Life can sometimes be like a CD.  Going from one song to another.  My CD?  Bad Day from Daniel Powter to Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse.

Why Us?

An omnipotent, or infinitely powerful, being presumably has the ability to satisfy all its wants instantly. Yet God-Our Lord asks us to pray our sins to Him, but doesn't that mean He isn't all knowing? God-Our Savior asks for us to sing our praises to Him and Him alone, but does that mean that He needs our worship? God allowed sin to come into our lives so that we may have the choice between Him and an eternity of damnation, but does that mean that God-The Master needs our decision? Indeed, why would a complete being even create mankind? I can't think of any good reasons, can you?

To bring this to a better context, throughout history, all rulers from every nation had a need for glory which they recieved by distancing themselves from their subjects. It makes giving orders easier and less worry for any kind of revolt. But, what need has God for glory? Does God revel in self-admiration or His ego require our approval? If you still are holding up your God flag, check out Isaiah 6:1-3:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

But does God really ask it for His sake? Think about it. What happens when we pray? Who are we focused on? Ourselves or God? What happens when we sing praises, do we just sing or does the Holy Spirit sweep through? When you help out a person, does it just help them or do you feel a reviving in your own soul?

This idea of a egoistic-glory driven God is something that Satan is using to trap you in your walk. Searching deep in your heart, you will know that this is true. For those of you that still doubt, spend time in prayer and see what happens. God wants you to choose Him, wants to be your friend, wants to have a relationship with Him. Not because He needs it. He has people praising Him, but it really is for you. God is just waiting to tell the world, "this is my son in whom I Am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)

Restoration

Life can be amazing sometimes. This weekend is one of those times. Started off with Winter Retreat. Spiritually, I was refilled, socially revived and physically drained. Saturday, I stayed with my parents and simply hung out with them. Physically restored (sleep!) and priority and goals realigned. Oh my, what a weekend!

Christians love to talk about the Sabath all the time. Some thing that it's an Old Testament thing and doesn't apply now. Others think that church is that time. Me? I think the Sabath does exist and lasts for an entire day, not just a couple of hours on Sunday. Most Sundays I'm involved in church stuff and don't have time for relaxation. I have commitments and deadlines. But even that won't stop me as my Sabath normally happens on Saturdays. Buut what does it consist of? I'm definitely not a couch pototato, but I'm not tied down. Cell phone turned off, AIM away message up and e-mail shutdown. If you need to reach me, you will somehow. It's my time. With God. With fellow Christians. With myself.

Take some time yourself.

Googling It.

Following in the direction of my last two posts, I feel really encouraged to talk about the idea of instant gratification. I'm currently doing a paper on "Google Management: How To Be Creative and Still Be Productive" and I came across this statement on Google's website, "Google believes in instant gratification. You want answers and you want them right now. Who are we to argue?" (http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html) Something about this strikes me as wrong.

For a situation like this, it seems best to turn to mister reliable to help us with this dilemna. By this, I mean Mr. Wonka's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Many lessons can be learned from this movie, the most related one to this is Veruca Salt. She's a spoiled brat that probably has never heard the word 'no' in her life time. As they walk through the factory, they come onto special geese (or squirrels if you are into that new version). She starts off politely asking her dad for it with a little help by batting her eyes but things quickly turn ugly when her request gets rejected. She instantly goes into a trantrum singing (and screaming) "Don't care how; I want it NOW!" End result, she falls to the incinerator that might be turned off because it's trash day.

Instant gradification has been one of those sins that has kind of snuck up on us. It certainly makes our day "easier" by removing the tasks that seem boring. Heck, as soon as I was given this paper, my first thought was to Google some topic, whip up a three page paper in 40 minutes and be done with it. But just as Adam Sandler shows us in the movie "Click", if we try to zip past those things that bore us to death, we will have no appreciation for the things that are important to us. Beyond that, we are called by Christ to be "studious laborers in the vineyard" (Matthew 20:1-16) meaning even just picking the grapes off by hand is a job that God has ordained for you and I to do as praise and worship to God-the Lord.

So remember as you are trudging along in your homework, cleaning or whatever seems to bore you, keep in mind that you can do all things "to bring glory to His name" (1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 96:8).

Relaxation!

You've got to enjoy those times where you get to sleep in or hang out with friends. Last night I definitely was able to hang out with lots of friends to celebrate Rachel's birthday party. One top of that, going to bed early (midnight is early) and waking up sometime after 8:30 is amazing. Gives one a chance to un-wined and really focus one's thoughts.

This week has been especially hard with two papers due, projects left and right, an exam and three quizzes and to top it off, having to fire a person from our senior design team. All of these things are necessary in life and I have been working hard for them. But it is great to take a day out of life to include friends and family. I know I touched on this in the previous entry, but it keeps coming to mind and so I think I should keep readdressing the issue.

Work hard in what you do and take time for yourself.

Chill Out

I'm having this struggle with gripping reality. I study for tests and work really hard on my homework and projects and then of the five tests I take in a week, I only focus on the one that I didn't do as hot on. But it's not a bad enough grade that I will even fail. If I keep getting these grades, I'm going to easily pass, just not with a 3.5. And with that, I am graduating from one of the toughest colleges in the east coast of US so C's don't mean I'm stupid.

