BECAUSE!

"Therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,"

1st Peter 2:1

When we become Christians not everything is the same. It's a huge moment in the life of a person...ya know only the biggest thing ever passing from death to life. Kinda a big deal :) . But seriously things need to change in our lives as well! Not to earn our salvation but BECAUSE of our salvation. Peter is telling us what marks a believer to the world is taking things in my life that that were in it before I was a Christian and taking them out. They no longer belong there BECAUSE of my salvation, BECAUSE of what Christ did for me and BECAUSE it's no longer me who lives but Christ who lives through me. Not only are we called to remove things but like David who had some mad Harp skills it's never bad to put disciplines in our lives that teach us self-control. Replacing the bad with the good BECAUSE of how good God is in our lives. It's Romans 12:1 living our lives as a living sacrifice. Meaning we analyze our lives like the priest's analyzed the sacrifices back in the day. Inspecting every part of my life to conform it to honor the God of the universe BECAUSE of what He did for me in spite of myself!

It's just one of those things....

"A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You. Answering them, He said, "Who are My mother and My brothers? Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers!"
Mark 3:32-34

I should not have looked at the Israel photos from GCBI. Maybe it was Beauty and the Beast that I watched or who knows but man after looking at those photos my heart hurt. The family that we had at GCBI was one of the greatest things that has ever happened in my life. Maggie, Erin, Chelsea, Doug and Tommy(even though Doug and Tommy were from the past) Are seriously my brothers and sisters. The love that I have for these people is in fact overwhelming to me. I'm not a very "emotional" guy but thinking about those guys brings me to tears. Funnier even is the something that Pastor Randy said to me on graduation which was "to soften". It's something that I have been working on but it's more obvious now than ever than I have become a baby concerning these people! It was sparked by seeing Erin last night in the GCBI building. It was just one of those things that was awesome. I can't even put it in words how much these people mean to me, it's kinda scary. I haven't seen Elijah who was basically my roomate all year since him and Doug left for NC and it sucks. Those two people are my brothers. Relationships that are overwhelming. Our family has been separated for the summer and then some and it's crazy to look back on all the fun we had. It was the Greatest year of my life hands down. Maggie and Erin are in town but Chelsea, Lige, Dougy, Tommy are all gone. Yes temporarily but still.....them being gone sucks. To not be able to walk down the hall and talk to Doug or roll over and make fun of Lige's sheets sucks. Not being woken up by Tommy attacking me in my bed or being made fun of by Erin stinks. Not getting to talk thug to Maggie or having Chelsea's ending comment "Dear So and So........words.....Love Chelsea" is nuts! In retrospect these are some of the things that I took for granted all the time and now that my family isn't here it's sad. Maybe I suck at processing things....I am still trying to process Israel but man....I miss GCBI a lot. Everyone is doing great and I understand that it was just a time in life but still.....I'm not the greatest with words that's pretty obvious but it hit my like a ton of bricks looking through photos how much those people mean to me. How much not having them in my life everyday sucks even though I love everything God is doing in my life.

I don't know what this is about other then trying to adequately put into the words how these people have effected my life how great the year was that I got to spend with them. It was an honor to live with them, an honor to enjoy life together, an honor to get to know some of best people I've ever met and an honor to call them brothers and sisters. My life is better for having known them, my walk with the Lord is better because of them and my heart is better for being able to love them. Thank you guys, you mean the world to me and I can't even use the right words to describe how much I love and appreciate you!

P.s.- I feel it's safe to say you would have never heard me say this out loud. lol Softening is a work in process though!

H-E-L-P, we all need it.

"As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Lord, we want our eyes to be opened." Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him."

Matthew 20:29-34

In Matthew there is this small story that really resonated with me on a level it never had before. It's a powerful image of the power and love of Christ and the courage of these two men. In Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43 it's recorded as one man named Bartimaues receiving his sight though Matthews job was to remember the words of Jesus so it's one person's account all in all it's story resonates the same.

It says in the verse 29-31 a large crowd was following him but it seems clear with their actions that they were not necessarily following Him with their hearts. They show up everywhere in every walk of life we are in. It's the people that want the perks of being a Christian but none of the responsibility of being a surrendered follower. They look good but in their heart they are empty and cold. The amazing piece of this story is these followers needed to cry out too! we all need to be like these blind men at one point in our lives! We need to come to a point in our lives and realize that WE can't do anything to help ourselves but HE can!

