Sept 30 8:30 pm

Hello everyone!
So i finished my first course on tuesday and i got 96%!  I am going on open air evangilism this sunday and monday to New York City!  I am driving a ten passenger van of people there and back.  So pray for safe driving for me and the other vans.  I have just finished a course on Genesis 1-11 and have the exam on it on tuesday morning.   My verse for this messege is Isaiah 40:28-31.  It really helps to remind me when im tired and worn out that my strength is in the Lord.  :)

Brother/Sister Campfire sept 25

So my guys and I went a on a small hike with our sister dorm and then had camp fire in the middle of the woods.  We roasted marshmellows shared a few testmoines i gave a short devotional which began with this poem.  All in all it was a great time :)

Will we ever understand

How can we ever start

Will we ever understand

What would one so great

Choose to die on this broken land

One so mighty and kind

His very word can smite a tower

Destroy cites and armies

And yet still He gave up power

Will we ever understand

That through His power know no bounds

And His knowledge surpasses all understanding

He prizes us much higher than a mound

Will we ever understand

The reason an Immortal came

Came to live and die and live again

When so few of us choose to praise His Name

Will we ever understand

Before He can become the savior of man

That for Him to do these things

He must become both God and man

Will we ever understand

Can you make the sacrifice

That He made for all of us

The fallen beings doomed to strife

Will we ever understand

That though we were doomed

He has given us the chance

The chance to be eternally saved

Will we ever understand

The loss His father endured for us

However pitiful we may be

We can never lose our focus

Will we ever understand

One day we too may choose

Choose to give our life instead

No matter the form, we cannot loose

Will we ever understand

That every day we must cast away

Cast away piece of our doomed selves

Only let there remain what He may

Will we ever understand

Sept 24 noon

Hey every one!
So week one of classes is complete and my first big test is on tuesday and then we start into the book of gensis.
Just finished source one and now i have to write my biblical principles out and then i can listen to music agian! Well thats what i was looking forward to with this weekend seminar but then God decided to make me think about where He will place me after this. Figures i was just starting to get comfortable with my daily routine and then wham! blindsided by God's calling for my future. So this afternoon i have off and i am planning on taking a hike to this little spot i know to box with God for a while. :) maybe do a bit of studing lol

Also some more info on my previous post.  lol Maintance is anything from mowing grass to fixing windows to as i found out painting curbs lol But i passed the word of life driving test so now i think im on the transportion ministry driving people where they need to be in a 15 passenger van :P Ministry team 23 is just a generic term. All first years are on a ministry team. I will be going to new york next weekend to do steet evangelism and then helping with the halloween night and working at word of life inn for a weekend :)

Im really getting more and more excited about what God is doing not just in my life now but also what He going to do in the future  :D

More pieces fall into place

So i got service assignment and im on general maintance and am on ministry team 23.

Sloth

Hey everyone,
So as an assigned book for the christmas break we are reading "I really want to change so help me God"  And this book really calls you out on your daily walk and atitude.  One of the things that God has impressed on me is laziness.  So if you could all pray for me in this area that would be an answer to prayer :)

Thankyou all
Your brother in Christ
Josh

Sept 20 4 pm

So first day of classes are done.  The exam went pretty well this moring.  It was a Bible content exam.  150 questions in 45 min.  

I ask that you all pray for unity in dorms this week for Word of life. 
This week we will be starting dorm devos.  So we will be doing testomonies to try to get to know each other.

Also Tammy i am writing these blogs myself. lol

Untitled

Woe to me oh God my Father
Your love overwhelms me
Day to day your guidence is there
Oh God where do want me to be

Low is my spirit Holy One
Forever will I be indebted to you
Lost and forgotten in a sea of sin
But you have pulled me up to something more

Go and tell the nations of the world
This is what you have called me for
My god help me to accomplish this task
Help me to know it and follow it to my core

Sept 15 9:23 am

hello everyone,
So i have decided to for go the privlidge of having a phone this year.  The one i brought with me isn't working out and its to expensive to buy one here.  I am readily available through email and facebook.  And we are allowed to skype on weekends.
Yesterday all the hungry dorm RAs (hungry is the building im in)  and our sister dorm RA's (Eroupe)  as well as our DCs (Dischipleship Coordinators) had a great time in the afternoon.  We went shoping and then went to the Lady DC's grandparents house for a spaggetti dinner then hung around there for a while.  Then the girls went home and the guys went out for icecream lol  

Also this desk chair is very uncomfortable! lol

Another one of my guys showed up yesterday.  He is a second year student from florida and has a learning disability.   So pray that i will be able to help him through out the year. 
I am waiting for two more guys to arrive to fill up my rooms.  Today is the second year checkin and tomorrow is the first year.  I have no idea if the last two will be first or second year.

