Today was an EXTRA fun day! haha! I sound so cheesy....but i really am. I woke up @ 6:30 today!!!!!!! ahh!!!!! That is like the BOMB! no lie! When I'm not getting up all early, I just think like, "well....i went to sleep late and I really need the sleep" but when I DO get up totally early (for me....other people probably get up that early anyway!) I feel so great! It's like a whole new day and it's there all for me and I have all this time to think and actually ge my head together instead of just diving into life. I need to be that kind of person anyway, but sometimes I don't make time to do that. I am definitely not a DIVE into life without thinking person.....every day that I roll out of bed late and am suddenly confronted with everything that I have to do I feel SO overwhelmed and I am just tired and waiting for my next chance to do it right! haha. But this is like getting into a freezing cold pool by getting to the pool first and taking the stairs in and being ready for what is inevitably going to come......water......before anyone else can jump in and start splashing me when I'm SO not prepared. (not that I'm always like that with pools but this is an analogy, k?) I got up @ 6:30 today and I had all this time to put my laundry in the washer (it's kinda been sitting on my floor since we got back on Friday night) and read my Bible and talk to my Savior about today and my life and my friends and my family and everything and take a walk and shower AND be ready to leave @ 8:30 with my mom and brothers.....ok i wasn't really READY, but like, that was because I was sitting in here typing on here and they started leaving without me!!! ahh! So yeah.....I want to get up early tomorrow too....but I don't think that I'm gonig to because my eyes are like REALLY bloodshot! hahaha....i look like some kind of a druggie or something, but it';s just because of not alotta sleep....so yeah, and since I'm not starting school til next week, I figured that I might as well store up on sleep THIS week while I can! (aka hibernate! lol....not TOO much) Also, I need to get used to going to sleep earlier! ahh! It's been like 12 to 2 am every night and that is not good 4 me. especially if I wanna be seein' awesome sunrises like this morning!!! ahh! I love looking @ the sky! The sunset and the sunrise and the STARS!! uh! they are sooo beautiful...and my God who created them is sooooo much more beautiful and so much more precious!!! He is.

I saw David (aka BILL) and Joe's school today. it's cool. Some kind of a church in Matthews. Pretty nice I guess. We dropped Joe off and then went to Breugger's to get some bagels and wait til the next period to bring dave over there. (he starts at the second period) then my mom and I went to Barne's and Noble's in the Arboretum to get some of david's books for this semester. ~ He's taking a literature class and he needs to have like 5 novels.~ So, if you know my mom, you know that we were there until the minute it was time to go pick up bill and joe from school. arrrrgh! It wouldn't have been so bad, but after looking @ the poetry section and history and world culture stuff, I found out there was a "christianity" section so i started looking in there and my eyes stopped on this book called Christ, the crisis in the life of God or something like that....I was alarmed and couldn't help but think, "ok, maybe this is not that bad f a book and somehow it redeems itself by actually being true." I was wrong. I opened it to somewhere in the middle and started reading about how the "theory" of Christ is annoying and His death was can only be explained as God giving up and commiting suicide, and how His life was an enigma because he neither condemned evil or stood up for good. The man who wrote that book must be soooo deranged....an apostate if anything. I kept on reading this chapter until my brain hurt and I felt sick from the blasphemy and couldn't take it anymore. I can't believe that that was in the christianity section. And in all the other religion sections, and unknowing person would find books called "how to find your inner peace" and "how to acheive perfect happiness" etc etc....but some person who is "christian" (or atleast writing a book that was placed in the "christianity" section because that IS what it's clearly about) would totally diss the Lord Jesus Christ and see that as right somehow.

It's like Dr. Theo Habel said @ the retreat, or was it ken habel?....i'm gonna look in my sylaboo....it was Theo Habel "God is "in" in today's culture, but just generic god, no Jesus." That's true. Even our country, hit by the blows of what orthodox islam teaches is being told that tolerance is the answer and that the problem, or much of it, lies with narrow minded Christians who say that others beliefs are wrong. that makes me mad sometimes....no. all of the time. People in America don't want to tolerate terrorism, but the non muslims and american-muslims alike are telling us that the religion of Islam is not the cause of the terrorism aimed at the american cutlure, when the Koran specifically tells muslims that it is a good thing to kill those who are not muslims. (actually dying in a holy war or jihad is a way to get to "heaven") Our media is so sneaky though....just the right american-muslims get out there to tell us that it is not the religion of islam that is bringing on this terrorism but some messed up people who happen to be muslim. I was reading the local newspaper a while ago and i remember it talking about a christian church (i forget if it was presbyterian or methodist) and Muslim mosques having some kind of "exchange" program where they had church members attend meetings in the other religion's group to see what the similarities and differences were. The people were interviewed after and what they had to say went along the lines of "the similarities outweigh the differences too much for us to be intolerant of the other, we both want what is good for our families and are worshipping the same god....etc etc" uh!!!!!! The God who SO loved the world that Christianity talks about could never tell people to go and kill those of another religion or belief and have rewards for such evil. I know that the God that I serve is the One True God because I KNOW Him personally and I don't need to kill other people because they don't believe that. I need to tell them about Him and about the desperate situation that they are in because they don't know Him. But also, the God that I serve would never want me to start thinking that any way you choose to live your life is right for you and basically everyone is living a "good" life if they follow whatever they want. The Bible specifically states that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven, and nothing else can save you from the ultimate desolation that your sin brings. We have brought tolerance to a new high, forgetting history and the problems that too much tolerance is bringing countries even today....such as sweden. (i can't remember what I was reading about Sweden, but it had to do with their macro-economic finance situation and how their extreme tolerance has brought them to debt) IT's not really tolerance though....it's tolerance of everything unless you believe that anyone else could be wrong. Don't tell someone who was "born gay" that he is doing something wrong...that's a way of life, and that makes you narrowminded.....don't tell anyone that Jesus is the only way.....how can anyone know THAT? any way that you choose to get to heaven is right for you. Everything is relative....right? WRONG! Most of the world is happy living in their illusioned, relative world, but I am not. I am scared for all those who buy into this "many paths to life" theory b/c I know what will happen to them in the end. SNIFF**** they're not gonna get that life because they rejected the One who told them that He was the only way....they rejected the One who humbled Himself and died for them. ahhhh!!!!!!

