Exodus

Hey, it's been a while.

I just read the first few chapters of Exodus.  What really stood out to me was that God was really all about establishing His sovereignty.  In Exodus 3 He told Moses to tell Isreal that "I AM WHO I AM" sent him.  The footnote in the NIV also translates this as "I will be what I will be."  Later on, after Moses had argued with God a bit about going, God says "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"

God will do what He will do for He is sovereign.  He is in absolute control no matter what the circumstances are.  The only thing He will not exert His control over is our free will.  If we were forced to love Him outside of our free will, it would not be us that loves Him but simply He that loves Himself.  Our free will is what got us into the mess we are in now, but despite that, He still in His sovereign will has made a decision to love us no matter what.  God who possesses infinite control has decided that He will draw us gently to Him and allow for us to decide whether or not we will love Him.  He in His infinite power has made Himself vulnerable to us in that we can reject His love and even kill His son.

I don't know why He decided to love us but I'm glad He did.

I guess this puts things in perspective for me because I'm kind of scared about losing my job Friday, when Wal-Mart ISD layoffs are to be announced.  But if I do get "axed", God has plans to prosper me (Jer. 29:11), and though it may get bad for a while, He will carry me through.

Wake up

Every now and then I go through a period where my eyes are "re-opened" to everything going on in the world, and how many problems there are that nobody seems to care about, and how we are blissfully ignorant of what is going on as long as we have our own world secure around us. I get sick of the apathy and ignorance of our society and it's culture of greed, but even more so, I get sick with myself for allowing my mind and my focus to be overcome with this apathy and greed. I can't go out there and fix everything, but I can at least keep it in mind, help make others aware, and pray that God would open doors to resolve those problems.

On that note, here are a few links that I think everyone should be aware of:
http://www.abort73.com/
This site has some very intense images and descriptions of what exactly goes on with abortion, and exposes it for what it really is - murder.

The following two links deal with the same thing - redefining the way we celebrate Christmas, to align it more closely with what Jesus came to do:
http://www.vimeo.com/421624
http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

Furthermore, you can find tons of sites for organizations seeking to help all of the problems in Africa, such as hunger, water, child abuse, AIDs, etc. These are just a few from the top of my head:
http://www.feedjustone.org/
http://worldvision.org/
http://www.compassion.com/
http://www.invisiblechildren.com
http://www.bloodwatermission.com/

If you don't have money to donate to causes such as this, then at least pray and tell other people.

Go to church

It seems that the idea of what the church is has undergone an extremely damaging redefinition.  Instead of "the church" being an integral, inseperable part of every believer, it has become a location and/or an activity external to a believer.  This has made it easy for us to separate what we do on Sunday from what we do with the rest of our week.  The church as an internalized ideal is much more pervasive in one's life.

What I wonder now is how do we correlate the externalized church and the internalized church?

Oi!

Haven't updated in a month.  Oops.  I suppose I have good reason though.

The past month has been kind of crazy.  I knew I didn't want to be in my old apartment anymore, because it, well, sucked.  So, I spent pretty much most of last month researching new places to live, packing up/throwing away stuff in my old place, and doing everything else I usually do throughout the week.  A girl at work that's on my team said she lives at "Harbin Pointe" and that I should get a place there because she'll get a $400 discount.  So I checked it out, and signed a lease the same day.  Out of all the places I checked, it was the nicest, the roomiest, accepted my feline roommates, and most reasonably priced.

During the last week of August, I went into overdrive as far as packing and all that goes.  I took off work on Friday to ensure I'd have enough time to get boxes, get stuff packed, and all of that.  Saturday morning I got a truck and started packing stuff onto it.  The truck story is funny but I'll get to that later.  Ryan came and helped me out with the loading and unloading, so he got major points for that.

It took about a week or two but I got everything unpacked and put in its place.  I got a video of my new place here.  At the time of this video, it was still a little disorganized, but it looks better now.

As far as the truck story is concerned, I went to buy some boxes from Uhaul and to see if they had any 14' trailers available - I thought that would be plenty of room for me.  Turns out they didn't.  They said I could pay a deposit and put in a reservation for one, but that wouldn't guarantee me that I'd get a truck, so I decided to go elsewhere.  I called Budget and asked if they had a 14' trailer.  They said they only had 16' trailers that were close to that size, and that they didn't have any available, but they had a 24' trailer available they'd let me use for the price of a 16', so I went with it.  When I picked it up, it was this behemoth monstrosity of a machine.  I managed it ok but I was so nervous the entire time.  I don't know how people can drive big SUVs, trucks, etc.  I love the maneuverability of my Elantra.

That's about all I have right now.  I'll try to update more frequently.

Something else

After I wrote the previous post I was thinking about some stuff that somehow tied together.  The question, "why do bad things happen to good people?" came up.  The only explanation for this that I can come up with is that since God is an impartial God, showing unconditional love, giving consistent favor to some and consistent disfavor to others would be evidence of very conditional love.  God loves both those who do and do not follow Him, and the fact that good and bad things happen to both sets of people confirms His unconditional love.

Now, how are people that follow God supposed to handle bad things happening to them?  The response I alluded to in my previous post is that we are to understand that God is working out His purpose and we should submit to His will and recognize that He is doing something through it.

This leads me to the topic of blessings.  For a while now I've believed that "blessings" are not something God gives to us to make us happy, i.e., a bigger house, more money, nicer car, etc.  Along with blessings come the responsibility to use those blessings to further His kingdom.  The idea I've had up to this point is if I get a raise, for example, God has blessed me with extra finances to use for Him.  But what about bad situations?  What if we come down with a disease that takes years to fight off?  What if we lose a loved one?  What if our finances are taken away?  By going through these experiences, we gain knowledge and insight into how to deal with these situations.  I believe that these are blessings.  God has given us experience, knowledge, and wisdom by going through these things, so we now have the responsibility to share it, to sympathize with others, and show God's love and compassion.

None of that really links up but that's how He showed it to me.

Crushed

It sucks having to come to terms with my humanity.  There are things that I can't fix.  There are times I make mistakes, and some that I even repeat.  There are things that go completely contrary to what I want in life, but I am utterly powerless to affect the outcome.  Where can I find hope in this?  Do I hope in the wrong things?  Is what I want completely contrary to what God's will is?  How can I be sure that what I want is completely aligned with what God is doing so I never have to experience this?

I know that God had said He has plans for us, to prosper us, to give us hope and a future, but I simply can't see what He does.  He never promised life would be all sunshine and bunnies.  He said He would be there for us though, to comfort us in those times and to bring us through stronger.  The real challenge is laying aside my pride, my selfish desires, and essentially "dying to myself" to come under complete submission and cognizance that God is doing something in every situation.

I'm glad that this world is not all we have.

Married people have it easy.

"I have to spend time with my spouse" is a great excuse.  If I were married, or even if I had a girlfriend, there is no way I'd be able to work 45 hours a week, play in two bands multiple times a week, spend time throughout the week preparing music, work in youth ministry, cook, clean, etc., and give my significant other personal time.  Maybe that's why God has kept me single.

As long as the time I'm giving is impacting lives I don't mind being single.  I just want to know that what I do matters.