Spring Cleaning

If you're anything like me, you can't wait for spring to get here! I've been missing the warmth and growth that spring brings... which isn't good, considering we have another load of snow on the way!

I got in the mood to do some spring cleaning anyway, so I've been doing some blog maintenance over here on BIC. One thing that's changed is something I'm really excited about... I reformatted The Writers page. Now it's a little cleaner, and more organized. You can now view a snippet of our bios on the new page, and once you click "read more", you'll be taken to our own individual bio pages. I wanted to make it a little more straightforward, so it's set up in a way that's easy to navigate. So head on over to the new Writers page, and let us know what you think!

Come back on Tuesday as we kick off our March posting schedule!

Heart of Worship

One of my favorite songs to play on the guitar is "Heart of Worship." It has great lyrics, and I love the tune of the song. 

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless your heart

I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the ways things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

I'll bring You more than just a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You Jesus

Its all about you
Jesus  






~Ashley S.

Recipe - Delicious Buttermilk Pancakes

Today I wanted to share you a recipe for buttermilk pancakes that my family absolutely loves! This is enough for one serving, but it's best if you double it, because they taste so good!

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups buttermilk OR 1 cup vanilla yoghurt (plus 1 cup milk)
2 eggs
3 T oil
3 T sugar
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt

Directions: Mix into pancake batter, then cook them like you would regular pancakes.

I hope you enjoy this yummy recipe! I'm sure that it will be a family favorite - it is with my family!

Verse Of the Week

Hey you guys!
First off, I’d like to express how absolutely thankful I am to be writing on this blog! It’s such a blessing, and I hope to be able to bless others too.
Psalms 139 is absolutely my favorite chapter in the Bible…hands down. One year, I had to memorize it for school, and the impact of it really stuck out to me. I don’t think I’m going to put the whole Psalm down here, but if you’d like to read it in your Bible that’d be absolutely amazing! However I will hit my favorite parts of this chapter, because it changed my life.

Psalms 139: 1-4
O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

This is just amazing to me! We all know God is seriously busy. As I write this there are exactly 6,986,427,230 living and breathing on this planet where we live. It’s hard to imagine that God knows everything about us when there are so many people in the world. But the awesome part is that He can! He knows exactly what we’re going through…He knows where we are at all times. He even knows our thoughts. And it just gets better.
Psalms 130: 5-10
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

Jonah tried fleeing from God. That got him absolutely nowhere-well, to be technical, it got him trapped in the belly of a whale. Charming, right? Basically, the above verse is telling us in a kind way, that we can never escape from God. Many have tried. All fail. God is there for us at all hours of the day, and we just can’t escape from a love like that!
Let’s skip down a bit to my favorite part!
Psalms 139: 13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Insecurity is a part of life! I don’t know one single girl that hasn’t woken up on an average morning, looked in the mirror and wished she could change something about herself. But this verse has really helped control my insecurities because, whether I like how I look or not, God created me just the way I am. Before the foundations of the world-before anything else came to be-He took thought for me, and designed me in His own image. He planned my whole life story, right then and there, at the very beginning. Ladies, I hope you read this verse, and no without a doubt, that God absolutely loves you just the way you are!

Lastly, let’s read the last two verses which I hope will help balance things out for you!
Psalms 139: 23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

So far, the verses I’ve highlighted, have talked about a one-sided relationship-all that God can give to us. But now, the whole Psalms is swapped, and turned into a prayer, asking God to search us and know our hearts, and to help us live Godly and holy lives. This is a prayer that I’ve begun to pray myself, every night before bed, searching myself and asking forgiveness for anything that may need to be addressed before I fall asleep! I hope you guys will try this too!

Overall, Psalms 139 captures God’s expansive love for us! He thinks we’re beautiful, He knows where we are every second of the day, He protects us, and He wants us to live holy lives before Him!
When you get the change, read the whole Psalms and enjoy!
Have a blessed day!

~Ashley H. 

