What I'm Consuming

It's been a busy month and it's really not slowing down any time soon. I have a little less than a month to go until I graduate! Sorry to be neglecting the blog but you understand how it is. ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to pop in and share a few things that I'm consuming and highly recommend.

1. Gungor - Beautiful Things

I remember first hearing this band years ago at an Acquire the Fire event...probably in Miami, I can't remember for sure. Well, a couple days ago a friend let Alex borrow this CD, Beautiful Things, by the same band. We instantly fell in love with it and hopped on iTunes to buy our own copy. The music is incredible. I love seeing Christian artists who can make beautiful creative music. Lord knows there's enough cheesiness out there, but this band is truly talented. So get on iTunes and buy this record! You will love it. The best part is, they live in Denver! I told Alex he needs to get in touch with these people. They have a church called Bloom and I can't wait to visit when we're out there.
Here's an EPK for this record. They shot it in Denver...which makes my heart really happy for some reason.



2. Speaking Truth in Love - by: David Powlison

This book changed my life! hah. Okay, maybe that's a bit overly dramatic, but it seriously had a huge impact on me. I just finished it this week and I absolutely loved it. It's written more for those who want to get into biblical counseling, but I love the point that Powlison makes, that anyone who calls themself a Christian is called to be a biblical counselor. The chapters are short and to the point, which I really appreciate, and there is so much practical insight, which I really really appreciate. I think this book will be especially helpful when we move to Denver and start our church. Powlison has a lot of great points about the role of counseling ministry in the church. Read this book. It's full of hope and encouragement.

3. Advance the Church Conference 2010

This week my church hosted the Advance Conference. Alex and I were able to volunteer for the event and sat in on the teaching of some great preachers. Ed Stetzer, Johnny Hunt, JD Greear, David Platt, Jerome Gay, and more. They have posted the audio from the first day of the conference here. I'm sure they'll post the audio from the second day soon.



What are you consuming lately??? Please share if there is a book, band, song, verse...anything that you're consuming and loving right now.

Leslie's Maternity Photos

Thomas and Leslie are great friends to us here in North Carolina. We know them from church and school and are so thankful for their friendship.
When I found out Leslie was pregnant I was so excited! I can't wait for Baby Judah to come into the world. And I was so honored that Leslie actually trusted me to take some maternity photos for them. It was my first time shooting maternity photos and I just loved it. Leslie is gorgeous, I couldn't have taken a bad photo if I tried. I hope if any of my other friends get pregnant they will give me the opportunity to take some photos for them. ;-)

Here are a few of the images...I also posted some on flickr.

*special thanks to my amazing husband for helping me out so much. 

New Glasses

I believe I started wearing glasses at the age of 3. Yup, I was one of those cute little tykes with coke-bottle glasses (okay, maybe not that cute). 

For my 21st birthday I received the wonderful gift of sight! It was like a whole new world. I got lasik eye surgery, and it really is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Just to be able to see the world as it really is was such a blessing. 

Well, lately I've been having trouble reading things that are far away. I can't read the screen at church with the song lyrics, I can't see what the professor is writing on the board... So I made an appointment at the eye doctor. Turns out, my nearsightedness has returned. It's not too bad though. The doc gave me a light prescription and I ordered some cute Kate Spade glasses. 

I really only need them for school and driving at night. Other than that, I can see just fine. I had a good run with no glasses...considering how blind I used to be! I was kind of missing having frames adorn my face from time to time. 

So say hello to Kristel Classic:

Spring!

This season is gorgeous. I love the flower-filled trees.
Yesterday Alex and I were talking about how this will be our last spring in North Carolina. By this time next year, we'll be in Colorado. Crazy!

Kindle Ads

I have to say that I adore the Kindle commercials they've been running on TV lately. They're creative and a great use of stop motion. I also love the music they chose. I'm an admirer of good advertising. It's simply brilliant.
Check out the two videos below, the second one is my favorite:





As good as these commercials are though, I'd rather have an iPad. ;-) It was released today and Alex is at work right now (he had to be there at 4am!) selling those babies. I can't imagine how busy it must be! My birthday is coming up in two months...so if you're looking for a good present to get me, well, you know...

Good Friday

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Check your statements!

If you follow my tweets (and if you don't, why the heck not?), you know that Alex and I are 100% out of debt. Thank God! It feels great not to have that burden on our shoulders. We're working now on building up our savings account and getting our budget in order.

The other night we were looking through our credit card statements and we noticed that we've been getting charged $17.95 every month for almost a year now for some place called "MVQ SHOPESSPLUS." Neither one of us recognized what this was for. I googled the name of the place and figured out it was a scam. So I called them up. I told them I had never signed up for any shopping program and had never authorized any charges to my credit card. They terminated my account and agreed to give me a refund on last month's charge...but I've been getting charged for almost a year! That's over $100. So I said that wasn't good enough and they eventually agreed to refund me for every charge they had made to my account since the beginning. I also called my credit card company and requested a different account number, just in case.

