No Shave November

So I successfully went 5 weeks without shaving, completing "No Shave November" during the month of October. I had to accomplish no-shave during October for two reasons, one, I'd like to look respectable when I visit for Thanksgiving; and two, I have a recognition ceremony on November 3rd for graduate students that were given fellowships. Sunday morning I shaved my wannabe-beard and crust-stache (as Jackie Horn would say). My face feels like a baby!

BBQ and fellowship Friday evening was quite a bit of fun! I had seven guests over to eat chicken and potatoes. Ivan has been eating gyros and sandwiches during his stay in IL, so I'm thankful to have been able to feed him something besides meat on bread! It was dang good food and alot of fun, all together. Praise God for the funds, time, and friends that made it a success.

I spent the bulk of Saturday studying, with a nice break for the IV departmental dinner and a good nap. God answered numerous prayers at Sat. evenings dept.-dinner. We're seeking to integrate our faith and learning together and God has provided a number of oppurtunities to do so. I'm helping organize a discussion/forum over Environmental Care and Concern that will take place next February. It will be a place where we can invite both Christian and non to attend and discuss our accountability to caring for the environment. I'm thankful and challenged by my involvement. Our Life-sciences group is composed of 5 solid Christians who want to reach their academic fields, their friends and culture for Christ. We're all excited about what may result.

Church Sunday morning was, once again, beautiful. Because my heart and mind often wander to worldly things, it is nice to come together with God's people and be encouraged to worship and sing aloud to our God. Mike preached on Romans 2:1-5 and encouraged us to not take God's goodness, kindness and patience for granted. Often we take God's blessings as signs that we're doing things right, but often (as this passage explains) God is blessing us in order that we might repent and turn to Him. We're given good jobs, family, friends and goods so that we may know they are from God and that because we're often ungrateful for such things, that we need to repent and ask for God's forgiveness.

Please pray for me:
Planning for the forum/discussion in February
That I not neglect to acknowledge God and the study of the Scriptures
My relationships with my roommates - how best to encourage them to develop in Christ
Reliance upon God's grace through the Spirit when it comes to spiritual growth and gifts that I've recieved
Transmission problems on the truck - (not again!!!)

For my friends/family:
My father is doing a lot of traveling, and I hope that the best comes out of it
My brother - to get an appointment at Children's Mercy Hosp. soon
Nicky - grace to endure or be cured from her sicknesses
And other requests, many as they are, that I would enjoy your prayer over

KC and Kristen are rubbing off

It's a good day! Upon waking this morning I was overwhelmed with thinking about the suffering of Christ. My thoughts went to his ministry leading up to the cross. He decided with the father that suffering was the way in which His grace would be fully glorified. Residing in "unapproachable" light with the Father, Jesus was quite rich. He made himself, poor, though and spent his life earth looking forward to a horrible death. He must have had such a sure sense of the Father's presence. Day after day was spent showing a hopeless generation that the way to the kingdom of God is following the Son of God to the cross. In our prayer time at the house this morning we all seemed to be grasping this. Please pray for the four of us (roommates at 312 E. Clark) that we may know what it means to be godly, because we just don't fully understand. Paul says "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." I, we, want to know what Paul means by "godly".It's something beyond solely going to church on Sunday, reading my Bible, praying, connecting with people at small group, not getting drunk, etc. - good things, but they don't adequately define godliness.

This week/day has been great...

I'm having a bunch of friends over to my house tonight for bbq. I was blessed by my stepmother who sent me a wonderful recipe for potatoes. I plan on making that this afternoon. I also picked up my basketball tickets today: our group will sit on the third teir, in the corner, near the top. Hopefully the basketball team doesn't suck like our football team, or we're gonna have to bring monopoly to keep us busy. My stats test on Thursday was "vanilla" or "cake", as Dr. Riveland would say. I'm gearing up for a hydrology test this coming week. Lab work has kept me a little more busy, lately. I've been preping my samples to run an NMR analysis on them. I met with an academic-professional this week to get a protocol ready for me to run all of my samples next friday. I'm hoping that these turn out well and encourage my advisor to turn this into my thesis work.

