Attempting To Follow The Way

Weekend

2008-03-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

This weekend was nothing short of amazing. I was so worried about a number of different things and God gave me an indescribeable amount of peace about all that was going on. I was so worried about disapproval and stress and not having time for papers, hiking, Scriptural meditation, sleeping, relaxation, reading, etc. The weekend was just long enough and I'm glad to be back home. My prayer is that I would not become complacent in this position of God being just my Comforter and Provider. I need to be broken, convicted and changed.

Disappointment

2008-02-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

Sooo...this semester has definitely not gone the way I envisioned it. I am probably going to lose a bigscholarship and almost all my classes are in no way what I thought they would be. My theology class seeoms to drag on endlessly and New Testament is just as boring. I really expected a lot more from my Theology class and continue to be amazed at how basic that class is. My World Civ class is possible the most boring class ever...even worse than Christian Ministry...yeah.

The highlight of my semester by far has bene my misisons class. I did not have a clue there was so much complexity to missions. Strategies, Mobilizing, Training, Logistics, Maintaining, Linguistics...wow. Plus, it's where I met Rachel. She's pretty cool, I guess. Haha

The Jesus Prayer

2007-09-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God
Have mercy on me, a sinner.

This prayer is very short and simple but can do wonders for our prayer lives. This is a prayer of repitition. It takes some time to really experience the shalom (peace-ish) that only God can provide. A quiet place is a MUST. Just let the words seep into every part of your life and let this prayer be the true cry of your heart. You can also pattern your breathing after this prayer for a more peaceful and centering overall experience.

(breate in) Lord Jesus Christ
(breathe out) Son of God
(breathe in) Have mercy on me
(breathe out) a sinner

This prayer is amazing and so encouraging especially if you think you don't hav etime to pray...Give it a try!

Wow

2007-09-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

"Where there is pain, let there be grace
Where there is suffering, bring serenity
For those afraid, help them be brave
Where there is misery, let us bring them relief
Surely we can Change
Surely we can change something

I don't know what to do with a love like that.
I don't know how to be a love like that."

- David Crowder, "Surely we can Change"
- The Remedy

Velvet Elvis - Movement Two - "Yoke"

2007-03-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

In our small group time on Wednesdays, our high school guys have been going through Velvet Elvis, a book by Rob Bell that re=examines the Chriistian faith from all angles. In the second chapter, Bell introduces a fresh insight on the relevancy of teh Bible in modern times. He accurately points out that the Bible is more than ancient stories from ancient times that don't pertain to modern issues that are occuring in today's society. The Bible is a book filled with accounts of God working through people who are passionate and desperately hungry to experience the Almighty God.

Bell also presents the view that we are the characters in the Bible as much as the actual characters are. The amazing, fantasmical fact about the Bible is not that the stories happened, it's that they actually happen. We all face the same decision as Adam and Eve did and just like them, we choose to partake from the forbidden fruit, whatever that may be for each of us. The point is that the Bible is a collection of Scriptures that are alive and happening today. They are still pertinent in today's culture just as they were in the times they were written.

The thing that stuck out to me the most out of the second chapter was towards the end of the chapter. Bell is writing about a group of rabbis in ancient times. He describes the mixed feeling of confusion and hope that they feel when they read a Scripture they cannot even come close to understanding. The rabbi is confused because he doesn't understand this important part of God's word but he also has hope because he knows that God will reveal to him the true meaning of this particular passage. Then teh rabbi would say a prayer that would go something like this, "Thank you God that, at some time in the future, the lights are going to come on for me." God is good.

Spiritual Prayer Journal

2007-03-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

In my quest to pray for more than just physical healing for the ones I love, I have decided to start a spiritual healing journal. Each new entry will feature a detailed situation that requires many prayers for many different things. Some will be for a renewal of desire for Christ. Some will be for a removal of spiritual apathy. Many, many others will exist as well. Since I remeber and learn largely from writing stuff down, I think this will help my personal prayer life immensely so...hear goes.

