New Post New Post! Yay! Yay! Yay!

I was thinking back to the last time Ali and I did worship, not last night but 2 weeks previous. We had a song that we had a little difficulty getting the timing down on "Strenght and weakness." But we got it. Speaking of strength and weakness...(awesome segway huh) let's see what the Bible says about strength and weakness.

We're all weak in comparison to God, we know that. Without Him, we can do NOTHING! But why would God want a bunch of weak, helpless human beings? I have no idea, but he does. "God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too. "~Matthew 5:11-12
We are supposed to be happy when we are persecuted, when we are at our weakest. Jesus was persecuted. The only difference is Jesus was not weak when he was persecuted, He allowed it to happen. But, still....
Jesus loves us all the time and that does not change when we have no strength. Just as our earthly parents feel compassion and want to take care of us when we are unable to take care of ourselves (and sometimes even when we can), our heavenly Father wants to take care of us too. Makes sense. "Then Jesus said,'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give is light.'"~Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus actually wants us to come to Him when we are weak, and, lets face if guys, its a good thing. We usually go to Jesus when we are weak and when WE feel we need Him. When we are feeling high and mighty, sometimes we push Jesus to the side, because we feel as though we're in control and we don't need Him, at the moment. But when something happens that shakes us up, we go running to Jesus, begging for help. And because he is so amazing, He still takes us in His arms. I remember a devotion we had during dance practice once. Our leader demanded we dress in white shirts and black pants and beautify ourselves before practice. When we arrived we found our leader covered with mud and "filth." She then proceeded to try and hug us. Of course, we relented, we weren't crazy! Her point was, only our Holy Father would take us covered in filth, as we often are. I thought it was a pretty good devo.
There's a Building 429 song that goes:
When no one else knows how I feel
Your love for me is proven real
When no one else cares where I’ve been
You run to me with outstretched hands
And You hold me in your arms
Again.

Jesus is always willing to take us and call us His own. Our weakness is what allows us, sometimes, to go to Him, with open arms. This is Paul talking: "Each time he said,'My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your WEAKNESS.' So now I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ's good, I am quite content with my weakness, and with insults, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."~2 Corinthians 12:9-10

So don't ever be afraid to admit you are weak and you need Jesus, because even if you won't admit it, it does not change reality. Even when we are at our strongest, we are still unbelieveably weak, and we need Jesus, all the time. Peace out Yo! Comment, PLEASE, some one other than Ali and Luke, well, in addition to Ali and Luke. C'mon you know you want to, all the cool kids are doing it!

Leap of Faith (literally for Indi)

Hey guys!

So I was reading in my Bible on...friday, I think, and this passage jumped out at me:
"But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will al be tranformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have dies will be raised with tranformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. When this happens-when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies tha twill never die-then at last the Scriptures will come true: 'Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Corinthians 15: 51-54

Then I thought, all we have to do is accept Jesus as our savior...and all that transforming applies to us, we'll get to change into something worthy of going to Heaven to be with Jesus. So why can't some people believe this? Why doesn't everyone believe that, so they can go to heaven? I came to the conclusion it is due to faith. There's a Lifehouse song ( I know I'm obsessed with quoting Lifehouse songs!) that says:" I am falling into grace, to the unknown, to where you are and faith makes everybody scared it's the unknown, the don't-know..." How true?

I was watching Indiana Jones-the Last Crusade on saturday. There's a part when he is in the cave containing the the Holy Grail and he has to beat the three security measures to get to the grail. The last one, the path of God, is a cliff. Indiana knows there's NO WAY he could jump the cliff to the other side. However, as Indi discovers, it only looks like there is no path to the other side. To find this path he must take a HUGE leap of faith and step out into what looks like only air. That's kind of what it's like. We just have to close our eyes and trust that God will take care of us. We're all afraid of things we can't see or hear or experience with any of our senses. I think it's a human thing, not trusting what we don't know is absolute by proven fact. Even though we are afraid of faith sometimes, it is a must in a relationship with God. Hebrews 11:1 :"What is faith? It is the confident assurance tha what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evedence of things we cannot yet see." Then: "So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him." Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews chapter 11, as mentioned sunday, is the "faith chapter." If you guys get the chance I urge you to read the whole chapter because it has a lot of great examples of faith. So there's a little bit on faith, hope you can derive some useful knowledge from some of that.

