Hey guys!
It's that time of year again! I don't know about you, but I'm wiped out and school hasn't officially even started yet! But don't let this year's school stress get to you, I was reading the Bible the other day and I stumbled across Psalm 34:14and it said "...Seek Peace and Pursue it.". At first I thought it sounded odd, but after thinking about it, it made more sense to me. Sometimes you really do have to pursue peace, it's not going to just happen when life is stressful. You have to do something about it. Ever tired being calm and patient instead of angry when that nasty, stinky kid cuts in the lunch line? Try changing the situation instead of complaining about it. You'd be surprised how much peace there is to find in everyday life when you're looking for it. :)
May God Bless you greatly this school year, and I hope that you will be a blessing to Him too! :D
PS: Be sure to come to our Back to School Bash at the pool on Saturday! It's gonna rock! :]
Friday, August 17, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
The End of the Blog...for me atleast
You all should know by now that I am about done at Calvary. Just a few more weeks left. I will be going to school in Conway, and I don't think I'll be coming back too much. I'm not leaving to get away, I just feel it's better for me to find a church and settle down there instead of trying to maintain my ties here. I feel led to youth ministry, and I intend to seek out a position in a church there. If that happens (and I'm pretty intent on it), I obviously won't be returning to Calvary.
About this blog...
To be honest, even I have lost interest in this thing. I'm not saying that's okay. I believe this blog had a purpose, but it was never fully realized. Few really tried. I didn't give up on it, I just...okay, yeah - I gave up on it. But what choice did I have? And besides, I'm not sure if it was really worth the effort.
But, for whatever it's worth, the blog is still here. I couldn't bring myself to shut it down completely, mostly because doing so would erase all the posts made when there was still life on here. So I guess it will stay open, although I won't have anything to do with it anymore. I'm passing on the torch to whoever will take it. It's really simple - you tell me you want it, I will make you administrator, and then you can delete me from the blog.
What happens after that is up to you.
About this blog...
To be honest, even I have lost interest in this thing. I'm not saying that's okay. I believe this blog had a purpose, but it was never fully realized. Few really tried. I didn't give up on it, I just...okay, yeah - I gave up on it. But what choice did I have? And besides, I'm not sure if it was really worth the effort.
But, for whatever it's worth, the blog is still here. I couldn't bring myself to shut it down completely, mostly because doing so would erase all the posts made when there was still life on here. So I guess it will stay open, although I won't have anything to do with it anymore. I'm passing on the torch to whoever will take it. It's really simple - you tell me you want it, I will make you administrator, and then you can delete me from the blog.
What happens after that is up to you.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Mission Arlington!
Hey guys!
What did you think about Mission Arlington? I know some of you got sick at points, but I was really happy to see those few get through that an still be willing to work. Even though it was really hot and there was a lot to be done a lot of you worked really hard. And for those who didn't, there's our next mission trip that you can go on! *Muwhahaa* ;P
Anyhoo, I hope that you all had a good time and gave it your best shot. Let us know what you thought about it! Feel free to say anything about it. What was your favorite part, what was hardest for you, heck how long did take you to get to sleep, and are your willing to more mission trips like this? :)
Oh, and I didn't get the chance to take many pictures while working, but here are a few pictures from the trip! If you have any pictures that you want to add to this, just let me know! :D
What did you think about Mission Arlington? I know some of you got sick at points, but I was really happy to see those few get through that an still be willing to work. Even though it was really hot and there was a lot to be done a lot of you worked really hard. And for those who didn't, there's our next mission trip that you can go on! *Muwhahaa* ;P
Anyhoo, I hope that you all had a good time and gave it your best shot. Let us know what you thought about it! Feel free to say anything about it. What was your favorite part, what was hardest for you, heck how long did take you to get to sleep, and are your willing to more mission trips like this? :)
Oh, and I didn't get the chance to take many pictures while working, but here are a few pictures from the trip! If you have any pictures that you want to add to this, just let me know! :D
Monday, July 09, 2007
Heart of the Matter
'ello everybody!
