I was reading in Galations 3 and Paul says in verse 8, 'And the Scriptire, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."' (ESV)
I don't think I understand the gospel in the context of what God said to Abraham.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
A different perspective
Let me tell you about a story that happened today...
I'm in the middle of searching for a job and I thought I had a good lead at a coffee shop but sadly I got a call today while getting ready for the event that I will tell you about shortly and no dice on that job.
I was in charge of an Ultimate Frisbee tournament that happened today. I had a blast and I think that it was a good success and as far as I could tell people really seemed to enjoy themselves.
After all was said and done, I was tossing a disc with one of the ladies that was there as I hadn't been able to play in any of the games (I didn't play because I was organizing it and I have shin splints at the moment). So tossing the disc was amazingly fun. But then it happened.
I went to get the disc but my left foot slipped in the wet grass and my knee cap decided that it did not want to stay where it was supposed to. I had to move my knee cap from the left side of my leg back to where it is supposed to be. Extreme pain...if there is one thing that I can recommend about your knee cap, don't dislocate it.
As I was laying on the ground writhing in pain, a group of people started to form to see what they could do to help. There wasn't anything they really could do. I just needed to let the pain subside so that I could walk to my car. I finally decided that the pain wasn't going to get much better than it already had. I got up with help and started to hobble to the car with help and got in with help. It was a good thing that it was my left leg or I don't think I would have been able to drive home.
As I was hobbling to the car, the nice young lady that I had playing with caught up and gave me a hug because she felt bad. I reassured her that I would be fine and that there was no way it was her fault.
As I was driving home, I realized that I didn't have my phone. I figured that it probably fell out of my pocket while I thought I wanted to chop my leg off to make the pain stop. I didn't know what to do as I couldn't call anyone to help me. The best thing that I could think of was to go to the house of the friend who was helping me as he could only be about 5-10 minutes behind me. I told him my predicament and we headed back to campus.
We got there and a saddening feeling just overcame me as the sprinklers were on in the location where we were tossing the disc. We called the phone and could hear it and then we went to the AV to see if it had been turned in there and no dice there and then we went to the Rec Center to see if it had been turned in there and still no dice.
We decided to look one last time and at last we heard it. If you haven't heard my ring tone before, you should ask me because it is pretty awesome. Even better yet, some how the sprinklers had not hit it. Praise God! It is rather hard in this day and age to not have a working phone.
So the end of my evening really wasn't going my way. I got hurt and lost my phone. But a verse that reminds me almost daily that I should have a different perspective on life made me think differently. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
Let me expand on this a little. Now I sure do love God. Great, we can move on...the next two words are the ones that I have to remind myself of a lot. ALL THINGS...not just when you think that you have everything all together and life seems peachy, but when things are hard. When you think that everything and everyone seems to be against you. When you hurt your leg and lose your phone all in the same night. ALL THINGS work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I know that I have been called according to his purpose so even when I don't get the job, hurt my leg, and lose my phone in the same evening, I know that some how in some way that it was all for my good because I love my God and he loves me a whole lot more. I may not know or understand at the moment how it is for my good but I know that it is. I have seen this verse in action and know that it is true. Ask me about it some time and let me tell you how much my God has done for me.
I'm in the middle of searching for a job and I thought I had a good lead at a coffee shop but sadly I got a call today while getting ready for the event that I will tell you about shortly and no dice on that job.
I was in charge of an Ultimate Frisbee tournament that happened today. I had a blast and I think that it was a good success and as far as I could tell people really seemed to enjoy themselves.
After all was said and done, I was tossing a disc with one of the ladies that was there as I hadn't been able to play in any of the games (I didn't play because I was organizing it and I have shin splints at the moment). So tossing the disc was amazingly fun. But then it happened.
I went to get the disc but my left foot slipped in the wet grass and my knee cap decided that it did not want to stay where it was supposed to. I had to move my knee cap from the left side of my leg back to where it is supposed to be. Extreme pain...if there is one thing that I can recommend about your knee cap, don't dislocate it.
As I was laying on the ground writhing in pain, a group of people started to form to see what they could do to help. There wasn't anything they really could do. I just needed to let the pain subside so that I could walk to my car. I finally decided that the pain wasn't going to get much better than it already had. I got up with help and started to hobble to the car with help and got in with help. It was a good thing that it was my left leg or I don't think I would have been able to drive home.