So the lesson of the story is, check your statements! Comb through every transaction and if something looks suspicious, ask questions. I'm not sure how these people got my credit card number, but I've heard they're somehow connected with restauarant.com, which I have used several times in the past.

Anyway, I hope they really refund all my money, I'll keep following up with them until they do!

Prayer - Part 2

A few months ago I posted about prayer and my struggles with it.

Confession: I'm still struggling.

But God is faithful and has been teaching me a lot in this area.

One way the Lord has been teaching me is through my husband. The other day I was having a mini nervous breakdown because I had so much going on that day and didn't know how I was going to get through it all. I was starting to tear up and wallow in my misery when Alex stopped, held my hands, and prayed. Wow. What a shift in perspective. Instead of focusing on little ol' me and my problems I began to see who God is. He is faithful. He is sovereign. He is in control. After that, my day went smoothly. I often focus way too much on myself or others instead of on God. My immediate response to bad situations is not to pray or look to God for guidance, rather it is to freak out or get depressed. What am I communicating about God when I react like this? That He is small and incapable of helping me. That's wrong. My God is so much bigger than I am. My God is so much bigger than any problem that could come my way. And that day Alex reminded me that I should always turn to the Lord in any given situation. He is my strength.

Another way God has been teaching me about prayer is through a book I was reading last year, The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. There's one chapter where he talks about Nehemiah's prayer life. Nehemiah displayed two types of dependent prayer: planned periods of prayer and unplanned spontaneous prayer. Basically, we show our day-to-day dependence on God by daily praying to Him and we show our moment-to-moment dependence on Him by responding in prayer when unexpected events pop up. It all boils down to the fact that prayer is the tangible expression of our dependence on Him. We need to pray without ceasing.

This is what the Lord has been working on in my heart and I can only respond with gratitude in praise for His Spirit's work in my life. And then I need to pray some more for more understanding and wisdom.

Little Nuggets of Wisdom

I'm really busy today and don't really have time to be blogging, but I wanted to share these little nuggets of wisdom from the marriage conference this weekend. I would develop these points further, but like I said, I'm busy. :-) If you'd like to further discuss these statements with me at a later time please feel free to do so. The conference really was an amazing blessing. I'm really happy Alex and I were able to attend. Paul Tripp is a talented speaker. He is able to take these truths from the Scriptures and practically apply them in ways that are understandable.

Anyway, here are the nuggets:

• Romance is not a cause, it's a result.
• Biblical View of Marriage: A flawed person and a flawed person in a fallen world but with a faithful God.
• Worship is first your identity before it's ever your activity.
• Your words and behavior are more formed by what is inside of you than outside. The heart is the causal core of your personhood. (Luke 6:43-45)
• The DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin will cause me to dehumanize the people in my life. True righteousness begins when you quit living for yourself.
• The person you are married to is a broken person and will not fulfill you, only God can do that.
• There is no such things as love that doesn't require sacrifice. The call to love is to love even when the person hasn't deserved that love.
• True love is born out of gratitude, not duty.
• God is after something deeper than temporary personal happiness, He's after holiness.

There's really so much more that we learned this weekend. The conference was such a great reminder to what marriage is really all about and it also demonstrated how marriage is really a ministry. I loved it. Check out Paul Tripp's website and if you ever get the chance to attend this conference, please do!

Marriage Conference

Tonight and tomorrow morning Alex and I will be attending a marriage conference at our church, The Summit.

I'm really excited, especially because Paul Tripp will be the speaker. He is a pastor in Philadelphia and a talented author. I have read some of his books for my biblical counseling classes and have really enjoyed them. Also, he has a pretty impressive mustache.

Like I said, we're excited to attend this conference. We know that marriage can be difficult and we are constantly seeking to make sure our marriage is glorifying to God. We have a lot to learn! Check out this video to see what the conference is all about:

Miami Videos

Okay...I'm supposed to be working on three (yes, three!) papers that are due tomorrow (yes, tomorrow!)...but I just had to post the videos that Alex made of our trip to Miami this past week.

I honestly had an amazing time. I was reminded how blessed I am to have grown up in such a fun city with great friends and family. I enjoyed spending time with each and every one of you. We weren't able to capture all the memories via camera, but they remain in my heart forever (cheeeese). Seriously, I am so blessed. I miss all of my Miami friends and family like crazy and think about you often.

Hope you enjoy these videos that Alex worked on. They're fun.

(I love being married to a creative man)

Trip to Miami: Part 1 from Alexander Acevedo on Vimeo.

Miami Trip: Part 2 from Alexander Acevedo on Vimeo.

Coming to Miami!

