Ok. So I know this is a weird concept… but it is a hard lesson for a proud young man to learn. God is teaching me that in order to not be half-hearted and lukewarm in what I do, I must do less… In order to say yes to one thing, I must say no to a million other things.
In college, there are always so many things which we fill up our schedule with. Have you stopped to think about how many of the things that you start you are finishing? My personality is one which tends to be a good starter, but a poor finisher. I need to ask God to help me say no more often, even to things which are good. God is the giver of all good gifts right? But guess what God does NOT want us to have anything GOOD that takes away from us enjoying HIS GOODNESS… He has a name for anything which does this, it is idolatry.
Guess what? The busyness does not stop after college. Believe ME. I am done with college and somehow, I find a quick and easy way to fill up my schedule.
Ok. Take a moment to think about your (actually my) breakfast. Would you ever eat an egg half-cooked (ok, calm down “over-easy” people)? Well, I wouldn’t ever want that half-cooked yellowness to gush out of the yolk (I think that’s what you call it.) Anyways… I am going somewhere with all this rambling. I am fighting my own luke-warmness, which comes from half-cooked breakfasts. Besides I would not want to be spit out, because of my luke-warmness…
Yes, we all have priorities, and when we stop to think what they are, how often are they what we want to accomplish rather than what God wants us to do. (my answer: most (99.9899% of the time) So, all this to say, that I would not want a half-cooked relationship, this goes for my relationship with God as well as with people he has put in my life.
So, I am going to have to say no to something. Pray that God would show me what he wants me to cut back on, and what he wants me to take a step forward in, by going another step further.
It is tempting to put a verse in here, but I think there are plenty of passages which God may bring to your specific situation, so in order to not limit him, I will refrain…
It is tempting to put a verse in here, but I think there are plenty of passages which God may bring to your specific situation….
You’ve heard of a firewall right? Well, anyways this awesome picture, which I got from LA Times was taken yesterday morning near Porter Ranch which is about 5 min from where I work… This is what happens when those strong Santa Ana winds blow - fire spreads easily. The 118 Freeway as well as the 210 Freeways were closed due to fires. Needless to say there were some changes to traffic patterns.
On the other hand, there is also a great movie that came out, called Fireproof. It is about a fireman who takes the challenge from his loving father to try to save his marriage. Great story. Well, stay safe and away from the smoke, unless that is where God wants you to be.
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuinness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” I Peter 1:6-7
This is a very good question posed by a friend of mine. What does it mean for you to be politically correct in today’s society? We live in a world which tolerates many differing views, especially in Southern California. Is it possible to go overboard in being “PC” ?
Do I try to soothe my words to please those who are listening? Do I try not to offend others so much that I compromise my beliefs? Do I try to solve the problems between two “countries”? Am I a peacemaker? What is a peacemaker? How much tolerance for sin should a believer have in himself? In others? When should a brother admonish his brother about his sin? Is this being done in love in your daily circle?
Being sensitive to others and their beliefs is not wrong if it is done with the right motives. However if you are willing to compromise your convictions on an important issue, this could be dangerous. Too often I err on the side of “stepping on egg shells”, when I should be crushing the egg shells. But then I ask myself what would Jesus do? Did he try to change everyone around him, or was he peaceful in his evangelistic strategies? Did he allow others to believe what they want to or did he say there was only one way? “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to Father, except through me?” John 14:6
When I speak who am I trying to please? Am I trying to please a whole crowd or an audience of one? If I am trying to please more than one person than I have more than one Master, and that can be confusing. I need to focus on only pleasing my Lord and Master…
Is it wrong to make a name for yourself?
What is your philosophy of fun?
What makes you a happy person?
Do you live for the pursuit of pleasure?
Are earthly pleasures wrong? How do they become idols?
These questions have popped into my mind, as I have more closely observed people living out the American Dream… what do you live for?
