A Call to Die

When you read that statement you probably thought of suicide bombers, soldiers, or martyrs. But the truth is we all have a call to Die, To die to our self every day, and live in Jesus Christ. A Call to Die is a forty day, devotional type book that goes through a forty day journey of fasting from the word and feasting on God. The book was written by a man named David Nasser that was a Muslim until he was a freshman in high school. His family kicked him out of the house when he told them he was going to be baptized but eventually every member of his family came to Christ. I have heard his speak and he is amazing. The way he has persevered in his faith after facing so much adversity is amazing. We probably all have friends and family that are Christians, and most of us still find it too hard to throw out the things of this world and pick us your Cross. This was the first devotional book I ever did. I was a freshman in high school and had come to a brand new understanding of Christ the summer before when I went to church camp for the first time. I had truly dedicated my life to Christ for the first time that January. It was probably around may and I decided to stop feeding off of everyone Else's knowledge and relationships and decide to start my own, just me and God. People had really hurt me in the past, when I was in Jr. high. The rumors about me were terrible and the people starting them were the people I called friends, I had no where to turn and I was spiraling down a destructive path at the age of 14. His words opened my mind and made me want to learn more, be a better person and help more people and realize that people are always going to theme down. Nasser said,

“I realized people are always going to let you down. Churches will always let you down but Jesus Himself never will. He was the one calling me, and I said, ‘Jesus, I want You to save me from myself, from religion, from performance, from all these different things. It doesn’t mean that struggle goes away. It doesn’t mean that persecution goes away. It doesn’t mean that doubt goes away. It just means that you begin a new journey as a new you and that you’re not alone.”

As I tried and tried to do as the church, the Bible and the book told me I began to realize that, I would never be able to do it all, but then I read theses words.

“It’s not that salvation is easy. It’s that salvation is impossible when it comes to you being good enough because when are you good enough? When are you ever righteous enough? When are you ever pure enough? If there’s one thing I know I’m going to be consistent in today, it’s in being inconsistent. We all fail everyday."

I have done the 40 day fast from this book 3 times, every time I learned more and got something else out of it. Doing this blog over it just got me excited and I just want to do it again. I just wanted to briefly describe to you one of the devotionals for the day. Day 1 is called take up your cross. The verse used is Matthew 16:24, Then Jesus said to his disciples, "if anyone would come after me, he mus deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

The first thing you must do is deny yourself. That is your innate selfishness. Your selfish ambitions to rise above others,our behaviors to get what we want when we want it, our attitude of caring only for out own interests and putting our own needs first. These selfish interests include gossiping, criticizing, cursing, lying, stealing, and acting selfishly in any way shape or form.

Next is obeying where God leads you wherever that might me. This means being attentive of what he wants when it comes to you friends, schools you attend, careers to pursue, who to marry,and how far to go in significant relationships. There is a journal with questions at the end of every devotional with a bible verse to learn and memorize every 3 days. I learned so much when I did this when it came to knowledge about the Bible and it truly helped me in my personal relationship with Christ and I would suggest it to anyone.

I love to Sleep!

The fourth series on my list is The Phoebe grant series by Laura Jensen Walker. The Two books in this series are called dreaming in black and white and dreaming it technicolor. I do love to sleep, in fact it is probably my favorite pass time, but I prefer to dream while I'm awake, thus, I am in love with these books. These books are in my favorite genre, Christian fiction. These books aren't the left behind type of Christian fiction though, they are so close to life that any christian girl trying to fight off the things of this world can relate. Walker has had quite a life before she came to write Christian Fiction! She joined the air force and traveled the world after graduation but a year after she got married she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was the defeat of cancer that made her decide to take the plunge and become an author. walker states, "Strangely enough, I’m grateful for the cancer because it compelled me to follow the dreams God placed in my heart as a little girl. Dreams He has since made come true—once I stepped out in faith." She writes about real life problems in the Phoebe Grant series as well as her other books. Phoebe Grant is every one's favorite movie geek-unbeatable at trivia, convinced that all the world's a movie screen. She can organize a four-hankie chick-flickathon with a wave of her tall, nonfat, double mocha. And she's a shoo-in for the job of her dreams-movie reviewer for the newspaper where she works and then Alex Spencer-not only gorgeous but also a film buff, perfectly cast for a celluloid kiss and a fade to sunset. Unfortunately, Alex is the villain who sends Phoebe packing to the last place on earth she wants to be-back home to boring little Barley, California. But then Alex arrives in Barely and the plot thickens. The book is Witty and realistic and reminds me a lot of my favorite show, the Gilmore Girls with its humor and fast passed dialog. In Dreaming in technicolor the happy ending begins to shatter and Phoebe is trying to put humpdy dumpdy back together again. Its disastrous but all well that ends well. All girls should read this! Its a great read that isn't just another trashy novel. With ups and downs in her love life most girls can relate and enjoy the fact that they aren't the only ones who's life, at times doesn't make sense.

Things of Nature

Twilight New Moon Eclipse and Breaking Dawn

are all have to do with Nature but they are also the names of Stephenie Meyer's Series about vampires. Did you know she's a Mormon? I didn't until recently. Well anyway, this book has gotten so much attention from teenagers and adults are age. I feel like these were a good think for the Y generation because a generation who might not have read 5 books in their life that they weren't required to read, picked up a book and found interest in reading again. I am an avid reader but I have friends that haven't enjoyed reading since the second grade that simply just couldn't put this book down.

