One of my favorite sermon illustrations....

Back during the days before automobiles, two preachers met in a certain town. The first asked the second how he was doing. “Furious!” replied the second. “Someone has stolen my bicycle and I think it’s one of my church members! I don’t know what to do.” The first preacher said: “Here’s what I’d do. I’d preach on the Ten Commandments this Sunday and when I got to ‘Thou shalt not steal’ I’d really hammer it home.” The second preacher said, “I think I’ll take your advice.” The next Monday, the first preacher ran into the second one and saw that he was riding the bicycle. He said, “I see my advice worked.” The second replied, “Not really. When I got to ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery, I remembered where I left my bicycle.”

Believing...

So, I watched part of Polar Express with my mom tonight, and the basic moral of the movie is to believe. For those of you who do not know Polar Express is baout a kid who does not believe in Santa, and how he goes on this fantasy journey where he ends up in the North Pole. Sometimes I think that we as Christians want those kind of experiences. I am talking about the kind of experiences where you basically finally get it. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with those experiences, but I do not think that it all comes down getting everything all at once. I have definitely found out the hard way that it takes a lot of learning and experiences to get anything.

Heart Issues...

So, soemthing that has been on my heart for a long time is that since I have begun my walk with Christ I have left some of my friends behind. In particular one friend of mine. Her name is Kim and I seriously love that girl so much. She was closer to me than almost anyone else. But once I started going to church I had to make some decisions that would help me in my walk. One of which was to leave some of my friend that were bad influences behind. She was not a bad influence, but when Ileft the bad influences behind I started spending a lot of time at church. Eventually I spent almost all my time at church. Which meant Kim was being ignored. Right now Kim is doing drugs, from weed to X, and drinking alot. I have always felt it was my fault not being there for her when some bad things went down. The worse thing is that there was someone else there to catch the pieces, not a good somebody. Tonight I talked to someone else that I left behind and was not a good friend too after she had always been so loyal and good to me, and she told me straight out that if i would have stayed around she would have not ended up this way. Right now my question is "Is it worth it?" to live this life and hurt those who love and need you in thier lives. The answer of course is "YES". There is no other life, but sometimes coming being libing most of my life in the world and of it, it is really hard to live in it and not of it. Right now my mind is swimming with regrets, which sucks cause my phrase in life is never regret but don't forget.

A new saying I learned this weekend is:
"The past is history, the future a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why it is called the present"

One Change Leads to Another...

So, something that I have noticed about people, especially on campus lately, that when people change their relationship status something else changes too. It has just been getting on my nerves that when some people get in a relationship they think that it fixes all of their problems. Since they think that they feel like they need to spend almost every free moment with that person. This just really upsets me, especially when college is supposed to be the time where you build friendships. I just do not realize why people do this. If anyone has any understanding of this I would appreciate it.

T.D. Jakes...

Just Watch....

Balance...

So, I have always known that when you have balance in your life you will be more efficient and joyful. Lately however, I have forgotten how important this can be. Yesterday i gave all of my stress and worries up to God and after this He blessed me with peace. This morning I woke up fully rested and ready to praise God. That is something that I wish I could do everyday. I plan on training myself to do so. Part of my training is waking up at six O'clock in the morning to pray. I just want to state the reasons that I am doing this seemingly insane task. First of all, The time that Jesus prayed the most was early in the morning before the sun rose. When I am getting up I am not praying by myself, I am praying with a couple other people. This is because in Acts the most common kind of prayer is corporate prayer. I think that this is something that is necessary, because it addresses two of the biggest problems on campus. The first is lack of community. I have spoken with several people on campus who feel that the feeling of community has dropped dramatically since the closing of The Hole. The other is the lack of prayer on campus. I just feel like the feeling of urgency of prayer is dramatically lower than it should be in a school full of people who love God. I am not trying to insult anyone. If you are offended in any way by what I have said then I am sorry but it is the truth. There is so many things that need improvement. I am also not saying that we all suck at life. There are so many amazing qualities of the people on campus that makes this campus an amazing place to be.