ok that's enough depth for right now...it's 11 and I am kinda tired now...or atleast i think I can try to sleep now... haha... but first let me tell you about my awesomely fun day. Oh yeah, I already told you about most of it.....Barne's and Nobles was a loooong time. They DID have a starbucks in the middle of it, and the starbucks DID have chocolate brownie frappacino's! WOOHOO!! So I got one of those....but I didn't have the starbucks gift card that nicole got my for christmas,....bummer! (another time! hahaha!!!!yessss!!!) After we picked up David and joe we went to this burger place on Sardis Rd. N...(RIGHT near nicole's house...her street is RIGHT off sardis rd. n....) i think it was called flame broiled burgers...or something normal and unoriginal like that...but it was pretty good and they manager guy there was really nice! Today was Ray day! haha....the sign always says "if your name is ________ you eat free today!" (nicole told me that and I totally remembered when I saw the place and that it was on Sardis N. So today the sign said "If your name is Ray, you eat free today!" We didn't see the sign til after, but like, man! my name is RAY-CHEL! hahaha! I don't think that's what it meant though. Cool...so that was fun and then I came home and I don't remember @ ALL what i did, but @ 4:30 we went and saw LOTR with Sarah. it was the BOMB! very cool movie. I was SO "saving myself" (inside joke) to see it Jan 6th with Bill and Knoll (hahaha...you'll never know who they actually are....ok you probably know who Bill is if you read the thing I wrote this morning...but whatever), but like, THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!!! wah!!!! it was good though.I was kinda disappointed @ the end though b/c in the book (yeah I read the book...I'm not a LOTR club member or anything....i read it when I was up in the fabulous tri-state area around dubuque iowa this april *to visit the wonderful Emmaus bible College* when we took an hour trip to Wisconsin and Tony left his copy of the two towers in the car...it was really good too...btw) there's this big huge nasty spider thing/woman that is supposed to fight with Frodo in the cave and it him and stuff.....I was looking forward to being TOTALLY freaked out by that! (i know......sounds strange...yep......don't try to get it....there's nothing to get) haha....but gollum was freaky enough I think. Actually Bilbo was THE scariest thing of both of the movies when he was like "my ring....aaahhhhhh grrrrrrrrr...hisssss" etc!!! ahhhhhhhh!!!!! MY PRECIOUS!!!!!!!!!

He was the scariest b/c you think that he's like a "good guy" and he turns out to be bad. i have issues about that. Me and jen seem to talk about that alot too....how you can't trust people, even your friends because even the best of friends can and will let you down. I find myself trusting people and starting to really count on them for things that I shouldn't and that breaks my heart when I find out that I CAN'T do that b/c they let me down. sniff** The Bible even says "don't put your trust in princes, but in the Lord" (rachel paraphrase) and me and jen talked about that alot @ camp this summer which was AWESOME! (Y.A. Camp)....ok chile', I wish I could talk about stuff all night, but I AM feeling the effects of no sleep (besides my bloodshot eyes) now and I really WANt to go to sleep! (w00t...haha...the word "WANt) remeinded me of that!! .(...oh yeah.....inside joke) ok gotta sleep now! have a wonderful day whever you read this and know that I do pray that my website will affect anyone who reads it in a positive way....and, oh yeah....if it has affected you in a negative way, then AWW! email me or something and tell my why. and I'll pray for YOU even more and maybe even get to the bottom of why what I think or talk about is offensive to you. tahnks for reading ALL of this!!! haha....kudos (HAHA) to anyone who has actually made it to the bottom. It's my prayer that my rambling will bless you today and help you see into the mind of a somewhat crazed, somewhat less tolerant than sweden Jesus freak!!!!!!

Love always in Christ,
rachel ><>