I think we were made to make Christ’s name known… to give him the glory, and then receive the joy which he graciously gives us…
thanks for your prayers… Friday I had four wisdom teeth extracted, and since then I’ve not been able to do much… God used this time though to bring me closer to him… it was interesting to see my initial reactions to the pain and discomfort… I was thinking to myself, why does something so small like this have to hurt so much, and why can’t I just avoid this pain by not having the surgery? God taught me though to trust him more through it, and to realize that since my life has had relatively low experience with physical pain, this may be God teaching me a little of what it feels like to be in a hospital for long periods of time or to have other physical illnesses… Before I went to the doctor I was very glad for spending extra time memorizing the first part of Psalm 139, this really helped me get through the first couple hours of pain, and I was very thankful for this… God knows us better than anyone else, and this can be a huge comfort…
Do you worship the “word of God”? Should we worship the word of God? What if it represents the Son of God, Jesus Christ such as the logos in John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13… the implications of these passages are blowing my mind away… when the Bible speaks of the word of God, or divine wisdom is this a representative form of the Christ? If the cultural background of the word, “logos” is considered John using it in this passage to refer to God in flesh is astounding…. Philo, a contemporary philosopher of Jesus Christ himself used “logos” to describe the ultimate divine being who could not exist in an evil material world. For John to say that logos became flesh and dwelt among us, would be unthinkable, and I believe his readership knew exactly what he was talking about… this was crazy talk for John to say this, and required him to step out on a limb with such a statement…. I am still studying the subject of the word of God, starting with Gen. 15 and moving through the Bible, any help on this subject would be much appreciated…
It was a good day, even though it didn’t feel like a birthday, mostly we prepared for the banquet at Lydia’s school… I had stayed up the night before working on getting mom’s hard drive installed, which finally worked… ptl, then after shaving the beard off, I went to get my hair cut… I slept for a good chunk of the day, but then woke up in the late afternoon… I am still so jetlagged- it is weird, since I woke up at 4:30 am this morning… “I woke up this morning with my mind, staid on Jesus… hallelu…” For dinner, I had my favorite meal, stroganoff and rice. Then we went to the banquet and had a delicious churrasco with lots of meat… it was really good… then we went and had ice cream, where I had pave and acai flavors… yum
So after finishing school by graduating last Friday, and a very busy weekend including moving and finishing another huge dvd project, I flew to Fortaleza, Brazil to visit. My first day back in Brazil, Wednesday, was packed full of adventures and fun times… It was a long 20-hour trip from LAX to Miami to Manaus to Belem, and finally Fortaleza. I sat next to a lady from here who I enjoyed talking with very much… I also met some people who are considering becoming missionaries to Fortaleza… this was exciting…
I arrived Wed morning at 7:30 am, where we went to my old high school to see people. I got to see my History teacher, Mr. Lind, and his wife, my English teacher… I also spent some time visiting the production studio of one of the missionaries here, where he showed me the creation videos he has made. This was very interesting, as I am considering the possibilities of maybe one day helping him. Pray for wisdom…
I drove the car for the first time in Brazil yesterday… at first this seemed a little scary because of the crazy driving they are known for, but quickly I picked up on it, and now I feel more comfortable driving here, it is fun…
In the afternoon, I went to the beach to surf with my sister’s boyfriend, that was very fun, as it wore me out… I was trying to stay awake till bedtime, in order to beat jetlag, but ended up taking a nap on the beach, as it began to sprinkle I woke up… the rain here has made it very pleasant, not too hot at night and cooler during the day, which I am very thankful for…
Today, I slept in, then went to the school to have a hamburger, and play basketball with the FA kids… this brought back memories from when I went to school here… we then went to the store, where I had a delicious goiaba, boy do I miss those (guava)… right now I am cloning my mother’s drive to her new hard drive, which should be much better for her…
things which I have enjoyed in the past 24 hours which I really missed:
on the airplane:
hearing Portuguese
Polenguinho (little cheese squares)
cheesecake with goiaba spread on top… yum
guarana pop (the best kind of soda in the world)
mango juice
real meat in a meal
in Fortaleza
going to a beach with warm water
warm rain
marmitas with beans (baiao) and rice, with carne do sol (oh my goodness, I think I am going to have some right now)
sleeping in air conditioning
eating goiabas raw
crazy traffic
getting shocked by turning on the shower
I am sure there will be more later, so I will have to write about them
This year’s show was amazing… Thank you everyone who contributed to make this happen… especially Theo Low… I know those awards were well earned… so good job!
For those of you who are wanting to watch the C-dub vs. Hotchkiss video, you may watch it on youtube now…
Yesterday we finished shooting day 1 of green screen on a music video for Gayle Skidmore… God was so good to allow most everything to go well… with 4k of lights we only had one breaker go out… it was a lot of fun, and we both learned a lot about even lighting… God allowed only one interruption when a chair salesman had to pitch his product for the new chapel on campus… now we just have to digitize the footage with the broken camera and deck… yay…