Also, Grandma's peanut butter cookies have been a great treat this week! Thanks grandma, I love you! I love you, too, grandpa!

Meddling in Antiquity

Tonight Ivan and I met for coffee and to review the paper for his Early Byzantine Empire class. For those that don't know Ivan is from Spain and is studying in the history grad program at U of I for one semester. He and I met at the gym. This young man is blessed by God with a brilliant mind. He speaks three or four different languages and reads six - including Greek and Latin. Ivan also enjoys studying biology, philosophy and environmental science. He's been coming to the Numbers study and attending some of the IV events. Tonight he told me that he picked up a 16th century Spanish-catholic Bible - he prefers the classic style of writing. I offered to find him a newer translation, but he doesn't want a new one. Ivan has a large, close family back and Spain, but hopes to continue his studies at Illinois next fall.

I'm writing about my friendship with Ivan in response to an email my mom wrote me. She asked if there were some experiences in my past where I had cried out to God "I can't see without you! Help me see!" The prayer over the last year went something like this... "God, I know that you've allowed me to taste the depths of great sovereignty over creation and salvation, please apply it to my life! Help me love others and see them the way you do." Over the summer and into this school year that prayer is being answered. Although my vision is still quite fuzzy, I'm sure that God has given everyone gifts and qualities to be used in worshiping Him and building the kingdom. The post about Mo and Hobab testifies to this. For those in my life, from Ivan and all of my friends to my family, including my Dad, I'll continue to encourage them to consider their bodies as a blessing from God, turning to Him with thankful worship and complete reliance upon Jesus.

Believe that Jesus is the incarnate son of God. Believe that he suffered and died at the hands of the Jews and Romans for the complete forgiveness of sins. Believe that Jesus was resurected from the dead. Believe that you are now empowered to worship God through the strength God gives through His Spirit. Believe, and therefore live.

I need to hear this every day. And so do all of you.

Extra crunchy

Being an easy week I've had much more time to sleep and read the scriptures. This has been healthy and helpful, especially with three busy weeks ahead. I've spent most of my devotional time in Mark and Numbers, as my faithful readers know.

Bolt mentions (The Cross From a Distance, 2005), and I've found this to be true, that the faith and understanding that Jesus patiently and consistently calls the disciples to embody is found in the weak, poor and sick characters of the Gospel of Mark.

After the transfiguration Jesus makes clear to James, John and Peter that his suffering death, and the subsequent triumphal resurrection are the last steps before the Kingdom of God is ushered in upon earth (9:1-23). The disciples associate the raising of the dead (known as the final resurrection in 1st century Jewish thought) with the establishment of the Kingdom. And so James and John, still thinking about the events to come, implore Jesus saying "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask" (10:35). Humbly Jesus replies "What do you want me to do for you?" The disciple's have no idea what it means to have a Kingdom-mindset, this is evidenced by their self-centered reply. Jesus asks a blind man on the streets of Jericho the exact question: The blind man heard the group of disciples walking by and he called out "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Again, Jesus replies "What do you want me to do for you?" The beggar replies "that I might receive my sight!" This is mind and heart God desires us to have - one that cries out "I can't see without your help! Help me see!"

Yesterday evening Josh and I went to the homecoming variety show in Lincoln Hall. They had some talented artists there. The opening band was probably my favorit. They are a Beatles cover band named the Lonely Hearts, and they rocked for the few songs that they played. Te crowd became entransed when a young man schooled a piano while playing and singing some Elton John songs. This guy is going somewhere. Josh and I then head over Dwayne and Austin's place to watch a movie. It was my first time there, so I naturally started to check the place out. I walked over by the sliding glass door to look outside because I thought I heard something outside. I didn't realize that the sound was Dwayne opening the door. Staring out what I thought was a closed glass door, Dwayne, dressed in the Scream-killer outfit, piled out of shadows engulfing their porch and tackled me in the middle of the doorway! What a great time. Casie and Kristen, Dwayne is your rival when it comes to hospitality. The dude has a gift for making people feel welcome, even if he scares the daylights out of them.