Well here it is, one of my last post in this little mini-series. I was originally planning on a lot more detailed, and a lot longer series of posts, but I can see now that I'd loose your attention (if I haven't already LOL).
So, instead of continuing to plod along point by point, I'm gonna try and wrap it all up in one or two more posts. This is the heart of the matter. This is what I have been drilling towards with my previous posts all along. I quite bluntly brought out into the open a few of the things that we all think from time to time, because they needed to be said.
What I've been getting at these past several weeks (months?) is that though we may be doing a lot of the "churchy" things, we aren't doing them for any reason other than it's something we are obligated to do, because it's the rules. That should not be our motivation.
The heart of the matter, is a matter of the heart.
It seems we have lost the focus of Christianity. It has shifted from relationship to religion, and from love to a litany of rules. To make Christianity about rules and regulations twists it from the most beautiful thing to ever grace this planet into a thing of absolute depravity. It changes the life of a Christian from one that can withstand persecution and horrors because we have a relationship with a hero, with a father, to a life that IS persecution and horrors.
How many of us dread going to church on Sunday morning? How many avoid a "quiet time" because it is so unearthly boring? How many find the only highlight to mission work the fact that you can (at least) be with friends? Here is the question I have asked many times now: Why? Why, Why, Why? I stress the answer: Because we don't have a relationship with our creator. Because we are just "following the rules".
I'm sure someone is reading this right now thinking that I've gone completely off my rocker. They are probably saying something along the lines of "rules are important!"; that "to dismiss the rules of Christianity is a very bad thing!", of the Devil in fact. I would agree with them! I am not dismissing the rules, the rules are important! They tell us what God approves of and what He does not.
However, blindly following the rules, simply as rules is perhaps an even worse fate than not following them at all!
If you are blatantly disobeying the rules someone can come along side and show you the error of your ways, God will get "on your case" about it, you will feel guilty and know why. To (unknowingly) ignore a relationship with God by following the rules, just to follow the rules is missing the entire reason for those rules in the first place. You will find all the rules difficult, boring, dull, difficult to bear. You will feel that there is something missing, but not know what.
OK Greg, so you've spoken theoretically so far. All of this "we don't have a realtionship" and "following rules just because they are rules stuff" is well and good, but what about practically? What are you advising? Certainly you aren't saying that we should give up the rules? That would be madness and sin! How do you propose we gain this "relationship"? Don't we have a relationship as soon as we are saved?
I would answer that now, but this post has (again :) grown to be far too large already. Next post is where I want to really dive into the nitty-gritty.
Well here it is, one of my last post in this little mini-series. I was originally planning on a lot more detailed, and a lot longer series of posts, but I can see now that I'd loose your attention (if I haven't already LOL).
So, instead of continuing to plod along point by point, I'm gonna try and wrap it all up in one or two more posts. This is the heart of the matter. This is what I have been drilling towards with my previous posts all along. I quite bluntly brought out into the open a few of the things that we all think from time to time, because they needed to be said.
What I've been getting at these past several weeks (months?) is that though we may be doing a lot of the "churchy" things, we aren't doing them for any reason other than it's something we are obligated to do, because it's the rules. That should not be our motivation.
The heart of the matter, is a matter of the heart.
It seems we have lost the focus of Christianity. It has shifted from relationship to religion, and from love to a litany of rules. To make Christianity about rules and regulations twists it from the most beautiful thing to ever grace this planet into a thing of absolute depravity. It changes the life of a Christian from one that can withstand persecution and horrors because we have a relationship with a hero, with a father, to a life that IS persecution and horrors.
How many of us dread going to church on Sunday morning? How many avoid a "quiet time" because it is so unearthly boring? How many find the only highlight to mission work the fact that you can (at least) be with friends? Here is the question I have asked many times now: Why? Why, Why, Why? I stress the answer: Because we don't have a relationship with our creator. Because we are just "following the rules".