Prayer Requests

Hello all,
I thought i would just jot down some more prayer requests that i have thought of for my fellow RA's and myself.
-To remain focused on studying His word.
-To be a better judge of our own charater
-To always strive to be a servent leader
-To have a christ-like attitude in all that I do
-For the weak to become strong and the strong to be humble
-That we will show God's faithfulness to all people just as He shows it to us

Thank you for your prayers.  They make a world of difference.  :D

Weary

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my gentle and humble heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30

Just found this verse tonight and i think it sums up all that i have been feeling over the last couple weeks.  I feel like i have been trying to pull this yoke all on my own when there was one right beside me with a willing Partner who would ease my burden.  I really help in remembering this and would ask that you pray for me in this matter.

Sept 13 5 pm

Hello everyone, 
So i have decided after much thought and prayer that i will be not playing on the soccer team ministry team.  I really want to focus on school and RAing.    Also because of my college diploma my name has been given to the engineer who works on some of the buildings here and i may be working with him for some of my weekly service hours (i have to do 6-8 a week).

Sept 12 5 pm

Hey everyone,
So my second day as an RA is under way.  I have aquired a RA sister.  Confronted a fellow RA and hopfully taken care of a potentially major problem.  And still have soccer tonight YAY!  Its been a good day so far.

Humans: smarter then God?

As humans we think that we are the smartest and most powerful things in the universe, and to be honest we have accomplished some cool stuff.  Like sending people into space, brain surgery, and making the power to destroy an entire city in the blink of an eye.   But are these truly our greatest accomplishments?  Are these things and others like them truly our only legacy on this earth in our brief existence?

Throughout the course of day I was struck several things which by themselves seem insignificant but chaining them together they become a wake-up call to all willing to take the time to see the connection.  The three simple things that I saw where this:  two signs and one lyric of a song.  The signs where road signs one being a street name and the other a warning sign.  The street name was “best line” and the warning sign was a “no exit” sign. See it’s like I said not really thought provoking or very unique on their own or even together.  Now what if you where to look, at those signs, from an unbeliever’s perspective on his own life? 

What I mean by this is that no matter what an unbeliever does or says in this life, even if he does it to the best of his ability, there is no exit from what awaits him at the end of it all.  Kind of depressing I know but just think about it for a second.   I mean no matter what that person does, weather it is run for president, becoming a billionaire, or even finding the cure for cancer, in the end it will not help him to survive the worst place of all.  So then what does this secular man do?

He fights!  With all of his being, he fights the inevitable.  The inevitable onslaught that will both test and overcome us and there is no avoiding it.  It is coming to put an end to all our lives, it is death.  This is where the third thing, the lyric, comes into play.  The lyric is from a song by “Write this Down” called Hand Grenades.  It goes like this “We fight with hand grenades because we’ve got nothing left”.    That’s what this man, this unbeliever, is and has been doing for his entire life.  Fighting the only way he knows how.  With earthly, flesh driven things like knowledge and a sense of security brought by power and money.  So I ask you, when does it change?  When will it end?  What will take for this man to finally change his fruitless ways?

It will take someone with a heart like Jesus, someone with the capacity to love this man.  But is that all?  No.  It will take a road with an exit sign that leads to something better.  It will take something to show this man how to fight with more than just earthly things.  Something that isn’t from this world but from something better.  From someone above this world.  This broken, sick world that is on a collision course with a time, an event, when all we know, everyone we know will be changed forever.  But it doesn’t have to be a change for the worse.  Of course that choice is up to you.  Bu what is this something that will change it all?

It’s a book.  Written by man.  Inspired by a Being more powerful than we can ever hope to be, more terrible than our eyes can stand.  Wiser than all scholars put together, past, present and future.  More beautiful than a thousand sunsets.  He is so merciful that He forgave the men that nailed His only Son to two pieces of timber on a hilltop.  And most importantly this Being is a being of pure love.  Able to love those that in their hourly to hourly lives spit on His name, burn His very words, and kill those that would defend Him.  But there is one more thing, He created those same people and He gave them the ability to choose whether to love or hate Him.  And what have they done?  By the tens, hundreds, thousands, and dare I say millions?  They fought Him. Killed His only Son.  And ignored His very existence.   

Now what about our man? Our unbelieving man of knowledge who constantly fights his own Creator.  Who is he you may ask?  He is every person who has ever lived.  He is Alexander the great.   He is the pope.  He is your next door neighbor.  He is your mother, your father, your grandparents, even the pastor of the church down the street.  He is you and he is me.    Everyone who has ever lived laughed, loved and breathed is guilty of the worst and despicable actions and does them repeatedly.  And what does our Father, our Creator, do?