Today I'm studying a stats to prepare for my test on Thursday. My roommates and I are planning on fishing tonight. Last time we went out I landed a good size flathead, hopefully we'll catch something as big or bigger tonight. Also, we have another potluck coming up! This one is a "monosyllable potluck", also known as a "pot". So if you have any suggestions on dishes, send them my way.

Have a great weekend/week!

In limbo

Sorry it has been so long! Last week was quite busy preparing to write the proposal for my semester research project and the weekend mirrored the same. Last Monday my advisor and I met to talk about my project. This informal meeting was quite encouraging because it looks like the phophorus speciation-small project will most likely lead to thesis work! This is a huge "Praise the Lord" sort of thing, because it means that I don't have to start all over when it comes to a literature review, seeing how I've put much time into this semester's work.

Some highlights from the week past:

Thursday evening Bible study - we had dinner before hand to organize Friday evening's after-large-group-event (ALGE). Dinner was amazing - Nina cooked homemade everything - stuffed italian shells, biscuits, brownies! Bible study is always a wonderful time, too!

Friday evening we had a worship service for Grad IV - music only (yes, with instruments), completely God exalting, though. The ALGE we planned was a Numbers-themed (Numbers as in the book of the Bible-Numbers) scavenger hunt. It rocked, but didn't quite live up to the standard set by Christian Challenge last spring. I've got some great pictures though, hopefully I'll post some soon.

Saturday I pounded out my proposal! It felt great to write and synthesize all that I have been learning. I also went with IFL (International student Friendship Link) to hang out at a lake north of Champaign. We played kick ball, line-danced and carved pumpkins. It was a great time and I met some really cool international students. I plan to join some of them for badmitten and ping-pong sometime. You can check out pics from the IFL event at:

http://ifl.gfmuiuc.org/lakewoods/

I attended church on Sunday at Community E-Free church. The worship service was complete with about 40 minutes of music - mostly hymns. Singing was followed by a Piper-esque sermon over Romans 1:24-27. The past even quoted Piper a couple of times. Why not though? The guy (Piper) has preached nearly all the way through Romans twice in his lifetime, each time taking over 5 years! If everything works out, I'll visit CEFC again this Sunday.

Today (Tuesday) I made my way to the Darwin club meeting. They had a speaker give a presentation over a conference he attended. It was a decent presentation. I felt sorry for the speaker - he had a horrible stutter and it was difficult for him to finish a complete sentence. I asked one or two questions that I thought were important in understanding the theory of evolution, but it seemed like the answer was skirted around. My question was "In biological science, what is the difference between a theory and a law?" It seems much different then chemistry or physics, and is really important to evolutionary concept.

In my devotional time I'm enjoying Numbers and Mark. I posted about my time in Numbers, but Mark is just as exciting. I'm learning what Jesus meant in Mark 10 when he asked the disciples if they were able to "drink the cup that [he drank], or to be baptized with the baptism with which [he was] baptized?" The word "baptizmo" (ignore spelling) in the greek is a term that the Greek Septuagent associates with the waters over coming a person, or one being cast away from God's presence. The cup signifies the Wrath of God - read Isaiah 51 and 52 - the wrath of God upon Israel is prophesied to come to a completion when the final dregs of the cup are tasted. Christ takes upon the bitter wrath as he tastes death for the church, and finally the wrath of God is taken off of Israel by the suffering servent (Isaiah 52). Enjoy!

Love you all!

Numbers, not math!

