[ Unashamed: The Monthly Newsletter ]
Luke 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
Luke 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
[ Happy New Year, guildies! ]
Well, 2009 is upon us. Who here feels old? Come on, don't be shy, raise your hand. I know I feel old. Ten years ago, everyone was freaking out about what was going to happen in the following year with the Y2K bug. Now our biggest worry is how well the new president is going to do (and I don't mean that bashingly- it's a valid concern xd ).
Anyway, I think it's cool. This newsletter is a bit of a milestone. The first newsletter of 2009 and the first January newsletter, and hey- I'm even writing it on New Year's Day! Go me! Which isn't necessarily a milestone in itself, because I've written newsletters well into the month before, as some of you may recall (those of you who read the newsletter that is xd ). At any rate, I feel that this particular newsletter will go down in history for me, because it also marks a bit of a milestone as far as the guild's age goes. But enough about that. Let's talk business!
[ Yeah? What kind of business? ]
The past couple of months, the crew and I have been discussing a few new things that we are gonna try to implement, and I also have a few announcements myself. The first thing we'd like to try is a weekly Bible study, but done much more efficiently than our past attempts at Bible studies. We'd like to try something of a rotation, where each week a different verse or passage is discussed, led by a different crew member, and guild members are invited and encouraged to participate and throw in their ideas and such. This is just a rough sketch of the idea, though whether it'll go beyond this is beyond me at the moment. The crew and I are gonna continue to discuss it, and hopefully we'll be able to start it sometime next month. At any rate, keep your eyes open for the announcement.
The announcement I wanted to make concerns our Charity. I had intended for it to be something that got alot of exposure and was busy, but it turns out it doesn't get visited all that often, and due to the way we have it set up, is a little hard to keep track of. It seems like no one wants to do anything with it (and I'm not accusing anyone of laziness, cuz I'm kinda done playing with it as a shiny new toy too). What I'm trying to say is that the Charity will likely be taken down, and the items given away in contests within the guild, or as random welcoming gifts to newbie Gaians. Any feedback by you guys would be appreciated, if you all have a different idea of where you'd like items to go to. The gold will be exclusively reserved for the guild, so if you would like to donate gold to the guild, you can still donate it to the mule.
Also, next month is February, and we all know what day comes in February. biggrin Valentine's Day! ^o^ Not sure what the crew wants to do, but I have a few half-ideas that I'll discuss with them. If there's anything in particular you'd all like to do, comment here or in the feedback subforum; we'd love to hear your ideas.
[ Happy birthday to us! ]
So, speaking of milestones, this month also marks the third year that Unashamed has been a guild. I'm impressed with us, guys, for lasting so long, and for growing so much. This guild has truly been blessed and has blessed so many people, myself included, and I'm thankful for all the people I've met through it, and the spiritual growth I've experienced because of everyone in here. I love you guys. heart In honor of Unashamed's birthday, I'm offering birthday gold to all those who want to wish us a happy birthday by commenting in this thread. 3nodding It'll be a surprise amount, and you won't know how much unless you comment. wink
Anyway, let's turn our focus now to this month's verse, which comes from Luke. It took alot of discussion for us to choose a verse for this month, since there are so many things that January often means: new beginnings, resolutions, looking to the future with hope. We threw around quite alot of verses before we finally decided on this one. As Paranormal Zombiiie's Word from the Crew suggests, the verse from Luke is something that can be applied to everything we endeavor this New Year.
[ A Word from our Crew ]
Let me be one of the first to wish you a Happy and Blessed New Years! You know one thought that always pops up around new years?
Resolutions.
You know, our plans to spend more time with family, get out of debt, do better in school, loose those 10 pounds we gained over the holiday season, and reading the bible.
Wait? What?!? Reading the bible? I've never heard someone putting that on their list of resolutions. What does that mean? There's this awesome verse in Luke that perfectly explains what reading the bible has to do with these plans for the New Year.
"I will show you who he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them in to practice. He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came the torrents struck that house but could not shake it because it was well built." Luke 6:48
So this man, was making plans to make his home. He went though and looked at foundations, and figured "Hey Rock will work!" and he placed his home on the rock. So what is the foundation, the very center of our lives? God and his Word. Why? Because when the flood came, the man was and his home was ready.
