why do we need the gospel?

This is why we need the Gospel:

Because we were all created to worship something or someone.

Because of the loneliness that comes when the party is over.

Because of the sin that has infested our very being.

Because there are eternal consequences to every action.

Because love is a relationship, not an accomplishment.

Because our minds cannot comprehend the eternal and thus live in the carnal.

Because children fail parents and parents fail children.

Because men and women forsake the wife or husband of their youth.

Because we always fall short.

Because the god of this world – money, power, beauty – is a thief and a liar.

Because Jesus is coming back soon to judge the world and gather his beloved.

Because we can call the God of the universe Abba / Daddy.

Because the way to salvation is only by grace.

Because our souls cannot rest until they find rest in God alone.

Recording Studio (aka bedroom)

Hi folks!

This is what I've been doing these days - revamping my website and redoing all the recording for it. Audio, visual, everything. I've learned sooooo much techie stuff - enough to make my head spin and appreciate all those smart people who dropped out of their ivy league schools to invent stuff like this.

So I'm recording bass lines and piano chords over songs in Garage band this week. And what chord symbols mean and stuff like that.

Yup, I recorded me playing on the piano, Garageband reads it as MIDI so I can change things on screen such as note velocity, pitch, rhythm... and then layer it over the song. And this picture is a screenshot! I just learned how to do that like last week.

Fun stuff. Back to work.

awww..... from an old student

hey ms. wu its me stepahnei suarez omg yeah i know I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!YEP SO YEAH WHATS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE ?AND ALSO OMG WE SHOULD GO SHOPPING LOL I MEAN IF YOU WANT OH YEAH AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN MARTIN AND EVERY BODY ELSE WANTS YOU TO COME TO MY PARTY ITS ON OCT.30

6:30-11PM YEAH SO THE address is [ ] if you want to come and if your not busy yeah i put a clown since halloween is coming up lol bye please write back

faith

this is pastors' appreciate month! i am incredibly thankful for my pastor and all the leaders at my church. i was just reflecting today on how far God has brought me and that just a few short years ago, i was still in the throes of clinical depression and not ever imagining that i could live a full and joyful life.

for those of you who knew me back in high school and/or college, and for those that didn't... i was so depressed that i slept like 14 hours a day, barely got my homework done, hated doing anything social, hated being around people, lived in my own world of escaping anything painful... and i didn't think i could ever really live a life free of my depression. everything revolved around it... and revolved and revolved and i hated my life and hated myself.

well, people had been praying for me even before i became depressed - my family, my youth leaders at EFC, my christian friends... and they prayed for me while i was going through my 9+years of depression...

i went through anti-depressants, therapy, and it's awesome and beautiful how god has brought me to a church that has seen people delivered from drugs, from gangs, and from selfishness because i saw the power of god firsthand in my own life.

being free of depression is not a one-time experience. it's an ongoing molding and stretching and shaping by the Holy Spirit. it's learning to be disciplined in the face of emotional rollercoasters, it's dealing with interpersonal issues instead of ignoring them, it's learning to hope and trust that our present troubles are momentary in comparison to our eternal glory... and all this came from the power of prayer. the prayer of faith is indeed a spiritual weapon that this world cannot stand up to.

in fact, what can we do without God's power? and what can't we do without His power?

i want to encourage you to pray with faith today. lift your voice and declare your trust in God and watch Him do the impossible for your life.

the unemployment sagas

so i've filed for unemployment. i'm technically employed by chicago public schools, but i have yet to work.

well, so there's this clause in the unemployment benefits that if you resigned, you may not be eligible for benefits unless you did everything in your power to continue to work. i sure didn't know that, otherwise i would have asked my principal to fire me. it would all be semantics anyways.

today, i talked to a lady from the illinois unemployment office on the phone - about why i resigned and what i did to avoid not having a job. it should have been a nice and easy talk, routine questions and such, but it was actually really terrible. in a funny way.

she had an accent - i'm not sure of which origin, but it wasn't spanish or asian. i couldn't understand half of what she was saying. then when i asked her to repeat herself, she got really frustrated, and kept saying the same thing, but louder - and still as unintelligible.

also, she asked questions that were really hard to answer in a yes/no fashion, such as, "did you do everything in your power to resolve this situation?" which doesn't make sense in my case because i needed to quit for the sake of my sanity. i didn't know what to tell her, and instead of giving me helpful advice about how to answer this question, she just repeated it louder and louder (in that accent!) until i said, "yes." if it was recorded, i would totally play it for you here.

my goodness, why does the government hire people like this? we were both so frustrated at the end of the conversation. and i'm probably still not going to get any of my unemployment benefits.

back to..... school?

no, sadly, not back to a masters program or something... i've finally resigned myself to the fact that my website will not make me millions (at least in the first few months) and i need to work.

so i'm declaring myself available to the chicago public schools to substitute and make some money so i don't have to move back in with my parents. that is actually a huge motivator because i can not move back in with my parents.

well, so i'll be sharing lots of funny stories with you guys here on this blog because substituting is.... can we say, going to keep things interesting.

sigh......

Still in my pjs and glasses

Hehe... I love working from home! Well, you can't call it work because I've earned.... $0.32 so far for all my work. But I feel like I'm being productive.

So it's 8:57 a.m. right now. Most people who work would be in their offices, getting their coffee, checking work email, stuff like that.

I basically rolled out of bed at 6, read my Bible, prayed, watched the sun rise... and I've been really productive for the last 2 hours!

I could get used to this.

What am I working on??? Well, I'm trying to have it up and running by tomorrow (Friday). It being my website. It's about worship music: playing by ear, music theory, new worship and Christian artists.

I'm fasting from TV media this week and praying over how or if God wants this website to be used.

I'm hoping that it could be my main source of income, from product referrals and ads and stuff.

I'm gonna go brush my teeth and get back to work. Heh.

If you want to start exploring, go here: listenwithhelen.blogspot.com