I'm sure someone is reading this right now thinking that I've gone completely off my rocker. They are probably saying something along the lines of "rules are important!"; that "to dismiss the rules of Christianity is a very bad thing!", of the Devil in fact. I would agree with them! I am not dismissing the rules, the rules are important! They tell us what God approves of and what He does not.
However, blindly following the rules, simply as rules is perhaps an even worse fate than not following them at all!
If you are blatantly disobeying the rules someone can come along side and show you the error of your ways, God will get "on your case" about it, you will feel guilty and know why. To (unknowingly) ignore a relationship with God by following the rules, just to follow the rules is missing the entire reason for those rules in the first place. You will find all the rules difficult, boring, dull, difficult to bear. You will feel that there is something missing, but not know what.
OK Greg, so you've spoken theoretically so far. All of this "we don't have a realtionship" and "following rules just because they are rules stuff" is well and good, but what about practically? What are you advising? Certainly you aren't saying that we should give up the rules? That would be madness and sin! How do you propose we gain this "relationship"? Don't we have a relationship as soon as we are saved?
I would answer that now, but this post has (again :) grown to be far too large already. Next post is where I want to really dive into the nitty-gritty.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
HEY! Who's ready to hear me scream like a girl???
Tommorrow.....at approximately 01800....we shall depart from our humble place of etheral knowledge and embark on the pilgramge to the great pond on the rock....Actually its a chlorine-filled human-zoo at Little Rock...BUT ITS GREAT!!!!!
Alrighty I know not many people are going this year, but HEY it's enough to warrant a blog-post and I havent been on in quite a while!
So...If you read this clicky the comment button and let everyone know your going...So I can know who I am going to embarrass myself in front of...hehe
One more thing.....WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Alrighty I know not many people are going this year, but HEY it's enough to warrant a blog-post and I havent been on in quite a while!
So...If you read this clicky the comment button and let everyone know your going...So I can know who I am going to embarrass myself in front of...hehe
One more thing.....WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Happy 4th of July
This is the day we celebrate our country's freedom.
During the war of 1812, while on the deck of a truce ship, Francis Scott Key paced nervously as a fierce battle raged nearby during the British attack on the harbor of Baltimore. as District Attorney of Georgetown and a spiritual lay leader of his church, Key had been sent by President James Madison to negotiate with the British for a physician who had been taken prisoner. All night Key and his party were detained as the heavy bombardment continued. When the firing suddenly stopped just before morning, Key was fearful of the outcome; but as he looked hesitantly across the water, he saw the American flag still triumphantly flying with the assurance of our nation's freedom!
With joyful relief, Key wrote his poem hastily on the back of an envelope and put finishing touches on it after being released later that evening. One month later the song was published, accompanied by an old hunting tune, "Anacorn in Heaven," attributed to John Stafford Smith of England. Although enthusiastically received by the people, the song was not officially adopted by Congress as out national anthem until March 3 1931.
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must. when our cause it is just; and this be our motto: "In God is our trust!" And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
taken from Amazing Grace 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions
by: Kenneth W. Osbeck
During the war of 1812, while on the deck of a truce ship, Francis Scott Key paced nervously as a fierce battle raged nearby during the British attack on the harbor of Baltimore. as District Attorney of Georgetown and a spiritual lay leader of his church, Key had been sent by President James Madison to negotiate with the British for a physician who had been taken prisoner. All night Key and his party were detained as the heavy bombardment continued. When the firing suddenly stopped just before morning, Key was fearful of the outcome; but as he looked hesitantly across the water, he saw the American flag still triumphantly flying with the assurance of our nation's freedom!
With joyful relief, Key wrote his poem hastily on the back of an envelope and put finishing touches on it after being released later that evening. One month later the song was published, accompanied by an old hunting tune, "Anacorn in Heaven," attributed to John Stafford Smith of England. Although enthusiastically received by the people, the song was not officially adopted by Congress as out national anthem until March 3 1931.
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must. when our cause it is just; and this be our motto: "In God is our trust!" And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
taken from Amazing Grace 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions
by: Kenneth W. Osbeck
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