place he took our punishment and brought forgiveness.
(1 Peter 3:18 " Christ dies for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God") But that's not all...

5) God raised Jesus to live again as ruler of the world (!). Jesus has conquered death, now gives new life, and will return to judge (1 Peter 1:3 " In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.") Well, where does that leave us?

6) The two ways to live.
A) Our way: Reject the ruler (God), try to run life our own way. Result= Condemned by God, facing death and judgement.
B) God's new way. Submit to Jesus as out ruler. Rely on Jesus' death and resurrection. Result= Forgiven by God. Given eternal life. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son wull not see life for God's wrath remains on him" John 3:36
Which of these represents the way you want to live?

So that was really long, but hey, I'm on holidays and have some time on my hands (plus it's important stuff ;)

soo...hey!

Hurrah, my own blog!! OK, so i was always complaining about ppl (ie tim, sez, lib...) needing to update their blogs to keep me entertained, and then Sez made the helpful suggestion that i should actually create my own! So here it is, the life and random thoughts of jess... Now i've got to work out what to write! Right, so a bit about me (which most've you'll know anyway, but what the hec)- physically i'm a blonde (no jokes :P), green eyes, 5'9"ish... but that doesn't really tell you much. At the moment I'm doing yr 12 (ahh!!) at marryatville high and my subjects are classical studies, modern hist., english studies, psychology, and visual art studies- as you can tell i'm a humanities chick! But prob the most important thing about me is that I'm a Christian- woohoo!! Hmm how can i outline that, bcoz there are many different things 'Christian' can infer... OK, the Two Ways to Live outlines sums it up nicely, i'll do that next entry, or else this one'll get reeally long... So yeah, I have a Mum (artist/admin at church), Dad (minister at our church- St Matts Anglican), 2 older bros: Dan (23) who is married to Phili (Dr. Phili now!), and Jon (20) who's fresh out of St Pat's Special School (he also has a disability)- all of whom are tres cool, and i (obviously) love 'em lots ;o)... I also have 4 pets- 2 cats, 2 dogs (all of them ridiculously goodlooking of course!) and for hobbies enjoy hanging out with friends, making stuff (beading, knitting, sewing, etc) and...stuff. I could go thru each of my awesome friends, but yeah, this is getting a bit long, so ciao for now!