How do we make God our foundation? Well it says that in the verse also. "He is like who comes to me and hears my words, and puts them into practice." There's this thing my pastor always told us. Read, Know, Apply His word. Meaning to take the time to read his word daily. Thinking about his word, learning it. Applying it into your life.
So when the storm comes into our lives, and affects our plans, will you be like this man, who has his foundation on rock, or will you be like the man who has his placed on the sand?
[ Prayer requests ]
These are all the prayer requests that have come in during December (and some at the very end of November that somehow got missed- I blame Gaia stare ). If you'd like to make comments and offer support, feel free to post in the individual prayer request threads inside the Prayer Request subforum.
Lisa Faye
I just got this e-mail from my Mom.
We had a lovely surprise this morning when we found a summons to
court taped to our door. Steven is being arraigned for damages done
to an old car lot on Peters Creek Rd where he and his friends have
been skateboarding. It stated that there is over $1000 in damages.
Steven could be sent to a Juvenile facility if the judge decides to and
we will be stuck with fines and damages in the thousands of dollars. I
have no way to come up with that much money, and I don't know what
we are going to do. We go to court next Friday, Dec. 19.
I talked with my Mom, and Steven and his friends broke into this old building on the car lot, and began skateboarding inside at first. Then one of his friends got the brilliant idea to knock holes in the wall. So they literally knocked walls down inside the vacant building.
Steven's so called 'friends' are all pointing the finger at him. So Steven will now either face juvenile hall, or will end up going back to his drugged/alcoholic/smoking Mom.
I'm speechless at this point. And this is a heck of a lot more severe than him riding on his skateboard several miles away alone to catch a bus. Where from point A to point B, he could have been apprehended.
Mom's worried sick now. She's afraid that all those years in court to raise Steven in a safe environment, have now been flushed down the toilet. She feels like she will have to skip Christmas.
My heart hurts for her and Steven, and I'm going to be late for work to make some phone calls. sad
Some Christmas we're going to have...
~.::.~
Please pray for my Aunt Dobie.
Mom called me yesterday. Letting me know Aunt Dobie had a spell and we wouldn't be able to go see her for Christmas. sad
Aunt Dobie has Parkinson's Disease. She also has type two diabetes and is in her eighties.
She is currently taking insulin, meds to help keep her thinking clearly, and meds for the Parkinson's.
Well, Becky and Jenna arrived at her house the other night to find her throwing things everywhere and screaming.
They discovered her blood sugar was 500. And she had not taken her insulin, or her other meds.
This episode wiped her out, making her unable to have anyone other than close family come see her.
This broke Cecil's and my hearts. We really wanted to go see her. We know she may not have many more Christmases left.
We were all talking tonight. And by the way the conversation was going, if Aunt Dobie has very many more spells, it could mean her life, unless her immediate family makes up their minds to have either in home hospice care, or an assisted living home.
It hurts us to see her like this. Please pray for her. sad
~.::.~
I'm requesting prayer for a co-worker named Kristie.
Gail came through Kroger last night to talk to me. It appears Kristie's ex husband heard she was dating another man. So he went to her house with a loaded gun. Kristie was not there, but two of her relatives were. He shot both of her relatives in cold blood. They didn't make it.
So now, Kristie has to prepare for a double funeral real close to Christmas. She is also traumatized, and has taken off three weeks.
Cecil and I don't know what we can do for her, other than pray.
Keep Kristie in your prayers. This is something that shouldn't happen to anyone. I know she didn't deserve this. sad
~.::.~
Could use some prayer.
Cecil has not found another job yet. And it's disheartening to us both.
I have also learned I have high blood pressure. Something else I don't need, and can't currently do a whole lot about.
In talking to my Mom, it also appears my cousin Jenna was in a car accident. Not sure how bad she was shaken up, but her car was totalled.
On top of all this, I have a bad charley horse, and two warring felines who want to get into catfights.
