The Praying Pirate

Bold

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:42:00 +0000

To be a Christian means to be like Christ. Christ was never timid about anything, He did everything boldly. We have been given the same Spirit “for God gave us a Spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” 1 Timothy 1:7. Often, we forget about the power of the God that dwells in us. If He commands us to stand out, stand up, or take action, we can act boldly with full assurance that He is with us.

Look at the story of Gideon in Judges 6 and 7, he was weak and timid until the Lord called him out into his true identity, we cannot let Satan attack our identity and stand by and do nothing about it. Or look at Peter, the same man that denied Christ three times on the night of his betrayal became a leader of the early church once he had the Spirit of the Risen King inside of him. We are chosen, we are mighty warriors for God’s kingdom that He has raised up for a time just like this! Our perspective can be thrown off by Satan’s attacks, but we must remember who we are in Christ. Our perception doesn’t matter, the perception of those around us doesn’t matter, the only perception that matters is the perception of our King, and He tells us that we are mighty and we are one with Christ. As Brother Yun puts it in his book Living Water, “I exhort you in Christ: please do not forget your identity. You are a redeemed one, chosen by the almighty God to be His child. Your heavenly Father wants you to be a bold warrior who depends on His mighty power. He wants you to be as bold as a lion. Amen!”

So go, be bold and confident in who God has called you to be, He will change the world through His children, why not be a part of that great transformation!

Identity

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Who are you? That is a question that a lot of people have a tough time answering. It's been coming up a lot in my time with God lately, so I figured I would share some insights.

Myself and a few friends are memorizing Romans 8 this summer, so I have been reading over it quite a bit. Verse 14 (don't worry if you are memorizing with me, I haven't memorized this far yet) says that if we are led by the Spirit of God that we are sons of God! I read that and I'm like WHOA! Because when I think Son of God, I think Jesus, and to put myself on that level is kinda tough, but then I have to stop and realize that I'm not on Jesus' level on my own accord, but because He put me there and that His Spirit is why I am considered a son of God in God's eyes. Paul then goes on to say that we have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but a Spirit of adoption as sons...here we go again, God is really driving the point home here that we are His family. Then down in verse 19 we are told that the creation itself longs eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God! When I read this I get really excited and something deep down inside me starts screaming like William Wallace before battle!

I get this picture of who God has created me to be, He has created a son, He has created a brother, He has created a man, and He has created a warrior. Looking at this person that God has created I get fired up, I want to live up to these things, I want to love Him as a son loves his father, I want to be a brother to those around me, I want to be what a man was meant to be, and I want to be a warrior for my King! Guys, when God created you, He created the same things! Spend some time asking Him how He wants these to be a part of your life. Ladies, obviously these things will be a little bit different for you, but God has a specific purpose for who He created when He created you too, so please do the same thing, spend some time asking God who you are in Him and what that means for your life. He promises us that He will bring the work that He has begun in us to completion. (Philippians 1:6)

Faith and Fish

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:32:00 +0000

How often do we worry about things that we need?

Rent money
A job
New clothes
Direction
Words to say
A boyfriend/girlfriend
Good grades

In Matthew 14, Jesus is upset over the death of John the Baptist and He goes off to a 'desolate place' but a huge crowd follows Him and He heals their sick, but when it starts getting dark and they are a long way from food the disciples advise Him to send them away, but Jesus decides that they should all eat there. So He tells the disciples to feed them, but they say 'hey look, Jesus, we only have a little bit of food' of course Jesus provides a miracle and the little bit of food they had feeds all 5,000 men and the women and children with leftovers.

One chapter later when Jesus has been teaching a group of 4,000 men plus women and children that have been following Him for 3 days He tells the disciples to give them something to eat. After what just happened you would think the disciples were like, 'sure Jesus!' And just trust that it would work with His blessing, but they question how they can feed them all...the same way that they did last time!

I was reading through and saw this and I have been chewing on it for a little while and I think that we do the same thing a whole lot more than we realize. How many times do we worry about how a certain situation will work out, or how we will manage to afford this or that, or how we will ever pull a decent grade in a class? Now I'm not saying that we should not work at these things because scripture clearly tells us that our work brings glory to God, but I am saying that we have been commanded not to worry about how God will provide in these situations, but to seek His kingdom and trust that He will work out these situations to His glory.