He forgives us.  Each and every time we trespass against Him, He forgives us.  There is no limit to His forgiveness.  Nor is there an exact path that we need to follow.  All that we must do is to follow Him, because He knows that although we do great evil, we can also do great good for those around us.  And all we have to do is follow His book and its path to best of our abilities.  And the most important thing of all is to love others just as He loves us.  We don’t have to be perfect at it; we don’t even have know exactly what we are doing.  All we have to do is try.  Try with all our might and He will in turn forgive, cherish and love us no matter how many times we screw up.  Always and forever He is our Provider, Friend, Brother-In-Arms, Guide, Creator, Father, Protector, Judge, and Savior.

Lights

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; - Philippians 2:15

Have you ever wondered “I’m a Christian now what?”  Ever thought to yourself “hmm I’ve got this whole sin thing under control and I go to church every Sunday so I must be doing pretty good.”   What about our faith, our gift of grace, our knowledge of our supreme merciful, loving creator?  What are we supposed to do with them?

So you have just graduated and you finally have that little piece of paper in your hand that says your worth something to the world.  What now?  For most it’s just find a job and jump right into the daily grind of a suburban life.   Maybe for you that includes going to church and tithing ten percent of your income and always sitting in the middle of the sanctuary, and making always appearing to listen attentively.  If this is you then well done you have achieved what most Christians would call a healthy life style.  But is it really?  Is this all that God calls us to do?

Let’s talk bit about God’s calling for our lives.  We know that He calls those “special or gifted” people to go across the world and to reach the “unchurched heathens” in their little jungle huts and He also calls a few to be pastors here in our own country but that’s it.  Those are really the only people God calls to be “lights in the world”.  Right?  I mean we all can’t be preachers and missionaries for God and still live our normal comfortable lives.  Can we?  Well the answer is no, we can’t.  But then is that what we are called to do?  Are all of us normal people supposed to fit in that “healthy Christian” mold? 

Truth is I personally think that it’s time to break the mold.  I think that living such a passive way of a Christian life is a huge waste.  Sure we aren’t all supposed book the next plane to South America but what about that soup kitchen down town? Or the elder lady next door? What about that lost family member?  It says in Philippians that we are to be lights in the world and does our world not include thee afore mentioned?  Does it not include your co-workers and your boss? Doesn’t include your children?

That’s what Paul is trying to get at here in Philippians, to be different from those around you.  That in a dark world you would be a hopeful, loving shining light for Him!    Just like pastors and missionaries make an impact in their fields of work, so can we.  By just shinning a little brighter for Jesus, to those around us, we can make a huge difference and it may not be instant but over time even the darkest palaces can be reached.  But how do we shine brighter?

Well I said it already, by being different from those around us.  Not just crazy different like dressing in a suit and tie or a dress everywhere you go but by actually living a life style that pleases and honors our wonderful creator.   We can also shine brighter by getting rid of those things that darken our lives.   Things that in an unbeliever’s eyes would subtract from out testimony as a light in the world, things such as reading magazines or books that aren’t God honoring or ,as it says in Philippians 4:8, anything that is excellent or praise worthy, think on such things.

So what am I trying to say through all of this babbling?  Simply this, we are to be a shining light in our world.  Be a positive influence on those around us, and not fall into being a “normal Christian”.   That’s all that God really desires, for us to live a life that is sold out to Him and to show to others the same love and compassion that Jesus Christ showed us.  I pray that I will be able to do the same and that my fellow Christians will be a help and encouragement each other in this regard.

Do Not Worry

Luke 12:22-34

In verse 25 it says that we can't ever add a single hour onto our lives.  So how or why do we do it?  Think of the old saying "Worry is like a rocking chair.  It gives you something to do but gets you nowhere."  So it doesn't help so why do we still do it?  Because we feel the need to be in control of our lives and provide for our families.  But the where does God fit in to this big worry picture?  Where does the omnipotent, omnipresent heavenly Father come in to play in our big picture of worry?  It says in v. 31 that all you have to do is seek His Kingdom and all these things will be added on too you.  What are these things?  Well its says it right before this in verse 30.  Did you catch it?  EVERYTHING that you NEED He will provide.   So what does this mean in the long run of things?  Well all you have to do is to seek God every day with all your heart and He will provide for you.  Just like it says in a song that was sung last night, turn your face fully on God and all the earthly things will grow dim.  Every thing pales in comparision to the Face of God.  So back to the worry aspect.  What place does worry have in a life that is pleasing to God?  It can't help you and gets you nowhere.  So if worry is like a rocking chair then prayer is like running a marathon.  And my friends is what God has called us to do.  To run the race of a christian life 100% sold out for Him.