This is My Big Day!!!!

Question of the Week

Some friends of mine and yours truly and answering some questions this week. If you are reading this then feel free to blog on this same question and let me know so I can read it. This is a question i got from a cheesy youth ministry book and I asked my volunteers in front of the high school students and I have not stopped thinking about the answer yet. Here is the questions...

Where do you feel closest to God?

This is a big question but I choose to answer in a general sense. On a general level I feel closest to God when I experience great community. What i mean by that is that I feel like God is nearest to me when I am doing life with people in a genuine honest way. When I can be real with my friends and when they are being real with me. That is community.

I remember a specific moment when I was with a group of friends and we were all hanging at my house after a Wilco concert at the old mill. We ordered chinese food and sat around my table talking. I had 3 sets of friends from 3 periods of my life. it was just a cool moment when I was able to experience community with so many areas of my life.

That was just one of many times but in a nut shell I feel closest to God when I can have true fellow.

Great Book

I was reminded today of something while I was driving by myself from Orange County to Sacramento. I love CS Lewis. Even though he wrote his books a few years ago God has really used him to speak to me while I was listening to the Screw Tape Letters. If you haven't read this book you should. The whole premise of the book is a Demon is writing letters to a Demon in training. The senior demon name "Uncle Screwtape" is giving advice on how to trip up humans and how to cause humans to sin. It is some really good insight on ways that the enemy may think about our temptation.

If you have not read this book you should. It will change the way you view your everyday activities.

Thats my 2 cents.

The Game Plan

Like any tactical mission you need a plan. You don't go into war with out a strategy, like you don't enter Costco hungry, and especially you don't battle a mouse with no idea as to how. I thought I would do you all a favor by posting my game plan on this blog. Make sure not to leak this out. If you do just make sure not to resell for profit without giving me a cut. So enjoy and I await the call from the History Channel asking me to narrate a documentary on how to battle mice.

A little game of cat and mouse

Tonight I feel like Arnold Swartenheggerherzergeerds... in Predator when he covered himself in mud, set a trap for the predator and waited. I have a a trap, 3 to be exact and now I wait. My buddy Marc came over to help me make a game plan and then help me also set the traps. In keeping with the predator theme Marc would be my Carl Weathers only I am hoping he doesnt get his arm blown off like ol Carl does in the movie. Any way my enemy is not an alien from outer space bent on hunting the galaxies finest prey but rather a mouse. This mouse came into my home uninvited and has been pooping in my pantry. This will be the last night that he enjoys taking a poo in kitchen though. I have set 3 sweet traps that has his name on them (what his or her name may be). Here is a break down of what I used.

• Under the Oven
• We have an old school metal spring trap with refried bean and Christmas cookie sprinkles on them. This is our first line of defense
• Along the wall
• I got standard Peanut butter with a dusting of baby formula. Maybe this is an infant mouse and loves the taste of formula.
• Finally in the pantry I have peanut butter with sprinkles..
• if this doesn't work then nothing will.

So tonight I wait and tomorrow I laugh because I will be victorious. I have attached some great picture of various mouse traps. Even though these are not the actual traps they really help with my story. Good night everyone and I hope to bring you good news in the morning.

PESM

I began my first day of school yesterday. I bought a new note bad and headed over to Portland for a little sip from the fire hose (metaphorically speaking of course). I started on my journey to get my masters degree. The first step is entering the Pacific Evangelical School of Ministry or PESM. This so far has been a pretty cool experience so far. I have been given about 10 books to read and multiple papers to write. I am excited to begin my learning again. I am always trying to learn but this is fun to learn in a classroom setting. Tonight I have a class from 7 to 10:30 tonight. Pretty crazy but I am excited because it is all about church history. Even though I am having a great time I still miss my family and I am missing the kick off night for Glow.

Anyway I cannot wait to become an expert on something becuase right now I am an expert only in lame things that dont matter. Like xbox 360 or collecting old computers.

I hope to have good things to say when i get back but I thought I would just post an update. Peace out dawgs

The B.S. (Blogging Society) Q of the Week

Posed by Keith Kirkpatrick

Jesus said, "if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Matt 16:24) He also says, "Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33)

Most (American) Christians do not look any different from those who do not follow Christ. How do we follow Christ whole heartedly, a life surrendered to Jesus, giving up everything, and as Jesus says in Matt 16:25 we must "lose our life" to "find it"?

To shorten it: How do we look different from the world according to our faith in Jesus Christ?

This is a big question. I know how to answer this giving a church answer but since I dont like doing that and I dont know everything I will answer and probably have some questions of my own.

here is what I do know.

Eph 5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Matthew 5-7 the Sermon on the mount is pretty counter cultural.

2Co 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial ? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

What I see here is a distinction between motives that then turn into action. I see that by setting my mind to that which God has, my life will be forever changed. I guess the question that has been posed is one of practicality and what that looks like in our day to day.

I have always had a hard time with this. Here is what I will say in a bullet style way.

• Sin: A christian should not be satisfied in their sin but Rather humbled and repentant. Christians recognize that they do sin but also make a conscious effort to correct any sin that is in their life. Jesus Christ is the only way to be forgiven but we have to act like we are repentant.
  
• Deeds: anyone can talk as if God has changed their life but we have got to act like He has. As Francis Chan said in a recent sermon on holiness, "we cannot keep prostituting ourselves out and then come to church like nothing happened." We have to recognize our sin and address it. Then try not to repeat the sin and learn from it.
• Speech: Sin is rebellion against God and we cannot speak as if we are proud of it. When someone is really repentant they dont brag about sin but rather are ashamed that they essentially spit in God's face and turned their back on God.

Simply put Christians that are following Christ need act like they care more about what God thinks then the world. This is the thrust of it all. I have to act like God is bigger then me making a lot of money, being ridiculed, being esteemed by peers, and that God is bigger then ME.

I cannot give a play by play about what this looks like in the everyday life sense because each of us is different and we all have different temperaments and demeanor's. I do know what what ever our personality type is, our minds need to be fixed on the same thing, God, His Word and His Creation.