La Post of la day

OK guys, since this is my first time putting up the verse of the day, I'm going to start from the beginning.
In the beginning God created the heavens...
Just kidding. Seriously now, the verse I chose has a lot to do with what we talked about last night at y.g. I don't want anyone to feel like this subject is being over emphasized or like those who weren't involved in whatever happened do not need pay attention. EVERYONE criticizes people at some time or another. We criticize ourselves a lot of times too. So this verse applies to all y'all and me of course.

Luke 6:37-42
"Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving-large or small-it will be used to measure what is given back to you."
"Then Jesus gave the following illustration:'What good is it for one blind person to lead another? The first one will fall into a ditch and pull the other down also. A student is not greater than the teacher. But the student who works hard will become like the teacher.'"[work hard and we can be like Jesus!]
"And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying,'Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye."

Now I know what you're thinking. Isn't there productive criticism too? YES! The Bible says this about helpful criticism: "If you reject criticism, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding."--Proverbs 15: 31-32

So, I think those verses are pretty straight forward. Don't criticize others just to be mean or funny; if its not going to help them, don't say it. On the flip side, if some one does criticize you, determine whether or not they are really trying to help you and if they are listen to them. I honestly believe the first step to reducing the number of flaws you possess is realizing what those flaws are. EVERYONE has flaws, except Jesus, so there's no shame in knowing what they are. However, if you're a little better at seeing some one's flaws than they are, and you have no intention of helping them overcome that flaw, hold your tongue.

Sorry I'm so late getting this in, busy morning. You guys rock, I love you all. Hope these verses speak to you and you get something out of them.

Peace Yo,
Aley

Read the daily entries!!!!

Hey,

This is Bob....read the entries and leave a comment, or else i will get very.....VERY mad.

heheheheh nah, i can't do that...but i did want to show you a photo of me last weekend of my cornrows....pretty insane huh!

But you guys do need to blog about this weekend!! I want to hear all about it and how God moved in your life.

Jon is leaving some awesome entries with ripper verses too. They're definately helping me a lot...and i think you should try them all on for size.

Love you guys....can't wait to hear about the weekend!

Pictures from XF 11-02-05

Blogger Central at RCVF.....ummm are they supposed to be on the computer?

Two of the fearless leaders - Bob and Jube

The Usual Suspects......love you guys!

Hey guys,

Your blogs are now up on the site! And hey......what about the challenge i threw down to you guys last night? Well, i hope you're reading the posts....because they're really good. Thanks Jon.

I hope you guys have a great time at the conference this weekend...ill be praying for all of you. Let me know how it goes.

God Bless,

Game Master

Pinch and a Punch for the First of the Month!!! No Returns!!

Happy Novemeber everyone!!! And what an incredible day outside!!

Here's our verse for today!

John 21:18
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."

Lets all have a resolution for the month of November. In the spirit of examining and testing ourselves to deepen our faith, lets also be open to letting Christ lead us into things we may not feel so comfortable doing. Read the Bible everyday! Call someone you haven't talked to in a while! Start a daily prayer schedule! Ask questions about your faith that you would be scared to ask in church!

I believe that God is pulling us in a direction everyday, by our belt buckles, trying to get us to explore the depths of his love even more. How willing are we to stretch out our hands and let Him take us where he wants us?

May November come and be a great month for spiritual growth! I hope all you guys have a great day! And i'm intending to come be with y'all on Wednesday!!

God Bless,
Bob