I admire these men crying out for Jesus as I think in our lives as Christian we listen to others too much in how we worship or reach for God. These men were told to shut up basically and sometimes as a Christian when I confronted with something in my life that basically tells me to shut up regarding Christ, I do just that. Not these men! When the world is telling them to shut their face the cry out EVEN MORE! Their desire for God went beyond other peoples opinion and what the world was telling them to do.

As a Christian I have to realize that when the world is talking, and it always is as loud as it can, if I start listening to it I can't here what Christ is saying. As a Christian my focus and all Christian's focus need to be on the one whose voice saved me from this world. I need to ignore the worlds voice in what I should do, what success looks like, and what the world wants me to be just as these men did!

These men desired for their eyes to be opened and thats what happened. Not only in a mere physical sense but more importantly in a spiritual sense. I know that these men were not just talking about their vision but also their heart's because Jesus was moved with compassion by them. Jesus saw the brokenness of these men and their surrendered hearts. These men knew that they needed Jesus and they couldn't fix their eyes or their seperation from God but that "The Son of David" could! They got their sight and followed Him. They put on the right glasses, saw the right path to follow and followed the One who knew the way. These men put on the eyes of God and took the path that Jesus took.

God fixed these men's hearts and eyes and he can do that in my life as well but first I need to be willing to forget what the world says and be willing to cry our whole heartedly to Him.

Tempting isn't it....

"Blessed is a man who perseveres under trail; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."

James 1:12

Temptation. It's something that we all struggle with on a daily basis whether we realize it or not. It can be as simple as things we should eat or drink and as big as that thing you shouldn't be watching. Temptation itself isn't a sin that's clear as Jesus himself was tempted. It's not a sin to be tempted in this world in fact God knew it was going to happen. The battle ensues when we are tempted....what are we to do?

FOCUS on the big picture. The reward that is waiting for us is beyond belief my mind can't fathom how amazing it will be to stand in the presence of the creator of the universe and just worship Him. Temptation is hard to run away from because let's be honest....most of the time sin feels good. No one would do it if it didn't feel good and I don't know if you've noticed but apparently sin is quite popular. The problem is that the sin that "feels good" at the time will only last so long. It's a short term gain for long term pain, while resisting temptation will equal blessing and reward. No one is in heaven right now saying "man I wish I gave into that temptation". It's funny Levi Lusko, who I'm a huge fan of, went over this and equated it to beer commercials and others. When we see these commercials we see these people happy and looking great all the time. We don't see overweight men and all the other consequences that alcohol can lead to.

Thats the enemy's game cover the hook with the bait. Once you attack the bait you get the hook as well. God's desire for us is to be holy not always happy but when we resist temptation it results in both in God's time. The happiness that God has in store for those who endure temptation is beyond our greatest dreams and ideas. It's worth it to live for Christ if you believe who he says he is.

"We know Love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

1st John 3:16

Love. The single most powerful thing in my life. It's very easy almost simple to take the love of God for granted. Yea yea yea God loves me ok whatever. It's the power of His Love that makes me want to live for him everyday. It's the power of His Love that makes everything in this world seem small and insignificant. It's the power of His Love that makes trials in my life something to have joy in like James talks about rather than complaining. He is the only one worth living for because his Love for me. The main purpose though is that his Love can't just be about me though it's about what He did for me. My life can't be about me....ever....He died in a public setting so I could not only live for Him publicly but also when no ones watching. He has shown us what Love is and our lives are called to reflect that Love. Love isn't a word and it can't be a word it's the way of life that we called to live.

It's about time

Finally I have gotton back to blogging. It's been way too long for sure but it's amazing how the enemy wants nothing more than the separation from you and His Word. It's very obvious to me as I look back over the couple of months it attacks and breaks your leg's in this epic race of Life. Let's be honest it's pretty hard to run a race with broken leg's so if he can take that away it's easy to attack a immobile enemy.
With that said I'm going to be blogging about James in the upcoming series which is what I've been studying....let me say it's pretty intense. Today, however I'm going to be looking at a simple verse in the book of Psalms.

"Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."
Psalm 100:3

God created us!! How amazing and exciting is that? Were talking about the God who created such things as the sunset the sunrise and oh yea.....everything. It's awesome and should be something that we can rejoice in on a daily basis. I recently purchased a Swiffer Sweeper mop thing and it was a very wise investment. It's handy that's for sure but the company that made it included instructions. Who read's instructions? I guess the Swiffer people forgot that I'm a man and I don't need instruction but I do forgive them. Anyway, I tried for awhile and then as disappointing as it is to admit I had to consult.....yes the instructions they accidentally put in there not knowing a man was buying this particular Swiffer. Now where am I going with this? I rarely know but this time I do, God has done the same thing the Swiffer people did.
The Lord has given us instructions to live properly and we can choose to obey them or try it our way. God created us and included the Bible as an instruction manual now the choice is our....consult....or control things and take it in to our hands.....