So I'm really enjoying this weeks text. In meditation I thought that the following text had much to do about evangelism in the postmodern world:

And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the LORD has promised good to Israel." But he [Hobab] said to him, "I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my kindred." And he [Moses] said, "Please do not leave us, for you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. And if you do go with us, whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same will we do to you." So they set out from the mount of the LORD three days' journey. And the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp. Numbers 10:29-34

Hobab is the son of a nomad (Reuel, Moses' father-in-law) and his family has been with Israel up until the point when God's people are leaving Sinai. Moses implores this gentile to accompany God's people to the promised land. The prophet does this in a way that recognizes the good qualities or knowledge that God had sovereignly, through creation and physical location (Acts 17:26-27), given to Hobab and his family. Moses' inlaws were blessed by God with a knowledge of how and where to live in out in the wilderness. Recognizing this, Moses invites Hobab and family to use this gift toward the benefit of God's kingdom, fulfilling the reason for which they were created. Hobab accepts and joins God's chosen people, recieving the blessings and pleasures that are reserved for Israel alone.

This helps me to see more clearly what it means to call people to believe in God and be saved. Israel alone experiences communion with the Living God and we call people to participate with us, becoming family. All have qualities created in them in order that the individual might use these gifts in service, worship and enjoyment in the LORD.

Any comments???

Webb and Manson

I'm loving this quote: "Think of the most despicable person you can think of...In our culture for the past 10 years it's been Marilyn Manson. He is despicable...and you know what? so am I. And so are you. He might not try to hide his sin like we might do, but the only real difference between us is something that we were given for free: Jesus." ~Derek Webb


**Disclaimer: Christian language can be offensive to people both in the church and the greater world community.

[DerekWebb.net] http://www.derekwebb.net/

Jewish Nazarites of Modernity

I agree with my friend Josh, and I'm sure you do to, that those committed Christians you know long to be holy and pure in deed before God. We want to live in the realm of "living sacrifice". Nobody can do it though! We look at the Nazarite vow, and along with modern Jewish rabbis, we declare that it is not possible with man (http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/162/Q3/) - See the last sentence of this short Q and A session.

The sacrifice we wish to give and live is not possible. In Numbers the sacrifice given is the crown - or consecrated hair. It was cut at the end of the vow as a sacrifice, pure and holy. We find that in our failings, in our inability to live holy before God and our dead works, that Jesus purifies us, making us acceptable to God. Because we see that Jesus has paid it all, we long for this purity and dedication. As Josh puts it, "What this means to me is that there is then no place for spiritual complacency, or rather apathy, in terms of our lives. Every modern Christian in my opinion, in the light of Jesus, is to be a Nazirite in the sense that we are to make that conscious decision of dedicating our whole life to God. The practical output then, we have to ask ourselves, what are the lambs, the rams, and the bread of our lives. What are our symbols of anointing and and royalty?" So beyond a few people called to this office, the Holy Spirit beckons the hearts of all Christians to live as the Nazarites of old.

Isreal, true Jews as described in Galations 3, were set apart to be a nation of priests. In the OT all Isrealites were given oppurtunity to participate in priest-type activities in the Nazarite service. In the NT, all are called to the office of priest.

As for the connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the office of Nazarite, some definitions looked up by Nina will help. There doesn't seem to be a connection between the two. Plus, with Jesus raising people from the dead it would be difficult to keep the vow.

Nazaritenaziyr, naw-zeer'; or nazir, naw-zeer'; from Hebrew 5144 (nazar); separate, i.e. consecrated (as prince, a Nazirite); hence (figurative from the latter) an unpruned vine (like an unshorn Nazirite) :- Nazarite [by a false alliteration with Nazareth], separate (-d), vine undressed.

nay'-zer; from Hebrew 5145 (nazar); properly something set apart, i.e. (abstract) dedication (of a priest or Nazirite); hence (concrete) unshorn locks; also (by implication) a chaplet (especially of royalty) :- consecration, crown, hair, separation.

NazarethNazareth, nad-zar-eth'; or Nazaret, nad-zar-et'; of uncertain derivative; Nazareth or Nazaret, a place in Palestine :- Nazareth.

NazareneNazarenos, nad-zar-ay-nos'; from Greek 3478 (Nazareth); a Nazarene, i.e. inhabitant of Nazareth :- of Nazareth.

Nazoraios, nad-zo-rah'-yos; from Greek 3478 (Nazareth); a Nazoræan, i.e. inhabitant of Nazareth; by extensive a Christian :- Nazarene, of Nazareth.

Eh?