This amazingly humble lady Janet that I work with takes care of her Mom, Severina Manglapus. Severina is very old and has lived her life to the fullest. She is near death and grows weaker each day. Janet takes care of her mom during the day and works at night while her husband works days and takes care of Severina while Janet is at work during the night. My prayer is that Severina is thankful to God for the lovely angels He has given her to take care of her throughout the day and into the night. My prayer is that Janet and her husband will be given the spiritual strength needed to take care of Severina without growing tired or weary. My prayer is that this strengthens their marriage instead of placing a large burden on it. My prayer is that God will continue to be glorified in this situation as He already has. Janet is a perfect example of what the love of Jesus Christ looks like, lived out completely everyday. My prayer is that when Severina does pass over and goes to be with her Lord and Savior that Janet and her husband seek spiritual strength first from God and then from each other. My prayer is that when this sad day comes that Janet will continue to have the heart of a slave with everyone she comes into contact with. My prayer is that Janet continues to show me what Christ looks like everytime I come into contact with her.

World Religions - Part 1 - Islam

2007-03-26T00:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight we started a 5-week series on world religions. These religions do not all parallel Christianity but we can learn and develop our faith more fully from learning about these other religions.

Tonight was Islam and it is scary how many parallels exist between Islam and Christianity. I learned so much tonight. Not to brag, but I never did stereotype Muslims as "terrorists" but tonight did clear up many questions I had about these ultimately devoted people.

In Christianity, we have a very positive outlook on our lives, especially from a spiritual aspect. We are "saved" from the fires of hell and more importantly, eternal separation from God. We are a new creation in Him. The atoning blood of Christ forgives all sins. All of these things add to the overall positive outlook on our Christian lives.

Islam actually directly contrasts with this view. It is a very negative outlook on the actions of Muslims. Muslims focus on not necessarily beliefs as much as correcting the wrongs committed in their never-ending pursuit to worship Allah. This is the concept behind "jihad." Jihad means "struggle." It is commonly mistaken for a "holy war" and although there is some aspect of holy war in the Lesser Jihad Greater Jihad is where Christians could draw something.

This Jihad is the inner struggle one has with his/her sins. It is not a guilt trip but more like a permanent attitude of repentance and mourning over the sins committed.

We as Christians can take 3 major things from the Islamic faith and apply it to our faith to help us grow.

1.) Develop an attitude of respect for God similar to the respect Muslims have for Allah. (Muslims have an immense amount of respect for Allah. Their attitude is one of complete reverence and humbleness.)

2.) Consistently engage in jihad inside ourselves as well as with God. (Through this wrestling with ourselves and with God we will ultimately grow closer to Him and develop our own faith more and more.)

3.) Develop a prayer life as dedicated as Muslims. (They stop everything they are doing, no matter what it is, and pray to Allah 5 times a day.)

A Heart to Love

2007-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been dealing with some problems with letting stuff go and forgiving people. This week especially, God has really been giving me a heart to forgive, a heart to let go, and a heart to truly love those who have hurt me in the past. I am so thankful for this gift from God and I hope my heart to love others is but 1/2 the heart I have to love Him. I am finding that it is so much easier to show the love of Christ to people who used to get so far under my skin now than a month ago.

I believe that God has changed me for a purpose and this purpose is to show the love of Jesus Christ to everyone I encounter everywhere I go. My desire is for people to look at me and see my Savior. I want them to see a life of humility, a life of service, a life of compassion, and a life of love. I want them to see the life of who Jesus was and who He is for me everyday.

Scholarships

2007-02-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

So, I was writing this essay for an Educators Credit Union Scholarship today and the prompt was to write about your future aspirations in at least 250 words. This got me thinking...what is an aspiration? Why can't they say future goals or plans or write about how you have no plan for the future? Well I looked up this word and according to Merriam-Webster it means " a desire to achieve something high or great."

An aspiration is not actually achieving something high or great, but only desiring it. Simply have a want for it. I have a desire for a mega-hot wife, loads of money and a big boat. Unfortunately, I may never obtain any three of these things in any specific order. This got me thinking, of course not on the essay at hand (which is due tomorrow) but about our Christian lives.