We're getting ready to head out to the airport! So excited to see family and friends. I hope Miami is sunny and warm because I need to get away from this cold weather for a bit.

If you're in Miami and want to hang out, give us a call.

To all my SEBTS friends, hope you have a good spring break!

Sirens and Sealions

I have some really talented friends. I'm always amazed by the creative things my friends come up with. I try to highlight projects that friends are working on in order to raise support for them. They deserve it.

Today I wanted to talk about Sirens and Sealions, a local band in Miami, FL. I know some of their members and have always been impressed with their musical talent as well as other artistic endeavors.

Sirens and Sealions recently released one of their songs on iTunes (just search Sirens and Sealions), I bought it and haven't stopped listening to it! If I had any kind of musical/vocal/instrumental talent I would want to be in a band that sounds just like this. Johanna and Chanti have amazing voices and I am so proud of the guitar player and all-around awesome musician that Nick has become. And, um, Gerry has a cool haircut...I guess. ;-) This is really a great sounding band...so I am strongly encouraging you to buy this song! You will love it, I promise.

And if you want to keep up with Sirens and Sealions here are the links to their:

myspace

facebook

blog

Here's a video of them performing live:

Okay, now seriously, go buy their single and enjoy. :-)

Photo by: NBPhotographix (more talented friends...and they just had their first baby a couple days ago, congrats!)

Valentine Weekend

Alex and I celebrated Valentine's Day all weekend. It was fantastic. It all started with a delicious dinner at 42nd Street Oyster Bar.

Oh. My. Goodness.

It was really SO good. My husband definitely knows what I like.

We also made cute little presents for each other.

(I made him a little notebook filled with ten reasons why I love him...I also got him a book all about logo design)

(he photoshopped these pictures of us with lyrics from love songs and hid them around the apartment for me to find)

(he also got me this cute owl necklace...and a reusable grocery bag with an owl on it that says 'owl love you forever,' he really really knows what I like)

While we were at the restaurant it started snowing! It was pretty. By the time we got home it was really coming down.

On Saturday we woke up to a winter wonderland. We went out to Falls Lake to enjoy the beauty of the snow. We saw some crazy people kayaking in the frigid weather! We took a walk and got lost...but thankfully we found our way.

(isn't he handsome?!)

Sunday we got up bright and early to attend church at the Summit's West Club campus. Their regular band was out on a retreat, so the Summit en Español band was asked to fill in. Alex played guitar for them. I loved it. They obviously had a very Latin sound and they got the congregation movin'.

They treated us to Cheesecake Factory afterwards. I love that place! I hadn't eaten there since we moved to Raleigh.

That night we had a Denver2011 dinner at Drew & Andy's place. They cooked up some mouth-watering venison. We ate, conversed, laughed, and heard from Bryan about the vision for our church plant. We had plenty of guests with us, checking out what we're all about and praying for us. It was fun getting to know new people.

Well, that's it in a nut shell. I hope everyone had a love-filled weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

I know there is so much hate on this holiday...but just embrace it and love each other.

Take this day as an excuse to eat an entire box of chocolates, guilt-free!

And remember God's love for you surpasses anything you could imagine.

(Romans 5:8)

More Snow!

Here's a shot out of our window that I took with my iPhone this morning:

Crazy! More snow! Alex and I can't stay indoors, so we're off to explore.

Hope everyone is having a love-filled Valentine weekend.

Aiden

I don't know why I haven't blogged about this yet...but if you follow me on Twitter you already know that my sister, Reima, had a baby at the beginning of February. So that means, I am a TIA!

:-)

I've only seen him in pictures, but he is adorable as can be. I can't wait to meet him.

Congratulations to Reima and Alfie for this addition to their family.

Baby Aiden

Dreaming of Spring [Dresses]

The weather has been pretty nasty lately... Gray clouds, sleet, freezing rain... It's gross.

I'm kinda ready to say, "so long," to this winter season, but it seems I'll have to wait another month or two.

In the mean time I've been hanging out on the Antropologie web site and dreaming of owning one of their gorgeous dresses. If they weren't so expensive I would own all of them, I'm pretty sure.

Here are a few of my favorites for Spring/Summer:

How's the weather where you are? Ready for a change?

Denver Vision Trip Video.

Check out this video that Alex made of our Denver trip. I'm so thankful for my talented husband. Also, check out our Denver2011 site for the latest update on what's happening with our church planting team. Thanks for all your prayers!

Hello February!

We're already in month #2 in 2010! Time is just flying by.

Today is a snow day, no school or work, hoorah! Alex did have to go to work though. (boo...)

Anywhooo...if you're enjoying a snow day as I am (or even if you're not), check out the Ruche 'Be Our Valetine' Sweepstakes. I love this shop. So soft/feminine/vintage. Check out their website and enter their contest. Good luck!