Speak

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow’r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we’ll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

Now added to the MUSIC section. Beautiful song.

Providence

By: Gabriela Yareliz

From the Merriem-Webster Dictionary:

Providence: noun \ˈprä-və-dən(t)s, -ˌden(t)s\

1
a]often capitalized:divine guidance or care

b]capitalized: God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny

D] It is written

Jamal Malik: “Maybe it’s written”.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, saith the LORD.

Isaiah 55:8

 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

 

A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

 

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:6

 

And just for fun…

 

Lost

By: Ravi Zacharias-From his talk The lostness of man part 4 of 4

“Man is not just unethical, he is lost and dead.

If a man is only lost in guilt, what I have given you is bad news;

but he is lost in sin, and our great priviliege is to tell him we have a Saviour.

The biggest difference between Jesus Christ and ethical and moral teachers

who have been deified by man is that

the moralist came to make bad people good.

Jesus came to make dead people live.

East or West, North or South, ancient or modern,

the problem is the same and the solution is the same.

Once we understand the heinousness of sin,

we will gain a deep and lasting gratitude for God.

I was 17 years old on a bed of suicide in Delhi when I gave my life to Jesus Christ,

I was not a bad man becoming a good man,

I was a dying man who was now going to live for a cause that was greater than he was.”

-Ravi Zacharias

New York: Queens-Jackson Heights (Little India) and Flushing (Chinatown)

By: Gabriela Yareliz

On a day with no school, it is time to explore the city. That is exactly what my friend and I did Monday, when we hit the train stations and the streets of Queens to see the ecclectic and ethnic neighborhoods of Jackson Heights and Flushing. Here is a bit of our journey through pictures.

Instructions: FOLLOW THE CAPTIONS, PLEASE 🙂

By: Gabriela Yareliz
This is what you see when you emerge into the sunlight from the train. Restaurants and jewelers. Welcome to Little India.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Someday, I will wear one of these. They are so gorgeous.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
When you cross the street there is an Indian supermarket. when you walk in you are engulfed by the smell of incense. They have a wealth of variety of food and hair products (yes, even amla serums) and the cutest eggplants I have ever seen. It seems to keep busy. The guys who stock were very nice and one smiled at me when I caught his eye.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
After walking by more jewelers than I could count (amazing how they all compete side by side and have card and flier wars on the sidewalk), I saw this. Hyperventilation. OH YEAH!!!
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I even saw Hrithik Roshan- I know what you are thinking. He is sexy. The guy at the shop probably thought I was insane when I went in only to have a look at this. He drew me in with his gaze, you know?

TRANSITION-ROUTE 7 TO FLUSHING

By: Gabriela Yareliz
POOF! We are gone to Chinatown. This Chinatown turned out to be more legit than the Manhattan one. No offense, dear Chinese friends in Manhattan, but FLUSHING OWNS!
By: Gabriela Yareliz
WE ARE HERE!!!!
By: Gabriela Yareliz
We visited posh Chinese boutiques that had boots for $100, necklaces that looked like belts with buckles and fur and fabulous jewelry. Think Aisha, except the Chinese and not Indian-Sonam Kapoor version. POSH!
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Even five-star hotels… This place was incredibly gorgeous. I recommend it. 😉 Sheraton Hotel in Flushing Mall. A-MA-ZING.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I make friends quickly… my flight attendant friends. You know I think they wrote a beauty book or something. I once heard Asian flight attendants are the most glamourous. I believe it..
By: Gabriela Yareliz
After eating a yummy meal (vegetable fried rice) and stopping at the Flushing Library, which is great–I decided to go blonde (thank you to ELVABEAUTY in Flushing for your kindness in letting us have our hair changed on a whim…)

For more on ELVA BEAUTY, click here for her Twitter. This woman is really great. 🙂

We ended the day with CoCo (a place that does smoothies and tea).

Word to the wise: Carry cash with you; Most places only accept cash.

Go into all of the malls and supermarkets, it is amazing.

I learned a lot that day. I learned a lot about features and feeling different almost like an outsider. Usually, I can blend and go unnoticed with many cultures and ethnicities, but in Chinatown, that was not the case. It puts things into perspective. It was pretty awesome. We had a fab day, and I thank all of the lovely people in Queens who made our day possible and God, who made our day safe (and we didn’t wait on one train, smooth rides) 🙂

Queens was everything I wanted it to be.

By: Gabriela Yareliz
Too cute. 🙂 At the candy shop.