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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hang Time with God


Since we kicked off our new series, HABITS, on Tuesday with Drew starting off teaching on Hanging out with God, I wanted to see what ya'll thought. How are you doing on hanging out with God? Is it weird? Does it feel normal? Do you feel like he's there? Can you hear him talking to you? I encourage you to keep going! Post any questions, thoughts, comments so we can encourage each other and give more of our own personal examples. BTW, so you know what to look forward to in this series, the acronym for HABITS is:
Hang time with God
Accountability with another believer
Bible Memorization
Involvement with the church body
Tithing commitment
Study Scripture

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dana knows everybody

Dana knows everybody in the whole world. Why do I say this? I was cruising around the contributors to this blog (of which Dana is one) and looking at the blogs they look at (slow day at the office). I stumbled across a guy named daniel who lives in kenya. I thought, "hey, that's weird, Karen's best friend from college (who lives in TX) works in kenya with a guy named daniel". Same guy.

What's worse? One of my best college friends in Arkansas went to casa bernabe for a summer. While she was there, she told me about a girls she met from some town in nevada. It was dana.

The other day Dana was having an interview with the pope. I was watching with some friends, and they said hey, who's the guy with the pointy hat talking to dana?

It's official.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

In God We Trust


Put your political views aside for a moment. Today was a great day for America. Today saw the first non white President sworn into the White House. That feat, 60...50...40...30..20 years ago would probably almost seem impossible. Today it was achieved. President Obama conducted himself with dignity and class today. I pray that the Lord just lead this new leader of our country in His ways.


Many have asked me where I think Obama stands in his Christian beliefs. I am asked how can we support a man who show's little respect for the unborn child, no value for it's life yet declares his Savior is our Lord Jesus Christ???? Is that what Jesus would do? That is a tough question. That is normally followed by some claim that he is Muslim, a Terrorist, a Communist.....This is tiring me! These are comments from Christians who are straight up judging a fellow man! So what if he was raised a Muslim! Jesus saves! George Bush was an alcoholic and you know what? Jesus saves. News Flash - You and I are both sinners and you know what? Jesus Saves. Obama is doing what he believes is right for this country and best for it's people just as Bush did. I applaud that. I really do. Do I disagree with him in some areas? Sure I do (I value the unborn child but I also value the innocent victim who was killed in areas of war that could have been avoided) But I also I agree with him in many areas.


Today we have seen one man take over the reigns of our country from another man. Both of these men claim Jesus as their Savior. I believe that. That doesn't mean they haven't and won't make mistakes. They are men! Sinful men like us all! That is why Jesus came! They have tried and will try their best. If they seek the Lord first in all they do...this country will be greater than any of us ever imagined. That is my prayer. Thank you George Bush for your efforts and here is to supporting Barack Obama and believing he will serve his term in Faith.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Accountability


Last night was such a great night to be back with all you guys for the first youth group gathering of the year. I missed you guys! We are that family that Ryan was talking about. :)

We discussed a lot of things about last year and what we would like to see for this year and how to make it happen. I was thinking more about this today and got excited because I know that everything God has for us this year will come to pass. You know how people make New Year's resolutions and end up not fulfilling them or staying on track? I felt like we made a lot of resolutions and had a lot of ideas of what we would like to do and see change starting in 2009. What I'm excited about is the fact that we are a family, and we all are excited about these ideas of loving on the people of Reno and each other and pursuing our own relationships with God more.

So is it ok that when one member of the family is not fulfilling their own dreams and goals for this year, we can all come around them and encourage and support them to get back on track? Can we show each other the truth in love and be like iron sharpening iron? I give you permission to help me stay on track. We need each other. We can do more together and we can help each other remember the good things when we are down, so we will have a higher success rate of fulfilling and even surpassing our dreams and goals for this year. Didn't last year surpass your expectations of what God did in our lives and as a youth group? I know this year He will do the same. Let's do our part to keep moving forward, and He'll take care of the rest. I love you guys!