So, yes, we need to work hard at everything that we do, Colossians 3:23 tells us that we should seek to bring God glory through what we work at, but we should not waste time or energy worrying about how things will turn out. In Red Moon Rising Pete Greig says that we should "pray like it all depends on God and live like it all depends on us". This means being obedient when we hear God's instruction and acting without fear while trusting that God will provide for His glory in every situation.

Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:39:00 +0000

A bunch of you have heard me talk about microfinance in the past two weeks or so, but I just wanted to take some time to spread the word about what it is and how it works because I feel like God has shown me how it can be a useful tool for reaching out and loving others.

Microfinance is the process of giving a small business loan to an entrepreneur that is living in poverty so that they can improve the quality of life that they share with their family and their local community. I think that partnered with prayer and the power of God, this is a tool that can be used to change lives. I took some time to look into it and make sure that microfinance is legit and that people are helped through these loans. I found an organization that I thought looked straight forward and seemed to be seeking to help people, so I asked Jaime about it because I knew that she would have heard of this in all of her knowledge of poverty and social justice. Jaime suggested to me the same organization that I found and I just wanted to pass it along to everyone else. The site is www.kiva.org and they have profiles of people who are seeking microfinance loans and a lender (you or me) can look through and find someone that they want to help out. The loans are usually 6-months to a year and then the principal balance is repaid to the lender so that they can reinvest if they find someone else to help out.

There are some sites that allow you to participate in microfinance for a profit, but kiva uses the interest to cover the costs of the lending institutions, so the type of lending that kiva does is strictly charitable. This is a great way to do a lot with a little because the minimum amount to contribute to a loan is $25, obviously if you want to do more you can, but if you loan only the minimum of $25 and reinvest it over 2 or 3 years you can touch the lives of anywhere between 2 and 6 families and help them to escape poverty. But don't take my word for it, go ahead and check out the site, I promise you won't regret it.

A Challenge of Biblical Proportions

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Colossians 3:1-4 is a challenge to followers of Christ. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and it's time to step the game up! The chapter starts..."If then, you have been raised with Christ"...so, if you have experienced Christ's resurrection, you should be acting this way. Wednesday night at Overflow, we were talking about Christ's resurrection, and what that means for us as His followers. A short summary is that we are dead to sin, because of Christ's victory over death, we cannot be held captive by sin. But more important than that (because yes, that is very important), because of Christ's victory over death, He is our King and our God, we owe all of our allegiance to Him. That being said, we should live our lives in the way that Christ instructs us through His Word.

The verse goes on to say that we should be seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and that we should set our minds on the things that are above, not the things that are on earth (click the link and check it out yourself, don't take my word for it). Now, I don't want to make light of the current economic situation, but let's be real, if we are seeking Christ's Kingdom, are we really going to be focused on what the news says about the stock market, or about which part of the auto industry is seeking a bailout? Once again, I don't want to make light of this, because these events have real consequences in people's lives, and followers of Christ should be ready and excited about the chance to reach out to these people in their time of need. My point is that we should have peace about the whole situation, we should be filled with the joy that people need to see in a time like this, we should be prepared to share our hope with those who need it. If we are just as worried about America's economic falterings as people who are not followers of Christ, then we are not doing a very good job of being a light in the darkness, bringing hope to those who have none.

We have to be prepared to share the Truth with people who are seeking it more than ever in a time when hundreds of thousands of people in our country are losing their jobs and are going through financial storms, they NEED to know the God that can calm the storms and can give us peace in the middle of a war!

So, Scripture's challenge to all of us (myself included), is: "are we living like a people who have died to themselves and their own little worries, and live in the power of a resurrected King, and are we following that King to spread His kingdom here on earth?"

24/7 Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:48:00 +0000

24/7 Prayer at ECU starts Friday at noon and goes through next Friday. This is an attempt to bring people closer to God through spending time in prayer. The event will be held at the BCM beside Wendy's on 10th street. We want to unite our campus in prayer and seeking after God, He is doing big things on our campus, so why not join in and get involved.

24/7 Prayer at ECU from Brad Christian on Vimeo.

Check out the website to sign up www.247ecu.com

Special thanks to Brad Christian for doing an awesome job on the video.

Smile and Enjoy

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Check out their website for more details about "playing for change".

I hope you enjoy the video and that it brightens your day like it did mine!

