This week started off with my class volunteering at a halloween event for kids in the city. It is put on every year by a local church and this year about 9000 people showed up! Each of us had a job, mine was the hotdog stand where we had to put the hotdogs in the buns.. and thats about it... After that I went and helped out a dart board booth. Here are some pictures of the night! 

Me and three of my roommates - Gabby,  Melissa, and Madisen

This is Carly, she is going to Chile and Colombia with me!

This is a random kid that I took a picture with because he was also a nerd :D

This is the stage area at the event

It was really fun and was a good place for kids to go instead of trick-or-treating. 

Lecture this week was on the fear of God. Something that really stuck out to me were the statements 'God is Big and God is Good'. These are statements that are obvious but very powerful. It is important for us to remember just who God really is. It happens all the time that we try and make God out to be a god that is there when we need him and there to make our lives easy and will be ok with what we want our lives to be like. But that is not the case. God created the entire universe and knows every star by name! (Isaiah 40:25-26, "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.) His power and ability should not be minimized by what our minds can think him up to be. If we truly choose to be a Christian and live the life as one, He wants us to give our lives to Him and 'take up our own cross' and live in obedience. Another idea that the speaker discussed that stuck out to me was the concept of value. He gave an illustration by asking us which one we would choose and showed us a 5$ bill and a 20$. It was obvious that we would choose the 20$ because of the higher value. Then he related this idea with the value of ourselves and the value of God. It is unfortunate when we don't place the correct high value on God and believe we are more valuable and therefore choose ourselves over God. We need to realize the God is the most valuable individual in the universe and that we need to choose him, as He is big and He is Good. This topic of the fear of God can be a little intimidating, especially if one has a problem with authority, but it is a very important topic. Understanding He is more valuable and powerful than we could ever imagine creates in us the respect and awe that He deserves. Along with the fear of God, it is very important to understand that God is also a very intimate God that loves each one of us unconditionally. The verse that explains this clearly is one that many learn from a very young age - John 3:16, For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. He gave the ultimate sacrifice for us sinners so that we will be able to spend eternal life with Him in heaven. 

The speaker said that we need to see the two characteristics of God 

His nature - Reverence 

(His nature shows who he is 'wired' to be in that he is Lord of all and the creator of all things - this is just who he is... it never changes)

and 

His character - Intimate

(his character is the choices that he makes - like he has chosen to love us even though we are sinners. He doesn't have to love us, but each and every day he chooses to love us and continually forgive us)

Both are necessary to understanding in trying to identify who God is. We can't just see him through his nature because that would just lead to fear of him, which he wouldn't want because fear doesn't lead to action. No one would want to choose God, they only would because they are scared of him. In the same way we can't just view God from his character side. This would lead us to believe that he is our buddy and will just be there when we need him and the rest of the time we can just forget about him. 

Trying to remember God both as the creator of the earth who deserves our respect and obedience and on the other hand a Father who loves us very much and is ready to forgive us whenever we ask is a task that needs to be refreshed daily. We can't minimize either one, there needs to be a balance. 

A few other important parts of this week was I finally got to skype with Hannah!, I got an app called kik that allows me to message other people even though i don't have a plan (my username is rachael12- so get it and add me :D), I found out I can use my phone to Facetime through email, and it was one of my roommates birthdays on Friday! For her birthday we went out for dinner, which was nice:)

Me and my roommates before going to dinner for Kathryn's Birthday 

That's it for now! 

Rachael