Do we as Christians have just an aspiration to seek God, to truly seek after God with all we have, totally devoted to Him? I think a lot of times this is true for most Christians, myself included. We remember what it was like when we had the heart to honestly love and to run to God as well as show love to everyone around us. We remember these times that did actually happen and long for these times when we were the closest to God we have ever been. We remember these times and instead of being truly convicted and spurred to action, we long for these times, do nothing about getting back there, and say we "aspire" to meet with God.

Aspiration is a key element in seeking after the love of our lives daily. A true longing, deep-rooted, genuine desire to seek after God is essential for us to have that amazingly intimate relationship with Him that He so graciously allows us. But aspiration and desires without action mean nothing. If I want to be the best high school baseball player ever, I don't just sit and dream about how cool it would be. I go and practice, practice, and practice and let that deep longing consume my actions to focus on reaching that goal.

I am truly amazed that God worked in my life today through an essay prompt that I have probably seen at least twenty times. I can only pray that I do not remain stuck in the melancholy, drab, lukewarm waters of "aspiration" but that God will give me a heart to love Him, and act on this love.

Blah

2007-02-04T22:31:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been struggling with maintaining a well-rounded, intimate relationship with God. I have found that my quality times with God have become sporadic to say the least. Once I start getting more and more in God’s word, I find my prayer life slipping, or my prayer life is limited to the time I spend in semi-silence driving to and fro. Once I start talking to God more in prayer about anything and everything, really trying to hear God’s still, small voice, the times I spend in the word decrease drastically. Why is this so hard for me? I feel that I am the only one who experiences these problems but I know I am not. Its not that I don’t have the time, it’s just that I find myself not being able to focus on maintaining a well-rounded relationship with the love of my life. I feel like I’m letting God down by going at this whole thing half-heartedly...I can't even focus enough to pray that God will help me out with this. I don't want to pass this off on school, friends, the girlfriend, work or whatever. I feel like I am stuck spinning my wheels with a one-track spiritual mind.

However, I know that God is Sovereign God and he has a purpose for this challenge and that I will glorify him because of this situation somehow.

Pizza Sub Anyone???

2006-08-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had lunch w/ two of my best friends in e world at Subway in beautiful Robinson, Texas. After a vigorous morning of moving a minimal amount of desks we moseyed down to Subway to receive nutrition. As we walk into the restaurant, i cannot decide what I want, as usual, but m leaning toward tuna. However, both of the afore mentioned best friends highly recommended the pizza sub. They both then proceeded to describe into detail the heavenly sandwich made of pepperonis, mozzarella cheese, and meatball sauce. They told me how much they loved this particular sub and how I should try it...since they were paying I politely agreed. Well to make a short story shorter the sub was amazing and I immediately called three of my friends and told them about it.

Now how is it so easy to tell someone about a sandwich they have never heard of before and also tell them about how it has affected your life (or taste buds, whatever) and we as Christians are terrified of telling our friends about the love of Jeus Christ and how amazing it is to be able to have an intimate realtionship with the creator of the world???

I think we need to get past two key aspects to be able to share the love of Christ with others effectively.

1. Fear of failure - You know what...so what if the first person you try and "witness" to doesn't fall on their faces and praise God that He has sent a classmate to show him the wonders of God's majesty.

2. Fear of rejection - We need to forget about trying to be popular around friends for four years that after you get out of high school will never talk to again. Plus, do we honestly think that everyone thought Jesus was the bomb back in the day? There were tons of people that thought Jesus Christ was full of pinto beans. We cannot e intimidated by the fear of rejection.

I honestly believe that if we are true Christ followers that there exists a burning desire to share what you have w/ others around you. I also believe that this desire is squashed 98% of the time by one of these two fears.

Let's not be afraid to share the love that Christ has for us. We can't hide our little lights under bushels...we gotta let it shine.