Praying For All People (Politicians Are People Too)

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:25:00 +0000

Over the past month, it has really been brought to my attention that the people leading our government really need prayer. When I say they need prayer, I don't mean that we should pray for them to pass this legislation or that legislation, I mean that we should pray for the PEOPLE that are leading our country. This list of PEOPLE includes President Obama, everyone in Congress, your governor and your local government officials. If you dislike our government, a particular politician, or all politicians in general, you don't have an excuse. If you don't believe me, check out 1 Timothy 2:1-5, it says that we are called to pray for ALL people, and even makes direct reference to praying for those in positions of political power (don't take my word for it, click the link). When you pray for our leaders, pray that if they are followers of Christ, that they will seek His guidance and direction in the decisions that they make. If they are not following Christ, pray that they will be impacted by God's influence in their lives. If you are truly interested in seeing God turn our country around, remember that He moves when His people pray. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (Go ahead, click that link too, God's word has more to say about this than I ever can).

If somebody forgot to let you know...

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:39:00 +0000

In case you live under a rock, or haven't been around lately, I just wanted to let people know that I have some amazing friends. C.S. Lewis once wrote that "The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are". I totally think this is true and I have been blessed to have the chance to surround myself with people who challenge and encourage me all the time. I enjoy spending time with people as you know if you have spent 30 seconds around me, and I just want to say thanks to all of the amazing friends that I have and to the Creator of the universe that brought each one of them into my life. Y'all are awesome!

Where are your priorities?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:37:00 +0000

I want to take some time and hit on the fact that sometimes, we get busy, we get stressed and we get distracted from what we should be focusing on...right now is a great example of that because I am working my way through a pretty busy week and I have made it a point to not lose focus of what is important in life. I have a lot of assignments and quizzes and even 2 exams the day after my birthday coming up this week, tax season is starting to pick up at work and I know when I get to Washington in the morning, there will be a stack of returns on my desk waiting to be prepared. While all of this is going on, I have made a commitment to stay focused on spending time with God, leading my 2:42 group, and making people a priority in my life. Nothing in life can become more important than God, people, and service. Sometimes, that means choosing to take time away from pursuing good grades or anything else that becomes more important than these three things. That is not to say that good grades are not important, because they are, working hard is important, but in order to approach them properly and bring glory to God through my grades and my career, I have to make sure that He stays top-priority in my life. I challenge you to do the same...regardless of what is important in your life, please take time to make sure that God is the most important person in your life, and that loving and serving Him and His people is your goal in life.

Luke 10:27

And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

Hope

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:15:00 +0000

Hope is such a powerful word. President Obama used this word as one of his campaign slogans, it is a keyword in the fight against breast cancer, and 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that it is one of God's most enduring and amazing gifts to us.

Tonight, Kyle and I were watching the news and it was filled with report after depressing report about our failing economy and the huge holes in the stimulus plan that is supposed to fix the dying economy. The next report was about the 58,000 Americans that have lost their jobs in the last two days. Kyle and I just kind of looked at each other and he made the comment that he is so glad that his hope isn't in our government, our President, our economy, or anything else other than Jesus Christ and the love that He has for us. I couldn't agree more, and as I was thinking about all the people that are going through hard times right now and that are stressed because of our economy, or our country's new leadership, or any other multitude of things that people find to worry about, I was heart-broken that not all of those people have the same hope that Kyle and I have.

God can use times like this to draw people closer to Him, and I pray (and I ask you to join with me) that people will realize that regardless of their current economic position, that we all have a God that loves us more than we can possibly imagine and that came to Earth and died for our sins, but was then RESURRECTED, overcoming death and Satan so that we can spend eternity in His presence if we only acknowledge what He has done for us, accept it and turn to Him in repentance. He gives us peace that allows us to look at the current condition of our country and not worry about tomorrow, but to trust that He will provide for us. This is the true meaning of hope, hope that comes from God and allows us the freedom to fully trust in Him.

So I HOPE that you place your hope in the right place when things get rough and when things are going great.

Control

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:47:00 +0000

So, last night I went to bed at about 12:30 with the knowledge that in a mere 6 hours I would need to be on my way to Washington so that I could be at work by 7. I've gotten accustomed to having about 6 or 7 hours of sleep (college will do that to you). I'm one of those people that has the wonderful gift that when my head hits the pillow at 12:30, I'm asleep by 12:32. So I'm off to dreamland.

Suddenly my ears are bursting to the sound of a loud chirping (much like that of a giant mutant cricket)! It's WAY too loud to be my alarm telling me that I should be dragging myself out of the bed, but it's so loud that getting out of the bed just kind of happens. Someone in my apartment has pulled the fire alarm. I look out the window and people are standing way too close to the building for it to actually be on fire, so I'm not in a huge rush to grab some clothes and get out, but I start heading that way. Oh, did I mention that it is 4:00 IN THE MORNING!

