Uhh ... Ok?

Apparently if I don't type something, they will delete all my old memories.

Not anymore they won't.

Peace.  Visit my MySpace!

Currently Reading The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun By Brother Yun, Paul Hattaway see related

... When Friends Hurt ...

I know it's been a while, but here goes anyway.
(PS: I am a MySpacer now.  Enmusic777.)

The past week has been a hard one for me.  One of my long-time friends had a miscarriage.  Another one underwent surgery to remove a growth that may (or may not be) cancerous.  Both are under age 26.

While I usually act strong on the outside and do my best to be loving and encouraging, on the inside these types of things really tear me up.  When my friends hurt and are experiencing serious issues -- not silly "my boyfriend's breaking up with me" or "I stubbed my toe" kind of stuff -- I find myself hurting too.  My heart feels like it breaks every time these kinds of things happen to those close to me.  And the thing is, I never know what to do but pray.  I want to be there, I want to say the right things, but never know what the right things are.  Truthfully, I don't even know what the right thing to pray in these situations is.

Anyway, right now is a hurtful time for a lot of my friends and for me.  So if you remember, please keep me and my friends in prayer.  We are God's army and are destined for great things.  Greatness never comes without a fight.  We will overcome. 

((The book I'm reading is helping me understand more about dealing with hardships and the meaning of "overcoming."  It's an awesome book every Christian should read.))

Ephesians 3:14-19

Reflections on the above passage:
((You should really read it to understand where I'm going with all this))

1)  Understanding God's love and Jesus' residence and influence in my life requires me to supernaturally receive power from God, through the Spirit.

Coming to understand the awesome foundation and phenomemon which is "The Love of God" is not something I'll ultimately grasp by reading books, taking classes, or listening to reaching tapes.  It isn't something I can think and focus on enough in order to grasp it.  I must be "strengthened with power" and that only comes through the persistent asking.

2)  Paul assumed that the Espesians' Christian walk was "rooted and grounded in love" for this is how it should be for all!  The only way to live victoriously as a Christian is to be doing all that you do for the Kingdom from a place of LOVE.  If we work from religion, theology, doctrine, even good conscience, all our works come crashing down because they are ultimately foundationless.  Intimacy with God -- LOVE -- is to be the foundation that our spiritual walk is built on.

3)  If our aim is to live our lives with all the fullness of God in order to reach the world, it won't come by striving, working and forcing our way to such a place.  It will only come in 1 way:  "Knowing the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge."

When looked at from this perspective, all the striving can cease.  All the "fasting-yourself-to-a-better-place-with-God" seems foolish.  All the forced 3-hour preayer sessions and speaking in tongues frenzies seem completely irrelevant to the main theme.  WE HAVE THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST IN US - but it isn't there because of what we do, but because of His love. 

In light of this:  Let all you do for God be out of a place of love and not a meaningless attempt to attain it.

Greetings from Charlottesville, VA

Hey Everyone.

I'm on the road again.    I'm in Charlottesville, VA playing bass with the Aaron Crider Band for the weekend.  Dr. Brown's doing a conference here and I was invited to play.  Cool stuff.  It's good to be off of school, away from Moe's and doing what I love doing best:  Playing music to bless both God and others.  I will try to highly enjoy myself this weekend with the Crider's, Puleo's, Dr. Brown and Drummer Dan.

Hope all is well with everyone.
God Bless.

Elections, Sex Scandals, Death Penalties, & A Broken Heart

Over the past few weeks, I've been having a real burden to follow things going on in the world and pray concerning them.  Not only has this taken up more of my time than I had hoped, but it's led my heart to feel so broken.  With elections coming up on Tuesday, I can't urge my friends and family enough to get out there and vote.  You may think that because it isn't a Presidential Election that it's not important.  That's a lie.  So many times as Christians we pray for the leadership of our nation and stop there.  While prayer is stronger and more important than anything we can ever do, faith without works is dead.  Usually when we pray, God opens our eyes to something we can do concerning the area we're praying about.  If we want to see our nation changed, we have to be a good steward of the tools given to us.  In this case, we need to be responsible to vote in those who will help change the course of this nation.  Don't be one who shakes your head at abortion or homosexual marriage yet does nothing but belly-ache about it in the meantime.  As good old Uncle Ben of Spiderman says:  "With great power comes great responsibility."

Though it's funny how a lot of what gets the media spotlight occurs right before an election, no matter what the timing coincidence may be, my heart is overwhelmed.  Though I didn't know much about Ted Haggard before Friday, this whole sex / drug scandal really has me hurting and thinking.  We're supposed to be different from the world.  How many times do we - myself included - stand strongly against the things of the world, yet practice them in secret through our speech, thoughts, the things we watch, listen to and inwardly support?  Now am I saying then that we should just stop standing up for truth?  Of course not.  However, we do need to get before the Lord like David did and ask Him to search us.  Guys, are there any wicked ways in us?  Sure we all are seeking to please the Lord.  I'm sure Ted was as well.  Do you think that all at once he decided to see a homosexual prostitute?  Of course not.  But these things start small.  I encourage you to let the Lord search your heart.  What are you allowing in secret that may later lead to the destruction of those you love?  Even if you'll never have a church of 14,000, what about the few that you're witnessing to at work or the family members you've been praying for for years on end?  Are they not worth you getting your issues straight?  Dr. Brown says that "sin leads to more sin," and "sin leads to greater sin."  It's a Biblical principle that we could all use to meditate on today.

Then there's the Saddam trial.  I really don't know what to say about this.  I'm glad that the Lord is bringing justice on someone who not only has been unjust to others, but one who even in court stands defiantly against truth, completely blinded by his extreme devotion and worship to a false god.  Pray for peace in Iraq and an infiltration of the true Gospel.  I think it's sad that there are millions of people who serve a false god and are on their way to hell who morally -- and I'm obviously not speaking of Saddam, but Muslims in general -- live cleaner and more devoted lives to their god than we do to the true God.  I mean, these people constantly offer their lives - spiritually and physically - to something that has deceived them, yet their devotion is real and often more pure than ours.  GOD HELP US.  Perhaps we have taken the grace of God for granted in ways often not thought of.

Anyway - life in general is what it is:  Work, finals coming up, roommate sets our stove on fire ... etc.  I'm looking forward to school being out so that I can focus on other things and come home for a bit.  I'll be in NY from 12/19-1/4, so I look forward to seeing you all.  God bless and don't forget ....

PLEASE VOTE