It's Coming Along...

I'm working on setting up an account somewhere so that I can share some of my pictures with you all. On another note, the room is coming a long quite nicely. I will not divulge any information about what is going on in there other than that it's going to be awesome! Today is the first day all week that I have not been there...I figured that I could use a day to just rest and not have to worry about the room. Have a good day!

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emanuel Has Come!

Well, Merry Christmas folks! It seems like this time of the year always seems to come and go quickly...either that or we just don't slow down enough to realize it's been here all along. Sometimes I wonder how we got from the celebration of the birth of Christ to trees and presents...and to the extent that those things seem to be overbearing the original cause for the season. (If you still haven't listened to the best song ever...which is quite fitting since it is Christmas and all...go here)

Ok, so there's a point to all of this....One thing (or rather several things) that I asked for this year for christmas were books. Needless to say, I got four of them....and I've already got one finished. So here are a few things I pulled from "the barbarian way" by erwin mcmanus:

• "Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing His name. People are being lost because they cannot reconcile Jesus' association with Christianity. Christianity has become docile, domesticated, and civilized. We have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and sould of a humanity without God. It is time we hear the barbarian call, to form a barbarian tribe, and to unleashe the barbarian revolt. Let the invasion begin..."
• "The original call of Jesus was so simple, so clean, so clear: "Follow Me." He wants us to surrender our lives to Him and follow Him into the unknown. And if it means a life of suffering, hardship, and disappointment, it will be worth it because following Jesus Christ is more powerful and more fulfilling than living with everything in the world minus Him. Have we forgotten this? Have we become so refined and so civilized that the benefits of our faith have become more precious and more valuable to us than the Benefactor of our faith?

So here's what I'm wondering...Have we become too concerned with music, worship, services, programming, and all the other stuff that comes with "church" and "christianity" are more important to us than God himself? Or have we been too concerned with our relationships with others that we have ingored our relationship with God? Do we love the benefits more than we love Him? But then again music, worship, service, and programming aren't bad...it's when they become more important than God that we need to realize that there is a major flaw in priorities. Moreover, what about allowing Him to live his life through us? Some people have missed the point. It's not about us! It's all about Him! Even if we had everything we could ever want, it would be nothing, vanity, meaningless, empty with out Him.

Quite A Strange Stream of Thought

Well, I know it's been awhile, but so much has been going on. Let's see, I got my new cell phone! That's pretty exciting. Oh, and today we started the youth room....or atleast some of us did. We spent the day tearing down the sound system so that we wouldn't have to do that when a million people are there on thursday. (ok ok, I may have just been exaggerating) So today was exciting...the room is pretty plain how it is right now...I took "before" pictures (conveniently on my new phone/camera/anything else you'd ever want in portable device, haha) and I'll take some after picture and post them all up here when we're done. I got to the church at 10:30 and left only for an hour or so to get my hair cut and then didn't leave until like 8:15ish. I was there forever, yet still my day was not as long others'. Oh, and today I got my hair cut. Whatever that chick put on my hair was so ridiculously potent it was giving me a headache (and still kins of is)...and she cut it kind of short too...oh well, it's just hair.

So you know what I just realized....I was thinking about hair and how meaningless it is. Ok, I'm stretching this analogy here, but stick with me. So then I started thinking about the youth room and how it looks and if it has a stage or lights or whatnot and how that will ultimately not really matter because it's just a room. We need to be living in the spiritual realm of life (even though a cool room can be a great outreach and ministry tool) where we realize that these seemingly "huge" worldly things are really nothing. Ok, so I have weird streams of thoughts sometimes...but I also just bought the Robbie Seay Band CD today too...which I've been wanting since I found them online last winter but have never bought....anyways, just as I was contemplating the meaninglessness of hair and stages the lyric said "life is fleeting" hence the prompting of the retelling of this whole story. Wow, I'm wierd sometimes. I've got a headache....I'm going to stop staring at the screen...I don't think it's helping. Well, have a good night!

Wait For It.

I really don't even know what to say tonight. I have not purpose for updating this, I just felt like updating. I guess because I know it's getting to be late but it doesn't matter because I don't have to be over to Malone until 1 tomorrow. Today I had my lit in society and old testament exam...I think I did alright on them. I think I got over-concerned about the whole thing. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Anyways, tonight was worship team and then some of us went over to muggswigz afterwards for "open mic night."

