Last minute BLOG

Hey guys. Sorry this is REALLY late. I was laying down in bed drifting in and out of consciousness texting a friend... Then he just decided he was going to call and so I decided I should get up. Then I realized I hadn't even posted yet today.
I was going to post earlier but I got a message from Tim asking if I wanted to meet KT and him at the local (local for me) ice cream parlor. I gladly accepted! I was in the mood for some LEMON ice cream!!! Thus you can blame Tim and KT for the lateness of this post.

My day was very boring. I worked. I drove to Liberty, IL to drop my dad off at a mechanic shop where his truck was. Then I drove back home and went the long way through Golden so I could stop at Suzy's and get some food, just like old times minus my football buddies.

Then I played Halo. Lots of Halo. Believe it or not today was the first day in my ENTIRE gaming career where I played for nearly 4 hours all by myself. I normally just don't play if no one is on because I hate having to play by myself. But lately I've changed. I really enjoyed myself today. I played TEAM SWAT all day. I ranked up from a 17 to a 22... Until I got matched with these two little 5-yr-olds... No exaggeration. They were like 5 or 6. And one of them didn't feel like playing so she just let her character stand still the whole game. We lost needless to say. I am now a 21 rank. BUT!: I did have an exceptional game at Guardian. My new favorite map. I had 17 kills and only TWO deaths. That is very good for me!

Anyways...
I'm expecting another phone call here real quick so I must be off...

Once again sorry for the lack of scripture and the lateness!

God Bless!

This Day in Trend.

Wow...
THREE rk songs in one day's worth of blogs.

Anyways I finished mowing earlier... It wasn't fun. It always messes up my eyes real bad for some reason.Now I just got done talking to an old friend from Central. We haven't talked or SEEN each other in quite a long time. She and I video chatted via MSN Messenger, which was VERY cool considering she's deployed in Iraq! Crystal: God Bless you for serving our country! YOU are the reason we have freedom.

Now I'm waiting on a call/text from Mark, my roommate for next year, so we can play some Halo. Then after that we're going to go to our friend's football game. He, Brent, got invited to play on basically the All-Star team this year. That was pretty cool! After the football game, I think we may go and see Wall*E. It looks good!

Will blog later!
God bless

Faking my own...

Life.
Walk with Jesus.
Friendships.
Existence.
Everything.

This is how I feel all too often. Hypocrisy is a common word that comes to mind. Ya know what I mean?

God gives us all the tools we need to be successful in His eyes. So why don't we use them?!
I too often find myself just flowing with the crowd. The problem is that the crowd isn't Christian! I flow right into satan's hands. This is so sad to admit. I consider myself to be a leader not a follower; so why in the world am I letting non-Christians influence me???

Man. Life is crazy. It has so many ups and downs; it's like one massive roller coaster. Only the theme park ride-of-life goes subterranean. Meaning it has so many more downs than ups it seems. Can anyone identify with this??? Please?

I think that I'm so alone in this a lot. I KNOW God is with me. But we're supposed to help each other out. And I feel like either there's no one else struggling like this or they're too afraid to say something... The funny thing is that if I were to find someone to finally talk to and figure things out, that relationship would boost both people involved on the up and up.

Wow... Two Relient K songs in one blog...

Anyways.
Seriously if anyone ever has anything they would like to talk about, or if my blog picks your brain... LET ME KNOW! I want to help in any way I can! Just drop me a comment here or any of the other various communities I'm involved in. I am MORE than willing to talk and help you out.

After I typed all of that (^^^), I did some praying... I just have this funny sense that someone (one of my readers) is struggling with the very subject I just wrote about. I'll keep praying. I don't know who it is, but I ask (again) that if you need/want to talk, hit me up with a message some how!

Double-whammy scripture time!!!

Galatians 6:2-3 (New American Standard)
2 "Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

James 5:16 (New American Standard)
16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

These are just two scriptures in the Bible that command us, as believers, to get accountability and share our struggles with one another. I have been praying lately about my blogs. I felt they weren't fully doing their purpose... So I prayed about what I should write about. This came to mind...