Taking all of these events into consideration with the sleepy haze over my mind, I decide that the best thing for me to do is get dressed and go ahead to Washington to work really early.

I have taken two naps and I am somewhat normal right now, my sleep schedule is kind of weird, but I was thinking about the events of the pre-dawn morning and I realized that there are some things in life that we cannot control. This really should be no surprise to me, but it makes a wonderful reminder of the truth about control.

So how should I handle a situation like this? During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked the question "which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" As usual, Jesus was right...lol nothing that I could have done this morning would have changed the fact that someone (I don't really even care who) pulled the fire alarm and worrying about it wasn't going to fix anything, so if I'm not supposed to fret (some of you will say that's a Nash county word, and if so, I'm proud..lol), how am I supposed to handle this situation? That's just it, I can't change it so I can't give it head-space (complements of Bobby Garcia). My job is to get dressed, trust the purpose that God has behind making sure I'm awake at 4, and move through the day with a thankful spirit, blessed that there wasn't an actual fire and no one was hurt.

Story

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:21:00 +0000

So tonight I'm reading in Acts as the story of Paul's trial unfolds and God really challenged me with a lot as I read it. I'll try to "unpack" some of what He was saying to me as I read.

Paul is going around all of the region telling people about Jesus, the resurrected Christ, and he's making arguments for Jesus as the Christ based on scripture and personal experience. His personal experience with Christ is quite amazing and he's telling people this story and supporting his claims with the words of the prophets and through this, people are coming to know Jesus as the Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit through baptism and repentance.

God puts it on his heart to take this story to Jerusalem and face the most devout of the Jews with this vital truth that they reject. Paul receives warnings from all of his closest friends that he will face some serious persecution if he takes this story to these people, but he doesn't back down.

So Paul is in Jerusalem and he's simply telling his story and sharing how Jesus has changed his life and everything he knows, and people get really upset over this and they try to have him killed. Because of the special position that God put Paul in with his Roman citizenship, he is taken to multiple different "courts" to testify so that the government can get this straight before they make a decision about what to do with him. So Paul has the chance to make an argument for the fact that these people really don't have anything on him that deserves punishment, but instead of taking time to make that argument, he repeatedly goes before these "courts" and just tells his story. This is so impacting that some people start to take this Christianity thing seriously while others are convinced that he must be out of his mind.

All of this leads me to the point that our stories of the ways that God has impacted our lives can be very powerful to others, but we don't really seem to share them very often. So I'm gonna try it and I hope that you try it too, I mean think of the things that God can do if we are just obedient storytellers.

Stressed?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:19:00 +0000

It's that wonderful time of the year, where people start getting stressed out over exams, travel plans, Christmas gifts, and the other random life events that stress us out. When I am stressed, the thing that I want most is peace. A feeling of peace where I don't really have to worry about anything because my burdens really are not my own. This kind of peace doesn't come from being confident in my abilities, or cocky, or anything like that; this peace comes from being confident in the truth that we are given in Scripture so many times about not worrying. A lot of people hear me talking about Matthew 6:34, but this time, I'm not talking about that particular verse. I am talking about the instance in Paul's letter to the Philippians where he tells them through the Holy Spirit, not to be anxious about anything, but in everything to bring their requests to God with prayer and supplication, and they will be given a peace that is beyond all understanding. Did you get that? "BEYOND ALL UNDERSTANDING", obviously, based on the concept of that, I don't quite get it, but I do know that when everything is falling apart and I am being pulled in a million different directions, with exams, work, traffic, family, holiday shopping, and other stresses trying to steal my attention, and my joy, I just have to take my requests to God and He will provide His incredible peace!

So as you study, shop, work, travel, or whatever it is that you are doing this time of year, when you start getting stressed, don't forget who's in control. Spend some time being amazed at who God is, His unconditional love, and bring your stress to Him, I have a promise from Him that if you put Him first, He will give you the peace that we all need so desperately.

Sometimes...