Go

" Now the Lord said to Abraham,

" Go forth from your country, and your relatives and from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation,and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him;..... "

-Genesis 12:1-4a

God speaks to Abram in a powerful way here in Genesis. He tells Abram to leave everything he knows everything thats familiar and everything that he's worked his life for in this verse. God ask's Abram to give up what he had and move from a place of "safety and stability" to what God was going to put in his life. Giving up what he saw for what he couldn't! We did the same thing when we trusted Christ as our Savior. We give up living this life for ourselves and start living it for Christ who bought us at a price and our bodies and lives are here to worship Him.(1 Corinthians 6:17-20) Abram's response is what I want us to see most of all though. God speaks and then Abram obeys! He moves! God made the first move he asked Abram to give up the life he saw and go for the life he could give him....if he in return made a move.

Accepting Christ is a free gift and we can never do anything to deserve it, we can never forget that and thats not what I'm talking about. When we accept that free gift we enter into a relationship with him. We become part of Christ's Bride in a relationship. Are our lives reflecting that we are in a relationship with Christ and we are his bride? Every relationship we have takes maintenance to grow and it's not always easy. Sometimes we will go through hardship and sometimes we will experience exciting happiness but through it all, through this relationship we know one thing.....we belong to God. God made the first move and he often does in our lives....now we need to move towards him with our lives.

It's time for Movement.

Movement

"Draw Near to God and He will draw near to you...."

James 4:8

God is longing for us to make a move toward him. God desires a relationship with us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us. He turned his face away from his Son on the cross. We as Christians may loose everything we have but we won't have that. He made the first move! He sent his son! What is our move? If we say we "believe" what does that look like? Is it not surrender of our entire life to the God who sent his Son to die for us? Do I call you Lord Lord but not do what you say (Luke 6:46)? Do we honor you with our lips but our hearts are far from you(Mttw 15:8)? What moves in our lives are we making?

The balls in our court the move is our's. Not moving is making a move (Mttw 12:30).

It's time for Movement.

Desire to Feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-ily4yJLjs

" So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me."

Ezekiel 2:14

This part of scripture is during Ezekiel's call. God showed up and met with Ezekiel right when he was supposed to be getting to do his priestly duties but he was carted off in the exile at 25ish. God shows up in an amazing way to Ezekiel thats blows me away and commissions him to tell his word to the exiles. He sees all these things and God says to tell them what ever he tell's Ezekiel. He's leaving the presence of God and this verse is what is said of Ezekiel as he's leaving. The first time I read this I had a hard time with it and wondered what was going on. He was "embittered in the rage of his spirit"? What does that mean? It can't be good right? What it's telling us though is that Ezekiel felt the way God felt about the situation regarding the House of Israel. God had Ezekiel feeling the way he felt........

I want that.....I need that......I desire to feel how God feels about things in my life and in my walk with him. I want my heart to break and cry out at the things that break his heart and I want to rejoice and be overjoyed at the things that put a smile on his face. I'm at the point in my life where doors are being opened to me and I don't know which ones to go through but it is getting clearer and clearer the more I walk. This is something that struck me and just put me into a place where I fell down before God and had to have a gut check. Is this what I want? If so what am I doing so I can have it? Is it a priority in my life to feel the way he feels? Not only does it need to be but I long for it to be.

Standing up with care,

"Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliever us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Daniel 3:16-18

Godly men standing up for what God had said. A perfect picture of how things should be done in my life and in ours as Believers. These men talked to the King as a man who held the position. They showed respect even in the face of death. I can't even always maintain a certain level of respect when my ideas are opposed! We need to take this to heart I think. We as Believers need to be standing up for things God told us to stand up for in a culture that is longing to assimilate into what everyone else is doing. We ARE called to live a life that sticks out to a dark world but as that light we need to be careful with how we do it. What a great passage with a lot of things to mull over but I think it's so important how these men responded. They respectfully answer in the face of death acknowledging the outcome of their actions may end in death. We as Believers need to realize that when we face something just because we stand up for God doesn't mean we don't have to face whatever the consequences are that result from it. Here it was death and they accepted the punishment with respect to the King because he was the King! God saves these men but the thing is he didn't have to! If God allowed them to die it wouldn't change what these men where doing! We need to remember the way we as believers handle ourselves and our lives may be the only "bible" they see in a day, a week, a month or year for that matter. The way we handle authority in our life does matter! Their action of standing up against what God had said not to do in a respectful way fully accepting the consequences is something we as believers who live in America very well could face in the future. Right now it costs us nothing but that is not guaranteed and when our faith starts to cost us something will we still be standing firm fully accepting the consequences in a respectful manner worthy of our father?