As I was hobbling to the car, the nice young lady that I had playing with caught up and gave me a hug because she felt bad. I reassured her that I would be fine and that there was no way it was her fault.
As I was driving home, I realized that I didn't have my phone. I figured that it probably fell out of my pocket while I thought I wanted to chop my leg off to make the pain stop. I didn't know what to do as I couldn't call anyone to help me. The best thing that I could think of was to go to the house of the friend who was helping me as he could only be about 5-10 minutes behind me. I told him my predicament and we headed back to campus.
We got there and a saddening feeling just overcame me as the sprinklers were on in the location where we were tossing the disc. We called the phone and could hear it and then we went to the AV to see if it had been turned in there and no dice there and then we went to the Rec Center to see if it had been turned in there and still no dice.
We decided to look one last time and at last we heard it. If you haven't heard my ring tone before, you should ask me because it is pretty awesome. Even better yet, some how the sprinklers had not hit it. Praise God! It is rather hard in this day and age to not have a working phone.
So the end of my evening really wasn't going my way. I got hurt and lost my phone. But a verse that reminds me almost daily that I should have a different perspective on life made me think differently. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
Let me expand on this a little. Now I sure do love God. Great, we can move on...the next two words are the ones that I have to remind myself of a lot. ALL THINGS...not just when you think that you have everything all together and life seems peachy, but when things are hard. When you think that everything and everyone seems to be against you. When you hurt your leg and lose your phone all in the same night. ALL THINGS work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I know that I have been called according to his purpose so even when I don't get the job, hurt my leg, and lose my phone in the same evening, I know that some how in some way that it was all for my good because I love my God and he loves me a whole lot more. I may not know or understand at the moment how it is for my good but I know that it is. I have seen this verse in action and know that it is true. Ask me about it some time and let me tell you how much my God has done for me.
Monday, August 15, 2011
An update for Cans for Campus
Wow! Thank you church for being awesome and supporting the student ministry. Now lets pray that God does something amazing with this massive amount of pop.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Can for Campus
Cans for Campus from Summitview Community Church on Vimeo.
If there are any of you that may wonder if this actually works let me tell you that it does. My team supported a guy that had a fridge in his room last semester and we just told the floor that we had free pop all year. We would have guys come in and take a pop and then they would just hang out with us and start telling us about their day. Pretty cool to see God do things through something as small as giving away free pop (or as I consider it, caffeine).
A day in this past week.
I am not sure if I can begin to tell you how cool this day was. I think I was able to see God in many different places and in many different ways. I'll do my best to explain the day.
I don't really remember the morning, but that could be because I slept in for a good part of it. Something that I haven't done in quite a while. I read in Acts that morning before I got going on the day. It was before Stephen's speech (Acts 7) and I took note of the community that the people in Acts had. Another part that I love is Acts 5:17-42. I would just encourage you to read it and let God speak to you through it but my favorite verse is 29. I pray that I may always obey God rather than men including myself.
I was then given the chance to help move two ladies to their new places. I don't ever expect 'payment' per se but I sure do love food. We were given lunch by the end and it was very tasty. Then I was helping a friend with fixing the back tire on their bike. It had blown out and needed a new tire and tube.
We went to a bike shop near where I live and as we were checking out the guy behind the counter asked me, "still doing speeches?" I was very confused by this question, I had no idea what he was talking about. He refreshed my memory by saying that we had been in the same speech class at Front Range. It all came flooding back and he said that my speech was the only one that he remembered from the class. I was thinking to myself, what did I speak on? He then refreshed my memory again on a speech that I did on sound.
I was completely a taken back that this guy had remembered me and the speech I gave. We talked a bit about what we were doing with school now and then I had a thought. He works with bikes and we do free bike repair on campus occasionally and he would be perfect to help. I asked if he would be interested in helping some time and he said sure, so I got his number I'm going to call him next time we do a bike repair.
Never underestimate what God will do in any aspect in life. An unbeliever remember a speech I gave that I hardly put any faith into. I just did the speech to get it done yet God used it so that I could reconnect with this guy that I maybe talked with a few times during the semester if even that much.
So after the shop utterly amazed, I fixed the bike and took my friend home. Now the rest of my day was consumed with something I was very excited to do. Another friend of mine called the night before to see if I could help him plan his proposal. So the rest of my afternoon was being his gopher in order to pull it off. I picked up roses and cleaned out my car. Collected the things that he needed for the evening and had dinner with my family. I went a picked up another friend because I needed back up.