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:25:00 +0000

I came to the realization today that sometimes I can be really selfish...I tend to put my needs before the needs of others. This realization got me to thinking about the way that I treat those around me when I put myself first. Needless to say, I am not very proud of the way that I treat people when I act like this. I am called to be selfless, to put the needs of others before my own. I have not been living up to the man of God that I am supposed to be, if you are one of the people that I have not considered while I have been putting my needs and wants first, I am very sorry and I am going to start working on this problem right now. Please let me know if you see me doing this so that I can fix it as soon and as effectively as possible. In my pursuit of who God wants me to be I have somehow wandered from this selflessness and I am going to do my very best to recapture it!

If God Sent Text Messages

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:09:00 +0000

So, we're sitting at supper one night, just talking about stuff and Karen says, "I wish God sent text messages." I was like...that's a cool idea, so we talked about it a little bit, and I've kind of had it on the back burner in my head for a while, so here's what we came up with. If God sent text messages, what would He say? I'm sure that it would differ from person to person and situation to situation, but I think that sometimes He would send pieces of encouragement or support, sometimes He would call us out, and sometimes He would send us some of His Word. Like I said, this is just a thought, but taking it one step further, would we really want to answer His text messages? I know that I would want to get the encouraging texts or the texts of Scripture, but how about those texts where He calls us out? Those would be kind of tough to answer, it would be like...I know that's a text from God, and I know what it says because I know what He's calling me out on, but I think I would just rather ignore it. When I consider that, it makes me wonder how often do I ignore the Holy Spirit (which is WAY cooler than a text message) when He is showing me something I need to be doing, or something that I am doing that I shouldn't be? So I guess the concept of getting a direct message from God on your phone is cool, but isn't it even more amazing that we get them on our hearts and from other believers through the Holy Spirit, not a cell phone provider.

To Follow Christ

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:52:00 +0000

What does it mean to die to yourself and take up your cross to follow Christ as a college student? I was asked to consider this question the other day with some close friends. As I considered the concept, I broke the question down and just started thinking about what it means to die to yourself as a college student. In some situations it means leaving the iPod in your pocket and keeping the headphones out of your ears. Other times it means taking the initiative to start a conversation with the person beside you when you would rather just take a second and breathe. Sometimes it means making arrangements to schedule something that you don't care too much about in order to let another person know that you care about them. Obviously, this means different things in different situations, but the core of this means to worry less about what you want and what you think is important and more about what is important to someone other than yourself. For a Christian this means, being concerned with what is important to God. This is where the second part of the question comes in. I think that to be concerned about what is important to God, you have to take up your cross and follow Christ. This also looks different in every situation, but it is all tied together through a deep seated understanding of what is important to Jesus and how we are supposed to act in order to accomplish His purposes. To understand what is important to Christ, we have to spend time with Him, in His Word, and in prayer. For a college student, this means taking advantage of the flexible schedule and freedom that we have to make the things that are important to God important to us. If you have any other ideas about this question (I hope you do, because I don't have a lock on the answer, I just have an idea), please comment and let me know what you think about what it means to die to yourself and take up your cross to follow Christ as a college student.

Small Groups

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Our 2:42 group met for the first time last night. If you don't know what 2:42 groups are, they are our way of trying to live out the first church in Acts 2:42-47 where they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship and to prayer. Last night, our group got together and shared some of what we see our group studying and how we want to approach prayer, fellowship through service and a couple of other really cool ideas last night. A couple of the coolest things that we left with were the topics for study and one of the ways that we are going to approach prayer as a group. We threw out some ideas for topics of study, but the one that the group felt most strongly about (I'm stoked) was apologetics. We will be looking at that for a while and it's going to be awesome. I am also VERY excited about the idea that was presented for a way that we can approach prayer as a group...PRAYER CALENDAR!!! I am one of those people that loves calendars in the first place, but I've been involved with a couple of groups of people that have done prayer calendars before, and it's a very unifying experience. Although the group may not always be together for a time of prayer, you have the assurance that there are other people talking to God about the same stuff that you are, and to me that's just really cool. I can't wait for us to get that going here in the next couple of weeks. Speaking of prayer, one of my friends from the Greenville Community Shelter has been there for 6 or 7 months and I've been praying for him and his situation and that he would get into permanent housing away from all of the negativity associated with poverty. Dan always lights up the room for breakfast when we go serve there, but this Sunday, I noticed that he wasn't up early like he usually is, and after asking around, I found out that Dan moved out of the shelter last month!!! God has answered that prayer, and if you don't mind and you have a minute right now, please pray against the systems that make it very difficult for someone to come out of poverty. Thanks and I hope that you have a great day!