Anyways, you know sometimes when there's something that you know...but you just have the hardest time doing...or convincing yourself to do it. (haha, I'm kind of being a little general here) Specifically, I've just really been thinking about God's will for me and more holistically the ministries and situations that I'm in. I guess sometimes we can fall into knowing where we'd like things to go...and then try to convince ourselves that that is really God's will. But then we go on rationalizing things again (which we ultimately cannot fully understand anyways) and realizing that it really isn't your will that ultimately matters, it's God's. In the long run, I'd definitly have to say that God's plan is much better than ours could ever be...so why is it so tough sometimes to just stick it out and wait? But I guess that's the beauty of it all...we can't do it...we can't just 'stick it out and wait' because that would remove our dependence on God. So I guess by waiting and depending on God to reveal His will for us, or just waiting for that will to unfold....we are infact serving, obeying, and loving Him just as much as if His will was already unfolded within a certain circumstance because we are depending on His guidance even more when we dont' know what's going on.

Wow, that all just came out of nowhere. But I think things are making more sense to me now. I'll just wait and trust His judgement because He knows best anyways.

Break Has Nearly Arrived

I found this picture online and did a little photoshop action to it to make it look cool for the shakespearean sonnet I had to write and present in my Lit class this past week. I like it...thought you guys might too.

Anyways, classes are over. I am happy...and sad. A bittersweet moment...haha, I'm so cheesy. Only 4 finals to go next week and one "assesment" for models. It should be a good time. None of my exams are going to be really difficult either (atleast I hope not). Just macroeconomics on monday, then on tuesday I've got Old Testament and Literature in Society, wednesday I've got my models thing, and on thursday I've got my accounting exam. The only ones I've really got to buckle down and study a lot are the ones on tuesday. I'm almost home free. I'm pretty pumped for next semester already. It's going to be a highly business-related semester for me, so Watson is letting me sit in on his Epistles of Paul and I'm taking New Testament.

Well, until next time...have a great day/night/evening/morning/afternoon! (those options are soley dependent on what time of the day you're reading this! haha)

Winter Is Here And So Is Christmas!

I took this picture not too long ago out in my back yard and for one of my projects I did a little photoshop action and this was the product. I never do stuff like that anymore. I will again I think though because I'm getting a new phone in the (near) future which will probably have some sort of camera on it. Then I'll be able to take as many pictures as I want. It'll be cool too because hopefully I'll actually have pictures of stuff I do. Like this last summer I went to tons of concerts and had tons of fun...but I don't have any pictures because my mom wasn't following me around anymore with a camera. (that, in case you were wondering, is a good thing) I want to remember the experiences I've had. Like yesterday my drive to school was probably the most enjoyable one I've ever had. The sunrise was astonishing...I could barely take my eyes off of it (only to drive of course, haha). God's creation is so amazing. Long story short...I like that picture and I can't wait until I get to have my own camera to play with.

I just finished the last of my papers for this semester! I'm quite relieved at this point. All I have left is a test on Friday and then four exams next week...which isn't too bad. I'm actually pretty pumped because I'm finally going to have some time to get some reading done that isn't for school (not that I didn't like reading that stuff or anything). I've had a few books that I've been wanting to read, but haven't been able to get around to it like: Mere Christianity (I started it, but stopped when I realized I wasn't remembering anything because I was too busy trying to read all this other stuff), Velvet Elvis, and some other good ones. (haha, I say that they're good and haven't even read them yet)

Anyways, I'm pretty pumped for Christmas break...there's going to be sooo much happening. But at the same time I'm going to have lots of free time to...well....to do whatever I feel like doing. The worship team and I are going to be working on the youth room over break too since service is cancelled for 2 weeks, which means we have 3 weeks where the room will not need to be presentable. So, we're going to fix it up...and finally finish it. I don't think I can even count the number of times that people have started stuff in there and it's never gotten done...just makeshiftedly (is that a word?) thrown together because it wasn't done by Sunday. Well...I'd better get going. Have a wonderful day!

Show Them The Way

"God, don't let them forget that I'm here, moreover...You are there...just waiting. Remember, as far away as they go, they can just take one step back...or even just one glance back, and You will come sprinting after them. My heart crys out for them and my eyes are not dry. I'm desperate for them to see what I see, feel what I feel...You're so real. You'll sweep them into Your arms and comfort them when they need comforted and make them whole again. Soften their hearts and lead them back to You."