Father your a good God. Your a good God because you define what good is and this world does not. No matter what the situation we face we have to remember as believers greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world John says. Father I know the end of this tapestry and story your telling and it excites me that you choose to use people in places all over the world in your plan when you don't have to. I pray that we walk with care as Psalm 15 says so that when you want to use us as tools we are sharp and ready even when it gets messy and not what we expect. Let us represent and stand for what you stand for and hurt for what you hurt for handling ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ as Phillipains 1:27 says.

Hello God.

The Priests and the Levites purified themselves; they also purified the people the gates and the wall.

-Nehemiah 12:30

As a believer I want nothing more than to meet with God and have a relationship with him. I love the fact that I get to communicate with him and worship him in my life at no cost to me. At the same time when I meet with God the creator of the universe I should be preparing much much more than I am. I want to be ready to meet with him and that involves a choice on my part to take the crap that I have in this world that has attached itself to me throughout the week and shake it off before I meet with him. I need to get myself ready to meet with God more than I am and its something that I want to do because my relationship with God is the most important thing being in this world has to offer.

Nehemiah!

Today we started doing the book of Nehemiah and I must say I think it's probably my favorite book of the bible so far. As a guy that is looking into a career choice of leadership in the church this book is like a leadership handbook as Pastor Randy put it. Not only does it excite me at learning and trying to put these things to practice in my life but it challenges me to strive even more so in my walk and relationship with the Lord. Every book is unique in it's own way and has it's own something that I love but Nehemiah is probably going to be my favorite and most used section of the Bible . In the words of my friend Brian Keogh " Nehemiah man!".

Look out in the plain it's a bird it's a plane...no it's my shepherd! Part 1.

"The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quiet waters He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For his name's sake Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23

If you didn't know already I'm kind of a comic book geek. I am a huge fan of the whole super hero thing and I have many shirts in my wardrobe to testify to that. Of course now they are coming out with movies of the superheros that I had in my prime little 8 year old days which are trashy and depressing but none the less I'm a fan of the hero's not so much their movies. Though I do enjoy watching those hero's in cartoon form and yes I do know they are really only cartoon hero's but with that being said I also get to worship the greatest real life Superhero ever.

Oh you want a guy who saves people who can't help themselves and are stuck in a position of hopeless despair? Bam he did it. You want a guy who literally can withstand the most punishment that anyone has ever had to go through? Bam he did it.Oh you want a guy who defeats evil doers with just his breath? Bam....stay tuned because he's going to do it :) . I think you get the point. Not only does Jesus do all these things but I get to have a personal relationship with the guy and he cares about me! That blows my mind! Daniel says in Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd and I know the reaction we get when we hear shepherd " oh an Old guy watching sheep in a field". I thought the same thing but that is grossly understating their job to put it nicely! When we look closely at Psalm 23 we get to see God as a Shepherd and the man writing the Psalm knows a little about shepherding and is writing this Psalm with that on his mind.

In verse 1-2 " the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quite waters." looks simple enough, but there is something you need to know about sheep....yes they're dumb but something else. Sheep don't just lie down easily. They actually need 4 things before they will lie down: enough food, enough drink, a clean nose + throat, and they need to feel secure. See sheep won't lie down if they are thirsty or aren't completely full so the Shepherd needs to take care of the sheep's needs, not wants but needs. In the same way when we walk with God our needs are met an he gives us what we need ( and sometimes it's not what we think we need but what he knows we need). Then the Shepherd will check if any mites are in the sheep's nose and check if any leeches are in it's throat. Its basically a check of crap thats in the sheep that shouldn't be and he takes it out if it shouldn't be there. Amazingly thats the same thing Christ does with our life! When we have things that shouldn't be there by walking through this world sometimes God has to "clean us" and its not always a pleasant feeling but its necessary in both scenarios. Finally the Shepherd needs to make sure the sheep feels secure. Sheep are terrified of running water its just something they don't like so the Shepherd is sure to stay clear of any running water because he knows that it scares the sheep. Thats why the second part of verse 2 is there. In the same way God knows what scares us! Its not something we always think about but it should help us feel secure that our Shepherd knows what scares us! It makes us realize that we are not alone even when we feel alone if we are walking with him and that should get us pumped that he cares for us in such a way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0j3-tmQLjg

Gotta Love Sunday Mornings! Church activities all day and great fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. Pumped!