What it really means to worship God

Hey, all you beautiful young women reading this blog!
 You are so amazing, and I'm not saying that just because you're reading this blog. Well, that has something to do with it, but it also has to do with the fact that you are a strong Christian young woman growing to be a great woman one day. You are beautiful.
 And thank God for that, because there is a lot of girls out there that are beautiful on the outside, but just one big, black chunk of coal on the inside.
 Anyways. The church that I go to has an awesome worship group. We have a bunch of guitarists and a couple drummers and quite a few singers. Only one pianist, but either way, my worship team rocks. I absolutely love their choice in music they play and I absolutely love the fact that when they play I feel like I can freely worship God how I want. And maybe that has to do with the fact that our church is small, and I know everyone in my church, so I really don't worry about what people think or anything.
 The church that I go to is inter-denominational. If you don't know what the heck that means, it means that we're not Catholic, or Methodist, or Lutheran, or Amish. We're just a bunch of Christians getting together to worship God and grow spiritually. So, our worship isn't just kneeling down on one of those kneeler-down thingies in cathedrals; our worship in our church is whatever you want to do. If you want to kneel down, you can. But we don't have one of those kneeler-down thingies, so you'll have to make do with the floor.
 Mostly our worship, though is raising your hands, singing along to the worship leader, sometimes jumping, or crying, or praying out loud. If you don't like it; well, I'm sorry. I do like it. I've grown up around people worshipping like that, and that's the kind of worship I want my children to grow up around.
 Worship to me is whatever you want it to be. It could be something average like singing in your church choir, or it could be you going out, sharing the love of Christ to a bunch of people in Africa.
 My ways of worshipping God are things like talking to Him every day, singing some awesome songs that He puts on my mind (or maybe they just get stuck in my head. Either way...) and just by doing little things like that. On Sundays when I go to church I worship Him by singing, clapping my hands, raising my hands, and sometimes wiping snotty noses and singing along to 'Jesus loves me' in the nursery.
 I think everyone has different ways to really worship God.
 What it really means to worship God is all in your heart. I think if you are in church one Sunday and your arms seem to feel like they now have helium in them, and they want to float to the top of the ceiling, it might be God encouraging you to lift 'em up.
 If you're at a Family Force 5 concert and you feel the urge to hit the floor and bust a couple moves for Him, it might just be God. Here's what Soul Glow Activatur has to say about all of worship:
"It's being able to get out there and dance and being able to let loose and worship God in a way that's crazier than normal. It's not just singing or raising your hands, its moshin' it's jumpin' up and down. It's your body. If your temple is this, get it going. Sweat it out a little bit for Jesus Christ...it's a lifestyle."
 Worship how you want. Sweating is all cool, if you want to go breakdancing on some cardboard go on ahead, I'll watch you make a fool of yourself. 
 But I really have to say that Soul Glow has it right. Let loose and worship Him. Man I wish I could have the right words to say like HE does...jeez, he just basically blew this whole entry out of the water. I really like that quote, as you can see. It's kind of hard to even think of anything else to say. Thanks A LOT, Soul Glow...you ruined my whole blog entry!!
 =D
Thanks for reading,
 ~Suzanna

The Bible

For this week’s follow-up, I decided to post a quote, since we haven’t ever done that on this blog. Last night, I was skimming through The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer – a book that I have heard is exceptionally good, and one that I plan to read. I stumbled across this quote, and thought it would perfectly complement Ashley’s devo last week.

So, without further ado, is A.W. Tozer describing the Bible in his own words.

The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into him, that they may delight in his presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. – A.W. Tozer

Isn’t that a powerful description of the Bible? I love it, and I think it sums up the purpose of the Bible completely. What does this quote mean to you? Leave a comment and let us know!

Adjusting

We just heard from one of our contributing writers, Natalie - who told us, that because she is so busy during the school year, that she won't be able to write with us until summer. We are greatly disappointed, but we understand why she isn't able to stick it out. 

She will be coming back in the summer - and she is under 'guest writer' on the Writers Page 
Until then ~ we are soon going to be welcoming a new addition to our Writer's Team - Ashley H. 