The girls all drool over Edward Cullen,

and although I think it is mostly girls that got into this series, the boys I'm sure like the blood, gore and violence and the chance that someone is almost always going to die. Since it is fiction is was nice, to read something that wasn't so...real. Its nice to step out of the world. As we have grown up from fairy tails to reality, the world is telling us to keep our feet planted firmly on the ground and not to bother with things that wont give you a foot up in life. Take this computer class for example. Its practical. Most parents want us to be learning things and doing things that are useful, not reading about vampires.

My father wanted me to go to college and major in public administration,something practical, but my mother is a bit more of a free spirit and encourages me to read whatever I please and do whatever I please. I feel like books like these are not at all a distraction from the "important" things of this world but they allow us to gain a different perspective on things like morals, and life and and get our brains going. Watching TV can be thoughtless as we watch as the plot follows a predictable story line but when u read, it can get your blood flowing as well as your emotions, and your thoughts. Reading improves your vocabulary and allows you to sound more educated when you speak. My sister is a publishing major at an art school in Boston called Emerson College and she feels like twilight it trash, written all about sex, but to advocate abstinence. Although she might be right, I really truly believe that anything that gets young adults reading for fun for maybe the first time in their lives, can do nothing but good; thus, advocating my blog title, reading is knowledge. Anything to bring knowledge to the people. Any girl can get her hopes up about her very own Edward Cullen who is much more that normal but can see the differences in a very normal girl. I believe that Stephenie Meyers' books bring hope to those who are looking for that special someone, and that is important too.

Expecto Patronum!

The phrase above, is Latin for "I await a protector". Of Course, if any of ya ll have even heard of Harry Potter you would know that this is the spell to cast a patronus that fights of Dementors in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. We were told to write about 5 of our favorite books for our class but I'm cheating. I am considering Harry Potter 1-7, one of my favorite books, because it is merely a story cast out over 7 books. Seven of the greatest books of all time, I might add. J.K. Rowling is a phenomenal story teller that came up with an amazing tale appropriate for most ages. In Rowlings books, she uses a lot of her feelings in that of the character Harry Potter. Her mother died of cancer when she was a teen and Harry being an orphan comes from this lack of family that Harry suffers. She had a cupboard under her stairs just like the one that Harry lived in for the first 11 years of his life. At one point, Rowling suffered from Depression, and the Dementors are an analogy of what her clinical depression did to her. That is suck the life out of her.
Warning contains spoilers!

• These books are so wonderful to me because it allows me to fantasize as a child and fall into this world of that is so wonderful that they cant even produce correctly in movies. I love how each book has a happy ending, because I hate sad endings. You don't know this but, I can hardly watch anything on TV twice. I have an amazing memory and very few things are exciting enough to do twice(Yes, we are still talking about Harry Potter). I never watch a movie more than once besides a select few. Well the same goes for books with me. I have never read any book besides Harry Potter more than once. Ever.


• Harry Potter makes me so excited. Once I pick the book up, I hardly do anything else until Im finishes. Luckily I had just refinished the series before this class started or I would have been up a creek without a paddle, because when Harry Potter is involved, there are very few things that can get between us. Not even Ron or Hermione. Which Brings me to another thing I love about Harry Potter.


• The importance that emphasized on friendship. I love friends, and those friends that Harry has are real. There are so many people that put there lives on the line, strictly for Harry Potter.


• The constant theme of the Harry Potter series is my favorite thing of all and that is love. It was because of Lily Potter's Love for Harry that allowed him to survive the first attack from Lord Voldemort and It was because of his ability to love others that he was able to kill Lord Voldemort in the end. The Love inside Harry's body was too strong for the dark lord to use him much. It was this constant theme that ran throughout the book that makes the Harry Potter series the best books ever, other than the Holy Bible.


• This book makes me laugh and cry so much. Over the time span it took to produce the entire series, I grew to care so much for these characters. When they were happy, I was happy and when they were sad, I was Sad. I cried when Sirius died, I cried when Dumbledore died, I cried when Snape died, and I cried when Fred died, and alas, I rejoiced when both Bellatrix and Voldemort both died.

No other series will ever compare to how J.K. Rowling allowed millions of people to connect and relate with the boy who lived.

"The Good book is good and thats well understood" Jack Johnson

My absolutely favorite book is the Bible, NIV version preferably. More copies have been sold of this book than any other book in history. the Old Testament has 39 books and the new testament has 27. It was written over a 1500 year span, in three different languages and many different continents.Without this book, I would trully be lost. After I began to understand it, it changed my life forever. Every up and down in my life that I have ever had, the Bible has been what has kept my feet on solid groud. My Sister Past away, a year ago sunday(August 2nd) and through that time The bible brought me hope and peace, and allowed me to know that Iwasnt alone in my suffering. Look at Job! he still praised the Lord. It is because of m beliefs in that book that make me who I am today, as the Chaplain of my sorority. Many question this book of whether it hold the truth but even if you dont believe as I do, the Bible holds many interesting stories, of love, sex, lies, betrayal, triumph, death, ressurection, miracles. Most things you can think of are in this book. I dont think anyone wants to read anymore facts so I will just share some verses that are near and dear to my heart.

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39

Charm is Deceptive and Beauty is Fleeting But a Women who fears the lord will be praised. Psalm 31:30

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:4-9

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17