Thinking Differently

Faithful readers (whoever you may be…if I have any…),

I am back from spring break. It was a really good time to relax and work, no problems and everything went well. This new school quarter will be interesting.

We have New Testament Survey and Romans all quarter, and will hear from the famous Dr. Charles Ryrie, among others. Ministry includes a week in New York City for Open Air Evangelism, that will be interesting. My summer ministry at the Ranch will be as a counselor. Not the dishpit super I hoped for, but maybe God has something in this for me.

My service assignment is still dishpit though, and I am teamed up with my supervisor from fall quarter, a guy named Ebenezer. He is the best, and really loves on the guys that work with him, I would do anything for him. He is an RA, and if they were all as understanding and loving as him, this place would be alot happier. But oh well. I work Tues Thurs and Sat dinner, but all my required stuff will be on Tues and Thurs, leaving Mon Wed Fri almost completely free.

Already warmer weather is here, should be upper 60’s by friday. Most of the snow and hold over ice is melting and Schroon Lake is beginning to thaw finally.

Intramural sports this quarter is softball, so I can get back in the action finally. Dusted off my glove and tossed around the ball with my good friend Chris Wood, call him Woody. Brought back memories, all of em good. Man, I love baseball.

Tomorrow I will be contacted at 1430 by a representative of College of the Ozarks for an interview about acceptance, as part of the application process. Pray that goes well, as I don’t particularly enjoy phone conversations.

so there is a little update

Peace and grace to you.

-the StormRider-

Hey hey, spring is coming. I know because I turned 19 two weeks ago, and the air is getting somewhat warmer.

I have been working at Word of Life Inn for spring break, hoping to make some money to put towards my spring school bill. Sigh. You just finish paying one off to get another in your mail. Such is life I guess, but its a good thing my God is so big, eh? Speaking of which, I was blessed with $44 in tips over the weekend, so I can pay my laundry with $4 and put the other in the bank. Whohoo. Ever little bit counts.

I have been working laundry this week, which means I stand up for eight hours and fold sheets and towels, but its not bad, actually. I work with four girls, so that works too! No, nothing special, but its nice. I have tomorrow and the weekend off, so that rocks, maybe I will watch Lord of the Rings or something.

The end of winter quarter was good, not too hard and pretty relaxing. Despite Snow Camp, my GPA only dropped a few decimals! (For all who care it is 3.84 from 3.89). We start spring quarter with an indepth look at Romans. Should be kick butt awesome.

Not much else to report, life goes as it is wont to do. A little bad, a little good, and a God over all. Hope all y’all are well.

Peace and grace to you.

well, the winter quarter is about over. One week left. Exciting isn’t quite the word. You see, over Christmas break I almost didn’t come back. I was having fun and enjoying myself, but they say the pleasures of sin only last for a season. La Muerte (Death) stalks you all your life, and the tragedy is that he stalks you at your bidding. It is written, “The wages of sin is death” (John 6:23) and this is certainly true. I must confess over break, I was indulging in self-destructive activities that wound me up in trouble.

Trouble is an intersting place, full of lies, mostly of the self-deceptive nature, and danger. Unfortunately, I have found myself too often within its confines. I am a rebel, a vigilante out after my own sort of justice and life, and while this seems to make me happy and give me power, these things betray me when I need them most and I am found inadequate.

Inadequacy is intoxicating, and I will tell you why. When I find that of myself I can do nothing, I can’t even fail, then I must find an alternate source of power to fulfill my passions. This source becomes the Source. Jesus Christ becomes my Deus Ex Machina. He solves my problems. Take my evil over break, for instance. I found myself on a dusty street staring down my old adversary with both barrels empty and my backup weapon at home, when none other than my Deliverer comes leaping across the rooftops, guns blazing. In this moment of triumph, I stand rooted to the dry ground and watch my enemies fall. Messiah stands before me, and without hesitation slaps me to the ground. It was my fault I was even in the predicament to begin with. My Savior had warned me of the doom, told me not to go, and grabbed my second firearm and emptied my primary. He then let me leave in bravado and foolishness.

So God then stood me up and dusted me off. He turned me in the direction I needed to go, and led me by the hand. He holds my hand still.

This quarter at Word of Life has been one of intense spiritual growth and self-inspection. I fail and mess up and sin, and my Father puts me back on the right. I ignore what I know to do, and the Spirit is grieved. I break fellowship and spit at the One Who Rescues. But when I fall down at the end of myself, He picks me up in absolute love, grace, mercy, and power; and He holds it not to my account and forgives me.

This is the life indeed. My nineteenth birthday soon approaches, and today I spent an awesome day with my brother and his girlfriend in Lake Placid, walking around and visiting shops. Even bought some “invisible” playing cards. They are plastic and see through (though the numbers and suits are cleverly hidden). This day was high fifties, clear, and so beautiful it hurt. I bless God for so much clarity after much days of gray.

I trust you live the Life, and I know that when I walk in faith and sin not, my attitude, outlook and thought processes are so much better. Strangely enough, I am more free, happy, and relaxed when I have done nothing wrong.

Jesus Christ is a Man Apart that way. Does He have your back? He’s got mine, and that makes all the difference.

Adios amigos.

So I recently bought a Confederate flag on Ebay for 5 bucks, and have it proudly hanging in my dorm room. Well, on the way to fill up some water bottles, I was walking by a roommate’s dresser, which stood opposite the flag. I caught, out of the corner of the eye, a glimpse of the flag, reflected in the lens of a pair of sunglasses. I took a picture, and you can see it on my Flickr site.

head over HERE for the picture…plus some of Madang.

enjoy!

God is… well to start off with, God is big. Really big. You just won’t
believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big He is. The simple truth is
that God will not fit into the human imagination.* Add to that the fact
that God is at least as massively good as He is big, and then it becomes
even more impossible to sit there in your office and comprehend the
incredible good-ness of God. Not to mention the love of God, which
competely blows all other concepts of Him out of the proverbial water.
Blows them out with something akin to the force of an atomic bomb
destroying a paper house. That is God, at least as a feeble human
describes Him.

Now that your current concept of God was at least challenged, I will tell
you what this inscutable God has done. (in comparison with the
description, this seems nanoscopic at best, but it was a big thing to me)

God provided.

Now to most theological theologians, this is a statement so obvious that
they don’t bother to mention it, but then these theologians mostly are
monks in a monestary someplace. To the rest of us (that is pastors,
missionaries, church-goers, non-church-goers, and the random person you
pass on the street on your way to Wendy’s for a bacon cheeseburger)
this is something really, really cool….

read the rest…God…