So I attended a Minnesotan Potluck dinner on Saturday. Nina, my Bible study leader, has this awesome Luthern/Minnesotan cookbook and in honor of the Spam state, we had ourselves a little bit of a feast. I brought Dolly's Minnesotan Chili, which was bound to be a hit. A supplemented Red Pepper with Thai seasoning, which made all the difference! Native Minnesotan salad was also on the menu. For those that don't know, 'salad' refers to a jello based dish that can contain vegies, fruit and/or tater tots. Wild rice soup, rusk, and tater tot casserole were also available. Overall, the food was not too bad! (This is a Minnesotan compliment).

I encourage you to have your own themed potluck. Maybe monochromatic, dried-fruit, or canned fish could be some interesting themes.

Here's a couple of pics from that evening...

I also want to quote Kristen's blog from her latest post. Oh, I am so encouraged by her spirit! Praise God! Here it is...

"so, do i know "rough"? i'm gonna hafta go with "no". a big, fat NO. because this week, instead of Hell, GOD gave me this (a rough week by modern, American standards). i believe "incredibly blessed" may be the better term." ~Kristen H.

I added the emphasis for contextual purposes. Truth without context is death (Derek Webb)! The link to her blog is at the left. I encourage you to read and enjoy!

Something is sweeping over us

A quick look at BBC world news reveals:

-Suicide blast hurts four Britons
-Army deployed after Assam riots
-Jharkhand blast kills 12 soldiers
-India bus accidents leave 25 dead
-Eight die in Pakistan Attack
-Bomb blast in Sri Lanka Capital
-Fresh bombs shake Iraqi capital
-Guatemala villages 'mass graves'
-NYC 'bomb threat' details leaked
-Colombia militia halt disarmament
-Six US marines die in Iraq blast
-Peacekeepers (in Darfur) die in ambush
-Thousands 'flee Sudan bombings'
-Congo soldiers on trial for rape
-Crisis looms (Food shortages grip Malawi)
-Quake kills 400 school children

Life is short. I spend so much time trying to get 'stuff' that won't last. The words of Ronald Sider impress upon me: "Both the call to care for our neighbour and the summons to sabbatical worship of God place limits on human acquisition and consumption. Material things are very good, but less important than spending time and enjoying right relationships with neighbour and God." (from an essay in The Care of Cration, R. J. Berry, editor)

I'm cutting the post short tonight. I'm off to spend time with my 'neighbours'. I want them to know true security - that found only in the unmovable, unchangable, all-powerful, loving, supreme God of us and all things.

Thanks for your response, Casie. I'll get back to you soon!

Move, Live, Study

Just a good reminder...

"This business of education is God's business. He gave us minds that think. He created the world we think about. He wrote the book of nature. He made the rules of logic. He is the standard of true and false, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. To ignore him is to be profoundly undereducated." ~ John Piper

Chuh-ching

Hydrology test yesterday went great! Afterward, David Syruk (Staff for Grad. IV) and I had some coffee and shared a scone. Our topics ranged from starting a fellowship at a few universities in Germany to atonement in Marks gospel. David has been a great blessing in helping me remained centered and balanced while starting grad school.

I had this emailed to me, but decided not to forward it because I don't like to forward stuff unless it's really, really good. This one is really good, so I held back.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2005 when...
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this>>>message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.
AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.


Finally, a quote worth quoting... David Syruk sent it to me this afternoon.
It's from a chemistry professor at Cornell as told by Harry Lee Poe in his CHRISTIANITY IN THE ACADEMY(Eerdmans)--

"[B]iologists worship Darwin in a way that physicists and chemists do not regard Newton and Fermi." (143).

Oh, and Mom, thanks for the pic of Matt, it's great! He's a stud, does he have a girlfriend yet???

Happy Rosh Hashanah!!!

First, I would like to thank my sister for sending me Halloween candy! What a wonderful surprise! Thanks Michelle!