I look at this compared to life and how worked up we get over the little things. Someone doesn't have enough time to do anything, even though four hours ago they were enjoying a movie, or their job is so crappy but they should appreciate what they have because things could be worse.

My life isn't that bad. Heck, it's above par. I only a small debt in my life and could pay it off if it didn't leave me with only a few dollars to my name. I will have a degree from a great college. I even have my health, friends and family. I need to take my eyes off of this world and realize I am only passing through. Enjoy the ones I love, embrace the love that God is shining on me, and run head strong into what His Will be.

So take this challenge and see where your eyes are set? Could things be worse? Are they really that bad right now? How is God speaking to you and can you even hear Him over the loudness of the things in your life? Take a moment and relax. As Christ says, "[Christ's] yoke is easy and the burden is light." Don't make things so hard on yourself.

What a Finish!

This week has simply rushed by. So many projects that I needed to start and complete, so much stuff I haven't done yet, because I didn't have the time to do it. Even now, I have a quiz that I will be studying for which I need to read four chapters in and then take. It's so crazy that when I feel that I have no direction, like is moving so slow, my purpose is gone and life wants to take it's time and really shove it in my face. But when I find myself, my goals and where I am headed, I can't enjoy the moment. (like just now when I took a 40 minute break from writing to do some work...)

But even with wanting to get this stuff done, I can't wait for 5PM tomrrow. I will be off to Limaland to watch one of my students play in a tennis tournament and hopefully learn a few more things before the season starts. Then Saturday it is off to Huntington for a Youth For Christ Staff Retreat to (re-) learn how to communicate, handle and reignite our passion for the youth. It will be a great two days with friends, doing what I want to do for the rest of my life, serving God by serving fellow Christians and lost alike.

So as you go into this weekend, take a moment to do something that you have a passion for. Because if you run so hard in the race that you miss the finish line, what's the point of even running at all. Look to God everyone and have a great weekend!

Take My Yoke

We had a discussion tonight in my men's Bible study of Matthew 11:25-30 which says"

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Going through the verses we stated that we each have our own yoke need to discover what passions we have for Christ. But there is a problem with this.

Under Jewish tradition, when one follows his rabbi, he takes his yoke, or his way entire essence of life. The disciple learns and tries as much as he can to be exactly as his rabbi. So when he takes his yoke, he makes his own yoke just as his rabbi's. We are even called to be just like Christ, re-enforcing this idea.

But then what is this yoke? What does it contain? What is the essence of our Christian beliefs that makes us followers of Christ? It can't be anything less than the core foundation of our relationship with Christ. To invite the Holy Spirit into our lives and putting all faith in Christ, and being like our rabbi. Of course, this encompasses all of the parts, loving one another, standing up for your beliefs even unto death, and spending countless hours in prayer and quiet time with God and Scripture. The yoke is about what you do (loving others, preaching the Good News) not about how you do it (tithing to charities or helping out someone that is down, through songs or the Word). Your passions of how you do what you do for Christ are just your decorations of your yoke.

So as you perfect your gifts from God, realize that the true heart of Christianity is not how you do it, but what you do. That's what really counts.

Hit the Rock Discipleship

So, I have decided that as soon as I graduate from ONU and start my job and semenary, that I am going to start a church organization (this is very much a joke). It's going to be called "Hit the Rock" where I take a small group of the youth (high school, college) and visit nursing homes. The idea is when we greet and say goodbye, we hit the rock (see picture above) in saying hi and bye. We then jump into one on one Bible studies, bringing a modern, open viewed flare to amazing wisdom. Great company and lots of teaching, this could make for some great discipleship time. Again, probably would never work, but in my "own world" this would be amazing!

Bible studies at bars

Last Tuesday I decided to take my small group to Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3) in Findlay. BW3s is a sports bar that has great tasting hot wings, but it's not the sort of place that you would have a Bible study. I've found that in my college status that there are alot of places that we wouldn't be accepted if we were going to do one. College is about having fun, right? None of this Christian stuff. And when you are trying to be accepted socially but still live up to your moral values, things tend to not work out so well. Something normally gives.

Anyways, this was one of those bring out your faith type of demonstrations. I didn't have a lesson except for each of us to have a Bible when we sat down.

You want to know the heart of a man, put him in an awkward situation and see how he reacts. Granted, this isn't life or death and theyaren't naked in public, but we instantly jumped into some deep topics of spiritual battles. These are some men of honor that we have and I am proud to be among them.

So be bold and take your faith where it "doesn't belong." Show the world your love and compassion and the truth that Christ has for us.

Man, I hate it when I get blindsided like that. I was enjoying some tv online, looking at a few blogs and then bam... reminder of what once was. We as humans have this free will that God gave us, but are we using it correctly? Not more than 30 minutes ago, I was so excited for what was to come, things have been looking up for me. Then I read about disappointments from others of what could have been for me and it's like a brick wall.

No way am I over it, but I thought I wouldn't be hit so hard now. Makes the idea of free will kind of hard to swallow. With making my own choices comes heart ache and sadness. Would this have come if my decisions were fully in Christ? Maybe.

But don't count me out yet. Still got alot to offer this world before my time is up (unless the boss decides otherwise). Here is a little something I found:

This is the future rants of Jeremy. More to come soon.

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