We hope it won't be confusing to have two Ashley's...we're going to make sure you know 'who is who', so that you don't wonder which Ashley wrote which post. 


We will be thinking up a new schedule for the spring and we'll get back to posting regularly in a couple of days. 


~The Beautiful in Christ Team
Ashley, Kylie, & Suzanna

Guys Are Waffles, Girls are Spaghetti - by Chad Eastham review

Hello, readers!
 Suzanna here.
All day today I have been sick. I got the flu... :( That goofy little bug seems to be all over this time of year.
  I decided I'm going to review the cough drops I've been using. They're called Halls Refresh and I'm sucking on the juicy strawberry flavored ones right now. I think they taste pretty good-
 Kidding. I'd never do that. I promise.
As I'm sitting here on our big comfy couch, with my pajamas on... I decided I'd review the book I'm reading right now. I'm not sure if that's the right way to review a book; one you haven't even finished; but I thought I'd give it a try.
 The book I'm currently reading is 'Guys are Waffles, Girls are Spaghetti' by Chad Eastham and Bill and Pam Farrel.
 I am over halfway done with the book, and I started it yesterday. All of Chad Eastham's books seem like quick reads, -unless it's just because I've been lounging, reading all day today.- Either way, I like those types of books. I think it also helps that Chad Eastham is the most amazing author I have ever...uh...read?! Not sure what word I should've put there. Anyways. I really like the way he approaches and tackles the different hard subjects that he discussed in the book.
 If an adult (well...I know Chad Eastham is an adult, but bear with me here) would have attempted to write this book, I think it would have stunk. Chad seems mature enough to encourage us teens and discuss the topics in book like a youth group leader, yet also talk about them like a big brother would. The way he delivers each and every chapter is so warm and humorous, yet also very honest and raw.
 Chad did such a good job writing this book. I absolutely love it.
 I like how it's written for both guys and girls.
 Seriously, there's not one part of the book that I haven't 100% enjoyed.
From what I'd read about the Guys are Waffles, Girls are Spaghetti book I thought there would've been more sections or parts written by Bill and Pam Farrel, but there's not that many sections, actually.
 Anyways, the book is great. I absolutely love the book. Good job, Chad, Bill and Pam!!

Reading Through the Bible in a Year

Last year, a couple of my friends and I, decided that it would be fun, if through the whole 2009 year, if we could read through the entire Bible in a year.

One of my good friends, Sam, came up with a schedule to do so- and we started reading on January 1st.

It took me a while to actually get used to reading my Bible every day - or, as I did it, every evening, before I went to bed. It became a habit, after only a couple of weeks - and I am glad to say - I only missed two days of reading, because I was sick. Those two days were quickly caught up- and I was soon back in the swing of things.

Reading through the Bible in a year, made me feel a whole lot closer to God. I felt that reading the Bible - and actually learning what it said in it, definitely gave me a better meaning of God's love and forgiveness toward His people.

My life has changed since I've read through the Bible. I'm doing it again this year - only with a Chronological Bible - that my Grandma had sitting at her house. This way, I get to read the events in the order that they actually happened.

I think that it's a great challenge - to read through the Bible - and I think that every Christian should take that challenge.

Read through the Bible, learn what it says. There is no other way to learn and understand what God is trying to tell you, unless we read what His word is telling us.

I challenge each and every one of you to try to read your Bible every night. Whether it's a chapter, or two chapters, or in some cases of the short books, a whole book of the Bible. Don't overdo it - because then it'll get old pretty fast - set yourself at a good pace, and try to learn what that part of the Bible is trying to teach you.

And pray. Definitely pray. Reading through the Bible is good - but prayer is also essential.

So, as a closing - I'm going to share a few of my favorite verses that I've discovered in reading the Bible through the year:

Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.

Phillipians 4:13 For I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

And of course - the well known:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

If you have any questions about my reading through the Bible in a year - or about the schedule I used - you can comment, and ask, or email me at : jesusismyprincecharming@hotmail.com