Amos 5:3-5

2006-08-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

With everyone going back to school this week, we should be looking forward to the new year but also remember that if we claim the name "Christian" or 'Little Christ" we have to live accordingly.

In Amos 5 God is addressing a sinful Israel. His chosen people are pursuing other gods and idols and God is pretty much pissed.

He tells them to quit seeking after anything other than Him. He says numerous times in chapter 5 "Seek me and live"

God does not need our worsip, he allows us to worship and praise Him. We should feel privileged that we even have the opportunity to seek after Him.

We need to start really seeking God right now. We need to figure out that high school does not matter. 5 years from now the jeans you wore will not matter, who you dated will not matter, the popularity we work so hard to achieve and maintain will not matter...but God always matters. Our personal, intimate, genuine relationship with Christ slways matters. That is the only thing that will last.

When we seek after God w/ all our heart. we will find true life. We will find a fresh, new, abundant life with Him.

This yearwe need to cast off all the things that we seek after instead of God. It can be sports, boyfriend/girlfriends, what people think about us. Man, let's just cast it all off, lay it at the foot of the cross and we will all have a great year @ school.

Oh and don't worry about what will happen if you change the way you live. God says in Jeremiah 29:11 that he's got our back no matter what.

Bottom line...if we genuinely seek God, come broken before Him, then we will have LIFE!

Who, or what do we live for?

2006-08-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

It has become blatantly evident to me over the last couple of months that we as Christians do not always live for Christ as we are called to. Now I know this sounds like a pretty late epiphany but think about it...you could not tell that we as Christians are in love with Christ. We are supposed to have an incredibly intimate relationship with Christ so why do we sometimes think of being a Christian as some sort of hobby or club instead of having a burning desire to seek after God, to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Sometimes we just fill our lives up with so much crap, we forget all about who we live for.

An "idol" in a more modern def. is "anything that takes the place of God or steals our affections from him."

We cannot take the words "take the place of God" lightly if we are to call ourselves dangerous disciples. If we are to live a radical lifestyle like Jesus did then we need to really understand that when we put sports, relationships, jobs, hobbies, even family time infront of God, we are letting something or someone TAKE THE PLACE OF OUR GOD!!!!!

That is ridiculous to even think about it, isn't it??? But we do it every hour of every day of our lives.

We are called to serve the Lord, foresake everything of this world and put nothing between us and the Almighty God.

Let's live for the crucified Christ, the one who we desperately seek after.

Our Living Hope

2006-08-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

1 Timothy 1: 1-16

Paul, in verse one writes to Timothy that he is on a special assignment for Christ who is our living hope. This is a great piece of daily bread because Paul recognizes his job for Christ and then refers to Him as our living hope. That is some awesome imagery right there. To think of Jesus Christ as our living hope is pretty encouraging because it means that Christ is not some "pie-in-the-sky" hope or a distant, iffy kind of a hope...He is a living hope, a hope that drives the hearts of passionate Christians.

When Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, he is extremely grateful that God has made him adequate to do his work. He cannot even begin to fathom how God could possibly trust him with this ministry after what he used to do to the very people he is trying to reach out to now. Then in v. 14 Paul gives all the glory of his hard work back to our merciful God when he writes, "Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me." That is a greta example of God's mercy. No matter how bad we screw up or how far we stray away from him, he can still use us to better his kingdom. Paul then goes on to confess that he is Public Sinner # 1 (v. 15) Paul does not say this to draw attention to how great of a change he has made but instead to give God the glory for changing and convicting. He also proves to the people around him that Jesus Christ really did come into the world as a sacrifice for EVERYONE.

Paul is a great person to try and pattern our daily lives after. I would love to be able to say, "Hey, you want to follow Jesus...really follow him and seek after him with all your heart??? Then you can come follow me...I can show you the Way."

God's Plan

2006-07-29T22:57:00.001-07:00

Over the past month or two I have realized that my plan does not always line up w/ God's plan. Where I want to go to school in the fall may not be where God wants me to be. This has been a pressing issue on my mind the last couple of months.

