These are a few of my LEAST favorite things

everything I found I am allergic to today

The Body

As I was hanging out with my group of friends from high school the other night I got a good understanding of how the church works together as the body of Christ. When the whole group of us is together everything is right, things are joyful, we all have our role we play and there's just a peace about it all. But if just two of us get together it can be kind of weird. Like if you just had the foot and the tongue you couldn't get much work done as "the body." Sometimes just two of us being together can be nice though, like maybe an arm and a hand working together, but its still not as good as when the whole group is together. As part of the "body of Christ" I've got to plug into and be involved in the life of the rest of the body. As much as I think I can be a foot and accomplish what I need to on my own I will never reach my full potential until I find the body that's missing one foot and has a place just for me.

Forgotten God -Francis Chan

"Is it possible to get enough or even too much God? Is there a point where a person can be satisfied with the amount of intimacy, knowledge, and power of God he or she experiences? I don't see how there can be, because doesn't every encounter with God only cause us to thirst for him more?"

"I can't say exactly what will happen when you admit that you can never fully know or experience enough of the Holy Spirit yet choose to seek him regardless. I know only that when you surrender fully to the spirit, Christ will be magnified, not you (John 16:14)."

"Perhaps the core issue is really about our holding back from giving ourselves to God, rather than our getting too much of him."

"Paul wrote to the Corinthians that his words were not "wise and persuasive" but rather a "demonstration of the spirit's power"...In most churches today I hear a lot of talk and the facade of human wisdom, but I don't see much of God's presence and power."

John 12:32

"What is extremely important is for the worker's simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness depends on that, and that alone." -Oswald Chambers

When I first started this journey of discipleship almost 6 years ago I didn't really know what was supposed to happen. I wasn't looking for answers or feelings or any special thing to happen. All I knew was if I wanted to become a "better Christian" I was supposed to pray and read my Bible, so I did. "What is extremely important is for the worker's simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing." Because my main focus was only on God's word and talking with Him things were simple, many things seemed black and white because I just wanted to do what the Bible said. Because my focus was only on God and not the results of reading his word my relationship was strong and growing. Over the years as I've learned what can happen when you pray and what you can argue about in the Bible and when you come to prayer or scripture with these alterior motives the simplicity is lost, the relationship isn't strong because there is no relationship. I've tried to turn Christ into my "jeanie in a bottle," I want answers, I want things fixed, I want I want I want... But if my usefulness depends on [my simple relationship], and that alone I've got to return to the days of just coming to Christ to spend time with him and listen to what he says. I miss Him. I can blame my college, my church, my leaders for getting me to this place but really I am the only one who has control over my relationship with Christ. I'm going back to the simplicity of seeking Christ so he will draw me close again. "And I, if I am lifted up...will draw all people to myself." John 12:32

A montage of my recent state of mind

melted brain

Shriveled up brain.

brain fried

The way I see It

After 23 years of reading, acting out, singing about, and watching in Peanuts form "The Christmas Story" it can become just another ornament that gets hung up durring this holiday season. This year this season comes upon me at a time when I am in pursuit of knowing Christ more intimately, so in hopes of avoiding missing "the true meaning of Christmas" I started praying for God to show me something new in the story of Jesus' birth this year...

In evangelism, church planting, and missions classes we've talked a lot about contextualizing; getting to know the people, what they're in to, how they communicate with eachother, what it is that really gets their attention, and then bringing Christianity to them in a way that will really "click." This weekend I figured out that God truely sets the example of that whole concept for us as he worked it out perfectly at his son's birth...

So this is the new thing God showed me this year: God was coming to the Earth in human flesh and he needed to get the word out. So He went to the common everyday blue collar workers out in the feild and put on a show. After spending their entire lives growing up with shepards and learning the ways of watching out for sheep their intellectual level probably wasn't extremely deep. Knowing this God sent down lights and angels and loud voices and put on a show to get their attention, tell them what's up and how they can find his son. That night they saw Jesus face to face and were forever changed.

He also wanted to get the attention of the well-to-do wisemen in the surrounding lands. Knowing that they trusted things that they could spend time investigating and having something to explore and work through would make it really meaningful for them all he sent them was a new star in the sky. Seeing as how they spent their lives studying the skies God knew they would discover this new star and start searching for answers. In the end their journey of collecting stories from the common people, following and new star, and speaking with a king also lead them to an encounter with Jesus.

If all God had done was put a star in the sky a bunch of shepards would have totally missed it because they were too busy beating of animals who were trying to eat their sheep. And if all he sent was a show of angels the wisemen would have missed out on a journey that drew them into a relationship with Christ. Just like Paul said he wanted to "become all things to all men" (1 Cor 9:22-23) I hope to learn how to share Jesus in an effective way that my "people group" gets it, is excited about it, and is drawn deeper into it.

Puritan Prayer

Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

It was Worth It

All the hours I spent this summer playing kiddie games, figuring out bible lessons, coming up with crafts, getting muddy on water days, and washing dishes seemed worth it today when one of the families that came to Summer of Lunch joined the church. After getting to know the family over the summer it was clear that being part of a church was probably not on their radar at all. But it has awesome to watch God move over the past 5 months. By offering the family's three girls free lunch and games over the summer we became friends with the family and more and more doors started opening from there. It makes me really happy to know these girls are going to have a great church family to grow up in as they begin their walk with Christ. I didn't love everything about Summer of Lunch, but it was definitely all worth it, and I'd do it again if I knew more families would find their place to get connected into God's Kingdom!