Some of what I learned at NSC '08

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:24:00 +0000

For the past week I have been at the National Student Convention at the University of Southern Indiana. This conference was incredible, I have a fresh vision for the kind of stuff that God wants to do on our campus. It was incredible to go to all of the workshops and worship services at the conference. I learned a lot about different perspectives on the poor and poverty stricken in our community. Mother Teresa said that the greatest poverty in America is loneliness. This has lead our campus ministry to really look into the loneliness of the international students on our campus and what we are being called to do about it. We don't want to reach out to these students as a project or something to do, but rather, a real friendship that results in lasting relationships and changing lives by caring genuinely for people. It's about talking to God and seeking His will for our relationships with people and then obeying what He tells us to do, both on an individual basis and as a group. Something like this has to be deeply seated in prayer and community. If you are reading this and are not part of our community, please be praying for us to be faithful in this practice. If you are in our community, please talk to me or others about it and get involved. I'm incredibly excited to see some of the things that God wants to work out on our campus and in Greenville this upcoming year. If anyone has an idea of other ways that we can reach out to lonely people on our campus or to anyone for that matter, please let me know and I will do everything I can to find ways for our ministry to put that into play.

Do Work Son!

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:07:00 +0000

I was looking at 1 Timothy 6 and as Paul is guiding Timothy and telling him how to guide the church in Ephesus, he talks about Christians in slavery. In the first two verses of chapter 6, he is instructing the church about how slaves should treat their masters. I made it a point to apply the principle of treating my boss with full respect and doing everything I could to serve God by serving him. This brought to mind other verses about work throughout the day like Colossians 3:22-24. Keeping verses like this in my head as I was working and making an effort to apply them to everything I did gave all the different activities of my day significant meaning because it seemed like everything I did was impacting the Kingdom of God. Digging through scripture and finding morsels like this, that impact the way that you go through your day is incredibly rewarding and just one of those things that you have to stop and thank God for.

What if?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:09:00 +0000

This week I have been faced with a lot of what if questions for some reason...maybe it means I should be thinking about some things. I just want to post a few of the questions so that maybe other people can ponder them with me, and if you feel up to it, offer some insight to help out with these.

What if...

God is tired of us being internal with our worship?
We took our relationship with Christ and what that means for our lives with us everywhere we went instead of sectioning off who we are in different places?
We decided to go to different places than people would normally associate with us as Christians?
We truly reached out to everyone that we come in contact with?
We burst out of the "Christian bubble" and the stereotype associated with that?
We were as radical as Jesus was?
We prayed like the world depended on it?

Like I said, these are some questions that I have been wrestling with and chewing on this week. There are no right or wrong answers, but I would love to hear what you think, and maybe some ideas will come out of this that can be used in our day-to-day ministry.

If Your Time Ain't Been Nothing But Money

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:58:00 +0000

One of my new favorite songs by Switchfoot is "American Dream", one of the lines in the song says "if your time ain't been nothing but money, I'm starting to feel pretty bad for you honey!" Being that I am a business major, I meet a lot of people who have this kind of mindset. It really disturbs me that people can see their lives as meaningless aside from the fact that they will have a massive salary when they graduate and get a good job. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that there is anything wrong with making money or having a career where you make a lot of money. I have a problem when people determine their personal worth by the number that will be associated with their starting salary or their bank account. I understand that a lot of great things for God's kingdom are accomplished because there are people with money to finance activities that bring glory to the Father and reach people who do not know God. I just hope and pray that I will maintain these convictions as I progress in my career and that I would inspire others who will have a lot of wealth in this world to share that with others in the name of Jesus. I want my life to be more about the relationships that I will build with people and the ways that I will serve God's kingdom rather than how much money I will make or the kind of benefits that I will have. I would rather be concerned with pleasing God and remembering what Mark 8:36 says.

Mark 8:36
"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"

Obedience and Trust?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:18:00 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about obedience and trusting God recently. I have noticed that the more I listen, the more that He shows me how I can be obedient to him. I have noticed that by being more obedient, God can do some incredible things through me for His kingdom. An example of the kind of obedience and trust that I am talking about is the kind of trust and obedience that Joshua displayed when he marched around Jericho for 7 days without saying anything, with the understanding that at the end of it all, the city would be taken. Trust like that would be one thing, but almost as incredible as the miracle of the walls falling down is that, because of Joshua's trust in God and the people's trust in Joshua, the nation of Israel went along with this whole business of marching around the city silently. With that kind of obedience to God, what can He do with us today?