Accountability is SO important. I am accountable to this one guy I met at the Crossing in QTown. He and I go out to eat occasionally and just talk about what has been going on in our lives lately. If I am ever at home and struggling with an issue or feel defeated about my religion then I just shoot a text his way or call him. I'm also accountability partners with a close friend of mine. He texts me and we talk back and forth about issues giving each other encouragement.

Accountability relationships are the coolest relationships I've ever come in contact with. I can tend to not be very trusting sometimes, and so to open up to people really lifts burdens off my shoulders! God works in VERY powerful ways through accountability partners.

God Bless

Fuel.

Sorry... Another quick blog.
I just got a phone call and was informed I was going to Fuel at the Quincy Crossing. Arty Poo my buddy called and said he needed someone to go with. So I figured it would be late when I got home so I have to do this now to satisfy my readers (once again... Tim.).

Today work was boring. Not going into too much detail there... I want you guys to keep reading not fall asleep! lol
Although I saw the funniest thing EVER on a computer screen. Computers continue to suprise me:
This computer when it booted up came up with an error message that simply stated, "Something bad happened in the application." HAHA!
I was like okay...

I just got home and then Art called... So that's basically all I've done all day is worked... But now I get to go to the Crossing so that GOOD!

1 Chronicles 16:25
"Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods."

I chose this verse because I'm going to the Crossing. I LOVE worship at the Crossing. When you worship God you should feel so empowered and close to Him! The Crossing is one of the few churches where this happens to me.
Also another thing that bugs me:
I don't care if you don't think you can't sing. PLEASE just try! The Bible says 'make a joyful noise.' So for goodness sakes! Just sing! I guess I'm musically inclined so maybe I'm being harsh, but honestly I wouldn't mind if you were right next to me just yelling. If that's how you worship then so be it! God doesn't care either! So just give Him what He deserves!
Steve Fee is a worship leader from Atlanta, Georgia. I have had the privilege to listen to him in person and he always starts off with a little rant about singing. He has all the people who think they're bad raise a fist in the air and then start yelling. Then we go straight into song. It's a powerful thing.
And honestly I don't understand why you wouldn't want to praise the Master of the Universe!

God Bless!

Baseball, RetroGaming, Mullets and more...

Hello. Sorry if you were waiting on me to post this (Tim). I just got home from my girlfriend's house.

So today work was boring. I dusted and vacuumed out CPU towers all day. It wasn't hard by any means. But let me tell you those computers were FILTHY! Then I started helping my mother put together the Annie DVD of our school musical... I lost track of time and was late for my g/f's little brother's baseball game.

Alex (Lindsay's little brother), plays center field for the Domino's Little League team. They won 3rd place in their division. Alex didn't hit very well, but he had a really nice catch that I saw...

After Alex's game, Lindsay and I went to the Crossing because they were having a RetroGaming night. They were bringing games like Pong, RBI, and PacMan to life with the K-6 graders. It was neat, but boring for Linds and I. We left and went to eat at McDonald's b/c we were both starving. When we were leaving I took a drink and then Lindsay said, "Oh no! He shaved his mullet!" Well any of my school mates can tell you that when I have a drink in my mouth, don't make me laugh. I spit lemonade all over her car and myself. Not fun. And she was pointing at some random guy with a buzz cut and a broken arm... She didn't elaborate due to her suprise lemonade car wash.

Then we went to her house and hung out with a friend of her's from Montana that she hasn't seen in a very long time. Allie (her name) was very funny and all around pretty cool.

1 John 2:17
"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

Honestly. The Bible continues, to this day, to amaze me. I don't know why... It IS the Word of God!
Anyways, lately I've been trying to focus on letting God take control. I want whatever is in His will. I have been focusing on prayer, because communication is so important. And obviously this verse tells us that following our Father's will is very important too!