Can you hear me....now?

Habakkuk 1:1-2, and (5-6) "The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O Lord, will I call for your help and You will not hear? I Cry out to You in "Violence!" Yet you do not save.

(5-6)"Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days - You would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs."

"Can you hear me now? Good." It's funny to think about how a completely easy commercial caught on so rapidly and from such a simple question that most would ask when their phone call was dropped. We all asked the question as the voice was going in and out as connection was bad "can you hear me? can you?". Funnier still to me is when we see this, how the same question and situation happens to us as believer with God. "Can you hear us? Are you even listening?". A common question but can he hear us? David sure seemed to think so with the writing of the psalms and through the interactions of Jonah praying to the Lord in ch. 2 he commanded the whale to spit Jonah out on the shore. Many even Christians have said Jonah is probably a fairy tale but in Matthew 12:40 Jesus sure believes in Jonah so if I'm going to take anyones word for it I'll take his haha! In Habakkuk 1:1-4 We see Habakkuk crying out to the Lord about the "injustice" going on and he makes a couple of questions known to God.

We look into Verse 2 and Habakkuk is asking God the same question the Verizon guy is asking on the commercial. Can you hear me? Habakkuk is asking God why he is not listening or why it seems like he's not listening to him. He's crying out that the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob has turned his ear piece off and his reasoning is in the second part of two. " I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet you do not save.". Habakkuk is at the point where he's saying your not listening because I can't see your response and everything is staying the same. We all feel like this sometimes one way or another. "God are you there? I just don't see you in my life and all these things are going on and when I need you the most God you just don't seem to be here!" I've been there guys I have and its painful and its something no doubt all of us will go through and Habakkuk is feeling it here. God is not going to leave Habakkuk here though because when we truly know God and have a relationship we can ask him concerning our trails and he will answer us.

God gets to respond to Habakkuk in verse 5. In 5 he tells Habakkuk He does in fact have a plan he is listening and is doing something about it. In fact he tells Habakkuk he wouldn't believe what he was doing even if God told him! God's plans aren't always clear in our lives and sometimes we don't understand why things happen in our lives. Its easy to get frustrated with God when it seems a day is all going wrong and things seem to fall apart but remember verse 5 should comfort us. He is doing something in our days! God is listening to us but at the same time we have realize he is working his plan guys. Hardships are going to happen in our lives, its part of life, what we do with those hardships though matters. He is listening and he knows whats going on guys! My god is bigger than my problems but we have to trust him. I don't know why certain things happen I honestly can't always give an answer. I think of Job who God was actually bragging on to Satan and because of nothing Job did everything was taken from him. Job did right and got wrong and we don't like that but when we say Lord my life is yours and surrender it to him he has the right to use it any way he wants! Job's life was used to speak into his friends lives who didn't have a complete view of God and through all his hardship his life was used. Thats not an easy thing to swallow but thats what I signed up for as a Christian and its easy in my life as I see God's hand blessing me abundantly to say that. I can say confident;y that no hardship you go through is useless and just because we don't think God is listening doesn't mean he isn't So I pray whole heartedly that when we are going through things that don't make sense to us and it seems that God isn't listening to our prayers that we make sure we are right with him and then trust his plan for our lives. He's working a plan and we get to be used and be apart of it guys and we don't always get the best parts but when we are walking with him we can trust that his grace is sufficient and his hand is on my life whether it looks like it or not.

Danger!Danger! Running at 10% capacity.

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among who you appear as lights to the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run i vain or toil in vain." Philippians 2:14

Today GCBI mulched the playground and such getting ready to prepare for the Easter Eggstravaganza. I'm the kinda of person who loves to serve and not for the "hey good job" but because I love people and helping them. Why is this though? I was thinking and realized every things I do whether cleaning the floor at the institute or mulching the playground I can get away with doing a B job instead of an A one. I know I can and even further than that I can pass it off as an A job to other people but to myself and to the Lord he knows! Psalm 139:1 says he searches me and knows me! With verses like this I always see the scary and the exciting about God. Of course this means he knows whether I tried enough or not and whether I settled with less then my best. That scares me because how many times do we do the least amount of work possible? Then we pass it off as if we have done some great work for the kingdom of God when we literally gave 10% the effort we should have! He knows and we are fine with giving only 10% to our God our maker sometimes and as Paul says "may it never be". If we start doing that with one thing soon it will creep into another and then another and before we know it God is getting a "Hi God, Bye God" once a day and we are content! When we give less effort in one place inevitably it will show up in another so we need to keep fighting and striving because we know we are working for the King of Universe and he knows our hearts in all we do.

