Climbing Higher

DUDE, IT WAS ROCKIN.
In my 6 years with the youth group, I have never been on a more rewarding trip. The awesome thing about this retreat was that it was more focused spiritual growth than anything else. The worship was the most genuine I've ever experienced. Our speaker, Stuart Hall, is one of the best youth speakers I've ever heard... ever. I discovered the concept of journaling, it rocks. Stax, Sarge, Rev. Prib, Snacks, Gu, Phil, and I did some amasing devotions & small group stuff with Ben, Ben, and Bob. We climbed stuff too...like rocks...and mountains... and jungle gyms. There was the beastly Mountaintop Football. Mel and Shelly got us more food. Cam ate pudding. Phil had awesome one-liners. Prib climbed like a Billy goat. Gu made a mess. Stephanie was the human Zamboni. Stax's foot nast could stop a beating heart. And Cam invented the double hander lander (big pimpin'). Thanks for making this retreat the best ever, guys. Check out Ben K, Bob M, and Phil's (people's) blogs for some awesome photos.

Mud

A God thing happened to me this week. On a few separate occasions, people came and told me that they’re getting frustrated with their ministries, and for good reasons. The thing that was common between these people was that they felt like they weren’t getting a response from the people they’re ministering to. One of these guys told me that he was getting the feeling that everything he said went into one ear, and out the other, his group has no facial expressions, no apparent life in them, pure apathy. It seems that regardless of the effort he puts into his ministry, he sees no results. The other guy told me that he has been praying for a Godly renewal for his family, and that he is getting really frustrated, even depressed, because he’s not seeing any results, regardless of how hard he prays, or how hard he tries to talk with his family about God. So, I decided that because this theme was appearing so often in my life, it was probably a God thing, and I should meditate on it a bit. So I looked through my Bible and found an awesome passage. In 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9 Paul writes about his ministry with Apollos. It seems that the two had a disagreement, but that’s irrelative to the point. Paul writes:
“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.”
This passage blew me away. Look at it. Paul describes how he planted the seed of Christ/ God/ Christianity into the people, and how later, Apollos watered that seed, but only God made it grow. Going along with this analogy, I think that we're so harvest oriented that we tend to forget the process required for the harvest to come. I find that as I look back on my Christian life, the people I remember most are the ones who planted the seed of Christ in my life, and the ones who ‘reaped the harvest’ when I finally became a Christian. I tend to overlook the hundreds of people who ‘watered’ me. As I look back, I think that these people were perhaps the biggest overall influence on me, yet they got the least credit and felt the least joy out of these three groups. Think about it. The planter sees a physical seed go into the ground and get covered by dirt and fertilizer; he sees that there is promise in his work. Similarly the harvester sees the final product that all this hard work has gone into and is happy because the final result is awesome. But what does the waterer see? Mud. Nothing but pure, gooey, stinky, brown mud. Though he can’t see it, something is happening below that mud. Ever so slowly, that seed is growing roots, and getting ready to break through. But the only one who knows when that seed will sprout is God, the one who makes it grow. So have faith guys. God is at work, we just can’t see it right now because the mud’s in the way. But when that seed finally sprouts, we’ll have a real good salad. Mmmmm, salad... good.

1 Corinthians 15:58

March Madness

March Madness was unbelievable. We had a great time. Jazz is going to replace Deuce in the Steelers lineup, no doubt. Ben's mom is my adopted great aunt. Steve is the greatest baller ever, as well as an amazing linebacker. Jimmy makes awesome target practice. The Guarantee is unbelievable. Fred & Barney smoke Winston. I ate Doritos off my chest. Thanks for letting me be a part of this awsome group everybody! U-CONN SUCKS!!!

Stupid Drivers

Ok, I'm a pretty tolerant guy in general. But there are some things that annoy me to no end. One of these things is stupid drivers. After looking at all the characteristics of stupid drivers, I've placed them into my top three general annoying driver categories.


#3. Old people who drive really slow. I'm talking like ten under the speed limit. They're usually in a Cadillac, or Oldsmobile, and they're always dressed like they're going somewhere important. It's one thing if you're on a nice pretty country road with fresh air and farms or something, but you not, you're on West Liberty Avenue passing a row of bars and it smells like fart outside. The reason your in a car is to GET SOMEWHERE, so do it.


