Greater Things

YYYAAAAWWWNNN!! Well yesterday was kind of a "day off" because the challenge was to sleep on the floor at night. It was more than just sleeping on the floor though, it was sleeping with no pillow and no blanket. I understand there are some people out there that like to sleep on the floor (i don't mind it if i have a pillow and blanket/sleeping bag) especially when camping but normally you do that when you don't have to wake up early or do anything productive the next day. Last night instead of putting on PJs, I put on some sweats and a sweatshirt and instead of throwing clothes off of my bed, I cleared out a spot on the floor. It didn't really take too long to fall asleep which was a good thing but I remember waking up pretty early in the night because my arm fell asleep (not the kind that tingles like needles but the kind that goes numb and feels like a club). I woke up at like 3:30 probably around the time my dad was getting up for work (i heard the shower...

Many of us are obsessed with determining God’s will for our lives. Myriads of books have been written, sermons preached, speeches given, Bible studies pored over, all in an effort to discover God’s plan for our future. This is understandable for two reasons. One, the Scriptures are obsessed with discovering God’s will. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:17: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Second, everyone desires a purpose for their life. I believe that this commendable desire to discern God’s will or purpose for our lives becomes a dangerous combination with the busy schedules and oodles of leisure time that belong to wealthier societies. Many of us have so much on our plates that we don’t want to take the time to wait for God to show us his way. We have so many other activities to occupy our time with we get easily distracted from waiting on the Lord. We come to expect that God will slot his map for our lives into our hectic schedules,...

Wait right there! Before you stumble into that bathroom of yours, ask yourself this question, what is the longest you've gone without a shower, and why? I went a week once when I was at the beach. I figured the ocean and the pool water did enough cleaning for me. So as you can see the challenge for Day 3 is no shower. My initial thoughts about the challenge were "no big deal" and "I do this often" (maybe more often than I should) but then I remembered that just las week I said that I needed to make sure I showered everyday (I notice that I start to smell a little bit by the end of the day if I don't) so this was kind of funny to me. This challenge was hard for me to think about during the day but was reminded of it later in the evening after I had a full days wear and tear on me. I did end up putting on some cologne in the morning to help compensate which I normally don't do. I would feel bad if I made people around me uncomfortable because of the...

The best way to describe the day would be to take a child put him at a table every day for months and give him a cookie to eat then one day have him come to the table put a cookie in front of him and tell him not to eat it. So this is how my day went (sorry that it is so long but this one was hard).... ...So I woke up today and decided to check the challenge for Day 2 of My Imaginary Journey to Africa before I did anything else (I have 30 minutes each morning to shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get out the door). When I opened up my document and saw that it was no media day (no computer, ipod (zune in my case), tv, radio, phone, etc.) I was a little dissappointed. Today is that day that Jack Bauer saves the world (again) in 24 hours. I need to write my post/update for the Day 1 challenge (I did that anyways but thats it). I need to talk to Becca throughout the day and figure out when we were going to hangout at night. There is a certain anxiety that comes over me when I th...

This Friday and Saturday the youth at Calvary Baptist Church will be participating in year 12 of the 30 Hour Famine. This is an event to raise awareness and funds for the work World Vision is doing around the world to provide food, clothing, shelter, water, and the Love of God to the poor and needy of the world. This year Greg Arnold put together a great little week long devotional (adapted from material written by the Arritts (sorry if I spelled that wrong)). The devotional has a challenge each day that will help the students focus on some issues many people in the world are struggling with. I decided I would participate in this challenge and document some of my thoughts each day in the hopes that it would encourage the students to participate or at least think about some of the issues. I need to keep this short because I ran out of time on Day 1 to actually write this note and the challenge for Day 2 is no media (this is like work and no I did not waste time on here before I wrote th...

So I will keep with the video clip and John Piper theme, I do so reluctantly though. I don't want to seem like I am "worshiping" Piper but I was trying to figure out what to share and this clip kept coming back to me. (technically it is more CS Lewis than Piper). Piper recently hosted a conference focusing on Christian Hedonism/Joy/CS Lewis. (christian hedonism can be defined as "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.") I saw a video clip about "smiting morality with the joy of the gospel." The line that challenges me and gets me thinking in this clip is "A perfect man will never act out of a sense of duty." It goes on to say, "He would always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love for God or other people, like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times, but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs, our love, ...

This video was part of a talk by Derek Sivers (I don't know anything about this guy, just what he said in this video). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&feature=player_embedded I'm particularly intrigued by this video because what the narrator is describing is exactly what I've been hoping to see our church accomplish. What I find to be most difficult in leading is transferring a vision. What I do know is that perseverance is a good thing.

There have been some lapses of compassion in my church lately. Let’s be reminded that Jesus was motivated by compassion … Matthew 9.36 - “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 14.14 - “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Matthew 15.32 - “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.” Matthew 20.34 - “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.” Compassion drove Jesus to care for others’ physical, spiritual and emotional needs. Without compassion we can never see people as God sees them. I believe compassion is cultivated by pain. The most compassionate people I know are those that have endured great personal loss. Experiencing pain enables them to take pause, consider others’ pain, and respond w/ mercy. And a merciful r...

Too often I think we believe we need to come up with clever things to put in a post. Sometimes you're just blank... The snow has caused disruptions to our routine and there is something to be said about having a routine. Although the government is closed and we are supposed to be on "leave" many of us continue on with our work routine unable to stop. I guess we are wired to be doing something all the time. That said we were able to come together yesterday as a group of men to clear snow off the roof of the church building. Unfortunately I was unable to get there when the work first started but was able to get there at the end of the day - reminds me of the story of the workers that came to work the fields thruout the day and all ended up getting paid the same - I digress but will come back to it. We all joined together to preserve the building - enjoying the physical labor and the comraderie. Maybe that was our "pay" - to enjoy the hard work and being ...

Some of you have seen my tweets/facebook updates that are somewhat random like; "Sat on the train without moving for about an hour...it reminds me of patience and how God is patient with us and our sin" or "it is cold, there is ice, ice is solid like Jesus our foundation" Now I know that writing is not one of my strong suits but after reading the article below I figured it was not only a good way to glorify God by allowing other people to read some of my posts but it also makes me think about God in unique and creative ways through out the day. The article is from www.desiringgod.org Why and How I Am Tweeting By John Piper June 3, 2009 I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others. One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill th...

The Importance of Community So, we've decided to start up our blog again.  There were a few things that caused the slow death and we hope to fix them with these guidelines: 1. 2 posts per week 2. Assigned weeks 3. No topic limit I think we got a little too excited last time and ended up putting all of our content up as soon as we could.  This new approach should help space out the delivery of our thoughts.  So for those of you reading our blog, expect to see at least 2 posts per week.  Hope you enjoy and please comment. I've (slowly) been reading through a book called "Kingdom of Couches" which was authored by a a group of friends who run a blog much like this with similar purposes.  One of the author's major themes is the idea and importance of community in faith. In America today, it seems as though individualism is king.  We live far away from each other, we travel to and from work, sit in front of TVs, read our Bibles for fifteen minutes each day, we ea...