Who wouldn't want eternal life? Everyone is in a constant search on how to live forever. Well here's the answer! This reminds me of those make-up commercials on TV for the anti-aging creams... What a bunch of bologna. Here's the real anti-aging formula:
Reliance on God + Prayer + Baptism + Following God's Will = Eternal Life
There may be a few other variables I forgot to throw in here... I'm tired. Sorry.
If you would like, you can comment and make up your own version of a formula for Eternal Life.

God Bless

[Insert Blog Title Here...]

Ummm...
I just got done watching an amazing movie!
Jumper. It was phenomenal! Anyways I definitely suggest it...

I also got on Halo after the movie hoping to play with Mark, TImmAH, and Nathan but we can't play together for some reason... Our connections conflict or something. Since I couldn't play with them I played a couple Team Swat games by myself until the lag got REAL annoying. But the first game I played I did REALLY good. It was normal Team Swat on Swat Guardian. I ended up with 20 kills, 10 deaths, and 2 killing sprees... Not too shabby I thought.

So lately I just been feeling really Neutral. I don't like that feeling at all. I want to feel God. I've been doing pretty good on focusing just on a single day. Just taking it day-by-day works! Anyway I've been feeling poetic lately for some reason so the scripture is from Psalm tonight:

Psalm 143:1-4 (New American Standard)
1 "Hear my prayer, O Lord,
Give ear to my supplications!
Answer me in Your faithfulness, in
Your righteousness!
2 And do not enter into judgment with
Your servant,
For in Your sight no man living is
righteous.
3 For the enemy has persecuted my
soul;
He has crushed my life to the
ground;
He has made me dwell in dark
places, like those who have
long been dead.
4 Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed
within me;
My heart is appalled within me."

I thought this verse did a good job of describing how I've felt recently. Also I have a friend that would very much be able to identify with this passage. David wrote this. King David. He wrote this after his heart was broken; after he committed murder and adultery. The great King David.
David is pleading with God here. Often how I find my heart pleading for forgiveness from God. He delivers. Always. He is faithful to those who are faithful to Him. Often after I screw up there's the moment of happiness. There always is. The two milliseconds of happiness. Then the shame and guilt come flooding in. I think this is what David is describing in verse four where he talks about his spirit being overwhelmed and his heart being appalled.

Finally I would like to finish this blog with a [very] small prayer. It's actually Psalm 143:9--
Father:
"Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; I take refuge in You."

Truth - Part 2

Jacob and Esau.
Do you know the story of these two twin brothers?
Jacob was the younger of the two. Esau came out of his mother's womb first, making him the eldest. However when it came time for Isaac (their father) to give the birthright to Esau, Jacob deceived his own father into giving him the birthright that was truly Esau's.

I think I did a poor job of telling that story, but the short version is that Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob's name actually means "heel grabber" because he came out of his mother's womb clutching Esau's heel and it also means "deceiver."

Later in the Old Testament, Jacob figures out how foolish he was. Jacob is then given a new name (a recurring theme in the Bible). He is renamed "Israel." Which is a big deal considering God's chosen nation ends up being named after him...

My whole point of this story:
I often lie to myself. Telling my mind that I'm right with God. Slamming the door on the Holy Spirit and just thinking to myself, "I'm a good kid." WAKE UP. If this is you, then you're so wrong. Being a good kid, where does that get you? And by what standards do you even consider yourself good?

That would be correct. You consider yourself good by the WORLD'S standards. These such standards are DRAMATICALLY different than God's. His bar is set so much higher than that of the world's. But I don't want to scare you. Yes, honestly, God's standards are scary. They're set high! But:
EVERYTHING is possible through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour. (Philippians 4:13)

Never give up hope. God is always right there for you. Pray to Him and tell Him what you're thinking. He'll hear you. Trust me.

God has been kicking my butt lately. I've been delusional lately thinking I'm right where I need to be. But there is ALWAYS room for improvement. I had been deceiving myself. I had been telling myself that everything was okay. This however was not and IS NOT the case.

However, just like Jacob got a new name, I can (and YOU can) get forgiveness for your shortcomings.