A song that I have loved since the first time i heard it is...

Contentment...

So I used to think that once I wanted to just be content it would be easy to attain. I do not know why I thought this, because it has been one of the hardest things I have ever tried to do. Lately I have been doing things that remind me of how I used to be before Jesus found me. Once I realized this I tried to turn it back around and realized that it was harder to turn from it now that I have been saved for a while than when I was first saved. I realize now that I have not been trying as hard as I could have. Once I reached a place where I could feel comfortable again I felt like I was being pulled down again. This is when I realized that God wants us to be content in every situation. So this is when I started to strive not for happiness but for contentment. When you are living in a world that is messed up as the one we are living in, where every thing in life is being manipulated by the media and we are constantly being told that we are not good enough and we need things to make us better and we need them NOW, it is hard to be ok with yourself and the situations that you are in that are not ideal. I know that discipline plays a big part in the journey to contentment. And spiritual discipline is something that I need to work on.

On the lighter side here is a video that makes me laugh.This video was shown to me by my wonderful sister Sarah Lang. Who I love so much.

Did the right thing....

So I did the right thing today, and apologized to someone I was a jerk to. After I talked with her I was finally able to focus on the homework that I have recently not been able to focus on. However, have you ever had one of those moments when you know you should have brought a conversation in another way. Well I should have continued this conversation towards concerns that I had.

What is right...

So lately i feel like sometimes I feel like I can be a jerk. When I told somebody this the first thing they told me was that everyone is a jerk on some level. I told her that I didn't want to be a jerk, and that I wanted to apologize. They told me that no on is perfect and if I was only apologizing to try and be perfect then I should not do it. I told her that I really wanted to do it because I felt like I had hurt the person I was rude to.
What I am thinking about this right now is why it would be bad to strive for perfection? Are we not called to be like Jesus, who in every sense of the word was perfect. I think I know what she meant by this though. I think that she was trying to tell me if I was trying to appear perfect through my actions than I should stray away, and I would agree with that. I hate it when people do things just so that people will look at them or think they are great or think they are retarded. People should just live their lives as the way God had intended us to live them. With a modest attitude

People are like a tree...

So if you do not know this about me I love Tyler Perry's character Madea. This is an excerpt from his hit play Madea Goes to Jail. This is some amazing advice that I think everyone should think about.

My Bucket List...

So I decided to put up my bucket list so far, but remember I am a very corny guy.

1. Kiss the girl i love
2. Know what it really means to live for Jesus
3. Eat at a restaurant in Italy
4. Say what is really on my heart
5. Stand up publicly for what I believe in
6. See Poland
7. Have a job I love
8. Do something selfless for a total stranger
9. Wear an Armoni suit
10. Create a dish with Bobby Flay
11. Watch a sunrise
12. Watch a sunset
    
13. Go to Africa
14. Stand on Calvary Hill
15. Shoot a gun
16. Spend one year in overseas missions
17. Kiss my girl while slow dancing
18. Be in a huge field of flowers and/or tall grass
    
19. Smoke a pipe
20. Hunt
21. Paint a Picture
22. Be a chef for a day

I know a couple of these are kinda homo, but these are things that I one day hope to do.

Bucket List....

So, ever since my mom was diagnosed with cancer three years ago I have been thinking more about death. For those of you that do not know my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer Feb of '05. She was treated with chemotherapy and is now rid of it. After watching the movie the Bucket List I have been thinking about the things that I would like to accomplish before I die. With writing them out I have realized that there is a lot of things that I would like to accomplish. I would recommend writing a bucket list it can help you prioritize some things. I am trying to decide whether I want to post my list or not, because it is very corny.

Basic thoughts...

I have had this song on my mind since quest started this year.


You guys should go to this website and post a response to the song. http://www.praisecharts.com/live/articles/432/1/You-Are/Page1.html

First real blog ever.

So this is my first real blog ever, and I do not really know what to say. If you have any questions about me and who I am as a person let me know. I will probably do another blog later. I hope you all have a good day.