Father you are good. All you do is good because that is your character and you get to define what good is. Even saying this causes my heart to beat rapidly because it longs to contend with you in telling me what is good. I know however Lord sometimes it leads me down the wrong path but You never will. God search me and show me if in anything I do I'm not doing it to the best of my ability for You. You are truth Lord and apart from a relationship with you I will never know what truth and knowledge is because fearing you is the beginning of all knowledge says Proverbs 1:7. May I never despise your wisdom or your instruction because I know anything short of my entire life in complete surrender will hurt my relationship with you. I love you father.

My Father, My Shepherd

I'm going to be honest I don't always think before I talk. When I think about it I can say some just dumb things that don't make any sense and Doug and Elijah make sure I know when I do by laughing and joking with me about it. The thing is we all could profit from thinking before we talk. The same can go for when we talk to our Father. Not only should we be careful in the way we come to the father but the very words we come to him with as well. Ecclesiastes 5:2- "Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few." When I talk to my father sometimes I just want him to fix whatever is broken in my life so my comfort will be restored. We are selfish by nature thats true but when we look in the scripture at people's prayers what always sticks out to me is how they pray. I personally love when a man of God falls on his face and cries out to the Lord. My relationship with my Father is the single most important thing on this planet and communicating with him is a huge part of it. Some times I need to realize who I'm talking to. The creator of everything who is telling a story and I'm not the main role. He doesn't need me but he chooses to use me and I can honestly say I don't know why. I do know it's not anything of myself but the God of the universe can choose to use me. Thats scary and exciting to me. In one aspect not only do I need to be making sure my walk with God is carefully in check and on the other hand is that I'm doing?? Thats my responsibility and my hearts deepest desire IS to walk unblemished. My desire is to be a Psalm 15 guy who is constantly watching my walk, putting my energy to good work,checking my, being sure that the people I hang out with are those who fear and honor the Lord, making my commitment to to him and only him everyday, and keeping my priorities what he wants them to be.

Father these things aren't easy these things aren't what the world is telling me to do nor even my heart all the time. I'm a man God, you breathed life into Adam and I was aloud to have life because you said I could.I don't feel worthy to do the things you have put in my life to do because who am I? Psalm 19 says that heavens declare the glory of YOU and the skies proclaim the works of YOUR hands and you choose to use me to speak into lives of other people? Father my prayer is simple "Speak Lord for your servant is listening". I can only hear you adequately when I'm listening and not talking and sometimes I just don't do that.

*Waves hand* "You can control your mind"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rlThKe1qo

"Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."Philippians 4:8

What we have going on in the picture here is Obi-Wan Kenobi waving his hand at the storm troopers using the "force". In the end of the video he says using the force he manipulated the mind of the soldier. An interesting concept is it not? I can only think that if the soldier knew what happened he would feel completely powerless to have his thoughts manipulated. What a powerless feeling that would be but also if we can control our own thoughts what a EMpowering feeling! It's easy to think that our minds are an untamable beast that we are powerless to defend against the filth in the world. When we look at Philippians 4: verse 8 however that's exactly what Paul is saying! Woah what? I can do that?I mean really last time I checked I'm not a Jedi who with a wave of my hand can tell myself what to think can I? Well in 4:8 thats what Paul tells us we can and are called to do. The cool part about this is we don't need to use the force luckily......we can still wave our hands if we want to but we do't need to. Paul tells us to dwell on things that are honorable(dignified), right(innocent), pure (not defiled or free from sin), lovely ( agreeable to the word of God), of good repute(well reported of ex.good testimony), excellence (of Moral goodness), and worthy of praise. These things are what we need to dwell on and when we do our minds are not dwelling on things that don't honor the lord! When we control our thinking and take every thought that we have captive thats when we can can say is this something that glorifies God or not? If not we rebuke it and throw it away and if it we cling to it.

Marian Wright Edelman put it like this:

“If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.”

With our thoughts this should be our attitude as well. If we don't like the way we are thinking (worldy) then change it! We have an obligation to change it and the way we do it is capturing one thought at a time.