We went to the location and set it up and worked with the staff to get everything ready. This was a stealth mission for us as we did not want to be seen as the girlfriend did not know it was happening that evening. We had walkie talkies with in ear buds so that we could communicate with each other silently.
Everything was set in motion as they got there. The second part of my mission was to be the stealth photographer. It was kind of hard to get really good shots because the lighting was rather low but I think I was able to compensate. The mission was a success, she said yes.
After that was all done, we did not have to be all stealthy anymore and showed our faces in Walmart. We needed to buy a fan but they were out at the first Walmart so we went to the second. We go the fan and we were headed to the check out when this lady asked if we could help her put a heavy box onto her cart. We said sure and helped her out. After check out we put it in her car and started creating small talk. Found out that she just moved here that day and that she came to this Walmart although the other one (the one we came from) is closer because she didn't know about it.
I said that I didn't know where she was at but that we are both Christians and that we go to the same church. I told her to that she was more than welcome to come. That was about when our conversation ended and as we were driving away I was amazed yet again. God orchestrated things in a way that we would end up there that evening and we were given the chance to invite her to church. Awesome!
It is cool to be able to see God in a lot of different ways in your day. If you just look for it, I bet God will be gracious and allow you to see him in your day.
I don't really remember the morning, but that could be because I slept in for a good part of it. Something that I haven't done in quite a while. I read in Acts that morning before I got going on the day. It was before Stephen's speech (Acts 7) and I took note of the community that the people in Acts had. Another part that I love is Acts 5:17-42. I would just encourage you to read it and let God speak to you through it but my favorite verse is 29. I pray that I may always obey God rather than men including myself.
I was then given the chance to help move two ladies to their new places. I don't ever expect 'payment' per se but I sure do love food. We were given lunch by the end and it was very tasty. Then I was helping a friend with fixing the back tire on their bike. It had blown out and needed a new tire and tube.
We went to a bike shop near where I live and as we were checking out the guy behind the counter asked me, "still doing speeches?" I was very confused by this question, I had no idea what he was talking about. He refreshed my memory by saying that we had been in the same speech class at Front Range. It all came flooding back and he said that my speech was the only one that he remembered from the class. I was thinking to myself, what did I speak on? He then refreshed my memory again on a speech that I did on sound.
I was completely a taken back that this guy had remembered me and the speech I gave. We talked a bit about what we were doing with school now and then I had a thought. He works with bikes and we do free bike repair on campus occasionally and he would be perfect to help. I asked if he would be interested in helping some time and he said sure, so I got his number I'm going to call him next time we do a bike repair.
Never underestimate what God will do in any aspect in life. An unbeliever remember a speech I gave that I hardly put any faith into. I just did the speech to get it done yet God used it so that I could reconnect with this guy that I maybe talked with a few times during the semester if even that much.
So after the shop utterly amazed, I fixed the bike and took my friend home. Now the rest of my day was consumed with something I was very excited to do. Another friend of mine called the night before to see if I could help him plan his proposal. So the rest of my afternoon was being his gopher in order to pull it off. I picked up roses and cleaned out my car. Collected the things that he needed for the evening and had dinner with my family. I went a picked up another friend because I needed back up.
We went to the location and set it up and worked with the staff to get everything ready. This was a stealth mission for us as we did not want to be seen as the girlfriend did not know it was happening that evening. We had walkie talkies with in ear buds so that we could communicate with each other silently.
Everything was set in motion as they got there. The second part of my mission was to be the stealth photographer. It was kind of hard to get really good shots because the lighting was rather low but I think I was able to compensate. The mission was a success, she said yes.
After that was all done, we did not have to be all stealthy anymore and showed our faces in Walmart. We needed to buy a fan but they were out at the first Walmart so we went to the second. We go the fan and we were headed to the check out when this lady asked if we could help her put a heavy box onto her cart. We said sure and helped her out. After check out we put it in her car and started creating small talk. Found out that she just moved here that day and that she came to this Walmart although the other one (the one we came from) is closer because she didn't know about it.
I said that I didn't know where she was at but that we are both Christians and that we go to the same church. I told her to that she was more than welcome to come. That was about when our conversation ended and as we were driving away I was amazed yet again. God orchestrated things in a way that we would end up there that evening and we were given the chance to invite her to church. Awesome!
It is cool to be able to see God in a lot of different ways in your day. If you just look for it, I bet God will be gracious and allow you to see him in your day.
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