Second, today is Rosh Hashanah and it is a day to boogey down! The precendence for the holiday is found in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Numbers and Leviticus:

"On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the ram, and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and its grain offering, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offering, according to the rule for them, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD."
Numbers 29:1-6

This and many other Jewish holidays point to the coming of the Jewish Messiah, the one who brigns the ultimate reason to celebrate. The holiday brings together God's chosen people to offer sacrifices to God - to worship outside of their normal, prescribed worship schedule. As always, even in worship a sacrifice for sin was needed. Even our best is wrought through with selfish desires and sin.

Botswanan Jingle in the CRC

I have had an eventful few days since my last post!

My test Thursday went fairly well. We don't have a textbook for aquatic ecosystem conservation, so we're tested over class notes and what Matt, my prof, says in lecture. Naturally, I phase out to think about philosophy and ninjas, so I usually miss a little material. I enjoy the broad approach to aquatic systems that we're learning, but I also long for the intricacies that my chemistry education was wrought with. Oh for a little "particle in the pond"! As for the outcome of the test, I'll know next week. I'm not going to try to forcast my grade, I could have bombed it. Who knows?

Thursday evening was busy! A short run to Target allowed me to purchase rechargable batteries and soccer socks (to play softball in). We quickly headed to Bible study where Josh and Nina were cooking curry for the whole group. After the scrumptous meal we headed deep into the realm of 1500 b.c. Jewish history. Chapters 5 and 6 of Numbers reveal some interesting things: One, we just don't understand the horror of adultery before God - both the physical and emotional unfaithfulness of committed couples today, as well as unfaithfullness to God. We just don't get it. Second, Nazarites were way cool! They committed their whole lives, atleast a portion, to complete servitude for God. They couldn't even be around dead people! In the protestant church we don't have anything resembling this office. Why? Thursday evening was capped off with a ten o'clock softball game, which we lost. Oh well.

Lab, lab, and more lab - not the black dogs - but laboratory. This describes Friday. However, the roomies and I caught a hardcore Illini club hockey game. It was the first of the season, and boy, did we sit in the wrong seats! You could see just fine from anywhere, but we chose to sit in the middle of the bleachers. This is the section where a univeristy club, the Heckling Illini, sit. Rancid, horrible, disgusting, discordant language! Nonetheless, I was mourning while rejoicing, because the Fighting Illini kicked some tail against the Deleware Blue Hins!

Saturday evening I attended a dinner for grad IV students whose research interests are somewhat close to mine - life science sort of stuff. We were hosted by a christian animal sciences prof. The purpose of the discussions is to create a place where we can discuss and be challenged to integrate faith and learning. Last night was basically a planning meeting. A couple of the brain-stormed ideas were: forcasting, or being proactive, when it comes to where our fields are heading - anticipating and being prepared. We also thought serving those around us was a very practical way of bring our faith into our fields. If you have any suggestions, please post them.

Blake and I also went fishing last night. I caught a pretty darn big fish, but he ended up breaking the line. He was bigger then the last fish I caught, though. Blake was successful in pulling in a two or three pounder.

Today at Hessel Park we took communion. It was different in form than other places, but beautiful. The congregation stood in a circle and passed the bread and wine from one person to the next saying "this the body of Christ broken for you," and "this is the blood of Christ spilt for you." It seems to amplify the body of Christ concept. Pastor Tim preached his fourth sermon on ethics. This one centered upon racism. After the message we sang and jived to a South African spiritual song. I have never seen reformed people get down like this before! It was awesome!

Okay, so some of the more personal, spiritual stuff....

I agree with Casie, why is it so difficult to trust God??? It seems like I've never distrusted God like I do now. I'm not discourged in this, but encouraged to seek and find the One who satisfies every need.

Mark 8 - Jesus says "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

In response to distrusting God, Jesus says to distrust yourself. Get rid of the preconcieved ideas of what your life should look at and follow Jesus. We don't know what is best for us. Proclaim God's promises in the name of Jesus. Whatever He brings is 10,000 times more amazing then anything we could imagine! Thanks mom for showing me this and thanks Pastor Joe for preaching this!

Please continue praying for my friendships. I long to have deeper friendships with all of my friends.