#2. People who drive Hummers. AHHH. Maybe they have some kind of self esteem issue. I definantly know that you're not patrolling downtown Baghdad or the 38th parallel in Korea and even if you were, your yellow paint job and chrome rims aren't much good for camo. You're on a four lane highway, there aren't any giant boulders in sight, and even if you came up to a boulder, or a large puddle you probably wouldn't have the guts to drive through it.


#1. People who think they have a nice car, and don't. I'm talking about the guys who buy a 1994 Dodge Neon and put one of those god awful amplifying mufflers on the end so they can run around and every one can hear their "big engine". Ok, no. By slapping that god forsaken chrome turd on the back of your Neon, you've done nothing but transform a crappy engine into a loud crappy engine. Get a grip. Look at yourself, YOU'RE IN A DODGE NEON, AND YOU'RE PROUD OF IT!

Godly guilt?

Is there such a thing as godly guilt? Hummm. I often hear from my non-Christian friends that guilt is merely an illusion placed upon us by teachers, parents, or the church. I don't buy it. I think that teachers, parents, and the church can magnify a possible fault (if they present it properly and you don't immediately rebel against it), however I think guilt is internally generated. Or does it come from God? David writes in Psalm 32 that "I confessed my transgressions to the Lord- and you forgave the guilt of my sin". Does he mean that God forgave both his sin, and the guilt of his sin (another sin in itself?)? David later writes in Psalm 38 that his guilt is like a burden too heavy to bear. Does this imply that guilt is itself a sin, or a byproduct of sin? In Leviticus 5, there is mention of a "guilt sacrifice". Does this mean that God wants us to feel guilt so that we come to him for forgiveness? I know that when I mess up, the Holy Spirit gives me a sensation of conviction, but does the devil take that sensation of conviction and expand it into guilt? Or is that guilt feeling an intense form of Godly conviction? So many questions. I don't know the answers but if anyone does, feel free to shed some light on the subject.

Wasting Time

So I'm sitting here in my 2nd period CAD class, doing nothing and thinking about how much time I waste in school every day. I figured that every day I spend 7 hours in school from 8 Am to 3 PM. Of those 7 hours, 45 minutes are spent walking between classes, 45 minutes in this slacker CAD class, 45 minutes are spent in a pointless study hall, and another 45 minutes are wasted in lunch. That means I've wasted 3 hours each day, 23 days each year, or 3 whole months over my entire high school career. So if we eliminated how much time the school wastes each day, seniors could get out on March 15. That means I could be done with school in 8 days!!! But no, its far more important to take pointless classes, eat lunch on campus, and sleep through a million study halls. ARGH.

Sorry

Sorry everybody, I messed up. Earlier this week I posted "You're Cold - Put on a Sweater". After reading it today I discovered that there were a few things I wrote in anger that were completely out of line. I have since fixed them, but want to apologise to anyone I may have offended. Often I need to remember that everyone is a child of God, and thus deserves our love and respect.

You're Cold- Put on a Sweater

Ok, so I'm sitting at lunch today, eating my custom made sandwich & chips, looking over toward a table of guys doing... well the same as I am. Just another typical 4th period Thursday on the 6th floor cafeteria. As we all sat, salivating at the mechanically separated meat particles before us, I noticed that nearly all the guys at the table across from me were looking at something in the lunch line. As I turned my head, ever so slightly, to the left in anticipation of a fight, a pile of barf, or something that could so easily captivate the minds of nearly a dozen high school boys simultaneously, I noticed that there was nothing but two girls standing in the line for lunch. There didn't seem to be anything particularly interesting about these girls, until they turned around and I noticed that they were almost naked from the waist up. As I sat there, initially in shock / amazement, then later in disgust, I noticed that the particular emotions running through my head were not shared by my classmates. Perhaps it would be more acceptable if you two were members of a remote poverty stricken tribe in Equatorial Guinea, or stuck on a desert island with a single mold infested T-shirt, but your not: YOU'RE TWO RICH SUBURBAN KIDS AND ITS FREAKING SNOWING OUTSIDE!!! Matthew 5:28 tells me that, "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart". So please, don't wear things that make you a walking billboard, especially in school. Besides, you're probably really cold, so put on a sweater!