I just have to ask myself the question, "How hard is it to follow God's will?"

Why can't our church today just get out of the way and earnestly seek after God's face and follow his plan for our lives?

Today the average American (including myself) is so caught up with jobs, money, dating, school, friends and all kinds of other crap that God and his plan for us gets shoved to the back burner.

I say that it is time to start following God again. We cannot have our churches as meeting grounds for people. Our churches need to be meeting grounds for God to work in congregations as a whole instead of a social hour.

Figuring out God's plan is not the hard part...it's following it once he reveals it to us. God will not withhold his plan for our lives from us. He will reveal it to us in His time, not ours. All we have to do is follow it.

Luke 9:23 - look it up

God is so awesome

2006-07-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

Man, I love our youth group. We have grown so much over just the last month, not just in numbers but spiritually as well. It has been great to see some new faces w/ us. I love when leaders have to drive their own cars because our 15 passenger van actually has 15 people in it.
God has great things planned for our student ministry and has placed excellent leaders to carry out his good and perfect plan. I only hope that when Allen and I are ministers that we are apart of something half as awesome as this youth group. Tonight was great. We had a rockin' good time w/ R.L. Ah, good ol' D-Now days (Only Allen knows what I'm talkin' about)
I'm really excited to see our ministry molded into what God wants it to be, a beacon to lead our church into change. I love the way we as a group have stepped up and just like Paul said "Look at us...we as a student ministry are following God. It doesn't matter if there are a million different problems w/ this church or none...we will continue to seek after God's plan for our lives. Man to all of you who read this from WHBC, I love you guys w/ all my heart. You guys are amazing.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Servanthood

2006-06-28T02:06:00.000-07:00

Working at a crappy grocery store such as Albertsons has enlightened me in many ways. I have learned that people can be real, 100% certified jerks sometimes. It's not so much that this offends me but I just hate to see people from my very own church come into the store on a Sunday afternoon and be extremely rude to a high school kid just tryin' to save up for college.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, it's just that God is an awesome teacher and even though I catch more crap a day than a port-a-potty does all week He still taught me to be more kind and compassionate to the people that serve me.
Like today the lady @ Wal-Mart messed up my checkout somehow and had to call her manager over for something. The lady had obviously had a long day and was becoming frustrated so I struck up a friendly conversation w/ her instead of getting my feathers ruffled over the situation like the guy in front of me did. At the end of my transaction I said "thank you, and have a good rest of the day" to which she responded with a grateful smile and said "Thank you, you too."
Along w/ her grateful smile came somewhat of a curious glance like she was wondering why I wasn't like every other rude customer she had dealt with on her shift.
We are called to be Jesus to the people around us and sometimes that makes us stick out. We are resident aliens on this earth and are called to a higher purpose than anything we can strive for here. If you're not good at talking or teaching about Christ's love (which I'm really not) then show his undeserving loe to the people that surround you because imitation is the sincerest form of servanthood.

Mission Trip

2006-06-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

This past week I had an amazing opportunity to embark on a mission trip to the one horse town of Coweta, Oklahoma. I went with Amy's church so I didn't really know anybody but it didn't matter because our work team of 7 people came together and meshed so well. We basically rebuilt the inside of an apartment that a sweet old lady named Ms. Lu Prather is trying to rent out. She only makes $12,000 a year and receives her food consisting of pinto beans and rice from her ex-husband. She had no electricity, heat or A/C. Her son, Allen, started the repairs and then they got in a huge fight and he packed up and returned to NYC. Despite all of the obstacles in her life she would not stop telling us about how God blessed her so much throughout her entire life. I am extremely grateful that God presented me with the chance to be his hands and feet. We finished every part of the house except the bathroom. Keep Lu in your prayers and pray that somone else will finish the work we came so close to finishing. She is the lady in the pink in the middle of the picture. Oh yeah and I'm the dork holding the speed square up to my face.

One last note: to all of you who saw me on Sunday when I was feeling like crap....I so have pneumonia and a wicked case of bronchitis. It's cool though cause I'm a beast.