Am I even going to have a halfway decent Christmas? I would like some breathing room from all this hecticness. cry
freelance lover
So my little in my sorority (we do a big sister/little sister thing) is currently engaged, and apperently has been for a while but it's not a good relationship. She has absolutely no intent of marrying the guy ever and she's been looking for opportunities to get out of said relationship. She currently is living with him and his parents and from what she tells me he's bipolar and can become verbally and physically abusive sometimes. I don't know the extent of the abuse- I don't think he ever really hits her, but I think he throws things and starts swearing. I don't know all the details, but it definetly doesn't sound like an idea situation.
I know she's kind of tried to get out of the situation, but she doesn't seem in a very urgent fram of mind to do so. She was thinking about getting and apartment this coming semester but for some reason that didn't work out.
I don't want t pry so this is all pretty much what she's just said. I just pray that she'll do what is right and that God will guide her to saftey and such. I worry about her sometimes and hope that everything with her and her fiance is going okay.
Laoidheach
Hi. I'm really going through kind of a spiritually rough time. My heart seems to be numb to sin, and my desires are returning to it. I don't want to go back to the way I was, I want to continue to grow in Christ.
I also have a ton of family problems, and I'm really depressed all the time. I haven't stopped being generally depressed for 3 years now. Not to mention I like this girl right now, but I just don't want to get close for fear of getting hurt again. (Last time I get mega rejected, and I took it HARD)
Will you please pray that God give me greater faith, and a massive desire to please Him? Also that I get out of my depression and stuff. Alot's happened to me, and I don't think I take it well at all...
saki_hanajima7
Going in in a few minutes.
Surgery'll be at 2:15 [mountain time]
Please pray for me =]
Ixor-san
The interview I had a couple weeks back went pretty well. They were a bit leery of hiring me because of my lack of experience in a certain area but they invited me in to take a test of sorts and demonstrate how much I do know. I wasn't real happy with how I did but it seems it was well enough.
She just questioned me afterward about a reference sheet that was supposed to have been faxed to them. This is a bit of an obstacle since, by the laws in the last state I did this job in, my place of employment can only give out a very limited amount of information. The thing never even made it in with that.
As it stands now, Human resources at the old job will/has filled out what they could on the reference sheet and my old super has been given permission to write up a reccomendation for me.
Prayers, please, that both pieces of information will make it to where they need to go and that it will be enough of a reference to land me this job.
Thanks.
Paranormal Zombiiie
(The guild can be considered a ministry, in a way right?)
Hey! I was hoping we all could take some chance and pray for the guild we all come into everyday. Pray that we all can touch the hearts of some of those who are lost and bring them to christ, and that we all can fellowship with eachother and bring up eachother closer to God.
smile
God Bless.
One4theKing
Hi there! I'm in dire need of finances at the moment. I plan on attending The School of Ministry in Toronto Canada... but I need money. I need 7000 dollars to attend and I just got a notice in the mail from my hospital saying that I owe them 943 dollars. I really need help. Pray for me! Thanks!
Amanda Kawaii-chan
Please pray for some of my online friends.
I found out that a friend of mine whos a Christian
is reading about bad stuff and for now I took her off my list
for it.
Can you please pray for her?
[ Praise reports ]
We also like to praise God for what He's done in our lives, giving Him glory for the immense blessings He's given us. These are the praise reports that have been posted in December. If you'd like to praise along with them, or offer your own praise reports, you can do so in the Praise subforum.
JediAnn Solo
In times like this, it's so hard to remember that you're not alone in this world. Going through college right now is truly testing my faith and sometimes I feel like there is absolutely no one I could count on or relate to.
But God has something planned for me-- he promised me. Even though his prophecy hasn't come fully true yet, I can practically see his plan slowly unfold. Once I felt alone, but now I'm surrounded by so many amazing friends. Friends that love me unconditionally. It's a wonderful feeling. It's like the Lord is telling me I don't have to go through these hard times alone... because my friends remind me of Him everyday. biggrin
Praise the Lord! blaugh
[ January's Birthdays ]
This month, Unashamed wishes a happy and blessed birthday to:
OnoBoei
Blue-ROMan
nippa!
AvaJay
phantomtuba1
Dagger_17
Hope it's a great one, guys!
